Individually addressable recessed gold microelectrode arrays with monolayers of thio-cyclodextrin nanocavities

Four, individually addressable 30 microm diameter, e-beam deposited, gold microelectrodes recessed by 6 microm were suitably spaced on a single substrate to avoid diffusional overlap between each microelectrode. The single substrate device was functionalised with thiolated alpha-, beta-, and gamma-cyclodextrin nanocavities without spacer groups to ensure close proximity of the cavities to the electrode surface. The microelectrodes were assessed in two stages. The e-beam deposited micron sized electrodes were characterized using models for recessed and inlaid microdisk electrodes. Subsequently, each individually addressable, atomically flat, micro-patterned gold electrode with thiolated CD ensembles was treated as a nanoporous electrode assembly. Theoretical and experimental results were compared using cyclic voltammetry. Atomic force microscopy was also used to characterise the modified microelectrodes. Comparisons were made with thiolated CDs deposited on macroelectrodes. This is the first report of the behaviour of immobilized CD nanocavities ensembles on atomically flat gold microelectrodes.     

A robust-adaptive fuzzy coverage control for robotic swarms

In this paper, a decentralized adaptive control scheme for multi-robot coverage is proposed. This control method is designed based on centroidal Voronoi configuration integrated with robust adaptive fuzzy control techniques. We consider simple single integrator mobile robots used for covering dynamical environments, where an adaptive fuzzy logic system is used to approximate the unknown parts of control law. A robust coverage criterion is used to attenuate the adaptive fuzzy approximation error and measurement noises to a prescribed level. Therefore, the robots motion is forced to obey solutions of a coverage optimization problem. The advantages of the proposed controller can be listed as robustness to external disturbances, computation uncertainties, and measurement noises, while applicability on dynamical environments. A Lyapunov-function based proof is given of robust stability, i.e. convergence to the optimal positions with bounded error. Finally, simulation results are demonstrated for a swarm coverage problem simultaneous with tracking mobile intruders.     

Sonochemical Synthesis and Photocatalytic Properties of Metal Hydroxide and Carbonate (M:Mg, Ca, Sr or Ba) Nanoparticles

In this work Mg(OH)₂, Ca(OH)₂, CaCO₃, SrCO₃ and BaCO₃ nanoparticles were synthesized via a simple sonochemical reaction at room temperature. Nanoparticles were synthesized via a surfactant-free reaction solvent water. Nanostructures materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The photocatalytic behavior of nanoparticles was evaluated using the degradation of a methyl orange aqueous solution under ultraviolet light irradiation. The results show that metal hydroxide and metal carbonate nanoparticles are promising materials with excellent performance in photocatalytic applications.     

OXIDATIVE DEPROTECTION OF TRIMETHYLSILYL ETHERS WITH HEXAMETHYLENETETRAMINEBROMINE SUPPORTED ONTO SILICA GEL UNDER MICROWAVE IRRADIATION IN SOLVENTLESS SYSTEM

Hexamethylenetetramine-bromine supported onto[3pc] silica gel rapidly converts trimethylsilyl ethers to their corresponding carbonyl compounds under microwave irradiation in solventless system.     

Exo/endo stereocontrolled synthesis of spiroindoloindolizidines by using classical and microwave conditions via the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction

Using both classical reflux and microwave-mediated conditions, a series of new spiroindoloindolizidines was synthesized by multicomponent 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of azomethine ylides in unprecedented exo/endo stereocontrolled. Both conditions easily afforded two identical and separable exo/endo diastereomeric ratios of cycloadducts. However, the ratio of two diastereomeric products obtained from conventional conditions was reversed in all examined cases when the reactions were explored under microwave-mediated conditions. As expected, utilizing the microwave-assisted conditions produced higher yields and reaction rates compared to classical conditions. The structure and exact stereochemistry of synthesized cycloadducts were determined by applying various 2D-NMR spectroscopic techniques and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Finally, the mechanism of the reaction has been briefly investigated by using density functional theory (DFT) calculations.     

Synthesis,characterization and crystal structures of new Zinc(II) and Nickel(II) complexes containing morpholine moiety and their antibacterial studies

The ligand 1,2-dimorpholinoethane (DME) was used to prepare Zn(II) and Ni(II) complexes of the general formulation MLX₂ (L = DME, X = Cl or NO₃). Zinc(II) complex exhibits spectral properties indicative of a distorted tetrahedral geometry, with DME coordinating through two nitrogen atoms and two chlorides completing the tetrahedron. This is in contrast to the six-coordinated, distorted octahedral geometry exhibited by nickel(II) complex of DME when NO₃ was used as counter ions. The X-ray diffraction confirms the structures of two complexes and shows that the ligand coordinates through two nitrogen atoms while the two ether linkages are not involved in complexation, which would have been the case if the morpholine rings were in the boat form. The ligand and related complexes have antibacterial activity against the five Gram-positive bacteria: Bacillus subtilis ATCC 6633, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538, Bacillus cereus NRRL-B-3711, Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 29212 and Streptococcus pyogenes and also against the three Gram-negative bacteria: Escherichia coli ATCC 11230, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 15442 and Klebsiella pneumonia ATCC 70063. The results showed that in some cases the antibacterial activity of the complexes exceeded the one of sulfisoxazole used as a standard.     

The effects of binaural spectral resolution mismatch on Mandarin speech perception in simulated electric hearing

This study assessed the effects of binaural spectral resolution mismatch on the intelligibility of Mandarin speech in noise using bilateral cochlear implant simulations. Noise-vocoded Mandarin speech, corrupted by speech-shaped noise at 0 and 5?dB signal-to-noise ratios, were presented unilaterally or bilaterally to normal-hearing listeners with mismatched spectral resolution between ears. Significant binaural benefits for Mandarin speech recognition were observed only with matched spectral resolution between ears. In addition, the performance of tone identification was more robust to noise than that of sentence recognition, suggesting factors other than tone identification might account more for the degraded sentence recognition in noise.     

Some Extensions of PSL(2, p 2) are Uniquely Determined by Their Complex Group Algebras

In Tong-Viet's, 2012 work, the following question arose: Question. Which groups can be uniquely determined by the structure of their complex group algebras?

It is proved here that some simple groups of Lie type are determined by the structure of their complex group algebras. Let p be an odd prime number and S = PSL(2, p ²). In this paper, we prove that, if M is a finite group such that S < M < Aut(S), M = ?₂ × PSL(2, p ²) or M = SL(2, p ²), then M is uniquely determined by its order and some information about its character degrees. Let X ₁(G) be the set of all irreducible complex character degrees of G counting multiplicities. As a consequence of our results, we prove that, if G is a finite group such that X ₁(G) = X ₁(M), then G ? M. This implies that M is uniquely determined by the structure of its complex group algebra.