Thermal conductance of nanofluids: is the controversy over?

Over the last decade nanofluids (colloidal suspensions of solid nanoparticles) sparked excitement as well as controversy. In particular, a number of researches reported dramatic increases of thermal conductivity with small nanoparticle loading, while others showed moderate increases consistent with the effective medium theories on well-dispersed conductive spheres. Accordingly, the mechanism of thermal conductivity enhancement is a hotly debated topic. We present a critical analysis of the experimental data in terms of the potential mechanisms and show that, by accounting for linear particle aggregation, the well established effective medium theories for composite materials are capable of explaining the vast majority of the reported data without resorting to novel mechanisms such as Brownian motion induced nanoconvection, liquid layering at the interface, or near-field radiation. However, particle aggregation required to significantly enhance thermal conductivity, also increases fluid viscosity rendering the benefit of nanofluids to flow based cooling applications questionable.     

Teucrium polium (L.): Phytochemical Screening and Biological Activities at Different Phenological Stages

The aim of the present study was to investigate the changes in the content of phytochemical compounds and in vitro antioxidant, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory activities of Teucrium polium L. aerial parts and root methanolic extracts at different phenological stages (vegetative, flowering, and seeding). The T. polium extracts were analyzed using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and their antioxidant properties were tested with the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), nitric oxide (NO), ferrous ions (Fe²⁺), and 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS) methods. Forty-nine compounds were identified with the majority of germacrene D, t-cadinol, β-pinene, carvacrol, bicyclogermacrene, α-pinene, and limonene. The results show that the extracts significantly differ between different phenological stages of the plant material used in terms of the phytochemical composition (total phenolic compounds, total flavonoids, total alkaloids, and total saponin contents) and bioactivities (antioxidant, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory) (p < 0.05). The highest total contents of phenolics (72.4 ± 2.5 mg gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/g dry weight), flavonoids (36.2 ± 3.1 mg quercetin equivalent (QE)/g dry weight), alkaloids (105.7 ± 2.8 mg atropine equivalent (AE)/g dry weight), and saponins (653 ± 6.2 mg escin equivalent (EE)/g dry weight), as well as antioxidant, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory activities, were measured for the extract of the aerial parts obtained at the flowering stage. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values for the extracts were varied within 9.4–300 µg/mL, while the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) values were varied within 18.75–600 µg/mL. In addition, they were more active on Gram-positive bacteria than Gram-negative bacteria. The data of this work confirm that the T. polium extracts have significant biological activity and hence can be used in the pharmaceutical industry, clinical applications, and medical research, as well as cosmetic and food industries.     

Two-connected Steiner networks: structural properties

We give a number of structural results for the problem of constructing a minimum-length 2-connected network for a set of terminals in a graph, where edge-weights satisfy the triangle inequality. A new algorithmic framework, based on our structural results, is given.     

Generalized steiner problem in outerplanar networks

The generalized Steiner problem (GSP) is concerned with the determination of a minimum cost subnetwork of a given network where some (not necessarily all) vertices satisfy certain pairwise (vertex or edge) connectivity requirements.The GSP has applications to the design of water and electricity supply networks, communication networks and other large-scale systems where connectivity requirements ensure the communication between the selected vertices when some vertices and/or edges can become inoperational due to scheduled maintenance, error, or overload.The GSP is known to beNP-complete. In this paper we show that if the subnetwork is required to be biconnected or respectively edge-biconnected, and the underlying network is outerplanar, the GSP can be solved in linear time.     

Probability measures on operator algebras

The problem of linearity of probability measures on hyperfinite factors is studied in Part I. Part II contains the extension of Vital-Hahn-Saks, Egoroff and Lusic theorems for probability measures on von Neumann algebras. These problems have immediate connections with properties of physical states on observable algebras in the sense of Mackey.     

Reduced sub-powers and the decision problem for finite algebras in arithmetical varieties

The aim of this paper is to prove that every finitely generated, arithmetical variety of finite type, in which every subdirectly irreducible algebra has linearly ordered congruences has a decidable first order theory of its finite members. The proof is based on a representation of finite algebras from such varieties by some quotients of special subdirect products in which sets of indices are partially ordered into dual trees. Then the result of M. O. Rabin about decidability of the monadic second order theory of two successors is applied.Presented by Stanley Burris.     

The magnetic field,force and inductance of the system consisting of a thin ellipsoidal coil and a ferromagnetic ellipsoid

The method of separation of variables has been applied to determine the magnetic field of the system consisting of a thin ellipsoidal coil and a ferromagnetic ellipsoid of revolution. The inductance and the force acting between the coil and the ellipsoid are also examined.     

Graph Approach to the Computation of the Homology of Continuous Maps

We introduce an efficient algorithm to compute the homomorphism induced in (relative) homology by a continous map. The algorithm is based on a cubical approximation of the map and the theory of multivalued maps. A software implementation of the algorithms introduced in this paper is available at [27].     

Non-trivial negative links have positive signature

A negative link is an oriented link that can be represented by a diagram with all the crossings negative. In this paper we prove the following theorem.