A Novel Magnetic Polyethylene Glycol Nanocomposite based on Graphite Reinforcement Carbon Paste Electrode for Voltammetric Determination of Perindopril L-arginine

Journal of Analytical Chemistry - The present study reports the development of a magnetic polyethylene glycol nanocomposite based on graphite reinforcement carbon paste electrode for the sensitive...     

Optimized spacer layer thickness for plasmonic-induced enhancement of photocurrent in a-Si:H

Journal of Nanoparticle Research - Plasmonic interfaces consisting of silver nanoparticles of different sizes (50–100&;nbsp;nm) have been processed by the self-assembled dewetting...     

Synthesis of a new class of uridine phosphorylase inhibitors

A new series of potent uridine phosphorylase inhibitors have been prepared from barbituric acid. Among them, 1-[(2-hydroxyethoxy)methyl]-5-)(m--benzyloxy)benzylbarbituric acid ( 37 , BBBA) is the most promising having a K_i value of 1.1 ± 0.2 nM with uridine phosphorylase from human liver. The new inhibitors are easily synthesized and are better inhibitors of human uridine phosphorylase than their uracil counterparts.     

Estimating market shares in each market segment using the information entropy concept

Sales data of a certain product for the various competitors are usually available at the aggregate level. However these data give no clue to the heterogeneities in the sales pattern across different market segments. Heterogeneities are caused by different purchasing behavior in each market segment; as a purchaser in a segment will be attracted to the attributes of the product most important to that segment. This concept can be formalized via a simple attraction model that utilizes an elasticity measure for each quality or price attribute [G.S. Carpenter, L.G. Cooper, D.M. Hanssens, D.F. Midgley, Modeling asymmetric competition, Marketing Science 7 (4) (1998) 393–412]. Assessment of these elasticities is not difficult since customer response – in each market segment – to perception of quality and price is tracked by most firms [J. Ross, D. Georgoff, A survey of productive and quality issues in manufacturing. The state of the industry, Industrial Management 3 (5) (1991) 22–25]. This paper attempts to formulate a generic framework based on the information entropy concept that utilizes such an attraction model to estimate competitors’ sales in each market segment.     

Polarization inscription in ferroelectric (111) PZT and (100) SBT films

Ferroelectric thin films form an equilibrium domain structure compatible with their respective crystallographic symmetry. In tetragonal (111) PZT, 90° domains prevail; in (pseudo-tetragonal) (100) SBT both 90° and 180° domains are present. The size of 90° domains has been measured for e.g., PZT as slabs of 15 nm width. Domain size is a result of stress minimization in the film during the paraelectric (PE) → ferroelectric (FE) transition. A precise and regular domain pattern for (111) PZT and (100) SBT films has been investigated in detail by TMSFM. Single domains can be addressed mechanically with the tip of an AFM. Such single domain switching corresponds to a data storage density of 200 Gbit/inch². Applications of ferroelectric and high- paraelectric materials for e.g., non-volatile data storage replacing DRAM devices or as sensors in infrared cameras are increasingly becoming popular.     

Time Asymptotic Behaviour for a One-Velocity Transport Operator with Maxwell Boundary Condition

This paper is concerned with the spectral analysis of a one-velocity transport operator with Maxwell boundary condition in L ₁-space. After a detailed spectral analysis it is shown that the associated Cauchy problem is governed by a C ₀-semigroup. Next, we discuss the irreducibility of the transport semigroup. In particular, we show that the transport semigroup is irreducible. Finally, a spectral decomposition of the solutions into an asymptotic term and a transient one which will be estimated for smooth initial data is given.     

Synthesis of unsaturated polyester resins for large sized composites

A series of unsaturated polyesters based on phthalic anhydride (PHA), maleic anhydride (MA), ethylene glycol (EG), diethylene glycol (DG), triethylene glycol (TG), propylene glycol (PG), styrene (Sty) and acrylonitrile (AN) were prepared. The molecular weights of the prepared polyesters were determined by end-group analysis. The effect of the structure of the resin on its curing behavior has been investigated. On the basis of the experimental study, the following were concluded: (1) The maximum curing temperature (T_max) is related to the molecular weight of the glycol incorporated in these castings. In this context the T_max was found to decrease with increasing the molecular weight. Meanwhile the time to peak temperature t_max was increasing. (2) The higher the percentage of AN in the crosslinking monomer system, the slower a resin cures. (3) The values of T_max were found to be influenced to a large extent by the percentage of AN.     

Near-optimal design of Global Positioning System (GPS) networks using the Tabu Search technique

This paper describes an optimization technique based on an heuristic procedure which is applied to analyse and improve the efficiency of the design of Global Positioning System (GPS) surveying networks. GPS is a valuable survey tool because of its ability to increase the accuracy, speed and flexibility of a survey. A GPS network can be defined as a number of stations, which are co-ordinated by a series of sessions, formed by placing receivers on stations. The goal is to select the best order in which these sessions can be organised to give the best possible schedule. Generally, solving large networks to optimality requires impractical computational time. This paper proposes a Tabu Search technique which provides optimal or near-optimal solutions for large networks with an acceptable amount of computational effort. Computational results for several case studies with known and unknown optimal schedules have been presented to assess the performance of the proposed technique.