Photoinitiator-Free Photopolymerization of Silicon-Containing Maleimides Based on Electron-Donor-Acceptor Systems

Summary: Photocured coatings promise enhanced performance, higher productivity and an improved environmental impact on the favorable reduction or near elimination of volatile organic compounds. Increasing interest in the photocuring industry has been imposed on the “photoinitiator-free photopolymerization [PIFP]” system based on the electron-donor-acceptor [EDA] concept, which commonly employs a mixture of a vinyl ether monomer (donor) and an N-substituted maleimide or bismaleimide monomer (acceptor). The PIFP systems employing silicon-containing maleimides together with vinyl ether monomers were firstly investigated and their photoreactions resulted in quite fast curing comparable to the conventional acrylate- based photocurable systems.     

Impact of Milling on Rice Constituents (Oryza Sativa L.): A Metabolomic Approach

Milling is an influential factor that affects the nutritional components in rice. However, the alteration of rice constituents by milling has not been thoroughly examined. In this study, rice with various degrees of milling was analyzed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and high-performance liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry. Principal component analysis and partial least square-discriminant analysis were performed to characterize the nutritional components that have significant changes during milling. The concentrations of sugars and sugar alcohols decreased while the phospholipids increased in accordance with the milling degree. These results provide a contrast to the common idea that brown rice is nutritionally superior to white rice. In conclusion, the knowledge of nutritional alterations related to milling may benefit rice production and consumption.     

Synthesis,Characterization, and Directional Binding of Anisotropic Biohybrid Microparticles for Multiplexed Biosensing

Anisotropic microarchitectures with different physicochemical properties have been developed as advanced materials for challenging industrial and biomedical applications including switchable displays, multiplexed biosensors and bioassays, spatially‐controlled drug delivery systems, and tissue engineering scaffolds. In this study, anisotropic biohybrid microparticles (MPs) spatio‐selectively conjugated with two different antibodies (Abs) are first developed for fluorescence‐based, multiplexed sensing of biological molecules. Poly(acrylamide‐co‐acrylic acid) is chemically modified with maleimide‐ or acetylene groups to introduce different targeting biological moieties into each compartment of anisotropic MPs. Modified polymer solutions containing two different fluorescent dyes are separately used for electrohydrodynamic co‐jetting with side‐by‐side needle geometry. The anisotropic MPs are chemically stabilized by thermal imidization, followed by bioconjugation of two different sets of polyclonal Abs with two individual compartments via maleimide‐thiol coupling reaction and Huisgen 1,3‐dipolar cycloaddition. Finally, two compartments of the anisotropic biohybrid MPs are spatio‐selectively associated with the respective monoclonal Ab‐immobilized substrate in the presence of the antigen by sandwich‐type immunocomplex formation, resulting in their ordered orientation due to the spatio‐specific molecular interaction, as confirmed by confocal laser scanning microscopy. In conclusion, anisotropic biohybrid MPs capable of directional binding have great potential as a new fluorescence‐based multiplexing biosensing system.

     

Bioorthogonal Cleavage and Exchange of Major Histocompatibility Complex Ligands by Employing Azobenzene‐Containing Peptides

Bioorthogonal cleavable linkers are attractive building blocks for compounds that can be manipulated to study biological and cellular processes. Sodium dithionite sensitive azobenzene‐containing (Abc) peptides were applied for the temporary stabilization of recombinant MHC complexes, which can then be employed to generate libraries of MHC tetramers after exchange with a novel epitope. This technology represents an important tool for high‐throughput studies of disease‐specific T cell responses.     

Pseudolinearity and efficiency

First order and second order characterizations of pseudolinear functions are derived. For a nonlinear programming problem involving pseudolinear functions only, it is proved that every efficient solution is properly efficient under some mild conditions.     

High work function of Al-doped zinc-oxide thin films as transparent conductive anodes in organic light-emitting devices

Deposition of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films with various film thicknesses on glass substrates was performed to investigate the feasibility of using AZO films as anode electrodes in organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs). The electrical resistivity of the AZO films with a 180-nm thickness was 4.085 × 10⁻² Ω cm, and the average optical transmittance in the visible range was 80.2%. The surface work function for the AZO films, determined from the secondary electron emission coefficients obtained with a focused ion beam, was as high as 4.62 eV. These results indicate that AZO films grown on glass substrates hold promise for potential applications as anode electrodes in high-efficiency OLEDs.     

Spatiotemporally inhomogeneous plastic flow of a bulk-metallic glass

With geometrically-constrained specimens, the spatiotemporally inhomogeneous deformation of a Zr-based bulk-metallic glass in uniaxial, quasistatic, compression was investigated. Decreasing the height/width ratio of specimens from 2 to 0.5 significantly increases the plastic strain from 2% to about 80%. Using an infrared camera, we first observe in situ dynamic shear-banding operations during compression at various strain rates. The shear banding is highly dependent on strain rates, either intermittent at the lower strain rate or successive at the higher strain rate. Scanning electron microscopy observations show the spatiality of the rate-dependent shear banding. The serrated plastic flow is a result of the shear-banding operations. At the lower strain rate, more simultaneous shear-banding operations result in more obvious serrations, while at the higher strain rate, fewer simultaneous shear-banding operations cause less obvious serrations.     

Effective barrier height and work function of Mg:Ag thin films with a low Mg concentration acting as cathodes in high-efficiency organic light emitting devices

Organic molecular-beam deposition (OMBD) of Mg:Ag thin films with a low Mg concentration on tris(8-hydroxyquinolino) aluminum (Alq₃) layers at room temperature was performed to investigate the feasibility of using Mg:Ag thin films as cathode electrodes in organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs). The effective barrier height of the Mg:Ag (5:95) thin films grown on the Alq₃ layers, determined from the current-voltage measurements, was as low as 0.22 eV. The work function of the Mg:Ag (5:95) thin film, determined from the secondary electron emission coefficients obtained by using focused ion beam, was 4.12 eV. These results indicate that Mg:Ag (5:95) thin films with a low Mg concentration grown by using the OMBD method hold promise for potential applications as cathode electrodes in high-efficiency OLEDs.     

Bicriteria linear fractional programming

As a step toward the investigation of the multicriteria linear fractional program, this paper provides a thorough analysis of the bicriteria case. It is shown that the set of efficient points is a finite union of linearly constrained sets and the efficient frontier is the image of a finite number of connected line segments of efficient points. A simple algorithm using only one-dimensional parametric linear programming techniques is developed to evaluate the efficient frontier.This research was partially supported by NRC Research Grant No. A4743. The authors wish to thank two anonymous referees for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.