The ultra-low-frequency shear modes of 2-4 layer graphenes observed in their scroll structures at edges

The in-plane shear modes between neighbor-layers of 2-4 layer graphenes (LGs) and the corresponding graphene scrolls rolled up by 2-4LGs were investigated by Raman scattering. In contrast to that just one shear mode was observed in 3-4LGs, all the shear modes of 3-4LGs were observed in 3-4 layer scrolls (LSs), whose frequencies agree well with the theoretical predication by both a force-constant model and a linear chain model. In comparison to the broad width (about 12cm$^{-1}$) for the G band in graphite, all the shear modes exhibit an intrinsic line width of about 1.0 cm$^{-1}$. The local electronic structures dependent on the local staking configurations enhance the intensity of the shear modes in corresponding 2-4LSs zones, which makes it possible to observe all the shear modes. It provides a direct evidence that how the band structures of FLGs can be sensitive to local staking configurations. This result can be extended to n layer graphene (n > 4) for the understanding of the basic phonon properties of multi-layer graphenes. This observation of all-scale shear modes can be foreseen in other 2D materials with similar scroll structures.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure

Ant colony optimization for capacitated vehicle routing problem.

Problem statement: The Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem (CVRP) is a well-known combinatorial optimization problem which is concerned with the distribution of goods between the depot and customers. It is of economic importance to businesses as approximately 10-20% of the final cost of the goods is contributed by the transportation process. Approach: This problem was tackled using an Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) combined with heuristic approaches that act as the route improvement strategies. The proposed ACO utilized a pheromone evaporation procedure of standard ant algorithm in order to introduce an evaporation rate that depends on the solutions found by the artificial ants. Results: Computational experiments were conducted on benchmark data set and the results obtained from the proposed algorithms shown that the application of combination of two different heuristics in the ACO had the capability to improve the ants' solutions better than ACO embedded with only one heuristic. Conclusion: ACO with swap and 3-opt heuristic has the capability to tackle the CVRP with satisfactory solution quality and run time. It is a viable alternative for solving the CVRP

The Design of an asynchronous VHDL synthesizer

Abstract This paper presents a straightforward approach for synthesizing a standard VHDL description of an asynchronous circuit from a behavioural VHDL description. The asynchronous circuit style is based on`micropipelines', a style currently used to develop asynchronous microprocessors at Manchester University. The rules of partition and conversion which are used to implement the synthesizer are also described. The synthesizer greatly reduces the design time of a complex micropipeline circuit

Evolution and conservation of polycomb repressive complex 1 core components and putative associated factors in the green lineage

International audienc

Effects of ac-field amplitude on the dielectric susceptibility of relaxors

The thermally activated flips of the local spontaneous polarization in relaxors were simulated to investigate the effects of the applied-ac-field amplitude on the dielectric susceptibility. It was observed that the susceptibility increases with increasing the amplitude at low temperatures. At high temperatures, the susceptibility experiences a plateau and then drops. The maximum in the temperature dependence of susceptibility shifts to lower temperatures when the amplitude increases. A similarity was found between the effects of the amplitude and frequency on the susceptibility.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, Phys. Rev. B (in July 1st

Poly[[tetra­aquatetrakis­[μ3-5-(pyridine-4-carboxamido)­isophthalato]cobalt(II)digadolinium(III)] tetra­hydrate]

In the centrosymmetric polymeric title compound, {[CoGd2(C14H8N2O5)4(H2O)4]·4H2O}n, the GdIII cation is coordinated by one water mol­ecule and four pyridine-4-carboxamido­isophthalate (L) anions in a distorted square-anti­prismatic arrangement, while the CoII cation, located on an inversion center, is coordinated by two pyridyl-N atoms, two carboxyl­ate-O atoms and two water mol­ecules in a distorted octa­hedral geometry. The asymmetric unit contains two anionic L ligands: one bridges two Gd cations and one Co cation through two carboxyl groups and one pyridine-N atom; the other bridges two Gd cations and one Co cation through two carboxyl groups and the uncoordinated pyridine-N atom is hydrogen-bonded to the adjacent coordinated water mol­ecule. Extensive O—H⋯O and N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds are present in the crystal structure

Influence of Baking Degree on the Content of Chlorogenic Acid in Coffee by High Performance Liquid Chromatography

The effect of baking degree on the change of seven chlorogenic acid compounds in 10 different origins (origin 1: Yunnan, origin 2: Africa and America) of Cardim coffee. The content of chlorogenic acid, neochlorogenic acid, cryptochlorogenic acid, isochlorogenic acid A, isochlorogenic acid B, isochlorogenic acid C and 5-ferulicquinic acid in green coffee and baked coffee were determined by high performance liquid chromategraphy (HPLC). The optimum extraction conditions of seven chlorogenic acid compounds were optimized by response surface methodology. 100 mL 0.1% phosphoric acid solution was extracted in water bath for 30 min, and the calibration curves of the seven chlorogenic acid compounds showed good linearity with correlation coefficients of above 0.999 4 in the range of 2~150 mg/L. Limit of the detection (LOD) and the limit of the quantitative (LOQ) were 0.005~0.5 mg/g and 0.02~2 mg/g respectively. The content of chlorogenic acid in green coffee beans was the highest, followed by 5-ferulicquinic acid. With the increase of baking degree, the content of chlorogenic acid and 5-ferulicquinic acid decreased significantly (P<0.05). The content of neochlorogenic acid and cryptochlorogenic acid increased first and then decreased. The degradation rate of isochlorogenic acid A was significantly higher than that of isochlorogenic acid B and isochlorogenic acid C. The degradation rate of chlorogenic acid and 5-ferulicquinic acid was relatively stable compared with the other six kinds of chlorogenic acid. Through the study of the content changes of seven kinds of chlorogenic acid compounds under different baking degrees can further evaluate the efficacy of chlorogenic acids in coffee, and provide a reference basis for the quality control of coffee baking

Etiological Analysis of Neurodevelopmental Disabilities: Single-Center Eight-Year Clinical Experience in South China

Etiology determination of neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDDs) currently remains a worldwide common challenge on child health. We herein reported the etiology distribution feature in a cohort of 285 Chinese patients with NDDs. Although concrete NDD etiologies in 48.4% of the total patients could not be identified, genetic diseases (with the proportion of 35.8% in the total cases) including inborn errors of metabolism (IEM) and congenital dysmorphic diseases, constituted the commonest etiology category for NDDs in this study. The two key experimental technologies in pediatric metabolomics, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and tandem mass spectrometry (MS-MS), proved to be substantially helpful for the exploration of the NDD etiologies in this clinical investigation. The findings in this paper provided latest epidemiologic information on the etiology distribution of NDDs in Chinese, and the syndromic NDDs caused by citrin deficiency and the novel chromosomal karyotype, respectively, further expanded the etiology spectrum of NDDs