ANTIBACTERIAL PROPERTIES AND DRYING EFFECTS OF FLAX DENIM AND ANTIBACTERIAL PROPERTIES OF NONWOVEN FLAX FABRIC

A modification of “AATCC Test Method 100-1999” was used for assaying for bacteriostatic/antibacterial properties of denim containing various flax concentrations. Since no direct evidence that increasing the flax content of fabric imparted the fabric with increased bacteriostatic properties was found against the control bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae, other possible explanations for the long held presumption that flax fabric exhibited antibacterial properties was sought. Because the appearance of having antibacterial or bacteriostatic properties might be imitated if the flax content would decrease the time fabric would be moist enough for bacterial growth, the effect of drying was evaluated. When flax fabric was saturated and the moisture lost during incubation was measured, there was no improved drying associated with increased flax content. When untreated nonwoven flax was evaluated as possibly containing more ‘antibacterial’ or bacteriostatic components than scoured nonwoven flax material, the population densities increased. This increase suggests that the unscoured nonwoven flax contain compo-nents that support bacterial growth to the extent that bacteriostatic or antibacterial components, if any, are overwhelmed by the components that support bacterial growth. In tests involving the control bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae, increasing the flax content of flax fabric did not demonstrate increased antibacterial properties

Electroproduction of the d* dibaryon

The unpolarized cross section for the electroproduction of the isoscalar $J^\pi = 3^+$ di-delta dibaryon $d^*$ is calculated for deuteron target using a simple picture of elastic electron-baryon scattering from the $\Delta \Delta (^7D_1)$ and the $NN (^3S_1)$ components of the deuteron. The calculated differential cross section at the electron lab energy of 1 GeV has the value of about 0.24 (0.05) nb/sr at the lab angle of 10$^\circ$ (30$^\circ$) for the Bonn B potential when the dibaryon mass is taken to be 2.1 GeV. The cross section decreases rapidly with increasing dibaryon mass. A large calculated width of 40 MeV for $d^*(\Delta\Delta ^7S_3)$ combined with a small experimental upper bound of 0.08 MeV for the $d^*$ decay width appears to have excluded any low-mass $d^*$ model containing a significant admixture of the $\Delta\Delta (^7S_3)$ configuration.Comment: 11 journal-style pages, 8 figure

Light-Front Approach for Pentaquark Strong Decays

Assuming the two diquark structure for the pentaquark state as advocated in the Jaffe-Wilczek model, we study the strong decays of light and heavy parity-even pentaquark states using the light-front quark model in conjunction with the spectator approximation. The narrowness of the Theta width is ascribed to the p-wave configuration of the diquark pair. Taking the Theta width as a benchmark, we estimate the rates of the strong decays Xi_{3/2}-- to Xi- pi-, Sigma- K-, Sigma_{5c}0 to D_s- p, D_{s0}*- p and Xi_{5c}0 to D_s- Sigma+, D_{s0}^{*-} Sigma+ with Sigma_{5c} Xi_{5c} being antisextet charmed pentaquarks and D_{s0}* a scalar strange charmed meson. The ratio of Gamma(P_c to Baryon D_{s0}*)/Gamma(P_c to Baryon D_s) is very useful for verifying the parity of the antisextet charmed pentaquark P_c. It is expected to be of order unity for an even parity P_c and much less than one for an odd parity pentaquark.Comment: 24 pages, 2 figure

Application of aboutness to functional benchmarking in information retrieval

Experimental approaches are widely employed to benchmark the performance of an information retrieval (IR) system. Measurements in terms of recall and precision are computed as performance indicators. Although they are good at assessing the retrieval effectiveness of an IR system, they fail to explore deeper aspects such as its underlying functionality and explain why the system shows such performance. Recently, inductive (i.e., theoretical) evaluation of IR systems has been proposed to circumvent the controversies of the experimental methods. Several studies have adopted the inductive approach, but they mostly focus on theoretical modeling of IR properties by using some metalogic. In this article, we propose to use inductive evaluation for functional benchmarking of IR models as a complement of the traditional experiment-based performance benchmarking. We define a functional benchmark suite in two stages: the evaluation criteria based on the notion of "aboutness," and the formal evaluation methodology using the criteria. The proposed benchmark has been successfully applied to evaluate various well-known classical and logic-based IR models. The functional benchmarking results allow us to compare and analyze the functionality of the different IR models

Restoration of kTk_T factorization for low pTp_T hadron hadroproduction

We discuss the applicability of the $k_T$ factorization theorem to low-$p_T$ hadron production in hadron-hadron collision in a simple toy model, which involves only scalar particles and gluons. It has been shown that the $k_T$ factorization for high-$p_T$ hadron hadroproduction is broken by soft gluons in the Glauber region, which are exchanged among a transverse-momentum-dependent (TMD) parton density and other subprocesses of the collision. We explain that the contour of a loop momentum can be deformed away from the Glauber region at low $p_T$, so the above residual infrared divergence is factorized by means of the standard eikonal approximation. The $k_T$ factorization is then restored in the sense that a TMD parton density maintains its universality. Because the resultant Glauber factor is independent of hadron flavors, experimental constraints on its behavior are possible. The $k_T$ factorization can also be restored for the transverse single-spin asymmetry in hadron-hadron collision at low $p_T$ in a similar way, with the residual infrared divergence being factorized into the same Glauber factor.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, version to appear in EPJ

Getting the strain under control: Trans-Varestraint tests for hot cracking susceptibility

A new method for conducting Trans-Varestraint tests for assessing hot cracking susceptibility is proposed. Experiments were carried out, to validate the new method, with an industrial scale rig using tungsten inert gas welding. The hot cracking susceptibility of API-5L X65 and EN3B steel was compared. The results indicated that, by using the new method, the strain applied to the welding bead and consequently to the solidification front was controlled in a repeatable and reliable way. The results also indicated that EN3B has a maximum crack length (a parameter in the test) higher than X65 and it is reached at lower augmented strain thus demonstrating it is more susceptible to hot cracking, while also indicating that there is a capability of predicting the initiation position of hot cracks during welding. By using the method proposed, the capability of setting standardized test procedures for Trans-Varestraint tests is improved. It is recommended that future tests for assessing hot cracking susceptibility should employ the proposed method in order for the results to be comparable and to also study the effect of strain rate in hot cracking of materials

Mucosal Repair of Posterior Perforation of Duodenal Diverticulitis Using Roux Loop Duodenojejunostomy

Perforation of duodenal diverticulum is a rare occurrence but has a potentially fatal outcome. It is a difficult surgical problem because of delayed diagnosis and the attendant risk of duodenal fistula following primary repair. We present a case of posterior perforation of duodenal diverticulitis, diagnosed on computed tomography and successfully repaired with a Roux loop duodenojejunostomy. We also discuss the rare pathology, diagnosis and surgical options with special reference to this alternative form of mucosal repair

Esophageal sinus formation as a complication of cyanoacrylate injection

10.1016/S0016-5107(04)02838-XGastrointestinal Endoscopy616773-775GAEN

Development of a Wireless Mesh Sensing System with High-Sensitivity LiNbO₃ Vibration Sensors for Robotic Arm Monitoring

In recent years, multi-axis robots are indispensable in automated factories due to the rapid development of Industry 4.0. Many related processes were required to have the increasing demand for accuracy, reproducibility, and abnormal detection. The monitoring function and immediate feedback for correction is more and more important. This present study integrated a highly sensitive lithium niobate (LiNbO3) vibration sensor as a sensor node (SN) and architecture of wireless mesh network (WMN) to develop a monitoring system (MS) for the robotic arm. The advantages of the thin-film LiNbO3 piezoelectric sensor were low-cost, high-sensitivity and good electrical compatibility. The experimental results obtained from the vibration platform show that the sensitivity achieved 50 mV/g and the reaction time within 1 ms. The results of on-site testing indicated that the SN could be configured on the relevant equipment quickly and detect the abnormal vibration in specific equipment effectively. Each SN could be used more than 10 h at the 80 Hz transmission rate under WMN architecture and the loss rate of transmission was less than 0.01% within 20 m