Combined MR-relaxation and MR-cryoporometry in the study of bone microstructure.

MR-Relaxation (MRR) of 1H nuclei and MR-Cryoporometry (MRC) are combined to assess their feasibility and their potential in the study of bone microstructure. In principle, both techniques are able to give information on the structure of the pore space confining the fluids. Cow femur samples were carefully cored and cleaned in order to remove the natural fluids inside. For MRR analysis quasi-continuous distributions of T(1) and T(2) were obtained on samples fully saturated with water. Cyclohexane was used as a saturating fluid for MRC analysis. All T(1) and T(2) quasi-continuous distributions of water confined in bone samples are more than three decades wide, showing sufficient details to differentiate the samples. Pore size distributions obtained by MRC also differentiate the samples showing different characteristics of the pore space structure in the range of the highest sensitivity of the method (typically 3 to 100 nm, mesopore range). In particular, in samples where MRR shows a large fraction of signal with relaxation times below 10(2) ms, MRC indicates a large fraction of pore volume with pore sizes in the mesopore range.     

Oxygen reduction activity dependence on the mesoporous structure of imprinted carbon supports

Two mesoporous carbons (with 15 (CIC-15) and 26 nm (CIC-26) diameter pores) were synthesized using a silica colloid imprinting method, loaded with 10 wt.% Pt, and then evaluated (against Vulcan^? carbon (VC)) as oxygen reduction (ORR) catalysts for use in proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Both Pt/CICs reproducibly out-performed Pt/VC, with Pt/CIC-15 demonstrating higher ORR activity than Pt/CIC-26, despite its smaller pore size and lower surface area. Transmission electron tomography showed that the Pt nanoparticles (4–5 nm diameter) are fully deposited throughout the pores of the CICs and that the pore distribution in CIC-26 is partially ordered, while CIC-15 shows no ordering of its pores. Importantly, using the powerful imaging capabilities of transmission electron tomography, a first-time correlation is demonstrated between the ORR activity and the wall thickness of the carbon support materials. Pt/CIC-15 has significantly thicker walls, giving a lower measured electronic resistance, a lower ORR Tafel slope, and thus better performance overall compared to Pt/CIC-26.     

On the uncertainty of CFD in sail aerodynamics

A verification and validation procedure for yacht sail aerodynamics is presented. Guidelines and an example of application are provided. The grid uncertainty for the aerodynamic lift, drag and pressure distributions for the sails is computed. The pressures are validated against experimental measurements, showing that the validation procedure may allow the identification of modelling errors. Lift, drag and L₂ norm of the pressures were computed with uncertainties of the order of 1%. Convergence uncertainty and round‐off uncertainty are several orders of magnitude smaller than the grid uncertainty. The uncertainty due to the dimension of the computational domain is computed for a flat plate at incidence and is found to be significant compared with the other uncertainties. Finally, it is shown how the probability that the ranking between different geometries is correct can be estimated knowing the uncertainty in the computation of the value used to rank. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Phosphorsäurebis(trimethylsilyl)ester des 1,1,1,4,4,4-Hexafluor-2,3-bis(trifluormethyl)-2,3-butandiols und des 1,1,1,3,3-Pentafluor-2-propenols

Bis(trimethylsilyl)phosphates of 1,1,1,4,4,4-Hexafluoro-2,3-bis(trifluoromethyl)-2,3-butanediol and 1,1,1,3,3-Pentafluoro-2-propenol The monocyclic phosphorane (EtO)₃P[OC(CF₃)₂C(CF₃)₂O] 1 was hydrolized to give a mixture of an acyclic and a cyclic phosphate, 3 and 4 . The trihydroxyphosphorane 2 could not be obtained. Iodotrimethylsilane 6 converts 1 into the silylated derivative of 4 which was found also besides (Me₃SiO)₂P(O)OC(CF₃)₂C(CF₃)₂OSiMe₃ 8 in the reaction of 3 and 4 with Me₃SiCl/(Me₃Si)₂NH. (Me₃SiO)₃P 10 and hexafluoroacetone did not yield the tris(trimethylsiloxy)phosphorane 5 , but the phosphonate 11 which gave (Me₃SiO)₂P(O)OC(CF₃) ? CF₂ 12 upon heating with the loss of fluorotrimethylsilane.     

Hadamard products of product operators and the design of gradient-diffusion experiments for simulating decoherence by NMR spectroscopy

An extension of the product operator formalism of NMR is introduced, which uses the Hadamard matrix product to describe many simple spin 1/2 relaxation processes. The utility of this formalism is illustrated by deriving NMR gradient-diffusion experiments to simulate several decoherence models of interest in quantum information processing, along with their Lindblad and Kraus representations.     

Crack propagation in an orthotropic medium with coupled elastodynamic properties

In this paper the Mode-I elastodynamic problem of a crack propagating in an orthotropic medium is studied under the condition that the matrix of elastodynamic coefficients has repeated eigenvalues. It is shown that the crack is constrained in an elastodynamic state which is defined through a compulsory condition coupling its velocity with the elastic parameters of the orthotropic medium. The dynamic stress and displacement components ahead of the crack tip as well as the energy release rate are explicitly obtained.     

Constraints on the fundamental topological parameters of spatial tessellations

Tessellations of that use convex polyhedral cells to fill the space can be extremely complicated, especially if they are not “facet‐to‐facet”, that is, if the facets of a cell do not necessarily coincide with the facets of that cell's neighbours. In a recent paper 15 , we have developed a theory which covers these complicated cases, at least with respect to their combinatorial topology. The theory required seven parameters, three of which suffice for facet‐to‐facet cases; the remaining four parameters are needed for the awkward adjacency concepts that arise in the general case. This current paper establishes constraints that apply to these seven parameters and so defines a permissible region within their seven‐dimensional space, a region which we discover is not bounded. Our constraints in the relatively simple facet‐to‐facet case are also new.     

Structural flexibility and role of vicinal 2-thienyl rings in 2,3-dicyano-5,6-di(2-thienyl)-1,4-pyrazine, [(CN)2Th2Pyz], its palladium(II) complex [(CN)2Th2Pyz(PdCl2)2], and the related pentametallic pyrazinoporphyrazines [(PdCl2)4Th8TPyzPzM] (M = Mg(II)(H2O), Zn(II))

The solid state and solution structure of 2,3-dicyano-5,6-di(2-thienyl)-1,4-pyrazine, [(CN)(2)Th(2)Pyz], and its Pd(II) derivative, [(CN)(2)Th(2)Pyz(PdCl(2))(2)]·H(2)O, formed by reaction of [(CN)(2)Th(2)Pyz] with [(C(6)H(5)CN)(2)PdCl(2)] were characterized by X-ray, UV-visible, (1)H and (13)C NMR, and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectral measurements. The X-ray crystal structure of [(CN)(2)Th(2)Pyz] shows the presence of one thienyl ring positioned orthogonal to the rest of the molecule, with the two vicinal thienyl rings lying orthogonal to each other in a rare arrangement. NMR studies of [(CN)(2)Th(2)Pyz] in the solid state and in solutions of dimethylformamide or dimethyl sulfoxide confirm a nonequivalence of the thienyl rings in the solid state and also in solution. EXAFS results indicate that two distinct Pd(II) coordination sites are formed at the di(2-thienyl)pyrazino moiety of [(CN)(2)Th(2)Pyz(PdCl(2))(2)]·H(2)O, with identical Pd-N(pyz) (2.03(3) ?) and Pd-Cl (2.36(3) ?) bond lengths but with different Pd-S1 (2.25(4) ?) and Pd-S2 (3.21(5) ?) bond distances in an overall asymmetric molecular framework. Density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) theoretical studies also provide information about the structure and spectral behavior of the precursor and its metalated Pd(II) derivative. (1)H/(13)C NMR and UV-visible spectral measurements were also carried out on two heteropentametallic porphyrazine macrocycles which were prepared by a reaction of PdCl(2) with [Th(8)TPyzPzM] where Th(8)TPyzPz = tetrakis-2,3-[5,6-di-(2-thienyl)-pyrazino]porphyrazinato dianion and M = Mg(II)(H(2)O) or Zn(II). Spectroscopic data on the newly synthesized [(PdCl(2))(4)Th(8)TPyzPzM] compounds suggest that the binding of PdCl(2) involves coordination sites of the type S(2(th))PdCl(2) with the two thienyl rings of each di(2-thienyl)pyrazino fragment bound to Pd(II) in an equivalent manner ("th-th" coordination). This is similar to what was found for the corresponding octapyridinated analogues ("py-py" coordination).