Rationalizing chain microstructure in the polyα-olefins synthesized by cationic AlCl3/H2O catalytic system

In this study, three middle range α-olefin monomers including 1-hexene, 1-octene, and 1-decene were oligomerized using conventional AlCl₃/H₂O catalytic system. Molecular weight and microstructure of the oligomers were analyzed by GPC and ¹HNMR, respectively. By ¹HNMR spectra, both internal (CHR=CHR′ and CHR=CR′R′′) and external (CH₂=CR′R′′) olefins containing di and tri-substituted C=C bonds were detected. After successful oligomerization, synthesized polyα-olefins underwent hydrogenation process using Pd(0)-Hal catalyst to yield synthetic oils of PHex, POct, and PDec, respectively and then completion of the hydrogenation was confirmed by ¹HNMR spectroscopy. The microstructure of the synthesized oligomers was rationalized using the ratio under the peak of CH?+?CH₂/CH₃ hydrogens (S1/S2) in ¹HNMR spectra and the degree of oligomerization obtained from M_n. According to the results, the best match between theoretical and real S1/S2 is obtained when considering double bond isomerization in the synthesized PAOs. By knowing PAO molecular weight, a relationship between monomer type and S1/S2 in the PAO homopolymers was detected. Our suggested methodology can be generalized to the unknown PAO homopolymers to unravel their monomer type by simple ¹HNMR and GPC analyses.     

Thermal Entanglement Between Two Two-Level Atoms in a Two-Photon Jaynes-Cummings Model with an Added Kerr Medium

In this paper, we consider a Hamiltonian model that includes interaction of two coupled two-level atoms with a single-mode quantized electromagnetic field in a cavity via the degenerate two-photon transition. The cavity is filled with a Kerr-like medium and is held at a temperature T. The free field Hamiltonian possesses the su(1,1) symmetry which realized by either even or odd photon-number states. The total number of excitation as a constant of motion, provides a decomposition of the Hilbert space of system into direct sums of invariant subspaces. As a results, the representation of the Hamiltonian becomes block-diagonal matrix with three blocks. After diagonalizing each block, we obtain thermal state of system in the whole Hilbert space and within its excitation subspaces. Finally, the effect of temperature, atom-atom and Kerr-type couplings on the degree of thermal entanglement between the atoms are investigated. Our results show that within the single-excitation subspace spanned with odd photon-number states, the entanglement between the atoms is thermally robust.     

Magnetic strings in Einstein–Born–Infeld-dilaton gravity

A class of spinning magnetic string in 4-dimensional Einstein-dilaton gravity with Liouville type potential which produces a longitudinal nonlinear electromagnetic field is presented. These solutions have no curvature singularity and no horizon, but have a conic geometry. In these spacetimes, when the rotation parameter does not vanish, there exists an electric field, and therefore the spinning string has a net electric charge which is proportional to the rotation parameter. Although the asymptotic behavior of these solutions are neither flat nor (A)dS, we calculate the conserved quantities of these solutions by using the counterterm method. We also generalize these four-dimensional solutions to the case of (n+1)$(n+1)$-dimensional rotating solutions with k?[n/2]$k?[n/2]$ rotation parameters, and calculate the conserved quantities and electric charge of them.     

When Essential Extensions of Finitely Generated Modules are Finitely Generated

For certain classes 𝒞 of R-modules, including singular modules or modules with locally Krull dimensions, it is investigated when every module in 𝒞 with a finitely generated essential submodule is finitely generated. In case 𝒞 = Mod-R, this means E(M)/M is Noetherian for any finitely generated module M_R. Rings R with latter property are studied and shown that they form a class 𝒬 properly between the class of pure semisimple rings and the class of certain max rings. Duo rings in 𝒬 are precisely Artinian rings. If R is a quasi continuous ring in 𝒬 then R ? A ⊕ T where A is a semisimple Artinian ring and T ∈ 𝒬 with Z(T_T) ≤_ess T_T.     

Higher dimensional black hole radiation and a generalized uncertainty principle

Based on the generalized uncertainty relation, the corrected Beckenstein–Hawking black hole entropy in the higher dimensional space–times is calculated. Using the corrected entropy, the black hole radiation is obtained in the tunneling formalism.     

Palladium particles from oxime-derived palladacycle supported on Fe3O4/oleic acid as a catalyst forthe copper-free Sonogashira cross-coupling reaction

An oxime-derived palladacycle was synthesized using4-bromobenzoxime and pyridine in CHCl3, and characterized by FT-IR and1H NMR spectroscopy. This Pd complex was supported on Fe3O4/oleic acid and shown to be an efficient catalyst for the copper-free Sonogashira cross-coupling reaction of various aryl halides with phenylacetylene in air and in ethanol or mixed aqueous medium. The oxime-derived palladacycle gave highly active palladium nanoparticles for the organicsynthesis. The coupling products were obtained in high yields with low Pd loading and theheterogeneous catalyst can be separated by an external magnet andreused six times without loss of its activity. The characterization of the catalyst wascarried out by XRD, SEM and TEM. Both TEM and XRD revealed that the palladium nanoparticles were well dispersed with diameters from 5 to 10 nm and average size 9.97 nm.     

An approach to improve the efficiency of polymerization and enhance biological activity of poly(lactide‐co‐ethylene oxide fumarate) hydrogels

The synthesis and purification of poly(lactide ethylene oxide fumarate) (PLEOF) involved using organic solvents and triethylamine, an acid scavenger that produces toxic complexes. These issues were addressed by using potassium carbonate as an alternative acid scavenger and CO₂ gas expanded solution as a media for reaction. Conducting the reaction at these conditions resulted in reducing the number of stages for purification, enhancing the yield of polymerization by 31%, and increasing the fumarate fraction by 110% compared with conventionally produced polymers. Therefore, the capacity of polymer for crosslinking was significantly promoted that resulted in elevating the compression modulus of hydrogel by 119%. Eliminating the toxic chemical residues and strengthening the mechanical property of PLEOF led to enhancement in primary osteoblast cell proliferation on this hydrogel. The new strategy for the synthesis of PLEOF had paramount impact on the characteristics of this polymer and enhanced its biocompatibility for tissue engineering applications, particularly bone repair. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2014 , 52, 1291–1299     

Spectral priors improve near-infrared diffuse tomography more than spatial priors

We compare the benefits of spatial and spectral priors in near-infrared diffuse tomography image reconstruction. Although previous studies that incorporated anatomical spatial priors have shown improvement in algorithm convergence and resolution, our results indicate that functional parameter quantification by this approach can be suboptimal. The incorporation of a priori spectral information significantly improves the accuracy observed in recovered images. Specifically, phantom results show that the maximum total hemoglobin concentration ([Hb(T)]) in a region of heterogeneity reached 91% of the true value compared to 63% using spatial priors. The combination of both priors produced results accurate to 98% of the true [Hb(T)]. When both spatial and spectral priors were applied in a healthy volunteer, glandular tissue showed a higher [Hb(T)], water fraction, and scattering power compared to adipose tissue.     

A New Two-Stage Algorithm for Solving Optimization Problems

Optimization seeks to find inputs for an objective function that result in a maximum or minimum. Optimization methods are divided into exact and approximate (algorithms). Several optimization algorithms imitate natural phenomena, laws of physics, and behavior of living organisms. Optimization based on algorithms is the challenge that underlies machine learning, from logistic regression to training neural networks for artificial intelligence. In this paper, a new algorithm called two-stage optimization (TSO) is proposed. The TSO algorithm updates population members in two steps at each iteration. For this purpose, a group of good population members is selected and then two members of this group are randomly used to update the position of each of them. This update is based on the first selected good member at the first stage, and on the second selected good member at the second stage. We describe the stages of the TSO algorithm and model them mathematically. Performance of the TSO algorithm is evaluated for twenty-three standard objective functions. In order to compare the optimization results of the TSO algorithm, eight other competing algorithms are considered, including genetic, gravitational search, grey wolf, marine predators, particle swarm, teaching-learning-based, tunicate swarm, and whale approaches. The numerical results show that the new algorithm is superior and more competitive in solving optimization problems when compared with other algorithms.     

Size dependent surface energy of nanoplates: Molecular dynamics and nanoscale continuum theory correlations

A nanoscale gradient continuum theory along with molecular dynamics simulations are employed to investigate the size-dependent surface energy of nanoplates. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal that upon nanoplate thickness reduction, the redistribution of surface energy density along thickness direction causes the decrease of the surface energy of nanoplate free surfaces. Via introducing a calibration benchmark, the length scale model parameter of the gradient continuum theory is methodically determined. The calibrated continuum theory is shown to well predict the size-dependent surface energy and the associated redistribution of surface energy density within nanoplates.