Entropies need not to be concave

It is shown that superadditivity and concavity imply homogeneity of order one. Thus an entropy function which is not homogeneous can be either superadditive or concave, but not both. It is argued that it is the former condition which contains the essence of the second law, and an application to black hole systems is pointed out.     

The need is compelling to perform an experiment capable of determining the velocity of gravitational interaction

In earlier papers some proposals were made concerning experiments that could lead to the determination of the velocity of the gravitational interaction. This paper points out that this determination can only be achieved by measuring the delayed gravitational field and not by measuring the propagation velocity of gravitational radiation, which remains a controversial problem, both theoretically and experimentally. The possibility is shown of the existence of a gravitational effect not unlike the Poynting-Robertson light effect and the importance is discussed of its determination for space and astronomical research. Some of the proposed mechanisms for explaining the gravitational interaction are reviewed and their nonviability is objectively pointed out. Finally, conclusions are drawn as to the necessity of carrying out experiments to determine the velocity of the gravitational interaction.     

The Schouten-Nijenhuis bracket and interior products

The main properties of the Schouten-Nijenhuis bracket are reviewed and a new formula is proven, which relates that bracket with the right interior product of multivectors by one-forms.     

The need for long range components in the effective nuclear interaction

It is shown that if one uses single particle energies from experiment and a delta residual interaction it is not possible to obtain the energy of the giant dipole and spurious states of ²⁰⁸Pb, and at the same time obtain reasonable results for the low lying two-particle spectra of ²¹⁰Pb or ²¹⁰Po. Related to the above problem, the isobaric analog state of ²⁰⁸Pb (in ²⁰⁸Bi) comes much too low in calculations using realistic interactions. It is noted here that the above difficulties can be overcome, phenomenologically at least, by adding to the effective interaction some long range repulsive components. The Bansal-French and the Schiffer interactions are examples of these. However, the dipole-dipole component of the Schiffer interaction gives much too large a splitting between the dipole state and spurious state.     

Electrophysiological evidence of nonlinear distortion products to two-tone stimuli

Spectral analysis of auditory-evoked potential recordings from ten normal-hearing subjects to two-tone signals revealed energy at difference tone (DT = f2-f1) and cubic difference (CDT = 2f1-f2) frequencies that was not present in the acoustic signal. Control experiments and calibrations provided substantial evidence supportive of the biological nature of these auditory nonlinearities, suggesting that they are not the result of electromagnetic, acoustic, or analytic artifact. Amplitudes of DT- and CDT-evoked responses were evaluated for rarefaction and condensation signals with f1 = 510 and 800 Hz across frequency ratios (f2/f1) of 1.16, 1.26, 1.36, and 1.46. Additionally, time-domain summation and subtraction of separately collected evoked responses to rarefaction and condensation signals were performed to demonstrate that these electrophysiological DT and CDT responses reflect their expected quadratic and cubic nature. Suggestions for development of clinical applications of assessing auditory nonlinearities using this methodology are provided.     

Diffusion of polymer molecules: The need for a diffusive time scale

Relying on first principles, it is demostrated that the classical Fick law has no place in diffusive processes involving polymer molecules. As a matter of fact, the polymeric flux is shown to depend upon the polymeric stress, the latter of which satisfies a rate-type equation. This in turn implies that time scales will have to be reckoned with in the polymeric mass flux. The frequently cited discrepancy between the polymer migration concept and the constitutive equation concept is resolved. It is demonstrated that Metzner's thermodynamic approach is based on incorrect assumptions. For Rouse model macromolecules the widely used hoop stress argument is shown to be caused by the tendency of the molecules to migrate to the center of the “hoop”.     

Generalized coherent state approach to star products and applications to the fuzzy sphere

We construct a star product associated with an arbitrary two-dimensional Poisson structure using generalized coherent states on the complex plane. From our approach one easily recovers the star product for the fuzzy torus, and also one for the fuzzy sphere. For the latter we need to define the ‘fuzzy’ stereographic projection to the plane and the fuzzy sphere integration measure, which in the commutative limit reduce to the usual formulae for the sphere.     

Radon decay products attached to clothes in a nuclear laboratory

A whole body counter determined the presence of radioactivities up to 21.8 kBq for ²¹⁴Bi and up to 18.7 kBq for ²¹⁴Pb attached to clothes of workers in a Nuclear Research Laboratory. A radon survey reveals that 80% of the monitoring areas have radon concentration values lower than 500 Bq m⁻³, while 10% of the sampling points with values bigger than 1 kBq m⁻³ correspond to the workers mentioned above. By exposing samples of 0.04 m² clothes in a radon chamber, it was observed that radon decay products ²¹⁴Bi and ²¹⁴Pb were attached to them with an activity of 315–618 Bq per each kBq m⁻³ of Rn concentration additionally, fibres characterised with a lower electrostatics build up showed the lower attachment.     

Kronecker products of matrices and an application to Fermi systems

An identity for the trace of an exponential function of Kronecker products of matrices is proved. This identity plays an important role for the calculation of the grand potential of interacting Fermi systems. For the HamiltonianH= _i n _i n _i wheren _i =c _i ⁺ n _i (c _i ⁺ : Fermi creation operator at the ith site with spin) we calculate the specific heat for different numbers of electrons per lattice site. Finally, we extend our calculations to find approximative solutions of the Hubbard model.     

The need for introduction of non-probabilistic interval conceptions into structural analysis and design

正With the growing complexity of engineering structures and the severity of their service environments,the uncertainties related to material properties,external loads,boundary conditions,measurement noises,etc.,have increased.Uncertainty greatly influences structural safety,and hence,it is necessary to completely understand all the uncertainties involved when tackling analysis and design issues[1].Traditional approaches to uncertainty analysis and design     

Algebraic approach to the theory of chronological products of currents II

In continuation of Part I of this investigation, the causality condition is generalized to equivalence classes of functionals possessing the same values on mass-shell. For this purpose certain algebras of n-point functions are introduced. The resulting equations are less restrictive and admit, therefore, a larger class of solutions. The algebraic structure is illustrated on the example of group algebras corresponding to certain generalized Weyl groups of functionals.     

Canonical maps between semidirect products with applications to elasticity and superfluids

It is shown that two canonical maps arising in the Poisson bracket formulations of elasticity and superfluids are particular instances of general canonical maps between duals of semidirect product Lie algebras.     

科研院所如何提高产品的核心竞争力

根据科研院所产品研发、生产的管理特点,结合作者多年从事科研生产管理及质量管理的经验,论述了通过产品策划、设计、制度建设以及执行、成本控制等诸方面提升核心竞争力的措施。     

Ultrasound-assisted conversion of tannic acid to gallic acid as a strategy to obtain value-added products

In this work, ultrasound was applied for the conversion of tannic acid into gallic acid using only diluted H₂O₂ as reagent. Experiments were carried out using several types of ultrasonic horns operating at 20 kHz (VC750W processor). The following experimental conditions were evaluated: H₂O₂ concentration (0.2 to 8.5 mol L⁻¹), horn type (10 to 25 mm of diameter), ultrasound amplitude (20 to 70%), sonication time (10 to 45 min), tannic acid concentration (170 to 1360 mg L⁻¹), and reaction temperature (50 to 90 °C). Gallic acid production was monitored with ultra-performance liquid chromatography with high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-ToF-MS). The isolated gallic acid was confirmed with nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H and ¹³C NMR). It is important to emphasize that this study was developed as a proof of concept to demonstrate the potential of ultrasound for tannic acid conversion into gallic acid using just diluted H₂O₂. Under selected conditions gallic acid production yield was 128 ± 4 mg g⁻¹ of initial tannic acid (using 170 mg L⁻¹ of tannic acid as starting material). Reaction time was set as 30 min, which was carried out using 1 mol L⁻¹ H₂O₂ and ultrasound amplitude of 50% at 90 °C. At silent conditions (mechanical stirring, from 100 to 1000 rpm), gallic acid production was halved (less than 78 ± 4 mg g⁻¹ of initial tannic acid).