Normal Coordinate Analysis of Pyridine-N-Oxide

We have been interested for some time in the study of the hydrogen bonded complexes in the far-infrared region with special attention to the adducts between phenol and pyridine-N-oxides (1). In such systems the intermolecular mode vσ was identified and some intramolecular vibrations related to the N-O group were observed to be remarkably shifted consequent on hydrogen bonding. In this context we wished to obtain a force field for the complex which could fit the observational results. Unfortunately for one of the constituents i. e. pyridine-N-oxide a force field, suitable for our purposes, was not available and therefore preliminarily we determined it. We report here the results of such analysis.     

Salient region detection using background priors

In this paper, we introduce a novel salient region detection algorithm by using background priors. Because of the fact that superpixel is perceptually more meaningful than pixel, and which can reduce the complexity of image processing, we use the superpixel algorithm to reprocess original images. In addition, we hold the point that the colors in the image boundary could mainly represent all background colors, hence we compute the color contrast between the intern colors and the boundary colors. Since the nearer the patches are close to center, the more they affect other patches, we propose a new distribution-based model. Finally, experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches.     

A combined approach of Kullback–Leibler divergence and background subtraction for moving object detection in thermal video

In this work, a robust method for moving object detection in thermal video frames has been proposed by including Kullback–Leibler divergence (KLD) based threshold and background subtraction (BGS) technique. A trimmed-mean based background model has been developed that is capable enough to reduce noise or dynamic component of the background. This work assumed that each pixel has normally distributed. The KLD has computed between background pixel and a current pixel with the help of Gaussian mixture model. The proposed threshold is useful enough to classify the state of each pixel. The post-processing step uses morphological tool for edge linking, and then the flood-fill algorithm has applied for hole-filling, and finally the silhouette of targeted object has generated. The proposed methods run faster and have validated over various real-time based problematic thermal video sequences. In the experimental results, the average value of F₁-score, area under the curve, the percentage of correct classification, Matthew’s correlation coefficient show higher values whereas total error and percentage of the wrong classification show minimum values. Moreover, the proposed-1 method achieved higher accuracy and execution speed with minimum false alarm rate that has been compared with proposed-2 as well as considered peer methods in the real-time thermal video.     

Enhancement of Light Absorption Ability of Synthetic Chlorophyll Derivatives by Conjugation with a Difluoroboron Diketonate Group

The enhancement of the light absorption ability of synthetic chlorophyll derivatives is demonstrated. Chlorophyll derivatives directly conjugated with a difluoroboron 1,3‐diketonate group at the C3 position were synthesized from methyl pyropheophorbide‐d through Barbier acylmethylation of the C3‐formyl moiety, oxidation of the C3‐carbinol, and difluoroboron complexation of the diketonate. Electronic absorption spectra in a diluted solution showed that the synthetic conjugates gave an absorption band at λ=400–500 nm, with a Qy band shifted to a longer wavelength of λ≈700 nm. DFT calculations demonstrated that the absorption bands and redshifts were ascribable to the coupling of the LUMO of chlorin with that of the difluoroboron diketonate moiety. The introduction of a pyrenyl group at the C3³‐position of the conjugate afforded an additional charge‐transfer band over λ=500 nm, producing a pigment that bridged the green gap in standard chlorophylls.     

Adsorption of Eu(III) on titanate nanotubes studied by a combination of batch and EXAFS technique

The effects of pH,contact time and natural organic ligands on radionuclide Eu(Ⅲ) adsorption and mechanism on titanate nanotubes(TNTs) are studied by a combination of batch and extended X-ray absorption fine structure(EXAFS) techniques.Macroscopic measurements show that the adsorption is ionic strength dependent at pH < 6.0,but ionic strength independent at pH > 6.0.The presence of humic acid(HA) /fulvic acid(FA) increases Eu(Ⅲ) adsorption on TNTs at low pH,but reduces Eu(Ⅲ) adsorption at high pH.The results of EXAFS analysis indicate that Eu(Ⅲ) adsorption on TNTs is dominated by outer-sphere surface complexation at pH < 6.0,whereas by inner-sphere surface complexation at pH > 6.0.At pH < 6.0,Eu(Ⅲ) consists of ～ 9 O atoms at REu?O ≈ 2.40  in the first coordination sphere,and a decrease in NEu-O with increasing pH indicates the introduction of more asymmetry in the first sphere of adsorbed Eu(Ⅲ).At long contact time or high pH values,the Eu(Ⅲ) consists of ～2 Eu at REu-Eu ≈ 3.60  and ～ 1 Ti at REu-Ti ≈ 4.40 ,indicating the formation of inner-sphere surface complexation,surface precipitation or surface polymers.Surface adsorbed HA/FA on TNTs modifies the species of adsorbed Eu(Ⅲ) as well as the local atomic structures of adsorbed Eu(Ⅲ) on HA/FA-TNT hybrids.Adsorbed Eu(Ⅲ) on HA/FA-TNT hybrids forms both ligand-bridging ternary surface complexes(Eu-HA/FA-TNTs) as well as surface complexes in which Eu(Ⅲ) remains directly bound to TNT surface hydroxyl groups(i.e.,binary Eu-TNTs or Eu-bridging ternary surface complexes(HA/FA-Eu-TNTs)).The findings in this work are important to describe Eu(Ⅲ) interaction with nanomaterials at molecular level and will help to improve the understanding of Eu(Ⅲ) physicochemical behavior in the natural environment.     

Designing nickel phthalocyanine periphery by alkyl chain via [1,3,4]-oxadiazole

Nickel phthalocyanine (NiPc, 1) periphery has been decorated by alkyl chains of varying chain length via [1,3,4]-oxadiazole moiety (NiPcs 3a–3f). All the newly synthesized compounds NiPcs 3a–3d have been completely characterized by elemental analysis, FT-IR, solid-state UV-Vis, and solid-state ¹³C NMR spectroscopy, in addition to X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and thermal analysis. The effect of chain length in the NiPc periphery on electronic absorption and DC electrical conductivity has been investigated.     

The resonant secondary emission of the F center in alkali halides

The secondary radiation after resonant excitation of F center and its linear polarization P correlated to the polarization of resonant light have been measured for five alkali halides at low temperatures. In KC1, the spectrum of P over the whole Stokes region is divided into three successive regions, the depolarization range at the one-phonon Raman scattering, the near plateau range, and the depolarization range down to vanishing. The former two have common relevance to resonant energy and symmetries of coupled phonons. These relevances are interpreted adopting a configuration coordinate model for 2s- and 2p-like excited states.