SiO and H2O Maser Observations of Red Supergiants in Star Clusters Embedded in the Galactic Disk

We present the result of radio observations of red supergiants in the star cluster, Stephenson's #2, and candidates for red supergiants in the star clusters, Mercer et al. (2005)'s #4, #8, and #13, in the SiO and H$_2$O maser lines.The Stephenson's #2 cluster and nearby aggregation at the South-West contain more than 15 red supergiants. We detected one at the center of Stephenson's #2 and three in the south-west aggregation in the SiO maser line, and three of these 4 were also detected in the H2O maser line. The average radial velocity of the 4 detected objects is 96 km s^{-1}, giving a kinematic distance of 5.5 kpc, which locates this cluster near the base of the Scutum-Crux spiral arm. We also detected 6 SiO emitting objects associated with the other star clusters. In addition, mapping observations in the CO J=1--0 line toward these clusters revealed that an appreciable amount of molecular gas still remains around Stephenson's #2 cluster in contrast to the prototypical red-supergiant cluster, Bica et al.'s #122. It indicates that a time scale of gas expulsion differs considerably in individual clusters.Comment: high res. figures available at http://www.nro.nao.ac.jp/~lib_pub/report/data/no674.pdf. PASJ 62, No.2 (2010, April 25 issue) in pres

Tagless indoor positioning and object tracking using a wireless sensor network

This project seeks to implement a passive indoor positioning and tracking platform using Wi-Fi signals. It is well known that RF wave can be blocked by an object which results in signal attenuation [1 - 2]. The principle of this proposal is based on this phenomenon when the line-of-sight (LOS) link is blocked by an object. Hence, when a grid of such LOS links is tresspassed, it can be detected and tracked within the region

Tagless indoor positioning and object tracking using a wireless sensor network

This project seeks to implement a passive indoor positioning and tracking platform using Wi-Fi signals. It is well known that RF wave can be blocked by an object which results in signal attenuation [1 - 2]. The principle of this proposal is based on this phenomenon when the line-of-sight (LOS) link is blocked by an object. Hence, when a grid of such LOS links is tresspassed, it can be detected and tracked within the region

A new design of nanocrystalline silicon optical devices based on 3-dimensional photonic crystal structures

We propose a new design of nanocrystalline silicon optical devices which are based on control of electromagnetic fields, electronic states, as well as the phonon dispersion of size-controlled silicon quantum dots

Reduction of Allowed Inventory When Chemicals are Located in Close Proximity with Explosives

The objective of this report is to determine the allowed inventory of chemicals stored in the same bay, building or magazine, i.e., in close proximity, with high explosives (HE) that would, in the event of an accident, result in acceptable risks to colocated workers and the public

Realization of Circular Slot Frequency Selective Surfaces using Photoplotter and Wet Etching Technique for Terahertz Material Sensing Applications

This paper discusses on the analysis of band pass Frequency Selective Surfaces (FSS) for performance enhancement in material sensing application. Terahertz Spectroscopy has proved to be versatile tool for detection and sensing in measuring non-conductive materials. It is because most of the non-conductive materials have unique molecular resonance that may translate as transmission and absorption of signals within terahertz range. However, the most critical issue in detection and sensing is to improve its sensitivity therefore an extremely low concentration material still can be able to be detected in THz band. Hence, in this paper, a circular slot is modeled on a planar structure of Rogers Duroid 5880LZ substrate with thickness of 508µm using Computer Simulation Technology (CST). The simulation generates a band pass response with transmission magnitude of 0.95 at 0.66THz. Furthermore, photoplotter and wet etching fabrication process is used for the realization of terahertz FSS. Simulated and measured transmission shows a good agreement between 0.5THz to 0.7THz as only 1% shifts in frequency between simulated and measured results. Besides that, the fabrication of circular FSS shows narrower measured bandwidth as compared to its simulated counterpart. Hence, with the limitation of the wet etching to produce micron size structure both simulation and measured result shows good agreement for all the critical issues in this study

Impacts of hydrophilic nanofillers on separation performance of thin film nanocomposite reverse osmosis membrane

The membrane technology is still considered a costly method to produce potable water. In view of this, RO membrane with enhanced water permeability without trade-off in salt rejection is desirable as it could further reduce the cost for water desalination. In this study, thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes containing 0.05 or 0.10 w/v% hydrophilic nanofillers in polyamide layer were synthesized via interfacial polymerization of piperazine and trimesoyl chloride monomers. The resultant TFN membranes were characterized and compared with a control thin film composite (TFC) membrane. Results from the filtration experiments showed that TFN membranes exhibited higher water permeability, salt rejection and fouling resistance compared to that of the TFC membrane. Excessive amount of nanofillers incorporated in the membrane PA layer however negatively affected the cross-linking in the polymer matrix, thus deteriorating the membrane salt rejection. TFN membrane containing 0.05 w/v% of nanofillers showed better performances than the TFC membrane, recording a pure water flux of 11.2 L/m2∙he membsalt rejection of 95.4%, 97.3% and 97.5% against NaCl, Na2SO4 and MgSO4, respectively

The expression of RUNX3 in colorectal cancer is associated with disease stage and patient outcome

RUNX3 is believed to have tumour suppressor properties in several cancer types. Inactivation of RUNX3 has been shown to occur by methylation-induced transcriptional silencing and by mislocalization of the protein to the cytoplasm. The aim of this study was to examine the clinical significance of RUNX3 expression in a large series of colorectal cancers using immunohistochemistry and tissue arrays. With advancing tumour stage, expression of RUNX3 in the nucleus decreased, whereas expression restricted to the cytoplasmic compartment increased. Nuclear RUNX3 expression was associated with significantly better patient survival compared to tumours in which the expression of RUNX3 was restricted to the cytoplasm (P=0.025). These results support a role for RUNX3 as a tumour suppressor in colorectal cancer

Stochastic dynamics of model proteins on a directed graph

A method for reconstructing the energy landscape of simple polypeptidic chains is described. We show that we can construct an equivalent representation of the energy landscape by a suitable directed graph. Its topological and dynamical features are shown to yield an effective estimate of the time scales associated with the folding and with the equilibration processes. This conclusion is drawn by comparing molecular dynamics simulations at constant temperature with the dynamics on the graph, defined by a temperature dependent Markov process. The main advantage of the graph representation is that its dynamics can be naturally renormalized by collecting nodes into "hubs", while redefining their connectivity. We show that both topological and dynamical properties are preserved by the renormalization procedure. Moreover, we obtain clear indications that the heteropolymers exhibit common topological properties, at variance with the homopolymer, whose peculiar graph structure stems from its spatial homogeneity. In order to obtain a clear distinction between a "fast folder" and a "slow folder" in the heteropolymers one has to look at kinetic features of the directed graph. We find that the average time needed to the fast folder for reaching its native configuration is two orders of magnitude smaller than its equilibration time, while for the bad folder these time scales are comparable. Accordingly, we can conclude that the strategy described in this paper can be successfully applied also to more realistic models, by studying their renormalized dynamics on the directed graph, rather than performing lengthy molecular dynamics simulations.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figure