Kurtosis of momentum and displacement distributions in biphenyl

We apply the method of moment expansion, in terms of standard deviation and kurtosis, to the nuclear momentum and displacement distributions of hydrogen in biphenyl. In particular, we present first-principles calculations and we compare them to deep inelastic neutron scattering experiments, for the nuclear momentum distribution, and to X-ray diffraction, for the displacement distribution, so as to investigate the degree of anisotropy of the single-particle local potential. We find that, in the spirit of the central limit theorem, as a function of the increasing number of vibrations affecting a nucleus, the nuclear displacement distribution becomes more isotropic, as was the case of the nuclear momentum distribution, yet the trend is not monotonic with two local maxima at 125 meV and 20 meV

Enabling a Semantic Sensor Knowledge Approach for Quality Control Support in Cleanrooms

With the explosion of big data technologies (BD), the pos-sibility to integrate those tools into daily company operations is more affordable and straightforward. On the other hand, Knowledge-based approaches such as graphs and different semantic approaches, although those have not been so popular in the industry in the past years, nowa-days, thanks to the high availability of heterogeneous data inside of the company context, those tools are being used more to enhance or enrich data and processes, and make more informed decisions about the busi-ness. The SEMT platform is presented; this system combines a Big Data recollection approach from a legacy/manual sensor environment to per-form a knowledge enhancement process to support the semi-conductor development and production operations inside a cleanroom

Fluorinated borono‐phenylalanine for optimizing BNCT: Enhancing boron absorption against hydrogen scattering for thermal neutrons

Background: Boron-containing compounds, such as 4-borono-phenylalanine (BPA) are used as drugs for cancer treatment in the framework of Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT). Neutron irradiation of boron-rich compounds delivered to cancer cells triggers nuclear reactions that destroy cancer cells. Purpose: We provide a modeling of the thermal neutron cross section of BPA, a drug used in Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT), to quantify the competing contributions of boron absorption against hydrogen scattering, for optimizing BNCT by minimizing the latter. Methods: We perform the experimental determination of the total neutron scattering cross section of BPA at thermal and epithermal neutron energies using neutron transmission measurements. We isolate the contribution related to the incoherent scattering by hydrogen atoms as a function of the neutron energy by means of the Average Functional Group Approximation, and we calculate the probability for a neutron of being absorbed as a function of the neutron energy both for BPA and for its variants where either one or all four aromatic hydrogen atoms are substituted by 19 F, and both for the samples with natural occurrence or enriched concentration of 10 B. Results: While referring to the already available literature for in vivo use of fluorinated BPA, we show that fluorine-rich variants of BPA increase the probability of neutrons being captured by the molecule. As the higher absorption efficiency of fluorinated BPA does not depend on whether the molecule is used in vivo or not, our results are promising for the higher efficiency of the boron neutron capture treatment. Conclusions: Our results suggest a new advantage using fluorinated compounds for BNCT, in their optimized interaction with neutrons, in addition to their already known capability to be used for monitoring and pharmacokinetics studies using 19 F-Nuclear Magnetic Resonance or in 18 F-Positron Emission Tomography

A framework for addressing urban heat challenges and associated adaptive behavior by the public and the issue of willingness to pay for heat resilient infrastructure in Chongqing, China

This study investigates public participation in heat impact reduction by analysing adaptive behaviours, familiarity with urban heat island (UHI) and cooling strategies, the perceived urgency of heat impact actions and citizen's willingness to pay through a questionnaire survey in Chongqing, China. The results indicate that air-conditioning systems are the dominant cooling facility in both work and living environments. Respondents had a moderately familiar understanding of several cooling strategies such as urban vegetation, shading devices, water-based artificial facilities, urban design for shading and ventilation and water bodies. Familiarity with innovative materials and techniques for pavements, roofs and façades was less than moderate. Urban planning and design for heat resilient cities was thought to be the most urgent intervention, followed by the establishment of temporary cooling facilities. Most respondents indicated that cost-sharing mechanisms for urban heat prevention and control systems should at least include the government, whilst 50% of the respondents preferred collaborative payment among government, developers, and owners. Only 41.6% of the interviewees expressed their willingness to pay, with a share varying between 80 RMB. A conservative estimate indicated that there could be an average payment of 45.95 RMB and 19.10 RMB among the 234 respondents who were willing to pay and all 562 respondents regardless of willingness, respectively. Respondents’ heat-related responses and actions towards urban heat challenges were dependent on a wide range of factors like gender, age, education, economic status, health, exposure, habit formation and behavior change, social acceptance, etc. Moreover, such factors could interact with each other affecting public behavior with different weights. Overall, this study increases our understanding of people's perceptions and proactiveness in reducing urban heat and provides guidance for decision-makers towards a novel user-aware approach to the implementation of urban heat prevention, adaptation, and mitigation strategies