RFID Instrumentation in a Field Application

The behavior of radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags is investigated in a field application. The RFID instrumentation is used to mark the position of point strain sensors in a fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP), short-span bridge. The tags are surface mounted on carbon FRP structural elements and covered with a resin wear layer, i.e. the deck of the bridge. The smart composite bridge was installed in 2000 and serves as a field testbed for various sensor technologies including the RFID tags. The operation of the RFID network is tested in the field and compared to laboratory tags. Specific research issues include long-term survivability after six years, behavior on carbon FRP material, and environmental effects of weather, especially the presence of water. The feasibility of short-range RFID tags as location markers is discussed. The results show the suitability of RFID technology for field environments

Common Cerambycid Pheromone components as attractants for Longhorn Beetles (Cerambycidae) breeding in ephemeral oak substrates in Northern Europe

Longhorn beetles are ecologically important insects in forest ecosystems as decomposers of woody substrates, microhabitat engineers, and as components of forest food webs. These species can be greatly affected both positively and negatively by modern forestry management practices, and should be monitored accordingly. Through headspace sampling, coupled gas chromatography-electroantennography, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and field bioassays, we identified two compounds, 2-methyl-1-butanol and 3-hydroxy-2-hexanone, that constitute aggregation-sex pheromone attractants of three cerambycid species which breed primarily in different types of fresh, recently dead oak wood in Northern Europe: Pyrrhidium sanguineum (L.), Phymatodes alni ssp. alni (L.), and Phymatodes testaceus (L.) (Cerambycinae: Callidiini). Analyses of headspace volatiles collected from live insects indicated that the male-produced aggregation-sex pheromone of P. sanguineum is a 1–15:100 blend of (R)-2-methyl-1-butanol and (R)-3-hydroxy-2-hexanone, whereas the corresponding ratios for P. alni were 70–110:100. In field bioassays, adult P. sanguineum and P. alni were significantly attracted to multiple blends with varying ratios of the two compounds. When tested individually, the compounds were minimally attractive. In contrast, adult P. testaceus exhibited nonspecific attraction to both of the individual compounds and to different blends, despite the hydroxyketone not being part of its pheromone, which consists of (R)-2-methyl-1-butanol alone. Overall, our results suggest that a blend of 50:100 of racemic 2-methyl-1-butanol and 3-hydroxy-2-hexanone is appropriate for parallel, cost-efficient pheromone-based monitoring of all three species. In particular, these species could serve as useful indicators of how modern forestry practices affect a whole guild of saproxylic insects that require ephemeral deadwood substrates for successful breeding

Interdisciplinary Graduate Experience: Lessons Learned

Engineers interact in the workplace with technical peers in other disciplines at all stages of design, development, and application. Awareness of the constraints and needs of the other disciplines can be key in many situations. Such interdisciplinary activity and the associated communication are facilitated if the all participants have a solid knowledge of discipline-specific terminology and an understanding of connecting concepts. Consequently, experience relating to interdisciplinary teamwork is a necessary component of engineering education. The Smart Engineering Group at the University of Missouri-Rolla was established to conduct interdisciplinary research and to create interdisciplinary educational resources. The topical interest area is smart structures which requires the integration of materials, structures, sensing, signal processing, manufacturing, etc. The interdisciplinary research and educational activities of the group, the assessment of those activities, and the experiences of several graduate students will be described. The effectiveness of collaborative student work was tied to the students- understanding of the needed synergy and their comfort with cross-disciplinary communication. Also, an interdisciplinary course, which grew out of the group-s experiences, provided systematic preparation for graduate research projects. The role of this course will be discussed as it relates to the quality of collaborative experiences from both student and faculty perspectives

p-Mentha-1,3-dien-9-ol: A novel aggregation-sex pheromone for monitoring longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae) in Eurasia and North America

Longhorn beetles (Cerambycidae) are a diverse family of beetles that can cause considerable damage as forest pests and vectors of pathogens, as well as being important components of forest food webs and ecosystem functionality. In recent years, numerous cerambycid pheromones have been identified, revealing some broad general patterns in functionality in terms of sex or aggregation-sex pheromones in different subfamilies and different types of compounds characterizing the pheromones of various cerambycid taxa. Here, we describe the identification of the aggregation-sex pheromones of the Eurasian longhorn beetle Aromia moschata moschata (L.) (Cerambycinae; tribe Callichromatini) and the North American species Holopleura marginata LeConte (Cerambycinae; Holopleurini), as part of an ongoing effort to extend the taxonomic coverage of identified cerambycid pheromones and to expand the prospects for cerambycid monitoring into the study of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Both species were found to use the novel pheromone compound p-mentha-1,3-dien-9-ol, which also attracted significant numbers of the longhorn beetle Xestoleptura crassipes (LeConte) (Lepturinae; Lepturini) in trials in California. p-Mentha-1,3-dien-9-ol represents a class of pheromone compounds novel to both tribes (Callichromatini and Holopleurini), further increasing the chemical space of identified pheromones within the subfamily Cerambycinae. This compound is also noteworthy because it represents an entirely different chemical class of pheromones than the monoepoxide (E)-2-cis-6,7-epoxynonenal, previously reported as an aggregation-sex pheromone for the invasive Asian congener Aromia bungii (Faldermann)

Neutral and Cationic Rare Earth Metal Alkyl and Benzyl Compounds with the 1,4,6-Trimethyl-6-pyrrolidin-1-yl-1,4-diazepane Ligand and Their Performance in the Catalytic Hydroamination/Cyclization of Aminoalkenes

A new neutral tridentate 1,4,6-trimethyl-6-pyrrolidin-1-yl-1,4-diazepane (L) was prepared. Reacting L with trialkyls M(CH2SiMe3)3(THF)2 (M = Sc, Y) and tribenzyls M(CH2Ph)3(THF)3 (M = Sc, La) yielded trialkyl complexes (L)M(CH2SiMe3)3 (M = Sc, 1; M = Y, 2) and tribenzyl complexes (L)M(CH2Ph)3 (M = Sc, 3; M = La, 4). Complexes 1 and 2 can be converted to their corresponding ionic compounds [(L)M(CH2SiMe3)2(THF)][B(C6H5)4] (M = Sc, Y) by reaction with [PhNMe2H][B(C6H5)4] in THF. Complexes 3 and 4 can be converted to cationic species [(L)M(CH2Ph)2]+ by reaction with [PhNMe2H][B(C6F5)4] in C6D5Br in the absence of THF. The neutral complexes 1-4 and their cationic derivatives were studied as catalysts for the hydroamination/cyclization of 2,2-diphenylpent-4-en-1-amine and N-methylpent-4-en-1-amine reference substrates and compared with ligand-free Sc, Y, and La neutral and cationic catalysts. The most effective catalysts in the series were the cationic L-yttrium catalyst (for 2,2-diphenylpent-4-en-1-amine) and the cationic lanthanum systems (for N-methylpent-4-en-1-amine). For the La catalysts, evidence was obtained for release of L from the metal during catalysis.

Classical Evolution of Quantum Elliptic States

The hydrogen atom in weak external fields is a very accurate model for the multiphoton excitation of ultrastable high angular momentum Rydberg states, a process which classical mechanics describes with astonishing precision. In this paper we show that the simplest treatment of the intramanifold dynamics of a hydrogenic electron in external fields is based on the elliptic states of the hydrogen atom, i.e., the coherent states of SO(4), which is the dynamical symmetry group of the Kepler problem. Moreover, we also show that classical perturbation theory yields the {\it exact} evolution in time of these quantum states, and so we explain the surprising match between purely classical perturbative calculations and experiments. Finally, as a first application, we propose a fast method for the excitation of circular states; these are ultrastable hydrogenic eigenstates which have maximum total angular momentum and also maximum projection of the angular momentum along a fixed direction. %Comment: 8 Pages, 2 Figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Superradiance from an ultrathin film of three-level V-type atoms: Interplay between splitting, quantum coherence and local-field effects

We carry out a theoretical study of the collective spontaneous emission (superradiance) from an ultrathin film comprised of three-level atoms with $V$-configuration of the operating transitions. As the thickness of the system is small compared to the emission wavelength inside the film, the local-field correction to the averaged Maxwell field is relevant. We show that the interplay between the low-frequency quantum coherence within the subspace of the upper doublet states and the local-field correction may drastically affect the branching ratio of the operating transitions. This effect may be used for controlling the emission process by varying the doublet splitting and the amount of low-frequency coherence.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

Preparation of amino-substituted indenes and 1,4-dihydronaphthalenes using a one-pot multireaction approach: total synthesis of oxybenzo[c]phenanthridine alkaloids

Allylic trichloroacetimidates bearing a 2-vinyl or 2-allylaryl group have been designed as substrates for a one-pot, two-step multi-bond-forming process leading to the general preparation of aminoindenes and amino-substituted 1,4-dihydronaphthalenes. The synthetic utility of the privileged structures formed from this one-pot process was demonstrated with the total synthesis of four oxybenzo[c]phenanthridine alkaloids, oxychelerythrine, oxysanguinarine, oxynitidine, and oxyavicine. An intramolecular biaryl Heck coupling reaction, catalyzed using the Hermann–Beller palladacycle was used to effect the key step during the synthesis of the natural products

К вопросу об условиях успешной социокультурной и патриотической адаптации иностранных студентов к новой образовательной среде в техническом вузе (на примере ЮТИ ТПУ)

В статье представлены результаты исследования уровня патриотической и социальной адаптации у студентов из разных стран в техническом вузе на примере Юргинского технологического института (филиала) Томского политехнического университета