POSS-induced rheological and dielectric modification of polyethersulfone

Polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) nanostructured chemicals, when incorporated at low levels in thermoplastics, provide processability enhancement and viscosity reduction without compromising other bulk physical properties. POSS has been relatively unexplored in high performance polymers, and there is incomplete understanding of the mechanisms by which POSS produces flow improvements. In this study, polyethersulfone (PES) was melt-blended with trisilanolphenyl (TSP)-POSS and dodecaphenyl (DP)-POSS; and rheological, dielectric spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy evaluations were conducted to identify structure/property/processing relationships. TSP-POSS yielded greater processability improvements and viscosity reductions than DP-POSS, suppressed low temperature relaxations to a larger extent, and displayed a greater degree of nanoscale dispersion in the polymer matrix. The findings are evaluated in terms of competing theories of POSS viscosity reduction.     

Development of a Robust High-Throughput Screening Platform for Inhibitors of the Striatal-Enriched Tyrosine Phosphatase (STEP)

Many human diseases are the result of abnormal expression or activation of protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) and protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs). Not surprisingly, more than 30 tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are currently in clinical use and provide unique treatment options for many patients. PTPs on the other hand have long been regarded as “undruggable” and only recently have gained increased attention in drug discovery. Striatal-enriched tyrosine phosphatase (STEP) is a neuron-specific PTP that is overactive in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, and fragile X syndrome. An emergent model suggests that the increase in STEP activity interferes with synaptic function and contributes to the characteristic cognitive and behavioral deficits present in these diseases. Prior efforts to generate STEP inhibitors with properties that warrant clinical development have largely failed. To identify novel STEP inhibitor scaffolds, we developed a biophysical, label-free high-throughput screening (HTS) platform based on the protein thermal shift (PTS) technology. In contrast to conventional HTS using STEP enzymatic assays, we found the PTS platform highly robust and capable of identifying true hits with confirmed STEP inhibitory activity and selectivity. This new platform promises to greatly advance STEP drug discovery and should be applicable to other PTP targets.     

Non-Polar Lipids as Regulators of Membrane Properties in Archaeal Lipid Bilayer Mimics

The modification of archaeal lipid bilayer properties by the insertion of apolar molecules in the lipid bilayer midplane has been proposed to support cell membrane adaptation to extreme environmental conditions of temperature and hydrostatic pressure. In this work, we characterize the insertion effects of the apolar polyisoprenoid squalane on the permeability and fluidity of archaeal model membrane bilayers, composed of lipid analogues. We have monitored large molecule and proton permeability and Laurdan generalized polarization from lipid vesicles as a function of temperature and hydrostatic pressure. Even at low concentration, squalane (1 mol%) is able to enhance solute permeation by increasing membrane fluidity, but at the same time, to decrease proton permeability of the lipid bilayer. The squalane physicochemical impact on membrane properties are congruent with a possible role of apolar intercalants on the adaptation of Archaea to extreme conditions. In addition, such intercalant might be used to cheaply create or modify chemically resistant liposomes (archeaosomes) for drug delivery.     

Smart element method II. An element based on the finite Eshelby tensor

In this study, we apply the newly derived finite Eshelby tensor in a variational multiscale formulation to construct a smart element through a more accurate homogenization procedure. The so‐called Neumann–Eshelby tensor for an inclusion in a finite domain is used in the fine scale feedback procedure to take into account the interactions among different scales and elements. Numerical experiments have been conducted to compare the performance and robustness of the new element to earlier formulations. The results showed that the smart element constructed via the Neumann–Eshelby tensor of a finite domain provides better numerical accuracy than that constructed via the Eshelby tensor of an infinite domain. Moreover, it can relieve volumetric locking. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improved tracking of time-varying encoding properties of visual neurons by extended recursive least-squares.

Traditional approaches to characterizing the transformation from stimulus to response in sensory systems assume both stationarity of the stimulus and time-invariance of the stimulus/response mapping. However, recent studies of sensory function under natural stimulus conditions have demonstrated important features of neural encoding that are in violation of these assumptions. Many sensory neurons respond to changes in the statistical distribution of the stimulus that are characteristic of the natural environment with corresponding changes in their encoding properties. In this paper, an extended recursive least-squares (ERLS) approach to adaptive estimation from stimulus/response observations is detailed. The ERLS approach improves the tracking ability of standard RLS approaches to adaptive estimation by removing a number of assumptions about the underlying system and the stimulus environment. The ERLS framework also incorporates an adaptive learning rate, so that prior knowledge of the relationship between the stimulus and the adaptive nature of the system under investigation can be used to improve tracking performance. Simulated and experimental neural responses are used to demonstrate the ability of the ERLS approach to track adaptation of encoding properties during a single stimulus/response trial. The ERLS framework lends tremendous flexibility to experimental design, facilitating the investigation of sensory function under naturalistic stimulus conditions.     

High Mobility Strained Ge pMOSFETs With High-κ/Metal Gate

Compressively strained Ge long channel ring-type pMOSFETs with high-kappa Si/SiO₂/HfO₂/TiN gate stacks are fabricated on Si_0.2Ge_0.8 virtual substrates. Effective oxide thickness is approximately 1.4 nm with low gate leakage current. A peak hole mobility of 640 cm²/ Vldrs and up to a four times enhancement over the Si/SiO₂ universal curve are observed. Parasitic conduction within the Si-cap layers degrades the mobility at large vertical fields, although up to a 2.5 times enhancement over universal remains at a field of 0.9 MV/cm.     

Collaborative resource exchanges for peer-to-peer video streaming over wireless mesh networks

Peer-to-peer collaboration paradigms fundamentally change the passive way wireless stations currently adapt their transmission strategies to match available resources, by enabling them to proactively influence system dynamics through exchange of information and resources. In this paper, we focus on delay-sensitive multimedia transmission among multiple peers over wireless multi-hop enterprise mesh networks. We propose a distributed and efficient framework for resource exchanges that enables peers to collaboratively distribute available wireless resources among themselves based on their quality of service requirements, the underlying channel conditions, and network topology. The resource exchanges are enabled by the scalable coding of the video content and the design of cross-layer optimization strategies, which allow efficient adaptation to varying channel conditions and available resources. We compare our designed low complexity distributed resource exchange algorithms against an optimal centralized resource management scheme and show how their performance varies with the level of collaboration among the peers. We measure system utility in terms of the multimedia quality and show that collaborative approaches achieve ~50% improvement over non-collaborative approaches. Additionally, our distributed algorithms perform within 10% system utility of a centralized optimal resource management scheme. Finally, we observe 2-5 dB improvement in decoded PSNR for each peer due to the deployed cross-layer strategy     

Thermodynamic reassessment of the Cr−O system in the framework of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) research

A comprehensive compilation and evaluation of experimental and thermodynamic data for the Cr−O system is presented and, by application of the CALPHAD method, a consistent set of thermodynamic model parameters is optimized based on new experiments. Nonstoichiometry of eskolaite (Cr₂O₃-δ) is described using the compound energy model, and the liquid, is described using the two-sublattice model for ionic liquids. Cr₃O₄ is described as a stoichiometric compound. Also the magnetic transition in Cr₂O₃ and the oxygen solubility in Cr are modeled.     

An object oriented implementation of a front tracking finite element method for directional solidification processes

This paper focuses on the numerical simulation of phase‐change processes using a moving finite element technique. In particular, directional solidification and melting processes for pure materials and binary alloys are studied. The melt is modelled as a Boussinesq fluid and the transient Navier–Stokes equations are solved simultaneously with the transient heat and mass transport equations as well as the Stefan condition. The various streamline‐upwind/Petrov–Galerkin‐based FEM simulators developed for the heat, flow and mass transport subproblems are reviewed. The use of classes, virtual functions and smart pointers to represent and link the particular simulators in order to model a phase change process is discussed. The freezing front is modelled using a spline interpolation, while the mesh motion is defined from the freezing front motion using a transfinite mapping technique. Various two‐ and three‐dimensional numerical tests are analysed and discussed to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed techniques. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.