Analysis of infrared optical polishing effluents and reduction of COD and TSS levels by ultrafiltration and coagulation/flocculation

Samples of polishing effluent produced during infrared optics manufacture were analyzed. Their particle size, composition, Zeta potential, chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), and settleable solids were determined. Feasibility of treatment methods such as ultrafiltration (UF) and coagulation/flocculation was investigated to reduce both COD and TSS. It was found that effluents consisted of a suspension of micro- and nanoparticles. Effluent particle size distribution reflected the removal rate of the originating polishing process. Their composition was primarily germanium and other polished substrates as well as polishing abrasives. The effluent Zeta potential was highly negative and prevented particle settling. COD of all specimens was very high, which prevented sewage discharge. Laboratory-scale trials using UF showed substantial COD abatement of up to 74.1%. TSS was reduced to zero after UF. Comparable coagulation/flocculation COD abatement was demonstrated for the highest COD sample

Results from the CASTLES Survey of Gravitational Lenses

We show that most gravitational lenses lie on the passively evolving fundamental plane for early-type galaxies. For burst star formation models (1 Gyr of star formation, then quiescence) in low Omega_0 cosmologies, the stellar populations of the lens galaxies must have formed at z_f > 2. Typical lens galaxies contain modest amounts of patchy extinction, with a median differential extinction for the optical (radio) selected lenses of E(B-V) = 0.04 (0.07) mag. The dust can be used to determine both extinction laws and lens redshifts. For example, the z_l=0.96 elliptical lens in MG0414+0534 has an R_V=1.7 +/- 0.1 mean extinction law. Arc and ring images of the quasar and AGN source host galaxies are commonly seen in NICMOS H band observations. The hosts are typically blue, L < L_* galaxies.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, from Proceedings of the 9th Annual Astrophysics Conference in Maryland, After the Dark Ages: When Galaxies Were Youn

Enhanced heterogeneous nucleation on oxides in Al alloys by intensive shearing

Oxides, in liquid aluminium alloys, can cause severe difficulties during casting, contribute to the formation of cast defects and degrade the mechanical properties of cast components. In this paper, microstructural characteristics of naturally occurring oxides in the melts of commercial purity aluminium and Al-Mg binary alloys have been investigated. They are characterised by densely populated oxide particles within liquid oxide films. With intensive shearing, the particle agglomerates are dispersed into uniformly distributed individual particles. It was found that with intensive melt shearing, grain refinement of α-Al can be achieved by the dispersed oxide particles. The smaller lattice misfit between the oxide particles and the α-Al phase is characterised by a well defined crystallographic orientation relationship. And the mechanisms of grain refinement are discussed.The EPSR

Exploring the potential cost-effectiveness of a new computerised decision support tool for identifying fetal compromise during monitored term labours: an early health economic model

Background: Around 60% of term labours in the UK are continuously monitored using cardiotocography (CTG) to guide clinical labour management. Interpreting the CTG trace is challenging, leading to some babies suffering adverse outcomes and others unnecessary expedited deliveries. A new data driven computerised tool combining multiple clinical risk factors with CTG data (attentive CTG) was developed to help identify term babies at risk of severe compromise during labour. This paper presents an early health economic model exploring its potential cost-effectiveness. Methods: The model compared attentive CTG and usual care with usual care alone and simulated clinical events, healthcare costs, and infant quality-adjusted life years over 18 years. It was populated using data from a cohort of term pregnancies, the literature, and administrative datasets. Attentive CTG effectiveness was projected through improved monitoring sensitivity/specificity and potential reductions in numbers of severely compromised infants. Scenario analyses explored the impact of including litigation costs. Results: Nationally, attentive CTG could potentially avoid 10,000 unnecessary alerts in labour and 2400 emergency C-section deliveries through improved specificity. A reduction of 21 intrapartum stillbirths amongst severely compromised infants was also predicted with improved sensitivity. Attentive CTG could potentially lead to cost savings and health gains with a probability of being cost-effective at £25,000 per QALY ranging from 70 to 95%. Potential exists for further cost savings if litigation costs are included. Conclusions: Attentive CTG could offer a cost-effective use of healthcare resources. Prospective patient-level studies are needed to formally evaluate its effectiveness and economic impact in routine clinical practice

Lensed Quasar Hosts

Gravitational lensing assists in the detection of quasar hosts by amplifying and distorting the host light away from the unresolved quasar core images. We present the results of HST observations of 30 quasar hosts at redshifts 1 < z < 4.5. The hosts are small in size (r_e <~ 6 kpc), and span a range of morphologies consistent with early-types (though smaller in mass) to disky/late-type. The ratio of the black hole mass (MBH, from the virial technique) to the bulge mass (M_bulge, from the stellar luminosity) at 1<z<1.7 is broadly consistent with the local value; while MBH/M_bulge at z>1.7 is a factor of 3--6 higher than the local value. But, depending on the stellar content the ratio may decline at z>4 (if E/S0-like), flatten off to 6--10 times the local value (if Sbc-like), or continue to rise (if Im-like). We infer that galaxy bulge masses must have grown by a factor of 3--6 over the redshift range 3>z>1, and then changed little since z~1. This suggests that the peak epoch of galaxy formation for massive galaxies is above z~1. We also estimate the duty cycle of luminous AGNs at z>1 to be ~1%, or 10^7 yrs, with sizable scatter.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, review article with C. Impey at the conference on "QSO Host Galaxies: Evolution and Environment", Aug. 29-Sep. 2, 2005, Lorentz Center, Leiden, The Netherland

PKS 1830-211: A Face-On Spiral Galaxy Lens

We present new Hubble Space Telescope images of the gravitational lens PKS 1830-211, which allow us to characterize the lens galaxy and update the determination of the Hubble constant from this system. The I-band image shows that the lens galaxy is a face-on spiral galaxy with clearly delineated spiral arms. The southwestern image of the background quasar passes through one of the spiral arms, explaining the previous detections of large quantities of molecular gas and dust in front of this image. The lens galaxy photometry is consistent with the Tully-Fisher relation, suggesting the lens galaxy is a typical spiral galaxy for its redshift. The lens galaxy position, which was the main source of uncertainty in previous attempts to determine H_0, is now known precisely. Given the current time delay measurement and assuming the lens galaxy has an isothermal mass distribution, we compute H_0 = 44 +/- 9 km/s/Mpc for an Omega_m = 0.3 flat cosmological model. We describe some possible systematic errors and how to reduce them. We also discuss the possibility raised by Courbin et al. (2002), that what we have identified as a single lens galaxy is actually a foreground star and two separate galaxies.Comment: 21 pp., 4 figs., accepted by ApJ, section added to discuss related work by Courbin et al. (astro-ph/0202026