Ultrasonic wave propagation across a thin nonlinear anisotropic layer between two half-spaces

Boundary conditions and perturbation theory are combined to create a set of equations which, when solved, yield the reflected and transmitted wave forms in the case of a thin layer of material that is perfectly bonded between two isotropic half-spaces. The set of perturbed boundary conditions is created by first using the fully bonded boundary conditions at each of the two interfaces between the thin layer and the half-spaces. Then, by restricting the layer's thickness to be much smaller than an acoustic wavelength, perturbation theory can be used on these two sets of boundary equations, producing a set of equations which effectively treat the thin layer as a single interface via a perturbation term. With this set of equations, the full range of incident and polar angles can be considered, with results general enough to use with a layer that is anisotropic, nonlinear, or both anisotropic and nonlinear. Finally the validity of these equations is discussed, comparing the computer simulation results of this theory to results from standard methods, and looking at cases where the results (or various properties of the results) are known or can be predicted.     

Asymmetric bound states of spiral pairs in excitable media

We present a stable regime of asymmetric bound states for spiral pairs in a generic numerical model of a homogeneous excitable medium. In this regime, one spiral tip (slave) rotates around the other (master). Master-slave dynamics occur for both same-chirality and opposite-chirality spiral pairs in a range of parameters and initial conditions. We study the dependency of master-slave characteristics on the medium's excitation threshold and present a phenomenological model that accounts for the qualitative properties of master-slave dynamics.     

Intermittent self-organization of scroll wave turbulence in three-dimensional excitable media

We study the asymptotic behavior of scroll wave turbulence in large three-dimensional excitable media modeled by FitzHugh-Nagumo equations. The focus is on the type of turbulence caused by negative tension of scroll wave filaments, which is considered to be one of the mechanisms of cardiac fibrillation. We discovered that the initial increase in turbulence complexity can be followed by intermittent self-organization, when complex filament tangles are replaced by a small number of relatively stable triple filament strands. The intermittency is the result of a competition between the destabilizing effect of negative tension and mutual attraction of filaments with similar orientation.     

Development of the force field parameters for phosphoimidazole and phosphohistidine

Phosphorylation of histidine-containing proteins is a key step in the mechanism of many phosphate transfer enzymes (kinases, phosphatases) and is the first stage in a wide variety of signal transduction cascades in bacteria, yeast, higher plants, and mammals. Studies of structural and dynamical aspects of such enzymes in the phosphorylated intermediate states are important for understanding the intimate molecular mechanisms of their functioning. Such information may be obtained via molecular dynamics and/or docking simulations, but in this case appropriate force field parameters for phosphohistidine should be explicitly defined. In the present article we describe development of the GROMOS96 force field parameters for phosphoimidazole molecule--a realistic model of the phosphohistidine side chain. The parameterization is based on the results of ab initio quantum chemical calculations with subsequent refinement and testing using molecular mechanics and molecular dynamics simulations. The set of force constants and equilibrium geometry is employed to derive force field for the phosphohistidine moiety. Resulting parameters and topology are incorporated into the molecular modeling package GROMACS and used in molecular dynamics simulations of a phosphohistidine-containing protein in explicit solvent.     

A Classification of Regular Embeddings of Graphs of Order a Product of Two Primes

In this paper, we classify the regular embeddings of arc-transitive simple graphs of order pq for any two primes p and q (not necessarily distinct) into orientable surfaces. Our classification is obtained by direct analysis of the structure of arc-regular subgroups (with cyclic vertex-stabilizers) of the automorphism groups of such graphs. This work is independent of the classification of primitive permutation groups of degree p or degree pq for p q and it is also independent of the classification of the arc-transitive graphs of order pq for p q.     

Random Euclidean embeddings in spaces of bounded volume ratio

Let $\text{(}\text{R}{}^{\mathrm{N}}\text{,6·6)}$ be the space $\text{R}{}^{\mathrm{N}}$ equipped with a norm 6·6 whose unit ball has a bounded volume ratio with respect to the Euclidean unit ball. Let Γ be any random N×n matrix with N>n, whose entries are independent random variables satisfying some moment assumptions. We show that with high probability Γ is a good isomorphism from the n-dimensional Euclidean space $\text{(}\text{R}{}^{\mathrm{n}}\text{,|·|)}$ onto its image in $\text{(}\text{R}{}^{\mathrm{N}}\text{,6·6)}$: there exist α,β>0 such that for all $\text{x∈}\text{R}{}^{\mathrm{n}}$, $\text{α}\text{N}\text{|x|?6Γx6?β}\text{N}\text{|x|}$. This solves a conjecture of Schechtman on random embeddings of ?₂ⁿ into ?₁^N. To cite this article: A. Litvak et al., C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 339 (2004).     

Microscopic visualization of alamethicin incorporation into model membrane monolayers

Lipid interactions and cooperative assembly properties are fundamental determinants for the action of antimicrobial membrane-active peptides. Here we analyze the interactions and aggregation properties of alamethicin, an antimicrobial pore-forming peptide, with films formed at the air/water interface. Surface-area/pressure isotherms, Brewster angle microscopy, and fluorescence-confocal microscopy provided detailed information on the morphologies and structural properties of the peptide and its effect on the film components. The pressure-area analysis and microscopy experiments facilitated unprecedented visualization of the structural consequences of alamethicin association at the air/water interface, with pure phospholipid films, and within mixed phospholipid/polydiacetylene (PDA) films. The analysis exposed the kinetic features and the interplay between the peptide aggregates and film constituents. In particular, the results demonstrate the use of phospholipid/PDA film assemblies for studying membrane-peptide association and interactions within two-dimensional films.     

Time-resolved photoexcitation of the superconducting two-gap state in MgB2 thin films

Femtosecond pump-probe studies show that carrier dynamics in MgB2 films is governed by the sub-ps electron-phonon (e-ph) relaxation present at all temperatures, the few-ps e-ph process well pronounced below 70 K, and the sub-ns superconducting relaxation below T(c). The amplitude of the superconducting component versus temperature follows the superposition of the isotropic dirty gap and the three-dimensional pi gap dependences, closing at two different T(c) values. The time constant of the few-ps relaxation exhibits a double divergence at temperatures corresponding to the T(c)'s of the two gaps.     

Cross section for the H+H2O abstraction reaction: experiment and theory

The absolute value of the cross section for the abstraction reaction between fast H atoms and H2O has been determined experimentally at a mean collision energy of 2.46 eV. The OH population distribution at the same mean energy has also been determined. The new measurements are compared with state-of-the-art quantum mechanical and quasiclassical scattering calculations on the most recently developed potential energy surface.