Anchoring-mediated interaction of edge dislocations with bounding surfaces in confined cholesteric liquid crystals

We employ the fluorescent confocal polarizing microscopy to image edge dislocations in cholesteric liquid crystals. Surface anchoring at the bounding plates determines the structure and behavior of defects. Two types of plates set in-plane director orientation but differ in the type of associated anchoring potentials. Plates with strong polar anchoring and nonzero azimuthal anchoring repel the dislocations, while plates with weak polar anchoring and no azimuthal anchoring allow the dislocations to escape through the boundary. To explain the results, we propose a coarse-grained model of cholesteric anchoring.     

Computational studies of steady-state sound field and reverberant sound decay in a system of two coupled rooms

The acoustical properties of an irregularly shaped room consisting of two connected rectangular subrooms were studied. An eigenmode method supported by a numerical implementation has been used to predict acoustic characteristics of the coupled system, such as the distribution of the sound pressure in steady-state and the reverberation time. In the theoretical model a low-frequency limit was considered. In this case the eigenmodes are lightly damped, thusthey were approximated by normal acoustic modes of a hard-walled room. The eigenfunctions and eigenfrequencies were computed numerically via application of a forced oscillator method with a finite difference algorithm. The influence of coupling between subrooms on acoustic parameters of the enclosure was demonstrated in numerical simulations where different distributions of absorbing materials on the walls of the subrooms and various positions of the sound source were assumed. Calculation results have shown that for large differences in the absorption coefficient in the subrooms the effect of modal localization contributes to peaks of RMS pressure in steady-state and a large increase in the reverberation time.      

On the significance of reflection coefficients produced by active surfaces bounding one-dimensional sound fields

Active boundary surfaces intended to control reverberation or other characteristics of enclosed sound fields have often been investigated using plane wave tubes. This paper presents an analysis of actively terminated semi-infinite and finite-length plane wave tubes to provide needed clarification of the effects of these surfaces. By considering relationships between complex pressure-amplitude reflection coefficients and acoustic energy quantities, the investigation reveals that increases in reflection coefficient moduli at terminations do not always produce corresponding increases in total energy or energy flux in adjacent fields. These relationships are shown to depend upon physical properties of the acoustic spaces, sources, and source positions. The investigation also demonstrates how the impact of reflection coefficients with moduli exceeding unity may be easily misinterpreted.     

Bandlimiting in conflict with spatial bounding of radiative sources

The curl of the Poynting vector for the bandlimited electromagnetic field of a timeharmonic point-source dipole is expanded asymptotically for large axial and off-axial distances of a halfspace. Truncating the plane-wave spectrum of the dipole field at any finite value of spatial frequency produces whirls in the time-averaged energy flux which are at variance with the expansion theorem for the field of a bounded source; due to bandlimiting, the angular and radial coordinates of the Poynting vector are not for all directions separable and the curl of the Poynting vector has the wrong orderr ^−5/2, at least for some directions, when the radial distancer approaches infinity.     

STS observations of Landau levels at graphite surfaces

Scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) measurements were made on surfaces of two different kinds of graphite samples, Kish graphite and highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG), at very low temperatures and in high magnetic fields. We observed a series of peaks in the tunnel spectra associated with Landau quantization of the quasi-two-dimensional electrons and holes. A comparison with the calculated local density of states at the surface layers allows us to identify Kish graphite as bulk graphite and HOPG as graphite with a finite thickness of 40 layers. This explains the qualitative difference between the two graphites reported in the recent transport measurements which suggested the quantum-Hall effect in HOPG. This work demonstrates how powerful the combined approach between the high quality STS measurement and the first-principles calculation is in material science.     

Localization of sound in rooms

This paper is concerned with the localization of sources of sounds by human listeners in rooms. It presents the results of source-identification experiments designed to determine whether the ability to localize sound in a room depends upon the room acoustics, and how it depends upon the nature of the source signal. The experiments indicate that the localization of impulsive sounds, with strong attack transients, is independent of the room reverberation time, though it may depend upon the room geometry. For sounds without attack transients, localization improves monotonically with the spectral density of the source. Localization of continuous broadband noise does depend upon room reverberation time, and we propose the concept of direct signal to reverberant noise ratio to study that effect. Source identification experiments reveal certain localization biases, invisible to minimum-audible-angle experiments, and of uncertain origin. Appendices to this paper develop the statistics of the source-identification paradigm and show how they relate to the minimum audible angle.     

室内有源噪声控制的潜力

室内的有源噪声控制是现实的,但也受到一些限制.本文对限制因素做了分析和探讨了克服措施,并求得最高可能达到的水平。     

零件矩形边界框区域自动提取算法及应用

为了提高图像处理速度,提出了基于机器视觉的目标图像矩形边界框区域提取算法。分析了图像在含有孤立点噪声的情况下该算法的可靠性以及阈值选取对实验结果的影响;设计出了针对齿形链板和自动扶梯用链板图像的抗噪模板;利用最小二乘法和最小区域法确定链板圆孔几何参数,并从目标与背景之比和算法复杂度两个方面分析了该算法对处理速度的贡献能力。实验表明,该算法对于孤立点噪声具有良好的抑制作用,可快速、准确地找出包含目标图像的矩形区域。     

A laboratory and simulation comparison of the effectiveness of open entry rooms for protection from high noise levels

The potential of differently shaped barriers to provide a ‘sound shadow’ in an otherwise noisy environment was investigated. A doorless enclosure of two three-sided interlocking rectangular barriers was found to produce attenuation of over 9 dB.To enable these, and similar, barriers to be incorporated with an existing noise control simulation program, computer studies were carried out to simulate the experimental results. These provided close comparison with the empirical data except at the centre of the configuration where simulated values were always higher than laboratory measurements. Reasons for these differences are deduced.     

Predictors of speech intelligibility in rooms

Three different types of acoustical measures were compared as predictors of speech intelligibility in rooms of varied size and acoustical conditions. These included signal-to-noise measures, the speech transmission index derived from modulation transfer functions, and useful/detrimental sound ratios obtained from early/late sound ratios, speech, and background levels. The most successful forms of each type of measure were of similar prediction accuracy, but the useful/detrimental ratios based on a 0.08-s early time interval were most accurate. Several physical measures, although based on very different calculation procedures, were quite strongly related to each other.     

Logit-based exit choice model of evacuation in rooms with internal obstacles and multiple exits

A logit-based discrete choice model is proposed to study the exit choice behaviour of evacuees in rooms with internal obstacles and multiple exits. Several factors influencing the exit choice behaviour, including the information obtained by evacuees, the tendency of following others, the visibility and familiarity of exits and the physical conditions of nearby exits, are considered. Evacuees are allowed to re-select their target exits for minimizing the perceived disutility during evacuation process. Numerical results from applying the model to cellular automata simulation of evacuation are presented and the effects of some model parameters on evacuation time are investigated.     

Binaural prediction of speech intelligibility in reverberant rooms with multiple noise sources

When speech is in competition with interfering sources in rooms, monaural indicators of intelligibility fail to take account of the listener's abilities to separate target speech from interfering sounds using the binaural system. In order to incorporate these segregation abilities and their susceptibility to reverberation, Lavandier and Culling [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 127, 387-399 (2010)] proposed a model which combines effects of better-ear listening and binaural unmasking. A computationally efficient version of this model is evaluated here under more realistic conditions that include head shadow, multiple stationary noise sources, and real-room acoustics. Three experiments are presented in which speech reception thresholds were measured in the presence of one to three interferers using real-room listening over headphones, simulated by convolving anechoic stimuli with binaural room impulse-responses measured with dummy-head transducers in five rooms. Without fitting any parameter of the model, there was close correspondence between measured and predicted differences in threshold across all tested conditions. The model's components of better-ear listening and binaural unmasking were validated both in isolation and in combination. The computational efficiency of this prediction method allows the generation of complex "intelligibility maps" from room designs.     

Photoelectron spectroscopy of localized levels near surfaces: Scattering effects and relaxation shifts

We calculate the spectrum of photoelectrons excited from localized levels in solids far into the continuum (XPS situation), in a model that takes into account exactly their interaction with a boson-like spatially non-uniform field. The general results are applied to discuss the spectra of photoelectrons in metals, where the dominant interaction is the coupling to bulk and surface plasmons. In particular, we study the modification of spectral sum rules connecting the strength of inelastic processes with the energy shifts in the spectrum, showing that the electron (“extrinsic”) scattering changes the average position of the spectrum with respect to the pure “intrinsic” result in the “sudden approximation”, which leads also to its dependence on the excitation energy and position of localized level. We estimate these deviations in a simple model which nevertheless reproduces correctly the dynamical aspects of the problem.     

Measurement of background noise in sound-insulated rooms

Problems concerning measurement of stationary background noise levels below the dynamic limits of normal transducers are studied. The use of very sensitive large transducers is possible, but in general is restricted to rather low frequencies due to their extreme directional characteristics. Thus a 10 inch transducer may be used up to approximately 250 Hz. Two-transducer approaches based on correlation techniques cover a much wider frequency range because ordinary small transducers are applicable. Measurement errors due to diffraction or to unavoidable spacing of the two transducers generally become significant for transducer diameters in excess of one-quarter of a wavelength at the upper limiting frequency, although an exception to this occurs in the particular case of a plane progressive wave. The use of extremely small insensitive transducers is restricted by the necessity of having very impractical integration times. If measurements of levels down to ?20 dB re 20 μPa are carried out with condenser microphones in one-third octave frequency bands a practical compromise seems to be employment of $\text{1}\text{2}$ inch microphones in the range of center frequencies from 25 Hz to 5 kHz. This range may in practice be doubled (e.g., extended to 10 kHz) if measurements in the range 2·5–5 kHz are carried out with both 1 inch and $\text{1}\text{2}$ inch transducers so that corrections can be obtained for extended range measurements from 5 kHz performed with $\text{1}\text{2}$ inch transducers only.     

Comparisons of the discrete-dipole approximation and modified double interaction model methods to predict light scattering from small features on surfaces

Two numerical methods to model light scattering from illuminated features on surfaces are presented. The discrete-dipole approximation (DDA) method is considered, as well as the modified double interaction method (MDIM). The DDA method models electromagnetic scattering of continuous features using discrete dipoles placed on a lattice structure. Sommerfeld integral terms are used to model dipole/surface interaction in the near-field. The MDIM method first computes scattering from the features based in free space using other methods such as Mie theory or other standard light scattering codes (including DDA). The surface interaction is modeled as a first approximation by means of a geometrical shadowing effect and the Fresnel coefficients. Comparisons of the methods will be shown for light scattering from spherical features. The material properties of dielectric and metallic materials will be considered and the feature sizes will be varied. The prediction accuracy and computational requirements of each method will be investigated. For most cases, the studies will show that the DDA method is more accurate than the MDIM method for dielectric materials since the modeling of the feature and surface electromagnetic interaction is more accurate; however, the modified double interaction method may be advantageous over the discrete-dipole approximation method for metallic features because of lesser computational times and memory requirements.     

基于有限元法的小房间内吸声材料位置研究

利用有限元法建立了四种小房间模型,通过对小房间内100 Hz以下声场的研究,发现了100 Hz以下声场情况下小房间内布置吸声材料的有效位置。计算结果表明:矩形小房间所有墙角处都是所有模式的声压极大值位置,而对于非矩形小房间,某些墙角处的声压分布较复杂,甚至出现了较多的模式的声压极小值。改变吸声材料位置,比较平均声压级曲线,可见吸声材料位置不同对曲线平坦度有较大影响,混响室内的实验也验证了这一点。为了保证较高的吸声效率,应将吸声材料设置在低频模式的声压极大值集中的地方,同时应避免将其设置在模式的声压极小值集中的地方。因此,为了有效布置吸声材料,不能直接利用模态叠加法针对矩形小房间的结论,而采用有限元法进行具体分析是有效的。     

菱形网格的行人疏散元胞自动机模型

利用改进的层次域元胞自动机模型,研究了正菱形网格空间中的行人疏散问题.这类网格可以避免行人贴近房间墙壁或障碍物,转移概率考虑了各种逃生受阻因素.数值仿真显示,出口处的行人分布与实验快照展示的行人分布基本相同,疏散时间和出口宽度呈线性关系,行人流率接近实验结果.     

Noise in the operating rooms of Greek hospitals

This study is an evaluation of the problem of noise pollution in operating rooms. The high sound pressure level of noise in the operating theatre has a negative impact on communication between operating room personnel. The research took place at nine Greek public hospitals with more than 400 beds. The objective evaluation consisted of sound pressure level measurements in terms of L(eq), as well as peak sound pressure levels in recordings during 43 surgeries in order to identify sources of noise. The subjective evaluation consisted of a questionnaire answered by 684 operating room personnel. The views of operating room personnel were studied using Pearson's X(2) Test and Fisher's Exact Test (SPSS Version 10.00), a t-test comparison was made of mean sound pressure levels, and the relationship of measurement duration and sound pressure level was examined using linear regression analysis (SPSS Version 13.00). The sound pressure levels of noise per operation and the sources of noise varied. The maximum measured level of noise during the main procedure of an operation was measured at L(eq)=71.9 dB(A), L(1)=84.7 dB(A), L(10)=76.2 dB(A), and L(99)=56.7 dB(A). The hospital building, machinery, tools, and people in the operating room were the main noise factors. In order to eliminate excess noise in the operating room it may be necessary to adopt a multidisciplinary approach. An improvement in environment (background noise levels), the implementation of effective standards, and the focusing of the surgical team on noise matters are considered necessary changes.     

The reverberation time of furnished rooms in dwellings

The study gives the results of the measurements of the reverberation time in 11,687 rooms, of which 11,457 are furnished (8246 bedrooms, 3211 living rooms) and 230 unfurnished. All the rooms have heavy walls and ceilings, and a heavy floor covering. The reverberation times measured are quite similar in bedrooms and living rooms within the same size range, and decrease fairly uniformly as the frequency increases. Moreover, in each frequency band the greater the volume of the room, the greater the reverberation time.The results of this extensive fieldwork allow us to predict accurately the reverberation time in these kinds of spaces as a function of their size and the frequency. These data may be useful for improving the accuracy of calculations models to estimate the reverberation time of enclosed spaces. A comparison between the reverberation time measured in this work and that proposed in PrEN ISO 10052.2002(E) has been made.