Stochastic resonance in perspective

Summary We outline the historical development of stochastic resonance (SR), a phenomenon in which the signal and/or the signal-to-noise ratio in a nonlinear system increase with increasing intensity of noise. We discuss basic theoretical ideas explaining and describing SR, and we review some revealing experimental data that place SR within the wider context of statistical physics. We emphasize the close relationship of SR to some effects that are well known in condensed-matter physics. Paper presented at the International Workshop ?Fluctuations in Physics and Biology: Stochastic Resonance, Signal Processing and Related Phenomena?, Elba, 5–10 June 1994.     

Statistical mechanics of warm and cold unfolding in proteins

We present a statistical mechanics treatment of the stability of globular proteins which takes explicitly into account the coupling between the protein and water degrees of freedom. This allows us to describe both the cold and the warm unfolding, thus qualitatively reproducing the known thermodynamics of proteins. Received: 19 March 1998 / Revised and Accepted: 25 May 1998     

New Advances in Catalytic Systems for Conversion of CH_4 and CO_2

One of the main goals for developing the C1 chemical industry is the direct conversion of methane and carbon dioxide to useful products. To realize this goal, researches on new catalytic systems are being globally focused. The exploration has been evolved from traditional heterogeneous catalysis into homogeneous catalysis. Coordinate complexes, biochemical and bionics, and photo- and electrochemical catalysis have been extensively studied in recent years. Tests in laboratories have verified for the direct conversion of CH4 to CH3OH that single-pass converstion of CH4 can reach over 70% in both Hg(II) salt and Pt(II) complex systems. The main problem of these systems is the obstacles involving reaction kinetics, so they must be solved before moving to pilot tests. Other catalytic systems discussed in the present article include explorations in the early stage. Among them, features of photo and enzymatic catalyst systems, such as mild reaction conditions, better selectivity and environmentally friendliness     

昆虫飞行高升力的一种新解释——柔性楔形效应

以探索仿生扑翼飞行机器人研制为目的,在研究"柔性楔形效应"的基础上,将昆翅视为柔性翅,提出用"柔性楔形效应"解释昆虫飞行高升力的观点.指出了用"柔性楔形效应"解释昆虫飞行高升力的仿生学意义.根据该观点,翅翼在自适应变形状态下施以简单的节律运动将是未来仿生扑翼飞行机器人翅翼驱动方式的发展趋势.仿生运动的模拟越简单越容易稳定地实现,实验小组已设计制作了仿生扑翼飞行机器人样机,并成功进行了多次室外放飞.     

仿生物矿化过程合成无机/有机复合体研究

仿生材料目前是各国科学家关注的焦点,理论与实验研究已经取得很大进展。本文主要对模仿生物矿化过程合成无机/有机复合体进行了综述。     

Phylogenetic position of sponges in early metazoan evolution and bionic applications of siliceous sponge spicules

Sponges are the oldest and the simplest but not primitive multicellular animals. They represent the earliest evolutionary metazoan phylum still extant. It was a long and painful scientific process to posi-tion the most enigmatic and mysterious metazoan,the Porifera,into their correct phylogenetic place among the eukaryotes in general and multicellular animals in particular. As living fossils,sponges provide the best evidence for the early evolution of Metazoa. More recently,interest has been focused on the bionic applications of sponges' siliceous spicules,after the discovery of their unique structure and high fiber performance. In this review,the emergence of sponges,evolutionary novelties found in sponges,and the phylogenetic position of sponges in early metazoan evolution are highlighted. In ad-dition,the present state of knowledge on silicatein-mediated "biosilica" formation in marine sponges,including the involvement of other molecules in silica metabolism and their potential application in nanobiotechnology and medicine,is given.     

Chaotic dynamics in biological information processing: A heuristic outline

Summary A given but otherwise random environmental time series impinging on the input of a certain biological processor passes through with overwhelming probability practically undetected. A very small percentage of environmental stimuli, though, is ?captured? by the processor's nonlinear dissipative operator asinitial conditions, that is, assolutions of the processor's dissipative dynamics. The processor, then, is in such cases instrumental in compressing or abstracting those stimuli, thereby making the external world to collapse from a previous regime of a ?pure state? of suspended animation onto a set of stable eigenfunctions or ?categories?—chaotic strange attractors. The characteristics of this cognitive set depend on the operator involved and the hierarchical level where the abstraction takes place. In this paper we model the physics of such a cognitive process and the role that the thalamo-cortical pacemaker of the (human) brain plays in both stimulating the individual attractors and permutating them on a time division multiplexing basis. A synthesis of the Markovian processes taking place within each individual attractor-memory and the Markovian or semi-Markovian process involving the intermittent jumping among the different attractor-memories are discussed.

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Riassunto Una data ma casuale serie temporale ambientale che influisce sull'immissione di un determinato processore biologico passa con schiacciante probabilità praticamente inosservata. Una piccolissima percentuale di stimoli ambientali, tuttavia, è catturata dall'operatore dissipativo non lineare del processore comecondizioni iniziali, cioè comesoluzioni della dinamica dissipativa del processore. Il processore è quindi, in tali casi, strumentale nel comprimere o estrarre quegli stimoli, facendo perciò collassare il mondo esterno da un precedente regime di ?stato puro? ad animazione sospesa ad un gruppo di autofunzioni stabili o ?categorie?—attrattori caotici strani. Le caratteristiche di questo gruppo cognitivo dipendono dall'operatore coinvolto e dal livello gerarchico in cui l'estrazione ha luogo. In questo lavoro si modella la fisica di tale processo cognitivo e il ruolo che lo stimolatore talamo-corticale del cervello (umano) ha sia nello stimolare gli attrattori individuali che nel permutarli su una base che manda segnali multiplex a divisione temporale. Si discute una sintesi dei processi markoviani che hanno luogo all'interno di ogni attrattore-memoria individuale e il processo markoviano o semimarkoviano che interessa il salto intermittente tra i diversi attrattori-memoria.

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Резюме Временная последовательность на входе некоторого биологического процессора может иметь практически недетектируемую вероятность. Очень небольшой процент стимулов окружающей среды ?захватывается? нелинейным диссипативным оператором процессора как начальные условия, т.е. представляется как решение диссипативпой динамики процессора. Затем процессор обрабатывает внешние стимулы, вынуждая внешний мир коллапсировать из предыдущего режима ?чистого состояния? приостановленного оживления в систему собственных функций или ?категорий?. Характеристики зтой познавательной системы зависят от используемого оператора и иерархического уровня, на котором происходит абстрагирование. В зтой статье мы моделируем физику такого познавательного процесса. Обсуждается синтез марковских процессов, происходящий внутри отдельного злемента ?атрактор-память?, и марковский или полумарковский процесс, включающий пережежающиеся прыжки между различными злементами ?атракторпамять?.

     

The new physics of ultrathin elastic conoids

Summary Despite centuries of intense effort amongst mathematicians, and a huge literature in this field, there has previously never been a generally valid mathematical model of ultrathin elastic ?shells? (actually surfaces) of revolution. This survey paper presents the first theoretical framework capable of unifying, into a single coherent body of knowledge, a diversity of shapes associated with elastic bows, car bumper-bars, molluscan shells, even flower-buds and pine-cones. It becomes apparent why conventional analysis enjoys limited success when approximating elastic cones to perturbedcylinders anddiscs. Also the paper provides a theoretical basis for analysing the wrinkling of compressed engineering structures. These successes, the new unification and the simplicity of relevant theory which maynever in principle be capable of working in this context.     

Stochastic resonance and transient bimodality

Summary The phenomenon of stochastic resonance is predicted in a monostable system displaying transient bimodality during the evolution. The signal-to-noise ratio as a function of the noise intensity calculated within the rate equation theory with many simplifying assumptions exhibits a promising peak. The numerical simulations are also reported. Paper presented at the International Workshop ?Fluctuations in Physics and Biology: Stochastic Resonance, Signal Processing and Related Phenomena?, Elba, 5–10 June 1994.