Quantum Thermalization and Vanishing Thermal Entanglement in the Open Jaynes–Cummings Model

The quantum thermalization of the Jaynes–Cummings (JC) model in both equilibrium and non-equilibrium open-system cases is studied, in which the two subsystems, a two-level system and a single-mode bosonic field, are in contact with either two individual heat baths or a common heat bath. It is found that in the individual heat-bath case, the JC model can only be thermalized when either the two heat baths have the same temperature or the coupling of the JC system to one of the two baths is turned off. In the common heat-bath case, the JC system can be thermalized irrespective of the bath temperature and the system–bath coupling strengths. The thermal entanglement in this system is also studied. A counterintuitive phenomenon of vanishing thermal entanglement in the JC system is found and proved.     

Storage effects on the quality quartet of orange juice submitted to moderate thermosonication: Predictive modeling and odor fingerprinting approach

The effects of moderate thermosonication (MTS) on the quality quartet: physico-chemical, microbial, nutritional and sensory qualities of orange juice (OJ) inoculated with Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris (AAT) were studied during 24 days of storage at ambient and refrigerated temperatures. The bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity of OJ decreased with storage, while the pectin methyl esterase (PME) increased. Nonetheless, noticeable changes were observed from the 12th day of storage. There was no obvious (p > 0.05) variation in pH and total soluble solids. To determine the nutritional and microbial quality characteristics of OJ during storage, non-linear kinetic curves were successfully fitted with least square fitting polynomial and four-parameter log-logistic distribution models. The E-nose sensors succeeded in discriminating between the aroma of non-treated and treated OJ based on linear discriminant analysis (LDA). Furthermore, terpenes, alcohol and partially aromatic compounds were the main spoilage indicators of OJ during storage based on E-nose analysis and confirmed by HS-SPME-GC/MS analysis. Thus, MTS significantly extended the shelf life of the quality quartet of natural OJ at 4 °C. E-nose-GC/MS fusion offered odor fingerprints to AAT microorganisms that can be used as spoilage index without using traditional food analysis techniques. The proposed approach can be used as an alternative tool for rapid detection of spoilage microorganisms in OJ.     

Comparative absorption kinetics of seven active ingredients of Eucommia ulmoides extracts by intestinal in situ circulatory perfusion in normal and spontaneous hypertensive rats

Eucommia ulmoides Oliv. (E. ulmoides) is a valuable and nourishing medicinal herb in China that has been used in the treatment of hypertension. Given the fact that most traditional Chinese medicine is mainly used to treat disease, investigating the pharmacokinetics of traditional Chinese medicines in the pathological state is more useful than that in the normal state. However, the differences in the absorption kinetics of active ingredients of E. ulmoides extract between pathological and physiological conditions have not been reported. Therefore, in this study, the rat intestinal in situ circulatory perfusion model was used to investigate the differences in absorption kinetics of seven active ingredients of E. ulmoides extract in normal and spontaneously hypertensive rats, namely, genipinic acid, protocatechuic acid, neochlorogenic acid, chlorogenic acid, cryptochlorogenic acid, (+)-pinoresinol di-O-β-D -glucopyranoside and (+)-pinoresinol 4′-O-β-D -glucopyranoside. Our results indicate that the pathological state of spontaneous hypertension may change the absorption of active components of E. ulmoides extracts, and these findings may provide a reference for improving the rational use of E. ulmoides in the clinic.     

Purity determination of a new antifungal drug candidate using quantitative 1H NMR spectroscopy: Method validation and comparison of calibration approaches

Quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance (qNMR) is an analytical technique that offers numerous advantages in pharmaceutical applications including minimum sample preparation and rapid data collection times with no need for response factor corrections, being a powerful tool for assaying drug content in both drug discovery and early drug development. In the present work, we have applied qNMR, using both the internal standard and the electronic reference to access in vivo concentrations 2 calibration methods, to assess the purity of RI76, a novel antifungal drug candidate. NMR acquisition and processing parameters were optimized in order to obtain spectra with intense, well-resolved signals of completely relaxed nuclei. The analytical method was validated following current guidelines, demonstrating selectivity, linearity, accuracy, precision, and robustness. The calibration approaches were statistically compared, and no significant difference was observed when comparing the obtained results and their dispersion in terms of relative standard deviation. The proposed qNMR method may, therefore, be used for both qualitative and quantitative assessments of RI76 in early drug development and for characterization of this compound.     

排名聚合算法在少量长列表聚合中的性能比较分析

排名聚合将多个排名列表聚合成一个综合排名列表,可应用于推荐系统、链路预测、元搜索、提案评选等.当前已有工作从不同角度对不同排名聚合算法进行了综述、比较,但存在算法种类较少、数据统计特性不清晰、评价指标不够合理等局限性.不同排名聚合算法在提出时均声称优于已有算法,但是用于比较的方法不同,测试的数据不同,应用的场景不同,因此何种算法最能适应某一任务在很多情况下仍不甚清楚.本文基于Mallows模型,提出一套生成统计特性可控的不同类型的排名列表的算法,使用一个可应用于不同类型排名列表的通用评价指标,介绍9种排名聚合算法以及它们在聚合少量长列表时的表现.结果发现启发式方法虽然简单,但是在排名列表相似度较高、列表相对简单的情况下,能够接近甚至超过一些优化类方法的结果;列表中平局数量的增长会降低聚合排名的一致性并增加波动;列表数量的增加对聚合效果的影响呈现非单调性.整体而言,基于距离优化的分支定界方法 (FAST)优于其他各类算法,在不同类型的排名列表中表现非常稳定,能够很好地完成少量长列表的排名聚合.     

基于SWT方法的钢绞线索微动疲劳特性分析

为得到钢绞线索丝间接触区的应力场分布并预测微动疲劳裂纹萌生位置和微动疲劳寿命，本文利用参数化方法建立了精细化的钢绞线拉索有限元模型，包括整索模型和不同层丝间接触区域的局部精细化子模型．分析了钢绞线索在两种交变荷载工况下的应力场变化情况，并基于多轴疲劳SWT(Smith-Watson-Topper)临界平面法进行了疲劳特性分析和疲劳寿命预测．主要结论如下：钢绞线索内接触区边缘处的微动幅值较大，中心处几乎没有相对滑动，微动疲劳的初始裂纹萌生点位于接触区域边缘；经不同区域子模型分析比较，在轴向循环荷载作用下，外层钢丝的接触区域比内层钢丝更易发生微动疲劳损伤；在横向位移循环荷载作用下，同层钢丝因位置角度不同而产生了较大的疲劳特性差异，且相比轴向循环拉伸，该工况下最不利单丝的微动疲劳寿命更低；与非接触区域相比，接触区的疲劳寿命大幅降低，微动现象对钢绞线索的抗疲劳性能有明显降低作用．     

New measurements and reanalysis of 14N elastic scattering on 10B target

The angular distributions of elastic scattering of ¹⁴N ions on ¹⁰B targets have been measured at incident beam energies of 21.0 and 24.5 MeV. Angular distributions at higher energies 38–94.0 MeV (previously measured) were also included in the analysis. All data were analyzed within the framework of the optical model and the distorted waves Born approximation method. The observed rise in cross sections at large angles was interpreted as a possible contribution of the α-cluster exchange mechanism. Spectroscopic amplitudes SA₂ and SA₄ for the configuration ¹⁴N→ ¹⁰B +α were extracted. Their average values are 0.58±0.10 and 0.81±0.12 for SA₂ and SA₄, respectively, suggesting that the exchange mechanism is a major component of the elastic scattering for this system. The energy dependence of the depths for the real and imaginary potentials was found.     

Yb3+掺杂稀土钽铌酸盐的晶体场从头计算研究

Yb³⁺掺杂晶体材料是重要的激光材料,在超短脉冲激光、大功率激光等领域有重要应用前景,但长期以来很难通过实验拟合确定Yb3+晶体场参数,尤其是低对称体系,从头计算是解决此问题的重要途经.本文介绍了适合计算稀土离子掺杂晶体的从头计算DV-Xα方法和有效哈密顿量模型,用该方法计算了Yb³⁺掺杂M型和M'型钽铌酸盐的晶场参数和旋轨耦合参数,得到的能级结构和实验能很好地符合,并发现了Yb³⁺掺杂钽铌酸盐的晶场强度参数随稀土原子序数呈现规律变化.表明结合DV-Xα计算和有效哈密顿量方法是计算Yb³⁺掺杂低对称钽铌酸盐晶体场的有效途径,结果显示Yb3+掺杂钽铌酸盐晶体有望成为新型全固态激光工作物质.     

A benchmark of optimally folded protein structures using integer programming and the 3D-HP-SC model

The Protein Structure Prediction (PSP) problem comprises, among other issues, forecasting the three-dimensional native structure of proteins using only their primary structure information. Most computational studies in this area use synthetic data instead of real biological data. However, the closer to the real-world, the more the impact of results and their applicability. This work presents 17 real protein sequences extracted from the Protein Data Bank for a benchmark to the PSP problem using the tri-dimensional Hydrophobic-Polar with Side-Chains model (3D-HP-SC). The native structure of these proteins was found by maximizing the number of hydrophobic contacts between the side-chains of amino acids. The problem was treated as an optimization problem and solved by means of an Integer Programming approach. Although the method optimally solves the problem, the processing time has an exponential trend. Therefore, due to computational limitations, the method is a proof-of-concept and it is not applicable to large sequences. For unknown sequences, an upper bound of the number of hydrophobic contacts (using this model) can be found, due to a linear relationship with the number of hydrophobic residues. The comparison between the predicted and the biological structures showed that the highest similarity between them was found with distance thresholds around 5.2–8.2 Å. Both the dataset and the programs developed will be freely available to foster further research in the area.