Thermoelectric power generation

Although the polarisation of the light was discovered at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Vikings could have used the polarised light around the tenth century in their navigation to America, using a ‘sunstone’ evoked in the Icelandic Sagas. Indeed, the birefringence of the Iceland spar (calcite), a common crystal in Scandinavia, permits a simple observation of the axis of polarisation of the skylight at the zenith. From this, it is possible to guess the azimuth of a hidden Sun below the horizon, for instance. The high sensitivity of the differential method provided by the ordinary and extraordinary beams of calcite at its so-called isotropy point is about two orders higher than that of the best dichroic polariser and permits to reach an accuracy of ±1° for the Sun azimuth (at sunrise and sunset). Unfortunately, due to the relative fragility of calcite, only the so-called Alderney crystal was discovered on board a 16th ancient ship. Curiously, beyond its use as a sunstone by the Vikings, during these last millennia calcite has led to the discovery of the polarisation of the light itself by Malus and is currently being used to detect the atmospheres of exoplanets. Moreover, the differential method for the light polarisation detection is widely used in the animal world.     

Pressure evolution of two polymorphs of Tb 2(MoO 4)3

We have studied the high pressure behavior of the α and β^′-phases of Tb ₂(MoO ₄)₃ using a combination of powder X-ray diffraction and ab initio calculations. The α-Tb ₂(MoO ₄)₃ phase did not undergo any structural phase transition in the pressure range from 0 up to the maximum experimental pressure of 21 GPa. We observed line broadening of the diffraction patterns at pressures above 7 GPa, which may be due to non-hydrostatic conditions. The complete amorphization of the sample was not reached in the pressure range studied, as expected from previous Raman studies. The behavior under pressure of the β^′-Tb ₂(MoO ₄)₃ phase is similar to that of other rare-earths trimolybdates with the same structure at room temperature. A phase transition was observed at 2 GPa. The new phase, which can be identified as the δ-phase, has never been completely characterized by diffraction studies. A tentative indexation has been performed and good refined cell parameters were obtained. We detect indications of amorphization of the δ-Tb ₂(MoO ₄)₃ phase at 5 GPa.     

Optical pressure sensors for high-pressure–high-temperature studies in a diamond anvil cell

We review the various optical pressure sensors that are suitable for high-pressure and high-temperature studies in a diamond anvil cell. Two different kinds of sensors are considered: those based on the pressure shift of a fluorescence line (ruby, SrB₄O₇:Sm²⁺) and those based on the pressure shift of a Raman line (c-BN, diamond). The calibration of those sensors are presented in detail, and discussion is made on their useful pressure and temperature ranges.     

白光LED用Sr3LiMgV3O12:Eu3+单基质荧光粉的研究

采用高温固相法合成了一种新型单基质Sr3-2xLi1+xMgV3O12∶xEu3+荧光粉,研究了其在不同的合成温度及Eu3+掺杂浓度等条件下的发光性能。利用X射线衍射仪(XRD)、扫描电镜(SEM)和荧光光谱仪(PL)等对样品进行表征。荧光光谱表明Sr3-2xLi1+xMgV3O12∶xEu3+荧光粉具有与近紫外芯片相匹配的激发光谱,其宽阔的发射光谱(450～630nm)使得该类物质具有作为白光LED用单基质荧光粉的巨大优势。     

高氧空位浓度对金红石TiO2导电性能影响的第一性原理研究

采用基于密度泛函理论的平面波超软赝势方法研究了 纯的和不同高氧空位浓度金红石型TiO_2-x (x=0, 0.083, 0.125, 0.167, 0.25)超胞的能带结构分布、态密度分布.同时, 采用局域密度近似+U方法调准了带隙.结果表明, 高氧空位浓度越高, 金红石型TiO₂的最小带隙越变窄、电子有效质量越减小, 自由电子浓度越高, 电子迁移率越低、电导率越低.计算结果与实验结果的变化趋势相符合. 关键词： 高氧空位 2')" href="#">金红石型TiO₂ 电导率 第一性原理     

Medical ultrasound imager based on time delay spectrometry

A reflection mode proof-of-concept medical ultrasound imager based on time delay spectrometry has been developed and tested. The system uses a broad band swept-frequency signal operating up to 10 MHz. Signal processing using a fast Fourier transform (FFT) permits extraction of range information. The imager has a higher signal-to-noise ratio than pulse-echo systems which allows high resolution at greater depths. The time delay spectrometry (TDS) spread spectrum operates at lower peak intensities than pulse-echo and permits more control of the spectral content and amplitude of the signal. At present, the system is non-real time which degrades in vivo imaging because of averaging over several cardiac cycles and tissue movement.     

Thermal fluctuations in pinned elastic systems: field theory of rare events and droplets

Using the functional renormalization group (FRG) we study the thermal fluctuations of elastic objects (displacement field u, internal dimension d) pinned by a random potential at low temperature T, as prototypes for glasses. A challenge is how the field theory can describe both typical (minimum energy T = 0) configurations, as well as thermal averages which, at any non-zero T as in the phenomenological droplet picture, are dominated by rare degeneracies between low lying minima. We show that this occurs through an essentially non-perturbative thermal boundary layer (TBL) in the (running) effective action Γ [u] at T > 0 for which we find a consistent scaling ansatz to all orders. The TBL describes how temperature smoothes the singularities of the T = 0 theory and contains the physics of rare thermal excitations (droplets). The formal structure of this TBL, which involves all cumulants of the coarse grained disorder, is first explored around d = 4 using a one-loop Wilson RG. Next, a more systematic exact RG (ERG) method is employed, and first tested on d = 0 models where it can be pushed quite far. There we obtain precise relations between TBL quantities and droplet probabilities (those are constrained by exact identities which are then checked against recent exact results). Our analysis is then extended to higher d, where we illustrate how the TBL scaling remains consistent to all orders in the ERG and how droplet picture results can be retrieved. Since correlations are determined deep in the TBL (by derivatives of Γ [u] at u = 0), it remains to be understood (in any d) how they can be retrieved (as u = 0⁺ limits in the non-analytic T = 0 effective action), i.e., how to recover a T = 0 critical theory. This formidable “matching problem” is solved in detail for d = 0, N = 1 by studying the (partial) TBL structure of higher cumulants when points are brought together. We thereby obtain the β-function at T = 0, all ambiguities removed, displayed here up to four loops. A discussion of the d > 4 case and an exact solution at large d are also provided.     

Optimized polymer-enzyme electrostatic interactions significantly improve penicillin G amidase efficiency in charged PEGA polymers

Hydrolytic yields as high as 80% were obtained by using penicillin G amidase (PGA) on substrates anchored on optimized positively charged PEGA polymers. By increasing the amount of permanent charges inside the polymer, electrostatic interactions between the positively charged PEGA⁺ and the negatively charged PGA (pI=5.2-5.4) were strengthened, thus favouring the accessibility of the bulky enzyme (MW=88 kDa) inside the pores. The effect of different amounts of charges on polymer swelling and protein retention inside the polymer was investigated and correlated to the enzyme efficiency demonstrating that electrostatic interactions predominate over swelling properties in determining enzyme accessibility.     

关于丢番图方程x^2±2^m=y^n

本文证明了：方程ｘ２＋２ｍ＝ｙｎ，ｘ，ｙ，ｍ，ｎ∈Ｎ，ｇｃｄ（ｘ，ｙ）＝１，ｎ＞２仅有有限多组解（ｘ，ｙ，ｍ，ｎ），而且当（ｘ，ｙ，ｍ，ｎ）≠（５，３，１，３），（１１，５，２，３），（７，３，５，４）时，ｎ是适合ｎ≡７（ｍｏｄ８）以及２３≤ｎ＜８．５·１０６的奇素数，ｍａｘ（ｘ，ｙ，ｍ）＜Ｃ１；方程ｘ２－２ｍ＝ｙｎ，ｘ，ｙ，ｍ，ｎ∈Ｎ，ｇｃｄ（ｘ，ｙ）＝１，ｙ＞１；ｎ＞２仅有有限多组解（ｘ，ｙ，ｍ，ｎ），而且这些解都满足ｎ＜２·１０９炉以及ｍａｘ（ｘ，ｙ，ｍ）＜Ｃ２，这里Ｃ１，Ｃ２是可有效计算的绝对常数．