The influence of slits on sound transmission through a lightweight partition

In this paper the influence on sound reduction index of the length and the depth of sound leaks at the perimeter of lightweight partitions was examined. It was shown that the most important decrease on sound reduction index is caused by the first slit between lightweight partition and one of the structural members. When the length of the slit is increased, the decrease on sound reduction index is less significative. Calculated results show the same effects as measured ones.     

Parametric modeling of somatosensory evoked potentials

In this paper, we examine methods of characterizing somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP's) in both the time and frequency domains. We have found that the truncated impulse response (TIR) method produced an accurate time domain model of the SEP signals at model orders greatly reduced from the original state space matrix. The TIR method was valuable for smoothing signals that were slightly corrupted by noise. In this case, the simulated data sequence was close to the original data sequence in the mean squared error sense. For signals that were greatly corrupted by noise, the TIR method was not able to perform as well. Therefore, the TIR method was not a feature extraction method but was valuable for data simulation. In the frequency domain, we have used the autoregressive moving average model (ARMA) to parameterize the SEP signal. An overdetermined set of Yule-Walker equations was created to determine the autoregressive (AR) parameters of the original data with the model order established by the singular value decomposition. From these AR parameters, a residual time series was generated which was used to find the moving average parameters. The resulting ARMA model was used to produce a simulated data sequence. The frequency domain characteristics of the simulated sequence and the corresponding power spectral density of the ARMA filter were very close to the periodogram of the original data sequence. Accurate parameterization was achieved for the SEP waveforms at low filter lengths.     

Gyrotron coaxial cylindrical resonators with corrugated innerconductor: Theory and experiment

Gyrotron coaxial resonators with a longitudinally slotted inner cylinder are examined analytically using a surface impedance model, from which expressions for the electromagnetic field, ohmic quality (Q) factor, and characteristic equation of the transverse eigenvalues χ _m,p are obtained. The major attributes of such resonators are expressed by the dependence of χ_m,p on the parameter C-defined as the ratio of the outer to inner radii of the coaxial structure. In that connection, the effect of the corrugation parameters on χ_m,p is particularly investigated on the basis of an expression derived for the slope function dχ_m,p,p/dC. It is shown that the χ_m,p(C) curve may either exhibit oscillatory behavior or present a flat portion over a wide range of C depending on the corrugation parameters chosen. The theory is checked against experiment in which resonant frequencies and total Q factors were measured for TE modes operating in the range of 8-16 GHz in a coaxial cavity with 40 slots. Good agreement is found in that the magnitude of the relative error in frequency is less than 0.5%. Corrugated coaxial resonators prove to be relevant to megawatt gyrotrons where highly selective cavities are required to ensure high conversion efficiency     

Optimal Investment in a Levy Market

In this paper we consider the optimal investment problem in a market where the stock price process is modeled by a geometric Levy process (taking into account jumps). Except for the geometric Brownian model and the geometric Poissonian model, the resulting models are incomplete and there are many equivalent martingale measures. However, the model can be completed by the so-called power-jump assets. By doing this we allow investment in these new assets and we can try to maximize the expected utility of these portfolios. As particular cases we obtain the optimal portfolios based in stocks and bonds, showing that the new assets are superfluous for certain martingale measures that depend on the utility function we use.     

Characterization of NOx species in dehydrated and hydrated Na- and Ba-Y, FAU zeolites formed in NO2 adsorption

Adsorbed ionic NO_x species formed upon the interaction of NO₂ with dehydrated or hydrated Na- and Ba-Y, FAU zeolites were characterized using FT-IR/TPD, solid state NMR, and XANES techniques. NO₂ disproportionates on both dehydrated catalyst materials forming NO⁺ and NO₃⁻ species. These ionic species are stabilized by their interactions with the negatively charged zeolite framework and the charge compensating cations (Na⁺ and Ba²⁺), respectively. Although the nature of the adsorbed NO_x species formed on the two catalysts is similar, their thermal stabilities are strongly dependent on the charge compensating cations. In the presence of water in the channels of these zeolite materials new paths open for reactions between NO⁺ and H₂O, and NO₂ and H₂O, resulting in significant changes in the adsorbed ionic species observed. These combined spectroscopic investigations afforded the understanding of the interactions between water and NO₂ on these zeolite catalysts.     

Hierarchical Self‐Assembly of Peptide‐Coated Carbon Nanotubes

Numerous applications, from molecular electronics to super‐strong composites, have been suggested for carbon nanotubes. Despite this promise, difficulty in assembling raw carbon nanotubes into functional structures is a deterrent for applications. In contrast, biological materials have evolved to self‐assemble, and the lessons of their self‐assembly can be applied to synthetic materials such as carbon nanotubes. Here we show that single‐walled carbon nanotubes, coated with a designed amphiphilic peptide, can be assembled into ordered hierarchical structures. This novel methodology offers a new route for controlling the physical properties of nanotube systems at all length scales from the nano‐ to the macroscale. Moreover, this technique is not limited to assembling carbon nanotubes, and could be modified to serve as a general procedure for controllably assembling other nanostructures into functional materials.     

X-ray diffraction study of some mesogenic copper, nickel and vanadyl complexes

We present a comparative study of various metallomesogenic complexes, using X-ray diffraction methods. For a given ligand linked to different metal atoms (Cu, Ni, VO), the nature of this central atom influences mainly the magnetic susceptibilities of the mesophases. With different ligands, which keep the close neighbourhood of the metal atom unchanged, the apparent length of the mesogenic unit is longer for short ligands than for longer ones. This unexpected behaviour is qualitatively well explained by taking into account the global shape of the different complexes.