Supramolecular perspectives in colloid science

Supramolecular chemistry puts emphasis on molecular assemblies held together by non-covalent bonds. As such, it is very close in spirit to colloid science which also focuses on objects which are small, but beyond the molecular scale, and for which other forces than covalent bonds are crucial. We discuss in this review the preparation and properties of new colloidal systems which borrow on the one hand from classical topics in colloid science, such as micellization, and on the other hand from concepts in supramolecular chemistry, such as reversible supramolecular polymers

Brief of Amici Curiae in Support of Appellant, James Townsend v. Midland Funding, LLC

The Consumer Protection Clinic of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law, filed a Motion to Participate and an Amicus Brief in the case of Townsend v. Midland Funding, LLC. The case presents the question of whether documents created by third party predecessors in interest—usually a bank—may be admitted into evidence when a debt buyer plaintiff does not demonstrate personal knowledge regarding any of the foundational elements which would be required to admit the documents under the business records exception to the hearsay rule. Amici urge the Court to overturn the lower court, and hold that a debt buyer’s documents may not be admitted into evidence without the debt buyer first laying the proper foundation for the business records exception to the hearsay rule. The Clinic was joined by AARP, the National Consumer Law Center, the National Association of Consumer Advocates, and by the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau and Maryland\u27s Public Justice Center. The Brief deals with the problems of data integrity and the lack of competent, reliable evidence in lawsuits filed purchasers of charged off credit card debt, known as debt buyers. The Consumer Protection Clinic and other amici examine due process and professionalism concerns which arise when our courts (primarily Maryland\u27s District Court) do not strictly apply the special evidentiary and procedural rules which exist for small claims actions

Phase behavior of flowerlike micelles in a SCF cell model

We study the interactions between flowerlike micelles, self-assembled from telechelic associative polymers, using a molecular self-consistent field (SCF) theory and discuss the corresponding phase behavior. In these calculations we do not impose properties such as aggregation number, micellar structure and number of bridging chains. Adopting a SCF cell model, we calculate the free energy of interaction between a central micelle surrounded by others. Based on these results, we predict the binodal for coexistence of dilute and dense liquid phases, as a function of the length of the hydrophobic and hydrophilic blocks. In the same cell model we compute the number of bridges between micelles, allowing us to predict the network transition. Several quantitative trends obtained from the numerical results can be rationalized in terms of transparent scaling argument

Pushing the glass transition towards random close packing using self-propelled hard spheres

Although the concept of random close packing with an almost universal packing fraction of ~ 0.64 for hard spheres was introduced more than half a century ago, there are still ongoing debates. The main difficulty in searching the densest packing is that states with packing fractions beyond the glass transition at ~ 0.58 are inherently non-equilibrium systems, where the dynamics slows down with a structural relaxation time diverging with density; hence, the random close packing is inaccessible. Here we perform simulations of self-propelled hard spheres, and we find that with increasing activity the relaxation dynamics can be sped up by orders of magnitude. The glass transition shifts to higher packing fractions upon increasing the activity, allowing the study of sphere packings with fluid-like dynamics at packing fractions close to random close packing. Our study opens new possibilities of investigating dense packings and the glass transition in systems of hard particles

Self-consistent-field calculations of proteinlike incorporations in polyelectrolyte complex micelles

Self-consistent field theory is applied to model the structure and stability of polyelectrolyte complex micelles with incorporated protein (molten globule) molecules in the core. The electrostatic interactions that drive the micelle formation are mimicked by nearest-neighbor interactions using Flory-Huggins X parameters. The strong qualitative comparison with experimental data proves that the Flory-Huggins approach is reasonable. The free energy of insertion of a proteinlike molecule into the micelle is nonmonotonic: there is (i) a small repulsion when the protein is inside the corona; the height of the insertion barrier is determined by the local osmotic pressure and the elastic deformation of the core, (ii) a local minimum occurs when the protein molecule is at the core-corona interface; the depth (a few kBT's) is related to the interfacial tension at the core-corona interface and (iii) a steep repulsion (several kBT) when part of the protein molecule is dragged into the core. Hence, the protein molecules reside preferentially at the core-corona interface and the absorption as well as the release of the protein molecules has annealed rather than quenched characteristics. Upon an increase of the ionic strength it is possible to reach a critical micellization ionic (CMI) strength. With increasing ionic strength the aggregation numbers decrease strongly and only few proteins remain associated with the micelles near the CM

Correlation Allowances for Two Large, Full Form Merchant Ships Determined from Model Tests and Full Scale Trials

U.S. Maritime Administration, Department of Commercehttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/133673/1/39015095796226.pd

Remembering Essentials

A counterrevolution in architecture has taken place. This counterrevolution, a reaction to modernism, reestablished the belief that architectural forms have meaning, and that meaning can never reside solely in visual or spatial order but depends as well on memory, association, and learning..