Structure of pentacyclo[7.4.2.02,6.06,15.011,14]pentadec-4-ene-7,13-dione, a novel pentacyclic C15 quinane system

C 15H 1602 (a synthetic precursor to dodecahedrane), monoclinic, P21/n, a = 12.171 (5), b = 6.976(5), c = 13.868 (3) A, B = 102.56 (3) ° , Z = 4, D m = 1.30, D c = 1.318 g cm -3, F(000) = 488, g(Mo K¢t) = 0.92 cm- 1. Intensity data were collected on a Nonius CAD-4 diffractometer and the structure was solved by direct methods. Full-matrix least-squares refinement gave R = 0.077 (R w = 0.076) for 1337 observed reflections. All the five-membered rings are cis fused and have envelope (C s symmetry) conformations.

Scattering of electromagnetic waves from chirally coated cylinders

The problem of electromagnetic scattering from an isotropic homogeneous chirally coated conducting cylinder is analysed. The cylinder is assumed to be illuminated by either a transverse magnetic or a transverse electric wave. Mie's analysis is used to evaluate the scattering characteristics. The computed results include the evaluation of the normalized scattering width and the absorption efficiency. The results show that there is a significant reduction in the normalized scattering width as compared to a RAM coated cylinder. This reduction has been attributed to increased absorption.

Auxiliary coils for generating magnetic field gradients for a Faraday magnetometer

A set of coils has been designed and constructed for generating magnetic field gradients for a Faraday magnetometer. We have obtained a gradient of magnitude -1 1 kOe m-' (8.75 x lo5 A m-') in an air gap of 42 mm for a current of 12 A passing through the coils.

A new synthetic procedure for the preparation of pyridinium tetrafluoroborate and hexafluorosilicate

Pyridinium tetrafluoroborate (C5H5NHBF4) and pyridinium hexafluorosilicate [(C5H5NH)2SiF6] have been prepared in good yields and high purity by the reaction of pyridinium poly(hydrogen fluoride) with oxides and acids of boron and silicon respectively. The salts have been characterised by melting points, IR, 1H and 19F NMR spectroscopy and chemical analysis.

Alfven surface waves along cylindrical plasma columns

The properties of Alfven surface waves along a cylindrical plasma column surrounded by vacuum or by another plasma medium are discussed. Both symmetric (m=0) and asymmetric (m=+or-1) modes are found to be dispersive in nature. The interfacial symmetric modes propagate in a certain frequency window ( omega A1, omega As), where omega As is the Alfven surface wave frequency along the interface of two semi-infinite media; when nu A1> nu A2 these modes propagate as backward waves and when nu A1< nu A2 as forward waves. The asymmetric modes change from backward to forward waves at a critical wave number kTr approximately=1.59/a when nu A1< nu A2 or vice versa when nu A1> nu A2.

Delay time of a vacuum gap triggered by an exploding wire

The experimental results of delay time of a vacuum gap triggered by an exploding wire plasma have been reported. It consists of explosion delay time and propagation delay time. The explosion delay time has been found to be dependent on the parameters of the exploding wire and the exploding wire circuit and is independent of vacuum gap configuration. The propagation delay time depends on the properties of the exploding wire plasma and vacuum gap parameters such as the number of injection slots, gap spacing, gap polarity, etc. In the absence of prebreakdown current in the vacuum gap, the breakdown can be initiated only after the plasma completely bridges the gap spacing. Under this specific condition, it has been shown that the delay time data can be used to calculate the plasma velocity.

The structures of ethyl 1,2,2-tricyano-3,3-dimethylcyclopropane-1-carboxylate and ethyl 2',3,3'-tricyanocyclohexanespirocyclopropane-2'-carboxylate

The crystal and molecular structures of C ,,H,IN302 (I) and C14HIsN302 (II) have been determined by direct methods using three-dimensional X-ray diffractometer data. Crystals of (I) are orthorhombic, space group Pna21, with a = 14.662(6), b = 10.492(5), c = 7.375 (3)A, Z = 4, V = 1134.5 A 3, D O = 1.25 (by flotation), D e = 1.269 Mgm -a, g(MoKa) = 0.085 mm -1. Crystals of (II) are monoclinic, space group P21/a, with a = 7.886 (5), b = 22.011 (8), c = 8.100 (3) A, fl = 103.12 (5) °, Z = 4, V = 1369.2 A 3, D O = 1.23 (by flotation), D e = 1.255 Mg m -3, g(Mo Kct) = 0.080 mm -1. Least-squares full-matrix refinement based on 782 (I) and 1400 independent reflections (II) converged at R = 0.040 (I) and 0.042 (II). The effect of electron-withdrawing substituents on the geometry of the cyclopropane ring is discussed.

Crack Tip Fields in a Single Edge Notched Aluminum Single Crystal Specimen

We report a combined experimental and computational study of a low constraint aluminum single crystal fracture geometry and investigate the near-tip stress and strain fields. To this end, a single edge notched tensile (SENT) specimen is considered. A notch, with a radius of 50 µm, is taken to lie in the (010) plane and its front is aligned along the [101] direction. Experiments are conducted by subjecting the specimen to tensile loading using a special fixture inside a scanning electron microscope chamber. Both SEM micrographs and electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD) maps are obtained from the near-tip region. The experiments are complemented by performing 3D and 2D plane strain finite element simulations within a continuum crystal plasticity framework assuming an isotropic hardening response characterized by the Pierce–Asaro–Needleman model. The simulations show a distinct slip band forming at about 55 deg with respect to the notch line corresponding to slip on (11-bar 1)[011] system, which corroborates well with experimental data. Furthermore, two kink bands occur at about 45 deg and 90 deg with respect to the notch line within which large rotations in the crystal orientation take place. These predictions are in good agreement with the EBSD observations. Finally, the near-tip angular variations of the 3D stress and plastic strain fields in the low constraint SENT fracture geometry are examined in detail.

Performance evaluation of elitist-mutated multi-objective particle swarm optimization for integrated water resources management

Optimal allocation of water resources for various stakeholders often involves considerable complexity with several conflicting goals, which often leads to multi-objective optimization. In aid of effective decision-making to the water managers, apart from developing effective multi-objective mathematical models, there is a greater necessity of providing efficient Pareto optimal solutions to the real world problems. This study proposes a swarm-intelligence-based multi-objective technique, namely the elitist-mutated multi-objective particle swarm optimization technique (EM-MOPSO), for arriving at efficient Pareto optimal solutions to the multi-objective water resource management problems. The EM-MOPSO technique is applied to a case study of the multi-objective reservoir operation problem. The model performance is evaluated by comparing with results of a non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) model, and it is found that the EM-MOPSO method results in better performance. The developed method can be used as an effective aid for multi-objective decision-making in integrated water resource management.

Conformationally locked thiosugars alpha-mannosidase inhibitors: Synthesis, and docking studies as potent biochemical

series of thiosugar derivatives (thiolevomannosans) derived from mannose were synthesized and their inhibitory activity was tested against alpha-mannosidase (jack bean). These inhibitors were found to be more potent than the well-known inhibitors like kifunensine and deoxymannojirimycin based on docking and biochemical studies. The sulfone derivative 10 was shown to be the best inhibitor of alpha-mannosidase with the K-i value of 350 nM. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The effect of halogen atom on the molecular quadratic nonlinearity of half sandwich complexes in the presence of an acceptor

Half sandwich complexes of the type [CpM(CO)(n)X] {X=Cl, Br, I; If, M=Fe, Ru; n=2 and if M=Mo; n=3} and [CpNiPPh3X] {X=Cl, Br, I} have been synthesized and their second order molecular nonlinearity (beta) measured at 1064 nm in CHCl3 by the hyper-Rayleigh scattering technique. Iron complexes consistently display larger beta values than ruthenium complexes while nickel complexes have marginally larger beta values than iron complexes. In the presence of an acceptor ligand such as CO or PPh3, the role of the halogen atom is that of a pi donor. The better overlap of Cl orbitals with Fe and Ni metal centres make Cl a better pi donor than Br or I in the respective complexes. Consequently, M-pi interaction is stronger in Fe/Ni-Cl complexes. The value of beta decreases as one goes down the halogen group. For the complexes of 4d metal ions where the metal-ligand distance is larger, the influence of pi orbital overlap appears to be less important, resulting in moderate changes in beta as a function of halogen substitution. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Studies on the ignition behaviour of boron powder

The ignition behaviour of boron powder, prepared through electrowinning process, was studied by using thermogravimetry coupled with simultaneous differential thermal analysis (TG-SDTA). The dependence of the inception of the ignition reaction on the partial pressure of oxygen, particle size of the boron powder and heating rate was investigated. It was observed that all these factors affect the ignition temperature. Boron powder with a mean particle size of about 10 mu m was found to be susceptible to ignition in oxygen even at 783K. In general, the susceptibility to ignition was found to vary inversely with the degree of crystallinity. Presence of carbon was found to retard the oxidation of boron and raise the ignition temperature. These results are useful in safe handling and storage of finely divided boron powder and in the subsequent production of boron carbide from it. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Impedance studies on high energy Li3+ irradiated PZT thin films

The ferroelectric Pb(Zr0.48Ti0.52)O-3 (PZT) thin films prepared by the pulsed laser deposition technique were studied for their response to high energy lithium ion irradiation through impedance spectroscopy. The Debye peaks, observed in the impedance and modulus plots of irradiatedfilms, shifts towards higher frequencies compared to those of unirradiated films. This is equivalent to the trend observed with increase in temperature in the unirradiated films due to the dielectric relaxation. The irradiated films showed a decrease in the grain resistance compared to the unirradiated films. The activation energy of dielectric relaxation increases from 1.25 eV of unirradiated film to 1.62 eV of irradiated film. The observed modifications in the irradiated film were ascribed to the modifications in the grain structure due to the high value of electronic energy loss.

Hybrid moving block bootstrap for stochastic simulation of multi-site multi-season streamflows

The Hybrid approach introduced by the authors for at-site modeling of annual and periodic streamflows in earlier works is extended to simulate multi-site multi-season streamflows. It bears significance in integrated river basin planning studies. This hybrid model involves: (i) partial pre-whitening of standardized multi-season streamflows at each site using a parsimonious linear periodic model; (ii) contemporaneous resampling of the resulting residuals with an appropriate block size, using moving block bootstrap (non-parametric, NP) technique; and (iii) post-blackening the bootstrapped innovation series at each site, by adding the corresponding parametric model component for the site, to obtain generated streamflows at each of the sites. It gains significantly by effectively utilizing the merits of both parametric and NP models. It is able to reproduce various statistics, including the dependence relationships at both spatial and temporal levels without using any normalizing transformations and/or adjustment procedures. The potential of the hybrid model in reproducing a wide variety of statistics including the run characteristics, is demonstrated through an application for multi-site streamflow generation in the Upper Cauvery river basin, Southern India. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Equivalent constitutive model-based design of wave-absorbing material system and controller

A design methodology for wave-absorbing active material system is reported. The design enforces equivalence between an assumed material model having wave-absorbing behavior and a set of target feedback controllers for an array of microelectro-mechanical transducers which are integral part of the active material system. The proposed methodology is applicable to problems involving the control of acoustic waves in passive-active material system with complex constitutive behavior at different length-scales. A stress relaxation type one-dimensional constitutive model involving viscous damping mechanism is considered, which shows asymmetric wave dispersion characteristics about the half-line. The acoustic power flow and asymptotic stability of such material system are studied. A single sensor non-collocated linear feedback control system in a one-dimensional finite waveguide, which is a representative volume element in an active material system, is considered. Equivalence between the exact dynamic equilibrium of these two systems is imposed. It results in the solution space of the design variables, namely the equivalent damping coefficient, the wavelength(s) to be controlled and the location of the sensor. The characteristics of the controller transfer functions and their pole-placement problem are studied. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.