56,839 research outputs found
Effects of Crust Ingestion on Mixer Pump Performance in Tank
In August 1999, a workshop was held at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to discuss the effects of crust ingestion on mixer pump performance in Hanford Waste Tank 241-SY-101. The main purpose of the workshop was to evaluate the potential for crust ingestion to degrade mixing and/or damage the mixer pump. The need for a previously determined 12-inch separation between the top of the mixer pump inlet and the crust base was evaluated. Participants included a representative from the pump manufacturer, an internationally known expert in centrifugal pump theory, Hanford scientists and engineers, and operational specialists representing relevant fields of expertise.
The workshop focused on developing an understanding of the pump design, addressing the physics of entrainment of solids and gases into the pump, and assessing the effects of solids and gases on pump performance. The major conclusions are summarized as follows:
* Entrainment of a moderate amount of solids or gas from the crust should not damage the pump or reduce its lifetime, though mixing effectiveness will be somewhat reduced.
* Air binding should not damage the pump. Vibration due to ingestion of gas, solids, and objects potentially could cause radial loads that might reduce the lifetime of bearings and seals. However, significant damage would require extreme conditions not associated with the small bubbles, fine solids, and chunks of relatively weak material typical of the crust.
* The inlet duct extension opening, 235 inches from the tank bottom, should be considered the pump inlet, not the small gap at 262 inches.
* A suction vortex exists at the inlet of all pumps. The characteristics of the inlet suction vortex in the mixer pump are very hard to predict, but its effects likely extend upward several feet. Because of this, the current 12-inch limit should be replaced with criteria based on actual monitored pump performance. The most obvious criterion (in addition to current operational constraints) is to monitor discharge pressure and cease pump operation if it falls below a predetermined amount.
* There are no critically necessary tests to prove pump operability or performance before initiating the transfer and back-dilution sequence
First- and Second Order Phase Transitions in the Holstein-Hubbard Model
We investigate metal-insulator transitions in the Holstein-Hubbard model as a
function of the on-site electron-electron interaction U and the electron-phonon
coupling g. We use several different numerical methods to calculate the phase
diagram, the results of which are in excellent agreement. When the
electron-electron interaction U is dominant the transition is to a
Mott-insulator; when the electron-phonon interaction dominates, the transition
is to a localised bipolaronic state. In the former case, the transition is
always found to be second order. This is in contrast to the transition to the
bipolaronic state, which is clearly first order for larger values of U. We also
present results for the quasiparticle weight and the double-occupancy as
function of U and g.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
Dynamic response functions for the Holstein-Hubbard model
We present results on the dynamical correlation functions of the
particle-hole symmetric Holstein-Hubbard model at zero temperature, calculated
using the dynamical mean field theory which is solved by the numerical
renormalization group method. We clarify the competing influences of the
electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions particularity at the
different metal to insulator transitions. The Coulomb repulsion is found to
dominate the behaviour in large parts of the metallic regime. By suppressing
charge fluctuations, it effectively decouples electrons from phonons. The
phonon propagator shows a characteristic softening near the metal to
bipolaronic transition but there is very little softening on the approach to
the Mott transition.Comment: 13 pages, 19 figure
Site determination and thermally assisted tunneling in homogenous nucleation
A combined low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and density
functional theory study on the binding and diffusion of copper monomers,
dimers, and trimers adsorbed on Cu(111) is presented. Whereas atoms in trimers
are found in fcc sites only, monomers as well as atoms in dimers can occupy the
stable fcc as well as the metastable hcp site. In fact the dimer fcc-hcp
configuration was found to be only 1.3 meV less favorable with respect to the
fcc-fcc configuration. This enables a confined intra-cell dimer motion, which
at temperatures below 5 K is dominated by thermally assisted tunneling.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Physical Purification of Quantum States
We introduce the concept of a physical process that purifies a mixed quantum
state, taken from a set of states, and investigate the conditions under which
such a purification map exists. Here, a purification of a mixed quantum state
is a pure state in a higher-dimensional Hilbert space, the reduced density
matrix of which is identical to the original state. We characterize all sets of
mixed quantum states, for which perfect purification is possible. Surprisingly,
some sets of two non-commuting states are among them. Furthermore, we
investigate the possibility of performing an imperfect purification.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure; published versio
Remote sensing of vigor loss in conifers due to dwarf mistletoe
The initial operation of a multiband/multidate tower-tramway test site in northeastern Minnesota for the development of specifications for subsequent multiband aerial photography of more extensive study areas was completed. Multiband/multidate configurations suggested by the tower-tramway studies were and will be flown with local equipment over the Togo test site. This site was photographed by the NASA RB57F aircraft in August and September 1971. It appears that, of all the film/filter combinations attempted to date (including optical recombining of several spectral band images via photo enhancement techniques), Ektachrome infrared film with a Wratten 12 filter is the best for detecting dwarf mistletoe, and other tree diseases as well. Using this film/filter combination, infection centers are easily detectable even on the smallest photo scale (1:100,000) obtained on the Togo site
Differential antifungal activity of human and cryptococcal melanins with structural discrepancies
Indexación: Scopus.Melanin is a pigment found in all biological kingdoms, and plays a key role in protection against ultraviolet radiation, oxidizing agents, and ionizing radiation damage. Melanin exerts an antimicrobial activity against bacteria, fungi, and parasites. We demonstrated an antifungal activity of synthetic and human melanin against Candida sp. The members of the Cryptococcus neoformans and C. gattii species complexes are capsulated yeasts, which cause cryptococcosis. For both species melanin is an important virulence factor. To evaluate if cryptococcal and human melanins have antifungal activity against Cryptococcus species they both were assayed for their antifungal properties and physico-chemical characters. Melanin extracts from human hair and different strains of C. neoformans (n = 4) and C. gattii (n = 4) were investigated. The following minimum inhibitory concentrations were found for different melanins against C. neoformans and C. gattii were (average/range): 13.7/(7.8-15.6) and 19.5/(15.6-31.2) μg/mL, respectively, for human melanin; 273.4/(125- > 500) and 367.2/(125.5- > 500) μg/mL for C. neoformans melanin and 125/(62.5-250) and 156.2/(62-250) μg/mL for C. gattii melanin. Using Scanning Electron Microscopy we observed that human melanin showed a compact conformation and cryptococcal melanins exposed an amorphous conformation. Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) showed some differences in the signals related to C-C bonds of the aromatic ring of the melanin monomers. High Performance Liquid Chromatography established differences in the chromatograms of fungal melanins extracts in comparison with human and synthetic melanin, particularly in the retention time of the main compound of fungal melanin extracts and also in the presence of minor unknown compounds. On the other hand, MALDI-TOF-MS analysis showed slight differences in the spectra, specifically the presence of a minor intensity ion in synthetic and human melanin, as well as in some fungal melanin extracts. We conclude that human melanin is more active than the two fungal melanins against Cryptococcus. Although some physico-chemical differences were found, they do not explain the differences in the antifungal activity against Cryptococcus of human and cryptococcal melanins. More detailed studies on the structure should be considered to associate structure and antifungal activity.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2017.01292/ful
Spin correlations in pion production near threshold
A first measurement of longitudinal as well as transverse spin correlation
coefficients for the reaction was made using a
polarized proton target and a polarized proton beam. We report kinematically
complete measurements for this reaction at 325, 350, 375 and 400 MeV beam
energy. The spin correlation coefficients and the analyzing power as well as angular
distributions for and the polarization observables
were extracted. Partial wave cross sections for dominant
transition channels were obtained from a partial wave analysis that included
the transitions with final state angular momenta of . The measurements
of the polarization observables are compared
with the predictions from the J\"ulich meson exchange model. The agreement is
very good at 325 MeV, but it deteriorates increasingly for the higher energies.
At all energies agreement with the model is better than for the reaction
.Comment: Preprint, 21 pp, submitted to Phys. Rev. C. Keywords: Mesons,
Polarization, Spin Correlations, Few body system
Atomic Transport in Dense, Multi-Component Metallic Liquids
Pd43Ni10Cu27P0 has been investigated in its equilibrium liquid state with
incoherent, inelastic neutron scattering. As compared to simple liquids, liquid
PdNiCuP is characterized by a dense packing with a packing fraction above 0.5.
The intermediate scattering function exhibits a fast relaxation process that
precedes structural relaxation. Structural relaxation obeys a time-temperature
superposition that extends over a temperature range of 540K. The mode-coupling
theory of the liquid to glass transition (MCT) gives a consistent description
of the dynamics which governs the mass transport in liquid PdNiCuP alloys. MCT
scaling laws extrapolate to a critical temperature Tc at about 20% below the
liquidus temperature. Diffusivities derived from the mean relaxation times
compare well with Co diffusivities from recent tracer diffusion measurements
and diffsuivities calculated from viscosity via the Stokes-Einstein relation.
In contrast to simple metallic liquids, the atomic transport in dense, liquid
PdNiCuP is characterized by a drastical slowing down of dynamics on cooling, a
q^{-2} dependence of the mean relaxation times at intermediate q and a
vanishing isotope effect as a result of a highly collective transport
mechanism. At temperatures as high as 2Tc diffusion in liquid PdNiCuP is as
fast as in simple liquids at the melting point. However, the difference in the
underlying atomic transport mechanism indicates that the diffusion mechanism in
liquids is not controlled by the value of the diffusivity but rather by that of
the packing fraction
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