2,570 research outputs found
Groundwater quality studies: A Case study of the Densu Basin, Ghana
Groundwater samples from 68 communities within the Densu basin were sampled and analysed over a period of 1 year for various physico-chemical water quality parameters using appropriate certified and acceptable international procedures, in order to assess the water types as well as the suitability of groundwater within the basin for drinking and other domestic uses. The study showed that most of the physico-chemical parameters were within the World Health Organization limits recommended for drinking water. However, a few of the boreholes were slightly acidic. Someboreholes showed high level of mineralization. Borehole (GaD 6) at Pokuasi recorded the highest conductivity value of 7780.0 ìS/cm. High levels of nitrates were also recorded in certain communities within the basin. These include Aponsahene (105.8 mg/l), Damang (66.0 mg/l), Adzen Kotoku (61.5 mg/l), Afabeng (50.8 mg/l), New Mangoase (48.3mg/l), Asuoatwene (41.3 mg/l), Potrase (33.6 mg/l) and Maase (33.3 mg/l). Correlations between major ions showed expected process-based relationship between Ca2+ and Cl- (r = 0.86); Mg2+ and Cl- (r = 0.84); Na+ and SO4 2- (r =0.77); Na+ and Cl- (r = 0.75); Mg2+ and SO42- (r = 0.74); Mg2+ and Ca2+ (r = 0.71); Ca2+ and SO4 2- (r = 0.58); and K+ and SO4 2- (r = 0.51), derived mainly from the geochemical and biochemical processes within the aquifer. Two major hydrochemical water types constituting 41% of groundwater sources within the basin have been delineated. These are Ca-Mg-HCO3 water (19%) and Na –Cl or Na –Cl –HCO3- Cl water (22%) types. Fifty-nine per cent of groundwatersources are mixed waters with no particular cation predominating, and having either HCO3-or SO4 2- ions as the main anion
Quantum limited particle sensing in optical tweezers
Particle sensing in optical tweezers systems provides information on the
position, velocity and force of the specimen particles. The conventional
quadrant detection scheme is applied ubiquitously in optical tweezers
experiments to quantify these parameters. In this paper we show that quadrant
detection is non-optimal for particle sensing in optical tweezers and propose
an alternative optimal particle sensing scheme based on spatial homodyne
detection. A formalism for particle sensing in terms of transverse spatial
modes is developed and numerical simulations of the efficacy of both quadrant
and spatial homodyne detection are shown. We demonstrate that an order of
magnitude improvement in particle sensing sensitivity can be achieved using
spatial homodyne over quadrant detection.Comment: Submitted to Biophys
Structural, optical, magnetic and electrical properties of Zn1-x Co (x) O thin films
Despite a considerable effort aiming at elucidating the nature of
ferromagnetism in ZnO-based magnetic semiconductor, its origin still remains
debatable. Although the observation of above room temperature ferromagnetism
has been reported frequently in the literature by magnetometry measurement, so
far there has been no report on correlated ferromagnetism in magnetic, optical
and electrical measurements. In this paper, we investigate systematically the
structural, optical, magnetic and electrical properties of Zn1-x Co (x) O:Al
thin films prepared by sputtering with x ranging from 0 to 0.33. We show that
correlated ferromagnetism is present only in samples with x > 0.25. In
contrast, samples with x < 0.2 exhibit weak ferromagnetism only in magnetometry
measurement which is absent in optical and electrical measurements. We
demonstrate, by systematic electrical transport studies that carrier
localization indeed occurs below 20-50 K for samples with x < 0.2; however,
this does not lead to the formation of ferromagnetic phase in these samples
with an electron concentration in the range of 6 x 10(19) cm(-3) 1 x 10(20)
cm(-3). Detailed structural and optical transmission spectroscopy analyses
revealed that the anomalous Hall effect observed in samples with x > 0.25 is
due to the formation of secondary phases and Co clusters.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figure
Adaptive and coupled continuum-molecular mechanics simulations of amorphous materials
A method to reduce the degrees freedom in molecular mechanics simulation is presented. Although the approach is formulated for amorphous materials in mind, it is equally applicable to crystalline materials. The method can be selectively applied to regions where molecular displacements are expected to be small while simultaneously using classical molecular mechanics (MM) for regions undergoing large deformation. The accuracy and computational efficiency of the approach is demonstrated through the simulation of a polymer-like substrate being indented by a rigid hemispherical indentor. The region directly below the indentor is modelled by classical molecular mechanics while the region further away has the degrees of freedom (DOFs) reduced by about 50 times. The results of automatically reverting regions of reduced DOFs back to classical MM also demonstrate the capability of performing adaptive simulations
Combinatorial models of rigidity and renormalization
We first introduce the percolation problems associated with the graph
theoretical concepts of -sparsity, and make contact with the physical
concepts of ordinary and rigidity percolation. We then devise a renormalization
transformation for -percolation problems, and investigate its domain of
validity. In particular, we show that it allows an exact solution of
-percolation problems on hierarchical graphs, for . We
introduce and solve by renormalization such a model, which has the interesting
feature of showing both ordinary percolation and rigidity percolation phase
transitions, depending on the values of the parameters.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure
Preoperative Kidney Function linked to mortality and readmission outcomes at Day 90 and 30 in Older Emergency Surgical Patients
Grants were received from British Geriatric Society and The Renal Association to support Louis EvansPeer reviewedPublisher PD
Improved cryopreservation method for the long-term conservation of the world potato germplasm collection.
The role of tank-treading motions in the transverse migration of a spheroidal vesicle in a shear flow
The behavior of a spheroidal vesicle, in a plane shear flow bounded from one
side by a wall, is analysed when the distance from the wall is much larger than
the spheroid radius. It is found that tank treading motions produce a
transverse drift away from the wall, proportional to the spheroid eccentricity
and the inverse square of the distance from the wall. This drift is independent
of inertia, and is completely determined by the characteristics of the vesicle
membrane. The relative strength of the contribution to drift from tank-treading
motions and from the presence of inertial corrections, is discussed.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure, Latex. To appear on J. Phys. A (Math. Gen.
Isostatic phase transition and instability in stiff granular materials
In this letter, structural rigidity concepts are used to understand the
origin of instabilities in granular aggregates. It is shown that: a) The
contact network of a noncohesive granular aggregate becomes exactly isostatic
in the limit of large stiffness-to-load ratio. b) Isostaticity is responsible
for the anomalously large susceptibility to perturbation of these systems, and
c) The load-stress response function of granular materials is critical
(power-law distributed) in the isostatic limit. Thus there is a phase
transition in the limit of intinitely large stiffness, and the resulting
isostatic phase is characterized by huge instability to perturbation.Comment: RevTeX, 4 pages w/eps figures [psfig]. To appear in Phys. Rev. Let
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