Thermal Stability of Polymer Additives: Comparison of Decomposition Models Including Oxidative Pyrolysis

The thermo‐oxidative stability of widely used polymer additives has been investigated. A comparative analytical approach with classic and innovative decomposition models for polymer additives was conducted and the results supported using quantum‐chemical calculations. Unique pyrolysis products of the analytes were compiled utilizing pyrolysis online coupled to gas chromatography followed by mass spectrometric detection (Pyr‐GC–MS). The pyrolysis was either performed under inert conditions or in an oxygen‐containing atmosphere. Squalane was applied as polymer‐mimicking liquid next to low density polyethylene (LDPE) and polyamide 6 (PA 6) as matrices for 10 selected additives. The additives included in this study range from antioxidants and plasticizers to processing aids. These were selected to address a range of application in consumer products and to cover different chemical classes. The toxicological relevance of additives and potential breakdown products was considered. Consequently, degradation of sterically hindered antioxidants, diarylamines, and a trimellitic acid derivative was investigated. The findings were used to predict the behavior of consumer products made of polymeric materials entailing additives. The level of Antioxidant 2246 [2‐tert‐butyl‐6‐[(3‐tert‐butyl‐2‐hydroxy‐5‐methylphenyl)methyl]‐4‐methylphenol] and one of its predicted decomposition products was determined in baby bottle nipples made of natural rubber [2‐tert‐butyl‐4‐methylphenol] utilizing the complementary technique of gas chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (GC–MS/MS). This study provides a comprehensive characterization of important polymer additives and enables the prioritization of degradation products for further risk assessment. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 25:E12–E27, 2019. © 2018 The Authors. Journal of Vinyl and Additive Technology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society of Plastics Engineers     

HoxA is a transcriptional regulator for expression of the hup structural genes in free-living Bradyrhizobium japonicum

A chromosomally integrated Bradyrhizobium japonicum hoxA mutant is unable to oxidize hydrogen in free-living conditions. Derepressing conditions that induce hydrogenase activity in free-living, wild-type B. japonicum cells cannot induce expression of the hydrogenase structural genes in the hoxA mutant. The DNA-binding capacity of HoxA at the hup promoter region was studied by means of gel retardation. Both heterotrophically growing cells and cells induced to express hydrogenase activity contain a protein that specifically binds to the hup promoter region. Crude protein extracts isolated from a B. japonicum hoxA mutant do not contain this binding compound. The HoxA protein was overexpressed in E. coli and isolated in the form of a maltose-binding protein (MBP)-HoxA fusion. The MBP-HoxA hybrid protein specifically bound to a 50 bp region of the hupSL promoter known to be important for regulation of hupSL expression.     

ACAT inhibitors derived from hetero-Diels-Alder cycloadducts of thioaldehydes

Acyl-CoA:cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT) is the enzyme largely responsible for intracellular cholesterol esterification. A systemic inhibitor of ACAT is believed to be able to slow or even reverse the atherosclerotic process. Towards that goal, a series of cyclic sulfides, derived from the hetero-Diels-Alder reaction of thioaldehydes with 1,3-dienes, and bearing carboxamide substituents, were prepared and evaluated for in vitro (in several tissues and species) and ex vivo ACAT inhibition. Minor changes in subsequent structure were found to have a significant effect in optimization of the biological activity of this series of compounds.     

The quantum dynamic capacity formula of a quantum channel

The dynamic capacity theorem characterizes the reliable communication rates of a quantum channel when combined with the noiseless resources of classical communication, quantum communication, and entanglement. In prior work, we proved the converse part of this theorem by making contact with many previous results in the quantum Shannon theory literature. In this work, we prove the theorem with an ??ab initio?? approach, using only the most basic tools in the quantum information theorist??s toolkit: the Alicki-Fannes?? inequality, the chain rule for quantum mutual information, elementary properties of quantum entropy, and the quantum data processing inequality. The result is a simplified proof of the theorem that should be more accessible to those unfamiliar with the quantum Shannon theory literature. We also demonstrate that the ??quantum dynamic capacity formula?? characterizes the Pareto optimal trade-off surface for the full dynamic capacity region. Additivity of this formula reduces the computation of the trade-off surface to a tractable, textbook problem in Pareto trade-off analysis, and we prove that its additivity holds for the quantum Hadamard channels and the quantum erasure channel. We then determine exact expressions for and plot the dynamic capacity region of the quantum dephasing channel, an example from the Hadamard class, and the quantum erasure channel.     

An investigation of the option space in conceptual building design for advanced building simulation

This article describes research conducted to gather empirical evidence on size, character and content of the option space in building design projects. This option space is the key starting point for the work of any climate engineer using building performance simulation who is supporting the design process. The underlying goal is to strengthen the role of advanced computing in building design, especially in the early conceptual stage, through a better integration of building performance simulation tools augmented with uncertainty analysis and sensitivity analysis. Better integration will need to assist design rather than automate design, allowing a spontaneous, creative and flexible process that acknowledges the expertise of the design team members. This research investigates and contrasts emergent option spaces and their inherent uncertainties in an artificial setting (student design studios) and in real-life scenarios (commercial design project case studies). The findings provide empirical evidence of the high variability of the option space that can be subjected to uncertainty analysis and sensitivity analysis.     

Evidence for Glass–glass Interfaces in a Columnar Cu–Zr Nanoglass

Comprehensive analyses of the atomic structure using advanced analytical transmission electron microscopy-based methods combined with atom probe tomography confirm the presence of distinct glass–glass interfaces in a columnar Cu-Zr nanoglass synthesized by magnetron sputtering. These analyses provide first-time in-depth characterization of sputtered film nanoglasses and indicate that glass–glass interfaces indeed present an amorphous phase with reduced mass density as compared to the neighboring amorphous regions. Moreover, dedicated analyses of the diffusion kinetics by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy (ToF SIMS) prove significantly enhanced diffusivity, suggesting fast transport along the low density glass–glass interfaces. The present results further indicate that sputter deposition is a feasible technique for reliable production of nanoglasses and that some of the concepts proposed for this new class of glassy materials are applicable.     

Epidemiology of infection with Epstein-Barr virus types 1 and 2: lessons from the study of a T-cell-immunocompromised hemophilic cohort

In apparent contrast to earlier work on Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) carriage in the general Caucasian population, in vitro virus isolations from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive male homosexual cohorts have shown frequent examples of multiple EBV infection and an overall prevalence of type 2 EBV strains exceeding 30%. Here we ask to what extent these findings might hold true in another T-cell-immunocompromised cohort, HIV-positive hemophilic patients. Resident EBV strains were rescued within lymphoblastoid cell lines derived from the blood and throat washings of 39 such individuals, using the same in vitro protocols of virus isolation as for the homosexual cohort. A mean of 19 independent cell lines was made per patient, and in each case the resident virus was characterized by PCR-based viral genomic analysis and by immunoblotting to reveal the viral "EBNAprint." By these criteria a significant proportion (14 of 39) of the hemophilic cohort carried more than one EBV strain, suggesting that T-cell impairment does indeed sensitize virus carriers to reinfection with new strains of exogenously transmitted virus. However, the overall incidence of type 2 EBV infection was 10%, which is close to that observed in the earlier work with healthy carriers and substantially lower than that seen in HIV-positive homosexuals. We infer that type 2 EBV is relatively rare in the general Caucasian population but has become endemic in the homosexual community.     

Nonlocal quantum information in bipartite quantum error correction

We show how to convert an arbitrary stabilizer code into a bipartite quantum code. A bipartite quantum code is one that involves two senders and one receiver. The two senders exploit both nonlocal and local quantum resources to encode quantum information with local encoding circuits. They transmit their encoded quantum data to a single receiver who then decodes the transmitted quantum information. The nonlocal resources in a bipartite code are ebits and nonlocal information qubits, and the local resources are ancillas and local information qubits. The technique of bipartite quantum error correction is useful in both the quantum communication scenario described above and in fault-tolerant quantum computation. It has application in fault-tolerant quantum computation because we can prepare nonlocal resources offline and exploit local encoding circuits. In particular, we derive an encoding circuit for a bipartite version of the Steane code that is local and additionally requires only nearest-neighbor interactions. We have simulated this encoding in the CNOT extended rectangle with a publicly available fault-tolerant simulation software. The result is that there is an improvement in the “pseudothreshold” with respect to the baseline Steane code, under the assumption that quantum memory errors occur less frequently than quantum gate errors.     

Hadamard quantum broadcast channels

We consider three different communication tasks for quantum broadcast channels, and we determine the capacity region of a Hadamard broadcast channel for these various tasks. We define a Hadamard broadcast channel to be such that the channel from the sender to one of the receivers is entanglement-breaking and the channel from the sender to the other receiver is complementary to this one. As such, this channel is a quantum generalization of a degraded broadcast channel, which is well known in classical information theory. The first communication task we consider is classical communication to both receivers, the second is quantum communication to the stronger receiver and classical communication to other, and the third is entanglement-assisted classical communication to the stronger receiver and unassisted classical communication to the other. The structure of a Hadamard broadcast channel plays a critical role in our analysis: The channel to the weaker receiver can be simulated by performing a measurement channel on the stronger receiver’s system, followed by a preparation channel. As such, we can incorporate the classical output of the measurement channel as an auxiliary variable and solve all three of the above capacities for Hadamard broadcast channels, in this way avoiding known difficulties associated with quantum auxiliary variables.