Cellulose nanocrystals from native and mercerized cotton

Cellulose - Nanocelluloses occur under various crystalline forms that are currently being selectively used for a wide variety of high performance materials. In the present study, two cellulose...     

Targeted smoothing parameter selection for estimating average causal effects

The non-parametric estimation of average causal effects in observational studies often relies on controlling for confounding covariates through smoothing regression methods such as kernel, splines or local polynomial regression. Such regression methods are tuned via smoothing parameters which regulates the amount of degrees of freedom used in the fit. In this paper we propose data-driven methods for selecting smoothing parameters when the targeted parameter is an average causal effect. For this purpose, we propose to estimate the exact expression of the mean squared error of the estimators. Asymptotic approximations indicate that the smoothing parameters minimizing this mean squared error converges to zero faster than the optimal smoothing parameter for the estimation of the regression functions. In a simulation study we show that the proposed data-driven methods for selecting the smoothing parameters yield lower empirical mean squared error than other methods available such as, e.g., cross-validation.     

Molecular Level Characterization of the Structure and Interactions in Peptide‐Functionalized Metal–Organic Frameworks

We use density functional theory, newly parameterized molecular dynamics simulations, and last generation ¹⁵N dynamic nuclear polarization surface enhanced solid‐state NMR spectroscopy (DNP SENS) to understand graft–host interactions and effects imposed by the metal–organic framework (MOF) host on peptide conformations in a peptide‐functionalized MOF. Focusing on two grafts typified by MIL‐68‐proline ( ‐Pro ) and MIL‐68‐glycine‐proline ( ‐Gly‐Pro ), we identified the most likely peptide conformations adopted in the functionalized hybrid frameworks. We found that hydrogen bond interactions between the graft and the surface hydroxyl groups of the MOF are essential in determining the peptides conformation(s). DNP SENS methodology shows unprecedented signal enhancements when applied to these peptide‐functionalized MOFs. The calculated chemical shifts of selected MIL‐68‐NH‐ Pro and MIL‐68‐NH‐ Gly‐Pro conformations are in a good agreement with the experimentally obtained ¹⁵N NMR signals. The study shows that the conformations of peptides when grafted in a MOF host are unlikely to be freely distributed, and conformational selection is directed by strong host–guest interactions.     

Flying elephants: a general method for solving non-differentiable problems

Flying Elephants (FE) is a generalization and a new interpretation of the Hyperbolic Smoothing approach. The article introduces the fundamental smoothing procedures. It contains a general overview of successful applications of the approach for solving a select set of five important problems, namely: distance geometry, covering, clustering, Fermat–Weber and hub location. For each problem the original non-smooth formulation and the succedaneous completely differentiable one are presented. Computational experiments for all related problems obtained results that exhibited a high level of performance according to all criteria: consistency, robustness and efficiency. For each problem some results to illustrate the performance of FE are also presented.     

PDLC films prepared by electron beam and ultraviolet curing: influence of curing conditions on the electro-optical properties

Polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) films were prepared by polymerization-induced phase separation processes using ultraviolet (UV) and electron beam (EB) radiation. A mixture of the nematic LC material E7, an aromatic polyester acrylate, and additional monomeric acrylates was exposed to the EB radiation. A photoinitiator was included in the initial mixture in the case of UV exposure. The electro-optical behaviour of the PDLC films obtained has been investigated as a function of the chosen radiation. The transmission versus voltage curves strongly depend on the curing conditions, and are highly reproducible. Threshold and saturation voltages continuously increase with increasing dose values for UV-cured films, whereas plateau values were reached for EB-cured samples. A small memory effect has been observed for UV-cured systems.