Novel Crash Sled with a Translating Support Mass

Background

A novel crash sled has been developed with a translating support incorporating transducers that allow multiple methods of measuring energy absorption to fully characterize the dynamic crush response of composite components.

Objective

The main goal of the current investigation was to demonstrate functionality, repeatability, and accuracy of crush testing using a crash sled with a translating support mass.

Methods

A semi-automated algorithm for data reduction was developed based on impact mechanics principles. A preliminary set of tests was initially conducted using aluminum honeycomb specimens with a specified stable crushing force to quantify the accuracy and repeatability of the crush data. Following the success of these tests, triaxially-braided fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) specimens were evaluated.

Results

Crush tests with the aluminum honeycomb specimens showed excellent outcomes for all three specimens. These data provided close agreement with cumulative energy absorption between individual instruments and stable crushing forces at expected values. For the FRP specimens, specific energy absorption (SEA) and force-displacement curves were successfully measured; however, data from the translating support mass accelerometer were excluded from the dataset due to clipping. The SEA of the corrugated specimens was greater than the SEA for the C-channel specimens at both test speeds.

Conclusions

The crash sled functionality was verified, the specimen geometry was found to contribute more to SEA than the impact speed in the speed range tested, and the support mass accelerometer will be upgraded to prevent clipping in future tests.

     

Thermolytic behavior of polydienyllithium and polystyryllithium

UV absorption spectra of thermolyzed polybutadienyl- and polyisoprenyl-lithium reveal a chromophore group previously not recognized for such systems; its absorption band at 271 nm has been assigned to a structure with three conjugated double bonds. A two-step mechanism for the formation of this trienic structure is proposed: an intermolecular metallation of associated living ends is followed by lithium hydride (LiH) elimination. Along thermolysis the presence of a dienic structure was also recognized, the latter arising from intramolecular elimination of LiH. The trienyllithium structure is also considered to be an effective species for the observed molecular weight distribution (MWD) variations. The observed different extent of high molecular weight (HMW) for polyisoprenyl- and polybutadienyl-lithium is explained on the basis of a different stability of the intermediates present along the proposed reaction mechanism. The thermolytic behavior of polystyryllithium does not provide any significant change in MWD: the disappearance of the living chain ends, UV detected, is due to an intramolecular LiH elimination which obeys first-order kinetics. The influence of temperature and of the tetrahydrofuran (THF) level on kinetic rate constants was investigated. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Pharmacokinetic Characterization of the DDAH1 Inhibitors ZST316 and ZST152 in Mice Using a HPLC-MS/MS Method

The pharmacokinetic profile of ZST316 and ZST152, arginine analogues with inhibitory activity towards human dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase-1 (DDAH1), was investigated in mice using a newly developed HPLC-MS/MS method. The method proved to be reproducible, precise, and accurate for the measurement of the compounds in plasma and urine. Four-week-old female FVB mice received a single dose of ZST316 and ZST152 by intravenous bolus (30 mg/Kg) and oral gavage (60 mg/Kg). ZST316 Cmax was 67.4 µg/mL (intravenous) and 1.02 µg/mL (oral), with a half-life of 6 h and bioavailability of 4.7%. ZST152 Cmax was 24.9 µg/mL (intravenous) and 1.65 µg/mL (oral), with a half-life of 1.2 h and bioavailability of 33.3%. Urinary excretion of ZST152 and ZST316 was 12.5%–22.2% and 2.3%–7.5%, respectively. At least eight urinary metabolites were identified. After chronic intraperitoneal treatment with the more potent DDAH1 inhibitor, ZST316 (30 mg/Kg/day for three weeks), the bioavailability was 59% and no accumulation was observed. Treatment was well tolerated with no changes in body weight vs. untreated animals and no clinical signs of toxicity or distress. The results of this study show that ZST316 has a favorable pharmacokinetic profile, following intraperitoneal administration, to investigate the effects of DDAH1 inhibition in mice.     

Ising transition in the two-dimensional quantum J1-J2 Heisenberg model

We study the thermodynamics of the spin-S two-dimensional quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the square lattice with nearest (J1) and next-nearest (J2) neighbor couplings in its collinear phase (J(2)/J(1)>0.5), using the pure-quantum self-consistent harmonic approximation. Our results show the persistence of a finite-temperature Ising phase transition for every value of the spin, provided that the ratio J(2)/J(1) is greater than a critical value corresponding to the onset of collinear long-range order at zero temperature. We also calculate the spin and temperature dependence of the collinear susceptibility and correlation length, and we discuss our results in light of the experiments on Li2VOSiO4 and related compounds.     

Reactions of massive nuclei for the synthesis of heavy and superheavy nuclei

We study the effect of the entrance channel and the shell structure of reacting massive nuclei on the fusion mechanism and the formation of evaporation residues of heavy and superheavy nuclei. In the framework of the combined dinuclear system concept and advanced statistical model, we analyze the reactions ³²S+¹⁸²W, ⁴⁸Ti+¹⁶⁶Er and ⁶⁰Ni+¹⁵⁴Sm leading to ²¹⁴Th^*, and the reactions ⁴⁸Ca+²⁴⁸Cm and the ⁴⁸Ca+²⁴⁹Cf leading to the ²⁹⁶116 and ²⁹⁷118 compound nuclei, respectively.     

Supersonic cluster beam fabrication of metal–ionogel nanocomposites for soft robotics

Soft robotics is an emerging field targeting at the development of robotic bodies and architectures characterized by flexibility, adaptability, and motility typical of that of biological systems. The use of electroactive ionic polymer–metal nanocomposites able to reversibly deform in response to low-intensity electric fields constitutes a promising solution for the implementation of actuators into soft robots. Currently, the use of this class of nanocomposites is hampered by several drawbacks, mainly related to the mismatch between the mechanical properties of the polymer and the metallic electrodes compromising their stability and resilience upon cyclic deformation.Here, we report and discuss on the use of supersonic cluster beam implantation (SCBI) as an effective strategy for the fabrication of soft electroactive ionic polymeric nanocomposite actuators. SCBI relies on the use of supersonically accelerated beams of neutral metal nanoparticles that can be aerodynamically collimated and directed onto a polymeric target to generate thin nanostructured metal layers physically interpenetrating with the polymer.Soft electroactive actuators based on engineered ionogel and ionogel-based hybrid nanocomposites provided with monolithically integrated cluster-assembled gold electrodes will be discussed. These systems can undergo long-term bending deformation in a low-voltage regime, due to the nanostructured electrode resilience. The use of cluster-assembled nanostructured electrodes opens new opportunities for the high-throughput manufacturing of soft ionic actuators with excellent mechanical resiliency, high-performance actuation, and high durability.     

Local estimates for parabolic equations with nonlinear gradient terms

In this paper we deal with local estimates for parabolic problems in ${\mathbb{R}^N}$ with absorbing first order terms, whose model is $$\left\{\begin{array}{l@{\quad}l}u_t- \Delta u +u |\nabla u|^q = f(t,x) \quad &{\rm in}\, (0,T) \times \mathbb{R}^N\,,\\u(0,x)= u_0 (x) &{\rm in}\, \mathbb{R}^N \,,\quad\end{array}\right.$$ where ${T >0 , \, N\geq 2,\, 1 < q \leq 2,\, f(t,x)\in L^1\left( 0,T; L^1_{\rm loc} \left(\mathbb{R}^N\right)\right)}$ and ${u_0\in L^1_{\rm loc}\left(\mathbb{R}^{N}\right)}$ .     

Complementary Lidstone interpolation on scattered data sets

Recently we have introduced a new technique for combining classical bivariate Shepard operators with three point polynomial interpolation operators (Dell’Accio and Di Tommaso, On the extension of the Shepard-Bernoulli operators to higher dimensions, unpublished). This technique is based on the association, to each sample point, of a triangle with a vertex in it and other ones in its neighborhood to minimize the error of the three point interpolation polynomial. The combination inherits both degree of exactness and interpolation conditions of the interpolation polynomial at each sample point, so that in Caira et al. (J Comput Appl Math 236:1691–1707, 2012) we generalized the notion of Lidstone Interpolation (LI) to scattered data sets by combining Shepard operators with the three point Lidstone interpolation polynomial (Costabile and Dell’Accio, Appl Numer Math 52:339–361, 2005). Complementary Lidstone Interpolation (CLI), which naturally complements Lidstone interpolation, was recently introduced by Costabile et al. (J Comput Appl Math 176:77–90, 2005) and drawn on by Agarwal et al. (2009) and Agarwal and Wong (J Comput Appl Math 234:2543–2561, 2010). In this paper we generalize the notion of CLI to bivariate scattered data sets. Numerical results are provided.     

Organic room-temperature phosphorescence from halogen-bonded organic frameworks: hidden electronic effects in rigidified chromophores

Development of purely organic materials displaying room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) will expand the toolbox of inorganic phosphors for imaging, sensing or display applications. While molecular solids were found to suppress non-radiative energy dissipation and make the RTP process kinetically favourable, such an effect should be enhanced by the presence of multivalent directional non-covalent interactions. Here we report phosphorescence of a series of fast triplet-forming tetraethyl naphthalene-1,4,5,8-tetracarboxylates. Various numbers of bromo substituents were introduced to modulate intermolecular halogen-bonding interactions. Bright RTP with quantum yields up to 20% was observed when the molecule is surrounded by a Br⋯O halogen-bonded network. Spectroscopic and computational analyses revealed that judicious heavy-atom positioning suppresses non-radiative relaxation and enhances intersystem crossing at the same time. The latter effect was found to be facilitated by the orbital angular momentum change, in addition to the conventional heavy-atom effect. Our results suggest the potential of multivalent non-covalent interactions for excited-state conformation and electronic control.

The number and position of halogen substituents in purely organic π–π* chromophores critically affect the efficiency of phosphorescence.     

A Formal Total Synthesis of (+)-Methyl Trachyloban-18-oate and (+)-Methyl 16-Oxo-17-norkauran-18-oate: Regio- and Diastereoselective Preparation of Methyl (13S)-13-Hydroxyisoatisiren-18-oate from (−)-Abietic Acid

A novel preparation of methyl (13S)-13-hydroxyisoatisiren-18-oate ( 4 ), a key-intermediate in a synthesis of (+)-methyl trachyloban-18-oate ((+)- 1 ), from (?)-abietic acid, is described. Since (?)- 1 has been previously converted into (?)-methyl 16-oxo-17-norkauran-18-oate ((?)- 16 ), our preparation of 4 constitutes also a formal total synthesis, from (?)-abietic acid, of (+)- 16 . Key steps in this approach were the allene photoaddition to podocarp-8(14)-en-13-one ( 5 ) and the conversion of the endo-toluene-4-sulfonate 11 into the exo-benzoate 12b .