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Report on a visit to Sri Lanka to evaluate performance of traditional furnace/heat exchanger systems used in the tea industry: 10 to 29 November 1992
Under a project entitled "Fuel efficient wood-fired furnace systems" NRI has developed a fuel efficient wood fired furnace/heat exchanger system suitable for application in developing countries. To gauge its effectiveness in both economic and technical terms a comparative study of a typical system used in the Sri Lankan tea industry was carried out. This was coupled to a detailed energy audit of a tea processing factory in order to assess the relative importance of process heat within the entire manufacturing operation. This exercise was carried out in close collaboration with Browns Engineering, a long established Sri Lankan company which sells and maintains tea furnace/dryer equipment both to the Sri Lankan industry and for export. On the evidence of detailed trial results at one factory, observations in other factories, and discussion with equipment suppliers; there are clearly significant energy savings that could be achieved in the industry. Servicing of existing furnace equipment and furnace operator training should be given high priority. Production scheduling within the new factory groupings·also offers scope for reduced specific energy consumption. It was also established from the assignment that there exists a desire to upgrade furnace equipment in the tea industry. The NRI unit is competitively priced and offers significantly improved wood fuel utilization. Changes in the industry and the plans of new management groups to improve efficiency and update manufacturing techniques makes this an opportune time for introduction of the NRI design. A simple payback financial analysis shows that there are financial benefits in replacing old and inefficient units. A suitable venue for field testing and techno-economic evaluation of performance under prolonged operation has been identified
Anisotropic Neutron Spin Resonance in Superconducting BaFeNiAs
We use polarized inelastic neutron scattering to show that the neutron spin
resonance below in superconducting BaFeNiAs (
K) is purely magnetic in origin. Our analysis further reveals that the
resonance peak near 7~meV only occurs for the planar response. This challenges
the common perception that the spin resonance in the pnictides is an isotropic
triplet excited state of the singlet Cooper pairs, as our results imply that
only the components of the triplet are involved
A Right to ‘Dying Well’ with Dementia? Capacity, ‘Choice’ and Relationality.
A right to 'dying well' with dementia? Capacity, 'choice' and relationalit
Spin density wave induced disordering of the vortex lattice in superconducting LaSrCuO
We use small angle neutron scattering to study the superconducting vortex
lattice in LaSrCuO as a function of doping and magnetic field.
We show that near optimally doping the vortex lattice coordination and the
superconducting coherence length are controlled by a van-Hove singularity
crossing the Fermi level near the Brillouin zone boundary. The vortex lattice
properties change dramatically as a spin-density-wave instability is approached
upon underdoping. The Bragg glass paradigm provides a good description of this
regime and suggests that SDW order acts as a novel source of disorder on the
vortex lattice.Comment: Accepted in Phys. Rev.
Electronic and Magnetic Structures of Chain Structured Iron Selenide Compounds
Electronic and magnetic structures of iron selenide compounds Ce2O2FeSe2
(2212\ast) and BaFe2Se3(123\ast) are studied by the first-principles
calculations. We find that while all these compounds are composed of
one-dimensional (1D) Fe chain (or ladder) structures, their electronic
structures are not close to be quasi-1D. The magnetic exchange couplings
between two nearest-neighbor (NN) chains in 2212\ast and between two NN
two-leg-ladders in 123\ast are both antiferromagnetic (AFM), which is
consistent with the presence of significant third NN AFM coupling, a common
feature shared in other iron-chalcogenides, FeTe (11\ast) and KyFe2-xSe2
(122\ast). In magnetic ground states, each Fe chain of 2212\ast is
ferromagnetic and each two-leg ladder of 123\ast form a block-AFM structure. We
suggest that all magnetic structures in iron-selenide compounds can be unified
into an extended J1-J2-J3 model. Spin-wave excitations of the model are
calculated and can be tested by future experiments on these two systems.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, 2 table
Norwich COVID-19 testing initiative pilot: evaluating the feasibility of asymptomatic testing on a university campus
Background: There is a high prevalence of COVID-19 in university-age students, who are returning to campuses. There is little evidence regarding the feasibility of universal, asymptomatic testing to help control outbreaks in this population. This study aimed to pilot mass COVID-19 testing on a university research park, to assess the feasibility and acceptability of scaling up testing to all staff and students. Methods: This was a cross-sectional feasibility study on a university research park in the East of England. All staff and students (5625) were eligible to participate. All participants were offered four PCR swabs, which they self-administered over two weeks. Outcome measures included uptake, drop-out rate, positivity rates, participant acceptability measures, laboratory processing measures, data collection and management measures. Results: 798 (76%) of 1053 who registered provided at least one swab; 687 (86%) provided all four; 792 (99%) of 798 who submitted at least one swab had all negative results and 6 participants had one inconclusive result. There were no positive results. 458 (57%) of 798 participants responded to a post-testing survey, demonstrating a mean acceptability score of 4.51/5, with five being the most positive. Conclusions: Repeated self-testing for COVID-19 using PCR is feasible and acceptable to a university population
Progress in Neutron Scattering Studies of Spin Excitations in High-Tc Cuprates
Neutron scattering experiments continue to improve our knowledge of spin
fluctuations in layered cuprates, excitations that are symptomatic of the
electronic correlations underlying high-temperature superconductivity.
Time-of-flight spectrometers, together with new and varied single crystal
samples, have provided a more complete characterization of the magnetic energy
spectrum and its variation with carrier concentration. While the spin
excitations appear anomalous in comparison with simple model systems, there is
clear consistency among a variety of cuprate families. Focusing initially on
hole-doped systems, we review the nature of the magnetic spectrum, and
variations in magnetic spectral weight with doping. We consider connections
with the phenomena of charge and spin stripe order, and the potential
generality of such correlations as suggested by studies of magnetic-field and
impurity induced order. We contrast the behavior of the hole-doped systems with
the trends found in the electron-doped superconductors. Returning to hole-doped
cuprates, studies of translation-symmetry-preserving magnetic order are
discussed, along with efforts to explore new systems. We conclude with a
discussion of future challenges.Comment: revised version, to be published in JPSJ, 20 pages, 21 figure
Optimal strategy to identify incidence of diagnostic of diabetes using administrative data
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Accurate estimates of incidence and prevalence of the disease is a vital step toward appropriate interventions for chronic disease like diabetes. A growing body of scientific literature is now available on producing accurate information from administrative data. Advantages of use of administrative data to determine disease incidence include feasibility, accessibility and low cost, but straightforward use of administrative data can produce biased information on incident cases of chronic disease like diabetes. The present study aimed to compare criteria for the selection of diabetes incident cases in a medical administrative database.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>An exhaustive retrospective cohort of diabetes cases was constructed for 2002 using the Canadian National Diabetes Surveillance System case definition (one hospitalization or two physician claims with a diagnosis of diabetes over a 2-year period) with the Quebec health service database. To identify previous occurrence of diabetes in the database, a five-year observation period was evaluated using retrograde survival function and kappa agreement. The use of NDSS case definition to identify incident cases was compared to a single occurrence of an ICD-9 code 250 in the records using the McNemar test.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Retrograde survival function showed that the probability of being a true incident case after a 5-year diabetes-free observation period was almost constant and near 0.14. Agreement between 10 years (maximum period) and 5 years and more diabetes-free observation periods were excellent (kappa > 0.9). Respectively 41,261 and 37,473 incident cases were identified using a 5-year diabetes-free observation period with NDSS definition and using a single ICD-9 code 250.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A 5-year diabetes-free observation period was a conservative time to identify incident cases in an administrative database using one ICD-9 code 250 record.</p
Structural, Magnetic and Electronic Properties of the Iron-Chalcogenide AFeSe (A=K, Cs, Rb, Tl and etc.) Superconductors
The latest discovery of a new iron-chalcogenide superconductor
AFeSe(A=K, Cs, Rb, Tl and etc.) has attracted much attention
due to a number of its unique characteristics, such as the possible insulating
state of the parent compound, the existence of Fe-vacancy and its ordering, a
new form of magnetic structure and its interplay with superconductivity, and
the peculiar electronic structures that are distinct from other Fe-based
superconductors. In this paper, we present a brief review on the structural,
magnetic and electronic properties of this new superconductor, with an emphasis
on the electronic structure and superconducting gap. Issues and future
perspectives are discussed at the end of the paper.Comment: 45 pages, 19 figure
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