The essential spectrum of periodically stationary pulses in lumped models of short-pulse fiber lasers

In modern short-pulse fiber lasers, there is significant pulse breathing over each round trip of the laser loop. Consequently, averaged models cannot be used for quantitative modeling and design. Instead, lumped models, which are obtained by concatenating models for the various components of the laser, are required. As the pulses in lumped models are periodic rather than stationary, their linear stability is evaluated with the aid of the monodromy operator obtained by linearizing the round-trip operator about the periodic pulse. Conditions are given on the smoothness and decay of the periodic pulse that ensure that the monodromy operator exists on an appropriate Lebesgue function space. A formula for the essential spectrum of the monodromy operator is given, which can be used to quantify the growth rate of continuous wave perturbations. This formula is established by showing that the essential spectrum of the monodromy operator equals that of an associated asymptotic operator. Since the asymptotic monodromy operator acts as a multiplication operator in the Fourier domain, it is possible to derive a formula for its spectrum. Although the main results are stated for a particular experimental stretched pulse laser, the analysis shows that they can be readily adapted to a wide range of lumped laser models.     

Energy Transfers in a System of Two Coupled Oscillators with Essential Nonlinearity: 1:1 Resonance Manifold and Transient Bridging Orbits

The purpose of this study is to highlight and explain the vigorous energy transfers that may take place in a linear oscillator weakly coupled to an essentially nonlinear attachment, termed a nonlinear energy sink. Although these energy exchanges are encountered during the transient dynamics of the damped system, it is shown that the dynamics can be interpreted mainly in terms of the periodic orbits of the underlying Hamiltonian system. To this end, a frequency-energy plot gathering the periodic orbits of the system is constructed which demonstrates that, thanks to a 1:1 resonance capture, energy can be irreversibly and almost completely transferred from the linear oscillator to the nonlinear attachment. Furthermore, it is observed that this nonlinear energy pumping is triggered by the excitation of transient bridging orbits compatible with the nonlinear attachment being initially at rest, a common feature in most practical applications. A parametric study of the energy exchanges is also performed to understand the influence of the parameters of the nonlinear energy sink. Finally, the results of experimental measurements supporting the theoretical developments are discussed. This study was carried out while the author was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Technical University of Athens and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.     

完全变换法在无网格伽辽金方法中的应用

由于移动最小二乘形函数一般不具有常规有限元或边界元形函数所具有的插值特征，本质边界条件的处理成为无网格伽辽金法实施中的一个难点。本文通过建立节点位移和广义位移之间的关系对移动最小二乘形函数进行修正，给出了修正的移动最小二乘形函数；以二维问题为例，对完全交换法在无网格伽辽金方法中的应用进行了研究，实现了本质边界条件在节点处的精确施加。数值计算结果表明该方法不仅简单合理，而且具有较高的精度、收敛性和稳定性。     

Antibacterial and antifungal LDPE films for active packaging

Active antimicrobial packaging is a promising form of active packaging that can kill or inhibit microorganism growth in order to maintain product quality and safety. One of the most common approaches is based on the release of volatile antimicrobial agents from the packaging material such as essential oils. Due to their highly volatile nature, the challenge is to preserve the essential oils during the high‐temperature melt processing of the polymer, while maintaining high antimicrobial activity for a desired shelf life. This study suggests a new approach in order to achieve this goal. Antimicrobial active films are developed based on low‐density polyethylene (LDPE), organo‐modified montmorillonite clays (MMT) and carvacrol (used as an essential oil model). In order to minimize carvacrol loss throughout the polymer compounding, a pre‐compounding step is developed in which clay/carvacrol hybrids are produced. The hybrids exhibit a significant increase in the d‐spacing of clay and enhanced thermal stability. The resulting LDPE/(clay/carvacrol) films exhibit superior and prolonged antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Listeria innocua, while polymer compounded with pure carvacrol loses the antibacterial properties within days. The films also present an excellent antifungal activity against Alternaria alternata, used as a model plant pathogenic fungus. Furthermore, infrared spectroscopy analysis of the LDPE/(clay/carvacrol) system displayed significantly higher carvacrol content in the film as well as a slower out‐diffusion of the carvacrol molecules in comparison to LDPE/carvacrol films. Thus, these new films have a high potential for antimicrobial food packaging applications due to their long‐lasting and broad‐spectrum antimicrobial efficacy. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Chemical composition and antibacterial activity of methanolic extract and essential oil of Iranian Teucrium polium against some of phytobacteria

The antibacterial activity of essential oil and methanolic extract of Teucrium polium was determined against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Pantoea agglomerans, Brenneria nigrifluens, Rhizobium radiobacter, Rhizobium vitis, Streptomyces scabies, Ralstonia solanacearum, Xanthomonas campestris and Pectobacterium cartovorum by disc diffusion method. Minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal concentration were determined by using the serial dilution method. Chemical composition of essential oil and methanolic extract was determined by GC-MS and HPLC. α-Pinene (25.769%) and myrcene (12.507) were of the highest percentage in T. polium essential oil, and sinapic acid (15.553 mg/g) and eugenol (6.805 mg/g) were the major compounds in the methanolic extract. Our results indicate that both methanolic extract and essential oil did not show antibacterial activity against P. aeruginosa. Also the essential oil did not show antibacterial activity against P. cartovorum. In general, both methanolic extract and essential oil showed the same antibacterial activity against R. solanacearum, P. agglomerans, B. nigrifluens and S. scabies.     

Chemical composition and antibacterial activity of Lavandula coronopifolia essential oil against antibiotic-resistant bacteria

The aim of this study was to analyse the composition of the essential oil (EO) of Lavandula coronopifolia from Morocco and to evaluate its in vitro antibacterial activity against antibiotic-resistant bacteria isolated from clinical infections. The antimicrobial activity was assessed by a broth micro-well dilution method using multiresistant clinical isolates of 11 pathogenic bacteria: Klebsiella pneumoniae subsp. pneumoniae, Klebsiella ornithinolytica, Escherichia coli, Enterobacter cloacae, Enterobacter aerogenes, Providencia rettgeri, Citrobacter freundii, Hafnia alvei, Salmonella spp., Acinetobacter baumannii and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The main compounds of the oil were carvacrol (48.9%), E-caryophyllene (10.8%) and caryophyllene oxide (7.7%). The oil showed activity against all tested strains with minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) values ranging between 1% and 4%. For most of the strains, the MIC value was equivalent to the minimal bactericidal concentration value, indicating a clear bactericidal effect of L. coronopifolia EO.     

Chemical composition and antibacterial activity of the essential oil from Agathis dammara (Lamb.) Rich fresh leaves

The essential oil of fresh leaves from Agathis dammara (Lamb.) Rich was extracted using hydro-distillation, and GC-FID and GC–MS were used to analyse the essential oil. Nineteen compounds were identified, among which the major components were limonene (36.81%), β-bisabolene (33.43%) and β-myrcene (25.48%). In the antibacterial test, disc diffusion method and micro-well dilution assay proved that the essential oil had significant antibacterial activities. The inhibition zones against Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were 23.7 and 23 mm, respectively, which demonstrated that the inhibition effects were greater than positive control (10 μg/disc streptomycin). And the lowest MIC value of the essential oil was found against S. aureus (1.25 mg/mL) and Bacillus subtilis (1.25 mg/mL). This is the first report on the antibacterial activities of A. dammara essential oil.     

Chemical composition and anti-inflammatory activities of the essential oils from Acacia mearnsii de Wild

The volatile oils of the leaves and the stem bark of Acacia mearnsii de Wild obtained by hydro-distillation were analysed by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. A total of 20, 38, 29 and 38 components accounted for 93.8%, 92.1%, 78.5% and 90.9% of the total oils of the fresh, dry leaves and fresh, dry stem bark, respectively. The major components of the oil were octadecyl alcohol (25.5%) and phytol (10.5%); cis-verbenol (29.5%); phytol (10.1%) and phytol (23.4%) for the fresh leaves, dried leaves, fresh stem, dry stem bark, respectively. Oral administration of essential oils at a dose of 2% showed significant (p < 0.05) anti-inflammatory properties in the albumin-induced test model in rats. Oils from the fresh leaves and dry stems inhibited inflammation beyond 4 h post treatment. The potent anti-inflammatory activity of essential oils of A. mearnsii hereby confirmed its traditional use in treating various inflammatory diseases.     

Comparison of essential oil components and in vitro anticancer activity in wild and cultivated Salvia verbenaca

The objectives of our research were to study the chemical composition and the in vitro anticancer effect of the essential oil of Salvia verbenaca growing in natural sites in comparison with those of cultivated (Sc) plants. The oil from wild (Sw) S. verbenaca presented hexadecanoic acid (23.1%) as the main constituent, while the oil from Sc plants contained high quantities of hexahydrofarnesyl acetone (9.7%), scarce in the natural oil (0.7%). The growth-inhibitory and proapoptotic effects of the essential oils from Sw and Sc S. verbenaca were evaluated in the human melanoma cell line M14, testing cell vitality, cell membrane integrity, genomic DNA fragmentation and caspase-3 activity. Both the essential oils were able to inhibit the growth of the cancer cells examined inducing also apoptotic cell death, but the essential oil from cultivated samples exhibited the major effects.     

Chemical composition and antioxidant activity of essential oil from aerial parts of Teucrium flavum L. subsp. flavum growing spontaneously in Tunisia

The objectives of this study were to chemically characterise and evaluate the antioxidant potential of the essential oil from Teucrium flavum L. subsp. flavum growing spontaneously in Tunisia. The volatile oil was extracted by hydrodistillation of the aerial parts in a Clevenger type apparatus. Forty constituents were identified via GC and GC-MS analysis. β-caryophyllene (32.5%) and α-humulene (17.8%) were the most abundant components. The evaluation of free radical scavenging activity using stable DPPH free radical showed that the volatile oil exhibits a moderate antioxidant activity and reduces DPPH to 50% at EC₅₀ value of 1230 μg mL^? 1.