Nonhomogeneous variational problems and quasi-minimizers on metric spaces

We show that quasi-minimizers of non-homogeneous energy functionals are locally H?lder continuous and satisfy the Harnack inequality on metric measure spaces. We assume that the space is doubling and supports a Poincaré inequality. The proof is based on the De Giorgi method, combined with the expansion of positivity technique.     

Touching the upper limit for ferromagnetic interactions in hetero-bridged dinuclear [Cu2(II)] complexes using a novel N5-dinucleating ligand bearing an endogenous monoatomic amido(R-NH(-))-bridging group

A novel N(5)-dinucleating ligand 4-amino-3,5-bis(bipyridine-2-yl)-1,2,4-triazole allows the preparation for the first time, and under mild conditions, of single and mixed amido(R-NH(-))-bridged copper(II) complexes, the latter exhibiting very strong ferromagnetic coupling.     

Top-down mass spectrometry reveals new sequence variants of the major bovine seminal plasma protein PDC-109

The major protein of bovine seminal plasma, PDC-109, is a 109-residue polypeptide that exists as a polydisperse aggregate under native conditions. The oligomeric state of this aggregate varies with ionic strength and the presence of lipids. Binding of PDC-109 to choline phospholipids on the sperm plasma membrane results in an efflux of cholesterol and choline phospholipids, which is an important step in sperm capacitation. In this study, Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry was used to analyze PDC-109 purified from bovine seminal plasma. In addition to the previously known PDC-109 variants, four new sequence variants were identified by top-down mass spectrometry. For example, a protein variant containing point mutations P10L and G14R was identified along with another form having a 14-residue truncation in the N-terminal region. Two other minor variants could also be identified from the affinity-purified PDC-109. These results demonstrate that PDC-109 is naturally produced as a mixture of several protein forms, most of which have not been detected in previous studies. Native mass spectrometry revealed that PDC-109 is exclusively monomeric at low protein concentrations, suggesting that the protein oligomers are weakly bound and can easily be disrupted. Ligand binding to PDC-109 was also investigated, and it was observed that two molecules of O-phosphorylcholine bind to each PDC-109 monomer, consistent with previous reports.     

Local approximation of superharmonic and superparabolic functions in nonlinear potential theory

We prove that arbitrary superharmonic functions and superparabolic functions related to the p-Laplace and the p-parabolic equations are locally obtained as limits of supersolutions with desired convergence properties of the corresponding Riesz measures. As an application we show that a family of uniformly bounded supersolutions to the p-parabolic equation contains a subsequence that converges to a supersolution.     

Irregular time dependent obstacles

We study the obstacle problem for the Evolutionary p-Laplace Equation when the obstacle is discontinuous and does not have regularity in the time variable. Two quite different procedures yield the same solution.     

Picosecond pulse laser ablation of yttria-stabilized zirconia from kilohertz to megahertz repetition rates

Thin films of yttria stabilized zirconia were deposited onto silicon substrates using high repetition rate picosecond pulse lasers. The applied lasers covered the repetition rate range from 10 kHz to 4 MHz. We found that the laser pulse overlapping which results from increased repetition rates led to considerable changes in the ablation process. Defect formation and local heating lead to lower ablation thresholds and, with sufficiently high repetition rates, to melting of the target and even to thermal evaporation. We found that yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) films deposited with picosecond pulses at 1064 nm wavelength below repetition rates of 2 MHz have rough, nanostructured morphology and the same atomic ratio of yttrium and zirconium as the target. Films deposited with 2 MHz and higher repetition rates with high number of overlapping pulses are very smooth, but are yttrium deficient, providing evidence of the importance of the thermal processes.     

The Linearized Calderón Problem on Complex Manifolds

In this note we show that on any compact subdomain of a Kähler manifold that admits sufficiently many global holomorphic functions, the products of harmonic functions form a complete set. This gives a positive answer to the linearized anisotropic Calderón problem on a class of complex manifolds that includes compact subdomains of Stein manifolds and sufficiently small subdomains of Kähler manifolds. Some of these manifolds do not admit limiting Carleman weights, and thus cannot be treated by standard methods for the Calderón problem in higher dimensions. The argument is based on constructing Morse holomorphic functions with approximately prescribed critical points. This extends earlier results from the case of Riemann surfaces to higher dimensional complex manifolds.     

Chalcogen-Bonding Interactions in Telluroether Heterocycles [Te(CH2)m]n (n=1–4; m=3–7)

The Te ⋅⋅⋅ Te secondary bonding interactions (SBIs) in solid cyclic telluroethers were explored by preparing and structurally characterizing a series of [Te(CH₂)_m]_n (n=1–4; m=3–7) species. The SBIs in 1,7-Te₂(CH₂)₁₀, 1,8-Te₂(CH₂)₁₂, 1,5,9-Te₃(CH₂)₉, 1,8,15-Te₃(CH₂)₁₈, 1,7,13,19-Te₄(CH₂)₂₀, 1,8,15,22-Te₄(CH₂)₂₄ and 1,9,17,25-Te₄(CH₂)₂₈ lead to tubular packing of the molecules, as has been observed previously for related thio- and selenoether rings. The nature of the intermolecular interactions was explored by solid-state PBE0-D3/pob-TZVP calculations involving periodic boundary conditions. The molecular packing in 1,7,13,19-Te₄(CH₂)₂₀, 1,8,15,22-Te₄(CH₂)₂₄ and 1,9,17,25-Te₄(CH₂)₂₈ forms infinite shafts. The electron densities at bond critical points indicate a narrow range of Te ⋅⋅⋅ Te bond orders of 0.12–0.14. The formation of the shafts can be rationalized by frontier orbital overlap and charge transfer.