Pressure and current balance conditions during electron beam injections from spacecraft

Electrostatic charging level of a conducting surface in response to injections of electron beams into space plasma is investigated by means of one-dimensional Vlasov code. Injections of Maxwellian beams into a vacuum shows that the surface can charge up to an electric potential phi sub s greater than W sub b, where W sub b is the average electron beam energy. Since Maxwellian beams have extended trails with electrons having energies greater than W sub b, it is difficult to quantify the charging level in terms of the energies of the injected electrons. In order to quantitatively understand the charging in excess of W sub b, simulations were carried out for water-bag types of beam with velocity distribution functions described by f(V) = A for V sub min approx. less than V approx. less than V sub max and f(V) = O otherwise, where A is a constant making the normalized beam density unity. It is found that V sub max does not directly determine the charging level. The pressure distribution in the electron sheath determines the electric field distribution near the surface. The electric field in turn determines the electrostatic potential of the vehicle. The pressure distribution is determined by the beam parameters such as the average beam velocity and the velocity spread of the beam

Enhanced toluene removal using granular activated carbon and a yeast strain candida tropicalis in bubble-column bioreactors

The yeast strain Candida tropicalis was used for the biodegradation of gaseous toluene. Toluene was effectively treated by a liquid culture of C. tropicalis in abubble-column bioreactor, and the tolueneremoval efficiency increased with decreasing gas flow rate. However, toluene mass transfer from the gas-to-liquid phase was a major limitation for the uptake of toluene by C. tropicalis. The tolueneremoval efficiency was enhanced when granularactivatedcarbon (GAC) was added as a fluidized material. The GAC fluidized bioreactor demonstrated tolueneremoval efficiencies ranging from 50 to 82% when the inlet toluene loading was varied between 13.1 and 26.9 g/m3/h. The yield value of C. tropicalis ranged from 0.11 to 0.21 g-biomass/g-toluene, which was substantially lower than yield values for bacteria reported in the literature. The maximum elimination capacity determined in the GAC fluidized bioreactor was 172 g/m3/h at atoluene loading of 291 g/m3/h. Transient loading experiments revealed that approximately 50% of the toluene introduced was initially adsorbed onto the GAC during an increased loading period, and then slowly desorbed and became available to the yeast culture. Hence, the fluidized GAC mediated in improving the gas-to-liquid mass transfer of toluene, resulting in a high tolueneremoval capacity. Consequently, the GAC bubble-column bioreactor using the culture of C. tropicalis can be successfully applied for the removal of gaseous toluene

Attraction of Culex mosquitoes to aldehydes from human emanations.

Anecdotes related to preferential mosquito bites are very common, but to date there is no complete explanation as to why one out of two people systematically receives more mosquito bites than the other when both are equally accessible. Here we tested the hypothesis that two constituents of skin emanations, 6-methyl-5-heptan-2-one (6-MHO) and geranylacetone (GA), are natural repellents and may account for differential attraction in different ratios. We studied skin emanations from two human subjects, confirmed in behavioral assays that female southern house mosquitoes are significantly more attracted to subject A (attractant) than to subject N (non-attractant), and tested their 6-MHO/GA ratios in a dual-choice olfactometer. Although repelling at high doses, 6-MHO/GA mixtures were not active at the levels emitted by human skin. We found, however, differential attraction elicited by the aldehydes in the ratios produced by subjects A and N. When tested in a dose commensurate with the level released from human skin and in the ratio produced by subject A, the aldehyde mixture significantly attracted mosquitoes. By contrast, an aldehyde mixture at the same ratio released by subject N did not attract mosquitoes. We, therefore, hypothesized that aldehydes may play a role in the commonly observed differential attraction

Transport properties of diluted magnetic semiconductors: Dynamical mean field theory and Boltzmann theory

The transport properties of diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS) are calculated using dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) and Boltzmann transport theory. Within DMFT we study the density of states and the dc-resistivity, which are strongly parameter dependent such as temperature, doping, density of the carriers, and the strength of the carrier-local impurity spin exchange coupling. Characteristic qualitative features are found distinguishing weak, intermediate, and strong carrier-spin coupling and allowing quantitative determination of important parameters defining the underlying ferromagnetic mechanism. We find that spin-disorder scattering, formation of bound state, and the population of the minority spin band are all operational in DMFT in different parameter range. We also develop a complementary Boltzmann transport theory for scattering by screened ionized impurities. The difference in the screening properties between paramagnetic ($T>T_c$) and ferromagnetic ($T<T_c$) states gives rise to the temperature dependence (increase or decrease) of resistivity, depending on the carrier density, as the system goes from the paramagnetic phase to the ferromagnetic phase. The metallic behavior below $T_c$ for optimally doped DMS samples can be explained in the Boltzmann theory by temperature dependent screening and thermal change of carrier spin polarization.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figure

Improved Combinatorial Group Testing Algorithms for Real-World Problem Sizes

We study practically efficient methods for performing combinatorial group testing. We present efficient non-adaptive and two-stage combinatorial group testing algorithms, which identify the at most d items out of a given set of n items that are defective, using fewer tests for all practical set sizes. For example, our two-stage algorithm matches the information theoretic lower bound for the number of tests in a combinatorial group testing regimen.Comment: 18 pages; an abbreviated version of this paper is to appear at the 9th Worksh. Algorithms and Data Structure

Supernova Ejecta in the Youngest Galactic Supernova Remnant G1.9+0.3

G1.9+0.3 is the youngest known Galactic supernova remnant (SNR), with an estimated supernova (SN) explosion date of about 1900, and most likely located near the Galactic Center. Only the outermost ejecta layers with free-expansion velocities larger than about 18,000 km/s have been shocked so far in this dynamically young, likely Type Ia SNR. A long (980 ks) Chandra observation in 2011 allowed spatially-resolved spectroscopy of heavy-element ejecta. We denoised Chandra data with the spatio-spectral method of Krishnamurthy et al., and used a wavelet-based technique to spatially localize thermal emission produced by intermediate-mass elements (IMEs: Si and S) and iron. The spatial distribution of both IMEs and Fe is extremely asymmetric, with the strongest ejecta emission in the northern rim. Fe Kalpha emission is particularly prominent there, and fits with thermal models indicate strongly oversolar Fe abundances. In a localized, outlying region in the northern rim, IMEs are less abundant than Fe, indicating that undiluted Fe-group elements (including 56Ni) with velocities larger than 18,000 km/s were ejected by this SN. But in the inner west rim, we find Si- and S-rich ejecta without any traces of Fe, so high-velocity products of O-burning were also ejected. G1.9+0.3 appears similar to energetic Type Ia SNe such as SN 2010jn where iron-group elements at such high free-expansion velocities have been recently detected. The pronounced asymmetry in the ejecta distribution and abundance inhomogeneities are best explained by a strongly asymmetric SN explosion, similar to those produced in some recent 3D delayed-detonation Type Ia models.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, submitted to ApJ Letter