546 research outputs found
Customer perceptions of road infrastructure surface conditions
This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from ICE Publishing via http://dx.doi.org/10.1680/iasma.15.00001 Performance is a key tenet of infrastructure management. This paper looks at a measure of service level in infrastructure, namely, road smoothness. Conventionally, studies of this type have focused on the technical measures themselves. This paper presents the results of the first stage of a New Zealand-based case study that, by contrast, explored the engineering processes through the lens of the outcomes they sought to achieve; in this instance, customer comfort. The paper asserts that if performance is to be determined by outcomes, then a holistic approach is needed, including a revised definition of technical performance. This research was funded by the NZTA
Multiscale investigation of adsorption properties of novel 3D printed UTSA-16 structures
Structuring MOF materials is a fundamental step towards their commercialization. Herein we report intensive characterization of 3D-printed UTSA-16 monoliths, facilitated by the development of a new non-aqueous ink formulation, employing hydroxypropyl cellulose and boehmite to adjust the rheology of the ink. What makes this formulation and printing process different from the printed adsorbents and catalysts published previously, is that the resulting structures in this work were not sintered. The presence of the binder matrix not only produced the physical properties for printability but also ensured a homogeneous dispersion of UTSA-16 in the structures, as well as gas adsorption characteristics. The monoliths were tested for the adsorption of different gases (N2, CH4, CO2 and H2O) in order to apply them into separation processes that contribute to defossilizing energy and fuels production. Water is strongly adsorbed in this material (~14 mol/kg at 293 K) and is competing with CO2 for adsorption sites. Breakthrough curves showed that the retention time of CO2 decreases significantly when the feed stream is saturated with water. In this study, synchrotron XRD-CT data were collected in situ, in a non-destructive way, and phase distribution maps were reconstructed to, for the first time, gain insight into the spatial and temporal evolution of the UTSA-16 containing phases in the operating 3D printed monolith during the exposure to CO2.publishedVersio
A Gene Co-Expression Network in Whole Blood of Schizophrenia Patients Is Independent of Antipsychotic-Use and Enriched for Brain-Expressed Genes
Despite large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS), the underlying genes for schizophrenia are largely unknown. Additional approaches are therefore required to identify the genetic background of this disorder. Here we report findings from a large gene expression study in peripheral blood of schizophrenia patients and controls. We applied a systems biology approach to genome-wide expression data from whole blood of 92 medicated and 29 antipsychotic-free schizophrenia patients and 118 healthy controls. We show that gene expression profiling in whole blood can identify twelve large gene co-expression modules associated with schizophrenia. Several of these disease related modules are likely to reflect expression changes due to antipsychotic medication. However, two of the disease modules could be replicated in an independent second data set involving antipsychotic-free patients and controls. One of these robustly defined disease modules is significantly enriched with brain-expressed genes and with genetic variants that were implicated in a GWAS study, which could imply a causal role in schizophrenia etiology. The most highly connected intramodular hub gene in this module (ABCF1), is located in, and regulated by the major histocompatibility (MHC) complex, which is intriguing in light of the fact that common allelic variants from the MHC region have been implicated in schizophrenia. This suggests that the MHC increases schizophrenia susceptibility via altered gene expression of regulatory genes in this network
Determination of the b quark mass at the M_Z scale with the DELPHI detector at LEP
An experimental study of the normalized three-jet rate of b quark events with
respect to light quarks events (light= \ell \equiv u,d,s) has been performed
using the CAMBRIDGE and DURHAM jet algorithms. The data used were collected by
the DELPHI experiment at LEP on the Z peak from 1994 to 2000. The results are
found to agree with theoretical predictions treating mass corrections at
next-to-leading order. Measurements of the b quark mass have also been
performed for both the b pole mass: M_b and the b running mass: m_b(M_Z). Data
are found to be better described when using the running mass. The measurement
yields: m_b(M_Z) = 2.85 +/- 0.18 (stat) +/- 0.13 (exp) +/- 0.19 (had) +/- 0.12
(theo) GeV/c^2 for the CAMBRIDGE algorithm. This result is the most precise
measurement of the b mass derived from a high energy process. When compared to
other b mass determinations by experiments at lower energy scales, this value
agrees with the prediction of Quantum Chromodynamics for the energy evolution
of the running mass. The mass measurement is equivalent to a test of the
flavour independence of the strong coupling constant with an accuracy of 7
permil.Comment: 24 pages, 10 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.
Measurement and Interpretation of Fermion-Pair Production at LEP energies above the Z Resonance
This paper presents DELPHI measurements and interpretations of
cross-sections, forward-backward asymmetries, and angular distributions, for
the e+e- -> ffbar process for centre-of-mass energies above the Z resonance,
from sqrt(s) ~ 130 - 207 GeV at the LEP collider. The measurements are
consistent with the predictions of the Standard Model and are used to study a
variety of models including the S-Matrix ansatz for e+e- -> ffbar scattering
and several models which include physics beyond the Standard Model: the
exchange of Z' bosons, contact interactions between fermions, the exchange of
gravitons in large extra dimensions and the exchange of sneutrino in R-parity
violating supersymmetry.Comment: 79 pages, 16 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.
Study of Tau-pair Production in Photon-Photon Collisions at LEP and Limits on the Anomalous Electromagnetic Moments of the Tau Lepton
Tau-pair production in the process e+e- -> e+e-tau+tau- was studied using
data collected by the DELPHI experiment at LEP2 during the years 1997 - 2000.
The corresponding integrated luminosity is 650 pb^{-1}. The values of the
cross-section obtained are found to be in agreement with QED predictions.
Limits on the anomalous magnetic and electric dipole moments of the tau lepton
are deduced.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.
A Measurement of the Tau Hadronic Branching Ratios
The exclusive and semi-exclusive branching ratios of the tau lepton hadronic
decay modes (h- v_t, h- pi0 v_t, h- pi0 pi0 v_t, h- \geq 2pi0 v_t, h- \geq 3pi0
v_t, 2h- h+ v_t, 2h- h+ pi0 v_t, 2h- h+ \geq 2pi0 v_t, 3h- 2h+ v_t and 3h- 2h+
\geq 1pi0 v_t) were measured with data from the DELPHI detector at LEP.Comment: 53 pages, 18 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.
Evidence for an Excess of Soft Photons in Hadronic Decays of Z^0
Soft photons inside hadronic jets converted in front of the DELPHI main
tracker (TPC) in events of qqbar disintegrations of the Z^0 were studied in the
kinematic range 0.2 < E_gamma < 1 GeV and transverse momentum with respect to
the closest jet direction p_T < 80 MeV/c. A clear excess of photons in the
experimental data as compared to the Monte Carlo predictions is observed. This
excess (uncorrected for the photon detection efficiency) is (1.17 +/- 0.06 +/-
0.27) x 10^{-3} gamma/jet in the specified kinematic region, while the expected
level of the inner hadronic bremsstrahlung (which is not included in the Monte
Carlo) is (0.340 +/- 0.001 +/- 0.038) x 10^{-3} gamma/jet. The ratio of the
excess to the predicted bremsstrahlung rate is then (3.4 +/- 0.2 +/- 0.8),
which is similar in strength to the anomalous soft photon signal observed in
fixed target experiments with hadronic beams.Comment: 37 pages, 9 figures, Accepted by Eur. Phys. J.
Energy dependence of Cronin momentum in saturation model for and collisions
We calculate dependence of Cronin momentum for and
collisions in saturation model. We show that this dependence is consistent with
expectation from formula which was obtained using simple dimentional
consideration. This can be used to test validity of saturation model (and
distinguish among its variants) and measure dependence of saturation
momentum from experimental data.Comment: LaTeX2e, 12 pages, 8 figure
CP asymmetry in in a general two-Higgs-doublet model with fourth-generation quarks
We discuss the time-dependent CP asymmetry of decay in an
extension of the Standard Model with both two Higgs doublets and additional
fourth-generation quarks. We show that although the Standard Model with
two-Higgs-doublet and the Standard model with fourth generation quarks alone
are not likely to largely change the effective from the decay of
, the model with both additional Higgs doublet and
fourth-generation quarks can easily account for the possible large negative
value of without conflicting with other experimental
constraints. In this model, additional large CP violating effects may arise
from the flavor changing Yukawa interactions between neutral Higgs bosons and
the heavy fourth generation down type quark, which can modify the QCD penguin
contributions. With the constraints obtained from processes
such as and , this model can lead to the
effective to be as large as in the CP asymmetry of .Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, references added, to appear in Eur.Phys.J.
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