Observation of defect clustering in Gd-doped calcium fluoride

Abstract

Solid solutions Ca_1-xGd_xF_2+x for 3 × 10^?7≤ x ≤10^?1 have been studied by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and ionic thermal currents (ITC). The EPR experiments show the presence of two single-ion sites a cubic and a tetragonal Gd³⁺ center which co-exist with comparable abundances for intermediate impurity concentrations. The cubic center predominates at very low and high concentrations. Seven different relaxation processes have been identified from the ITC spectra and the variation of their intensity vs. x was measured. The absolute concentrations of the cubic and nn Gd³⁺ dipoles were calculated. The scavenging of interstitial fluorines by the neutral clusters explains both the abundance of cubic sites at high concentration and the variety of orientable clusters detected by ITC.     

An Ant Colony Optimisation algorithm for solving the asymmetric traffic assignment problem

In this paper we propose an Ant Colony Optimisation (ACO) algorithm for defining the signal settings on urban networks following a local approach. This consists in optimising the signal settings of each intersection of an urban network as a function only of traffic flows at the accesses to the same intersection, taking account of the effects of signal settings on costs and on user route choices. This problem, also known as Local Optimisation of Signal Settings (LOSS), has been widely studied in the literature and can be formulated as an asymmetric assignment problem. The proposed ACO algorithm is based on two kinds of behaviour of artificial ants which allow the LOSS problem to be solved: traditional behaviour based on the response to pheromones for simulating user route choice, and innovative behaviour based on the pressure of an ant stream for solving the signal setting definition problem. Our results on real-scale networks show that the proposed approach allows the solution to be obtained in less time but with the same accuracy as in traditional MSA (Method of Successive Averages) approaches.     

Combined Path and Maximum Empty Static Routing Algorithms with Wavelength Assignment for Future Transport Networks

Abstract

In this article, two static routing algorithms have been proposed and compared to some of the existing algorithms on the basis of blocking probability. The two proposed static routing and wavelength assignment algorithms reduce the blocking probability to maximize the utilization of the network. All of these algorithms are analyzed and compared with four wavelength assignment schemes, which are first-fit, random, most used, and least used. It is shown that our proposed static algorithms give the best performance for first-fit wavelength assignment and most used wavelength assignment strategies with reduced complexity. For least used wavelength assignment and random wavelength assignment, 1 fixed and 2 alternate routing algorithm gives the lowest blocking probability.     

基于咔唑-靛红双-硫代碳酰腙衍生物的NMR研究

采用多种核磁共振（NMR）技术（包括¹H NMR、¹³C NMR、¹H-¹H COSY、¹H-¹³C HSQC、¹H-¹³C HMBC），对基于咔唑-靛红双-硫代碳酰腙新型衍生物2，即1-[（3Z）-2-氧代吲哚-3-亚基]-5-[（9-己基-3-咔唑基）亚基]硫代碳酰腙的¹H和¹³C NMR信号进行了全归属，确定了其结构．     

Influence of Control Parameters on the Competition Between Spiral Waves and Target Waves

In this paper we systematically investigate the influence of control parameters on the competition results between spiral waves and target waves. Driving frequency f , amplitude A and injection area n of the input signals are three important parameters and the competition results between spiral waves and target waves are influenced by these three parameters remarkably. Based on these understandings we can control spiral waves effectively by suitable combination these parameters to generate faster target waves. And the effective controllable parameter regions are also studied.     

Identification of metabolites in coriander seeds (Coriandrum Sativum L.) aided by ultrahigh resolution total correlation NMR spectroscopy

NMR is a fast method for obtaining a holistic snapshot of the metabolome and also offers quantitative information without separating the compounds present in a complex mixture. Identification of the metabolites present in a plant extract sample is a crucial step for all plant metabolomics studies. In the present work, we used various two dimensional (2D) NMR methods such as J-resolved NMR, total correlation spectroscopy (TOCSY), and heteronuclear single quantum coherence sensitivity enhanced NMR spectroscopy for the identification of 36 common metabolites present in Coriandrum sativum L. seed extract. The identified metabolites belong to the following classes: organic acids, amino acids, and carbohydrates. ¹H NMR spectra of such complex mixtures in general display tremendous signal overlap due to the presence of a large number of metabolites with closely resonating multiplet signals. This signal overlapping leads to ambiguity in an assignment, and hence, identification of metabolites becomes tedious or impossible in many cases. Therefore, the utility of pure-shift proton spectrum along the indirect (F₁) dimension of the F₁-PSYCHE-TOCSY spectrum is demonstrated for overcoming ambiguity in assignment of metabolites in crowded spectral regions from Coriandrum sativum L. seed extract sample. Because pure-shift NMR methods yield ultrahigh resolution spectrum (i.e., a singlet peak per chemical site) along one or more dimensions, such spectra provide better identification of metabolites compared with regular 2D TOCSY where signal overlap and peak distortions lead to ambiguity in the assignment. Nine metabolites were unambiguously assigned by pure-shift F₁-PSYCHE-TOCSY spectrum, which was unresolved in regular TOCSY spectrum.     

A Facile Method for the Separation of Methionine Sulfoxide Diastereomers,Structural Assignment,and DFT Analysis

Methionine (Met) oxidation is an important biological redox node, with hundreds if not thousands of protein targets. The process yields methionine oxide (MetO). It renders the sulfur chiral, producing two distinct, diastereomerically related products. Despite the biological significance of Met oxidation, a reliable protocol to separate the resultant MetO diastereomers is currently lacking. This hampers our ability to make peptides and proteins that contain stereochemically defined MetO to then study their structural and functional properties. We have developed a facile method that uses supercritical CO₂ chromatography and allows obtaining both diastereomers in purities exceeding 99 %. ¹H NMR spectra were correlated with X-ray structural information. The stereochemical interconversion barrier at sulfur was calculated as 45.2 kcal mol⁻¹, highlighting the remarkable stereochemical stability of MetO sulfur chirality. Our protocol should open the road to synthesis and study of a wide variety of stereochemically defined MetO-containing proteins and peptides.     

Asymptotic analysis for multi-objective sequential stochastic assignment problems

ABSTRACT

We provide an asymptotic analysis of multi-objective sequential stochastic assignment problems (MOSSAP). In MOSSAP, a fixed number of tasks arrive sequentially, with an n-dimensional value vector revealed upon arrival. Each task is assigned to one of a group of known workers immediately upon arrival, with the reward given by an n-dimensional product-form vector. The objective is to maximize each component of the expected reward vector. We provide expressions for the asymptotic expected reward per task for each component of the reward vector and compare the convergence rates for three classes of Pareto optimal policies.