Nonlinear dynamics of charged particles interacting with combined ac-dc electromagnetic fields

A nonlinear Lorenz model describing interactions between charged particles and combined ac-dc electromagnetic fields is studied for various combinations of frequencies, field strengths and relative angle (θ) between the ac and dc magnetic fields. Strong directional effects on the magnitude and location of resonant particle motion are observed when θ is varied and the regular resonance windows in the aligned field (θ = 0) and linear version of the model studied previously by Durney etaal., break up to form irregular and less well pronounced regions of large and small particle displacements when nonlinearities are taken into account. The length of time takne to achieve resonant behaviour also becomes larger and more variable when nonlinearities are present. The possible relevance of these effects to interactions between electromagnetic fields and biological media is briefly discussed.     

Cochlear nucleus, inferior colliculus, and medial geniculate responses during the behavioral detection of threshold-level auditory stimuli in the rabbit

Rabbits were conditioned to respond behaviorally to auditory stimuli by pairing a white-noise conditioned stimulus (CS) with a corneal airpuff unconditioned stimulus (US). The conditioned response (CR) was movement of the nictitating membrane (NM). After the subjects were responding at better than the 90% correct level, the intensity of the auditory stimulus was reduced to behavioral threshold using a staircase procedure. Simultaneous measurements of neural unit activity and behavioral NM responses were then made in rabbits performing at behavioral threshold. After the experiment was completed neural unit responses during behavioral detection trials were compared to neural responses made during nondetection trials. Neural unit responses to a constant intensity, white-noise stimulus at behavioral threshold were well defined and essentially identical on behavioral detection and nondetection trials in the ventral cochlear nucleus, the ventrolateral division of the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus, and the ventral division of the medial geniculate body. This suggests that an auditory stimulus can be neuronally "detected" without being behaviorally detected, and that the neural "decision" to respond behaviorally is not made in these nuclei. Responses recorded from the dorsomedial division of the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus, the pericentral nucleus of the inferior colliculus, and less commonly in the medial division of the medial geniculate body were also clearly present and nearly identical during the onset of the auditory stimulus, but were sometimes consistently different for detection and nondetection conditions during the latter part of the auditory stimulus. These brain regions appear to receive both auditory and nonauditory inputs, and show responses which are more highly correlated with detection behavior.     

Infrared spectra of the polar and nonpolar N2O dimers in the 1280 cm region of the ν3 fundamental

The high-resolution infrared spectrum of the polar N₂O dimer has been observed in the region of the N₂O ν₃ fundamental (∼1280 cm⁻¹) using a tunable diode laser to probe a pulsed supersonic slit jet. About 120 rotational transitions were assigned in terms of an a/b hybrid band of a planar asymmetric top molecule with a slipped parallel structure. The vibrational origin was determined to be 1290.21 cm⁻¹, showing a blue shift of 5.31 cm⁻¹ with respect to the monomer band origin. In addition, the spectrum of the nonpolar isomer at 1279.71 cm⁻¹ has been remeasured and analyzed in improved detail. Small but widespread perturbations are noted in this band, which appear somewhat similar to larger effects observed previously in the ν₁ + ν₃ region for nonpolar (N₂O)₂.     

The Impact of Compaction and Sand Migration on Permeability and Non-Darcy Coefficient from Pore-Scale Simulations

Transport in Porous Media - Compaction and sand migration are important problems in loosely consolidated and unconsolidated high-rate gas reservoirs, and proppants in the hydraulic fractures. Their...     

One-Pot Synthesis of Chiral N-Arylamines by Combining Biocatalytic Aminations with Buchwald–Hartwig N-Arylation

The combination of biocatalysis and chemo-catalysis increasingly offers chemists access to more diverse chemical architectures. Here, we describe the combination of a toolbox of chiral-amine-producing biocatalysts with a Buchwald–Hartwig cross-coupling reaction, affording a variety of α-chiral aniline derivatives. The use of a surfactant allowed reactions to be performed sequentially in the same flask, preventing the palladium catalyst from being inhibited by the high concentrations of ammonia, salts, or buffers present in the aqueous media in most cases. The methodology was further extended by combining with a dual-enzyme biocatalytic hydrogen-borrowing cascade in one pot to allow for the conversion of a racemic alcohol to a chiral aniline.     

High frequency conductivity in the charge density wave semiconductor TaS3

We report the observation of frequency dependent conductivity σ (ω) in the charge density wave (CDW) semiconductor TaS₃. Based on σ (ω) and other evidences, we sugest that three different temperature regions occur in this compound: 1-D fluctuating CDW region above T_MI, a coherent CDW state below T_MI, and a CDW glass state at low temperatures.     

Analytical comparison between the surface current integral equation and the second-order small-slope approximation

This paper is the third in a series discussing a new approximate bistatic model for electromagnetic scattering from perfectly conducting rough surfaces. Our previous approach supplemented the Kirchhoff model through the addition of new terms involving linear orders in slope and surface elevation differences that arise naturally from a second iteration of the surface current integral equation. This completion of the Kirchhoff was shown to provide the correct first-order small perturbation method (SPM-1) in the general bistatic context. The agreement with SPM-1 was achieved because differences of surface heights are no longer expanded in powers of surface slope. While consistent with SPM, our previous formulation fails to reconverge toward the Kirchhoff model, at some incidence and scattered angles, when the illuminated surface satisfies the high frequency roughness condition. This weakness is also shared with the first-order small slope approximation (SSA-1) which is structurally equivalent to our previous formulation where the polarization is independent of surface roughness. The second-order small slope approximation (SSA-2), which satisfies the SPM-1 and second-order small perturbation method (SPM-2) limits by construction, was shown by Voronovich to converge toward the tangent plane approximation of the Kirchhoff model under high frequency conditions. In the present paper, we show that, in addition to the linear orders in our previous model, one must now include cross-terms between slope and surface elevation to ensure convergence toward both high frequency and small perturbation limits. With the inclusion of these terms, our new formulation becomes comparable to the SSA-2 (second-order kernel) without the need to evaluate all the quadratic order slope and elevations terms. SSA-2 is more complete, however, in the sense that it guarantees convergence toward the second-order Bragg limit (SPM-2) in the fully dielectric case in addition to both SPM-1 and Kirchhoff. Our new generalization is shown to explain correctly extra depolarization in specular conditions to be caused by surface curvature and surface autocorrelation for incoherent and coherent scattering, respectively. This result will have large repercussions on the interpretation of bistatically reflected signals such as those from GPS.