Quasielastic x-ray scattering from thermally populated phonons in crystalline niobium was recorded using a charge-coupled device over a large angular range. The patterns, displayed on a logarithmic intensity scale, reveal rich features. Theoretical patterns based on a lattice dynamics calculation are generated, and a leastsquares simultaneous fit of these patterns recorded at several incidence ...

Thermally sensitive neurons present bursting activity for certain temperature ranges, characterized by fast repetitive spiking of action potential followed by a short quiescent period. Synchronization of bursting activity is possible in networks of coupled neurons, and it is sometimes an undesirable feature. Control procedures can suppress totally or partially this collective behavior, with pot...

An ultrafast electronic phase transition, associated with melting of orbital order, is driven in La1/2Sr3/2MnO4 by selectively exciting the Mn-O stretching mode with femtosecond pulses at 16 microm wavelength. The energy coupled into this vibration is less than 1% of that necessary to induce the transition thermally. Nonthermal melting of this electronic phase originates from coherent lattice d...

In this work we present an overview of the main advances in column sequence optimization in zeotropic systems, ranging from systems using only conventional columns, each with a condenser and a reboiler, to fully thermally coupled systems with a single reboiler and a single condenser in the entire sequence. We also review the rigorous design of distillation columns, or column sequences. In all t...

Distillation is a widely used separation method in the process industries and it is the largest energy consumer among individual process units. Improvement of energy efficiency in distillation systems is still an active research field. Among the issues concerned with the improvement of energy efficiency of distillation systems, the optimal design and synthesis A SHORT Note ABOUT ENERGY-EFFICIEN...