Nanomechanical and dynamic mechanical properties of rubber–wood–plastic composites

This article presents the assessment of bulk and in situ mechanical properties of rubber–wood–plastic composites (RubWPC) and their correlations, aiming to obtain a thorough understanding of mechanical behaviour of RubWPC, which is an essential prerequisite in realising their optimal design and applications. Dynamic mechanical analysis results showed that the composites treated with multiple coupling agents (combination of maleic anhydride polyethylene [MAPE] and bis(triethoxysilylpropyl)tetrasulfide and combination of MAPE and vinyltrimethoxysilane) exhibited greater storage modulus than both the untreated and single coupling agent treated composites owing to their superior interfacial bonding quality. The shift of relaxation peak and T g towards higher temperatures observed in the treated composites confirmed the enhancement of interfacial interaction and adhesion. Nanoindentation analysis suggested that the composite with optimised interface (MAPE and Si69 treated) possessed better nanomechanical property (elastic modulus) due to the resin penetration into cell lumens and vessels and the reaction between cell walls and coupling agents.

Synthetic Elaboration of Native DNA by RASS (SENDR)

The controlled, site-specific ligation of molecules to native DNA remains an unanswered challenge. Herein, we report a simple solution to achieve this ligation through the tactical combination of two recently developed technologies: One for the manipulation of DNA in organic media, and another for the chemoselective labeling of alcohols. Reversible Adsorption of Solid Support (RASS) is employed to immobilize DNA and facilitate its transfer into dry acetonitrile. Subsequent ligation with P(V)-based Ψ reagents takes place in high yield with exquisite selectivity for the exposed 3’ or 5’ alcohols on DNA. This two-stage process, dubbed SENDR for Synthetic Elaboration of Native DNA by RASS, can be applied to a multitude of DNA conformations and sequences with a variety of functionalized Ψ reagents to generate useful constructs. Such entities can address numerous longstanding challenges, including the selective single coupling of DNA to proteins, ASOs, and functional small molecules, and also can allow the synthesis of doubly-labeled congeners for novel probe constructs including ones of potential interest to COVID-19 research. Finally, a prototype for the industrialization of SENDR in a kit format is presented.

Synthetic Elaboration of Native DNA by RASS (SENDR)

The controlled, site-specific ligation of molecules to native DNA remains an unanswered challenge. Herein, we report a simple solution to achieve this ligation through the tactical combination of two recently developed technologies: One for the manipulation of DNA in organic media, and another for the chemoselective labeling of alcohols. Reversible Adsorption of Solid Support (RASS) is employed to immobilize DNA and facilitate its transfer into dry acetonitrile. Subsequent ligation with P(V)-based Ψ reagents takes place in high yield with exquisite selectivity for the exposed 3’ or 5’ alcohols on DNA. This two-stage process, dubbed SENDR for Synthetic Elaboration of Native DNA by RASS, can be applied to a multitude of DNA conformations and sequences with a variety of functionalized Ψ reagents to generate useful constructs. Such entities can address numerous longstanding challenges, including the selective single coupling of DNA to proteins, ASOs, and functional small molecules, and also can allow the synthesis of doubly-labeled congeners for novel probe constructs including ones of potential interest to COVID-19 research. Finally, a prototype for the industrialization of SENDR in a kit format is presented.

Prediction of Weinberg Angle in Discretized Kaluza-Klein Theory

In Discretized Kaluza-Klein theory (DKKT) the gauge fields emerge as components of gravity with a single coupling constant. Therefore, it provide a new approach to fix the parameters of the Standard Model, and in particular the Weinberg angle. We show that in our approach using DKKT, the predicted value of Weinberg angle is exactly the one measured in the electron-positron collider experiment at Q = 91.2 GeV/c. The result is compared with the one predicted the group theoretic methods.

Acid-mediated N-iodosuccinimide-based thioglycoside activation for the automated solution-phase synthesis of α-1,2-linked-rhamnopyranosides

Carbohydrate structures are often complex. Unfortunately, synthesis of the range of sugar combinations precludes the use of a single coupling protocol or set of reagents. Adapting known, reliable bench-chemistry reactions to work via automation will help forward the goal of synthesizing a broad range of glycans. Herein, the preparation of di- and tri-saccharides of alpha 1→2 rhamnan fragments is demonstrated using thioglycoside donors with the development for a solution-phase-based automation platform of commonly used activation conditions using N-iodosuccinimide (NIS) with trimethylsilyl triflate. Byproducts of the glycosylation reaction are shown to be compatible with hydrazine-based deprotection conditions, lending broader functionality to this method as only one fluorous-solid-phase extraction step per coupling/deprotection cycle is required.

A Novel Approach to Study the Effects of Anesthesia on Respiratory Signals by using the EEG Signals

General anesthesia plays a crucial role in many surgical procedures. It is a drug-induced, reversible state characterized by unconsciousness, anti-nociception or analgesia, immobility and amnesia. On rare occasions, however, the patient can remain unconscious longer than intended, or may regain awareness during surgery. There are no precise measures for maintaining the correct dose of anesthetic, and there is currently no fully reliable instrument to monitor depth of anesthesia. Although a number of devices for monitoring brain function or sympathetic output are commercially available, the anesthetist also relies on clinical assessment and experience to judge anesthetic depth. The undesirable consequences of overdose or unintended awareness might in principle be ameliorated by improved control if we could understand better the changes in function that occur during general anesthesia. Coupling functions prescribe the physical rule specifying how the inter-oscillator interactions occur. They determine the possibility of qualitative transitions between the oscillations, e.g. routes into and out of phase synchronization. Their decomposition can describe the functional contribution from each separate subsystem within a single coupling relationship. In this way, coupling functions offer a unique means of describing mechanisms in a unified and mathematically precise way. It is a fast growing field of research, with much recent progress on the theory and especially towards being able to extract and reconstruct the coupling functions between interacting oscillations from data, leading to useful applications in cardio respiratory interactions.<br />In this paper, a novel approach has been proposed for detecting the changes in synchronism of brain signals, taken from EEG machine. During the effect of anesthesia, there are certain changes in the EEG signals. Those signals show changes in their synchronism. This phenomenon of synchronism can be utilized to study the effect of anesthesia on respiratory parameters like respiration rate etc, and hence the quantity of anesthesia can be regulated, and if any problem occurs in breathing during the effect of anesthesia on patient, that can also be monitored

Decomposition of healing tensor: In continuum damage and healing mechanics

The decomposition of the healing variable (in the case of scalars) and the healing tensor (in the case of tensors) is carried out systematically and consistently. In this respect, the classical linear healing model is adopted in this work. The decomposition of healings includes the healing variable/tensor of cracks and the healing variable/tensor for voids. A third defect type is considered wherever mathematically possible. Thus a complete treatment of the decomposition of the healing tensor is presented covering both the one-dimensional and three-dimensional aspects. As an illustrative example, the case of plane stress, plane damage, and plane healing is solved. In this case, it is concluded that two distinct decomposition equations are obtained as well as one single coupling formula. The coupling equation is an expression that relates the various healing tensor components and damage tensor components for cracks and voids Furthermore; it is shown that there is no coupling in the one-dimensional case.