N‐Methylbenzoazacrown ethers with the nitrogen atom conjugated with the benzene ring: the improved synthesis and the reasons for the high stability of complexes with metal and ammonium cations

An improved method for the synthesis of formyl derivatives of N‐methylbenzoazacrown ethers is proposed. They are prepared in up to 68% yields over fewer steps and with a much shorter time required for the last step. The stability constants of complexes formed by N‐methylbenzoazacrown ethers and their structural analogs with alkali metal, alkaline‐earth metal and ammonium cations were determined by ¹H NMR titration in CD₃CN. High stability of complexes of N‐methyl derivatives of benzoazacrown ethers is demonstrated, comparable with or even exceeding the stability of benzocrown‐ether complexes and markedly exceeding the stability of complexes of phenylazacrown ethers with the same macrocycle size. The structures of azacrown ethers and their complexes with Ba(ClO₄)₂ were studied by X‐ray diffraction. A high degree of pre‐organization of N‐methylbenzoazacrown ethers toward the formation of complexes with metal and ammonium cations was noted, which is due to the clear‐cut pyramidal geometry of the nitrogen atom and the orientation of the lone electron pairs (LEPs) of most heteroatoms towards the centre of the macroheterocycle. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Origin of the X‐ray magnetic circular dichroism at the L‐edges of the rare‐earths in RxR1−x′Al2 systems

An X‐ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) study performed at the rare‐earth L_2,3‐edges in the R_xR_1?x′Al₂ compounds is presented. It is shown that both R and R′ atoms contribute to the XMCD recorded at the L‐edges of the selected rare‐earth, either R or R′. The amplitude of the XMCD signal is not directly correlated to the magnetization or to the value of the individual (R, R′) magnetic moments, but it is related to the molecular field acting on the rare‐earth tuned in the photoabsorption process. This result closes a longstanding study of the origin of the XMCD at the L‐edge of the rare‐earths in multi‐component systems, allowing a full understanding of the exact nature of these signals.     

A fast estimation of sonar cross section of acoustically large and complex underwater targets using a deterministic scattering center model

In this paper, a fast method is proposed to estimate the sonar cross section of acoustically large and complex underwater targets such as submarines and torpedoes. The proposed method is based on a deterministic scattering center model which constructs scattering center database by using a combining method of physical optics and geometric optics and then reconstructs sonar cross section patterns from that database with a polynomial interpolation with respect to the incident angle. The parametric studies to find appropriate intervals of the reference incident angle are systematically carried out for simple targets such as a flat square plate and an orthogonal dihedral. Moreover, to validate the proposed method, sonar cross sections of real-like targets such as a pressure hull and an idealized submarine are calculated. The comparisons show that the results by the proposed method are in good agreement with those by the direct calculation.     

Investigation on optimization design of equivalent water depth truncated mooring system

The oil industry is now increasingly concentrating their efforts and activities in connection with developing fields in deeper waters, ranging typically from 500 m to 3000 m worldwide. However, the modeling of a full-depth system has become difficult presently; no tank facility is sufficiently large to perform the testing of a complete FPS with compliant mooring in 1000 m to 3000 m depth, within reasonable limits of model scale. Until recently, the most feasible procedure to meet this challenge seems to be the so-called “hybrid model testing technique”. To implement this technique, the first and important step is to design the equivalent water depth truncated mooring system. In this work, the optimization design of the equivalent water depth truncated mooring system in hybrid model testing for deep sea platforms is investigated. During the research, the similarity of static characteristics between the truncated and full depth system is mainly considered. The optimization mathematical model for the equivalent water depth truncated system design is set up by using the similarity in numerical value of the static characteristics between the truncated system and the full depth one as the objective function. The dynamic characteristic difference between the truncated and full depth mooring system can be minished by selecting proper design rule. To calculate the static characteristics of the mooring system, the fourth order Runge-Kutta method is used to solve the static equilibrium equation of the single mooring line. After the static characteristic of the single mooring line is calculated, the static characteristic of the whole mooring system is calculated with Lagrange numerical interpolation method. The mooring line material database is established and the standard material name and the diameter of the mooring line are selected as the primary key. The improved simulated annealing algorithm for continual & discrete variables and the improved complex algorithm for discrete variables are employed to perform the optimization calculation. The C++ programming language is used to develop the computer program according to the object-oriented programming idea. To perform the optimization calculation with the two algorithms mentioned above respectively and the better result is selected as the final one. To examine the developed program, an example of equivalent water depth truncated mooring system optimum design calculation on a 100,000-t, turret mooring FPSO in water depth of 320 m are performed to obtain the conformation parameters of the truncated mooring system, in which the truncated water depth is 160 m. The model test under some typical environment conditions are performed for both the truncated and the full depth system with model scale factor λ=80. After comparing the corresponding results from the test of the truncated system with those from the full depth system test, it’s found that the truncated mooring system design in this work is successful. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 10602055 and 40776007) and the Natural Science Foundation of China Jiliang University (Grant No. XZ0501)     

Reply to comment on “On the controversy around Daganzo’s requiem for and Aw-Rascle’s resurrection of second-order traffic flow models” by H.M. Zhang

This contribution compares several different approaches allowing one to derive macroscopic traffic equation directly from microscopic car-following models. While it is shown that some conventional approaches lead to theoretical problems, it is proposed to use an approach reminding of smoothed particle hydrodynamics to avoid gradient expansions. The derivation circumvents approximations and, therefore, demonstrates the large range of validity of macroscopic traffic equations, without the need of averaging over many vehicles. It also gives an expression for the “traffic pressure”, which generalizes previously used formulas. Furthermore, the method avoids theoretical inconsistencies of macroscopic traffic models, which have been criticized in the past by Daganzo and others.     

Synchronization in evolving snowdrift game model

The interaction between the evolution of the game and the underlying network structure with evolving snowdrift game model is investigated. The constructed network follows a power-law degree distribution typically showing scale-free feature. The topological features of average path length, clustering coefficient, degree-degree correlations and the dynamical feature of synchronizability are studied. The synchronizability of the constructed networks changes by the interaction. It will converge to a certain value when sufficient new nodes are added. It is found that initial payoffs of nodes greatly affect the synchronizability. When initial payoffs for players are equal, low common initial payoffs may lead to more heterogeneity of the network and good synchronizability. When initial payoffs follow certain distributions, better synchronizability is obtained compared to equal initial payoff. The result is also true for phase synchronization of nonidentical oscillators.     

Physisorption kinetics of electrons at plasma boundaries

Plasma-boundaries floating in an ionized gas are usually negatively charged. They accumulate electrons more efficiently than ions leading to the formation of a quasi-stationary electron film at the boundaries. We propose to interpret the build-up of surface charges at inert plasma boundaries, where other surface modifications, for instance, implantation of particles and reconstruction or destruction of the surface due to impact of high energy particles can be neglected, as a physisorption process in front of the wall. The electron sticking coefficient s_e and the electron desorption time τ_e, which play an important role in determining the quasi-stationary surface charge, and about which little is empirically and theoretically known, can then be calculated from microscopic models for the electron-wall interaction. Irrespective of the sophistication of the models, the static part of the electron-wall interaction determines the binding energy of the electron, whereas inelastic processes at the wall determine s_e and τ_e. As an illustration, we calculate s_e and τ_e for a metal, using the simplest model in which the static part of the electron-metal interaction is approximated by the classical image potential. Assuming electrons from the plasma to loose (gain) energy at the surface by creating (annihilating) electron-hole pairs in the metal, which is treated as a jellium half-space with an infinitely high workfunction, we obtain s_e≈10^-4 and τ_e≈10^-2 s. The product s_eτ_e≈10^-6 s has the order of magnitude expected from our earlier results for the charge of dust particles in a plasma but individually s_e is unexpectedly small and τ_e is somewhat large. The former is a consequence of the small matrix elements occurring in the simple model while the latter is due to the large binding energy of the electron. More sophisticated theoretical investigations, but also experimental support, are clearly needed because if s_e is indeed as small as our exploratory calculation suggests, it would have severe consequences for the understanding of the formation of surface charges at plasma boundaries. To identify what we believe are key issues of the electronic microphysics at inert plasma boundaries and to inspire other groups to join us on our journey is the purpose of this colloquial presentation.     

A preliminary investigation on the topology of Chinese and climate networks

Complex networks have been studied across many fields of science in recent years. In this paper, we give a brief introduction of networks, then follow the original works by Tsonis et al (2004, 2006) starting with data of the surface temperature from 160 Chinese weather observations to investigate the topology of Chinese climate networks. Results show that the Chinese climate network exhibits a characteristic of regular, almost fully connected networks, which means that most nodes in this case have the same number of links, and so-called super nodes with a very large number of links do not exist there. In other words, though former results show that nodes in the extratropical region provide a property of scale-free networks, they still have other different local fine structures inside. We also detect the community of the Chinese climate network by using a Bayesian technique; the effective number of communities of the Chinese climate network is about four in this network. More importantly, this technique approaches results in divisions which have connections with physics and dynamics; the division into communities may highlight the aspects of the dynamics of climate variability.     

He-BH碰撞体系微分截面的理论计算

用公认精确的密耦近似方法计算了入射能量从25至150 meV时,He原子与基态BH分子碰撞的弹性微分截面、非弹性微分截面和总微分截面,进一步讨论了微分截面的变化趋势及特征.计算结果表明：He-BH碰撞体系的总微分截面具有原子与双原子分子散射的一般规律和特征;随着入射能量的增加,低转动激发态-态微分截面在大角区的散射振荡现象会更加明显. 关键词： He-BH复合物 相互作用势 密耦近似 微分截面     

铽-芳香化合物-丁二酸发光配合物的合成及性能

以苯甲酸及其衍生物为第一配体、丁二酸为第二配体,在非水性溶剂条件下合成了6种新的铽三元荧光配合物。利用元素分析、EDTA配位滴定分析、红外光谱和紫外吸收光谱分析对目标物的组成与结构进行了表征,并研究了其发光性能和热稳定性。结果表明:丁二酸的引入显著地加强了各第一配体向中心铽离子传递能量的能力,其传递能量的顺序为:对氯苯甲酸＞间氯苯甲酸＞大茴香酸＞对甲基苯甲酸＞苯甲酸＞对羟基苯甲酸。目标配合物与其相对应的二元配合物比较荧光强度有了显著的提高。