Transport properties of separating membranes MF-4SK during alkaline electrolysis of water

The transport properties of separating membranes MF-4SK are studied during electrolysis of H₂O in solutions of KOH. The effective diffusion coefficients of molecules of KOH and H₂O and the transfer coefficients of ions K⁺ and OH^? and molecules of H₂O are measured at KOH concentrations reaching 11 M, currents reaching 0.31 A cm^?2, at ambient temperature and at 80°C. In contact with a KOH solution in the concentration interval 0.1 to 11 M, the membranes that initially swelled in H₂O lose a considerable fraction of water that was present in them and the overall volume of clusters and solution-filled channels in them noticeably decreases. The coefficients of transfer by current of ions K⁺ out of anodic compartment into cathodic and the OH^? ions in the reverse direction, respectively, happen to be equal to about 0.6 and 0.4 at ambient temperature and 0.8 and 0.2 at 80°C. The coefficients of transfer of water molecules out of the anodic volume into the cathodic volume in the process of electrolysis happen to be in the limits 1.6–1.9 at ambient temperature and in the limits 2.2–2.8 at 80°C. The effective diffusion coefficients of molecules of KOH and H₂O at moderate concentrations of KOH (5.6 M) amount to ～2.6 × 10^?7 and 30 × 10^?7 cm²s^?1 at ambient temperature and ～4 × 10^?7 and 61 × 10^?7 cm²s^?1 at 80°C, respectively. At a high concentration of KOH (～10 M) these quantities substantially diminish.     

Design,synthesis, biological activity evaluation and mechanism of action of myricetin derivatives containing thioether quinazolinone

Plant bacteria and viruses have a huge negative impact on food crops in the world. Therefore, it is important to create new and efficient green pesticides. In this paper, a series of myricetin derivatives containing quinazolinone sulfide were introduced. Good antibacterial and antiviral activities of the drug molecules 2-((3-((5,7-dimethoxy-4-oxo-2-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl)-4H-chromen-3-yl)oxy)propyl)thio)-6-fluoro-3-phenylquinazolin-4(3H)-one (T5) and 2-((4-((5,7-dimethoxy-4-oxo-2-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl)-4H-chromen-3-yl)oxy)butyl)thio)-6-methyl-3-phenylquinazolin-4(3H)-one (T15) respectively were found by biological activity screening. The value of dissociation constant (K_d) of compound T15 to TMV CP was 0.024 ± 0.006 μM, determined by Microscale thermophoresis (MST), which was far less than the value of 8.491 ± 2.027 μM of commercial drug ningnanmycin (NNM). The interaction between compound T15 and TMV CP was further verified by molecular docking. Compound T15 formed strong hydrogen bonds with residues SER:49 and SER:15 (1.92 Å, 2.20 Å, respectively), which were superior to the traditional hydrogen bonds formed by NNM with residue SER:215 (3.64 Å). In addition, the effects of compound T15 on the contents of chlorophyll and peroxidase (POD) in tobacco were studied, and the results indicated that compound T15 could enhance the disease resistance of tobacco plants to a certain extent.     

Novel aromatic carboxamides from dehydroabietylamine as potential fungicides: Design,synthesis and antifungal evaluation

The present study was carried out to design and synthesize a number of novel aromatic carboxamide derivatives of dehydroabietylamine. The preliminary antifungal assay indicated that most of title compounds displayed moderate to good antifungal activity toward the six fungal strains in vitro. Compounds 3i, 3q, 4b and 4d showed significant antifungal activity against Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, with EC₅₀ values ranging from 0.067 ～ 0.393 mg/L. Compounds 3i, 4b and 4d also showed pronounced mycelial growth inhibition activities against B. cinerea and A. solani. Furthermore, in the in vivo assay, compound 4b exhibited brilliant protective activity against S. sclerotiorum-infected rape leaves. Meanwhile, the in vivo bioassay on tomato plants infected by B. cinerea showed that compound 3i and 4d displayed excellent protective activity at 200 mg/L, which were near to boscalid. Primary mechanistic study revealed that 4b could inhibit sclerotia formation as well as reduce the exopolysaccharide level. SEM and TEM analysis indicated that 4b possessed a strong ability to destroy the surface morphology of mycelia, cell structure and seriously interfere with the growth of the fungal pathogen. In addition, 4b exhibited good inhibitory activity (IC₅₀ = 23.3 ± 1.6 μM) toward succinate dehydrogenase (SDH). Molecular modeling study confirmed the binding modes between compound 4b and SDH. The above antifungal results and fungicidal mechanism study revealed that this class of dehydroabietylamine derivatives could be potential SDH inhibitors and lead compounds for novel fungicides development.     

The effective ionization coefficients and electron drift velocities in gas mixtures of CF3I with N2 and CO2 obtained from Boltzmann equation analysis

The electron swarm parameters including the density-normalized effective ionization coefficients(α-η)/N and the electron drift velocities V e are calculated for a gas mixture of CF3I with N2 and CO2 by solving the Boltzmann equation in the condition of a steady-state Townsend(SST) experiment.The overall density-reduced electric field strength is from 100 Td to 1000 Td(1 Td = 10-17V·cm2),while the CF3I content k in the gas mixture can be varied over the range from 0% to 100%.From the variation of(αη)/N with the CF3I mixture ratio k,the limiting field strength(E/N) lim for each CF3I concentration is derived.It is found that for the mixtures with 70% CF3I,the values of(E/N) lim are essentially the same as that for pure SF 6.Additionally,the global warming potential(GWP) and the liquefaction temperature of the gas mixtures are also taken into account to evaluate the possibility of application in the gas insulation of power equipment.     

Shear-induced band texture of side group liquid crystalline polymers

The shear-induced band texture of conventional end-on fixed side group liquid crystalline polymers (LCPs) has been investigated by using polarizing optical microscopy (POM), small angle light scattering (SALS) and infra-red dichroism techniques. The band spacing is about 1 μm, which increases very slightly on increasing the temperature of shearing and is independent of shearing rate within the range studied. The band texture is not seen to exhibit an interchange of dark and bright bands on rotation of the sample with respect to the polarizer/analyser, but a typical periodical structure is reflected by the SALS patterns of the band texture. The relaxation behaviour of the bands indicates that the band texture formed here is the result of the orderly aligning of domains exhibiting the focal-conic texture, and this is totally different from the case of main chain LCPs where the band texture is substantially an optical effect of the periodic zigzag or sinusoidal structure of parallel aligned microfibrils. Infra-red dichroism and rotating parallel-plate shearing measurements show that the axes of the backbone of the polymer tend to orient in the shearing direction and the end-on fixed mesogenic side groups tend to align perpendicular to the shearing direction.     

Tuning the mesogenic properties of 5-alkoxy-2-(4-alkoxyphenyl)pyrimidine liquid crystals: the effect of a phenoxy end-group in two sterically equivalent series

Two sterically equivalent series of phenoxy-terminated 5-alkoxy-2-(4-alkoxyphenyl)pyrimidine liquid crystals were synthesised, and their mesogenic properties were characterised by polarised optical microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The phenoxy end-group causes a significant increase in melting point and inhibits – at least partially – the mesomorphism of these materials relative to the parent isomers; in most cases, the broad enantiotropic SmC phase formed by the parent isomers is suppressed by the addition of the phenoxy end-group. However, detailed analyses by small-angle X-ray scattering and monodomain 2D X-ray scattering suggest that these compounds form a SmA phase with a partially intercalated bilayer structure in which the phenoxy end-groups are nanosegregated. Such an intercalated bilayer structure might enable the tuning of smectogenic properties by appropriate substitution of the phenoxy end-groups.     

EFFECTIVE SPECIFIC HEATS OF MULTI-PHASE THERMOELASTIC COMPOSITES

This paper studies the effective properties of multi-phase thermoelastic composites. Based on the Helmholtz free energy and the Gibbs free energy of individual phases, the effective elastic tensor, thermal-expansion tensor, and specific heats of the multi-phase composites are derived by means of the volume average of free-energies of these phases. Particular emphasis is placed on the derivation of new analytical expressions of effective specific heats at constant-strain and constant-stress situations, in which a modified Eshelby’s micromechanics theory is developed and the interaction between inclusions is considered. As an illustrative example, the analytical expression of the effective specific heat for a three-phase thermoelastic composite is presented.     

Reflective mode of deformed-helix ferroelectric liquid crystal cells for sensing applications

We present a detailed theoretical and experimental study of the reflectance response of a deformed-helix ferroelectric (DHF) liquid crystal (LC) cell to an applied voltage under cross-polarisers. Using a model based on the effective dielectric tensor approximation, we derive simple analytical formulas to design a LC cell with maximum modulation depth and optimal linearity of the electro-optical response intensity versus the electric field. Our experimental results show that the cell works at frequencies up to 10 kHz and exhibits excellent linearity, with a total harmonic distortion as low as ?70 dB. These findings suggest that DHF-LCs can be exploited to develop simple and accurate optical sensors.     

Internal radiocesium contamination of adults and children in Fukushima 7 to 20 months after the Fukushima NPP accident as measured by extensive whole-body-counter surveys

The Fukushima Dai-ichi NPP accident contaminated the soil of densely-populated regions in Fukushima Prefecture with radioactive cesium, which poses significant risks of internal and external exposure to the residents. If we apply the knowledge of post-Chernobyl accident studies, internal exposures in excess of a few mSv/y would be expected to be frequent in Fukushima.Extensive whole-body-counter surveys (n = 32,811) carried out at the Hirata Central Hospital between October, 2011 and November, 2012, however show that the internal exposure levels of residents are much lower than estimated. In particular, the first sampling-bias-free assessment of the internal exposure of children in the town of Miharu, Fukushima, shows that the ¹³⁷Cs body burdens of all children (n = 1,383, ages 6–15, covering 95% of children enrolled in town-operated schools) were below the detection limit of 300 Bq/body in the fall of 2012. These results are not conclusive for the prefecture as a whole, but are consistent with results obtained from other municipalities in the prefecture, and with prefectural data.     

Spin polarization and temperature dependence of electron effective mass in quantum wires

The electron effective mass in GaAs quantum wires has been estimated by using a full dynamical random-phase approximation to examine its properties versus spin polarization, temperature, and carrier density. A decrease of mass with spin polarization is seen. The minority mass increases with the polarization while the majority mass decreases and this behaviour is seen for all densities. A maximal enhancement of mass at moderate temperature around 25 K is also presented. These calculations show a qualitative consistence with results in two-dimensional systems and help to control the electronic transport in quantum wires.