Synthesis of PrBa2Cu4O8 by Solution Method under Ambient Oxygen Pressure

A highly homogeneous and nearly monophasic PrBa₂Cu₄O₈ compound has been synthesized at 1 atm of oxygen via a route employing polymeric ethylenediamine/citric acid precursors. The PrBa₂Cu₄O₈ compound with a trace amount of BaCuO₂ was synthesized for the first time by sintering the pellets at the temperature of 875 °C under ambient oxygen pressure. The temperature coefficient of the resistivity is positive below 190 K while above 190 K is negative. The superconducting transition was not detected down to 4.2 K. Samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, thermal analysis, and transport and magnetic measurements.     

Incompressible SPH simulation of water entry of a free‐falling object

In this paper an incompressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics (Incom‐SPH) model is used to simulate the interactions between the free surface flow and a moving object. Incom‐SPH method is a two‐step semi‐implicit hydrodynamic formulation of the SPH algorithm and is capable of accurately treating the free surface deformations and impact forces during the solid–fluid interactions. For a free‐falling object, its motion is tracked by an additional Lagrangian algorithm based on Newton's law to couple with the Incom‐SPH program. The developed model is employed to investigate the water entry of a free‐falling wedge. The accuracy of the computations is validated by the good agreement in predicting the relevant hydrokinematic and hydrodynamic parameters. Finally, a numerical test is performed to study the influence of spatial resolution on the water entry features. The Incom‐SPH modeling coupled with the solid–fluid interaction algorithm could provide a promising computational tool to predict the slamming problems in coastal and offshore engineering. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Simultaneous quantification of five major constituents in stems of Dracaena plants and related medicinal preparations from China and Vietnam by HPLC–DAD

A high‐performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method was developed for the simultaneous quantification of five major bioactive constituents in the stems of resiniferous Dracaena plants from China and Vietnam, as well as those in the related traditional Chinese medicinal preparations. A diode array detector with the wavelength of 330 nm was used to monitor resveratrol, 7,4′‐dihydroxyflavone and pterostilbene, while loureirin A and loureirin B were monitored at 280 nm. The five constituents were separated on an Agela SB C₁₈ column by gradient elution using 0.008% (v/v) formic acid solution (A) and acetonitrile (B) as the mobile phase. The validation of the method included recovery, linearity, accuracy and precision (intra‐ and inter‐day variation). The range of recoveries of this method was 98.1–104.9%, with all the constituents showing good linearity (r² > 0.9999). The accuracy and precision were satisfactory, with the overall intra‐ and inter‐day variation being less than 4%. The present method has been successfully applied for the determination of all five constituents in 21 related herbal samples including 10 D. cochinchinensis stem samples, seven D. cambodiana stem samples and four purchased medicinal preparations. The contents of these constituents were analyzed using principal component analysis, which can efficiently identify raw herb of Dracaena from different sources. The study may be considered helpful to the quality control of Dracena plants and its medicinal preparations. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

餐盒用新型非发泡聚丙烯光降解性能红外光谱法检测

用红外光谱法测试研究了餐盒用新型非发泡聚丙烯光降解行为。结果表明，降解母粒含量不同，其红外吸收光谱图存在明显的差异；在光降解过程中，羰基指数存在明显的动态变化。     

Extended Bose-Hubbard model with pair hopping on triangular lattice

We study systematically an extended Bose-Hubbard model on the triangular lattice by means of a meanfield method based on the Gutzwiller ansatz. Pair hopping terms are explicitly included and a three-body constraint is applied. The zero-temperature phase diagram and a variety of quantum phase transitions are investigated in great detail. In particular, we show the existence and the stability of the pair supersolid phase.     

A Silicon Nanowire‐Based Electrochemical Sensor with High Sensitivity and Electrocatalytic Activity

A new kind of silicon nanowire (SiNWs)‐based nanoelectrode assembly, a gold‐nanoparticle‐decorated silicon nanowire array (AuNPs@SiNWsAr), is employed for the construction of high‐performance electrochemical sensors. Significantly, the electrochemical nanosensors are capable of sensitive detection of various electroactive molecules (e.g., dopamine (DA), ascorbic acid (AA), hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), and glucose). Further, DA molecules loaded on the surface of AuNPs@SiNWsAr preserve stable high electroactivity overnight without special protection, while free DA molecules may lose their biological activity due to severe oxidization in ambient environment. These findings may offer new opportunities for the design of high‐performance electrochemical nanosensors with high sensitivity and robust stability.     

Ultrafast photo-induced turning of magnetization and its relaxation dynamics in GaMnAs

We report that,by linearly polarized pumping of different wavelengths,Kerr transients appear at zero magnetic field only in the case when GaMnAs samples are initialized at 3 K by first applying a 0.8 Tesla field and then returning to zero field.We find that,instead of magnetization precession,the near-band gap excitation induces a coherent out-of-plane turning of magnetization,which shows very long relaxation dynamics with no precession.When photon energy increases,the peak value of the Kerr transient incre...     

Influence of annealing process on conductive properties of Nb-doped TiO2 polycrystalline films prepared by sol-gel method

Nb-doped TiO₂ (TNO) thin films were prepared by sol-gel dip-coating method with Nb content in a wide range of 0-20 at.%. The prepared films were preheated at 400 °C and then undertaken by two different post-annealing processes: (a) three times vacuum annealing and (b) multi-round annealing. The designed multi-round annealing was shown to be an effective way to improve the conductive properties of the films, compared to the traditional vacuum annealing process. The minimum resistivity reached approximately 0.5 Ω cm with Nb doping concentration around 12 at.%, and the carrier density increased with Nb-doping concentration until the critical point of 12 at.%, which might be the optimal doping content for our TNO films prepared by sol-gel method.