Hydrophilic alginate based multidentate biopolymers for surface modification of CdS quantum dots

We report that sodium alginate and its graft-copolymers with (2-dimethylaminoethyl) methacrylate may attach to the surface of colloidal CdS-thioglycerol quantum dots (QDs) via a ligand exchange process and result in water-soluble and highly stable QD supramolecules. Optical properties of modified QDs in water showed that the emission intensity of QDs was still high after surface passivation.     

Syntheses, crystal structures and optical spectroscopy of Ln2(SO4)3·8H2O (Ln=Ho, Tm) and Pr2(SO4)3·4H2O

The lanthanide sulphate octahydrates Ln₂(SO₄)₃·8H₂O (Ln=Ho, Tm) and the respective tetrahydrate Pr₂(SO₄)₃·4H₂O were obtained by evaporation of aqueous reaction mixtures of trivalent rare earth oxides and sulphuric acid at 300 K. Ln₂(SO₄)₃·8H₂O (Ln=Ho, Tm) crystallise in space group C2/c (Z=4, a_Ho=13.4421(4) Å, b_Ho=6.6745(2) Å, c_Ho=18.1642(5) Å, β_Ho=102.006(1) Å³ and a_Tm=13.4118(14) Å, b_Tm=6.6402(6) Å, c_Tm=18.1040(16) Å, β_Tm=101.980(8) Å³), Pr₂(SO₄)₃·4H₂O adopts space group P2₁/n (a=13.051(3) Å, b=7.2047(14) Å, c=13.316(3) Å, β=92.55(3) Å³). The vibrational and optical spectra of Ho₂(SO₄)₃·8H₂O and Pr₂(SO₄)₃·4H₂O are also reported.     

Synthesis and characterizations of novel spindle-like terphenyl-type chromophores for non-linear optical materials

A series of novel spindle-like terphenyl-type chromophores, based on 2,5-diphenyl-1,4-distyrylbenzene π-conjugating bridge, N,N-dimethyl and triphenyl amino donors, and Tricyanovinyldihydrofuran(TCF), 1,3,3-trimethyl-5-dicyanovinyl-1-cyclohexene (TDC) acceptors, have been synthesized successfully for the first time. And the non-linear optical properties were evaluated by using the finite-field (FF) method. The results show that, the first-order hyperpolarizability of the chromophores increase with the increase of the withdraw ability of the substituent group on the π-conjugating bridge.     

Influence of acidification on the optical properties and molecular composition of dissolved organic matter

Acidification is a common method for preserving dissolved organic matter (DOM) in natural water samples until sophisticated laboratory analyses can be performed. However, little is known about the effects of this practice on the composition and optical properties of DOM. In this study, the effects of acidification on DOM in porewater samples collected from the RL IV bog system of the Glacial Lake Agassiz Peatlands in northern Minnesota were characterized. Molecular composition was determined by ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry and optical properties by UV absorption and three-dimensional fluorescence spectroscopy. Excitation–emission matrix fluorescence spectroscopy results indicate that the fluorescence properties of the peatland porewater DOM were sensitive to pH and that the observed changes were fluorophore dependent. Ultrahigh resolution Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry revealed the appearance of newly formed, oxygen-rich compounds upon acidification. The extent to which these oxygen-rich compounds were formed was also dependent on the composition of the DOM.     

Comparison of Planar and 3‐D Interdigitated Electrodes as Electrochemical Impedance Biosensors

It has been reported that the introduction of a dielectric barrier between adjacent digits of an interdigitated electrode array can improve the sensitivity of the array as an electrochemical impedance biosensor. Here we present an in‐depth analysis of the impedance in planar interdigitated electrodes and 3‐D interdigitated electrodes (with dielectric barriers). The analysis indicates that the planar geometry not only provides lower impedance but also a higher change impedance as a result of molecular immobilization on the electrode array surface.     

Bacterial protein structures reveal phylum dependent divergence

Protein sequence space is vast compared to protein fold space. This raises important questions about how structures adapt to evolutionary changes in protein sequences. A growing trend is to regard protein fold space as a continuum rather than a series of discrete structures. From this perspective, homologous protein structures within the same functional classification should reveal a constant rate of structural drift relative to sequence changes. The clusters of orthologous groups (COG) classification system was used to annotate homologous bacterial protein structures in the Protein Data Bank (PDB). The structures and sequences of proteins within each COG were compared against each other to establish their relatedness. As expected, the analysis demonstrates a sharp structural divergence between the bacterial phyla Firmicutes and Proteobacteria. Additionally, each COG had a distinct sequence/structure relationship, indicating that different evolutionary pressures affect the degree of structural divergence. However, our analysis also shows the relative drift rate between sequence identity and structure divergence remains constant.     

On the well-posedness of a two-phase minimization problem

We prove a series of results concerning the emptiness and non-emptiness of a certain set of Sobolev functions related to the well-posedness of a two-phase minimization problem, involving both the p(x)-norm and the infinity norm. The results, although interesting in their own right, hold the promise of a wider applicability since they can be relevant in the context of other problems where minimization of the p-energy in a part of the domain is coupled with the more local minimization of the L^∞-norm on another region.     

Lifespan Theorem for simple constrained surface diffusion flows

We consider closed immersed hypersurfaces in R³ and R⁴ evolving by a special class of constrained surface diffusion flows. This class of constrained flows includes the classical surface diffusion flow. In this paper we present a Lifespan Theorem for these flows, which gives a positive lower bound on the time for which a smooth solution exists, and a small upper bound on the total curvature during this time. The hypothesis of the theorem is that the surface is not already singular in terms of concentration of curvature. This turns out to be a deep property of the initial manifold, as the lower bound on maximal time obtained depends precisely upon the concentration of curvature of the initial manifold in L² for M² immersed in R³ and additionally on the concentration in L³ for M³ immersed in R⁴. This is stronger than a previous result on a different class of constrained surface diffusion flows, as here we obtain an improved lower bound on maximal time, a better estimate during this period, and eliminate any assumption on the area of the evolving hypersurface.     

Unisolvency for multivariate polynomial interpolation in Coatmèlec configurations of nodes

A new and straightforward proof of the unisolvability of the problem of multivariate polynomial interpolation based on Coatmèlec configurations of nodes, a class of properly posed set of nodes defined by hyperplanes, is presented. The proof generalizes a previous one for the bivariate case and is based on a recursive reduction of the problem to simpler ones following the so-called Radon-Bézout process.