Two-Level Systems in Evaporated Amorphous Silicon

In $e$-beam evaporated amorphous silicon ($a$-Si), the densities of two-level systems (TLS), $n_{0}$ and $\overline{P}$, determined from specific heat $C$ and internal friction $Q^{-1}$ measurements, respectively, have been shown to vary by over three orders of magnitude. Here we show that $n_{0}$ and $\overline{P}$ are proportional to each other with a constant of proportionality that is consistent with the measurement time dependence proposed by Black and Halperin and does not require the introduction of additional anomalous TLS. However, $n_{0}$ and $\overline{P}$ depend strongly on the atomic density of the film ($n_{\rm Si}$) which depends on both film thickness and growth temperature suggesting that the $a$-Si structure is heterogeneous with nanovoids or other lower density regions forming in a dense amorphous network. A review of literature data shows that this atomic density dependence is not unique to $a$-Si. These findings suggest that TLS are not intrinsic to an amorphous network but require a heterogeneous structure to form

ANALISIS DEBIT BANJIR DAN TINGGI MUKA AIR SUNGAI PINATEDUAN DI DESA TATELU KABUPATEN MINAHASA UTARA

Salah satu fenomena alam yang mengancam keberadaan hidup manusia setiap masuk musim penghujan adalah banjir. Sungai Pinateduan memiliki luas DAS 38,1228 km2 merupakan salah satu sungai di Kabupaten Minahasa Utara yang melewati Desa Tatelu Kecamatan Dimembe. Sungai ini mengalir melewati kawasan pemukiman penduduk. Meluapnya Sungai Pinateduan sangat berpotensi menimbulkan bencana banjir, dikarenakan bertemunya 3 sungai kecil. Pada penelitian ini perkiraan debit banjir rencana di Sungai Pinateduan dilakukan dengan analisis hidrologi untuk mengetahui besaran debit banjir rencana. Debit banjir rencana adalah debit maksimum pada suatu sungai dengan periode tertentu. Analisis menggunakan beberapa metode yaitu metode data debit tersedia ataupun tidak tersedia data debit. Sungai Pinateduan memiliki data debit pengukuran sehingga tidak di perlukan analisis curah hujan. Data debit harian maksimum selama 10 tahun, yaitu dari tahun 2007 s/d 2018 berasal dari pos pengukuran debit Talawaan. Dilakukan analisis frekuensi debit dengan kala ulang 5, 10, 50, dan 100 tahun. Analisis Hidraulika untuk prediksi elevasi tinggi muka air menggunakan program HEC-RAS versi 5.07. Hasil analisis Hidraulika menggunakan program HEC-RAS versi 5.07 menunjukkan  bahwa simulasi tinggi muka air pada semua penampang sungai terukur mengalami kondisi banjir. Elavasi muka air banjir melebihi evalasi Tebing sungai. Perlu dilakukan upaya pengendalian banjir antara lain berupa berupa normalisai sungai. Kata kunci: Sungai Pinateduan, Debit Banjir Rencana, Tinggi Muka Air, HEC-RA

Isolation and Characterization of Dye Decolorizing Bacteria from The Textile Dye Effluents

The most significant challenge confronted by the textile industries is the discharge of dye effluents which contains toxic chemicals posing a considerable threat to environmental pollution. Biological method of treating effluents using bacteria is one of the renewed and accepted method in effluent treatment. The present study aims to isolate and characterise the dye decolorizing bacteria from the effluent samples of a dye industry from Chinnalapatti, Tamilnadu. The dye effluents were collected from the effluent plant of a leading dye industry and the Physiochemical parameters were analysed.  The samples were plated in a Nutrient Agar and bacterial isolation were performed according to the standard microbiological procedures. The bacterial isolates identified by biochemical identification were tested for its efficiency to decolorize Methyl red and crystal violet dyes. Among the three isolates S1showed 98% decolorizing efficiency in reducing Methyl red dye and 92% efficiency in decolorizing crystal violet dye. Sample S2 showed 85% activity in decolorizing methyl red dye and 86% activity in decolorising Crystal violet dye. S3 showed a low decolorizing activity compared to S1 and S2. Both of these phenotypically identified isolates are subjected to molecular identification by 16s gene amplification and gene sequencing. The obtained FASTA sequence were analysed for the phylogenetic relationship and submitted to NCBI. The potential isolate that has the capacity to decolorise the dyes were identified as Bacillus Tropicus and Pseudomonas mosselli. This study proves that these bacterial strains can be used as a potential bioremediation agent in decolorizing the dye effluents

Energy recovery in individuals with knee osteoarthritis.

OBJECTIVE: Pathological gaits have been shown to limit transfer between potential (PE) and kinetic (KE) energy during walking, which can increase locomotor costs. The purpose of this study was to examine whether energy exchange would be limited in people with knee osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS: Ground reaction forces during walking were collected from 93 subjects with symptomatic knee OA (self-selected and fast speeds) and 13 healthy controls (self-selected speed) and used to calculate their center of mass (COM) movements, PE and KE relationships, and energy recovery during a stride. Correlations and linear regressions examined the impact of energy fluctuation phase and amplitude, walking velocity, body mass, self-reported pain, and radiographic severity on recovery. Paired t-tests were run to compare energy recovery between cohorts. RESULTS: Symptomatic knee OA subjects displayed lower energetic recovery during self-selected walking speeds than healthy controls (P = 0.0018). PE and KE phase relationships explained the majority (66%) of variance in recovery. Recovery had a complex relationship with velocity and its change across speeds was significantly influenced by the self-selected walking speed of each subject. Neither radiographic OA scores nor subject self-reported measures demonstrated any relationship with energy recovery. CONCLUSIONS: Knee OA reduces effective exchange of PE and KE, potentially increasing the muscular work required to control movements of the COM. Gait retraining may return subjects to more normal patterns of energy exchange and allow them to reduce fatigue

A homeostatic function of CXCR2 signalling in articular cartilage

Funding This work was funded by Arthritis Research UK (grants 17859, 17971, 19654), INNOCHEM EU FP6 (grant LSHB-CT-2005-51867), MRC (MR/K013076/1) and the William Harvey Research FoundationPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Toward a unified description of hadro- and photoproduction: S-wave pi- and eta-photoproduction amplitudes

The Chew-Mandelstam parameterization, which has been used extensively in the two-body hadronic sector, is generalized in this exploratory study to the electromagnetic sector by simultaneous fits to the pion- and eta-photoproduction S-wave multipole amplitudes for center-of-mass energies from the pion threshold through 1.61 GeV. We review the Chew-Mandelstam parameterization in detail to clarify the theoretical content of the SAID hadronic amplitude analysis and to place the proposed, generalized SAID electromagnetic amplitudes in the context of earlier employed parameterized forms. The parameterization is unitary at the two-body level, employing four hadronic channels and the gamma-N electromagnetic channel. We compare the resulting fit to the MAID parameterization and find qualitative agreement though, numerically, the solution is somewhat different. Applications of the extended parameterization to global fits of the photoproduction data and to global fits of the combined hadronic and photoproduction data are discussed.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures; added figures and tex

Shear-Wave Tomographic Images Of An Oil Reservoir At MIT's Michigan Test Site

We conducted a P- and S-wave crosswell survey with Conoco's orbital vibrator source and three-component receivers at M.LT.'s Michigan Test Site. The receiver and source wells bracket a known oil reservoir. Applying a nonlinear crosswell traveltime tomography method, we reconstruct the velocity structures in the oil reservoir using P- and S-wave data separately. The P-wave tomogram shows a similar image to the one by Matarese (1993), and it does not present much velocity variations in the oil producing zone. However, the S-wave tomogram clearly shows the image of the reservoir zone, which is characterized with low velocities in a pinnacle reef. The S-wave velocities in the reservoir are about 20% lower than those of the surrounding carbonates.Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Earth Resources Laboratory. Reservoir Delineation Consortiu

Adult Rat Bones Maintain Distinct Regionalized Expression of Markers Associated with Their Development

The incidence of limb bone fracture and subsequent morbidity and mortality due to excessive bone loss is increasing in the progressively ageing populations of both men and women. In contrast to bone loss in the weight-bearing limb, bone mass in the protective skull vault is maintained. One explanation for this could be anatomically diverse bone matrix characteristics generated by heterogeneous osteoblast populations. We have tested the hypothesis that adult bones demonstrate site-specific characteristics, and report differences at the organ, cell and transcriptome levels. Limb bones contain greater amounts of polysulphated glycosaminoglycan stained with Alcian Blue and have significantly higher osteocyte densities than skull bone. Site-specific patterns persist in cultured adult bone-derived cells both phenotypically (proliferation rate, response to estrogen and cell volumes), and at the level of specific gene expression (collagen triple helix repeat containing 1, reelin and ras-like and estrogen-regulated growth inhibitor). Based on genome-wide mRNA expression and cluster analysis, we demonstrate that bones and cultured adult bone-derived cells segregate according to site of derivation. We also find the differential expression of genes associated with embryological development (Skull: Zic, Dlx, Irx, Twist1 and Cart1; Limb: Hox, Shox2, and Tbx genes) in both adult bones and isolated adult bone-derived cells. Together, these site-specific differences support the view that, analogous to different muscle types (cardiac, smooth and skeletal), skull and limb bones represent separate classes of bone. We assign these differences, not to mode of primary ossification, but to the embryological cell lineage; the basis and implications of this division are discussed

Gas emissions, minerals, and tars associated with three coal fires, Powder River Basin, USA.

Ground-based surveys of three coal fires and airborne surveys of two of the fires were conducted near Sheridan, Wyoming. The fires occur in natural outcrops and in abandoned mines, all containing Paleocene-age subbituminous coals. Diffuse (carbon dioxide (CO(2)) only) and vent (CO(2), carbon monoxide (CO), methane, hydrogen sulfide (H(2)S), and elemental mercury) emission estimates were made for each of the fires. Additionally, gas samples were collected for volatile organic compound (VOC) analysis and showed a large range in variation between vents. The fires produce locally dangerous levels of CO, CO(2), H(2)S, and benzene, among other gases. At one fire in an abandoned coal mine, trends in gas and tar composition followed a change in topography. Total CO(2) fluxes for the fires from airborne, ground-based, and rate of fire advancement estimates ranged from 0.9 to 780mg/s/m(2) and are comparable to other coal fires worldwide. Samples of tar and coal-fire minerals collected from the mouth of vents provided insight into the behavior and formation of the coal fires