Numerical analysis of the spiral Couette flow of a rarefied gas between coaxial cylinders

An implicit quasi-monotone second-order accurate method is proposed for analyzing the spiral Couette flow of a rarefied gas between coaxial cylinders. The basic advantages of the method over the conventional method of stationry iterations are that the former is conservative with respect to the collision integral, has a simple software implementation for any types of boundary conditions, and applies to a wide range of Knudsen numbers.     

Three-dimensional mapping of cholinergic molecules by confocal laser scanning microscopy in sea urchin larvae.

Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) was used to examine molecules related to the cholinergic neurotransmission system and detected at all the larval stages of Paracentrotus lividus, by histochemical and immunohistochemical methods. CLSM, providing spatial resolution of the cells located both at the larval surface and at depth, allows a complete mapping in a three-dimensional volumetric frame. At early larval stages acetylcholinesterase- as well as choline acetyltransferase-like molecules were found mainly in the gut wall cells, and along the ciliary bands of the arms, together with muscarinic acetylcholine receptors. At perimetamorphic stages, cholinergic molecules were present in the ciliate strands along the arms, in the larval body and in the rudiment. At metamorphosis, positivity to cholinergic molecules translocated to the juvenile, where a high frequency of mAChR- and ChAT-like positive cells was found.     

Balancing a Rotor with Two Coupled Perfectly Rigid Bodies

The steady motions of a vertical rotor balanced by two coupled perfectly rigid bodies (PRBs) are analyzed for stability. The rotor executes plane-parallel motions. The PRBs can rotate together about the rotor axis and about its transverse axes through equal angles but in opposite directions. It is established that when the mass of the PRBs is much less than that of the rotor and the rotor spins with a superresonant speed, only the basic steady motions, which are those of the best-balanced rotor, are asymptotically stable.     

The orientation-selective growth of LaNiO3 films on Si(100) by pulsed laser deposition using a MgO buffer

Highly (100)-oriented, (110)-oriented and polycrystalline LaNiO₃ (LNO) films were successfully prepared on Si(100) using an oriented MgO film as a buffer. It was somewhat surprising to find that that the orientation relation between the LNO film and the corresponding MgO buffer was: LNO(100)\MgO(110), LNO(110)\MgO(111) and LNO(polycrystalline)\MgO(100). The crystalline quality of the LNO films was shown to be sensitive to the preparation conditions of the MgO buffer. The film surface was very smooth, without micrometer-sized droplets being observed. All LNO films were of metallic conductivity, with a room-temperature resistivities of approximately 250, 280 and 420 μΩ cm for the (110)-oriented, (100)-oriented and polycrystalline LNO, respectively. Received: 2 April 2001 / Accepted: 23 October 2001 / Published online: 3 June 2002     

Ground-state properties of LiV2O4 and Li1-xZnx(V1-yTiy)2O4

We present susceptibility, microwave resistivity, NMR and heat-capacity results for Li_1-xZn_x(V_1-yTi_y)₂O₄ with 0 ? x ? 0.3 and 0 ? y ? 0.3. For all doping levels the susceptibility curves can be fitted with a Curie-Weiss law. The paramagnetic Curie-Weiss temperatures remain negative with an average value close to that of the pure compound Θ≈ - 36 K. Spin-glass anomalies are observed in the susceptibility, heat-capacity and NMR measurements for both type of dopants. From the temperature dependence of the spin-lattice relaxation rate we found critical-dynamic behavior in the Zn doped compounds at the freezing temperatures. For the Ti-doped samples two successive freezing transitions into disordered low-temperature states can be detected. The temperature dependence of the heat capacity for Zn-doped compounds does not resemble that of canonical spin glasses and only a small fraction of the total vanadium entropy is frozen at the spin-glass transitions. For pure LiV₂O₄ the spin-glass transition is completely suppressed. The temperature dependence of the heat capacity for LiV₂O₄ can be described using a nuclear Schottky contribution and the non-Fermi liquid model, appropriate for a system close to a spin-glass quantum critical point. Finally an ( x / y , T )-phase diagram for the low-doping regime is presented. Received 16 March 2001 and Received in final form 30 October 2001     

On mechanical characteristics of nanocrystals

The dependence of the elastic moduli of a nanocrystal on its size is investigated theoretically with reference to a two-dimensional single-crystal strip. It is shown that the uncertainty (of a fundamental nature) in the size of a nanocrystal causes the determination of many of its mechanical characteristics to be ambiguous. It is found that the Cauchy-Green relations are modified and the elastic-constant tensor ceases to be symmetric; the size and shape of a nanocrystal render its mechanical properties more anisotropic. For a single-crystal strip, the Poisson ratio decreases and the Young modulus increases with decreasing thickness of the strip; in the case of a very thin crystal film (two atomic layers thick), these elastic moduli can differ from their macroscopic values by a factor of two. The size effects which make the continuum elasticity theory inapplicable to nanocrystals are estimated. The size effects that occur when the molecular dynamics method is applied for modeling macroscopic objects are also discussed.     

Ground-state energy of pionic hydrogen to one loop

We investigate the ground-state energy of the atom (pionic hydrogen) in the framework of QCD + QED. In particular, we evaluate the strong energy-level shift. We perform the calculation at next-to-leading order in the low-energy expansion in the framework of the relevant effective field theory. The result provides a relation between the strong energy shift and the pion-nucleon S-wave scattering lengths - evaluated in pure QCD - at next-to-leading order in isospin-breaking and in the low-energy expansion. We compare our result with available model calculations. Received: 11 June 2002 / Published online: 9 October 2002     

Expansion of monomer units in poly(ethylene terephthalate) molecules under conditions of thermal and zero-point atomic vibrations

The temperature dependence of the expansion ?_C of trans conformers of the carbon skeleton of macromolecules in crystallized and amorphous poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) due to zero-point and thermal atomic vibrations is investigated by IR spectroscopy. It is found that the thermal expansion coefficient β_C jumpwise increases at the characteristic temperatures T _t and T _b. This increase is associated with the crossover from the quantum to classical statistics of torsional and bending vibration modes. The quantum and classical contributions to the expansion ?_C are determined for each mode. The quantum and classical contributions of the torsional vibrational mode in the amorphous polymer are approximately 1.5 times larger than those in the crystallized polymer. This effect is caused by an increase in the anharmonicity of torsional vibrations in the amorphous polymer.     

Nonlinear Theory of Spectra of Thermally Stimulated Currents in Complex Crystals with Hydrogen Bonds

The nonlinear theory of thermally stimulated depolarization currents is developed. The theory explains the processes of hetero- and homocharge relaxation in complex crystals with hydrogen bonds and allows the relaxation oscillator parameters to be calculated using the quadratic approximation for the external electric field.     

Forward-angle yields of 2≤Z≤11 isotopes in the reaction of 18O(35A MeV) with 9Be

A systematic investigation of the forward-angle inclusive yields of 2≤Z≤11 isotopes produced in collisions of ¹⁸O projectile nuclei with a ⁹Be target in the Fermi energy region (35A MeV) is performed. The measurements were based on the use of the COMBAS double achromatic kinematical separator in the spectrometry mode at the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, FLNR (JINR, Dubna). The velocity, isotopic, and element distributions are presented. There is no unique mechanism that would explain the total set of results obtained in this experiment. A dominant role of low-energy reaction mechanisms is observed. The intensity of secondary beams of halolike nuclei ¹¹Li, ¹²Be, and ¹⁴Be is determined.