On the Size Dependence of Standing Waves in Tubular Fullerenes

Summary

We present an analysis of principal vibrational modes whose propagation creates the standing waves along the lateral surfaces of the elongated fullerenes.

We deduce the recurrence rules determining the possibility of resonances between the skew and vertical modes, as well as the appearance of isolated standing waves with nodes in the elongated fullerenes C_N with N = 50 + 10k, k= 1,2,3….

We discuss briefly the influence of different vibrational spectra on the mechanical stability of C_N-elongated fullerenes, and its impact on the relative rate of their production.

     

Molecular Level Characterisation of the Surface of Carbohydrate-Functionalised Mesoporous silica Nanoparticles (MSN) as a Potential Targeted Drug Delivery System via High Resolution Magic Angle Spinning (HR-MAS) NMR Spectroscopy

Atomistic level characterisation of external surface species of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) poses a significant analytical challenge due to the inherently low content of grafted ligands. This study proposes the use of HR-MAS NMR spectroscopy for a molecular level characterisation of the external surface of carbohydrate-functionalised nanoparticles. MSN differing in size (32 nm, 106 nm, 220 nm) were synthesised using the sol-gel method. The synthesised materials displayed narrow particle size distribution (based on DLS and TEM results) and a hexagonal arrangement of the pores with a diameter of ca. 3 nm as investigated with PXRD and N₂ physisorption. The surface of the obtained nanoparticles was functionalised with galactose and lactose using reductive amination as confirmed by FTIR and NMR techniques. The functionalisation of the particles surface did not alter the pore architecture, structure or morphology of the materials as confirmed with TEM imaging. HR-MAS NMR spectroscopy was used for the first time to investigate the structure of the functionalised MSN suspended in D₂O. Furthermore, lactose was successfully attached to the silica without breaking the glycosidic bond. The results demonstrate that HR-MAS NMR can provide detailed structural information on the organic functionalities attached at the external surface of MSN within short experimental times.     

Preparation of Novel Pyrazolo[4,3-e]tetrazolo[1,5-b][1,2,4]triazine Sulfonamides and Their Experimental and Computational Biological Studies

Pyrazolo[4,3-e]tetrazolo[1,5-b][1,2,4]triazine sulfonamides constitute a novel class of heterocyclic compounds with broad biological activity, including anticancer properties. Investigated in this study, MM-compounds (MM134, MM136, MM137, and MM139) exhibited cytotoxic and proapoptotic activity against cancer cell lines (BxPC-3, PC-3, and HCT-116) in nanomolar concentrations without causing cytotoxicity in normal cells (L929 and WI38). In silico predictions indicate that tested compounds exhibit favorable pharmacokinetic profiles and may exert anticancer activity through the inhibition of BTK kinase, the AKT-mTOR pathway and PD1-PD-L1 interaction. Our findings point out that these sulfonamide derivatives may constitute a source of new anticancer drugs after optimization.     

Crystal growth dispersion in an MSMPR crystallizer — a mathematical model

According to the literature, one of the formation mechanisms of crystal growth rate dispersion consists in each individual crystal growing at an adequate constant rate, with different rates however for different crystals. In the present paper, this case has been described on the basis of a population density of nuclei, making use of the classical exponential dependence amongst others. Differences between n and n have been interpreted. The dependencies describing the population density of crystals n have been presented and a simplified method for their calculation proposed.     

Executive coaching: An outcome study.

While executive coaching continues to mushroom as a practice area, there has been little outcome research. This article presents the results of a study that explored factors influencing the choice of a coach, executives' reactions to working with a coach, the pros and cons of both internal and external coaches, the focus of executive coaching engagements, indications of successful coaching engagements, coaching tools executives favored, and the sustainability of coached executives' learning and behavior change. The author also raises a question about which executives are most likely to benefit from this development resource and presents a typology for gauging this issue. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tigers, stripes, and behavior change: Survey results of a commissioned coaching program.

This survey focused on the effectiveness of a coaching program commissioned by a global company for high potential employees who wanted to develop their emotional competence. Survey results indicated sustained learning and behavior change among program participants over an extended period. Successful outcomes appeared to be related to the careful scrutiny of program participants, a collaborative model, an insight-oriented coaching approach, and persistent efforts to brand the program as a developmental resource. This work also indicated areas of continued opportunity for consulting psychology to include: the developmental branding of coaching initiatives, the need for early career coaching, ways to connect coaching results to existing HR practices, how to deliver high impact coaching in cross-cultural settings, and the critical need for empirical research in the areas of coaching and organization-based consultation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intelligent Mobile System for Improving Spatial Design Support and Security Inside Buildings

This paper concerns the an intelligent mobile application for spatial design support and security domain. Mobility has two aspects in our research: The first one is the usage of mobile robots for 3D mapping of urban areas and for performing some specific tasks. The second mobility aspect is related with a novel Software as a Service system that allows access to robotic functionalities and data over the Ethernet, thus we demonstrate the use of the novel NVIDIA GRID technology allowing to virtualize the graphic processing unit. We introduce Complex Shape Histogram, a core component of our artificial intelligence engine, used for classifying 3D point clouds with a Support Vector Machine. We use Complex Shape Histograms also for loop closing detection in the simultaneous localization and mapping algorithm. Our intelligent mobile system is built on top of the Qualitative Spatio-Temporal Representation and Reasoning framework. This framework defines an ontology and a semantic model, which are used for building the intelligent mobile user interfaces. We show experiments demonstrating advantages of our approach. In addition, we test our prototypes in the field after the end-user case studies demonstrating a relevant contribution for future intelligent mobile systems that merge mobile robots with novel data centers.     

Behind the door: Keeping business leaders focused on how they lead.

The importance of how leaders lead (i.e., the individual behavioral dimension of leadership), is emphasized as a necessary component of comprehensive leadership development initiatives. Key practice factors and meta themes of an insight-oriented development model designed to influence executive behavior are presented, as well as a possible typology for recognizing certain behavioral states among business leaders. Several vignettes of executive cases in poetic form are also provided to illustrate these behavioral states, to emphasize the psychological effects on others of both effective and dysfunctional leader behavior, and more broadly to suggest the potential value of metaphorical thought as a consulting tool for influencing the effective behavior of senior business executives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual depth compression for stereo applications

Conventional depth video compression uses video codecs designed for color images. Given the performance of current encoding standards, this solution seems efficient. However, such an approach suffers from many issues stemming from discrepancies between depth and light perception. To exploit the inherent limitations of human depth perception, we propose a novel depth compression method that employs a disparity perception model. In contrast to previous methods, we account for disparity masking, and model a distinct relation between depth perception and contrast in luminance. Our solution is a natural extension to the H.264 codec and can easily be integrated into existing decoders. It significantly improves both the compression efficiency without sacrificing visual quality of depth of rendered content, and the output of depth‐reconstruction algorithms or depth cameras.