Polarized s-quark Distribution in Charmed Hadron Leptoproduction

In order to extract the polarized strange quark density in proton, we studied the semi-inclusive $\Lambda_c$/$\bar{\Lambda}_c$ leptoproduction in charged current DIS at THERA energies. We indicate that measurements of the spin correlation between the incident proton and the produced $\Lambda_c$/$\bar{\Lambda}_c$ baryon gives us information about the polarized strange quark distribution.Comment: 6 pages including 2 figures. Talk given at SPIN2001 (The 3rd Circum-Pan-Pacific Symposium on "High Energy Spin Physics"), Beijing, China, Oct. 200

Chemical Vapor Deposition Model of Polysilicon in a Trichlorosilane and Hydrogen System

The traditional polysilicon processes should be refined when addressing the low energy consumption requirement for the production of solar grade silicon. This paper addresses the fluid dynamic conditions required to deposit polysilicon in the traditional Siemens reactor. Analytical solutions for the deposition process are presented, providing information on maximizing the rate between the amount of polysilicon obtained and the energy consumed during the deposition process. The growth rate, deposition efficiency, and power-loss dependence on the gas velocity, the mixture of gas composition, the reactor pressure, and the surface temperature have been analyzed. The analytical solutions have been compared to experimental data and computational solutions presented in the literature. At atmospheric pressure, the molar fraction of hydrogen at the inlet should be adjusted to the range of 0.85–0.90, the gas inlet temperature should be raised within the interval of 673 and 773 K, and the gas velocity should reach the Reynolds number 800. The resultant growth rate will be between 6 and 6.5 _m min−1. Operation above atmospheric pressure is strongly recommended to achieve growth rates of 20 _m min−1 at 6 atm

Postlactational Involution: Molecular Mechanisms and Relevance for Breast Cancer Development

Mammary gland tissue changes appearance and functionality in different sequential steps. The tissue of virgin, pregnant, or lactating mammary glands changes controlled by finely regulated physiological processes. A fourth stage (involution), triggered upon weaning, involves remodeling, and the gland regresses to resemble a prepregnant stage. This highly complex process characterized by a high degree of epithelial cell death and tissue remodeling can be divided into phases, which can be independent of each other. The present article describes a variety of signaling pathway components, transcription factors, and mRNA stabilization proteins that play a role in the regulation of cell fate during the involution process. These molecular actors are finely related in health to trigger the delicate mechanism that govern involution after weaning, leaving the gland in a latent stage until needed again. Importantly, it has been shown that this process may contribute to cancer development in the years following childbirth, mainly because of the involvement of inflammatory and remodeling factors

Radiation heat savings in polysilicon production: validation of results through a CVD laboratory prototype

This work aims at a deeper understanding of the energy loss phenomenon in polysilicon production reactors by the so-called Siemens process. Contributions to the energy consumption of the polysilicon deposition step are studied in this paper, focusing on the radiation heat loss phenomenon. A theoretical model for radiation heat loss calculations is experimentally validated with the help of a laboratory CVD prototype. Following the results of the model, relevant parameters that directly affect the amount of radiation heat losses are put forward. Numerical results of the model applied to a state-of-the-art industrial reactor show the influence of these parameters on energy consumption due to radiation per kilogram of silicon produced; the radiation heat loss can be reduced by 3.8% when the reactor inner wall radius is reduced from 0.78 to 0.70 m, by 25% when the wall emissivity is reduced from 0.5 to 0.3, and by 12% when the final rod diameter is increased from 12 to 15 cm

What Makes an Undergraduate Course Impactful? An Examination of Students’ Perceptions of Instructional Environments

To provide significant learning experiences for undergraduate engineering students, educators have resources in the literature, colleagues, and personal experiences to supplement their course design process. This study aims to capture the stories of graduate students who are looking back at their undergraduate experiences and describing the features that made a specific course particularly impactful. Specifically, the goal of this study was to explore the educational philosophies enacted in the most impactful undergraduate classrooms, according to graduate students’ perceptions, for the purpose of designing effective instructional environments. To capture the characteristics of the impactful courses, graduate engineering students from the Georgia Institute of Technology participated in an online survey. Participants reflected on the instructional environment that best described their most impactful undergraduate learning experience. Open-ended questions provided students with the opportunity to further justify or clarify their responses. The analysis indicated that students’ most impactful classes were required, in-major, non-design courses. Furthermore, these courses were characteristic of instructor-centered philosophies, including essentialism and perennialism. However, when students did reflect on out-of-major courses, they tended to recount a wider variety of enacted philosophies, including more learner-centered ones (progressivism, social reconstructionism, and existentialism). Qualitative analysis of students’ descriptions of their most impactful classes revealed five major factors that contribute to the success of a course: course components, the instructor, the student experience, the subject matter, and other stakeholders (e.g., peers and teaching assistants). Exploring these impactful classroom experiences highlights connections between the literature and student experiences as well as supports new faculty who are considering the type of instructional environments they will strive to create in their own courses

The Impact of Silicon Feedstock on the PV Module Cost

The impact of the use of new (solar grade) silicon feedstock materials on the manufacturing cost of wafer-based crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules is analyzed considering effects of material cost, efficiency of utilisation, and quality. Calculations based on data provided by European industry partners are presented for a baseline manufacturing technology and for four advanced wafer silicon technologies which may be ready for industrial implementation in the near future. Iso-cost curves show the technology parameter combinations that yield a constant total module cost for varying feedstock cost, silicon utilisation, and cell efficiency. A large variation of feedstock cost for different production processes, from near semiconductor grade Si (30 €/kg) to upgraded metallurgical grade Si (10 €/kg), changes the cost of crystalline silicon modules by 11% for present module technologies or by 7% for advanced technologies, if the cell efficiency can be maintained. However, this cost advantage is completely lost if cell efficiency is reduced, due to quality degradation, by an absolute 1.7% for present module technology or by an absolute 1.3% for advanced technologies

Neutrino masses and mixing angles from leptoquark interactions

In this paper we show that the mixing between leptoquarks (LQ's) from different $SU(2)_l$ multiplets can generate a non-trivial Majorana mass matrix for neutrinos through one loop self energy diagrams. Such mixing can arise from gauge invariant and renormalizable LQ-Higgs interaction terms after EW symmetry breaking. We use the experimental indication on neutrino oscillation to find constraints on specific combinations of LQ couplings to quark-lepton pairs and to the SM higgs boson. These constraints are compared with the ones from $\pi\to e\bar {\nu}_e$.Comment: The expressions for majorana mass matrix of neutrinos have been corrected so that they are symmetric. Final version to be published in Physical Review

Association between ACTN3 R577X genotype and risk of non-contact injury in trained athletes:A systematic review

International audienceBACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to review, systematically, evidence concerning the link between the ACTN3 R577X polymorphism and the rates and severity of non-contact injuries and exercise-induced muscle damage in athletes and individuals enrolled in exercise training programs. METHODS: A computerized literature search was performed in the electronic databases PubMed, Web of Science, and SPORTDiscus, from inception until November 2020. All included studies compared the epidemiological characteristics of non-contact injury between the different genotypes of the ACTN3 R577X polymorphism. RESULTS: Our search identified 492 records. After the screening of titles, abstracts, and full texts, 13 studies examining the association between the ACTN3 genotypes and the rate and severity of non-contact injury were included in the analysis. These studies were performed in 6 different countries (Spain, Japan, Brazil, China, Republic of Korea, and Italy) and involved a total participant pool of 1093 participants. Of the studies, 2 involved only women, 5 involved only men, and 6 involved both men and women. All the studies included were classified as high-quality studies (≥6 points on the Physiotherapy Evidence Database [PEDro] scale). Overall, evidence suggests there is an association between the ACTN3 R577X genotype and non-contact injury in 12 investigations. Six studies observed a significant association between ACTN3 R577X polymorphism and exercise induced muscle damage: 2 with non-contact ankle injury, 3 with non-contact muscle injury, and 1 with overall non-contact injury. CONCLUSION: The present findings support the premise that possessing the ACTN3 XX genotype may predispose athletes to a higher probability of some non-contact injuries, such as muscle injury, ankle sprains, and higher levels of exercise-induced muscle damage

Grand-Unification Scale Generation through the Anomalous U(1) Breaking

We discuss the anomalous U(1) gauge symmetry as a mechanism of generating the grand-unification scale. We conclude that unification to a simple group cannot be realized unless some parameters are ``tuned'', and that models with product gauge groups are preferred. We consider the ``R-invariant natural unification'' model with gauge groups SU(5)_{GUT} \times U(3)_H. In this model the doublet-triplet splitting problem is solved and the unwanted GUT relation m_s = m_\mu is avoided maintaining m_b = m_\tau. Moreover, R-invariance suppresses the dangerous proton decays induced by dimension four and five operators.Comment: 14 pages, Latex, references adde