Assessment of radioactivity contribution and transfer characteristics of natural radionuclides in agroecosystem

Taking into account the importance of distribution and transfer of radionuclides in the soil–plant system, especially in agricultural fields, the aim of this research was assessment of radioactivity contribution and transfer characteristics of natural radionuclides in agroecosystem. The measurement of the natural radioactivity distribution was conducted in organic and sustainable farming management systems. Statistical evaluation of the physical and chemical properties of soils subjected to different farming systems, revealed the existence of differences in some parameters. Balanced distribution of natural radionuclides in soil-crop system was observed. Radionuclide ⁴⁰K was the most accessible to the investigated crops via uptake from the soil, then ²³²Th and ²²⁶Ra. The obtained results are useful for understanding the behavior of the radionuclides and provide an insight into the cumulative deposition of radioactivity in the agroecosystem.

     

From Sponges to Nanotubes: A Change of Nanocrystal Morphology for Acute‐Angle Bent‐Core Molecules

The crystalline (B₄) phase made of acute‐angle bent‐core molecules (1,7‐naphthalene derivatives), which exhibits an unusual, highly porous sponge‐like morphology, is presented. However, if grown in the presence of low‐weight mesogenic molecules, the same crystal forms nanotubes with a very high aspect ratio. The nanotubes become unstable upon increasing the amount of dopant molecules, and the sponge‐like morphology reappears. The phase is optically active, and the optical activity is an order of magnitude smaller than in the B₄ phase made of conventional bent‐core molecules. The optical activity is related to the spatial inhomogeneity of the layered structure and is reduced due to the low apex angle and low tilt of the molecules. The arrangement of molecules within the layers was deduced from the bathochromic absorption shift in the B₄ phase.     

CAT(0) spaces with polynomial divergence of geodesics

We construct a family of finite 2-complexes whose universal covers are CAT(0) and have polynomial divergence of desired degree. This answers a question of Gersten, namely whether such CAT(0) complexes exist.     

Derivation of the Cubic NLS and Gross–Pitaevskii Hierarchy from Manybody Dynamics in d = 3 Based on Spacetime Norms

We derive the defocusing cubic Gross–Pitaevskii (GP) hierarchy in dimension d = 3, from an N-body Schrödinger equation describing a gas of interacting bosons in the GP scaling, in the limit N → ∞. The main result of this paper is the proof of convergence of the corresponding BBGKY hierarchy to a GP hierarchy in the spaces introduced in our previous work on the well-posedness of the Cauchy problem for GP hierarchies (Chen and Pavlovi? in Discr Contin Dyn Syst 27(2):715–739, 2010; http://arxiv.org/abs/0906.2984; Proc Am Math Soc 141:279–293, 2013), which are inspired by the solution spaces based on space-time norms introduced by Klainerman and Machedon (Comm Math Phys 279(1):169–185, 2008). We note that in d = 3, this has been a well-known open problem in the field. While our results do not assume factorization of the solutions, consideration of factorized solutions yields a new derivation of the cubic, defocusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLS) in d = 3.     

Globally Convergent Inexact Quasi-Newton Methods for Solving Nonlinear Systems

Large scale nonlinear systems of equations can be solved by means of inexact quasi-Newton methods. A global convergence theory is introduced that guarantees that, under reasonable assumptions, the algorithmic sequence converges to a solution of the problem. Under additional standard assumptions, superlinear convergence is preserved.     

Optical Spectra of Polygermane/Mesoporous Silica Nanocomposites

Summary: The monitoring of poly(di-n-hexylgermane) (PDHG) optical spectra in a variety of structures ranging from a bulk film to a nanosize polymer confined into a nanopore of SBA-15 was performed using the fluorescence and fluorescence excitation spectra in the temperature range from 5 to 240 K as well as the absorption and FTIR spectra at room temperature. The observed data were compared with those obtained for poly(di-n-hexylsilane). It was shown that PDHG film absorption and fluorescence spectra strongly depend on the polymer thickness and consist of a number of bands which were assigned to centers with different amount of trans- and gauche- conformers of the polymer chains. Conformations of the polymer chains found in a thin film and in a 10 nm pore are similar while differing from the conformations of a thick film. Optical spectra of the confined PDHG are blue-shifted relative to those of a thin film. The PDHG polymer chain conformation becomes disordered with the decrease of the polymer film thickness and the nanopore size from 10 to 6 nm.     

Validation of an Augmented Lagrangian Algorithm with a Gauss-Newton Hessian Approximation Using a Set of Hard-Spheres Problems

An Augmented Lagrangian algorithm that uses Gauss-Newton approximations of the Hessian at each inner iteration is introduced and tested using a family of Hard-Spheres problems. The Gauss-Newton model convexifies the quadratic approximations of the Augmented Lagrangian function thus increasing the efficiency of the iterative quadratic solver. The resulting method is considerably more efficient than the corresponding algorithm that uses true Hessians. A comparative study using the well-known package LANCELOT is presented.     

Synthesis and characterization of cobalt acrylate–melamine co-crystals

A new co-crystal of tetraaqua acrylato cobalt (II) complex and melamine, [Co(acr)₂(H₂O)₄]·4MA·2DMF (acr = acrylate, MA = melamine, DMF = dimethylformamide), has been synthesized and characterized using IR, UV-Vis, thermogravimetric analysis, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The complex contains discrete unities of [Co(acr)₂(H₂O)₄], melamine, and DMF linked by hydrogen bonds. Investigations evidenced that Co(II) has an octahedral stereochemistry and both acrylate ions present unidentate coordination mode. Thermal decomposition occurs in four steps and denotes that melamine is lost at high temperatures, and this indicates a greater stability that may be associated with the presence of hydrogen bonds network.