A spectroscopic database for water vapor adapted to spectral properties at high temperature, and moderate resolution

The prediction of infrared spectral radiance from high temperature media such as combustion gases requires spectroscopic data for triatomic molecules like water vapor and carbone dioxyde. At temperature above 2000 K, water vapor spectrum is composed of hundreds of thousands lines making practical computations uneasy. We have set up a spectroscopic database for water vapor, based on three existing lines compilations. This database is well suited to computation of remote sensing spectra where hot gases emission is seen through atmospheric paths. The database enables efficient computation of water vapor spectra between 600 and 6600 cm⁻¹ at moderate spectral resolution (5 cm⁻¹). It has been used to compute parameters of a statistical narrow band model which are used in practical applications.     

Inexact Proximal Point Methods for Equilibrium Problems in Banach Spaces

We introduce two inexact proximal-like methods for solving equilibrium problems in reflexive Banach spaces and establish their convergence properties, proving that the sequence generated by each one of them converges to a solution of the equilibrium problem under reasonable assumptions.     

Convergence analysis for a multiplicatively relaxed EM algorithm

The expectation maximization (EM) algorithm is an iterative procedure used to determine maximum likelihood estimators in situations of incomplete data. In the case of independent Poisson variables it converges to a solution of a problem of the form min ∑[〈aⁱ,x〉 ? b_i log 〈aⁱ, x〉] such that x ?0. Thus, it can be used to solve systems of the form Ax = b, x?0 (with A stochastic and b positive.) It converges to a feasible solution if it exists and to an approximate one otherwise (the one that minimizes d (b, Ax), where d is the Kullback–Leibler information divergence). We study the convergence of the multiplicatively relaxed version proposed by Tanaka for use in positron emission tomography. We prove global convergence in the underrelaxed and unrelaxed cases. In the overrelaxed case we present a local convergence theorem together with two partial global results: the sequence generated by the algorithm is bounded and, if it converges, its limit point is a solution of the aforementioned problem.     

Cosmological Plebanski theory

We consider the cosmological symmetry reduction of the Plebanski action as a toy-model to explore, in this simple framework, some issues related to loop quantum gravity and spin-foam models. We make the classical analysis of the model and perform both path integral and canonical quantizations. As for the full theory, the reduced model admits two disjoint types of classical solutions: topological and gravitational ones. The quantization mixes these two solutions, which prevents the model from being equivalent to standard quantum cosmology. Furthermore, the topological solution dominates at the classical limit. We also study the effect of an Immirzi parameter in the model.     

Even-dimensional topological gravity from Chern–Simons gravity

It is shown that the topological action for gravity in 2n  -dimensions can be obtained from the (2n+1)$(2n+1)$-dimensional Chern–Simons gravity genuinely invariant under the Poincaré group. The 2n  -dimensional topological gravity is described by the dynamics of the boundary of a (2n+1)$(2n+1)$-dimensional Chern–Simons gravity theory with suitable boundary conditions.     

Combining direct & indirect kaon CP violation to constrain the warped KK scale

The Randall–Sundrum (RS) framework has a built in protection against flavour violation, but still generically suffers from little CP problems. The most stringent bound on flavour violation is due to ?K${\mathrm{?}}_K$, which is inversely proportional to the fundamental Yukawa scale. Hence the RS ?K${\mathrm{?}}_K$ problem can be ameliorated by effectively increasing the Yukawa scale with a bulk Higgs, as was recently observed in arXiv:0810.1016. We point out that incorporating the constraint from ?^′/?K${\mathrm{?}}^{\prime }/{\mathrm{?}}_K$, which is proportional to the Yukawa scale, raises the lower bound on the KK scale compared to previous analyses. The bound is conservatively estimated to be 5.5 TeV, choosing the most favorable Higgs profile, and 7.5 TeV for the profile which roughly reproduces the two site case. Relaxing this bound might require some form of RS flavour alignment. As a by-product of our analysis, we also provide the leading order flavour structure of the theory with a bulk Higgs.     

A critical experimental study of the classical tactile threshold theory

Background  

The tactile sense is being used in a variety of applications involving tactile human-machine interfaces. In a significant number of publications the classical threshold concept plays a central role in modelling and explaining psychophysical experimental results such as in stochastic resonance (SR) phenomena. In SR, noise enhances detection of sub-threshold stimuli and the phenomenon is explained stating that the required amplitude to exceed the sensory threshold barrier can be reached by adding noise to a sub-threshold stimulus. We designed an experiment to test the validity of the classical vibrotactile threshold. Using a second choice experiment, we show that individuals can order sensorial events below the level known as the classical threshold. If the observer's sensorial system is not activated by stimuli below the threshold, then a second choice could not be above the chance level. Nevertheless, our experimental results are above that chance level contradicting the definition of the classical tactile threshold.     

Oxidase‐Like Activity of Polymer‐Coated Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles

Inorganic enzyme? Ceria nanoparticles exhibit unique oxidase‐like activity at acidic pH values. These redox catalysts can be used in immunoassays (ELISA) when modified with targeting ligands (see picture; light blue and yellow structures are nanoparticles with attached ligands). This modification allows both for binding and for detection by the catalytic oxidation of sensitive colorimetric dyes (e.g. TMB).

     

Hierarchical Functionalized Polymeric‐Ceramic Coatings on Mg‐Ca Alloys for Biodegradable Implant Applications

Magnesium‐based implants present several advantages for clinical applications, in particular due to their biocompatibility and degradability. However, degradation products can affect negatively the cell activity. In this work, a combined coating strategy to control the implant degradation and cell regulation processes is evaluated, including plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) that produces a 13 µm‐thick Ca, P, and Si containing ceramic coating with surface porosity, and breath figures (BF) approach that produces a porous polymeric poly(ε‐caprolactone) surface. The degradation of PCL‐PEO‐coated Mg hierarchical scaffold can be tailored to promote cell adhesion and proliferation into the porous structure. As a result, cell culture can colonize the inner PEO‐ceramic coating structure where higher amount of bioelements are present. The Mg/PEO/PCL/BF scaffolds exhibit equally good or better premyoblast cell adhesion and proliferation compared with Ti CP control. The biological behavior of this new hierarchical functionalized scaffold can improve the implantation success in bone and cardiovascular clinical applications.     

The thioketone–enethiol tautomerism of aliphatic thiocarbonyls: An ab initio study

Approximate minimum energy reaction paths have been calculated for two thioketone–enethiol tautomeric systems using an ab initio SCF–MO method. The calculations indicate nearly equal stabil ties of the isolated tautomers in both systems and an energy barrier of ca. 85 kcal/mol for their interconversion. This barrier is expected to be significantly lower in solution as a result of solvent–solute interactions.