Relaxation oscillations and canard explosion in a predator–prey system of Holling and Leslie types

We give a geometric analysis of relaxation oscillations and canard cycles in a singularly perturbed predator–prey system of Holling and Leslie types. We discuss how the canard cycles are found near the Hopf bifurcation points. The transition from small Hopf-type cycles to large relaxation cycles is also discussed. Moreover, we outline one possibility for the global dynamics. Numerical simulations are also carried out to verify the theoretical results.     

Correction of spin diffusion during iterative automated NOE assignment

Indirect magnetization transfer increases the observed nuclear Overhauser enhancement (NOE) between two protons in many cases, leading to an underestimation of target distances. Wider distance bounds are necessary to account for this error. However, this leads to a loss of information and may reduce the quality of the structures generated from the inter-proton distances. Although several methods for spin diffusion correction have been published, they are often not employed to derive distance restraints. This prompted us to write a user-friendly and CPU-efficient method to correct for spin diffusion that is fully integrated in our program ambiguous restraints for iterative assignment (ARIA). ARIA thus allows automated iterative NOE assignment and structure calculation with spin diffusion corrected distances. The method relies on numerical integration of the coupled differential equations which govern relaxation by matrix squaring and sparse matrix techniques. We derive a correction factor for the distance restraints from calculated NOE volumes and inter-proton distances. To evaluate the impact of our spin diffusion correction, we tested the new calibration process extensively with data from the Pleckstrin homology (PH) domain of Mus musculus beta-spectrin. By comparing structures refined with and without spin diffusion correction, we show that spin diffusion corrected distance restraints give rise to structures of higher quality (notably fewer NOE violations and a more regular Ramachandran map). Furthermore, spin diffusion correction permits the use of tighter error bounds which improves the distinction between signal and noise in an automated NOE assignment scheme.     

TURNING-OVER OF THE ELECTRIC DIPOLE IN A POLYMER*

The transition from the biexciton to the exciton can turn over the direction of the electric dipole of a polymericmolecule. This turning-over action combined with the photoinduced polarization reversion can be used as a switch. Theswitching speed is governed by the relaxation time of the turning-over process, which can be determined by a dynamicalsimulation.     

Gaussian approximation in the theory of MR signal formation in the presence of structure-specific magnetic field inhomogeneities

A detailed theoretical analysis of the free induction decay (FID) and spin echo (SE) MR signal formation in the presence of mesoscopic structure-specific magnetic field inhomogeneities is developed in the framework of the Gaussian phase distribution approximation. The theory takes into account diffusion of nuclear spins in inhomogeneous magnetic fields created by arbitrarily shaped magnetized objects with permeable boundaries. In the short-time limit the FID signal decays quadratically with time and depends on the objects' geometry only through the volume fraction, whereas the SE signal decays as 5/2 power of time with the coefficient depending on both the volume fraction of the magnetized objects and their surface-to-volume ratio. In the motional narrowing regime, the FID and SE signals for objects of finite size decay mono-exponentially; a simple general expression is obtained for the relaxation rate constant deltaR2. In the case of infinitely long cylinders in the motional narrowing regime the theory predicts non-exponential signal decay lnS approximately -tlnt in accordance with previous results. For specific geometries of the objects (spheres and infinitely long cylinders) exact analytical expressions for the FID and SE signals are given. The theory can be applied, for instance, to biological systems where mesoscopic magnetic field inhomogeneities are induced by deoxygenated red blood cells, capillary network, contrast agents, etc.     

Old and new from SOR

From the long history of Successive Over Relaxation (SOR) between the end of second world war and today three points are considered: (1) Classical results of Young and Varga are described. (2) It is shown how results on semiiterative methods can be used to derive these classical results in a unifying way and to compare SOR with other iterative methods. (3) In the last 15 years the application of SOR to compute the stationary distribution of a homogeneous Markov chain has been discussed. These results are reported, considering especially the term extended convergence introduced by Kontovasilis, Plemmons and Stewart.     

Ultrasonic characterization of heavy metal TeO2–WO3–PbO glasses below room temperature

The longitudinal ultrasonic attenuation measurements have been made using pulse echo method at fundamental frequencies of 2, 4, 6 and 8 MHz in 20WO₃–(80−x) TeO₂–xPbO ternary tellurite glasses (x=10, 12.5, 15, 17.5 and 20 mol%) in the temperature range 160–280 K. The results showed the presence of a broad peak which shifts to higher temperature with increasing frequency. The ultrasonic attenuation peaks suggest that the experimental behavior is controlled by thermally activated structural relaxations. The internal friction, acoustic activation energy, deformation potential, relaxation strength, number of loss centers and density of state have been calculated both as a function of temperature and PbO content. The acoustic activation energy was found to decrease from 0.156 to 0.135 eV with the increase of PbO content. The results showed that both the number of loss centers and their activation energy decrease with the atomic ring size. An increase in the density of state is observed with addition of PbO content at the same frequency in the whole range of temperature which is associated with structural units formed when PbO is added.     

A blow-up result in a Cauchy viscoelastic problem

In this work we consider a Cauchy problem for a nonlinear viscoelastic equation. Under suitable conditions on the initial data and the relaxation function, we prove a finite-time blow-up result.     

On the relaxation time of Gauss's continued-fraction map I. The Hilbert space approach (Koopmanism)

It is shown thatU ^*, the adjoint of Koopman's isometric operatorUf(x) =f(Tx) corresponding to the mapTx=x ^–1 (mod 1) of the unit interval, is isomorphic to a symmetric integral operator when restricted to a Hilbert space of holomorphic functionsf This result, also obtained by Babenko in a different setting, allows us to derive new trace formulas. Using generalized Temple's inequalities, we determine the relaxation time of the above system with great accuracy. In contrast to a widespread belief, it appears to be unrelated to the entropy of the mapT.     

Non-Markovian diffusion process in polymers and stretched exponential relaxation

In this contribution, we model the long-time behaviour of the desorption from an LDPE sheet, using non-Markovian random walks. It is shown that the mass of penetrant in the final stage of desorption decays as t ^–m , where m is proportional to the exponent of the probability distribution (t) t ^–(1+u), 0 < v < 1. Furthermore, it is shown that this model may lead to the so-called mechanical stretched exponential relaxation, and that Wagner's memory function can be obtained as a special case.Presented at the second conference Recent Developments in Structured Continua, May 23–25, 1990, in Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada