Interval parameter perturbation method for evaluating the bounds on natural frequencies of structures with interval parameters

For structural parameters with uncertainties, interval mathematics can, in the case where the probabilistic distribution density of uncertain variables is unavailable, deal with the influence of uncertainties in structural parameters on the response of structures. In order to evaluate the region containing natural frequencies of structures with interval parameters, the interval parameter perturbation method is presented in this paper. The advantage of the present method is its computational efficiency in evaluating the region containing natural frequencies. A numerical example is used to illustrate the efficiency of the method proposed. The project is supported by National Youth Natural Science Foundation of China and National Outstanding Youth Science Foundation of China.     

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN X—H STRETCHING OVERTONE FREQUENCIES AND BOND LENGTHS/BOND ANGLES

A relationship between the X-H (X = N, O, C, and so on) equilibrium bond length in a Morse oscillator and the X-H stretching overtone frequency shifts is obtained theoretically. We use the equation to discuss the empirical linear relationships that have been proposed for heterocyclics, alkanes and fluorinated benzenes. On the other hand, a unified relationship between the X-H bond angles and the experimental quantities (ω(?) and the coupling strength λ) is also presented for XH2, XH, and XH4 molecules or molecular fragments. Calculations of X-H bond angles for a number of molecules show that the results from our equations are in excellent agreement with the experimental values. Also we can extract the information of relative magnitude of bond coupling force field.     

Microfabrication of stacks of acoustic matching layers for 15 MHz ultrasonic transducers

This paper presents a novel method used to manufacture stacks of multiple matching layers for 15 MHz piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers, using fabrication technology derived from the MEMS industry. The acoustic matching layers were made on a silicon wafer substrate using micromachining techniques, i.e., lithography and etch, to design silicon and polymer layers with the desired acoustic properties. Two matching layer configurations were tested: a double layer structure consisting of a silicon–polymer composite and polymer and a triple layer structure consisting of silicon, composite, and polymer. The composite is a biphase material of silicon and polymer in 2-2 connectivity. The matching layers were manufactured by anisotropic wet etch of a (1 1 0)-oriented Silicon-on-Insulator wafer. The wafer was etched by KOH 40 wt%, to form 83 μm deep and 4.5 mm long trenches that were subsequently filled with Spurr’s epoxy, which has acoustic impedance 2.4 MRayl. This resulted in a stack of three layers: The silicon substrate, a silicon–polymer composite intermediate layer, and a polymer layer on the top. The stacks were bonded to PZT disks to form acoustic transducers and the acoustic performance of the fabricated transducers was tested in a pulse-echo setup, where center frequency, −6 dB relative bandwidth and insertion loss were measured. The transducer with two matching layers was measured to have a relative bandwidth of 70%, two-way insertion loss 18.4 dB and pulse length 196 ns. The transducers with three matching layers had fractional bandwidths from 90% to 93%, two-way insertion loss ranging from 18.3 to 25.4 dB, and pulse lengths 326 and 446 ns. The long pulse lengths of the transducers with three matching layers were attributed to ripple in the passband.     

用零输出的设备探测引力波

理论估计传到地球上的引力波非常弱,激光干涉引力波探测器被设计用来探测引力波,在没有引力波传来时,激光干涉引力波探测器应该是零输出。为达到这样的目的,必须和众多的噪声作斗争。     

Quantum Brownian motion and the second law of thermodynamics

We consider a single harmonic oscillator coupled to a bath at zero temperature. As is well-known, the oscillator then has a higher average energy than that given by its ground state. Here we show analytically that for a damping model with arbitrarily discrete distribution of bath modes and damping models with continuous distributions of bath modes with cut-off frequencies, this excess energy is less than the work needed to couple the system to the bath, therefore, the quantum second law is not violated. On the other hand, the second law may be violated for bath modes without cut-off frequencies, which are, however, physically unrealistic models. An erratum to this article is available at .     

A Bilinear Backlund Transformation and Lax Pair for a （1＋1）-Dimensional Differential-Difference sine-Gordon Equation

In this paper, we obtain a 1＋1 dimensional integrable differential-difference model for the sine-Gordon equation by Hirota＇s discretization method. A bilinear Backlund transformation and the associated Lax pair are also proposed/or this model.     

Synthesis methods of multiple phase-cycled SSFP images to reduce the band artifact and noise more reliably

The band artifact in steady-state free precession can be reduced by synthesizing the multiple images obtained through different phase increments of successive radiofrequency pulses. Even though the complex summation method was reported to be effective in reducing the band artifact, it has the pitfalls of intensity abnormality and sensitivity to the phase abnormality. Two new methods have been developed for more reliable reduction of the band artifact than the complex summation method. One method is to sum the complex images partially and to take the maximum intensity of the partially summed images. The other method is to sum the free induction decay (FID) and primary echo components of the Fourier series that are obtained through Fourier analysis of the complex base images. Both proposed methods were compared with other magnitude (maximum intensity projection, spectrally decomposed synthesis, sum-of-squares, nonlinear averaging) and complex-based (complex summation, magnitude-weighted complex summation) methods experimentally at 3 T for the phantom and volunteer's head imaging. Both proposed methods were confirmed to maintain the advantage of the complex summation in reducing both the dark and bright band artifacts while reducing the intensity abnormality and sensitivity to the phase abnormality from that of the complex summation method over a wide range of flip angles and relaxation times.     

Reprint of : Shot noise fluctuations in disordered graphene nanoribbons near the Dirac point

Random fluctuations of the shot-noise power in disordered graphene nanoribbons are studied. In particular, we calculate the distribution of the shot noise of nanoribbons with zigzag and armchair edge terminations. We show that the shot noise statistics is different for each type of these two graphene structures, which is a consequence of the presence of different electron localizations: while in zigzag nanoribbons electronic edge states are Anderson localized, in armchair nanoribbons edge states are absent, but electrons are anomalously localized. Our analytical results are verified by tight binding numerical simulations with random hopping elements, i.e., off diagonal disorder, which preserves the symmetry of the graphene sublattices.     

Noise effects in two different biological systems

We investigate the role of the colored noise in two biological systems: (i) adults of Nezara viridula (L.) (Heteroptera: Pentatomidae), and (ii) polymer translocation. In the first system we analyze, by directionality tests, the response of N. viridula individuals to subthreshold signals plus noise in their mating behaviour. The percentage of insects that react to the subthreshold signal shows a nonmonotonic behaviour, characterized by the presence of a maximum, as a function of the noise intensity. This is the signature of the non-dynamical stochastic resonance phenomenon. By using a “soft” threshold model we find that the maximum of the input-output cross correlation occurs in the same range of noise intensity values for which the behavioural activation of the insects has a maximum. Moreover this maximum value is lowered and shifted towards higher noise intensities, compared to the case of white noise. In the second biological system the noise driven translocation of short polymers in crowded solutions is analyzed. An improved version of the Rouse model for a flexible polymer is adopted to mimic the molecular dynamics by taking into account both the interactions between adjacent monomers and the effects of a Lennard-Jones potential between all beads. The polymer dynamics is simulated in a two-dimensional domain by numerically solving the Langevin equations of motion in the presence of thermal fluctuations and a colored noise source. At low temperatures or for strong colored noise intensities the translocation process of the polymer chain is delayed. At low noise intensity, as the polymer length increases, we find a nonmonotonic behaviour for the mean first translocation time of the polymer centre of inertia. We show how colored noise influences the motion of short polymers, by inducing two different regimes of translocation in the dynamics of molecule transport.