Pulsation of black holes

The Hawking–Penrose singularity theorem states that a singularity forms inside a black hole in general relativity. To remove this singularity one must resort to a more fundamental theory. Using a corrected dynamical equation arising in loop quantum cosmology and braneworld models, we study the gravitational collapse of a perfect fluid sphere with a rather general equation of state. In the frame of an observer comoving with this fluid, the sphere pulsates between a maximum and a minimum size, avoiding the singularity. The exterior geometry is also constructed. There are usually an outer and an inner apparent horizon, resembling the Reissner–Nordström situation. For a distant observer the horizon crossing occurs in an infinite time and the pulsations of the black hole quantum “beating heart” are completely unobservable. However, it may be observable if the black hole is not spherical symmetric and radiates gravitational wave due to the quadrupole moment, if any.     

The Maximum Amplitude of Dust-Acoustic Waves in Dusty Plasma with Vortex-Like Ions

Theoretical investigations are carried out for the properties of small amplitude dust-acoustic solitary waves in plasmas consisting of extremely massive, high negatively charged inertial dust grains, Boltzmann distributed electrons and trapped ions, for one-dimensional case and three-dimensional case. An energy integral equation involving the Sagdeev potential is derived. The dependence of the critical Mach number corresponding to maximum amplitude on other parameters is obtained. It is observed that the magnitude of the external magnetic field has no effect on the amplitude of the solitary waves.     

Targeting Upconversion Nanoprobes for Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Early Colon Cancer

Colon cancer (CC) is one of the most common intestinal malignancies and is difficult to detect in its early stage by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with currently used contrast agents (CAs). The development of targeted CAs contributes to the early diagnosis of CC and thereby enables early intervention and timely therapy. Considering the outstanding performance of upconversion nanoprobes (UCNPs) in high‐performance MR and fluorescence imaging, a new type of nanoprobes with considerably enhanced imaging performance is developed herein. Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) antibody is conjugated onto the surface of UCNPs to achieve the targeted imaging of early CC tumors, which overexpress CEA. Both toxicity tests and histological/hematological examinations demonstrate the excellent biocompatibility of these CC‐targeting nanoprobes, which possess great potential for clinical application in the early diagnosis of CC.     

All fiber supercontinuum light source using photonic crystal fibers pumped by nanosecond fiber laser pulses

A novel compact supercontinuum (SC) source using the single mode photonic crystal fibers (PCF) pumped with an all fiber MOPA fiber laser is demonstrated experimentally. A bandwidth of 700 nm is achieved by operating the pumping fiber laser at a wavelength of 1064 nm, pulse duration of 10 ns, repetition rate of 50 kHz and peak power of 1 kW. The SC generation is initiated through modulation instability (MI) which breakups the nanosecond pump pulses into picosecond or femtosecond pulses, and further broadened through nonlinear effects of PCF.     

Characteristic of high-organized PS/BPS photonic crystals

B2O3-P2O5-SiO2 (BPS) three-dimensional (3D) high-organized polystyrene (PS) opals and inverse opals with large domain were fabricated and characterized.     

The pertinence of expression of heat shock proteins (HSPs) to the efficacy of cryopreservation in HELAs

HELAs (Hela cells, passed cells of human cervical carcinoma) were heat or cold treated (named heat or cold shock) and then resumed normal culture for 2, 4 or 8 hours respectively. The expressions of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) and 90 (HSP90) of the HELAs were measured by Northern and Western blotting. HELAs after 4-hour culture were exposed to or cryopreserved with different concentration of dimethyl sulfoxide (Me2SO, 2.5%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% respectively, V/V). Meanwhile, the HELAs after different culture time (2, 4 and 6 hours of culture) were cryopreserved with 5% Me2SO. After exposure or cryopreservation, the number of live HELAs was counted and the survival rate was calculated. The results showed that heat shock increased the expression of HSP70 and HSP90 of HELAs, while cold shock decreased the expression of the two proteins. When the concentrations of Me2SO were 10%, 15% and 20%, the survival rates of HELAs after exposure to Me2SO or cryopreservation were much lower than those when the concentrations were small. The survival rates of the heat shocked HELAs were significantly higher than those of the cold shocked and control HELAs. After cryopreservation with 5% Me2SO, the survival rate of heat shocked HELAs group with 2 hours culture time was the lowest among all the groups of HELAs with different cultural time. From the results of this study, we conclude that the expressions of HSP70 and HSP90 in HELAs increased significantly after heat shock, while cold shock decreased the expressions of these two proteins. The over-expressions of HSPs in the heat shocked HELAs could protect the cells from both injury caused by potential toxicity of high concentrations of Me2SO and cryoinjury caused by the freeze-thawing/cryopreservation procedure.     

Transmission-mode GaN photocathode based on graded Al_xGa_(1-x)N buffer layer

We create a GaN photocathode based on graded Alx Ga1-x N buffer layers to overcome the influence of buffer-emission layer interface on the photoemission of transmission-mode GaN photocathodes.A gateshaped spectral response with a 260-nm starting wavelength and a 375-nm cut-off wavelength is obtained.Average quantum efficiency is 15% and short wavelength responses are almost equivalent to long wavelength ones.The fitted interface recombination velocity is 5×104 cm/s,with negligible magnitude,proving that the design of the graded buffer layers is efficient in obtaining good interface quality between the buffer and the emission layer.     

Effect of the laser fluence on the surface characterization of β-FeSi2 films prepared by pulsed laser deposition

Single-phase β-FeSi₂ films on silicon (1 0 0) were fabricated by pulse laser deposition. The structure and crystal quality of the samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The field scanning electron microscopy showed that the film thickness increases with the increasing of the laser fluence. Moreover, atomic force microscopy observations revealed the changes of surface properties with different laser fluence. Based upon all experimental results, it is found that 7 J/cm² is the most favorable for the formation of β-FeSi₂ thin films.     

An Inexact SQP Newton Method for Convex SC<Superscript>1</Superscript> Minimization Problems

In this paper, we present a globally and superlinearly convergent inexact SQP Newton method for solving large scale convex SC ¹ minimization problems under mild conditions. In particular, the BD-regularity assumption made by Pang and Qi in Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications, 85 (1995), pp. 633–648 is replaced by a much more realistic assumption. Our numerical experiments conducted on least squares semidefinite programming with lower and upper bounds demonstrate that our inexact SQP Newton method is much more efficient than its exact version and is competitive with existing methods when the number of simple constraints is very large.