Structural characterization of nanopatterned surfaces

In this work, chemically and topographically nanopatterned surfaces were produced by a top-down processing approach for biosensing devices. The nanopatterning was the result of the combination of plasma polymerisation (pp) of biofunctional materials and colloidal lithography techniques. The morphological and chemical properties induced by the plasma deposition-etching treatment were characterised by optical method combining ellipsometry and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy studies. This method supported by atomic force microscopy measurements, allowed the full optical characterization of each step of the top-down process. The optical characterization of the end-up nanopatterned samples demonstrated that the chosen process is able to produce well-defined nanostructured surfaces with controlled chemical and morphological properties.     

On simultaneous linear extensions of partial (pseudo)metrics

We consider the question of simultaneous extension of (pseudo) metrics defined on nonempty closed subsets of a compact metrizable space. The main result is a counterpart of the result due to Künzi and Shapiro for the case of extension operators of partial continuous functions and includes, as a special case, Banakh's theorem on linear regular operators extending (pseudo)metrics.

     

Efficiency of shear surface wave transformation by the motion of the confining domain wall

The transformation of a shear surface magnetoelastic wave by the motion of the 180° confining domain wall in a ferromagnet is considered. Changes in the wave spectrum due to the motion of the wall are correlated with the variations of the energies of the elastic and magnetic subsystems. The efficiency of surface wave transformation by the domain wall motion is estimated in terms of energy. The frequency dependences of the mean energy density of the wave are found. It is shown that the energy density grows with wall velocity.     

Experimental analysis of current and deformation of ion-exchange polymer metal composite actuators

In this paper we describe the experimental analysis of a novel ion-exchange polymer metal composite (IPMC) actuator under large external voltage. The experimental analysis is supplemented with a coupled thermodynamic model, which includes mass transport across the thickness of the polymer actuator, chemical reactions at boundaries, and deformation as a function of the solvent (water) distribution. In this paper, the case of large electrode potentials (over 1.2 V) has been analyzed experimentally and theoretically. At these voltage levels, electrochemical reactions take place at both electrodes. These are used in the framework of overpotential theory to develop boundary conditions for the water transport in the bulk of polymer. The model is then simplified to a three-component system comprised of a fixed negatively charged polymeric matrix, protons, and free water molecules within the polymer matrix. Among these species, water molecules are considered to be the dominant species responsible for the deformation of the IPMC actuators. Experiments conducted at different initial water contents are described and discussed in the context of the proposed deformation mechanism. Comparison of numerical simulations with experimental data shows good agreement.     

Numerical analysis of dissipative instabilities in toroidal plasma configurations with a noncircular cross-section

Translated from Pryamye i Obratnye Zadachi Matematicheskoi Fiziki, pp. 198–203, 1991.     

Stochastic resonance in perspective

Summary We outline the historical development of stochastic resonance (SR), a phenomenon in which the signal and/or the signal-to-noise ratio in a nonlinear system increase with increasing intensity of noise. We discuss basic theoretical ideas explaining and describing SR, and we review some revealing experimental data that place SR within the wider context of statistical physics. We emphasize the close relationship of SR to some effects that are well known in condensed-matter physics. Paper presented at the International Workshop ?Fluctuations in Physics and Biology: Stochastic Resonance, Signal Processing and Related Phenomena?, Elba, 5–10 June 1994.     

Multi-valued solutions and branch point singularities for nonlinear hyperbolic or elliptic systems

Multi-valued solutions are constructed for 2 × 2 first-order systems using a generalization of the hodograph transformation. The solution is found as a complex analytic function on a complex Riemann surface for which the branch points move as part of the solution. The branch point singularities are envelopes for the characteristics and thus move at the characteristic speeds. We perform an analysis of stability of these singularities with respect to perturbations of the initial data. The generic singularity types are folds, cusps, and nondegenerate umbilic points with non-zero 3-jet. An isolated singularity is generically a square root branch point corresponding to a fold. Two types of collisions between singularities are generic: At a “tangential” collision between two singularities moving at the same characteristic speed, a cube root branch point is formed, corresponding to a cusp. A “non-tangential” collision, between two square root branch points moving at different characteristic speeds, remains a square root branch point at the collision and corresponds to a nondegenerate umbilic point. These results are also valid for a diagonalizable n-th order system for which there are exactly two speeds. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.