Electroweak tests with τ leptons at LEP

We report on two sensitive tests of lepton universality carried out by the 4 LEP experiments at the Z⁰ pole. From measurements of the τ polarization in e⁺ e^?→τ ⁺ τ ^?, the ratios of the vector and axial vector coupling constants of the electron and the tau lepton to the weak neutral current are obtained to beg _{v e} /g _{a e} =0.066±0.015 andg _{V τ} /g _{A τ} =0.070±0.009 respectively. From measurement of the τ lifetime and the τ leptonic branching ratios, the ratio of the coupling constants describing weak leptonic decays of the τ and the μ is measured to beG _τ /G _μ =0.996±0.008.     

Standard<Emphasis Type="Italic">SU</Emphasis>(5) supergravity grand unification model and predictions

A review is given of the StandardSU(5) supergravity model. This model has passed an important check regarding unification of the electro-weak and the strong couplings using high precision LEP data. It is shown that for a significant domain of the parameter space the model also satisfies constraints on the SUSY spectrum from CDF and LEP, as well as proton stability and cosmological relic density constraints.     

Physics with large extra dimensions

The recent understanding of string theory opens the possibility that the string scale can be as low as a few TeV. The apparent weakness of gravitational interactions can then be accounted by the existence of large internal dimensions, in the sub-millimeter region. Furthermore, our world must be confined to live on a brane transverse to these large dimensions, with which it interacts only gravitationally. In my lecture, I describe briefly this scenario which gives a new theoretical framework for solving the gauge hierarchy problem and the unification of all interactions. I also discuss a minimal embedding of the standard model, gauge coupling unification and proton stability. On leave from: Centre de Physique Théorique, Ecole Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau, Cedex, France.     

Simulation and design of a bandpass filter on metasubstrates

This work presents an analysis of the microstrip bandpass filter on metamaterial substrates. The filter is composed of two ring resonators with quarter-wavelength side-coupled sections. The filter input is provided, as well as the output port, using a quarter-wavelength side-coupled microstrip line section. Simulations by finite element method have been carried out to verify the effect of the metamaterial substrate properties on the filter performance, and to compare these results to those obtained considering isotropic substrate.     

Mathematical modelling and numerical simulation of the morphological development of neurons

Background

The morphological development of neurons is a very complex process involving both genetic and environmental components. Mathematical modelling and numerical simulation are valuable tools in helping us unravel particular aspects of how individual neurons grow their characteristic morphologies and eventually form appropriate networks with each other.

Methods

A variety of mathematical models that consider (1) neurite initiation (2) neurite elongation (3) axon pathfinding, and (4) neurite branching and dendritic shape formation are reviewed. The different mathematical techniques employed are also described.

Results

Some comparison of modelling results with experimental data is made. A critique of different modelling techniques is given, leading to a proposal for a unified modelling environment for models of neuronal development.

Conclusion

A unified mathematical and numerical simulation framework should lead to an expansion of work on models of neuronal development, as has occurred with compartmental models of neuronal electrical activity.

     

Influence of potential function asymmetries on the performance of nonlinear energy harvesters under white noise

To improve the broadband transduction capabilities of vibratory energy harvesters (VEHs) under random and non-stationary excitations, many researchers have resorted to purposefully introducing nonlinearities into the restoring force of the harvester. While performing this task, it is often very challenging to maintain a perfectly symmetric restoring force which yields a VEH with an asymmetric potential energy function. This paper investigates the influence of potential function asymmetries on the performance of nonlinear VEHs under white noise inputs. To that end, a quadratic nonlinearity is introduced into the restoring force and its influence on the mean output power of the harvester for mono- and bi-stable quartic potentials is investigated. It is shown that, for VEHs with a mono-stable quartic potential function, the mean output power increases with the degree of potential function asymmetry. On the other hand, for energy harvesters with a bi-stable quartic potential function, asymmetries in the restoring force appear to worsen performance especially for low to moderate noise intensities. When the noise intensity becomes sufficiently large, the influence of the potential function?s asymmetry on the mean power diminishes. Results also reveal that a VEH with a symmetric bi-stable quartic potential function produces higher mean power levels than the one with the most asymmetric mono-stable potential. As such, it is concluded that a VEH with a symmetric bi-stable potential is most desirable to improve performance under white noise.     

Performance evaluation of a WDM/OCDM based hybrid optical switch utilizing efficient resource allocation

A hybrid optical switch （HOS） with physical layer of wavelength division multiplexing and optical code division multiplexing （WDM/OCDM） scheme is proposed. An additional feature to the HOS than optical cross connect （OXC） is that the controller can process requests for both circuit establishment and burst scheduling. In our study, the measurement criteria of HOS are the blocking probability, probability of error, and probability of outage. To simplify the analysis, no distinction is made between a circuit in progress and a burst in progress. Moreover, a minimum fit （MinF） resource allocation strategy is applied in order to increase the bandwidth efficiency and control the multiplexing interference of the OCDM. A 2D Markov model for the HOS is presented using the MinF strategy. Numerical results reveal that the code parameters and the resource allocation strategy greatly affect the performance. Certain periority can be achieved by assigning shorter codes to high periority users and longer codes to low periority users. Also, the probability of error and outage are reduced bv aonling the MinF strategy.     

Thermodynamic non-additivity in disordered systems with extended phase space

Non-additivity effects in coupled dynamic-stochastic systems are investigated. It is shown that there is a mapping of the replica approach to disordered systems with finite replica indexn on Tsallis non-extensive statistics, if the average thermodynamic entropy of the dynamic subsystem differs from the information entropy for the probability distribution in the stochastic subsystem. The entropic indexq is determined by the entropy difference ΔS. In the case of incomplete information, the entropic indexq=1−n is shown to be related to the degree of lost information.     

Turbulent flame visualization using direct numerical simulation

Combustion phenomena are of high scientific and technological interest, in particular for energy generation and transportation systems. Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) have become an essential and well established research tool to investigate the structure of turbulent flames, since they do not rely on any approximate turbulence models. In this work two complementary DNS codes are employed to investigate different types of fuels and flame configurations. The code is π³ is a 3-dimensional DNS code using a low-Mach number approximation. Chemistry is described through a tabulation, using two coordinates to enter a database constructed for example with 29 species and 141 reactions for methane combustion. It is used here to investigate the growth of a turbulent premixed flame in a methane-air mixture (Case 1). The second code,Sider is an explicit three-dimensional DNS code solving the fully compressible reactive Navier-Stokes equations, where the chemical processes are computed using a complete reaction scheme, taking into account accurate diffusion properties. It is used here to compute a hydrogen/air turbulent diffusion flame (Case 2), considering 9 chemical species and 38 chemical reactions.     

Sensitization of spinal cord nociceptive neurons with a conjugate of substance P and cholera toxin

Background  

Several investigators have coupled toxins to neuropeptides for the purpose of lesioning specific neurons in the central nervous system. By producing deficits in function these toxin conjugates have yielded valuable information about the role of these cells. In an effort to specifically stimulate cells rather than kill them we have conjugated the neuropeptide substance P to the catalytic subunit of cholera toxin (SP-CTA). This conjugate should be taken up selectively by neurokinin receptor expressing neurons resulting in enhanced adenylate cyclase activity and neuronal firing.