Dynamic stability of elastically supported pipes conveying pulsating fluid

The effect of support flexibility on the dynamic behaviour of pipes conveying fluid is investigated for both steady and pulsatile flows. The pipes are built-in at the upstream end and supported at the other by both a translational and a rotational spring. For the steady flow condition, the critical flow velocities, the frequencies and flow induced damping patterns that are associated with the different vibration modes of selected pipe systems are determined as functions of the flow velocity. The results from steady flow cases show that the pipes may first lose stability by either buckling or flutter, depending on the values of the rotational and translational spring constants and their relative magnitudes. In the case of pulsatile flow, the Floquet theory is utilized for the stability analysis of the selected pipe-fluid systems. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the effects of the amount of translational and rotational resiliences at the elastic support on the regions of parametric and combination resonances of the pipes. The results more of the interesting aspects of the behaviour of non-conservative systems.     

Circular dichroism induced by Fano resonances in planar chiral oligomers

We present a general theory of circular dichroism in planar chiral nanostructures with rotational symmetry. It is demonstrated, analytically, that the handedness of the incident field's polarization can control whether a nanostructure induces either absorption or scattering losses, even when the total optical loss (extinction) is polarization‐independent. We show that this effect is a consequence of modal interference so that strong circular dichroism in absorption and scattering can be engineered by combining Fano resonances with planar chiral nanoparticle clusters.

     

The influence of age and high-frequency hearing loss on sensitivity to temporal fine structure at low frequencies (L)

Sensitivity to temporal fine structure (TFS) at low frequencies may be adversely affected by hearing loss at high frequencies even when absolute thresholds at low frequencies are within the normal range. However, in several studies suggesting this, the effects of hearing loss and age were confounded. Here, interaural phase discrimination (IPD) thresholds for pure tones at 500 and 750 Hz were measured for 39 subjects with ages from 61 to 83 yr. All subjects had near-normal audiometric thresholds at low frequencies, but thresholds varied across subjects at high frequencies. IPD thresholds were correlated with age. IPD thresholds for the test frequency of 750 Hz were weakly correlated with absolute thresholds at high frequencies, but these correlations became non-significant when the effect of age was partialed out. The results do not confirm that sensitivity to TFS at low frequencies is influenced by hearing loss at high frequencies, independently of age.     

The effects of a small transverse magnetic field upon acapacitively coupled RF discharge

A capacitively-coupled RF argon discharge at a pressure of 10 mTorr with a plate separation of 7.5 cm has been studied both experimentally and using a one-dimensional particle in cell simulation with Monte Carlo collisions. A magnetic field of 0 to 60 G is applied in the direction parallel to the capacitor plates. In the simulation it was found that as the magnetic field was increased such that the electron cyclotron orbit radius of the hot electrons became smaller than of the order of the discharge length, the electron heating in the bulk of the discharge increased. The dominant electron heating mechanism was observed to change from a stochastic sheath to a bulk ohmic electron heating mode, with a variation of field from a to 10 G. This was accompanied by a drop in the plasma density at small magnetic fields, which was also observed experimentally. At higher magnetic fields the plasma density was found to increase, A detailed discussion of the simulation results is presented drawing comparisons with the experimental results, with which there is good agreement, and a simple magnetohydrodynamic model for the bulk heating     

Observation of harmonic generation and nonlinear coupling in the collective dynamics of a bose-einstein condensate

We report the observation of harmonic generation and strong nonlinear coupling of two collective modes of a condensed gas of rubidium atoms. Using a modified time averaged orbiting potential trap we changed the trap anisotropy to a value where the frequency of the m = 0 high-lying mode corresponds to twice the frequency of the m = 0 low-lying mode, thus leading to strong nonlinear coupling between these modes. By changing the anisotropy of the trap and exciting the low-lying mode we observed significant frequency shifts of this fundamental mode and also the generation of its second harmonic.     

The effects of age and cochlear hearing loss on temporal fine structure sensitivity, frequency selectivity, and speech reception in noise

Temporal fine structure (TFS) sensitivity, frequency selectivity, and speech reception in noise were measured for young normal-hearing (NHY), old normal-hearing (NHO), and hearing-impaired (HI) subjects. Two measures of TFS sensitivity were used: the "TFS-LF test" (interaural phase difference discrimination) and the "TFS2 test" (discrimination of harmonic and frequency-shifted tones). These measures were not significantly correlated with frequency selectivity (after partialing out the effect of audiometric threshold), suggesting that insensitivity to TFS cannot be wholly explained by a broadening of auditory filters. The results of the two tests of TFS sensitivity were significantly but modestly correlated, suggesting that performance of the tests may be partly influenced by different factors. The NHO group performed significantly more poorly than the NHY group for both measures of TFS sensitivity, but not frequency selectivity, suggesting that TFS sensitivity declines with age in the absence of elevated audiometric thresholds or broadened auditory filters. When the effect of mean audiometric threshold was partialed out, speech reception thresholds in modulated noise were correlated with TFS2 scores, but not measures of frequency selectivity or TFS-LF test scores, suggesting that a reduction in sensitivity to TFS can partly account for the speech perception difficulties experienced by hearing-impaired subjects.     

Sulfuration and reversion reactions of brominated poly(isobutylene‐co‐isoprene)

The sulfuration and reversion products of brominated poly(isobutylene‐co‐isoprene) (BIIR) were characterized through the use of a model compound, brominated 2,2,4,8,8‐pentamethyl‐4‐nonene (BPMN). The reaction of BPMN with S₈ produced bisallylic polysulfides of various ranks, yielding sulfur bromide intermediates that likely contributed to the rapid oxidation of allylic sulfides into thiophenes. Reductive cure reversion to pentamethylnonene was also observed in the latter stages of vulcanization. The reaction of 2,2′‐dithiobisbenzothiazole with BIIR and BPMN produced a stable adduct that reduced the concentration of allylic bromide available for vulcanization. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 1915–1926, 2003     

Proton magnetic resonance spectra of leukotriene a methyl ester (I), leukotriene B methyl ester diacetate (II) and 12-epi-6-E,8-Z-leukotriene B methyl ester diacetate (III; 5-S,12-di-HETE)

High resolution proton magnetic resonance (pmr) spectra of derivatives of three important 5-oxygenated eicosanoids of synthetic origin, leukotriene A methyl ester (I), leukotriene b methyl ester diacetate (II) and 5-S,12-S-di-HETE methyl ester diacetate (III) have been obtained. In the case of II and III, good spectra could also be obtained for samples of biological origin although only microgram amounts were available, and their identity with those from synthetic material provided independent confirmation of stereochemistry and structure for leukotriene B and 5-S,12-S-di-HETE. The complex pmr spectra of I, II and III were also analyzed systematically to determine peak assignments and coupling constants, and from these, significant information with regard to molecular conformation was derived.     

The tungsten Auger transitions : 150–200 eV

The low-energy Auger spectrum of tungsten, induced by electron bombardment, has been studied. The second-derivative detection mode was employed to improve the resolution of fine structure. A comparison of N(E) spectra and yield curves with theoretical Auger rates and line energies showed that N_4,5N_6,7X processes dominate the spectrum, where X denotes N_6,7 or O_2,3. The core—core—valence (X = O_4,5) processes occur with low probability. The N₄N₅V transition appears to be energetically allowed in tungsten, and to occur at a sufficiently high rate to alter the initial N₅ : N₄ hole-states ratio for the above Coster—Kronig and super-Coster—Kronig processes. For primary excitation energies above 425 eV, there is also a small contribution (about 12% at maximum) from N₃N₅V processes, which occurs around 166 eV.