High-Surface Step Density on Dendritic Pd Leads to Exceptional Catalytic Activity for Formic Acid Oxidation

Dendrite Pd with corrugated surfaces, obtained by a novel AC technique, exhibits an exceptionally high catalytic activity for the oxidation of formic acid because of the presence of a high density of surface steps. The formation of twinned dendrites leads to a predominance of exposed 111 facets with a high density of surface steps as evident from high resolution electron microscopy investigations. These surface sites provide active sites for the absorption of the formic acid molecules, thereby enhancing the reaction rate. Control experiments by varying the time of deposition reveal the formation of partially grown dendrites at shorter times indicating that the dendrites were formed by growth rather than particle attachment. Our deposition method opens up interesting possibilities to produce artisotropic nanostructures with corrugated surfaces by exploiting the perturbations involved in the growth process.

Synthesis and vesicle formation from novel pseudoglyceryl dimeric lipids. Evidence of formation of widely different membrane organizations with exceptional thermotropic properties

Eight new bis-cationic dimeric lipids 2a-h have been synthesized; TEM of their aqueous dispersions confirmed the vesicle formation and from the thermal, spectroscopic, DLS and XRD studies it has been revealed that they form three different kinds of membranous aggregate depending on the m-value.

Exceptional activity of mesoporous beta-MnO2 in the catalytic thermal sensitization of ammonium perchlorate

Mesoporous beta-MnO2 has been prepared, characterized and demonstrated to possess excellent catalytic activity in the thermal decomposition of ammonium perchlorate. The observed unprecedentedly low decomposition temperatures, fast reaction rates and enhanced heat releases in the catalysed formulations make mesoporous beta-MnO2 promising as a high-performing ballistic modifier in AP-based composite solid rocket propellants.

Bioinspired Reductionistic Peptide Engineering for Exceptional Mechanical Properties

A simple solution-processing and self-assembly approach that exploits the synergistic interactions between multiple hydrogen bonded networks and aromatic interactions was utilized to synthesize molecular crystals of cyclic dipeptides (CDPs), whose molecular weights (similar to 0.2 kDa) are nearly three orders of magnitude smaller than that of natural structural proteins (50-300 kDa). Mechanical properties of these materials, measured using the nanoindentation technique, indicate that the stiffness and strength are comparable and sometimes better than those of natural fibres. The measured mechanical responses were rationalized by recourse to the crystallographic structural analysis and intermolecular interactions in the self-assembled single crystals. With this work we highlight the significance of developing small molecule based bioinspired design strategies to emulate biomechanical properties. A particular advantage of the successfully demonstrated reductionistic strategy of the present work is its amenability for realistic industrial scale manufacturing of designer biomaterials with desired mechanical properties.

A self-assembling polycationic nanocarrier that exhibits exceptional gene transfection efficiency

The lack of an efficient and safe carrier is a major impediment in the field of gene therapy. Although gelatin (GT), a naturally derived polymer, is widely used in drug delivery applications, it is unable to bind DNA efficiently. In this study, a novel polycationic gene carrier was prepared by conjugation of low molecular weight polyethyleneimine (LPEI) with GT through 4-bromonaphthaleic anhydride as a coupling agent to avoid self crosslinking. Self-assembly of LPEI conjugated GT (GT-LPEI) with plasmid DNA (pDNA) yielded nanoparticles with high gene complexation ability to form similar to 250 nm cylindrical nanoparticles with a zeta potential of similar to 27 mV. GT-LPEI showed exceptionally high transfection efficiency (> 90%) in various mammalian cells including primary stem cells with minimal cytotoxicity. The transfection efficiency of GT-LPEI significantly surpassed that of many commercial reagents. The high gene transfection expression was confirmed in vivo. Thus, GT-LPEI is shown to be a promising nonviral carrier for potential use in gene therapy.

Exceptional resistance to grain growth in nanocrystalline CoCrFeNi high entropy alloy at high homologous temperatures

Nanocrystalline CoCrFeNi high entropy alloy, synthesized by mechanical alloying followed by spark plasma sintering, demonstrated extremely sluggish grain growth even at very high homologous temperature of 0.68 T-m (900 degrees C) for annealing duration of 600 h. Mechanically alloyed powder had carbon and oxygen as impurities, which in turn led to the formation of two-phase mixture of FCC and Cr-rich carbide with fine distribution of Cr-rich oxide during spark plasma sintering. Sluggish grain growth is attributed to the Zener pinning effect from the fine dispersion of oxide, mutual retardation of grain boundaries in the presence of two phases, and sluggish diffusivity because of cooperative diffusion of multi-principle elements. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Costs of Drought: the Exceptional 2007-2008 Case of Barcelona

35 p.

Topological strings, double affine Hecke algebras, and exceptional knot homology

In this thesis, we consider two main subjects: refined, composite invariants and exceptional knot homologies of torus knots. The main technical tools are double affine Hecke algebras ("DAHA") and various insights from topological string theory.

In particular, we define and study the composite DAHA-superpolynomials of torus knots, which depend on pairs of Young diagrams and generalize the composite HOMFLY-PT polynomials from the full HOMFLY-PT skein of the annulus. We also describe a rich structure of differentials that act on homological knot invariants for exceptional groups. These follow from the physics of BPS states and the adjacencies/spectra of singularities associated with Landau-Ginzburg potentials. At the end, we construct two DAHA-hyperpolynomials which are closely related to the Deligne-Gross exceptional series of root systems.

In addition to these main themes, we also provide new results connecting DAHA-Jones polynomials to quantum torus knot invariants for Cartan types A and D, as well as the first appearance of quantum E6 knot invariants in the literature.

The western blue groper (Achoerodus gouldii), a protogynous hermaphroditic labrid with exceptional longevity, late maturity, slow growth, and both late maturation and sex change

The western blue groper (Achoerodus gouldii) is shown to be a temperate protogynous hermaphrodite, which spawns between early winter and mid-spring. Because A. gouldii changes body color at about the time of sex change, its color can be used as a proxy for sex for estimating the size and age at sex change and for estimating growth when it is not possible to use gonads for determining the sex of this fish. The following characteristics make A. gouldii highly susceptible to overfishing: 1) exceptional longevity, with a maximum age (70 years) that is by far the greatest yet estimated for a labrid; 2) slow growth for the first 15 years and little subsequent growth by females; and 3) late maturation at a large total length (TL50 = 653 mm) and old age (~17 years) and 4) late sex change at an even greater total length (TL50 = 821 mm) and age (~35 years). The TL50 at maturity and particularly at sex change exceeded the minimum legal total length (500 mm) of A. gouldii and the lengths of many recreationally and commercially caught fish. Many of these characteristics are found in certain deep-water fishes that are likewise considered susceptible to overfishing. Indeed, although fishing effort for A. gouldii in Western Australia is not particularly high, per-recruit analyses indicate that this species is already close to or fully exploited.

扬子地区上奥陶－下志留统黑色岩系形成机理

The black rock series of the Upper Ordovician - Lower Silurian in Yangtze area are important source rocks and have exceptional characteristics of sediment, biology, element geochemistry, carbon and oxygen isotope, organic geochemistry and etc. These characteristics are the reflection of important geology events. Due to scarce system research, many problems that relate to the development mechanism of source rocks are not solved. And this restricts the exploration of Oil and gas in South China. In this paper, author studied the palaeo-climate, palaeo-structure and palaeo-environment of the Upper Ordovician - Lower Silurian in Yangtze area by sedimentology, palaeobiology and geochemistry, especially the element geochemistry and isotope geochemistry. The environment model of source rocks is established and some conclusions are drawn. The Upper Ordovician - Lower Silurian sediment types in Yangtze area are mostly black shales, next, mudstone, shell limestone and siltystone. During the Late Ordovician and Earily Silurian periods, a series of big upheaval and depressed are distributed in Yangtze area, and the strata pattern of interphase upheaval and depressed led to Yangtze palaeosea isolated with outside sea. So the stagnant and anoxic environment that are the favorable factor of rich organic black shales sediment is formed in Yangtze area. That Chemical Index of Alteration (CIA) values of the lower Wufeng formation and Longmaxi formation exhibits moderate chemistry weathering suggests they were deposited under the circumstances of the warm and humid climate. However, the large difference of the CIA values of N.extraordinarius-N.ojsuensis biozone suggests that climate is changeful. Therefore, there were two different kinds of climates in the course of the deposition of the Wufeng formation and Longmaxi formation. During the Late Ordovician - Earily Silurian periods, in Yangtze palaeosea, the surface water which is full of rich nutriment and abundant bacterium - algae has high palaeo-productivity that is obvious difference in the different space – time. The content of sulphate changes gradually from the surface water columns to the deep water columns. That is, salinity in the surface water columns is serious low and the salinity in deep water columns is normal. Salinity delamination is favor of the forming of deep anoxic environment. During Wufeng period, the oxidated and low sulfate environment exists in the upper Yangtze palaeosea, while the anoxic and normal salinity environment occurs in the lower Yangtze palaeosea. During the Late Wufeng and Guanyinqiao periods, the steady anoxic environment is replaced by oxidated environment. During the Longmaxi period, layered and anoxic environment recur. In Yangtze area, studies of δ13C of sedimentary organic carbon show a positive δ13C excursion up to 4‰ in the Guanyinqiao stage and then, acute negative excursion in the earily Longmaxi stage. These organic carbon isotopes curve are not only efficient measure of carving up strata borderline, but also reflected the change of originality productivity. These organic carbon isotopes curves showed the process of the enhanced embedding of the global organic carbon. Anoxic event is the main factor of increasing organic carbon embedding speed. And the reduced organic carbon embedding in Hirnantian stage is due to the water column with abundant oxygen. The δ34S values are gradually positive excursion from P.pacificus biozone to N.extraordinarius biozone, and reach the maximum in the Upper Hirnantian stage. Then, the δ34S values are negative excursion. The excursions of δ13C and δ34S reflect the acute change of environment. The formation of source rocks is largely dependent on the nature of organisms from which kerogen is derived and the preservation conditions of organic matter, which are fundamentally dependent on a favourable combination of various elements in which organisms live and are subsequently buried. These elements include palaeoclimate, palaeostructure and palaeoenvironmental conditions. Based on above mentioned circumstance, the coupling connection of source rock and the palaeoclimate, and of palaeostructure and palaeoenvironmental conditions are confirmed, and the “anoxic-marginal depression-photosynthesis” environemental model is established. It is indicated that anoxic played important role in production of organic matter. The produced organic matter was accumulated in marginal depression of the Yangtze area. The photosynthesis is favor of the high productivity. Source rocks have a good perspective, like that of “hot shale” deposited in North Africa.

Mainland size variation informs predictive models of exceptional insular body size change in rodents.

The tendency for island populations of mammalian taxa to diverge in body size from their mainland counterparts consistently in particular directions is both impressive for its regularity and, especially among rodents, troublesome for its exceptions. However, previous studies have largely ignored mainland body size variation, treating size differences of any magnitude as equally noteworthy. Here, we use distributions of mainland population body sizes to identify island populations as 'extremely' big or small, and we compare traits of extreme populations and their islands with those of island populations more typical in body size. We find that although insular rodents vary in the directions of body size change, 'extreme' populations tend towards gigantism. With classification tree methods, we develop a predictive model, which points to resource limitations as major drivers in the few cases of insular dwarfism. Highly successful in classifying our dataset, our model also successfully predicts change in untested cases.

Insolvency: ordering a sale of the family home

Comments on the Chancery Division ruling in Nicholls v Lan on whether the interests of a bankrupt husband's creditors prevailed over those of the wife, despite her circumstances being exceptional within the meaning of the Insolvency Act 1986 s.335A on account of her suffering from chronic schizophrenia, where the wife was the joint owner of another property which could be realised to buy out the trustee in bankruptcy's half share in the equity of the matrimonial home.

Exceptional abundance of the snake pipefish (Entelurus aequoreus) in the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean

Pipefish (Syngnathidae) have occurred with unprecedented frequency in Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) samples to the west of the British Isles from 2003 to 2005. Identification by mtDNA sequencing established that they were snake pipefish, Entelurus aequoreus. The geographical range of the records were from the outer continental shelf of the Celtic Sea and north-west of Ireland to the mid-Atlantic Ridge between 40° and 57°N, with the greatest abundance near the shelf edge and adjacent oceanic waters south of Ireland and west of Brittany. There were records in every month from February to November but most were in late spring and summer. A proposed mechanism for the increase in abundance of the species is that recent climate change has had beneficial impacts on the reproduction of adults and the survival of larvae and juveniles.