ALBERT

Description: 〈span〉〈div〉ABSTRACT〈/div〉A conventional method for identifying sediment-supply directions is to characterize the seismic progradational reflection configuration, which is based mainly on qualitative observation of numerous seismic profiles. We have developed a more quantitative and practical way to determine the major sediment-supply direction (MSSD) using a new type of rose diagram based on seismic progradational sequence angles. In accordance with similar principles of the rose diagram used in structural geology, we have developed an analytical method and a workflow for a new rose diagram of seismic-based progradational sequence angles to determine MSSD. The Bozhong sag, a subbasin of the Bohai Bay Basin with two typical progradational sequences (I and II), provides a suitable example to analyze MSSD and test the new method. Our result indicates that the MSSD of the two progradational sequences (I and II) corresponds to azimuths of 10°–20° and 340°–350°, respectively, intuitively indicating two sequences derived from different provenance-transport systems. The new rose diagram of seismic progradational angles offers a powerful and quantitative method for seismic-based sedimentary provenance and paleocurrent analysis.〈/span〉

Description: 〈p〉While benefiting greatly from electronics, our society also faces a major problem of electronic waste, which has already caused environmental pollution and adverse human health effects. Therefore, recyclability becomes a must-have feature in future electronics. Here, we demonstrate an erasable and recreatable two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG), which can be easily created and patterned by depositing a water-dissolvable overlayer of amorphous Sr〈sub〉3〈/sub〉Al〈sub〉2〈/sub〉O〈sub〉6〈/sub〉 (〈i〉a〈/i〉-SAO) on SrTiO〈sub〉3〈/sub〉 (STO) at room temperature. The 2DEG can be repeatedly erased or recreated by depositing the 〈i〉a〈/i〉-SAO or dissolving in water, respectively. Photoluminescence results show that the 2DEG arises from the 〈i〉a〈/i〉-SAO–induced oxygen vacancy. Furthermore, by gradually depleting the 2DEG, a transition of nonlinear to linear Hall effect is observed, demonstrating an unexpected interfacial band structure. The convenience and repeatability in the creation of the water-dissolvable 2DEG with rich physics could potentially contribute to the exploration of next generation electronics, such as environment-friendly or water-soluble electronics.〈/p〉

Description: 〈p〉Dissipative solitons are self-localized coherent structures arising from the balance between energy supply and dissipation. Besides stationary dissipative solitons, there are dynamical ones exhibiting oscillatory behavior, known as breathing dissipative solitons. Substantial interest in breathing dissipative solitons is driven by both their fundamental importance in nonlinear science and their practical applications, such as in spectroscopy. Yet, the observation of breathers has been mainly restricted to microresonator platforms. Here, we generate breathers in a mode-locked fiber laser. They exist in the laser cavity under the pump threshold of stationary mode locking. Using fast detection, we are able to observe the temporal and spectral evolutions of the breathers in real time. Breathing soliton molecules are also observed. Breathers introduce a new regime of mode locking into ultrafast lasers. Our findings may contribute to the design of advanced laser sources and open up new possibilities of generating breathers in various dissipative systems.〈/p〉

Description: We studied the influence of controlled surface-limited oxidation of electrodeposited epitaxial Co(0001)/Au(111) films on their magnetic anisotropy energy using real time in situ magneto optical Kerr effect and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. We investigated the Co first electrochemical oxidation step which we demonstrate to be completely reversible and determined the structure of this oxide layer. We show that the interface magnetic anisotropy of the Co film increases by 0.36 erg/cm 2 upon Co surface oxidation. We performed DFT calculations to determine the different surface structures in a wide potential range as well as the charge transfer at the Co surface. Our results suggest that the magnetic anisotropy change is correlated with a positive charge increase of 0.54 e − for the Co surface atom upon oxidation.

Description: With the wide availability of massively parallel sequencing technologies, genetic mapping has become the rate limiting step in mammalian forward genetics. Here we introduce a method for real-time identification of N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea-induced mutations that cause phenotypes in mice. All mutations are identified by whole exome G1 progenitor sequencing and their zygosity...

Description: Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is a long-lived greenhouse gas that significantly contributes to global warming. Long-term and continuous measurements of atmospheric CO 2 to investigate its global distribution and concentration variations are important for accurately understanding its potential climatic effects. Satellite measurements from space can offer atmospheric CO 2 data for climate change research. For that, ground-based measurements are required for validation and improving the precision of satellite-measured CO 2 . We implemented observation experiment of CO 2 column densities in the Xilinguole grasslands in Inner Mongolia, China, using a ground-based measurement system, which mainly consists of an optical spectrum analyzer (OSA), a sun tracker and a notebook controller. Measurements from our ground-based system were analyzed and compared with those from the Greenhouse gas Observation SATellite (GOSAT). The ground-based...

Description: In this paper, we discuss control variate methods with applications to Asian and basket options pricing under exponential jump diffusion models for the underlying asset prices. Conditional on geometric means of asset prices, new control variates for arithmetic Asian and basket options are constructed. Numerical results show that the constructed new control variate X NCV is much more efficient than the classical control variate X CCV even in high-dimensional cases when pricing Asian options. For example, the variance reduction ratios by X CCV are no more than 256 for all the cases whereas those by X NCV vary from 14253 to 95873 for low and normal volatilities, and they vary from 6564 to 16296 for high volatility (=0.5), on average over sample sizes 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384 and 32768. In the case of basket options, the new control variate is still more efficient than the classical control variate. Moreover, our tests also show that the variances of a trivariate control variate are smaller than either bivariate or single variate control variates for the basket options considered.

Description: The current-voltage ( I-V ) characteristics with spin injection were investigated for the epitaxial La 0.7 Sr 0.3 MnO 3 /La 1.85 Sr 0.15 CuO 4 heterostructure rotated from H // c to H // ab in magnetic fields up to 14 T. It is found that all the I-V curves in various magnetic fields can be scaled with a three dimensional (3D) vortex glass model, and the spin injection can induce a better 3D scaling behavior, which is closely related to the decrease of the anisotropy parameter. A vortex phase diagram for the evolution of vortex glass transition field ( H g ) and upper critical field ( H c 2 ) indicates that both H g and H c 2 are suppressed by spin injection, and this effect becomes more obvious in the case of H // ab , which probably originates from the different suppression on the superconducting pairing strength by different injected spins' orientations.

Description: RNAi technology is taking strong position among the key therapeutic modalities, with dozens of siRNA-based programs entering and successfully progressing through clinical stages of drug development. To further explore potentials of RNAi technology as therapeutics, we engineered and tested VEGFR2 siRNA molecules specifically targeted to tumors through covalently conjugated cyclo(Arg-Gly-Asp- d -Phe-Lys[PEG-MAL]) (cRGD) peptide, known to bind αvβ3 integrin receptors. cRGD-siRNAs were demonstrated to specifically enter and silence targeted genes in cultured αvβ3 positive human cells (HUVEC). Microinjection of zebrafish blastocysts with VEGFR2 cRGD-siRNA resulted in specific inhibition of blood vessel growth. In tumor-bearing mice, intravenously injected cRGD-siRNA molecules generated no innate immune response and bio-distributed to tumor tissues. Continuous systemic delivery of two different VEGFR2 cRGD-siRNAs resulted in down-regulation of corresponding mRNA (55 and 45%) and protein (65 and 45%) in tumors, as well as in overall reduction of tumor volume (90 and 70%). These findings demonstrate strong potential of cRGD-siRNA molecules as anti-tumor therapy.

Description: GPS radio occultation (RO) signals are sometimes observed very deep in the Earth's shadow. To investigate these phenomena, one of the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC RO receivers was set to track RO signals deep below the limb, down to a height of straight line -350 km on October 5-6, 2010. Analysis of the spectrograms revealed the existence of two types of signals below -200 km, RO signals induced by tropospheric propagation and interfering signals not transmitted by the occulted GPS. The RO signals induced by tropospheric propagation arrive from impact heights corresponding to inversion layers. Wave optics modeling of RO signals showed that deep signals exist when the refractivity gradient exceeds critical (super-refraction). The existence of such signals is a diffractional phenomenon, which offers a new quality control parameter to identify occultations that may be affected by super-refraction. This is important for RO data assimilation in weather models in the moist lower troposphere because assimilation of RO data affected by super-refraction is an ill-conditioned problem. Detection of the tropospheric ducts also may be useful for evaluation of radio wave propagation conditions. For infinitely horizontally extended ducts, the deep signals are extended in duration, have amplitudes of about 0.1% and exist for only elevated ducts. For ducts of limited horizontal extension, the deep signals are shorter in duration, have amplitude of about 1% and may exist for both elevated and surface ducts. The interfering signals were found in about half of occultations. Based on frequency modeling, in most cases, the interfering signal were identified with non-occulted GPS. The disturbance of retrieved bending angle induced by an interfering signal from a non-occulted GPS in a region of strong defocusing and significant spectral spread of RO signal was modeled and determined to be quite large, up to 10% of bending angle. However, the probability of occurrence of such interference (not estimated), generally, must be low. Removal of the interfering signal by high-pass filtering was tested but it introduced a disturbance of bending angle of about the same magnitude as the interfering signal itself.