Dielectric, thermal and optical study of an unusually shaped liquid crystal

Dielectric measurements have been carried out for the determination of real and imaginary parts of the permittivity of a newly synthesized, unusually shaped liquid crystal. The sample has been investigated in the frequency range from 100 Hz to 10 MHz within a temperature range 80-130 °C. The dielectric measurements in the smectic A phase indicate a Cole-Cole type of dispersion, and the activation energy was found to be 5.5 meV by using the Arrhenius plot of relaxation time. In addition to this, thermal and optical transmittance studies have also been conducted in the above mentioned temperature range, and the temperature dependence of these parameters has been discussed in detail. The phase transition temperature obtained from a differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) study matches within 2 °C that was obtained from an optical transmittance study. The dielectric and optical behavior of the unusually shaped liquid crystal has been explained on the basis of a proposed theoretical model in which a sample possesses two different conformers having induced polarizations in opposite directions.     

Effect of meso aryl substituents on the synthesis of core-modified expanded porphyrins

[reaction: see text] Synthesis and characterization of core-modified [26]hexaphyrin (1.1.1.1.0.0). A meso aryl rubyrin isomer and a new 54pi-modified dodecaphyrin are reported.     

Modified (22pi) smaragdyrins with large two-photon absorption cross section: a structure function correlation

[structure: see text] Two-photon absorption (TPA) cross-section values for a series of 22pi smaragdyrins bearing phenylacetylenylphenyl and [(phenylacetylenyl)phenylacetylenyl]phenyl meso links and their Rh(I) derivatives are reported.     

Modelling a predator–prey system with infected prey in polluted environment

A predator–prey model with logistic growth in prey is modified by introducing an SIS parasite infection in the prey. We have studied the combined effect of environmental toxicant and disease on prey–predator system. It is assumed in this paper that the environmental toxicant affects both prey and predator population and the infected prey is assumed to be more vulnerable to the toxicant and predation compared to the sound prey individuals. Thresholds are identified which determine when system persists and disease remains endemic.     

Structure and stability of Σ3 grain boundaries in face centered cubic metals

Σ3 grain boundaries form as a result of either growth twinning or deformation twinning in face centered cubic (fcc) metals and play a crucial role in determining the mechanical and electrical properties and microstructural stability. We studied the structure and stability of Σ3 grain boundaries (GBs) in fcc metals by using topological analysis and atomistic simulations. Atomistic simulations were performed for Cu and Al with empirical interatomic potentials to reveal the influence of stacking fault energy on the morphology of the twinned grains. Three sets of tilt Σ3 GBs were studied with respect to the tilt axis parallel to ?111?, ?112?, and ?110?, respectively. We showed that Σ3{111} and Σ3{112} GBs are thermodynamically stable and the others will dissociate into terraced interfaces regardless of the stacking fault energy. The morphology of the nano-twinned grains in Cu is predicted from the above analysis and found to match with experiments.     

On the transition to hyperchaos and the structure of hyperchaotic attractors

Using a recently proposed algorithmic scheme for correlation dimension analysis of hyperchaotic attractors, we study two well-known hyperchaotic flows and two standard time delayed hyperchaotic systems in detail numerically. We show that at the transition to hyperchaos, the nature of the scaling region changes suddenly and the attractor displays two scaling regions for embedding dimension M ≥ 4. We argue that it is an indication of a strong clustering tendency of the underlying attractor in the hyperchaotic phase. Because of this sudden qualitative change in the scaling region, the transition to hyperchaos can be easily identified using the discontinuous changes in the dimension (D ₂) at the transition point. We show this explicitely for the two time delayed systems. Further support for our results is provided by computing the spectrum of Lyapunov Exponents (LE) of the hyperchaotic attractor in all cases. Our numerical results imply that the structure of a hyperchaotic attractor is topologically different from that of a chaotic attractor with inherent dual scales, at least for the two general classes of hyperchaotic systems we have analysed here.     

Synthesis,Isolation and X-ray Crystal Structure Characterization of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Trans</Emphasis>-γ-{(C-<Emphasis Type="Italic">meso</Emphasis>-5,5,7,12,12,14-hexamethyl-1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane)(diisothiocyanato)} Nickel(II) Complex

Abstract  A new isomer of [Ni(tet-a)]²⁺ (assigned as γ-isomer) (tet-a = C-meso-5,5,7,12,12,14−hexamethyl-1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane), which is found in the complex of trans-γ-[Ni(tet-a)(NCS)₂], has been isolated from the reaction of β-[Ni(tet-a)](ClO₄)₂ with NaSCN in a mixture of MeOH–H₂O (1:1, v/v) solution and characterized by X-ray crystallography. The complex crystallizes in orthorhombic Pca2(1) space group with the crystal cell parameters of a = 12.5787(10) ?, b = 11.6834(10) ?, c = 15.4019(12) ?, V = 2263.5(3) ?³, and Z = 4. The crystal structure shows that the complex is noncentrosymmetric. The conformations of the six-asymmetric centers are assigned as 1R,4R,8S,11S,7R,14S or 1S,4S,8R,11R,7S,14R (Trans-III). The coordination polyhedron around the nickel atom is axially elongated octahedron with an N₆ chromophore. The association of the complex units through N(3)–H···S(1) (2.665 ?) hydrogen bonding interactions leads one-dimensional hydrogen bonded network along c-axis. Index Abstract  A new isomer of Ni(tet-a)²⁺, which is assigned as γ-isomer, in the complex of trans-γ-[Ni(tet-a)(NCS)₂] has been synthesized, isolated and characterized by X-ray crystallography. The complex units form a one-dimensional self-assembly hydrogen bonded network.      

Effect of two-step electrodeposited Cu–TiO2 nanocomposite coating on pool boiling heat transfer performance

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - In order to decrease the energy consumptions in energy conversion devices, boiling heat transfer augmentation is one of the important research...     

Metabolite assignment of ultrafiltered synovial fluid extracted from knee joints of reactive arthritis patients using high resolution NMR spectroscopy

Currently, there are no reliable biomarkers available that can aid early differential diagnosis of reactive arthritis (ReA) from other inflammatory joint diseases. Metabolic profiling of synovial fluid (SF)—obtained from joints affected in ReA—holds great promise in this regard and will further aid monitoring treatment and improving our understanding about disease mechanism. As a first step in this direction, we report here the metabolite specific assignment of ¹H and ¹³C resonances detected in the NMR spectra of SF samples extracted from human patients with established ReA. The metabolite characterization has been carried out on both normal and ultrafiltered (deproteinized) SF samples of eight ReA patients (n = 8) using high-resolution (800 MHz) ¹H and ¹H─¹³C NMR spectroscopy methods such as one-dimensional ¹H CPMG and two-dimensional J-resolved¹H NMR and homonuclear ¹H─¹H TOCSY and heteronuclear¹H─¹³C HSQC correlation spectra. Compared with normal SF samples, several distinctive ¹H NMR signals were identified and assigned to metabolites in the ¹H NMR spectra of ultrafiltered SF samples. Overall, we assigned 53 metabolites in normal filtered SF and 64 metabolites in filtered pooled SF sample compared with nonfiltered SF samples for which only 48 metabolites (including lipid/membrane metabolites as well) have been identified. The established NMR characterization of SF metabolites will serve to guide future metabolomics studies aiming to identify/evaluate the SF-based metabolic biomarkers of diagnostic/prognostic potential or seeking biochemical insights into disease mechanisms in a clinical perspective.