Dating the historical old city walls of Songkhla Thailand using thermoluminescence technique.

The Old Historical Wall, located in Bo Yang, Songkhla Province, Thailand, is an archaeological icon believed to have been constructed during the reign of Rama III, as indicated in the royal archives, around 1837-1840 CE. However, the recorded age is the result of unofficial documentation. The establishment was based on speculation from circumstantial evidence and local stories.

Improvement of the antifungal activity of Litsea cubeba vapor by using a helium-neon (He-Ne) laser against Aspergillus flavus on brown rice snack bars.

The aim of this study was to improve the antifungal activity of the volatile Litsea cubeba essential oil and its main components (citral and limonene) on brown rice snack bars by applying He-Ne laser treatment. Different volumes (50-200 μL) of L. cubeba, citral or limonene were absorbed into a filter paper and placed inside an oven (18 L).

Mathematical analysis of thermal diffusion shock waves.

Thermal diffusion, also known as the Ludwig-Soret effect, refers to the separation of mixtures in a temperature gradient. For a binary mixture the time dependence of the change in concentration of each species is governed by a nonlinear partial differential equation in space and time. Here, an exact solution of the Ludwig-Soret equation without mass diffusion for a sinusoidal temperature field is given.

Thermal diffusion shock waves.

The Ludwig-Soret effect or thermal diffusion, which refers to the separation of liquid mixtures in a temperature gradient, is governed by a nonlinear, partial differential equation in space and time. It is shown here that the solution to the nonlinear differential equation for a binary mixture predicts the existence of shock waves completely analogous to fluid shocks and obeys an expression for the shock velocity that is an exact analogue of the Rankine-Hugoniot relations. Direct measurements of the time dependent, spatial absorption profile of a suspension of nanometer sized particles subjected to a sinusoidal temperature field generated by a pair of continuous laser beams, as well as self-diffraction experiments, show motion of the particles in agreement with the predictions of nonlinear theory.

Thermal diffusion in a sinusoidal temperature field.

Separation of liquid mixtures in a thermal gradient, known as the Ludwig-Soret effect or thermal diffusion, is governed by a nonlinear, partial differential equation. It is shown here that the nonlinear differential equation for a binary mixture can be reduced to a Hamiltonian system of equations and that a solution can be obtained for the linear problem. The calculation gives a closed form expression for the space and time dependence of the concentration profile of the mixture, valid at short times.

Internally excited acoustic resonator for photoacoustic trace detection.

The quantum-cascade laser can be used as an infrared source for a small portable photoacoustic trace gas detector. The device that we describe uses a quantum-cascade laser without collimating optics mounted inside an acoustic resonator. The laser is positioned in the center of a longitudinal resonator at a pressure antinode and emits radiation along the length of the resonator exciting an axially symmetric longitudinal acoustic mode of an open-ended cylindrical resonator.