An experimental investigation of two large annular diffusers with swirling and distorted inflow

Two annular diffusers downstream of a nacelle-mounted fan were tested for aerodynamic performance, measured in terms of two static pressure recovery parameters (one near the diffuser exit plane and one about three diameters downstream in the settling duct) in the presence of several inflow conditions. The two diffusers each had an inlet diameter of 1.84 m, an area ratio of 2.3, and an equivalent cone angle of 11.5, but were distinguished by centerbodies of different lengths. The dependence of diffuser performance on various combinations of swirling, radially distorted, and/or azimuthally distorted inflow was examined. Swirling flow and distortions in the axial velocity profile in the annulus upstream of the diffuser inlet were caused by the intrinsic flow patterns downstream of a fan in a duct and by artificial intensification of the distortions. Azimuthal distortions or defects were generated by the addition of four artificial devices (screens and fences). Pressure recovery data indicated beneficial effects of both radial distortion (for a limited range of distortion levels) and inflow swirl. Small amounts of azimuthal distortion created by the artificial devices produced only small effects on diffuser performance. A large artificial distortion device was required to produce enough azimuthal flow distortion to significantly degrade the diffuser static pressure recovery

Transcytosis in MDCK cells: identification of glycoproteins transported bidirectionally between both plasma membrane domains.

MDCK cells display fluid-phase transcytosis in both directions across the cell. Transcytosis of cell surface molecules was estimated by electron microscopic analysis of streptavidin-gold-labeled frozen sections of biotinylated cells. Within 3 h, approximately 10% of the surface molecules, biotinylated on the starting membrane domain, were detected on the opposite surface domain irrespective of the direction of transcytosis. This suggests that the transcytosis rates for surface molecules are equal in both directions across the cell as shown previously for fluid-phase markers

Itinerant ferromagnetism in an atomic Fermi gas: Influence of population imbalance

We investigate ferromagnetic ordering in an itinerant ultracold atomic Fermi gas with repulsive interactions and population imbalance. In a spatially uniform system, we show that at zero temperature the transition to the itinerant magnetic phase transforms from first to second order with increasing population imbalance. Drawing on these results, we elucidate the phases present in a trapped geometry, finding three characteristic types of behavior with changing population imbalance. Finally, we outline the potential experimental implications of the findings.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, typos added, references adde

JWalk: a tool for lazy, systematic testing of java classes by design introspection and user interaction

Popular software testing tools, such as JUnit, allow frequent retesting of modified code; yet the manually created test scripts are often seriously incomplete. A unit-testing tool called JWalk has therefore been developed to address the need for systematic unit testing within the context of agile methods. The tool operates directly on the compiled code for Java classes and uses a new lazy method for inducing the changing design of a class on the fly. This is achieved partly through introspection, using Java’s reflection capability, and partly through interaction with the user, constructing and saving test oracles on the fly. Predictive rules reduce the number of oracle values that must be confirmed by the tester. Without human intervention, JWalk performs bounded exhaustive exploration of the class’s method protocols and may be directed to explore the space of algebraic constructions, or the intended design state-space of the tested class. With some human interaction, JWalk performs up to the equivalent of fully automated state-based testing, from a specification that was acquired incrementally

Field Theory of Mesoscopic Fluctuations in Superconductor/Normal-Metal Systems

Thermodynamic and transport properties of normal disordered conductors are strongly influenced by the proximity of a superconductor. A cooperation between mesoscopic coherence and Andreev scattering of particles from the superconductor generates new types of interference phenomena. We introduce a field theoretic approach capable of exploring both averaged properties and mesoscopic fluctuations of superconductor/normal-metal systems. As an example the method is applied to the study of the level statistics of a SNS-junction.Comment: 4 pages, REVTEX, two eps-figures included; submitted to JETP letter

Universal parametric correlations in the transmission eigenvalue spectra of disordered conductors

We study the response of the transmission eigenvalue spectrum of disordered metallic conductors to an arbitrary external perturbation. For systems without time-reversal symmetry we find an exact non-perturbative solution for the two-point correlation function, which exhibits a new kind of universal behavior characteristic of disordered conductors. Systems with orthogonal and symplectic symmetries are studied in the hydrodynamic regime.Comment: 10 pages, written in plain TeX, Preprint OUTP-93-36S (University of Oxford), to appear in Phys. Rev. B (Rapid Communication

Particle dynamics of a cartoon dune

The spatio-temporal evolution of a downsized model for a desert dune is observed experimentally in a narrow water flow channel. A particle tracking method reveals that the migration speed of the model dune is one order of magnitude smaller than that of individual grains. In particular, the erosion rate consists of comparable contributions from creeping (low energy) and saltating (high energy) particles. The saltation flow rate is slightly larger, whereas the number of saltating particles is one order of magnitude lower than that of the creeping ones. The velocity field of the saltating particles is comparable to the velocity field of the driving fluid. It can be observed that the spatial profile of the shear stress reaches its maximum value upstream of the crest, while its minimum lies at the downstream foot of the dune. The particle tracking method reveals that the deposition of entrained particles occurs primarily in the region between these two extrema of the shear stress. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the initial triangular heap evolves to a steady state with constant mass, shape, velocity, and packing fraction after one turnover time has elapsed. Within that time the mean distance between particles initially in contact reaches a value of approximately one quarter of the dune basis length

Scalar and vector Slepian functions, spherical signal estimation and spectral analysis

It is a well-known fact that mathematical functions that are timelimited (or spacelimited) cannot be simultaneously bandlimited (in frequency). Yet the finite precision of measurement and computation unavoidably bandlimits our observation and modeling scientific data, and we often only have access to, or are only interested in, a study area that is temporally or spatially bounded. In the geosciences we may be interested in spectrally modeling a time series defined only on a certain interval, or we may want to characterize a specific geographical area observed using an effectively bandlimited measurement device. It is clear that analyzing and representing scientific data of this kind will be facilitated if a basis of functions can be found that are "spatiospectrally" concentrated, i.e. "localized" in both domains at the same time. Here, we give a theoretical overview of one particular approach to this "concentration" problem, as originally proposed for time series by Slepian and coworkers, in the 1960s. We show how this framework leads to practical algorithms and statistically performant methods for the analysis of signals and their power spectra in one and two dimensions, and, particularly for applications in the geosciences, for scalar and vectorial signals defined on the surface of a unit sphere.Comment: Submitted to the 2nd Edition of the Handbook of Geomathematics, edited by Willi Freeden, Zuhair M. Nashed and Thomas Sonar, and to be published by Springer Verlag. This is a slightly modified but expanded version of the paper arxiv:0909.5368 that appeared in the 1st Edition of the Handbook, when it was called: Slepian functions and their use in signal estimation and spectral analysi

A Brownian Motion Model of Parametric Correlations in Ballistic Cavities

A Brownian motion model is proposed to study parametric correlations in the transmission eigenvalues of open ballistic cavities. We find interesting universal properties when the eigenvalues are rescaled at the hard edge of the spectrum. We derive a formula for the power spectrum of the fluctuations of transport observables as a response to an external adiabatic perturbation. Our formula correctly recovers the Lorentzian-squared behaviour obtained by semiclassical approaches for the correlation function of conductance fluctuations.Comment: 19 pages, written in RevTe