Engineering atomic and molecular nanostructures at surfaces

The fabrication methods of the microelectronics industry have been refined to produce ever smaller devices, but will soon reach their fundamental limits. A promising alternative route to even smaller functional systems with nanometre dimensions is the autonomous ordering and assembly of atoms and molecules on atomically well-defined surfaces. This approach combines ease of fabrication with exquisite control over the shape, composition and mesoscale organization of the surface structures formed. Once the mechanisms controlling the self-ordering phenomena are fully understood, the self-assembly and growth processes can be steered to create a wide range of surface nanostructures from metallic, semiconducting and molecular materials.     

Room-temperature electronic phase transitions in the continuous phase diagrams of perovskite manganites

Highly correlated electronic systems--such as transition-metal oxides that are doped Mott insulators--are complex systems which exhibit puzzling phenomena, including high-temperature superconductivity and colossal magnetoresistivity. Recent studies suggest that in such systems collective electronic phenomena are important, arising from long-range Coulomb interactions and magnetic effects. The qualitative behaviour of these systems is strongly dependent on charge filling (the level of doping) and the lattice constant. Here we report a time-efficient and systematic experimental approach for studying the phase diagrams of condensed-matter systems. It involves the continuous mapping of the physical properties of epitaxial thin films of perovskite manganites (a class of doped Mott insulator) as their composition is varied. We discover evidence that suggests the presence of phase boundaries of electronic origin at room temperature.     

外场中具有长程相互作用S-1/2 XXZ双链的量子相变

采用平均场Jordan-Wigner变换分析方法,研究外场中且具有Z方向均匀长程相互作用自旋-1/2XXZ双链的量子相变,得到了系统格点的亥姆赫兹自由能、格点磁化强度等热力学量的解析表达式及其数值解.数值结果与其他文献的结果相符.     

Rigorous location of phase transitions in hard optimization problems

It is widely believed that for many optimization problems, no algorithm is substantially more efficient than exhaustive search. This means that finding optimal solutions for many practical problems is completely beyond any current or projected computational capacity. To understand the origin of this extreme 'hardness', computer scientists, mathematicians and physicists have been investigating for two decades a connection between computational complexity and phase transitions in random instances of constraint satisfaction problems. Here we present a mathematically rigorous method for locating such phase transitions. Our method works by analysing the distribution of distances between pairs of solutions as constraints are added. By identifying critical behaviour in the evolution of this distribution, we can pinpoint the threshold location for a number of problems, including the two most-studied ones: random k-SAT and random graph colouring. Our results prove that the heuristic predictions of statistical physics in this context are essentially correct. Moreover, we establish that random instances of constraint satisfaction problems have solutions well beyond the reach of any analysed algorithm.     

Liquid crystal phase transitions in suspensions of polydisperse plate-like particles

Colloidal suspensions that form periodic self-assembling structures on sub-micrometre scales are of potential technological interest; for example, three-dimensional arrangements of spheres in colloidal crystals might serve as photonic materials, intended to manipulate light. Colloidal particles with non-spherical shapes (such as rods and plates) are of particular interest because of their ability to form liquid crystals. Nematic liquid crystals possess orientational order; smectic and columnar liquid crystals additionally exhibit positional order (in one or two dimensions respectively). However, such positional ordering may be inhibited in polydisperse colloidal suspensions. Here we describe a suspension of plate-like colloids that shows isotropic, nematic and columnar phases on increasing the particle concentration. We find that the columnar two-dimensional crystal persists for a polydispersity of up to 25%, with a cross-over to smectic-like ordering at very high particle concentrations. Our results imply that liquid crystalline order in synthetic mesoscopic materials may be easier to achieve than previously thought.     

Effect of phase transitions on compressional-wave velocities in the Earth's mantle

The velocities of seismic waves in the Earth are governed by the response of the constituent mineral assemblage to perturbations in pressure and stress. The effective bulk modulus is significantly lowered if the pressure of the seismic wave drives a volume-reducing phase transformation. A comparison between the amount of time required by phase transitions to reach equilibrium and the sampling period thus becomes crucial in defining the softening and attenuation of compressional waves within such a two-phase zone. These phenomena are difficult to assess experimentally, however, because data at conditions appropriate to the Earth's deep interior are required. Here we present synchrotron-based experimental data that demonstrate softening of the bulk modulus within the two-phase loop of olivine-ringwoodite on a timescale of 100 s. If the amplitude of the pressure perturbation and the grain size are scaled to those expected in the Earth, the compressional-wave velocities within the discontinuities at 410, 520 and, possibly, 660 km are likely to be significantly lower than otherwise expected. The generalization of these observations to aluminium-controlled phase transitions raises the possibility of large velocity perturbations throughout the upper 1,000 km of the mantle.     

Observation of surface and bulk phase transitions in nematic liquid crystals

The behaviour of liquid crystal (LC) molecules near a surface is of both fundamental and technological interest: it gives rise to various surface phase-transition and wetting phenomena, and surface-induced ordering of the LC molecules is integral to the operation of LC displays. Here we report the observation of a pure isotropic-nematic (IN) surface phase transition-clearly separated from the bulk IN transition-in a nematic LC on a substrate. Differences in phase behaviour between surface and bulk are expected, but have hitherto proved difficult to distinguish, owing in part to the close proximity of their transition temperatures. We have overcome these difficulties by using a mixture of nematic LCs: small, surface-induced composition variations lead to complete separation of the surface and bulk transitions, which we then study independently as a function of substrate and applied magnetic field. We find the surface IN transition to be of first order on surfaces with a weak anchoring energy and continuous on surfaces with a strong anchoring. We show that the presence of high magnetic fields does not change the surface IN transition temperature, whereas the bulk IN transition temperature increases with field. We attribute this to the interaction energy between the surface and bulk phases, which is tuned by magnetic-field-induced order in the surface-wetting layer.     

Crystal structure and molecular interactions of tropomyosin.

The three-dimensional structure of tropomyosin filaments has been determined by X-ray crystallography. The ends of the molecules were located by reference to the single pair of cysteine residues. Departures from the alpha-helical-coiled coil conformation may occur in localised domains along the molecule as well as at the overlapping ends.     

Relationship between local structure and phase transitions of a disordered solid solution

The Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) disordered solid solution is widely used in piezoelectric applications owing to its excellent electromechanical properties. Six different structural phases have been observed for PZT at ambient pressure, each with different lattice parameters and average electric polarization. It is of significant interest to understand the microscopic origin of the complicated phase diagram and local structure of PZT. Here, using density functional theory calculations, we show that the distortions of the material away from the parent perovskite structure can be predicted from the local arrangement of the Zr and Ti cations. We use the chemical rules obtained from density functional theory to create a phenomenological model to simulate PZT structures. We demonstrate how changes in the Zr/Ti composition give rise to phase transitions in PZT through changes in the populations of various local Pb atom environments.     

Aggregation and vesiculation of membrane proteins by curvature-mediated interactions

Membrane remodelling plays an important role in cellular tasks such as endocytosis, vesiculation and protein sorting, and in the biogenesis of organelles such as the endoplasmic reticulum or the Golgi apparatus. It is well established that the remodelling process is aided by specialized proteins that can sense as well as create membrane curvature, and trigger tubulation when added to synthetic liposomes. Because the energy needed for such large-scale changes in membrane geometry significantly exceeds the binding energy between individual proteins and between protein and membrane, cooperative action is essential. It has recently been suggested that curvature-mediated attractive interactions could aid cooperation and complement the effects of specific binding events on membrane remodelling. But it is difficult to experimentally isolate curvature-mediated interactions from direct attractions between proteins. Moreover, approximate theories predict repulsion between isotropically curving proteins. Here we use coarse-grained membrane simulations to show that curvature-inducing model proteins adsorbed on lipid bilayer membranes can experience attractive interactions that arise purely as a result of membrane curvature. We find that once a minimal local bending is realized, the effect robustly drives protein cluster formation and subsequent transformation into vesicles with radii that correlate with the local curvature imprint. Owing to its universal nature, curvature-mediated attraction can operate even between proteins lacking any specific interactions, such as newly synthesized and still immature membrane proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum.     

基于广义逆的张量积Said-Ball曲面降多阶逼近

文章给出张量积 Said-Ball曲面降多阶逼近的一种方法 ,即将曲面的降多阶过程视为升阶的逆过程 ,利用广义逆矩阵的理论得到降阶曲面控制顶点的显式表示式 ,从而得到了用矩阵表示的降多阶张量积 Said-Ball曲面的控制顶点的显式表示式。在降多阶过程中 ,分别考虑了带角点高阶插值条件和不带角点插值条件的情形 ,并且给出了数值例子     

基于数学形态学的核孔膜显微图像检测

为实现核孔膜防伪的自动检测,提出了一种基于数学形态学的核孔膜显微图像检测方法。构造了基于灰度数学形态学的二值化方法,提出了基于二值数学形态学的分层提取方法,统计总孔数和孔半径。实验结果表明,二值化方法不但能够有效消除灰度图像中的噪声和渐变背景,而且所得二值图像保留了原始灰度图像中核孔膜的全局信息;分层提取方法所得总孔数的相对误差在10%以内,同时实现了孔半径的统计。该方法可用于仪器化检测中。     

Active fluidization of polymer networks through molecular motors

Entangled polymer solutions and melts exhibit elastic, solid-like resistance to quick deformations and a viscous, fluid-like response to slow deformations. This viscoelastic behaviour reflects the dynamics of individual polymer chains driven by brownian motion: since individual chains can only move in a snake-like fashion through the mesh of surrounding polymer molecules, their diffusive transport, described by reptation, is so slow that the relaxation of suddenly imposed stress is delayed. Entangled polymer solutions and melts therefore elastically resist deforming motions that occur faster than the stress relaxation time. Here we show that the protein myosin II permits active control over the viscoelastic behaviour of actin filament solutions. We find that when each actin filament in a polymerized actin solution interacts with at least one myosin minifilament, the stress relaxation time of the polymer solution is significantly shortened. We attribute this effect to myosin's action as a 'molecular motor', which allows it to interact with randomly oriented actin filaments and push them through the solution, thus enhancing longitudinal filament motion. By superseding reptation with sliding motion, the molecular motors thus overcome a fundamental principle of complex fluids: that only depolymerization makes an entangled, isotropic polymer solution fluid for quick deformations.     

Pd(OH)2胶体预处理及化学镀法修补复合Pd膜

提出了一种有效的膜缺陷修补方法,即预先采用Pd(OH)2胶体浸渍有缺陷的Pd膜,还原后再化学镀金属Pd.通过扫描电镜(SEM)和金相显微镜对膜的表面和断面进行表征,并结合透氢性能测试对膜的修补效果进行了评价.研究结果表明:预处理后所形成的Pd金属微粒可富集在膜缺陷处且对后续的化学镀反应有良好的催化作用,从而促进了金属Pd在缺陷处的沉积,使膜缺陷得到有效修补.文中修补工艺可在几乎不损失氢通量的前提下大大提高Pd膜的选择性.     

Simulation of higher-order topological phases and related topological phase transitions in a superconducting qubit

Higher-order topological phases give rise to new bulk and boundary physics,as well as new classes of topological phase transitions.While the realization of high...     

数字图像边缘检测的模糊聚类研究

数字图像的边缘检测实际上是一类聚类的问题,这些边缘由许多线段、曲线或平面和曲面所构成,组成了不同的类属和分割的区域,可以用在机器人视觉的模型识别、军事目标识别等领域。模糊聚类法（包括模糊均值聚类法和模糊球壳聚类法）具有不必事先对数据中的边界特征信息了解太清楚的优点,为此通过实验对其进行了有益的探索。     

一种求得纳滤膜截留分子量的方法

利用回归方法,建立表征纳滤膜分离性能常用的有机分子的Stokes半径(rs)与分子量(Ms)之间定量关系方程.根据提出的纳滤膜截留分子量(Mp)所对应的分子Stokes半径与膜的等效细孔半径(rp)相等的假设,得到Mp与rp之间的关系方程,即只要知道纳滤膜细孔半径就能求得Mp.通过NF270纳滤膜对葡萄糖和蔗糖的透过实验,采用细孔模型(SHP模型)和S-K模型对NF270纳滤膜的rp进行了估算,进而计算出NF270膜的截留分子量为540左右,与供应商提供的截留分子量基本相符.利用文献数据计算了几种纳滤膜的Mp,与文献报道的结果基本一致.因此,为膜截留分子量的估算提供了一种更加方便、实用的新方法.     

Detection of Structural Damage Through Changes in Frequency

0IntroductionThbeee nvi pbrroatpioosne-db aasnedd d deavemlaogpeed d iente tchtieo npa satp p3r0o aycehaerss , haanvdethe study onthis topicis still active[1].Since natural frequen-cies can provide the global information of structures ,and canbe exactly m…