The preparation and performance of high activity Ni-Cr binary catalysts for direct borohydride fuel cells

Ni-Cr binary anode catalysts used in direct borohydride fuel cells (DBFCs) were prepared using a constant potential electrodepo- sition method. Compared with pure metal Ni catalysts, the electro-oxidation currents of borohydride ions (BH-4) more than doubled when using Ni-Cr binary catalysts under the same conditions. The enhanced activity of the Ni-Cr binary catalysts could be attributed to the change in distribution of BH-4ions on the surface of the Ni electrode. This is due to Cr electrodeposits, which allows a greater number of hydrogen atoms to catalyze from each tetrahedron BH-4 ion. The performance of Ni-Cr binary catalysts could also be improved by optimizing the electrodeposition conditions. The results show that Ni-Cr binary catalysts are optimally prepared using an electrodeposition method of 1s with a Cr3+ concentration of 0.2 mol L-1 and a potential of -0.100 V.     

Reductive immobilization of perrhenate in soil and groundwater using starch-stabilized ZVI nanoparticles

Perrhenate(ReO4-) was used as nonradioactive surrogate for the radionuclide pertechnetate(99TcO-4) to investigate the potential of using starch-stabilized zero valent iron(ZVI) nanoparticles for reductive immobilization of pertechnetate in soil and groundwater.Batch kinetic tests indicated that the starch-stabilized ZVI nanoparticles were able to reductively remove ～96% of perrhenate(10 mg/L) from water within 8 h.XRD analyses confirmed that ReO 2 was the reduction product.A pseudo-first-order kinetic model was able to interpret the kinetic data,which gave a pseudo first order rate constant(kobs) value of 0.43h-1 at pH 6.9 and room temperature(25℃).Increasing solution pH up to 8 progressively increased the reaction rate.However,highly alkaline pH(10) resulted in much inhibited reaction rate.Consequently,the optimal pH range was identified to be from 7 to 8.Increasing solution temperature from 15 to 45℃ increased k obs from 0.38 to 0.53 h-1.The classical Arrhenius equation was able to interpret the temperature effect,which gave a low activation energy value of 7.61 kJ/mol.When the ReO-4-loaded loess was treated with the stabilized nanoparticles suspension([Fe]=560 mg/L),the water leachable ReO-4 was reduced by 57% and nearly all eluted Re was in the form of ReO2.This finding indicates that starch-stabilized ZVI nanoparticles are promising for facilitating in situ immobilization of ReO-4 in soil and groundwater.     

Calibration of the U 37 K′ index of long-chain alkenones with the in-situ water temperature in Lake Qinghai in the Tibetan Plateau

Long-chain alkenones (LCAs) can potentially be used as indicators to understand past variations in lacustrine environments.Previous research has suggested that the relationship between the temperature and the unsaturation index of LCAs should be calibrated individually,because of the possible variations in the alkenone-producing algal species in the lacustrine environment.In this work,we have calibrated U37K’ of water filter samples against the in-situ water temperature in Lake Qinghai,Tibetan Plateau.There are significant relationships between U37K’ and the water temperature,a non-linear relationship was derived.Because the U37K’ values did not respond sensitively at lower temperatures,we suggested that a quadratic regression (U37K’ =0.0011×T2-0.0201×T+0.1959,n=15,r2=0.74) was appropriate than linear regression to represent the relationship between the in-situ temperatures and U37K’.Meanwhile,the U37K correlation relationship was not more significant than U37K’ index in our study.Because of the C37:4 effects by salinity change,we suggest U37K is not as robust as the U37K’ index as a temperature proxy,at least for the salt lake in the Tibetan Plateau.The calibration of the U37K’ index in this work has provided a new understanding of historic climatic changes in the Tibetan Plateau.     

Thermodynamic functions and growth constants of web-like ZnO nanostructures

Web-like ZnO nanostructures have been successfully synthesized using the potassium nitrate route at various temperatures to simplify conventional preparation methods. The structures and morphologies of the as-prepared products were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The results showed that the reaction temperature was an important parameter, and that there was a feedback effect between nano-structure and growth parameters, combined with in situ micro-calorimetry, the reaction rate constants of the three systems were found to have been: 2.43×10-6, 2.70×10-8 and 3.12×10-7s-1 respectively. Furthermore, based on the relationship governing the potential differences between nanoand bulk ZnO, thermodynamic functions of nano-ZnO such as standard molar entropy (Sm,ZnO(nano)), standard molar Gibbs free energy of formation (△rGm,ZnO(nano)), and standard molar enthalpy of formation (△rHm,ZnO(nano)) have been calculated by the electrochemical method.     

Cellular prion protein imaging analysis with aptamer-labeled Ru（bpy）32＋-doped silica nanoparticles

A new type of highly selective aptamer-labeled fluorescent silica nanoparticles [Apt-tris（2,2＇-bipyri- dyl）ruthenium（II）@SiO2 NPs] were prepared through the reverse microemulsion method by using prolonged fluorescence lifetime ruthenium complexes of tris（2,2＇-bipyri- dyl）ruthenium（II） （Ru（bpy）2＋） as the source of the fluorescence for cellular prion protein imaging. Investigations showed that the newly prepared Ru（bpy）32＋@Si02 NPs possessed superior advantages of strong fluorescence, low toxicity, and easy surface modification for bioconjugation. Cell imaging experiments indicated that Apt- Ru（bpy）32＋@SiO2 NPs had great tendency to human bone marrow neuroblastoma cells （SK-N-SH cells）, since they can express large amount of prion protein on the surface of the cell, while in HeLa cells this phenomenon disappeared for the reason that HeLa cells cannot express prion proteins.     

Thermodynamics and density functional theory study of potassium dichromate interaction with galena

The adsorption heat and reaction rate constant of potassium dichromate on the surface of galena were studied. The results indicate that potassium dichromate tends to adsorption on the galena surface. The reaction order is only 0.08385, suggesting that the concentration of potassium dichromate has little influence on its adsorption on the galena surface. In addition, the simulation of CrO₄2? adsorption on the PbS (100) surface in the absence and presence of O₂ was carried out by density functional theory (DFT). The calculated results show that CrO₄2? species adsorb energetically at the Pb-S bond site, and the presence of O₂ can enhance this adsorption.     

Retrieval of column-averaged volume mixing ratio of CO2 with ground-based high spectral resolution solar absorption

The total column-averaged volume mixing ratio of atmospheric carbon dioxide （Xco2） has been retrieved with high spectral resolution solar absorption data obtained from ground-based Fourier transform spectrometer （FTS） measurements at Xichong, a coastal site in the district of Shenzhen in southern China. Based on differential optical absorption spectroscopy （DOAS） theory, the Xco2 was retrieved by finding the best match of observed high spectral resolution solar absorption data and monochromatic radia- tion transfer model calculations. The averaged Xco2 in the whole observation period was about 394.9 ppm. The uncertainty of the retrieval was estimated to be 2.0 ppm （0.51%） by comparing retrievals at two bands. The preliminary results show that Xc% retrieved by this method can be used to validate satellite remote sensing of Xco2.     

Induced temperature-dependent DNA degradation by C60 without photoactivation

This study shows that C₆₀ can degrade pBR322 plasmid DNA at room temperature without photoactivation. The degradation was enhanced by increasing incubation temperature, reaction time or C₆₀ concentration. We also found that superoxide radical anions (O ₂ ^?· ) were formed in the C₆₀ solution. Superoxide dismutase significantly inhibited DNA cleavage and O ₂ ^?· generation induced by C₆₀. These results suggest that DNA cleavage was caused by the formation of reactive oxygen species induced by C₆₀ at room temperature. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the DNA degradation was significantly inhibited by acid amide chemicals such as formamide, and by increased ionic strength of the reaction solution. These results indicate that the DNA conformation stability and the surface properties of C₆₀ are important factors regulating DNA degradation. We propose that C₆₀ can bind DNA, decrease DNA conformation stability, and induce the formation of reactive oxygen species and DNA cleavage at room temperature. Our results provide a possible explanation for the genotoxicity of C₆₀, which should be considered in future use of this particular nano-material.     

Form factors for B meson weak decays in QCD light cone sum rules with a chiral current correlator

We report some applications of QCD light cone sum rules (LCSR) to \(B\) meson weak decays. Special emphasis is on estimates of the form factors for \(B\) decays into a pseudoscalar ( \(P\) )/vector ( \(V\) ) meson, with a certain chiral current correlator. The main new ingredient, as compared with the case of the standard correlators, is that in the operator product expansion calculations, the contributions due to the twist-3 distribution amplitudes of the related light mesons, which are less known and would bring a larger uncertainty to the calculations with the standard correlators, cancel out fully in the \(B\rightarrow P\) case and do out partially in the \(B\rightarrow V\) one. An important observation, which is similar to that in soft collinear effective theory, is made in twist-3 approximation: whereas only one independent form factor is needed for parameterizing the hadronic matrix elements for a \(B\rightarrow P\) transition induced by all the relevant heavy-light quark currents, there exist two independent form factors under the condition of neglecting the terms suppressed by a factor of \(m_V^2\) , for the \(B\rightarrow V\) transition. Therefore, the improved LCSR approach could be of stronger predictive power for the weak form factors. Also, this approach is employed to understand the \(B\rightarrow D\) transitions by introducing a leading twist-2 DA for an energetic \(D\) meson, combined with some of other QCD-based approaches. A detailed QCD next-to-leading order calculation of the \(B\rightarrow \pi \) form factors is presented for an illustrative purpose, and the sum rule results are used to extract the Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa matrix element \(|V_{ub}|\) from the latest BaBar data.     

On convergence of singular integral operators with respect to path of integration

Givenf being Hölder continuous in a regionG?C. For the Cauchy principal integral $$I(\Gamma ,f) = \frac{1}{{\pi i}} \int_\Gamma {\frac{{f(\zeta )}}{{\zeta - \zeta _0 }}d\zeta , \zeta _0 \in \Gamma } $$ where Γ?G is a smooth closed contour, it is established that, if a sequence of smooth closed contours Γn?G(n∈N) smoothly convergent to Γ, then the corresponding sequenceI(Γ _n, f)is convergent to I(Γ, f). Furthermore, when Γ is approximated by a sequence of complex cubic splines $S_{\Delta _n } (\Gamma )$ interpolatory to Γ, the error $|I(\Gamma ,f)--I(S_{\Delta _n } (\Gamma ,f)|$ is estimated.     

Optical turbulence profiling with single star SCIDAR technique

In order to characterize optical turbulence, we have developed a single star SCIDAR （SSS） for measurement of the distribution of Cn^2 with height. The SSS consists of a 40 cm telescope and a CCD camera for fast sampling of stellar scintillation pattern. Spatio- temporal auto and cross-correlation functions of the single star images are computed, providing vertical profiles of optical turbulence intensity C2（h） and wind speed V（h）. Using this new SSS experiment, profiles of turbulence can be obtained from the ground to the top of atmosphere, allowing the determination of seeing, isoplanatic angle and coherence time. Detailed characteristics of atmospheric optical turbulence are important for active and passive imaging, astronomical site testing, adaptive optics, laser communications, target tracking and designation, and laser beam control. We plan to improve the robotization of the SSS to be able to use it routinely even under harsh weather and altitude conditions that we expect to encounter on the high Tibetan plateau or at Dome A in Antarctica. SSS will also be applied for the site testing campaign of the future Chinese extremely large telescope.     

Higgs precision measurements and flavor physics: a supersymmetric example

Rare decays in flavor physics often suffer from Helicity suppress and Loop suppress. Helicity flip is a direct consequence of chiral \(U(3)\) symmetry breaking and electroweak symmetry breaking. The identical feature is also shared by the mass generation of SM fermions. In this review, we use the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) as an example to illustrate an explicit connection between bottom Yukawa coupling and rare decay process of \(b\rightarrow s\gamma \) . We take a symmetry approach to study the common symmetry breaking in supersymmetric correction to bottom quark mass generation and \(b\rightarrow s\gamma \) . We show that Large Peccei-Quinn symmetry breaking effect and \(R\) -symmetry breaking effect required by \(b\rightarrow s\gamma \) inevitably lead to significant reduction of bottom Yukawa \({y}_{b}\) . To compromise the reduction in \(b\bar{b}\) , a new decay is also needed to keep the Higgs total width as the SM value.     

Effects of applied potential on the stress corrosion cracking behavior of 7003 aluminum alloy in acid and alkaline chloride solutions

Potentiodynamic polarization tests and slow strain rate test (SSRT) in combination with fracture morphology observations were conducted to investigate the stress corrosion cracking (SCC) behavior of 7003 aluminum alloy (AA7003) in acid and alkaline chloride solutions under various applied potentials (E_a). The results show that AA7003 is to a certain extent susceptible to SCC via anodic dissolution (AD) at open-circuit potential (OCP) and is highly susceptible to hydrogen embrittlement (HE) at high negative E_a in the solutions with pH levels of 4 and 11. The susceptibility increases with negative shift in the potential when E_a is less than -1000 mV vs. SCE. However, the susceptibility distinctly decreases because of the inhibition of AD when E_a is equal to -1000 mV vs. SCE. In addition, the SCC susceptibility of AA7003 in the acid chloride solution is higher than that in the alkaline solution at each potential. Moreover, the effect of hydrogen on SCC increases with increasing hydrogen ion concentration.     

The loop effects on the chargino decays ～χ±1→～χ0 1ff ′in the MSSM

The lighter chargino three body decays ～χ±1→～χ0 1ff ′ via the W^± boson and the charged Higgs boson H^± were studied in the R-parity conserved Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model （MSSM）. We treat ～χ±1 decays as production and decay of W^± and H^± i.e.,～χ±1→～χ01W^±（H^±） → χ0 1ff ′. Both higgsino- like and wino-like ～χ±1 decays were well investigated. These decays are calculated at 1-loop level and the loop corrections are found to be less than three percent. The signal of the charged Higgs H^± production from ～χ±1 decays is discussed. It will offer important information about the chargino and neutralino sector, as well as the charged Higgs sector in the MSSM.     

The semileptonic decays of B/B s meson in the perturbative QCD approach: a short review

In this short review, we present the current status about the theoretical and experimental studies for some important semileptonic decays of \(B/B_s\) mesons. We firstly gave a brief introduction for the experimental measurements for \(B/B_s \rightarrow P (l^+l^-, l^-\bar{\nu }_l, \nu \bar{\nu })\) decays, the BaBar’s \(R(D)\) and \(R(D^*)\) anomaly, the \(P_5^\prime \) deviation for \(B^0 \rightarrow K^{*0} \mu ^+ \mu ^-\) decay. We then made a careful discussion about the evaluations for the relevant form factors in the light-cone QCD sum rule, the heavy quark effective theory, and the perturbative QCD factorization approach. By using the form factors calculated in the perturbative (pQCD) approach, we then calculate and show the pQCD predictions for the decay rates of many semileptonic decays of \(B/B_s\) mesons. We also made careful phenomenological analysis for these pQCD predictions and found, in general, the following points: (a) For all the considered \(B/B_s\) semileptonic decays, the next-to-leading order pQCD predictions for their decay rates agree well with the data and those from other different theoretical methods; (b) For \(R(D)\) and \(R(D^*)\) , the pQCD predictions agree very well with the data, the BaBar’s anomaly of \(R(D^{(*)})\) are therefore explained successfully in the standard model by employing the pQCD approach; and (c) We defined several new ratios \(R_D^{l,\tau }\) and \(R_{D_s}^{l,\tau }\) , they may be more sensitive to the QCD dynamics which controls the \(B/B_s \rightarrow (D^{(*)},D_s^{(*)} )\) transitions than the old ratios, we therefore strongly suggest LHCb and the forthcoming Super- \(B\) experiments to measure these new ratios.     

Texture evolution of commercial pure Ti during cold rolling and recrystallization annealing

X-ray diffraction (XRD) was employed to analyze the texture evolution of commercial pure (CP) Ti during cold rolling and recrystallization annealing. The texture components were measured by electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) after recrystallization annealing. The CP Ti tends to form a texture with the basal pole tilted 30°-40° away from the normal direction toward the transverse direction. The texture of the initial hot-rolled plate can be classified into three kinds, i.e., the pyramid texture (1013)[5230] and (2021)[1015], the basal plane texture (0001)[2110], and the stronger prism texture (1120)[0001]. After cold rolling and annealing (700℃, 60 min), the main texture components are the cold-rolled texture (1125)[1123] and the recrystallized texture (1013)[5230]. The texture (2021)[1015] is inherited from the texture of the initial hot-rolled plate with the decrease of orientation density gradually. The volume contents of the cold-rolled texture {2115} <0110> and the recrystallized texture {1013} <1210> are calculated by EBSD. After recrystallization annealing, the specimen is rich in the recrystallized texture and inherits some of texture components from the cold-rolled texture. When the annealing time is prolonged, the anisotropic value decreases.     

Super-Edge-Connectivity of G(k,d,s)(s≥k/2)

A graph G is super-edge-connected,for short super-λ,if every minimum edge-cut consists of edges adjacent to a vertex of minimum degree.Alphabet overlap graph G(k,d,s)is undirected,simple graph with vertex set V={v|v=1()kv…v;vi∈{1,2,…,d},i=1,…,k}.Two vertices u=(u1…uk)and v=(v1…vk)are adjacent if and only if us+i=vi or vs+i=ui(i=1,…,k-s).In particular G(k,d,1)is just an undirected de Bruijn graph.In this paper,we show that the diameter of G(k,d,s)is k s,the girth is 3.Finally,we prove that G(k,d,s)(s≥k/2)is super-λ.     

The nonleptonic two body B decays involving a light tensor meson in final states

The nonleptonic two body \(B_{u,d,s,c}\) decays involving a light tensor meson in final states are studied in the perturbative QCD approach based on \(k_{\mathrm{T}}\) factorization. The decay modes with a tensor meson emitted, are prohibited in naive factorization, since the emission diagram with a tensor meson produced from vacuum is vanished. While contributions from the so-called hard scattering emission diagrams and annihilation type diagrams are important and calculable in the perturbative QCD approach. The branching ratios of most decays are in the range of \(10^{-4}\) – \(10^{-8}\) , which are bigger by 1 or 2 orders of magnitude than the predictions given by the naive factorization, but consistent with the predictions from the QCD factorization and the recent experimental measurements. We also give the predictions for the direct \(CP\) asymmetries, some of which are large enough for the future experiments to measure. We also find that, even with a small mixing angle, the mixing between \(f_2\) and \(f_2^{\prime }\) can bring remarkable changes to both branching ratios and the direct \(CP\) asymmetries for some decays involving \(f_2^{(\prime )}\) mesons. For decays with a vector meson and a tensor meson in final states, we predict a large percentage of transverse polarization contributions due to the contributions of the orbital angular momentum of the tensor mesons.