Use of a modified Drude's equation to investigate the optical rotation property of sugars

Sugar compounds (glucose, xylose, arabinose, and galactose) and their mixed solutions were examined using the optical rotatory dispersion (ORD) measurement technique with a modified Drude's equation. Commonly, spectroscopic methods utilize the observation of absorption bands which are, in the case of sugars, located in the UV-spectral range. However, the polarization method used in this study allows us to investigate sugar samples in a convenient visible spectral range where sugar solutions are relatively transparent. The ORD set-up can be simple and robust as we will demonstrate: the self-constructed apparatus consists of only two linear polarizers, placed one after the other, with the angle between their transmission axes adjusted to 45°. The sugar solution sample in a cuvette was put between the polarizers. The set-up was connected to a sample compartment of a commercial UV–vis spectrophotometer. The method provided us the specific optical rotation and concentration of sugar solutions with a reasonable accuracy. In addition, the optical rotation value for mixed sugars has been found to be the average optical rotation value of individual sugar content. Beside use in the laboratory environment, the method could also have industrial on-site monitoring applications, for example in bio fuel production.     

The ground state phase diagrams and low-energy excitation of dimer XXZ spin ladder

We study the ground state and low-energy excitation of dimer XXZ spin ladder with Heisenberg and XXZ interactions along the rung and rail directions, respectively. Using a bond operator method, we get low-energy effective Hamiltonians in different parameter regions. Based on those low-energy effective Hamiltonians, we set up the ground state phase diagrams and investigate the properties of low-energy excitation in each phase. We will show that the results are exact one when the XXZ interactions along rail reduce to the Ising type. The quantum Monte Carlo and exact diagonalization methods are also applied to the finite system to verify the exact nature of the phases, the phase transitions and the low-energy excitation. Of all the phases, we pay a special attention to the gapped antiferromagnetic phase, which is disclosed to be a non-trivial one that exhibits the time-reversal symmetry. We also discuss how our findings could be realized and detected by using cold atoms in optical lattice.     

Chaotic bat algorithm

Bat algorithm (BA) is a recent metaheuristic optimization algorithm proposed by Yang. In the present study, we have introduced chaos into BA so as to increase its global search mobility for robust global optimization. Detailed studies have been carried out on benchmark problems with different chaotic maps. Here, four different variants of chaotic BA are introduced and thirteen different chaotic maps are utilized for validating each of these four variants. The results show that some variants of chaotic BAs can clearly outperform the standard BA for these benchmarks.     

Dynamical parametric instability of carbon nanotubes under axial harmonic excitation by nonlocal continuum theory

Structures under parametric load can be induced to the parametric instability in which the excitation frequency is located the instability region. In the present work, the parametric instability of double-walled carbon nanotubes is studied. The axial harmonic excitation is considered and the nonlocal continuum theory is applied. The critical equation is derived as the Mathieu form by the Galerkin's theory and the instability condition is presented with the Bolotin's method. Numerical calculations are performed and it can be seen that the van der Waals interaction can enhance the stability of double-walled nanotubes under the parametric excitation. The parametric instability becomes more obvious with the matrix stiffness decreasing and small scale coefficient increasing. The parametric instability is going to be more significant for higher mode numbers. For the nanosystem with the soft matrix and higher mode number, the small scale coefficient and the ratio of the length to the diameter have obvious influences on the starting point of the instability region.     

Dynamic stability and sensitivity to geometric imperfections of strongly compressed circular cylindrical shells under dynamic axial loads

In the present paper, the dynamic stability of circular cylindrical shells is investigated; the combined effect of compressive static and periodic axial loads is considered. The Sanders–Koiter theory is applied to model the nonlinear dynamics of the system in the case of finite amplitude of vibration; Lagrange equations are used to reduce the nonlinear partial differential equations to a set of ordinary differential equations. The dynamic stability is investigated using direct numerical simulation and a dichotomic algorithm to find the instability boundaries as the excitation frequency is varied; the effect of geometric imperfections is investigated in detail. The accuracy of the approach is checked by means of comparisons with the literature.     

A geometric‐based algebraic multigrid method for higher‐order finite element equations in two‐dimensional linear elasticity

In this paper, we will discuss the geometric‐based algebraic multigrid (AMG) method for two‐dimensional linear elasticity problems discretized using quadratic and cubic elements. First, a two‐level method is proposed by analyzing the relationship between the linear finite element space and higher‐order finite element space. And then a geometric‐based AMG method is obtained with the existing solver used as a solver on the first coarse level. The resulting AMG method is applied to some typical elasticity problems including the plane strain problem with jumps in Young's modulus. The results of various numerical experiments show that the proposed AMG method is much more robust and efficient than a classical AMG solver that is applied directly to the high‐order systems alone. Moreover, we present the corresponding theoretical analysis for the convergence of the proposed AMG algorithms. These theoretical results are also confirmed by some numerical tests. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Period-three route to chaos induced by a cyclic-fold bifurcation in passive dynamic walking of a compass-gait biped robot

This paper presents a study of the passive dynamic walking of a compass-gait biped robot as it goes down an inclined plane. This biped robot is a two-degrees-of-freedom mechanical system modeled by an impulsive hybrid nonlinear dynamics with unilateral constraints. It is well-known to possess periodic as well as chaotic gaits and to possess only one stable gait for a given set of parameters. The main contribution of this paper is the finding of a window in the parameters space of the compass-gait model where there is multistability. Using constraints of a grazing bifurcation on the basis of a shooting method and the Davidchack–Lai scheme, we show that, depending on initial conditions, new passive walking patterns can be observed besides those already known. Through bifurcation diagrams and Floquet multipliers, we show that a pair of stable and unstable period-three gait patterns is generated through a cyclic-fold bifurcation. We show also that the stable period-three orbit generates a route to chaos.     

Hybrid two-dimensional continuous wavelet transform for analysis of phase-shifted interferograms

In interferogram or fringe pattern analysis, a technique capable of automatically analyzing interferograms that contain complex fringes and high-level noise as well as defects is highly demanded. In this paper, a hybrid technique combining the concepts of the two-dimensional continuous wavelet transform technique and the phase-shifting technique is proposed. The novel technique takes the advantages of the two existing techniques, and has the ability to accurately and automatically analyze multiple phase-shifted complex interferograms involving noise and defects. The validity of the technique is demonstrated by both computer simulation and real experiment.