Emissivity measurements of reflective surfaces at near-millimeter wavelengths

We have developed an instrument for directly measuring the emissivity of reflective surfaces at near-millimeter wavelengths. The thermal emission of a test sample is compared with that of a reference surface, allowing the emissivity of the sample to be determined without heating. The emissivity of the reference surface is determined by one’s heating the reference surface and measuring the increase in emission. The instrument has an absolute accuracy of Δe = 5 x 10^-4 and can reproducibly measure a difference in emissivity as small as Δe = 10^-4 between flat reflective samples. We have used the instrument to measure the emissivity of metal films evaporated on glass and carbon fiber-reinforced plastic composite surfaces. We measure an emissivity of (2.15 ± 0.4) x 10^-3 for gold evaporated on glass and (2.65 ± 0.5) x 10^-3 for aluminum evaporated on carbon fiber-reinforced plastic composite

Underlying symmetries of realistic interactions and the nuclear many-body problem

The present study brings forward important information, within the framework of spectral distribution theory, about the types of forces that dominate three realistic interactions, CD-Bonn, CDBonn+ 3terms and GXPF1, in nuclei and their ability to account for many-particle effects such as the formation of correlated nucleon pairs and enhanced quadrupole collective modes. Like-particle and proton-neutron isovector pairing correlations are described microscopically by a model interaction with Sp(4) dynamical symmetry, which is extended to include an additional quadrupole-quadrupole interaction. The analysis of the results for the 1f7/2 level shows that both CD-Bonn+3terms and GXPF1 exhibit a well-developed pairing character compared to CD-Bonn, while the latter appears to build up more (less) rotational isovector T = 1 (isoscalar T = 0) collective features. Furthermore, the three realistic interactions are in general found to correlate strongly with the pairing+quadrupole model interaction, especially for the highest possible isospin group of states where the model interaction can be used to provide a reasonable description of the corresponding energy spectra.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

PET/MRI of Hepatic 90Y Microsphere Deposition Determines Individual Tumor Response.

PurposeThe purpose of our study is to determine if there is a relationship between dose deposition measured by PET/MRI and individual lesion response to yttrium-90 ((90)Y) microsphere radioembolization.Materials and methods26 patients undergoing lobar treatment with (90)Y microspheres underwent PET/MRI within 66 h of treatment and had follow-up imaging available. Adequate visualization of tumor was available in 24 patients, and contours were drawn on simultaneously acquired PET/MRI data. Dose volume histograms (DVHs) were extracted from dose maps, which were generated using a voxelized dose kernel. Similar contours to capture dimensional and volumetric change of tumors were drawn on follow-up imaging. Response was analyzed using both RECIST and volumetric RECIST (vRECIST) criteria.ResultsA total of 8 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), 4 neuroendocrine tumor (NET), 9 colorectal metastases (CRC) patients, and 3 patients with other metastatic disease met inclusion criteria. Average dose was useful in predicting response between responders and non-responders for all lesion types and for CRC lesions alone using both response criteria (p < 0.05). D70 (minimum dose to 70 % of volume) was also useful in predicting response when using vRECIST. No significant trend was seen in the other tumor types. For CRC lesions, an average dose of 29.8 Gy offered 76.9 % sensitivity and 75.9 % specificity for response.ConclusionsPET/MRI of (90)Y microsphere distribution showed significantly higher DVH values for responders than non-responders in patients with CRC. DVH analysis of (90)Y microsphere distribution following treatment may be an important predictor of response and could be used to guide future adaptive therapy trials

Regularities with random interactions in energy centroids defined by group symmetries

Regular structures generated by random interactions in energy centroids defined over irreducible representations (irreps) of some of the group symmetries of the interacting boson models $sd$IBM, $sdg$IBM, $sd$IBM-$T$ and $sd$IBM-$ST$ are studied by deriving trace propagations equations for the centroids. It is found that, with random interactions, the lowest and highest group irreps in general carry most of the probability for the corresponding centroids to be lowest in energy. This generalizes the result known earlier, via numerical diagonalization, for the more complicated fixed spin ($J$) centroids where simple trace propagation is not possible.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figure

Quantum fields in gravity

We give a brief description of some compelling connections between general relativity and thermodynamics through i) the semi-classical tunnelling method(s) and ii) the field-theoretical modelling of Unruh-DeWitt detectors. In both approaches it is possible to interpret some quantities in a thermodynamical frame.Comment: 4 pages, no figures, contribution to the proceedings of the conference "Relativity and Gravitation - 100 years after Einstein in Prague

Design Concepts for Cooled Ceramic Composite Turbine Vane

The objective of this work was to develop design concepts for a cooled ceramic vane to be used in the first stage of the High Pressure Turbine(HPT). To insure that the design concepts were relevant to the gas turbine industry needs, Honeywell International Inc. was subcontracted to provide technical guidance for this work. The work performed under this contract can be divided into three broad categories. The first was an analysis of the cycle benefits arising from the higher temperature capability of Ceramic Matrix Composite(CMC) compared with conventional metallic vane materials. The second category was a series of structural analyses for variations in the internal configuration of first stage vane for the High Pressure Turbine(HPT) of a CF6 class commercial airline engine. The third category was analysis for a radial cooled turbine vanes for use in turboshaft engine applications. The size, shape and internal configuration of the turboshaft engine vanes were selected to investigate a cooling concept appropriate to small CMC vanes