Superfluidity with and without a condensate in two and three dimensions

The recent study of He and You [P.-S. He and W.-L. You, Int. J. Mod. Phys. B26, 1250107 (2012)] on the relation between superfluid and condensate densities in a two-dimensional weakly interacting Boson system assumed a δ(x???x′) interaction between two particles at sites x and x′. The main purpose of this article is to point out the sensitivity of the conclusions of He and You to the choice of interaction. Thus, it is known for logarithmic interactions that one can have superfluidity without a condensate. Finally, some related ideas are mentioned in relation to superfluidity in liquid ⁴ He at exceedingly low temperatures.     

Network topology of deeply supercooled water

Empirical potential structure refinements have been made to recent high-energy x-ray diffraction data, providing molecular models of deeply supercooled water. The average O-O coordination number is found to drop from 5.13 at 293?K to 4.85 at 244?K, within 3.5?Å. Triplet O-O-O bond angle distributions reveal a broad peak centred at 96.4° at 293?K which shifts to 100.0° at 244?K, indicative of the local geometry becoming increasingly tetrahedral with decreasing temperature. However, although the number of non-bonded interstitial molecules between the first and second shells is depleted upon cooling, the number of interstitial molecules forming triplets that are embedded within the hydrogen bonded tetrahedral network at θ_OOO?=?53°, remains constant. This is consistent with previous observations of an invariant O-O coordination number with temperature (4.24 out to 3.3?Å) and corresponds to non-bonded molecules positioned at close to half the ideal tetrahedral angle. Both -O-O-O- and hydrogen-bonded -O-H-O- ring length distributions show increases in 6 and 7-membered rings upon supercooling. This is concomitant with a shift and increase in intensity of peaks at r₄ ～8.7?Å and r₅ ～10.8?Å in the oxygen-oxygen pair distribution function, which in the models correspond to correlations between adjacent and next-nearest-neighbour hydrogen-bonded rings.     

Parallel Schwarz alternating methods for anisotropic diffusion of speckled medical images

This paper deals with ultrasound medical image processing, particularly to filter the noise while preserving the edges and structures of information. The mathematical processing consists in solving by a numerical way a nonlinear evolutive boundary value problem. Several numerical semi-implicit time marching schemes are considered and analyzed. At each time step, parallel synchronous or asynchronous Schwarz alternating methods are used to solve the linear system and its convergence is studied. Lastly, the results of sequential and parallel simulations are presented.      

Development and Optimization of Twenty-Four Hour Manual Methods for the Collection and Colorimetric Analysis of Atmospheric NO2

Abstract

Manual twenty-four hour colorimetric procedures for the determination of atmospheric NO₂ are described. The methods are based on collecting NO₂ by bubbling ambient air for twenty-four hours through reagents that form stable nitrite solutions. The reagents described have a 93 % collection efficiency over the range of 20 to 750 μg/m³ NO₂ with no apparent interferences. The inadequacies' of the former reference or alkaline method¹ are also described.     

Nourdin–Peccati analysis on Wiener and Wiener–Poisson space for general distributions

Given a reference random variable, we study the solution of its Stein equation and obtain universal bounds on its first and second derivatives. We then extend the analysis of Nourdin and Peccati by bounding the Fortet–Mourier and Wasserstein distances from more general random variables such as members of the Exponential and Pearson families. Using these results, we obtain non-central limit theorems, generalizing the ideas applied to their analysis of convergence to Normal random variables. We do these in both Wiener space and the more general Wiener–Poisson space. In the former space, we study conditions for convergence under several particular cases and characterize when two random variables have the same distribution. In the latter space we give sufficient conditions for a sequence of multiple (Wiener–Poisson) integrals to converge to a Normal random variable.     

Weight distributions of a class of cyclic codes with arbitrary number of nonzeros in quadratic case

Cyclic codes are an important class of linear codes, whose weight distribution have been extensively studied. So far, most of previous results obtained were for cyclic codes with no more than three nonzeros. Recently, the authors of [37] constructed a class of cyclic codes with arbitrary number of nonzeros, and computed the weight distribution for several cases. In this paper, we determine the weight distribution for a new family of such codes. This is achieved by introducing certain new methods, such as the theory of Jacobi sums over finite fields and subtle treatment of some complicated combinatorial identities.     

Hydrochemistry of an ancient traditional irrigation reservoir in Padaviya,Sri Lanka

Padaviya Wewa Reservoir constructed in 2nd century BC is an important traditional reservoir in Sri Lanka. The construction and the use of these traditional Sri Lankan reservoirs are different from modern large-scale hydroelectric and multi-purpose reservoirs in Sri Lanka and the rest of the world. The hydrochemistry of these unique water bodies has been rarely studied and understood. In this study, depth-wise distribution of Fe, Mn, Zn, Cd, and As and their correlation with pH, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, temperature, BOD, COD, and total phosphate were investigated to identify the mechanisms that drive the water quality in Padaviya Wewa Reservoir. There is a well distinguishable chemical gradient from the surface to the bottom of the water column suggesting that Padaviya is not a well-mixed water body even though the maximum water depth during the study period was 4.75 m. There was a strong negative correlation between Fe, Mn, Zn, and Cd and DO in both surface and bottom waters. In addition, a strong positive correlation between Fe, Mn, Zn, Cd, and As, and total phosphate was observed in bottom waters. The suggested driving force behind the depth-wise distribution of chemical species is intense biological activities in the reservoir. The weak thermal stratification is strengthened by photosynthesis at the surface waters and organic matter degradation at bottom of the reservoir. The end-result of these biological activities are oxygen rich surface waters with low concentrations of nutrients and metal ions and oxygen depleted bottom waters with higher concentrations of nutrients and metal ions.     

A New Approach for Controlling Mesoporosity in Activated Carbon by the Consecutive Process of Air Oxidation,Thermal Destruction of Surface Functional Groups,and Carbon Activation (the OTA Method)

A new and simple method, based entirely on a physical approach, was proposed to produce activated carbon from longan fruit seed with controlled mesoporosity. This method, referred to as the OTA, consisted of three consecutive steps of (1) air oxidation of initial microporous activated carbon of about 30% char burn-off to introduce oxygen surface functional groups, (2) the thermal destruction of the functional groups by heating the oxidized carbon in a nitrogen atmosphere at a high temperature to increase the surface reactivity due to increased surface defects by bond disruption, and (3) the final reactivation of the resulting carbon in carbon dioxide. The formation of mesopores was achieved through the enlargement of the original micropores after heat treatment via the CO₂ gasification, and at the same time new micropores were also produced, resulting in a larger increase in the percentage of mesopore volume and the total specific surface area, in comparison with the production of activated carbon by the conventional two-step activation method using the same activation time and temperature. For the activation temperatures of 850 and 900 °C and the activation time of up to 240 min, it was found that the porous properties of activated carbon increased with the increase in activation time and temperature for both preparation methods. A maximum volume of mesopores of 0.474 cm³/g, which accounts for 44.1% of the total pore volume, and a maximum BET surface area of 1773 m²/g was achieved using three cycles of the OTA method at the activation temperature of 850 °C and 60 min activation time for each preparation cycle. The two-step activation method yielded activated carbon with a maximum mesopore volume of 0.270 cm³/g (33.0% of total pore volume) and surface area of 1499 m²/g when the activation temperature of 900 °C and a comparable activation time of 240 min were employed. Production of activated carbon by the OTA method is superior to the two-step activation method for better and more precise control of mesopore development.