Vanishing viscosity limits for the degenerate lake equations with Navier boundary conditions

The paper is concerned with the vanishing viscosity limit of the two-dimensional degenerate viscous lake equations when the Navier slip conditions are prescribed on the impermeable boundary of a simply connected bounded regular domain. When the initial vorticity is in the Lebesgue space $L^q$ with $2<q\le\infty$, we show the degenerate viscous lake equations possess a unique global solution and the solution converges to a corresponding weak solution of the inviscid lake equations. In the special case when the vorticity is in $L^\infty$, an explicit convergence rate is obtained

Neutrino oscillations in de Sitter space-time

We try to understand flavor oscillations and to develop the formulae for describing neutrino oscillations in de Sitter space-time. First, the covariant Dirac equation is investigated under the conformally flat coordinates of de Sitter geometry. Then, we obtain the exact solutions of the Dirac equation and indicate the explicit form of the phase of wave function. Next, the concise formulae for calculating the neutrino oscillation probabilities in de Sitter space-time are given. Finally, The difference between our formulae and the standard result in Minkowski space-time is pointed out.Comment: 13 pages, no figure

Porosity-enhanced solar powered hydrogen generation in GaN photoelectrodes

Two types of GaN based photoelectrodes using either horizontally aligned or vertically aligned nanopores have been fabricated by means of using an electrochemical etching approach. The photoelectrodes based on such nanostructures have demonstrated an up to 5-fold enhancement in applied bias photon-to-current efficiency and incident photon-to-current efficiency in comparison with their planar counterpart, leading to a high Faradaic conversion efficiency which approaches 1. The GaN photoelectrodes with these nanopores also show excellent chemical stability in HBr solution as an electrolyte. The results presented reveal that the gas diffusion in the nanopores plays an important role in water splitting processes, which should be taken into account when designing a GaN photoelectrode with a nanopore structur

Quantum computing of molecular magnet Mn12_{12}

Quantum computation in molecular magnets is studied by solving the time-dependent Schr\"{o}dinger equation numerically. Following Leuenberger and Loss (Nature (London) 410, 789(2001)), an external oscillating magnetic field is applied to populate and manipulate the spin coherent states in molecular magnet Mn$_{12}$. The conditions to realize parallel recording and reading data bases of Grover algorithsm in molecular magnets are discussed in details. It is found that an accurate duration time of magnetic pulse as well as the amplitudes are required to design the device of quantum computing.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figur

Rotational Symmetry of Classical Orbits, Arbitrary Quantization of Angular Momentum and the Role of Gauge Field in Two-Dimensional Space

We study the quantum-classical correspondence in terms of coherent wave functions of a charged particle in two-dimensional central-scalar-potentials as well as the gauge field of a magnetic flux in the sense that the probability clouds of wave functions are well localized on classical orbits. For both closed and open classical orbits, the non-integer angular-momentum quantization with the level-space of angular momentum being greater or less than $\hbar$ is determined uniquely by the same rotational symmetry of classical orbits and probability clouds of coherent wave functions, which is not necessarily $2\pi$-periodic. The gauge potential of a magnetic flux impenetrable to the particle cannot change the quantization rule but is able to shift the spectrum of canonical angular momentum by a flux-dependent value, which results in a common topological phase for all wave functions in the given model. The quantum mechanical model of anyon proposed by Wilczek (Phys. Rev. Lette. 48, 1144) becomes a special case of the arbitrary-quantization.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

Alkylating HIV-1 Nef - a potential way of HIV intervention

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Nef is a 27 KDa HIV-1 accessory protein. It downregulates CD4 from infected cell surface, a mechanism critical for efficient viral replication and pathogenicity. Agents that antagonize the Nef-mediated CD4 downregulation may offer a new class of drug to combat HIV infection and disease. TPCK (N-α-p-tosyl-L-phenylalanine chloromethyl ketone) and TLCK (N-α-p-tosyl-L-lysine chloromethyl ketone) are alkylation reagents that chemically modify the side chain of His or Cys residues in a protein. In search of chemicals that inhibit Nef function, we discovered that TPCK and TLCK alkylated HIV Nef.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Nef modification by TPCK was demonstrated on reducing SDS-PAGE. The specific cysteine residues modified were determined by site-directed mutagenesis and mass spectrometry (MS). The effect of TPCK modification on Nef-CD4 interaction was studied using fluorescence titration of a synthetic CD4 tail peptide with recombinant Nef-His protein. The conformational change of Nef-His protein upon TPCK-modification was monitored using CD spectrometry</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Incubation of Nef-transfected T cells, or recombinant Nef-His protein, with TPCK resulted in mobility shift of Nef on SDS-PAGE. Mutagenesis analysis indicated that the modification occurred at Cys55 and Cys206 in Nef. Mass spectrometry demonstrated that the modification was a covalent attachment (alkylation) of TPCK at Cys55 and Cys206. Cys55 is next to the CD4 binding motif (A₅₆W₅₇L₅₈) in Nef required for Nef-mediated CD4 downregulation and for AIDS development. This implies that the addition of a bulky TPCK molecule to Nef at Cys55 would impair Nef function and reduce HIV pathogenicity. As expected, Cys55 modification reduced the strength of the interaction between Nef-His and CD4 tail peptide by 50%.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our data suggest that this Cys55-specific alkylation mechanism may be exploited to develop a new class of anti HIV drugs.</p

Stimulated emission from semi-polar (11-22) GaN overgrown on sapphire

(11-22) semi-polar GaN is expected to exhibit major advantages compared with current c-plane polar GaN in the fabrication of long wavelength such as green and yellow emitters. However, all the III-nitride based semi-/non- polar laser diodes (LDs) reported so far have been achieved exclusively based on homo-epitaxial growth on extremely expensive free-standing GaN substrates with a very limited size. In this paper, we have observed a stimulated emission at room temperature achieved on our semi-polar (11-22) GaN overgrown on a micro-rod arrayed template with an optimized design on m-plane sapphire. This has never been achieved previously on any semi-polar GaN grown on sapphire. Furthermore, an optical gain of 130cm−1 has been measured by means of performing a standard laser stripe-length dependent optical measurement. The values of the threshold and the optical gain obtained are comparable to those of the c-plane GaN reported so far, further validating the satisfactory crystal quality of our overgrown semi-polar (11-22) GaN on sapphire. This represents a major step towards the development of III-nitride semi-polar based LDs on sapphire, especially in the long wavelength regime

Continuous extremal optimization for Lennard-Jones Clusters

In this paper, we explore a general-purpose heuristic algorithm for finding high-quality solutions to continuous optimization problems. The method, called continuous extremal optimization(CEO), can be considered as an extension of extremal optimization(EO) and is consisted of two components, one is with responsibility for global searching and the other is with responsibility for local searching. With only one adjustable parameter, the CEO's performance proves competitive with more elaborate stochastic optimization procedures. We demonstrate it on a well known continuous optimization problem: the Lennerd-Jones clusters optimization problem.Comment: 5 pages and 3 figure

An Expanded Conformation of Single-Ring GroEL-GroES Complex Encapsulates an 86 kDa Substrate

SummaryElectron cryomicroscopy reveals an unprecedented conformation of the single-ring mutant of GroEL (SR398) bound to GroES in the presence of Mg-ATP. This conformation exhibits a considerable expansion of the folding cavity, with ∼80% more volume than the X-ray structure of the equivalent cis cavity in the GroEL-GroES-(ADP)7 complex. This expanded conformation can encapsulate an 86 kDa heterodimeric (αβ) assembly intermediate of mitochondrial branched-chain α-ketoacid dehydrogenase, the largest substrate ever observed to be cis encapsulated. The SR398-GroES-Mg-ATP complex is found to exist as a mixture of standard and expanded conformations, regardless of the absence or presence of the substrate. However, the presence of even a small substrate causes a pronounced bias toward the expanded conformation. Encapsulation of the large assembly intermediate is supported by a series of electron cryomicroscopy studies as well as the protection of both α and β subunits of the substrate from tryptic digestion