Nonlinear propagation and self-switching of ultrashort opticalpulses in fiber nonlinear directional couplers: the normal dispersionregime

The propagation of short optical pulses in a nonlinear directional coupler operating in the normal dispersion regime is investigated. The specific example of a birefringent periodically rocked fiber filter where coupling occurs between the two orthogonally polarized modes that are aligned with the birefringence axes of the fiber is considered. In the simulations, a bell-shaped input pulse is injected into one polarization mode: for different input peak powers, the energy present in the same mode at the output of a coupler, which is one or two coupling lengths long, is calculated. The nonlinear temporal broadening, due to the combined effect of group velocity dispersion and self-phase modulation, sets a fundamental lower limit to the time width of the input pulses. When pulses shorter than this critical value are used, the power-dependent energy switching characteristics of a device one coupling length long gets substantially spoiled. Effects related to the finite spectral bandwidth of the fiber filter are discussed. Numerical simulations are compared to recent experimental results on the self-switching of picosecond pulses in the visible (615 nm) with a birefringent rocking fiber     

Materials science and metallurgy of the Caribbean steel drum Part I Fabrication, deformation phenomena and acoustic fundamentals

Steel-drum fabrication, especially the sinking of the drum head (also referred to as the pan) by hand with a hammer, has been examined in detail utilizing light metallography (LM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to characterize residual microstructures corresponding to reductions in thickness of up to 50 % at the bottom of the drum head. Dislocation densities in the low-carbon (0.01–0.05 wt % C), ferritic steels can exceed 10¹⁰ cm^-2. Simulations of simple, ideal, free circular notes utilizing 316 stainless-steel plates (0.05 wt % C), cold rolled to reductions up to 40%, revealed that deformation (per cent cold reduction) has an important effect on the acoustic spectrum, especially harmonic spectra. Harmonic-node splitting was observed for thin circular plates (0.076 cm thick); the frequency difference was 60 Hz at 20% cold reduction and 160 Hz at 40% cold reduction. These dispersion effects, due to deformation-induced microstructures, as well as irregularities in the note geometries and thicknesses, point to the complex and non-linear acoustic features that contribute to the unique sounds of the Caribbean steel drum.     

Catalytic Decomposition of Formic Acid on Metal Oxides

Studies on the decomposition of formic acid were initiated during the first decade of the present century by Mailhe and Sabatier [1], using metals and metal oxides. These authors were concerned primarily with the selectivity of their catalysts, i.e., their ability to favor one of the reactions possible for the decomposition of formic acid (Eq. 1).     

Nanoparticle Transport in Epithelial Cells: Pathway Switching Through Bioconjugation

The understanding and control of nanoparticle transport into and through cellular compartments is central to biomedical applications of nanotechnology. Here, it is shown that the transport pathway of 50 nm polystyrene nanoparticles decorated with vitamin B₁₂ in epithelial cells is different compared to both soluble B₁₂ ligand and unmodified nanoparticles, and this is not attributable to B₁₂ recognition alone. Importantly, the study indicates that vitamin B₁₂‐conjugated nanoparticles circumnavigate the lysosomal compartment, the destination of soluble vitamin B₁₂ ligand. Whereas cellular trafficking of soluble B₁₂ is confirmed to occur via the clathrin‐mediated pathway, transport of B₁₂‐conjugated nanoparticles appears to predominantly take place by a route that is perturbed by caveolae‐specific inhibitors. This data suggests that, following its conjugation to nanoparticles, in addition to dramatically increasing the cellular uptake of nanoparticles, the normal cell trafficking of B₁₂ is switched to an alternative pathway, omitting the lysosomal stage: a result with important implications for oral delivery of nanoparticulate diagnostics and therapeutics.     

Point Values Hermite Multiresolution for Non-smooth Noisy Signals

In this paper, a nonlinear interpolation is used in order to compute adaptively derivatives from the discrete information of any signal. Using these derivatives a multiresolution based on Hermite interpolation is performed for compressing the signal. The way in which the derivatives are approximated is crucial when noise or singularities appear.     

Lanthanide oxides: Thermochemical approach to hydration

The behaviour toward hydration of a series of Ln₂O₃ has been studied as a function of water pressure and temperature by means of temperature programmed decomposition measurements. Thermochemical calculations have pointed out the structural change associated in going from ytterbium to lutetium in Ln(OH)₃ to be responsible for the apparent anomalous behaviour of Lu₂O₃. On this basis generalizations about the expected behaviour along the 4f series have been considered taking into account the simple ionic model for solid lanthanide compounds.