Trends in aircraft noise annoyance: the role of study and sample characteristics

Recently, it has been suggested that the annoyance of residents at a given aircraft noise exposure level increases over the years. The objective of the present study was to verify the hypothesized trend and to identify its possible causes. To this end, the large database used to establish earlier exposure-response relationships on aircraft noise was updated with original data from several recent surveys, yielding a database with data from 34 separate airports. Multilevel grouped regression was used to determine the annoyance response per airport, after which meta-regression was used to investigate whether study characteristics could explain the heterogeneity in annoyance response between airports. A significant increase over the years was observed in annoyance at a given level of aircraft noise exposure. Furthermore, the type of annoyance scale, the type of contact, and the response percentage were found to be sources of heterogeneity. Of these, only the scale factor could statistically account for the trend, although other findings rule it out as a satisfactory explanation. No evidence was found for increased self-reported noise sensitivity. The results are of importance to the applicability of current exposure-annoyance relationships for aircraft noise and provide a basis for decisions on whether these need to be updated.     

Slow light in molecular-aggregate nanofilms

We study slow-light performance of molecular aggregates arranged in nanofilms by means of coherent population oscillations. The molecular cooperative behavior inside the aggregate enhances the delay of input signals in the gigahertz range in comparison with other coherent population oscillation-based devices. Moreover, the problem of residual absorption present in coherent population oscillation processes is removed. We also propose an optical switch between different delays by exploiting the optical bistability of these aggregates.     

Adaptive optics wide-field microscopy using direct wavefront sensing

We report a technique for measuring and correcting the wavefront aberrations introduced by a biological sample using a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor, a fluorescent reference source, and a deformable mirror. The reference source and sample fluorescence are at different wavelengths to separate wavefront measurement and sample imaging. The measurement and correction at one wavelength improves the resolving power at a different wavelength, enabling the structure of the sample to be resolved.     

Finite-Volume Excitations of the¶111 Interface in the Quantum XXZ Model

We show that the ground states of the three-dimensional XXZ Heisenberg ferromagnet with a 111 interface have excitations localized in a subvolume of linear size R with energies bounded by O(1/R²). As part of the proof we show the equivalence of ensembles for the 111 interface states in the following sense: In the thermodynamic limit the states with fixed magnetization yield the same expectation values for gauge invariant local observables as a suitable grand canonical state with fluctuating magnetization. Here, gauge invariant means commuting with the total third component of the spin, which is a conserved quantity of the Hamiltonian. As a corollary of equivalence of ensembles we also prove the convergence of the thermodynamic limit of sequences of canonical states (i.e., with fixed magnetization).     

Fine-tunable monodentate phosphoroamidite and aminophosphine ligands for Rh-catalyzed asymmetric hydroformylation

A biaryl-based monophosphoroamidite L1–L4a–f and aminophosphine L5–L7a–f ligand library was screened in the Rh-catalyzed asymmetric hydroformylation of several vinylarenes and heterocyclic olefins. Our results indicate that the selectivity is strongly dependent on the ligand parameters and on the substrate type. Enantioselectivities (up to 46%) were moderate in the hydroformylation of several vinylarenes S1–S5 and promising (up to 58%) for the more challenging heterocyclic olefins S6–S9.     

Studies on the Regioselectivity of Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons (Hwe) Reactions on 3,4-Enuloses. Further Evidence of Phosphonate-Phosphate Rearrangements Through Five Membered Cyclic Intermediates.

ABSTRACT

The Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons (HWE) reaction was performed on methyl 3,6-di-O-benzoyl-2-deoxy-α-D-glycero-hex-2-enopyranosid-4-ulose (1) with the potassium enolates of dimethyl [(methoxycarbonyl)methyl]phosphonate (2) or diethyl [(ethoxycarbonyl) methyl]phosphonate (3) under different conditions (metallic cation and solvent) in order to study regio- and stereochemical aspects of the reaction. In the presence of lithium ions, no reaction took place. When sodium enolates were employed, 1,2-addition was the main reaction in chelating solvents, whereas the 1,4-adduct is favoured in the less polar, non chelating toluene. Only 1,2-addition was observed with potassium enolates. Evidence of phosphonate-phosphate rearrangements through five membered cyclic intermediates is described.