Dielectric and thermal properties of dicyclopentadiene containing bismaleimide and cyanate ester. Part IV

A novel bismaleimide (BMI), bis(4-maleimidophenoxy-3,5-dimethylphenyl)dicyclopentadiene (DCPDBMI), containing a large dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) and aryl ether linkage, was synthesized from bis(4-aminophenoxy-3,5-dimethylphenyl)dicyclopentadiene and maleic anhydride by the usual two-step procedure that included ring-opening addition to give bismaleamic acid, followed by cyclodehydration to bismaleimide. The monomers were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), elemental analyses (EA), and mass spectra (MS). A series of bismaleimide-triazine (BT) resins were prepared from synthesized bismaleimide (DCPDBMI) and then cured with 2,6-dimethyl phenol-dicyclopentadiene dicyanate ester (DCPDCY) at various molar ratios. Thermal properties of cured BT resins (DCPDBMI/DCPDCY) were studied using dielectric analyzer (DEA), dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA) and thermalgravimetric analyzer (TGA). These data were compared with that of commercial bismaleimide (DDMBMI) cured with bisphenol A dicyanate ester (BADCY). The cured DCPDBMI/DCPDCY exhibits lower dielectric constant, dissipation factor and moisture absorption than those of DDMBMI/BADCY. The effects of blend composition on the glass transition temperatures and thermal stability are discussed.     

Prediction model of compressive strength development of fly-ash concrete

Based on experimental results concerning the compressive strength development of concrete containing fly ash, the authors derived an estimation equation for compressive strength development. The equation can express coefficient , which indicates the activity of fly ash as a binder, in the form of a function of age, fly-ash content, and Blaine specific surface area of fly ash.

This equation is capable of explaining the increases in the early strength due to fly ash in place of part of fine aggregate, the decreases in the early strength due to fly ash in place of part of cement, the increases in the long-term strength due to pozzolanic reaction, the relationship between the fly-ash replacement ratio and the ratio of strength increase/decrease, and the effect of fly ash's Blaine specific surface area on the strength.     

Editing and Synthesizing Two‐Character Motions using a Coupled Inverted Pendulum Model

This study aims to develop a controller for use in the online simulation of two interacting characters. This controller is capable of generalizing two sets of interaction motions of the two characters based on the relationships between the characters. The controller can exhibit similar motions to a captured human motion while reacting in a natural way to the opponent character in real time. To achieve this, we propose a new type of physical model called a coupled inverted pendulum on carts that comprises two inverted pendulum on a cart models, one for each individual, which are coupled by a relationship model. The proposed framework is divided into two steps: motion analysis and motion synthesis. Motion analysis is an offline preprocessing step, which optimizes the control parameters to move the proposed model along a motion capture trajectory of two interacting humans. The optimization procedure generates a coupled pendulum trajectory which represents the relationship between two characters for each frame, and is used as a reference in the synthesis step. In the motion synthesis step, a new coupled pendulum trajectory is planned reflecting the effects of the physical interaction, and the captured reference motions are edited based on the planned trajectory produced by the coupled pendulum trajectory generator. To validate the proposed framework, we used a motion capture data set showing two people performing kickboxing. The proposed controller is able to generalize the behaviors of two humans to different situations such as different speeds and turning speeds in a realistic way in real time.     

Microstructural Evidence for Diffusion-Driven Tetragonal-to-Orthorhombic Phase Transformation in Y-Ba-Cu-O Superconductor

Microstructures of Y-Ba-Cu-O superconductor were observed using a polarized microscope. Orthorhombic and tetragonal phases were easily distinguished by the optical etching with cross-polarized light. In the specimen cooled rapidly in oxygen, it was possible to see the path of oxygen diffusion by observing the variation of the twin concentration. At the boundary between transformed and untransformed materials, evidence for diffusion-driven transformation could be clearly seen.     

Synthesis and electrical properties of poly[2-(2-(4-trifluoromethyl)phenyl)ethenyl-1,4-phenylenevinylene] and PPV copolymers

Summary Poly[2-(2-(4-(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)ethenyl)-5-methoxy-1,4-phenylenevinylene] (PFEMPV) and a series of PPV copolymers containing 1,4-phenylenevinylene (PV) units were synthesized through a water-soluble precursor route, and their electrical and third-order nonlinear optical properties were studied. The PFEMPV films could not be doped with I₂, but FeCl₃-doped films showed an electrical conductivity of 5.0x10^-4 S/cm. The conductivities of FeCl₃-doped copolymer films ranged from 2.0x10^-3 to 2.0 S/cm depending on their copolymer compositions. The third-order nonlinear optical susceptibility, ⁽³⁾(–;,,–), was also investigated by the degenerate four wave mixing technique at 602 nm. The ⁽³⁾ value of PFEMPV was 6.9x10^-11 esu. The photoluminescence spectrum of PFEMPV shows its emission maximum at 550 nm.     

Structure-property relationships in rubber-toughened epoxies

Epoxies toughened with two reactive liquid rubbers, an epoxy-terminated butadiene acrylonitrile rubber (ETBN) and an amino-terminated butadiene acrylonitrile rubber (ATBN), were prepared and studied in terms of their structure property relationships. A two-phase structure was formed, consisting of spherical rubber particles dispersed in an epoxy matrix. A broad distribution of rubber particles was observed in all the materials with most of the particles ranging in size from 1 to 4 μm, but some particles exceeding 20 μm were also found. Impact strength, plane strain fracture toughness (K_IC), and fracture energy (G_IC) were increased, while Young's modulus and yield strength decreased slightly with increasing rubber content and volume fraction of the dispersed phase. Both G_IC and K_IC were found to increase with increasing apparent molecular weight between crosslinks and decreasing yield strength. The increased size of the plastic zone at the crack tip associated with decreasing yield strength could be the cause of the increased toughness. An ATBN-toughened system containing the greatest amount of epoxy sub-inclusion in the rubbery phase demonstrated the best fracture toughness in this series. In the present systems, rubber-enhanced shear deformation of the matrix is considered to be the major toughening mechanism. Curing conditions and the miscibility between the liquid rubber and the epoxy resin determine the phase morphology of the resulting two-phase systems. Kerner's equation successfully describes the modulus dependence on volume fraction for the two-phase epoxy materials.     

Calcium binding mode of {gamma}-carboxyglutamic acids in conantokins

Conantokin-T (con-T) and conantokin-G (con-G) are two highlyhomologous peptide toxins found in Conus venom. The former isa 21-residue peptide with four -carboxyglutamic acid (Gla) residues(at positions 3, 4, 10 and 14), while the latter is a 17-residuepeptide with five -carboxyglutamic acid residues (at positions3, 4, 7, 10 and 14). Despite the apparent similarity in numberand relative positions of the -carboxyglutamic acid residues,¹¹³Cd-NMR studies indicated a distinct metal binding behaviorfor con-G and con-T. There appears to be four binding sitesin con-G in contrast to one metal binding site in con-T. Toelucidate the mode of calcium binding by the -carboxyglutamicacid residues in these conantokins, we designed various analogouspeptides with their -carboxyglutamic acid replaced by otheramino acid residues. ¹¹³Cd-NMR experiments on conantokin analoguesreveal that the major difference in the number of metal bindingsites between con-G and con-T is due to the residue at position7. We also performed molecular simulations to calculate therelative binding free energies of several potential bindingsites. Based on our theoretical and experimental results, wepropose a `four-site' binding model for conantokin-G and a `single-site'binding model for conantokin-T.     

Surface diffusion in microporous media

The surface diffusion of He, Ne, H₂, Ar, O₂, N₂ and CO₂ through Vycor microporous glass was analyzed theoretically and experimentally in the low pressure range as a function of temperature. A statistical-mechanical treatment was carried out in terms of partition functions to derive a general equation of surface flow. It was possible to separate the surface diffusion from the total flow using a simplified working equation. The conventional method which assumes that there is no adsorbed flow for helium should be discarded, because the fraction of surface diffusion for helium ranges from 0.133 to 0.247. It is also illustrated how to predict the permeability of a new gas for the same porous medium.     

Energetic surface heterogeneity of nanocrystalline TiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> films for dye-sensitized solar cells

Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been receiving significant attention because they have many advantages compared to conventional organic solar cells. It has been known that the photovoltaic characteristics of DSSC are highly dependent on the adsorption properties of dyes on TiO₂ films. To analyze the surface heterogeneity of TiO₂ surfaces, single-phase anatase nanocrystallite titanium films were prepared by sol-gel method using the hydrolysis reaction of titanium tetraisopropoxide under acidic condition and characterized by XRD, FE-SEM and BET analysis. The adsorption energy distribution functions were calculated by the generalized nonlinear regularization method. It was found that the shape and the intensity of the adsorption energy distribution curve determined were highly related with the physical properties (i.e., geometrical heterogeneity) and chemical characteristics (i.e., energetic heterogeneity) of nanocrystalline TiO₂ for DSSC.     

An EGF-pseudomonas exotoxin A recombinant protein with a deletion in toxin binding domain specifically kills EGF receptor bearing cells

We constructed two chimeric toxins; one composed of epidermalgrowth factor (EGF) and pseudomonas exotoxin A (PE), designatedEGF-PE and the other composed of EGF and PE with a deletionof the Ia domain (cell-binding domain), designated EGF-PE (Ia).Both chimeric toxins reacted with anti-EGF and anti-PE antibodies.The cell-killing experiments showed that EGF-PE, but not EGF-PE(Ia),was cytotoxic to the murine fibroblast cell line NR6, whichcarried the PE receptor, but not the EGF receptor. However,after NR6 was transfected with DNA for the expression of humanEGF receptor, the transfected cell line, designated NRHER5,overexpressed human EGF receptors and became sensitive to EGF-PE(IA).The cytotoxicity of EGF-PE(Ia), but not EGF-PE, to NRHER5 canbe completely blocked by an excess amount of EGF. To completelyreverse the cytotoxicity of EGF-PE on NRHER5, both the EGF receptorpathway and the PE receptor pathway need to be blocked. Theseresults suggest that EGF-PE exhibits both EGF and PE bindingactivities, while EGF-PE(IA) possesses only EGF binding activity.Thus, EGF-PE(Ia) may be a better chimeric toxin than EGF-PEin terms of target specificity to EGF receptor bearing cells.We, therefore, examined the cytotoxicity of EGF-PE(Ia) to varioushuman cancer cell lines. We find that human cancer cells containingmore EGF receptors are more sensitive to EGF-PE(Ia).