The cellular structure of a two-dimensional H2/O2/Ar detonation wave

In this paper, the cellular structure of a two-dimensional detonation wave in a low pressure H2/O2/Ar mixture calculated with a detailed chemical reaction model, high order scheme and high resolution grids is investigated. The regular cellular structure is produced about 1 ms after introducing perturbations in the reaction zone of a steady one-dimensional detonation wave. It is found from the present resolution study that the discrepancies concerning the structure type arising from the coarser grid employed can be resolved using a sufficiently fine grid size of 0.05 mm and below and shows a double-Mach-like strong-type configuration. During the structure evolution process, the structure configuration does not change much in the periods before and after the triple point collision. Through the triple point collision, three regular collision processes are observed and are followed by a quick change to the double-Mach-like configuration. The simulated structure tracks show that there are three different tracks associated with different triple points or the kink on the transverse wave. Comparisons with previous work and experiments indicate the presence of a strong structure for an ordinary detonation.

Wave dynamic processes induced by a supersonic projectile discharging from a shock tube

A numerical study on wave dynamic processes occurring in muzzle blast flows, which are created by a supersonic projectile released from the open-end of a shock tube into ambient air, is described in this paper. The Euler equations, assuming axisymmetric flows, are solved by using a dispersion-controlled scheme implemented with moving boundary conditions. Three test cases are simulated for examining friction effects on the muzzle flow. From numerical simulations, the wave dynamic processes, including two blast waves, two jet flows, the bow shock wave and their interactions in the muzzle blasts, are demonstrated and discussed in detail. The study shows that the major wave dynamic processes developing in the muzzle flow remain similar when the friction varies, but some wave processes, such as shock-shock interactions, shock-jet interactions and the contact surface instability, get more intensive, which result in more complex muzzle blast flows.

Wave Dynamic Processes in Cellular Detonation Reflection from Wedges

When the cell width of the incident detonation wave (IDW) is comparable to or larger than the Mach stem height, self-similarity will fail during IDW reflection from a wedge surface. In this paper, the detonation reflection from wedges is investigated for the wave dynamic processes occurring in the wave front, including transverse shock motion and detonation cell variations behind the Mach stem. A detailed reaction model is implemented to simulate two-dimensional cellular detonations in stoichiometric mixtures of H (2)/O (2) diluted by Argon. The numerical results show that the transverse waves, which cross the triple point trajectory of Mach reflection, travel along the Mach stem and reflect back from the wedge surface, control the size of the cells in the region swept by the Mach stem. It is the energy carried by these transverse waves that sustains the triple-wave-collision with a higher frequency within the over-driven Mach stem. In some cases, local wave dynamic processes and wave structures play a dominant role in determining the pattern of cellular record, leading to the fact that the cellular patterns after the Mach stem exhibit some peculiar modes.

Nonparametric Bayesian Density Modeling with Gaussian Processes

We present the Gaussian process density sampler (GPDS), an exchangeable generative model for use in nonparametric Bayesian density estimation. Samples drawn from the GPDS are consistent with exact, independent samples from a distribution defined by a density that is a transformation of a function drawn from a Gaussian process prior. Our formulation allows us to infer an unknown density from data using Markov chain Monte Carlo, which gives samples from the posterior distribution over density functions and from the predictive distribution on data space. We describe two such MCMC methods. Both methods also allow inference of the hyperparameters of the Gaussian process.

Cross-relaxation dynamics on anomalous saturation processes in low pressure supersonic cw HF chemical laser amplifier

It is assumed that both translational and rotational nonequilibrium cross-relaxations play a role simultaneoulsy in low pressure supersonic cw HF chemical laser amplifier. For two-type models of gas flow medium with laminar and turbulent flow diffusion mixing, the expressions of saturated gain spectrum are derived respectively, and the numerical calculations are performed as well. The numerical results show that turbulent flow diffusion mixing model is in the best agreement with the experimental result.

Two-Dimensional Kinetics Of Beta(2)-Integrin And Icam-1 Bindings Between Neutrophils And Melanoma Cells In A Shear Flow

Cell adhesion, mediated by specific receptor-ligand interactions, plays an important role in biological processes such as tumor metastasis and inflammatory cascade. For example, interactions between beta(2)-integrin ( lymphocyte function-associated antigen-1 and/or Mac-1) on polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) and ICAM-1 on melanoma cells initiate the bindings of melanoma cells to PMNs within the tumor microenvironment in blood flow, which in turn activate PMN-melanoma cell aggregation in a near-wall region of the vascular endothelium, therefore enhancing subsequent extravasation of melanoma cells in the microcirculations. Kinetics of integrin-ligand bindings in a shear flow is the determinant of such a process, which has not been well understood. In the present study, interactions of PMNs with WM9 melanoma cells were investigated to quantify the kinetics of beta(2)-integrin and ICAM-1 bindings using a cone-plate viscometer that generates a linear shear flow combined with a two-color flow cytometry technique. Aggregation fractions exhibited a transition phase where it first increased before 60 s and then decreased with shear durations. Melanoma-PMN aggregation was also found to be inversely correlated with the shear rate. A previously developed probabilistic model was modified to predict the time dependence of aggregation fractions at different shear rates and medium viscosities. Kinetic parameters of beta(2)-integrin and ICAM-1 bindings were obtained by individual or global fittings, which were comparable to respectively published values. These findings provide new quantitative understanding of the biophysical basis of leukocyte-tumor cell interactions mediated by specific receptor-ligand interactions under shear flow conditions.

Impact of carrier stiffness and microtopology on two-dimensional kinetics of P-selectin and P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 (PSGL-1) interactions

Mechanics and surface microtopology of the molecular carrier influence cell adhesion, but the mechanisms underlying these effects are not well understood. We used a micropipette adhesion frequency assay to quantify how the carrier stiffness and microtopology affected two-dimensional kinetics of interacting adhesion molecules on two apposing surfaces. Interactions of P-selectin with P-selectin glycoprotein ligand-1 (PSGL-1) were used to demonstrate such effects by presenting the molecules on three carrier systems: human red blood cells (RBCs), human promyelocytic leukemia HL-60 cells, and polystyrene beads. Stiffening the carrier alone or in cooperation with roughing the surface lowered the two-dimensional affinity of interacting molecules by reducing the forward rate but not the reverse rate, whereas softening the carrier and roughing the surface had opposing effects in affecting two-dimensional kinetics. In contrast, the soluble antibody bound with similar three-dimensional affinity to surface-anchored P-selectin or PSGL-1 constructs regardless of carrier stiffness and microtopology. These results demonstrate that the carrier stiffness and microtopology of a receptor influences its rate of encountering and binding a surface ligand but does not subsequently affect the stability of binding. This provides new insights into understanding the rolling and tethering mechanism of leukocytes onto endothelium in both physiological and pathological processes.

On post-instability processes in adiabatic shear in hot rolled steel

EXPERIMENTS carried out using a split Hopkinson torsional bar have shown that only one shear band develops in specimens of hot rolled steel which break during testing. We observed, however, that in specimens which were not deformed to failure, several fine shear bands appeared. We believe that these formed during the loading cycle before the appearance of the final shear band and were not due to the effect of unloading. So we developed a numerical model to study the evolution of shear banding from several finite amplitude disturbances (FADs) in both temperature and strain rate. This numerical model reveals the detailed processes by which the FADs evolve into a fully developed shear band and suggests that beyond instability, the so-called shear banding process consists of two stages: inhomogeneous shearing and true shear-banding. The latter is characterized by the collapse of the stress and an abrupt increase of the local shear strain rate.

Trend analysis in two standard growth models

This paper analyzes the trend processes characterized by two standard growth models using simple econometrics. The first model is the basic neoclassical growth model that postulates a deterministic trend for output. The second model is the Uzawa-Lucas model that postulates a stochastic trend for output. The aim is to understand how the different trend processes for output assumed by these two standard growth models determine the ability of each model to explain the observed trend processes of other macroeconomic variables such as consumption and investment. The results show that the two models reproduce the output trend process. Moreover, the results show that the basic growth model captures properly the consumption trend process, but fails in characterizing the investment trend process. The reverse is true for the Uzawa-Lucas model.

Phylogeography and non-invasive landscape genetics of the European pine marten ("martes martes" L. 1758) : insights into ancient and contemporary processes shaping genetic variation

283 p. : graf., map.

Two Nuclear Localization Signals in USP1 Mediate Nuclear Import of the USP1/UAF1 Complex

9 p. : il.

ITS Training: 'VLE - no distance too far - enhancing the learner journey and business processes'

ITS Training has undergone a revolutionary transformation in the past two years. The company has saved money, generated more business, improved recruitment, retention and achievement and expanded throughout the world because of its virtual learning environment (VLE): the ‘Student Campus'. Under its previous paper-based distance learning programme it was a hard enough task to deliver lectures to students in Liverpool. Now, the company has a classroom of learners in Tokyo, Japan.

Optimally robust shortcuts to population inversion in two-level quantum systems

19 p.

Two-body photodisintegration of the deuteron at intermediate energy

We have measured the differential cross section for two-body deuteron photodisintegration at center-of-mass angles of 90°, 53° and 37° with photon energies from 1.6 Ge V to 2.8 Ge V. Additional data were taken at θ* = 37° and E_γ = 4.2 GeV. Invariant cross sections at θ* =90° and 53° appear to follow a simple scaling law predicted by constituent counting rules of perturbative QCD, while the cross section at θ* = 37° shows a slower fall-off with photon energy. Angular distributions show increasing forward peaking at higher energies. Agreement with various theoretical predictions based on pQCD and meson-exchange models is discussed.

Topics in gravitational-wave science : macroscopic quantum mechanics and black hole physics

The theories of relativity and quantum mechanics, the two most important physics discoveries of the 20th century, not only revolutionized our understanding of the nature of space-time and the way matter exists and interacts, but also became the building blocks of what we currently know as modern physics. My thesis studies both subjects in great depths --- this intersection takes place in gravitational-wave physics.

Gravitational waves are "ripples of space-time", long predicted by general relativity. Although indirect evidence of gravitational waves has been discovered from observations of binary pulsars, direct detection of these waves is still actively being pursued. An international array of laser interferometer gravitational-wave detectors has been constructed in the past decade, and a first generation of these detectors has taken several years of data without a discovery. At this moment, these detectors are being upgraded into second-generation configurations, which will have ten times better sensitivity. Kilogram-scale test masses of these detectors, highly isolated from the environment, are probed continuously by photons. The sensitivity of such a quantum measurement can often be limited by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and during such a measurement, the test masses can be viewed as evolving through a sequence of nearly pure quantum states.

The first part of this thesis (Chapter 2) concerns how to minimize the adverse effect of thermal fluctuations on the sensitivity of advanced gravitational detectors, thereby making them closer to being quantum-limited. My colleagues and I present a detailed analysis of coating thermal noise in advanced gravitational-wave detectors, which is the dominant noise source of Advanced LIGO in the middle of the detection frequency band. We identified the two elastic loss angles, clarified the different components of the coating Brownian noise, and obtained their cross spectral densities.

The second part of this thesis (Chapters 3-7) concerns formulating experimental concepts and analyzing experimental results that demonstrate the quantum mechanical behavior of macroscopic objects - as well as developing theoretical tools for analyzing quantum measurement processes. In Chapter 3, we study the open quantum dynamics of optomechanical experiments in which a single photon strongly influences the quantum state of a mechanical object. We also explain how to engineer the mechanical oscillator's quantum state by modifying the single photon's wave function.

In Chapters 4-5, we build theoretical tools for analyzing the so-called "non-Markovian" quantum measurement processes. Chapter 4 establishes a mathematical formalism that describes the evolution of a quantum system (the plant), which is coupled to a non-Markovian bath (i.e., one with a memory) while at the same time being under continuous quantum measurement (by the probe field). This aims at providing a general framework for analyzing a large class of non-Markovian measurement processes. Chapter 5 develops a way of characterizing the non-Markovianity of a bath (i.e.,whether and to what extent the bath remembers information about the plant) by perturbing the plant and watching for changes in the its subsequent evolution. Chapter 6 re-analyzes a recent measurement of a mechanical oscillator's zero-point fluctuations, revealing nontrivial correlation between the measurement device's sensing noise and the quantum rack-action noise.

Chapter 7 describes a model in which gravity is classical and matter motions are quantized, elaborating how the quantum motions of matter are affected by the fact that gravity is classical. It offers an experimentally plausible way to test this model (hence the nature of gravity) by measuring the center-of-mass motion of a macroscopic object.

The most promising gravitational waves for direct detection are those emitted from highly energetic astrophysical processes, sometimes involving black holes - a type of object predicted by general relativity whose properties depend highly on the strong-field regime of the theory. Although black holes have been inferred to exist at centers of galaxies and in certain so-called X-ray binary objects, detecting gravitational waves emitted by systems containing black holes will offer a much more direct way of observing black holes, providing unprecedented details of space-time geometry in the black-holes' strong-field region.

The third part of this thesis (Chapters 8-11) studies black-hole physics in connection with gravitational-wave detection.

Chapter 8 applies black hole perturbation theory to model the dynamics of a light compact object orbiting around a massive central Schwarzschild black hole. In this chapter, we present a Hamiltonian formalism in which the low-mass object and the metric perturbations of the background spacetime are jointly evolved. Chapter 9 uses WKB techniques to analyze oscillation modes (quasi-normal modes or QNMs) of spinning black holes. We obtain analytical approximations to the spectrum of the weakly-damped QNMs, with relative error O(1/L^2), and connect these frequencies to geometrical features of spherical photon orbits in Kerr spacetime. Chapter 11 focuses mainly on near-extremal Kerr black holes, we discuss a bifurcation in their QNM spectra for certain ranges of (l,m) (the angular quantum numbers) as a/M → 1. With tools prepared in Chapter 9 and 10, in Chapter 11 we obtain an analytical approximate for the scalar Green function in Kerr spacetime.