Gold, copper, silver and aluminum nanoantennas to enhance spontaneous emission

We compute the decay rates of emitters coupled to spheroidal nanoantennas made of gold, copper, silver, and aluminum. The spectral position of the localized surface plasmon-polariton resonance, the enhancement factors and the quantum efficiency are investigated as a function of the aspect ratio, background index and the metal composing the nanoantenna. While copper yields results similar to gold, silver and aluminum exhibit different performances. Our results show that with a careful choice of the parameters these nanoantennas can enhance emitters ranging from the UV to the near-IR spectrum.Comment: 7 pages, 10 figure

Comparison to add compost and vermicompost for removal disesel contamination soils using aerobic and anerobic reactor

Background and aims: Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a class of potentially hazardous chemicals of environmental and health concerns. This compounds exhibit toxic, carcinogenic and mutagenic properties and are listed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) as priority pollutants. The aim of this study was the comparison of aerobic and anerobic biodegradation of disesel contamination soils using municipal soil was to and vermicompost. Methods: This experimental study was accomplished in pilot scale with application of a copmpost pile consisting 1000:120 ratio gram soils to gram of petroleum. This mixture was then mixed in a ratio of 1:2 with compost and vermicompost fertilizer separately (two parts soil and one part compost and/or vermicompost). In this research, phenantheren (phc), a three benzene ring compound, was selected as a PAHs representative. Phenanthrene concentration was measured using HPLC after extraction from contaminated soils by ultrasonic method. Results: The results showed that the effective degradation of phc occures during two first weeks, and then the removal rate was decreased gradually. The decomposition rate on phc in the aerobic compost and vermicompost reactors was 89.5±9.1 and 91.7±7.0, respectively. At the same time, 19.2±5.1 and 26.4±5.0 of phc was removed in the anaerobic compost and vermicompost reactors, respectively. According to the results, phc maximum removal rate of 91.7±7.0 was achived in the aerobic vermicompost reactor. Conclusion: This study can be concluded that, with application of bioremediation at the ambient temperature, the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons may be removed from oil contaminated soils

Automated Localization of Blood Vessels in Retinal Images

Vessel structure is one of the most important parts of the retina which physicians can detect many diseases by analysing its features. Localization of blood vessels in retina images is an important process in medical image analysis. This process is also more challenging with the presence of bright and dark lesions. In this thesis, two automated vessel localization methods to handle both healthy and unhealthy (pathological) retina images are analyzed. Each method consists of two major steps and the second step is the same in the two methods. In the first step, an algorithm is used to decrease the effect of bright lesions. In Method 1, this algorithm is based on K- Means segmentation, and in Method 2, it is based on a regularization procedure. In the second step of both methods, a multi-scale line operator is used to localize the line-shaped vascular structures and ignore the dark lesions which are generally assumed to have irregular patterns. After the introduction of the methods, a detailed quantitative and qualitative comparison of the methods with one another as well as the state-of-the-art solutions in the literature based on the segmentation results on the images of the two publicly available datasets, DRIVE and STARE, is reported. The results demonstrate that the methods are highly comparable with other solutions

Data on heavy metal levels (Cd, Co, and Cu) in wheat grains cultured in Dashtestan County, Iran.

Due to importance of wheat as the most popular food, in this data article, we determined the accumulation of heavy metal levels including Cd, Co, and Cu in wheat grains in Dashtestan county, Iran. The concentration levels of heavy metals in wheat grains cultured were determined by Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (FAAS)

Effects of low clay content on the anisotropic behavior of sand-clay mixtures: laboratory investigation using TSHCA

Undrained behavior of sandy soil with fines content is a challenge in geotechnical research. In this article, the effect of low clay content (plastic Kaolin) on the anisotropic behavior of sand is studied. In the technical literature, there are different data about the effect of fine particles (generally high percentage), but there are not enough studies on low fines content (especially plastic fines) and anisotropic conditions. For this purpose, 30 undrained tests are performed using a torsional shear hollow cylindrical apparatus (TSHCA) with constant (αo) and (b) values on Firoozkuh sand. The specimens had Kaolin contents of 0, 3, 5, 7 and 10%, and the inclination angle (αo) is varied from 15o to 60o. The specimens are prepared by dry deposition method and are consolidated under P'c= 100 and 200 kPa. The results of the experiments show that increasing the (αo) leads to more contractive behavior in sand. By adding clay particles to the host sand up to 3%, the peak strength of the specimen is increased (7% and 6% for α=15°and 30°, respectively), and then with the increase of clay content up to 10%, the strength of the specimen is decreased (33% and 22% for α=15°and 30°, respectively). But at α = 60o, with the addition of 5% clay, decrease in the peak strength is observed (about 15%) and with a further increase in the clay content, unlike the angles of 15o and 30o, increase in the peak strength of the specimen is observed, so that at 10% clay, the strength of the specimen is higher than the host sand (about 7%), which can be attributed to the cohesion nature of the clay particles. With the increase of clay content, anisotropy degree is decreased. In other words, with the increase of fines content, the anisotropic behavior is decreased

The effect of high intensity interval training on cardioprotection against ischemia-reperfusion injury in Wistar rats

The aims of the present study were to determine whether short term high intensity interval training (HIIT) could protect the heart against ischemia reperfusion (IR) injury; and if so, to evaluate how long the exercise-associated protection can be lasted. Sixty-three rats were randomly assigned into sedentary (n = 15), sham (n = 7), and exercise groups (n = 41). Rats in the exercise groups performed 5 consecutive days of HIIT on treadmill: 5 min warm up with 50 % VO2max, 6×2min with 95-105 % VO2max (about 40 to 45 m/min), 5×2 min recovery with 65-75 % VO2max (about 28 to 32 m/min), and 3 min cool down with 50 % VO2max, all at 0 % grade. Animals exposed to an in vivo cardiac IR surgery, performed at days 1, 7, and 14 following the final exercise session. Ischemia-induced arrhythmias, myocardial infarct size (IS), plasma lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and creatine kinase (CK) activities were measured in all animals. Compared to sedentary rats, exercised animals sustained less IR injury as evidenced by a lower size of infarction and lower levels of LDH and CK at day one and day 7 post exercise. In comparison of sedentary group, IS significantly decreased in EX-IR1 and EX-IR7 groups (50 and 35 %, respectively), but not in EX-IR14 group (19 %). The exercise-induced cardioprotection disappeared 14 days following exercise cessation. There were no significant changes in ischemia-induced arrhythmia between exercised and sedentary rats. The results clearly demonstrate that HIIT protects the heart against myocardial IR injury. This protective effect can be sustained for at least one week following the cessation of the training