Manganese ferrite-polyaniline hybrid materials: Electrical and magnetic properties

Magnetic MnFe₂O₄ nanopowders were synthesized by an original solvothermal method in the absence and in the presence of tetra-n-butylammonium bromide (TBAB) and Tween 80 (TW) as surfactants. Manganese ferrite/polyaniline (PANI) hybrid materials were synthesized by in situ polymerization of aniline on the surface of MnFe₂O₄ using ammonium persulfate as oxidant. The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of the two surfactants on the properties of the MnFe₂O₄ powders and of their composites with PANI. The specific surface area, the cumulative surface area of pores and the cumulative volume of pores are influenced by the nature of surfactant in case of MnFe₂O₄ powders and are higher by comparison to those of the MnFe₂O₄/PANI hybrid materials. The values of saturation magnetization in case of MnFe₂O₄ powders are higher than those of the hybrid materials and are not influenced by the surfactant nature. These features revealed that MnFe₂O₄ powders can be efficiently used as adsorbents for the purification of wastewaters. The values of the electrical conductivity of the composites exhibit a significant increase in comparison to the MnFe₂O₄ powders and depend on the surfactant nature. The highest value of electrical conductivity was achieved by the composite obtained using Tween 80 as surfactant (σ_DC = 54.5·10^?5S?m^?1) which was close to that of PANI (σ_DC = 61.2·10^?5 S?m^?1). The fact that the magnetic and electric properties of the synthesized MnFe₂O₄/PANI composites can be changed by design, demonstrate the high potential of these materials to be used in magneto-electric applications.     

Comparison of single-fiber and macro electrode recordings: relationship to motor unit action potential duration

The factors contributing to the duration of a motor unit action potential (MUAP) are believed to be well known, with both manual measurements and computer simulations agreeing with respect to MUAP durations approaching 10 ms. In this investigation, it is clearly demonstrated that use of a wide-open amplifier bandpass combined with signal-to-noise ratio enhancement results in MUAP durations approaching 30 ms recorded with either a macro or single-fiber electrode. Why the clinically recorded MUAP duration differs significantly from these physiologic durations is discussed. A hypothesis is presented whereby the major contributing factor toward MUAP duration is the total time of action potential transmembrane current flow along the muscle fiber from end-plate zone to musculotendinous junction.     

Analytical model of displacement amplification and stiffness optimization for a class of flexure-based compliant mechanisms

The paper formulates an analytical method for displacement and stiffness calculations of planar compliant mechanisms with single-axis flexure hinges. The procedure is based on the strain energy and Castigliano’s displacement theorem and produces closed-form equations that incorporate the compliances characterizing any analytically-defined hinge, together with the other geometric and material properties of the compliant mechanism. Displacement amplification, input stiffness and output stiffness calculations can simply be performed for any serial compliant mechanism. The class of amplifying compliant mechanisms that contain symmetric corner-filleted or circular flexure hinges is specifically addressed here. A parametric study of the mechanism performance is performed, based on the mathematical model, and an optimization procedure is proposed, based on Lagrange’s multipliers and Kuhn-Tucker conditions, which identifies the design vector that maximizes the performance of these flexure-based compliant mechanisms. Independent finite element simulation confirms the analytical model predictions.     

Rapid analysis of polymer homologues and additives with SFE/SFC-MS coupling

A rapid and easy analysis method for polymers is presented. The method involves sample preparation by SFE, separation of the extracted compounds by SFC and simultaneous quantitative detection by FID, as well as identification of unknowns by MS. The applications illustrate how structural research work and routine polymer analysis can be done with this time saving method.     

Representation and uniformization of algebraic transductions

This paper explores different means of representation for algebraic transductions, i.e., word relations realized by pushdown transducers. The relevance of this work lies more in its point of view rather than any particular result. We are aiming at giving specific techniques for obtaining, or perhaps explaining, decompositions of algebraic (and incidentally, rational) relations, relying solely on their “machine” definition rather than some complex algebraic apparatus. From this point of view, we are hoping to have demystified the heavy formalism employed in the present literature. Some of the novelties of our work are: the use of “stack languages” and “embeddings,” which eliminate the need of arbitrary context-free languages in our characterizations, the study of uniformizations for algebraic transductions and the use of the so-called stack transductions for exposing the anatomy of pushdown transducers.This work was supported by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada grants R220259 and OGP0041630.     

Turbulent Details Simulation for SPH Fluids via Vorticity Refinement

A major issue in smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) approaches is the numerical dissipation during the projection process, especially under coarse discretizations. High‐frequency details, such as turbulence and vortices, are smoothed out, leading to unrealistic results. To address this issue, we introduce a vorticity refinement (VR) solver for SPH fluids with negligible computational overhead. In this method, the numerical dissipation of the vorticity field is recovered by the difference between the theoretical and the actual vorticity, so as to enhance turbulence details. Instead of solving the Biot‐Savart integrals, a stream function, which is easier and more efficient to solve, is used to relate the vorticity field to the velocity field. We obtain turbulence effects of different intensity levels by changing an adjustable parameter. Since the vorticity field is enhanced according to the curl field, our method can not only amplify existing vortices, but also capture additional turbulence. Our VR solver is straightforward to implement and can be easily integrated into existing SPH methods.     

A new approach to predict ulcerative colitis activity through standard clinical–biological parameters using a robust neural network model

Neural Computing and Applications - Colonoscopy is the “gold” standard for evaluating disease activity in ulcerative colitis (UC). An important area of research is finding a...     

Novel (Phenothiazinyl)Vinyl-Pyridinium Dyes and Their Potential Applications as Cellular Staining Agents

We report here the synthesis and structural characterization of novel cationic (phenothiazinyl)vinyl-pyridinium (PVP) dyes, together with optical (absorption/emission) properties and their potential applicability as fluorescent labels. Convective heating, ultrasound irradiation and mechanochemical synthesis were considered as alternative synthetic methodologies proficient for overcoming drawbacks such as long reaction time, nonsatisfactory yields or solvent requirements in the synthesis of novel dye (E)-1-(3-chloropropyl)-4-(2-(10-methyl-10H-phenothiazin-3-yl)vinyl)pyridin-1-ium bromide 3d and its N-alkyl-2-methylpyridinium precursor 1c. The trans geometry of the newly synthesized (E)-4-(2-(7-bromo-10-ethyl-10H-phenothiazin-3-yl)vinyl)-1-methylpyridin-1-ium iodide 3b and (E)-1-methyl-4-(2-(10-methyl-10H-phenothiazin-3-yl)vinyl)pyridin-1-ium tetrafluoroborate 3a′ was confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction. A negative solvatochromism of the dyes in polar solvents was highlighted by UV-Vis spectroscopy and explanatory insights were supported by molecular modeling which suggested a better stabilization of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals (LUMO). The photostability of the dye 3b was investigated by irradiation at 365 nm in different solvents, while the steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence properties of dye 3b and 3a′ in solid state were evaluated under one-photon excitation at 485 nm. The in vitro cytotoxicity of the new PVP dyes on B16-F10 melanoma cells was evaluated by WST-1 assay, while their intracellular localization was assessed by epi-fluorescence conventional microscopy imaging as well as one- and two-photon excited confocal fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM). PVP dyes displayed low cytotoxicity, good internalization inside melanoma cells and intense fluorescence emission inside the B16-F10 murine melanoma cells, making them suitable staining agents for imaging applications.