Understanding the electronic energy transfer pathways in the trimeric and hexameric aggregation state of cyanobacteria phycocyanin within the framework of Förster theory

In the present study, the electronic energy transfer pathways in trimeric and hexameric aggregation state of cyanobacteria C‐phycocyanin (C‐PC) were investigated in term of the Förster theory. The corresponding excited states and transition dipole moments of phycocyanobilins (PCBs) located into C‐PC were examined by model chemistry in gas phase at time‐dependent density functional theory (TDDFT), configuration interaction‐singles (CIS), and Zerner's intermediate neglect of differential overlap (ZINDO) levels, respectively. Then, the long‐range pigment‐protein interactions were approximately taken into account by using polarizable continuum model (PCM) at TDDFT level to estimate the influence of protein environment on the preceding calculated physical quantities. The influence of the short‐range interaction caused by aspartate residue nearby PCBs was examined as well. Only when the protonation of PCBs and its long‐ and short‐range interactions were properly taken into account, the calculated energy transfer rates (1/K) in the framework of Förster model at TDDFT/B3LYP/6‐31+G* level were in good agreement with the experimental results of C‐PC monomer and trimer. Furthermore, the present calculated results suggested that the energy transfer pathway in C‐PC monomer is predominant from β‐155 to β‐84 (1/K = 13.4 ps), however, from α‐84 of one monomer to β‐84 (1/K = 0.3–0.4 ps) in a neighbor monomer in C‐PC trimer. In C‐PC hexamer, an additional energy flow was predicted to be from β‐155 (or α‐84) in top trimer to adjacent β‐155 (or α‐84) (1/K = 0.5–2.7 ps) in bottom trimer. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Generation of sub‐terahertz repetition rates from a monolithic self‐mode‐locked laser coupled with an external Fabry‐Perot cavity

A novel scheme to multiply the repetition rate of a monolithic self‐mode‐locked laser for generating sub‐terahertz pulse sources is successfully demonstrated. A coated Yb:KGW crystal is designed to achieve a self‐mode‐locked operation at a repetition rate of 24 GHz with an average output power exceeding 1.0 W at a pump power of 4.8 W. A partially reflective mirror is utilized to combine with the output surface of the gain medium to constitute an external Fabry‐Perot cavity. It is theoretically and experimentally verified that adjusting the external cavity length to satisfy the commensurate condition can lead to the frequency spacing to be various order harmonics of the mode spacing of the monolithic cavity. The maximum pulse repetition rate of the laser output can be up to 216 GHz and the pulse duration is as short as 330 fs. More importantly, the overall characteristics of the first‐order temporal autocorrelation traces obtained by sequentially scanning the external cavity.length display an intriguing phenomenon of temporally fractional revivals, similar to the feature of spatial Talbot revivals.

     

Magnetic Hyperthermia Enhancement in Iron-based Materials Driven by Carbon Support Interactions

Magnetic hyperthermia (MH) shows great potential in clinical applications because of its very localized action and minimal side effects. Because of their high saturation magnetization values, reduced forms of iron are promising candidates for MH. However, they must be protected in order to overcome their toxicity and instability (i. e., oxidation) under biological conditions. In this work, a novel methodology for the protection of iron nanoparticles through confinement within graphitic carbon layers after thermal treatment of preformed nanoparticles supported on carbon is reported. We demonstrate that the size and composition of the nascent confined iron nanoparticles, as well as the thickness of their protective carbon layer can be controlled by selecting the nature of the carbon support. Our findings reveal that a higher nanoparticle–carbon interaction, mediated by the presence of oxygen-containing groups, induces the formation of small and well-protected α-Fe-based nanoparticles that exhibit promising results towards MH based on their enhanced specific absorption rate values.     

Hydration,entropy, and energy relationships for periodate oxidations

Periodate oxidations of ethanediol and pinacol each occur in two phases; these are (1) formation and (2) decomposition of the intermediate complex. In phase (1), an increase in acidity gives . The rate of oxidation of ethanediol decreases with increasing acidity, whereas the rate of oxidation of pinacol maximizes with H₅IO₆. For both glycols, the activation energy increases and ΔS_act decreases with increasing acidity. In phase (2), the energy of activation is essentially constant with pH, whereas the rate decreases, and the entropy of activation decreases modestly as pH decreases. The latter correlates with the nonhomogeniuty of product formation. Rates for 3‐chloro‐1,2‐propanediol are also listed. Pentaerythritol forms an inactive complex with or H₅IO₆ indicating the importance of chelation in the formation of the intermediate complex. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

振荡Robin混合边值齐次化问题

该文研究了振荡Robin混合边值齐次化问题解的收敛率.该工作的困难之处在于Robin边值上出现的振荡因子以及边界交叉项的处理.该文利用对偶方法巧妙得对振荡积分进行了估计.文中建立了解的H1和L2收敛率,所得结果明显地依赖于维数.该文可以视为将对偶方法和光滑算子,延拓到处理振荡Robin混合边值问题的情形.     

Bounds on absorption times of directionally biased random sequences

A sequence of random variables X₀,X₁, … with values in {0, 1, …, n} representing a general finite-state stochastic process with absorbing state 0 is said to be directionally biased towards 0, if, for all j > 0, ϵ_j: = inf_k>0 {j − E[X_k | X_k−1 = j]} > 0. For such sequences, let t be the expected value of the time to absorption at 0. For a fixed set of biases, the least upper bound for this time can be computed with an algorithm requiring O(n²) steps. Simple upper bounds are described. In particular, t ≤ E[b_x0], where b_i = Σ_j≤i 1/¯ϵ_j and ¯ϵ_j = min_l≥j {ϵ_l}. If all ϵ_j ≤ ϵ_{j + 1} (so ¯ϵ_j = ϵ_j) and ϵ_n < 1, this bound for t is the best possible. For certain finite stochastic processes which we term conditionally independent of X₀ = i, b(i) bounds the expected time given X₀ = i. Similar results are given for lower bounds. The results of this paper were designed to be a useful tool for determining rates of convergence of stochastic optimization algorithms. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Study of a Monod–Haldene type food chain chemostat with pulsed substrate

In this paper, we introduce and study a model of a Monod–Haldene type food chain chemostat with pulsed substrate. We investigate the subsystem with substrate and prey and study the stability of the periodic solutions, which are the boundary periodic solutions of the system. The stability analysis of the boundary periodic solution yields an invasion threshold. By use of standard techniques of bifurcation theory, we prove that above this threshold there are periodic oscillations in substrate, prey, and predator. Simple cycles may give way to chaos in a cascade of period-doubling bifurcations. Furthermore, by comparing bifurcation diagrams with different bifurcation parameters, we can see that the impulsive system shows two kinds of bifurcations, whose are period-doubling and period-halfing.     

微米铜丝的低温力学性能测试

针对纤维材料变温环境力学性能测试的需要,在华中科技大学研制的纤维材料试验机的基础上引入了温控装置,从而实现纤维材料在高低温环境下的力学性能测试。采用该装置对不同直径微米铜丝在不同温度、不同拉伸速率条件下的力学性能开展实验研究,测试结果表明弹性模量和抗拉强度随温度的降低而线性增加,屈服强度的变化不太明显。另外,低温环境下微米铜丝的力学性能表现出与其直径相关的尺度效应,而这一现象在常温下一直没有观测到。最后,还研究了拉伸速率对微米铜丝的力学性能影响,结果表明,在现有装置的许用范围之内,拉伸速率对其力学性能的影响不大。     

变温下橡胶材料力学性能的实验分析

利用Zwick020材料试验机研究了天然橡胶材料在不同温度条件下单向拉伸的大变形力学行为。得到了不同温度和不同加载速率条件下材料的应力-应变关系曲线和材料的破坏条件,由此分析了高温和低温的温度变化条件及加载速率对材料力学性能的影响,得出天然橡胶材料在大变形条件下的温度和加载速率敏感特性。同时利用实验结果拟合出材料的应变能函数,并应用热超弹性模型对材料进行了理论分析。结果表明,理论分析结果与实验结果仅在一定温度范围内吻合得较好,因为材料软化或硬化,在很高或很低的温度情况下二者有一定差别。     

方向数据密度函数核估计的重对数律

本文讨论方向数据密度函数核估计的逐点收敛速度问题,在较为温和的条件下建立了该核估计的重对数律并给出了它的逐点最优收敛速度.