Measurement of plane wave acoustic fields in flow ducts

The response of a fluid loaded plate is derived as function of the incident pressure in the fluid. The results are compared with full scale measurements made in the aft peak tank on a ship. Propeller induced pressure and hull plate velocity were measured with flush-mounted hydrophones and accelerometers. It is found that for a typical aft body construction the boundaries of the plate elements can be assumed to be simply supported. The plate model agrees well with full scale measurements down to 40 Hz. Below this frequency global vibrations determine the response of the hull. Both theoretical and experimental results indicate that the field induced by the vibrating plate elements can be considerable. The response of a plate can be decreased if the width of the plate is decreased or the plate thickness increased.     

Straightforward three-component palladium-catalysed synthesis of pyridazin-3(2H)-one libraries

A simple and straightforward three-component methodology for the solution phase high-throughput synthesis of 2,5-disubstituted pyridazin-3(2H)-one libraries has been developed. The diversity at position 5 of the heterocycle is determined by the use of Suzuki, Sonogashira, Heck or Stille coupling.     

Asymptotic limit law for the close approach of two trajectories in expanding maps of the circle

Summary Given two pointsx, yS ¹ randomly chosen independently by a mixing absolutely continuous invariant measure of a piecewise expanding and smooth mapf of the circle, we consider for each >0 the point process obtained by recording the timesn>0 such that |f ⁿ (x)–f ⁿ (y)|. With the further assumption that the density of is bounded away from zero, we show that when tends to zero the above point process scaled by –1 converges in law to a marked Poisson point process with constant parameter measure. This parameter measure is given explicity by an average on the rate of expansion off.Partially supported by FAPESP grant number 90/3918-5     

A degenerate elliptic-parabolic system arising in competitive contaminant transport

The objective of this work is to study a coupled system of degenerate and nonlinear partial differential equations governing the transport of reactive solutes in groundwater. We show that this system admits a unique weak solution provided the nonlinear adsorption isotherm associated with the reaction process satisfies certain physically reasonable structural conditions, by addressing a more general problem. In addition, we conclude, that the solute concentrations stay non-negative if the source term is componentwise non-negative and investigate numerically the finite speed of propagation of compactly supported initial concentrations, in a two-component test case.     

Interaction of a granular flow with a rectangular obstacle

In this work we studied the cluster formation of particles flowing between two parallel plates hitting a rectangular obstacle. After a short time a cluster is formed on top of the obstacle. Quantification of the cluster formation, shows that the number of clusters decrease with time, whereas the mean and maximum cluster size grow during the simulation. Our results indicate that for the development of clusters the value of the restitution coefficient for particle–particle collisions is most important parameter for this formation process. We found that changes in the value of the restitution parameters for particle–obstacle and particle–wall did not show significant changes in the cluster development.     

Mathematics in chemistry: indeterminate forms and their meaning

The mathematical language and its tools are complementary to the formalism in chemistry, in particular at an advanced level. It is thus crucial, for its understanding, that students acquire a solid knowledge in Calculus and that they know how to apply it. The frequent occurrence of indeterminate forms in multiple areas, particularly in Physical Chemistry, justifies the need to properly understand the limiting process in such cases. This article emphasizes the importance of the L’Hôpital's rule as a practical tool, although often neglected, to obtain the more common indeterminate limits, through the use of some specific examples as the radioactive decay, spectrophotometric error, Planck's radiation law, second-order kinetics, or consecutive reactions.     

Tree Oriented Pullback

Given two epimorphisms of algebras A ? B and C ? B, we consider the pullback R. We introduce a particular class of algebras, the tree oriented pullback, where there is a close relationship between the category of indecomposable modules of these algebras. This leads us to prove that if A and C are hereditary algebras, then R is a tilted algebra.     

Switching and enhanced bistability in an asymmetric nonlinear directional coupler with a metamaterial channel

We numerically simulate the propagation and switching of ultra-short pulses in a metamaterial nonlinear directional asymmetric coupler where one of the guides is a conventional medium with a positive refraction index having a decreasing Kerr nonlinearity. The second guide is based in a metamaterial. A complete study of the nonlinear dynamics of ultra-short pulses propagation and switching in this new nonlinear directional coupler, including the transmission characteristics, bistability, critical power, compression factor and extinction coefficients are presented and compared to those of a conventional coupler. We conclude that the conventional coupler has higher transmission efficiency and extinction rate when compared with the metamaterial coupler. However the metamaterial coupler presents bistability which opens the possibility of such device to be used in a large variety of optical switching, storage and logical gates. We show that the input power range leading to bistability can be optimized by controlling the profile of the nonlinear refraction index of the conventional channel.     

The Plasticity of the Carbohydrate Recognition Domain Dictates the Exquisite Mechanism of Binding of Human Macrophage Galactose-Type Lectin

The human macrophage galactose-type lectin (MGL), expressed on macrophages and dendritic cells (DCs), modulates distinct immune cell responses by recognizing N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc) containing structures present on pathogens, self-glycoproteins, and tumor cells. Herein, NMR spectroscopy and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were used to investigate the structural preferences of MGL against different GalNAc-containing structures derived from the blood group A antigen, the Forssman antigen, and the GM2 glycolipid. NMR spectroscopic analysis of the MGL carbohydrate recognition domain (MGL-CRD, C181-H316) in the absence and presence of methyl α-GalNAc (α-MeGalNAc), a simple monosaccharide, shows that the MGL-CRD is highly dynamic and its structure is strongly altered upon ligand binding. This plasticity of the MGL-CRD structure explains the ability of MGL to accommodate different GalNAc-containing molecules. However, key differences are observed in the recognition process depending on whether the GalNAc is part of the blood group A antigen, the Forssman antigen, or GM2-derived structures. These results are in accordance with molecular dynamics simulations that suggest the existence of a distinct MGL binding mechanism depending on the context of GalNAc moiety presentation. These results afford new perspectives for the rational design of GalNAc modifications that fine tune MGL immune responses in distinct biological contexts, especially in malignancy.