Stochastic fluctuations of the solar dynamo

Attempts in the past to model the irregularities of the solar cycle (such as the Maunder minimum) were based on studies of the nonlinear feedback of magnetic fields on the dynamo source terms. Since the alpha-coefficient is obtained by averaging over the turbulence, it is expected to have stochastic fluctuations, and we show that these fluctuations can explain the irregularities of the solar cycle in a more satisfactory way. We solve the dynamo equations in a slab with a single mode, taking the alpha-coefficient to be constant in space but fluctuating stochastically in time with some given amplitude and given correlation time. The same level of percentile fluctuations (about 10 %) produces no effect on an alpha-omega dynamo, but makes an alpha-2 dynamo completely chaotic. The level of irregularities in an alpha-2-omega dynamo qualitatively agrees with the solar behavior, reinforcing the conclusion of Choudhuri (1990a) that the solar dynamo is of the alpha-2-omega-type. The irregularities are found to increase on increasing either the amplitude or the correlation time of the stochastic fluctuations. The alpha-quenching mechanism tends to make the system stable against the irregularities and hence it is inferred that the alpha-quenching should not be too strong so that the irregularities are not completely suppressed. We also present a simple-minded analysis to understand why the stochastic fluctuations in the alpha-omega, alpha-2-omega and alpha-2 regimes have such different outcomes.

Peristaltic transport of two immiscible viscous fluids in a circular tube

Peristaltic motion of two immiscible viscous incompressible fluids in a circular tube is studied in pumping and copumping ranges under long-wavelength and low-Reynolds-number assumptions. The effect of the peripheral-layer viscosity on the time-averaged flux and the mechanical efficiency is studied. The formation and growth of the trapping zone in the core and the peripheral layer are explained. It is observed that the bolus volume in the peripheral layer increases with an increase in the viscosity ratio. The limits of the time-averaged flux (Q) over bar for trapping in the core are obtained. The trapping observed in the peripheral layer decreases in size with an increase in (Q) over bar but never disappears. The development of the complete trapping of the core fluid by the peripheral-layer fluid with an increase in the time-averaged flux is demonstrated. The effect of peripheral-layer viscosity on the reflux layer is investigated. It is also observed that the reflux occurs in the entire pumping range for all viscosity ratios and it is absent in the entire range of copumping.

Capacitive-Resistive Transients in terms of field quantities

Capacitive-resistive transients in extended media are discussed in tenns of electric field quantities. Obviously, in rhese problems, the contribution of the magnetlc field to the electric field is deemed negligible. For a simple lllusfratlve example, the field solution is compared with the circuit-theoretical resuit for the voltage and current. An algorithm for solving such transients in space and time doman with the help of a Laplace solver is presented. Any other Laplace solver can also be used far this purpose. Its applicability is demonstrated with three examples, one of which is chosen to have a circuit-theoretical solution.

Chemistry of dihydrogen complexes containing only phosphorus co-ligands

A series of new dicationic dihydrogen complexes of ruthenium of the type cis-[(dppm)(2)Ru(eta(2)-H-2)(L)][BF4](2) (dppm = Ph2PCH2PPh2; L = phosphite) have been prepared by protonating the precursor hydride complexes cis-[(dPPM)(2)Ru(H)(L)][BF4] using HBF4.Et2O. The precursor hydride complexes have been obtained from trans-[(dppm)(2)Ru(H)(L)][BF4][(L = phospfiite) via a rare acid-catalysed isomerization reaction in six coordinate species. The trans-[(dppm)(2)Ru(H)(L)][BF4] complexes (L = phosphine) upon protonation gave the isomerized derivatives, however, further addition of acid resulted in a five-coordinate species, [(dppm)(2)RuCl](+) presumably via an intermediate phosphine dihydrogen complex. The electronic as well as the steric properties of the co-ligands seem to strongly influence the structure-reactivity behaviour of this series of complexes.

Believe it or Not! Multicore CPUs can Match GPUs for FLOP-intensive Applications

In this work, we evaluate performance of a real-world image processing application that uses a cross-correlation algorithm to compare a given image with a reference one. The algorithm processes individual images represented as 2-dimensional matrices of single-precision floating-point values using O(n4) operations involving dot-products and additions. We implement this algorithm on a nVidia GTX 285 GPU using CUDA, and also parallelize it for the Intel Xeon (Nehalem) and IBM Power7 processors, using both manual and automatic techniques. Pthreads and OpenMP with SSE and VSX vector intrinsics are used for the manually parallelized version, while a state-of-the-art optimization framework based on the polyhedral model is used for automatic compiler parallelization and optimization. The performance of this algorithm on the nVidia GPU suffers from: (1) a smaller shared memory, (2) unaligned device memory access patterns, (3) expensive atomic operations, and (4) weaker single-thread performance. On commodity multi-core processors, the application dataset is small enough to fit in caches, and when parallelized using a combination of task and short-vector data parallelism (via SSE/VSX) or through fully automatic optimization from the compiler, the application matches or beats the performance of the GPU version. The primary reasons for better multi-core performance include larger and faster caches, higher clock frequency, higher on-chip memory bandwidth, and better compiler optimization and support for parallelization. The best performing versions on the Power7, Nehalem, and GTX 285 run in 1.02s, 1.82s, and 1.75s, respectively. These results conclusively demonstrate that, under certain conditions, it is possible for a FLOP-intensive structured application running on a multi-core processor to match or even beat the performance of an equivalent GPU version.

From polarization to convergence: need to mend the broken patent system

For more than two hundred years, the world has discussed the issue of whether to continue the process of patenting or whether to do away with it. Developed countries remain polarized for various reasons but nevertheless the pro patent regime continued. The result was a huge volume of patents. The present article explains the implications of excessive volume of patents and conditions under which prior art search fails. This article highlights the importance and necessity of standardization efforts so as to bring about convergence of views on patenting.

Solute-solute and solute-solvent interactions in transition metal alloys: Pt-Ti system

An isothermal section of the phase diagram for (silver + rhodium + oxygen) at T = 1173 K has been established by equilibration of samples representing twelve different compositions, and phase identification after quenching by optical and scanning electron microscopy (s.e.m.), X-ray diffraction (x.r.d.), and energy dispersive analysis of X-rays (e.d.x.), Only one ternary oxide, AgRhO2, was found to be stable and a three phase region involving Ag, AgRhO2 and Rh2O3 was identified. The thermodynamic properties of AgRhO2 were measured using a galvanic cell in the temperature range 980 K to 1320 K. Yttria-stabilized zirconia was used as the solid electrolyte and pure oxygen gas at a pressure of 0.1 MPa was used as the reference electrode. The Gibbs free energy of formation of the ternary oxide from the elements, ΔfGo (AgRhO2), can be represented by two linear equations that join at the melting temperature of silver. In the temperature range 980 K to 1235 K, ΔfGo(AgRhO2)/(J . mol-1) = -249080 + 179.08 T/K (±120). Above the melting temperature of silver, in the temperature range 1235 K to 1320 K, ΔfGo(AgRhO2)/(J . mol-1) = -260400 + 188.24 T/K (±95). The thermodynamic properties of AgRhO2 at T = 298.15 K were evaluated from the high temperature data. The chemical potential diagram for (silver + rhodium + oxygen) at T = 1200 K was also computed on the basis of the results of this study.

Testing concordance in species boundaries using acoustic, morphological, and molecular data in the field cricket genus Itaropsis (Orthoptera: Grylloidea, Gryllidae: Gryllinae)

In most taxa, species boundaries are inferred based on differences in morphology or DNA sequences revealed by taxonomic or phylogenetic analyses. In crickets, acoustic mating signals or calling songs have species-specific structures and provide a third data set to infer species boundaries. We examined the concordance in species boundaries obtained using acoustic, morphological, and molecular data sets in the field cricket genus Itaropsis. This genus is currently described by only one valid species, Itaropsis tenella, with a broad distribution in western peninsular India and Sri Lanka. Calling songs of males sampled from four sites in peninsular India exhibited significant differences in a number of call features, suggesting the existence of multiple species. Cluster analysis of the acoustic data, molecular phylogenetic analyses, and phylogenetic analyses combining all data sets suggested the existence of three clades. Whatever the differences in calling signals, no full congruence was obtained between all the data sets, even though the resultant lineages were largely concordant with the acoustic clusters. The genus Itaropsis could thus be represented by three morphologically cryptic incipient species in peninsular India; their distributions are congruent with usual patterns of endemism in the Western Ghats, India. Song evolution is analysed through the divergence in syllable period, syllable and call duration, and dominant frequency.

On concave univalent functions

We consider functions that map the open unit disc conformally onto the complement of an unbounded convex set with opening angle pa, a ? (1, 2], at infinity. In this paper, we show that every such function is close-to-convex of order (a - 1) and is included in the set of univalent functions of bounded boundary rotation. Many interesting consequences of this result are obtained. We also determine the extreme points of the set of concave functions with respect to the linear structure of the Hornich space.

Effect of nanoclay content and compatibilizer on viscoelastic properties of montmorillonite/polypropylene nanocomposites

This paper deals with preparation of nanocomposites using modified nanoclay (organoclay) and polypropylene (PP), with, and without compatibilizer (m-TMI-g-PP) to study the effects of modified nanoclay and compatibilizer on viscoelastic properties. Nanocomposites were prepared in two steps; compounding of master batch of nanoclay, polypropylene and m-TMI-g-PP in a torque rheometer and blending of this master-batch with polypropylene in a twin-screw extruder in the specific proportions to yield 3-9% nanoclay by weight in the composite. Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) tests were carried out to investigate the viscoelastic behavior of virgin polypropylene and nanocomposites. The dynamic mechanical properties such as storage modulus (E'), loss modulus (E `') and damping coefficient (tand) of PP and nano-composites were investigated with and without compatibilizer in the temperature range of -40 degrees C to 140 degrees C at a step of 5 degrees C and frequency range of 5 Hz to 100 Hz at a step of 10 Hz. Storage modulus and loss modulus of the nano-composites was significantly higher than virgin polypropylene throughout the temperature range. Storage modulus of the composites increased continuously with increasing nano-content from 3% to 9%. Composites prepared with compatibilizer exhibited inferior storage modulus than the composites without compatibilizer. Surface morphology such as dispersion of nanoclay in the composites with and without compatibilizer was analyzed through Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) that explained the differences in viscoelastic behavior of composites. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Synthesis, characterization, EPR, photo and thermoluminescence properties of YAlO3:Ni2+ nanophosphors

YAlO3:Ni2+ (0.1 mol%) doped nanophosphor was synthesised by a low temperature solution combustion method. Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) confirms the orthorhombic phase of yttrium aluminate (YAlO3) along with traces of Y3Al5O12. Scanning Electron microscopy (SEM) shows that the powder particles appears to be spherical in shape with large agglomeration. The average crystallite sizes appeared to be in the range 45-90 nm and the same was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Williamson-Hall (W-H) plots. Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) and photoluminescence (PL) studies reveal that Ni2+ ions are in octahedral coordination. Thermoluminescence (TL) glow curve consists of two peaks with the main peak at similar to 224 degrees C and a shouldered peak at 285 degrees C was recorded in the range 0.2-15 kGy gamma-irradiated samples. The TL intensity was found to be increasing linearly for 224 degrees C and 285 degrees C peaks up to 1 kGy and thereafter it shows sub-linear (up to 8 kGy) and saturation behavior. The trap parameters namely activation energy (E), order of kinetics (b), frequency factor (s) at different gamma-doses were determined using Chens glow peak shape and Luschiks methods then the results are discussed in detail. Simple glow peak structure, the 224 degrees C peak in YAlO3:Ni2+ nanophosphor can be used in personal dosimetry. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

An estimate of equilibrium sensitivity of global terrestrial carbon cycle using NCAR CCSM4

Increasing concentrations of atmospheric CO2 influence climate, terrestrial biosphere productivity and ecosystem carbon storage through its radiative, physiological and fertilization effects. In this paper, we quantify these effects for a doubling of CO2 using a low resolution configuration of the coupled model NCAR CCSM4. In contrast to previous coupled climate-carbon modeling studies, we focus on the near-equilibrium response of the terrestrial carbon cycle. For a doubling of CO2, the radiative effect on the physical climate system causes global mean surface air temperature to increase by 2.14 K, whereas the physiological and fertilization on the land biosphere effects cause a warming of 0.22 K, suggesting that these later effects increase global warming by about 10 % as found in many recent studies. The CO2-fertilization leads to total ecosystem carbon gain of 371 Gt-C (28 %) while the radiative effect causes a loss of 131 Gt-C (10 %) indicating that climate warming damps the fertilization-induced carbon uptake over land. Our model-based estimate for the maximum potential terrestrial carbon uptake resulting from a doubling of atmospheric CO2 concentration (285-570 ppm) is only 242 Gt-C. This highlights the limited storage capacity of the terrestrial carbon reservoir. We also find that the terrestrial carbon storage sensitivity to changes in CO2 and temperature have been estimated to be lower in previous transient simulations because of lags in the climate-carbon system. Our model simulations indicate that the time scale of terrestrial carbon cycle response is greater than 500 years for CO2-fertilization and about 200 years for temperature perturbations. We also find that dynamic changes in vegetation amplify the terrestrial carbon storage sensitivity relative to a static vegetation case: because of changes in tree cover, changes in total ecosystem carbon for CO2-direct and climate effects are amplified by 88 and 72 %, respectively, in simulations with dynamic vegetation when compared to static vegetation simulations.