A unified numerical model of collisional depolarization and broadening rates due to hydrogen atom collisions

Interpretation of solar polarization spectra accounting for partial or complete frequency redistribution requires data on various collisional processes. Data for depolarization and polarization transfer are needed but often missing, while data for collisional broadening are usually more readily available. Recent work by Sahal-Br\'echot and Bommier concluded that despite underlying similarities in the physics of collisional broadening and depolarization processes, relationships between them are not possible to derive purely analytically. We aim to derive accurate numerical relationships between the collisional broadening rates and the collisional depolarization and polarization transfer rates due to hydrogen atom collisions. Such relationships would enable accurate and efficient estimation of collisional data for solar applications. Using earlier results for broadening and depolarization processes based on general (i.e. not specific to a given atom), semi-classical calculations employing interaction potentials from perturbation theory, genetic programming (GP) has been used to fit the available data and generate analytical functions describing the relationships between them. The predicted relationships from the GP-based model are compared with the original data to estimate the accuracy of the method.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Maintaining Replica Consistency Over Large-Scale Data Grid Using Update Propagation Technique

A Data Grid is an organized collection of nodes in a wide area network which contributes to various computation, storage data, and application. In Data Grid high numbers of users are distributed in a wide area environment which is dynamic and heterogeneous. Data management is one of the current issues where data transparency, consistency, fault-tolerance, automatic management and the performance are the user parameters in grid environment. Data management techniques must scale up while addressing autonomy, dynamicity and heterogeneity of the data resource. Data replication is a well known technique used to reduce accesses latency, improve availability and performance in a distributed computing environment. Replication introduces the problem of maintaining consistency among the replicas when files are allowed to be updated. The update information should be propagated to all replicas to guarantee correct read of the remote replicas. An asynchronous replication is a commonly agreed solution for the problem in consistency of replicas. A few studies have been done to maintain replica consistency in Data Grid. However, the introduced techniques are neither efficient nor scalable. They cannot be used in real Data Grid since the issues of large number of replica sites, large scale distribution, load balancing and site autonomy where the capability of grid site to join and leave the grid community at any time have not been addressed. This thesis proposes a new asynchronous replication protocol called Update Propagation Grid (UPG) to maintain replica consistency over a large scale data grid. In UPG the updates reach all on-line secondary replicas using a propagation technique based on nodes organized into a logical structure network in the form of two-dimensional grid structure. The proposed update propagation technique is a hybrid push-pull and dynamic technique that addresses the issues of site autonomy, efficiency, scalability, load balancing and fairness. A two performance analysis studies have been conducted to study the performance of the proposed technique in comparison with other techniques. First study involves mathematical and simulation analysis. Second study is based on Queuing Network Model. The result of the performance analysis shows that the proposed technique scales well with high number of replica sites and with high request loads. The result also shows the reduction on the average update reach time by 5% to 97%. Moreover the result shows that the proposed technique is capable of reaching load balancing while providing update propagation fairnes

Sambutan Rektor Untversitas Hasanuddin

Kegembiraan dan kebahagiaan kami saat ini sungguh sulit kami nyatakan metrikasi takarannya, antara lain karena penyelenggaraan acara yang bermakna sangat penting ini dihadiri oleh Bapak Ketua LIPI, Bapak Gubernur, para akademisi dan berbagai pihak yang berlatar belakang aneka profesi dan kegiatan baik dari Kawasan Timur Indonesia maupun reprentasi lembaga-lembaga yang kompenten secara nasional

Pulmonary and Cardiorenal Cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1), -2 (COX-2), and Microsomal Prostaglandin E Synthase-1 (mPGES-1) and -2 (mPGES-2) Expression in a Hypertension Model

Hypertensive mice that express the human renin and angiotensinogen genes are used as a model for human hypertension because they develop hypertension secondary to increased renin-angiotensin system activity. Our study investigated the cellular localization and distribution of COX-1, COX-2, mPGES-1, and mPGES-2 in organ tissues from a mouse model of human hypertension. Male (n = 15) and female (n = 15) double transgenic mice (h-Ang 204/1 h-Ren 9) were used in the study. Lung, kidney, and heart tissues were obtained from mice at necropsy and fixed in 10% neutral buffered formalin followed by embedding in paraffin wax. Cut sections were stained immunohistochemically with antibodies to COX-1, COX-2, mPGES-1, and mPGES-2 and analyzed by light microscopy. Renal expression of COX-1 was the highest in the distal convoluted tubules, cortical collecting ducts, and medullary collecting ducts; while proximal convoluted tubules lacked COX-1 expression. Bronchial and bronchiolar epithelial cells, alveolar macrophages, and cardiac vascular endothelial cells also had strong COX-1 expression, with other renal, pulmonary, or cardiac microanatomic locations having mild-to-moderate expression. mPGES-2 expression was strong in the bronchial and bronchiolar epithelial cells, mild to moderate in various renal microanatomic locations, and absent in cardiac tissues. COX-2 expression was strong in the proximal and distal convoluted tubules, alveolar macrophages, and bronchial and bronchiolar epithelial cells. Marked mPGES-1 was present only in bronchial and bronchiolar epithelial cells; while mild-to-moderate expression was present in other pulmonary, renal, or cardiac microanatomic locations. Expression of these molecules was similar between males and females. Our work suggests that in hypertensive mice, there are (a) significant microanatomic variations in the pulmonary, renal, and cardiac distribution and cellular localization of COX-1, COX-2, mPGES-1, and mPGES-2, and (b) no differences in expression between genders

Indentation of a free beam resting on an elastic substrate with an internal lengthscale

The plane strain problem of a slender and weightless beam-plate loaded by a transversal point force in unilateral contact with a couple stress elastic foundation is investigated. The study aims to explore the consequences of the material internal lengthscale on the contact mechanics. In particular, compatibility between the beam and the foundation surface demands that both displacement and rotation match along the contact line. To this aim, couple tractions are exchanged besides the traditional contact pressure until separation between the beam and the foundation occurs. The problem is formulated making use of the Green's functions for a point force and a point couple acting atop of a couple stress elastic half-plane. A pair of coupled integral equations is thus derived, that governs the distribution of contact pressure and couple tractions, with one of them being immediately solved to provide an explicit relation between the two unknowns. In this sense, we retrieve the concept of a mechanically equivalent action, as it is the case of the Kirchhoff shear for plates. The remaining integral equation sets a cubic eigenvalue problem, whose linear term accounts for the microstructure. Its numerical solution is sought by expanding the equivalent contact pressure in series of Chebyshev polynomials vanishing at the contact region ends points, namely the lift-off points, and then applying a collocation strategy. The contact length, the distributions of contact pressure and couple tractions under the beam and the shearing force and bending moment along the beam are then obtained as a function of the material characteristic length. Results clearly indicate that accounting for the material internal lengthscale is mainly realized through exchange of the couple tractions, in the lack of which results much resemble those of the classical solution. Specifically, greater contact lengths and a stronger focusing effect about the loading point are encountered, which become very significant when the contact length approaches the internal lengthscale

Time-harmonic analysis of antiplane crack in couple stress elastic materials

The time harmonic response of a rectilinear and semi-infinite crack in a couple stress (CS) elastic solid under Mode III loading conditions is investigated in the present work. The full-field solution of the dynamic crack problem obtained in [1] through Fourier integral transforms and the Wiener\u2013Hopf technique is generalized here by considering more general loading conditions, consisting in arbitrary reduced stress and couple stress tractions applied at the crack faces. The solution for quasistatic Mode III crack in indeterminate CS elastic materials was given in [2]. Later, the problem of steady-state Mode III crack propagation was investigated in [3]. In the present work, a travelling wave loading, applied in the form of generalized reduced tractions at the crack faces, is considered as the forcing term. As a result, a complex wave pattern appears, which differs significantly from the Mode III classical elastic solution. The results of the present analysis may be used as a building block to address, by means of superposition, the problem of arbitrary antiplane wave propagation in a cracked CS solid. Resonance is triggered when the applied loading is fed into the crack-tip at Rayleigh speed. Elastodynamic stress intensity factors are given, which generalize the corresponding results presented in [2] for the qusistatic framework. They incorporate the effect of the applied loading frequency and thereby account for the interplay of the diffracted waves. A remarkable wave pattern appears which consists of entrained waves extending away from the crack, reflected Rayleigh waves moving along the crack surfaces, localized waves irradiating from the crack-tip and body waves scattered around the crack-tip. Interestingly, the localized wave solution may be greatly advantageous for defect detection through acoustic emission