346 research outputs found
Interior Landscape Plants for Indoor Air Pollution Abatement
In this study, the leaves, roots, soil, and associated microorganisms of plants have been evaluated as a possible means of reducing indoor air pollutants. Additionally, a novel approach of using plant systems for removing high concentrations of indoor air pollutants such as cigarette smoke, organic solvents, and possibly radon has been designed from this work. This air filter design combines plants with an activated carbon filter. The rationale for this design, which evolved from wastewater treatment studies, is based on moving large volumes of contaminated air through an activated carbon bed where smoke, organic chemicals, pathogenic microorganisms (if present), and possibly radon are absorbed by the carbon filter. Plant roots and their associated microorganisms then destroy the pathogenic viruses, bacteria, and the organic chemicals, eventually converting all of these air pollutants into new plant tissue. It is believed that the decayed radon products would be taken up the plant roots and retained in the plant tissue
Frequency comb vernier spectroscopy in the near infrared
We perform femtosecond frequency comb vernier spectroscopy in the near
infrared with a femtosecond Er doped fiber laser, a scanning high-finesse
cavity and an InGaAs camera. By utilizing the properties of a frequency comb
and a scanning high-finesse cavity such spectroscopy provides broad spectral
bandwidth, high spectral resolution, and high detection sensitivity on a short
time scale. We achieved an absorption sensitivity of ~8E-8 cm-1Hz-1/2
corresponding to a detection limit of ~70 ppbv for acetylene, with a resolution
of ~1.1 GHz in single images taken in 0.5 seconds and covering a frequency
range of ~5 THz. These measurements have broad applications for sensing other
greenhouse gases in this fingerprint near IR region with a simple apparatus.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure
Thermal Frontal Polymerization with a Thermally Released Redox Catalyst
We studied thermal frontal polymerization using a redox
systemin an attempt to lower the temperature of the frontally
polymerizable system while increasing the front velocity so as to
obtain a self-sustaining front in a thinner layer than without the
redox components. A cobalt-containing polymer with a melting
point of 63 C (Intelimer 6050X11) and cumene hydroperoxide
were used with a triacrylate. The use of the Intelimer decreased
the front velocity but allowed fronts to propagate in thinner layers
and withmore filler while still having a pot life of days. Nonplanar
modes of propagation occurred. Fronts propagated faster when
6-O-palmitoyl-L-ascorbic acid was used as a reductant. Interestingly,
fronts were also faster with the reductant even without the
Intelimer if kaolin clay was the filler; however, the pot life was significantly
reduce
Emergency Department Repair of Blunt Right Atrial Rupture Utilizing Cardiopulmonary Bypass
Blunt cardiac injury (BCI) with free wall rupture carries a high risk of pre-hospital death. Cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) has been utilized as a bridge to repair of cardiac lesions in select patients. We present an interesting case of emergency department repair of right atrial rupture with cardiopulmonary bypass
Mechanically transferred large-area GaO passivates graphene and suppresses interfacial phonon scattering
We demonstrate a large-area passivation layer for graphene by mechanical
transfer of ultrathin amorphous GaO synthesized on liquid Ga metal. A
comparison of temperature-dependent electrical measurements of millimetre-scale
passivated and bare graphene on SiO/Si indicate that the passivated
graphene maintains its high field effect mobility desirable for applications.
Surprisingly, the temperature-dependent resistivity is reduced in passivated
graphene over a range of temperatures below 220 K, due to the interplay of
screening of the surface optical phonon modes of the SiO by
high-dielectric-constant GaO, and the relatively high characteristic
phonon frequencies of GaO. Raman spectroscopy and electrical
measurements indicate that GaO passivation also protects graphene from
further processing such as plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition of
AlO.Comment: Journal article, 10 pages, 4 figure
Monte Carlo Exploration of Warped Higgsless Models
We have performed a detailed Monte Carlo exploration of the parameter space
for a warped Higgsless model of electroweak symmetry breaking in 5 dimensions.
This model is based on the gauge group
in an AdS bulk with arbitrary gauge kinetic terms on both the Planck and
TeV branes. Constraints arising from precision electroweak measurements and
collider data are found to be relatively easy to satisfy. We show, however,
that the additional requirement of perturbative unitarity up to the cut-off,
TeV, in elastic scattering in the absence of dangerous
tachyons eliminates all models. If successful models of this class exist, they
must be highly fine-tuned.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figures; new fig and additional text adde
Electronic polarization in pentacene crystals and thin films
Electronic polarization is evaluated in pentacene crystals and in thin films
on a metallic substrate using a self-consistent method for computing charge
redistribution in non-overlapping molecules. The optical dielectric constant
and its principal axes are reported for a neutral crystal. The polarization
energies P+ and P- of a cation and anion at infinite separation are found for
both molecules in the crystal's unit cell in the bulk, at the surface, and at
the organic-metal interface of a film of N molecular layers. We find that a
single pentacene layer with herring-bone packing provides a screening
environment approaching the bulk. The polarization contribution to the
transport gap P=(P+)+(P-), which is 2.01 eV in the bulk, decreases and
increases by only ~ 10% at surfaces and interfaces, respectively. We also
compute the polarization energy of charge-transfer (CT) states with fixed
separation between anion and cation, and compare to electroabsorption data and
to submolecular calculations. Electronic polarization of ~ 1 eV per charge has
a major role for transport in organic molecular systems with limited overlap.Comment: 10 revtex pages, 6 PS figures embedde
Changes in pain catastrophizing predict later changes in fibromyalgia clinical and experimental pain report: cross-lagged panel analyses of dispositional and situational catastrophizing
Introduction: Fibromyalgia (FM), characterized by wide-spread diffuse pain and sensory abnormalities, is associated with elevated indices of distress and pain-related catastrophizing compared to both pain-free samples and those with chronic pain conditions. Catastrophizing is a pervasive negative mental set, and is a strong predictor of negative pain-related outcomes such as clinical pain intensity, and physical disability. Situational catastrophizing, measured in the context of experimentally-induced pain, is strongly related to enhanced pain sensitivity, a core aspect of the pathophysiology of fibromyalgia. However, little is known regarding the temporal course of the association between catastrophizing and pain-related "outcomes". Most studies involve only static assessments of pain and catastrophizing at a single time point, which provides little insight into the direction of the observed associations. We sought to investigate the temporal relationships between catastrophizing and indices of both clinical pain (substudy 1) and experimentally-induced pain (substudy 2) in a larger randomized controlled longitudinal trial. Methods: Fifty-seven patients with FM completed catastrophizing, depression, and pain questionnaires as well as laboratory cold pressor pain testing at baseline, post-intervention and three month follow-up during a lifestyle physical activity study. Cross-lagged panel analyses were used to address these temporal relationships. Results: In substudy 1, analyses revealed that pre-to-post changes in dispositional catastrophizing ratings prospectively accounted for unique variance in subsequent post-to-follow-up changes in clinical pain ratings (p = 0.005), while pre-to-post changes in pain ratings did not account for unique variance in post-to-follow-up changes in catastrophizing ratings. An identical pattern was observed experimentally in substudy 2, with pre-to-post changes in situational catastrophizing ratings prospectively accounting for unique variance in subsequent post-to-follow-up changes in experimental pain ratings (p = 0.014), while pre-to-post changes in pain ratings did not account for unique variance in post-to-follow-up changes in catastrophizing ratings. Specifically, initial alterations in catastrophizing were associated with subsequent alterations in clinical and experimentally induced pain. Controlling for levels of depression did not affect the results. Conclusions: These findings provide empirical evidence that catastrophizing processes might precede and contribute to subsequent alterations in the pain experience for FM patients. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov: NCT00383084
Warped Higgsless Models with IR--Brane Kinetic Terms
We examine a warped Higgsless model
in 5-- with IR(TeV)--brane kinetic terms. It is shown that adding a brane
term for the gauge field does not affect the scale (
TeV) where perturbative unitarity in is violated.
This term could, however, enhance the agreement of the model with the precision
electroweak data. In contrast, the inclusion of a kinetic term corresponding to
the custodial symmetry of the theory delays the unitarity violation
in scattering to energy scales of TeV for a significant
fraction of the parameter space. This is about a factor of 4 improvement
compared to the corresponding scale of unitarity violation in the Standard
Model without a Higgs. We also show that null searches for extra gauge bosons
at the Tevatron and for contact interactions at LEP II place non-trivial bounds
on the size of the IR-brane terms.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure
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