Scale-Free Interpersonal Influences on Opinions in Complex Systems

An important side effect of the evolution of the human brain is an increased capacity to form opinions in a very large domain of issues, which become points of aggressive interpersonal disputes. Remarkably, such disputes are often no less vigorous on small differences of opinion than large differences. Opinion differences that may be measured on the real number line may not directly correspond to the subjective importance of an issue and extent of resistance to opinion change. This is a hard problem for the field of opinion dynamics, a field that has become increasingly prominent as it has attracted more contributions to it from investigators in the natural and engineering sciences. The paper contributes a scale-free approach to assessing the extents to which individuals, with unknown heterogeneous resistances to influence, have been influenced by the opinions of others.     

How small can thermal machines be? The smallest possible refrigerator

We investigate the fundamental dimensional limits to thermodynamic machines. In particular, we show that it is possible to construct self-contained refrigerators (i.e., not requiring external sources of work) consisting of only a small number of qubits and/or qutrits. We present three different models, consisting of two qubits, a qubit and a qutrit with nearest-neighbor interactions, and a single qutrit, respectively. We then investigate the fundamental limits to their performance; in particular, we show that it is possible to cool towards absolute zero.     

Entanglement of superpositions

Given a bipartite quantum state (in arbitrary dimension) and a decomposition of it as a superposition of two others, we find bounds on the entanglement of the superposition state in terms of the entanglement of the states being superposed. In the case that the two states being superposed are biorthogonal, the answer is simple, and, for example, the entanglement of the superposition cannot be more than one ebit more than the average of the entanglement of the two states being superposed. However, for more general states, the situation is very different.     

Focus, prosodic context, and phonological feature specification: patterns of variation in fricative production

Because they consist, in large part, of random turbulent noise, fricatives present a challenge to attempts to specify the phonetic correlates of phonological features. Previous research has focused on temporal properties, acoustic power, and a variety of spectral properties of fricatives in a number of contexts [Jongman et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 108, 1252-1263 (2000); Jesus and Shadle, J. Phonet. 30, 437-467 (2002); Crystal and House, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 83, 1553-1573 (1988a)]. However, no systematic investigation of the effects of focus and prosodic context on fricative production has been carried out. Manipulation of explicit focus can serve to selectively exaggerate linguistically relevant properties of speech in much the same manner as stress [de Jong, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 97, 491-504 (1995); de Jong, J. Phonet. 32, 493-516 (2004); de Jong and Zawaydeh, J. Phonet. 30, 53-75 (2002)]. This experimental technique was exploited to investigate acoustic power along with temporal and spectral characteristics of American English fricatives in two prosodic contexts, to probe whether native speakers selectively attend to subsegmental features, and to consider variability in fricative production across speakers. While focus in general increased noise power and duration, speakers did not selectively enhance spectral features of the target fricatives.     

Field air analysis with SPME device

Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) devices were used for a wide scope of air-monitoring including field sampling and analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), formaldehyde, and particulate matter (PM) in air. Grab (instantaneous) and time-weighted average (TWA) sampling were accomplished using exposed and retracted SPME fibers, respectively. Sampling time varied from 1 to 75 min, followed by analysis with a gas chromatograph (GC). A portable GC equipped with unique, in-series detectors: photoionization (PID), flame ionization (FID), and dry electrolytic conductivity (DELCD), provided almost real-time analysis and speciation for common VOCs during an indoor air quality surveys. Indoor air samples collected with SPME devices were compared with those collected using conventional National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) methods. Air concentrations measured with the SPME device were as low as 700 parts-per-trillion (ppt) for semi-volatile organic compounds. SPME methodology proved to be more sensitive than conventional methods, and provided a simple approach for fast, cost-effective sampling and analysis of common VOCs in indoor air. SPME technology combined with fast portable GC reduced the sampling and analysis time to less than 15 min. The configuration offered the conveniences of immediate on-site monitoring and decision making, that are not possible with conventional methods. In addition, SPME fibers were applied to sampling of particulate matter in diesel engine exhaust. Linear uptake and particulate build-up on the fiber were observed. Preliminary research suggests that SPME fibers could also be applied to sampling of airborne particulate matter.     

Hydrogel-encapsulated lipid membranes

We have encapsulated free-standing planar lipid membranes in a polymer hydrogel via in situ photopolymerization. These encapsulated membranes were measured to last at least 5 days and provided a stable environment for single-molecule measurements of incorporated alpha-hemolysin channel proteins. The translocation of single-stranded DNA through alpha-hemolysin incorporated into these encapsulated membranes is slowed over 100 times relative to that of the gel-free state. These stabilized membranes, therefore, have application to the single-molecule analysis of DNA as well as broader application to biomolecular sensors, membrane protein biophysical studies, and drug discovery.     

Measurement of radon concentration in groundwater in the Ashanti region of Ghana

Radon in groundwater and their annual effective dose in the Ashanti region of Ghana have been determined using the continuous grab sampling technique and an AB-5 detector. Mean levels of radon were in the range of 0.51–46.16 Bq L^?1. Effective annual doses ranged from 0.18–16.16, 0.13–12.08 and 0.09–8.31 μSv y^?1 for infants, children and adults, respectively. These values are significantly lower than the reference level of 0.1 mSv y^?1 recommended by the WHO and United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation for members of the public.     

Response and bifurcation analysis of a MDOF rotor system with a strong nonlinearity

A new HB (Harmonic Balance)/AFT (Alternating Frequency Time) method is further developed to obtain synchronous and subsynchronous whirling response of nonlinear MDOF rotor systems. Using the HBM, the nonlinear differential equations of a rotor system can be transformed to algebraic equations with unknown harmonic coefficients. A technique is applied to reduce the algebraic equations to only those of the nonlinear coordinates. Stability analysis of the periodic solutions is performed via perturbation of the solutions. To further reduce the computational time for the stability analysis, the reduced system parameters (mass, damping, and stiffness) are calculated in terms of the already known harmonic coefficients. For illustration, a simple MDOF rotor system with a piecewise-linear bearing clearance is used to demonstrate the accuracy of the calculated steady-state solutions and their bifurcation boundaries. Employing ideas from modern dynamics theory, the example MDOF nonlinear rotor system is shown to exhibit subsynchronous, quasi-periodic and chaotic whirling motions.     

Short-range orientational order and thermodynamic properties of polymer solutions

The concept of short-range orientational order was applied to the calculation of thermodynamic characteristics of polymer solutions in terms of the lattice model. It was shown that allowance for short-range order makes it possible to explain negative values of the entropy of mixing and the existence of a lower critical solution temperature in both polymer solutions and solutions of low-molecular-mass compounds. It was found that systems with lower critical solution temperature can exist even when the degree of orientational order in solutions slightly increases as compared with the corresponding values of this parameter in their components.     

Surfactin production from potato process effluent by Bacillus subtilis in a chemostat

The biosurfactant surfactin has potential to aid in the recovery of energy resources (oil recovery) or subsurface organic contaminants (environmental remediation). However, high medium and purification costs limit its use in these high-volume applications. In previous work, we showed that surfactin could be produced from an inexpensive low-solids potato process effluent with minimal amendments or pretreatments. Previous research has also shown that surfactin can be both produced in Bacillus subtilis cultures and recovered by foam fractionation in an airlift reactor. Results using both purified potato starch and unamended low-solids potato process effluent as substrates for surfactin production indicate that the process is oxygen limited and that recalcitrant indigenous bacteria in the potato process effluent hamper continuous surfactin production. The research reported here features the use of a chemostat operated in batch mode for producing surfactin with concomitant use of antifoam to prevent surfactant loss. The antifoam did not interfere with surfactin recovery by acid precipitation or its efficacy. Initial trials took about 48 h to produce 0.9 g/L of surfactin from potato process effluent. Increasing the oxygen mass transfer by increasing the stirring speed and adding a baffle decreased production time to 12–24 h and produced about 0.6 g/L of surfactin from two different potato-processing facilities.