Untersuchungen über sprengstoffbetriebene MHD-Generatoren

Three types of explosive-driven MHD-generators have been studied. The explosives were seeded as to give high magnetic Reynolds numbers via high electric conductivity and/or magnetic permeability. The highest power peaks were attained with a rectangular-channel-type generator fed from a hollow-cylinder shaped charge. Tests with magnetically loaded explosives seem to indicate that these might prove useful (e.g. in space engineering), in particular when used in a cylindrical induction-type MHD-generator designed by the authors. This type also, though run with smaller charges only, seems to be the most efficient one.     

Rapid crack growth in a thermoelastic solid under mixed-mode thermomechanical loading

A two-dimensional steady-sate analysis of semi-infinite brittlecrack growth at a constant subcritical rate in an unboundedfully-coupled thermoelastic solid under mixed-mode thermomechanicalloading is made. The loading consists of normal and shear tractionsand heat fluxes applied as point sources (line loads in theout-of-plane direction). A related problem is solved exactly in an integral transformspace, and robust asymptotic forms used to reduce the originalproblem to a set of integral equations. The equations are partiallycoupled and exhibit operators of both Cauchy and Abel types,yet can be solved analytically. The temperature change field at a distance from the moving crackedge is then constructed, and its dominant term is found tobe controlled by the imposed heat fluxes. The role of this termis, indeed, enhanced if the heat fluxes serve to render thecrack as a net heat source/sink for the solid, as opposed tobeing a transmitter of heat across its plane. More generally,the influence of the thermoelastic coupling on this field, aswell as other functions, is found to increase with crack speed.     

Experimental and theoretical studies of ammonia decomposition activity on Fe-Pt, Co-Pt, and Cu-Pt bimetallic surfaces

We investigate the decomposition of ammonia on bimetallic surfaces prepared by the deposition of a monolayer of Fe, Co, or Cu on a Pt(111) surface computationally and experimentally. We explore the correlation between predicted activities based on the nitrogen binding energies with experimental decomposition activity on these bimetallic and corresponding monometallic surfaces. Through density functional theory calculations and microkinetic modeling, it is predicted that the Fe-Pt-Pt(111) and Co-Pt-Pt(111) surfaces, with a monolayer of Fe or Co on top of Pt(111), are active toward decomposing ammonia. In contrast, the corresponding subsurface configurations, Pt-Fe-Pt(111) and Pt-Co-Pt(111) are inactive. These predictions were confirmed experimentally through temperature programmed desorption experiments. Decomposition was seen at temperatures below 350 K for the Fe-Pt-Pt(111) and Co-Pt-Pt(111) surfaces. For the Cu∕Pt(111) system, the surface, subsurface and parent metals were each predicted to be inactive, consistent with experiments, further validating the model predictions. The stability of these bimetallic surfaces in the presence of adsorbed nitrogen is also discussed.     

Synthetic magnetic opals

We present studies of novel nanocomposites of BiNi impregnated into the structure of opals as well as inverse opals. Atomic force microscopy and high resolution elemental analyses show a highly ordered structure and uniform distribution of the BiNi filler in the matrix. These BiNi-based nanocomposites are found to exhibit distinct ferromagnetic-like ordering with transition temperature of about 675 K. As far as we know there exists no report in literature on any BiNi compound which is magnetic.     

Conformational Spin Switching and Spin‐Selective Hydrogenation of a Magnetically Bistable Carbene

The control of the spin states of molecules opens the path to tuning selectivity in chemical reactions and to developing novel magnetically switchable materials. 3‐Methoxy‐9‐fluorenylidene is a carbene that is generated in cryogenic matrices both in its lowest energy singlet and triplet states, and the ratio of these states can be shifted by selective irradiation. The interconversion of the nearly degenerate spin states is induced by a conformational change of the methoxy group: switching the methoxy group into the “up” position results in the singlet state and switching into the “down” position in the triplet state. The spin control via a remote functional group makes this carbene unique for the study of spin‐specific reactions, which is demonstrated for the hydrogenation reaction. Spin switching by switching the conformation of a remote functional group is a novel phenomenon with potential applications in the design of functional materials.     

Functional neural network analysis in frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease using EEG and graph theory

Background  

Although a large body of knowledge about both brain structure and function has been gathered over the last decades, we still have a poor understanding of their exact relationship. Graph theory provides a method to study the relation between network structure and function, and its application to neuroscientific data is an emerging research field. We investigated topological changes in large-scale functional brain networks in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD) by means of graph theoretical analysis of resting-state EEG recordings. EEGs of 20 patients with mild to moderate AD, 15 FTLD patients, and 23 non-demented individuals were recorded in an eyes-closed resting-state. The synchronization likelihood (SL), a measure of functional connectivity, was calculated for each sensor pair in 0.5–4 Hz, 4–8 Hz, 8–10 Hz, 10–13 Hz, 13–30 Hz and 30–45 Hz frequency bands. The resulting connectivity matrices were converted to unweighted graphs, whose structure was characterized with several measures: mean clustering coefficient (local connectivity), characteristic path length (global connectivity) and degree correlation (network 'assortativity'). All results were normalized for network size and compared with random control networks.