POLY (β-HYDROXYALKANOATES): NATURAL BIOCOMPATIBLE AND BIODEGRADABLE POLYESTERS PRODUCED BY BACTERIA

A wide variety of different types of microorganisms are known to produce intracellular energy and carbon storage products, which have been generally described as being poly (β-hydroxybutyrate), PHB, but which are, more often than not, copolymers containing different alkyl groups at the β-position. Hence, PHB belongs to the family ofpoly (β-hydroxyalkanoastes), PHA, all of which are usually formed as intracellular inclusions in bacteria under unbalanced growth conditions. Recently, it became of industrial interest to evaluate these PHA polyesters as natural biodegradable and biocompatible plastics for a wide range of possible applications, such as surgical sutures or packaging containers. For industrial applications, the controlled incorporation of repeating units with different chain lengths into a series of copolymers is desirable in order to produce polyesters with a range of material properties because physical and chemical characteristics depend strongly on the polymer composition. Such "tailor-made" copolymers can be produced under controlled growth conditions in that, if a defined mixture of substrates for a certain type of microorganisms is supplied, a well defined and reproducible copolymer is formed.     

CONTROL OF A METAPOPULATION HARVESTING MODEL FOR BLACK BEARS

ABSTRACT. We develop a metapopulation harvesting model that includes density‐dependent immigration and emigration and apply Pontryagin's maximum principle to derive an optimal harvesting and reserve design strategy. The model is designed to mimic the black bear population of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina. Model results suggest that a forest region's population can be maintained despite high harvest levels due to emigration from a connected, un‐harvested park region. The amount of shared border between the park and forest region is important in determining the optimal harvesting strategy. This technique offers new insight on the spatial control of protected populations.     

DYNAMIC BEHAVIOUR OF A CRACKED SOLDERED JOINT

The two-dimensional “in-plane” time-harmonic elastodynamic problem for a multi-layered cracked soldered joint system is studied. This problem is solved by using a hybrid of both displacement and hyper-singular traction boundary integral equation method. The proposed method directly accounts for the effect of the outer boundary of a finite multi-layered body and the interaction between the internal and interface cracks. The open fracture model is used to present the interface crack. Numerical results are shown and discussed to reveal the effect of the existence and sizes of cracks, the crack interaction, the debonding effect, the influence of the wave frequency and the type of the material combination on the crack-tip fracture parameters and the displacement scattered far field.     

On harmonic resonance in forced nonlinear oscillators exhibiting a Hopf bifurcation

The influence of a periodic forcing on a nonlinear second-orderoscillator close to a Hopf bifurcation point is investigated.The forcing frequency is close to the frequency of the Hopfbifurcation, and the forcing amplitude is assumed to be small.Second-order integral averaging is applied to reduce the givensystem to a planar autonomous system. By a bifurcation and stabilityanalysis of this system, the behaviour of the forced oscillatoris determined. It turns out that two qualitatively differenttypes of behaviour can occur. Either the system has a uniqueattractor, or the system has two competing attractors givingrise to a hysteresis phenomenon, which is known from the Duffingequation. Bifurcation diagrams are presented, and explicit formulaefor the quantities determining the behaviour are given     

ChemInform Abstract: The Crystal Structure of ϰ-Alumina.

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