Ab Initio Analysis of Monomers and Dimers of Trialkylphosphine Oxides: Structural and Thermodynamic Stability

Structural and thermodynamic stabilities of monomers and dimers of trialkylphosphine oxides (TRPO) were Studied using quantum chemistry calculations. Density functional theory calculations were carried Out and the structures Of four TRPO have been determined: TMPO (methyl; R = CH(3)), TEPO (ethyl; R = CH(3)CH(2)), TBPO (n-butyl; R = CH(3)(CH(2))(3)), and TOPO (n-octyl; R = CH(3)(CH(2))(7)). TRPO homodimers were investigated considering two isomeric possibilities for each dimer. Relative binding energies and the enthalpic and entropic contributions to the Gibbs free energy were Calculated for all dimers. The formation of dimers from the individual monomeric TRPO species as a function of temperature was also analyzed. (C) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem 109: 250-258, 2009

Conformational differences between the wild type and V30M mutant transthyretin modulate its binding to genistein: Implications to tetramer stability and ligand-binding

Transthyretin (TTR) is a tetrameric beta-sheet-rich transporter protein directly involved in human amyloid diseases. It was recently found that the isoflavone genistein (GEN) potently inhibits TTR amyloid fibril formation (Green et al., 2005) and is therefore a promising candidate for TTR amyloidosis treatment. Here we used structural and biophysical approaches to characterize genistein binding to the wild type (TTRwt) and to its most frequent amyloidogenic variant, the V30M mutant. In a dose-dependent manner, genistein elicited considerable increases in both mutant and TTRwt stability as demonstrated by high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) and acid-mediated dissociation/denaturation assays. TTR:GEN crystal complexes and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) experiments showed that the binding mechanisms of genistein to the TTRwt and to V30M are different and are dependent on apoTTR structure conformations. Furthermore, we could also identify potential allosteric movements caused by genistein binding to the wild type TTR that explains, at least in part, the frequently observed negatively cooperative process between the two sites of TTRwt when binding ligands. These findings show that TTR mutants may present different ligand recognition and therefore are of value in ligand design for inhibiting TTR amyloidosis. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Gymnasisters skrivande : En studie av genre, textstruktur och sammanhang

Students in upper secondary school write in a number of different genres, and do this in school contexts as well as in their spare time. The study presented here is an overview of this activity and the genres concerned. The theoretical framework of the study is that of genre theory whereby genre is understood as a socially situated concept. The study is based on 2 000 texts gathered from students on different study programmes all over Sweden in the school year of 1996-97. The texts were written in different situations. The most important distinction made here is between test texts (i.e. texts from national tests) and self-chosen texts, which may come from schoolwriting or spare-time writing. The texts are categorized according to genre. This text inventory shows a repertoire of 33 different genres in the text material. A small number of genres, such as story, book-review and expository essay dominate the school writing. The test genres differ from this pattern in that they clearly imitate texts with a genuine communicative intent. The most frequent genres are studied further and each of them is demonstrated by an interpretative reading. This reading shows that the genres differ considerably with respect to genre character and stability of text structure. A quantitative study of text length and variation in vocabulary further shows that texts written by two categories of students, those on vocationally oriented programmes and those on programmes preparing for higher education, differ significantly. Reference cohesion is studied in a smaller sample of the texts. This lexico-semantic mechanism of cohesion proves to exhibit an interrelation with variation in vocabulary as well as with text type. One particular cohesive tie, inference, shows different patterns in texts written by the two categories of students mentioned above.

Assessing Dodd Frank Effects on banking capital structure and Banker´s Pay structure

The systemic financial crisis that started in 2008 in the United States had some severe effects in the economic activity and required the bailout of financial institutions with the use of taxpayer’s money. It also originated claims for stronger regulatory framework in order to avoid another threat in the financial market. The Dodd Frank Act was proposed and approved in the United States in the aftermath of the crisis and brought, among many other features, the creation of the Financial Stability Oversight Council and the tougher inspection of financial institutions with asset above 50 billion dollars. The objective of this work is to study the causal effect of the Dodd Frank Act on the behavior of the treatment group subject to monitoring by the Financial Stability Oversight Council (financial institutions with assets above 50 billion dollars) regarding capital and compensation structure in comparison to the group that was not treated. We use data from Compustat and our empirical strategy is the Regression Discontinuity Design, not usually applied to the banking literature, but very useful for the present work since it allows us to compare the treatment group and the non-treatment group in the year of the enactment of the law (2010). No change of behavior was observed for the Capital Structure. In the Compensation Schemes, however, a decrease was found in the item other compensation for CEOs and CFOs. We also performed a robustness check by running a placebo test on the variables in the year before the law was enacted. No significance was found, which supports the conclusion that our main results were caused by the enactment of the DFA.

On the temperature stability of extracellular hemoglobin of Glossoscolex paulistus, at different oxidation states: SAXS and DLS studies

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

Proportional controllers: Direct method for stability analysis and MATLAB implementation

In most cases, the cost of a control system increases based on its complexity. Proportional (P) controller is the simplest and most intuitive structure for the implementation of linear control systems. The difficulty to find the stability range of feedback systems with P controllers, using the Routh-Hurwitz criterion, increases with the order of the plant. For high order plants, the stability range cannot be easily obtained from the investigation of the coefficient signs in the first column of the Routh's array. A direct method for the determination of the stability range is presented. The method is easy to understand, to compute, and to offer the students a better comprehension on this subject. A program in MATLAB language, based on the proposed method, design examples, and class assessments, is provided in order to help the pedagogical issues. The method and the program enable the user to specify a decay rate and also extend to proportional-integral (PI), proportional-derivative (PD), and proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers.

Planning and Projects of Secondary Electric Power Distribution Systems

This paper proposes a methodology to achieve integrated planning and projects for secondary distribution circuits. The planning model is formulated as a mixed integer nonlinear programming problem (MINLP). In order to resolve this problem, a tabu search (TS) algorithm is used, with a neighborhood structure developed to explore the physical characteristics of specific geographies included in the planning and expansion of secondary networks, thus obtaining effective solutions as well as low operating costs and investments. The project stage of secondary circuits consists of calculating the mechanical efforts to determine the support structures of the primary and secondary distribution systems and determining the types of structures that should be used in the system according to topological and electrical parameters of the network and, therefore, accurately assessing the costs involved in the construction and/or reform of secondary systems. A constructive heuristic based on information of the electrical and topological conditions between the medium voltage and low voltage systems is used to connect the primary systems and secondary circuits. The results obtained from planning and design simulations of a real secondary system of electric energy distribution are presented.

Robust broadband vibration control of a flexible structure using an electrical dynamic absorber

This paper presents a simple but practical feedback control method to suppress the vibration of a flexible structure in the frequency range between 10 Hz and 1 kHz. A dynamic vibration absorber is designed for this, which has a natural frequency of 100 Hz and a normalized bandwidth (twice the damping ratio) of 9.9. The absorber is realized electrically by feeding back the structural acceleration at one position on the host structure to a collocated piezoceramic patch actuator via an analog controller consisting of a second-order lowpass filter. This absorber is equivalent to a single degree-of-freedom mechanical oscillator consisting of a serially connected mass-spring-damper system. A first-order lowpass filter is additionally used to improve stability at very high frequencies. Experiments were conducted on a free-free beam embedded with a piezoceramic patch actuator and an accelerometer at its center. It is demonstrated that the single absorber can simultaneously suppress multiple vibration modes within the control bandwidth. It is further shown that the control system is robust to slight changes in the plant. The method described can be applied to many other practical structures, after retuning the absorber parameters for the structure under control.

Síntese e caracterização de zeólita beta hierarquizada e materiais híbridos micro-mesoporosos aplicados no craqueamento de PEAD

A catalyst of great interest to the scientific community tries to unite the structure of ordered pore diameter from mesoporous materials with the properties of stability and acid activity to microporous zeolites. Thus a large number of materials was developed in the past decades, which although being reported as zeolites intrinsically they fail to comply with some relevant characteristics to zeolites, and recently were named zeolitic materials of high accessibility. Among the various synthesis strategies employed, the present research approaches the synthesis methods of crystallization of silanized protozeolitic units and the method of protozeolitic units molded around surfactant micelles, in order for get materials defined as hierarchical zeolites and micro-mesoporous hybrid materials, respectively. As goal BEA/MCM-41 hybrid catalysts with bimodal pore structure formed by nuclei of zeolite Beta and cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium were developed. As also was successfully synthesized the hierarchical Beta zeolite having a secondary porosity, in addition to the typical and uniform zeolite micropores. Both catalysts were applied in reactions of catalytic cracking of high density polyethylene (HDPE), to evaluate its properties in catalytic activity, aiming at the recycling of waste plastics to obtain high value-added raw materials and fuels. The BEA/MCM-41 hybrid materials with 0 days of pre-crystallization did not show enough properties for use in catalytic cracking reactions, but they showed superior catalytic properties compared to those ordered mesoporous materials of Al-MCM-41 type. The structure of Beta zeolite with hierarchical porosity leads the accessibility of HDPE bulky molecules to active centers, due to high external area. And provides higher conversion to hydrocarbons in the gasoline range, especially olefins which have great interest in the petrochemical industry

Seasonal development of secondary xylem and phloem in Schizolobium parahyba (Vell.) Blake (Leguminosae : Caesalpinioideae)

The cambial activity and periodicity of secondary xylem and phloem formation have been less studied in tropical tree species than in temperate ones. This paper describes the relationship between seasonal cambial activity, xylem and phloem development, and phenology in Schizolobium parahyba, a fast growing semideciduous seasonal forest tree from southeastern Brazil. From 2002 to 2003, wood samples were collected periodically and phenology and climate were recorded monthly in the same period. S. parahyba forms annual growth increments in wood, delimited by narrow initial parenchyma bands. The reduction of the cambial activity to a minimum correlates to the dry season and leaf fall. The higher cambial activity correlates to the wet season and the presence of mature leaves. In phloem, a larger conductive region was observed in the wet season, when the trees were in full foliage. The secondary phloem did not exhibit any incremental zone marker; however, we found that the axial parenchyma tends to form irregular bands.

Competition and phylogeny determine community structure in Mullerian co-mimics

Until recently, the study of negative and antagonistic interactions (for example, competition and predation) has dominated our understanding of community structure, maintenance and assembly(1). Nevertheless, a recent theoretical model suggests that positive interactions (for example, mutualisms) may counterbalance competition, facilitating long-term coexistence even among ecologically undifferentiated species(2). Mullerian mimics are mutualists that share the costs of predator education(3) and are therefore ideally suited for the investigation of positive and negative interactions in community dynamics. The sole empirical test of this model in a Mullerian mimetic community supports the prediction that positive interactions outweigh the negative effects of spatial overlap(4) (without quantifying resource acquisition). Understanding the role of trophic niche partitioning in facilitating the evolution and stability of Mullerian mimetic communities is now of critical importance, but has yet to be formally investigated. Here we show that resource partitioning and phylogeny determine community structure and outweigh the positive effects of Mullerian mimicry in a species-rich group of neotropical catfishes. From multiple, independent reproductively isolated allopatric communities displaying convergently evolved colour patterns, 92% consist of species that do not compete for resources. Significant differences in phylogenetically conserved traits (snout morphology and body size) were consistently linked to trait-specific resource acquisition. Thus, we report the first evidence, to our knowledge, that competition for trophic resources and phylogeny are pivotal factors in the stable evolution of Mullerian mimicry rings. More generally, our work demonstrates that competition for resources is likely to have a dominant role in the structuring of communities that are simultaneously subject to the effects of both positive and negative interactions.

Rotifer abundance, biomass, and secondary production after the recovery of hydrologic connectivity between a river and two marginal lakes (São Paulo, Brazil)

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

Mixing, demixing, and structure formation in a binary dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate

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

Effect of magnesium on structure and properties of LiNbO3 prepared from polymeric precursors

The effect of magnesium addition on the phase formation and electric properties of LiNbO3 powder prepared from polymeric precursor was analyzed. It was shown that the unit-cell volume of the rhombohedral phase decreased with increasing magnesium concentration. Small amounts of secondary phases were observed in LiNbO3 powder doped with 5 and 10 mol% Mg+2. These results indicated that the Mg+2 ion was substituted for niobium ion in the rhombohedral phase. The addition of Mg+2 promotes densification of LiNbO3 ceramics. It was noticed that the increase in additive concentration leads to a decrease of electric properties, K-p and d(33). This is due to formation of LiNb3O8 and MgNb2O6 phases at the grain boundaries. (C) 2002 Elsevier B.V. Ltd and Techna S.r.l. All rights reserved.