Laminate comprising fibers embedded in cured amine terminated bis-imide

Amine terminated bisaspartimides are prepared by a Michael type reaction of an aromatic bismaleimide and an aromatic diamine in an aprotic solvent. These bisaspartimides are thermally polymerized to yield tough, resinous polymers crosslinked through -NH- groups. Such polymers are useful in applications requiring materials with resistance to change at elevated temperatures

Maleimido substituted aromatic cyclotriphosphazenes

4-Aminophenoxy cyclotriphosphazenes are reacted with maleic anhydride to produce maleamic acids which are converted to the maleimides. The maleimides are polymerized. By selection of starting materials (e.g., hexakis amino or trisaminophenoxy-trisphenoxy-cyclo-triphosphazenes), selection of molar proportions of reactants, use of mixtures of anhydrides and use of dianhydrides as bridging groups a variety of maleimides and polymers are produced. The polymers have high limiting oxygen indices, high char yields and other useful heat and fire resistant properties making them useful as, for example, impregnants of fabrics

Amine terminated bisaspartimide polymer

Novel amine terminated bisaspartimides are prepared by a Michael-type reaction of an aromatic bismalteimide and an aromatic diamine in an aprotic solvent. These bisaspartimides are thermally polymerized to yield tough, resinous polymers cross-lined through -NH- groups. Such polymers are useful in applications requiring materials with resistance to change at elevated temperatures, e.g., as lightweight laminates with graphite cloth, molding material prepregs, adhesives and insulating material

Mechanism of margination in confined flows of blood and other multicomponent suspensions

Flowing blood displays a phenomenon called margination, in which leukocytes and platelets are preferentially found near blood vessel walls, while erythrocytes are depleted from these regions. Here margination is investigated using direct hydrodynamic simulations of a binary suspension of stiff (s) and floppy (f) capsules, as well as a stochastic model that incorporates the key particle transport mechanisms in suspensions -- wall-induced hydrodynamic migration and shear-induced pair collisions. The stochastic model allows the relative importance of these two mechanisms to be directly evaluated and thereby indicates that margination, at least in the dilute case, is largely due to the differential dynamics of homogeneous (e.g. s-s) and heterogeneous (s-f) collisionsComment: 5 Pages, 4 figure

Covariant hamiltonian spin dynamics in curved space-time

The dynamics of spinning particles in curved space-time is discussed, emphasizing the hamiltonian formulation. Different choices of hamiltonians allow for the description of different gravitating systems. We give full results for the simplest case with minimal hamiltonian, constructing constants of motion including spin. The analysis is illustrated by the example of motion in Schwarzschild space-time. We also discuss a non-minimal extension of the hamiltonian giving rise to a gravitational equivalent of the Stern-Gerlach force. We show that this extension respects a large class of known constants of motion for the minimal case.Comment: 14 pages, accepted version for Phys Lett B, added a footnote and two reference

The Many Electron Ground State of the Adiabatic Holstein Model in Two and Three Dimensions

We present the complete ground state phase diagram of the Holstein model in two and three dimension considering the phonon variables to be classical. We first establish the overall structure of the phase diagram by using exact diagonalisation based Monte Carlo (ED-MC) on small lattices and then use a new ``travelling cluster'' approximation (TCA) for annealing the phonon degrees of freedom on large lattices. The phases that emerge include a Fermi liquid (FL), with no lattice distortions, an insulating polaron liquid (PL) at strong coupling, and a charge ordered insulating (COI) phase around half- filling. The COI phase is separated from the Fermi liquid by a regime of phase coexistence whose width grows with increasing electron-phonon coupling. We provide results on the electronic density of states, the COI order parameter, and the spatial organisation of polaronic states, for arbitrary density and electron-phonon coupling. The results highlight the crucial role of spatial correlations in this strong coupling problem.Comment: Final versio

Expression, purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction analysis of conjugated bile salt hydrolase from Bifidobacterium longum

Conjugated bile salt hydrolase (BSH) catalyses the hydrolysis of the amide bond that conjugates bile acids to glycine and to taurine. The BSH enzyme from Bifidobacterium longum was overexpressed in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3), purified and crystallized. Crystallization conditions were screened using the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method. Crystal growth, with two distinct morphologies, was optimal in experiments carried out at 303 K. The crystals belong to the hexagonal system, space group P622 with unit-cell parameters a = b = 124.86, c = 219.03 Angstrom, and the trigonal space group P321, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 125.24, c = 117.03 Angstrom. The crystals diffracted X-rays to 2.5 Angstrom spacing. Structure determination using the multiple isomorphous replacement method is in progress