Ultrasonically enhanced corrosion of 304L stainless steel I: the effect of temperature and hydrostatic pressure

A systematic study of the effect exerted by various parameters on the corrosion of 304L stainless steel in an ultrasonic field has been carried out. Ultrasound increased the corrosion rate under all the investigated conditions. In this paper, attention is focused on the effect of temperature and hydrostatic pressure. At ambient pressure, increase in temperature, T, was found to increase the ultrasonically enhanced corrosion rate up to a maximum of 40 degrees C; at 50 degrees C a marked decrease in the effect of ultrasound was observed. At constant temperature, increase in hydrostatic pressure caused a strong increase in corrosion rate to values in excess of 2500 mm yr(-1) at 4 bar.     

The young adult patient

The purpose of this paper is to 1) describe the unique issues of voice patients, ages 21–55; 2) outline the knowledge and clinical skills that speech language pathologists should possess to deal with those issues; and 3) provide suggestions for promoting vocal longevity.     

Image data compression and it's effect on the accuracy of fringe-based images for 3-D gauging using a phase stepping method

This paper examines the effects of data compression on fringe images. Using the JPEG still image compression method firstly comparisons of errors introduced in a standard test image and in fringe images are made. The work shows that at compression levels of 6 : 1 a 512×512×8 bit fringe image can be reduced in size to allow a CCD digital camera to be directly connected for image input to the parallel port of a PC. The errors introduced into angular and smooth fringe images by the compression and decompression process are small, 0.06% and 0.14%, respectively. This enabled successful fringe analysis by a phase stepping system, with compression levels up to 16 : 1 using JPEG, before any significant artefacts were introduced into the processed images.     

Monstrous Branes

 We study D-branes in the bosonic closed string theory whose automorphism group is the Bimonster group (the wreath product of the Monster simple group with ℤ₂). We give a complete classification of D-branes preserving the chiral subalgebra of Monster invariants and show that they transform in a representation of the Bimonster. Our results apply more generally to self-dual conformal field theories which admit the action of a compact Lie group on both the left- and right-moving sectors. Received: 20 February 2002 / Accepted: 17 August 2002 Published online: 19 December 2002 Communicated by R.H. Dijkgraaf     

Reversible photomechanical switching of individual engineered molecules at a metallic surface

We have observed reversible light-induced mechanical switching for individual organic molecules bound to a metal surface. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) was used to image the features of individual azobenzene molecules on Au(111) before and after reversibly cycling their mechanical structure between trans and cis states using light. Azobenzene molecules were engineered to increase their surface photomechanical activity by attaching varying numbers of tert-butyl (TB) ligands ("legs") to the azobenzene phenyl rings. STM images show that increasing the number of TB legs "lifts" the azobenzene molecules from the substrate, thereby increasing molecular photomechanical activity by decreasing molecule-surface coupling.     

Baryon-number-induced Chern-Simons couplings of vector and axial-vector mesons in holographic QCD

We show that holographic models of QCD predict the presence of a Chern-Simons coupling between vector and axial-vector mesons at finite baryon density. In the Anti de Sitter/Conformal Field Theory dictionary, the coefficient of this coupling is proportional to the baryon number density and is fixed uniquely in the five-dimensional holographic dual by anomalies in the flavor currents. For the lightest mesons, the coupling mixes transverse rho and a1 polarization states. At sufficiently large baryon number densities, it produces an instability, which causes the rho and a1 mesons to condense in a state breaking both rotational and translational invariance.     

Role of polarization and alignment in photoactuation of nematic elastomers

Changing the orientational order in liquid-crystal elastomers leads to internal stresses and changes of the sample shape. When this effect is induced by light, due to photoisomerization of constituent molecular moieties, the photomechanical actuation results. We investigate quantitatively how the intensity and the polarization of light affect photoactuation. By studying dissolved, as well as covalently bonded azo-dyes, we determine the changes in absorption and the response kinetics. For the first time we compare the response of aligned monodomain, and randomly disordered polydomain nematic elastomers, and demonstrate that both have a comparable photoresponse, strongly dependent on the polarization of light. Polarization-dependent photoactuation in polydomain elastomers gives an unambiguous proof of its mechanism since it is the only experiment that distinguishes from the associated thermal effects.     

Dynamic calibration of shock overpressure transducers

Piezoelectric transducers for dynamic overpressure measurements are commonly calibrated with static or quasistatic loads and the calibration is extrapolated to frequencies up to 30% of the resonant frequency of the piezoelectric crystal. Sinusoidal pressure generators are also used for dynamic calibration up to 500 Hz in the range of 3 MPa. This paper describes a method for dynamic calibration using transient overpressures, with rise time of 2 μsec and width 40 μsec, generated by exploding wires in air. The calibration is done in the range of 600 kPa.     

Active cancellation of occlusion: an electronic vent for hearing aids and hearing protectors

The occlusion effect is commonly described as an unnatural and mostly annoying quality of the voice of a person wearing hearing aids or hearing protectors. As a result, it is often reported by hearing aid users as a deterrent to wearing hearing aids. This paper presents an investigation into active occlusion cancellation. Measured transducer responses combined with models of an active feedback scheme are first examined in order to predict the effectiveness of occlusion reduction. The simulations predict 18 dB of occlusion reduction in completely blocked ear canals. Simulations incorporating a 1 mm vent (providing passive occlusion reduction) predict a combined active and passive occlusion reduction of 20 dB. A prototype occlusion canceling system was constructed. Averaged across 12 listeners with normal hearing, it provided 15 dB of occlusion reduction. Ten of the subjects reported a more natural own voice quality and an appreciable increase in comfort with the cancellation active, and 11 out of the 12 preferred the active system over the passive system.