Sensitivity of a tucuxi (Sotalia fluviatilis guianensis) to airborne sound

Auditory systems of cetaceans are considered highly specialized for underwater sound processing, whereas the extent of their hearing capacity in air is still a point of issue. In this study, the sensitivity to airborne sound in a male tucuxi (Sotalia fluviatilis guianensis) was tested by means of a go/no go response paradigm. Auditory thresholds were obtained from 2 to 31.5 kHz. Compared to the hearing thresholds of other dolphins as well as of amphibian mammals, the sensitivity to airborne sound of the test subject is low from 2 to 8 kHz, with the highest threshold at 4 kHz. Thresholds at 16 and 31.5 kHz reveal a sharp increase in hearing sensitivity. Thus, although not obtained in this study, the upper aerial hearing limit is in the ultrasonic range. A comparison of the present data with the underwater audiogram of the same test subject referred to sound intensity indicates that the sensitivity of Sotalia to underwater sound is generally better than to airborne sound.     

Periodic Solutions for Completely Resonant Nonlinear Wave Equations with Dirichlet Boundary Conditions

We consider the nonlinear string equation with Dirichlet boundary conditions u_tt–u_xx=(u), with (u)=u³+O(u⁵) odd and analytic, 0, and we construct small amplitude periodic solutions with frequency for a large Lebesgue measure set of close to 1. This extends previous results where only a zero-measure set of frequencies could be treated (the ones for which no small divisors appear). The proof is based on combining the Lyapunov-Schmidt decomposition, which leads to two separate sets of equations dealing with the resonant and non-resonant Fourier components, respectively the Q and the P equations, with resummation techniques of divergent powers series, allowing us to control the small divisors problem. The main difficulty with respect to the nonlinear wave equations u_tt–u_xx+Mu=(u), M0, is that not only the P equation but also the Q equation is infinite-dimensional.     

Melting of bosonic stripes

We use quantum Monte Carlo simulations to determine the finite temperature phase diagram and to investigate the thermal and quantum melting of stripe phases in a two-dimensional hard-core boson model. At half filling and low temperatures the stripes melt at a first order transition. In the doped system, the melting transitions of the smectic phase at high temperatures and the superfluid smectic (supersolid) phase at low temperatures are either very weakly first order, or of second order with no clear indications for an intermediate nematic phase.     

Plume separation effect in pulsed laser ablation deposition

The results of a new geometrical configuration of pulsed laser ablation deposition technique that uses a hemi-cylindrical transparent plastic substrate are presented and discussed. With the new arrangement, two distinct components with different material compositions have been clearly observed. While the first component comprises atoms, ions and molecules and constitutes visible or the so-called luminous plume, the second component is formed of fragments, clusters and liquid droplets and is invisible to the naked eye. The latter component constitutes a major part of the ablated material. The luminous plume symmetry axis does not coincide with the mass distribution symmetry axis. In the case of Si ablation and 45° incident beam angle, the maximum deflection angle of the luminous plume reaches 30° with respect to the normal to the target surface, while the deflection angle of the second component is higher than 40°. The change in the target morphology and the dependence of the composition of the ablated material on local fluence, along with the hydrodynamic effects, is sought to explain this previously unexpected and unreported phenomenon. PACS 61.80.Ba; 47.35.+i; 52.38.Mf; 81.15.Fg     

The German bakery waste incident; use of a combined approach of screening and confirmation for dioxins in feed and food

During the last six years several incidents have occurred with dioxins in feed, stressing the need for rapid screening methods for these compounds. The most recent incident was the contamination of bakery waste used for animal feed due to the use of waste wood for drying of the material. In addition to Germany, the material was also shipped to the Netherlands. Levels up to 12 ng TEQ/kg have been detected, being about 15 times over the current limit of 0.75 ng TEQ/kg. In the Netherlands a combined strategy of screening with the CALUX-bioassay and the HRGC/HRMS confirmatory method was used to rapidly control the incident. Pigs were contaminated by the incident but only to a very limited extent. Despite the rather low limits for pig meat, the CALUX bioassay showed excellent performance, once again confirming the value of this assay.     

Quasi-Periodic Solutions for Two-Level Systems

We consider the Schrödinger equation for a class of two-level atoms in a quasi-periodic external field in the case in which the spacing 2 between the two unperturbed energy levels is small, and we study the problem of finding quasi-periodic solutions of a related generalized Riccati equation. We prove the existence of quasi-periodic solutions of the latter equation for a Cantor set of values of around the origin which is of positive Lebesgue measure: such solutions can be obtained from the formal power series by a suitable resummation procedure. The set can be characterized by requesting infinitely many Diophantine conditions of Melnikov type.     

Quantum signatures in laser-driven relativistic multiple scattering

The dynamics of an electronic Dirac wave packet evolving under the influence of an ultraintense laser pulse and an ensemble of highly charged ions is investigated numerically. Special emphasis is placed on the evolution of quantum signatures from single to multiple scattering events. We quantify the occurrence of quantum relativistic interference fringes in various situations and stress their significance in multiple-particle systems, even in the relativistic range of laser-matter interaction.     

Existence and stability of modulating pulse solutions in Maxwell’s equations describing nonlinear optics

Modulating pulse solutions play a big rôle in modern long distance high speed communication. Such solutions consist of a traveling pulse-like envelope modulating an underlying electromagnetic wave. In this paper we show that under certain assumptions such solutions exist and are dynamically stable for the associated nonlinear partial differential equations, namely Maxwells integro-differential equations describing nonlinear optics. The analysis is worked out in detail for bulk media, and we discuss how the results extend to optical fibers and to parametrically forced systems.