Modelling the velocity of air through beds of cereal grains

The quality of cereal grains in storage will deteriorate toan unacceptable level if they are not kept dry and cool. Tomodel the drying and cooling process, an accurate knowledgeof the airflow distribution is required. In this paper, theequations used to model the air velocity are analysed. To study the flow of air through a typical drying system forstored grain, a two-dimensional rectangular bin is considered,with a single source of air on the bin floor. Two paths ofstudyare undertaken: the first is a linear analysis for low velocities,and following on from this is a nonlinear approach for largervelocities. The linear analysis is used to study a bin witha semi-infinite height, and the drying pattern is studied inthis bin using the air traverse time. Then bins with a finiteheight are analysed: it is shown that, for tall enough bins,the semi-infinite solution is accurate enough. A perturbationanalysis is used to study the semi-infinite bin when the airvelocity is too large for the linear analysis to be accu rate.It is shown that the effect of the nonlinearity is to move theair away from the high-velocity regions towards the areas oflower velocity.     

Setting the Quantum Integrand of M-Theory

In anomaly-free quantum field theories the integrand in the bosonic functional integral—the exponential of the effective action after integrating out fermions—is often defined only up to a phase without an additional choice. We term this choice ``setting the quantum integrand'. In the low-energy approximation to M-theory the E₈-model for the C-field allows us to set the quantum integrand using geometric index theory. We derive mathematical results of independent interest about pfaffians of Dirac operators in 8k+3 dimensions, both on closed manifolds and manifolds with boundary. These theorems are used to set the quantum integrand of M-theory for closed manifolds and for compact manifolds with either temporal (global) or spatial (local) boundary conditions. In particular, we show that M-theory makes sense on arbitrary 11-manifolds with spatial boundary, generalizing the construction of heterotic M-theory on cylinders. The work of D.F. is supported in part by NSF grant DMS-0305505. The work of G.M. is supported in part by DOE grant DE-FG02-96ER40949     

On a Moving Boundary Problem Aristing in Fluidized Bed Combustion

We consider a model describing the combustion of a coal particlein a fluidized bed, in which attrition plays a dominant role.The model consists of (1) a quasi-linear elliptic equation forthe oxygen concentration, supplemented by boundary conditionson the moving surface representing the burning particle interface,(2) an evolution equation for the carbon consumption, and (3)an equation governing the motion of the interface in terms ofa specified function of the carbon consumption at the interface.We prove a global existence and uniqueness result, togetherwith a priori bounds for the solution; the existence of travellingwaves will also be established.     

A modk index theorem

Oblatum 12-I-1991 & 15-IV-1991     

Multifrequency Two-Dimensional Fourier Transform ESR: An X/Ku–Band Spectrometer

A two-dimensional Fourier Transform ESR (2D FT ESR) spectrometer operating at 9.25 and 17.35 GHz is described. The Ku-band bridge uses an efficient heterodyne technique wherein 9.25 GHz is the intermediate frequency. At Ku-band the sensitivity is increased by almost an order of magnitude. One may routinely collect a full 2D ELDOR spectrum in less than 20 min for a sample containing 0.5–5 nmol of nitroxide spin-probe in the slow-motional regime. Broad spectral coverage at Ku-band is obtained by use of a bridged loop-gap resonator (BLGR) and of a dielectric ring resonator (DR). It is shown that an even more uniform spectral excitation is obtained by using shorter microwave pulses of about 3 ns duration. The dead-time at Ku-band is just 30–40 ns, yielding an improved SNR in 2D ELDOR spectra of nitroxide spin-probes withT₂as short as 20–30 ns. A comparison of 2D ELDOR spectra obtained at 9.25 and 17.35 GHz for spin-labeled phospholipid probes (16PC) in 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoglycerol (DMPG) membrane vesicles showed that both spectra could be satisfactorily simulated using the same set of model parameters even though they are markedly different in appearance. The improved sensitivity and shorter dead-time at Ku-band made it possible to obtain orientation-dependent 2D ELDOR spectra of the Cholestane (CSL) spin-probe in macroscopically aligned lipid bilayers of egg yolk PC using samples containing only 1 mg of lipid and just 5 nmol of spin-probe.     

ABSOLUTELY UNSTABLE WAVES IN INVISCID HYDROELASTIC SYSTEMS

The effect of inviscid plug flow on the stability of several hydroelastic systems is investigated by determining the absolute or convective nature of the instability from the linear dispersion relation. The fluid-structure systems consist of plates and membranes with bounded and unbounded flow. A method is proposed to derive systematically in parameter space the boundary between convective and absolute instability, based on the particular symmetries of the dispersion relation as originally noted by Crighton and Oswell. This method is then applied to the case of plates with superimposed tension, thick plates with rotary inertia and walls made of plates or membranes bounding channel flow, oscillating in a sinuous or varicose mode of deformation. A relation is drawn with solutions by previous authors for plates, for pipes and for the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability with surface tension. To illustrate these results some temporal evolutions are calculated by using an integration in the wavenumber space. Based on the large set of new cases solved in the paper some general trends are discussed as to the influence of flow velocity, confinement and structural stiffness on the existence of absolutely unstable waves in inviscid hydroelastic systems.     

Global anomalies on orbifolds

We consider global anomalies for heterotic string theory formulated on orbifolds. The vanishing of certain characteristic classes in group cohomology provides sufficient conditions for the absence of global anomalies. For abelian orbifolds level matching implies these cohomology conditions, so suffices for the absence of anomalies. For nonabelian orbifolds level matching does not suffice, and there are additional constraints. We give some examples to illustrate these new constraints.The first author is partially supported by an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. The second author is supported in part by the NSF contract no. PHY 82-15249, and in part by a fellowship from the Harvard Society of Fellows     

Enhancement of quantum interference effects

We present a method of excitation which enhances quantum beats of certain frequencies and diminishes those at other frequencies. This approach can even produce an effect when the original quantum beats appear to be washed out in large molecules because of the average over many pairs of interfering levels. The excitation of the system involves the absorption of a single photon from a coherent pair of pulses, leading to an additional interference effect with a nonzero quantum yield. The derivations are presented for the atomic-like few level systems, but the more general molecular cases are readily obtained by superposition of all pairs of interfering levels. The analysis incorporates the position and nature of the photon detector.     

Commutators with idempotent values on multilinear polynomials in prime rings

Let R be a prime ring of characteristic different from 2, C its extended centroid, d a nonzero derivation of R, f(x ₁, . . . , x _n ) a multilinear polynomial over C, ρ a nonzero right ideal of R and m > 1 a fixed integer such that

$$\qquad \left ([d(f(r_{1},\ldots ,r_{n})),f(r_{1},\ldots ,r_{n})]\right )^{m}=[d(f(r_{1},\ldots ,r_{n})),f(r_{1},\ldots ,r_{n})] $$

for all r ₁, . . . , r _n ∈ρ. Then either [f(x ₁,…,x _n ),x _n+1]x _n+2 is an identity for ρ or d(ρ)ρ = 0.