Reply to Nathan: How to reconstruct the causal argument

Nicholas Nathan tries to resist the current version of the causal argument for sense-data in two ways. First he suggests that, on what he considers to be the correct re-construction of the argument, it equivocates on the sense of proximate cause. Second he defends a form of disjunctivism, by claiming that there might be an extra mechanism involved in producing veridical hallucination, that is not present in perception. I argue that Nathan’s reconstruction of the argument is not the appropriate one, and that, properly interpreted, the argument does not equivocate on proximate cause. Furthermore, I claim that his postulation of a modified mechanism for hallucinations is implausibly ad hoc.     

Two-Frequency Brillouin Fiber Laser Based on Bragg Grating Fabry-Perot Cavity

A novel and simple two-frequency Brillouin fiber laser is presented. It is based on a fiber Fabry-Perot cavity with fiber Bragg gratings as reflectors. The model of stimulated Brillouin scattering in fiber grating-based Fabry-Perot resonator is investigated. The laser allows conversion efficiency of close to 100% and suppresses the higher-order Stokes waves. The theoretical prediction is presented and the experimental demonstration is realized.     

On a compromise social choice correspondence

This paper analyzes the compromise social choice correspondence derived from the τ-value of digraph games. Monotonicity of this correspondence is shown. A connection between several properties of social choice correspondences based on game theoretical solutions and game theoretical properties of the underlying solutions is given. Applications to several game theoretic solutions are provided.     

Assessment of two‐equation turbulence modelling for high Reynolds number hydrofoil flows

This paper presents an evaluation of the capability of turbulence models available in the commercial CFD code FLUENT 6.0 for their application to hydrofoil turbulent boundary layer separation flow at high Reynolds numbers. Four widely applied two‐equation RANS turbulence models were assessed through comparison with experimental data at Reynolds numbers of 8.284×106 and 1.657×107. They were the standard k–εmodel, the realizable k–εmodel, the standard k–ωmodel and the shear‐stress‐transport (SST) k–ωmodel. It has found that the realizable k–εturbulence model used with enhanced wall functions and near‐wall modelling techniques, consistently provides superior performance in predicting the flow characteristics around the hydrofoil. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A laser Doppler anemometry technique for Reynolds stresses measurement

A technique is described for the measurement of all components of mean velocity and Reynolds stresses, in a complex turbulent flow where achieving coincidence data acquisition is difficult. The method is based on data recorded using four orientations of the laser probe. It is shown that the measurement errors are not the same for all the components of the Reynolds tensor, but they are sufficiently small to give a good accuracy. An application to a turbomachinery flow is given to illustrate the method.     

Nano-tribological study on a super-hydrophobic film formed on rough aluminium substrates

A novel super-hydrophobic stearic acid (STA) film with a water contact angle of 166^o was prepared by chemical adsorption on aluminum wafer coated with polyethyleneimine (PEI) film. The micro-tribological behavior of the super-hydrophobic STA monolayer was compared with that of the polished and PEI-coated Al surfaces. The effect of relative humidity on the adhesion and friction was investigated as well. It was found that the STA monolayer showed decreased friction, while the adhesive force was greatly decreased by increasing the surface roughness of the Al wafer to reduce the contact area between the atomic force microscope (AFM) tip and the sample surface to be tested. Thus the friction and adhesion of the Al wafer was effectively decreased by generating the STA monolayer, which indicated that it could be feasible and rational to prepare a surface with good adhesion resistance and lubricity by properly controlling the surface morphology and the chemical composition. Both the adhesion and friction decreased as the relative humidity was lowered from 65% to 10%, though the decrease extent became insignificant for the STA monolayer. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (50375151, 50323007, 10225209) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KJCX-SW-L2)     

Photorefractive Four-Wave Mixing Switches Utilizing Pockels Effect -Longitudinal and Lateral Switches-

We carried out detailed calculations for photorefractive wave-mixing switches based on one of three crystals with high electro-optic coefficients, namely, BaTiO₃, Strontium Barium Niobate (SBN (0.75)), and Potasium Sodium Strontium Barium Niobate (KNSBN). A comparison of results for the three crystals shows that a 0_-cut BaTiO³ crystal is suitable for a longitudinal switch and requires a voltage of about 80 for a 2-mm-thick crystal to induce sufficient phase mismatch. The electrodes must be transparent for the incident and diffracted beams. A 45_-cut SBN (0.75) crystal, however, is suitable for a lateral switch and requires a voltage of about 150 for a 1-mm-wide crystal. The electrodes do not need to be transparent.     

Color Zone Map in Peripheral Vision at Various Illuminance Levels

We measured the entire region of mesopic and photopic vision to determine the color zone covering the visual field with unique red, yellow, green, and blue hue components. Eight kinds of test stimuli in the natural color system (NCS) color notation system were used. These stimuli were presented at horizontal and vertical meridians, and at meridians inclined at 45° angles. The illuminance level was set at six levels: 0.01 lx-1000 lx. The evaluation method measured chromatic, white, and black components as well as the hue component of the stimuli. Results show that the color zone of the retina extended further into the periphery with increasing illuminance; the response of opponent colors y-b was shown to be greater than that of the opponent colors r-g.     

A realistic coronary artery phantom for particle image velocimetry

Myocardial infarction results from the rupture of an atherosclerotic plaque, which occurs in response to both mechanical stress and inflammatory processes. In order experimentally observe flow into atherosclerotic coronary artery morphologies, a novel technique for molding realistic compliant phantom featuring injection-molded inclusions and multiple layers has been developed. This transparent phantom allows for particle image velocimetry (PIV) flow analysis and can supply experimental data to validate computational fluid dynamics algorithms and hypothesis.