Straightforward synthesis of functionalized cyclic polymers in high yield via RAFT and thiolactone-disulfide chemistry

An efficient synthetic pathway toward cyclic polymers based on the combination of thiolactone and disulfide chemistry has been developed. First, heterotelechelic linear polystyrene (PS) containing an alpha-thiolactone (TLa) and an omega-dithiobenzoate group was synthesized via reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization, employing a newly designed TLa-bearing chain transfer agent (CTA). The subsequent reaction of this heterotelechelic polymer with an amine, which acts as a nucleophile for both the TLa and dithiobenzoate units, generated the alpha,omega-thiol-telechelic PS under ambient conditions without the need for any catalyst or other additives. The arrangement of thiols under a high dilution afforded single cyclic PS (c-PS) through an oxidative disulfide linkage. The cyclic PS (c-PS) disulfide ring formation was evidenced by SEC, MALDI-TOF MS and H-1-NMR characterization. Moreover, we demonstrated a controlled ring opening via either disulfide reduction or thiol-disulfide exchange to enable easy and clean topology transformation. Furthermore, to illustrate the broad utility of this synthetic methodology, different amines including functional ones were employed, allowing for the one-step preparation of functionalized cyclic polymers with high yields

The Effects of Planting Density on the Dry Matter Yield and the Overwintering Ability of the Dwarf and Normal Napiergrasses in Two Years after Planting

The objective of this study is to determine the optimum planting density in napiergrass (Pennisetum purpureum Schumach) among two dwarf varieties introduced from Thailand and two normal ones under three levels of density. Dwarf varieties showed lower plant height and mean tiller weight, and higher leaf area index (LAI) and leaf blade percentage. Crop growth rate was positively correlated with LAI, and net assimilation rate and canopy extinction coefficient (K) were negatively correlated with LAI in the second year, including all dwarf and normal varieties, while K tended to be lower in the dwarf varieties. With the increase in the planting density, dry matter yield tended to increase, the difference between the normal varieties and early-heading dwarf variety was reduced, and the over wintering ability in all varieties was decreased. It was concluded that late-heading dwarf and normal varieties should be planted at the medium density by a desirable combination of productivity and considerable over wintering ability

Entanglement Entropy in the Calogero-Sutherland Model

We investigate the entanglement entropy between two subsets of particles in the ground state of the Calogero-Sutherland model. By using the duality relations of the Jack symmetric polynomials, we obtain exact expressions for both the reduced density matrix and the entanglement entropy in the limit of an infinite number of particles traced out. From these results, we obtain an upper bound value of the entanglement entropy. This upper bound has a clear interpretation in terms of fractional exclusion statistics.Comment: 14 pages, 3figures, references adde

The Great Space Weather Event during February 1872 Recorded in East Asia

The study of historical great geomagnetic storms is crucial for assessing the possible risks to the technological infrastructure of a modern society, caused by extreme space-weather events. The normal benchmark has been the great geomagnetic storm of September 1859, the so-called "Carrington Event". However, there are numerous records of another great geomagnetic storm in February 1872. This storm, about 12 years after the Carrington Event, resulted in comparable magnetic disturbances and auroral displays over large areas of the Earth. We have revisited this great geomagnetic storm in terms of the auroral and sunspot records in the historical documents from East Asia. In particular, we have surveyed the auroral records from East Asia and estimated the equatorward boundary of the auroral oval to be near 24.3 deg invariant latitude (ILAT), on the basis that the aurora was seen near the zenith at Shanghai (20 deg magnetic latitude, MLAT). These results confirm that this geomagnetic storm of February 1872 was as extreme as the Carrington Event, at least in terms of the equatorward motion of the auroral oval. Indeed, our results support the interpretation of the simultaneous auroral observations made at Bombay (10 deg MLAT). The East Asian auroral records have indicated extreme brightness, suggesting unusual precipitation of high-intensity, low-energy electrons during this geomagnetic storm. We have compared the duration of the East Asian auroral displays with magnetic observations in Bombay and found that the auroral displays occurred in the initial phase, main phase, and early recovery phase of the magnetic storm.Comment: 28 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal on 31 May 201

Herbage Quality of Dwarf Napier Grass Under a Rotational Cattle Grazing System Two Years After Establishment

Dwarf Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum Schumach) of a late-heading type (dwarf-late, DL), introduced by the Dairy Promotion Organization, Thailand, has a high over-wintering ability and is suitable for grazing. The objective of this study was to examine the digestibility and crude protein (CP) concentration of DL Napier grass both before and after rotational grazing in relation to the daily liveweight gain of cattle 2 years after establishment in the lowland area of Kyushu, Japan

Modeling and simulation of pressure waves generated by nano-thermite reactions

This paper reports the modeling of pressure waves from the explosive reaction of nano-thermites consisting of mixtures of nanosized aluminum and oxidizer granules. Such nanostructured thermites have higher energy density (up to 26 kJ/cm3) and can generate a transient pressure pulse four times larger than that from trinitrotoluene (TNT) based on volume equivalence. A plausible explanation for the high pressure generation is that the reaction times are much shorter than the time for a shock wave to propagate away from the reagents region so that all the reaction energy is dumped into the gaseous products almost instantaneously and thereby a strong shock wave is generated. The goal of the modeling is to characterize the gas dynamic behavior for thermite reactions in a cylindrical reaction chamber and to model the experimentally measured pressure histories. To simplify the details of the initial stage of the explosive reaction, it is assumed that the reaction generates a one dimensional shock wave into an air-filled cylinder and propagates down the tube in a self-similar mode. Experimental data for Al/Bi2O3 mixtures were used to validate the model with attention focused on the ratio of specific heats and the drag coefficient. Model predictions are in good agreement with the measured pressure histories

Fluid dynamic modeling of nano-thermite reactions

This paper presents a direct numerical method based on gas dynamic equations to predict pressure evolution during the discharge of nanoenergetic materials. The direct numerical method provides for modeling reflections of the shock waves from the reactor walls that generates pressure-time fluctuations. The results of gas pressure prediction are consistent with the experimental evidence and estimates based on the self-similar solution. Artificial viscosity provides sufficient smoothing of shock wave discontinuity for the numerical procedure. The direct numerical method is more computationally demanding and flexible than self-similar solution, in particular it allows study of a shock wave in its early stage of reaction and allows the investigation of “slower” reactions, which may produce weaker shock waves. Moreover, numerical results indicate that peak pressure is not very sensitive to initial density and reaction time, providing that all the material reacts well before the shock wave arrives at the end of the reactor

Hot-spot traffic pattern on hierarchical 3D mesh network

A Hierarchical 3D-Mesh (H3DM) Network s a 2D-mesh network of multiple basic modules (BMs), in which the basic modules are 3D-torus networks that are hierarchically interconnected for higher-level networks. In this paper, we evaluate the dynamic communication performance of a H3DM network under hot-spot traffic pattern using a deadlock-free dimension order routing algorithm with minimum number of virtual channels. We have also evaluated the dynamic communication performance of the mesh and torus networks. It is shown that under most imbalance hot-spot traffic pattern H3DM network yields high throughput and low average transfer time than that of mesh and torus networks, providing better dynamic communication performance compared to those networks