A Radio Determination of the Time of the New Moon

The detection of the New Moon at sunset is of importance to communities based on the lunar calendar. This is traditionally undertaken with visual observations. We propose a radio method which allows a higher visibility of the Moon relative to the Sun and consequently gives us the ability to detect the Moon much closer to the Sun than is the case of visual observation. We first compare the relative brightness of the Moon and Sun over a range of possible frequencies and find the range 5--100\,GHz to be suitable. The next consideration is the atmospheric absorption/emission due to water vapour and oxygen as a function of frequency. This is particularly important since the relevant observations are near the horizon. We show that a frequency of $\sim 10$ GHz is optimal for this programme. We have designed and constructed a telescope with a FWHM resolution of 0$^\circ{}\!\!$.6 and low sidelobes to demonstrate the potential of this approach. At the time of the 21 May 2012 New Moon the Sun/Moon brightness temperature ratio was $72.7 \pm 2.2$ in agreement with predictions from the literature when combined with the observed sunspot numbers for the day. The Moon would have been readily detectable at $\sim 2^{\circ}$ from the Sun. Our observations at 16\,hr\,36\,min UT indicated that the Moon would have been at closest approach to the Sun 16\,hr\,25\,min earlier; this was the annular solar eclipse of 00\,hr\,00\,min\,UT on 21 May 2012.Comment: 11 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

From Gapped Excitons to Gapless Triplons in One Dimension

Often, exotic phases appear in the phase diagrams between conventional phases. Their elementary excitations are of particular interest. Here, we consider the example of the ionic Hubbard model in one dimension. This model is a band insulator (BI) for weak interaction and a Mott insulator (MI) for strong interaction. Inbetween, a spontaneously dimerized insulator (SDI) occurs which is governed by energetically low-lying charge and spin degrees of freedom. Applying a systematically controlled version of the continuous unitary transformations (CUTs) we are able to determine the dispersions of the elementary charge and spin excitations and of their most relevant bound states on equal footing. The key idea is to start from an externally dimerized system using the relative weak interdimer coupling as small expansion parameter which finally is set to unity to recover the original model.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figure

Excitation Spectrum of One-dimensional Extended Ionic Hubbard Model

We use Perturbative Continuous Unitary Transformations (PCUT) to study the one dimensional Extended Ionic Hubbard Model (EIHM) at half-filling in the band insulator region. The extended ionic Hubbard model, in addition to the usual ionic Hubbard model, includes an inter-site nearest-neighbor (n.n.) repulsion, $V$. We consider the ionic potential as unperturbed part of the Hamiltonian, while the hopping and interaction (quartic) terms are treated as perturbation. We calculate total energy and ionicity in the ground state. Above the ground state, (i) we calculate the single particle excitation spectrum by adding an electron or a hole to the system. (ii) the coherence-length and spectrum of electron-hole excitation are obtained. Our calculations reveal that for V=0, there are two triplet bound state modes and three singlet modes, two anti-bound states and one bound state, while for finite values of $V$ there are four excitonic bound states corresponding to two singlet and two triplet modes. The major role of on-site Coulomb repulsion $U$ is to split singlet and triplet collective excitation branches, while $V$ tends to pull the singlet branches below the continuum to make them bound states.Comment: 10 eps figure

Critical design factors on performance of car jack lifting operations

Car jack is an equipped accessory package in every units of car sold to customer that used to uplift the cars while replacing tires during an emergency or repair. The automotive manufacturers are actively conducting their Product Improvement Campaign and the objective of the campaign is to improve the quality of product sold to the customers. The current jack design has a possibility of failure during its operations. The customer satisfaction point of view will be converted to engineering characteristic to acquire the concept of design and input into new design proposal and at the same time eliminate the possibility of failure of the current design. The research is conducted to improve the current jack design on its performance in lifting operations. The scope of research is to identify the critical zone in jack design structure that possibly causing the failure during its operations. To optimize the existing design, it is proposed some modification on the jack structure with a minimum weight increment but improve the design structural strength. The failure root cause analysis, reliability test and Design Failure Mode and Effect Analysis have been used to identify the specific critical area in the structure and resolve them by proposing the new improved jack design. The current car jack sample in market is used as an industrial sample for design analysis to find the target area for further improvement. From the analysis, we can know the critical design factors in the current car jack design and the required design improvement to enhance its performance in lifting operations

Dizajniranje i sinteza novih derivata tiofenkarbohidrazida, tienopirazola i tienopirimidina s antioksidativnim i antitumorskim djelovanjem

2-Amino-5-acetyl-4-methyl-thiophene-3-carboxylic acid ethyl ester (1) and 5-acetyl-2-amino-4-methylthiophene-3-carbohydrazide (2) were synthesized and used as starting materials for the synthesis of new series of 1-(5-amino-4-(3,5-dimethyl-1H-pyrazole-1-carbonyl)-3-methylthiophen-2-yl) ethanone (3a), 1-(5-amino-4-(4-chloro-3,5-dimethyl-1H-pyrazole-1-carbonyl)-3-methylthiophen-2-yl) ethanone (3b), 1-(4-methyl-2-amino-5-acetylthiophene-3-carbonyl) pyrazolidine-3,5-dione (4), (Z)-N\u27-(4-methyl-2-amino-5-acetylthiophene-3-carbonyl) formohydrazonic acid (5a), (Z)-ethyl-N\u27-(4-methyl-2-amino-5-acetylthiophene-3-carbonylformo hydrazonate (5b), 6-acetyl-3-amino-2,5-dimethylthieno2,3-dpyrimidin-4(3H)-one (8), 5-methyl-3-amino-2-mercapto-6-acetylthieno2,3-dpyrimidin-4(3H)-one (10) and 5-methyl-6-acetyl-2-thioxo-2,3-dihydrothieno2,3-dpyrimidin-4(1H)-one (12) as potential antioxidant and antitumor agents. Pharmacological results showed that compounds 6a, 6b, 8, 10 and 12 exhibited promising antitumor and antioxidant activity.Etilni ester 2-amino-5-acetil-4-metil-tiofen-3-karboksilne kiseline (1) i 5-acetil-2-amino-4-metiltiofen-3-karbohidrazid (2) sintetizirani su i upotrebljeni kao reaktanti u sintezi novih spojeva 1-(5-amino-4-(3,5-dimetil-1H-pirazol-1-karbonil)-3-metiltiofen-2-il) etanona (3a), 1-(5-amino-4-(4-klor-3,5-dimetil-1H-pirazol-1-karbonil)-3-metiltiofen-2-il) etanona (3b), 1-(4-metil-2-amino-5-acetiltiofen-3-karbonil) pirazolidin-3,5-diona (4), (Z)-N\u27-(4-metil-2-amino-5-acetiltiofen-3-karbonil) formohidrazonske kiseline (5a), (Z)-etil-N\u27-(4-metil-2-amino-5-acetiltiofen-3-karbonilformo hidrazonata (5b), 6-acetil-3-amino-2,5-dimetiltieno2,3-dpirimidin-4(3H)-one (8), 5-metil-3-amino-2-merkapto-6-acetiltieno2,3-dpirimidin-4(3H)-ona (10) i 5-metil-6-acetil-2-tiokso-2,3-dihidrotieno2,3-dpirimidin-4(1H)-ona (12) kao potencijalnih antioksidansa i citostatika. Farmakološka ispitivanja ukazuju na to da spojevi 6a, 6b, 8, 10 i 12 imaju značajno antitumorsko i antioksidativno djelovanje