New approach to the defibrillation problem: Suppression of the spiral wave activity of cardiac tissue

A model of an excitable medium is considered for describing the development of fibrillation (i.e., spatiotemporal chaos) in cardiac tissue through the generation of a set of coexisting spiral waves. It is shown that a weak external point action on such a medium leads to the suppression of all spiral waves and, correspondingly, to the stabilization of the system dynamics. After reaching the regular regime, only the external source exists in the medium. The frequencies and amplitudes at which such stabilization occurs are determined. The case of the action of several point sources is considered. Analysis is performed using the Bray method to identify the number of spiral waves.     

Dielectric relaxation of Cr<Superscript>3+</Superscript>-Li<Superscript>+</Superscript> pair centers in Li<Subscript>2</Subscript>Ge<Subscript>7</Subscript>O<Subscript>15</Subscript> crystals

The temperature-frequency dependences of the permittivity of crystals of lithium heptagermanate Li₂Ge₇O₁₅ doped with Cr³⁺ ions are investigated. A dielectric response to reorientation of the dipole moments of the chromium impurity centers is revealed. Anomalies of the permittivity are described within the model of a Debye relaxator.     

Unwanted combustion enhancement by C6F12O fire suppressant

Several agents are under consideration to replace CF₃Br for use in suppressing fires in aircraft cargo bays. In a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) performance test simulating the explosion of an aerosol can, however, the replacements, when added at sub-inerting concentrations, have all been found to create higher pressure rise than with no agent, hence failing the test. Thermodynamic equilibrium calculations as well as perfectly-stirred reactor (PSR) simulations with detailed reaction kinetics, are performed for one of these agents, C₆F₁₂O (Novec 1230), to understand the reasons for the unexpected enhanced combustion rather than suppression. The high pressure rise with added agent is shown to depend on the amount of agent, and can only occur if a large fraction of the available oxidizer in the chamber is consumed, corresponding to stoichiometric proportions of fuel, oxygen, and agent. A kinetic model for the reaction of C₆F₁₂O in hydrocarbon–air flames has been developed. Stirred-reactor simulations predict that at higher agent loadings, the inhibition effectiveness of C₆F₁₂O is relatively insensitive to the overall stoichiometry, and the marginal inhibitory effect of the agent is greatly reduced, so that the mixture remains flammable over a wide range of conditions corresponding to those of the FAA test. The present findings are consistent with and support the earlier analyses for C₂HF₅ and CF₃Br, which were also evaluated in the FAA test.     

The Bargmann-Wigner formalism for spin 2 fields

The Bargmann-Wigner formalism has been applied to describe the spin-2 field in terms of the symmetric fourth-rank multi-Dirac spinor Ψ_αβγδ. A serious problem of the standard anzatz is that the resulting equation of motion has the trivial solution with all field components being independently equal to zero. We here show that this problem is an artefact of the neglection of terms containing the matrix γ⁵ in the decomposition of ϕ into the Clifford algebra basis. We further emphasize importance of the gauge 4-vector field in that respect.     

Cascade photon emission in luminophores

Cascade photon emission (CPE), i.e., the production of two or more photons of visible light upon excitation by a single vacuum UV photon, allows for the creation of luminescent materials with the quantum efficiency (Q) greater than unity. Various types of CPE, both experimentally observed and theoretically modeled, are described in this work. The basic characteristics of the matrix and the activator (a rare-earth ion) required for the CPE effect are determined. The most promising CPE materials are the Pr³⁺-activated fluorides with a high coordination number for the activator. It is shown that creation of phosphors with Q > 1, which is currently of great interest from both scientific and technological viewpoints, remains highly problematic.     

Luminescence VUV spectroscopy of cerium-and europium-doped lithium borate crystals

The paper reports on a study of the luminescence of lithium borate crystals (Li₆Gd(BO₃)₃ doped by Eu³⁺ and Ce³⁺ ions, Li_5.7Mg_0.15Gd(BO₃)₃: Eu, and Li₆Eu(BO₃)₃) initiated by selective excitation by synchrotron radiation at excitation energies of 3.7–27 eV at 10 and 290 K. Efficient energy transfer between the rare-earth ions Gd³⁺ → Ce³⁺ and Gd³⁺ → Eu³⁺ was found to proceed by the resonance mechanism, as well as by electron-hole recombination. Fast decay kinetics of luminescence of the Ce³⁺ activator centers was studied under intracenter photoexcitation and excitation in the interband transition region. The mechanisms involved in luminescence excitation and radiative relaxation of electronic states of rare-earth ions are analyzed, and the energy transfer processes operating in these crystals are discussed.     

Coloring of silica glass with silver nanoparticles

The possibility of doping of surface layers of optical fused silica with silver nanogranules upon heating of a thin Ag film on the silica surface by a CO₂ laser beam (P ≈ 30 W, λ = 10.6 μm) is established. The effect of exposure time on the doped layer structure has been investigated. The absorption band of the colloidal solution of Ag in silica has been studied. It is shown that this band is homogeneously broadened and its peak (at 420 nm) corresponds to the small volume filling factor (q < 0.1) at an average granule radius of about 3 nm. Based on the measurements of the radial distributions of the reflectance and refractive index over the doped region at λ = 633 nm, it is revealed that the doped layer is an area-irregular asymmetric step waveguide.     

On the 65th Anniversary of the Laboratory of Crystal Optics at the Institute of Crystallography,Russian Academy of Sciences

Crystallography Reports -     

Electron and hole injection in metal-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon structures

The kinetics of electron and hole accumulation in metal-oxide-nitride-oxide-semiconductor structures is studied. Experimental data are compared with a theoretical model that takes into account tunnel injection, electron and hole capture by traps in amorphous silicon nitride SiN_x, and trap ionization. Agreement between experimental and calculated data is obtained for the bandgap width E _g = 8.0 eV of amorphous SiO₂, which corresponds to the barrier for holes Φ_h = 3.8 eV at the Si/SiO₂ interface. The tunneling effective masses for holes in SiO₂ and SiN_x are estimated at m _h ^* ≈ (0.4–0.5)m ₀. The parameters of electron and hole traps in SiN_x are determined within the phonon-coupled trap model: the optical energy W _opt = 2.6 eV and the thermal energy W _T = 1.3 eV.