Synthesis, spectral and thermal properties, and crystal structure of catena-poly-μ-ethylenediamine(dipicolinato)zinc(II) trihydrate, {[Zn(dipic)(μ-en)]·3H2O}n

A novel metal–organic coordination polymer framework formulated as {[Zn(dipic)(μ-en)]·3H₂O} _n (1) (catena-poly-μ-ethylenediamine(dipicolinato)zinc(II) trihydrate) has been synthesized and characterized by spectral method (IR), elemental analysis, thermal analysis (TG, DTG, DTA) and single crystal X-ray diffraction techniques. It crystallizes in the triclinic system, space group P−1. The asymmetric unit contains three hydrogen-bonded water molecules and the Zn atom is five-coordinated by three N and two O atoms. In fact, it is a new one-dimensional zinc complex with the peculiarity of having the ethylenediamine ligand very unusually acting as bridge to form polymeric chains. In the crystal structure, intramolecular O–H···O and intermolecular O–H···O and N–H···O hydrogen bonds result in the formation of a supramolecular structure, in which they seem to be effective in the stabilization of the structure.     

Syntheses,structural characterizations and microbial activities of Ni(II) and Zn(II) 5-aminoisophthalate coordination polymers

Two coordination polymers with 5-aminoisophthalic acid (H₂aip), [Ni(μ-aip)(H₂O)₂(tmeda)]_n (1) and {H₂dap[Zn₂(μ-aip)(μ₃-aip)₂]?9H₂O}_n (2) (H₂aip = 5-aminoisophthalic acid, tmeda = N,N,N′-N′-tetramethylethylenediamine, dap = 1,3-diaminopropane) have been synthesized. Elemental and thermal analyses, magnetic susceptibilities, IR, AAS, mass and UV–vis spectroscopic studies have been performed to characterize the compounds. Nickel(II) has octahedral geometry by two oxygens of different carboxylates, bidentate, tmeda as bidentate chelating and two water ligands. Zn(II) has tetrahedral geometry by three oxygens of different carboxylate groups and one nitrogen by amine of aip. 1 crystallizes in the orthorhombic crystal system with space group Pccn and 2 in monoclinic crystal system with space group P2₁/c. Complex 2 exhibits photoluminescence properties in the solid state at room temperature. This study determined the susceptibility patterns of 1 and 2 against bacterial, yeast and mold micro-organisms. Antimicrobial activities were done on 12 different micro-organisms using the micro-dilution method. Tested microbial species were inhibited by 1 with a Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of 375–3000 μg mL^?1. Compound 2 showed antimicrobial activities against tested micro-organisms with a MIC of 188–1500 μg mL^?1. Compound 2 showed antibacterial activity against Legionella pneumophila sg1 375 μg mL^?1 (MIC value).     

Phase boundary propagation in large LiFePO4 single crystals on delithiation

Large single crystals of LiFePO(4) have been chemically delithiated. The relevance of chemical oxidation in comparison with electrochemical delithiation is discussed. Analyses of the Li content and profiles were done by electron energy loss spectroscopy and secondary ion mass spectrometry. The propagation of the FePO(4) phase growing on the surface of the large single crystal was followed by in situ optical microscopy as a function of time. The kinetics were evaluated in terms of linear irreversible thermodynamics and found to be characterized by an induction period followed by parabolic growth behavior of the FePO(4) phase indicating transport control. The growth rate was shown to depend on the crystallographic orientation. Scanning electron microscopy images showed cracks and a high porosity of the FePO(4) layer due to the significant changes in the molar volumes. The transport was found to be greatly enhanced by the porosity and crack formation and hence greatly enhanced over pure bulk transport, a result which is supposed to be very relevant for battery research if coarse-grained powder is used.     

Electroanalytical Studies and Simultaneous Determination of Amlodipine Besylate and Atorvastatine Calcium in Binary Mixtures Using First Derivative of the Ratio‐Voltammetric Methods

The electrochemical behavior of atorvastatin and amlodipine at a glassy carbon electrode has been studied using different voltammetric techniques. First derivative of the ratio voltammetric methods for determination of amlodipine and atorvastatin in tablets in the presence of the other compound has been described. This technique depends on the measuring of first derivative of the ratio voltammograms of each concentration as a function of the increased concentrations. DP and SW voltammetric methods depend on first derivative of the ratio‐voltammetry by measurements of the selected potentials for amlodipine and atorvastatin. The linear response was within the range of 4×10^?6–1×10^?4 M for amlodipine and 2×10^?6–1×10^?4 M for atorvastatin. The proposed methods have been extensively validated.     

Edge-enhanced spatiotemporal constrained reconstruction of undersampled dynamic contrast-enhanced radial MRI

Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a technique used to study and track contrast kinetics in an area of interest in the body over time. Reconstruction of images with high contrast and sharp edges from undersampled data is a challenge. While good results have been reported using a radial acquisition and a spatiotemporal constrained reconstruction (STCR) method, we propose improvements from using spatially adaptive weighting and an additional edge-based constraint. The new method uses intensity gradients from a sliding window reference image to improve the sharpness of edges in the reconstructed image. The method was tested on eight radial cardiac perfusion data sets with 24 rays and compared to the STCR method. The reconstructions showed that the new method, termed edge-enhanced spatiotemporal constrained reconstruction, was able to reconstruct images with sharper edges, and there were a 36%±13.7% increase in contrast-to-noise ratio and a 24%±11% increase in contrast near the edges when compared to STCR. The novelty of this paper is the combination of spatially adaptive weighting for spatial total variation (TV) constraint along with a gradient matching term to improve the sharpness of edges. The edge map from a reference image allows the reconstruction to trade-off between TV and edge enhancement, depending on the spatially varying weighting provided by the edge map.     

Integrated cellular manufacturing systems design with production planning and dynamic system reconfiguration

This paper presents and analyzes a comprehensive model for the design of cellular manufacturing systems (CMS). A recurring theme in research is a piecemeal approach when formulating CMS models. In this paper, the proposed model, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is the most comprehensive one to date with a more integrated approach to CMS design, where production planning and system reconfiguration decisions are incorporated. Such a CMS model has not been proposed before and it features the presence of alternate process routings, operation sequence, duplicate machines, machine capacity and lot splitting. The developed model is a mixed integer non-linear program. Linearization procedures are proposed to convert it into a linearized mixed integer programming formulation. Computational results are presented by solving some numerical examples, extracted from the existing literature, with the linearized formulation.     

A Lagrangean relaxation and decomposition algorithm for the video placement and routing problem

Video on demand (VoD) is a technology used to provide a number of programs to a number of users on request. In developing a VoD system, a fundamental problem is load balancing, which is further characterized by optimally placing videos to a number of predefined servers and routing the user program requests to available resources. In this paper, an exact solution algorithm is described to solve the video placement and routing problem. The algorithm is based on Lagrangean relaxation and decomposition. The novelty of the approach can be described as the use of integer programs to obtain feasible solutions in the algorithm. Computational experimentation reveals that for randomly generated problems with up to 100 nodes and 250 videos, the use of such integer programs help greatly in obtaining good quality solutions (typically within 5% of the optimal solution), even in the very early iterations of the algorithm.     

Electrochemical polymerisation of 2-aminofluorene in ethylalcohol/water medium

Electrochemical polymerisation of 2-aminofluorene, 2AF, was investigated in ethylalcohol/water mixture (3:2, v:v) in the presence of HClO₄ as the supporting electrolyte via constant potential electrolysis, CPE. Prior to CPE, electrochemical behaviour of the monomer was investigated in the same solvent-electrolyte couple utilising cyclic voltammetry, CV. Electrochemical polymerisation of the monomer yielded insoluble, dark bluish-green, conducting polymer deposit on the electrode surface. Characterisation of the polymer film has been carried out using FT-IR spectroscopic technique and thermal behaviour was studied using differential scanning calorimetry, DSC. Spectroelectrochemical, SPEL, behaviour of the polymer on ITO working electrode was studied by recording the electronic absorption spectra, in situ, in monomer-free solution at different potentials and it is found that the film can be reversibly cycled between −0.1 and 1.1 V vs SCE. Paramagnetic behaviour of the polymer was monitored using in situ ESR spectroscopy. The temperature dependence of conductivity supported the Mott's variable range hopping, VRH, mechanism for poly(aminofluorene), PAF.     

Novel antifouling oligo(ethylene glycol) methacrylate particles via surfactant-free emulsion polymerization

The use of particle formulations with antifouling surface properties attracts increasing interest in several biotechnological applications. Majority of these studies utilize a poly(ethylene glycol) coating to render the corresponding surface nonrecognizable to biological macromolecules. Herein, we report a simple way to prepare novel antifouling colloids composed of oligo(ethylene glycol) backbones via surfactant-free emulsion polymerization. Monodisperse cross-linked poly(ethylene glycol) ethyl ether methacrylate particles were characterized by dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy. The effects of monomer, cross-linker and initiator on particle characteristics were investigated. More importantly, a prominent blockage of bovine serum albumin adsorption was obtained for the poly(ethylene glycol)-based sub-micron (~200 nm) particles when compared with similar-sized poly(methyl methacrylate) counterparts.