Viscosity effects on sand flow regimes and transport velocity in horizontal pipelines

Solids transport in multiphase systems is one of the issues under the umbrella of ‘‘flow assurance.’ But unlike issues such as waxes and hydrates, solids transport has received relatively little interest to date. The overall aim of this research was to investigate the fluid viscosity effects on sand particle transport characteristics in pipelines. Investigations were conducted using a 3-inch test facility for oil and a 4- inch flow loop for water and CMC experiments. Three oil viscosities were used including 105 cP, 200 cP and 340 cP. The sand used had a density of 2650 kg/m3 and a median diameter of 0.2 mm. The sand loadings were 50 lb/1000 bbl and 200lb/1000bbl. Based on the King et al (2000) sand minimum transport condition definition, the sand transport velocity for water, CMC solutions and oil (105 cP, 200 cP and 340 cP) were determined by visual observation and camera. The observed sand/oil flow regimes were compared. For oil/sand tests, it was observed that the dominant regime when approaching the critical sand transport velocity was the sliding sand bed, sand dunes were notably absent. However, for water and 7 cP CMC solution, sand dunes and sliding sand bed regimes were observed when approaching the sand transport velocity. For 20cP CMC solution, it was observed that the sand particles in the region between the main dunes were very active compared to those within the dunes

Extraction of VubV_{ub} from the Decay B→πlνB\to \pi l \nu

We develop the perturbative QCD formalism including Sudakov effects for semi-leptonic $B$ meson decays. We evaluate the differential decay rate of $B\to \pi l \nu$, and find that the perturbative calculation is reliable for the energy fraction of the pion above 0.3. Combining predictions from the soft pion theorems, we extract the value of the matrix element $|V_{ub}|$ which is roughly $2.7\times 10^{-3}$.Comment: 10 pages, CCUTH-94-05, IP-ASTP-13-9

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Ministry of Education, Singapore under its Academic Research Funding Tier

Chiral Lagrangians for Radiative Decays of Heavy Hadrons

The radiative decays of heavy mesons and heavy baryons are studied in a formalism which incorporates both the heavy quark symmetry and the chiral symmetry. The chiral Lagrangians for the electromagnetic interactions of heavy hadrons consist of two pieces: one from gauging electromagnetically the strong-interaction chiral Lagrangian, and the other from the anomalous magnetic moment interactions of the heavy baryons and mesons. Due to the heavy quark spin symmetry, the latter contains only one independent coupling constant in the meson sector and two in the baryon sector. These coupling constants only depend on the light quarks and can be calculated in the nonrelativistic quark model. However, the charm quark is not heavy enough and the contribution from its magnetic moment must be included. Applications to the radiative decays $D^\ast \rightarrow D \gamma~,~B^\ast \rightarrow B \gamma~,~ \Xi^\prime_c \rightarrow \Xi_c \gamma~, \Sigma_c \rightarrow \Lambda_c \gamma$ and $\Sigma_c \rightarrow \Lambda_c \pi \gamma$ are given. Together with our previous results on the strong decay rates of $D^\ast \rightarrow D \pi$ and $\Sigma_c \rightarrow \Lambda_c \pi$, predictions are obtained for the total widths and branching ratios of $D^\ast$ and $\Sigma_c$. The decays $\Sigma^+_c \rightarrow \Lambda^+_c \pi^0 \gamma$ and $\Sigma^0_c \rightarrow \Lambda^+_c \pi^- \gamma$ are discussed to illustrate the important roles played by both the heavy quark symmetry and the chiral symmetry.Comment: 30 pages (one figure, available on request), CLNS 92/1158 and IP-ASTP-13-9

Effective Lagrangian Approach to Weak Radiative Decays of Heavy Hadrons

Motivated by the observation of the decay $\bar{B}\to \bar{K}^*\gamma$ by CLEO, we have systematically analyzed the two-body weak radiative decays of bottom and charmed hadrons. There exist two types of weak radiative decays: One proceeds through the short-distance $b\to s\gamma$ transition and the other occurs through $W$-exchange accompanied by a photon emission. Effective Lagrangians are derived for the $W$-exchange bremsstrahlung processes at the quark level and then applied to various weak electromagnetic decays of heavy hadrons. Predictions for the branching ratios of $\bar{B}^0\to D^{*0} \gamma,~\Lambda_b^0\to\Sigma_c^0\gamma,~\Xi_b^0\to \Xi_c^0\gamma$ and \Xi_b^0\to\xip_c^0\gamma are given. In particular, we found ${\cal B}(\bar{B}^0 \to D^{*0}\gamma)\approx 0.9\times 10^{-6}$. Order of magnitude estimates for the weak radiative decays of charmed hadrons: $~D^0\to \bar{K}^{*0}\gamma,~\Lambda_c^+\to\Sigma^+\gamma$ and $\Xi_c^0\to\Xi^0\gamma$ are also presented. Within this approach, the decay asymmetry for antitriplet to antitriplet heavy baryon weak radiative transitions is uniquely predicted by heavy quark symmetry. The electromagnetic penguin contribution to $\Lambda_b^0\to\Lambda\gamma$ is estimated by two different methods and its branching ratio is found to be of order $1\times 10^{-5}$. We conclude that weak radiative decays of bottom hadrons are dominated by the short-distance $b\to s\gamma$ mechanism.Comment: 28 pages + 3 figures (not included), CLNS 94/1278, IP-ASTP-04-94. [Main changes in this revised version: (i) Sect 2 and subsection 4.1 are revised, (ii) A MIT bag method for calculating the decay rate of $Lambda_b \to\Lambda+gamma$ is presented, (iii) All predictions are updated using the newly available 1994 Particle Data Group, and (iv) Appendix and subsections 3.3 and 4.4 are deleted.

Corrections to Chiral Dynamics of Heavy Hadrons: (I) 1/M Correction

In earlier publications we have analyzed the strong and radiative decays of heavy hadrons in a formalism which incorporates both heavy-quark and chiral symmetries. In particular, we have derived a heavy-hadron chiral Lagrangian whose coupling constants are related by the heavy-quark flavor-spin symmetry arising from the QCD Lagrangian with infinitely massive quarks. In this paper, we re-examine the structure of the above chiral Lagrangian by including the effects of $1/m_Q$ corrections in the heavy quark effective theory. The relations among the coupling constants, originally derived in the heavy-quark limit, are modified by heavy quark symmetry breaking interactions in QCD. Some of the implications are discussed.Comment: PHYZZX, 45 pages, 1 figure (not included), CLNS 93/1192, IP-ASTP-02-93, ITP-SB-93-0

Identification of the tyrosine phosphatase PTP-MEG2 as an antagonist of hepatic insulin signaling

SummaryInsulin resistance is a primary defect in type 2 diabetes characterized by impaired peripheral glucose uptake and insufficient suppression of hepatic glucose output. Insulin signaling inhibits liver glucose production by inducing nuclear exclusion of the gluconeogenic transcription factor FOXO1 in an Akt-dependent manner. Through the concomitant application of genome-scale functional screening and quantitative image analysis, we have identified PTP-MEG2 as a modulator of insulin-dependent FOXO1 subcellular localization. Ectopic expression of PTP-MEG2 in cells inhibited insulin-induced phosphorylation of the insulin receptor, while RNAi-mediated reduction of PTP-MEG2 transcript levels enhanced insulin action. Additionally, adenoviral-mediated depletion of PTP-MEG2 in livers of diabetic (db/db) mice resulted in insulin sensitization and normalization of hyperglycemia. These data implicate PTP-MEG2 as a mediator of blood glucose homeostasis through antagonism of insulin signaling, and suggest that modulation of PTP-MEG2 activity may be an effective strategy in the treatment of type 2 diabetes

Perturbative QCD Analysis of BB Meson Decays

Resummation of large QCD radiative corrections, including leading and next-to-leading logarithms, in pion electromagnetic form factor is reviewed. Similar formalism is applied to exclusive processes involving heavy mesons, and leads to Sudakov suppression for the semi-leptonic decay $B\to\pi l\nu$. It is found that, with the inclusion of Sudakov effects, perturbative QCD analysis of this decay is possible for the energy fraction of the pion above 0.3. By combining predictions from the soft pion theorems, we estimate that the upper limit of the KM matrix element $|V_{ub}|$ is roughly 0.003.Comment: 26 pages in latex, figures are available for reques