Origin of 21+2_1^+ Excitation Energy Dependence on Valence Nucleon Numbers

It has been shown recently that a simple formula in terms of the valence nucleon numbers and the mass number can describe the essential trends of excitation energies of the first $2^+$ states in even-even nuclei. By evaluating the first order energy shift due to the zero-range residual interaction, we find that the factor which reflects the effective particle number participating in the interaction from the Fermi orbit governs the main dependence of the first $2^+$ excitation energy on the valence nucleon numbers.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Fashion Conversation Data on Instagram

The fashion industry is establishing its presence on a number of visual-centric social media like Instagram. This creates an interesting clash as fashion brands that have traditionally practiced highly creative and editorialized image marketing now have to engage with people on the platform that epitomizes impromptu, realtime conversation. What kinds of fashion images do brands and individuals share and what are the types of visual features that attract likes and comments? In this research, we take both quantitative and qualitative approaches to answer these questions. We analyze visual features of fashion posts first via manual tagging and then via training on convolutional neural networks. The classified images were examined across four types of fashion brands: mega couture, small couture, designers, and high street. We find that while product-only images make up the majority of fashion conversation in terms of volume, body snaps and face images that portray fashion items more naturally tend to receive a larger number of likes and comments by the audience. Our findings bring insights into building an automated tool for classifying or generating influential fashion information. We make our novel dataset of {24,752} labeled images on fashion conversations, containing visual and textual cues, available for the research community.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, This paper will be presented at ICWSM'1

Universal Expression for the Lowest Excitation Energy of Natural Parity Even Multipole States

We present a new expression for the energy of the lowest collective states in even-even nuclei throughout the entire periodic table. Our empirical formula is extremely valid and holds universally for all of the natural parity even multipole states. This formula depends only on the mass number and the valence nucleon numbers with six parameters. These parameters are determined easily and unambiguously from the data for each multipole state. We discuss the validity of our empirical formula by comparing our results with those of other studies and also by estimating the average and the dispersion of the logarithmic errors of the calculated excitation energies with respect to the measured ones.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Advances in Glucose Sensing Techniques: Novel Non-Invasive and Continuous Electrochemical Glucose Monitoring Systems

Diabetes mellitus (or diabetes) is a chronic, lifelong condition that affects the body's ability to utilize the stored chemical potential energy found in our food. Frequent measurement and tight control of blood glucose is essential to avoiding life-threatening hyper- and hypoglycemic events and associated serious, long-term complications. In this dissertation, a novel non-invasive tear glucose measurement approach and various continuous electrochemical glucose sensor-based monitoring devices with nitric oxide (NO) release are examined and evaluated for their potential application for diabetes management. Tear glucose measurements have been previously suggested as a potential alternative to blood glucose monitoring for diabetic patients, although this approach has not been thoroughly established. In Chapter 2, the first use of commercial blood glucose test strips to measure glucose in tears is examined. Roche AccuChek test strips are shown to exhibit the low detection limit required for quantitating glucose concentration in tears. Measurements of glucose in tears from nine normal (nondiabetic) fasting human subjects using strips yielded glucose values within the range of 5–148 μM, similar to glucose measurements for human tears reported by others via LC-MS methods. Chapter 3 evaluates the origin of the high sensitivity and selectivity of the Roche test strips and demonstrates that the use of pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ)-dependent glucose dehydrogenase (GDH) in combination with a nitrosoaniline derivative as an electron transfer mediator provides the low limits of quantitation (ca. 9 µM) and enhanced selectivity achieved with these strips. In Chapter 4, the test strips are used to measure glucose levels in tear fluids from human subjects with type 2 diabetes after fasting and then for 90 min after ingesting sugar while concurrently measuring the blood glucose values. A moderate correlation between tear and blood glucose levels is demonstrated. Tight glycemic control helps reduce life-threatening hyper- and hypoglycemic events that can cause serious long-term complications for hospitalized critically ill patients. Therefore, the development of continuous glucose monitoring systems to quantitate blood glucose levels intravascularly (IV) could improve patient outcomes. In Chapter 5, the compatibility of nitric oxide (NO) release coatings with implantable enzymatic glucose sensors based on osmium (III/II) mediated electrochemical detection is examined for the first time. Nitric oxide (NO) is a potent inhibitor of platelet activation and adhesion. NO-releasing osmium-mediated glucose sensors are prepared using a S-nitrosothiol impregnated outer tubing and are tested in vitro in both phosphate buffer (pH 7.4) and heparinized whole porcine blood. After 3 days of continuous NO release at or above physiological levels, no negative effects on the osmium mediated electrochemical currents are observed. These results suggest that improved performance of both intravascular and, potentially, subcutaneous Os(III/II) mediated glucose sensors may be realized by incorporating NO’s well-known anticlotting, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties.PHDChemistryUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144018/1/chakyoun_1.pd

Micro Sensor Node for Air Pollutant Monitoring: Hardware and Software Issues

Wireless sensor networks equipped with various gas sensors have been actively used for air quality monitoring. Previous studies have typically explored system issues that include middleware or networking performance, but most research has barely considered the details of the hardware and software of the sensor node itself. In this paper, we focus on the design and implementation of a sensor board for air pollutant monitoring applications. Several hardware and software issues are discussed to explore the possibilities of a practical WSN-based air pollution monitoring system. Through extensive experiments and evaluation, we have determined the various characteristics of the gas sensors and their practical implications for air pollutant monitoring systems

N_pN_n dependence of empirical formula for the lowest excitation energy of the 2^+ states in even-even nuclei

We examine the effects of the additional term of the type $\sim e^{- \lambda' N_pN_n}$ on the recently proposed empirical formula for the lowest excitation energy of the $2^+$ states in even-even nuclei. This study is motivated by the fact that this term carries the favorable dependence of the valence nucleon numbers dictated by the $N_pN_n$ scheme. We show explicitly that there is not any improvement in reproducing $E_x(2_1^+)$ by including the extra $N_pN_n$ term. However, our study also reveals that the excitation energies $E_x(2_1^+)$, when calculated by the $N_pN_n$ term alone (with the mass number $A$ dependent term), are quite comparable to those calculated by the original empirical formula.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figure

Empirical formula applied to the lowest excitation energies of the natural parity odd multipole states in even-even nuclei

We applied our recently proposed empirical formula, a formula quite successful in describing essential trends of the lowest excitation energies of the natural parity even multipole states, to the lowest excitation energies of the natural parity odd multipole states in even-even nuclei throughout the entire periodic table. Even though the systematic behavior of the lowest excitation energies of odd multipole states is quite different from those of even multipole states, we have shown that the same empirical formula also holds reasonably well for the odd multipole states with the exception of a few certain instances.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figure