384 research outputs found

    Body’s Death or Body’s Banishment?: 1 The Time Philosophy and As You Like It

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    In As You Like It, Court and Arden are two different settings where people have different experiences of life. Court is an epitome of the realistic world and the pastoral forest of Arden is a symbol of the lost paradise—Eden. In these two settings, time is a topic discussed frequently by the characters through the whole play. The characters hold different views of time and some of the views change with the transform of setting. Time in realistic world is linear time which devours man’ life little by little, while time in Arden is circular time which makes man feel eternity and tranquility. In addition, time experienced by the persons in love is changeable and elastic which is an intermediate state between the linear time and the circular time. This kind of multiple time philosophy reflects the characters’ various world views and outlooks on life.

    Genetic Evolution and Molecular Selection of the HE Gene of Influenza C Virus

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    Influenza C virus (ICV) was first identified in humans and swine, but recently also in cattle, indicating a wider host range and potential threat to both the livestock industry and public health than was originally anticipated. The ICV hemagglutinin-esterase (HE) glycoprotein has multiple functions in the viral replication cycle and is the major determinant of antigenicity. Here, we developed a comparative approach integrating genetics, molecular selection analysis, and structural biology to identify the codon usage and adaptive evolution of ICV. We show that ICV can be classified into six lineages, consistent with previous studies. The HE gene has a low codon usage bias, which may facilitate ICV replication by reducing competition during evolution. Natural selection, dinucleotide composition, and mutation pressure shape the codon usage patterns of the ICV HE gene, with natural selection being the most important factor. Codon adaptation index (CAI) and relative codon deoptimization index (RCDI) analysis revealed that the greatest adaption of ICV was to humans, followed by cattle and swine. Additionally, similarity index (SiD) analysis revealed that swine exerted a stronger evolutionary pressure on ICV than humans, which is considered the primary reservoir. Furthermore, a similar tendency was also observed in the M gene. Of note, we found HE residues 176, 194, and 198 to be under positive selection, which may be the result of escape from antibody responses. Our study provides useful information on the genetic evolution of ICV from a new perspective that can help devise prevention and control strategies

    Donor–Acceptor Fluorophores for Energy-Transfer-Mediated Photocatalysis

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    Triplet–triplet energy transfer (EnT) is a fundamental activation pathway in photocatalysis. In this work, we report the mechanistic origins of the triplet excited state of carbazole-cyanobenzene donor–acceptor (D–A) fluorophores in EnT-based photocatalytic reactions and demonstrate the key factors that control the accessibility of the 3LE (locally excited triplet state) and 3CT (charge-transfer triplet state) via a combined photochemical and transient absorption spectroscopic study. We found that the energy order between 1CT (charge transfer singlet state) and 3LE dictates the accessibility of 3LE/3CT for EnT, which can be effectively engineered by varying solvent polarity and D–A character to depopulate 3LE and facilitate EnT from the chemically more tunable 3CT state for photosensitization. Following the above design principle, a new D–A fluorophore with strong D–A character and weak redox potential is identified, which exhibits high efficiency for Ni(II)-catalyzed cross-coupling of carboxylic acids and aryl halides with a wide substrate scope and high selectivity. Our results not only provide key fundamental insight on the EnT mechanism of D–A fluorophores but also establish its wide utility in EnT-mediated photocatalytic reactions

    An efficient unstructured MUSCL scheme for solving the 2D shallow water equations

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    The aim of this paper is to present a novel monotone upstream scheme for conservation law (MUSCL) on unstructured grids. The novel edge-based MUSCL scheme is devised to construct the required values at the midpoint of cell edges in a more straightforward and effective way compared to other conventional approaches, by making better use of the geometrical property of the triangular grids. The scheme is incorporated into a two-dimensional (2D) cell-centered Godunov-type finite volume model as proposed in Hou et al. (2013a,c) to solve the shallow water equations (SWEs). The MUSCL scheme renders the model to preserve the well-balanced property and achieve high accuracy and efficiency for shallow flow simulations over uneven terrains. Furthermore, the scheme is directly applicable to all triangular grids. Application to several numerical experiments verifies the efficiency and robustness of the current new MUSCL scheme

    A coupled hydrological and hydrodynamic model for flood simulation

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    This paper presents a new flood modelling tool developed by coupling a full 2D hydrodynamic model with hydrological models. The coupled model overcomes the main limitations of the individual modelling approaches, i.e. high computational costs associated with the hydrodynamic models and less detailed representation of the underlying physical processes related to the hydrological models. When conducting a simulation using the coupled model, the computational domain (e.g. a catchment) is first divided into hydraulic and hydrological zones. In the hydrological zones that have high ground elevations and relatively homogeneous land cover or topographic features, a conceptual lumped model is applied to obtain runoff/net rainfall, which is then routed by a group of pre-acquired ‘unit hydrographs’ to the zone borders. These translated hydrographs will then be used to drive the full 2D hydrodynamic model to predict flood dynamics at high resolution in the hydraulic zones that are featured with complex topographic settings, including roads, buildings, etc. The new coupled flood model is applied to reproduce a major flood event that occurred in Morpeth, northeast England in September 2008. While producing similar results, the new coupled model is shown to be computationally much more efficient than the full hydrodynamic model

    Glass formation and properties of Ge-Ga-Te-ZnI2 far infrared chalcohalide glasses

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    International audienceIn order to develop novel far infrared window material, a series of Ge-Ga-Te-ZnI2 chalcohalide glasses were prepared by traditional melt-quenching method and their glass-forming region was determined also. Here, some measurements including X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential thermal analysis (DTA), UV-Vis-NIR absorption spectrum, and infrared optical transmission spectra were carried out. The allowed indirect transition optical band gap was calculated according to the classical Tauc equation. The results show that with the addition of ZnI2, the glass-forming ability and thermal stability are improved gradually. With the contents of ZnI2 increased from 5 to 20 at.%, continued blue-shifting occurs in the cutting-off absorption edge of short-wavelength and the values of indirect optical band gaps were observed with ranges from 0.596 to 0.626 eV in these glasses. These GeTe4.3-GaTe3-ZnI2 glasses show wide optical transmission and the infrared cut-off wavelengths are larger than 25 μm, which implies that the Ge-Ga-Te-ZnI2 chalcogenide glasses possess the potential of far-IR optical window applications
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