Task specific ionic liquid for direct electrochemistry of metal oxides

We present the first report on task specific ionic liquid (TSIL) for direct electrochemical detection of heavy metal oxides including cadmium oxide, copper oxide and lead oxide at room temperature. This TSIL based electrochemical sensor demonstrated a high sensitivity and selectivity towards the online monitoring of these trace metal oxide particulates, along with short detection time, low cost and high accuracy. This novel sensor platform opens new pathways for in-situ monitoring of metal oxide particulates for environmental sensing and decontamination applications.     

A fair optimization scheduling scheme for IEEE 802.16 networks in multimedia applications

IEEE 802.16 networks are designed based on differentiated services concept to provide better Quality of Service (QoS) support for a wide range of applications, from multimedia to typical web services, and therefore they require a fair and efficient scheduling scheme. However, this issue is not addressed in the standard. In this paper we present a new fair scheduling scheme which fulfills the negotiated QoS parameters of different connections while providing fairness among the connections of each class of service. This scheme models scheduling as a knapsack problem, where a fairness parameter reflecting the specific requirements of the connections is defined to be used in the optimization criterion. The proposed scheduler is evaluated through simulation in terms of delay, throughput and fairness index. The results show fairness of the scheduling scheme to all connections while the network guarantees for those connections are fulfilled.     

Total synthesis of homalicine and its related dihydro aglycon

The condensation of homophthalic acid (1) with 3‐methoxybenzoyl chloride, followed by demethylation gave 3‐(3‐hydroxyphenyl)isocoumarin (3b). Reaction of (3b) with α‐tetraacetobromo glucose yielded tetraacetylhomalicine (3d), which was deacetylated to homalicine (3e).     

Facile One‐Step Micropatterning Using Photodegradable Gelatin Hydrogels for Improved Cardiomyocyte Organization and Alignment

Hydrogels are often employed as temporary platforms for cell proliferation and tissue organization in vitro. Researchers have incorporated photodegradable (PD) moieties into synthetic polymeric hydrogels as a means of achieving spatiotemporal control over material properties. In this study protein‐based PD hydrogels composed of methacrylated gelatin and a crosslinker containing o‐nitrobenzyl ester groups are developed. The hydrogels are able to degrade rapidly and specifically in response to UV light and can be photopatterned to a variety of shapes and dimensions in a one‐step process. Micropatterned PD hydrogels are shown to improve cell distribution, alignment, and beating regularity of cultured neonatal rat cardiomyocytes. Overall this work introduces a new class of PD hydrogel based on natural and biofunctional polymers as cell culture substrates for improving cellular organization and function.     

KF/Al2O3 Mediated Multicomponent Reactions for the Efficient Synthesis of Highly Substituted Dihydropyridines

KF/Al₂O₃ was found to be an efficient solid supported catalyst for the facile access of highly substituted dihydropyridine derivatives from the multicomponent reaction of aromatic aldehydes, amines, malononitrile, and alkylacetylenedicarboxylates. The notable advantages of this protocol are reusable catalyst, good yields, applicable to a wide range of substrates for the synthesis of pharmacologically interesting dihydropyridine derivatives.     

Fluorine as a Lewis acid: A symmetry-adapted perturbation theory based on density functional theory and interacting quantum atoms study of noncovalent interactions in the NCF⋯NH3 complex

Different computational methods are used to investigate the nature of interaction in the NCF⋯NH₃ model complex, in which the fluorine atom acts as a Lewis acid and forms a noncovalent bond with the ammonia (Lewis base). Symmetry-adapted perturbation theory based on density functional theory (SAPT(DFT)) indicates that the noncovalent interaction in the NCF⋯NH₃ complex is mainly electrostatics. However, dispersion and induction terms also play important roles. Although fluorine noncovalent interactions are typically classified as halogen bonds, they are somewhat different from the well-known halogen bonds of iodine, bromine, and chlorine. The halogen bonds of NCCl⋯NH₃ and NCBr⋯NH₃ are directional and the C  X  N (X = Cl or Br) angle tends to be linear. In contrast, the fluorine interaction in NCF⋯NH₃ is not directional; the interaction energy shows no sensitivity to the angular (C  F  N ) distortions, and the energy profile is flat over a wide angular range (from 180° to about 140° ). However, for the angles less than 130° , the energy curve shows a clear angular dependence and the interaction between NCF and NH₃ becomes stronger as the C  F  N angle decreases. It seems that at the tighter angles, a tetrel-bonded NCF⋯NH₃ complex is preferred. Moreover, interacting quantum atoms (IQA) analysis shows that the competition between different intra-atomic and interatomic interactions determines the geometry of NCF⋯NH₃ complex.     

Chromium(III) Potentiometric Sensor Based on Para‐Tertiary‐Butyl Calix[4]arene

A new chromium(III) PVC membrane sensor incorporating p‐tertiary‐butyl calix[4]arene as ionophore, potassium tetrakis as additive and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) as plasticizer was constructed. The electrode exhibited an excellent potentiometric response over a wide concentration range of 1.0×10^?7–1.0×10^?1 M with a Nernstian slope of 20±0.5 mV per decade. The detection limit was 5.0×10^?8 M. The electrode showed a better performance over a pH range of 3.0–8.0, and had a short response time of about <15 s.The electrode was successfully applied to potentiometric titration of Cr (III) with EDTA and for direct determination of chromium(III) in waste water.     

Optimization of free space optics parameters: An optimum solution for bad weather conditions

Free Space Optics Systems (FSO) is one of the most effective solutions, especially for atmospheric turbulence due to the weather and environment structure. Free space optics system suffers from various limitations. A well-known disadvantage of FSO is its sensitivity on local weather conditions-primarily to haze and rain, resulting in substantial loss of optical signal power over the communication path. The main objective of this article is to evaluate the quality of data transmission using Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) with highlighting several factors that will affect the quality of data transmission. The results of these analyses are to develop a system of quality-free space optics for a high data rate transmission. From the result analysis, FSO wavelength with 1550 nm produces less effect in atmospheric attenuation. Short link range between the transmitter and receiver can optimize the FSO system transmission parameters or components. Based on the analysis, it is recommended to develop an FSO system of 2.5 Gbps with 1550 nm wavelength and link range up to 150 km at the clear weather condition of bit-error-rate (BER) 10⁻⁹.     

A novel differential evolution algorithm for binary optimization

Differential evolution (DE) is one of the most powerful stochastic search methods which was introduced originally for continuous optimization. In this sense, it is of low efficiency in dealing with discrete problems. In this paper we try to cover this deficiency through introducing a new version of DE algorithm, particularly designed for binary optimization. It is well-known that in its original form, DE maintains a differential mutation, a crossover and a selection operator for optimizing non-linear continuous functions. Therefore, developing the new binary version of DE algorithm, calls for introducing operators having the major characteristics of the original ones and being respondent to the structure of binary optimization problems. Using a measure of dissimilarity between binary vectors, we propose a differential mutation operator that works in continuous space while its consequence is used in the construction of the complete solution in binary space. This approach essentially enables us to utilize the structural knowledge of the problem through heuristic procedures, during the construction of the new solution. To verify effectiveness of our approach, we choose the uncapacitated facility location problem (UFLP)—one of the most frequently encountered binary optimization problems—and solve benchmark suites collected from OR-Library. Extensive computational experiments are carried out to find out the behavior of our algorithm under various setting of the control parameters and also to measure how well it competes with other state of the art binary optimization algorithms. Beside UFLP, we also investigate the suitably of our approach for optimizing numerical functions. We select a number of well-known functions on which we compare the performance of our approach with different binary optimization algorithms. Results testify that our approach is very efficient and can be regarded as a promising method for solving wide class of binary optimization problems.     

Tuning Carbon Content and Morphology of FeCo/Graphitic Carbon Core–Shell Nanoparticles using a Salt‐Matrix‐Assisted CVD Process

Large‐scale and tunable synthesis of FeCo/graphitic carbon (FeCo/GC) core–shell nanoparticles as a promising material for multipurpose biomedical applications is reported. The high‐quality graphitic structure of the carbon shells is demonstrated through high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), X‐ray diffraction (XRD), and Raman spectroscopy. A saturation magnetization of 80.2 emu g^?1 is reached for the pure FeCo/GC core–shell nanoparticles. A decrease in the saturation magnetization of the samples is observed with an increase in their carbon content with different carbon morphologies evolved in the process. It is also shown how hybrid nanostructures, including mixtures of the FeCo/GC nanoparticles and multi‐walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) or carbon nanorods (CNRs), can be obtained only by manipulation of the carbon‐bearing gas flow rate.