Finite strain stress fields near the tip of an interface crack between a soft incompressible elastic material and a rigid substrate

We present a numerical study of finite strain stress fields near the tip of an interface crack between a rigid substrate and an incompressible hyperelastic solid using the finite element method (FEM). The finite element (FE) simulations make use of a remeshing scheme to overcome mesh distortion. Analyses are carried out by assuming that the crack tip is either pinned, i.e., the elastic material is perfectly bonded (no slip) to the rigid substrate, or the crack lies on a frictionless interface. We focus on a material which hardens exponentially. To explore the effect of geometric constraint on the near tip stress fields, simulations are carried out under plane stress and plane strain conditions. For both the frictionless interface and the pinned crack under plane stress deformation, we found that the true stress field directly ahead of the crack tip is dominated by the normal opening stress and the crack face opens up smoothly. This is also true for an interface crack along a frictionless boundary in plane strain deformation. However, for a pinned interface crack under plane strain deformation, the true opening normal stress is found to be lower than the shear stress and the transverse normal stress. Also, the crack opening profile for a pinned crack under plane strain deformation is completely different from those seen in plane stress and in plane strain (frictionless interface). The crack face flips over and the tip angle is almost tangential to the interface. Our results suggest that interface friction can play a very important role in interfacial fracture of soft materials on hard substrates.     

Intrinsic ferromagnetism in insulating cobalt doped anatase TiO2

Using complementary experiments we show that the room temperature ferromagnetism observed in anatase Co:TiO(2) films is not carrier mediated, but coexists with the dielectric state. TEM and x-ray absorption spectroscopy reveal a solid solution of Co in anatase, where Co is not metallic but in the +2 state substituting for Ti. Measurements at 300 K yield a M(S) of 1.1 mu(B)/Co atom, while all films are highly insulating. The evidence of intrinsic ferromagnetism in the dielectric ground state of Co:TiO(2) leads to new considerations for the origin of ferromagnetism in transition metal doped oxides.     

Quantum Chemical and Corrosion Inhibition Studies of (4-Chlorophenyl)-N-(4-Methylphenyl) Nitrone

The compound (4-chlorophenyl)-N-(4-methylphenyl) nitrone (4CPNMPN) has been selected as one of the new nitrone derivative for our study. The molecular structure of the compound was investigated based on frontier orbital analysis and natural bond orbital (NBO) theory. The present work also focuses on the inhibition efficiency of the compound. It is an attempt to find the correlation between the molecular structure of the compound and possible behaviour like corrosion inhibitors. The NBO analysis and the values of electric dipole moment (μ) of the investigated molecule were computed using DFT calculations. The molecule orbital contributions were studied by using the total (TDOS) density of states. The strong evidences that the compound can be used as an efficient nonlinear optical (NLO) of 4CPNMPN were demonstrated by considerable polarizability and hyperpolarizability values obtained at DFT levels.     

Design and Analysis of Microstrip-Based RF Birdcage Coil for 1.5 T Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique is widely used to capture the images of the liquid items inside the human body. The radio-frequency (RF) coil is one of the important modules present inside an MRI system, which plays a major role in image quality. In this work, a microstrip-based high-pass RF birdcage coil is proposed for 1.5 T MRI. The cylindrical-shaped birdcage coil consists of 12 microstrip radiating elements and tuning capacitors to achieve a resonance at 63.85 MHz. The coil is made up of 10 mm polytetrafluoroethylene substrate coated by a conducting transmission line of desired length and width. A finite difference time domain simulation is carried out to analyze the return loss (S₁₁), magnetic field homogeneity and Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) parameters of the RF coil. The SAR values of the proposed microstrip-based 1.5 T birdcage coil was compared with 3 T RF birdcage coil. The simulation results indicate the proposed birdcage coil structure gives optimal values of S₁₁, magnetic field homogeneity and SAR.     

The temporal effect in listeners with mild to moderate cochlear hearing impairment

This study examines the relationship between a temporal masking effect and cochlear hearing impairment. The threshold level of a long-duration broadband masker needed to mask a short-duration tonal signal was measured for signals presented 2 ms (short-delay) or 202 ms (long-delay condition) after masker onset. The difference between these thresholds is the temporal effect. In two previous studies with normal-hearing listeners, estimates of gain of the cochlear active process derived from such data suggested a decrease in gain during the course of the masker. This hypothesis was further examined in the present study by testing listeners with mild to moderate cochlear hearing impairment. Results are consistent with a decrease in gain in the short-delay condition with increasing hearing impairment, and also less change in gain with increasing hearing impairment.     

Effect of the Radiation Power Density on the Sensitivity of a Diamond Detector

This paper presents the results of an experimental study of the sensitivity of a detector made of natural diamond of the IIa type as a function of the power density of the radiation of a pulsed xenon lamp. It has been shown that the sensitivity of the detector depends on the power density of the xenon lamp radiation and equals about (1–6)·10^–4 A/W. A monotonic decrease in sensitivity of the detector during a radiation pulse has been detected. The minimum resistance of the diamond crystal with an irradiated face of area 3 mm², placed 7 mm away from the axis of the xenon lamp, was 300 , which corresponds to a specific conductivity of 2.2 ^–1·m^–1.     

Syntheses of stereochemically diverse nine-membered ring-containing biaryls

[reaction: see text] A library of nine-membered, biaryl-containing rings has been synthesized in parallel on polystyrene macrobeads. Dimeric medium rings were shown to be accessible via a regio- and stereoselective double cyclization.     

Long-range molecular resonances in a cold Rydberg gas

We present evidence for molecular resonances in a cold dense gas of rubidium Rydberg atoms. Single UV photon excitation from the 5s ground state to np Rydberg states (n=50-90) reveals resonances at energies corresponding to excited atom pairs (n-1)d+ns. We attribute these normally forbidden transitions to avoided crossings between the long-range molecular potentials of two Rydberg atoms. These strong van der Waals interactions result in avoided crossings at extremely long range, e.g., approximately 58 000 times the Bohr radius (a(0)) for n=70.