Varied effects of 1-octanol on gap junctional communication between ovarian epithelial cells and oocytes of Oncopeltus fasciatus, Hyalophora cecropia, and Drosophila melanogaster.

In insect gap junctions, species-specific differences occur in response to the purported gap junction uncoupling agent, 1-octanol. Changes in gap junctional communication between oocytes and their epithelial cells following treatment with 1-octanol were assayed in Oncopeltus fasciatus (the milkweed bug), Hyalophora cecropia (the American silk moth), and Drosophila melanogaster. In all three species, microinjection of untreated control follicles with Lucifer yellow CH revealed extensive dye coupling among epithelial cells and between epithelial cells and their oocytes. Also for all three species, treatment with octanol appeared to completely block dye coupling and increase oocyte input resistance. The effect on electrical coupling varied. In Drosophila, octanol diminished the electrical coupling from 64% (0.64 coupling coefficient) in controls to 53% in treated follicles. In Hyalophora, the coupling ratio remained the same following treatment. In Oncopeltus, octanol actually increased the electrical coupling ratio from 84% in controls to 94% in treated follicles. While 0.5 mM octanol left some Oncopeltus epithelial cells dye coupled to the oocyte, the electrical coupling ratio was increased slightly more by this concentration than by 1 or 5 mM octanol solutions, although the differences were not significant. While input resistance (R(o )) increased in all three following treatment with octanol, there was considerable difference in the magnitude of the response. Average oocyte R(o ) for Oncopeltus increased the least of the three species, rising from 196-240 kOhm. Both Hyalophora, with a nearly fourfold increase from 230-900 kOhm or more, and Drosophila, with a twofold increase from 701 kOhm to over 1.2 MegOhm showed much larger changes. Results shown here indicate that insect gap junctions have more varied responses to this common gap junction antagonist than have been reported for their vertebrate counterparts. Arch.

Is it safe to go to work anymore?

Violence occurs with increasing frequency in all types of workplaces, and employers may end up paying the price for it. Employers do have some responsibility to protect both workers and clients but employers can reduce risks by preparing preventive strategies.

SAW and pseudo-SAW properties using matrix methods.

Pseudo-surface-waves (PSAW's), or leaky SAW's, were first recognized over 25 years ago and the phase velocity (v(p)) and attenuation per wavelength (alphalambda) of PSAW modes for nonpiezoelectrics were calculated soon after. Since the seventies progress has been made in exploiting the higher velocities and electromechanical coupling constants (K(2)=2Deltav/v) achievable with PSAW's for piezoelectric device applications; this has stimulated new interest in the search for piezoelectric materials with orientations which have low alphalambda, high K(2), high v (p). Procedures for calculating the PSAW properties (v(p ), alphalambda, and K(2)) are not very explicitly given. In light of the preceding we present in this paper a review of the basic features of SAW and Pseudo-SAW's using the matrix method. In this paper: the mechanically free open-circuited and short-circuited surface wave boundary value problems for piezoelectrics are formulated using the matrix method; two types of modes (SAW and PSAW) are described; and a number of computationally simple, frequency independent analytical functions are derived, from which alphalambda, v(p ), and K(2) are calculated for any direction on any material plane using commercially available PC software. The relationship of these functions to the effective permittivity concept, favoured by many researchers, is demonstrated and illustrative numerical examples for the PSAW's reveals that low-loss orientations are quite sensitive to material constant values.

SAW and pseudo-SAW properties using matrix methods.

Pseudo-surface-waves (PSAW's), or leaky SAW's, were first recognized over 25 years ago and the phase velocity (v(p)) and attenuation per wavelength (alphalambda) of PSAW modes for nonpiezoelectrics were calculated soon after. Since the seventies progress has been made in exploiting the higher velocities and electromechanical coupling constants (K(2)=2Deltav/v) achievable with PSAW's for piezoelectric device applications; this has stimulated new interest in the search for piezoelectric materials with orientations which have low alphalambda, high K(2), high v (p). Procedures for calculating the PSAW properties (v(p ), alphalambda, and K(2)) are not very explicitly given. In light of the preceding we present in this paper a review of the basic features of SAW and PseudoSAW's using the matrix method. In this paper: the mechanically free open-circuited and short-circuited surface wave boundary value problems for piezoelectrics are formulated using the matrix method; two types of modes (SAW and PSAW) are described; and a number of computationally simple, frequency independent analytical functions are derived, from which alphalambda, v(p ), and K(2) are calculated for any direction on any material plane using commercially available PC software. The relationship of these functions to the effective permittivity concept, favoured by many researchers, is demonstrated and illustrative numerical examples for the PSAW's reveals that low-loss orientations are quite sensitive to material constant values.

A network model for arbitrarily oriented IDT structures.

A network model approach for analyzing arbitrarily oriented short-circuited SAW grating structures is extended to include interdigital transducers (IDTs) that are also arbitrarily oriented. The IDT structure is divided into cells, each modelled by a sequence of mismatched transmission lines consisting of a metallized and unmetallized region. The model includes: the impedance difference between metallized and free regions, the reflection coefficient at the metallization upstep, the reflection coefficient at the downstep for a counterpropagating wave, all deduced from the Datta-Hunsinger perturbation formula; the velocity difference between the free and metallized regions obtained using SAW propagation calculation software for arbitrarily oriented multilayers; and the energy storage susceptance at each finger discontinuity. Since only ordinary network elements are combined in accordance with the IDT geometry, this model permits good physical insight into the structure's characteristics and allows simple procedures for finding high directivity orientations.

Arbitrarily oriented SAW gratings: network model and the coupling-of-modes description.

A network model for surface-acoustic-wave (SAW) structures fabricated along arbitrary and hence nonsymmetric orientations, including natural single-phase unidirectional transducer (NSPUDT) directions, is described. From the predictions of this model for SAW gratings. the frequently used coupling of modes (COM) phenomenological description is evaluated. The network model consists of the usual sequence of mismatched transmission lines with susceptance loading at discontinuities to account for energy storage, plus a new additional reactive element calculated using a perturbation formula, to account for the asymmetry that exists for arbitrary orientations. The circuit elements are determined by geometrical and material parameters. It is demonstrated that the incremental COM description can be derived from the unit-cell-based network model, and analytical formulas quoted in the literature for the COM coefficients are compared with the values calculated from the ABCD network model description. An analytically tractable approximation for the network model is also described, from which rather simple explicit formulas for the COM coefficients that predict their dependence on material parameters and on frequency are derived. The analysis and numerical calculations indicate that these formulas may yield results that are valid over almost 30% relative bandwidths.

Modeling, simulation, and design of SAW grating filters.

A systematic procedure for modeling, simulating, and designing SAW (surface acoustic wave) grating filters, taking losses into account, is described. Grating structures and IDTs (interdigital transducers) coupling to SAWs are defined by cascadable transmission-matrix building blocks. Driving point and transfer characteristics (immittances) of complex architectures consisting of gratings, transducers, and coupling networks are obtained by chain-multiplying building-block matrices. This modular approach to resonator filter analysis and design combines the elements of lossy filter synthesis with the transmission-matrix description of SAW components. A multipole filter design procedure based on a lumped-element-model approximation of one-pole two-port resonator building blocks is given and the range of validity of this model examined. The software for simulating the performance of SAW grating devices based on this matrix approach is described, and its performance, when linked to the design procedure to form a CAD/CAA (computer-aided design and analysis) multiple-filter design package, is illustrated with a resonator filter design example.

PC software for SAW propagation in anisotropic multilayers.

A software package that provides an interactive and graphical environment for surface acoustic wave (SAW) and plate-mode propagation studies in arbitrarily oriented anisotropic and piezoelectric multilayers is described. The software, which runs on an IBM PC with math coprocessor, is based on a transfer-matrix formulation for calculating the characteristics of SAW propagation in multilayers that was originally written for a mainframe computer. The menu-driven software will calculate wave velocities and field variable variations with depth for any desired propagation direction: the graphics capability provides a simultaneous display of slowness or velocity and of SAW Deltav/v coupling constant curves, and their corresponding field profiles in either polar or Cartesian coordinates, for propagation in a selected plane or as a function of one of the Euler angles. The program generates a numerical data file containing the calculated velocities and field profile data. Examples illustrating the usefulness of the software in the study of various SAW and plate structures are presented.

Matrix methods applied to acoustic waves in multilayers.

Matrix methods for analyzing the electroacoustic characteristics of anisotropic piezoelectric multilayers are described. The conceptual usefulness of the methods is demonstrated in a tutorial fashion by examples showing how formal statements of propagation, transduction, and boundary-value problems in complicated acoustic layered geometries such as those which occur in surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices, in multicomponent laminates, and in bulk-wave composite transducers are simplified. The formulation given reduces the electroacoustic equations to a set of first-order matrix differential equations, one for each layer, in the variables that must be continuous across interfaces. The solution to these equations is a transfer matrix that maps the variables from one layer face to the other. Interface boundary conditions for a planar multilayer are automatically satisfied by multiplying the individual transfer matrices in the appropriate order, thus reducing the problem to just having to impose boundary conditions appropriate to the remaining two surfaces. The computational advantages of the matrix method result from the fact that the problem rank is independent of the number of layers, and from the availability of personal computer software that makes interactive numerical experimentation with complex layered structures practical.

Electromechanical coupling to Lamb and shear-horizontal modes in piezoelectric plates.

Recent theoretical studies and experiments have been shown that interdigital transducers can couple strongly to plate modes in piezoelectric materials and in piezoelectric-on-nonpiezoelectric composite membranes. The calculated velocity dispersion and electromechanical coupling factors for plate modes in representative piezoelectric materials are described. The frequency dependence of velocity and electromechanical coupling factors are given, under different metallization conditions, for generalized stiffened-Lamb, pure stiffened-Lamb, and stiffened-shear (shear-horizontal) modes, for various plate orientations in lithium niobate, lithium tantalate, quartz, bismuth germanium oxide, and zinc oxide. For lithium niobate, electromechanical-coupling values as high as 15% are found under narrowband bandpass conditions, and 5% under wideband low-pass conditions. For lithium tantalate, bismuth germanium oxide, coupling values of 0.5, 2, and 4% are obtained. For quartz with its weaker piezoelectricity, the coupling is still made smaller.

Apodization of multilayer bulk-wave transducers.

Recent experiments have demonstrated the use of superlattice transducers for bulk acoustic waves in the gigahertz frequency range. The transducers consisted of multilayers of ZnO or LiNbO(3) with alternating crystal orientations or polarizations. A procedure for calculating the electromechanical characteristics of general multilayer transducers in which the individual layers are anisotropic and piezoelectric and have arbitrary crystal orientation is described. The algorithm used is numerically stable and easily implemented for use on a personal computer using commercial software. A network model is also derived to provide both an approximate analysis of multilayer transducer performance and an insight into synthesis procedures. Examples are used to compare the two approaches and illustrate an initial design procedure for broadband transducers.