Electric-pulse-induced local conducting area and joule heating effect in VO2/Al2O3 films

We investigated the effect of an electric-pulse on the insulator–metal phase transition of VO₂/Al₂O₃ films using synchrotron-based infrared microspectroscopy. By monitoring the time-resolved optical response, we could demonstrate that local conducting areas are formed under the influence of the electric-pulse, and the Joule heat generated from the local current flow drives a consecutive thermal phase transition in the adjacent sample area.     

Connectivity correlations in three topological spaces of urban bus-transport networks in China

In this paper, an empirical investigation is presented, which focuses on unveiling the universality of connectivity correlations in three spaces （the route space, the stop geographical space and bus-transferring space） of urban bustransport networks （BTNs） in four major cities of China. The underlying features of the connectivity correlations are shown in two statistical ways. One is the correlation between the （weighted） average degree of all the nearest neighbouring vertices with degree k, （Knn^w,（k）） Knn（k）, and k, and the other is the correlations between the assortativity coefficient r and, respectively, the network size N, the network diameter D, the averaged clustering coefficient C, and the averaged distance （l）. The obtained results show qualitatively the same connectivity correlations of all the considered cities under all the three spaces.     

3D analysis of in-filled trench as passive barriers for ground vibration isolation

The three-dimensional (3D) problem of the ground vibration isolation by an in-filled trench as a passive barrier is studied theoretically. Integral equations governing Rayleigh wave scattering are derived based on the Green’s solution of Lamb problem. The integral equations are solved accurately and efficiently with an iteration technique. They are used to evaluate the complicated Rayleigh wave field generated by irregular scatterers embedded in an elastic half-space solid. The passive isolation effectiveness of ground vibration by the in-filled trench for screening Rayleigh wave is further studied in detail. Effects of relevant parameters on the effectiveness of vibration isolation are investigated and presented. The results show that a trench filled with stiff backfill material gets a better isolation effect than a soft one, and increasing the depth or width of the in-filled trench also improves its screening effectiveness. The effectiveness and the area of the screened zone are surging with the increase in the length of the in-filled trench. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 50678128 and 50538010) and the Research Fund for PhD Student of Chinese College (Grant No. 20050247030)     

On Clique-Transversals and Clique-Independent Sets

A clique-transversal of a graph G is a subset of vertices intersecting all the cliques of G. A clique-independent set is a subset of pairwise disjoint cliques of G. Denote by _C (G) and _C (G) the cardinalities of the minimum clique-transversal and maximum clique-independent set of G, respectively. Say that G is clique-perfect when _C (H)= _C (H), for every induced subgraph H of G. In this paper, we prove that every graph not containing a 4-wheel nor a 3-fan as induced subgraphs and such that every odd cycle of length greater than 3 has a short chord is clique-perfect. The proof leads to polynomial time algorithms for finding the parameters _C (G) and _C (G), for graphs belonging to this class. In addition, we prove that to decide whether or not a given subset of vertices of a graph is a clique-transversal is Co-NP-Complete. The complexity of this problem has been mentioned as unknown in the literature. Finally, we describe a family of highly clique-imperfect graphs, that is, a family of graphs G whose difference _C (G)– _C (G) is arbitrarily large.     

Seabed classification from acoustic profiling data using the similarity index

We introduce the similarity index (SI) for the classification of the sea floor from acoustic profiling data. The essential part of our approach is the singular value decomposition of the data to extract a signal coherent trace-to-trace using the Karhunen-Loeve transform. SI is defined as the percentage of the energy of the coherent part contained in the bottom return signals. Important aspects of SI are that it is easily computed and that it represents the textural roughness of the sea floor as a function of grain size, hardness, and a degree of sediment sorting. In a real data example, we classified a section of the sea floor off Cheju Island south of the Korean Peninsula and compared the result with the sedimentology defined from direct sediment sampling and side scan sonar records. The comparison shows that SI can efficiently discriminate the bottom properties by delineating sediment-type boundaries and transition zones in more detail. Therefore, we propose that SI is an effective parameter for geoacoustic modeling.     

Exact Potts Model Partition Functions for Strips of the Square Lattice

We present exact calculations of the Potts model partition function Z(G, q, v) for arbitrary q and temperature-like variable v on n-vertex square-lattice strip graphs G for a variety of transverse widths L _t and for arbitrarily great length L , with free longitudinal boundary conditions and free and periodic transverse boundary conditions. These have the form Z(G, q, v)= . We give general formulas for N _{Z, G, j} and its specialization to v=–1 for arbitrary L _t for both types of boundary conditions, as well as other general structural results on Z. The free energy is calculated exactly for the infinite-length limit of the graphs, and the thermodynamics is discussed. It is shown how the internal energy calculated for the case of cylindrical boundary conditions is connected with critical quantities for the Potts model on the infinite square lattice. Considering the full generalization to arbitrary complex q and v, we determine the singular locus , arising as the accumulation set of partition function zeros as L , in the q plane for fixed v and in the v plane for fixed q.     

Electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometric characteristics and fragmentation mechanisms of distamycin analogues

The electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometric (ESI-MS/MS) characteristics and fragmentation mechanisms of eight distamycin analogues containing N-methylpyrrole and N-methylimidazole were investigated. The members of two isomeric groups of distamycin analogues with the same elemental composition can be distinguished by MS/MS spectra of protonated molecules and of significant fragment ions.     

Octachloroazulene

The title compound, the first perhaloazulene, has been synthesized from hexachlorobutadiene and cyclopentadiene. Further chlorination of 1,3,4,5,6,7-hexachloroazulene results in addition, not substitution, under electrophilic as well as free radical conditions. Radical chlorination of the hexachloroazulene affords in good yield a single decachlorotetrahydroazulene. Treatment of this Cl(10) compound with one equiv of a phosphazene base gives a nonachlorodihydroazulene, but the addition of a second equiv results in dechlorination to 1,2,3,4,5,6,7-heptachloroazulene as well as dehydrochlorination to octachloroazulene. The former azulene is obtained cleanly from the Cl(9) compound with acid catalysis or by reduction with mercury. In the presence of calcium carbonate, however, the Cl(9) intermediate yields the dark green octachloroazulene. Although octachloronaphthalene is readily converted into its octafluoro counterpart, the isomeric octachloroazulene is far too sensitive to undergo the analogous transformation.     

Stereochemistry in the synthesis and reaction of exo-glycals

Two general methods are explored for the stereoselective synthesis of exo-glycals. One method utilizes a nucleophilic addition of fully protected sugar lactones of gluco-, galacto-, and manno-types, followed by the subsequent dehydration, to give the desired exo-glycals with (Z)-configuration. The other method proceeds with selenylation of C-glycosides in a stereoselective manner. The subsequent selenoxide elimination also provides (Z)-exo-glycals. The prepared exo-glycal conjugated esters of either gluco- or manno-type react with allyl alcohol to give exclusively alpha-anomers.     

Regioselective reduction of 3-sulfonyl glutarimides to 3,4-dihydro-5-sulfonylpyridin-2-ones. Formal synthesis of the indolizidine 8a-epi-dendroprimine

Sodium borohydride regioselectively reduced various 3-sulfonyl glutarimides 1 to hydroxy piperidones 2, which were further dehydrated to 3,4-dihydro-5-sulfonylpyridin-2-ones 3 in the presence of boron trifluoride. Formal synthesis of 8a-epi-dendroprimine (4) possessing an indolizidine ring system has been accomplished via intramolecular radical cyclization of cyclic vinyl sulfone 5.