Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) have attracted great interest for last two decades due to their unique and advantageous structural properties, such as high surface area, pore volume, stable mesostructure, tunable pore size and controllable particle morphology. The robust silica framework provides sites for organic modifications, making MSNs ideal platforms for adsorbents and supported organocatalysts. In addition, the pores of MSNs provide cavities/ channels for incorporation of metal and metal oxide nanoparticle catalysts. These supported metal nanoparticle catalysts benefit from confined local environments to enhance their activity and selectivity for various reactions. Biomass is considered as a sustainable feedstock with potential to replace diminishing fossil fuels for the production of biofuels. Among several strategies, one of the promising methods of biofuel production from biomass is to reduce the oxygen content of the feedstock in order to improve the energy density. This can be achieved by creating C-C bonds between biomass derived intermediates to increase the molecular weight of the final hydrocarbon molecules. In this context, pore size and organic functionality of MSNs are varied to obtain the ideal catalyst for a C-C bond forming reaction: the aldol condensation. The mechanistic aspects of this reaction in supported heterogeneous catalysts are explored. The …

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Polyethylene is one of the most widely used plastics, and over 60 million tons are produced worldwide every year. Polyethylene is obtained by the catalytic polymerization of ethylene in gas and liquid phase reactors. The gas phase processes are more advantageous, and use fluidized-bed reactors for production of polyethylene. Since they operate so close to the melting point of the polymer, agglomeration is an operational concern in all slurry and gas polymerization processes. Electrostatics and hot spot formation are the main factors that contribute to agglomeration in gas-phase processes. Electrostatic charges in gas phase polymerization fluidized bed reactors are known to influence the bed hydrodynamics, particle elutriation, bubble size, bubble shape etc. Accumulation of electrostatic charges in the fluidized-bed can lead to operational issues. In this work a first-principles electrostatic model is developed and coupled with a multi-fluid computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model to understand the effect of electrostatics on the dynamics of a fluidized-bed. The multi-fluid CFD model for gas-particle flow is based on the kinetic theory of granular flows closures. The electrostatic model is developed based on a fixed, size-dependent charge for each type of particle (catalyst, polymer, polymer fines) phase. The combined CFD model is first verified …

Carbonyl and nitrile addition to uranyl (UO{sup 2}{sup 2+}) are studied. The competition between nitrile and water ligands in the formation of uranyl complexes is investigated. The possibility of hypercoordinated uranyl with acetone ligands is examined. Uranyl is studied with diactone alcohol ligands as a means to explain the apparent hypercoordinated uranyl. A discussion of the formation of mesityl oxide ligands is also included. A joint theory/experimental study of reactions of zwitterionic boratoiridium(I) complexes with oxazoline-based scorpionate ligands is reported. A computational study was done of the catalytic hydroamination/cyclization of aminoalkenes with zirconium-based catalysts. Techniques are surveyed for programming for graphical processing units (GPUs) using Fortran.

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Signal transduction pathways are usually activated by external stimuli and are transient. The downstream changes such as transcription of the activated genes are also transient. Real-time detection of promoter activity is useful for understanding changes in gene expression, especially during cell differentiation and in development. A simple and reliable method for viewing gene expression in real time is not yet available. Reporter proteins such as fluorescent proteins and luciferase allow for non-invasive detection of the products of gene expression in living cells. However, current reporter systems do not provide for real-time imaging of promoter activity in living cells. This is because of the long time period after transcription required for fluorescent protein synthesis and maturation. We have developed an RNA reporter system for imaging in real-time to detect changes in promoter activity as they occur. The RNA reporter uses strings of RNA aptamers that constitute IMAGEtags (Intracellular MultiAptamer GEnetic tags), which can be expressed from a promoter of choice. The tobramycin, neomycin and PDC RNA aptamers have been utilized for this system and expressed in yeast from the GAL1 promoter. The IMAGEtag RNA kinetics were quantified by RT-qPCR. In yeast precultured in raffinose containing media the GAL1 promoter responded faster …

GdNi is a rare earth intermetallic material that exhibits very interesting magnetic properties. Spontaneous magnetostriction occurs in GdNi at T{sub C}, on the order of 8000ppm strain along the c-axis and only until very recently the mechanism causing this giant magnetostriction was not understood. In order to learn more about the electronic and magnetic structure of GdNi, single crystals are required for anisotropic magnetic property measurements. Single crystal processing is quite challenging for GdNi though since the rare-earth transition-metal composition yields a very reactive intermetallic compound. Many crystal growth methods are pursued in this study including crucible free methods, precipitation growths, and specially developed Bridgman crucibles. A plasma-sprayed Gd{sub 2}O{sub 3} W-backed Bridgman crucible was found to be the best means of GdNi single crystal processing. With a source of high-quality single crystals, many magnetization measurements were collected to reveal the magnetic structure of GdNi. Heat capacity and the magnetocaloric effect are also measured on a single crystal sample. The result is a thorough report on high quality single crystal processing and the magnetic properties of GdNi.

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A series of organometallic compounds containing the tris(dimethylsilyl)methyl ligand are described. The potassium carbanions KC(SiHMe{sub 2}){sub 3} and KC(SiHMe{sub 2}){sub 3}TMEDA are synthesized by deprotonation of the hydrocarbon HC(SiHMe{sub 2}){sub 3} with potassium benzyl. KC(SiHMe{sub 2}){sub 3}TMEDA crystallizes as a dimer with two types of three-center-two-electron KH- Si interactions. Homoleptic Ln(III) tris(silylalkyl) complexes containing β-SiH groups M{C(SiHMe{sub 2}){sub 3}}{sub 3} (Ln = Y, Lu, La) are synthesized from salt elimination of the corresponding lanthanide halide and 3 equiv. of KC(SiHMe{sub 2}){sub 3}. The related reactions with Sc yield bis(silylalkyl) ate-complexes containing either LiCl or KCl. The divalent calcium and ytterbium compounds M{C(SiHMe{sub 2}){sub 3}}{sub 2}L (M = Ca, Yb; L = THF{sub 2} or TMEDA) are prepared from MI{sub 2} and 2 equiv of KC(SiHMe{sub 2}){sub 3}. The compounds M{C(SiHMe{sub 2}){sub 3}}{sub 2}L (M = Ca, Yb; L = THF{sub 2} or TMEDA) and La{C(SiHMe{sub 2}){sub 3}}{sub 3} react with 1 equiv of B(C{sub 6}F{sub 5}){sub 3} to give 1,3- disilacyclobutane {Me2Si-C(SiHMe2)2}2 and MC(SiHMe2)3HB(C6F5)3L, and La{C(SiHMe{sub 2}){sub 3}}{sub 2}HB(C{sub 6}F{sub 5}){sub 3}, respectively. The corresponding reactions of Ln{C(SiHMe{sub 2}){sub 3}}{sub 3} (Ln = Y, Lu) give the β-SiH abstraction product [{(Me{sub 2}HSi){sub 3}C}{sub 2}LnC(SiHMe{sub 2}){sub 2}SiMe{sub 2}][HB(C{sub 6}F{sub 5}){sub 3}] …