Nuclear Fragmentation Energy and Momentum Transfer Distributions in Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collisions

An optical model description of energy and momentum transfer in relativistic heavy-ion collisions, based upon composite particle multiple scattering theory, is presented. Transverse and longitudinal momentum transfers to the projectile are shown to arise from the real and absorptive part of the optical potential, respectively. Comparisons of fragment momentum distribution observables with experiments are made and trends outlined based on our knowledge of the underlying nucleon-nucleon interaction. Corrections to the above calculations are discussed. Finally, use of the model as a tool for estimating collision impact parameters is indicated

Towards a circular business model in the plastic packaging sector

Plastic packaging, a commonly used material across several industries and consumers. It is characterized for being affordable, versatile, durable and its high strength to weight ratio makes it a perfect fit for packaging material. However, this useful material also causes negative impacts on the environment, society and economy. For example, greenhouse gas emissions from its production, composition of various chemical properties and its non-degradable nature leading to increased waste. Moreover, the use of non-renewable fossil feedstocks in its production is also another major concern. Therefore, to minimize these impacts, the concept of Circular Economy (CE) is seen as a viable measure for the plastic industry to move towards sustainability. Through circular principles of prolonging useful life and reuse of materials, CE helps to shift from the cradle to grave concept. It also encourages production processes to be designed in a way that would encourage more use of renewable resources and eliminate toxic chemicals. Therefore, this study aims to investigate implementation of CE in the plastic packaging industry. CE implementation within an industry is a broad vision that requires collaboration from all actors involved. Therefore, to gain deeper insight, this study focuses on a single plastic packaging producer using the qualitative research method. Following the case study approach, the producer and two other actors from the same industry were interviewed using a semi-structured interview method. To understand this phenomenon, the business model (BM) concept was used as an analytical framework. BM is visualized using its value categories which focus on how value is created, delivered and captured by businesses. Therefore, the findings reveal that although the producer will continue to do business as usual, partial changes are expected across their offerings and production process. To adapt circular principles, the findings show that the case company is working with strategies such as altering their offerings and selling services in addition to their products. They are also designing products that can be produced with greater fraction of recycled materials in order to achieve the vision of closedloop material flow. For future studies, it would be interesting to see similar sustainable journey of other actors. Such practices would benefit plastic packaging sector to continue business with minimal negative externalities and provide further reflection on challenges to enable more collaboration among the actors of the plastics value chain

Optical model calculations of 14.6A GeV silicon fragmentation cross sections

An optical potential abrasion-ablation collision model is used to calculate hadronic dissociation cross sections for a 14.6 A GeV(exp 28) Si beam fragmenting in aluminum, tin, and lead targets. The frictional-spectator-interaction (FSI) contributions are computed with two different formalisms for the energy-dependent mean free path. These estimates are compared with experimental data and with estimates obtained from semi-empirical fragmentation models commonly used in galactic cosmic ray transport studies

Comparisons of cross-section predictions for relativistic iron and argon beams with semiempirical fragmentation models

Cross-section predictions with semi-empirical nuclear fragmentation models from the Langley Research Center and the Naval Research Laboratory are compared with experimental data for the breakup of relativistic iron and argon projectile nuclei in various targets. Both these models are commonly used to provide fragmentation cross-section inputs into galactic cosmic ray transport codes for shielding and exposure analyses. Overall, the Langley model appears to yield better agreement with the experimental data

A Discriminative Representation of Convolutional Features for Indoor Scene Recognition

Indoor scene recognition is a multi-faceted and challenging problem due to the diverse intra-class variations and the confusing inter-class similarities. This paper presents a novel approach which exploits rich mid-level convolutional features to categorize indoor scenes. Traditionally used convolutional features preserve the global spatial structure, which is a desirable property for general object recognition. However, we argue that this structuredness is not much helpful when we have large variations in scene layouts, e.g., in indoor scenes. We propose to transform the structured convolutional activations to another highly discriminative feature space. The representation in the transformed space not only incorporates the discriminative aspects of the target dataset, but it also encodes the features in terms of the general object categories that are present in indoor scenes. To this end, we introduce a new large-scale dataset of 1300 object categories which are commonly present in indoor scenes. Our proposed approach achieves a significant performance boost over previous state of the art approaches on five major scene classification datasets

Momentum loss in proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions

An optical model description, based on multiple scattering theory, of longitudinal momentum loss in proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions is presented. The crucial role of the imaginary component of the nucleon-nucleon transition matrix in accounting for longitudinal momentum transfer is demonstrated. Results obtained with this model are compared with Intranuclear Cascade (INC) calculations, as well as with predictions from Vlasov-Uehling-Uhlenbeck (VUU) and quantum molecular dynamics (QMD) simulations. Comparisons are also made with experimental data where available. These indicate that the present model is adequate to account for longitudinal momentum transfer in both proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions over a wide range of energies

Exploring the relationship of Domestic violence on Health Seeking behavior and Empowerment of Women in Pakistan

Background: Violence against women is considered as a global problem and the trend for abusing domestically is very much up. This not only violates the human rights and it has got major implications on physical, mental, social and sexual health of a woman. Worldwide there is little research work on how domestic violence has affected women’s health and their decision-making power. This study aimed to explore the relationship between domestic violence on empowerment of women and their health seeking behavior in Pakistan. Methods: This research has used secondary data from Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey data 2012-13. About 3687 ever-married women were selected and interviewed for domestic violence from 248 urban and 252 rural areas of Pakistan. Results: Both chi-square and binary logistic regression analyses were performed. The results show that women with no education have suffered more (43%) from domestic violence. Almost 68% women reported that who have seen their parents beating their mothers have also experiences domestic violence. Logistic regression shown that women from rural areas are highly likely to be victims of domestic violence (OR=1.28, 95% CI 1.07-1.52, p-value<. 001). ANC visit is also found statistically significant with those who suffered violence at home. Conclusion: Policy makers and other stakeholders should take measures to control and stop violence against women and help them to live equally like a ma

Examining citizens’ trust in local government institutions: a focus on upazila parishads (sub-district councils) in Bangladesh

Against a backdrop of strikingly limited research on the subject, this article examines citizens’ trust in upazila parishads (UzPs) – a historically significant form of local government institution (LGI) in Bangladesh. A set of indicators has been developed that help to evaluate citizens’ trust in these LGIs. Alongside secondary literature and official document reviews, a mixed-method approach was adopted for empirical data collection combining quantitative (a questionnaire targeting a cross-section of service recipients) and qualitative ( key informant interviews with LGI service providers) methods. The results revealed a poor level of citizen trust in UzPs, as the majority of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with their performance. This low level of citizens’ trust was attributable to such reasons as delays in service delivery, dishonest and unfair practices, and disrespectful treatment by service providers. From a ‘supply-side’ perspective, service providers mentioned many constraints to good performance including the challenge of meeting growing demand with inadequate resources, frequent staff transfers, limited scope for training on modern technologies, and pressure and interference from influential elites