Mutual-focusing of two co-propagating beams and formation of trapped spatial breather pair in saturable nonlinear media

In this paper, using parabolic equation approach, coupled propagation of two coaxially co-propagating and mutually incoherent bright cylindrical beams in saturable nonlinear medium has been investigated. Considering the coupling coefficient equal to unity (κ=1), a detailed account of formation of spatial soliton pair (i.e. both beams are stationary trapped) and spatial breather pair (i.e. width of each beam oscillates with the propagation distance) has been provided and existence of spatially trapped breather pair (i.e. average width of each breather of the pair does not change with the propagation distance) has been shown. Conditions of formation of trapped spatial breather pair and their existence line has also been revealed for arbitrary beam width ratio of the beams. It is revealed that spatial soliton pairs are just a special case of trapped breather pair. The regions (conditions) of mutual-focusing and mutual-defocusing of spatial soliton pair/breather pair have also been identified. Lastly, the law of trapped breather pair formation is proposed.     

Factors affecting the leaching mechanism of Mg bearing oxide impurities in Hydrogen Assisted Magnesiothermic Reduction (HAMR) of TiO2

Titanium production by a direct TiO₂ reduction route which is highly energy-efficient and environment-friendly compared to commercial Kroll's process, known as HAMR (Hydrogen Assisted Magnesiothermic Reduction) process has been developed in recent times to meet the growing global demands of low-cost pure Ti. Removal of the Mg compounds after each reduction and de-oxygenation step in the HAMR process by leaching, is essential to ensure good purity and mechanical properties of the final Ti powder. In this study, we investigate the effects of temperature, particle size, and pH on the dissolution kinetics of Mg from Mg-bearing compounds such as MgO and MgCl₂ that remain after the HAMR Process. We also report the underlying mechanism and rate-controlling steps of Mg removal using HCl in connection with the HAMR process. The dissolution kinetics followed a logarithmic rate kinetic model for diffusion through a porous medium that is commonly used for battery research. Kinetics of leaching were significantly improved using finer particles with 99.96 wt.% Mg removal and corresponding Ti loss of only 1.8 wt. %. The rate of dissolution exhibited a weak dependence with the pH and did not abide by the rate-controlling steps of dissolution of ionic oxides like MgO proposed by previous kinetic models.     

Anamorphic gradient index (GRIN) lens for beam shaping

In this short communication we are reporting a new kind of rod lens with toric power with moderately large power difference. These rods can be directly used in coupling power from a semiconductor laser to optical fiber or in free space communication to convert the beam shape. This rod may directly be butt-jointed to the laser, which may attract many application scientists. Moreover, anamorphic power in a GRIN lens can be generated by proper selection of geometry of the substrate for ion exchange. This may lead to a new kind of optical system that needs further exploration.     

Influence of Nonequilibrium LO Phonons on High-frequency Performance of One-dimensional Hot Electrons in Quantum Wires of Polar Semiconductors

Small-signal ac transport of degenerate one-dimensional hot electrons in quantum wires of GaAs and In_0.53Ga_0.47As is studied for lattice temperatures of 77 K and 300 K. The carrier energy loss via polar optic phonons and momentum losses via polar optic phonons, acoustic phonons and ionized impurities are included in the calculations. Alloy disorder scattering in momentum loss is additionally incorporated for (In,Ga)As. The consideration of nonequilibrium optical phonons or hot phonons is found to enhance the 3dB cut-off frequency (f_3dB) considerably, where the ac mobility falls to 0.707 of its low frequency value. f_3dB is generally higher for (In,Ga)As quantum wire than for GaAs.     

Activation detection in event-related fMRI data based on spatio-temporal properties.

Template-based activation detection methods, such as cross-correlation, could be difficult to apply in event-related functional MRI data because accurate a priori knowledge about the activation signal patterns is often not available. As a result, several categories of template-free data analysis techniques have been introduced in the fMRI literature. One previously described template-free activation detection technique is based on the feature that activated voxels yield reproducible time course patterns as the subject undergoes the same simulation in repeated epochs. In this paper, spatial information is incorporated as a second feature and a combined univariate measure is formed. The resulting method is shown to offer measurable improvement in detecting activation regions in simulated data in a highly computationally efficient manner. Its practical utility is demonstrated with an experimental data set obtained with a visually guided motor paradigm.     

A study on natural coral stone—a fractal solid

This present research work contains the study of natural fractal material, coral stone. X-ray diffraction, FTIR, optical, DC and AC electrical characteristics are studied. The study includes Arrhenius like plots for both wafer and powder form of the material. Measurements show a possible partially irreversible phase transition occurs when coral is heated for a long time at an about 115?°C. From the XRD data it has been also established that coral stone contains nano sized clusters which is supported by DC electrical measurement. The variation of AC conductivity of coral with thickness of the sample is studied and found exhibit an interesting feature of fractal solid. A scaling relation between AC conductivity and thickness has also been proposed here. The overall behavior of the specimen is like that of a fractal system.     

Effect of environmental temperature and applied potential on water desalination performance using electrodialysis

Desalination of brackish water is a challenging task for higher recovery of water. In most of the cases, water recovery is low with high wastage. Electrodialysis (ED) provides a solution of water desalination with high recovery. Ion-exchange membranes are the main component for electrodialysis system. Here cation-exchange membrane and anion-exchange membrane were synthesized by free-radical polymerization for water desalination by ED. ATR-FTIR confirms the successful functionalization of the membranes and scanning electron microscopy technique reveals the dense morphology of the membranes. Here we used polyethylene as a binder and blow film extrusion for film formation, which is not only economically viable as well as large amount of membranes can be produced without using hazardous solvent. The desalination study reveals the improvement in desalination performance with slight increment in temperature which may be due to higher ionic mobility. The mechanical and thermal stability of the membranes was characterized to ensure the viability of membranes for desalination at higher temperatures. Effect of applied potential was also studied in the removal of pathogens during desalination and confirmed that 2 V/cell pair applied potential removes almost 97% pathogens during desalination in continuous mode.     

Stringy space–time foam,Finsler-like metrics and dark matter relics

We discuss modifications of the thermal dark matter (DM) relic abundances in stringy cosmologies with D-particle space–time foamy backgrounds. As a result of back-reaction of massive DM on the background space–time, owing to its interaction with D-particle defects in the foam, quantum fluctuations are induced in the space–time metric. We demonstrate that these lead to the presence of extra source terms in the Boltzmann equation used to determine the thermal dark matter relic abundances. The source terms are determined by the specific form of the induced metric deformations; the latter depend on the momentum transfer of the DM particle during its interactions with the D-particle defects and so are akin to Finsler metrics. In the case of low string scales, arising from large extra dimensions, our results may have phenomenological implications for the search of viable supersymmetric models.     

Development and validation of a liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method for quantitation of indomethacin in rat plasma and its application to a pharmacokinetic study in rats

A highly sensitive and rapid bioanalytical method has been developed and validated for the estimation of indomethacin in rat plasma with liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry with electrospray ionization in the positive‐ion mode. The assay procedure involves a simple liquid–liquid extraction of indomethacin and phenacetin (internal standard, IS) from rat plasma with acetonitrile. Chromatographic separation was achieved with 0.2% formic acid–acetonitrile (25:75, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.60 mL/min on an Atlantis dC₁₈ column with a total run time 3.0 min. The MS/MS ion transitions monitored were 357.7 → 139.1 for indomethacin and 180.20 → 110.10 for IS. Method validation and pharmacokinetic study plasma analysis were performed as per FDA guidelines and the results met the acceptance criteria. The lower limit of quantitation achieved was 0.51 ng/mL and the linearity was observed from 0.51 to 25.5 ng/mL. The intra‐ and inter‐day precisions were in the range of 1.00–10.2 and 5.88–9.80%, respectively. This novel method has been applied to an oral pharmacokinetic study in rats. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.