Upper Hunter Valley Particle Characterization Study 2nd Progress Report

The objective of the Upper Hunter Valley Particle Characterization Study is to determine the major components and sources of particulate matter (as PM2.5 – particles with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres) in the two main population centres in the Upper Hunter Valley, namely Singleton and Muswellbrook. This 2nd Progress Report presents an update on the project, some preliminary results, and a description of the CSIRO analysis technique.© 2012 CSIR

Upper Hunter Valley Particle Characterization Study 3rd Progress Report

The objective of the Upper Hunter Valley Particle Characterization Study is to determine the major components and sources of particulate matter (as PM2.5 – particles with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres) in the two main population centres in the Upper Hunter Valley, namely Singleton and Muswellbrook. This 3rd Progress Report presents an update on the project and some quality checks of the data.© 2013 CSIR

Upper Hunter Valley particle characterization study: 1st progress report – site commissioning and methodology

The objective of the Upper Hunter Valley Particle Characterization Study is to determine the major components and sources of particulate matter (as PM2.5 – particles with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres) in the two main population centres in the Upper Hunter Valley, namely Singleton and Muswellbrook. This 1st Progress Report outlines the design of the project, the methodology, and the commissioning phase.© 2012 CSIR

Geometry and electronic structure of iridium adsorbed on graphene

We report investigation of the geometry and electronic structure of iridium atoms adsorbed onto graphene through a combined experimental and theoretical study. Ir atoms were deposited onto a flake of graphene on a Pt(111) surface and found to form clusters even at low temperatures. The areal density of the observed clusters on the graphene flake suggests the clusters are most likely pairs of Ir atoms. Theoretical ab initio density functional (DFT) calculations indicate that these Ir dimers are oriented horizontally, near neighboring "bridge" sites of the graphene lattice, as this configuration has the strongest adsorption energy of all high-symmetry configurations for the Ir dimer. A large peak in the local density of states (LDOS) at the Dirac point energy was measured via scanning tunneling spectroscopy, and this result is reproduced by a DFT calculation of the LDOS. The peak at the Dirac point energy is found to be from the Ir s and p states. The LDOS in the monomer case was also calculated, and is found to significantly differ from the experimentally determined data, further supporting the hypothesis of low-temperature clustering

Lower Hunter particle characterisation study 2nd progress report (Winter).

The Lower Hunter Particle Characterisation Study was commissioned by the NSW Environment Protection Authority in 2013 to investigate the composition and major sources of particle pollution in the Lower Hunter. The study was conducted by scientists from the former Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH), CSIRO and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), with oversight from the NSW Ministry of Health, and completed in 2016. Focusing on very small particles, invisible to the human eye, which can be inhaled and can pass through the throat and nose and into the lungs, the study aimed to determine the composition and major sources of fine particles (PM2.5) and coarse particles (PM2.5-10). Fine particles were monitored at four sites, including two sites representative of regional population exposures (Newcastle, Beresfield) and two sites near the Port of Newcastle (Mayfield and Stockton). Coarse particles were monitored at Mayfield and Stockton, the two sites near the Port of Newcastle

Lower Hunter particle characterisation study 4th progress report (Summer)

The Lower Hunter Particle Characterisation Study was commissioned by the NSW Environment Protection Authority in 2013 to investigate the composition and major sources of particle pollution in the Lower Hunter. The study was conducted by scientists from the former Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH), CSIRO and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), with oversight from the NSW Ministry of Health, and completed in 2016. Focusing on very small particles, invisible to the human eye, which can be inhaled and can pass through the throat and nose and into the lungs, the study aimed to determine the composition and major sources of fine particles (PM2.5) and coarse particles (PM2.5-10). Fine particles were monitored at four sites, including two sites representative of regional population exposures (Newcastle, Beresfield) and two sites near the Port of Newcastle (Mayfield and Stockton). Coarse particles were monitored at Mayfield and Stockton, the two sites near the Port of Newcastle

Upper Hunter Valley particle characterization study: final report

This study provides an analysis of the composition of PM2.5 (particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometres) in the two main population centres in the Upper Hunter, namely Muswellbrook and Singleton, during 012.The finer PM2.5 particles have been studied because they are of greatest concern owing to their impact on health. Samples were collected for 24 hours every third day and analysed for the components of PM2.5, specifically twenty elements, fourteen soluble ions, two anhydrous sugars (levoglucosan and mannosan) that are found in woodsmoke, organic carbon (OC), and black carbon (BC), as well as gravimetric mass. The chemical composition of all the samples from each site was analysed using a mathematical technique called Positive Matrix Factorisation (PMF), which is widely used in air pollution source apportionment studies. This identified eight factors (also called ‘fingerprints’) which represent the mix of components that tend to vary together in time. Further analysis, using information about known sources and knowledge of atmospheric chemistry as well as wind sector and seasonal analysis, was undertaken to identify the most likely source of emissions for each factor and hence the contribution that each source makes to the measured PM2.5 concentrations. © 2013 CSIROSummary (factsheet) also attached

Hybrid Algorithms Based on Integer Programming for the Search of Prioritized Test Data in Software Product Lines

In Software Product Lines (SPLs) it is not possible, in general, to test all products of the family. The number of products denoted by a SPL is very high due to the combinatorial explosion of features. For this reason, some coverage criteria have been proposed which try to test at least all feature interactions without the necessity to test all products, e.g., all pairs of features (pairwise coverage). In addition, it is desirable to first test products composed by a set of priority features. This problem is known as the Prioritized Pairwise Test Data Generation Problem. In this work we propose two hybrid algorithms using Integer Programming (IP) to generate a prioritized test suite. The first one is based on an integer linear formulation and the second one is based on a integer quadratic (nonlinear) formulation. We compare these techniques with two state-of-the-art algorithms, the Parallel Prioritized Genetic Solver (PPGS) and a greedy algorithm called prioritized-ICPL. Our study reveals that our hybrid nonlinear approach is clearly the best in both, solution quality and computation time. Moreover, the nonlinear variant (the fastest one) is 27 and 42 times faster than PPGS in the two groups of instances analyzed in this work.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. Partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER under contract TIN2014-57341-R, the University of Málaga, Andalucía Tech and the Spanish Network TIN2015-71841-REDT (SEBASENet)

Parity Doubling and the S Parameter Below the Conformal Window

We describe a lattice simulation of the masses and decay constants of the lowest-lying vector and axial resonances, and the electroweak S parameter, in an SU(3) gauge theory with $N_f = 2$ and 6 fermions in the fundamental representation. The spectrum becomes more parity doubled and the S parameter per electroweak doublet decreases when $N_f$ is increased from 2 to 6, motivating study of these trends as $N_f$ is increased further, toward the critical value for transition from confinement to infrared conformality.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures; to be submitted to PR

Excited state intramolecular proton transfer in hydroxyanthraquinones: Toward predicting fading of organic red colorants in art.

Compositionally similar organic red colorants in the anthraquinone family, whose photodegradation can cause irreversible color and stability changes, have long been used in works of art. Different organic reds, and their multiple chromophores, suffer degradation disparately. Understanding the details of these molecules' degradation therefore provides a window into their behavior in works of art and may assist the development of improved conservation methods. According to one proposed model of photodegradation dynamics, intramolecular proton transfer provides a kinetically favored decay pathway in some photoexcited chromophores, preventing degradation-promoting electron transfer (ET). To further test this model, we measured excited state lifetimes of substituted gas-phase anthraquinones using high-level theory to explain the experimental results. The data show a general structural trend: Anthraquinones with 1,4-OH substitution are long-lived and prone to damaging ET, while excited state intramolecular proton transfers promote efficient quenching for hydroxyanthraquinones that lack this motif