Effect of source strength on dislocation pileups in the presence of stress gradients

The behaviour of a dislocation pileup with a finite-strength source is investigated in the presence of various stress gradients within a continuum model where a free-dislocation region exists around the source. Expressions for dislocation density and stress field within the pileup are derived for the situation where there are first and second spatial gradients in applied stress. For a pileup configuration under an applied stress, yielding occurs when the force acting on the leading dislocations at the pileup tips reaches the obstacle strength, and at the same time, it is required that the source be at the threshold stress for dislocation production. A numerical methodology is presented to solve the underlying equations that represent the yielding conditions. The yield stress calculated for a pileup configuration is found to depend on stress gradients, obstacle spacing and source/obstacle strengths. It increases with increasing the first stress gradient, yet dependent on the second stress gradient. Furthermore, while the dependency of yield stress on the obstacle spacing intensifies with increasing the first stress gradient, it diminishes with an increase of second stress gradient. Therefore, the second stress gradient, as a newly introduced parameter, can provide a new physical insight into the size-dependent plasticity phenomena at small length scales.     

A combined crossed molecular beam and quasiclassical trajectory study of the Titan-relevant N(2D) + D2O reaction

Following a recent investigation on the N(²D) + H₂O reaction [Homayoon et al., J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 5, 3508 (2014)], we report on an experimental and theoretical study of the isotopologue N(²D) + D₂O reaction. Crossed molecular beam (CMB) experiments were conducted at a collision energy of 10.3 kcal mol^–1. Quasiclassical trajectory calculations were performed on a recent potential energy surface to derive the centre-of-mass functions necessary to simulate the CMB laboratory distributions. Excellent agreement was found. The importance of the channel leading to HON/DON was confirmed. The inclusion of this channel, in addition to that leading to the isomer HNO/DNO, can affect the models considering the coupling between nitrogen and oxygen chemistry in the upper atmosphere of Titan.     

Nanostructured Colloidal Solutions of Malachite Green Formulated: Nonlinear Optical Properties and Simulation

Journal of Fluorescence - Malachite green (MG) is a dye that has been presented to use as photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy (PDT). Nonlinear absorption coefficient (β) and nonlinear...     

Novel tacrine-based acetylcholinesterase inhibitors as potential agents for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease: Quinolotacrine hybrids

A new series of quinolotacrine hybrids including cyclopenta- and cyclohexa-quinolotacrine derivatives were designed, synthesized, and assessed as anti-cholinesterase (ChE) agents. The designed derivatives indicated higher inhibitory effect on the acetylcholinesterase (AChE) with IC₅₀ values of 0.285–100 µM compared to butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) with IC₅₀ values of?>?100 µM. Of these compounds, cyclohexa-quinolotacrine hybrids displayed a little better anti-AChE activity than cyclopenta-quinolotacrine hybrids. Compound 8-amino-7-(3-hydroxyphenyl)-5,7,9,10,11,12-hexahydro-6H-pyrano[2,3-b:5,6-c'] diquinolin-6-one (6m) including 3-hydroxyphenyl and cyclohexane ring moieties exhibited the best AChE inhibitory activity with IC₅₀ value of 0.285 µM. The kinetic and molecular docking studies indicated that compound 6m occupied both the catalytic anionic site (CAS) and peripheral anionic site (PAS) of AChE as a mixed inhibitor. Using neuroprotective assay against H₂O₂-induced cell death in PC12 cells, the compound 6h illustrated significant protection among the assessed compounds. In silico ADME studies estimated good drug-likeness for the designed compounds. As a result, these quinolotacrine hybrids can be very encouraging AChE inhibitors to treat Alzheimer’s disease.

Graphic abstract

A novel series of quinolotacrine hybrids were designed, synthesized, and evaluated against AChE and BChE enzymes as potential agents for the treatment of AD. The hybrids showed good to significant inhibitory activity against AChE (0.285–100 μM) compared to butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) with IC₅₀ values of?>?100 μM. Among them, compound 8-amino-7-(3-hydroxyphenyl)-5,7,9,10,11,12-hexahydro-6H-pyrano[2,3-b:5,6-c′] diquinolin-6-one (6 m) bearing 3-hydroxyphenyl moiety and cyclohexane ring exhibited the highest anti-AChE activity with IC₅₀ value of 0.285 μM. The kinetic and molecular docking studies illustrated that compound 6 m is a mixed inhibitor and binds to both the catalytic anionic site (CAS) and peripheral anionic site (PAS) of AChE.

     

Systematic Study of Two-Quasi-Particle Structure of Odd–Odd Thulium Nuclei

Physics of Atomic Nuclei - In this study, the nuclear structure properties of $${}^{160{-}166}$$ Tm isotopes with neutron numbers 91, 93, 95, and 97 were investigated using the projected shell...     

Acid-induced gelation behavior of sonicated casein solutions

Casein gels were made from solutions sonicated by 24 and 130 kHz ultrasounds for 0, 60 and 120 min, followed by acidification with glucono-δ-lactone at 30 °C. The dynamics of gel formation were studied using rheological methods and microstructure of gels was monitored using scanning electron microscopy. Sonication postponed the gelation point to a lower pH value and increased the elasticity of freshly formed gels. It also resulted in gels with a more interconnected structure and smaller non-distinguishable particulates. This structure was especially dominant for the gel made from the solution already sonicated for 120 min.     

Improved double-gate armchair silicene nanoribbon field-effect-transistor at large transport bandgap

The electrical characteristics of a double-gate armchair silicene nanoribbon field-effect-transistor(DG ASi NR FET)are thoroughly investigated by using a ballistic quantum transport model based on non-equilibrium Green's function(NEGF) approach self-consistently coupled with a three-dimensional(3D) Poisson equation. We evaluate the influence of variation in uniaxial tensile strain, ribbon temperature and oxide thickness on the on-off current ratio, subthreshold swing, transconductance and the delay time of a 12-nm-length ultranarrow ASi NR FET. A novel two-parameter strain magnitude and temperature-dependent model is presented for designing an optimized device possessing balanced amelioration of all the electrical parameters. We demonstrate that employing Hf O2 as the gate insulator can be a favorable choice and simultaneous use of it with proper combination of temperature and strain magnitude can achieve better device performance.Furthermore, a general model power(GMP) is derived which explicitly provides the electron effective mass as a function of the bandgap of a hydrogen passivated ASi NR under strain.     

Linear and nonlinear intersubband optical absorption and refractive index changes of asymmetric double semi-parabolic quantum wells

The optical properties of the asymmetric double semi-parabolic quantum wells (DSPQWs) are investigated numerically for typical GaAs/Al_xGa_1−xAs. Optical properties are obtained using the compact density matrix approach. In this work, effects of the structure parameters such as the barrier width and the well widths on the optical properties of the asymmetric DSPQWs are investigated. The results show that the linear and nonlinear optical properties of asymmetric DSPQW are non-monotonic functions of these structure parameters. The behavior of the refractive index changes of asymmetric DSPQW with the variation of the barrier width is different substantially with that of symmetric DSPQW. Results reveal that the resonant peak values of the total absorption coefficient of asymmetric DSPQW is usually greater than that of symmetric DSPQW. Our calculations also show that the total absorption coefficient of asymmetric DSPQW is larger than that of asymmetric double square quantum well.