Results from Super-Kamiokande and K2K

Results from Super-Kamiokande-I’s entire 1496 live days of solar neutrino data are presented, including the absolute flux, energy spectrum, zenith angle (day/night) and seasonal variation. The possibility of MSW and vacuum oscillations is discussed in light of these results. Results from the first 1289 days of Super-K-I’s atmospheric neutrino analysis are also presented, including the evidence for ν_μ →ν _τ oscillations, against ν_μ → ν_sterile oscillations, and the current limits on proton decay. Finally, results based on 56 × 10¹⁹ protons on target are given for the K2K long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment.     

TiO2 nanosized powders controlling by ultrasound sol-gel reaction

We studied that anatase-TiO2 powders prepared from sol-gel process of titanium tetra-isopropoxide (TTIP) were developed under ultrasonic irradiation with different frequency of 28, 45 and 100 kHz. The irradiated ultrasound (US) was controlled by using semi-cylindrical reflection plate that was placed onto the vicinity of reaction vessel. The focused US influenced the reduction of particles size and increased the surface area of resultant nanosized TiO2 powders. We also examined photodegradation of rhodamine 640 dye (Rh-640) solution by the resultant TiO2 under UV light exposure. It was observed that low frequency for TiO2 photocatalyst preparation and low calcination temperature were more affected onto the photodegradation of the dye.     

Preparation, structural analysis and dielectric properties of Bi x La1−x FeO3 perovskite

Rare earth element substituted bismuth ferrites (BiFeO₃) are of enormous importance as magnetoelectric materials. The polycrystalline samples of Bi _x La_1−x FeO₃ (x=0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8) were prepared by solid-state reaction using standard ceramic method. The single-phase formation of these compounds was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies. The samples with x=0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 are found to be orthorhombic while the sample with x=0.8 is triclinic. The dielectric constant (ε′) and dissipation factor (tan δ) were measured in the frequency range 100 Hz to 1 MHz at room temperature and as a function of temperature at certain fixed frequencies (1 kHz, 10 kHz, 100 kHz, 1 MHz). All the samples showed dielectric dispersion. The dielectric constant with temperature shows a broad peak; the peak temperature shifts with frequency which reflects the relaxor-type behavior. The peak above 600 K in the measured temperature range corresponds to antiferromagnetic ordering temperature (Néel temperature). The broadness of the peak changes with composition. The ac conductivity as well as ε′ are found to be maximum for the sample x=0.2 at room temperature.     

Magnetoelectric effect in cobalt ferrite-barium titanate composites and their electrical properties

CoFe₂O₄-BaTiO₃ composites were prepared using conventional ceramic double sintering process with various compositions. Presence of two phases in the composites was confirmed using X-ray diffraction. The dc resistivity and thermoemf as a function of temperature in the temperature range 300 K to 600 K were measured. Variation of dielectric constant (ɛ′) with frequency in the range 100 Hz to 1 MHz and also with temperature at a fixed frequency of 1 kHz was studied. The ac conductivity was derived from dielectric constant (ɛ′) and loss tangent (tan δ). The nature of conduction is discussed on the basis of small polaron hopping model. The static value of magnetoelectric conversion factor has been studied as a function of magnetic field.     

The lattice Boltzmann advection-diffusion model revisited

Advection-diffusion processes can be simulated by the Lattice Boltzmann method. Two formulations have been proposed in the literature. We show that they are not fully correct (only first order accurate). A new formulation is proposed, which is shown to produce better results, both from the point of view of the Chapman-Enskog expansion or when comparing simulations with an exact time-dependent solution of the advection-diffusion equation.     

Neural stem cells from protein tyrosine phosphatase sigma knockout mice generate an altered neuronal phenotype in culture

Background  

The LAR family Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase sigma (PTPσ) has been implicated in neuroendocrine and neuronal development, and shows strong expression in specific regions within the CNS, including the subventricular zone (SVZ). We established neural stem cell cultures, grown as neurospheres, from the SVZ of PTPσ knockout mice and sibling controls to determine if PTPσ influences the generation and the phenotype of the neuronal, astrocyte and oligodendrocyte cell lineages.     

Advances in multi-domain lattice Boltzmann grid refinement

Grid refinement has been addressed by different authors in the lattice Boltzmann method community. The information communication and reconstruction on grid transitions is of crucial importance from the accuracy and numerical stability point of view. While a decimation is performed when going from the fine to the coarse grid, a reconstruction must performed to pass form the coarse to the fine grid. In this context, we introduce a decimation technique for the copy from the fine to the coarse grid based on a filtering operation. We show this operation to be extremely important, because a simple copy of the information is not sufficient to guarantee the stability of the numerical scheme at high Reynolds numbers. Then we demonstrate that to reconstruct the information, a local cubic interpolation scheme is mandatory in order to get a precision compatible with the order of accuracy of the lattice Boltzmann method.These two fundamental extra-steps are validated on two classical 2D benchmarks, the 2D circular cylinder and the 2D dipole–wall collision. The latter is especially challenging from the numerical point of view since we allow strong gradients to cross the refinement interfaces at a relatively high Reynolds number of 5000. A very good agreement is found between the single grid and the refined grid cases.The proposed grid refinement strategy has been implemented in the parallel open-source library Palabos.