Red–Green–Blue Trichromophoric Nanoparticles with Dual Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer: Highly Sensitive Fluorogenic Response Toward Polyanions

A red–green–blue (RGB) trichromophoric fluorescent organic nanoparticle exhibiting multi‐colour emission was constructed; the blue‐emitting cationic oligofluorene nanoparticle acted as an energy‐donor scaffold to undergo fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) to a red‐emitting dye embedded in the nanoparticle (interior FRET) and to a green‐emitting dye adsorbed on the surface through electrostatic interactions (exterior FRET). Each FRET event occurs independently and is free from sequential FRET, thus the resultant dual‐FRET system exhibits multi‐colour emission, including white, in aqueous solution and film state. A characteristic white‐emissive nanoparticle showed visible responses upon perturbation of the exterior FRET efficiency by acceptor displacement, leading to highly sensitive responses toward polyanions in a ratiometric manner. Specifically, our system exhibits high sensitivity toward heparin with an extremely low detection limit.     

Blue-emitting LaAlO3:Tm3+, In3+ phosphors for field emission displays

Tm³⁺ and In³⁺ co-doped LaAlO₃ phosphors were prepared by a Pechini sol–gel method and characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, and cathodoluminescence spectrum. The phosphor is composed of slightly aggregated particles with approximately spherical shape and a narrow size range of 1.0–1.5 μm. Under voltage electron beam excitation, the phosphor shows the characteristic emissions of Tm³⁺. All the color purity, radiant efficiency, luminous efficiency, and stability of the optimum LaAlO₃:0.01Tm³⁺, 0.04In³⁺ phosphor are superior to these of commercial ZnS:Ag,Cl phosphor. These tests suggest that it could be a potential candidate as a blue phosphor for field emission displays.     

One dimensional main-chain crystallization kinetics of poly(3-octylthiophenes) investigated by infrared spectroscopy

Time-resolved infrared spectroscopy has been used to study the melt crystallization behavior of poly(3-octylthiophenes) (P3OT), which is a typical conductive polymer among the family of poly(3-alkylthiophenes) (P3ATs). It is found that, during the isothermal crystallization process at high temperature, the alkyl side chains of P3OT always keep in disordered state, whereas the ordering packing of conjugated backbone takes place. In order to reveal the structural changes and the crystallization kinetics corresponding to the main-chain ordering process, two spectral regions that associated with π–π stacking and the effective conjugation length of P3OT have been analyzed in detail. The characteristic IR bands of crystalline and amorphous phase are identified in each spectral region. Moreover, a simple spectral method has been proposed to calculate the evolution of crystallinity during the isothermal crystallization process of P3OT. Of particular note, the distinct one-dimensional growth kinetic of P3OT crystal has been revealed by Avrami analysis.     

Bootstrapping the empirical distribution of a linear process

The validity of the moving block bootstrap for the empirical distribution of a short memory causal linear process is established under simple conditions that do not involve mixing or association. Sufficient conditions can be expressed in terms of the existence of moments of the innovations and summability of the coefficients of the linear model. Applications to one and two sample tests are discussed.     

Mathematical modeling of electromagnetic wave propagation in heterogeneous lossy coaxial cables with variable cross section

In this work, we focus on the time-domain simulation of the propagation of electromagnetic waves in non-homogeneous lossy coaxial cables. The full 3D Maxwell equations, that described the propagation of current and electric potential in such cables, are classically not tackled directly, but instead a 1D scalar model known as the telegraphist's model is used. We aim at justifying, by means of asymptotic analysis, a time-domain “homogenized” telegraphist's model. This model, which includes a nonlocal in time operator, is obtained via asymptotic analysis, for a lossy coaxial cable whose cross section is not homogeneous.     

Improved estimation of duality gap in binary quadratic programming using a weighted distance measure

We present in this paper an improved estimation of duality gap between binary quadratic program and its Lagrangian dual. More specifically, we obtain this improved estimation using a weighted distance measure between the binary set and certain affine subspace. We show that the optimal weights can be computed by solving a semidefinite programming problem. We further establish a necessary and sufficient condition under which the weighted distance measure gives a strictly tighter estimation of the duality gap than the existing estimations.     

Low-amplitude instability as a premise for the spontaneous symmetry breaking in the new integrable semidiscrete nonlinear system

The new integrable semidiscrete multicomponent nonlinear system characterized by two coupling parameters is presented. Relying upon the lowest local conservation laws the concise form of the system is given and its selfconsistent symmetric parametrization in terms of four independent field variables is found. The comprehensive analysis of quartic dispersion equation for the system low-amplitude excitations is made. The criteria distinguishing the domains of stability and instability of low-amplitude excitations are formulated and a collection of qualitatively distinct realizations of a dispersion law are graphically presented. The loop-like structure of a low-amplitude dispersion law of reduced system emerging within certain windows of adjustable coupling parameter turns out to resemble the loop-like structure of a dispersion law typical of beam-plasma oscillations. Basing on the peculiarities of low-amplitude dispersion law as the function of adjustable coupling parameter it is possible to predict the windows of spontaneous symmetry breaking even without an explicit knowledge of the system Lagrangian function. Having been rewritten in terms of properly chosen modified field variables the reduced four wave integrable system can be qualified as consisting of two coupled nonlinear lattice subsystems, namely the self-dual ladder network and the vibrational ones.     

Removal of oxygen from silicon by electron beam melting

Small amounts of multicrystalline silicon were melted in an electron beam furnace in different experimental conditions in order to investigate the oxygen evaporation behavior during the electron beam melting (EBM) process. The oxygen content level before and after EBM was determined by secondary ion mass spectroscopy. The oxygen content was reduced from 6.177 to 1.629 ppmw when silicon was melted completely at 15 kW with removal efficiency up to 73.6 %. After that, it decreased continually to <0.0517 ppmw when the refining time exceeded 600 s with a removal efficiency of more than 99.08 %. During the melting process, the evaporation rate of silicon is 1.10 × 10^?5 kg/s. The loss of silicon could be reduced up to 1.7 % during oxygen removal process to a desirable figure, indicating EBM is an effective method to remove oxygen from silicon and decrease the loss of silicon.