Evaluation of the acoustic nonlinearity parameter of materials with Rayleigh waves excited directly

An experimental technique for the determination of the relative acoustic nonnnearity parameter of materials with Rayleigh waves excited directly is presented. Rayleigh surface waves were directly generated in materials by the specific piezoelectric transducer fixed at the specimen＇s edge, and were measured with a laser interferometer system. After the Rayleigh wave signals were processed with FFT method, the relative acoustic nonlinearity parameter of materials was then determined from the absolute magnitudes of the fundamental and second harmonics of Rayleigh surface waves. This procedure was used to determine the acoustic non- linearity parameters of aluminum alloys 2024 and 6061. It is shown that the results comply well with those available in the literature; this method can thus be used to evaluate the acous- tic nonlinearity parameter of materials effectively. This technique can provide a practical way in the nondestructive characterization of degradation of materials and structures in the early fatigue life.     

Quantum Logic in Dagger Kernel Categories

This paper investigates quantum logic from the perspective of categorical logic, and starts from minimal assumptions, namely the existence of involutions/daggers and kernels. The resulting structures turn out to (1) encompass many examples of interest, such as categories of relations, partial injections, Hilbert spaces (also modulo phase), and Boolean algebras, and (2) have interesting categorical/logical/order-theoretic properties, in terms of kernel fibrations, such as existence of pullbacks, factorisation, orthomodularity, atomicity and completeness. For instance, the Sasaki hook and and-then connectives are obtained, as adjoints, via the existential-pullback adjunction between fibres.     

Modification of the radiation sensitivity of anoxic bacterial spores by selected alcohols

The effect of three alcohols as representative of ointment and cream components on the radiation sensitivity of anoxic Bacillus pumilus spores was determined in order to understand the radiation-induced inactivation of spores when suspended in non-aqueous milieux. Bacillus pumilus spores mounted on aluminium silicate powder were suspended in the appropriate alcohol, deoxygenated and ⁶⁰Co gamma-irradiated. Responses ranged between that for buffered suspensions alone to approximately twice that value. Concentrations of the alcohols in buffer, below their solubility limits, did not produce responses significantly different from that characteristic of anoxic buffer alone.     

Nano-polycrystalline diamond anvils: key devices for XAS at extreme conditions: their use,scientific impact,present status and future needs

ABSTRACT

Nano-polycrystalline diamonds (NPDs) have become fundamental tools for cutting-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) studies at high P/T conditions that opened up new research directions by overcoming previous limitations. Indeed, NPDs yield a continuous and weak X-ray background signal which enables the collection of high-quality XAS data of materials compressed in diamond anvil cells. This is a critical advantage over the classically used single-crystal diamonds that generate strong parasitic signals (glitches) which render the analysis of XAS data in many cases impossible. In this contribution we give an overview of the impact and the scientific opportunities that NPDs opened up for extreme condition XAS spectroscopy at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility and discuss future needs.     

Crystal structure of (4α,4aα,8aα)-(±)-octahydro-2-(phenylmethyl)-2H-1,2-benzoxazin-4-ol, 4-methylbenzenesulfonate(ester)

The title compound, a bicyclic tetrahydro-1,2-oxazine, crystallizes in a monoclinic lattice, space group P2₁/c, with a = 12.9809(18)Å, b = 12.920(2)Å, c = 13.631(2)Å, = 110.713(12)°, and Z = 4. The structure found in the solid state for this conformationally mobile molecule shows the tosyl group in an axial position and a benzyl group in an equatorial position of the bicyclic system.     

Synthetic mimicking of plant oils and comparison with naturally grown products in polyurethane synthesis

The use of plant oils as industrial feedstocks can often be hampered by their lack of optimization towards a particular process, as well as their development being risky; growing suitable volumes of crops to test can take up to five years. To circumvent this, we aimed to discover a method that would mimic plant oil profiles in the laboratory, and show that they exhibited similar properties to the naturally grown plant oils in a given process. Using the synthesis of polyurethanes as an example, we have synthesized six different polymers and demonstrated that plant oils will produce polymers with similar physical properties to those oils mimicked in the laboratory. The use of this mimicking process can be extended to other types of polymers to obtain a method for predicting the properties of a given material based on the plant oil composition of a crop before it is grown in bulk.