Microstructural characterization of SLS-PA12 specimens under dynamic tension/compression excitation

This paper describes the effect of dynamic tension/compression loading on selective laser sintered components in polyamide. To gain more insight in the fatigue phenomena, both thermal and microstructural studies were performed on the fracture surfaces of the test specimens. The presented micrographs, DSC curves, hysteresis loops and S/N-line facilitate an improved understanding of the fatigue properties of selective laser sintered materials, polyamide in particular. The results show that crack initiation starts from inclusions in the material caused by unfused powder particles. The inclusions give rise to the formation of semi-spherical depressions with raised edges. Ductile fatigue striations were noted on the sides of these depressions indicating the irreversible plastic deformation dominated by shear stress, which is typical for fatigue failure. Consequently, microstructural analysis indicates that the material density is a crucial factor influencing the fatigue life of SLS-PA12 components. The lower the density, the more unfused powder particles and the higher the chance of crack initiation.     

Accurate particle size distribution determination by nanoparticle tracking analysis based on 2-D Brownian dynamics simulation

A physical model is presented to simulate the average step length distribution during nanoparticle tracking analysis experiments as a function of the particle size distribution and the distribution of the number of steps within the tracks. Considering only tracks of at least five steps, numerical simulation could be replaced by a normal distribution approximation. Based on this model, simulation of a step length distribution allows obtaining a much more reliable estimation of the particle size distribution, thereby reducing the artificial broadening of the distribution, as is typically observed by direct conversion of step length to particle size data. As this fitting procedure also allowed including data from particles that were followed for a relatively low number of steps, the measurement time could be reduced for particles that are known to be monodisperse. Whereas the inversion is less sensitive towards the particle size distribution width, still similar values were obtained for both the average diameter and standard deviation of a polystyrene latex sample irrespective of the track length, provided that the latter included at least five steps.     

Adapting decarbonylation chemistry for the development of prodrugs capable of in vivo delivery of carbon monoxide utilizing sweeteners as carrier molecules

Carbon monoxide as an endogenous signaling molecule exhibits pharmacological efficacy in various animal models of organ injury. To address the difficulty in using CO gas as a therapeutic agent for widespread applications, we are interested in developing CO prodrugs through bioreversible caging of CO in an organic compound. Specifically, we have explored the decarboxylation–decarbonylation chemistry of 1,2-dicarbonyl compounds. Examination and optimization of factors favorable for maximal CO release under physiological conditions led to organic CO prodrugs using non-calorific sweeteners as leaving groups attached to the 1,2-dicarbonyl core. Attaching a leaving group with appropriate properties promotes the desired hydrolysis–decarboxylation–decarbonylation sequence of reactions that leads to CO generation. One such CO prodrug was selected to recapitulate the anti-inflammatory effects of CO against LPS-induced TNF-α production in cell culture studies. Oral administration in mice elevated COHb levels to the safe and efficacious levels established in various preclinical and clinical studies. Furthermore, its pharmacological efficacy was demonstrated in mouse models of acute kidney injury. These studies demonstrate the potential of these prodrugs with benign carriers as orally active CO-based therapeutics. This represents the very first example of orally active organic CO prodrugs with a benign carrier that is an FDA-approved sweetener with demonstrated safety profiles in vivo.

1,2-Dicarbonyl compounds with FDA-approved sweeteners as leaving groups deliver CO for protection against acute kidney injury in mice.     

A recipe for finding good solutions to MINLPs

Finding good (or even just feasible) solutions for Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programming problems independently of the specific problem structure is a very hard but practically important task, especially when the objective and/or the constraints are nonconvex. With this goal in mind, we present a general-purpose heuristic based on Variable Neighborhood Search, Local Branching, a local Nonlinear Programming algorithm and Branch-and-Bound. We test the proposed approach on MINLPLib, comparing with several existing heuristic and exact methods. An implementation of the proposed heuristic is freely available and can employ all NLP/MINLP solvers with an AMPL interface as the main search tools.     

The sound strength parameter G and its importance in evaluating and planning the acoustics of halls for music

The parameter, "Strength of Sound G" is closely related to loudness. Its magnitude is dependent, inversely, on the total sound absorption in a room. By comparison, the reverberation time (RT) is both inversely related to the total sound absorption in a hall and directly related to its cubic volume. Hence, G and RT in combination are vital in planning the acoustics of a concert hall. A newly proposed "Bass Index" is related to the loudness of the bass sound and equals the value of G at 125 Hz in decibels minus its value at mid-frequencies. Listener envelopment (LEV) is shown for most halls to be directly related to the mid-frequency value of G. The broadening of sound, i.e., apparent source width (ASW) is given by degree of source broadening (DSB) which is determined from the combined effect of early lateral reflections as measured by binaural quality index (BQI) and strength G. The optimum values and limits of these parameters are discussed.     

Distortion of the Poisson Bracket by the Noncommutative Planck Constants

In this paper we introduce a kind of “noncommutative neighbourhood” of a semiclassical parameter corresponding to the Planck constant. This construction is defined as a certain filtered and graded algebra with an infinite number of generators indexed by planar binary leaf-labelled trees. The associated graded algebra (the classical shadow) is interpreted as a “distortion” of the algebra of classical observables of a physical system. It is proven that there exists a q-analogue of the Weyl quantization, where q is a matrix of formal variables, which induces a nontrivial noncommutative analogue of a Poisson bracket on the classical shadow.     

Measurement of the B(+) production cross section in pp collisions at sqrt[s]=7 TeV

Measurements of the total and differential cross sections dσ/dp(T)(B) and dσ/dy(B) for B(+) mesons produced in pp collisions at sqrt[s]=7 TeV are presented. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 5.8 pb(-1) collected by the CMS experiment operating at the LHC. The exclusive decay B(+)→J/ψK(+), with J/ψ→μ(+)μ(-), is used to detect B(+) mesons and to measure the production cross section as a function of p(T)(B) and y(B). The total cross section for p(T)(B)>5 GeV and |y(B)|<2.4 is measured to be 28.1±2.4±2.0±3.1 μb, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is systematic, and the last is from the luminosity measurement.     

Measurement of the t-channel single top quark production cross section in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

Electroweak production of the top quark is measured for the first time in pp collisions at √=7 TeV, using a data set collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36 pb?1. With an event selection optimized for t-channel production, two complementary analyses are performed. The first one exploits the special angular properties of the signal, together with background estimates from the data. The second approach uses a multivariate analysis technique to probe the compatibility with signal topology expected from electroweak top-quark production. The combined measurement of the cross section is 83.6±29.8(stat+syst)±3.3(lumi) pb, consistent with the standard model expectation.