New application of decomposition of U(1) gauge potential:Aharonov-Bohm effect and Anderson-Higgs mechanism

In this paper we study the Aharonov-Bohm (A-B) effect and Anderson-Higgs mechanism in Ginzburg-Landau model of superconductors from the perspective of the decomposition of U(1) gauge potential. By the Helmholtz theorem, we derive exactly the expression of the transverse gauge potential $\vec{A}_\perp$ in A-B experiment, which is gauge-invariant and physical. For the case of a bulk superconductor, we find that the gradient of the total phase field $\theta$ provides the longitudinal component ${\vec A}_{\parallel}$, which reflects the Anderson-Higgs mechanism. For the case of a superconductor ring, the gradient of the longitudinal phase field $\theta_1$ provides the longitudinal component ${\vec A}_{\parallel}$, while the transverse phase field $\theta_2$ produces new physical effects such as the flux quantization inside a superconducting ring.Comment: 6 pages, no figures, final version to appear in Modern Physics Letters

First-principles prediction of coexistence of magnetism and ferroelectricity in rhombohedral Bi2FeTiO6

First principles calculations based on the density functional theory within the local spin density approximation plus U(LSDA+U)scheme, show rhombohedral Bi$_2$FeTiO$_6$ is a potential multiferroic in which the magnetism and ferroelectricity coexist . A ferromagnetic configuration with magnetic moment of 4 $\mu_B$ per formula unit have been reported with respect to the minimum total energy. Spontaneous polarization of 27.3 $\mu$ C/cm$^2$, caused mainly by the ferroelectric distortions of Ti, was evaluated using the berry phase approach in the modern theory of polarization. The Bi-6s stereochemical activity of long-pair and the `d$^0$-ness' criterion in off-centring of Ti were coexisting in the predicted new system. In view of the oxidation state of Bi$^{3+}$,Fe$^{2+}$,Ti$^{4+}$, and O$^{2-}$ from the orbital-resolved density of states of the Bi-6p, Fe-3d,Ti-3d, and O-2p states,the valence state of Bi$_2$FeTiO$_6$ in the rhombohedral phase was found to be Bi$_2$$^{3+}$Fe$^{2+}$Ti$^{4+}$O$_6$.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures. submitted to Physics Letters

Distance-dependent plasmon-enhanced fluorescence of upconversion nanoparticles using polyelectrolyte multilayers as tunable spacers

Lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) have attracted widespread interests in bioapplications due to their unique optical properties by converting near infrared excitation to visible emission. However, relatively low quantum yield prompts a need for developing methods for fluorescence enhancement. Plasmon nanostructures are known to efficiently enhance fluorescence of the surrounding fluorophores by acting as nanoantennae to focus electric field into nano-volume. Here, we reported a novel plasmon-enhanced fluorescence system in which the distance between UCNPs and nanoantennae (gold nanorods, AuNRs) was precisely tuned by using layer-by-layer assembled polyelectrolyte multilayers as spacers. By modulating the aspect ratio of AuNRs, localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) wavelength at 980 nm was obtained, matching the native excitation of UCNPs resulting in maximum enhancement of 22.6-fold with 8 nm spacer thickness. These findings provide a unique platform for exploring hybrid nanostructures composed of UCNPs and plasmonic nanostructures in bioimaging applications

An effective fuel level data cleaning and repairing method for vehicle monitor platform

With energy scarcity and environmental pollution becoming increasingly serious, the accurate estimation of fuel consumption of vehicles has been important in vehicle management and transportation planning towards a sustainable green transition. Fuel consumption is calculated by fuel level data collected from high precision fuel level sensors. However, in the vehicle monitor platform, there are many types of error in the data collection and transmission processes, such as the noise, interference, and collision errors are common in the high speed and dynamic vehicle environment. In this paper, an effective method for cleaning and repairing the fuel level data is proposed, which adopts the threshold to acquire abnormal fuel data, the time quantum to identify abnormal data, and linear interpolation based algorithm to correct data errors. Specifically, a modified Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) based on the synchronous iteration method is proposed to acquire the thresholds, which uses the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm and the steepest descent algorithm to optimize the parameters of GMM. The experiment results based on the fuel level data of vehicles collected over one month prove the modified GMM is superior to GMM-EM on fuel level data, and the proposed method is effective for cleaning and repairing outliers of fuel level data

Effects of nitrogen fertilization and bioenergy crop species on central tendency and spatial heterogeneity of soil glycosidase activities

Extracellular glycosidases in soil, produced by microorganisms, act as major agents for decomposing labile soil organic carbon (e.g., cellulose). Soil extracellular glycosidases are significantly affected by nitrogen (N) fertilization but fertilization effects on spatial distributions of soil glycosidases have not been well addressed. Whether the effects of N fertilization vary with bioenergy crop species also remains unclear. Based on a 3-year fertilization experiment in Middle Tennessee, USA, a total of 288 soil samples in topsoil (0–15 cm) were collected from two 15 m2 plots under three fertilization treatments in switchgrass (SG: Panicum virgatum L.) and gamagrass (GG: Tripsacum dactyloides L.) using a spatially explicit design. Four glycosidases, α-glucosidase (AG), β-glucosidase (BG), β-xylosidase (BX), cellobiohydrolase (CBH), and their sum associated with C acquisition (Cacq) were quantified. The three fertilization treatments were no N input (NN), low N input (LN: 84 kg N ha−1 year−1 in urea) and high N input (HN: 168 kg N ha−1 year−1 in urea). The descriptive and geostatistical approaches were used to evaluate their central tendency and spatial heterogeneity. Results showed significant interactive effects of N fertilization and crop type on BX such that LN and HN significantly enhanced BX by 14% and 44% in SG, respectively. The significant effect of crop type was identified and glycosidase activities were 15–39% higher in GG than those in SG except AG. Within-plot variances of glycosidases appeared higher in SG than GG but little differed with N fertilization due to large plot-plot variation. Spatial patterns were generally more evident in LN or HN plots than NN plots for BG in SG and CBH in GG. This study suggested that N fertilization elevated central tendency and spatial heterogeneity of glycosidase activities in surficial soil horizons and these effects however varied with crop and enzyme types. Future studies need to focus on specific enzyme in certain bioenergy cropland soil when N fertilization effect is evaluated

Involvement of protein kinase C-δ activation in betulininduced apoptosis of neuroblastoma

Purpose: To investigate the clinical benefits and underlying mechanisms of action of betulin in the treatment of cancer using a neuroblastoma (NB) cell model.Method: Cell viability assay (MTT assay) was applied to investigate the effects of betulin on proliferation and apoptosis of SK-N-SH cell. The expression or translocation of apoptosis-related biomarkers, which include protein kinase C (PKC) family members, were analyzed and quantified by Western blotting, caspase activity assay or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).Results: Betulin treatment significantly inhibited the growth of SK-N-SH cells (p < 0.001), with halfmaximal inhibition concentration (IC50) of 8 μmol/mL. Furthermore, betulin treatment increased the activity of PKC-δ, which subsequently activated caspases 3, 8 and 9, thus initiating mitochondriamediated endogenous apoptotic pathways in SK-N-SH cellsConclusion: Data generated in this study suggest that betulin inhibits cell proliferation and promotes apoptosis via PKC-δ activation, which may provide new insights into NB treatment from the perspective of adjuvant chemotherapy and prevention of tumor recurrence.Keywords: Betulin, Neuroblastoma, Apoptosis, protein kinase C-δ, Adjuvant chemotherapy, Tumor recurrence, Caspas

Soil extracellular oxidases mediated nitrogen fertilization effects on soil organic carbon sequestration in bioenergy croplands

Nitrogen (N) fertilization significantly affects soil extracellular oxidases, agents responsible for decomposition of slow turnover and recalcitrant soil organic carbon (SOC; e.g., lignin), and consequently influences soil carbon sequestration capacity. However, it remains unclear how soil oxidases mediate SOC sequestration under N fertilization, and whether these effects co-vary with plant type (e.g., bioenergy crop species). Using a spatially explicit design and intensive soil sampling strategy under three fertilization treatments in switchgrass (SG: Panicum virgatum L.) and gamagrass (GG: Tripsacum dactyloides L.) croplands, we quantified the activities of polyphenolic oxidase (PHO), peroxidase (PER), and their sum associated with recalcitrant C acquisition (OX). The fertilization treatments included no N fertilizer input (NN), low N input (LN: 84 kg N ha−1 year−1 in urea), and high N input (HN: 168 kg N ha−1 year−1 in urea). Besides correlations between soil oxidases and SOC (formerly published), both descriptive and geostatistical approaches were applied to evaluate the effects of N fertilization and crop type on soil oxidases activities and their spatial distributions. Results showed significantly negative correlations between soil oxidase activities and SOC across all treatments. The negative relationship of soil oxidases and SOC was also evident under N fertilization. First, LN significantly depressed oxidases in both mean activities and spatial heterogeneity, which corresponded to increased SOC in SG (though by 5.4%). LN slightly influenced oxidases activities and their spatial heterogeneity, consistent with insignificant changes of SOC in GG. Second, HN showed trends of decrease in soil oxidase activities, which aligned with the significantly enhanced SOC in both croplands. Overall, this study demonstrated that soil oxidase activities acted as sensitive and negative mediators of SOC sequestration in bioenergy croplands and optimizing fertilizer use particularly in switchgrass cropland can improve for both carbon sequestration and environmental benefit

Research on the Safety Characteristics of Mixed Traffic Flow under Different Penetration Scenarios of Autonomous Vehicles

Since it will take time for vehicles to be fully automated, research on mixed traffic flow with different levels of vehicles will be the focus in the future. This paper takes L0, L1, L2, L3, L4, L5 vehicles as the research object, selects the Intelligent Diver Model (IDM), Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) model, F-STCA model and LC2013 model to construct the vehicle\u27s driving behaviour model, builds SUMO (Simulation of Urban Mobility) and Python co-simulation platform to conduct models simulation verification and safety analysis. The results show that: (1) The improved IDM model can realize the error caused by the heterogeneity of driver\u27s personality; the improved ACC model can improve speed and keep a small change range with the interfering vehicle; the improved F-STCA model can expand the vehicle\u27s lane-changing intention and reflect the driver\u27s driving uncertainty. (2) The increase of penetration can increase the number of lane changes in basic sections, but in merging area, they are proportional at low density and inversely proportional at high density; penetration can reduce the occurrence of traffic conflicts and change the distribution of Time-To-Collision (TTC). This paper can predict the evolution law of traffic flow under the new technology, and provide a reference for future traffic planning and management

Kaj država pričakuje od državnega programa obvadovanja raka

Locked-to-sliding phase transition has been studied in the driven two-dimensional Frenkel-Kontorova model with the square symmetric substrate potential. It is found that as the driving force increases, the system transfers from the locked state to the sliding state where the motion of particles is in the direction different from that of driving force. With the further increase in driving force, at some critical value, the particles start to move in the direction of driving force. These two critical forces, the static friction or depinning force, and the kinetic friction force for which particles move in the direction of driving force have been analyzed for different system parameters. Different scenarios of phase transitions have been examined and dynamical phases are classified. In the case of zero misfit angle, the analytical expressions for static and kinetic friction force have been obtained