Effective Dielectric Tensor for Electromagnetic Wave Propagation in Random Media

We derive exact strong-contrast expansions for the effective dielectric tensor \epeff of electromagnetic waves propagating in a two-phase composite random medium with isotropic components explicitly in terms of certain integrals over the $n$-point correlation functions of the medium. Our focus is the long-wavelength regime, i.e., when the wavelength is much larger than the scale of inhomogeneities in the medium. Lower-order truncations of these expansions lead to approximations for the effective dielectric constant that depend upon whether the medium is below or above the percolation threshold. In particular, we apply two- and three-point approximations for \epeff to a variety of different three-dimensional model microstructures, including dispersions of hard spheres, hard oriented spheroids and fully penetrable spheres as well as Debye random media, the random checkerboard, and power-law-correlated materials. We demonstrate the importance of employing $n$-point correlation functions of order higher than two for high dielectric-phase-contrast ratio. We show that disorder in the microstructure results in an imaginary component of the effective dielectric tensor that is directly related to the {\it coarseness} of the composite, i.e., local volume-fraction fluctuations for infinitely large windows. The source of this imaginary component is the attenuation of the coherent homogenized wave due to scattering. We also remark on whether there is such attenuation in the case of a two-phase medium with a quasiperiodic structure.Comment: 40 pages, 13 figure

Long-range memory model of trading activity and volatility

Earlier we proposed the stochastic point process model, which reproduces a variety of self-affine time series exhibiting power spectral density S(f) scaling as power of the frequency f and derived a stochastic differential equation with the same long range memory properties. Here we present a stochastic differential equation as a dynamical model of the observed memory in the financial time series. The continuous stochastic process reproduces the statistical properties of the trading activity and serves as a background model for the modeling waiting time, return and volatility. Empirically observed statistical properties: exponents of the power-law probability distributions and power spectral density of the long-range memory financial variables are reproduced with the same values of few model parameters.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

Searching Data: A Review of Observational Data Retrieval Practices in Selected Disciplines

A cross-disciplinary examination of the user behaviours involved in seeking and evaluating data is surprisingly absent from the research data discussion. This review explores the data retrieval literature to identify commonalities in how users search for and evaluate observational research data. Two analytical frameworks rooted in information retrieval and science technology studies are used to identify key similarities in practices as a first step toward developing a model describing data retrieval

Fatty Acid Methyl Esters as Biosolvents of Epoxy Resins: A Physicochemical Study

The C8 to C18 fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) have been compared as solvents for two epoxy resin pre-polymers, bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (DGEBA) and triglycidyl paminophenol ether (TGPA). It was found that the solubilization limits vary according to the ester and that methyl caprylate is the best solvent of both resins. To explain these solubility performances, physical and chemical properties of FAME were studied, such as the Hansen parameters, viscosity, binary diffusion coefficient and vaporization enthalpy. Determination of the physicochemical parameters of FAME was carried out by laboratory experimentations and by calculation from bibliographic data. The Hansen parameters of FAME and epoxy resins pre-polymers were theoretically and experimentally determined. The FAME chain length showed a long dependence on the binary diffusion parameters and kinematic viscosity, which are mass and momentum transport properties. Moreover, the vaporization enthalpy of these compounds was directly correlated with the solubilization limits