Enhancement of perfluorooctanoate and perfluorooctanesulfonate activity at acoustic cavitation bubble interfaces

Acoustic cavitation driven by ultrasonic irradiation decomposes and mineralizes the recalcitrant perfluorinated surfactants perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA). Pyrolytic cleavage of the ionic headgroup is the rate-determining step. In this study, we examine the sonochemical adsorption of PFOX, where X = S for PFOS and A for PFOA, by determining kinetic order and absolute rates over an initial PFOX concentration range of 20 nM to 200 μM. Sonochemical PFOX kinetics transition from pseudo-first-order at low initial concentrations, [PFOX]_i 40 μM, as the bubble interface sites are saturated. At PFOX concentrations below 100 μM, concentration-dependent rates were modeled with Langmuir−Hinshelwood (LH) kinetics. Empirically determined rate maximums, V_(Max)^(−PFOA) = 2230 ± 560 nM min^−1 and V_(Max)^(−PFOS) = 230 ± 60 nM min^−1, were used in the LH model, and sonochemical surface activities were estimated to be K_(Sono)^(PFOS) = 120000 M^−1 and K_(Sono)^(PFOA) = 28500 M^−1, 60 and 80 times greater than equilibrium surface activities, K_(Eq)^(PFOS) and K_(Eq)^(PFOA). These results suggest enhanced sonochemical degradation rates for PFOX when the bubble interface is undersaturated. The present results are compared to previously reported sonochemical kinetics of nonvolatile surfactants

Planning When Goals Change: A Moving Target Search Approach

International audienceDevising intelligent robots or agents that interact with humans is a major challenge for artificial intelligence. In such contexts, agents must constantly adapt their decisions according to human activities and modify their goals. In this paper, we tackle this problem by introducing a novel planning approach, called Moving Goal Planning (MGP), to adapt plans to goal evolutions. This planning algorithm draws inspiration from Moving Target Search (MTS) algorithms. In order to limit the number of search iterations and to improve its efficiency, MGP delays as much as possible triggering new searches when the goal changes over time. To this purpose, MGP uses two strategies: Open Check (OC) that checks if the new goal is still in the current search tree and Plan Follow (PF) that estimates whether executing actions of the current plan brings MGP closer to the new goal. Moreover, MGP uses a parsimonious strategy to update incrementally the search tree at each new search that reduces the number of calls to the heuristic function and speeds up the search. Finally, we show evaluation results that demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach

Testrun results from prototype fiber detectors for high rate particle tracking

A fiber detector concept has been realized allowing to registrate particles within less than 100 nsec with a space point precision of about 0.1 mm at low occupancy. Three full size prototypes have been build by different producers and tested at a 3 GeV electron beam at DESY. After 3 m of light guides 8-10 photoelectrons were registrated by multichannel photomultipliers providing an efficiency of more than 99%. Using all available data a resolution of 0.086 mm was measured.Comment: 18 pages, 17 figure

Achieving equity through 'gender autonomy': the challenges for VET policy and practice

This paper is based on research carried out in an EU Fifth Framework project on 'Gender and Qualification'. The research partners from five European countries investigated the impact of gender segregation in European labour markets on vocational education and training, with particular regard to competences and qualifications. The research explored the part played by gender in the vocational education and training experiences of (i) young adults entering specific occupations in child care, electrical engineering and food preparation/service (ii) adults changing occupations

SU(5) Heterotic Standard Model Bundles

We construct a class of stable SU(5) bundles on an elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau threefold with two sections, a variant of the ordinary Weierstrass fibration, which admits a free involution. The bundles are invariant under the involution, solve the topological constraint imposed by the heterotic anomaly equation and give three generations of Standard Model fermions after symmetry breaking by Wilson lines of the intermediate SU(5) GUT-group to the Standard Model gauge group. Among the solutions we find some which can be perturbed to solutions of the Strominger system. Thus these solutions provide a step toward the construction of phenomenologically realistic heterotic flux compactifications via non-Kahler deformations of Calabi-Yau geometries with bundles. This particular class of solutions involves a rank two hidden sector bundle and does not require background fivebranes for anomaly cancellation.Comment: 17 page

Tube Width Fluctuations in F-Actin Solutions

We determine the statistics of the local tube width in F-actin solutions, beyond the usually reported mean value. Our experimental observations are explained by a segment fluid theory based on the binary collision approximation (BCA). In this systematic generalization of the standard mean-field approach effective polymer segments interact via a potential representing the topological constraints. The analytically predicted universal tube width distribution with a stretched tail is in good agreement with the data.Comment: Final version, 5 pages, 4 figure