High-performance nonfused ring electron acceptor with a steric hindrance induced planar molecular backbone

Three nonfused ring electron acceptors (NFREAs) TTC6,TT-C8T and TT-TC8 were purposefully designed and synthesized.The molecular geometry can be adjusted by the steric hindrance of lateral substituents.According to the DFT calculations,from TTC6 to TT-C8T and TT-TC8,planarity of the molecular backbone is gradually improved,accompanying with the enhancing of intramolecular charge transfer effect.As for TT-TC8,the two phenyl substituents are almost perpendicular to the molecular backbone,which endues the acceptor with good solubility and suppresses it to form over-aggregation.Multidirectional regular molecular orientation and closer molecular stacking are formed in TT-TC8 film.As a result,TT-TC8 based devices afford the highest PCE of 13.13%,which is much higher than that of TTC6 (4.41%) and TT-C8T (10.42%) and among the highest PCE values based on NFREAs.     

Simultaneous determination of cinnamaldehyde and its metabolite in rat tissues by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry

Cinnamaldehyde (CA), an active ingredient isolated from the traditional Chinese medicine Cortex Cinnamomi, has a wide range of bioactivities. To clarify the distribution characteristics of CA, a selective and sensitive method utilizing gas chromatography–mass spetrometry was initially developed for simultaneously determining the concentration of CA and its metabolite cinnamyl alcohol in rat tissues. Selected ion masses of m/z 131, 105 and 92 were chosen, and separation of the analytes was performed on a DB‐5 ms (30 m × 0.25 mm, 0.25 µm, thickness) capillary column by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The calibration curves demonstrated good linearity and reproducibility over the range of 20–2000 and 20–4000 ng/mL for various tissue samples. Recoveries ranged from 86.8 to 107.5%, while intra‐ and interday relative standard deviations were all <11.3%. The analysis method was successfully applied in tissue distribution studies for CA and cinnamyl alcohol. As CA and cinnamyl alcohol may inter‐convert to one another, simultaneous determination of both analytes provides a comparative and accurate data for tissue study. The concentrations of CA and cinnamyl alcohol remaining in spleen were the highest among the main organs, including heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney and brain. In addition, there was no long‐term accumulation of CA in rat tissues. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mathematical modelling of the oxidation of nickel titanium alloys

A one-dimensional bulk reaction model for the oxidation of nickeltitanium is formulated, with preferential oxidation of titaniumbeing included. The modelling is directed at the better understandingof the dominant mechanisms involved in the oxidation processand their significance for the biocompatibility of the alloy.Two different regimes for the relative diffusivities of oxygenand the metals are investigated. By assuming fast bulk reactions,different asymptotic structures emerge in different parameterregimes and the resulting models take the form of moving boundaryproblems. Different profiles of nickel concentration are obtained:in particular a nickel-rich layer (observed in practice) ispresent below the oxide/metal interface for the case when oxygenand the metals diffuse at comparable rates.     

Decay of neutron-rich Ga isotopes near N = 50 at PARRNe

The PARRNe facility has been used to produce neutron-rich isotopes ^83,84Gaby the ISOL method. Their decay has been studied, and β-γ coincidence and γ-γ coincidence data were collected as a function of time. The first two excited levels in ⁸³Ge and the first excited level in ⁸⁴Ge have been measured for the first time.     

A novel methodology for the synthesis of 1-desoxy-Δ-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) analogues

A versatile and efficient sequence was developed for the synthesis of 1-desoxy-Δ⁸-THC analogues and is demonstrated by the synthesis of sulfonamide analogues with an acetylene group at the C-2^′ position in the side chain. In this procedure the 1-desoxy-Δ⁸- THC ring structure is built first and the synthesis of the side chain is then developed.     

A Faster Deterministic Maximum Flow Algorithm

Cheriyan and Hagerup developed a randomized algorithm to compute the maximum flow in a graph with n nodes and m edges in O(mn + n² log²n) expected time. The randomization is used to efficiently play a certain combinatorial game that arises during the computation. We give a version of their algorithm where a general version of their game arises. Then we give a strategy for the game that yields a deterministic algorithm for computing the maximum flow in a directed graph with n nodes and m edges that runs in time O(mn(log_{m/n log n}n)). Our algorithm gives an O(mn) deterministic algorithm for all m/n = Ω(n^ε) for any positive constant ε, and is currently the fastest deterministic algorithm for computing maximum flow as long as m/n = ω(log n).     

Classification of Extremal Double Circulant Self-Dual Codes of Lengths 64 to 72

Recently extremal double circulant self-dual codes have been classified for lengths n ≤ 62. In this paper, a complete classification of extremal double circulant self-dual codes of lengths 64 to 72 is presented. Almost all of the extremal double circulant singly-even codes given have weight enumerators for which extremal codes were not previously known to exist.