Are per capita incomes of MENA countries converging or diverging?

This study considers the issue of income convergence among the MENA (Middle East and North African) countries by using real per capita incomes over the period 1950-2006. We employed (Kapetanios et al. 2003) [21] unit root test by incorporating an additive constant and a trend component as Chong et al. (2008) [20] did in their study and found most of the MENA countries diverging during the sample period.     

Quantum-electrodynamic modification of atomic dipole matrix element in a strong converging laser field

In this paper we report at the first time a quantum-electrodynamic modificationresult to the dipole transition matrix elements related to the bound levels of an atom in a strongconverging laser field.When the laser intensity increases,the dipole matrix elements increaseat first.However,further intensity increase will bring about the matrix elements decrease.That means the dipole transition probability is suppressed.     

SOI thermo-optic modulator with fast response

Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology offers tremendous potential for integration of optoelectronic functions on a silicon wafer. In this letter, a 1 x 1 multimode interference (MMI) Mach-Zender interferometer (MZI) thermo-optic modulator fabricated by wet-etching method is demonstrated. The modulator has an extinction ratio of -11.0 dB, extra loss of -4.9 dB and power consumption of 420 mW. The response time is less than 30μs.     

Optical response of a δ-layer capacitor

The fabrication of two δ-layers of opposite polarity in a semiconductor constitutes a capacitor. The charge on each "plate" may be modified by photogenerating carriers to screen the dopant ions, which alters the field between them. This has the effect of changing the transition energies between confined states in the structure, which results in a substantial (60 meV) blue shift, which may be utilised in a modulator structure. These effects have been investigated using steady-state and time-resolved photoluminescence, in conjunction with band modelling.     

Random response of an oscillator with hysteresis damping

The response behaviour of an oscillator with Reid hysteresis damping un-der stationary Gauss white excitation is studied.By means of numerical simulationconducted on computer,the mean square response,probability density function andpower spectral density function for the response are given.These response character-istics are compared with those predicted by equivalent linearization treatment.     

Ac response of a coupled double quantum dot

The effect of phase-breaking process on the ac response of a coupled double quantum dot is studied in this paper based on the nonequilibrium Green function formalism. A general expression is derived for the ac current in the presence of electron--phonon interaction. The ac conductance is numerically computed and the results are compared with those in [Anatram M P and Datta S 1995 Phys. Rev. B 51 7632]. Our results reveal that the inter-dot electron tunnelling interplays with that between dots and electron reservoirs, and contributes prominently to the ac current when inter-dot tunnelling coupling is much larger than the tunnelling coupling between dots and electron reservoirs. In addition, the phase-breaking process is found to have a significant effect on the ac transport through the coupled double dot.     

Dielectric anomalous response of water at 60 °C

Recently, the paraelectric response of water was investigated in the range 0–100 °C. It showed an almost perfect Curie–Weiss behaviour up to 60 °C, but a slight change in slope of 1/ε_d versus T at 60 °C was overlooked. In this work, we report optical extinction measurements on metallic (gold and silver) nanoparticles dispersed in water, annealed at various temperatures in the range from 20 to 90 °C. An anomalous response at 60 °C is clearly detectable, which we associate to a subtle structural transformation in the water molecules at that temperature. This water anomaly is also manifested by means of a blue shift in the longitudinal surface plasmon resonance of the metallic nanoparticles for the solutions annealed at temperatures higher than about 60 °C. A reanalysis of 1/ε_d (T) for water in the whole temperature range leads us to conclude that the water molecule undergoes a subtle transformation from a low temperature (0–60 °C) configuration with a dipole moment μ₁ = 2.18 D (close to the molecular dipole moment of ice) to a high temperature (60–100 °C) configuration with μ₂ = 1.87 D (identical to the molecular dipole moment in water vapour).     

“Constant-loss” relaxation response in crystals and glasses

Nowick and his associates have stated that many ionic crystals and glasses exhibit a loss per cycle which is independent of frequency over an appreciable range and have suggested that such behavior constitutes a new universality. Furthermore, much such data seem to approach an asymptotic, nearly temperature-independent ac loss at sufficiently low temperatures. In order to further evaluate these conclusions, small-signal ac relaxation data for a CaTiO₃:30% Al³⁺ ceramic material are analyzed in detail and the results compared to those published by Nowick and associates for the same material. It is found that a plausible conducting-system dispersion model based on the effective-medium approximation for hopping charges yields results globally similar to, but somewhat different in detail from, those of Nowick et al. But a response model which includes both such conducting-system response and dielectric-system dispersion well fits the data over a wide temperature range. To do so, it requires the presence of a non-zero high-frequency-limiting resistivity probably arising from localized charge motion. No constant-loss individual dispersions appear in the model, but it nevertheless yields approximately constant loss over a limited frequency range at low temperatures. It suggests that asymptotic behavior is associated with the nearly temperature-independent dielectric-dispersion contribution to the response at low temperatures, and it does not verify the Nowick conclusion that the slope of the ac conductivity approaches a constant value near 0.6 at high temperatures.     

A numerical simulation of photothermal response in laser medicine

In this paper, we reported a numerical solution of laser induced thermal effect in the bio-tissue. The model of photothermal effect and classical Pennes bio-heat transfer equation were introduced. Finite element method (FEM), which was realized by Matlab software, was used to calculate the temperature distribution. He-Ne laser (633 nm) was used to simulate the physical therapy in in vivo skin tissue. Under the cylinder coordinates, the three-dimension(3-D) geometry of tissue was reduced to two-dimension(2-D)     

Effective AC response of a nonlinear spherical coated composite

An effective nonlinear response of a nonlinear composite with spherical coated inclusions randomly embedded in a host medium under the action of an external AC electric field,E a=E 1 sin(ωt) + E 3 sin(3ωt),is investigated using a perturbation method.The local potentials of the composite at higher harmonics are given both in the region of local inclusion particles and in the local host region under the external AC electric field.All effective nonlinear responses of the composite and the relationship between the effective nonlinear responses at the fundamental frequency and third harmonics are also studied for spherical coated inclusion in a dilute limit.     

Noncausal time response in frustrated total internal reflection?

Tunneling of photons in frustrated total internal reflection has been studied in the time domain with single-cycle femtosecond pulses. It is seen that both the phase and energy of the pulse travel faster than the speed of light in vacuum. Theoretical analysis of the experiments shows that the time-response function for electromagnetic waves propagating in the air gap is noncausal. However, it is found that superluminal signal propagation is not possible in this case because of the inevitable diffractive spreading of the signal beam.     

Polarization response explored by joint Hamiltonian and stochastic approach

The effect of thermal fluctuations on systems modeled by anharmonic nonconservative Hamiltonians is investigated in the framework of interacting lattice cells each cell obeying to Langevin dynamics. Representative examples addressed to critical phenomena in ferroelectrics include polarization response of a single lattice cell, ergodicity breaking, and birth of a domain, and the effect of nonlocal electroelastic interaction all derived combining the Fokker–Planck, imaginary time Schrödinger, and symplectic integration techniques.     

̀Spatial impulse response of a rectangular double curved transducer

Calculation of the pressure field from transducers with both a convex and a concave surface geometry is a complicated assignment that often is accomplished by subdividing the transducer surface into smaller flat elements of which the spatial impulse response is known. This method is often applied to curved transducers because an analytical solution is unknown. In this work a semi-analytical algorithm for the exact solution to a first order in diffraction effect of the spatial impulse response of rectangular-shaped double curved transducers is presented. The solution and an approximation to it are investigated. The approximation reformulates the solution to an analytically integrable expression, which is computationally efficient to solve. Simulation results are compared to FIELD II simulations. Calculating the response from 200 different points yields a mean error for the different approximations ranging from 0.03% to 0.8% relative to a numerical solution for the spatial impulse response. It is also shown that the presented algorithm gives consistent results with FIELD II for a linear flat, a linear focused, and a convex nonfocused element. The solution involved a three-point Taylor expansion and gave an accuracy of 0.01%.     

Dielectric response of water confined in metal–organic frameworks

Dielectric response of water confined in metal–organic frameworks was investigated in broad temperature range from 140 to 410 K and from 20 Hz to 1 MHz using a capacitance bridge. Several dispersion regions of characteristic shape were found, caused by freezing–melting of adsorbed water molecules, which disappear after a prolonged heating at 410 K. Temperature dependencies of relaxation time of confined water molecules were obtained and are compared to those of water confined in MCM-41 mesoporous molecular sieves.     

Design of broadband beamformers based on an expected response interpolation technique

A method for designing broadband beamformers based on an expected response interpolation technique was proposed, with the aim of reducing the heavy optimization burden in the broadband beamformer design problem. In the method, some typical frequencies in the designing frequency band are selected and the optimal array weights are designed on these typical frequencies, based on which a broadband expected response function is constructed. Then, FIR filters are designed to realize the broadband beamforming over the whole designing frequency band, via the interpolation technique which is utilized to the expected responses of the FIR filters. Broadband beamforming can be fulfilled by applying these filters to each of the sensors in the array. By using the proposed method, designers need not to divide the whole designing frequency band into narrow subbands so as to make the narrow band assumption valid, which not only reduces the heavy designing burden, but also releases the requirement for measurements at fine frequency grids in the robust beamformer design. Results of both computer simulations and watertank experiments verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

Numerical analysis of absorption–amplification response in an optical fiber

We investigated the transient and steady-state processes of a probe field in an optical fiber. It is found that the nonlinear processes can be easily controlled via the coherent field and incoherent pumping field. The underlying mechanisms are much more practical than those in atomic systems, which may provide some possibilities for technological applications in optical-fiber communication.     

AC response of reduced undoped and Mg — doped LiNbO3

Abstract

The temperature dependence of the AC response of undoped and Mg — doped LiNbO₃ can excellently be reproduced by assuming Maxwell—Wagner type relaxation due to an inhomogeneous distribution of insulating and conducting regions in the crystals. In the latter parts conductivity is thermally activated. The activation energy changes abruptly from 610 meV to 170 meV if [Mg] rises above ～ 5%. This threshold concentration depends on the [Li]/[Nb] ratio. The nature of the inhomogeneities is not yet known.     

Structural response of aluminum core–shell particles in detonation environment

Natural aluminum particles have the core–shell structure. The structure response refers to the mechanical behavior of the aluminum particle structure caused by external influences. The dynamic behavior of the structural response of aluminum core–shell particles before combustion is of great importance for the aluminum powder burning mechanism and its applications. In this paper, an aluminum particle combustion experiment in a detonation environment is conducted and analyzed; the breakage factors of aluminum particles shell in detonation environment are analyzed. The experiment results show that the aluminum particle burns in a gaseous state and condenses into a sub-micron particle cluster. The calculation and simulation demonstrate that the rupture of aluminum particle shell in the detonation environment is mainly caused by the impact of the detonation wave. The detonation wave impacts the aluminum particles, resulting in shell cracking, and due to the shrinkage-expansion of the aluminum core and stripping of the detonation product, the cracked shell is fractured and peeled with the aluminum reacting with the detonation product.     

Promotion of cooperation on networks? The myopic best response case

We study the effect of a network of contacts on the emergence of cooperation on social dilemmas under myopic best response dynamics. We begin by summarizing the main features observed under less intellectually demanding dynamics, pointing out their most relevant general characteristics. Subsequently we focus on the new framework of best response. By means of an extensive numerical simulation program we show that, contrary to the rest of dynamics considered so far, best response is largely unaffected by the underlying network, which implies that, in most cases, no promotion of cooperation is found with this dynamics. We do find, however, nontrivial results differing from the well-mixed population in the case of coordination games on lattices, which we explain in terms of the formation of spatial clusters and the conditions for their advancement, subsequently discussing their relevance to other networks.