Influence of finite volume and magnetic field effects on the QCD phase diagram

The Polyakov linear sigma model (PLSM) is used to investigate the respective influence of a finite volume and a magnetic field on the quark-hadron phase boundary in the plane of baryon chemical potential ($\mu_{B}$) vs. temperature ($T$) of the QCD phase diagram. The calculated results indicate sizable shifts of the quark-hadron phase boundary to lower values of $(\mu_{B}~\text{and}~T)$ for increasing magnetic field strength, and an opposite shift to higher values of $(\mu_{B}~\text{and}~T)$ for decreasing system volume. Such shifts could have important implications for extraction of the thermodynamic properties of the QCD phase diagram from heavy ion data

A hidden cause of infertility in hypothyroid patients

Methylene tetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene mutations could be the cause of infertility in hypothyroid patients. Hence, it is worthy to screen for MTHFR gene mutations in infertile hypothyroid females and their partners if infertility persists after optimizing thyroid function

Distance from a fishing community explains fish abundance in a no-take zone with weak compliance

There are numerous examples of no-take marine reserves effectively conserving fish stocks within their boundaries. However, no-take reserves can be rendered ineffective and turned into ‘paper parks’ through poor compliance and weak enforcement of reserve regulations. Long-term monitoring is thus essential to assess the effectiveness of marine reserves in meeting conservation and management objectives. This study documents the present state of the 15-year old no-take zone (NTZ) of South El Ghargana within the Nabq Managed Resource Protected Area, South Sinai, Egyptian Red Sea. Previous studies credited willing compliance by the local fishing community for the increased abundances of targeted fish within the designated NTZ boundaries compared to adjacent fished or take-zones. We compared benthic habitat and fish abundance within the NTZ and the adjacent take sites open to fishing, but found no significant effect of the reserve. Instead, the strongest evidence was for a simple negative relationship between fishing pressure and distance from the closest fishing village. The abundance of targeted piscivorous fish increased significantly with increasing distance from the village, while herbivorous fish showed the opposite trend. This gradient was supported by a corresponding negative correlation between the amount of discarded fishing gear observed on the reef and increasing distance from the village. Discarded fishing gear within the NTZ suggested decreased compliance with the no-take regulations. Our findings indicate that due to non-compliance the no-take reserve is no longer functioning effectively, despite its apparent initial successes and instead a gradient of fishing pressure exists with distance from the nearest fishing community

Novel epoxy activated hydrogels for solving lactose intolerance

"Lactose intolerance" is a medical problem for almost 70% of the world population. Milk and dairy products contain 5-10% w/v lactose. Hydrolysis of lactose by immobilized lactase is an industrial solution. In this work, we succeeded to increase the lactase loading capacity to more than 3-fold to 36.3 U/g gel using epoxy activated hydrogels compared to 11 U/g gel using aldehyde activated carrageenan. The hydrogel's mode of interaction was proven by FTIR, DSC, and TGA. The high activity of the epoxy group was regarded to its ability to attach to the enzyme's -SH, -NH, and -OH groups, whereas the aldehyde group could only bind to the enzyme's -NH2 group. The optimum conditions for immobilization such as epoxy chain length and enzyme concentration have been studied. Furthermore, the optimum enzyme conditions were also deliberated and showed better stability for the immobilized enzyme and the Michaelis constants, Km and Vmax, were doubled. Results revealed also that both free and immobilized enzymes reached their maximum rate of lactose conversion after 2 h, albeit, the aldehyde activated hydrogel could only reach 63% of the free enzyme. In brief, the epoxy activated hydrogels are more efficient in immobilizing more enzymes than the aldehyde activated hydrogel

DCU-TCD@LogCLEF 2010: re-ranking document collections and query performance estimation

This paper describes the collaborative participation of Dublin City University and Trinity College Dublin in LogCLEF 2010. Two sets of experiments were conducted. First, different aspects of the TEL query logs were analysed after extracting user sessions of consecutive queries on a topic. The relation between the queries and their length (number of terms) and position (first query or further reformulations) was examined in a session with respect to query performance estimators such as query scope, IDF-based measures, simplified query clarity score, and average inverse document collection frequency. Results of this analysis suggest that only some estimator values show a correlation with query length or position in the TEL logs (e.g. similarity score between collection and query). Second, the relation between three attributes was investigated: the user's country (detected from IP address), the query language, and the interface language. The investigation aimed to explore the influence of the three attributes on the user's collection selection. Moreover, the investigation involved assigning different weights to the three attributes in a scoring function that was used to re-rank the collections displayed to the user according to the language and country. The results of the collection re-ranking show a significant improvement in Mean Average Precision (MAP) over the original collection ranking of TEL. The results also indicate that the query language and interface language have more in uence than the user's country on the collections selected by the users

Non-linear optimization for parameter estimation for flood forecasting

Floods are the response of a catchment area to severe rainfall events. Each catchment will have its unique response which is dependent on its own characteristics and the temporal and spatial distribution of the oncoming rainfall event. A non linear optimization technique has been applied to historical data for rainfall and river flows of the Kakanui catchment in North Otago, New Zealand, to estimate the parameters of a model based on the transfer function concept. The non linear optimization is based on Powell algorithm. Powell algorithm has been widely used in the literature, and it is more efficient and faster than the Simplex method (Press et al., 1989) Observed rainfall events at two locations in the Kakanui catchment, along with the corresponding observed flows of the river have been utilized to estimate the transfer function which represents the response of the Kakanui catchment to rainfall events. An adjusted form of Philip’s equation for infiltration was used to estimate the abstraction of the rainfall event and obtain the effective rainfall which will contribute to the river flow. Weighing factors were assigned to each of the rainfall sites to obtain the best fit between observed and forecasted flows. Nine flood events were used for the calibration process, while two events were utilized for the validation of the derived model. The model has 19 parameters for the transfer function, 2 parameters for the hydrologic abstractions model, and 2 parameters for the weighing factors of the rainfall sites. This results in a total of 23 parameters for the developed model. The ratio of observed cumulative rainfall at Clifton Falls to the corresponding rainfall at the Dasher for historical events is not consistent, and varies significantly from one event to another. This indicates the high variability of the spatial distribution of rainfall events over the Kakanui catchment. As these rainfall events were used in the model calibration, it was difficult to obtain the correct transfer function without proper accounting for the spatial distribution of rainfall over the whole watershed. However, the model, in general, performed satisfactory, given the difficulty in representing the spatial variability of the rainfall events. The model was capable of simulating the flood hydrographs of several events which were incorporated in its calibration, but did not perform well with others. The model was able to simulate well the flows of a flood event which was not included in its calibration. Moreover, in applying the derived model for a real case event which occurred most recently on 30 July 2007, the model was able to forecast very closely the peak flow, but the whole flow hydrograph was not forecasted as good

Generalized magneto-thermoelasticity in a perfectly conducting medium

AbstractA model of the equations of generalized magneto-thermoelasticity in a perfectly conducting medium is given. The formulation is applied to generalizations, Lord–Shulman theory with one relaxation time and the Green–Lindsay theory with two relaxation times, as well as to the coupled theory.Laplace transforms and Fourier transforms techniques are used to get the solution. The resulting formulation is used to solve a specific two-dimensional problem. The inverses of Fourier transforms are obtained analytically.Laplace transforms are obtained using the complex inversion formula of the transform together with Fourier expansion techniques.Numerical results for the temperature distribution, thermal stress and displacement components are represented graphically. A comparison was made with the results predicted by the three theories

Power Sharing Method Based on Droop Control for Three-Phase UPS Systems

The main objective of this paper is to improve the power sharing capability and to achieve synchronization between three-phase Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) units in the presence of load interruption. This paper presents a droop-controlled scheme in such a way that the computation of the instantaneous value of the active power and the reactive power are taken as feedback signals to the frequency and voltage restoration control system. The restored frequency and voltage are introduced to voltage controller circuit, which produces a suitable control signal to sinusoidal pulse width modulation circuit (SPWM). Thus producing a suitable trigger pulses to the inverter gate in order to guarantee synchronization between three-phase UPS units. Simulation of two UPS units with the same ratings (4 KW) are carried out using MATLAB. The results show the effectiveness of the proposed control system in achieving synchronization and improving the power sharing capability in the presence of load interruption. Keywords: Uninterruptible power supply; power sharing; parallel operation; droop control. DOI: 10.7176/JETP/9-4-02 Publication date: April 30th 201

Three-dimensional electromagnetic power deposition in tumors using interstitial antenna arrays

Journal ArticleInterstitial arrays of insulated antennas have shown promise for microwave hyperthermia treatment of deep-seated tumors. Available analytical techniques for predicting the electromagnetic (EM) power deposition of these antennas have been limited to the case of a homogeneous conductive medium surrounding the array. Since tumors and host tissue may differ in their electrical characteristics, it is necessary to consider the impact of this variation in electrical properties and the geometry of the tumor in the calculation of the EM field distribution and power deposition pattern when modeling interstitial antennas

The Impact of Learning Stations Strategy on Developing Technology Concepts among Sixth Grade Female Students

This study aimed to investigate the effect of learning stations strategy in developing technology concepts among sixth grade female students, researchers used the experimental approach, which used the conceptual test for measuring the effectiveness of the learning stations strategy developing technology concepts, a random sample of (63) students divided into two groups was used, the experimental group was (33) and the control was (30). Researchers used independent" T-test”, and the result showed that there are differences at the level (α= 0.05) between the average group degrees of control and the average scores of the experimental group in the conceptual test favor for the experimental group. Therefore, researchers recommended to employ learning stations strategy in teaching technology by the teachers and supervisors