Global Analysis of the Flows of Fluids with Pressure-Dependent Viscosities

 To describe the flows of fluids over a wide range of pressures, it is necessary to take into account the fact that the viscosity of the fluid depends on the pressure. That the viscosity depends on the pressure has been verified by numerous careful experiments. While the existence of solutions local-in-time to the equations governing the flows of such fluids are available for small, special data and rather unrealistic dependence of the viscosity on the pressure, no global existence results are in place. Our interest here is to establish the existence of weak solutions for spatially periodic three-dimensional flows that are global in time, for a large class of physically meaningful viscosity-pressure relationships. (Accepted May 1, 2002) Published online November 15, 2002 Communicated by S. S. ANTMAN     

Slow light on a printed circuit board

Slow-light effects induced by stimulated Raman scattering in polymer waveguides on a printed circuit board are shown to enable a widely tunable delay of broadband optical signals, suggesting an advantageous platform for optical information processing and ultrafast optical waveform transformation.     

Guided modes of integrated optical guides. A mathematical study

A waveguide in integrated optics is defined by its refractiveindex. The guide is assumed to be invariant in the propagationdirection while in the transverse direction it is supposed tobe a compact perturbation of an unbounded stratified medium.We are interested in the modes guided by this device, whichare waves with a transverse energy confined in a neighbourhoodof the perturbation. Our goal is to analyse the existence of such guided modes. Underthe assumptions of weak guidance the problem reduces to a two-dimensionaleigenvalue problem for a scalar field. The associated operatoris unbounded, selfadjoint, and bounded from below. Its spectrumconsists of the discrete spectrum corresponding to the guidedmodes and of the essential spectrum corresponding to the radiationmodes. We present existence results of guided modes and an asymptoticstudy at high frequencies, which shows that contrarily to thecase of optical fibers, the number of guided modes can remainbounded. The major tools are the min-max principle and comparisonof results between different eigenvalue problems. The originalityof the present study lies in the stratified character of theunbounded reference medium.     

Interaction of the mu-opioid receptor with GPR177 (Wntless) inhibits Wnt secretion: potential implications for opioid dependence

Background  

Opioid agonist drugs produce analgesia. However, long-term exposure to opioid agonists may lead to opioid dependence. The analgesic and addictive properties of opioid agonist drugs are mediated primarily via the mu-opioid receptor (MOR). Opioid agonists appear to alter neuronal morphology in key brain regions implicated in the development of opioid dependence. However, the precise role of the MOR in the development of these neuronal alterations remains elusive. We hypothesize that identifying and characterizing novel MOR interacting proteins (MORIPs) may help to elucidate the underlying mechanisms involved in the development of opioid dependence.     

High precision delta(17)O isotope measurements of oxygen from silicates and other oxides: method and applications

The use of infrared laser-assisted fluorination to release oxygen from milligram quantities of silicates or other oxide mineral grains is a well-established technique. However, relatively few studies have reported the optimisation of this procedure for oxygen-17 isotope measurements. We describe here details of an analytical system using infrared (10 μm) laser-assisted fluorination, in conjunction with a dual inlet mass spectrometer of high resolving power ( approximately 250) to provide (17)O and (18)O oxygen isotope measurements from 0.5-2 mg of silicates or other oxide mineral grains. Respective precisions (1) of typically 0.08 and 0.04 per thousand are obtained for the complete analytical procedure. Departures from the mass-dependent oxygen isotope fractionation line are quantified by Delta(17)O; our precision (1) of such measurements on individual samples is shown to be +/-0.024 per thousand. In turn, this permits the offset between parallel, mass-dependent fractionation lines to be characterised to substantially greater precision than has been possible hitherto. Application of this system to investigate the (17)O versus (18)O relationship for numerous terrestrial whole-rock and mineral samples, of diverse geological origins and age, indicates that the complete data set may be described by a single, mass-dependent fractionation line of slope 0.5244+/- 0.00038 (standard error). Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Formation of channel optical waveguides in polymethylmethacrylate with embedded electro-optic chromophore DR13 by the photoinduced bleaching method

A composite polymeric material based on polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) with embedded electro- optical (EO) chromophore DR13 is designed. Irradiation with electromagnetic radiation in the visible range leads to a bleaching of the composite and its refractive index n decreases due to the irreversible photodestruction of the chromophore. Changes in the absorption spectrum and refractive index of the composite with the irradiation time are measured. It is shown that the change in n depends on the concentration of DR13 in the polymer matrix and can reach a value of Δn = 0.034 in the telecommunication C-range near a wavelength of 1.55 μm. The rate of bleaching depends on the wavelength of the actinic light and reaches its maximum when the wavelength is near the maximum of chromophore absorption. With the use of the photobleaching method and the PMMA/DR13 composite, channel waveguides and the other elements of the integrated optical devices are fabricated, including waveguide splitters, directional couplers, and Mach–Zehnder interferometers. This simple one-step method does not involve the removal of polymer material by liquidphase or reactive ion etching.     

Test of bell’s inequality using the one-atom micromaser

We examine a local realist bound in the case of a one-atom micromaser. It is shown that such a bound is violated using a simplified treatment of the micromaser. We consider the effect of dissipation in a proposed experiment with the real micromaser. It is seen that the magnitude of violation of a Bell-type inequality depends significantly on the cavity parameters.     

Coherent Raman spectroscopy: From statics to dynamics and kinetics,progress in nonlinear methods

In spite of its 60-year history Raman spectroscopy is still progressing nowadays. Highly stable lasers and short pulse oscillators, perfect electronic data acquisition systems, new nonlinear optical approaches created new exciting perspectives for Raman spectroscopy. One of the most important tendencies is Raman spectroscopy application for studying nonequilibrium states, fast dynamics and kinetics of atoms, molecules and condensed matter. All these problems were until recently regarded as inaccessible for optical spectroscopy. Nonlinear optical techniques of Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering (CARS) and modulation spectroscopy appeared to be most effective and provided important real-time information on molecular excitation and dissociation dynamics, deep cooling of molecules in a supersonic jet, short laser pulse induced phase transitions at semiconductor interface and so on. Problems yet to be solved include direct measurement of intramolecular vibrational relaxation, conformations in biomolecules, optical “oscilloscopy” of molecular vibrations.