98 research outputs found
Vibration modes of giant gravitons in the background of dilatonic D-branes
We consider the perturbation of giant gravitons in the background of
dilatonic D-branes whose geometry is not of a conventional form of . We use the quadratic approximation to the brane action to
investigate their vibrations around the equilibrium configuration. We found the
normal modes of small vibrations of giant gravitons and these vibrations are
turned out to be stable.Comment: 11 pages, LaTex, typos corrected, some points are clarified with
comment
Fe(III) loaded chitosan-biochar composite fibers for the removal of phosphate from water
Excess phosphorous (P) in aquatic systems causes adverse environmental impacts including eutrophication. This study fabricated Fe(III) loaded chitosan-biochar composite fibers (FBC-N and FBC-C) from paper mill sludge biochar produced under N2 (BC-N) and CO2 (BC-C) conditions at 600 °C for adsorptive removal of phosphate from water. Investigations using SEM/EDX, XPS, Raman spectroscopy, and specific surface area measurement revealed the morphological and physico-chemical characteristics of the adsorbent. The Freundlich isotherm model well described the phosphate adsorption on BC-N, while the RedlichâPeterson model best fitted the data of three other adsorbents. The maximum adsorption capacities were 9.63, 8.56, 16.43, and 19.24 mg P gâ1 for BC-N, BC-C, FBC-N, and FBC-C, respectively, indicating better adsorption by Fe(III) loaded chitosan-biochar composite fibers (FBCs) than pristine biochars. The pseudo-first-order kinetic model suitably explained the phosphate adsorption on BC-C and BC-N, while data of FBC-N and FBC-C followed the pseudo-second-order and Elovich model, respectively. Molecular level observations of the P K-edge XANES spectra confirmed that phosphate associated with iron (Fe) minerals (Fe-P) were the primary species in all the adsorbents. This study suggests that FBCs hold high potential as inexpensive and green adsorbents for remediating phosphate in contaminated water, and encourage resource recovery via bio-based management of hazardous waste
S-matrix elements and off-shell tachyon action with non-abelian gauge symmetry
We propose that there is a unique expansion for the string theory S-matrix
elements of tachyons that corresponds to non-abelian tachyon action. For those
S-matrix elements which, in their expansion, there are the Feynman amplitudes
resulting from the non-abelian kinetic term, we give a prescription on how to
find the expansion. The gauge invariant action is an expanded action,
and the tachyon mass which appears as coefficient of many different
couplings, is arbitrary. We then analyze in details the S-matrix element of
four tachyons and the S-matrix element of two tachyons and two gauge fields, in
both bosonic and superstring theories, in favor of this proposal. In the
superstring theory, the leading terms of the non-abelian gauge invariant
couplings are in agreement with the symmetrised trace of the direct non-abelian
generalization of the tachyonic Born-Infeld action in which the tachyon
potential is consistent with . In the bosonic
theory, on the other hand, the leading terms are those appear in superstring
case as well as some other gauge invariant couplings which spoils the
symmetrised trace prescription. These latter terms are zero in the abelian
case.Comment: Latex, 27 pages, no figures,v4:change the introduction section, add
some notes to clarify the idea, add reference
Cosmology from Rolling Massive Scalar Field on the anti-D3 Brane of de Sitter Vacua
We investigate a string-inspired scenario associated with a rolling massive
scalar field on D-branes and discuss its cosmological implications. In
particular, we discuss cosmological evolution of the massive scalar field on
the ant-D3 brane of KKLT vacua. Unlike the case of tachyon field, because of
the warp factor of the anti-D3 brane, it is possible to obtain the required
level of amplitude of density perturbations. We study the spectra of scalar and
tensor perturbations generated during the rolling scalar inflation and show
that our scenario satisfies the observational constraint coming from the Cosmic
Microwave Background anisotropies and other observational data. We also
implement the negative cosmological constant arising from the stabilization of
the modulus fields in the KKLT vacua and find that this leads to a successful
reheating in which the energy density of the scalar field effectively scales as
a pressureless dust. The present dark energy can be also explained in our
scenario provided that the potential energy of the massive rolling scalar does
not exactly cancel with the amplitude of the negative cosmological constant at
the potential minimum.Comment: RevTex4, 15 pages, 5 eps figures, minor clarifications and few
references added, final version to appear in PR
Safety and Quality in the Agricultural Product Chain in Brazil
An agriculture-intensive country should be aware of natural toxins, including both mycotoxins and cyanotoxins, which are closely associated with the quality of raw materials, for food safety and industry. The major production chains â corn, wheat, beef, and broiler chicken â are the top components of agribusiness, and they should be tracked by reliable and practical tools. The corn chain is of particular concern in food production; intensive controls, multi-year mycotoxin monitoring, and improved harmless/sustainable management methods for uninterrupted farming in the tropic-subtropics are needed to achieve a long-lasting trend. The rapid control of natural toxins (mycotoxin and cyanotoxin) has focused on immunochemical methods developed with highly specific monoclonal antibodies (mAb) matched with chromatographic methods. In parallel, the promising widespread application of non-destructive analytical methods based on NIR (Near Infrared Reflectance) spectroscopy, computer vision and hyperspectral imaging coupled with multivariate analyses have been introduced as an alternative for the prediction of quality and compositional parameters. Rapid quality control and product traceability are discussed, as well as accurate monitoring, which is essential for potentially launching an innovative system for food production in Brazil
A remediation approach to chromium-contaminated water and soil using engineered biochar derived from peanut shell
Hexavalent chromium (Cr[VI]) is one of the major environmental concerns due to its excessive discharge through effluents from the leather tanning industry. Peanut production leads to the generation of residual shells as waste calling for sustainable disposal. In this study, we employed an innovative approach of applying peanut-shell-derived pristine and engineered biochar for the remediation of Cr-contaminated wastewater and soil. The peanut shell waste was converted to biochar, which was further engineered with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB, a commonly used cationic surfactant). The biochars were then used for the adsorption and immobilization of Cr(VI) in water and soil, respectively. The adsorption experiments demonstrated high Cr(VI) removal efficiency for the engineered biochar (79.35%) compared with the pristine biochar (37.47%). The Langmuir model best described the Cr(VI) adsorption onto the biochars (R2 > 0.97), indicating monolayer adsorption. Meanwhile, the adsorption kinetics indicated that chemisorption was the dominant mechanism of interaction between the Cr(VI) and the biochars, as indicated by the best fitting to the pseudo-second-order model (R2 > 0.98). Adsorption through the fixed-bed column also presented higher Cr(VI) adsorption onto the engineered biochar (qeq = 22.93 mg gâ1) than onto the pristine biochar (qeq = 18.54 mg gâ1). In addition, the desorption rate was higher for the pristine biochar column (13.83 mg gâ1) than the engineered biochar column (10.45 mg gâ1), indicating that Cr(VI) was more strongly adsorbed onto the engineered biochar. A higher immobilization of Cr(VI) was observed in the soil with the engineered biochar than with the pristine biochar, as was confirmed by the significant decreases in the Cr(VI) bioavailability (92%), leachability (100%), and bioaccessibility (97%) compared with the control (soil without biochar). The CTAB-engineered biochar could thus potentially be used as an efficient adsorbent for the removal and the immobilization of Cr(VI) in water and soil, respectively
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