Comparative Emissions Testing of Vehicles Aged on E0, E15 and E20 Fuels

The Energy Independence and Security Act passed into law in December 2007 has mandated the use of 36 billion ethanol equivalent gallons per year of renewable fuel by 2022. A primary pathway to achieve this national goal is to increase the amount of ethanol blended into gasoline. This study is part of a multi-laboratory test program coordinated by DOE to evaluate the effect of higher ethanol blends on vehicle exhaust emissions over the lifetime of the vehicle

Application of nanostructured coatings by plasma spraying

© 2018 Institute of Physics Publishing. All rights reserved. Nanostructured coatings demonstrate lower porousness by an order of magnitude, a far higher tenacity to wear, corrosion and erosion. The article presents the investigations of new method of nanostructured coatings application consisting in plasma spraying of material supplied into plasma jet and nanoparticles in suspension or solution followed by coating surface melting by air plasma jet

Modeling of endovascular patch welding using the computer program LATIS

A new computer program, LATIS, being developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is used to study the effect of pulsed laser irradiation on endovascular patch welding. Various physical and biophysical effects are included in these simulations: laser light scattering and absorption, tissue heating and heat conduction, vascular cooling, and tissue thermal damage. The geometry of a patch being held against the inner vessel wall (500 {mu}m inner diameter) by a balloon is considered. The system is exposed to light pulsed from an optical fiber inside the balloon. A minimum in the depth of damage into the vessel wall is found. The minimum damage zone is about the thickness of the patch material that is heated by the laser. The more ordered the tissue the thinner the minimum zone of damage. The pulse length which minimizes the zone of damage is found to be the time for energy to diffuse across the layer. The delay time between the pulses is determined by the time for the heated layer to cool down. An optimal pulse length exists which minimizes the total time needed to weld the patch to the wall while keeping the thickness of the damaged tissue to less than 100 {mu}m. For the case that is considered, a patch dyed with light absorbing ICG on the side next to the vessel (thickness of the dyed layer is 60 {mu}m), the best protocol is found to be 65-200 ms pulses applied over 2 min

Extended Rayleigh model of bubble evolution with material strength compared to detailed dynamic simulations

The validity of an extended Rayleigh model for laser generated bubbles in soft tissue is examined. This model includes surface tension, viscosity, a realistic water equation of state, material strength and failure, stress wave emission, and linear growth of interface instabilities. It is compared to dynamic simulations using LATIS, which include stress wave propagation, water equation of state, material strength and failure, and viscosity. The model and the simulations are compared using 1-D spherical geometry with bubble in center and a 2-D cylindrical geometry of a laser fiber in water with a bubble formed at the end of the fiber. The model executes over 300x faster on computer than the dynamic simulations

Dense Antihydrogen: Its Production and Storage to Envision Antimatter Propulsion

We discuss the possibility that dense antihydrogen could provide a path towards a mechanism for a deep space propulsion system. We concentrate at first, as an example, on Bose-Einstein Condensate (BEC) antihydrogen. In a Bose-Einstein Condensate, matter (or antimatter) is in a coherent state analogous to photons in a laser beam, and individual atoms lose their independent identity. This allows many atoms to be stored in a small volume. In the context of recent advances in producing and controlling BECs, as well as in making antihydrogen, this could potentially provide a revolutionary path towards the efficient storage of large quantities of antimatter, perhaps eventually as a cluster or solid.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Computational modeling of stress transient and bubble evolution in short-pulse laser irradiated melanosome particles

Objective is to study retinal injury by subnanosecond laser pulses absorbed in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells. The absorption centers in the RPE cell are melanosomes of order 1 {mu}m radius. Each melanosome includes many melanin particles of 10-15 nm radius, which are the local absorbers of the laser light and generate a discrete structure of hot spots. This work use the hydrodynamic code LATIS (LAser-TISsue interaction modeling) and a water equation of state to first simulate the small melanin particle of 15 nm responsible for initiating the hot spot and the pressure field. A average melanosome of 1 {mu}m scale is next simulated. Supersonic shocks and fast vapor bubbles are generated in both cases: the melanin scale and the melanosome scale. The hot spot induces a shock wave pressure than with a uniform deposition of laser energy. It is found that an absorption coefficient of 6000 -8000 cm{sup -1} can explain the enhanced shock wave emitted by the melanosome. An experimental and theoretical effort should be considered to identify the mechanism for generating shock wave enhancement

О выполнении максимальной токовой защиты в распределительных сетях

The paper contains a brief analysis of protection devices applied for various elements of distributive networks with a single-way supply. Advantages and disadvantages of maximum current protection with current-temporary characteristics which are independent and inversely dependent on current and some new possible methods for improvement of current protection sensitivity of distributive networks are considered in the paper.Выполнен краткий анализ устройств защиты, применяемой для различных элементов распределительных сетей с односторонним питанием. Рассмотрены достоинства и недостатки МТЗ с независимыми и обратнозависимыми от тока токовременными характеристиками и некоторые новые возможные пути повышения чувствительности токовых защит распределительных сетей

Differential Matrix Rigidity Response in Breast Cancer Cell Lines Correlates with the Tissue Tropism

Metastasis to a variety of distant organs, such as lung, brain, bone, and liver, is a leading cause of mortality in the breast cancer patients. The tissue tropism of breast cancer metastasis has been recognized and studied extensively, but the cellular processes underlying this phenomenon, remain elusive. Modern technologies have enabled the discovery of a number of the genetic factors determining tissue tropism of malignant cells. However, the effect of these genetic differences on the cell motility and invasiveness is poorly understood. Here, we report that cellular responses to the mechanical rigidity of the extracellular matrix correlate with the rigidity of the target tissue. We tested a series of single cell populations isolated from MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell line in a variety of assays where the extracellular matrix rigidity was varied to mimic the environment that these cells might encounter in vivo. There was increased proliferation and migration through the matrices of rigidities corresponding to the native rigidities of the organs where metastasis was observed. We were able to abolish the differential matrix rigidity response by knocking down Fyn kinase, which was previously identified as a critical component of the FN rigidity response pathway in healthy cells. This result suggests possible molecular mechanisms of the rigidity response in the malignant cells, indicating potential candidates for therapeutic interventions