The Millimeter-Wave Spectrum of 2,3-Dihydrofuran

The millimeter-wave spectrum of 2,3-dihydrofuran in the ground and five ring-puckering excited states has been measured in the frequency range 100–250 GHz. The ground and first ring-puckering excited states have been fitted to a two-state Hamiltonian including Coriolis coupling interaction. The determined energy difference of 18.684(7) cm⁻¹between these states and theaandbtype coupling parameters are consistent with the ring-puckering potential function and the previously observed dependence of the centrifugal distortion constants Δ_JK, Δ_K, and δ_K. A small ring-puckering dependence of the quartic centrifugal distortion constants Δ_Jand δ_Jhas been also observed. This dependence is well accounted for in terms of the ring-puckering potential function and the vibrational dependence of the rotational constants.     

Pierre Turq,an inspirational scientist in charge and at interfaces

Pierre Turq has made decisive contributions to the theory and to the multiscale simulation of charged systems, such as molten salts, electrolyte solutions and colloidal suspensions, in the bulk, at interfaces and under confinement. His research line focussed on dynamical properties and was characterised by constant efforts to connect his theoretical work to both experiments and practical applications. In this article, his colleagues and former students pay a tribute to his past and current research interests by illustrating some recent developments accomplished in his laboratory.     

On DRC‐covering of Kn by cycles

This paper considers the cycle covering of complete graphs motivated by the design of survivable WDM networks, where the requests are routed on INF‐networks which are protected independently from each other. The problem can be stated as follows: for a given graph G, find a cycle covering of the edge set of K_n, where V(K_n) = V(G), such that each cycle in the covering satisfies the disjoint routing constraint (DRC7rpar;, relatively to G, which can be stated as follows: to each edge of K_n we associate in G a path and all the paths associated to the edges of a cycle of the covering must be vertex disjoint. Here we consider the case where G = C_n, a ring of size n and we want to minimize the number of cycles in the covering. We give optimal solutions for the problem as well as for variations of the problem, namely, its directed version and the case when the cycle length is fixed to 4. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 11: 100–112, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/jcd.10040     

The elliptic functions and integrals of the “{1 \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {1 9}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} 9}” problem

We describe the functions needed in the determination of the rate of convergence of best $L^\infty $ rational approximation to $\exp ( - x)$ on [0,∞) when the degree n of the approximation tends to ∞ (“1/9” problem).     

Two-photon excited intramolecular energy transfer and light-harvesting effect in novel dendritic systems

Two-photon absorption excited intramolecular energy transfer and light-harvesting effects are demonstrated in three novel dendritic systems. These systems contain both an antenna structure that can effectively absorb two-photon energy at approximately 800 nm and emit fluorescence at approximately 515 nm and a core moiety that can absorb one-photon energy at approximately 520 nm and emit at approximately 590 nm. Covalently combining the core and antenna functionalities intrinsically changes the optical behavior of the component pieces. The two-photon energy absorbed by the antenna structure is resonantly transferred to the core, where the core's emission intensity is enhanced by 8, 20, and 34 times for the three dendritic systems.     

Feasibility of using ultrasound contrast agents to increase the size of thermal lesions induced by non-focused transducers: in vitro demonstration in tissue mimicking phantom

Miniature flat ultrasound transducers have shown to be effective for a large variety of thermal therapies, but the associated superficial heating implicates developing original strategies in order to extend therapeutic depth. The goal of the present paper is to use ultrasound contrast agents (UCA) to increase remote attenuation and heating. Theoretical simulations demonstrated that increasing attenuation from 0.27 to 0.8 Np/cm at 10 MHz beyond a distance of 18 mm from the transducer should result in longer thermal damages due to protein coagulation in a tissue mimicking phantom. Contrast agents (BR14, Bracco, Plan-les-Ouates, Switzerland) were embedded in thermo-sensitive gel and attenuations ranging from 0.27 to 1.33 Np/cm were measured at 10 MHz for concentrations of BR14 between 0 and 4.8%. Thermal damages were then induced in several gels, which had different layering configurations. Thermal damages, 12.8 mm in length, were obtained in homogeneous gels. When mixing contrast agents at a concentration of 3.2% beyond a first 18 mm-thick layer of homogeneous gel, the thermal damages reached 21.5 mm in length. This work demonstrated that contrast agents can be used for increasing attenuation remotely and extending therapeutic depth induced by a non-focused transducer. Additional work must be done in vivo in order to verify the remote-only distribution of bubbles and associated increase in attenuation.     

On Inverse Optimal Control Problems of Human Locomotion: Stability and Robustness of the Minimizers

In recent papers, models of human locomotion by means of optimal control problems have been proposed. In this paradigm, the trajectories are assumed to be solutions of an optimal control problem whose cost has to be determined. The purpose of the present paper is to analyze the class of optimal control problems defined in this way. We prove strong convergence results for their solutions, on the one hand, for perturbations of the initial and final points (stability), and, on the other hand, for perturbations of the cost (robustness).     

Constrained regulation of continuous Petri nets

This paper deals with constrained regulation of continuous Petri nets under the so-called infinite servers semantics. Our aim is to design feedback gains that permit us to reach both desired stationary marking vector and desired asymptotic firing rate vector. The proposed approach takes into account constraints on the control, the marking of the Petri net, and the stability of the closed-loop system. The existence of a solution is first expressed geometrically, in terms of the inclusion of two polyhedral sets. They are reformulated algebraically as linear matrix inequalities, which provides an effective way to calculate feedback gains answering the problem. Finally, an application to an assembly production system is given.