Optical limiting properties of zinc phthalocyanines in solution and solid PMMA composite films

The nonlinear absorption and optical limiting (OL) performance of tetra- and octasubstituted zinc phthalocyanine complexes were described in solution and in the solid state using the open-aperture Z-scan technique. The measurements were performed using collimated 4 ns pulses generated from a frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser at 532 nm wavelength. The polymeric films exhibit a much larger effective nonlinear absorption coefficient in comparison with solution. However, the parameters of the ratio of the excited to ground state absorption cross section and energy-dependent saturation in solution are much better compared to properties in the polymeric film. In terms of the ratio of the excited to ground state absorption cross section, the peripherally substituted complexes show better OL performance than the non-peripherally substituted derivative

Absolute properties of the binary system BB Pegasi

We present a ground based photometry of the low-temperature contact binary BB Peg. We collected all times of mid-eclipses available in literature and combined them with those obtained in this study. Analyses of the data indicate a period increase of 3.0(1) x 10^{-8} days/yr. This period increase of BB Peg can be interpreted in terms of the mass transfer 2.4 x 10^{-8} Ms yr^{-1} from the less massive to the more massive component. The physical parameters have been determined as Mc = 1.42 Ms, Mh = 0.53 Ms, Rc = 1.29 Rs, Rh = 0.83 Rs, Lc = 1.86 Ls, and Lh = 0.94 Ls through simultaneous solution of light and of the radial velocity curves. The orbital parameters of the third body, that orbits the contact system in an eccentric orbit, were obtained from the period variation analysis. The system is compared to the similar binaries in the Hertzsprung-Russell and Mass-Radius diagram.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, accepted for Astronomical Journa

A Massive S-duality in 4 dimensions

We reduce the Type IIA supergravity theory with a generalized Scherk-Schwarz ansatz that exploits the scaling symmetry of the dilaton, the metric and the NS 2-form field. The resulting theory is a new massive, gauged supergravity theory in four dimensions with a massive 2-form field and a massive 1-form field. We show that this theory is S-dual to a theory with a massive vector field and a massive 2-form field, which are dual to the massive 2-form and 1-form fields in the original theory, respectively. The S-dual theory is shown to arise from a Scherk-Schwarz reduction of the heterotic theory. Hence we establish a massive, S-duality type relation between the IIA theory and the heterotic theory in four dimensions. We also show that the Lagrangian for the new four dimensional theory can be put in the most general form of a D=4, N=4 gauged Lagrangian found by Schon and Weidner, in which (part of) the SL(2) group has been gauged.Comment: 20 pages, references adde

Assessment of imidacloprid toxicity on reproductive organ system of adult male rats

In the current study it was aimed to investigate the toxicity of low doses of imidacloprid (IMI) on the reproductive organ systems of adult male rats. The treatment groups received 0.5 (IMI-0.5), 2 (IMI-2) or 8 mg IMI/kg body weight by oral gavage (IMI-8) for three months. The deterioration in sperm motility in IMI-8 group and epidydimal sperm concentration in IMI-2 and IMI-8 groups and abnormality in sperm morphology in IMI-8 were significant. The levels of testosterone (T) and GSH decreased significantly in group IMI-8 compared to the control group. Upon treatment with IMI, apoptotic index increased significantly only in germ cells of the seminiferous tubules of IMI-8 group when compared to control. Fragmentation was striking in the seminal DNA from the IMI-8 group, but it was much less obvious in the IMI-2 one. IMI exposure resulted in elevation of all fatty acids analyzed, but the increases were significant only in stearic, oleic, linoleic and arachidonic acids. The ratios of 20:4/20:3 and 20:4/18:2 were decreased and 16:1n-9/16:0 ratio was increased. In conclusion, the present animal experiments revealed that the treatment with IMI at NOAEL dose-levels caused deterioration in sperm parameters, decreased T level, increased apoptosis of germ cells, seminal DNA fragmentation, the depletion of antioxidants and change in disturbance of fatty acid composition. All these changes indicate the suppression of testicular function

Cognitive functioning throughout adulthood and illness stages in individuals with psychotic disorders and their unaffected siblings

Important questions remain about the profile of cognitive impairment in psychotic disorders across adulthood and illness stages. The age-associated profile of familial impairments also remains unclear, as well as the effect of factors, such as symptoms, functioning, and medication. Using cross-sectional data from the EU-GEI and GROUP studies, comprising 8455 participants aged 18 to 65, we examined cognitive functioning across adulthood in patients with psychotic disorders (n = 2883), and their unaffected siblings (n = 2271), compared to controls (n = 3301). An abbreviated WAIS-III measured verbal knowledge, working memory, visuospatial processing, processing speed, and IQ. Patients showed medium to large deficits across all functions (ES range = –0.45 to –0.73, p < 0.001), while siblings showed small deficits on IQ, verbal knowledge, and working memory (ES = –0.14 to –0.33, p < 0.001). Magnitude of impairment was not associated with participant age, such that the size of impairment in older and younger patients did not significantly differ. However, first-episode patients performed worse than prodromal patients (ES range = –0.88 to –0.60, p < 0.001). Adjusting for cannabis use, symptom severity, and global functioning attenuated impairments in siblings, while deficits in patients remained statistically significant, albeit reduced by half (ES range = –0.13 to –0.38, p < 0.01). Antipsychotic medication also accounted for around half of the impairment in patients (ES range = –0.21 to –0.43, p < 0.01). Deficits in verbal knowledge, and working memory may specifically index familial, i.e., shared genetic and/or shared environmental, liability for psychotic disorders. Nevertheless, potentially modifiable illness-related factors account for a significant portion of the cognitive impairment in psychotic disorders

Setting the right incentives for global planning and operations

Due to copyright restrictions, the access to the full text of this article is only available via subscription.We study incentive issues seen in a firm performing global planning and manufacturing, and local demand management. The stochastic demands in local markets are best observed by the regional business units, and the firm relies on the business units’ forecasts for planning of global manufacturing operations. We propose a class of performance evaluation schemes that induce the business units to reveal their private demand information truthfully by turning the business units’ demand revelation game into a potential game with truth telling being a potential maximizer, an appealing refinement of Nash equilibrium. Moreover, these cooperative performance evaluation schemes satisfy several essential fairness notions. After analyzing the characteristics of several performance evaluation schemes in this class, we extend our analysis to include the impact of effort on demand.Industrial Development Agency (IDA), Irelan

Recursive hidden input estimation in nonlinear dynamic systems with varying amounts of a priori knowledge

Due to copyright restrictions, the access to the full text of this article is only available via subscription.Estimation of additive driving-forces (e.g., hidden inputs) in nonlinear dynamic systems is addressed with varying amounts of a priori knowledge on system models exemplified by three typical scenarios: (1) there is no sufficient prior knowledge to build a mathematical model of the underlying system; (2) the system is partially described by an analytic model; (3) a complete and accurate model of the underlying system is available. Three algorithms are proposed for each scenario and analyzed comprehensively. The adaptive driving-force estimator (ADFE) [1,2] is used for the retrieval of driving-forces using only the system outputs for the first scenario. A variational Bayesian and a Bayesian algorithm are established for the second and the third scenarios, respectively. All three algorithms are studied in depth on a nonlinear dynamic system with equivalent computational resources, and the Posterior Cramer-Rao Lower Bounds (PCRLB) are specified as performance metrics for each case. The results lead to a thorough understanding of the capabilities and limitations of the ADFE, which manifests itself as an effective technique for the estimation of rapidly varying hidden inputs unless a complete and accurate model is available. Moreover, the methods developed in this paper facilitate a suitable framework for the construction of new and efficient tools for various input estimation problems. In particular, the proposed algorithms constitute a readily available basis for the design of novel input residual estimators to approach the Fault Diagnosis and Isolation (FDI) problem from a new and different perspective

Recursive hidden input estimation in nonlinear dynamic systems with varying amounts of a priori knowledge

Due to copyright restrictions, the access to the full text of this article is only available via subscription.Estimation of additive driving-forces (e.g., hidden inputs) in nonlinear dynamic systems is addressed with varying amounts of a priori knowledge on system models exemplified by three typical scenarios: (1) there is no sufficient prior knowledge to build a mathematical model of the underlying system; (2) the system is partially described by an analytic model; (3) a complete and accurate model of the underlying system is available. Three algorithms are proposed for each scenario and analyzed comprehensively. The adaptive driving-force estimator (ADFE) [1,2] is used for the retrieval of driving-forces using only the system outputs for the first scenario. A variational Bayesian and a Bayesian algorithm are established for the second and the third scenarios, respectively. All three algorithms are studied in depth on a nonlinear dynamic system with equivalent computational resources, and the Posterior Cramer-Rao Lower Bounds (PCRLB) are specified as performance metrics for each case. The results lead to a thorough understanding of the capabilities and limitations of the ADFE, which manifests itself as an effective technique for the estimation of rapidly varying hidden inputs unless a complete and accurate model is available. Moreover, the methods developed in this paper facilitate a suitable framework for the construction of new and efficient tools for various input estimation problems. In particular, the proposed algorithms constitute a readily available basis for the design of novel input residual estimators to approach the Fault Diagnosis and Isolation (FDI) problem from a new and different perspective