Development and performance evaluation of a natural draft mixed-type solar dryer for agricultural products

Reduced moisture content enhances storage properties of agricultural products and reduces post-harvest losses. Effective drying can be achieved using solar dryers in regions with abundant solar radiation. In this study, a natural draft mixed-type solar dryer suitable for rural communities of developing countries was developed. The performance of the solar dryer was also investigated using pepper, okra and tomato. The temperature taken at different points of the drying chamber and the auxiliary collector show that the temperature within the drying chamber is higher than the ambient temperature. The temperature within the drying chamber was also found to depend on the atmospheric conditions. The maximum drying rate was obtained at periods between 1200 and 1400 hrs Nigeria local time during which the temperature within the solar dryer is also maximum. Temperature within the solar dryer reached up to 62°C. The solar collector efficiency was 52.0% while the drying efficiency was 21.9%.Peer reviewe

Lessons and Prospects from the pMSSM after LHC Run I: Neutralino LSP

We study SUSY signatures at the 7, 8 and 14 TeV LHC employing the 19-parameter, R-Parity conserving p(henomenological)MSSM, in the scenario with a neutralino LSP. Our results were obtained via a fast Monte Carlo simulation of the ATLAS SUSY analysis suite. The flexibility of this framework allows us to study a wide variety of SUSY phenomena simultaneously and to probe for weak spots in existing SUSY search analyses. We determine the ranges of the sparticle masses that are either disfavored or allowed after the searches with the 7 and 8 TeV data sets are combined. We find that natural SUSY models with light squarks and gluinos remain viable. We extrapolate to 14 TeV with both 300 fb$^{-1}$ and 3 ab$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity and determine the expected sensitivity of the jets + MET and stop searches to the pMSSM parameter space. We find that the high-luminosity LHC will be powerful in probing SUSY with neutralino LSPs and can provide a more definitive statement on the existence of natural Supersymmetry.Comment: 41 pages, 27 figures. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1307.844

A Perturbative Approach to the Relativistic Harmonic Oscillator

A quantum realization of the Relativistic Harmonic Oscillator is realized in terms of the spatial variable $x$ and {\d\over \d x} (the minimal canonical representation). The eigenstates of the Hamiltonian operator are found (at lower order) by using a perturbation expansion in the constant $c^{-1}$. Unlike the Foldy-Wouthuysen transformed version of the relativistic hydrogen atom, conventional perturbation theory cannot be applied and a perturbation of the scalar product itself is required.Comment: 9 pages, latex, no figure

q-Analogue of Shock Soliton Solution

By using Jackson's q-exponential function we introduce the generating function, the recursive formulas and the second order q-differential equation for the q-Hermite polynomials. This allows us to solve the q-heat equation in terms of q-Kampe de Feriet polynomials with arbitrary N moving zeroes, and to find operator solution for the Initial Value Problem for the q-heat equation. By the q-analog of the Cole-Hopf transformation we construct the q-Burgers type nonlinear heat equation with quadratic dispersion and the cubic nonlinearity. In q -> 1 limit it reduces to the standard Burgers equation. Exact solutions for the q-Burgers equation in the form of moving poles, singular and regular q-shock soliton solutions are found.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

Impact of localization on Dyson's circular ensemble

A wide variety of complex physical systems described by unitary matrices have been shown numerically to satisfy level statistics predicted by Dyson's circular ensemble. We argue that the impact of localization in such systems is to provide certain restrictions on the eigenvalues. We consider a solvable model which takes into account such restrictions qualitatively and find that within the model a gap is created in the spectrum, and there is a transition from the universal Wigner distribution towards a Poisson distribution with increasing localization.Comment: To be published in J. Phys.

CP Asymmetry in Charged Higgs Decays in MSSM

We discuss and compare the charge-parity (CP) asymmetry in the charged Higgs boson decays H -> \bar{u}_i d_j for the second and third generation quarks in the minimal supersymmetric standard model. As part of the analysis, we derive some general analytical formulas for the imaginary parts of two-point and three-point scalar one-loop integrals and use them for calculating vectorial and tensorial type integrals needed for the problem under consideration. We find that, even though each decay mode has a potential to yield a CP asymmetry larger than 10%, further analysis based on the number of required charged Higgs events at colliders favors the \bar{t}b, \bar{c}b, and \bar{c}s channels, whose asymmetry could reach 10-15% in certain parts of the parameter space.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures. Discussion about charged Higgs observability added, typos corrected, accepted for publication in PR

Topology Optimization for Loads with Multiple Points of Application

The optimal design for loads with multiple points of application is herein investigated by using a formulation of displacement-constrained minimum volume topology optimization. For each one of the several points in which a moving force may be applied, a static load case is introduced, and a local enforcement is implemented to control the relevant displacement. Inspired by some recent contributions in stress-based topology optimization of large-scale structures, an Augmented Lagrangian approach, is adopted to handle efficiently the arising multi-constrained problem, in conjunction with mathematical programming. The results of some numerical simulations are shown to comment on optimal shapes for loads with multiple points of application, as compared to classical solutions for fixed loads