Pulsed laser deposition of nanostructured Ag films

Ultra-thin (0.5-5 nm) films of Ag have been prepared by pulsed laser deposition in vacuum using a 26 ns KrF excimer laser at 1 J cm⁻². The deposition was controlled using a Langmuir ion probe and a quartz crystal thickness monitor. Transmission electron microscopy showed that the films are not continuous, but are structured on nanometer size scales. Optical absorption spectra showed the expected surface plasmon resonance feature, which shifted to longer wavelength and increased in strength as the equivalent film thickness was increased. It is shown that Maxwell Garnett effective medium theory can be used to calculate the main features of optical absorption spectra.     

Decay Rates in Probability Metrics Towards Homogeneous Cooling States for the Inelastic Maxwell Model

We quantify the long-time behavior of solutions to the nonlinear Boltzmann equation for spatially uniform freely cooling inelastic Maxwell molecules by means of the contraction property of a suitable metric in the set of probability measures. Existence, uniqueness, and precise estimates of overpopulated high energy tails of the self-similar profile proved in ref. 9 are revisited and derived from this new Liapunov functional. For general initial conditions the solutions of the Boltzmann equation are then proved to converge with computable rate as t → ∞ to the self-similar solution in this distance, which metrizes the weak convergence of measures. Moreover, we can relate this Fourier distance to the Euclidean Wasserstein distance or Tanaka functional proving also its exponential convergence towards the homogeneous cooling states. The findings are relevant in the understanding of the conjecture formulated by Ernst and Brito in refs. 15, 16, and complement and improve recent studies on the same problem of Bobylev and Cercignani⁽⁹⁾ and Bobylev, Cercignani and one of the authors.⁽¹¹⁾     

Furtivity and Masking Problems in Time-Dependent Electromagnetic Obstacle Scattering

In this paper, we consider furtivity and masking problems in time-dependent three-dimensional electromagnetic obstacle scattering. That is, we propose a criterion based on a merit function to minimize or to mask the electromagnetic field scattered by a bounded obstacle when hit by an incoming electromagnetic field and, with respect to this criterion, we drive the optimal strategy. These problems are natural generalizations to the context of electromagnetic scattering of the furtivity problem in time-dependent acoustic obstacle scattering presented in Ref. 1. We propose mathematical models of the furtivity and masking time-dependent three-dimensional electromagnetic scattering problems that consist in optimal control problems for systems of partial differential equations derived from the Maxwell equations. These control problems are approached using the Pontryagin maximum principle. We formulate the first-order optimality conditions for the control problems considered as exterior problems defined outside the obstacle for systems of partial differential equations. Moreover, the first-order optimality conditions derived are solved numerically with a highly parallelizable numerical method based on a perturbative series of the type considered in Refs. 2–3. Finally, we assess and validate the mathematical models and the numerical method proposed analyzing the numerical results obtained with a parallel implementation of the numerical method in several experiments on test problems. Impressive speedup factors are obtained executing the algorithms on a parallel machine when the number of processors used in the computation ranges between 1 and 100. Some virtual reality applications and some animations relative to the numerical experiments can be found in the website http://www.econ.unian.it/recchioni/w10/.     

The polysaccharide extracts from the fungi Coprinus comatus and Coprinellus truncorum do exhibit AChE inhibitory activity

The polysaccharide (PSH) extracts from the edible mushroom species Coprinus comatus and Coprinellus truncorum were screened in liquid for their acetylcholinesterase inhibitory (AChE) activity. Both extracts were found to display inhibition of the aforementioned enzyme reaching similar IC₅₀ values of 0.62 ± 0.07 and 0.61 ± 0.03 mg/mL, respectively. According to the means of FTIR spectroscopy, these PSH extracts mostly contained β-glucans. However, the presence of some proteins and polyphenolics as minor ingredients were also detected. Compared with existing literature data for anti-AChE activity of the sugar samples, the findings within this study may be treated as a profound bioactivity. Consequently, this study puts some light on the possible use of the screened macrofungi in the palliative treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.     

The effects of polymer chain rigidification, zeolite pore size and pore blockage on polyethersulfone (PES)-zeolite A mixed matrix membranes

The polyethersulfone (PES)-zeolite 3A, 4A and 5A mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) were fabricated with a modified solution-casting procedure at high temperatures close to the glass transition temperatures (T_g) of polymer materials. The effects of membrane preparation methodology, zeolite loading and pore size of zeolite on the gas separation performance of these mixed matrix membranes were studied. SEM results show the interface between polymer and zeolite in MMMs experiencing natural cooling is better (i.e., less defective) than that in MMMs experiencing immediate quenching. The increment of glass transition temperature (T_g) of MMMs with zeolite loading confirms the polymer chain rigidification induced by zeolite. The experimental results indicate that a higher zeolite loading results in a decrease in gas permeability and an increase in gas pair selectivity. The unmodified Maxwell model fails to correctly predict the permeability decrease induced by polymer chain rigidification near the zeolite surface and the partial pore blockage of zeolites by the polymer chains. A new modified Maxwell model is therefore proposed. It takes the combined effects of chain rigidification and partial pore blockage of zeolites into calculation. The new model shows much consistent permeability and selectivity predication with experimental data. Surprisingly, an increase in zeolite pore size from 3 to 5 Å generally not only increase gas permeability, but also gas pair selectivity. The O₂/N₂ selectivity of PES-zeolite 3A and PES-zeolite 4A membranes is very similar, while the O₂/N₂ selectivity of PES-zeolite 5A membranes is much higher. This implies the blockage may narrow a part of zeolite 5A pores to approximately 4 Å, which can discriminate the gas pair of O₂ and N₂, and narrow a part of zeolites 3A and 4A pores to smaller sizes. It is concluded that the partial pore blockage of zeolites by the polymer chains has equivalent or more influence on the separation properties of mixed matrix membranes compared with that of the polymer chain rigidification.     

Decay rates of energy of the 1D damped original nonlinear wave equation

We consider the decay rate of energy of the 1D damped original nonlinear wave equation. We first construct a new energy function. Then, employing the perturbed energy method and the generalized Young’s inequality, we prove that, with a general growth assumption on the nonlinear damping force near the origin, the decay rate of energy is governed by a dissipative ordinary differential equation. This allows us to recover the classical exponential, polynomial, or logarithmic decay rate for the linear, polynomial or exponentially degenerating damping force near the origin, respectively. Unlike the linear wave equation, the exponential decay rate constant depends on the initial data, due to the nonlinearity.     

Optimized POCl3-assisted synthesis of 2-amino-1,3,4-thiadiazole/1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives as anti-influenza agents

Although recent decades have witnessed the synthesis of 1,3,4-thiadiazoles via phosphorus POCl₃-promoted cyclization reaction, simultaneous access to 2-amino-1,3,4-thiadiazole and 2-amino-1,3,4-oxadiazole analogs remains unexpected and elusive. Herein, a detailed regiocontrolled synthesis of 2-amino-1,3,4-thiadiazoles in good to high yields with good regioselectivities from readily available thiosemicarbazides using POCl₃ was disclosed. Meantime, to establish a comprehensive structure–activity relationship, 2-amino-1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives as single regioisomers were prepared via EDCI·HCl-triggered cyclization of the thiosemicarbazide intermediates. The in vitro anti-influenza assays proved that the selected compounds with the pyrazine/pyridine ring exhibited certain inhibitory activities against influenza A virus strains A/HK/68 (H3N2) and A/PR/8/34 (H1N1) in MDCK cells. Among them, N-(adamantan-1-yl)-5-(5-(azepan-1-yl)pyrazin-2-yl)-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-amine (4j) was the most active compound, and exhibited favorable activity with EC₅₀ values of 3.5 μM and 7.5 μM, respectively. In addition, the molecular docking results explained the reason why compound 4j had dual inhibitory activity and revealed the reasonable binding mode of this compound with the M2-S31N and M2-WT ion channels. This compound had the potential to be further developed as an anti-influenza drug.     

Deviation from Ohm's law in electric field assisted capillary liquid chromatography

Earlier studies of electric field assisted LC (EF-LC) have shown that the effect on charged analytes of the application of an electric field over a capillary LC column is relatively small. Charged analytes can only be affected by the electric field while present in the mobile phase, which makes the effective time for influence of the electric field t(0) independent of retention time. Because the charged analytes only can be affected for a short time the electric field strength ought to be high in order to increase the impact of the electric field on the separation. We have, however, found that only a relatively low electric field strength can be used in EF-LC when pressure is used as main driving force. The useful field strength was limited by a dramatic increase in the current. This increase in current was found to origin from an increased concentration of buffer ions that have an electrophoretic mobility towards the pumped flow.     

A study for quality evaluation of Taxilli Herba from different hosts based on fingerprint-activity relationship modeling and multivariate statistical analysis

In this study, a fingerprint-activity relationship modeling between chemical fingerprints and antirheumatic activity was established, and multivariate statistical analysis was used to evaluate the quality of Taxilli Herba (TH) from different hosts. Characteristic fingerprints of 20 batches of TH samples were generated by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole-time of flight tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-Triple TOF-MS/MS), and the similarity analysis was calculated based on thirteen common characteristic peaks by hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA). Subsequently, nine efficacy markers were discovered by combining fingerprints and antirheumatic activity through grey correlation analysis (GCA) and bivariate correlation analysis (BCA). Meanwhile, the content of 5 constituents in 9 markers was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole-linear ion trap tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-QTRAP-MS/MS). The comprehensive quality of TH was assessed using multivariate statistical analysis, including principal components analysis (PCA) and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). The results showed that a high dose of TH extract could markedly ameliorate arthritis damage compared to other doses, with flavonoids playing an important role in the antirheumatic activity. The comprehensive quality of samples from Morus alba L. (SS) was superior to those from Liquidambar formosana Hance (FXS). The present study will demonstrate the markers associated with efficacy, and provide an applicable strategy for more comprehensive quality control and evaluation of TH.