A general framework for describing photofission observables of actinides at an average excitation energy below 30 MeV

A reasonable prediction of photofission observables plays a paramount role in understanding the photofission process and guiding various photofission-induced applications, such as short-lived isotope production, nuclear waste disposal, and nuclear safeguards. However, the available experimental data for photofission observables are limited, and the existing models and programs have mainly been developed for neutron-induced fission processes. In this study, a general framework is proposed for characterizing the photofission observables of actinides, including the mass yield distributions (MYD) and isobaric charge distributions (ICD) of fission fragments and the multiplicity and energy distributions of prompt neutrons (n_p) and prompt γ rays (γ_p). The framework encompasses various systematic neutron models and empirical models considering the Bohr hypothesis and does not rely on the experimental data as input. These models are then validated individually against experimental data at an average excitation energy below 30 MeV, which shows the reliability and robustness of the general framework. Finally, we employ this framework to predict the characteristics of photofission fragments and the emissions of prompt particles for typical actinides including ²³²Th, ^{235, 238}U and ²⁴⁰Pu. It is found that the ²³⁸U(γ, f) reaction is more suitable for producing neutron-rich nuclei compared to the ²³²Th(γ, f) reaction. In addition, the average multiplicity number of both n_p and γ_p increases with the average excitation energy.     

Stabilized Nonconforming Mixed Finite Element Method for Linear Elasticity on Rectangular or Cubic Meshes

Based on the primal mixed variational formulation, a stabilized nonconforming mixed finite element method is proposed for the linear elasticity on rectangular and cubic meshes. Two kinds of penalty terms are introduced in the stabilized mixed formulation, which are the jump penalty term for the displacement and the divergence penalty term for the stress. We use the classical nonconforming rectangular and cubic elements for the displacement and the discontinuous piecewise polynomial space for the stress, where the discrete space for stress are carefully chosen to guarantee the well-posedness of discrete formulation. The stabilized mixed method is locking-free. The optimal convergence order is derived in the $L^2$-norm for stress and in the broken $H^1$-norm and $L^2$-norm for displacement. A numerical test is carried out to verify the optimal convergence of the stabilized method.     

Facile synthesis of graft copolymers containing rigid poly(dialkyl fumarate) branches by macromonomer method

Graft copolymers show microphase separated structure as seen in block copolymers and have lower intrinsic viscosity than block copolymers because of a branching structure. Therefore, considering molding processability, especially for polymers containing rigid segments, graft copolymers are useful architectures. In this work, graft copolymers containing rigid poly(diisopropyl fumarate) (PDiPF) branches were synthesized by full free‐radical polymerization process. First, synthesis of PDiPF macromonomers by addition‐fragmentation chain transfer (AFCT) was investigated. 2,2‐Dimethyl‐4‐methylene‐pentanedioic acid dimethyl ester was found to be an efficient AFCT agent for diisopropyl fumarate (DiPF) polymerization because of the suppression of undesired primary radical termination, which significantly took place when common AFCT agent, methyl 2‐(bromomethyl)acrylate, was used. Copolymerization of PDiPF macromonomer with ethyl acrylate accomplished the generation of the graft copolymer having flexible poly(ethyl acrylate) backbone and rigid PDiPF branches. The graft copolymer showed a microphase separated structure, high transparency, and characteristic thermal properties to PDiPF and poly(ethyl acrylate). © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2019 , 57, 2474–2480     

Trilinear Lp estimates with applications to the Cauchy problem for the Hartree-type equation

In this paper, $L^p$ estimates for a trilinear operator associated with the Hartree type nonlinearity are proved. Moreover, as application of these estimates, it is proved that after a linear transformation, the Cauchy problem for the Hartree-type equation becomes locally well posed in the Bessel potential and homogeneous Besov spaces under certain regularity assumptions on the initial data. This notion of well-posedness and the functional framework to solve the equation were firstly proposed by Y. Zhou.     

Synthesis of 1-aryl-3H-[1,2,5]triazepino[5,4-a]benzimidazol-4(5H)-ones and quantum chemical investigation of the rotamers of the Boc-protected hydrazide key intermediate

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PASE synthesis of 1-azolyl-1H-1,2,4-triazoles by the reaction of diazoazoles with ethyl isocyanoacetate

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Modeling of the glycine tripeptide cyclization in the Ser65Gly/Tyr66Gly mutant of green fluorescent protein

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A New Approach for the Synthesis of Miktoarm Star Polymers Through a Combination of Thiol–Epoxy “Click” Chemistry and ATRP/Ring‐Opening Polymerization Techniques

A new approach was developed for synthesis of certain A₃B₃‐type of double hydrophilic or amphiphilic miktoarm star polymers using a combination of “grafting onto” and “grafting from” methods. To achieve the synthesis of desired miktoarm star polymers, acetyl protected poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) thiols (M_n = 550 and 2000 g mol^?1) were utilized to generate A₃‐type of homoarm star polymers through an in situ protective group removal and a subsequent thiol–epoxy “click” reaction with a tris‐epoxide core viz. 1,1,1‐tris(4‐hydroxyphenyl)ethane triglycidyl ether. The secondary hydroxyl groups generated adjacent to the core upon the thiol–epoxy reaction were esterified with α‐bromoisobutyryl bromide to install atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) initiating sites. ATRP of N‐isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) using the three‐arm star PEG polymer fitted with ATRP initiating sites adjacent to the core afforded A₃B₃‐type of double hydrophilic (PEG)₃[poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide)] (PNIPAM)₃ miktoarm star polymers. Furthermore, the generated hydroxyl groups were directly used as initiator for ring‐opening polymerization of ε‐caprolactone to prepare A₃B₃‐type of amphiphilic (PEG)₃[poly(ε‐caprolactone)]₃ miktoarm star polymers. The double hydrophilic (PEG)₃(PNIPAM)₃ miktoarm star polymers showed lower critical solution temperature around 34 °C. The preliminary transmission electron microscopy analysis indicated formation of self‐assembly of (PEG)₃(PNIPAM)₃ miktoarm star polymer in aqueous solution. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2019 , 57, 146–156     

Unconditionally Superclose Analysis of a New Mixed Finite Element Method for Nonlinear Parabolic Equation

This paper develops a framework to deal with the unconditional superclose analysis of nonlinear parabolic equation. Taking the finite element pair $Q_{11}/Q_{01} × Q_{10}$ as an example, a new mixed finite element method (FEM) is established and the $τ$ -independent superclose results of the original variable $u$ in $H^1$-norm and the flux variable $\mathop{q} \limits ^{\rightarrow}= −a(u)∇u$ in $L^2$-norm are deduced ($τ$ is the temporal partition parameter). A key to our analysis is an error splitting technique, with which the time-discrete and the spatial-discrete systems are constructed, respectively. For the first system, the boundedness of the temporal errors is obtained. For the second system, the spatial superclose results are presented unconditionally, while the previous literature always only obtain the convergent estimates or require certain time step conditions. Finally, some numerical results are provided to confirm the theoretical analysis, and show the efficiency of the proposed method.