Instrumental Requirements for Non-Invasive Blood Glucose Measurement Using NIR Spectroscopy

The magnitude of spectral change in blood glucose measurements with diffuse reflectance spectroscopy is investigated. Spectral change is estimated by simulation of light propagation in skin tissue and measurements of absorbance spectra of aqueous glucose solution. Required sensitivity of spectrophotometers for monitoring change in the blood glucose concentration as small as 10 mg/dL has been obtained using the estimated change in the absorbance spectrum and mean pathlength of light in tissue.     

Comment: “On the computation of molecular auxiliary functions<Emphasis Type="Italic">A</Emphasis><Subscript>n</Subscript>and<Emphasis Type="Italic">B</Emphasis><Subscript>n</Subscript>”

Guseinov, Mamedov, Kara and Orbay (Pramana - J. Phys. 56, 691 (2001)) propose methods for evaluating the molecular auxiliary functionsA _n(p) andB _n(pt) for the range 17 ≤n ≤ 60 and 25 ≤pt ≤ 60. However, their procedure forA _n(p) is not new, and that forB _n(pt) is less efficient for their target range than another well-known method. Their approach does have merit for smaller non-zero values ofpt. Two minor errors in table 1 of their paper are also identified.     

Separable Skyrme interactions and quasiparticle RPA

A finite rank separable approximation for the quasiparticle random phase approximation with Skyrme interactions is applied to study the low-lying quadrupole and octupole states in some S isotopes and giant resonances in some spherical nuclei. It is shown that characteristics calculated within the suggested approach are in good agreement with available experimental data.     

Nonlinear Boundary Layers of the Boltzmann Equation: I. Existence

 We study the half-space problem of the nonlinear Boltzmann equation, assigning the Dirichlet data for outgoing particles at the boundary and a Maxwellian as the far field. We will show that the solvability of the problem changes with the Mach number ℳ^∞ of the far Maxwellian. If ℳ^∞<−1, there exists a unique smooth solution connecting the Dirichlet data and the far Maxwellian for any Dirichlet data sufficiently close to the far Maxwellian. Otherwise, such a solution exists only for the Dirichlet data satisfying certain admissible conditions. The set of admissible Dirichlet data forms a smooth manifold of codimension 1 for the case −1<ℳ^∞<0, 4 for 0<ℳ^∞<1 and 5 for ℳ^∞>1, respectively. We also show that the same is true for the linearized problem at the far Maxwellian, and the manifold is, then, a hyperplane. The proof is essentially based on the macro-micro or hydrodynamics-kinetic decomposition of solutions combined with an artificial damping term and a spatially exponential decay weight. Received: 20 April 2002 / Accepted: 4 December 2002 Published online: 21 March 2003 Communicated by H.-T. Yau     

Instability of quark matter core in a compact newborn neutron star with moderately strong magnetic field

It is explicitly shown that if phase transition occurs at the core of a newborn neutron star with moderately strong magnetic field strength, which populates only the electron’s Landau levels, then in the β -equilibrium condition, the quark core is energetically much more unstable than the neutron matter of identical physical condition.     

The Phase Transition in Statistical Models Defined on Farey Fractions

We consider several statistical models defined on the Farey fractions. Two of these models may be regarded as spin chains, with long-range interactions, while another arises in the study of multifractals associated with chaotic maps exhibiting intermittency. We prove that these models all have the same free energy. Their thermodynamic behavior is determined by the spectrum of the transfer operator (Ruelle–Perron–Frobenius operator), which is defined using the maps (presentation functions) generating the Farey tree. The spectrum of this operator was completely determined by Prellberg. It follows that these models have a second-order phase transition with a specific heat divergence of the form C [ ln² ]^–1. The spin chain models are also rigorously known to have a discontinuity in the magnetization at the phase transition.     

Field theoretic calculation of energy cascade rates in non-helical magnetohydrodynamic turbulence

Energy cascade rates and Kolmogorov’s constant for non-helical steady magnetohydrodynamic turbulence have been calculated by solving the flux equations to the first order in perturbation. For zero cross helicity and space dimensiond = 3, magnetic energy cascades from large length-scales to small length-scales (forward cascade). In addition, there are energy fluxes from large-scale magnetic field to small-scale velocity field, large-scale velocity field to small-scale magnetic field, and large-scale velocity field to large-scale magnetic field. Kolmogorov’s constant for magnetohydrodynamics is approximately equal to that for fluid turbulence (≈ 1.6) for Alfvén ratio 05 ≤r _A ≤ ∞. For higher space-dimensions, the energy fluxes are qualitatively similar, and Kolmogorov’s constant varies asd ^1/3. For the normalized cross helicity σ_c →1, the cascade rates are proportional to (1 − σ_c)/(1 + σ_c , and the Kolmogorov’s constants vary significantly with σ_cc.     

Rotation of a Fine Particle with Circularly Polarized Anti-Parallel Collinear Laser Beams

We have succeeded in the operation of rotating a fine particle which was held without mechanical contact by circularly polarized laser beams with opposite propagation directions. A polystyrene latex particle 11.9 μm in diameter deformed in a disk-like shape was dispersed in water, and was trapped using the anti-parallel collinear laser beams which were set up so that they had the circular polarization rotating in the same direction. It was observed that the trapped particle rotated in the same direction as the rotation of the circular polarization of light. Inversion of the rotational direction of the circular polarization of light reversed the direction of the rotation of the particle. Although the rotational speed of a particle varied significantly from particle to particle, it was found to be proportional to the laser beam intensity. A typical value for the rotational speed per beam intensity was 2.1 Hz/W.     

The acceleration of the universe and the physics behind it

Using a general classification of dark enegy models in four classes, we discuss the complementarity of cosmological observations to tackle down the physics beyond the acceleration of our universe. We discuss the tests distinguishing the four classes and then focus on the dynamics of the perturbations in the Newtonian regime. We also exhibit explicitely models that have identical predictions for a subset of observations.     

Rota–Baxter Algebras and New Combinatorial Identities

The word problem for an arbitrary associative Rota–Baxter algebra is solved. This leads to a noncommutative generalization of the classical Spitzer identities. Links to other combinatorial aspects are indicated.