ON THE ROLES OF COMPLEMENTARY AND ADMISSIBLE BOUNDARY CONSTRAINTS IN FOURIER SOLUTIONS TO THE BOUNDARY VALUE PROBLEMS OF COMPLETELY COUPLED r TH ORDER PDES

A heretofore unavailable double Fourier series based approach, for obtaining non-separable solution to a system of completely coupled linear r th order partial differential equations with constant coefficients and subjected to general (completely coupled) boundary conditions, has been presented. The method has been successfully implemented to solve a class of hitherto unsolved boundary-value problems, pertaining to free and forced vibrations of arbitrarily laminated anisotropic doubly curved thin panels of rectangular planform, with arbitrarily prescribed (both symmetric and asymmetric with respect to the panel centerlines) admissible boundary conditions and subjected to general transverse loading.Existing solutions such as those due to Navier or Levy are based on the well-known method of separation of variables. Such solutions represent particular solutions whenever the method of separation of variables work, and when these particular solution functions fortuitously satisfy the boundary conditions. For derivation of the complementary solution, the complementary boundary constraints are introduced through boundary discontinuities of some of the particular solution functions and their partial derivatives. Such discontinuities form sets of measure zero.Various cases of lamination, geometry and dynamic response (forced and free vibrations) of a class of thin anisotropic laminated shells (curved panels) have been shown to follow from the above. Six sets of boundary conditions are used to illustrate the present method for the derivation of complementary solutions. Navier-type solutions whenever available form special cases of the present general solution.     

Raman spectroscopy of topotecan, an inhibitor of DNA topoisomerase I

Topotecan (TPT), a water-soluble derivative of camptothecin (inhibitor of human DNA topoiomerase I), has found wide application in cancer chemotherapy. The central problem in using topotecan is the presence of lactone rings in its molecules, which undergo hydrolysis at a physiological pH yielding an inactive and even toxic form of the drug. The analysis of Raman spectra of TPT in H₂O and D₂O solutions made it possible to assign the spectral bands to the vibrations of particular molecular groups. Spectral features indicative of the opening of the lactone rings of the TPT molecules, deprotonation of the hydroxyl groups in their quinoline fragments, and of possible participation of the hydroxyl and carbonyl groups in H bonding are found. The data obtained are necessary to study the molecular mechanisms of TPT-DNA interaction and the formation of ternary complexes between TPT, DNA, and DNA topoisomerase I.     

Non-universal critical behaviour of heteronuclear dimers on a square lattice––A Monte Carlo study

Monte Carlo simulation within the grand canonical ensemble, the histogram reweighting technique, and finite size scaling analysis are used to explore the phase behaviour of heteronuclear dimers, composed of A and B type atoms, on a square lattice. We have found that for the models with attractive BB and AB nearest-neighbour energy, u_BB=u_AB=−1, and for non-repulsive energy between AA nearest-neighbour sites, u_AA<0, the system belongs to the universality class of the two-dimensional Ising model. However, when u_AA>0, the system exhibits a non-universal critical behaviour. We have evaluated the dependences of the critical point characteristics on the value of u_AA.     

VIBRATION AND STABILITY OF ANNULAR PLATES IN NON-LINEAR CREEP CONDITIONS

This paper presents a study on the influence of the physical non-linearity of material in creep conditions on vibration and stability of non-uniform annular plates subjected to a follower force radially distributed at the outer edge. The stability analysis requires first the calculation of a membrane stress distribution and then the application of the kinetic stability criterion, making use of small superposed vibrations. The differential equations of the membrane and vibration states have been integrated by means of the transfer matrix method which allowed the determination of the relationships between the real and imaginary parts of the complex frequency and compressive force (characteristic curves). The results have been presented in numerous figures.     

Dynamical Characteristics of Traveling Wave Packets of Total Electron Content Disturbances

Using the COPHASE method and the GPS interferometry method for travelling ionospheric disturbances, we analyze in detail the spatio-temporal properties of travelling wave packets (TWP) of total electron content (TEC) disturbances. The analysis is performed on the example of a clearest TWP manifestation observed in California, USA, in October 18, 2001, using the GLOBDET technique, developed at the Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics of the Siberian Branch of RAS for global detection and monitoring of natural and technogenic ionospheric disturbances on the basis of TEC variations retrieved from the global network of GPS receivers. In the time domain, TWPs are quasi-periodic TEC oscillations of duration about 1 h, period of 10–20 min, and amplitude exceeding that of the background TEC fluctuations by at least one order of magnitude. The velocity and direction of TWP motion are similar to those of mid-latitude mesoscale travelling ionospheric disturbances, as obtained earlier from the analysis of phase parameters of HF radio signals and the signals of geostationary satellites and discrete space radio sources.     

Temperature and junction-type dependency of Andreev reflection in MgB2

We studied the voltage and temperature dependency of the dynamic conductance of normal metal-MgB₂ junctions obtained either with the point-contact technique (with Au and Pt tips) or by making Ag-paint spots on the surface of MgB₂ samples. The fit of the conductance curves with the generalized BTK model gives evidence of pure s-wave gap symmetry. The temperature dependency of the gap, measured in Ag-paint junctions (dirty limit), follows the standard BCS curve with 2Δ/k_BT_c=3.3. In out-of-plane, high-pressure point-contacts we obtained almost ideal Andreev reflection characteristics showing a single small s-wave gap Δ=2.6±0.2 meV (clean limit).     

Towards Treating Correlations in Bose Condensates

 We use the adiabatic hyperspheric expansion and the Faddeev decomposition of the wave function with only s-waves. We derive for a fixed hyperradius an integro-differential equation for the angular eigenvalue and wave function. The correlations lower the interaction energy for N = 20 by about a factor of 5. Received October 22, 2001; accepted for publication November 5, 2001     

Coherent control of acoustic vibrations in metal nanoparticles and thin films with sequences of femtosecond pulses: Harmonic-oscillator model

A harmonic oscillator model is used to demonstrate the possibility of coherent control of acoustic vibrations of metal nanoparticles and thin films with sequences of femtosecond laser pulses. When the interval between the pulses in such a sequence is chosen equal to the oscillation period of the expansion mode of a nanoscale system, the relevant acoustic vibrations can be excited in a resonant and selective way. Sequences of femtosecond pulses with picosecond time intervals between the pulses are shown to be ideally suited for a resonant excitation and coherent control of acoustic modes of silver nanoparticles.