High-temperature protonic motion and low-temperature lattice deformation in one-dimensional hydrogen-bonded molecular chain in tetramethylpyrazine–chloranilic acid (1:1)

Recent theoretical advances have identified several computational algorithms that can be implemented utilizing quantum information processing (QIP), which gives an exponential speedup over the corresponding (known) algorithms on conventional computers. QIP makes use of the counter-intuitive properties of quantum mechanics, such as entanglement and the superposition principle. Unfortunately it has so far been impossible to build a practical QIP system that outperforms conventional computers. Atomic ions confined in an array of interconnected traps represent a potentially scalable approach to QIP. All basic requirements have been experimentally demonstrated in one and two qubit experiments. The remaining task is to scale the system to many qubits while minimizing and correcting errors in the system. While this requires extremely challenging technological improvements, no fundamental roadblocks are currently foreseen.     

A new domain decomposition method with overlapping patches for ultrascale simulations: Application to biological flows

We address the failure in scalability of large-scale parallel simulations that are based on (semi-)implicit time-stepping and hence on the solution of linear systems on thousands of processors. We develop a general algorithmic framework based on domain decomposition that removes the scalability limitations and leads to optimal allocation of available computational resources. It is a non-intrusive approach as it does not require modification of existing codes. Specifically, we present here a two-stage domain decomposition method for the Navier–Stokes equations that combines features of discontinuous and continuous Galerkin formulations. At the first stage the domain is subdivided into overlapping patches and within each patch a C⁰ spectral element discretization (second stage) is employed. Solution within each patch is obtained separately by applying an efficient parallel solver. Proper inter-patch boundary conditions are developed to provide solution continuity, while a Multilevel Communicating Interface (MCI) is developed to provide efficient communication between the non-overlapping groups of processors of each patch. The overall strong scaling of the method depends on the number of patches and on the scalability of the standard solver within each patch. This dual path to scalability provides great flexibility in balancing accuracy with parallel efficiency. The accuracy of the method has been evaluated in solutions of steady and unsteady 3D flow problems including blood flow in the human intracranial arterial tree. Benchmarks on BlueGene/P, CRAY XT5 and Sun Constellation Linux Cluster have demonstrated good performance on up to 96,000 cores, solving up to 8.21B degrees of freedom in unsteady flow problem. The proposed method is general and can be potentially used with other discretization methods or in other applications.     

Copper-mediated N- and O-arylations with arylboronic acids in a continuous flow microreactor: a new avenue for efficient scalability

A continuous flow procedure has been elaborated for the copper(II)-mediated N- and O-arylation of a range of compounds with arylboronic acids using a commercial microreactor setup. The compounds could be continuously generated in good yields paving the way for efficient scalability.     

Design and scaling of nano-electro-mechanical non-volatile memory (NEMory) cells

Design and scaling of the NEMory cell have been discussed. Based on analytical simulation using a simple parallel-plate approximation, scaling guideline is derived in terms of pull-in, release voltage, pull-in time and release time. It has been proved that beam length is the most dominant factor which increases operating voltage with scaling-down. Beam and air gap thickness also need to be scaled down in order to lower operating voltage while improving operating speed.     

A General Framework for Mining Massive Data Streams

In many domains, data now arrive faster than we are able to mine it. To avoid wasting these data, we must switch from the traditional “one-shot” data mining approach to systems that are able to mine continuous, high-volume, open-ended data streams as they arrive. In this article we identify some desiderata for such systems, and outline our framework for realizing them. A key property of our approach is that it minimizes the time required to build a model on a stream while guaranteeing (as long as the data are iid) that the model learned is effectively indistinguishable from the one that would be obtained using infinite data. Using this framework, we have successfully adapted several learning algorithms to massive data streams, including decision tree induction, Bayesian network learning, k-means clustering, and the EM algorithm for mixtures of Gaussians. These algorithms are able to process on the order of billions of examples per day using off-the-shelf hardware. Building on this, we are currently developing software primitives for scaling arbitrary learning algorithms to massive data streams with minimal effort.     

Investigation of acoustic and geometric effects on the sonoreactor performance

In this work, three design configurations of a sonoreactor are considered under various operating conditions, and the acoustic characteristics during water sonication are investigated while using an immersed-type ultrasonic flat transducer probe in a sonoreactor model. Numerical models are also developed to simulate the sonication process, and they are successfully validated and compared with available data in the literature. Several sets of numerical investigations are conducted using the finite-element method and solved by the computational acoustics module in the COMSOL Multiphysics. The effects of the acoustical and geometrical parameters are investigated, analyzed, and reported, including the ultrasonic frequency, acoustic intensity, and scaling-up the reactor. The present study includes a parametric investigation examining the change of the ultrasonic frequency, intensity, and probe immersion depth on the performance. The results of the parametric study show that the highest cavitation energy corresponds to the maximum magnitude of negative pressure that takes place in the range of 60–80 kHz. The cavitation energy analyses are conducted under the conditions of 20 kHz of frequency and at 36 W input power. It is found that the cavitation energy of 15.87 W could produce 2.98 × 10⁻¹⁰ mol/J of sonochemical efficiency. In addition, the effect of altering the transducer probe depth changes the acoustic pressure field insignificantly. Furthermore, a recommendation is made to improve the sonochemical efficiency by introducing more considerable ultrasound input power while operating the sonoreactor at an ultrasonic frequency lower than 60 kHz. The results presented in this paper provide a comprehensive assessment of different sonoreactors and the feasibility of scaling-up their production rate.     

多相催化元素的有效性:新型催化剂的工业活性预测（英文）

人们对化学工业可持续性关注的不断提高推动了更加高效催化反应的开发.第一代评估催化剂活性的方法基于其地壳丰度,该方法存在严重不足.本文提出了第二代评估催化剂活性的办法,该方法可以在工业应用之前预测新型催化剂的活性,从而使全球化学工业受益.采用该评估法发现,对于11个有代表性的工业催化过程,催化剂消耗与催化剂元素的年度生产或价格之间存在着关联.基于该关联,我们引入了两个新概念来描述催化剂活性:每年催化剂消耗量与可用量的比值(CCA)和每年消耗催化剂成本与产品价值的比值(CCP).将CCA和CCP评估法用于选定的工业反应,进行实例分析并根据活性将催化剂分类,根据CCA和CCP值即可确定催化剂活性的普遍极限.计算CCA和CCP,并将其与催化剂活性的普遍极限进行比较,可以为研究者提供一个新的框架,用以评估一个新催化剂的成本或物理有效率是否会成为限制因素.我们还将该方法用于计算并预测新型催化剂的可行性生产及产品成本的经济极限.     

Spectral self-similarity in fractal one-dimensional photonic structures

Transmission spectra of one-dimensional fractal multilayer structures are found to exhibit self-similar properties. Self-similarity manifests itself in the shape of a transmission envelope (map of transmission dips) rather than in the map of resonance transmission peaks, as is commonly the case with spectra of quasiperiodic systems. To observe the self-similarity, one needs to apply a power transformation to the transmittance in addition to the usual frequency scaling. The values of this power as well as the scaling factor have been calculated analytically and found to depend on the geometrical parameters of the structure.     

A Simple,Transition Metal Catalyst-Free Method for the Design of Complex Organic Building Blocks Used to Construct Porous Metal–Organic Frameworks

The design of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) having large pore sizes and volumes often requires the use of complex organic ligands, currently synthesized using costly and time-consuming palladium-catalyzed coupling chemistry. Thus, in the present work, a new strategy for ligand design is reported, where piperazine and dihydrophenazine units are used as substitutes for benzene rings, which are the basic building block of most MOF ligands. This chemistry, which is based on simple, nucleophilic aromatic substitution (S_NAr) reactions, is used for the transition metal catalyst-free construction of 21 new, carboxylate-based ligands with varying sizes, shapes, and denticity and 15 linear di- and tetra-nitriles. Moreover, to demonstrate the utility of the ligands as building blocks, 16 new structurally diverse MOFs having surface areas up to 3100 m² g⁻¹ were also synthesized.     

Effect of capillary cross-section geometry and size on the separation of proteins in gradient mode using monolithic poly(butyl methacrylate-co-ethylene dimethacrylate) columns

Porous polymer monoliths have been prepared in capillaries with circular or square cross-sections and lateral dimensions of 50, 75, 100 μm as well as in a rectangular 38 μm × 95 μm capillary. These capillaries have been used to determine the effect of the size and shape of their cross-section on the porous and hydrodynamic properties of poly(butyl methacrylate-co-ethylene dimethacrylate) monoliths. The capillaries were studied by scanning electron microscopy and evaluated for their permeability to flow and their performance in the liquid chromatographic separation of a protein mixture comprising ribonuclease A, cytochrome c, myoglobin, and ovalbumin using a linear gradient of acetonitrile in the mobile phase. No differences resulting from channel geometry were found for the various capillary columns. These results demonstrate that standard capillaries with circular geometry are a good and affordable alternative conduit for modeling the processes carried out in microfluidic chips with a variety of geometries.