Studies on controllability of directed networks with extremal optimization

Almost all natural, social and man-made-engineered systems can be represented by a complex network to describe their dynamic behaviors. To make a real-world complex network controllable with its desired topology, the study on network controllability has been one of the most critical and attractive subjects for both network and control communities. In this paper, based on a given directed–weighted network with both state and control nodes, a novel optimization tool with extremal dynamics to generate an optimal network topology with minimum control nodes and complete controllability under Kalman’s rank condition has been developed. The experimental results on a number of popular benchmark networks show the proposed tool is effective to identify the minimum control nodes which are sufficient to guide the whole network’s dynamics and provide the evolution of network topology during the optimization process. We also find the conclusion: “the sparse networks need more control nodes than the dense, and the homogeneous networks need fewer control nodes compared to the heterogeneous” (Liu et al., 2011  [18]), is also applicable to network complete controllability. These findings help us to understand the network dynamics and make a real-world network under the desired control. Moreover, compared with the relevant research results on structural controllability with minimum driver nodes, the proposed solution methodology may also be applied to other constrained network optimization problems beyond complete controllability with minimum control nodes.     

High performance Zn–Sn–O thin film transistors with Cu source/drain electrode

Zn–Sn–O (ZTO) thin film transistors (TFTs) were fabricated with a Cu source/drain electrode. Although a reasonably high mobility (μ_FE) of 13.2 cm²/Vs was obtained for the ZTO TFTs, the subthreshold gate swing (SS) and threshold voltage (V_th) of 1.1 V/decade and 9.1 V, respectively, were inferior. However, ZTO TFTs with Ta film inserted as a diffusion barrier, exhibited improved SS and V_th values of 0.48 V/decade and 3.0 V, respectively as well as a high μ_FE value of 18.7 cm²/Vs. The improvement in the Ta‐inserted device was attributed to the suppression of Cu lateral diffusion into the ZTO channel region. (© 2013 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Compositional Dependence of Static Shear Viscosity of Immiscible PP/PS Blends

Phase structures of immiscible polypropylene (PP)/polystyrene (PS) blends with different volume proportions, PP90/PS10, PP80/PS20, PP70/PS30, PP60/PS40, PP50/PS50, PP40/PS60, PP30/PS70, PP20/PS80, PP10/PS90, were observed by means of scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). The zero shear viscosities of the blends were determined according to a modified Carreau model by fitting the curves of static shear rate sweeps of blends tested at 190°C in a Stress Tech Fluids Rheometer. The results showed that the compositional dependence of zero shear viscosity of PP/PS deviated greatly from linear or log‐linear additivity. When PS was dispersed in a PP continuous phase, the blends showed negative deviation, while for blends with PP dispersed in a PS matrix, positive deviation was generated. When different theoretical equations of Nielsen, Utracki, Taylor, Frankel‐Acrivos (FA), Choi‐Schowalter (CS), and Han‐King (HK) were used to fit the experimental data of zero shear viscosities of blends, none of them was suitable for PP/PS blends. These experimental phenomena may result from the complex phase structures of the blends and their response to shear conditions, which are discussed in detail and compared with the experimental analysis.     

Rapid sonochemical synthesis of irregular nanolaminar-like Bi2WO6 as efficient visible-light-active photocatalysts

Irregular Bi₂WO₆ nanolaminars have been successfully synthesized via a rapid sonochemical approach using bismuth nitrate and tungstic acid as precursors in an aqueous solution. The characteristics of them were investigated in detail by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), N₂ adsorption, pore value, PL spectroscopy and UV–vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV–vis DRS). These irregular nanolaminars are of geometric shapes of orthorhombic Bi₂WO₆ with their basal plane being (0 0 1). They possess high crystallinity, lager surface area and pore value, which means fewer traps and stronger photocatalytic activity. The growth mechanism of such special nanolaminar was related to the sonochemical synthesis route, which played a key role in the formation of Bi₂WO₆ nanolaminar. Simultaneously, it was found that the formation of Bi₂WO₆ nanolaminar is a time dependent process. The Bi₂WO₆ nanolaminar has higher photocatalytic activity than bulk Bi₂WO₆ nanoparticle obtained by refluxing method for rhodamine B (Rh.B) degradation under visible light irradiation (λ > 400 nm).     

肝肿瘤细胞HepG2代谢指纹及代谢足迹的NMR分析

细胞代谢特征的分析是认识细胞生物化学过程物质基础的一个关键点. 该文使用培养72 h的肝肿瘤细胞HepG2为模型,使用一维与二维核磁共振谱学分析方法, 分析了该细胞本身及其培养液中代谢物的组成,确定了50余种覆盖三羧酸循环、糖酵解、氨基酸合成、脂肪酸与胞膜代谢、嘌呤与嘧啶代谢等多个代谢途径的代谢物,发现细胞本身与培养基中代谢物组成能够分别提供“细胞代谢指纹”与“细胞代谢足迹”等互补性信息. 同时发现此方法可用于研究植物次生代谢物槲皮素对肝肿瘤细胞HepG2代谢的影响. 结果表明,核磁共振波谱技术是分析细胞代谢组特征和研究药物对细胞代谢影响规律的有效手段.     

Polarimetric-Spectral-Sensitive Compressed Ultrafast Photography Enables Real-Time Intensity Visualization of Time-Varying Polarized Ultrafast Laser Pulses

Ultrafast laser pulses with complex spatiotemporal and polarization couplings have shown great application prospects in coherent control, particle acceleration, molecular dynamics excitation, and chiral or anisotropic detection. It is very important to observe the polarization-coupled ultrafast laser pulses for characterizing the performance of laser source and understanding the laser-matter interaction, but there is currently no detection technique that can completely characterize them, including the spatio-, spectral-, and polarimetric-temporal information. In this work, a polarimetric-spectral-sensitive has been compressed ultrafast photography (PS-CUP) to realize the real-time intensity visualization of time-varying polarized (TP) ultrafast laser pulses. PS-CUP can not only distinguish the polarization state of a TP pulse, but also realize the spatio-, spectral- and polarimetric-temporal measurement. To demonstrate the ability of polarization resolving detection, PS-CUP is used to successfully distinguish between the sinistral and dextral TP pulses and measure the angle and degree of linear polarization of a dextral TP pulse, respectively, and the experimental results are highly consistent with theoretical simulations. Owing to the unprecedented multidimensional detection ability, PS-CUP is prospected to provide a powerful tool for the diagnosis of various complex ultrafast laser pulses and the detection of ultrafast chiral optics.     

Effect of mechanical force on domain switching in BiFeO_3 ultrathin films

Ferroelectric polarization can be switched by an external applied electric field and may also be reversed by a mechanical force via flexoelectricity from the strain gradient.In this study,we report the mechanical writing of an epitaxial BiFeO3(BFO)thin film and the combined action of an applied mechanical force and electric field on domain switching,where the mechanical force and electric field are applied using the tip of atomic force microscopy.When the applied force exceeds the threshold value,the upward polarization of the BFO thin film can be reversed by pure mechanical force via flexoelectricity;when an electric field is simultaneously applied,the mechanical force can reduce the coercive electric field because both the piezoelectricity from the homogeneous strain and the flexoelectricity from strain gradient contribute to the internal electric field in the film.The mechanically switched domains exhibit a slightly lower surface potential when compared with that exhibited by the electrically switched domains due to no charge injection in the mechanical method.Furthermore,both the mechanically and electrically switched domains exhibit a tunneling electroresistance in the BFO ferroelectric tunnel junction.     

The High Energy X-ray telescope (HE) onboard the Insight-HXMT astronomy satellite

The Insight-Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope(Insight-HXMT) is a broadband X-ray and γ-ray(1-3000 ke V) astronomy satellite. One of its three main telescopes is the High Energy X-ray telescope(HE). The main detector plane of HE comprises 18 Na I(Tl)/Cs I(Na) phoswich detectors, where Na I(Tl) is used as the primary detector to measure ~ 20-250 ke V photons incident from the field of view(FOV) defined by collimators, and Cs I(Na) is used as the active shielding detector to Na I(Tl) by pulse shape discrimination. Additionally, Cs I(Na) is used as an omnidirectional γ-ray monitor. The HE collimators have a diverse FOV,i.e. 1.1°×5.7°(15 units), 5.7°×5.7°(2 units), and blocked(1 unit). Therefore, the combined FOV of HE is approximately5.7°×5.7°. Each HE detector has a diameter of 190 mm resulting in a total geometrical area of approximately 5100 cm2, and the energy resolution is ~15% at 60 ke V. For each recorded X-ray event by HE, the timing accuracy is less than 10 μs and the deadtime is less than 10 μs. HE is used for observing spectra and temporal variability of X-ray sources in the 20-250 ke V band either by pointing observations for known sources or scanning observations to unveil new sources. Additionally, HE is used for monitoring the γ-ray burst in 0.2-3 Me V band. This paper not only presents the design and performance of HE instruments but also reports results of the on-ground calibration experiments.     

FLTD三电极场畸变气体开关寿命特性

针对设计的一种场畸变气体开关,研究中间电极材料分别为不锈钢和黄铜条件下的烧蚀特性,结合开关寿命期间静态与触发特性的变化规律,获得决定开关寿命的关键因素,为三电极场畸变气体开关的性能优化提供理论支撑。研究结果表明,采用不锈钢和黄铜作为中间电极的烧蚀区域以及表面粗糙度均随着放电次数增加而增大,黄铜电极烧蚀较为严重且表面有明显的烧蚀圆斑,不锈钢电极则具有更高的表面粗糙度,阴阳极表面烧蚀存在明显差异,随着放电次数的增加,击穿点向电极边缘区域集中,影响开关的沿面绝缘特性,是导致开关寿命终结的主要原因。