Controlling effective interactions and spatial dispersion of nanoparticles in multiblock copolymer melts

The microscopic Polymer Reference Interaction Site Model theory is employed to study, for the first time, the effective interactions, spatial organization, and miscibility of dilute spherical nanoparticles in non‐microphase separating, chemically heterogeneous, compositionally symmetric AB multiblock copolymer melts of varying monomer sequence or architecture. The dependence of nanoparticle wettability on copolymer sequence and chemistry results in interparticle potentials‐of‐mean force that are qualitatively different from homopolymers. An important prediction is the ability to improve nanoparticle dispersion via judicious choice of block length and monomer adsorption‐strengths which control both local surface segregation and chain connectivity induced packing constraints and frustration. The degree of dispersion also depends strongly on nanoparticle diameter relative to the block contour length. Small particles in copolymers with longer block lengths experience a more homopolymer‐like environment which renders them relatively insensitive to copolymer chemical heterogeneity and hinders dispersion. Larger particles (sufficiently larger than the monomer diameter) in copolymers of relatively short block lengths provide better dispersion than either a homopolymer or random copolymer. The theory also predicts a novel widening of the miscibility window for large particles upon increasing the overall molecular weight of copolymers composed of relatively long blocks. The influence of a positive chi‐parameter in the pure copolymer melt is briefly studied. Quantitative application to fullerenes in specific copolymers of experimental interest is performed, and miscibility predictions are made. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2015 , 53, 1098–1111     

A Structural Entropy Measurement Principle of Propositional Formulas in Conjunctive Normal Form

The satisfiability (SAT) problem is a core problem in computer science. Existing studies have shown that most industrial SAT instances can be effectively solved by modern SAT solvers while random SAT instances cannot. It is believed that the structural characteristics of different SAT formula classes are the reasons behind this difference. In this paper, we study the structural properties of propositional formulas in conjunctive normal form (CNF) by the principle of structural entropy of formulas. First, we used structural entropy to measure the complex structure of a formula and found that the difficulty solving the formula is related to the structural entropy of the formula. The smaller the compressing information of a formula, the more difficult it is to solve the formula. Secondly, we proposed a λ-approximation strategy to approximate the structural entropy of large formulas. The experimental results showed that the proposed strategy can effectively approximate the structural entropy of the original formula and that the approximation ratio is more than 92%. Finally, we analyzed the structural properties of a formula in the solution process and found that a local search solver tends to select variables in different communities to perform the next round of searches during a search and that the structural entropy of a variable affects the probability of the variable being flipped. By using these conclusions, we also proposed an initial candidate solution generation strategy for a local search for SAT, and the experimental results showed that this strategy effectively improves the performance of the solvers CCAsat and Sparrow2011 when incorporated into these two solvers.     

Potts models with magnetic field: Arithmetic,geometry, and computation

We give a sheaf theoretic interpretation of Potts models with external magnetic field, in terms of constructible sheaves and their Euler characteristics. We show that the polynomial countability question for the hypersurfaces defined by the vanishing of the partition function is affected by changes in the magnetic field: elementary examples suffice to see non-polynomially countable cases that become polynomially countable after a perturbation of the magnetic field. The same recursive formula for the Grothendieck classes, under edge-doubling operations, holds as in the case without magnetic field, but the closed formulae for specific examples like banana graphs differ in the presence of magnetic field. We give examples of computation of the Euler characteristic with compact support, for the set of real zeros, and find a similar exponential growth with the size of the graph. This can be viewed as a measure of topological and algorithmic complexity. We also consider the computational complexity question for evaluations of the polynomial, and show both tractable and NP-hard examples, using dynamic programming.     

静态球对称黑洞Dirac场的统计熵

利用改进的brickwall模型,给出了一类静态球对称黑洞Dirac场的熵,结果表明,在取相同的截断因子时,Dirac场的熵均为标量场的熵的72倍 关键词： 黑洞 统计熵 brickwall模型 Dirac场     

TOF-SIMS imaging of chlorhexidine-digluconate transport in frozen hydrated biofilms of the fungus Candida albicans

The diffusion of the anti-microbial chlorhexidine digluconate (CHG) has been studied in C. albicans biofilms by time-of-flight secondary-ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS). C. albicans has been shown to become resistant to common anti-microbial agents, including CHG, when growing as a biofilm. Mass transport resistance within biofilms has commonly been suggested as a resistance mechanism, but measurement of transport for most anti-microbial agents in biofilms has proven extremely difficult because of the heterogeneity of the biofilms and the difficulty in detecting these agents within an intact biofilm. In this study, TOF-SIMS has been used to study the transport of CHG and glucose in a frozen hydrated biofilm. The TOF-SIMS images reveal a progression of CHG from the top of the biofilm to its base with time. Images suggest that there are channels within the biofilm and show preferential binding of CHG to cellular components of the biofilm. Additionally, both living and dead cells can be identified in the TOF-SIMS images by the sequestration of K⁺ and the presence of cell markers. This study demonstrates that TOF-SIMS has the unique potential to simultaneously observe the presence of an antimicrobial agent, concentration of nutrients, and the viability of the cell population.     

Correlation between the Mechanical Properties and the Amount of Desorbed Water for Composites Based on Low-Density Polyethylene and Linen Yarn Production Waste

The effect of the amount of desorbed water on the mechanical properties of composites based on low-density polyethylene and linen yarn production waste (LW) is analyzed by statistical methods. It is shown that the amount of absorbed water decreases during the desorption process at room temperature both for specimens modified and unmodified with diphenylmethane diisocyanate (DIC.) The most sensitive to the action of water is the elastic modulus, which decreases considerably under the effect of water and is fully restored in the desorption process. The tensile strain also increases with the amount of absorbed water. It is found that the elastic modulus of the unmodified composite correlates linearly with the amount of desorbed water. Between the amount of desorbed water and the tensile strain, as well the specific work of deformation, a negative linear correlation is revealed. After water desorption, all strength and deformation characteristics of both the modified and unmodified composites are fully recovered.__________Translated from Mekhanika Kompozitnykh Materialov, Vol. 41, No. 4, pp. 515–524, July–August, 2005.     

Ergodic properties and thermodynamic behavior of elementary reversible cellular automata. I. Basic properties

This is the first part of a series devoted to the study of thermodynamic behavior of large dynamical systems with the use of a family of fully-discrete and conservative models named elementary reversible cellular automata (ERCAs). In this paper, basic properties such as conservation laws and phase space structure are investigated in preparation for the later studies. ERCAs are a family of one-dimensional reversible cellular automata having two Boolean variables on each site. Reflection and Boolean conjugation symmetries divide them into 88 equivalence classes. For each rule, additive conserved quantities written in a certain form are regarded as a kind of energy, if they exist. By the aid of the discreteness of the variables, every ERCA satisfies the Liouville theorem or the preservation of phase space volume. Thus, if an energy exists in the above sense, statistical mechanics of the model can formally be constructed. If a locally defined quantity is conserved, however, it prevents the realization of statistical mechanics. The existence of such a quantity is examined for each class and a number of rules which have at least one energy but no local conservation laws are selected as hopeful candidates for the realization of thermodynamic behavior. In addition, the phase space structure of ERCAs is analyzed by enumerating cycles exactly in the phase space for systems of comparatively small sizes. As a result, it is revealed that a finite ERCA is not ergodic, that is, a large number of orbits coexist on an energy surface. It is argued that this fact does not necessarily mean the failure of thermodynamic behavior on the basis of an analogy with the ergodic nature of infinite systems.     

Feedback controlled periodic states for different kinds of photorefractive nonlinear response

We investigate analytically and numerically the influence of the type of the photorefractive nonlinear response on the periodic states (attractors) which occur during feedback controlled 2W-coupling and correspond to almost 100% diffraction efficiency of the dynamic index grating. In addition to the case of the local response typical, for example, for LiNbO₃ crystals we consider the cases of nonlocal (diffusive) response (BaTiO₃, SBN) and resonant response (DC-biased BSO, BTO, and BGO crystals). It is shown that the conditions for the transition to the periodic states and their apparent characteristics are strongly different for the two limiting cases above. Received 16 July 2002 / Received in final form 29 October 2002 Published online 4 March 2003     

束晕-混沌的复杂性理论与控制方法及其应用前景

本文系统论述涉及强流加速器等强流离子束装置中产生的束晕-混沌的复杂性理论与控制方法及其应用前景。强流离子束在核材料生产与增殖、洁净核能、放射性废物嬗变、放射性药物生产、重离子聚变、高能物理、核科学与工程、国防与民用工业和医疗等许多方面都有极其重要的应用潜力和诱人的发展前景。尤其是，近年来强流加速器驱动的放射性洁净核能系统是国内外关注的热门课题，因为它比常规核电更安全、更干净、更便宜。但是，强流离子束形成的束晕-混沌的复杂性现象已引起了国内外广泛关注，需要加以抑制、控制和消除这类现象，解决这一难题已经成为强流离子束应用中的关键问题之一。目前不仅必须深入研究这类束晕-混沌的复杂特性及其产生的物理机制，而且需要研究如何实现对束晕-混沌的有效控制，并寻求和发展其新理论、新方法和新技术。这就向强流离子束物理和非线性-复杂性科学及其技术提出了一系列极富挑战性的新课题。本文结合国内外的研究概况，根据我们多年来的研究成果，特别是我们首创性地提出了一些束晕-混沌的有效控制方法，它们包括：非线性反馈控制法，小波反馈控制法，变结构控制法，延迟反馈控制法，参数自适应控制法等，进行重点的介绍。对上述课题当前的主要进展及相关问题进行系统的总结和比较全面综述的评论。最后，指出该领域今后的研究方向，以推动这个崭新领域的深入研究和应用发展。