Low frequency deep ocean ambient noise trend in the Northeast Pacific Ocean

Concern about effects of anthropogenic noise on marine life has stimulated new studies to establish present-day ocean noise levels and compare them to noise levels from previous times. This paper reports on the trend in low-frequency (10-400 Hz) ambient noise levels and presents measurements made using a calibrated multi-element volume array at deep ocean sites in the Northeast Pacific from 1978 to 1986. The experiments provided spectral noise levels as well as horizontal and vertical noise directionality. The data presented here provide evidence that the trend derived from 1960s data extended to around 1980, but has since continued at a lower rate.     

Autoresonant excitation of antiproton plasmas

We demonstrate controllable excitation of the center-of-mass longitudinal motion of a thermal antiproton plasma using a swept-frequency autoresonant drive. When the plasma is cold, dense, and highly collective in nature, we observe that the entire system behaves as a single-particle nonlinear oscillator, as predicted by a recent theory. In contrast, only a fraction of the antiprotons in a warm plasma can be similarly excited. Antihydrogen was produced and trapped by using this technique to drive antiprotons into a positron plasma, thereby initiating atomic recombination.     

Anisotropic ion heating and tail generation during tearing mode magnetic reconnection in a high-temperature plasma

Complementary measurements of ion energy distributions in a magnetically confined high-temperature plasma show that magnetic reconnection results in both anisotropic ion heating and the generation of suprathermal ions. The anisotropy, observed in the C(+6) impurity ions, is such that the temperature perpendicular to the magnetic field is larger than the temperature parallel to the magnetic field. The suprathermal tail appears in the majority ion distribution and is well described by a power law to energies 10 times the thermal energy. These observations may offer insight into the energization process.     

Bifurcation to 3D helical magnetic equilibrium in an axisymmetric toroidal device

We report the first direct measurement of the internal magnetic field structure associated with a 3D helical equilibrium generated spontaneously in the core of an axisymmetric toroidal plasma containment device. Magnetohydrodynamic equilibrium bifurcation occurs in a reversed-field pinch when the innermost resonant magnetic perturbation grows to a large amplitude, reaching up to 8% of the mean field strength. Magnetic topology evolution is determined by measuring the Faraday effect, revealing that, as the perturbation grows, toroidal symmetry is broken and a helical equilibrium is established.     

Facile synthesis of core‐surface crosslinked nanoparticles by interblock RAFT polymerization

A new, efficient method for synthesizing stable nanoparticles with poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) functionalities on the core surface, in which the micellization and crosslinking reactions occur in one pot, has been developed. First, amphiphilic PEO‐b‐PS copolymers were synthesized by reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) radical polymerization of styrene using (PEO)‐based trithiocarbonate as a macro‐RAFT agent. The low molecular weight PEO‐b‐PS copolymer was dissolved in isopropyl alcohol where the block copolymer self‐assembled as core‐shell micelles, and then the core‐shell interface crosslink was performed using divinylbenzene as a crosslinking agent and 2,2′‐azobisisobutyronitrile as an initiator. The design of the amphiphilic RAFT agent is critical for the successful preparation of core‐shell interface crosslinked micellar nanoparticles, because of RAFT functional groups interconnect PEO and polystyrene blocks. The PEO functionality of the nanoparticles surface was confirmed by ¹H NMR and FTIR. The size and morphology of the nanoparticles was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and dynamic laser light scattering analysis. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2010     

Diffraction enhanced imaging of soft tissues

The APS hosted a two-day workshop on Catalysis Research at the APS on September 12-13, 2005. The goal of the workshop was to evaluate current catalysis-related research at the APS and to plan future directions. The outcome of the meeting will be a report with recommendations to promote new, and support current, catalysis research at the APS. The workshop was attended by 82 participants representing industry, national laboratories, and universities.     

Effect of artificial mucus properties on the characteristics of airborne bioaerosol droplets generated during simulated coughing

The effect of viscoelastic properties and surface tension of artificial mucus simulant samples on the size distribution and volume concentration of bioaerosol droplets generated during simulated coughing was investigated through in vitro experiments. The mucus simulant samples had viscoelastic properties in a similar range as those of real human airway mucus. The mucus simulant gels were prepared by mixing various proportions of 0.5–1.7% locust bean gum solution and 0.1 M sodium tetraborate (XLB) solution. Surface tension of one set of samples was varied by adding different amounts of SDS (sodium dodecyl sulfate) surfactant while the measurement of surface tension was performed using ADSA (axisymmetric drop shape analysis) method. The viscoelastic properties of the samples were measured using a Bohlin Gemini 200 HR (Malvern, UK) nano-rheometer with peltier plate assembly. An artificial cough machine was used to simulate human cough, generating aerosol droplets in a model trachea attached to the front of the cough machine. The size distribution and volume concentration of the droplets generated through simulated cough were measured using a laser diffraction particle sizer (SprayTec, Malvern, USA). The surface tension was found to have negligible effect on the characteristic of generated droplets within the range of this investigation. The experimental results showed a decrease in particle size as the samples changed from a viscous fluid type to a viscoelastic to an elastic solid type sample. The volume concentration also changed significantly as the viscoelasticity of the samples was varied.     

Charged particle multiplicity distributions ine + e − annihilation at 29 GeV: a comparison with hadronic data

The charged particle multiplicity distributions for two-jet events ine ⁺ e ^? annihilation at 29 GeV have been measured using the High Resolution Spectrometer at PEP. A Poisson distribution describes the data for both the complete event and for the single jets. In addition, no correlation is observed between the multiplicities in the two jets of an event. For fixed values of the prong number of the complete event, the multiplicity sharing between the two jets is in good agreement with a binomial distribution. The rapidity gap distribution is exponential with a slope equal to the mean rapidity density. These observations, which are consistent with a picture of independent emission of single particles, are contrasted to the results from soft hadronic collisions and conclusions are drawn about the nature of clusters.     

Factorization in dedekind domains with finite class group

LetD be a Dedekind domain. It is well known thatD is then an atomic integral domain (that is to say, a domain in which each nonzero nonunit has a factorization as a product of irreducible elements). We study factorization properties of elements in Dedekind domains with finite class group. IfD has the property that any factorization of an elementα into irreducibles has the same length, thenD is called a half factorial domain (HFD, see [41]). IfD has the property that any factorization of an elementα into irreducibles has the same length modulor (for somer>1), thenD is called a congruence half factorial domain of orderr. In Section I we consider some general factorization properties of atomic integral domains as well as the interrelationship of the HFD and CHFD property in the Dedekind setting. In Section II we extend many of the results of [41], [42] and [36] concerning HFDs when the class group ofD is cyclic. Finally, in Section III we consider the CHFD property in detail and determine some basic properties of Dedekind CHFDs. IfG is any Abelian group andS any subset ofG−[0], then {G, S} is called a realizable pair if there exists a Dedekind domainD with class groupG such thatS is the set of nonprincipal classes ofG which contain prime ideals. We prove that for a finite abelian groupG there exists a realizable pair {G, S} such that any Dedekind domain associated to {G, S} is CHFD for somer>1 but not HFD if and only ifG is not isomorphic toZ ₂,Z ₂,Z ₂ ⊕Z ₂, orZ ₃ ⊕Z ₃. The first author received support under the John M. Bennett Fellowship at Trinity University and also gratefully acknowledges the support of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.