Thermal stability and thermodynamic properties of hybrid proton-conducting polyaryl etherketones

The thermal and structural stability of sulfonated cross-linked PEEK (polyether ether ketone) and its silicon-containing class II hybrid derivatives were characterized by combination of mass spectrometry, infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, and differential scanning calorimetry. Thermodynamic properties of the hybrids were determined, including glass-transition temperature, degree of crystallinity, and thermal stability. The decomposition processes of the hybrid polymers could be consistently interpreted and their energetics quantitatively determined. The introduction of inorganic silanol moieties improves the thermal stability compared to sulfonated products.     

Stability and migration of metal ions in G4-wires by molecular dynamics simulations

We present a molecular dynamics investigation of guanine quadruple helices based on classical force fields. We analyze the dependence of the helical conformation on various compositional factors, such as the length of the G4-wire, as well as the incorporation into the helix channel of alkali ions of different species and in different amounts. In compliance with previous indications, our results suggest that monovalent alkali cations assist the stability of the quadruplex arrangement against disruption on the few nanoseconds time scale in the order of increasing van der Waals radius. Whereas very short G4-wire fragments immediately unfold in the absence of coordinating metal ions or in the presence of tiny ions (e.g., Li+) in agreement with the experimental evidence that empty short guanine quadruplexes are not formed in any synthetic conditions, our simulations show that longer empty helices do not discompose. This finding supports the possibility of producing long G4-wires with different guanine-cation stoichiometries than those routinely known. The classical trajectories allow us to identify different stationary axial sites for the different metal species, which are confirmed by complementary quantum calculations.     

Experimental test of two-way quantum key distribution in the presence of controlled noise

We describe the experimental test of a quantum key distribution performed with a two-way protocol without using entanglement. An individual incoherent eavesdropping is simulated and induces a variable amount of noise on the communication channel. This allows a direct verification of the agreement between theory and practice.     

Bifurcations of limit cycles in a Z 4-equivariant quintic planar vector field

In this paper, a Z4-equivariant quintic planar vector field is studied. The Hopf bifurcation method and polycycle bifurcation method are combined to study the limit cycles bifurcated from the compounded cycle with 4 hyperbolic saddle points. It is found that this special quintic planar polynomial system has at least four large limit cycles which surround all singular points. By applying the double homoclinic loops bifurcation method and Hopf bifurcation method, we conclude that 28 limit cycles with two different configurations exist in this special planar polynomial system. The results acquired in this paper are useful for studying the weakened 16th Hilbert＇s Problem.     

A biased random-key genetic algorithm for road congestion minimization

One of the main goals in transportation planning is to achieve solutions for two classical problems, the traffic assignment and toll pricing problems. The traffic assignment problem aims to minimize total travel delay among all travelers. Based on data derived from the first problem, the toll pricing problem determines the set of tolls and corresponding tariffs that would collectively benefit all travelers and would lead to a user equilibrium solution. Obtaining high-quality solutions for this framework is a challenge for large networks. In this paper, we propose an approach to solve the two problems jointly, making use of a biased random-key genetic algorithm for the optimization of transportation network performance by strategically allocating tolls on some of the links of the road network. Since a transportation network may have thousands of intersections and hundreds of road segments, our algorithm takes advantage of mechanisms for speeding up shortest-path algorithms.     

A fourth-order boundary value problem for a Sturm-Liouville type equation

An existence result of multiple solutions for a fourth-order Sturm-Liouville boundary value problem with variable parameters is established. As a consequence, three solutions for a boundary value problem with a fourth-order equation in a complete form are obtained. Our approach is based on variational methods.     

Erratum to “State-morphism MV-algebras” [Ann. Pure Appl. Logic 161 (2009) 161-173]

Recently, the first two authors characterized in Di Nola and Dvure?enskij (2009) [1] subdirectly irreducible state-morphism MV-algebras. Unfortunately, the main theorem (Theorem 5.4(ii)) has a gap in the proof of Claim 10, as the example below shows. We now present a correct characterization and its correct proof.