Time-frequency analysis of the bistatic acoustic scattering from a spherical elastic shell

The development of low-frequency sonar systems, using, for instance, a network of autonomous systems in unmanned vehicles, provides a practical means for bistatic measurements (i.e., when the source and receiver are widely separated) allowing for multiple viewpoints of the target of interest. Time-frequency analysis, in particular, Wigner-Ville analysis, takes advantage of the evolution time dependent aspect of the echo spectrum to differentiate a man-made target, such as an elastic spherical shell, from a natural object of the similar shape. A key energetic feature of fluid-loaded and thin spherical shell is the coincidence pattern, also referred to as the mid-frequency enhancement (MFE), that results from antisymmetric Lamb-waves propagating around the circumference of the shell. This article investigates numerically the bistatic variations of the MFE with respect to the monostatic configuration using the Wigner-Ville analysis. The observed time-frequency shifts of the MFE are modeled using a previously derived quantitative ray theory by Zhang et al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 91, 1862-1874 (1993)] for spherical shell's scattering. Additionally, the advantage of an optimal array beamformer, based on joint time delays and frequency shifts is illustrated for enhancing the detection of the MFE recorded across a bistatic receiver array when compared to a conventional time-delay beamformer.     

Enhanced growth of lactobacilli and bioconversion of isoflavones in biotin-supplemented soymilk upon ultrasound-treatment

This study aimed at utilizing ultrasound treatment to further enhance the growth of lactobacilli and their isoflavone bioconversion activities in biotin-supplemented soymilk. Strains of lactobacilli (Lactobacillus acidophilus BT 1088, L. fermentum BT 8219, L. acidophilus FTDC 8633, L. gasseri FTDC 8131) were treated with ultrasound (30 kHz, 100 W) at different amplitudes (20%, 60% and 100%) for 60, 120 and 180 s prior to inoculation and fermentation in biotin-soymilk. The treatment affected the fatty acids chain of the cellular membrane lipid bilayer, as shown by an increased lipid peroxidation (P < 0.05). This led to increased membrane fluidity and subsequently, membrane permeability (P < 0.05). The permeabilized cellular membranes had facilitated nutrient internalization and subsequent growth enhancement (P < 0.05). Higher amplitudes and longer durations of the treatment promoted growth of lactobacilli in soymilk, with viable counts exceeding 9 log CFU/mL. The intracellular and extracellular β-glucosidase specific activities of lactobacilli were also enhanced (P < 0.05) upon ultrasound treatment, leading to increased bioconversion of isoflavones in soymilk, particularly genistin and malonyl genistin to genistein. Results from this study show that ultrasound treatment on lactobacilli cells promotes (P < 0.05) the β-glucosidase activity of cells for the benefit of enhanced (P < 0.05) isoflavone glucosides bioconversion to bioactive aglycones in soymilk.     

Ultrasound treatment enhances cholesterol removal ability of lactobacilli

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of ultrasound treatment on the cholesterol removing ability of lactobacilli. Viability of lactobacilli cells was significantly increased (P < 0.05) immediately after treatment, but higher intensity of 100 W and longer duration of 3 min was detrimental on cellular viability (P < 0.05). This was attributed to the disruption of membrane lipid bilayer, cell lysis and membrane lipid peroxidation upon ultrasound treatment at higher intensity and duration. Nevertheless, the effect of ultrasound on membrane properties was reversible, as the viability of ultrasound-treated lactobacilli was increased (P < 0.05) after fermentation at 37 °C for 20 h. The removal of cholesterol by ultrasound-treated lactobacilli via assimilation and incorporation of cholesterol into the cellular membrane also increased significantly (P < 0.05) upon treatment, as observed from the increased ratio of membrane C:P. Results from fluorescence anisotropies showed that most of the incorporated cholesterol was saturated in the regions of phospholipids tails, upper phospholipids, and polar heads of the membrane bilayer.     

Four-wave mixing from Fe3+ spins in sapphire

Fe(3+) ions in sapphire exhibit an electron spin resonance which interacts strongly with high-Q whispering gallery modes at microwave frequencies. We report the first observation of a third-order paramagnetic nonlinear susceptibility in such a resonator at cryogenic temperatures and the first demonstration of four-wave mixing using this parametric nonlinearity. This observation of an all-microwave nonlinearity is an enabling step towards a host of quantum measurement and control applications which utilize spins in solids.     

Transfer of quadratic forms and of quaternion algebras over quadratic field extensions

Two different proofs are given showing that a quaternion algebra Q defined over a quadratic étale extension K of a given field has a corestriction that is not a division algebra if and only if Q contains a quadratic algebra that is linearly disjoint from K. This is known in the case of a quadratic field extension in characteristic different from two. In the case where K is split, the statement recovers a well-known result on biquaternion algebras due to Albert and Draxl.     

Virtual forms

Quadratic forms over fields of characteristic different from two are generalised to virtual forms over arbitrary fields. These objects are related to Milnor’s K-theory for fields. The connection is established by a sequence of maps corresponding to Delzant’s Stiefel–Whitney classes.     

Nonresonance between the first two eigenvalues for a Steklov problem

In this paper, we study the solvability of the Steklov problem Δ_pu=|u|^p−2u in Ω, on ∂Ω, under assumptions on the asymptotic behaviour of the quotients f(x,s)/|s|^p−2s and pF(x,s)/|s|^p which extends the classical results with Dirichlet boundary conditions that for a.e. x∈∂Ω, the limits at the infinity of these quotients lie between the first two eigenvalues.     

Weakly hyperbolic involutions

Pfister’s Local–Global Principle states that a quadratic form over a (formally) real field is weakly hyperbolic (i.e. represents a torsion element in the Witt ring) if and only if its total signature is zero. This result extends naturally to the setting of central simple algebras with involution. The present article provides a new proof of this result and extends it to the case of signatures at preorderings. Furthermore the quantitative relation between nilpotence and torsion is explored for quadratic forms as well as for central simple algebras with involution.     

Synthesis and anti‐HIV activity of new 2‐thiolumazine and 2‐thiouracil metal complexes

A series of new Cu(II), Pt(II), VO(II), Fe(II), and Co(II) complexes ( 1‐‐5 ) with 3‐methyl‐6,7‐diphenyllumazine are described. Similarly, complexes from 2‐thiouracil with Cu(II) ( 6,7 ) and Pt(II) ( 8 ) have been prepared and characterized by spectroscopic methods. All the complexes were assayed for their anti‐HIV‐1 and HIV‐2 activity by examination of their inhibition of HIV‐induced cytopathogenicity in MT‐4 cells. Compound 3 was found to be the most active inhibitor against HIV‐2 in cell culture (EC₅₀ = >18.9 μ g/mL, selectivity index (SI) = 3), which provided a good lead for further optimization. Compounds 6 and 7 exhibited some activity (EC₅₀ = >7.12 μ g/mL and >2.23 μ g/mL) against HIV‐1 and HIV‐2, but no selectivity was observed (SI <1). © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heteroatom Chem 22:44–50, 2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com . DOI 10.1002/hc.20654     

Strange particle cross sections and multiplicity distributions in 19 GeV/c proton-proton interactions

Inclusive cross sections are presented for strange-particle production in proton-proton interactions at 19 GeV/c for the pairs $\text{(}\text{K}{}^0\text{K}{}^0{}_{\mathrm{C=+1}}\text{,}\text{K}{}^0\text{Λ,}\text{K}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{Λ,}\text{K}{}^0\text{Σ}{}^{\mathrm{+}}\text{,}\text{K}{}^0\text{Σ}{}^{\mathrm{?}}$ and for Λ, K_s⁰, Σ⁺, Σ^? and Ξ^?. The $\text{K}\text{K}$, the KY and the total strange particle cross sections have been found to be 1.40 ± 0.10 mb, 2.69 ± 0.09 mb and 4.23 ± 0.20 mb, respectively. The charged multiplicity distributions for events with K_s⁰, Λ, $\text{(}\text{K}{}^0\text{K}{}^0\text{)}{}_{\mathrm{C=+1}}$ or K⁰ Λ are shown to follow a modified KNO curve, whereas K⁺ Λ does not. For the inclusive reactions $\text{pp}\text{→(}\text{K}{}^0\text{K}{}^0\text{)}{}_{\mathrm{C=+1}}\text{+}\text{X}{}^{\mathrm{++}}\text{,}\text{pp}\text{→}\text{K}{}^0\text{Λ +}\text{X}{}^{\mathrm{++}}\text{and pp}\text{→ Λ +}\text{X}{}^{\mathrm{++}}$, we find that the average charged multiplicity of the remainder system X⁺⁺ is the same as when X⁺⁺ is produced in other reactions with the same system energy and quantum numbers.