Synthesis,characterization, and thermal behavior study of methyl methacrylate polymers containing 4‐carbazole substitutes

A new polymerizable monomer, [4‐(9‐ethyl)carbazolyl]methyl methacrylate ( 2 ), was synthesized by reacting of methacrylic acid and 4‐hydroxymethyl‐9‐ethyl carbazole ( 1 ) by esterification procedure in the presence of N,N′‐dicyclohexylcarbodiimide. The resulting monomer was then polymerized free‐radically to form the poly(methyl methacrylate) containing 4‐(9‐ethyl)carbazolyl pend ent groups. Also, copolymerization of monomer 2 with various acrylic monomers such as methyl methacrylate, ethyl methacrylate, methyl acrylate, ethyl acrylate, and n‐butyl acrylate by azobisisobutyronitrile as a free radical polymerization initiator gave the related copolymers in high yields. The structure of all the resulted compounds was characterized and confirmed by FTIR and ¹H NMR spectroscopic techniques. The average molecular weight of the obtained polymers was determined by gel permeation chromatography using tetrahydrofurane as the solvent. The thermal gravimetric analysis and differential scanning calorimeter instruments were used for studying of thermal properties of polymers. It was found that, with the incorporation of bulky 4‐(9‐ethyl)carbazolyl substitutes in side chains of methyl methacrylate polymers, thermal stability and glass transition temperature of polymers are increased. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 102: 4989–4995, 2006     

Synthesis,characterization, and in vitro drug‐release properties of 2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate copolymers

2‐Hydroxyethyl methacrylate was copolymerized with acrylamide, N‐vinyl‐2‐pyrrolidone, and n‐butyl methacrylate by free‐radical solution polymerization with α,α′‐azobisisobutyronitrile as an initiator at 70 ± 1°C. The average molecular weights and molar compositions of the resultant copolymers were determined with gel permeation chromatography and ¹H‐NMR spectroscopy data, respectively. Diclofenac or 2‐[(2,6‐dichlorophenyl)amino]benzene acetic acid, a nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drug, was chemically attached to the copolymers by transesterification reaction in the presence of N,N′‐dicyclohexylcarbodiimide to give macromolecular prodrugs. All the synthesized polymers were characterized with Fourier transform infrared, ¹H‐, and ¹³C‐NMR spectroscopy techniques. The polymer–drug conjugates were hydrolyzed in cellophane member dialysis bags containing aqueous buffered solutions (pH 8) at 37°C, and the hydrolysis solutions were detected by UV spectrophotometer at selected intervals. The results showed that the drug could be released by selective hydrolysis of the ester bond from the side chain of the drug moiety. The release profiles of the drug indicated that the hydrolytic behavior of polymeric prodrugs strongly depends on the hydrophilicity of the polymer. The results suggest that the synthesized copolymers could be useful carriers for the release of diclofenac in controlled‐release systems. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 104: 2403–2409, 2007     

Empirical evaluation of river basin sustainability affected by inter‐basin water transfer using composite indicators

In this study, a practical approach to evaluate the sustainability of river basins subjected to an inter‐basin water transfer project is developed. Selection of appropriate evaluation indicators is pivotal to such approach. To make use of huge amount of data, composite indicators of sustainability (CIS) should be utilised. The proposed approach relies on 15 sustainability indicators (SI) that cover three major criteria namely (economic, social and environmental), and aggregates them into eight different types of sustainability indices for a more robust outcome. Two scenarios were considered within the source and recipient basins. Furthermore, multivariate principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to determine principal and non‐principal indicators for the two river basins. The ability of CIS and PCA methods were verified via correlation and simple regression methods respectively. The results demonstrated that inter‐basin water transfer may improve sustainability, provided that a proper water resource management is enforced.     

Preliminary Results of IS Plasma Focus as a Breeder of Short-Lived Radioisotopes 12C(d,n)13N

Modified IS (Iranian Sun) plasma focus (10 kJ,15 kV, 94 ??F, 0.1 Hz) has been used to produce the short-lived radioisotope ¹³N (half-life of 9.97 min) through ¹²C(d,n)¹³N nuclear reaction. The filling gas was 1.5?C3 torr of hydrogen (60%) deuterium (40%) mixture. The target was solid nuclear grade graphite with 5 mm thick, 9 cm width and 13 in length. The activations of the exogenous target on average of 20 shots (only one-third acceptable) through 10?C13 kV produced the 511 keV gamma rays. Another peak found at the 570 keV gamma of which both was measured by a NaI portable gamma spectrometer calibrated by a ¹³⁷Cs 0.25 ??Ci sealed reference source with its single line at 661.65 keV and ²²Na 0.1 ??Ci at 511 keV. To measure the gamma rays, the graphite target converts to three different phases; solid graphite, powder graphite, and powder graphite in water solution. The later phase approximately has a doubled activity with respect to the solid graphite target up to 0.5 ??Ci of 511 keV and 1.1 ??Ci of 570 keV gamma lines were produced. This increment in activity was perhaps due to structural transformation of graphite powder to nano-particles characteristic in liquid water.     

An Incentive-Compatible Routing Protocol for Delay-Tolerant Networks Using Second-Price Sealed-Bid Auction Mechanism

Delay Tolerant Networks are a type of challenging, uninterrupted network in which there is not an end-to-end path between the source and the destination. These networks play a key role in managing crises in natural disasters such as earthquakes, fires, floods, and more. Due to limited resources, nodes may be reluctant to cooperate in the message relaying and may behave selfishly. Eventually, this lack of cooperation can result in performance degradation. Game theory is one of the mathematical tools to motivate the intermediate nodes to forward messages. In this paper, we use the theory of auction between relay nodes to motivate them to collaborate in forwarding messages. Based on the second-price sealed-bid auction mechanism, the node that does not cooperate in forwarding messages fails to acquire utility. In this way, if the node itself intends to send a message to another node, it will not be able to do so due to a lack of budget. Thus, the selfish behavior of the node causes it to be harmed. Our simulations using the ONE simulator shows that the performance of the proposed method in moderate traffic is improved in terms of significant criteria such as delivery ratio, average buffer usage, hop count, overhead, and so on. The results also show that under intense traffic conditions, the performance of the proposed method is far better than that of moderate traffic.

     

Modeling and output tracking of transverse flux permanent magnet machines using high gain observer and RBF neural network

This paper deals with modeling and adaptive output tracking of a transverse flux permanent magnet machine as a nonlinear system with unknown nonlinearities by utilizing high gain observer and radial basis function networks. The proposed model is developed based on computing the permeance between rotor and stator using quasiflux tubes. Based on this model, the techniques of feedback linearization and H_∞ control are used to design an adaptive control law for compensating the unknown nonlinear parts, such as the effect of cogging torque, as a disturbance is decreased onto the rotor angle and angular velocity tracking performances. Finally, the capability of the proposed method in tracking both the angle and the angular velocity is shown in the simulation results.     

Preparation and Characterization of Acetic Acid-Functionalized Fe3O4@SiO2 Nanoparticles as an Efficient Nanocatalyst for the Synthesis of Nitrones in Water

Silicon - Magnetic materials grafted with acetic acid (Fe3O4@SiO2COOH MNPs) were successfully prepared from the incorporation of bromoacetic acid as a functional group on the surface of magnetite...     

Path-Based Dynamic User Equilibrium Model with Applications to Strategic Transportation Planning

Networks and Spatial Economics - This study proposes an analytical capacity constrained dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) model along with an efficient path-based algorithm. The model can be applied...     

Robust design of a sustainable and resilient bioethanol supply chain under operational and disruption risks

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - In this work, we propose a mixed-integer linear programming model to address the design and planning of a multi-feedstock lignocellulosic bioethanol...     

Analysis of a joint entry- and distance-based cordon pricing scheme: a dynamic modeling approach

Railway Engineering Science - Transportation demand management (TDM) covers strategies for reducing traffic congestion within the affected urban areas. Congestion pricing includes a branch of TDM...