Satellite-based atmospheric sounding measurements with high spectral resolution or from hyperspectral infrared (IR) sounders are important global observations for improving weather forecasts through assimilating the...Satellite-based atmospheric sounding measurements with high spectral resolution or from hyperspectral infrared (IR) sounders are important global observations for improving weather forecasts through assimilating them into operational numerical weather prediction (NWP) systems.展开更多
With the artificial alder and cypress mixed forest being planted, there has been a marked land use change since 1970s' in Hilly Area of Central Sichuan Basin, China. Data from meteorological observations or posts ...With the artificial alder and cypress mixed forest being planted, there has been a marked land use change since 1970s' in Hilly Area of Central Sichuan Basin, China. Data from meteorological observations or posts operated over long time, measurement and calculation of NPP (net primary production) and biomass of biological community, and analysis of soil organic matter content show that the artificial alder and cypress mixed forest has outstanding eco-environmental effect: adjusting local climate, raising soil fertility, alleviating menace of drought, and raising NPP and biomass of biological community. It is very beneficial for improving ecological environment to afforest artificial alder and cypress mixed forest in populous Hilly Area of Central Sichuan Basin, China. Key Words: land use/land cover change (LUCC); eco-environmental effect; Hilly Area of Central Sichuan Basin; the artificial alder and cypress mixed forest展开更多
Non-point source(NPS) pollution has become a major source of water pollution. A combination of models would provide the necessary direction and approaches designed to control NPS pollution through land use planning. I...Non-point source(NPS) pollution has become a major source of water pollution. A combination of models would provide the necessary direction and approaches designed to control NPS pollution through land use planning. In this study, NPS pollution load was simulated in urban planning, historic trends and ecological protection land use scenarios based on the Conversion of Land Use and its Effect at Small regional extent(CLUE-S) and Soil and Water Assessment Tool(SWAT) models applied to Hunhe-Taizi River Watershed, Liaoning Province, China. Total nitrogen(TN) and total phosphorus(TP) were chosen as NPS pollution indices. The results of models validation showed that CLUE-S and SWAT models were suitable in the study area. NPS pollution mainly came from dry farmland, paddy, rural and urban areas. The spatial distribution of TN and TP exhibited the same trend in 57 sub-catchments. The TN and TP had the highest NPS pollution load in the western and central plains, which concentrated the urban area and farm land. The NPS pollution load would increase in the urban planning and historic trends scenarios, and would be even higher in the urban planning scenario. However, the NPS pollution load decreased in the ecological protection scenario. The differences observed in the three scenarios indicated that land use had a degree of impact on NPS pollution, which showed that scientific and ecologically sound construction could effectively reduce the NPS pollution load in a watershed. This study provides a scientific method for conducting NPS pollution research at the watershed scale, a scientific basis for non-point source pollution control, and a reference for related policy making.展开更多
-Study on the effects of microorganism secretive membrane and covering layer of macrofouling organisms-Balanus reticulatus, Ostrea plicatula, Membranipora, Corophium and Algae on the corrosion of carbon steel and low-...-Study on the effects of microorganism secretive membrane and covering layer of macrofouling organisms-Balanus reticulatus, Ostrea plicatula, Membranipora, Corophium and Algae on the corrosion of carbon steel and low-alloy steel by the determination of natural corrosive potentials, linear polarization and the polarization curver of dynamic potential scanning through an electrochemical equipment.The results show that the microorganism secretion membrane formed on sample surface has some protective role, during the initial period of exposure (about ten days). Then protective role decreases and corrosive rate increases with the lapse of immersion time. The protective role of some macrofouling organisms is shown in order as follows: Corophium> Balanus reticulatus>Algae>Membranipora>Ostrea plicatula.展开更多
The prophylactic effects of Chinese propolis against cypermethrin toxicity were evaluated by performing ovary and uterus histopathology, as well as by characterizing ovarian function, embryos, and litters. Cypermethri...The prophylactic effects of Chinese propolis against cypermethrin toxicity were evaluated by performing ovary and uterus histopathology, as well as by characterizing ovarian function, embryos, and litters. Cypermethrin induced atypia in the ovary and uterus, and decreased the ovulation sites and the number of embryos. Cypermethrin-induced oxidative stress during pregnancy, decreased the parturition rate as well as the number and weight of offspring and increased the incidence of morphological malformations in the offspring. Administration of propolis to cypermethrin-treated animals mitigated cypermethrin-induced reproductive toxicity.展开更多
The effect of the positive bias on Reynolds stress (RS) and its effect on the radial turbulent transport at the edge plasma (r/a =0.9) and scrape-off layer (SOL) region of plasma in tokamak are investigated. The...The effect of the positive bias on Reynolds stress (RS) and its effect on the radial turbulent transport at the edge plasma (r/a =0.9) and scrape-off layer (SOL) region of plasma in tokamak are investigated. The radial and poloidal electric fields (Sr, Ep) and ion saturation current (Is) are measured by multi-purpose probe (MPP). This probe is fabricated and constructed for the first time in the IR-T1 tokamak. The most advantage of this probe is that the variations of Er and Ep can be measured in different radii at the single shot. Thus the information of different radii can be compared with high precision. The bias voltage is fixed at Vbias = 200 V and it has been applied with the limiter bias that is fixed in r/a = 0.9. Moreover, the phase difference between radial and poloidal electric fields, and temporal evolution of the RS .spectrum detected by MPP are calculated. RS magnitude on the edge (r/a = 0.9) is more than its value in the SOL (r/a = 1.02). With the applied bias 200 V, ItS and the magnitude of the phase difference between Er and Ep are increased, while the radial turbulent transport is decreased simultaneously. Thus it can be concluded that RS affects radial turbulence. Temporal evolution of the RS spectrum shows that the frequency of RS is increased and reaches its highest value at r/a=0.9 in the presence of bias.展开更多
Objective To discuss the postoperative curative effects of two surgical techniques of minimally invasive total hip arthroplasty (THA) using metal-on-metal largediameter and conventional diameter femoral head for the e...Objective To discuss the postoperative curative effects of two surgical techniques of minimally invasive total hip arthroplasty (THA) using metal-on-metal largediameter and conventional diameter femoral head for the elderly patients展开更多
The patients, who cannot endure the chemotherapy anymore, or internal disease or present drug resistance, normally use CM for improving their physical conditions and inhibiting tumor. CM has got excellent reputation b...The patients, who cannot endure the chemotherapy anymore, or internal disease or present drug resistance, normally use CM for improving their physical conditions and inhibiting tumor. CM has got excellent reputation because of the effects. Nonetheless, few clinical articles of CM to treat cancer are published on major international journals up to now.展开更多
Previously,it was shown that the use of a symptom diary for two weeks,even in generally healthy subjects,results in increased recall of daily symptoms and increased perception of symptom severity(Ferrari and Russell,2...Previously,it was shown that the use of a symptom diary for two weeks,even in generally healthy subjects,results in increased recall of daily symptoms and increased perception of symptom severity(Ferrari and Russell,2010).In that study,generally healthy female subjects were asked to recall symptoms experienced in the previous two weeks,after keeping a symptom diary for two weeks,while a control group was asked to recall symptoms experienced in the previous two weeks without having kept a symptom diary.While both groups had展开更多
We demonstrate a multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) using erbium gain and four-wave mixing (FWM) effect in a piece of erbium-doped fiber (EDF) with high erbium ion concentration. The EDF has a pump...We demonstrate a multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) using erbium gain and four-wave mixing (FWM) effect in a piece of erbium-doped fiber (EDF) with high erbium ion concentration. The EDF has a pump absorption rate of 24.6 dB/m at 979 nm and is bi-directionally pumped by 980-nm laser diodes. FWM effect redistributes the energy of different oscillating lines and causes multi-wavelength operation. The laser generates more than 22 lines of optical comb with a line spacing of approximately 0.10 nm at the 1569-nm region using only 1.5-m-long EDF.展开更多
Relationship between the initial chirp of super-Gaussian pulse and dispersion and nonlinearity effects of a single-mode fiber in the optical communication system using midway optical phase conjugation is analyzed. The...Relationship between the initial chirp of super-Gaussian pulse and dispersion and nonlinearity effects of a single-mode fiber in the optical communication system using midway optical phase conjugation is analyzed. The results of numerical simulations are useful for improving compensation for pulse distortion.展开更多
With the support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China,a collaborative study by the research groups led by Prof.Zeng Jie(曾杰)and Prof.Yang Jinlong(杨金龙),both from Hefei National Laboratory for Physica...With the support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China,a collaborative study by the research groups led by Prof.Zeng Jie(曾杰)and Prof.Yang Jinlong(杨金龙),both from Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale,University of Science and Technology of China,展开更多
The two most important criteria for dental materials are their biofunctional and biocompatible endurance within the anticipated life-span of the dental restoration in the mouth. Biocompatibility relates mainly to the ...The two most important criteria for dental materials are their biofunctional and biocompatible endurance within the anticipated life-span of the dental restoration in the mouth. Biocompatibility relates mainly to the allergenicity and the toxicity of the material. To test the non-specific toxicity of dental materials, in vitro cell culture assays have been developed. For in vitro screening, such tests are recommended to check the cytotoxicity of dental materials (ISO 10993 5). Various studies have already been performed to quantitatively determine the cytotoxicity level of dental alloys. However, as long as only dental alloys and the cell culture technique are applied, it is not possible to determine which of the alloying elements cause the cytotoxicity. Therefore, an analytical method is needed. Wataha et al determined in 1991 the TC50 values of 9 metal cations of various dental casting alloys, using cell culture methods. Kapert et al reported in 1994 a complex in vitro test concept, where the ICP analysis (inductively coupled plasma emission spectroscopy) was introduced to measure the trace elements extracted from various alloys. Experimentelle Zahnheilkunde, Universitts ZMK Klinik Freiburg, Germany (Lü XY and Kappert HF) The aim of the present study was to find a relation between the ICP results, the TC50 value of metal cations, and the cytotoxicity of dental alloys. The cytotoxicity levels of various dental alloys and the TC50 values of 10 metal cations were established using the MTT assay, an effective cell culture of method. Then, the concentrations of the corrosively soluted metal cations in the extracts of the alloys were measured using the ICP method. From all these experimental results it was found that the relation between the effective cytotoxicity Z eff of an alloy, the concentrations C i of i th trace element and the TC50 values T Ci of the i th metal cation can approximately be expressed by Z eff =∑iC i2·T Ci . Two significant applications of this expression are a) The cytotoxicity of an alloy can be estimated by ICP analysis of the extract if the TC50 values of the trace elements are know. b) The cytotoxicity of a new-developed-alloy can be estimated in advance, according to the alloying components.展开更多
The authors would like to apologize for some mistakes in the letter on Chinese Optics Letters vol. 12, no. 11, page 111701 and wish to make the corrections described below:
The suppression of the aerodynamic noise in the cavity has a great significance to solve relevant puzzles of weapon bays. Acoustic field of the standard cavity model is simulated by using the computational fluid dynam...The suppression of the aerodynamic noise in the cavity has a great significance to solve relevant puzzles of weapon bays. Acoustic field of the standard cavity model is simulated by using the computational fluid dynamics technology based on scale-adaptive simulation (SAS) model. The results obtained by the proposed method in this paper show reasonable agreement with experiments. On the basis of this, effect of different jet flow rates on the time-averaged variables, turbulent kinetic energy, root mean square (RMS) of sound pressure, sound sources distribution and the pulsating pressure distribution in the cavity is studied. The analysis shows that the jet flow has great influence on the cavity flow field and the distribution of pulsating pressure RMS by changing the morphology of the shear layer. The most obvious of these measures is spout4 configuration, the influence mainly in the form of reducing the pulsating pressure of the whole cavity and changing the sound pressure level in the far field. The results show that different jet flow rates have different control effects on pulsating pressure in the cavity and sound pressure level in the far field. Furthermore, the jet flow rates and the suppression effect on the pulsating pressure have no linear relation.展开更多
A method to generate the optical quadruple frequency millimeter-wave with high power efficiency is pro- posed and demonstrated based on the combination of the injection 2nd-order rational harmonic mode- locked fiber r...A method to generate the optical quadruple frequency millimeter-wave with high power efficiency is pro- posed and demonstrated based on the combination of the injection 2nd-order rational harmonic mode- locked fiber ring laser technique and the fiber grating notch filter. In this approach, the fiber Bragg grating notch filter is inserted into the laser cavity to prevent the undesired optical carrier, so that the pump power can be converted to 2nd-order harmonic wave more efficiently. In our experiment, the power efficiency of optical quadruple frequency millimeter-wave (40 GHz) generation is ten folds of that of our previous method based only on the rational harmonic mode-locked technique.展开更多
An ab initio calculation was performed on the electronic structures of MoS,MoS_4^(2-) and Mo_2S_2 using relativistic effective core potential(RECP)for molybdenum,and non-relativistic ECP for sulfur.We predicted that t...An ab initio calculation was performed on the electronic structures of MoS,MoS_4^(2-) and Mo_2S_2 using relativistic effective core potential(RECP)for molybdenum,and non-relativistic ECP for sulfur.We predicted that the equilibrium bond length and the dissociation energy of MoS in ground state are 3.89 a.u.and 4.67 eV,respectively,and that the bond is a triple-bond.The ground state of MoS_4^(2-) in Td symmetry is ~1A_1 and π-bonding dominates σ-donation in the molybdenum- sulfur interaction.The Mo_2S_2 is a model contracted from bi-nuclear sulfur-bridged clusters,and the bonding orbitals 1 b_(1u),1b_1g and 1b_2g make the dominant contribution to the stabilization of sulfur- bridged species.展开更多
文摘Satellite-based atmospheric sounding measurements with high spectral resolution or from hyperspectral infrared (IR) sounders are important global observations for improving weather forecasts through assimilating them into operational numerical weather prediction (NWP) systems.
基金Supported by the Knowledge Innovation Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences(KZCX1-SW-01-01B)Cultivatlon Foundation of Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment,CAS
文摘With the artificial alder and cypress mixed forest being planted, there has been a marked land use change since 1970s' in Hilly Area of Central Sichuan Basin, China. Data from meteorological observations or posts operated over long time, measurement and calculation of NPP (net primary production) and biomass of biological community, and analysis of soil organic matter content show that the artificial alder and cypress mixed forest has outstanding eco-environmental effect: adjusting local climate, raising soil fertility, alleviating menace of drought, and raising NPP and biomass of biological community. It is very beneficial for improving ecological environment to afforest artificial alder and cypress mixed forest in populous Hilly Area of Central Sichuan Basin, China. Key Words: land use/land cover change (LUCC); eco-environmental effect; Hilly Area of Central Sichuan Basin; the artificial alder and cypress mixed forest
基金Under the auspices of National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.41171155,40801069)National Science and Technology Major Project of China:Water Pollution Control and Governance(No.2012ZX07505-003)
文摘Non-point source(NPS) pollution has become a major source of water pollution. A combination of models would provide the necessary direction and approaches designed to control NPS pollution through land use planning. In this study, NPS pollution load was simulated in urban planning, historic trends and ecological protection land use scenarios based on the Conversion of Land Use and its Effect at Small regional extent(CLUE-S) and Soil and Water Assessment Tool(SWAT) models applied to Hunhe-Taizi River Watershed, Liaoning Province, China. Total nitrogen(TN) and total phosphorus(TP) were chosen as NPS pollution indices. The results of models validation showed that CLUE-S and SWAT models were suitable in the study area. NPS pollution mainly came from dry farmland, paddy, rural and urban areas. The spatial distribution of TN and TP exhibited the same trend in 57 sub-catchments. The TN and TP had the highest NPS pollution load in the western and central plains, which concentrated the urban area and farm land. The NPS pollution load would increase in the urban planning and historic trends scenarios, and would be even higher in the urban planning scenario. However, the NPS pollution load decreased in the ecological protection scenario. The differences observed in the three scenarios indicated that land use had a degree of impact on NPS pollution, which showed that scientific and ecologically sound construction could effectively reduce the NPS pollution load in a watershed. This study provides a scientific method for conducting NPS pollution research at the watershed scale, a scientific basis for non-point source pollution control, and a reference for related policy making.
文摘-Study on the effects of microorganism secretive membrane and covering layer of macrofouling organisms-Balanus reticulatus, Ostrea plicatula, Membranipora, Corophium and Algae on the corrosion of carbon steel and low-alloy steel by the determination of natural corrosive potentials, linear polarization and the polarization curver of dynamic potential scanning through an electrochemical equipment.The results show that the microorganism secretion membrane formed on sample surface has some protective role, during the initial period of exposure (about ten days). Then protective role decreases and corrosive rate increases with the lapse of immersion time. The protective role of some macrofouling organisms is shown in order as follows: Corophium> Balanus reticulatus>Algae>Membranipora>Ostrea plicatula.
文摘The prophylactic effects of Chinese propolis against cypermethrin toxicity were evaluated by performing ovary and uterus histopathology, as well as by characterizing ovarian function, embryos, and litters. Cypermethrin induced atypia in the ovary and uterus, and decreased the ovulation sites and the number of embryos. Cypermethrin-induced oxidative stress during pregnancy, decreased the parturition rate as well as the number and weight of offspring and increased the incidence of morphological malformations in the offspring. Administration of propolis to cypermethrin-treated animals mitigated cypermethrin-induced reproductive toxicity.
文摘The effect of the positive bias on Reynolds stress (RS) and its effect on the radial turbulent transport at the edge plasma (r/a =0.9) and scrape-off layer (SOL) region of plasma in tokamak are investigated. The radial and poloidal electric fields (Sr, Ep) and ion saturation current (Is) are measured by multi-purpose probe (MPP). This probe is fabricated and constructed for the first time in the IR-T1 tokamak. The most advantage of this probe is that the variations of Er and Ep can be measured in different radii at the single shot. Thus the information of different radii can be compared with high precision. The bias voltage is fixed at Vbias = 200 V and it has been applied with the limiter bias that is fixed in r/a = 0.9. Moreover, the phase difference between radial and poloidal electric fields, and temporal evolution of the RS .spectrum detected by MPP are calculated. RS magnitude on the edge (r/a = 0.9) is more than its value in the SOL (r/a = 1.02). With the applied bias 200 V, ItS and the magnitude of the phase difference between Er and Ep are increased, while the radial turbulent transport is decreased simultaneously. Thus it can be concluded that RS affects radial turbulence. Temporal evolution of the RS spectrum shows that the frequency of RS is increased and reaches its highest value at r/a=0.9 in the presence of bias.
文摘Objective To discuss the postoperative curative effects of two surgical techniques of minimally invasive total hip arthroplasty (THA) using metal-on-metal largediameter and conventional diameter femoral head for the elderly patients
文摘The patients, who cannot endure the chemotherapy anymore, or internal disease or present drug resistance, normally use CM for improving their physical conditions and inhibiting tumor. CM has got excellent reputation because of the effects. Nonetheless, few clinical articles of CM to treat cancer are published on major international journals up to now.
文摘Previously,it was shown that the use of a symptom diary for two weeks,even in generally healthy subjects,results in increased recall of daily symptoms and increased perception of symptom severity(Ferrari and Russell,2010).In that study,generally healthy female subjects were asked to recall symptoms experienced in the previous two weeks,after keeping a symptom diary for two weeks,while a control group was asked to recall symptoms experienced in the previous two weeks without having kept a symptom diary.While both groups had
文摘We demonstrate a multi-wavelength erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) using erbium gain and four-wave mixing (FWM) effect in a piece of erbium-doped fiber (EDF) with high erbium ion concentration. The EDF has a pump absorption rate of 24.6 dB/m at 979 nm and is bi-directionally pumped by 980-nm laser diodes. FWM effect redistributes the energy of different oscillating lines and causes multi-wavelength operation. The laser generates more than 22 lines of optical comb with a line spacing of approximately 0.10 nm at the 1569-nm region using only 1.5-m-long EDF.
文摘Relationship between the initial chirp of super-Gaussian pulse and dispersion and nonlinearity effects of a single-mode fiber in the optical communication system using midway optical phase conjugation is analyzed. The results of numerical simulations are useful for improving compensation for pulse distortion.
文摘With the support by the National Natural Science Foundation of China,a collaborative study by the research groups led by Prof.Zeng Jie(曾杰)and Prof.Yang Jinlong(杨金龙),both from Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale,University of Science and Technology of China,
文摘The two most important criteria for dental materials are their biofunctional and biocompatible endurance within the anticipated life-span of the dental restoration in the mouth. Biocompatibility relates mainly to the allergenicity and the toxicity of the material. To test the non-specific toxicity of dental materials, in vitro cell culture assays have been developed. For in vitro screening, such tests are recommended to check the cytotoxicity of dental materials (ISO 10993 5). Various studies have already been performed to quantitatively determine the cytotoxicity level of dental alloys. However, as long as only dental alloys and the cell culture technique are applied, it is not possible to determine which of the alloying elements cause the cytotoxicity. Therefore, an analytical method is needed. Wataha et al determined in 1991 the TC50 values of 9 metal cations of various dental casting alloys, using cell culture methods. Kapert et al reported in 1994 a complex in vitro test concept, where the ICP analysis (inductively coupled plasma emission spectroscopy) was introduced to measure the trace elements extracted from various alloys. Experimentelle Zahnheilkunde, Universitts ZMK Klinik Freiburg, Germany (Lü XY and Kappert HF) The aim of the present study was to find a relation between the ICP results, the TC50 value of metal cations, and the cytotoxicity of dental alloys. The cytotoxicity levels of various dental alloys and the TC50 values of 10 metal cations were established using the MTT assay, an effective cell culture of method. Then, the concentrations of the corrosively soluted metal cations in the extracts of the alloys were measured using the ICP method. From all these experimental results it was found that the relation between the effective cytotoxicity Z eff of an alloy, the concentrations C i of i th trace element and the TC50 values T Ci of the i th metal cation can approximately be expressed by Z eff =∑iC i2·T Ci . Two significant applications of this expression are a) The cytotoxicity of an alloy can be estimated by ICP analysis of the extract if the TC50 values of the trace elements are know. b) The cytotoxicity of a new-developed-alloy can be estimated in advance, according to the alloying components.
文摘The authors would like to apologize for some mistakes in the letter on Chinese Optics Letters vol. 12, no. 11, page 111701 and wish to make the corrections described below:
文摘The suppression of the aerodynamic noise in the cavity has a great significance to solve relevant puzzles of weapon bays. Acoustic field of the standard cavity model is simulated by using the computational fluid dynamics technology based on scale-adaptive simulation (SAS) model. The results obtained by the proposed method in this paper show reasonable agreement with experiments. On the basis of this, effect of different jet flow rates on the time-averaged variables, turbulent kinetic energy, root mean square (RMS) of sound pressure, sound sources distribution and the pulsating pressure distribution in the cavity is studied. The analysis shows that the jet flow has great influence on the cavity flow field and the distribution of pulsating pressure RMS by changing the morphology of the shear layer. The most obvious of these measures is spout4 configuration, the influence mainly in the form of reducing the pulsating pressure of the whole cavity and changing the sound pressure level in the far field. The results show that different jet flow rates have different control effects on pulsating pressure in the cavity and sound pressure level in the far field. Furthermore, the jet flow rates and the suppression effect on the pulsating pressure have no linear relation.
基金supported by the National "973" Program of China under Grant No. 2006CB302806
文摘A method to generate the optical quadruple frequency millimeter-wave with high power efficiency is pro- posed and demonstrated based on the combination of the injection 2nd-order rational harmonic mode- locked fiber ring laser technique and the fiber grating notch filter. In this approach, the fiber Bragg grating notch filter is inserted into the laser cavity to prevent the undesired optical carrier, so that the pump power can be converted to 2nd-order harmonic wave more efficiently. In our experiment, the power efficiency of optical quadruple frequency millimeter-wave (40 GHz) generation is ten folds of that of our previous method based only on the rational harmonic mode-locked technique.
文摘An ab initio calculation was performed on the electronic structures of MoS,MoS_4^(2-) and Mo_2S_2 using relativistic effective core potential(RECP)for molybdenum,and non-relativistic ECP for sulfur.We predicted that the equilibrium bond length and the dissociation energy of MoS in ground state are 3.89 a.u.and 4.67 eV,respectively,and that the bond is a triple-bond.The ground state of MoS_4^(2-) in Td symmetry is ~1A_1 and π-bonding dominates σ-donation in the molybdenum- sulfur interaction.The Mo_2S_2 is a model contracted from bi-nuclear sulfur-bridged clusters,and the bonding orbitals 1 b_(1u),1b_1g and 1b_2g make the dominant contribution to the stabilization of sulfur- bridged species.