Fields for which the projective schur subgroup is the whole Brauer group

LetBr(K) denote the Brauer group of a fieldK andPS(K) the projective Schur subgroup. 1. LetK be a finitely generated infinite field. ThenPS(K)=Br(K) if and only ifK is a global field. 2.|LetK be a finitely generated infinite field, and letK((t)) denote the field of formal power series int overK. ThenPS(K((t)))=Br(K((t))) if and only ifK=ℚ.     

Generic Transport Aft-body Drag Reduction using Active Flow Control

Active flow-separation control is an effective and efficient mean for drag reduction and unsteady load alleviation resulting from locally or massively separated flow. Such a situation occurs in configurations where the aerodynamic performance is of secondary importance to functionality. The performance of heavy transport helicopters and aeroplanes, having a large, and almost flat, aft loading ramp suffer from the poor aerodynamics of the aft body. Hence, a combined experimental and numerical investigation was undertaken on a generic transport aeroplane/helicopter configuration. The experimental study provided surface pressures, direct drag measurements, surface and smoke flow visualization. The baseline flow was numerically analyzed, using finite volume solutions of the RANS equations. The baseline flow around the model was insensitive to the Reynolds number in the range it was tested. The flow separating from the aft body was characterized by two main sources of drag and unsteadiness. The first is a separation bubble residing at the lower ramp corner and the second is a pair of vortex systems developing and separating from the sides of the ramp. As the model incidence is decreased, the pair of vortex systems also penetrates deeper towards the centerline of the ramp, decreasing the pressure and increasing the drag. As expected, the ramp lower corner bubble was highly receptive to periodic excitation introduced from four addressable piezo-fluidic actuators situated at the ramp lower corner. Total drag was reduced by 3–11%, depending on the model incidence. There are indications that the flow in the wake of the model is also significantly steadier when the bubble at the lower ramp corner is eliminated. The vortex system is tighter and steadier when the ramp-corner bubble is eliminated.     

Robust locally testable codes and products of codes

We continue the investigation of locally testable codes, i.e., error‐correcting codes for which membership of a given word in the code can be tested probabilistically by examining it in very few locations. We give two general results on local testability: First, motivated by the recently proposed notion of robust probabilistically checkable proofs, we introduce the notion of robust local testability of codes. We relate this notion to a product of codes introduced by Tanner and show a very simple composition lemma for this notion. Next, we show that codes built by tensor products can be tested robustly and somewhat locally by applying a variant of a test and proof technique introduced by Raz and Safra in the context of testing low‐degree multivariate polynomials (which are a special case of tensor codes). Combining these two results gives us a generic construction of codes of inverse polynomial rate that are testable with poly‐logarithmically many queries. We note that these locally testable tensor codes can be obtained from any linear error correcting code with good distance. Previous results on local testability, albeit much stronger quantitatively, rely heavily on algebraic properties of the underlying codes. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2006     

Glass transitions in hydrogen-bonded polymer complexes

Mutual precipitates of poly (N, N-dimethyl acrylamide) and poly (4-hydroxystyrene) were collected from dioxane, methanol, or acetone. The glass transition (T_g) temperatures of the precipitates are higher than the weight-average values. Clear films cast from dimethylformamide solutions have lower T_g values. Complexation also occurred between poly (ethyl oxazoline) and poly (4-hydroxystyrene) in dioxane and between poly (vinyl pyrrolidone) and poly (4-hydroxystyrene) in methanol. Again, the glass transition temperatures of the precipitates are higher than the values for the blend films. The ΔC_p values associated with the glass transitions of the complexes are smaller than those of the blends having the same compositions. Negative excess heat capacities of mixing have been observed for several precipitates.     

SECOND BEST TAXES AND QUOTAS IN NITROGEN REGULATION

This paper investigates second best policies to regulate nitrogen leaching. When the policy maker controls the total nitrogen use, an overall tax is superior to an action equivalent overall quota. When the goal is to regulate the expected level of nitrogen leaching, expected profit of a risk neutral farmer is greater under an overall tax than under an overall quota under a reasonable condition. The welfare ranking of action equivalent taxes and quotas for a risk averse farmer is generally ambiguous. In the numerical analyses, overall taxes turned out to be superior to overall quotas with both targets, despite a very high value of absolute risk aversion, 0.01. These results suggest that an overall tax is probably a superior policy to an overall quota to regulate expected total nitrogen use or expected nitrogen leaching for risk neutral and most of risk averse farmers.     

Extension of multigrid methodology to supersonic/hypersonic 3-D viscous flows

A multigrid acceleration technique developed for solving the three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations for subsonic/transonic flows has been extended to supersonic/hypersonic flows. An explicit multistage Runge–Kutta type of time-stepping scheme is used as the basic algorithm in conjunction with the multigrid scheme. Solutions have been obtained for a blunt conical frustum at Mach 6 to demonstrate the applicability of the multigrid scheme to high-speed flows. Computations have also been performed for a generic High-Speed Civil Transport configuration designed to cruise at Mach 3. These solutions demonstrate both the efficiency and accuracy of the present scheme for computing high-speed viscous flows over configurations of practical interest.     

The origin of thermodynamic stability of microemulsions

The adsorption of surfactant and cosurfactant on the surface of the globules decreases the interfacial tension between oil and water to very low values. In addition, the decrease of the bulk concentrations of the surfactant and cosurfactant decreases their chemical potential both in the bulk and at the interface, thus decreasing the free energy of the system (dilution effect). The thermodynamic stability of microemulsions is due to the fact that the total free energy change caused by these effects can become negative. The theory can explain the occurence of stable microemulsions for both non-ionic and ionic surfactants.     

Strong adhesion and smooth conductive surface via graft polymerization of aniline on a modified glass fiber surface

The goal of this paper is to prepare surface-conductive glass fibers. The fibers were first hydroxylated, after which they were reacted with 3-bromopropyltrichlorosilane to form a bromopropylsilane monolayer, which was further reacted with aniline to substitute the bromine atoms. The surface-bound aniline molecules were used as active sites for the graft polymerization of polyaniline (PANI). The composition, structure and the morphology of the modified glass fiber surface were examined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The method generated a smooth and homogenous thin layer of PANI on the surface of the glass fiber with a surface conductivity of about 6 S/cm, hence larger than the usual value ( approximately 1 S/cm) of the bulk polyaniline.