Effect of mixed solvents on PCDTBT:PC70BM based solar cells

We investigated the effect of solvents on the morphology, charge transport and device performance of poly[N-9″-hepta-decanyl-2,7-carbazole-alt-5,5-(4′,7′-di-2-thienyl-2′,1′,3′-benzothiadiazole)] (PCDTBT) and [6,6]-phenyl C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC₇₀BM) based solar cells. To carry out this investigation, chloroform and 1,2-dichlorobenzene were chosen as good solvents of the two compounds. Films prepared with chloroform exhibit larger domains than those prepared with 1,2-dichlorobenzene and their size increases with the amount of PC₇₀BM. Fine tuning of the domain size was realized by using a solvent of mixed chloroform and 1,2-dichlorobenzene. At a mixing ratio of 50%:50%, a power conversion efficiency of 6.1% was achieved on PCDTBT:PC₇₀BM (1:3) devices with an active area of 1 cm², under air mass 1.5 global (AM 1.5 G) irradiation at 100 mW/cm².     

Three-dimensional imaging of sulfides in silicate rocks at submicron resolution with multiphoton microscopy

We report the first application of multiphoton microscopy (MPM) to generate three-dimensional (3D) images of natural minerals (micron-sized sulfides) in thick (～120 μm) rock sections. First, reflection mode (RM) using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), combined with differential interference contrast (DIC), was tested on polished sections. Second, two-photon fluorescence (TPF) and second harmonic signal (SHG) images were generated using a femtosecond-laser on the same rock section without impregnation by a fluorescent dye. CSLM results show that the silicate matrix is revealed with DIC and RM, while sulfides can be imaged in 3D at low resolution by RM. Sulfides yield strong autofluorescence from 392 to 715 nm with TPF, while SHG is only produced by the embedding medium. Simultaneous recording of TPF and SHG images enables efficient discrimination between different components of silicate rocks. Image stacks obtained with MPM enable complete reconstruction of the 3D structure of a rock slice and of sulfide morphology at submicron resolution, which has not been previously reported for 3D imaging of minerals. Our work suggests that MPM is a highly efficient tool for 3D studies of microstructures and morphologies of minerals in silicate rocks, which may find other applications in geosciences.     

Fast regularized linear sampling for inverse scattering problems

A new numerical procedure is proposed for the reconstruction of the shape and volume of unknown objects from measurements of their radiation in the far field. This procedure is a variant and the linear sampling method has a very acceptable computational load and is fully automated. It is based on exploiting an iteratively computed truncated singular‐value decomposition and heuristics to extract the desired signal from the background noise. Its performance on a battery of examples of different types is shown to be promising. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Minimizing convex quadratics with variable precision conjugate gradients

We investigate the method of conjugate gradients, exploiting inaccurate matrix‐vector products, for the solution of convex quadratic optimization problems. Theoretical performance bounds are derived, and the necessary quantities occurring in the theoretical bounds estimated, leading to a practical algorithm. Numerical experiments suggest that this approach has significant potential, including in the steadily more important context of multiprecision computations.     

Flatness of Noetherian Hopf algebras over coideal subalgebras

It is proved in the paper that a Noetherian residually finite-dimensional Hopf algebra H is a flat module over any right Noetherian right coideal subalgebra A. In the case when A is a Hopf subalgebra we get faithful flatness. These results are obtained by verifying the existence of classical quotient rings of A and H. It is also proved that the antipode of either right or left Noetherian residually finite-dimensional Hopf algebra is bijective. As a consequence, such a Hopf algebra is right and left Noetherian simultaneously.

     

Binding Interaction of Dopamine with Bovine Serum Albumin: A Biochemical Study

The binding interaction of bovine serum albumin (BSA) with dopamine was studied by different spectroscopic techniques, and a fluorescence quenching mechanism was associated with this process. Estimated thermodynamic parameters indicated the presence of hydrogen bonding and van der Walls forces between dopamine and BSA. The microenvironment of the protein-binding site was studied by the synchronous fluorescence, FT-TR, and three-way fluorescence techniques in the presence of dopamine, and changes in conformation were indicated within the binding cavity. This study provides useful information on the transportation and distribution of dopamine in proteins.     

Waves in periodic layered waveguides

Analytical expressions for EM-waves and evolutionary equations for the waves in geometric regular waveguides with layered nonstationary media are presented. A piecewise-homogeneous and periodic along the guide's axis medium is considered in detail. The analytical solution of the dispersion equation is invariant to both the guide's cross-section contour form and eigenwave type. The periodicity dispersion, particular resonances and an algorythm of the modeling application are discussed.     

On Cramér's theorem for general Euler products with functional equation

Actually the MSC does not, but should, include an item for regularized products. J.J. and S.L.     

Synthesis and surface properties of new semi-fluorinated sulfobetaines potentially usable for 2D-electrophoresis

New semi-fluorinated amidosulfobetaines, homologs of hydrocarbon amidosulfobetaines (ASB) commonly used in two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2DE), were prepared in three steps from 2-F-alkylethyl iodide or F-alkyl iodide. Their synthesis was described and their air-water interface properties were investigated and compared with their perhydrogenated counterpart properties. The influence of the relative lengths of the perfluorinated and hydocarbonated moieties was discussed. 2DE of a rat testicular membrane fraction was performed comparatively using one of these fluorinated sulfobetaines and its hydrocarbon homolog; these preliminary results showed the great potential of the semi-fluorinated sulfobetaines in proteomic analysis.