Teaching Operational Research Technique

Good technique, i.e. competence in carrying out operational research, is as vital for the practitioner to acquire as competence in the traditional ‘techniques’. It is suggested that universities should teach students how to conduct simple projects prior to alerting them to more sophisticated methodological issues.As an aid to this task, the traditional five or six parts of an operational research project are broken down and extended into 39 steps, and regrouped into three phases. Also, five skills are identified as being conceptually essential to "good" operational research, which students can develop through tackling suitable case studies.     

Biosorption of americium-241 by Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The biosorption of radionuclide ²⁴¹Am from solution by Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S. cerevisiae), and the effects of experimental conditions on the adsorption were investigated. The preliminary results showed thatS. cerevisiae is a very efficient biosorbent. An average of more than 99% of the total ²⁴¹Am could be removed by S. cerevisiae of 2.1 g/l (dry weight) from ²⁴¹Am solutions of 17.54–4386.0 mg/l (2.22 MBq/l–555 MBq/l) with adsorption capacities of 7.45–1880.0 mg/g biomass (dry weight) (0.94 MBq/g–237.9 MBq/g). The adsorption equilibrium was achieved within 1 hour and the optimum pH ranged 1–3. No significant differences on ²⁴¹Am adsorption were observed at 10–45 °C, or in solutions containing Au³⁺ or Ag⁺, even 2000 times above ²⁴¹Am concentration. The relationship between concentrations and adsorption capacities of ²⁴¹Am indicated the biosorption process should be described by the Freundlich adsorption isotherm.     

有机硅及其改性聚合物膜用于有机溶剂水溶液的渗透汽化分离

采用室温固化硅橡胶及其它三种改性硅氧烷聚合物制成渗透汽化膜,分离丙酮(A),丁酮(B)、乙醇(E)及异丙醇(P)等有机物的水溶液。结果表明,随着透过温度提高、透量成指数关系增大,但对分离系数影响甚小。透量大小顺序为A>B>E>P,分离系数大小顺序为A>B>P>E,当膜材料中(CH_3)_2SiO链节含量由70%上升到100%时,有机物的透量及分离系数同时增加。     

Rational design of an “all-in-one” phototheranostic

We report here porphodilactol derivatives and their corresponding metal complexes. These systems show promise as “all-in-one” phototheranostics and are predicated on a design strategy that involves controlling the relationship between intersystem crossing (ISC) and photothermal conversion efficiency following photoexcitation. The requisite balance was achieved by tuning the aromaticity of these porphyrinoid derivatives and forming complexes with one of two lanthanide cations, namely Gd³⁺ and Lu³⁺. The net result led to a metalloporphodilactol system, Gd-trans-2, with seemingly optimal ISC efficiency, photothermal conversion efficiency and fluorescence properties, as well as good chemical stability. Encapsulation of Gd-trans-2 within mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) allowed its evaluation for tumour diagnosis and therapy. It was found to be effective as an “all-in-one” phototheranostic that allowed for NIR fluorescence/photoacoustic dual-modal imaging while providing an excellent combined PTT/PDT therapeutic efficacy in vitro and in vivo in 4T1-tumour-bearing mice.

We report here porphodilactol derivatives and their corresponding metal complexes as “all-in-one” phototheranostics by controlling the relationship between intersystem crossing (ISC) and photothermal conversion efficiency following photoexcitation.     

Converged quantum calculations of HO2 bound states and resonances for J=6 and 10

Bound and resonance states of HO(2) are calculated quantum mechanically using both the Lanczos homogeneous filter diagonalization method and the real Chebyshev filter diagonalization method for nonzero total angular momentum J=6 and 10, using a parallel computing strategy. For bound states, agreement between the two methods is quite satisfactory; for resonances, while the energies are in good agreement, the widths are in general agreement. The quantum nonzero-J specific unimolecular dissociation rates for HO(2) are also calculated.     

Synthesis and biodistribution of 99mTcN(PDTC)2as a potential brain imaging agent

The preparation of the bis(N-propyl dithiocarbamato) nitrido technetium-99m complex ^99mTcN(PDTC)₂ (PDTC: N-propyl dithiocarbamato) was carried out as a freeze-dried formulation, through a simple procedure involving the initial of ^99mTcO_4- with succinic dihydrazide in the presence of stannous chloride as reducing agent and propylenediamine tetraacetic acid (PDTA) as complexant, followed by the addition of the ligand sodium salt of N-propyl dithiocarbamate to afford the final product. The radiochemical purity of the complex was over 90%, as measured by thin layer chromatography. No decomposition of the complex at room temperature was observed over a period of 12 hours. Its partition coefficient indicated that it was a good lipophilic complex. Biodistribution in mice showed that the complex accumulated in the brain with high uptake. The brain uptake (ID%/g) was 5.07 and the brain/blood ratio 1.34 at 5-minute post-injection. This suggested a potential usefulness of the complex as a brain perfusion imaging agent. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Novel construction of the brassinolide side chain

A stereoselective synthesis of brassinolide, which involves construction of the side chain by a highly stereoselective aldol reaction between 20S-6β-methoxy-3α,5-cyclo-5α-pregnane-20-carboxaldehyde 2 and ketone 3 or 4 catalyzed by l-proline, is described.     

Studies of the electrochemical behavior of epinephrine at a homocysteine self-assembled electrode

The self-assembled electrode with the homocysteine monolayer (Hcy/Au) has been characterized by infrared spectroscopy and ac impedance spectroscopy in electrolyte. The Hcy/Au electrode is demonstrated to promote the electrochemical response of epinephrine (E) by cyclic voltammetry. A pair of well-defined redox waves was obtained and the calculated standard rate constant (k_s) is 2.1×10⁻² cm s⁻¹ at the self-assembled electrode. The reduction peak of E can be used to determine the concentration of E in presence of ascorbic acid (AA) owing to the Hcy/Au also promoting the electrochemical oxidation of AA.     

Dynamics of Growth and Breakup of Viscous Pendant Drops into Air

This paper presents a numerical study of the dynamics of a viscous liquid drop that is being formed directly at the tip of a vertical tube into ambient air. A model is developed to predict the evolution of the drop shape and its breakup based on RIPPLE, which is a solution algorithm for computing transient, two-dimensional, incompressible fluid flow with surface tension on free surfaces of general topology (D. B. Kothe and R. C. Mjolsness, AIAA J. 30, 2694 (1992)). The full Navier-Stokes system is solved by using finite-difference formulation on a Eulerian mesh. The mesh is fixed in space, with the flow and surface moving through it to ensure accurate calculations of complex free surface flows and topology, including surface breakup and coalescence. The novel feature of the numerical algorithm is the use of a Eulerian volume-tracking approach which allows the calculations to pass the breaking point during formation of a drop continuously without interruption or numerical modification and, therefore, to explore the features of generation of satellite droplets. The effects of physical and geometric parameters on the nonlinear dynamics of drop growth and breakup are investigated. The focus here is on drop breakup and subsequent formation of satellite droplets. The effects of finite inertial, capillary, viscous, and gravitational forces are all accounted for to classify different formation dynamics and to elucidate features of satellite droplet generation. The numerical predictions are compared with experimental measurements for water drops, and the results show good agreement. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.     

Reaction of Tetracopper(I)-Phosphonitocavitand with PhSeSiMe3: Synthesis and Structure of a Polyanionic Cluster [pyH]6[(CuCl)9(μ3-SePh)5(μ4-SePh)]

Treatment of tetracopper(I)-phosphonitocavitand [1·Cu₄(μ-Cl)₄(μ₄-Cl)] (2) (1 = tetraphosphonitocavitand [rccc-2,8,14,20-tetrakis-(iso-butyl)-phosphonitocavitand (C₄₄H₄₈O₈P₄Ph₄)]) with PhSeSiMe₃ in THF at low temperature afforded a novel polyanionic cluster [pyH]₆[(CuCl)₉(μ₃-SePh)₅(μ₄-SePh)] (4) as a major product along with a new tetracopper(I)-phosphonitocavitand (3) with a centered μ₃-Cl. Molecular structure of anionic cluster in 4 consists of six PhSe⁻ bridging ligands containing five μ₃-SePh and one exceptional μ₄-SePh bridging nine copper atoms, of which eight copper atoms have trigonal coordination geometry and the other has distorted tetrahedral geometry. Dedicated to Professor Han-Qin Liu on the occasion of his 70th birthday.