Effect of end groups on complexation kinetics between cyclodextrins and guest polymers

α‐Cyclodextrin (α‐CD) has been complexed with various poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) derivatives in aqueous solution. It has been found that the end groups of PEG derivatives affect the complexation kinetics greatly, but have only a little influence on the thermodynamic behavior. By increasing the hydrophobicity of end groups, the complexation speeds up rapidly. On the other hand, the bulky end groups slow down the threading of polymeric guests into the cavity of CD. By changing the hydrophobicity and the size of end groups, the complexation rate can be adjusted in the range of several orders of magnitudes, which should be quite useful in the design of new supramolecular systems. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 2050–2057, 2006     

Experimental identification of physical parameters of fluid-filled pipes using acoustical signal processing

A method is formulated for the identification of an unknown physical parameter of a fluid-filled pipe using the measurement of sound speed in the pipe. The method uses a simple formula which provides the relationship between the sound speed and a few physical parameters of the pipe: thickness, diameter, wall material constants and fluid constants. Once the sound speed in the pipe is measured, the simple formula can be used to extract one of the unknown parameters providing the remaining ones are known.The sound speed in the pipe is measured using a 3-transducer array. In order to demonstrate the potential of the technique the results of several measurements obtained in a water-filled steel pipe are presented.The required accuracy of the measurement of sound speed and of the specification of known parameters is analysed. The accuracy depends on the unknown parameter which is to be identified. For example, if the pipe thickness is the unknown parameter, the other parameters have to be known within a very narrow margin of error. On the contrary, if the fluid properties have to be identified the needed accuracy of known parameters gets much lower.     

Controlling global stochasticity of Hamiltonian systems by nonlinear perturbation

A method of controlling global stochasticity in Hamiltonian systems by applying nonlinear perturbation is proposed. With the well-known standard map we demonstrate that this control method can convert global stochasticity into regular motion in a wide chaotic region for arbitrary initial condition, in which the control signal remains very weak after a few kicks. The system in which chaos has been controlled approximates to the original Hamiltonian system, and this approach appears robust against small external noise. The mechanism underlying this high control efficiency is intuitively explained. Received 15 January 2002 Published online 6 June 2002     

On-line arbitrarily vertex decomposable trees

A tree T is arbitrarily vertex decomposable if for any sequence τ of positive integers adding up to the order of T there is a sequence of vertex-disjoint subtrees of T whose orders are given by τ. An on-line version of the problem of characterizing arbitrarily vertex decomposable trees is completely solved here.     

多时滞随机神经网络的稳定性

通过构建李雅普偌夫函数的方法和利用半鞅收敛定理对一类随机时滞神经网络的全局指数稳定进行了分析,提出了易于判定随机时滞神经网络几乎必然指数稳定性新的代数判据,推广了[1]中的主要结论.     

Formation of functional groups on graphite during oxygen plasma treatment

Improved sample wettability was obtained by oxygen plasma functionalization of pyrolytic graphite. The samples were exposed to highly dissociated oxygen plasma with the density of 1 × 10¹⁶ m⁻³, the electron temperature of about 5.5 eV and the density of neutral oxygen atoms of 8 × 10²¹ m⁻³ for 20 s. The surface wettability was measured by a contact angle of water drop. The contact angle dropped from original 112° down to about 1°. The functional groups were detected by XPS analyses. The survey spectrum showed a substantial increase of oxygen concentration on the surface, while high-resolution analyses showed additional oxygen was bonded onto the graphite surface in the form of C-O polar functional group responsible for the increase of the surface energy.     

MORPHOLOGY OF BLACK CARBON AEROSOLS AND UBIQUITY OF 50-NANOMETER BLACK CARBON AEROSOLS IN THE ATMOSPHERE

Different-sized aerosols were collected by an Andersen air sampler to observe the detailed morphology of the black carbon （BC） aerosols which were separated chemically from the other accompanying aerosols, using a Scanning Electron Microscope equipped with an Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometer （SEM-EDX）. The results indicate that most BC aerosols are spherical particles of about 50 nm in diameter and with a homogeneous surface. Results also show that these particles aggregate with other aerosols or with themselves to form larger agglomerates in the micrometer range. The shape of these 50-nm BC spherical particles was found to be very similar to that of BC particles released from petroleum-powered vehicular internal combustion engines. These spherical BC particles were shown to be different from the previously reported fullerenes found using Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometry （MALDI-TOF-MS）.     

Students’ Reasoning About One-Object Stochastic Phenomena in an ICT-Environment

This paper focuses on the different ways in which students in lower secondary school (14–16 year olds) experience compound random events, presented to them in the form of combined junctions. A carefully designed ICT environment was developed enabling the students to interact with different representations of such structures. Data for the analysis was gathered from two interview sessions. The analysis of the interaction is based on constructivist principles on learning; i.e. we adopted a student-oriented perspective, taking into consideration the different ways students try to make sense of chance encounters. Our results show how some students give priority to geometrical and physical concerns, and we discuss how seeking causal explanations of random phenomena may have encouraged this. With respect to numerically oriented models a division strategy appears to stand out as the preferred one.     

Magnetic behavior of core–shell particles

We have prepared composite magnetic core–shell particles using the process of soap-free emulsion polymerization and the co-precipitation method. The shell of the synthesized composite sphere is cobalt ferrite (CoFe₂O₄) nanoparticles and the core consists of poly(styrene-co-methacrylic acid) polymer. The mean crystallite sizes of the coated CoFe₂O₄ nanoparticles were controlled in the range of 2.4–6.7 nm by the concentration of [NH₄⁺] and heated temperature. The magnetic properties of the core–shell spherical particles can go from superparamagnetic to ferromagnetic behavior depending on the crystalline sizes of CoFe₂O₄.