460 research outputs found
Transient model of a Professional Oven
Tackling the climate change by reducing energy consumption is among the biggest, most urgent challenges society is facing and requires a continuous efficiency improvement of thermal systems. Appropriate design strategies, developed a priori and then experimentally validated according to suitable test protocols on a prototype, are needed in order to reach potential energy saving targets. These strategies can successfully be implemented in the food service sector, where cooking appliances, in particular, present many possibilities for improving energy savings. Therefore, a valuable design methodology should take into account not only steady state operating conditions but also the transient behaviours of the device, which must be described by means of specially developed theoretical dynamic models. The operating profile of an oven, for example, consists of a sequence of unsteady phases (cavity heating-up, food introduction and extraction, switching from one cooking mode to another) interspersed with steady cooking phases. The dynamic model presented in this paper defines the energy conservation equations of a professional oven, where a high temperature thermal source positioned inside its cavity produces thermal power radiated and modulated over time, according to a suitable control strategy. In particular, when the temperature in the cooking zone of the cavity has reached a specified set point, this is thermostatically controlled in time, depending on the cooking phase. The resulting equation system is then solved by means of numerical methods. With this code, it is possible to support the design phase of both the structure and the control strategy of the oven. It permits, for example, to get a general understanding of the best possible configurations and combinations of insulation materials for the cavity walls or, with reference to the control strategy, to simulate different cooking procedures, with the aim of optimizing the operating sequence of the oven, reaching the maximum energy saving without reducing the cooking quality. The code, validated by comparison with a set of experimental data obtained with a current production model, will be applied in the design phase of a new line of high efficiency professional ovens
Precise Determination of Blackbody Radiation Shifts in a Strontium Molecular Lattice Clock
Molecular lattice clocks enable the search for new physics, such as fifth
forces or temporal variations of fundamental constants, in a manner
complementary to atomic clocks. Blackbody radiation (BBR) is a major
contributor to the systematic error budget of conventional atomic clocks and is
notoriously difficult to characterize and control. Here, we combine infrared
Stark-shift spectroscopy in a molecular lattice clock and modern quantum
chemistry methods to characterize the polarizabilities of the Sr molecule
from dc to infrared. Using this description, we determine the static and
dynamic blackbody radiation shifts for all possible vibrational clock
transitions to the level. This constitutes an important step towards
mHz-level molecular spectroscopy in Sr, and provides a framework for
evaluating BBR shifts in other homonuclear molecules.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, updated reference
Accurate determination of blackbody radiation shifts in a strontium molecular lattice clock
Molecular lattice clocks enable the search for new physics, such as fifth forces or temporal variations of fundamental constants, in a manner complementary to atomic clocks. Blackbody radiation (BBR) is a major contributor to the systematic error budget of conventional atomic clocks and is notoriously difficult to characterize and control. Here, we combine infrared Stark-shift spectroscopy in a molecular lattice clock and modern quantum chemistry methods to characterize the polarizabilities of the Sr2 molecule from dc to infrared. Using this description, we determine the static and dynamic blackbody radiation shifts for all possible vibrational clock transitions to the 10−16 level. This constitutes an important step toward millihertz-level molecular spectroscopy in Sr2 and provides a framework for evaluating BBR shifts in other homonuclear molecules
Radiation-free Microwave Technology for Breast Lesion Detection using Supervised Machine Learning Model
Mammography is the gold standard technology for breast screening, which has been demonstrated through different randomized controlled trials to reduce breast cancer mortality. However, mammography has limitations and potential harms, such as the use of ionizing radiation. To overcome the ionizing radiation exposure issues, a novel device (i.e. MammoWave) based on low-power radio-frequency signals has been developed for breast lesion detection. The MammoWave is a microwave device and is under clinical validation phase in several hospitals across Europe. The device transmits non-invasive microwave signals through the breast and accumulates the backscattered (returned) signatures, commonly denoted as the S21 signals in engineering terminology. Backscattered (complex) S21 signals exploit the contrast in dielectric properties of breasts with and without lesions. The proposed research is aimed to automatically segregate these two types of signal responses by applying appropriate supervised machine learning (ML) algorithm for the data emerging from this research. The support vector machine with radial basis function has been employed here. The proposed algorithm has been trained and tested using microwave breast response data collected at one of the clinical validation centres. Statistical evaluation indicates that the proposed ML model can recognise the MammoWave breasts signal with no radiological finding (NF) and with radiological findings (WF), i.e., may be the presence of benign or malignant lesions. A sensitivity of 84.40% and a specificity of 95.50% have been achieved in NF/WF recognition using the proposed ML model
Applicability of the shorter 'Bangladesh regimen' in high multidrug-resistant tuberculosis settings
In spite of the recent introduction of two new drugs (delamanid and bedaquiline) and a few repurposed compounds to treat multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR- and XDR-TB), clinicians are facing increasing problems in designing effective regimens in severe cases. Recently a 9 to 12-month regimen (known as the 'Bangladesh regimen') proved to be effective in treating MDR-TB cases. It included an initial phase of 4 to 6 months of kanamycin, moxifloxacin, prothionamide, clofazimine, pyrazinamide, high-dose isoniazid, and ethambutol, followed by 5 months of moxifloxacin, clofazimine, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol. However, recent evidence from Europe and Latin America identified prevalences of resistance to the first-line drugs in this regimen (ethambutol and pyrazinamide) exceeding 60%, and of prothionamide exceeding 50%. Furthermore, the proportions of resistance to the two most important pillars of the regimen - quinolones and kanamycin - were higher than 40%. Overall, only 14 out of 348 adult patients (4.0%) were susceptible to all of the drugs composing the regimen, and were therefore potentially suitable for the 'shorter regimen'. A shorter, cheaper, and well-tolerated MDR-TB regimen is likely to impact the number of patients treated and improve adherence if prescribed to the right patients through the systematic use of rapid MTBDRsl testing
A terahertz vibrational molecular clock with systematic uncertainty at the level
Neutral quantum absorbers in optical lattices have emerged as a leading
platform for achieving clocks with exquisite spectroscopic resolution. However,
the studies of these clocks and their systematic shifts have so far been
limited to atoms. Here, we extend this architecture to an ensemble of diatomic
molecules and experimentally realize an accurate lattice clock based on pure
molecular vibration. We evaluate the leading systematics, including the
characterization of nonlinear trap-induced light shifts, achieving a total
systematic uncertainty of . The absolute frequency of the
vibrational splitting is measured to be 31 825 183 207 592.8(5.1) Hz, enabling
the dissociation energy of our molecule to be determined with record accuracy.
Our results represent an important milestone in molecular spectroscopy and
THz-frequency standards, and may be generalized to other neutral molecular
species with applications for fundamental physics, including tests of molecular
quantum electrodynamics and the search for new interactions.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figure
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