On the electromagnetic dyadic Green''s functions for planar multi-layered anistropic uniaxial material media

A complete, plane-wave spectral, vector-wave function expansion of the electromagnetic, electric, and magnetic, dyadic Green's function for electric, as well as magnetic, point currents for a planar, anisotropic uniaxial multi-layered medium is presented. It is given in terms ofz-propagating, source-free vector-wave functions, where is normal to the interfaces, and it is developed via a utilization of the Lorentz reciprocity theorem. The electromagnetic dyadic Green's function for periodic electric as well as magnetic point current sources is also presented. Some salient features of the Green's dyadics, along with a physical interpretation are also described.This work was supported by the IIarry Diamond Laboratories under Contract DAAL02-88-C-0065 with Sabbagh Associates, Inc.     

New analogs of temporin-LK1 as inhibitors of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterial pathogens

The peptide temporin-LK1 (1) was obtained from the skin secretion of frog Limnonectes kuhlii (Ranidae). It is a unique antimicrobial peptide with 17 residues, including four L-phenylalanines and single glycine. Mass spectrometry and Edmand degradation were used for the determination of sequence of amino acids in temporin-LK 1 (1), and confirmed by cDNA cloning. We report here the synthesis and structural studies of temporin-LK1 (1) and its analogs 2–4. Peptides 2–4 were prepared by substitution of achiral glycine residue of temporin-LK1 (1) with D-alanine, L-phenylglycine, and L-naphthylalanine, respectively. Peptides 1–4 were evaluated against multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains of Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Analog 2 was found active against all MDR strains of S. aureus and P. aeruginosa at a much lower dose than the clinically used antibiotics.     

Molecular orientation of rigid‐rod polyimide films characterized by polarized attenuated total reflection/fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

The variations in the molecular orientation of uniaxially drawn rigid‐rod polyimide films were systematically characterized in all three dimensions with polarized attenuated total reflection/Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The second‐order orientation coefficients were directly deduced from the anisotropy in IR absorptions of particular bands. With the draw ratio increasing, the state of the molecular orientation changed from being nearly planar to completely uniaxial via biaxial orientation, and the degree of orientation was much larger than that of a semirigid polyimide having an ether linkage at the same draw ratio, which originated from the rigid‐rod structure. In addition, the imide planes were rotationally oriented to the out‐of‐plane direction of the film geometry. Furthermore, the relationship between the molecular chain orientation and the in‐plane birefringence in the biaxial orientation state was examined. The intrinsic birefringence was estimated from biaxial orientation films to be 0.33 at a wavelength of 1307 nm. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 418–428, 2003     

Evaluation of yeast strains as possible agents for trace enrichment of metal ions in aquatic environments

Sorption properties of six yeast strains were evaluated for trace enrichment of metal ions; Cd²⁺, Cr³⁺, Cr⁶⁺, Cu²⁺, Pb²⁺, and Zn²⁺ from aqueous environments. Metal concentration was determined by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). The results showed that trace enrichment of the metals under study with yeast, was dependent on the pH and available metal ions. Enrichment time of 30 min gave an optimum metal uptake. The presence of Na⁺, K⁺, and Ca²⁺ suppressed the uptake of Pb by less than 5%, but suppressed the uptake of Zn by between 15 and 25%. Mg²⁺, Cu⁺, Cu²⁺, Cr³⁺ Cr⁶⁺, Cd²⁺, and Zn²⁺ suppressed the uptake of Pb by between 25 and 35%, and that of Zn by between 15 and 25%. For both Pb and Zn, Cd had the highest suppression of 35 and 30%, respectively for baker's yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). Baker's yeast achieved enrichment factors (EF) of 23, 4, 100, and 1 for dam water, stream water, treated wastewater, and industrial effluent samples for Cu, Pb, Zn, and Cr, respectively. The recoveries of optimised Cd and Cr samples spiked with 2 μg ml⁻¹ of the metal could reach up to 90%, but never exceeded 66% for 10 μg ml⁻¹ samples. For Cu and Pb, the recoveries generally increased independent of concentration, however they were not as high as those for Zn, which exceeded 90% for all the samples spiked with 10 μg ml⁻¹ of the metal. S. cerevisiae PR 61/3 had the highest EF for Cr as compared to the other yeast strains. S. cerevisiae PRI 60/78 was the only yeast strain which was able to enrich Cd in all the samples. Baker's yeast had the highest EFs for Cu and Zn as compared to the other yeast strains without pH adjustment of the water samples. Candida tropicalis attained the highest EFs for Pb as compared to the other yeast strains. The results indicate that all the yeast strains used had a high affinity for Zn based on the EF values achieved. The results from these studies demonstrate that yeast is a viable trace metal enrichment agent that can be used freely suspended in solution to enrich metal ions at relatively low concentrations. This has ramifications on the traditional methods of sampling, sample collection, and transportation from remote sampling sites.     

Expression and Surface Display of an Acidic Cold-Active Chitosanase in Pichia pastoris Using Multi-Copy Expression and High-Density Cultivation

Chitosanase hydrolyzes β-(1,4)-linked glycosidic bonds are used in chitosan chains to release oligosaccharide mixtures. Here, we cloned and expressed a cold-adapted chitosanase (CDA, Genbank: {"type":"entrez-nucleotide","attrs":{"text":"MW094131","term_id":"2088687196","term_text":"MW094131"}}MW094131) using multi-copy expression plasmids (CDA1/2/3/4) in Pichia pastoris. We identified elevated CDA expression levels in multi-copy strains, with strain PCDA4 selected for high-density fermentation and enzyme-activity studies. The high-density fermentation approach generated a CDA yield of 20014.8 U/mL, with temperature and pH optimization experiments revealing the highest CDA activity at 20 °C and 5.0, respectively. CDA was stable at 10 °C and 20 °C. Thus, CDA could be used at low temperatures. CDA was then displayed on P. pastoris using multi-copy expression plasmids. Then, multi-copy strains were constructed and labelled as PCDA(1-3)-AGα1. Further studies showed that the expression of CDA(1-3)-AGα1 in multi-copy strains was increased, and that strain PCDA3-AGα1 was chosen for high-density fermentation and enzyme activity studies. By using a multi-copy expression and high-density fermentation approach, we observed CDA-AGα1 expression yields of 102415 U/g dry cell weight. These data showed that the displayed CDA exhibited improved thermostability and was more stable over wider temperature and pH ranges than free CDA. In addition, displayed CDA could be reused. Thus, the data showed that displaying enzymes on P. pastoris may have applications in industrial settings.     

对不可压黏弹材料非线性本构关系的探讨

运用张量分析,证明了适合描述不可压缩黏弹性材料非线性本构关系的3种理论：BKZ理论、Lianis理论和Chirstensen理论,运用到各向同性材料中它们的单轴拉伸具有一样的表现形式,同时也验证了3种理论在解释非线性本构关系时具有统一性．     

An Adaptive Uniaxial Perfectly Matched Layer Method for Time-Harmonic Scattering Problems

The uniaxial perfectly matched layer (PML) method uses rectangular domain to define the PML problem and thus provides greater flexibility and efficiency in deal- ing with problems involving anisotropic scatterers.In this paper an adaptive uniaxial PML technique for solving the time harmonic Helmholtz scattering problem is devel- oped.The PML parameters such as the thickness of the layer and the fictitious medium property are determined through sharp a posteriori error estimates.The adaptive finite element method based on a posteriori error estimate is proposed to solve the PML equa- tion which produces automatically a coarse mesh size away from the fixed domain and thus makes the total computational costs insensitive to the thickness of the PML absorb- ing layer.Numerical experiments are included to illustrate the competitive behavior of the proposed adaptive method.In particular,it is demonstrated that the PML layer can be chosen as close to one wave-length from the scatterer and still yields good accuracy and efficiency in approximating the far fields.     

On the directional approach in constitutive modelling: A general thermomechanical framework and exact solutions for Mooney–Rivlin type elasticity in each direction

In order to represent process-induced anisotropies in continuum mechanics or to transfer one-dimensional material models to three spatial dimensions the directional approach is a helpful technique. Since the essential equations are defined in the orientation space it is also denoted as microsphere approach. In the current article, the relation for the directional stress tensor of the second Piola–Kirchhoff type is motivated using the volumetric/isochoric split of the deformation gradient and the Clausius–Duhem inequality. Owing to inherent nonlinearities, numerical discretisation techniques are usually applied to calculate the total stress by averaging the directional stress tensors over the unit sphere. In order to investigate the accuracy of such simulations, the availability of exact solutions in closed form is essential. To this end, the tension/compression behaviour which belongs to a certain direction in the orientation space is modelled by an elasticity relation of the Mooney Rivlin type. The exact solutions are calculated, visualized and discussed for uniaxial tension and compression as well as for equibiaxial tension.     

Solutions of some simple boundary value problems within the context of a new class of elastic materials

Some simple boundary value problems are studied, for a new class of elastic materials, wherein deformations are expressed as non-linear functions of the stresses. Problems involving ‘homogeneous’ stress distributions and one-dimensional stress distributions are considered. For such problems, deformations are calculated corresponding to the assumed stress distributions. In some of the situations, it is found that non-unique solutions are possible. Interestingly, non-monotonic response of the deformation is possible corresponding to monotonic increase in loading. For a subclass of models, the strain-stress relationship leads to a pronounced strain-gradient concentration domain in the body in that the strains increase tremendously with the stress for small range of the stress (or put differently, the gradient of the strain with respect to the stress is very large in a narrow domain), and they remain practically constant as the stress increases further. Most importantly, we find that for a large subclass of the models considered, the strain remains bounded as the stresses become arbitrarily large, an impossibility in the case of the classical linearized elastic model. This last result has relevance to important problems in which singularities in stresses develop, such as fracture mechanics and other problems involving the application of concentrated loads.     

Anticlinic smectic C phase in new and novel five-ring hockey stick-shaped compounds

The synthesis of a new homologous series of novel five-ring compounds composed of hockey stick-shaped molecules derived from 4-hydroxybiphenyl-3-carboxylic acid which exhibit an interesting sequence of phase transitions is presented. Uniaxial nematic and smectic A phases, anticlinic smectic C phase and an unidentified smectic phase at a lower temperature than the latter have been observed. This is perhaps the first example of hockey stick-shaped compounds exhibiting anticlinic smectic C phase directly from the isotropic phase. Polarised light optical microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction measurements and electro-optical switching studies were carried out to identify the mesophases.