pH-Sensitive Oscillatory Motion of a Urease Motor on the Urea Aqueous Phase

A self-propelled object coupled with an enzyme reaction between urease and urea was investigated at the air/aqueous interface. A plastic object that was fixed to a urease-immobilized filter paper was used as a self-propelled object, termed a urease motor, placed on an aqueous urea solution. The driving force of the urease motor is the difference in the surface tension around the object. Oscillatory motion or no motion was triggered depending on the initial pH of the urea solution. Both the frequency and maximum speed of the oscillatory motion varied depending on the initial pH of the water phase. The mechanisms underlying the oscillatory motion and no motion were discussed in relation to the bell-shaped enzyme activity of urease in the enzyme reaction and the surface tension around the urease motor.     

When does the subadditivity theorem for multiplier ideals hold?

Demailly, Ein and Lazarsfeld proved the subadditivity theorem for multiplier ideals on nonsingular varieties, which states the multiplier ideal of the product of ideals is contained in the product of the individual multiplier ideals. We prove that, in the two-dimensional case, the subadditivity theorem holds on log terminal singularities. However, in the higher dimensional case, we have several counterexamples. We consider the subadditivity theorem for monomial ideals on toric rings and construct a counterexample on a three-dimensional toric ring.

     

放射性9C束流不同贯穿深度上的线能谱测量

为阐述放射性⁹C束流应用于治癌的物理基础, 运用一个球形生物组织等效正比计数器测量了⁹C束流不同贯穿深度上的线能谱, 得到了沿束流贯穿深度上的剂量平均线能分布. 将实验测量得到的线能谱转换成为不同传能线密度在吸收剂量中所占份额的分布, 得到了该⁹C束流在不同贯穿深度上的剂量平均传能线密度分布. 将生物组织等效正比计数器测量得到的与先前通过平行板正比计数器测量得到的该⁹C束流的剂量平均传能线密度分布进行比较, 发现: 在束流入射通道上, 两者测量数据符合很好, 而在束流Bragg峰附近⁹C离子的沉积区域, 由组织等效正比计数器测量得到的剂量平均传能线密度值大于由平行板正比计数器测量得到的值.     

Compact directed acyclic word graphs for a sliding window

Suffix trees are a well-known and widely-studied data structure highly useful for string matching. The suffix tree of a string w can be constructed in O(n) time and space, where n denotes the length of w. Larsson achieved an efficient algorithm to maintain suffix trees for a sliding window. It contributes to prediction by partial matching (PPM) style statistical data compression scheme. Compact directed acyclic word graphs (CDAWGs) are a more space-economical data structure for indexing strings. In this paper we propose a linear-time algorithm to maintain CDAWGs for a sliding window.     

Quasi-monocyclic near-infrared pulses with a stabilized carrier-envelope phase characterized by noncollinear cross-correlation frequency-resolved optical gating.

Precise characterization of noncollinear optical parametric amplifier idler pulses that have bandwidths of more than an octave with a center wavelength at 990 nm was demonstrated. The method employed was cross-correlation frequency-resolved optical gating with broadband sum-frequency mixing to take advantage of the idler's angular dispersion. Compression to near the transform limit was achieved to produce quasi-monocyclic near-infrared pulses by use of a deformable membrane mirror.     

Chemically modified proton‐conducting membranes based on sulfonated polyimides: Improved water stability and fuel‐cell performance

A series of branched/crosslinked sulfonated polyimide (B/C‐SPI) membranes were prepared and evaluated as proton‐conducting ionomers based on the new concept of in situ crosslinking from sulfonated polyimide (SPI) oligomers and triamine monomers. Chemical branching and crosslinking in SPI oligomers with 1,3,5‐tris(4‐aminophenoxy)benzene as a crosslinker gave the polymer membranes very good water stability and mechanical properties under an accelerated aging treatment in water at 130 °C, despite their high ion‐exchange capacity (2.2–2.6 mequiv g^?1). The resulting polymer electrolytes displayed high proton conductivities of 0.2–0.3 S cm^?1 at 120 °C in water and reasonably high conductivities of 0.02–0.03 S cm^?1 at 50% relative humidity. In a single H₂/O₂ fuel‐cell system at 90 °C, they exhibited high fuel‐cell performances comparable to those of Nafion 112. The B/C‐SPI membranes also displayed good performances in a direct methanol fuel cell with methanol concentrations as high as 50 wt % that were superior to those of Nafion 112. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 3751–3762, 2006     

Oxidation and Reduction Processes During NO x Removal with Corona-Induced Nonthermal Plasma

In this paper, the NO-to-NO ₂ conversion in various gaseous mixtures is experimentally investigated. Streamer coronas are produced with a dc-superimposed high-frequency ac power supply (10–60 kHz). According to NO _x removal experiments in N ₂ +NO _x and N ₂ +O ₂ +NO _x gaseous mixtures, it is supposed that the reverse reaction NO ₂ +ONO+O ₂ may not only limit NO ₂ production in N ₂ +NO _x mixtures, but also increase the energy cost for NO removal. Oxygen could significantly suppress reduction reactions and enhance oxidation processes. The reduction reactions, such as N+NON ₂ +O, induce negligible NO removal provided the O ₂ concentration is larger than 3.6%. With adding H ₂ O into the reactor, the produced NO ₂ per unit removed NO can be significantly reduced due to NO ₂ oxidation. NH ₃ injection could also significantly decrease the produced NO ₂ via NH and NH ₂ - related reduction reactions. Almost 100% of NO ₂ can be removed in gaseous mixtures of N ₂ +O ₂ +H ₂ O+NO ₂ with negligible NO production.     

New stage in living cationic polymerization: An array of effective Lewis acid catalysts and fast living polymerization in seconds

Our recent extensive research on Lewis acid catalysts with a weak base for the cationic polymerization of vinyl ethers led to unprecedented living reaction systems: fast living polymerization within 1–3 s; a wide choice of metal halides containing Al, Sn, Fe, Ti, Zr, Hf, Zn, Ga, In, Si, Ge, and Bi; and heterogeneously catalyzed living polymerization with Fe₂O₃. The use of added bases for the stabilization of the propagating carbocation and the appropriate selection of Lewis acid catalysts were crucial to the success of such new types of living polymerizations. In addition, the base‐stabilized living polymerization allowed the quantitative synthesis of star‐shaped polymers with a narrow molecular weight distribution via polymer‐linking reactions and the precision synthesis and self‐assembly of stimuli‐responsive block copolymers. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 1801–1813, 2007.