Comment on "Long time evolution of phase oscillator systems" [Chaos 19, 023117 (2009)

In a recent paper by Ott and Antonsen [Chaos 19, 023117 (2009)], it was shown for the case of Lorentzian distributions of oscillator frequencies that the dynamics of a very general class of large systems of coupled phase oscillators time-asymptotes to a particular simplified form given by Ott and Antonsen [Chaos 18, 037113 (2008)]. This comment extends this previous result to a broad class of oscillator distribution functions.     

Magnetic layered structure for the production of polarized neutron microbeams

A neutron waveguide is a three-layer structure in which a guiding layer with low optical potential is placed between two cladding layers with high optical potential. Under proper operation conditions, the neutron density is resonantly enhanced inside the guiding layer. In our experimental scheme, the neutron beam enters through the surface of the top layer at glancing angle and goes out from the edge of the guiding layer, with an angular distribution corresponding to Fraunhofer diffraction from a narrow slit. The incident neutron beam is relatively wide (0.1 mm) and highly collimated (0.01°). The outgoing sub-micron beam is extremely narrow at the outlet (0.1 μm) and more divergent (0.1°). So far only the production of unpolarized sub-micron neutron beams has been reported. Here we present first experiments on polarized sub-micron neutron beams. For these studies a polarized incident beam was used and two types of magnetic waveguides were investigated: a polarizing magnetic waveguide Fe(20 nm)/Cu(140 nm)/Fe(50 nm)//glass and a non-polarizing magnetic waveguide Py(10 nm)/Al(140 nm)/Py(50 nm)//glass (Py is permalloy). The waveguide samples were characterized by polarized neutron reflectometry.     

A Capped Optimal Stopping Problem for the Maximum Process

This paper concerns an optimal stopping problem driven by the running maximum of a spectrally negative Lévy process X. More precisely, we are interested in capped versions of the American lookback optimal stopping problem (Gapeev in J. Appl. Probab. 44:713–731, 2007; Guo and Shepp in J. Appl. Probab. 38:647–658, 2001; Pedersen in J. Appl. Probab. 37:972–983, 2000), which has its origins in mathematical finance, and provide semi-explicit solutions in terms of scale functions. The optimal stopping boundary is characterised by an ordinary first-order differential equation involving scale functions and, in particular, changes according to the path variation of X. Furthermore, we will link these capped problems to Peskir’s maximality principle (Peskir in Ann. Probab. 26:1614–1640, 1998).     

Usefulness of Transgenic Luminescent Bacteria in Direct Bioautographic Investigation of Chamomile Extracts

JPC – Journal of Planar Chromatography – Modern TLC - Direct bioautography performed with luminescence gene-tagged bacteria enables almost real-time detection of antimicrobial compounds...     

Separable routing: A scheme for state-dependent routing of circuit switched telephone traffic

Separable routing is the first of a number of routing schemes for circuit switched telephone traffic invented at Bellcore. These routing schemes are state dependent, in the sense that, for each call attempt, a routing decision is made on the basis of the state of the network (defined in terms of the numbers of busy and idle trunks in the various trunk groups at the moment of the call attempt). In this paper, we describe separable routing and its mathematical background. Simulation results we have presented elsewhere show that the family of state-dependent routing schemes, of which separable routing is a member, is very attractive in terms of blocking rate, built-in network management features, and behavior in the presence of traffic forecast error.     

The Green function for the mixed problem for the linear Stokes system in domains in the plane

We construct the Green function for the mixed boundary value problem for the linear Stokes system in a two‐dimensional Lipschitz domain.     

Differences in Reactivity of Epoxides in the Copolymerisation with Carbon Dioxide by Zinc-Based Catalysts: Propylene Oxide versus Cyclohexene Oxide

The homogeneous dinuclear zinc catalyst going back to the work of Williams et al. is to date the most active catalyst for the copolymerisation of cyclohexene oxide and CO₂ at one atmosphere of carbon dioxide. However, this catalyst shows no copolymer formation in the copolymerisation reaction of propylene oxide and carbon dioxide, instead only cyclic carbonate is found. This behaviour is known for many zinc‐based catalysts, although the reasons are still unidentified. Within our studies, we focus on the parameters that are responsible for this typical behaviour. A deactivation of the catalyst due to a reaction with propylene oxide turns out to be negligible. Furthermore, the catalyst still shows poly(cyclohexene carbonate) formation in the presence of cyclic propylene carbonate, but the catalyst activity is dramatically reduced. In terpolymerisation reactions of CO₂ with different ratios of cyclohexene oxide to propylene oxide, no incorporation of propylene oxide can be detected, which can only be explained by a very fast back‐biting reaction. Kinetic investigations indicate a complex reaction network, which can be manifested by theoretical investigations. DFT calculations show that the ring strains of both epoxides are comparable and the kinetic barriers for the chain propagation even favour the poly(propylene carbonate) over the poly(cyclohexene carbonate) formation. Therefore, the crucial step in the copolymerisation of propylene oxide and carbon dioxide is the back‐biting reaction in the case of the studied zinc catalyst. The depolymerisation is several orders of magnitude faster for poly(propylene carbonate) than for poly(cyclohexene carbonate).     

Fluorescence properties and antiproliferative effects of mono-, bis-, and tris- thiophenylnaphthalimides: results of a comparative pilot study

A series of mono-, bis- and trisnaphthalimides with different substituents on the naphthalimide ring system was prepared. For compounds containing a thiophenyl substituent fluorescence spectroscopic measurements were performed and unexpectedly showed an increase in fluorescence emission for the bis- and trisnaphthalimide derivatives in phosphate buffered saline. Additional fluorescence microscopic experiments indicated an efficient cellular uptake of the thiophenyl substituted compound 1c into cultured tumor cells. Experiments on the inhibition of tumor cell proliferation were performed in MCF-7 breast adenocarcinoma and HT-29 colon carcinoma cells and confirmed derivatives containing a nitro substituent as the most active compounds. Compound 1c demonstrated potential as photoinducable antitumor agent.