Gyrotropic impact upon negatively refracting surfaces

Surface wave propagation at the interface between different types of gyrotropic materials and an isotropic negatively refracting medium, in which the relative permittivity and relative permeability are, simultaneously, negative is investigated. A general approach is taken that embraces both gyroelectric and gyromagnetic materials, permitting the possibility of operating in either the low GHz, THz or the optical frequency regimes. The classical transverse Voigt configuration is adopted and a complete analysis of non-reciprocal surface wave dispersion is presented. The impact of the surface polariton modes upon the reflection of both plane waves and beams is discussed in terms of resonances and an example of the influence upon the Goos–Hänchen shift is given

Electrodeposition of platinum on titanium felt in a rectangular channel flow cell

Highly porous platinised titanium substrates are attractive electrode materials for industrial electrochemical processing and electrochemical energy storage. The electrodeposition of platinum on titanium felt was carried out in a divided, rectangular channel flow cell from an alkaline bath without additives. The morphology and spatial distribution of the platinum deposits in the porous material were analysed using SEM and EDS microscopy in addition to X-ray computed tomography (CT). The electroplated surface area was estimated from the charge transfer current ratio for Ce(IV) reduction and related to a theoretical electrosorbed hydrogen monolayer surface area. The platinised titanium felt showed a significant enhancement of active surface area in comparison to conventional electrode materials. Although platinum was present throughout the porous electrode, CT revealed heterogeneous deposits accumulating in regions near the membrane (during electrodeposition), as a result of the potential distribution in the felt material and flowing electrolyte. Uniform platinum coatings are possible on thin titanium felt under 200 µm thick, by either potentiostatic or galvanostatic electrodepositio

Public sector reforms, privatisation and regimes of control in a Chinese enterprise

The Chinese economic reform has recently become a major focus of attention around the world. The underlying rationale for the Chinese government's privatisation and public sector reforms is the view that reformed state enterprises and privately managed firms will demonstrate superior management control and better performance, and hence encourage economic growth and employment. There are very few intensive case studies published in English journals studying whether firms privatised in China have reversed previous losses and introduced better management controls, leading to increased investment, productivity, and overall organizational effectiveness and efficiency. The researchers do not seek to deny the control problems of Chinese SOEs, but question the consequences of the new controls installed during the post-privatisation period. The paper also reveals a declining tendency in employment; altered distributions of wealth ? especially to the state ? and labour, and a lack of improvements in the accountability of privatised companies. Overall, the paper argues, the aims of reform policies in China, including better control, increased profitability and an improved working life for Chinese people, have not materialized. The paper calls for more research on the above issues in the Chinese context

Stable isotope values in modern bryozoan carbonate from New Zealand and implications for paleoenvironmental interpretation

Bryozoan carbonate contains useful geochemical evidence of temperate shelf paleoenvironments. Stable isotope values were determined for 103 modern marine bryozoan skeletons representing 30 species from New Zealand. δ18O values range from -1.4 to 2.8 VPDB, while δ13C range from -4.5 to 2.8 VPDB (values uncorrected for mineralogical variation). These values are distinct from those of both tropical marine skeletons and New Zealand Tertiary fossils. Most bryozoans secrete carbonate in or near isotopic equilibrium with sea water, except for Celleporina and Steginoporella. The complex and variable mineralogies of the bryozoans reported here make correction for mineralogical effects problematic. Nevertheless, mainly aragonitic forms display higher isotope values, as anticipated. Both temperature and salinity constrain δ18O and δ13C values, and vary with latitude and water depth. Ten samples from a single branch of Cinctipora elegans from the Otago shelf cover a narrow range, although the striking difference in carbon isotope values between the endozone and exozone probably reflects different mineralisation histories. Our stable isotope results from three different laboratories on a single population from a single location are encouragingly consistent. Monomineralic bryozoans, when carefully chosen to avoid species suspected of vital fractionation, have considerable potential as geochemical paleoenvironmental indicators, particularly in temperate marine environments where bryozoans are dominant sediment producers

Evidence: Biofilter performance and operation as related to commercial composting

This report provides a critical review of available evidence as to how effectively the various categories and configurations of biofilter reduce bioaerosol and odour emissions from composting facilities

The homotopy theory of simplicial props

The category of (colored) props is an enhancement of the category of colored operads, and thus of the category of small categories. In this paper, the second in a series on "higher props," we show that the category of all small colored simplicial props admits a cofibrantly generated model category structure. With this model structure, the forgetful functor from props to operads is a right Quillen functor.Comment: Final version, to appear in Israel J. Mat

Multiple Measures of Fixation on Social Content in Infancy:Evidence for a Single Social Cognitive Construct?

The preference of infants to fixate on social information in a stimulus is well known. We examine how this preference manifests across a series of free‐viewing tasks using different stimulus types. Participants were thirty typically developing infants. We measured eye movements when viewing isolated faces, faces alongside objects in a grid, and faces naturally presented in photographed scenes. In each task, infants fixated social content for longer than nonsocial content. Social preference scores representing distribution of fixation to social versus general image content were highly correlated and thus combined into a single composite measure, which was independent of demographic and behavioral measures. We infer that multiple eye‐tracking tasks can be used to generate a composite measure of social preference in infancy. This approach may prove useful in the early characterization of developmental disabilities

Opaque perfect lenses

The response of the ``perfect lens'', consisting of a slab of lossless material of thickness $d$ with $\epsilon=\mu=-1$ at one frequency $\omega_0$ is investigated. It is shown that as time progresses the lens becomes increasingly opaque to any physical TM line dipole source located a distance $d_0<d/2$ from the lens and which has been turned on at time $t=0$. Here a physical source is defined as one which supplies a bounded amount of energy per unit time. In fact the lens cloaks the source so that it is not visible from behind the lens either. For sources which are turned on exponentially slowly there is an exact correspondence between the response of the perfect lens in the long time constant limit and the response of lossy lenses in the low loss limit. Contrary to the usual picture where the field intensity has a minimum at the front interface we find that the field diverges to infinity there in the long time constant limit.Comment: The 7th International Conference on the Electrical transport and Optical Properties of Inhomogenous Media (ETOPIM7

Morphometric characterization of collagen and fat in normal ventricular myocardium.

OBJECTIVE: We used automated image analysis software to determine the proportion of collagen, fat, and myocytes across six histological regions of normal ventricular myocardium. METHODS: Twenty-nine non-cardiac death cases referred to our national cardiac pathology center were included in this study. Whole hearts were macroscopically and microscopically normal following expert histopathological evaluation. Tissue sections from the right ventricular outflow tract, right ventricle (RV), anterior interventricular septum (IVS), posterior IVS, anterior left ventricle (LV), and posterior LV were stained with Picrosirius red for collagen and scanned using a high-resolution slide scanner. Quantification of collagen, fat, and myocyte proportions was performed using Visiopharm software after automated exclusion of perivascular collagen. RESULTS: The majority of decedents were male (25/29; 86%) with a mean age at death of 32.1 ± 9.9 (range 18-54) and mean BMI 28.7 ± 7.3. We report predicted values (collagen %, fat %, myocytes %) for cardiac tissue composition within the RV, IVS, and LV (including epicardial and endocardial layers). The proportion of collagen and fat were higher in the RV compared with the LV (ratios 1.61 [1.45-1.78]; 2.63 [1.99-3.48], respectively) and RV compared with the IVS (ratios 1.77 [1.60-1.97]; 8.41[6.35-11.13], respectively). The ratio of epicardial versus endocardial fat was increased in both ventricles (RV: ratio 4.49 [3.67-5.49]; LV: ratio 3.46 [2.49-4.81]). In multivariable analysis, there was no significant association between collagen or fat proportion and sex (p=0.12; p=0.08, respectively), age at death (p=0.36; p=0.23, respectively), or BMI (p=0.45; p=0.43, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide location and sex-specific proportions of myocardial histological tissue composition that may aid quantitative evaluation of pathology in future studies