A Particular Bit of Universality: Scaling Limits of Some Dependent Percolation Models

We study families of dependent site percolation models on the triangular lattice and hexagonal lattice that arise by applying certain cellular automata to independent percolation configurations. We analyze the scaling limit of such models and show that the distance between macroscopic portions of cluster boundaries of any two percolation models within one of our families goes to zero almost surely in the scaling limit. It follows that each of these cellular automaton generated dependent percolation models has the same scaling limit (in the sense of Aizenman-Burchard [3]) as independent site percolation on .The work was conducted while this author was at Department of Physics, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA. Research partially supported by the U.S. NSF under grants DMS-98-02310 and DMS-01-02587.Research partially supported by the U.S. NSF under grants DMS-98-03267 and DMS-01-04278.Research partially supported by FAPERJ grant E-26/151.905/2000 and CNPq.     

Heavy metal in sediments and bioaccumulation in the bivalve Corbula gibba in a drilling discharge area

The longterm bioavailability of heavy metals in sediments of a Northern Adriatic Sea shelf area affected by drilling mud and cutting discharges was discussed. Levels of Mn, Cu, Cr, Zn and Pb in different geochemical phases of the sediment and in soft tissues of the bivalve Corbula gibba were recorded and the relationships between biological and geochemical metal investigated. Total metal content, acetic acid extractable-, exchangeable-, carbonate-, easily reducible-, moderately reducible-, oxidable- and residual-fractions were determined on sediment samples. Corbula gibba was collected from wet sediments at the same times and sites, and the soft-tissue metal contents were determined. Correlations show that the fractions with greatest bioavailability are the exchangeable and carbonate for Cr and the exchangeable, carbonate, easily and moderately reducible fractions for Zn. Data also show a possible bioavailability of Pb only from the residual fraction, consisting of very resistant matter of more recent anthropogenic origin. Near the platform, total Mn content in sediments and in C. gibba tissues show a strong correlation suggesting that this organism is sensitive to variations of the Mn-oxi-hydroxides superficial film. No relationships were found between biological and sediment-bound Cu, however the discharged muds did not cause Cu enrichment. The metal fraction determined by weak acetic acid extraction at no point seems related to metal levels in Corbula gibba.     

Advances of unilateral mobile NMR in nondestructive materials testing

Unilateral mobile NMR employs portable instrumentation with sensors, which are applied to the object from one side. Based on the principles of well-logging NMR, a hand-held sensor, the NMR-MOUSE (MObile Universal Surface Explorer) has been developed for nondestructive materials testing. In the following, a number of new applications of unilateral NMR in materials science are reviewed. They are the state assessment of polyethylene pipes, the characterization of wood, the in situ evaluation of stone conservation treatment, high-resolution profiling of rubber tubes and 2-D imaging for defect analysis in rubber products.     

Evanescent-wave bonding between optical waveguides

Forces arising from overlap between the guided waves of parallel, microphotonic waveguides are calculated. Both attractive and repulsive forces, determined by the choice of relative input phase, are found. Using realistic parameters for a silicon-on-insulator material system, we estimate that the forces are large enough to cause observable displacements. Our results illustrate the potential for a broader class of optically tunable microphotonic devices and microstructured artificial materials.     

The reactions of nitrosyl complexes with cysteine

The reaction kinetics of a set of ruthenium nitrosyl complexes, {(X)5MNO}n, containing different coligands X (polypyridines, NH3, EDTA, pz, and py) with cysteine (excess conditions), were studied by UV-vis spectrophotometry, using stopped-flow techniques, at an appropriate pH, in the range 3-10, and T = 25 degrees C. The selection of coligands afforded a redox-potential range from -0.3 to +0.5 V (vs Ag/AgCl) for the NO+/NO bound couples. Two intermediates were detected. The first one, I1, appears in the range 410-470 nm for the different complexes and is proposed to be a 1:1 adduct, with the S atom of the cysteinate nucleophile bound to the N atom of nitrosyl. The adduct formation step of I1 is an equilibrium, and the kinetic rate constants for the formation and dissociation of the corresponding adducts were determined by studying the cysteine-concentration dependence of the formation rates. The second intermediate, I2, was detected through the decay of I1, with a maximum absorbance at ca. 380 nm. From similar kinetic results and analyses, we propose that a second cysteinate adds to I1 to form I2. By plotting ln k1(RS-) and ln k2(RS-) for the first and second adduct formation steps, respectively, against the redox potentials of the NO+/NO couples, linear free energy plots are obtained, as previously observed with OH- as a nucleophile. The addition rates for both processes increase with the nitrosyl redox potentials, and this reflects a more positive charge at the electrophilic N atom. In a third step, the I2 adducts decay to form the corresponding Ru-aqua complexes, with the release of N2O and formation of cystine, implying a two-electron process for the overall nitrosyl reduction. This is in contrast with the behavior of nitroprusside ([Fe(CN)5NO]2-; NP), which always yields the one-electron reduction product, [Fe(CN)5NO]3-, either under substoichiometric or in excess-cysteine conditions.     

Scaling Limit and Critical Exponents for Two-Dimensional Bootstrap Percolation

Consider a cellular automaton with state space {0,1} ² where the initial configuration _0 is chosen according to a Bernoulli product measure, 1s are stable, and 0s become 1s if they are surrounded by at least three neighboring 1s. In this paper we show that the configuration _n at time n converges exponentially fast to a final configuration , and that the limiting measure corresponding to is in the universality class of Bernoulli (independent) percolation. More precisely, assuming the existence of the critical exponents , , and , and of the continuum scaling limit of crossing probabilities for independent site percolation on the close-packed version of ² (i.e. for independent *-percolation on ), we prove that the bootstrapped percolation model has the same scaling limit and critical exponents.This type of bootstrap percolation can be seen as a paradigm for a class of cellular automata whose evolution is given, at each time step, by a monotonic and nonessential enhancement [Aizenman and Grimmett, J. Stat. Phys. 63: 817--835 (1991); Grimmett, Percolation, 2nd Ed. (Springer, Berlin, 1999)     

Analysis and quantification of flavonoidic compounds from Portuguese olive (Olea europaea L.) leaf cultivars

Twenty three samples of 18 Portuguese olive leaf cultivars were analysed by a reversed-phase HPLC/DAD procedure and eight flavonoidic compounds were identified and quantified (luteolin 7,4'-O-diglucoside, luteolin 7-O-glucoside, rutin, apigenin 7-O-rutinoside, luteolin 4'-O-glucoside, luteolin, apigenin and diosmetin). Luteolin 7,4'-O-diglucoside and luteolin 4'-O-glucoside were identified by HPLC/DAD/MS/MS - ESI. The studied olive leaf samples showed a common phenolic pattern, in which luteolin 4'-O-glucoside was almost always the major compound.     

Runaway dilaton and equivalence principle violations

In a recently proposed scenario, where the dilaton decouples while cosmologically attracted towards infinite bare string coupling, its residual interactions can be related to the amplitude of density fluctuations generated during inflation, and are large enough to be detectable through a modest improvement on present tests of free-fall universality. Provided it has significant couplings to either dark matter or dark energy, a runaway dilaton can also induce time variations of the natural "constants" within the reach of near-future experiments.