The experimental structure of199Au and the interacting boson-fermion model

Gamma rays of¹⁹⁹Au obtained after double neutron capture in¹⁹⁷Au were measured at the ILL high flux reactor. A level scheme up to 1770 keV excitation energy is established. The result is compared with IBFM and Boson-Fermion-Symmetry calculations.     

Progress toward ignition with noncryogenic double-shell capsules

Inertial confinement fusion implosions using capsules with two concentric shells separated by a low density region (double shells) are reported which closely follow one dimensional (1D) radiatively driven hydrodynamics simulations. Capsule designs which mitigate Au M-band radiation asymmetries appear to correspond more closely to 1D simulations than targets lacking mitigation of hohlraum drive M-band nonuniformities. One capsule design achieves over 50% of the unperturbed 1D calculated yield at a convergence ratio of 25.5, comparable to that of a double-shell design for an ignition capsule at the National Ignition Facility.     

C-terminal processing of yeast Spt7 occurs in the absence of functional SAGA complex

Background  

Spt7 is an integral component of the multi-subunit SAGA complex that is required for the expression of ~10% of yeast genes. Two forms of Spt7 have been identified, the second of which is truncated at its C-terminus and found in the SAGA-like (SLIK) complex.     

Photochemical reduction of transition metal substituted heteropoly anions in nonpolar solutions

Photochromism of [SiW11O39Ni(X)]6- as a tetraheptylammonium salt in various solvents under broadband UV light is observed in the presence of alcohols. The reaction proceeds faster with benzyl alcohol than with ethanol. Benzaldehyde is identified as the oxidized product of benzyl alcohol. Photochemistry is a reliable means to produce stable reduced transition metal substituted heteropoly tungstates in nonpolar media, where they hold promise as multielectron reduction catalysts. Preliminary reactivity toward CO2 reduction is demonstrated.     

Tuning Pt–Cu nanostructures by bromide ions and their superior electrocatalytic activities for methanol oxidation reaction

Dendritic Pt–Cu nanoparticles were synthesized by a facile one-step method with the help of surfactant Brij58 at room temperature, and we also studied the effects of different Pt–Cu ratios on the morphology and size of nanoparticles. In addition, we further tuned the morphology of the Pt–Cu nanostructures by introducing bromide ions, eventually leading to the appearance of some tripod-like structures. Compared with dendritic Pt–Cu and commercial Pt black, these tripod-like Pt–Cu nanostructures exhibited higher electrocatalytic activity and CO tolerance for catalyzing methanol oxidation.

Open image in new window

Graphical abstract ?

     

Do intelligent configuration search techniques outperform random search for large molecules?

We compare three global configuration search methods on a scalable model problem to measure relative performance over a range of molecule sizes. Our model problem is a 2-D polymer composed of atoms connected by rigid rods in which all pairs of atoms interact via Lennard–Jones potentials. The global minimum energy can be calculated analytically. The search methods are all hybrids combining a global sampling algorithm with a local refinement technique. The sampling methods are simulated annealing (SA ), genetic algorithms (GA ), and random search. Each of these uses a conjugate gradient (CG ) routine to perform the local refinement. Both GA and SA perform progressively better relative to random search as the molecule size increases. We also test two other local refinement techniques in addition to CG , coupled to random search as the global method. These are simplex followed by CG and simplex followed by block-truncated Newton. For small problems, the addition of the intermediate simplex step improved the performance of the overall hybrid method. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Stability of nitrogen-oxygen cages N12O2, N14O2, N14O3, and N16O4

Molecules consisting entirely of nitrogen have been studied extensively for their potential as high energy density materials (HEDM). However, many such molecules are too unstable to serve as practical energy sources. This has prompted many studies of molecules that are mostly nitrogen but which incorporate heteroatoms into the structure to provide additional stability. In the current study, cages of three-coordinate nitrogen are viewed as candidates for stabilization by insertion of oxygen atoms into the nitrogen framework. Cages of N12, N14, and N16 with four-membered rings are studied because four-membered rings have been previously shown to be a destabilizing influence. Insertion of oxygen atoms, which converts N-N bonds to N-O-N bonding groups, relieves ring strain and can potentially result in stable molecules. These molecules are studied by theoretical calculations, using Hartree-Fock and Moller-Plesset (MP3 and MP4) theories, to determine the dissociation energies of the molecules. The primary result of the study is that stable molecules can result from oxygen insertion but that oxygen-oxygen proximity destabilizes the insertion products.     

A computational study of x-ray emission from high-Z x-ray sources on the National Ignition Facility laser

We have begun to use 350–500 kJ of 1/3-micron laser light from the National Ignition Facility (NIF) laser to create millimeter-scale, bright multi-keV x-ray sources. In the first set of shots we achieved 15%–18% x-ray conversion efficiency into Xe M-shell (∼1.5–2.5 keV), Ar K-shell (∼3 keV) and Xe L-shell (∼4–5.5 keV) emission (Fournier et al., Phys. Plasmas 17, 082701, 2010), in good agreement with the emission modeled using a 2D radiation-hydrodynamics code incorporating a modern Detailed Configuration Accounting atomic model in non-LTE (Colvin et al., Phys. Plasmas, 17, 073111, 2010). In this paper we first briefly review details of the computational model and comparisons of the simulations with the Ar/Xe NIF data. We then discuss a computational study showing sensitivity of the x-ray emission to various beam illumination details (beam configuration, pointing, peak power, pulse shape, etc.) and target parameters (size, initial density, etc.), and finally make some predictions of how the x-ray conversion efficiency expected from NIF shots scales with atomic number of the emitting plasma.