Mössbauer and magnetic studies of parent material from argentine pampas soils

In order to establish a correlation between the different types of soils using hyperfine and magnetic parameters as climatic and environmental proxies, we have studied the differentiation of soil developed around 38.5° south latitude, in the central Pampas of Argentina, by means of Mössbauer spectroscopy and environmental magnetism. The soils transect (climosequence) investigated stretches from the drier west (around 64° W) to the more humid east (at around 59° W) in the Buenos Aires Province, covering a distance of 600 km. The soils studied developed during recent Holocene geologic times in a landscape characterized by small relict plateaus, slopes and depressions, dunes and prairies. The parent material consists of eolian sandy silts overlying calcrete layers. The low mean annual precipitation in the western parts of the region gives rise to soils without B-horizons, which limits the agricultural use of land. The preliminary results show an increase of the paramagnetic Fe³⁺ relative concentration from west to east in the soils investigated. Magnetite is probably mainly responsible for the observed enhancement in the susceptibility values. The magnetic response of the parent material is similar to that of the loess part of the previously investigated loess–paleosol sequences of the Argentine loess plateau.     

Hilbert algebras as implicative partial semilattices

The infimum of elements a and b of a Hilbert algebra are said to be the compatible meet of a and b, if the elements a and b are compatible in a certain strict sense. The subject of the paper will be Hilbert algebras equipped with the compatible meet operation, which normally is partial. A partial lower semilattice is shown to be a reduct of such an expanded Hilbert algebra i ?both algebras have the same ?lters.An expanded Hilbert algebra is actually an implicative partial semilattice (i.e., a relative subalgebra of an implicative semilattice),and conversely.The implication in an implicative partial semilattice is characterised in terms of ?lters of the underlying partial semilattice.     

Analysis of a demodulation system for Fiber Bragg Grating sensors using two fixed filters

The analysis of a demodulation system for Fiber Bragg Grating sensors based on two fixed spectral filters has been carried out both theoretically and experimentally. Different system configurations were analyzed by modifying the spectral position of the filters as well as the optical power-level of the signal reaching the two photo-detectors. Measurements with integration times that varied from 0.01 to 1 s have been compared with the low-frequency limit predicted for long-term operation. Comparisons between simulated and experimental results show good agreement, and extrapolations indicate that it should be possible to achieve an operating spectrum range of the order of 7 nm, with uncertainties equivalent to less than 2 pm in measurements of the sensor peak position.     

Prevalence of voice disorders in African American and European American preschoolers

Several studies have reported prevalence rates for voice disorders in school-aged children. Less is known, however, about such prevalence in preschoolers, and whether racial, ethnic, or cultural diversity may influence it. The presence of voice disorders in a total of 2445 African-American and European-American preschool children, 1246 males and 1199 females, from 2 to 6 years of age is reported here. Presence of a voice disorder characterized by hoarseness was identified by a three-prong approach including teacher identification, investigator screening, and parent identification. Speech-language pathologists listened individually to each child's speech as they engaged each child in play-conversation activities. A voice disorder was identified on the basis of the judgment of two speech-language pathologists. Voice disorders characterized by hoarseness were identified in 95 children or 3.9% of the total sample by the investigators. Statistical analysis revealed no significant differences for age, gender, or race.     

The Elimination of Grains and Grain Boundaries in Grain Growth

The topological changes that occur during coarsening of 2D and 3Dcellular structures, such as polycrystals, areinvestigated. Particular attention is given to the elimination ofgrain boundaries and grains with more than the minimum number oftopological elements. A thermodynamic criterion is introduced tofind out which topological transformations are favoured, based on theevaluation of the Gibbs free energy of the initial and finalconfigurations. In general, elimination of grains is possible only ifthe number of their neighbours is below a critical value, which maybe affected by geometry.     

Lattice instability of Ni2MnGa

Anomalies have been detected in the temperature behavior of the physical properties of Ni₂MnGa in the temperature interval preceding the martensitic transformation, which is attributed to TA ₂ phonon mode condensation at T=T _I>T _m (T _m is the martensitic transition temperature). Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 39, 557–559 (March 1997)     

Observation of self-generation of dark envelope solitons for spin waves in ferromagnetic films

We have performed experiments in which self-generation of dark envelope solitons for spin waves at microwave frequencies were obtained. Stable self-generation of dark solitons was observed in a ring consisting of tangentially magnetized yttrium iron garnet film and a microwave signal amplifier. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 68, No. 3, 229–233 (10 August 1998)     

Minimum Fill-in on Circle and Circular-Arc Graphs

We present two algorithms solving the minimum fill-in problem on circle graphs and on circular-arc graphs in timeO(n³).