Superprism properties in 2D polymer photonic crystals at high normal frequencies

The superprism effects of higher bands, i.e., for normal frequencies of higher than one, in two-dimensional (2D) polymer photonic crystals (PCs) are investigated. It is shown that in a polymer PC of triangular symmetry with filling factor of about 31%, the gradual transition of the hexagonal into triangular equi-frequency dispersion contours leads to a strong superprism in the 6th band at a normal frequency of 1.2. This dispersion is more prominent than those observed in the lower bands in 2D PCs. Also, this requires a lattice constant longer than the concerned wavelength. Furthermore, in a 2D polymer PC with a filling factor of about 83% a strong discontinuous superprism effect occurs at normal frequencies higher than one, which is due to an abrupt transition between two modes with the refraction angles of opposite signs. The effect can be exploited for switching applications as demonstrated in the paper.     

Errorless and errorful learning modulated by transcranial direct current stimulation

Background

Caspase-3 is one of the most downstream enzymes activated in the apoptotic pathway. In caspase-3 deficient mice, loss of cochlear hair cells and spiral ganglion cells coincide closely with hearing loss. In contrast with the auditory system, details of the vestibular phenotype have not been characterized. Here we report the vestibular phenotype and inner ear anatomy in the caspase-3 deficient (Casp3 ^-/- ) mouse strain.

Results

Average ABR thresholds of Casp3 ^-/- mice were significantly elevated (P < 0.05) compared to Casp3 ^+/- mice and Casp3 ^+/+ mice at 3 months of age. In DPOAE testing, distortion product 2F1-F2 was significantly decreased (P < 0.05) in Casp3 ^-/- mice, whereas Casp3 ^+/- and Casp3 ^+/+ mice showed normal and comparable values to each other. Casp3 ^-/- mice were hyperactive and exhibited circling behavior when excited. In lateral canal VOR testing, Casp3 ^-/- mice had minimal response to any of the stimuli tested, whereas Casp3 ^+/- mice had an intermediate response compared to Casp3 ^+/+ mice. Inner ear anatomical and histological analysis revealed gross hypomorphism of the vestibular organs, in which the main site was the anterior semicircular canal. Hair cell numbers in the anterior- and lateral crista, and utricle were significantly smaller in Casp3 ^-/- mice whereas the Casp3 ^+/- and Casp3 ^+/+ mice had normal hair cell numbers.

Conclusions

These results indicate that caspase-3 is essential for correct functioning of the cochlea as well as normal development and function of the vestibule.     

Multiple scattering of an obliquely incident plane acoustic wave from a grating of immersed cylindrical shells

The study of the interaction of acoustic waves with cylindrical structures has numerous applications including the ultrasonic nondestructive testing of materials. In this paper, using a new mathematical model presented for the scattering of obliquely incident plane acoustic waves from a grating of immersed cylindrical shells, a detailed study of the resonant interaction of A-wave resonances originating from the shells is conducted. The nature of A-wave resonances and the effect of center-to-center distance of the shells on these resonances are examined. It is observed that this resonant interaction not only results in the splitting of A-wave resonances, but also causes an increase in resonance amplitudes. This interaction phenomenon is not seen in Rayleigh, whispering gallery and guided wave resonances. It is also shown that increasing the angle of wave incidence to the grating weakens the A-wave resonant interactions. The numerical results obtained from the mathematical model are compared to experimental results available in the literature for gratings composed of two and three aluminum shells. The numerical results are in very good agreement with their experimental counterparts.     

Relaxing mixed integer optimal control problems using a time transformation

Mixed integer control systems are used to model dynamical behavior that can change instantly, for example a driving car with different gears. Changing a gear corresponds to an instant change of the differential equation what is achieved in the model by changing the value of the integer control function. The optimal control of a mixed integer control system by a discretize-then-optimize approach leads to a mixed integer optimization problem that is not differentiable with respect to the integer variables, such that gradient based optimization methods can not be applied. In this work, differentiability with respect to all optimization variables is achieved by reformulating the mixed integer optimal control problem (MIOCP). A fixed integer control function and a time transformation are introduced. The combination of both allows to change the sequence of active differential equations by partially deactivating the fixed integer control function. In contrast to other works, here different fixed integer control functions are taken into account. Advantages of so called control consistent (CC) fixed integer control functions are discussed and confirmed on a numerical example. (© 2015 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

3-甲基-1-磺酸咪唑硫酸氢盐催化剂用于四组分一锅法合成不对称聚羟基喹啉衍生物(英文)

3-Methyl-1-sulfonic acid imidazolium hydrogen sulfate has been used as an efficient, halogen-free,and reusable Brnsted acidic ionic liquid catalyst for the synthesis of ethyl-4-aryl/heteryl- hexahydro-trimehtyl-5-oxoquinoline-3-carboxylates via the one-pot condensation of dimedone with aryl/heteryl aldehydes, ethyl acetoacetate, and ammonium acetate under solvent-free conditions. This method has the advantage of being clean and simple, as well as providing the desired product in high yield over a short reaction time. Furthermore, the catalyst could be recycled and reused four times without any discernible reduction in activity.     

Third-Order Optical Nonlinearity in Two-Dimensional Transition Metal Dichalcogenides

We present a detailed calculation of the linear and nonlinear optical response of four types of monolayer twodimensional (2D) transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), having the formula MX₂ with M=Mo, W and X=S, Se. The calculations are based on 6-band tight-binding model of TMDCs, and then performing a semi-classical perturbation analysis of response functions. We numerically calculate the linear χ_μν⁽¹⁾ (-ω;ω) and nonlinear surface susceptibility tensors χ_μνζη⁽³⁾(-ω_Σ; ω_r; ω_s; ω_t) with ω_Σ=ω_r+ω_s+ω_t. Both non-degenerate and degenerate cases are studied for thirdharmonic generation and nonlinear refractive index, respectively. Computational results obtained with no external fitting parameters are discussed regarding two recent reported experiments on MoS₂, and thus we can confirm the extraordinarily strong optical nonlinearity of TMDCs. As a possible application, we demonstrate generation of a π/4-rotated squeezed state by means of nonlinear response of TMDCs, in a silica micro-disk resonator covered with the 2D material. Our proposed method will enable accurate calculations of nonlinear optical response, such as four-wave mixing and highharmonic generation in 2D materials and their heterostructures, thus enabling study of novel functionalities of 2D photonic integrated circuits.     

Vortex Shedding: A Review on Flat Plate

Flat plates, both single and in tandem or side by side arrangement, are widely used in many engineering applications. Despite vast investigations of the flow structures and wakes downstream of these bluff bodies, this unsteady phenomenon yet remains a fundamental issue in many industrial applications. This paper reviews the state of the art concerning the flow over flat plates in different arrangements focusing on plates normal to the flow. Turbulent wake regions are discussed for the flat plates in side by side or tandem arrangement. Numerical studies are reviewed with emphasis on the realized turbulent models. The effect of the chosen turbulence model on the prediction of the wake region is discussed.     

Neural Estimator of Information for Time-Series Data with Dependency

Novel approaches to estimate information measures using neural networks are well-celebrated in recent years both in the information theory and machine learning communities. These neural-based estimators are shown to converge to the true values when estimating mutual information and conditional mutual information using independent samples. However, if the samples in the dataset are not independent, the consistency of these estimators requires further investigation. This is of particular interest for a more complex measure such as the directed information, which is pivotal in characterizing causality and is meaningful over time-dependent variables. The extension of the convergence proof for such cases is not trivial and demands further assumptions on the data. In this paper, we show that our neural estimator for conditional mutual information is consistent when the dataset is generated with samples of a stationary and ergodic source. In other words, we show that our information estimator using neural networks converges asymptotically to the true value with probability one. Besides universal functional approximation of neural networks, a core lemma to show the convergence is Birkhoff’s ergodic theorem. Additionally, we use the technique to estimate directed information and demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in simulations.     

The Concrete Quantum Tunneling Spectrum of Reissner-Nordstrom Black Holes

A canonical ensemble model for a R-N black hole quantum tunneling radiation is introduced in this paper. We discover that the probability distribution function is equal to the emission rate of a spherical shell in the Parikh-Wilczek tunneling framework. Taking the generalized uncertainty principle into account, the probability distribution function corresponding to the emission shell system can be calculated with this model. As a result the concrete quantum tunneling spectrum for a R-N black hole is obtained.