Isotopic families of contact manifolds for elliptic PDE

A test for a function to be a solution of an elliptic PDE is given in terms of extensions, as solutions, from the boundaries inside the domains belonging to an isotopic family. It generalizes a result of Ehrenpreis for spheres moved along a straight line.

     

Polarized Lidar Reflectance Measurements of Vegetation at Near-Infrared and Green Wavelengths

There is growing interest in the use of lidar for remote sensing of vegetation owing to the emergence of reliable and rugged lasers and highly sensitive detectors. Lidar remote sensing has a distinct advantage over conventional techniques in vegetation remote sensing due to its capability for three-dimensional characterization of vegetative targets. The Multiwavelength Airborne Polarimetric Lidar (MAPL) system was developed primarily for vegetation remote sensing applications from an airborne platform of up to 1,000 -m altitude. The lidar system has full waveform capture and polarimetric measurement capability at two wavelengths in the near-infrared (1064 nm) and the green (532 nm) spectral regions. This study presents preliminary ground-based lidar reflectance measurements on a variety of deciduous and coniferous trees under fully foliated conditions with a view towards tree species discrimination. Variations in the reflectance characteristics of selected deciduous trees under unfoliated and fully foliated conditions were also investigated. Our study reveals distinct differences in the reflectance characteristics of various trees.     

Cobalt Hexacyanoferrate-Modified Electrode for Amperometric Assay of Hydrazine

A graphite electrode modified with cobalt hexacyanoferrate by mechanical immobilization was used for amperometric determination of hydrazine. The modified electrode exhibits good catalytic activity for the oxidation of hydrazine at a reduced overpotential with remarkable sensitivity. The modified electrode showed a linear response for hydrazine in the concentration range of 2.0 × 10^–5 to 2.8 × 10^–4 M. The detection limit was 9.8 × 10^–6 M (S/N = 3). The proposed modified electrode was simple, sensitive, rapid, stable and promising.     

振动谱学研究中的光谱线型函数

本文讨论了在振动谱带计算拟合处理中的光谱线型函数问题,推导出适用于单道及多道拉曼光谱仪及色散型红外谱仪谱带线型公式。通过实验及拟合计算证实了它们的适用性并讨论了可能的误差源。理论计算和实验验证结果说明:在振动谱的谱带拟合计算中,应使用根据测谱条件计算求得的谱带线型函数,以保证拟合结果的可靠性。     

Highly efficient lens couplers for laser-diodes based on long period grating in special graded-index fiber

A theoretical scheme of a new device consisting of a lensed fiber and a long period grating (LPG) imprinted in a special single mode gradient-index fiber (SSMGIF) is presented. The SSMGIF consists of the single mode uniform core and the graded-index cladding. The performance of the proposed device is based on specific properties of SSMGIF. For high efficiency coupling between number of cladding modes and co-propagating core mode in this special type of the fiber we can use a number of weak LPGs with the same amplitudes of the refractive index modulation and with almost the same lengths. This scheme provides higher coupling efficiency, relaxed longitudinal alignment tolerance, and smaller device size, than an identical scheme with the LPG imprinted in a step-index (SI) fiber. Two different types of fiber lenses (hemispherical and hyperbolic) are presented for comparison.     

Visualization of supersonic screeching jets using a phase conditioned focusing schlieren system

This study describes a technique that combines the benefits of focusing schlieren and phase conditioning. Focusing schlieren blurs and drops contrast of non-critical features whereas phase conditioning emphasizes periodic flow features, and their combination produces unique results. The supersonic jets that we studied produced an intense tone referred to as screech. The measured screech tone signal was used as input to the phase conditioning circuit that adjusted the strobing light source to the vertical synchronization pulse of a CCD camera. The sharp video images obtained by this technique could either be frozen or continuously swept through one period of screech to acquire a slow motion video record of the jet unsteadiness. Two cases were visualized in this study: first, an underexpanded jet from a convergent rectangular nozzle at various fully expanded Mach numbers. Second, a supersonic jet emerging from a convergent-divergent rectangular nozzle at a design Mach number of 1.4, artificially excited by impingement tones. The results of this study illustrate the usefulness of this system in visualizing oscillatory flows.The authors would like to thank Dr. Edward J. Rice for his contributions including the design of the impingement obstacles. The efforts of Brentley C. Nowlin (NASA Lewis), and James E. Little (NYMA Inc.) in the design and construction of the strobe trigger mechanism are highly appreciated. We also thank Janet Ivancic (NASA Lewis Photo Lab) for the image enhancement.     

Stable in situ sorting and minimum data movement

In this paper, we describe an algorithm to stably sort an array ofn elements using only a linear number of data movements and constant extra space, albeit in quadratic time. It was not known previously whether such an algorithm existed. When the input contains only a constant number of distinct values, we present a sequence ofin situ stable sorting algorithms makingO(n lg^(k+1) n+kn) comparisons (lg^(K) means lg iteratedk times and lg* the number of times the logarithm must be taken to give a result 0) andO(kn) data movements for any fixed valuek, culminating in one that makesO(n lg*n) comparisons and data movements. Stable versions of quicksort follow from these algorithms.Research supported by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada grant No.A-8237 and the Information Technology Research Centre of Ontario.Supported in part by a Research Initiation Grant from the Virginia Engineering Foundation.     

Topology evolution and gelation mechanism of agarose gel

Kinetics as well as the evolution of the agarose gel topology is discussed, and the agarose gelation mechanism is identified. Aqueous high melting (HM) agarose solution (0.5% w/v) is used as the model system. It is found that the gelation process can be clearly divided into three stages: induction stage, gelation stage, and pseudoequilibrium stage. The induction stage of the gelation mechanism is identified using an advanced rheological expansion system (ARES, Rheometric Scientific). When a quench rate as large as 30 deg C/min is applied, gelation seems to occur through a nucleation and growth mechanism with a well-defined induction time (time required for the formation of the critical nuclei which enable further growth). The relationship between the induction time and the driving force which is determined by the final setting temperature follows the 3D nucleation model. A schematic representation of the three stages of the gelation mechanism is given based on turbidity and rheological measurements. Aggregation of agarose chains is promoted in the polymer-rich phase and this effect is evident from the increasing mass/length ratio of the fiber bundles upon gelation. Continuously increasing pore size during gelation may be attributed to the coagulation of the local polymer-rich phase in order to achieve the global minimum of the free energy of the gelling system. The gel pore size determined using turbidity measurements has been verified by electrophoretic mobility measurements.