Effect of polymer surface activity on cavitation nuclei stability against dissolution

The persistence of acoustic cavitation in a pulsed wave ultrasound regime depends upon the ability of cavitation nuclei, i.e., bubbles, to survive the off time between pulses. Due to the dependence of bubble dissolution on surface tension, surface-active agents may affect the stability of bubbles against dissolution. In this study, measurements of bubble dissolution rates in solutions of the surface-active polymer poly(propyl acrylic acid) (PPAA) were conducted to test this premise. The surface activity of PPAA varies with solution pH and concentration of dissolved polymer molecules. The surface tension of PPAA solutions (55-72 dynes/cm) that associated with the polymer surface activity was measured using the Wilhelmy plate technique. Samples of these polymer solutions then were exposed to 1.1 MHz high intensity focused ultrasound, and the dissolution of bubbles created by inertial cavitation was monitored using an active cavitation detection scheme. Analysis of the pulse echo data demonstrated that bubble dissolution time was inversely proportional to the surface tension of the solution. Finally, comparison of the experimental results with dissolution times computed from the Epstein-Plesset equation suggests that the radii of residual bubbles from inertial cavitation increase as the surface tension decreases.     

Test by NMR of the phase coherence of electromagnetically induced transparency

Electromagnetically induced transparency is an effect observed in atomic systems, originating from quantum interference, in which electromagnetic transitions to and from a certain quantum state become suppressed. This dark state is also characterized by a quantum phase, relative to other states, which theoretically should stop evolving, but remain phase coherent, during transparency. We test this theoretical prediction using techniques developed for liquid-state nuclear magnetic resonance quantum computation, applied to a spin-7/2 nuclear spin system. A sequence of quantum operations is applied to create the dark state, and during transparency its phase evolution is measured relative to a reference state using Ramsey interferometry. Experimental measurements of the fringe visibility are in excellent agreement with theoretical expectations, taking into account measured decoherence rates.     

Staggered flux vortices and the superconducting transition in the layered cuprates

We propose an effective model for the superconducting transition in the high-T(c) cuprates motivated by the SU(2) gauge theory approach. In addition to variations of the superconducting phase we allow for local admixture of staggered flux order. This leads to an unbinding transition of vortices with a staggered flux core that are energetically preferable to conventional vortices. Based on parameter estimates for the two-dimensional t-J model we argue that the staggered flux vortices provide a way to understand a phase with a moderate density of mobile vortices over a large temperature range above T(c) that yet exhibits otherwise normal transport properties. This picture is consistent with the large Nernst signal observed in this region.     

Photothermal microanalysis of thermal discontinuities in metallic samples

Modeling the behavior of a protective coating during a thermal shock not only requires the knowledge of its own thermophysical characteristics, but also those of the coating–substrate discontinuity. According to its nature, this discontinuity can be modeled as a zero-thickness interface (thermal contact resistance) or a finite thickness layer (thermal third body). This paper presents an experimental device and two associated thermal transfer models developed in view of the microscale characterization of such discontinuities.     

Ordered and disordered patterns in two-phase flows in microchannels

We show that wetting properties crucially control the patterns in two-phase flows of immiscible fluids in microchannels. Ordered patterns, continuously entrained by the flow, are obtained when one phase completely wets the walls, while disordered patterns, intermittently adhering to the channel walls, are unavoidably produced when wetting is partial. A lower limit for the channel sizes capable of generating well structured objects (drops, pears, pearl necklaces, ...) is presented.     

Spinors, Inflation, and Non-Singular Cyclic Cosmologies

We consider toy cosmological models in which a classical, homogeneous, spinor field provides a dominant or sub-dominant contribution to the energy-momentum tensor of a flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe. We find that, if such a field were to exist, appropriate choices of the spinor self-interaction would generate a rich variety of behaviors, quite different from their widely studied scalar field counterparts. We first discuss solutions that incorporate a stage of cosmic inflation and estimate the primordial spectrum of density perturbations seeded during such a stage. Inflation driven by a spinor field turns out to be unappealing as it leads to a blue spectrum of perturbations and requires considerable fine-tuning of parameters. We next find that, for simple, quartic spinor self-interactions, non-singular cyclic cosmologies exist with reasonable parameter choices. These solutions might eventually be incorporated into a successful past- and future-eternal cosmological model free of singularities. In an Appendix, we discuss the classical treatment of spinors and argue that certain quantum systems might be approximated in terms of such fields.     

Self-organized ZnAl2O4 nanostructures grown on -sapphire

Self-organized ZnAl₂O₄ nanostructures with the appearance (in SEM) of high aspect ratio horizontal nanowires are grown on uncatalysed c-sapphire by vapour phase transport. The nanostructures grow as three equivalent crystallographic variants on c-sapphire. Raman and cathodoluminescence spectroscopy confirm that the nanostructures are not ZnO and TEM shows that they are the cubic spinel, zinc aluminate, ZnAl₂O₄, formed by the reaction of Zn and O with the sapphire substrate.     

Duality, thermodynamics, and the linear programming problem in constraint-based models of metabolism

It is shown that the dual to the linear programming problem that arises in constraint-based models of metabolism can be given a thermodynamic interpretation in which the shadow prices are chemical potential analogues, and the objective is to minimize free energy consumption given a free energy drain corresponding to growth. The interpretation is distinct from conventional nonequilibrium thermodynamics, although it does satisfy a minimum entropy production principle. It can be used to motivate extensions of constraint-based modeling, for example, to microbial ecosystems.     

Sound propagation above a porous road surface with extended reaction by boundary element method

Acoustic impedance of an absorbing interface is easily introduced in boundary element codes provided that a local reaction is assumed. But this assumption is not valid in the case of porous road surface. A two-domain approach was developed for the prediction of sound propagation above a porous layer that takes into account the sound propagation inside the porous material. The porous material is modeled by a homogeneous dissipative fluid medium. An alternative to this time consuming two-domain approach is proposed by using the grazing incidence approximate impedance in the traditional single-domain boundary element method (BEM). It can be checked that this value is numerically consistent with the surface impedance calculated at the interface from the pressure and surface velocity solutions of the two-domain approach. The single-domain BEM introducing this grazing incidence impedance is compared in terms of sound attenuation with analytical solutions and two-domain BEM. The comparison is also performed with the single-domain BEM using the normal incidence impedance, and reveals a much better accuracy for the prediction of sound propagation above a porous interface.     

The contribution of high frequencies to human brain activity underlying horizontal localization of natural spatial sounds

Background  

In the field of auditory neuroscience, much research has focused on the neural processes underlying human sound localization. A recent magnetoencephalography (MEG) study investigated localization-related brain activity by measuring the N1m event-related response originating in the auditory cortex. It was found that the dynamic range of the right-hemispheric N1m response, defined as the mean difference in response magnitude between contralateral and ipsilateral stimulation, reflects cortical activity related to the discrimination of horizontal sound direction. Interestingly, the results also suggested that the presence of realistic spectral information within horizontally located spatial sounds resulted in a larger right-hemispheric N1m dynamic range. Spectral cues being predominant at high frequencies, the present study further investigated the issue by removing frequencies from the spatial stimuli with low-pass filtering. This resulted in a stepwise elimination of direction-specific spectral information. Interaural time and level differences were kept constant. The original, unfiltered stimuli were broadband noise signals presented from five frontal horizontal directions and binaurally recorded for eight human subjects with miniature microphones placed in each subject's ear canals. Stimuli were presented to the subjects during MEG registration and in a behavioral listening experiment.