Characteristics of biosonar signals from the northern bottlenose whale, Hyperoodon ampullatus

The biosonar pulses from free-ranging northern bottlenose whales (Hyperoodon ampullatus) were recorded with a linear hydrophone array. Signals fulfilling criteria for being recorded close to the acoustic axis of the animal (a total of 10 clicks) had a frequency upsweep from 20 to 55 kHz and durations of 207 to 377 μs (measured as the time interval containing 95% of the signal energy). The source level of these signals, denoted pulses, was 175-202 dB re 1 μPa rms at 1 m. The pulses had a directionality index of at least 18 dB. Interpulse intervals ranged from 73 to 949 ms (N?=?856). Signals of higher repetition rates had interclick intervals of 5.8-13.1 ms (two sequences, made up of 59 and 410 clicks, respectively). These signals, denoted clicks, had a shorter duration (43-200 μs) and did not have the frequency upsweep characterizing the pulses of low repetition rates. The data show that the northern bottlenose whale emits signals similar to three other species of beaked whale. These signals are distinct from the three other types of biosonar signals of toothed whales. It remains unclear why the signals show this grouping, and what consequences it has on echolocation performance.     

用扫描隧道显微镜(STM)观察纳米粉体的形貌

将不导电的纳米粉体压成薄片,在薄片的表面溅射上金膜,再经过适当的处理,将薄片固定在样品台上,这样制得样品可用于纳米粉体形貌,由于用于ＳＴＭ观察的样品必须导电这一限制,使得样品表面溅射的金膜厚度对成像有很大影响,此类工作可安排在学生物理实验的小型科研实验课程中。     

A novel scanning pattern for entropy coding under non-square quadtree transform (NSQT)

High-efficiency video coding (HEVC) introduces a non-square quadtree transform (NSQT), which has brought about higher coding efficiency than square quadtree transform. However, the scanning pattern does not fit the energy distribution of the quantization coefficients well enough, which would worsen the entropy coding efficiency. In order to fit the energy distribution better, a novel scanning pattern is proposed in this paper. The spatial frequency position distribution of the non-square transformed block is derived. Based on the distribution, the energy distribution of the non-square transformed bock is analyzed in theory and tested in experiment. It is found that the energy decreases from upper left corner to lower right corner and the energy in lower left corner is close to that in upper right corner. Based on this energy distribution, the scanning pattern for the quantization coefficients in the non-square matrix is rebuilt to fit the entropy coding, which prefers a scanning pattern in ascending order in the frequency domain. Simulation results show that the proposed scanning pattern achieves on average 2.1% BD-rate saving and 9.05–13.19% bitrates saving for the non-square transformed blocks with negligible loss in coding computational complexity and peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), compared to the present scanning pattern in NSQT.     

Noseleaf furrows in a horseshoe bat act as resonance cavities shaping the biosonar beam

Horseshoe bats emit their ultrasonic biosonar pulses through nostrils surrounded by intricately shaped protuberances (noseleaves). While these noseleaves have been hypothesized to affect the sonar beam, their physical function has never been analyzed. Using numerical methods, we show that conspicuous furrows in the noseleaf act as resonance cavities shaping the sonar beam. This demonstrates that (a) animals can use resonances in external, half-open cavities to direct sound emissions, (b) structural detail in the faces of bats can have acoustic effects even if it is not adjacent to the emission sites, and (c) specializations in the biosonar system of horseshoe bats allow for differential processing of subbands of the pulse in the acoustic domain.     

Spin singlet formation in MgTi2O4: evidence of a helical dimerization pattern

The transition-metal spinel MgTi2O4 undergoes a metal-insulator (M-I) transition on cooling below T(M-I)=260 K. A sharp reduction of the magnetic susceptibility below T(M-I) suggests the onset of a magnetic singlet state. Using high-resolution synchrotron and neutron powder diffraction, we have solved the low-temperature crystal structure of MgTi2O4, which is found to contain dimers with short Ti-Ti distances (the locations of the spin singlets) alternating with long bonds to form helices. Band structure calculations based on hybrid exchange density functional theory show that, at low temperatures, MgTi2O4 is an orbitally ordered band insulator.     

Dolphin biosonar signals measured at extreme off-axis angles: Insights to sound propagation in the head

Biosonar signals radiated along the beam axis of an Atlantic bottlenose dolphin resemble short transient oscillations. As the azimuth of the measuring hydrophones in the horizontal plane progressively increases with respect to the beam axis the signals become progressively distorted. At approximately ±45°, the signals begin to divide into two components with the time difference between the components increasing with increasing angles. At ±90° or normal to the longitudinal axis of the animal, the time difference between the two pulses measured by the hydrophone on the right side of the dolphin's head is, on average, ～11.9?μs larger than the time differences observed by the hydrophone on the left side of the dolphin's head. The center frequency of the first pulse is generally lower, by 33-47?kHz, than the center frequency of the second pulse. When considering the relative locations of the two phonic lips, the data suggest that the signals are being produced by one of the phonic lips and the second pulse resulting from a reflection within the head of the animal. The generation of biosonar signals is a complex process and the propagation pathways through the dolphin's head are not well understood.     

New pattern recognition system in the e-nose for Chinese spirit identification

This paper presents a new pattern recognition system for Chinese spirit identification by using the polymer quartz piezoelectric crystal sensor based e-nose. The sensors are designed based on quartz crystal microbalance(QCM) principle,and they could capture different vibration frequency signal values for Chinese spirit identification. For each sensor in an8-channel sensor array, seven characteristic values of the original vibration frequency signal values, i.e., average value(A),root-mean-square value(RMS), shape factor value(S_f), crest factor value(C_f), impulse factor value(I_f), clearance factor value(CL_f), kurtosis factor value(K_v) are first extracted. Then the dimension of the characteristic values is reduced by the principle components analysis(PCA) method. Finally the back propagation(BP) neutral network algorithm is used to recognize Chinese spirits. The experimental results show that the recognition rate of six kinds of Chinese spirits is 93.33% and our proposed new pattern recognition system can identify Chinese spirits effectively.     

Two-dimensional vibrational lineshapes of amide III, II, I and A bands in a helical peptide

An effective exciton Hamiltonian for all amide bands is used to calculate the absorption and photon echo spectra of a 17 residue helical peptide (YKKKH17). The cross peak bandshapes are sensitive to the inter-band couplings. Fluctuations of the local amide frequencies of the all amide fundamental and their overtone and combination states are calculated using the multipole electric field induced by environment employing the electrostatic DFT map of N-methyl acetamide. Couplings between neighboring peptide units are obtained using the anharmonic vibrational Hamiltonian of glycine dipeptide (GLDP) at the BPW91/6-31G(d,p) level. Electrostatic couplings between non-neighboring units are calculated by a fourth rank transition multipole coupling (TMC) expansion including 1/R³ (dipole–dipole), 1/R⁴ (quadrupole–dipole), and 1/R⁵ (quadrupole–quadrupole and octapole–dipole) interactions.     

Asymmetric, helical, and mirror-symmetric traveling waves in pipe flow

New families of three-dimensional nonlinear traveling waves are discovered in pipe flow. In contrast with known waves [H. Faisst and B. Eckhardt, Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 224502 (2003); H. Wedin and R. R. Kerswell, J. Fluid Mech. 508, 333 (2004), they possess no discrete rotational symmetry and exist at a significantly lower Reynolds numbers (Re). First to appear is a mirror-symmetric traveling wave which is born in a saddle node bifurcation at Re=773. As Re increases, "asymmetric" modes arise through a symmetry-breaking bifurcation. These look to be a minimal coherent unit consisting of one slow streak sandwiched between two fast streaks located preferentially to one side of the pipe. Helical and nonhelical rotating waves are also found, emphasizing the richness of phase space even at these very low Reynolds numbers.     

Heisenberg, uncertainty, and the scanning tunneling microscope

We show by a statistical analysis of high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) experiments, that the interpretation of the density of electron charge as a statistical quantity leads to a conflict with the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Given the precision in these experiments we find that the uncertainty principle would be violated by close to two orders of magnitude, if this interpretation were correct. We are thus forced to conclude that the density of electron charge is a physically real, i.e., in principle precisely measurable quantity.     

On the third moments in helical turbulence

The evolution of the correlation characteristics in homogeneous helical turbulence is studied. Additional Kármán-Howarth-type equations describing the evolution of the mixed correlation tensor of the velocity and vorticity are obtained. In the helical scaling region, the solution of the obtained equation gives the exact relation between the antisymmetric component of a rank-three correlation tensor and the average dissipation of helicity; this relation is a kind of analog of Kolmogorov’s well-known 4/5 law [A. N. Kolmogrov, Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 32(1), 19 (1941)]. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 63, No. 10, 768–772 (25 May 1996)     

A dynamic model to determine vibrations in involute helical gears

A method to determine the dynamic load between two rotating elastic helical gears is presented. The stiffness of the gear teeth is calculated using the finite element method and includes the contribution from the elliptic distributed tooth load. To make sure that the new incoming contacts which are the main excitation source are properly simulated, the necessary deformation of the gears is determined by using the true geometry and positions of the gears for every time step of the dynamic calculation. This allows the contact to be positioned outside the plane of action. A numerical example is presented with figures that show the behaviour of the dynamic transmission error as well as the variation of the contact pressure due to the dynamic load for different rotational speeds.     

Neoclassical transport in the helical reversed-field pinch

Test particle evaluation of the diffusion coefficient in a fusion plasma in the reversed-field pinch (RFP) configuration shows distinct similarities with stellarators when the plasma spontaneously evolves towards a helical shape. The almost total absence of superbanana particles at the levels of helical deformation seen in experiment (Bh/B=10%) causes transport to be proportional to collision frequency (at low collisions). This fact excludes the possibility that the minimum conceivable transport could be inversely proportional to collision frequency, which is typical of unoptimized stellarators. This result strengthens the perspectives of the helical RFP as a fusion configuration.     

A stable-focus pattern in quantum geometrodynamics

A nonstationary solution to the gravitational analog of the Schr?dinger equation in quantum geometrodynamics is analyzed. It is found that the evolution trajectory in functional space can appear as a stable-focus pattern.     

Existence of mach cones and helical vortical structures around the underexpanded circular jet in the helical oscillation mode

Existence of Mach cone and helical vortical structure in the helical oscillation mode of an underexpanded circular jet was confirmed by using schlieren instantaneous photographs and drawing of the envelopes of the Mach cones by the superposition of spherical sound waves radiated from two moving sound sources about the jet axis at a supersonic speed. Existence of such structures was conjectured in our earlier paper [Umeda and Ishii, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 110, 1845-1858 (2001)]. The envelopes of a Mach cone are observed as a V-shaped pattern composed of a pair of clear fine lines starting from a prominent point, which rotates about the jet axis. The helical vortical structure is observed as a bright pattern of the gathering of the tiny specks around the jet. It always appears to overlap on the envelopes of the moving Mach cones.     

Continual deformation analysis with scanning phase method and time sequence phase method in temporal speckle pattern interferometry

If a laser beam illuminates a continual deformation object surface, it will lead to a temporal speckle pattern on the observation plane. Recording this time-dependent speckle pattern the deformation of the surface of an object can be obtained. Two methods, scanning phase method (SPM) and time sequence phase method (TSPM), have been introduced for measuring the displacement caused by the deformation in temporal speckle pattern interferometry (TSPI). Their principle is that by capturing a series of speckle interference patterns related to the object deformations, the fluctuations in the intensity of the interference patterns can be obtained. Through scanning these fluctuations and estimating both the average intensity and modulation of the temporal speckle interference patterns, the phase maps for whole-field displacements are calculated. In this way one is capable of quantitatively measuring continual displacements simply using a conventional electronic speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI) system without phase shifting or a carrier. The elaboration on the new methods is given in this paper and experiments are performed to demonstrate their performance with a conventional ESPI system.     

Application of the new pattern recognition system in the new e-nose to detecting Chinese spirits

We present a new pattern recognition system based on moving average and linear discriminant analysis （LDA）, which can be used to process the original signal of the new polymer quartz piezoelectric crystal air-sensitive sensor system we designed, called the new e-nose. Using the new e-nose, we obtain the template datum of Chinese spirits via a new pattern recognition system. To verify the effectiveness of the new pattern recognition system, we select three kinds of Chinese spirits to test, our results confirm that the new pattern recognition system can perfectly identify and distinguish between the Chinese spirits.