An Efficient Approach for Preparing Giant Polypeptide Triblock Copolymers by Protein Dimerization

An efficient and convenient approach for preparing a giant polypeptide–poly(ethylene oxide) triblock copolymer architecture of defined structure and composition is reported. This copolymer consists of two long polypeptide chains derived from bovine serum albumin of distinct lengths with stabilizing poly(ethylene oxide) side‐chains, a connecting poly(ethylene oxide) block, and the presence of secondary structure elements along the polypeptide backbone. It is synthesized from the abundant plasma protein serum albumin and the polypeptide backbone is fully biodegradable. This approach represents a convenient and efficient strategy for preparing giant polypeptide‐based block copolymers of defined structure via a semi‐synthetic strategy. Such high‐molecular‐weight, biodegradable copolymers are attractive for various biomedical applications     

Kinetic Analysis of the Amphiphilic Star Block Copolymerization

A kinetic model of the amphiphilic star block copolymerization is developed. The star polymer species, resulting from star polymerization with dendrimer cores and hydrophobic monomers, are used as macroinitiators and initiate the graft polymerization of the hydrophilic monomers. Analytical expressions for the size distributions for the species formed in every step are derived. The method with monomers added to the reaction system in batches decreases the polydispersity index for the products obtained. It reaches a minimum if the monomer feed quantity is equal in every step. Therefore, the dimension and structure of the amphiphilic star block copolymers produced can be designed by using the proposed kinetic mechanism.

     

Advanced Characterization of Propylene-Based Copolymers and Olefin Block Copolymers

Summary: The newly developed interactive separation of polyolefins by high temperature liquid chromatography (HTLC) provides new information about the chemical composition distribution of polyolefin elastomers. The technique has the advantage of being quantitative in its separation, and has high resolution for the separation of polyolefins by their chemical composition without influence by cocrystallization. Chemical composition distributions can be determined for individual polymers and blends which contain the full range of comonomer typically present in polyethylene and poylypropylene homopolymers, semi-crystalline copolymers, and amorphous copolymers. HTLC analysis in combination with the other fractionation techniques, such as DSC, TREF, NMR, and xylene fractionation, can be used to estimate the amount of olefin block copolymer present in a block composite produced by chain shuttling catalysis.     

Super impact strength of blends prepared from regular HIPS and poly(butyl acrylate)‐block‐poly(styrene) obtained by RAFT polymerization

S‐allyl‐4‐methyldithiobenzoate was synthesized and used as a chain transfer agent for the RAFT polymerization of butyl acrylate to produce a functionalized acrylic rubber. A solution of 8 wt% of this functionalized rubber was prepared in styrene and polymerized to generate a material called acrylic rubber‐modified polystyrene (AMP) constituted by well‐dispersed particles of poly(butyl acrylate)‐block‐poly(styrene) into a polystyrene matrix. Impact strength of injection‐molded samples of AMP was measured and compared with the general purpose polystyrene (GPPS) and the high impact polystyrene (HIPS). AMP itself showed an impact strength value similar to GPPS; however, when AMP was blended with conventional HIPS, the resulting material exhibited an improvement of 76–91% as compared to HIPS by itself, without affecting negatively tensile properties. Transmission electron microscopy analysis revealed both kinds of dispersed phases, i.e. the typical salami particles of polybutadiene coming from HIPS (size: 0.5–2 µ) and small particles from poly(butyl acrylate)‐block‐poly(styrene) (size: ～50 nm). We clearly showed that such a bimodality of the particle size distribution caused the positive synergistic effect on impact strength. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Flexible incomplete Cholesky factorization with multi‐parameters to control the number of nonzero elements in preconditioners

An incomplete Cholesky (IC) factorization with multi‐parameters is presented. The marked virtue of the proposed IC factorization algorithm is to dynamically control the number of nonzero elements in each column of the IC factorization preconditioner L with the help of these involved parameters. Parameter setting strategies are also given. Numerical results show that the total computing time for both computation of the preconditioner L and iterative solution is evidently reduced for almost all test matrices. In general, these parameters can obviously enhance the effectiveness and performance of the IC factorization. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

用深部处理剂JY-8提高注聚区残余聚合物的利用率

针对目前各油田聚合物驱转为水驱后,一般出现含水上升快,产油量大幅度下降的情况,以及油层内残余的大量聚合物未得到利用,而目前开发的残余聚合物再利用技术存在一些缺点,未得到推广应用,研制出新型复合处理剂JY-8。新型复合处理剂JY-8可与聚合物形成强度较高的凝胶体,将地层内残余聚合物有效地固定和絮凝,是很好的固定剂和絮凝剂,实现了“二剂合一”,达到对地层进行深部调剖、驱油的目的;同时,通过调整复合处理剂JY-8的加量等可调节成胶时间和凝胶强度。室内评价和现场应用表明,与以前的技术相比,复合处理剂JY-8可使油层内的残余聚合物利用率从原来的8％提高到15.65％,使聚合物驱后续水驱的采收率增加值从原来的10.33％提高到18.1％,在油井上起到了很好的增油、控水效果。     

块三对角线性方程组的一类二维区域分解并行不完全分解预条件

基于二维重叠区域分解,对每个子区域上局部不完全LU分解所得到的上、下三角因子分别进行组合,给出一类全局并行不完全分解型预条件.所给出的并行化方法适用于任何不完全LU分解型预条件.对采用二维区域分解与一维区域分解时所得并行预条件的并行计算性能进行分析比较.实验结果表明,提出的并行化方法普遍优于加性Schwarz并行化方法,且当处理器个数相对较多时采用二维区域分解优于一维区域分解.     

复杂地质条件下顶拱大型不稳定块体分析与预测

锦屏一级水电站2#尾水调压室所处位置地质条件复杂,在桩号0+320°~0+360°和0+0°~0+120°之间开挖时局部掉块严重。本文综合分析后,提出了2#尾调室顶拱未开挖域产生大型不稳定块体的必要条件是：(1)由节理①④F183组结构面和开挖临空面切割产生;(2)块体大小主要取决于节理组①和④的延伸长度;(3)较大不稳定块体的产生区域,必然位于F18断层带下盘。对2#尾调室顶拱进行搜索预测,预测结果表明该潜在块体位于未开挖区域桩号0+180°～0+260°之间,规模约为50m3,重达133.5t。根据块体理论分析,其稳定性系数为1.052,处于临界状态,应采取相应的应急支护补强措施。     

Station Model for Rail Transit System Using Cellular Automata

In this paper, we propose a new cellular automata model to simulate the railway traffic at station. Based on NaSch model, the proposed station model is composed of the main track and the siding track. Two different schemes for trains passing through station are considered. One is the scheme of ＂pass by the main track, start and stop by the siding track＂. The other is the scheme of ＂two tracks play the same role＂. We simulate the train movement using the proposed model and analyze the traffic flow at station. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed cellular automata model can be successfully used for the simulations of railway traffic. Some characteristic behaviors of railway traffic flow can be reproduced. Moreover, the simulation values of the minimum headway are close to the theoretical values. This result demonstrates the dependability and availability of the proposed model.     

新型两亲性含糖嵌段聚合物的合成与自组装

以β-环糊精(β-CD)和2-乙基-2-噁唑啉(EtOz)为原料, 通过活性端基化学偶联法制备了乙酰麦芽七糖/聚(2-乙基-2-噁唑啉)两嵌段聚合物(AcMH-b-PEtOz), 借助核磁共振氢谱、红外光谱和凝胶渗透色谱等手段证实了产物的化学结构. 采用核磁共振氢谱、荧光光谱、透射电子显微镜、动态光散射及紫外-可见分光光度等方法探讨了产物在水溶液中的自组装行为. 结果表明, 所得嵌段聚合物直接溶于水后可通过自组装形成纳米球形“核-壳”结构胶束, 同时具有温度响应性. 所得聚合物的临界胶束浓度(cmc)为4~7 mg/L, 平均粒径(d)为83~115 nm, 临界相转变温度(LCST)为49~64 ℃, 并且均可通过PEtOz的链长进行调控.