A parametric investigation of the friction performance of PC‐ABS parts processed by FDM additive manufacturing process

The friction performance is an important factor of parts processed by fused deposition modeling (FDM) for various engineering applications. It is one type of failure made of surface contact. The proper use of FDM process parameters can bring a significant reduction in friction and the amount of wear, thereby leading to a reduction in the material waste. To date, very little studies have been performed in this area. This paper investigates the effect of FDM manufacturing parameters on the friction performance of polycarbonate‐acrylonitrile butadiene styrene prototypes processed by FDM using definitive screening design and partial least squares method. The observation of surface morphology was obtained by the scanning electron microscopy to examine the effect of process parameters on the microstructure. The experimental results have shown that layer thickness, air gap, raster angle, and build orientation are the most influential factors affecting the friction performance of FDM manufactured parts. The proposed approach presented in this study provides an impetus to develop analytical modeling and functional relationships between FDM manufacturing parameters and friction performance. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Global optimization of general constrained grey-box models: new method and its application to constrained PDEs for pressure swing adsorption

This paper introduces a novel methodology for the global optimization of general constrained grey-box problems. A grey-box problem may contain a combination of black-box constraints and constraints with a known functional form. The novel features of this work include (i) the selection of initial samples through a subset selection optimization problem from a large number of faster low-fidelity model samples (when a low-fidelity model is available), (ii) the exploration of a diverse set of interpolating and non-interpolating functional forms for representing the objective function and each of the constraints, (iii) the global optimization of the parameter estimation of surrogate functions and the global optimization of the constrained grey-box formulation, and (iv) the updating of variable bounds based on a clustering technique. The performance of the algorithm is presented for a set of case studies representing an expensive non-linear algebraic partial differential equation simulation of a pressure swing adsorption system for \(\hbox {CO}_{2}\). We address three significant sources of variability and their effects on the consistency and reliability of the algorithm: (i) the initial sampling variability, (ii) the type of surrogate function, and (iii) global versus local optimization of the surrogate function parameter estimation and overall surrogate constrained grey-box problem. It is shown that globally optimizing the parameters in the parameter estimation model, and globally optimizing the constrained grey-box formulation has a significant impact on the performance. The effect of sampling variability is mitigated by a two-stage sampling approach which exploits information from reduced-order models. Finally, the proposed global optimization approach is compared to existing constrained derivative-free optimization algorithms.     

Existence of Solutions and Algorithms for Bilevel Vector Equilibrium Problems: An Auxiliary Principle Technique

The main goal of this paper is to introduce and study bilevel vector equilibrium problems. We first establish some existence results for solutions of vector equilibrium problems and mixed vector equilibrium problems. We study the existence of solutions of bilevel vector equilibrium problems by considering a vector Thikhonov-type regularization procedure. By using this regularization procedure and existence results for mixed vector equilibrium problems, we establish some existence results for solutions of bilevel vector equilibrium problems. By using the auxiliary principle, we propose an algorithm for finding the approximate solutions of bilevel vector equilibrium problems. The strong convergence of the proposed algorithm is also studied.     

Thermal-hydraulic performance of oval tubes in a cross-flow of air

The thermal-hydraulic performance of five oval tubes is experimentally investigated and compared with that for a circular tube in a cross-flow of air. The range of Reynolds numbers Re_D is approximately between 1,000 and 11,000. The nominal axis ratios R (major axis/minor axis) for three of the investigated oval tubes are 2, 3, and 4. Two other configurations of oval tubes are also tested, an oval tube R=3 with two wires soldered on its upper and lower top positions, and a cut-oval tube. The performance of the tubes is corrected for the effects of area blockage and turbulence intensity. The measurement results show that the mean Nusselt numbers Nu_D for the oval tubes are close to that for the circular tube for Re_D<4,000. For a higher Re_D, the Nu_D for the oval tubes is lower than that for the circular tube and it decreases with the increase in the axis ratio R. The drag coefficients C_d for the tubes are measured and the combined thermal-hydraulic performance is indicated by the ratio Nu_D/C_d, which shows a better combined performance for the oval tubes.     

Synthesis of enantiopure β-amino alcohols via AKR/ARO of epoxides using recyclable macrocyclic Cr(III) salen complexes

A series of chiral macrocyclic Cr(III) salen complexes 1-8 were synthesized and characterized. These complexes were found to be highly active, regio-, diastereo-, and enantioselective catalysts in aminolytic kinetic resolution (AKR) of racemic trans-epoxides as well as asymmetric ring opening (ARO) of prochiral meso-epoxides with various anilines as nucleophiles at room temperature in 18-24 h. Excellent yields (>99% with respect to the nucleophile) with high enantioselectivity (ee, >99%) of chiral anti-β-amino alcohols was achieved with concomitant recovery of corresponding epoxides in high ee (up to >99%). The complex 1 also catalyzed the ARO of meso-epoxides to provide corresponding syn-β-amino alcohols in high yield (99%) and ee (up to 91%). Due to built-in basic sites in the catalyst, no external base (as an additive) was required to promote AKR and ARO reactions. The catalyst 1 was conveniently recycled several times with retention of its performance. The AKR of trans-stilbene oxide with aniline was successfully demonstrated at relatively higher scale (10 mmol) using the catalyst 1.     

Chiral enhancement in the confined space of zeolites for the asymmetric synthesis of β-hydroxy nitroalkanes

(1S,2S)-N¹,N²-Bis(3-chlorobenzyl)cyclohexane-1,2-diamine 1a′ and (1S,2S)-N¹,N²-bis(4-chlorobenzyl)cyclohexane-1,2-diamine 1b′ were used to prepare chiral Cu(II) complexes Cu-Y-1a, Cu-Y-1b, Cu-mZSM5-1a, and Cu-mZSM5-1b by a flexible ligand method using copper exchanged zeolite Y and mesoporous ZSM-5. The characterization of zeolite supported complexes was performed by microanalysis, IR-, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), EPR spectroscopy, specific rotation and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The catalytic activity of these supported complexes was explored for the asymmetric nitroaldol reaction of various aldehydes with nitromethane at 0 °C. Excellent yields (up to 99%) of β-hydroxy nitroalkane with an ee of up to 94% were achieved in the case of benzaldehyde as substrate. Significantly, the performance of the supported catalyst was better in terms of enantioselectivity than the complex under homogenous conditions. The supported catalysts were recycled four times with no observable loss in performance and no leaching of the catalytically active complex during the nitroaldol reaction.     

Mesoporous silica-coated hollow manganese oxide nanoparticles as positive T1 contrast agents for labeling and MRI tracking of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells

Mesoporous silica-coated hollow manganese oxide (HMnO@mSiO(2)) nanoparticles were developed as a novel T(1) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent. We hypothesized that the mesoporous structure of the nanoparticle shell enables optimal access of water molecules to the magnetic core, and consequently, an effective longitudinal (R(1)) relaxation enhancement of water protons, which value was measured to be 0.99 (mM(-1)s(-1)) at 11.7 T. Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) were efficiently labeled using electroporation, with much shorter T(1) values as compared to direct incubation without electroporation, which was also evidenced by signal enhancement on T(1)-weighted MR images in vitro. Intracranial grafting of HMnO@mSiO(2)-labeled MSCs enabled serial MR monitoring of cell transplants over 14 days. These novel nanoparticles may extend the arsenal of currently available nanoparticle MR contrast agents by providing positive contrast on T(1)-weighted images at high magnetic field strengths.     

Synthesis, characterization and antifungal evaluation of 5-substituted-4-amino-1,2,4-triazole-3-thioesters

A series of 5-substituted-4-amino-1,2,4-triazole-3-thioesters was synthesized by converting variously substituted organic acids successively into the corresponding esters, hydrazides, 5-substituted-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2-thiols, 5-substituted-1,2,4-triazole-2-thiols and 5-substituted-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2-thioesters. Finally the target compounds were obtained by refluxing 5-substituted-1,3,4-oxadiazole-2-thioesters in the presence of hydrazine hydrate and absolute alcohol. The structures of the synthesized compounds were established by physicochemical and spectroscopic methods. The synthesized compounds were evaluated for their in vitro antifungal activity. Some of the evaluated compounds possessed significant antifungal activity as compared to a terbinafine standard.     

Impact of lipid substitution on assembly and delivery of siRNA by cationic polymers

Characterization of a polymer library engineered to enhance their ability to protect and deliver their nucleotide cargo to the cells is reported. The ζ-potential continuously increased with higher polymer:siRNA weight ratio, and the ζ-potential of lipid-modified polymers:siRNA complexes were higher than PEI2 at all ratios. At polymer:siRNA ratio of 1:1, all lipid-substituted polymers showed complete protection against degradation. Lipid-modified polymers significantly increased the cellular uptake of siRNA complexes and down-regulation of GAPDH and P-gp (max. 66% and 67%, respectively). The results indicate that hydrophobic modification of low molecular PEI could render this otherwise ineffective polymer to a safe effective delivery system for intracellular siRNA delivery and protein silencing.     

Alkynylation of benzotriazole with silylethynyliodonium triflates. Regioselective synthesis of 2-ethynyl-2H-benzotriazole derivatives

Phenyl(trimethylsilylethynyl)iodonium and tert-butyldimethylsilylethynyl(phenyl)iodonium triflates were applied to alkynylation of benzotriazole. Treatment of the silylethynyliodonium triflates with the potassium salt of benzotriazole ion in (t)BuOH and CH(2)Cl(2) gave 2-(trimethylsilylethynyl)-2H-1,2,3-benzotriazole and 2-(tert-butyldimethylsilylethynyl)-2H-1,2,3-benzotriazole in 74% and 76% yields, respectively. The regioisomers, 1-silylethynyl-1H-1,2,3-benzotriazole derivatives, were minor. In both cases of the silyl-substitued ethynyliodonium salts, novel regioselective alkynylation of benzotriazole at the 2 position was observed.