Effects of structure-dynamics correlation on hierarchical transitions in heterogeneous oscillatory networks

The impact of frequency-degree and amplitude-degree correlation is studied for heterogeneous networks of coupled Stuart–Landau oscillators. It is shown that increasing coupling strength gives rise to hierarchical processes of oscillation quenching. In case of frequency-degree correlated networks, higher-frequency oscillators gradually become almost quenched while low-frequency ones still remain oscillating. In case of amplitude-degree correlated networks, there appear three distinct domains, two contain low-amplitude oscillations with positive and negative means, and the third includes high-amplitude oscillations around the origin.     

On the use of the digital image correlation method for heterogeneous deformation measurement of porous solids

In this paper, several crucial issues arising from the application of the digital image correlation (DIC) method to the measurement of heterogeneous deformation of porous solids are discussed. To handle samples with complex geometry, the performance of the two commonly employed DIC methods, namely the subset-based DIC and the finite-element based DIC methods are first evaluated and compared. A combined DIC approach and an adaptive DIC approach suitable for samples with discontinuities/holes are then proposed. Aluminum plates with circular holes subject to compressive loading are employed to evaluate the accuracy of the proposed methods. It has been found that in addition to other factors such as the number of pixels and speckle size, the orientation of the camera lens also plays an important role on the measurement accuracy. A calibration method for the adjustment of camera orientation is proposed, which leads to a good agreement between the experimentally measured displacements and finite element simulation results. Another finding of the presented work is that for relatively stiff specimens, the deformation of the loading system itself must be considered in order to obtain an accurate displacement.     

Diffusion in heterogeneous lattices

We present here the results of our investigations of particle diffusion over different heterogeneous lattices with deep and shallow adsorption sites. A general analytical expression for chemical diffusion coefficient has been derived for a number of inhomogeneous lattices of different dimensionality and symmetry. We have calculated coverage dependencies of diffusion coefficients. The analytical data have been compared with the numerical data obtained by the kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. Almost perfect agreement between the respective results has been found.     

Aggregation on heterogeneous surface

Chessboard-like substrates are introduced in this paper, in order to study the diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA)and the motion of poly-atoms on heterogeneous surfaces. The effect of morphology of such substrates upon the cluster aggregation is investigated using the Monte Carlo simulation. It is found that the growth process and the cluster morphology are governed by the energetic topography of the substrates. Our simulation also indicate that the island density and the fractal dimension of the clusters depend strongly on the substrate topography and the activation energy.     

High-throughput heterogeneous catalyst research

With the discovery of abundant and low cost crude oil in the early 1900’s came the need to create efficient conversion processes to produce low cost fuels and basic chemicals. Enormous investment over the last century has led to the development of a set of highly efficient catalytic processes which define the modern oil refinery and which produce most of the raw materials and fuels used in modern society. Process evolution and development has led to a refining infrastructure that is both dominated and enabled by modern heterogeneous catalyst technologies. Refineries and chemical manufacturers are currently under intense pressure to improve efficiency, adapt to increasingly disadvantaged feedstocks including biomass, lower their environmental footprint, and continue to deliver their products at low cost. This pressure creates a demand for new and more robust catalyst systems and processes that can accommodate them.Traditional methods of catalyst synthesis and testing are slow and inefficient, particularly in heterogeneous systems where the structure of the active sites is typically complex and the reaction mechanism is at best ill-defined. While theoretical modeling and a growing understanding of fundamental surface science help guide the chemist in designing and synthesizing targets, even in the most well understood areas of catalysis, the parameter space that one needs to explore experimentally is vast. The result is that the chemist using traditional methods must navigate a complex and unpredictable diversity space with a limited data set to make discoveries or to optimize known systems.We describe here a mature set of synthesis and screening technologies that together form a workflow that breaks this traditional paradigm and allows for rapid and efficient heterogeneous catalyst discovery and optimization. We exemplify the power of these new technologies by describing their use in the development and commercialization of a novel catalyst for the hydrodesulfurization of gasoline distillates having 50% more selectivity and 30% more activity for sulfur removal than the state-of-the-art commercial reference.     

On evolutionary spatial heterogeneous games

How cooperation between self-interested individuals evolve is a crucial problem, both in biology and in social sciences, that is far from being well understood. Evolutionary game theory is a useful approach to this issue. The simplest model to take into account the spatial dimension in evolutionary games is in terms of cellular automata with just a one-parameter payoff matrix. Here, the effects of spatial heterogeneities of the environment and/or asymmetries in the interactions among the individuals are analysed through different extensions of this model. Instead of using the same universal payoff matrix, bimatrix games in which each cell at site (i, j) has its own different ‘temptation to defect’ parameter T(i,j) are considered. First, the case in which these individual payoffs are constant in time is studied. Second, an evolving evolutionary spatial game such that T=T(i,j;t), i.e. besides depending on the position evolves (by natural selection), is used to explore the combination of spatial heterogeneity and natural selection of payoff matrices.     

Microporous heteropoly oxometalate heterogeneous catalysis

A new class of microporous catalysts has been found. Certain of the salts of heteropoly oxometalates with monovalent cations show characteristics expected for microporous solids: relatively large quantities of absorbed gas at low relative pressures, high C_BET values and limited linearity ranges of the BET equation. Pore size analysis shows that the distributions are broad, ranging from approximately 6–13 Å. The micropores are believed to result from the translation and rotation of the Keggin anions.     

Population dynamics in heterogeneous conditions

Using a Monte Carlo approach we study a simple lattice model of populations living in a habitat where the external conditions are changing in space and in time. We show that above a certain value of the climatic gradient, the population gathers at a restricted part of the lattice. The average trait of the individuals follows the optimum. We also have shown that there exists a range of gradient values within which a population has over 10% chance of survival, while outside it most likely to become extinct. We have found that this phenomenon depends on the selection pressure and we have constructed a phase diagram in the selection-gradient plane. In the case of the time-dependent optimum, the populations go extinct after a long time, depending on the speed of the changes.     

Creep ruptures in heterogeneous materials

We present creep experiments on fiber composite materials with different controlled heterogeneity. All samples exhibit a power-law relaxation of the strain rate in the primary creep regime (Andrade's law) followed by a power-law acceleration up to rupture. We discover that the rupture time is proportional to the duration of the primary creep regime, showing the interplay between the two regimes and offering a method of rupture prediction. These experimental results are rationalized by a mean-field model of representative elements with nonlinear viscoelastic rheology and with a large heterogeneity of strengths.     

Diffusion in heterogeneous biphase structures

The present paper deals with the determination of temperature dependence of the effective diffusion coefficient in heterogeneous biphase structures using diffusion coefficients measured in both phases and the short-range order parameter. A new interpretation of this short-range order parameter is given as the relative volume of the ordered structure in the sample,V _(ord)/V.For the AuCu₃ alloy, the lacking values of the Au diffusion coefficients at temperaturesT<760 K in the partially ordered structure of this alloy were calculated on the basis of long-range order parameter values and diffusion characteristics which are valid for the perfectly ordered or disordered structures, respectively. For solid solutions of theAB andAB ₃ type the relation between the long and short-range parameters is given; numerical calculations of short-range order parameters were carried out for -brass and for the Cu₃Au alloy with the use of long-range order parameters and heats of formation.An explanation of the diffusion anomaly in ferromagnetic materials close to the Curie temperature is given and the temperature dependence of the relative volume of the paramagnetic phase in -iron is calculated.ikova 22, Brno, Czechoslovakia.The author wishes to express his thanks to Professor L. M. Slifkin for providing a xerox-copy of a part of Mr. Alexander's thesis [15] which facilitated the evaluation of diffusion characteristics in Cu₃Au alloy, and to Mr. M. Szob for recalculating some equations.     

Epidemics spread in heterogeneous populations

Individuals building populations are subject to variability. This variability affects progress of epidemic outbreaks, because individuals tend to be more or less resistant. Individuals also differ with respect to their recovery rate. Here, properties of the SIR model in inhomogeneous populations are studied. It is shown that a small change in model’s parameters, e.g. recovery or infection rate, can substantially change properties of final states which is especially well-visible in distributions of the epidemic size. In addition to the epidemic size and radii distributions, the paper explores first passage time properties of epidemic outbreaks.     

Robustness of heterogeneous complex networks

In this paper we study the robustness of heterogeneous preferential attachment networks. The robustness of a network measures its structural tolerance to the random removal of nodes and links. We numerically analyze the influence of the affinity parameters on a set of ensemble-averaged robustness metrics. We show that the presence of heterogeneity does not fundamentally alter the smooth nature of the fragmentation process of the models. We also show that a moderate level of locality translates into slight improvements in the robustness metrics, which prompts us to conjecture an evolutionary argument for the existence of real networks with power-law scaling in their connectivity and clustering distributions.     

Martensitic transformation in heterogeneous austenite

The dependence of the martensite structure on the volume fraction of coherent inclusions inherited from aged austenite has been studied. An explanation for the considerable martensite lattice tetragonality in the case of thin martensite twins in comparison with their inclusion diameter is suggested. A reason for surface relief height decreasing for alloys with narrow temperature hysteresis of transformation has been discovered.     

Market model with heterogeneous buyers

In market modeling, one often treats buyers as a homogeneous group. In this paper we consider buyers with heterogeneous preferences and products available in many variants. Such a framework allows us to successfully model various market phenomena. In particular, we investigate how is the vendor’s behavior influenced by the amount of available information and by the presence of correlations in the system.     

Minority games with heterogeneous timescales

Minority games where groups of agents remember, react or incorporate information with different timescales are investigated. We support our findings by analytical arguments whenever possible.     

Polymer adsorption on heterogeneous surfaces

The adsorption of a single ideal polymer chain on energetically heterogeneous and rough surfaces is investigated using a variational procedure introduced by Garel and Orland (Phys. Rev. B 55, 226 (1997)). The mean polymer size is calculated perpendicular and parallel to the surface and is compared to the Gaussian conformation and to the results for polymers at flat and energetically homogeneous surfaces. The disorder-induced enhancement of adsorption is confirmed and is shown to be much more significant for a heterogeneous interaction strength than for spatial roughness. This difference also applies to the localization transition, where the polymer size becomes independent of the chain length. The localization criterion can be quantified, depending on an effective interaction strength and the length of the polymer chain. Received: 29 October 1997 / Revised: 19 December 1997 / Accepted: 6 March 1998     

Dielectric losses in heterogeneous systems

Analytic formulas are derived for the effective complex dielectric constant of a matrix system with Maxwell-Wagner losses. An approximate solution is given for a system of dielectrics with a single relaxation time. It is shown that this approximation is applicable to systems containing a semiconductor with blocking electrodes. The effect of spread in the dimensions of the semiconductor component on the frequency dependence of losses in a matrix system is discussed.     

Adhesive fracture of heterogeneous interfaces

We have studied the effect of interface heterogeneity on fracture, at both local and global scales. The single cantilever beam adhesion test was used to investigate interfacial fracture between polycarbonate plates and an elastic/fragile epoxy adhesive. Two surface treatments were applied to a (given) polycarbonate plate giving zones of strong and weak adhesion parallel to the crack direction. Calculated fracture energies differed from those expected from a simple rule-of-mixtures. A perturbation method, proposed by Rice, was used and results compared with crack fronts observed in situ. The technique was applied successfully but the difference in values of stress intensity factor between the zones was found substantially different from the experimental value. In an attempt to explain discrepancies, specimens with discontinuous crack fronts (adhesive and/or plates severed along the strong/weak adhesion frontier) were tested. Good agreement was found with the rule-of-mixtures predictions raising questions about the role of crack front continuity in load transfer.