Resonant Tunneling of Holes in GaMnAs-Related Double-Barrier Structures

Using the multiband quantum transmitting boundary method (MQTBM), hole resonant tunneling through AlGaAs/GaMnAs junctions is investigated theoretically. Because of band-edge splitting in the DMS layer, the current for holes with different spins are tuned in resonance at different biases. The bound levels of the light hole in the quantum well region turned out to be dominant in the tunneling channel for both heavy and light holes. The resonant tunneling structure can be used as a spin filter for holes for adjusting the Fermi energy and the thickness of the junctions.     

A scientometric assessment of agricultural research in South Africa

This article reports the results of a scientometric assessment of agricultural research in South Africa over the period 1974–1984. The Science Literature Indicators Database of CHI is used and South Africa is compared with 7 other countries spread in America, Asia, Oceania, and Africa. The criteria used for the assessment are the contribution of each country to international agricultural literature (in terms of publications) and their impact in the Schubert-Glänzel-Braun Impact Scale. It was found that, although the South African contribution has improved in that period, it is comparable to that of Brazil and Argentina; that Nigeria and Israel produce 3 times more, and: that Australia and Canada contribute more than one order of magnitude of publications more than South Africa. As far as research impact is concerned Plant Science research in South Africa is rated fair in the Schubert-Glänzel-Braun scale, whilst Dairy and Animal Science and Veterinary research are rated poor.     

Experimental status of the ac Josephson effect in liquid helium

The presence of an ac sound field causes several distinct effects in a system of two baths of superfluid liquid helium which are coupled by a small orifice. The primary effects of the sound field can be classified as a Z-T structure, steps, and anomalies. Each of these three effects has been subjected to various criteria which are necessary for an interpretation in terms of the ac Josephson effect. These three effects failed the criteria which were applied, and therefore they are not due to the Josephson effect. However, it is shown that the properties of these three effects correlate quite well with the expected properties of first-sound resonances within one of the two liquid baths.Financial support was provided in part by the National Science Foundation.     

Finite state approximation algorithms for average cost denumerable state Markov decision processes

Summary In this paper we study three finite state, value and policy iteration algorithms for denumerable space Markov decision processes with respect to the average cost criterion. The convergence of these algorithms is guaranteed under a scrambling-type recurrency condition and various tail conditions on the transition probabilities. With the value iteration schemes we construct nearly optimal policies by concentrating on a finite set of important states and controlling them as well as we can. The policy space algorithm consists of a value determination scheme associated with a policy and a policy improvement step where a better policy is determined. Thus a sequence of improved policies is constructed which is shown to converge to the optimal average cost policy.

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Zusammenfassung Für Markovsche Entscheidungsprozesse mit abzählbarem Zustandsraum untersuchen wir für den Fall des Durchschnittskostenkriteriums drei endliche Wertiterations- und Politikiterations-Algorithmen. Die Konvergenz der Algorithmen wird durch scramblingtype Rekurrenzbedingungen und verschiene tail Bedingungen an die Übergangswahrscheinlichkeiten gesichert. Mit den Wertiterationsverfahren konstruieren wir fast optimale Politiken, indem wir uns auf eine endliche Menge von wichtigen Zuständen konzentrieren und diese bestmöglich kontrollieren. Der Politikiterations-Algorithmus besteht aus einem Schritt zur Wertbestimmung für eine Politik und einem Schritt zur Verbesserung der Politik. Auf diese Weise wird eine Folge verbesserter Politiken konstruiert, die Konvergenz zur optimalen Politik wird gezeigt.

     

Nonlinear behavior of some hydrostatically stressed isotropic elastomeric foams

Summary We calculate the stress-strain relation for elastomeric foam from anab initio theory, which shows that the plateau and densification regions should be described by a hyperbola. The theory seems to agree reasonably well with experiment.     

Irreversibilites in science and technology networks: An empirical and analytical approach

The theory of autopoiesis, i.e., self-referentiality in the operation of the system, provides us with a production rule for change in the structure of the network. Using information theory, a model system is developed to study the relative likelihood of dynamic transitions: various senses of irreversibility (emergence, and path dependency) are disinguished. A test for path dependency is applied to two sets of empirical data which supposedly reflect historical discontinuities: the budget of theFraunhofer Gesellschaft, and the citation network among AIDS research related journals. The model for the interaction between self-referential developments and goal-referential boundary conditions is further specified, using the example of technological trajectories and selection environments.     

Transformation of banded structures on annealing thin films of thermotropic liquid crystalline polymers

The structures of a range of thermotropic copolyesters based on hydroxybenzoic and hydroxynaphthalic acids are studied using transmission electron microscopy. Starting from the banded structure characteristic of as-sheared specimens, annealing of thin films either upon a rocksalt substrate or between two rocksalt crystals leads to a rapid microstructural reorganization. The bands, initially transverse to the shear direction, are replaced by domains of uniform molecular orientation elongated along the shear directio n. Simultaneously, a substantial our-of-plane tilt of the molecules occurs, which for any domain is coupled with the degree of in-plane misorientation about the shear axis. Such orientation coupling may be associated with the need for splay-splay compensation to minimize energy. For longer anneals on specimens of lower molecular weight, distinctive boundaries separate the domains of alternating tilt up and down (relative to the specimen plane). The boundaries which appear as dark veins in bright-field images, are narrow regions of highly developed molecular tilt in which homeotropy is approached. The tendency towards overall homeotropy can be linked to the presence of constraining surfaces, and is absent for specimens annealed without a substrate.     

Investigation of Thermal Resonance in Solution of a Two-Dimensional Singularly Perturbed Boundary-Value Problem of Nonstationary Heat Conduction with Nonlinear Boundary Conditions of the Stefan–Boltzmann Type

Data of the analytical-numerical parametric investigation of a singularly perturbed temperature field in the boundary layer of the side of a rectangle on which nonlinear boundary conditions of the Stefan–Boltzmann type are specified have been given. It has been established that a nonuniform initial temperature distribution of the Gaussian type causes the appearance of discontinuous traveling thermal waves in the corresponding boundary layer. A set of parameters for which the discontinuous traveling thermal waves, being superimposed, lead to a local nonlinear enhancement of the thermal field has been found. This effect can be considered as thermal resonance.     

Microstructure of laser melted/rapidly solidified γ/Cr3Si metal silicide “in situ” composites

In order to improve the ductility of Cr₃Si metal silicide alloys, rapidly solidified /Cr₃Si metal silicide in situ composites were fabricated by laser melting/rapid solidification technology using Cr-Si-Ni alloy powders. Microstructure of the /Cr₃Si in situ composites was characterized by OM, SEM, XRD and EDS. The effect of Ni content in the alloy powder on microstructure and hardness of the /Cr₃Si composites was investigated. The /Cr₃Si metal silicide in situ composites have high hardness and rapidly solidified fine microstructure consisting of primary Cr₃Si dendrites and the interdendritic /Cr₃Si eutectics. The volume fraction of the Cr₃Si primary dendrites in the laser melted/rapidly solidified /Cr₃Si metal silicide in situ composites decreases with the increasing nickel content. Because of the presence of the ductile nickel-base solid solution and the rapidly solidified fine microstructure, the /Cr₃Si metal silicide in situ composites are expected to have adequate combination of strength and toughness. The results demonstrate that laser melting/rapid solidification for /Cr₃Si metal silicide in situ composites is a promising toughening method for improving the ductility of Cr₃Si metal silicide alloys.     

Theory of quasi-two-dimensional quantum solids. II. An anisotropic reaction-matrix approach

A self-consistent theory is proposed for anisotropic quantum solids such as dense helium monolayers adsorbed onto graphite, based upon the reactionmatrix formalism. The effect of the excitations normal to the adsorption plane is fully included in the ground-state as well as in the vibrational properties. Dispersion relations are derived both for the in-plane and out-of-plane vibrational modes, and the coupling of the two modes is studied as well.     

The effect of gravity on the process of drying concrete

An analysis is presented for the process and for the solution of a problem dealing with the distribution of moisture in a body in the diffusion drying of concrete; consideration is given to the effect of gravitation under conditions in which there is no hydration, carbonation, and aging in the material; moreover, the transport coeffients are constants.The author has been engaged since 1961 at the State Institute for Technical Research (Helsinki, Finland) on the topic: The Drying of Concrete [1]. A brief outline of the completed research on the effect of gravitation on the process of drying concrete was published in A Theoretical Investigation of the Effect of Gravitation on Drying of Concrete. Two Solutions of a Diffusion-Type Equation, with Consideration of the Gravitation Component by Pihlajavaara and Rant (State Institute for Technical Research, no. 94, Helsinki, 1965). This article is a somewhat modified portion of the latter publication, including a section of the chapter entitled Physics, a summary of the formulas from the chapter entitled Mathematics (without derivation of the formulas, which was the work of Dr. Rant), and certain of the nomograms from the chapter entitled Numerical Examples.The translation by T. S. Kortneva was edited by Doctor of Technical Sciences Yu. A. Mikhailov and Candidate of Technical Sciences V. A. Sheiman.     

Number of references in biochemistry and other fields; A case study of the Journal of Biological Chemistry throughout 1910–1985

Large samples of papers published in theJournal of Biological Chemistry in all decades and in some mid-decades werechecked in order to study the referencing pattern, throughout the period 1910–1985, in an internationally leading journal, with especially high citation impact. All measures show that there has been a significant growth in the number of references per paper, during most of the period, but mainly from the 1950's on, refuting Meadows' upper limit. A detailed comparison to a wide range of fields shows theJBC rates to be among the highest. Eight factors affecting the number of references are discussed, and some projections for the future are made.     

On radiative heat exchange in a randomly inhomogeneous scattering medium

An expression is obtained for the density distribution of the optical thickness in a randomly inhomogeneous medium such as a boiling layer. In the approximation of scattering forward and backward with respect to the direction of the ray but with allowance for the angular distribution of the radiation, the problem of the transmissivity and reflectivity is solved for the randomly inhomogeneous medium.Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 25, No. 5, pp. 842–846, November, 1973.     

Three-dimensional interactions of a crack front with arrays of penny-shaped microcracks

Three-dimensional interactions of a crack front with arrays of penny-shaped microcracks are considered. The work extends the earlier analysis of 2-D crack-microcrack interactions to the 3-D configurations.After analysing simple elementary interaction events (involving only one microcrack) we solve the interaction problem for a number of sample arrays (containing up to 50 microcracks)-realizations of certain microcrack statistics.Statistical aspects of the problem are examined. The interaction effects are found to fluctuate, even qualitatively (from shielding to amplification) along the crack front: the intervals of reduced stress intensity factors (SIFs) alternate with local peaks of SIFs that enhance local front advances. Thus, no statistically stable effect of stress shielding is found (at least, for the microcrack statistics considered): the toughening by microcracking, if it exists, may be due to a statistics of the microcrack centers which is biased towards shielding configurations or to expenditure of energy on nucleation of new microcracks, rather than elastic interactions with them. Similarly to the 2-D case, stochastic asymmetries in the microcrack field produce noticeable secondary modes on the main crack (i.e., modes II and III under mode I loading); this may be partially responsible for crack kinking and an irregular crack path.The short range interactions (several microcracks closest to the main crack tip) play a dominant role. Their impact on the main crack is quite sensitive to the individual microcrack locations and cannot be adequately reproduced by modelling the short range microcracking zone by an effective elastic material of reduced stiffness.The interaction effects in 3-D are found to be weaker than in 2-D.     

Distribution of local stresses across the thickness of cracked plates under bending fields

A series of three-dimensional photoelastic experiments were conducted on plates containing through cracks which were loaded in bending with sufficient extension to prevent closure on the compressive side of the plate. Cracked plate geometries were selected so as to span the transitional thin to thick range. Slices were made parallel to the plate surfaces in the stress frozen material so as to remove the region around the crack tips. These slices were analyzed photoelastically and functions were evaluated experimentally corresponding to stress intensity factor distributions through the plate thickness. Results were compared with the theory of G. C. Sih. Agreement was excellent with theory for thin cracked plate geometries. For thicker cracked plate geometries results diverged progressively. For all cases studied, the use of a linear distribution of the stress intensity factor function through the plate thickness appeared to be satisfactory.

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Zusammenfassung Eine Reihe von dreidimensionalen photoelastischen Versuchen wurden auf Platten, die durchgehende Risse enthalten, unter Biegebelastung und genügendem Zug um das Schließen auf der Druckseite der Platte zu verhindern, ausgeführt. Die Dimensionen der gerissenen Platten wurden so gewählt daß sie das Übergangsgebiet dünn auf dick enthalten. Man machte Streifen paralell zu den Plattenoberflächen im spannungsgefrohrenen Material um die Teile um die Rißspitze zu entfernen. Die Streifen wurden photoelastisch untersucht und man stellte experimentelle Funktionen auf, die der Verteilung der Spannungsintensitätsfaktoren über die Plattendicke entsprechen. Die Ergebnisse wurden mit der Theorie von G. C. Sih verglichen. Die Übereinstimmung war ausgezeichnet für dünne Platten mit Rissen. Für dickere Platten mit Rissen gehen die Ergebnisse progressiv auseinander. Für alle untersuchten Fälle erwies sich die Anwendung einer linearen Verteilung der Spannungsintensitätsfaktorenfunktion über die dicke der Platte als zufriedenstellend.

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Résumé Une série d'essais de photo-élasticité à trois dimensions a été conduite sur des plaques comportant des fissures traversantes, sollicitées en flexion avec une composante de traction suffisante pour éviter que les fissures ne se referment du côté comprimé de la plaque.Les géométries des plaques fissurées ont été choisies de sorte à couvrir la gamme de la transition mince à épais. Des tranches ont été découpées parallèlement aux surfaces de la plaque, après que l'on eût figé les contraintes dans le matériau. Ces tranches ont été analysées par photo-élasticité, et des fonctions correspondant aux distributions des facteurs d'intensité des contraintes ont été évaluées expérimentalement.Les résultats ont été comparés avec la théorie de G. C. Sih. L'accord est excellent pour les tôles fissurées correspondant aux géométries minces. Ils divergent progressivement au fur et à mesure que l'on passe à des géométries épaisses.Pour tous les cas étudiés, l'emploi d'une distribution linéaire de la fonction représentant le facteur d'intensité des contraintes au travers de l'épaisseur de la plaque apparaît satisfaisant.

     

Paramagnetic resonance in a “dirty” spin-glass

For a spin-glass with nonmagnetic defects (n _m ^1/3l 1, where n _m is the magnetic impurity concentration and l is the mean free path) an absorption function () is derived. Three ranges of temperature and external magnetic field are considered. In the vicinity of the transition the value of () d is estimated as a function of temperature and field.     

An induced interaction model for arbitrarily polarized Fermi systems

A model for calculating the interactions in arbitrarily spin-polarized Fermi systems is presented. Starting from the four-point vertex functions, the induced part of the interactions is deduced by explicitly treating the one-particle, one-hole irreducible diagrams and using some general crossing symmetry relations. Extrapolation away from the Fermi surface is carried out by replacing the particle-hole phase space by Lindhard functions in the crossed channel; consequently, calculation of the necessary - phase space function is presented. The longitudinal spin-density and density responses for polarized systems are obtained by diagrammatic means. A possible way of treating the direct part of the interactions using Born approximation is also discussed. Finally, the limits of the model for zero and full polarization are given.     

Enhanced lower-order element formulations for large strains

The paper describes a range of lower-order element formulations that can be applied to both elastic and elasto-plastic large-strain elements. For plane-strain analysis, this process involves four-noded quadrilaterals while the enhancements involve incompatible modes or enhanced strains. One particular new formulation can be considered as either a co-rotational approach or a modified form of Biot stress procedure.Some of the concepts that are described in this paper evolved as a result of a sabbatical visit to Imperial College by Professor Peter Wriggers. We would like to thank Professor Wriggers for his important contributions.Dedicated to J. C. Simo     

On the “scientometric decline” of British science. One additional graph in reply to Ben Martin

With respect to the issue of whether the scientometric measurement of the decline of British science is an artifact of the specific database and underlying assumptions in methods, I argue that there are fewer analytical objections against measurement by usingSciSearch Online than against other methods (based on the fixed journal set and fractional counting). The measurement of international co-authorship, i.e. a network indicator, should not be confounded with measurement of performance of a single nation. The time series for the different subsets of UK-publications, which have been proposed, are given. None of the indicators can be shown to exhibit a trend (in contrast to a drift). The hypothesis of a decline has therefore to be rejected.     

Relationship between superconductivity and band structures of electrons and phonons

The relationship between superconductivity and band structures of electrons and phonons is established on the basis of a generalized Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer model in which the interaction strengths (V ₁₁,V ₁₂,V ₁₂) among and between electron (1) and hole (2) Cooper pairs are differentiated. Elemental superconductors must have local hyperboloidal Fermi surfaces called necks or inverted double caps.