Rectified vortex motion in an Nb film with a spacing-graded array of holes

Superconducting Nb thin films with a spacing-graded array of holes were prepared by electron beam lithography. Two films with different hole gradients were fabricated. The ac-driven vortices were investigated in Nb superconductors with a spacing-graded array of holes. The measurements revealed pronounced rectified voltage when the vortex lattice is driven by an ac injected current. The rectified voltage is mainly caused by the strength of the vortex–vortex interaction. The rectified motion of a vortex is affected by the pinning potential of the spacing-graded array and the applied magnetic field. The vortex–vortex interaction strength changes the effective pinning landscape of the vortices and an asymmetric potential is formed. Vortices depin easily from high concentration to low concentration of pinning sites. In both samples, the ac-driven vortices exhibit a variety of dynamical responses and the rectified voltage is tunable with the applied magnetic field.     

Synthesis,Structural Characterization and Biological Activity of Cu(II) Compounds Incorporating Pyrazole‐derived Ligand: Effect on Cell Growth in Human Colorectal Carcinoma

A series of Cu(II) compounds containing neutral multi‐dentate ligand [2,6‐diisopropylphenyl]‐bis[(1‐H‐pyrazol‐1‐yl)methyl]amine ( L₁ ) and pyrazole dimethoxethyl ligand [(1‐H‐pyrazol‐1‐yl)methyl]‐bis(2‐methoxyethyl)amine ( L₂ ) were synthesized. Reactions of L₁ and L₂ with copper(II) chloride generate L₁CuCl₂ ( 1 ) and L₂CuCl₂ ( 2 ), respectively. Compounds 1 and 2 have been characterized by elemental analysis and X‐ray single crystal diffractometry. The effects of compounds 1 and 2 on the cell viability of various human cancer cells (including A549, COLO 205, HT‐29, Hep3B, HepG2, Huh7, and PCL5 cells) were investigated. The results indicate that compound 2 has a strong inhibitory effect on cell growth in human colorectal carcinoma cells (COLO 205 cells and HT‐29 cells).     

Embedding evolutionary strategy in ordinal optimization for hard optimization problems

This work proposes a method for embedding evolutionary strategy (ES) in ordinal optimization (OO), abbreviated as ESOO, for solving real-time hard optimization problems with time-consuming evaluation of the objective function and a huge discrete solution space. Firstly, an approximate model that is based on a radial basis function (RBF) network is utilized to evaluate approximately the objective value of a solution. Secondly, ES associated with the approximate model is applied to generate a representative subset from a huge discrete solution space. Finally, the optimal computing budget allocation (OCBA) technique is adopted to select the best solution in the representative subset as the obtained “good enough” solution. The proposed method is applied to a hotel booking limits (HBL) problem, which is formulated as a stochastic combinatorial optimization problem with a huge discrete solution space. The good enough booking limits, obtained by the proposed method, have promising solution quality, and the computational efficiency of the method makes it suitable for real-time applications. To demonstrate the computational efficiency of the proposed method and the quality of the obtained solution, it is compared with two competing methods – the canonical ES and the genetic algorithm (GA). Test results demonstrate that the proposed approach greatly outperforms the canonical ES and GA.     

The Preparation and Structural Study of Nickel (II) Complexes of N,N′-(8-Quinolyl)Trimethylenediamines

A number of Ni(II) complexes of N,N′-bis(8-quinolyl)trimethylenediamines are synthesized both as perchlorate salts and neutral amino complexes. Substitutions on the 2 and 6 positions of the quinolyl ligands are introduced for various reasons concerning the structural studies. The structural informations are obtained by studies of the magnetic properties, electronic spectra and NMR spectra. Structural changes effected by acid/base property of the medium are followed by NMR spectroscopy.     

The anomalous RHEED patterns observed from (111)Ag-(111)Cu bilayers

RHEED patterns obtained from thin expitaxial bilayers consisting of Ag grown on smooth (111)Cu surfaces have been shown by Gradmann and Krause to contain anomalous reflections. Previously, these reflections were interpreted as due to a regular arrangement of interfacial dislocations or to multiple diffraction effects. In the present work a thin film technique was used to form smooth, easily detachable (111)Ag/Cu bilayers from which RHEED patterns containing these extra reflections were obtained. These films were grown, annealed, and examined in situ by UHV-RHEED techniques. They were then removed from the vacuum system, detached from their substrates and examined by TEM and TED. Thus, contrary to previous work, the present observations consisted of a series of experiments using RHEED, TED, and TEM carried out on the same specimen. No evidence was obtained to indicate that the anomalous reflections were due to interfacial dislocations. Rather, all the observed phenomena could be explained entirely by multiple diffraction effects.     

Detecting characteristics of information masked by a laser-triggered microwave system via Hilbert-Huang transform

A two-wave-mixing microwave system under a delayed feedback control is proposed for chaotic communications in this study. Under the consideration of simple chaotic masking, Hilbert-Huang transform is proved to be an efficient way to detect characteristics of information signals via the spectrum of intrinsic mode functions. Based upon detrended fluctuation as well as multiscale entropy analyses on masking efficiency in the present system, we may suggest that Hilbert-Huang transform would be an alternative method to analyze complex dressed signals from nonlinear optoelectronic systems.     

Variation in Photodynamic Efficacy during the Cellular Uptake of Two Phthalocyanine Photosensitizers

A decrease in the efficacy of photodynamic therapy (PDT) with phthalocyanine photosensitizers was observed for lymphoblastic murine and human cell lines as the time between the addition of the photosensitizer, aluminum phthalocyanine (AlPc), to the culture medium and exposure to light was increased from 4 h to 18 h. The total intracellular concentration of photosensitizer did not decrease significantly during this 18 h interval. For the murine cell lines, the maximum cytotoxic and mutagenic effects were observed when the time between addition of the photosensitizer and irradiation was between 1 and 4 h. The time course of the variations in efficacy did not vary greatly from one murine cell line to another, even though the cell lines differ markedly in the extent of their cytotoxic and mutagenic response. The time course of the variation was similar for cytotoxicity and mutagenicity, as well as for the induction of DNA fragmentation. The human lymphoblastic cell line, WTK1, showed less variation in survival and mutability with time than did the murine cell lines. With Pc 4 (HOSiPcOSi[CH3]2[CH2]3N[CH3]2) as the photosensitizer, the photocytotoxicity for murine L5178Y (LY)-Sl cells did not change significantly as the time between addition of Pc 4 and irradiation was increased from 2 to 18 h. However, the mutagenicity decreased by a factor of three during this interval. The mutagenicity of PDT with Pc 4 was much less in LY-Sl cells than that with AlPc. The results suggest that the variation in the efficacy observed for AIPc-induced photocytotoxicity is caused by changes in the intracellular distribution and/or the aggregation of the photosensitizer with time after its addition.     

Iron(II), cobalt(II), nickel(II) and copper(II) chelates of 1,1′-Dibenzoylacetylferrocene

Summary 1,1-Dibenzoylacetylferrocene (DBAFc) complexes of iron(II), cobalt(II), nickel(II) and copper(II) have been prepared and characterized. The physical properties of the complexes are discussed on the basis of uv-visible, Mössbauer spectra and magnetic measurements.     

Incorporating hidden Markov models for identifying protein kinase-specific phosphorylation sites

Protein phosphorylation, which is an important mechanism in posttranslational modification, affects essential cellular processes such as metabolism, cell signaling, differentiation, and membrane transportation. Proteins are phosphorylated by a variety of protein kinases. In this investigation, we develop a novel tool to computationally predict catalytic kinase-specific phosphorylation sites. The known phosphorylation sites from public domain data sources are categorized by their annotated protein kinases. Based on the concepts of profile Hidden Markov Models (HMM), computational models are trained from the kinase-specific groups of phosphorylation sites. After evaluating the trained models, we select the model with highest accuracy in each kinase-specific group and provide a Web-based prediction tool for identifying protein phosphorylation sites. The main contribution here is that we have developed a kinase-specific phosphorylation site prediction tool with both high sensitivity and specificity.