PERSISTENCE AND GLOBAL STABILITY FOR TWO-SPECIES NONAUTONOMOUS PREDATOR-PREY SYSTEM WITH DIFFUSION AND TIME DELAY

In this paper, a non-autonomous predator-prey model with diffusion andcontinuous time delay is studied, where the prey can diffuse between two pat-ches of a heterogeneous environment with barriers between patches, but for thepredator, the diffusion does not involve a barrier between patches, further itis assumed that all the parameters are time-dependent. It is shown that thesystem can be made persistent under some appropriate conditions. Moreover,sufficient conditions that guarantee the existence of a unique periodic solutionwhich is globally asymptotic stable are derived.     

Determination of colloidally-associated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in fresh water using C18 solid phase extraction disks

A new application of reversed-phase octadecyl (C₁₈) solid phase extraction disks has been developed to separate the colloidally-associated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from those that were truly dissolved in the samples of fresh water. A correction for the retention of small amounts of colloidal material on the C₁₈ disks was required, which would have otherwise lead to minor underestimates in the degree of partitioning between the two phases. Using the humic substance Aldrich Humic Acid (AHA) as a model colloid and the 16 PAHs on the US Enrivonmental Protection Agency priority pollutant list, the partitioning coefficients of the PAHs between the colloidal and truly dissolved phases were shown to be proportional to the hydrophobicity of the PAHs, as measured by their octanol water partition coefficients (K_ow). The values for the partition coefficients obtained (cK_doc′) were similar to those previously reported in the literature using alternative methods, confirming that the technique was producing acceptable results. The technique allows the in situ partitioning of PAHs between the truly dissolved and colloidal phases in fresh water bodies to be determined. It will provide an invaluable cross-check of the laboratory-based methods which often require substantial manipulation of the sample and potentially alter the partitioning between the phases.     

Domain size equilibration in sphere‐forming block copolymers

The kinetics of domain size equilibration were studied for asymmetric poly(ethylene‐alt‐propylene)‐b‐poly(dimethyl siloxane) (EPDMS) and polyisoprene‐b‐poly(dimethyl siloxane) (IDMS) block copolymers in the body‐centered cubic ordered phase. Small‐angle X‐ray scattering measurements of the principal peak position (q*) were made as a function of time after temperature jumps within the ordered state. The equilibration times were remarkably long, especially on cooling and for temperatures below 100 °C. For example, after a quench to 40 °C, q* for EPDMS had not fully equilibrated even after several weeks of annealing; IDMS required several days to equilibrate at the same temperature. In contrast, a lamella‐forming EPDMS sample was able to adjust q* within the timescale of the measurements (i.e., minutes) with both heating and cooling over the same temperature range. Measurements of tracer diffusion indicated that chain mobility was not the rate‐limiting step, although differences in mobility did account for the differences between EPDMS and IDMS. Rather, the limiting step was the required reduction in the number density of spheres on cooling; the disappearance of spheres, either by evaporation or by fusion, provided a large kinetic barrier. Lamellae, however, could adjust domain dimensions simply by local displacements of individual chains. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 41: 715–724, 2003     

Collisional Relaxation of Luminescence Anisotropy in Rarefied Gases in the Condensed Phase

The orientational relaxation of optically induced anisotropy in rarefied gases and at a damped rotation has been investigated. It has been found that the anisotropy relaxation in rarefied gases is described by a reduced kinetic equation depending only on free rotation integrals. The behavior of the integral anisotropy of luminescence for free symmetric and asymmetric top molecules has been elucidated. The law of luminescence depolarization has been obtained for asymmetric top molecules in the Gordon J-diffusion model. It represents the sum of two Stern–Volmer-type dependences, whose relative contribution is determined by the orientation of the dipole moments of transitions with absorption and emission of light in the molecular coordinate system and by the principal moments of inertia of the molecular top. It has been established that in the limit of a strongly damped rotation, kinetic equations of the general form reduce to equations of rotational diffusion. A number of modified diffusion equations correctly describing the contribution of inertial effects to the orientational relaxation of anisotropy have been obtained.     

Molecular modeling study on surface,thermal, mechanical and gas diffusion properties of chitosan

The motivation of this work is to provide reliable and accurate modeling studies of the physical (surface, thermal, mechanical and gas diffusion) properties of chitosan (CS) polymer. Our computational efforts have been devoted to make a comparison of the structural bulk properties of CS with similar type of polymers such as chitin and cellulose through cohesive energy density, solubility parameter, hydrogen bonding, and free volume distribution calculations. Atomistic modeling on CS polymer using molecular mechanics (MM) and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations has been carried out in three dimensionally periodic and effective two dimensionally periodic condensed phases. From the equilibrated structures, surface energies were computed. The equilibrium structure of the films shows an interior region of mass density close to the value in the bulk state. Various components of energetic interactions have been examined in detail to acquire a better insight into the interactions between bulk structure and the film surface. MD simulation (NPT ensemble) has also been used to obtain polymer specific volume as a function of temperature. It is demonstrated that these V–T curves can be used to locate the volumetric glass transition temperature (T_g) reliably. The mechanical properties of CS have been obtained using the strain deformation method. Diffusion coefficients of O₂, N₂, and CO₂ gas molecules at 300 K in CS have been estimated. The calculated properties of CS are comparable with the experimental values reported in the literature. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 45: 1260–1270, 2007     

Synthesis of Methyl 2-(5-Arylidene-2,4-dioxotetrahydrothiazol-3-yl)propionates

A series of methyl 2-(arylidene-2,4-dioxotetrahydrothiazol-3-yl)propionates were prepared. A study of the 3D structure was performed. The log P values are given for all the synthesized compounds.     

Carrier diffusion in InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells grown on vicinal GaAs(0 0 1) substrates

We have investigated the influence of vicinal GaAs substrates on the optical and electronic properties of InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells (QWs). A single In_0.10Ga_0.90As QW was grown by molecular-beam epitaxy on a vicinal GaAs(0 0 1) substrate with a miscut angle of 0° (nominal), 2°, 4° and 6° towards [1 1 0]. The carrier diffusion was obtained by a micro-photoluminescence scan technique that permits to observe the effective diffusion length characterized by the lateral spread of carriers in the QW followed by radiative recombination. The carrier diffusion length was obtained parallel (L_||) and perpendicular (L) to the atomic steps. The diffusion length decreases as the temperature increases up to 100 K. Above this temperature we found different behaviours that depend on the sample miscut angle.     

A posteriori H1 error estimation for a singularly perturbed reaction diffusion problem on anisotropic meshes

The paper deals with a singularly perturbed reaction diffusionmodel problem. The focus is on reliable a posteriori error estimatorsfor the H¹ seminorm that can be applied to anisotropic finiteelement meshes. A residual error estimator and a local problemerror estimator are proposed and rigorously analysed. They arelocally equivalent, and both bound the error reliably. Threemodifications of these estimators are introduced and discussed. Much attention is given to the performance of the error estimatorin numerical experiments. This helps to identify those estimatorsthat are suitable for practical applications.     

Effect of the incomplete accommodation of the heterogeneous recombination energy on heat fluxes to a quartz surface

Taking both the heterogeneous catalytic processes, including the surface formation of particles with excited internal degrees of freedom, and the processes of multicomponent diffusion and heat transfer in the MESOX apparatus fully into account makes it possible to obtain a recombination coefficient and an accommodation coefficient of the oxygen-atoms-on-quartz recombination energy which are in good agreement with the experimental data. The heterogeneous catalysis model constructed can be used effectively for predicting the heat fluxes to the surface of reentry vehicles on their entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.