Parametric triggering of vortices in toroidally trapped rotating Bose-Einstein condensates

We study the creation of vortices by triggering the rotating Bose-Einstein condensates in a toroidal trap with trap parameters such as laser beam waist and Gaussian potential depth. By numerically solving the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation in two dimensions, we observe a change in vortex structure and a considerable increase in the number of vortices when the waist of the irradiated laser beam is in consonance with the area of the condensate as we vary the Gaussian potential depth. By computing the root mean square radius of the condensate, we confirm the variation in the number of vortices generated as a function of the ratio between the root-mean-square radius of the condensate and the laser beam waist. In particular, the number of hidden vortices reaches the maximum value when the above ratio is close to the value 0.7. We find the variation in the number of vortices is rapid for deeper Gaussian potentials, and we conclude that the larger beam waist and deeper Gaussian potentials generate more vortices. Further, we calculate the number of vortices using the Feynman rule with Thomas Fermi approximation and compare them with the numerical results. We also observe that the critical rotation frequency decreases with an increase in depth of Gaussian potential.Comment: 14 pages, 11 figure

Comparative study of the antioxidant and reactive oxygen species scavenging properties in the extracts of the fruits of Terminalia chebula, Terminalia belerica and Emblica officinalis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cellular damage caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS) has been implicated in several diseases, and hence natural antioxidants have significant importance in human health. The present study was carried out to evaluate the <it>in vitro </it>antioxidant and reactive oxygen species scavenging activities of <it>Terminalia chebula</it>, <it>Terminalia belerica </it>and <it>Emblica officinalis </it>fruit extracts.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The 70% methanol extracts were studied for <it>in vitro </it>total antioxidant activity along with phenolic and flavonoid contents and reducing power. Scavenging ability of the extracts for radicals like DPPH, hydroxyl, superoxide, nitric oxide, hydrogen peroxide, peroxynitrite, singlet oxygen, hypochlorous acid were also performed to determine the potential of the extracts.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The ability of the extracts of the fruits in exhibiting their antioxative properties follow the order <it>T. chebula </it>><it>E. officinalis </it>><it>T. belerica</it>. The same order is followed in their flavonoid content, whereas in case of phenolic content it becomes <it>E. officinalis </it>><it>T. belerica </it>><it>T. chebula</it>. In the studies of free radicals' scavenging, where the activities of the plant extracts were inversely proportional to their IC₅₀values, <it>T. chebula </it>and <it>E. officinalis </it>were found to be taking leading role with the orders of <it>T. chebula </it>><it>E. officinalis </it>><it>T. belerica </it>for superoxide and nitric oxide, and <it>E. officinalis </it>><it>T. belerica </it>><it>T. chebula </it>for DPPH and peroxynitrite radicals. Miscellaneous results were observed in the scavenging of other radicals by the plant extracts, viz., <it>T. chebula </it>><it>T. belerica </it>><it>E. officinalis </it>for hydroxyl, <it>T. belerica </it>><it>T. chebula </it>><it>E. officinalis </it>for singlet oxygen and <it>T. belerica </it>><it>E. officinalis </it>><it>T. chebula </it>for hypochlorous acid. In a whole, the studied fruit extracts showed quite good efficacy in their antioxidant and radical scavenging abilities, compared to the standards.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The evidences as can be concluded from the study of the 70% methanol extract of the fruits of <it>Terminalia chebula</it>, <it>Terminalia belerica </it>and <it>Emblica officinalis</it>, imposes the fact that they might be useful as potent sources of natural antioxidant.</p

Empirical investigation to explore potential gains from the amalgamation of Phase Changing Materials (PCMs) and wood shavings

The reduction of gained heat, heat peak shifting and the mitigation of air temperature fluctuations are some desirable properties that are sought after in any thermal insulation system. It cannot be overstated that these factors, in addition to others, govern the performance of such systems thus their effect on indoor ambient conditions. The effect of such systems extends also to Heating, Ventilation and Air-conditioning (HVAC) systems that are set up to operate optimally in certain conditions. Where literature shows that PCMs and natural materials such as wood-shavings can provide efficient passive insulation for buildings, it is evident that such approaches utilise methods that are of a degree of intricacy which requires specialist knowledge and complex techniques, such as micro-encapsulation for instance. With technical and economic aspects in mind, an amalgam of PCM and wood-shavings has been created for the purpose of being utilised as a feasible thermal insulation. The amalgamation was performed in the simplest of methods, through submerging the wood shavings in PCM. An experimental procedure was devised to test the thermal performance of the amalgam and compare this to the performance of the same un-amalgamated materials. Comparative analysis revealed that no significant thermal gains would be expected from such amalgamation. However, significant reduction in the total weight of the insulation system would be achieved that, in this case, shown to be up to 20.94%. Thus, further reducing possible strains on structural elements due to the application of insulation on buildings. This can be especially beneficial in vernacular architectural approaches where considerably large amounts and thicknesses of insulations are used. In addition, cost reduction could be attained as wood shavings are significantly cheaper compared to the cost of PCMs

Microstructural and mechanical characterisation of laser-welded high-carbon and stainless steel

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00170-015-7111-5Laser welding is becoming an important joining technique for welding of stainless steel to carbon steel and is extensively used across various sectors, including aerospace, transportation, power plants, electronics and other industries. However, welding of stainless steel to high-carbon steel is still at its early stage, predominantly due to the formation of hard brittle phases, which undermine the mechanical strength of the joint. This study reports a scientific investigation on controlling the brittle phase formation during laser dissimilar welding of high-carbon steel to stainless steel. Attempts have been made to tailor the microstructure and phase composition of the fusion zone through influencing the alloying composition and the cooling rate. Results show that the heat-affected zone (HAZ) within the high-carbon steel has significantly higher hardness than the weld area, which severely undermines the weld quality. To reduce the hardness of the HAZ, a new heat treatment strategy was proposed and evaluated using a finite element analysis-based numerical simulation model. A series of experiments has been performed to verify the developed thermo-metallurgical finite element analysis (FEA) model, and a qualitative agreement of predicted martensitic phase distribution is shown to exist

Irregularity-based image regions saliency identification and evaluation

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The publisher's final version of record can be found by following the DOI.Saliency or Salient regions extraction form images is still a challenging field since it needs some understanding for the image and the nature of the image. The technique that is suitable in some application is not necessarily useful in other application, thus, saliency enhancement is application oriented. In this paper, a new technique of extracting the salient regions from an image is proposed which utilizes the local features of the surrounding region of the pixels. The level of saliency is then decided based on the global comparison of the saliency-enhanced image. To make the process fully automatic a new Fuzzy-Based thresholding technique has been proposed also. The paper contains a survey of the state-of-the-art methods of saliency evaluation and a new saliency evaluation technique was proposed