Spectral integral representations of volume scattering in sediments in layered waveguides

In situ measurements of scattering strength are often obtained by analyzing the early-time, high-angle reverberation from bottom and subbottom features. In order to provide insight into the mechanisms which cause bottom reverberation, and to their distinguishing characteristics, it is necessary to have a capability for modeling both the rough surface and the volume scattering mechanisms. For high-angle, early-time backscatter, the most appropriate approach is to use a spectral integral representation, which naturally includes the continuous spectrum important for this angular regime. A rough surface scattering theory developed earlier in this framework has provided important insights into wave scattering and penetration physics at the seafloor. Here a consistent representation for the subbottom scattering is developed and examples are provided which illustrate the observable differences between the two scattering mechanisms.     

Frequency-dependent self-induced bias of the basilar membrane and its potential for controlling sensitivity and tuning in the mammalian cochlea

A displacement-sensitive capacitive probe technique was used in the first turn of guinea pig cochleas to examine whether the motion of the basilar membrane includes a displacement component analogous to the dc receptor potentials of the hair cells. Such a "dc" component apparently exists. At a given location on the basilar membrane, its direction toward scala vestibuli (SV) or scala tympani (ST) varies systematically with frequency of the acoustic stimulus. Furthermore, it appears to consist of two parts: a small asymmetric offset response to each gated tone burst plus a progressive shift of the basilar membrane from its previous position. The mean position shift is cumulative, increasing with successive tone bursts. The amplitude of the immediate offset response, when plotted as a function of frequency, appears to exhibit a trimodal pattern. This displacement offset is toward SV at the characteristic frequency (CF) of the location of the probe, while at frequencies either above or below the CF the offset is relatively larger, and toward ST. The mechanical motion of the basilar membrane therefore appears to contain the basis for lateral suppression. The cumulative mean position shift, however, appears to peak toward ST at the apical end of the traveling wave envelope and appears to be associated with a resonance, not of the basilar membrane motion directly, but coupled to it. The summating potential, measured concurrently at the round window, shows a more broadly tuned peak just above the CF of the position of the probe. This seems to correspond to the peak at the CF of the mechanical bias. As the preparation deteriorates, the best frequency of the vibratory displacement response decreases to about a half-octave below the original CF. There is a corresponding decrease in the frequency of the peaks of the trimodal pattern of the asymmetric responses to tone bursts. The trimodal pattern also broadens. In previous experiments the basilar membrane has been forced to move in response to a low-frequency biasing tone. The sensitivity to high-frequency stimuli varies in phase with the biasing tone. The amplitudes of slow movement in these earlier experiments and in the present experiments are of the same order of magnitude. This suggests strongly that the cumulative shift toward ST to a high-frequency acoustic stimulus constitutes a substantial controlling bias on the sensitivity of the cochlea in that same high-frequency region. Its effect will be to reduce the slope of neural rate-level functions on the high-frequency side of CF.     

New process for the manufacture of alpha-1 antitrypsin

We report a novel method for the extraction of alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) from plasma. This method uses an anion-exchange column and two metal chelate columns. The AAT is recovered in a 60% yield and a purity of over 90%. The AAT manufactured by this method was stable at 4 degrees C for 12 months without any stabilisers. Other proteins of therapeutic value and commercial interest are recoverable in good yields. The simplicity of this process makes it a suitable alternative to the traditionally employed ethanol precipitation method where high ethanol levels inactivate AAT.     

Influence of interparticle interactions on the kinetics of self-assembly and mechanical strength of nanoparticulate aggregates

Computer simulations based on Discrete Element Method have been performed in order to investigate the influence of interparticle interactions on the kinetics of self-assembly and the mechanical strength of nanoparticle aggregates.Three different systems have been considered.In the first system the interaction between particles has been simulated using the JKR (Johnson,Kendall and Roberts) contact theory,while in the second and third systems the interaction between particles has been simulated using van der Waals and electrostatic forces respectively.In order to compare the mechanical behaviour of the three systems,the magnitude of the maximum attractive force between particles has been kept the same in all cases.However,the relationship between force and separation distance differs from case to case and thus,the range of the interparticle force.The results clearly indicate that as the range of the interparticle force increases,the self-assembly process is faster and the work required to produce the mechanical failure of the assemblies increases by more than one order of magnitude.     

Cross Polarization for Improved Digital Image Correlation

Digital image correlation (DIC) is a surface deformation measurement technique for which accuracy and precision are sensitive to image quality. This work presents cross polarization, the use of orthogonal linear polarizers on light source(s) and camera(s), as an effective method for improving optical DIC measurements. The benefits of cross polarization are characterized through quantitative and statistical comparisons from two experiments: rigid body translation of a flat sample and uniaxial tension of a superelastic shape-memory alloy (SMA). In both experiments, cross polarization eliminated saturated pixels that degrade DIC measurements, and increased image contrast, which enabled higher spatial precision by using smaller subsets. Subset sizes are usually optimized for correlation confidence interval (typically with subsets of 21×21 px or larger), but can be decreased to achieve the highest possible spatial precision at the expense of increased correlation confidence intervals. Smaller subset sizes (such as 9×9 px) require better images to maintain correlation within error thresholds. By comparing DIC results from a uniaxial SMA tension test with unpolarized and cross-polarized images, we show that for 9×9 px subsets, the loss of valid DIC data points was reduced almost ten-fold with cross polarization. The only disadvantage we see to cross polarization is the decrease in specimen illumination due to transmission losses through the polarizers, which can easily be accommodated with sufficiently intense light sources. With the installation of relatively inexpensive linear polarizing filters, an optimum optical DIC setup can provide even better DIC measurements by delivering images without saturated pixels and with higher contrast for increased DIC spatial precision.     

An iterated logarithm law for families of Brownian paths

Summary If n is large, a plot of log n independent Brownian paths over [0, n] is nearly certain to give the appearance of a shaded region having square root boundaries.Research of this author was partially supported by the National Science Foundation under grant MCS 82-00786This work was undertaken while B. Schreiber, of Wayne State University, was a Visiting Professor of Mathematics at Michigan State University, whose hospitality he wishes to acknowledge with gratitude.     

Strong and conditional invariance principles for samples attracted to stable laws

Summary. We prove almost sure convergence of a representation of normalized partial sum processes of a sequence of i.i.d. random variables from the domain of attraction of an α-stable law, α<2. We obtain an explicit form of the limit in terms of the LePage series representation of stable laws. One consequence of these results is a conditional invariance principle having applications to option pricing as well as to resampling by signs and permutations. Received: 11 April 1994 / In revised form: 5 November 1996     

JT-60U装置温度分布剖面不变性的实验研究

在一系列H模放电条件下，建立了一个旨在研究等离子体温度分布剖面不变性的数据库。介绍了数据库建立过程中要解决的关键问题和所用软件，对等离子体温度分布剖面不变性及芯部约束与边缘参数的关系进行了研究。     

Spectral integral representations of monostatic backscattering from three-dimensional distributions of sediment volume inhomogeneities

A theory is developed for generating short time, monostatic reverberation realizations caused by three-dimensionally distributed volume inhomogeneities in stratified media. A wave number integral approach to treating the propagation to and from the scatterers, combined with a two-dimensional spectral representation of the azimuthally averaged scatterer realizations and a novel numerical implementation, combine to yield an efficient, high fidelity reverberation simulator for predicting monostatic backscatter from horizontally stratified sediments.