Steady states in Leith's model of turbulence

We present a comprehensive study and full classification of the stationary solutions in Leith's model of turbulence with a generalised viscosity. Three typical types of boundary value problems are considered: Problems 1 and 2 with a finite positive value of the spectrum at the left (right) and zero at the right (left) boundaries of a wave number range, and Problem 3 with finite positive values of the spectrum at both boundaries. Settings of these problems and analysis of existence of their solutions are based on a phase–space analysis of orbits of the underlying dynamical system. One of the two fixed points of the underlying dynamical system is found to correspond to a 'sharp front' where the energy flux and the spectrum vanish at the same wave number. The other fixed point corresponds to the only exact power-law solution—the so-called dissipative scaling solution. The roles of the Kolmogorov, dissipative and thermodynamic scaling, as well as of sharp front solutions, are discussed

Divergent karyotypes in five genera of the African endemic fish family Distichodontidae (Cithariniformes, Osteichthyes)

The African family Distichodontidae comprises 109 species in 16 genera. Up-to-date cytogenetic information was available for the only distichodontid species Distichodus affinis Günther, 1873. Here we report chromosome number and morphology in: Distichodus engycephalus Günther, 1864 (2n = 52, FN = 104), Ichthyborus besse (Joannis, 1835) (2n = 46, FN = 92), Nannocharax niloticus (Joannis, 1835) (2n = 54, FN = 106) and three taxa, Nannaethiops bleheri Géry et Zarske, 2003, Nannaethiops sp., and Neolebias unifasciatus Steindachner, 1894, that exhibit the same karyotypes (2n = 50, FN = 98). To confirm the Nannaethiops Günther, 1872 and Neolebias Steindachner, 1894 species identification, mt-DNA sequences of the two markers (COI and 16S rRNA) were obtained from karyotyped specimens and compared with the relevant sequences accessible from GenBank. The great prevalence of biarmed chromosomes (the karyotypes of most species contain exclusively biarmed chromosomes) is a distinctive characteristic of Distichodontidae and Cithariniformes as a whole

DEVELOPMENT OF A MODIFIER FOR GIVING MATERIALS FROM EFFICIENTLY PROCESSED WOOD BIOMASS SPECIAL PROPERTIES

Background. Wood is a unique material in its structure. However, materials made from wood raw materials have such negative properties as insufficient bio- and fire-resistance. In turn, when organizing and improving the efficiency of logging activity, large amounts of practically unused cutting residues is produced. Their modification for the purposes of the forest industry is an effective tool for creating many valuable and demanded products. In particular, arilazo-β-dicarbonyl compounds are widely used as syntons for the production of heterocyclic compounds. Among heterocycles, a large number of compounds have found application in the form of biologically active substances that have been successfully and for a long time used as pesticides for the wood processing industry. Purpose. Synthesis of p-nitrophenyl hydrobutanons, cyclocondensation to form pyrazoles and study of their chemical properties of the substances first obtained. Proof of structure by modern spectral analysis methods. Materials and Methods. Research methods include: organic synthesis; UV spectrometry, 1H NMR, 13H NMR. Results. Four new compounds were synthesized: 4-methoxy-1-(p-chloro(bromo)phenyl)-2-(p-nitrophenylhydrazo)-1,2,3-butantrions and 3(5)-methoxy-5(3)-(p-chloro(bromo)phenyl)-4-(p-nitrophenylhydrazo)-1H-pyrazoles. Amines were prepared by the reduction of the related nitrosopyrazoles. The acylation reaction was demonstrated for the obtained amine. The structures of all synthesized compounds were proved by modern methods of analysis. Conclusion. Thus, we synthesized p-nitrophenylhydrazobutanetriones with a chloro(bromo)phenyl substituent, their cyclization products with hydrazine, and N-(5-(4-chloro(bromo)phenyl)-3-(methoxymethyl)-1H-pyrazole-4-yl)acetamides based on them. The structure of the obtained substances was determined by spectral methods of analysis

INCREASING THE EFFICIENCY OF USING WOOD BIOMASS BY PROVIDING SPECIAL PROPERTIES

Background. The search for ways to use logging waste is a distinct scientific direction, due to the large number of their permanent formation. The importance of such studies is associated with the need to reduce the loss of valuable wood raw materials in the form of logging waste. One of the possible ways of using waste from logging industries is the production of wood chips using a mobile complex of machines with its further recycling into a wood-fiber semi-finished product. Wood-fiber semi-finished product is, as it is known nowadays, one of the environmentally friendly types of insulation and finishing materials. A significant limitation in the use of wood fiber in various types of production is low fire and bio-resistance. As a consequence, imparting specific properties to a wood-fiber semi-finished product in the form of fire and bio-resistance is an acute problem of the modern wood processing industry. Purpose. Synthesis of 4-azofunctionalized pyrazoles with perfluoroalkyl substituent by cyclocondensation of polyfluorinated beta-diketones to confer special properties to the wood-fiber semi-finished product. Materials and methods. The 1H, 13C NMR and 1H-13C HSQC spectra were registered at the Krasnoyarsk Regional Center for Collective Use of the FITC KNC SB RAS on a Bruker Avance III Fourier spectrometer with a frequency of 600 MHz equipped with sensitive helium probes with a diameter of 5 mm and 1.7 mm. TMS is used as an internal standard. Chromato-mass spectra were obtained using ISQ 7610 Single Quadrupole GC-MS and Shimadzu LC/MS-2020 instruments. Methyl alcohol was used as the mobile phase. IR spectra were recorded on the FT-801 (FT-801) SIMEX IR Fourier spectrometer with a spectral range from 450 to 5700 cm-1. UV spectra were recorded on a HELIOS OMEGA spectrophotometer equipped with a tungsten-halogen lamp in quartz cuvettes with a diameter of 1 cm at a concentration of 1·10-4 mol/l for 200-400 nm and a concentration of 1·10-2 mol/l for 400-800 nm in ethanol. Melting temperatures were determined in open capillaries on a PTP device (TU 25-11-1144-76). Results. 3 new compounds were synthesized: 3(5)-(thiophene-2-yl)-4-nitroso-5(3)-(trifluoromethyl)-1H-pyrazole, 3(5)-phenyl-4-nitroso-5(3)-(trifluoromethyl)-1H-pyrazole and 3(5)-(naphthalene-2-yl)-4-nitroso-5(3)-(trifluoromethyl)-1H-pyrazole. Conclusion. Thus, 3(5)-(thiophene-2-yl)-4-nitroso-5(3)-(trifluoromethyl)-1H-pyrazole, 3(5)-phenyl-4-nitroso-5(3)-(trifluoromethyl)-1H-pyrazole and 3(5)-(naphthalene-2-yl)-4-nitroso-5(3)-(trifluoromethyl)-1H-pyrazole. Complex separable mixtures of substances containing pyrazoline, β-diketone and target nitrosopyrazoles were formed by a single-reactor method. The two-stage method of production proposed by us increases the purity and yield of the target products

Transparent dense sodium

Under pressure, metals exhibit increasingly shorter interatomic distances. Intuitively, this response is expected to be accompanied by an increase in the widths of the valence and conduction bands and hence a more pronounced free-electron-like behaviour. But at the densities that can now be achieved experimentally, compression can be so substantial that core electrons overlap. This effect dramatically alters electronic properties from those typically associated with simple free-electron metals such as lithium and sodium, leading in turn to structurally complex phases and superconductivity with a high critical temperature. But the most intriguing prediction - that the seemingly simple metals Li and Na will transform under pressure into insulating states, owing to pairing of alkali atoms - has yet to be experimentally confirmed. Here we report experimental observations of a pressure-induced transformation of Na into an optically transparent phase at 200 GPa (corresponding to 5.0-fold compression). Experimental and computational data identify the new phase as a wide bandgap dielectric with a six-coordinated, highly distorted double-hexagonal close-packed structure. We attribute the emergence of this dense insulating state not to atom pairing, but to p-d hybridizations of valence electrons and their repulsion by core electrons into the lattice interstices. We expect that such insulating states may also form in other elements and compounds when compression is sufficiently strong that atomic cores start to overlap strongly.Comment: Published in Nature 458, 182-185 (2009

Dynamics in nonlocal linear models in the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker metric

A general class of cosmological models driven by a nonlocal scalar field inspired by the string field theory is studied. Using the fact that the considering linear nonlocal model is equivalent to an infinite number of local models we have found an exact special solution of the nonlocal Friedmann equations. This solution describes a monotonically increasing Universe with the phantom dark energy.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures, a few misprints in Section 5 have been correcte

Analysis of scalar perturbations in cosmological models with a non-local scalar field

We develop the cosmological perturbations formalism in models with a single non-local scalar field originating from the string field theory description of the rolling tachyon dynamics. We construct the equation for the energy density perturbations of the non-local scalar field in the presence of the arbitrary potential and formulate the local system of equations for perturbations in the linearized model when both simple and double roots of the characteristic equation are present. We carry out the general analysis related to the curvature and entropy perturbations and consider the most specific example of perturbations when important quantities in the model become complex.Comment: LaTeX, 25 pages, 1 figure, v2: Subsection 3.2 and Section 5 added, references added, accepted for publication in Class. Quant. Grav. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0903.517

A chemical survey of exoplanets with ARIEL

Thousands of exoplanets have now been discovered with a huge range of masses, sizes and orbits: from rocky Earth-like planets to large gas giants grazing the surface of their host star. However, the essential nature of these exoplanets remains largely mysterious: there is no known, discernible pattern linking the presence, size, or orbital parameters of a planet to the nature of its parent star. We have little idea whether the chemistry of a planet is linked to its formation environment, or whether the type of host star drives the physics and chemistry of the planet’s birth, and evolution. ARIEL was conceived to observe a large number (~1000) of transiting planets for statistical understanding, including gas giants, Neptunes, super-Earths and Earth-size planets around a range of host star types using transit spectroscopy in the 1.25–7.8 μm spectral range and multiple narrow-band photometry in the optical. ARIEL will focus on warm and hot planets to take advantage of their well-mixed atmospheres which should show minimal condensation and sequestration of high-Z materials compared to their colder Solar System siblings. Said warm and hot atmospheres are expected to be more representative of the planetary bulk composition. Observations of these warm/hot exoplanets, and in particular of their elemental composition (especially C, O, N, S, Si), will allow the understanding of the early stages of planetary and atmospheric formation during the nebular phase and the following few million years. ARIEL will thus provide a representative picture of the chemical nature of the exoplanets and relate this directly to the type and chemical environment of the host star. ARIEL is designed as a dedicated survey mission for combined-light spectroscopy, capable of observing a large and well-defined planet sample within its 4-year mission lifetime. Transit, eclipse and phase-curve spectroscopy methods, whereby the signal from the star and planet are differentiated using knowledge of the planetary ephemerides, allow us to measure atmospheric signals from the planet at levels of 10–100 part per million (ppm) relative to the star and, given the bright nature of targets, also allows more sophisticated techniques, such as eclipse mapping, to give a deeper insight into the nature of the atmosphere. These types of observations require a stable payload and satellite platform with broad, instantaneous wavelength coverage to detect many molecular species, probe the thermal structure, identify clouds and monitor the stellar activity. The wavelength range proposed covers all the expected major atmospheric gases from e.g. H2O, CO2, CH4 NH3, HCN, H2S through to the more exotic metallic compounds, such as TiO, VO, and condensed species. Simulations of ARIEL performance in conducting exoplanet surveys have been performed – using conservative estimates of mission performance and a full model of all significant noise sources in the measurement – using a list of potential ARIEL targets that incorporates the latest available exoplanet statistics. The conclusion at the end of the Phase A study, is that ARIEL – in line with the stated mission objectives – will be able to observe about 1000 exoplanets depending on the details of the adopted survey strategy, thus confirming the feasibility of the main science objectives.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio