Influence of gravity on the collective molecular dynamics of liquid water: the case of the floating water bridge

Quantum electrodynamics (QED) produces a picture of liquid water as a mixture of a low density coherent phase and an high density non-coherent phase. Consequently, the Archimedes principle prescribes that, within a gravitational field, liquid water should be made up, at surface, mainly of the coherent fraction, which becomes a cage where the gas-like non-coherent fraction is trapped, acquiring a non-vanishing pressure (vapor tension). Therefore, it is possible to probe the QED picture by observing the behavior of liquid water under reduced gravity conditions. The floating water bridge could be a useful test model.Comment: 5 page

Collective Molecular Dynamics of a Floating Water Bridge

When a high voltage is applied to pure water filling two beakers kept close to each other, a connection forms spontaneously, giving the impression of a floating water bridge. This phenomenon is of special interest, since it comprises a number of phenomena currently tackled in modern water science. The formation and the main properties of this floating water bridge are analyzed in the conceptual framework of quantum electrodynamics. The necessary conditions for the formation are investigated as well as the time evolution of the dynamics. The predictions are found in agreement with the observations.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Sensitivity Analysis and Calibration of a Rainfall-runoff Model with the Combined Use of EPA-SWMM and Genetic Algorithm

An integrated Visual Basic Application interface is described that allows for sensitivity analysis, calibration and routing of hydraulichydrological models. The routine consists in the combination of three freeware tools performing hydrological modelling, hydraulic modelling and calibration. With such an approach, calibration is made possible even if information about sewers geometrical features is incomplete. Model parameters involve storage coefficient, time of concentration, runoff coefficient, initial abstraction and Manning coefficient; literature formulas are considered and manipulated to obtain novel expressions and variation ranges. A sensitivity analysis with a local method is performed to obtain information about collinearity among parameters and a ranking of influence. The least important parameters are given a fixed value, and for the remaining ones calibration is performed by means of a genetic algorithm implemented in GANetXL. Single-event calibration is performed with a selection of six rainfall events, which are chosen so to avoid non-uniform rainfall distribution; results are then successfully validated with a sequence of four events

Dual plane breast implant reconstruction in large sized breasts: how to maximise the result following first stage total submuscular expansion

Introduction: Women who were good candidates for a skin reducing mastectomy, but were instead treated with a skin-sparing mastectomy and reconstruction with expanders, show discrepancy of volume and form between the healthy breast (voluminous and ptotic) and the expanded mastectomy envelope and muscle, which has a smaller size as well as excessive amount of skin at the lower pole. Methods: From January 2014 to March 2015, we recruited 18 women with breasts of medium to large volume and with moderate to severe ptosis, already treated at a different centre with a one-side mastectomy and reconstruction by means of an expander. These women were treated at our unit for the second reconstructive step with a dual plane technique and a contralateral reduction/mastopexy. Results: The minimum duration of follow-up was 2 years (range 24–30 months). The average volume of the implants was 613 g. The reconstructive outcome at the final follow-up (at least 24 months) was judged by the specialist as excellent in 5 cases, very good in 10 cases and good in 3 cases. Breast Q average score was 87.08. Discussion: The disinsertion of the expanded muscle dome and the use of a dual plane technique for the placement of the definitive implant provide a solution to the skin-volume mismatch problem. The subcutaneous placement of the implant at the level of the lower pole extends the excessive amount of skin and gives the reconstructed breast fullness and natural ptosis. Further validation of our results is neede

Efekty wstępnego wytrawiania ubytków klasy V wypełnionych materiałami kompozytowymi na bazie siloranów i metakrylanów

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Revision of <i>Malayia</i> Malloch, with the first reports of Rhinophoridae from India and Indonesia (Diptera Oestroidea)

Malayia Malloch, 1926 is revised and a new species, M. indica sp. n., is described and illustrated from a female collected from Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, India. The male of M. fuscinervis Malloch, 1926 is described for the first time from material from Malaysia and Philippines, and M. nigripennis Malloch, 1927 is reported from Sumatra, Indonesia. The records from India and Indonesia are new country records for the genus. A key to the three species of Malayia is provided

Diagnosing Potts criticality and two-stage melting in one-dimensional hard-boson models

We investigate a model of hard-core bosons with infinitely repulsive nearest- and next-nearest-neighbor interactions in one dimension, introduced by Fendley, Sengupta and Sachdev in Phys. Rev. B 69, 075106 (2004). Using a combination of exact diagonalization, tensor network, and quantum Monte Carlo simulations, we show how an intermediate incommensurate phase separates a crystalline and a disordered phase. We base our analysis on a variety of diagnostics, including entanglement measures, fidelity susceptibility, correlation functions, and spectral properties. According to theoretical expectations, the disordered-to-incommensurate-phase transition point is compatible with Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless universal behaviour. The second transition is instead non-relativistic, with dynamical critical exponent $z > 1$. For the sake of comparison, we illustrate how some of the techniques applied here work at the Potts critical point present in the phase diagram of the model for finite next-nearest-neighbor repulsion. This latter application also allows to quantitatively estimate which system sizes are needed to match the conformal field theory spectra with experiments performing level spectroscopy.Comment: 18 pages, 14 figure

What do the orbital motions of the outer planets of the Solar System tell us about the Pioneer anomaly?

In this paper we investigate the effects that an anomalous acceleration as that experienced by the Pioneer spacecraft after they passed the 20 AU threshold would induce on the orbital motions of the Solar System planets placed at heliocentric distances of 20 AU or larger as Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. It turns out that such an acceleration, with a magnitude of 8.74\times 10^-10 m s^-2, would affect their orbits with secular and short-period signals large enough to be detected according to the latest published results by E.V. Pitjeva, even by considering errors up to 30 times larger than those released. The absence of such anomalous signatures in the latest data rules out the possibility that in the region 20-40 AU of the Solar System an anomalous force field inducing a constant and radial acceleration with those characteristics affects the motion of the major planets.Comment: Latex2e, 19 pages, 3 tables, 10 figures, 18 references. Authorship changed; new figures added for a direct comparison with the observable quantities. Accepted for publication in New Astronom