Direct amorphous-to-cubic perovskite phase transformation for lead titanate

The phase evolution of lead titanate processed by the polymeric precursor method was investigated by thermal analysis, X-ray diffraction, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The results showed that the cubic perovskite PbTiO3 (PT) phase is formed from an inorganic amorphous precursor at a temperature of 444 °C. A gradual transition from cubic to tetragonal perovskite PT was observed with the increase of calcination time at this temperature. HRTEM results showed that the cubic PT particles have a size of around 5 nm. The identification of cubic PT as an intermediate phase supports the hypothesis that the chemical homogeneity was kept at the molecular level during the synthesis process, with no cation segregation.

Coil to extended coil transition in polygalacturonic acid: Conductometric titration and monte carlo simulations

The conformational transition from coil to extended coil for polygalacturonic acid has been studied by conductometric titrations and Monte Carlo simulations. The results of conductometric titrations at different polymer concentrations have been analyzed using the model proposed by Manning,1 which describes the conductivity of polyelectrolitic solutions. This experimental approach provides the transport factor and the average distance between charged groups at different degrees of ionization (α). The mean distances between charged groups have been compared with the values obtained by Monte Carlo simulations. In these simulations the polymer chain is modeled as a self-avoiding random walk in a cubic lattice. The monomers interact through the unscreened Coulombic potential. The ratio between the end-to-end distance and the number of ionized beads provides the average distance between charged monomers. The experimental and theoretical values are in good agreement for the whole range of ionization degrees accessed by conductometric titrations. These results suggest that the electrostatic interactions seem to be the major contribution for the coil to extended coil conformational change. The small deviations for α ≤ 0.5 suggests that the stiffness of the chain, associated with local interactions, becomes increasingly significant as the fraction of charged groups is decreased. © 2000 American Chemical Society.

Cubic twistorial string field theory

Witten has recently proposed a string theory in twistor space whose D-instanton contributions are conjectured to compute M = 4 super-Yang-Mills scattering amplitudes. An alternative string theory in twistor space was then proposed whose open string tree amplitudes reproduce the D-instanton computations of maximal degree in Witten's model. In this paper, a cubic open string field theory action is constructed for this alternative string in twistor space, and is shown to be invariant under parity transformations which exchange MHV and googly amplitudes. Since the string field theory action is gauge-invariant and reproduces the correct cubic super-Yang-Mills interactions, it provides strong support for the conjecture that the string theory correctly computes N-point super-Yang-Mills tree amplitudes. © SISSA/ISAS 2004.

Using cubic splines to mitigate systematic errors in GPS relative positioning

Systematic errors can have a significant effect on GPS observable. In medium and long baselines the major systematic error source are the ionosphere and troposphere refraction and the GPS satellites orbit errors. But, in short baselines, the multipath is more relevant. These errors degrade the accuracy of the positioning accomplished by GPS. So, this is a critical problem for high precision GPS positioning applications. Recently, a method has been suggested to mitigate these errors: the semiparametric model and the penalised least squares technique. It uses a natural cubic spline to model the errors as a function which varies smoothly in time. The systematic errors functions, ambiguities and station coordinates, are estimated simultaneously. As a result, the ambiguities and the station coordinates are estimated with better reliability and accuracy than the conventional least square method.

On the undamped free vibration of a mass interacting with a Hertzian contact stiffness

Three methods are used to determine the natural frequency of undamped free vibration of a mass interacting with a Hertzian contact stiffness. The exact value is determined using the first integral of motion. The harmonic balance method is used on a transformed equation for an approximate solution, and the multiple scales method is used on an approximate equation. The maximum initial displacement avoiding contact loss is also determined, and the corresponding exact natural frequency is also obtained analytically. The methods are evaluated by studying the free vibration of an elastic sphere on a flat rigid surface. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Voltammetric Study of a Cubic Silsesquioxane Organically Modified with Imidazole and their Subsequent Reaction with Cadmium and Hexacyanoferrate (III)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

The non-ideal problem behavior using a dynamic vibration absorber with nonlinear essential stiffness and timedependent damping properties

The purpose of this study is to develop a dynamic vibration absorber using viscoelastic material with nonlinear essential stiffness and time-dependent damping properties for a non-ideal vibrating system with Sommerfeld effect, resonance capture, and jump phenomenon. The absorber is a mass-bar subsystem that consists of a viscoelastic bar with memory attached to mass, in which the internal dissipative forces depend on current, deformations, and its operational frequency varies with limited temperature. The non-ideal vibrating system consists of a linear (nonlinear) oscillator (plane frame structure) under excitation, via spring connector, of a DC-motor with limited power supply. A viscoelastic dynamic absorber modeled with elastic stiffness essentially nonlinearities was developed to further reduce the Sommerfeld effect and the response of the structure. The numerical results show the performance of the absorber on the non-ideal system response through the resonance curves, time histories, and Poincarésections. Furthermore, the structure responses using the viscoelastic damper with and without memory were studied. © IMechE 2012.

Tilings induced by a class of cubic Rauzy fractals

We study aperiodic and periodic tilings induced by the Rauzy fractal and its subtiles associated with beta-substitutions related to the polynomial x3-ax2-bx-1 for a≥b≥1. In particular, we compute the corresponding boundary graphs, describing the adjacencies in the tilings. These graphs are a valuable tool for more advanced studies of the topological properties of the Rauzy fractals. As an example, we show that the Rauzy fractals are not homeomorphic to a closed disc as soon as a≤2b-4. The methods presented in this paper may be used to obtain similar results for other classes of substitutions.© 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A new hybrid polyhedral cubic silsesquioxane chemically modified with 4-amino-5-(4-pyridyl)-4H-1,2,4-triazole-3-thiol (APTT) and copper hexacyanoferrate(III) for voltammetric determination of nitrite

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

A cubic silsesquioxane modified with purpald®: Preparation, characterization and a voltammetric application for determination of sulfite

A novel composite formed by interaction of a octa(3-chloropropyl)octasilsesquioxane modified with Purpald®, and its subsequent reaction with silver and hexacyanoferrate (III) (AgHSP), was synthesized and initially characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectra (FTIR) and cyclic voltammetry. The cyclic voltammogram of the modified graphite paste electrode with AgHSP, showed one redox couple with formal potential Eθ'=0.64V (vs Ag/AgCl, KNO3, 1.0 mol L-1; v = 20 mV s-1), attributed to the Fe2+(CN)6/ Fe3+(CN)6 process. The redox couple presents an electrocatalytic response for determination of sulfite. The modified electrode showed a linear response from 7.0×10-5 to 1.0×10-3 mol L-1 with the corresponding equation Y(μA) = 18.05 + 29.983×103 [sulfite], and a correlation coefficient of r=0.999. The method showed a detection limit of 0.115×10-4 mol L-1 with a relative standard deviation of ± 4% (n = 3) and amperometric sensitivity of 29.983×10-3A mol L-1. The modified electrode showed a excellent stability and good reproducibility during experiments. © 2013 by ESG.

Determination of copper in different ethanolic matrices using a chloropropyl silica gel modified with a nanostructured cubic octa(3-aminopropyl)octasilsesquioxane

The chloropropyl silica gel was modified with octa(3-aminopropyl) octasilsesquioxane and characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), spectroscopies, and surface and area porosity. The specific sorption capacity of metallic ions (Cu2+ and Ni2+) increases in the following solvent order: water < ethanol 42% < ethanol < ketone. The high values of the constant (K) in the order of 103 L mol-1 suggested the high adsorbent capacity of the modified silica (SGAPC) for Cu2+ and Ni2+. SGAPC was applied to a separation column and shows recoveries of around 100% of copper in samples of sugar cane spirit, vodka, ginger brandy, and ethanol fuel. © 2013 Devaney Ribeiro Do Carmo et al.

Análise não-linear física de vigas de concreto armado utilizando o elemento finito prismático regular linear associado ao de barra

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Análise dinâmica de placas delgadas utilizando elementos finitos triangulares e retangulares

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Limit Cycles for a Class of Continuous and Discontinuous Cubic Polynomial Differential Systems

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Relaxation to Fixed Points in the Logistic and Cubic Maps: Analytical and Numerical Investigation

Convergence to a period one fixed point is investigated for both logistic and cubic maps. For the logistic map the relaxation to the fixed point is considered near a transcritical bifurcation while for the cubic map it is near a pitchfork bifurcation. We confirmed that the convergence to the fixed point in both logistic and cubic maps for a region close to the fixed point goes exponentially fast to the fixed point and with a relaxation time described by a power law of exponent -1. At the bifurcation point, the exponent is not universal and depends on the type of the bifurcation as well as on the nonlinearity of the map.