Synthesis,and Antimycobacterial and Cytotoxic Evaluation of Certain Fluoroquinolone Derivatives

Certain 1‐ethyl‐ and 1‐aryl‐6‐fluoro‐1,4‐dihydroquinol‐4‐one derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for antimycobacterial and cytotoxic activities. Preliminary results indicated that, for 1‐aryl‐6‐fluoroquinolones, both 7‐(piperazin‐1‐yl)‐ and 7‐(4‐methylpiperazin‐1‐yl) derivatives, 9b and 11a , are able to completely inhibit the growth of M. tuberculosis at a concentration of 6.25 μg/ml, while the 7‐[4‐(2‐oxo‐2‐phenylethyl)piperazin‐1‐yl] derivative 13 exhibits only 31% growth inhibition at the same concentration. For 1‐ethyl‐6‐fluoroquinolones, both 7‐[4‐(2‐oxopropyl)piperazin‐1‐yl]‐ and 7‐[4‐(2‐oxo‐2‐phenylethyl)piperazin‐1‐yl]‐derivatives, 2a and 2b , respectively, show complete inhibition, while their 2‐iminoethyl and substituted phenyl counterparts 3a and 2c are less active. In addition, the 6,8‐difluoro derivative was a more‐favorable inhibitor than its 6‐fluoro counterpart ( 2b vs. 2d ). These results deserve full attention especially because 2a, 2b, 9b , and 11a are non‐cytotoxic at a concentration of 100 μM . Furthermore, compound 9b proved to be a potent anti‐TB agent with selective index (SI)>40 and an EC₉₀ value of 5.75 μg/ml.     

Ultrasonic investigation of amorphous carbon in various frequencies at low temperatures from 2.1 to 300 K

Using pulse echo overlap measurement, the elastic behavior of amorphous carbon has been studied at ambient and low temperatures. The smaller ratio B/G of the bulk modulus to shear modulus and smaller Poisson's ratio σ at room temperature indicate that there is an intrinsic stiffening of transverse acoustic phonons in the amorphous carbon. The acoustic velocity and attenuation for longitudinal modes have been measured between 2.1 and 300 K at three frequencies of 7, 21 and 35 MHz, respectively. Their frequency and temperature dependence are observed. The elastic constant C₁₁ increases with decreasing temperature and show enhanced stiffening at low temperatures. In the 130-220 K region, the abnormal change and effect of longitudinal velocity and attenuation with temperature and frequency, and a phase transition associated with structure relaxations are discussed.     

Optimal volume-corrected laplace-metropolis method

The article provides a refinement for the volume-corrected Laplace-Metropolis estimator of the marginal likelihood of DiCiccioet al. The correction volume of probability α in DiCiccioet al. is fixed and suggested to take the value α=0.05. In this article α is selected based on an asymptotic analysis to minimize the mean square relative error (MSRE). This optimal choice of α is shown to be invariant under linear transformations. The invariance property leads to easy implementation for multivariate problems. An implementation procedure is provided for practical use. A simulation study and a real data example are presented.     

Another approach to the heat flow for Plateau problem

For the minimal surfaces in Rⁿ with Plateau boundary condition and establish the global existence and uniqueness of the flow as well as the continuous dependence of the initial datum.     

Experimental analysis of current and deformation of ion-exchange polymer metal composite actuators

In this paper we describe the experimental analysis of a novel ion-exchange polymer metal composite (IPMC) actuator under large external voltage. The experimental analysis is supplemented with a coupled thermodynamic model, which includes mass transport across the thickness of the polymer actuator, chemical reactions at boundaries, and deformation as a function of the solvent (water) distribution. In this paper, the case of large electrode potentials (over 1.2 V) has been analyzed experimentally and theoretically. At these voltage levels, electrochemical reactions take place at both electrodes. These are used in the framework of overpotential theory to develop boundary conditions for the water transport in the bulk of polymer. The model is then simplified to a three-component system comprised of a fixed negatively charged polymeric matrix, protons, and free water molecules within the polymer matrix. Among these species, water molecules are considered to be the dominant species responsible for the deformation of the IPMC actuators. Experiments conducted at different initial water contents are described and discussed in the context of the proposed deformation mechanism. Comparison of numerical simulations with experimental data shows good agreement.     

用于光学神经网络硬件系统误差纠正的虚拟神经网络

提出了一种用于修正光学神经网络硬件系统误差的虚拟神经网络模型，光学实验结果表明该网络能够有效地消除硬件系统误差对实验结果的影响。     

Behaviors of the positive temperature coefficient of resistance of poly(styrene‐co‐n‐butylacrylate) filled with Ni‐plated core‐shell polymeric particles

Conductive composite films of poly(styrene‐co‐n‐butylacrylate) copolymers filled with low‐density, Ni‐plated core‐shell polymeric particles were prepared and their behaviors of positive temperature coefficient of resistance (PTCR) were investigated. When the conductive fillers in the composite film were loaded beyond the critical volume, 10 up to 25 vol %, composite films exhibited a unique electrical resistant transition behavior, which the electrical resistance rapidly increased by several orders of magnitude at the critical temperature. The PTCR transition temperature, in general, occurred before the glass transition temperature of polymer matrix. Further increased the conductive filler loading to 30 vol %, the overpacked conduction paths were formed in the entire composite and the PTCR effects became blurred. While the composite film treated with thermal cycle several times from room temperature up to 120 °C, the electrical resistivity increased accompanied with the shift of the PTCR transition to lower temperature. The reason might have been caused by the formed interfacial cracks within the composite film. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 45: 322–329, 2007     

Chemical Speciation of Amphoteric Ions on Semi‐Dry Scrubber Residue and Bag‐House Ash from MSWI

Two series of size‐fractionated combusted residues, a bag‐house ash and a scrubber residue, from a municipal solid waste incinerator (MSWI) were prepared and extracted by means of sequential chemical extraction (SCE) procedures proposed by Tessier. Concentrations of water‐soluble phase, exchangeable phase, carbonated phase, Fe/Mn oxide phase, organic matter phase, and residual phase bound amphoteric metals (Pb and Zn) were obtained, and have been compared with those of single batch extraction of toxic characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP). In each size fraction of baghouse ash or scrubber residue, lead or zinc shows a common phenomena that the TCLP value is always lower than the content of the water‐soluble fraction. For lead, baghouse ash has a significant size‐dependent distribution on the water‐soluble phase to perform a size‐dependent test of lead in the TCLP test. The zinc TCLP data having less size dependence might be due to that neither the baghouse ash nor the scrubber residue has a size‐dependent distribution on the water‐soluble zinc phase.     

Irradiation-induced reduction and luminescence properties of Sm doped in BaBPO5

Usually, Sm²⁺ ions could be reduced by heating the materials in reducing atmospheres. Exposure to ionizing radiations is also known to cause Sm³⁺→Sm²⁺ conversion. In this work, BaBPO₅ doped with the samarium ion was prepared by high temperature solid-state reaction. Sm²⁺ ions were obtained by two different reduction methods, i.e., heating in H₂ reduced atmosphere and X-ray irradiation. The measurements of X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were investigated. It is found that the conversion of Sm³⁺→Sm²⁺ is very efficient in BaBPO₅ hosts after X-ray irradiation. Sm²⁺ ions under these two reduction methods exhibit different characteristics that were studied by measurements of luminescence and decay. The results showed that the luminescence properties of Sm²⁺ ions in BaBPO₅ were highly dependent on the sample preparation conditions.     

On the sensitivity of the LU factorization

This paper gives sensitivity analyses by two approaches forL andU in the factorizationA=LU for general perturbations inA which are sufficiently small in norm. By the matrix-vector equation approach, we derive the condition numbers for theL andU factors. By the matrix equation approach we derive corresponding condition estimates. We show how partial pivoting and complete pivoting affect the sensitivity of the LU factorization. The material presented here is a part of the first author's PhD thesis under the supervision of the second author. This research was supported by NSERC of Canada Grant OGP0009236.