Investigation of intermittency in magnetohydrodynamics and solar wind turbulence: scale-dependent kurtosis

The behavior of scale-dependent (or filtered) kurtosis is studied in the solar wind using magnetic field measurements from the ACE and Cluster spacecraft at 1 AU. It is also analyzed numerically with high-resolution magnetohydrodynamic spectral simulations. In each case the filtered kurtosis increases with wavenumber, implying the presence of coherent structures at the smallest scales. This phase coupling is related to intermittency in solar wind turbulence and the emergence of non-Gaussian statistics. However, it is inhibited by the presence of upstream waves and other phase-randomizing structures, which act to reduce the growth of kurtosis

Informed consent in personalized medicine

Thesis (S.M. in Science Writing)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2013.Vita. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 27-30).The next era of medicine will be one of personalization, scientists and physicians promise. Personalized medicine is a refined clinical approach in which clinicians will utilize your genomic information to help you prevent disease, and tailor targeted therapies for you when you fall ill. This is the future science has slowly been approaching. However, the human genome is not enough, not unless we can decipher its language. One ambitious study to this effect is the Personal Genome Project, led by Dr. George Church at Harvard Medical School. This project will eventually recruit 100,000 volunteers to donate their genomes and a full body of information concerning their biological health. With this data, Church hopes others can cross-analyze these profiles and better determine the role in disease of each gene of the human genome. However, the Personal Genome Project is as much a study in the ethical, legal and social aspects of genomic studies as it is an effort toward personalized medicine. Church envisions a future where privacy cannot be guaranteed. Society is becoming more open and technology is more invasive than ever. Considering this, Church has informed his participants that their information will likely not remain anonymous. With their fully informed consent, he has in turn made all this data public, to promote open science. This ethical approach raises several important questions about expansive genomic studies. The scientific community will have to decide on an approach that will eventually deliver personalized medicine. On one end of the spectrum, there is Church's open approach, and the other, more security, more firewalls and more legislation. In order for personalized medicine to become a reality, society will have to prepare itself for our ever-changing ethical, technological and scientific landscape.by Abdul-Kareem H. Ahmed.S.M.in Science Writin

CMC Determination and Thermodynamic Micellisation Of NPE Surfactant In Aqueous And CH3OH – H2O Solvents

The critical micelle concentration (CMC) of nonylphenolethoxylate (NPE) surfactant has been determined by measuring the surface tension as a function of the molar concentration of the surfactant in aqueous and binary mixture of water + methanol solutions at a temperature range from 20?C to 35?C. The interfacial parameters ?max, Amin, ?cmc and ?G?ads were calculated. The results indicate that the CMC increases as the temperature increases and that the addition of methanol the CMC decreases. The thermodynamic parameters such as standard Gibbs free energy (?G?), enthalpy (?H?), and entropy (?S?) of micellization were estimated using the change of CMC with temperature. The enthalpy – entropy compensation behavior of the surfactant was evaluated and a good linearity in the compensation plot has been observed

Adsorption of Hydrogen Sulphide on the Zeolite type A Synthezied from Iraqi Kaoline

Three types of zeolite A were prepared from Iraqi kaoline which are 3A, 4A and 5A by ion exchange method .They were characterized by XRD and atomic absorption techniques .They were used as adsorbents to examine their applicability for H2S adsorption .The adsorption process was performed in a static form and constant volume system which constructed from stainless steel .The effect of zeolite type and temperature on the adsorption properties of H2S at -5 , 25 and 55 oC was studied .The zeolite type 5A has the highest adsorption value (79.384 µmol/g ) and the three types may be arranged in a sequence toward H2S adsorption as 5 A> 4A>3A .The amount of H2S adsorbed increased as temperature decreased from 55 to -5 for all samples. Langmuir , Frendlich and Toth isotherm equations model were applied for the adsorption data in order to determine the affinity and the heterogeneity of the three adsorbents. The heterogeneity parameters of the model equation applied indicated that 5A sample was more heterogeneous compared to other zeolite types