Metamaterial absorber based on circular ring structure with and without copper lines

This paper presents the analysis of circular ring metamaterial absorber with the existing of copper lines. The structure is designed using lossy FR4 substrate with thin copper layers. The circular ring shape with copper lines is printed on the top surface of FR4 substrate, while at the bottom surface is printed with full copper ground plane. Parametric study is done to investigate the effect of copper lines on the resonance frequency. From the simulation, the circular ring metamaterial absorber with vertical copper lines can resonates at lower frequency, but this structure is polarized sensitive. This drawback can be improved by adding horizontal copper lines together with the vertical copper lines. The circular ring structure with vertical and horizontal copper lines is not only polarization insensitive, but it can works at wide operating angle of incident waves.     

Synthesis, reactions, applications, and biological activity of diethanolamine and its derivatives

The review considers recent advances in using diethanolamine (DEA) in the synthesis of amides, polymerization reactions, and synthesis of heterocycles, crown ethers, Mannich bases, and ionic liquids. Biological activity of DEA and its derivatives is also reviewed.     

Epimorphisms, dominions and seminormal identities II

We associate two natural numbers with a seminormal identity depending on the first and the last occurrences of two two-letter subwords of the left hand side which are not subwords of its right hand side. Using these natural numbers, we find some classes of heterotypical identities where both sides contain repeated variables that are preserved under epis in conjunction with a seminormal identity.     

Complete NMR assignments of bioactive rotameric (3 → 8) biflavonoids from the bark of Garcinia hombroniana

The genus Garcinia is reported to possess antimicrobial, anti‐inflammatory, anticancer, hepatoprotective and anti‐HIV activities. Garcinia hombroniana in Malaysia is used to treat itching and as a protective medicine after child birth. This study was aimed to isolate the chemical constituents from the bark of G. hombroniana and explore their possible pharmacological potential. Ethyl acetate extract afforded one new (1) and six (2–7) known 3 → 8 rotameric biflavonoids. Their structures were elucidated by UV, IR and NMR (1D and 2D) spectroscopy together with electron ionization/ESI mass spectrometric techniques and were identified as (2R, 3S) volkensiflavone‐7‐O‐rhamnopyranoside (1), volkensiflavone (2), 4″‐O‐methyl‐volkensiflavone (3), volkensiflavone‐7‐O‐glucopyranoside (4), morelloflavone (5), 3″‐O‐methyl‐morelloflavone (6) and morelloflavone‐7‐O‐glucopyranoside (7). The absolute configuration of compound 1 was assigned by circular dichroism spectroscopy as 2R, 3S. The coexistence of conformers of isolated biflavonoids in solution at 25 °C in different solvents was confirmed by variable temperature NMR studies. At room temperature (25 °C), compounds 1–7 exhibited duplicate NMR signals, while at elevated temperature (90 °C), a single set of signals was obtained. Compound 5 showed significant in vitro antioxidant activities against 1,1‐diphenyl‐2‐picrylhydrazyl and 2,2′‐azino‐bis‐3‐ethyl benzthiazoline‐6‐sulfonic acid radicals. The antibacterial studies showed that compounds 5 and 6 are the most active against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli. Compounds 3 and 6 also showed moderate antituberculosis activity against H₃₈Rv. Based on the research findings, G. hombroniana could be concluded as a rich source of flavanone–flavone (3 → 8) biflavonoids that exhibit rotameric behaviour at room temperature and display significant antioxidant and antibacterial activities. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Penalty methods for a system of constrained variational inequalities

In this paper, using the penalty method in conjunction with graph-convergence, we study the existence of solutions for a class of generalized variational inequalities with variational problem constraints. Our results extend, improve and develop some known results in this field. Our method of proofs is very simple and does not use the hemicontinuity nor the pseudo-continuity properties of monotone operators.     

Viscometric Estimation of Unperturbed Chain Dimensions of Polymers

A new expression is proposed to determine the unperturbed dimensions of coil-like polymers viscometrically by use of the Flory and Kratky expression. The unperturbed dimensions so estimated are compared with the results obtained by using different expressions available in the literature. The results are comparable even for stiff chain polymers. The data obtained under theta conditions also fit this expression very well. The effect of molecular weight, its distribution, and that of the solvent has also been studied. It is concluded that the unperturbed dimensions are independent of molecular weight and solvent but depend on the heterogeneity of the system.