19,597 research outputs found
A Fresh Look at Entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics
This paper is a non-technical, informal presentation of our theory of the
second law of thermodynamics as a law that is independent of statistical
mechanics and that is derivable solely from certain simple assumptions about
adiabatic processes for macroscopic systems. It is not necessary to assume
a-priori concepts such as "heat", "hot and cold", "temperature". These are
derivable from entropy, whose existence we derive from the basic assumptions.
See cond-mat/9708200 and math-ph/9805005.Comment: LaTex file. To appear in the April 2000 issue of PHYSICS TODA
On Some Geometric Properties of Slice Regular Functions of a Quaternion Variable
The goal of this paper is to introduce and study some geometric properties of
slice regular functions of quaternion variable like univalence, subordination,
starlikeness, convexity and spirallikeness in the unit ball. We prove a number
of results, among which an Area-type Theorem, Rogosinski inequality, and a
Bieberbach-de Branges Theorem for a subclass of slice regular functions. We
also discuss some geometric and algebraic interpretations of our results in
terms of maps from to itself. As a tool for subordination we
define a suitable notion of composition of slice regular functions which is of
independent interest
Fc-fusion mimetics
The Fc-fusion mimetic RpR 2[combining low line] was prepared by disulfide bridging conjugation using PEG in the place of the Fc. RpR 2[combining low line] displayed higher affinity for VEGF than aflibercept. This is caused primarily by a slower dissociation rate, which can prolong a drug at its site of action. RpRs have considerable potential for development as stable, organ specific therapeutics
Hydrogen production by sorption-enhanced steam reforming of glycerol
Catalytic steam reforming of glycerol for H(2) production has been evaluated experimentally in a continuous flow fixed-bed reactor. The experiments were carried out under atmospheric pressure within a temperature range of 400-700 degrees C. A commercial Ni-based catalyst and a dolomite sorbent were used for the steam reforming reactions and in situ CO(2) removal. The product gases were measured by on-line gas analysers. The results show that H(2) productivity is greatly increased with increasing temperature and the formation of methane by-product becomes negligible above 500 degrees C. The results suggest an optimal temperature of approximately 500 degrees C for the glycerol steam reforming with in situ CO(2) removal using calcined dolomite as the sorbent, at which the CO(2) breakthrough time is longest and the H(2) purity is highest. The shrinking core model and the 1D-diffusion model describe well the CO(2) removal under the conditions of this work
Thermodynamics of an ideal generalized gas:II Means of order
The property that power means are monotonically increasing functions of their
order is shown to be the basis of the second laws not only for processes
involving heat conduction but also for processes involving deformations. In an
-potentail equilibration the final state will be one of maximum entropy,
while in an entropy equilibrium the final state will be one of minimum . A
metric space is connected with the power means, and the distance between means
of different order is related to the Carnot efficiency. In the ideal classical
gas limit, the average change in the entropy is shown to be proportional to the
difference between the Shannon and R\'enyi entropies for nonextensive systems
that are multifractal in nature. The -potential, like the internal energy,
is a Schur convex function of the empirical temperature, which satisfies
Jensen's inequality, and serves as a measure of the tendency to uniformity in
processes involving pure thermal conduction.Comment: 8 page
Co-production of hydrogen and carbon nanotubes from real-world waste plastics: Influence of catalyst composition and operational parameters
The use of Ni-Fe catalysts for the catalytic pyrolysis of real-world waste plastics to produce hydrogen and high value carbon nanotubes (CNT), and the influence of catalyst composition and support materials has been investigated. Experiments were conducted in a two stage fixed bed reactor, where plastics were pyrolysed in the first stage followed by reaction of the evolved volatiles over the catalyst in the second stage. Different catalyst temperatures (700, 800, 900 °C) and steam to plastic ratios (0, 0.3, 1, 2.6) were explored to optimize the product hydrogen and the yield of carbon nanotubes deposited on the catalyst. The results showed that the growth of carbon nanotubes and hydrogen were highly dependent on the catalyst type and the operational parameters. Fe/Îł-AlâOâ produced the highest hydrogen yield (22.9 mmol Hâ/gplastic) and carbon nanotubes yield (195 mg gâ1plastic) among the monometallic catalysts, followed by Fe/α-AlâOâ, Ni/Îł-AlâOâ, and Ni/α-AlâOâ. The bimetallic Ni-Fe catalyst showed higher catalytic activity in relation to Hâ yield than the monometallic Ni or Fe catalysts because of the optimum interaction between metal and support. Further investigation of the influence of steam input and catalyst temperature on product yields found that the optimum simultaneous production of CNTs (287 mg gÂŻÂčplastic) and hydrogen production (31.8 mmol Hâ/gplastic) were obtained at 800°C in the absence of steam and in the presence of the bimetallic Ni-Fe/Îł-AlâOâ catalyst
Asynchronous Graph Pattern Matching on Multiprocessor Systems
Pattern matching on large graphs is the foundation for a variety of
application domains. Strict latency requirements and continuously increasing
graph sizes demand the usage of highly parallel in-memory graph processing
engines that need to consider non-uniform memory access (NUMA) and concurrency
issues to scale up on modern multiprocessor systems. To tackle these aspects,
graph partitioning becomes increasingly important. Hence, we present a
technique to process graph pattern matching on NUMA systems in this paper. As a
scalable pattern matching processing infrastructure, we leverage a
data-oriented architecture that preserves data locality and minimizes
concurrency-related bottlenecks on NUMA systems. We show in detail, how graph
pattern matching can be asynchronously processed on a multiprocessor system.Comment: 14 Pages, Extended version for ADBIS 201
In an in vitro model of human tuberculosis, monocyte-microglial networks regulate matrix metalloproteinase-1 and -3 gene expression and secretion via a p38 mitogen activated protein kinase-dependent pathway.
BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) of the central nervous system (CNS) is characterized by extensive tissue inflammation, driven by molecules that cleave extracellular matrix such as matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-1 and MMP-3. However, relatively little is known about the regulation of these MMPs in the CNS. METHODS: Using a cellular model of CNS TB, we stimulated a human microglial cell line (CHME3) with conditioned medium from Mycobacterium tuberculosis-infected primary human monocytes (CoMTb). MMP-1 and MMP-3 secretion was detected using ELISAs confirmed with casein zymography or western blotting. Key results of a phospho-array profile that detects a wide range of kinase activity were confirmed with phospho-Western blotting. Chemical inhibition (SB203580) of microglial cells allowed investigation of expression and secretion of MMP-1 and MMP-3. Finally we used promoter reporter assays employing full length and MMP-3 promoter deletion constructs. Student's t-test was used for comparison of continuous variables and multiple intervention experiments were compared by one-way ANOVA with Tukey's correction for multiple pairwise comparisons. RESULTS: CoMTb up-regulated microglial MMP-1 and MMP-3 secretion in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The phospho-array profiling showed that the major increase in kinase activity due to CoMTb stimulation was in p38 mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK), principally the α and γ subunits. p38 phosphorylation was detected at 15 minutes, with a second peak of activity at 120 minutes. High basal extracellular signal-regulated kinase activity was further increased by CoMTb. Secretion and expression of MMP-1 and MMP-3 were both p38 dependent. CoMTb stimulation of full length and MMP-3 promoter deletion constructs demonstrated up-regulation of activity in the wild type but a suppression site between -2183 and -1612 bp. CONCLUSIONS: Monocyte-microglial network-dependent MMP-1 and MMP-3 gene expression and secretion are dependent upon p38 MAPK in tuberculosis. p38 is therefore a potential target for adjuvant therapy in CNS TB
Influence of amendments on soil structure and soil loss under simulated rainfall Chinaâs loess plateau
Macromolecule polymers are significant types of chemical amendments because of their special structure, useful functions and low cost. Macromolecule polymers as soil amendment provide new territory for studying Chinaâs agricultural practices and for soil and water conservation, because polymers have the ability to improve soil structure, increase rainfall penetration and control slope runoff. Through indoor laboratory experiments and outdoor artificial rainfall simulations, this study applied different consistencies of three amendments; polypropylene acid (PPA), polythene alcoholic (PTA) and urea-formaldehyde poly-condensate (UR) to Chinaâs Loess and determined their effects on soil physical properties and on runoff-sediment yield. The results indicate that as a result of applying the amendments, (1) the water-stable soil aggregates content increases by 17.3%, the soil permeability increases by 41.8%, the soil density decreases by 11.2% and the soil water content increases by 28.0% compared to the control; (2) three amendment applied on sloping land can delay runoff and decrease runoff velocity; decrease erosive forces of raindrop impact and flowing water, reduce surface crusting and improve water infiltration, delay runoff engenderation and decrease runnoff velocity and soil erosion yield. Finally, this study also ascertained optimal application quantities and the most effective sort in three amendments, which PPA is most effective at lowering surface runoff, reducing soil loss and increasing soil penetration. These three amendments have broad potential for soil and water conservation; however, the duration of their effect and the optimal application quantities need to be researched further.Key words: Amendment, Runoff-Sediment Yield, Soil Physical Properties, Soil erosio
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