Effect of Turbulent Flow on Coil‐Globule Transition of λ‐DNA

Summary: The addition of spermidine (SPD) into turbulent flow as a condensing agent showed the abrupt change of turbulent drag reducing (DR) efficiency of λ‐DNA in turbulent flow for the first time. The resultant asymptote DR efficiency explains the origin of those changes, which can be conclusively verified via the electrophoresis experiment. Despite the different fluid conditions, with and without condensing agent, all λ‐DNA molecules possessed the same half‐cut dimension, implying that the discrete change of DNA conformation can dramatically alter the flow characteristics.

Coil‐globule transition of DNA by spermidine.     

耐高温邻苯二甲腈树脂研究进展

邻苯二甲腈树脂是以邻苯二甲腈结构封端的高性能耐高温热固性树脂,具有优异的热氧稳定性、阻燃性、力学强度、低吸水率、低热膨胀系数和介电常数,可用于制备先进复合基体材料、涂料、粘接剂等,在航空技术、电子、机械、军事等领域得到广泛应用.本文综述了邻苯二甲腈树脂结构、邻苯二甲腈单体类型、邻苯二甲腈的固化剂、自催化邻苯二甲腈、生物...     

Fly Cheaply: On the Minimum Fuel Consumption Problem

In planning a flight, stops at intermediate airports are sometimes necessary to minimize fuel consumption, even if a direct flight is available. We investigate the problem of finding the cheapest path from one airport to another, given a set of n airports in ² and a function l: ² × ² → ⁺ representing the cost of a direct flight between any pair. Given a source airport s, the cheapest-path map is a subdivision of ² where two points lie in the same region iff their cheapest paths from s use the same sequence of intermediate airports. We show a quadratic lower bound on the combinatorial complexity of this map for a class of cost functions. Nevertheless, we are able to obtain subquadratic algorithms to find the cheapest path from s to all other airports for any well-behaved cost function l: our general algorithm runs in O(n^{4/3 +} ) time, and a simpler, more practical variant runs in O(n^{3/2 +} ) time, while a special class of cost functions requires just O(n log n) time.     

The Upper Semicontinuity of Random Attractors for Non-Autonomous Stochastic Plate Equations with Multiplicative Noise and Nonlinear Damping

Based on the existence of pullback attractors for the non-autonomous stochastic plate equations with multiplicative noise and nonlinear damping defined in the entire space $\mathbb{R}^n$ by Xiaobin Yao in \cite{Yao4}, in the paper, we further investigate the upper semicontinuity of pullback attractors for the problem.     

Ring-opening polymerization of macrocyclic aryl ether ketone oligomers containing the 1,2-dibenzoylbenzene moiety

Facile ring-opening polymerization of cyclic aryl ether oligomers containing the 1,2-dibenzoylbenzene moiety to form high molecular weight linear polymers in the presence of a nucleophilic initiator is described. The polymerization can be initiated in the melt in the presence of a nucleophilic initiator such as potassium carbonate, cesium fluoride, and alkali phenoxides. Various alkali phenoxides were investigated as potential nucleophilic initiators. The polymerization reaction rate in the melt increases in the order of K⁺ > Na⁺ > Cs⁺, and in the order of ⁻OPhPhO⁻ > PhO⁻ > PhOPhO⁻ > PhPhO⁻. However, the polymerization in an aprotic dipolar solvent is faster in the presence of cesium phenoxide than in the presence of potassium phenoxide. Polymerization of the cyclic oligomers in solution demonstrates that the ring-opening polymerization proceeds via a chain-growth mechanism and involves a transetherification reaction between linear and cyclic aryl ether oligomers. The ring-chain equilibrium is much more favorable towards linear polymers. Since little or no ring strain exists in the cyclic system, the transetherification reactions are indiscriminate with regards to cyclic or linear chains and the interchain equilibration is also a facile process during polymerization. This intermolecular transetherification has been demonstrated by using low molecular weight aryl ethers to control the molecular weight of the polymer formed via ring-opening polymerization. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Generalization of Strang's Preconditioner with Applications to Toeplitz Least Squares Problems

In this paper, we propose a method to generalize Strang's circulant preconditioner for arbitrary n-by-n matrices A_n. The th column of our circulant preconditioner Sn is equal to the th column of the given matrix A_n. Thus if A_n is a square Toeplitz matrix, then Sn is just the Strang circulant preconditioner. When Sn is not Hermitian, our circulant preconditioner can be defined as . This construction is similar to the forward-backward projection method used in constructing preconditioners for tomographic inversion problems in medical imaging. We show that if the matrix A_n has decaying coefficients away from the main diagonal, then is a good preconditioner for An. Comparisons of our preconditioner with other circulant-based preconditioners are carried out for some 1-D Toeplitz least squares problems: min ∥ b - Ax∥₂. Preliminary numerical results show that our preconditioner performs quite well, in comparison to other circulant preconditioners. Promising test results are also reported for a 2-D deconvolution problem arising in ground-based atmospheric imaging.     

On the Onsager Variation Principle and its Generalization for Nonlinear Irreversible Thermodynamics

The Onsager variation principle is examined from the viewpoint of the thermodynamic analogue of the D'Alembert principle in mechanics when the irreversible processes are linear and thus the system is near equilibrium. The thermodynamic D'Alembert principle is shown to be a precursor to the Onsager variation principle. The thermodynamic D'Alembert principle is then generalised to the cases of nonlinear irreversible processes occurring removed from equilibrium and a generalised form of the Onsager variation principle is obtained under some restricting conditions. The restricted variation principle so deduced has an accompanying exact differential form generalising the Clausius entropy differential (equilibrium Gibbs relations) and contains in it the essence of the thermodynamics of irreversible processes in systems where non-linear transport processes occur. An example is given for the nonlinear dissipation function in the variation functional. The evolution equations for fluxes are shown to yield those known in the literature.     

Orally administered bismuth drug together with N-acetyl cysteine as a broad-spectrum anti-coronavirus cocktail therapy

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern compromises vaccine efficacy and emphasizes the need for further development of anti-SARS-CoV-2 therapeutics, in particular orally administered take-home therapies. Cocktail therapy has shown great promise in the treatment of viral infection. Herein, we reported the potent preclinical anti-SARS-CoV-2 efficacy of a cocktail therapy consisting of clinically used drugs, e.g. colloidal bismuth subcitrate (CBS) or bismuth subsalicylate (BSS), and N-acetyl-l-cysteine (NAC). Oral administration of the cocktail reduced viral loads in the lung and ameliorated virus-induced pneumonia in a hamster infection model. The mechanistic studies showed that NAC prevented the hydrolysis of bismuth drugs at gastric pH via the formation of the stable component [Bi(NAC)₃], and optimized the pharmacokinetics profile of CBS in vivo. Combination of bismuth drugs with NAC suppressed the replication of a panel of medically important coronaviruses including Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV), Human coronavirus 229E (HCoV-229E) and SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant (B.1.1.7) with broad-spectrum inhibitory activities towards key viral cysteine enzymes/proteases including papain-like protease (PL^pro), main protease (M^pro), helicase (Hel) and angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). Importantly, our study offered a potential at-home treatment for combating SARS-CoV-2 and future coronavirus infections.

A cocktail therapy comprising bismuth drugs and N-acetyl-l-cysteine is reported to suppress the replication of SARS-CoV-2 via the oral route. The broad-spectrum inhibitory activities of the combination upon key viral cysteine enzymes are verified.     

On the Interfacial Flow Over Porous Media Composed of Packed Spheres: Part 1-Identification of the Effective Slip Length

Transport in Porous Media - The effective slip length at the interface between pure fluid flow and porous media composed of packed spheres has been accurately characterized. In this study, as the...     

纳米碳管复合凝胶玻璃结构及谱学性能研究

用物理掺杂工艺将纳米碳管引入二氧化硅凝胶玻璃基质,成功制备了纳米碳管复合凝胶玻璃,采用X射线衍射、透射电子显微镜、紫外-可见吸收光谱、红外光谱、拉曼光谱等测试方法对其结构和谱学性能进行了表征。结果表明,通过优化掺杂工艺能够实现纳米碳管与基质的均匀复合,纳米碳管本身的结构在掺杂过程中并未发生改变。纳米碳管的引入对二氧化硅凝胶玻璃基质的紫外-可见吸收光谱和红外光谱未产生显著影响。