148 research outputs found
IR thermography applied to flash experiments of semitransparent TBCs
Abstract Thermal Barrier Coatings (TBC) are applied to protect components of gas turbines from high temperature of combustion gases. ZrO 2 , the material mainly used in TBCs, is semitransparent to near IR radiation that is typically delivered by the laser in the laser flash equipment and also radiated at working temperatures that are grater than 1000 °C. Thermography and radiometers are utilized to measure thermal diffusivity of TBCs. Discussion is done on the countermeasures to obtain correct results in case of semitransparency
Emissivity measurements at room temperature on polymeric and inorganic samples
Abstract An evaluation of the emissivity of polymeric and inorganic materials has been carried out in the spectral range 8-121J.m using a direct technique. For polymeric samples the study focused on the dependence on the doping level. In the case of the inorganic samples measurements were aimed at the evaluation of the emissivity variations with the temperature Furthermore the effects on the emissivity of temperature differences between the sample and the background on the emissivity evaluation have been studied
Virological rebound in human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients with or without residual viraemia: results from an extended follow-up
AbstractHuman immunodeficiency virus (HIV) -infected patients with HIV RNA loads of < 50 copies/mL were followed-up for a median (interquartile range) of 30.8 (11.7–32.9) months to study the effect of residual viraemia (RV) on virological rebound (VR). At baseline, 446 (60.3%) patients had undetectable HIV RNA (group A) and 293 (39.7%) had RV (1–49 HIV RNA copies/mL, group B) by kinetic PCR. VR occurred in 4 (0.9%) patients in group A and in 12 (4.1%) patients in group B (p 0.007). Time to VR was shorter among patients of group B (Log-rank test: p 0.003). However, the proportion of VR was extremely low also among patients with RV
High plasma levels of parathyroid hormone (PTH) are associated with an increased cardiovascular risk among HIV-infected subjects
Stellar structure and compact objects before 1940: Towards relativistic astrophysics
Since the mid-1920s, different strands of research used stars as "physics
laboratories" for investigating the nature of matter under extreme densities
and pressures, impossible to realize on Earth. To trace this process this paper
is following the evolution of the concept of a dense core in stars, which was
important both for an understanding of stellar evolution and as a testing
ground for the fast-evolving field of nuclear physics. In spite of the divide
between physicists and astrophysicists, some key actors working in the
cross-fertilized soil of overlapping but different scientific cultures
formulated models and tentative theories that gradually evolved into more
realistic and structured astrophysical objects. These investigations culminated
in the first contact with general relativity in 1939, when J. Robert
Oppenheimer and his students George Volkoff and Hartland Snyder systematically
applied the theory to the dense core of a collapsing neutron star. This
pioneering application of Einstein's theory to an astrophysical compact object
can be regarded as a milestone in the path eventually leading to the emergence
of relativistic astrophysics in the early 1960s.Comment: 83 pages, 4 figures, submitted to the European Physical Journal
The Evolution of the Elemental Abundances in the Gas and Dust Phases of the Galaxy
We present models for the evolution of the elemental abundances in the gas
and dust phases of the interstellar medium (ISM) of our Galaxy by generalizing
standard models for its dynamical and chemical evolution. In these models, the
stellar birthrate history is determined by the infall rate of primordial gas,
and by its functional dependence on the mass surface density of the stars and
gas. We adopt a two component model for the Galaxy, consisting of a central
bulge and an exponential disk with different infall rates and stellar birthrate
histories. Condensation in stellar winds, Type Ia and Type II supernovae, and
the accretion of refractory elements onto preexisting grains in dense molecular
clouds are the dominant contributors to the abundance of elements locked up in
the dust. Grain destruction by sputtering and evaporative grain-grain
collisions in supernova remnants are the most important mechanisms that return
these elements back to the gas phase.
We calculate the dust production rate by the various dust sources, analyze
the origin of the elemental depletion pattern, and study the relation between
dust abundance and ISM metallicity, and the evolution of the the dust abundance
and composition at each Galactocentric radius as a function of time.
The derived relation of dust mass with metallicity is compared to the
observed Galactic dust abundance gradient, and to the M versus
log(O/H) relation that is observed in external Dwarf galaxies.
The dependence of dust composition on the mass of the progenitor star, and
the delayed recycling of newly synthesized dust by low mass stars back to the
ISM give rise to variations in the dust composition as a function of time.
Our models provide a framework for the self-consistent inclusion of dust inComment: AAS TeX manuscript - submitted to ApJ (47 pages) + 15 Figures
corrected figure file
Near-Infrared Photometry of the Type IIn SN 2005ip: The Case for Dust Condensation
Near-infrared photometric observations of the Type IIn SN 2005ip in NGC 2906
reveal large fluxes (>1.3 mJy) in the K_s-band over more than 900 days. While
warm dust can explain the late-time K_s-band emission of SN 2005ip, the nature
of the dust heating source is ambiguous. Shock heating of pre-existing dust by
post-shocked gas is unlikely because the forward shock is moving too slowly to
have traversed the expected dust-free cavity by the time observations first
reveal the K_s emission. While an infrared light echo model correctly predicts
a near-infrared luminosity plateau, heating dust to the observed temperatures
of ~1400-1600 K at a relatively large distance from the supernova (> 10^{18}
cm) requires an extraordinarily high early supernova luminosity (~1 X 10^{11}
L_solar). The evidence instead favors condensing dust in the cool, dense shell
between the forward and reverse shocks. Both the initial dust temperature and
the evolutionary trend towards lower temperatures are consistent with this
scenario. We infer that radiation from the circumstellar interaction heats the
dust. While this paper includes no spectroscopic confirmation, the photometry
is comparable to other SNe that do show spectroscopic evidence for dust
formation. Observations of dust formation in SNe are sparse, so these results
provide a rare opportunity to consider SNe Type IIn as dust sources.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, Accepted for Publication to ApJ:
January 20, 200
Interstellar Grains -- The 75th Anniversary
The year of 2005 marks the 75th anniversary since Trumpler (1930) provided
the first definitive proof of interstellar grains by demonstrating the
existence of general absorption and reddening of starlight in the galactic
plane. This article reviews our progressive understanding of the nature of
interstellar dust.Comment: invited review article for the "Light, Dust and Chemical Evolution"
conference (Gerace, Italy, 26--30 September 2004), edited by F. Borghese and
R. Saija, 2005, in pres
Production of dust by massive stars at high redshift
The large amounts of dust detected in sub-millimeter galaxies and quasars at
high redshift pose a challenge to galaxy formation models and theories of
cosmic dust formation. At z > 6 only stars of relatively high mass (> 3 Msun)
are sufficiently short-lived to be potential stellar sources of dust. This
review is devoted to identifying and quantifying the most important stellar
channels of rapid dust formation. We ascertain the dust production efficiency
of stars in the mass range 3-40 Msun using both observed and theoretical dust
yields of evolved massive stars and supernovae (SNe) and provide analytical
expressions for the dust production efficiencies in various scenarios. We also
address the strong sensitivity of the total dust productivity to the initial
mass function. From simple considerations, we find that, in the early Universe,
high-mass (> 3 Msun) asymptotic giant branch stars can only be dominant dust
producers if SNe generate <~ 3 x 10^-3 Msun of dust whereas SNe prevail if they
are more efficient. We address the challenges in inferring dust masses and
star-formation rates from observations of high-redshift galaxies. We conclude
that significant SN dust production at high redshift is likely required to
reproduce current dust mass estimates, possibly coupled with rapid dust grain
growth in the interstellar medium.Comment: 72 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables; to be published in The Astronomy and
Astrophysics Revie
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