Variational solutions for the two-stream mixing of power-law fluids

The variational principle of Lebon-Lambermont, originally proposed for Newtonian fluids, is seen to be applicable to generalized Newtonian fluids. As an example, it is applied to obtain approximate solutions of the laminar boundary-layer equations for the two-stream mixing of power-law fluids. The flow along a flat plate is obtained as a particular case when the consistency of one of the fluids diverges.     

The weighted Ritz‐Galerkin method for elliptic boundary value problems on unbounded domains

Recently Babus?ka‐Oh introduced the method of auxiliary mapping (MAM) which efficiently handles elliptic boundary value problems containing singularities. In this paper, a special weighted residue method, the Weighted Ritz‐Galerkin Method (WRGM), is investigated by introducing special weight functions. Together with this method, MAM is modified to yield highly accurate finite element solutions to general elliptic boundary value problems on the exterior of bounded domains at low cost. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 19: 301–326, 2003.     

ε‐Caprolactone polymerization under air by the biocatalyst: Magnesium 2,6‐di‐tert‐butyl‐4‐methylphenoxide

This study investigated the synthesis of the biocatalyst, magnesium 2,6‐di‐tert‐butyl‐4‐methylphenoxide (Mg(BHT)₂) complex, and the ring‐opening polymerization (ROP) of ε‐caprolactone (CL). The complex demonstrates high catalytic activity and controllable of molecular weight for the ROP of CL in tetrahydrofuran at room temperature, even when polymerization was performed under air. Before this study, the polymerization of CL had never been performed using a magnesium catalyst under air at room temperature. Various forms of alcohols with different purposes were also used as initiators with Mg(BHT)₂. The results show that the magnesium complex acts as a perfect catalyst because of its high catalytic activity and control ability without any cytotoxicity in the polymerization of CL, making it suitable for biomedical applications. In addition, nanoparticle formation, cytotoxicity, and phototoxicity of tri‐2‐hydroxyethyl ester [Ce6‐(CH₂CH₂OPCL)₃] were also studied in this article and Ce6‐(CH₂CH₂OPCL)₃ formed nanoparticle can act as a nanophotosensitizer for photodynamic therapy. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012     

Hg2+ selective fluorescent and colorimetric sensor: its crystal structure and application to bioimaging

A Hg(2+)-selective rhodamine 6G derivative bearing thiolactone moiety was synthesized, and its crystal structure with Hg(2+) is presented to explain the binding mode. In addition, highly selective "off-on"-type fluorescent change upon the addition of Hg(2+) was also applied to bioimaging.     

In situ formation of Sn(IV) catalyst with increased activity in ε‐caprolactone and L‐lactide polymerization using stannous(II) 2‐ethylhexanoate

Ring‐opening polymerization (ROP) of ε‐caprolactone and L‐lactide (LA) was studied using stannous(II) 2‐ethylhexanoate (Sn(Oct)₂) with N,N‐dimethylformamide‐dimethyl acetal (DMF‐DMA). DMF‐DMA showed a tenfold improvement in catalytic activity over that of Sn(Oct)₂ under the same conditions. It also enhanced the capability to control molecular weight in the synthesis of small molecular weight polymers of polycaprolactone and polylactide (PLA). The high molecular weight polymerization demonstrated a strong capability to control molecular weight for the polymerization of LA: a molecular weight of PLA exceeding 400,000 was obtained at very low catalytic loadings. The individual polymerization rates of other tin reagents with DMF‐DMA also clearly increased. Applying this methodology could drastically reduce the time and cost required for the fabrication of these products to increase the competitive advantage of manufacturers. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012     

A Phenomenological Study of Pore-Size Dependent Thermal Conductivity of Porous Silicon

A phonon-hydrodynamics approach is used to analyze the influence of porosity and of pore size on the reduction of the thermal conductivity in porous silicon. Different geometrical arrangements of the pores have been considered. For any given value of the porosity, the theoretical results show that for increasing Knudsen number (i.e., decreasing pore size) the effective thermal conductivity decreases whatever the geometrical arrangement of the pores is.     

Systemic LPS administration induces brain inflammation but not dopaminergic neuronal death in the substantia nigra

It has been suggested that brain inflammation is important in aggravation of brain damage and/or that inflammation causes neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson's disease (PD). Recently, systemic inflammation has also emerged as a risk factor for PD. In the present study, we evaluated how systemic inflammation induced by intravenous (iv) lipopolysaccharides (LPS) injection affected brain inflammation and neuronal damage in the rat. Interestingly, almost all brain inflammatory responses, including morphological activation of microglia, neutrophil infiltration, and mRNA/protein expression of inflammatory mediators, appeared within 4-8 h, and subsided within 1-3 days, in the substantia nigra (SN), where dopaminergic neurons are located. More importantly, however, dopaminergic neuronal loss was not detectable for up to 8 d after iv LPS injection. Together, these results indicate that acute induction of systemic inflammation causes brain inflammation, but this is not sufficiently toxic to induce neuronal injury.     

Ramp rate effect on polyimide film properties and morphology

The stress in films of semirigid and rigid polyimides (PIs) on silicon (Si) substrate has been measured in situ during curing using a newly modified bending beam apparatus. By using the apparatus, the onset of residual stress in the initially solvent-rich films has also been investigated. The stress characteristics of the PI films are strongly ramp rate dependent. Different ramp rates result in markedly different stress patterns, thermo-mechanical properties, and film morphologies. The residual stress at room temperature after curing is scattered around 23–31 MPa for the films of pyromellitic dianhydride-4,4′-oxydianiline (PMDA-ODA). For pyromellitic dianhydride-p-phenylenediamine (PMDA-PDA), it systematically increases from ?6 to 28 MPa for ramp rate increasing from 0.5 to 10°C/min. The residual stress is very low in the slowly cured PMDA-PDA films. However, these films have gone through a very high-stress transient state during curing. The maximum transient stress is comparatively higher in the films of PMDA-PDA than in PMDA-ODA. Slowly cured PMDA-PDA films exhibit high structural ordering, high in-plane anisotropy, and low coefficient of thermal expansion. ©1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Diode grids for electronic beam steering and frequency multiplication

Loading a grid with diodes offers the possibility of two-dimensional control of millimeter waves that is analogous to holography and nonlinear optics. These grids are attractive because they are suitable for monolithic integration with gallium-arsenide Schottky diodes and for high-power operation. Here we present grid designs for electronic beam-steering and harmonic generation. The beam-steering grid is a programmable reflector, where the diode bias controls the phase shift of the reflection. The variation of the phase across the grating sets the direction of the reflected beam. The reflection loss in computer simulations is 3dB at 90GHz. The harmonic-generating grid acts as a nonlinear reactive surface, where the nonlinear capacitance of the diodes produces the harmonic frequencies. Quasioptical filters select the desired harmonic. Computer simulations predict that a 65GHz-to-130GHz doubler would have an output power of 0.56W/cm² and a conversion efficiency of 35%.