The effects of non-unity lewis numbers on turbulent premixed flame interactions in a twin V-flame configuration

The influence of Lewis number on turbulent premixed flame interactions is investigated using automatic feature extraction (AFE) applied to high-resolution flame simulation data. Premixed turbulent twin V-flames under identical turbulence conditions are simulated at global Lewis numbers of 0.4, 0.8, 1.0, and 1.2. Information on the position, frequency, and magnitude of the interactions is compared, and the sensitivity of the results to sample interval is discussed. It is found that both the frequency and magnitude of normal type interactions increases with decreasing Lewis number. Counternormal type interactions become more likely as the Lewis number increases. The variation in both the frequency and the magnitude of the interactions is found to be caused by large-scale changes in flame wrinkling resulting from differences in the thermo-diffusive stability of the flames. During flame interactions, thermo-diffusive effects are found to be insignificant due to the separation of time scales. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

RecA-mediated, targeted mutagenesis in zebrafish

We have evaluated the efficacy of RecA, a prokaryotic protein involved with homologous recombination, to direct site-specific mutagenesis in zebrafish embryos. For this we coinjected a vector containing a mutated enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) gene plus 236-nucleotide corrective single-stranded DNAs coated with RecA into I-cell zebrafish embryos. Twenty-hours after fertilization, about 5% to 20% of injected embryos showed EGFP expression in I or more cells when RecA-coated corrective DNAs were used, but not when RecA was omitted. Mutated EGFP genes with 1-bp insertions or deletions were inefficiently activated, whereas those with 7-bp insertions were activated about 4-fold more efficiently. RecA-coated template strand had a higher efficiency than its complementary strand in activation of EGFP expression. Prior irradiation of the embryos with UV light enhanced RecA-mediated restoration of gene activity, suggesting that the effects we observed were augmented by one or more factors of zebrafish DNA repair systems.

First-principles study of UC2 and U2C3

The electronic structure and mechanical properties Of UC2 and U2C3 have been systematically investigated using first-principles calculations by the projector-augmented-wave (PAW) method. Furthermore, in order to describe precisely the strong on-site Coulomb repulsion among the localized U 5f electrons, we adopt the generalized gradient approximation +U formalisms for the exchange-correlation term. We show that our calculated structural parameters and electronic properties for UC2 and U2C3 are in good agreement with the experimental data by choosing an appropriate Hubbard U = 3 eV. As for the chemical bonding nature, the contour plot of charge density and total density of states suggest that UC2 and U2C3 are metallic mainly contributed by the 5f electrons, mixed with significant covalent component resulted from the strong C-C bonds. The present results also illustrate that the metal-carbon (U-C) bonding and the carbon-carbon covalent bonding in U2C3 are somewhat weaker than those in UC2, leading to the weaker thermodynamic stability at high temperature as observed by experiments.

Donor-donor binding in In2O3: Engineering shallow donor levels

Using first-principles band structure methods, we investigate the interactions between different donors in In2O3. Through the formation energy and transition energy level calculations, we find that an oxygen-vacancy creates a deep donor level, while an indium-interstitial or a tin-dopant induces a shallow donor level. The coupling between these donor levels gives rise to even shallower donor levels and leads to a significant reduction in their formation energies. Based on the analysis of the PBE0-corrected band structure and the molecular-orbital bonding diagram, we demonstrate these effects of donor-donor binding. In addition, total energy calculations show that these defect pairs tend to be more stable with respect to the isolated defects due to their negative binding energies. Thus, we may design shallow donor levels to enhance the electrical conductivity via the donor donor binding.

Origins of magnetism in transition metal doped Cul

Cupric iodide is a p-type semiconductor and has a large band gap. Doping of Mn, Co, and Ni are found to make gamma-CuI ferromagnetic ground state, while Cr-doped and Fe-doped CuI systems are stabilized in antiferromagnetic configurations. The origins of the magnetic ordering are demonstrated successfully by the phenomenological band coupling model based on d-d level repulsions between the dopant ions. Furthermore, using a molecular-orbital bonding model, the electronic structures of the doped CuI are well understood. According to Heisenberg model, high-T-C may be expected for CuI:Mn and CuI:Ni if there are no native defects or other impurities.

First-principles study of p-type transparent conductive oxides CuXO2 (X=Y, Sc, and Al)

Using first-principles methods we have calculated electronic structures, optical properties, and hole conductivities of CuXO2 (X=Y, Sc, and Al). We show that the direct optical band gaps of CuYO2 and CuScO2 are approximately equal to their fundamental band gaps and the conduction bands of them are localized. The direct optical band gaps of CuXO2 (X=Y, Sc, and Al) are 3.3, 3.6, and 3.2 eV, respectively, which are consistent with experimental values of 3.5, 3.7, and 3.5 eV. We find that the hole mobility along long lattice c is higher than that along other directions through calculating effective masses of the three oxides. By analyzing band offset we find that CuScO2 has the highest valence band maximum (VBM) among CuXO2 (X=Y, Sc, and Al). In addition, the approximate transitivity of band offset suggests that CuScO2 has a higher VBM than CuGaO2 and CuInO2 [Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 066405 (2002)]. We conclude that CuScO2 has a higher p-type doping ability in terms of the doping limit rule. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.2991157]

Enhanced electroluminescence intensity of InGaN/GaN multi-quantum-wells based on Mg-doped GaN annealed in O-2

InGaN/GaN multi-quantum-well blue (461 +/- 4 nm) light emitting diodes with higher electroluminescence intensity are obtained by postgrowth thermal annealing at 720 C in O-2-ambient. Based on our first-principle total-energy calculations, we conclude that besides dissociating the Mg-H complex by forming H2O, annealing in O-2 has another positive effect on the activation of acceptor Mg in GaN. Mg can be further activated by the formation of an impurity band above the valence band maximum of host GaN from the passivated Mg-Ga-O-N complex. Our calculated ionization energy for acceptor Mg in the passivated system is about 30 meV shallower than that in pure GaN, in good agreement with previous experimental measurement. Our model can explain that the enhanced electroluminescence intensity of InGaN/GaN MQWs based on Mg-doped p-type GaN is due to a decrease in the ionization energy of Mg acceptor with the presence of oxygen. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.

First-principles study of defects in CuGaO2

Using the first-principles methods, we study the electronic structure, intrinsic and extrinsic defects doping in transparent conducting oxides CuGaO2. Intrinsic defects, acceptor-type and donor-type extrinsic defects in their relevant charge state are considered. The calculation result show that copper vacancy and oxygen interstitial are the relevant defects in CuGaO2. In addition, copper vacancy is the most efficient acceptor. Substituting Be for Ga is the prominent acceptor, and substituting Ca for Cu is the prominent donors in CuGaO2. Our calculation results are expected to be a guide for preparing n-type and p-type materials in CuGaO2.

Mg acceptor energy levels in AlxInyGa1-x-yN quaternary alloys: An approach to overcome the p-type doping bottleneck in nitrides

The Mg-Ga acceptor energy levels in GaN and random Al8In4Ga20N32 quaternary alloys are calculated using the first-principles band-structure method. We show that due to wave function localization, the MgGa acceptor energy level in the alloy is significantly lower than that of GaN, although the two materials have nearly identical band gaps. Our study demonstrates that forming AlxInyGa1-x-yN quaternary alloys can be a useful approach to lower acceptor ionization energy in the nitrides and thus provides an approach to overcome the p-type doping difficulty in the nitride system.

Electronic structures and mechanical properties of uranium monocarbide from first-principles LDA plus U and GGA plus U calculations

The electronic structure, elastic constants, Poisson's ratio, and phonon dispersion curves of UC have been systematically investigated from the first-principles calculations by the projector-augmented-wave (PAW) method. In order to describe precisely the strong on-site Coulomb repulsion among the localized U 5f electrons, we adopt the local density approximation (LDA) + U and generalized gradient approximation (GGA) + U formalisms for the exchange correlation term. We systematically study how the electronic properties and elastic constants of UC are affected by the different choice of U as well as the exchange-correlation potential. We show that by choosing an appropriate Hubbard U parameter within the GGA + U approach, most of our calculated results are in good agreement with the experimental data. Therefore. the results obtained by the GGA + U with effective Hubbard parameter U chosen around 3 eV for UC are considered to be reasonable. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The bipolar doping of ZnS via native defects and external dopants

By employing first-principle total-energy calculations, a systematic study of the dopability of ZnS to be both n- and p-types compared with that of ZnO is carried out. We find that all the attempted acceptor dopants, group V substituting on the S lattice site and group I and IB on the Zn sites in ZnS, have lower ionization energies than the corresponding ones in ZnO. This can be accounted for by the fact that ZnS has relative higher valence band maximum than ZnO. Native ZnS is weak p-type under S-rich condition, as the abundant acceptor V-Zn has rather large ionization energy. Self-compensations by the formation of interstitial donors in group I and IB-doped p-type ZnS can be avoided when sample is prepared under S-rich condition. In terms of ionization energies, Li-Zn and N-S are the preferred acceptors in ZnS. Native n- type doping of ZnS is limited by the spontaneous formation of intrinsic V-Zn(2-); high efficient n-type doping with dopants is harder to achieve than in ZnO because of the readiness of forming native compensating centers and higher ionization energy of donors in ZnS. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI 10.1063/1.3103585]

Design of Narrow-Gap TiO2: A Passivated Codoping Approach for Enhanced Photoelectrochemical Activity

To improve the photoelectrochemical activity of TiO2 for hydrogen production through water splitting, the band edges of TiO2 should be tailored to match with visible light absorption and the hydrogen or oxygen production levels. By analyzing the band structure of TiO2 and the chemical potentials of the dopants, we propose that the band edges of TiO2 can be modified by passivated codopants such as (Mo+C) to shift the valence band edge up significantly, while leaving the conduction band edge almost unchanged, thus satisfying the stringent requirements. The design principle for the band-edge modification should be applicable to other wide-band-gap semiconductors.

Electronic Properties of Nonstoichiometric PbSe Quantum Dots from First Principles

One-Hundred Talent Plan of the Chinese Academy of Sciences；National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars 60925016；National High Technology Research and Development program of China 2009AA034101

Anomalous optical and electronic properties of dense sodium

Based on the density functional theory, we systematically study the optical and electronic properties of the insulating dense sodium phase (Na-hp4) reported recently (Ma et al., 2009). The structure is found optically anisotropic. Through Bader analysis, we conclude that ionicity exists in the structure and becomes stronger with increasing pressure.

滇杨(Populus yunnanensis)对增强紫外辐射、干旱和喷施脱落酸的生态生理响应

目前，随着全球气候变化的加剧，水分短缺更加明显。在干旱与半干旱地区，水分胁迫是影响植物存活和生长的主要限制因子。同时，随着大气平流层中臭氧浓度的减少，过量的紫外辐射(UV-B)到达地球表面，一些地区的植物不可避免地受到增强UV-B 和水分胁迫的共同作用。文献表明在UV-B 增强的情况下，干旱表现为减弱或增强UV-B 对植物的影响，这与种、品种有一定的相关性。另外，脱落酸(ABA)是近年来研究报道最多的信息调控物质，与植物抗旱性途径有较大的关系，但其对植株抗UV-B 的影响还有待于研究。本论文以滇杨(Populus yunnanensis)为模式植物，从形态和生理方面研究了增强UV-B、干旱和脱落酸对它的影响，并探讨了UV-B 与干旱的互作效应以及喷施脱落酸对植株抗旱性和抗UV-B 能力的影响。主要研究结果如下：1. 增强的UV-B 和干旱胁迫都影响了滇杨的形态生长和生理生化反应。它们都导致了滇杨植株的株高、基茎、整株叶面积、平均叶面积、总生物量和净光合速率的显著降低，使得叶片增厚，过氧化物酶(GPX)活性升高，脯氨酸和花色素苷含量增加，膜脂过氧化程度增大。不同的是干旱显著降低了植株叶片数目，增大了根/冠比(Rs)、细根/总根比(Ft)、提高了内源ABA 含量、碳同位素(δ13C)以及紫外吸收物质含量和超氧化物歧化酶(SOD)的活性，而UV-B 对它们没有影响。干旱与UV-B 的复合作用加剧了任一单独胁迫对植株的抑制，表现为更小的株高、基茎、整株叶面积、平均叶面积、总生物量，更低的光合作用和更高的MDA 含量。而且UV-B 辐射降低了干旱胁迫下生物量分配的可塑性，表现为降低了干旱情况下的Rs 和Ft，ABA 的含量也显著下降，复合胁迫下脯氨酸含量和过氧化氢酶(CAT)的活性比任一单独胁迫时都要低。这些实验结果表明，增强的UV-B 与干旱的复合胁迫加剧了对植株的抑制作用。II2. 干旱情况下同时施加外源ABA 提高了植株的根/冠比、细根/总根比和单位面积叶重，即提高了干旱胁迫下植株对生物量分配的可塑性。而且外源ABA 使干旱胁迫下的长期用水效率、ABA 含量、脯氨酸含量、GPX 活性进一步增加，并有效调节了活性氧代谢的平衡，抑制了受旱植株MDA 的增加。结果表明，外源ABA 的喷施提高了滇杨植株的抗旱性。3. 在增强的UV-B 情况下，外源ABA 加剧了UV-B 对滇杨形态生长的抑制效果，表现为进一步降低了滇杨植株的整株叶面积、平均叶面积、单位面积叶重和总生物量，而且ABA 还降低了UV-B 胁迫下的净光合速率和脯氨酸的含量，增大了MDA 的含量。通过以上的数据我们可以看出，外源ABA 虽然提高了滇杨植株的抗旱性，但却加剧了UV-B 胁迫对植株的抑制作用。Currently, drought is one of the most serious environmental stresses. In arid and semi-aridregions, drought is a major constraint imposed on tree survival and growth. The decrease ofozone layer leads to a significant increase in ultraviolet-B (UV-B, 280-320 nm) radiationreaching the earth surface. In some places, plants suffer both UV-B and water stresssimultaneously. Their combination will increase or decrease the sensitivity of plants to UV-Bstress which lies on the species. On the other hand, abscisic acid (ABA), as a plant homoneand growth regulator, is better for plants resistant to drought stress, but it is uncleared aboutthe relationship between exogenous ABA and supplemental UV-B. In the present study, weemployed Populus yunnanensis Dode as a model species to characterize the growth andecophysiological responses of woody plants to supplemental UV-B, drought and exogenous ABA. The results are as follows:1. Both supplemental UV-B and drought affected the morphological, physiological andbiochemical responses of P. yunnanensis. They decreased the plant height, basal diameter,total leaf area, average leaf area, biomass and photosynthesis, and increased specific leaf mass,the activity of guaiacol peroxidase (GPX), the content of proline, anthocyanins andmalondialdehyde (MDA). However, drought decreased the leaf number and increasedroot/shoot ratio, fine root/total ratio, the activity of superoxide dimutase (SOD) and thecontents of ABA, carbon isotope composition (δ13C), UV-absorbing compounds. Whilesupplemental UV-B had no effects on them. The combination of drought and UV-Baugmented the growth inhibtion acting as further lower plant height and smaller basaldiameter, leaf area, biomass and higher MDA content. And compared with drought stress,root/shoot ratio and fine root/total root ratio decreased under the combination stresses. The photosynthesis, proline content and Catalase (CAT) activity became lower under combinationstresses than that of either stress lonely. According to these results, we suggested that,compared with the effect of stress lonely, the combination of supplemental UV-B and droughtdid not mitigate the harmful effect, but augmented it.2. Under drought conditions, exogenous ABA increased root/shoot ratio, fine root/total rootratio and the specific leaf mass. That was to say exogenous ABA increased plant plasticityunder drought conditions. Also ABA content, proline content, activity of GPX and δ13C wereenhanced further. In addition the enhancement of MDA was restrained. So the resultssuggested that exogenous ABA increased the seedling capacity of resistance to drought.3. Under supplemental UV-B conditions, exogenous ABA augmented the growth restrain ofUV-B to seedlings, which acted as further decreased leaf area, specific leaf mass and biomass.Compared with UV-B stress alone, proline content and photosynthesis were decreased andMDA content was increased under the combination of UV-B and ABA. These resultssuggested that although exogenous ABA increased the seedling capacity of resistance todrought, it augmented the growth restrain of supplemental UV-B to P. yunnanensis.