Hydrophobic silica thin films by sol-gel processing and spin coating technique at low temperature

Hydrophobic silica thin films were prepared by sol-gel processing and self-assembly by chemical vapor reaction with Trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS) at low temperature. The sols were divided into Sol A with ethanol, Polyethylene glycol (PEG) and water (H2O) while Sol B were contain precursor of silica Tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) hydrolyze with ethanol which was stirred for 15 minutes. HCl was added into the mixture and stirred for another 10 minutes. After deposition on 1 x 1 cm corning glass using spin coating technique (two-step timer), the films were heated at 60˚C for 10 minutes and finally annealed at 150°C for 1 hour. The films were characterized by using Rudolph/Auto EL Ellipsometer, Shimadzu Spectrophotometer, Perkin Elmer Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). The results showed that the films thickness and refractive index were in the range of 105.2 to 112.4 nm and 1.35 to 1.38, respectively. The films were transmitted 70-80% of light (in visible range) with various bondings of C-H, Si-O-Si, Si-C and Si-OH. Surface roughness of the films was increased from 30.6 nm (silica thin film) to 140.5 nm (hydrophobic silica thin films) after modification have been done on the films by using TMCS (heated at 40˚C). It was found that the water contact angles increased when time of reaction increased from 109° to 124

On Classes of Analytic Functions Containing Generalization of Integral Operator

New classes containing generalization of integral operator are introduced. Characterization and other properties of these classes are investigated. Further, Fekete-Szego functional for these classes are also given.DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.22342/jims.17.1.11.29-3

Electron and Neutron Electric Dipole Moments in the Focus Point Scenario of SUGRA Model

We estimate the electron and neutron electric dipole moments in the focus point scenario of the minimal SUGRA model corresponding to large sfermion masses and moderate to large $\tan\beta$. There is a viable region of moderate fine-tuning in the parameter space, around $\tan\beta \simeq 5$, where the experimental limits on these electric dipole moments can be satisfied without assuming unnaturally small phase angles. But the fine-tuning constraints become more severe for $\tan\beta > 10$.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX, 4 postscript figures. Very minor changes made in only a few sentences for clarification. Final version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Dedicated outreach service for hard to reach patients with tuberculosis in London: observational study and economic evaluation.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the cost effectiveness of the Find and Treat service for diagnosing and managing hard to reach individuals with active tuberculosis. DESIGN: Economic evaluation using a discrete, multiple age cohort, compartmental model of treated and untreated cases of active tuberculosis. SETTING: London, United Kingdom. Population Hard to reach individuals with active pulmonary tuberculosis screened or managed by the Find and Treat service (48 mobile screening unit cases, 188 cases referred for case management support, and 180 cases referred for loss to follow-up), and 252 passively presenting controls from London's enhanced tuberculosis surveillance system. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Incremental costs, quality adjusted life years (QALYs), and cost effectiveness ratios for the Find and Treat service. RESULTS: The model estimated that, on average, the Find and Treat service identifies 16 and manages 123 active cases of tuberculosis each year in hard to reach groups in London. The service has a net cost of £1.4 million/year and, under conservative assumptions, gains 220 QALYs. The incremental cost effectiveness ratio was £6400-£10,000/QALY gained (about €7300-€11,000 or $10,000-$16 000 in September 2011). The two Find and Treat components were also cost effective, even in unfavourable scenarios (mobile screening unit (for undiagnosed cases), £18,000-£26,000/QALY gained; case management support team, £4100-£6800/QALY gained). CONCLUSIONS: Both the screening and case management components of the Find and Treat service are likely to be cost effective in London. The cost effectiveness of the mobile screening unit in particular could be even greater than estimated, in view of the secondary effects of infection transmission and development of antibiotic resistance

One-loop Neutron Electric Dipole Moment from Supersymmetry without R-parity

We present a detailed analysis together with exact numerical calculations on one-loop contributions to neutron electric dipole moment from supersymmetry without R-parity, focusing on the gluino, chargino, and neutralino contributions. Apart from the neglected family mixing among quarks, complete formulae are given for the various contributions, through the quark dipole operators, to which the present study is restricted. We discuss the structure and main features of the R-parity violating contributions and the interplay between the R-parity conserving and violating parameters. In particular, the parameter combination $\mu_i^*\lambda^{\prime}_{i11}$, under the optimal parametrization adopted, is shown to be solely responsible for the R-parity violating contributions in the supersymmetric loop diagrams. While $\mu_i^*\lambda^{\prime}_{i11}$ could bear a complex phase, the latter is not necessary to have a R-parity violating contribution.Comment: 43 pages Revtex with 15 eps- and 4 ps- figure files incoporated; proofread version to be published in Phys. Rev.

On the EDM Cancellations in D-brane models

We analyze the possibility of simultaneous electron, neutron, and mercury electric dipole moment (EDM) cancellations in the mSUGRA and D--brane models. We find that the mercury EDM constraint practically rules out the cancellation scenario in D-brane models whereas in the context of mSUGRA it is still allowed with some fine-tuning.Comment: 10 pages, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Magnetic graphene oxide as adsorbent for the removal of lead(II) from water samples

Magnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles were prepared on graphene oxide (Fe3O4/GO) in situ in a one step process. The obtained Fe3O4/GO was used as an adsorbent for the removal for Pb(II) from environmental water samples prior to flame atomic absorption spectroscopy measurement. The adsorption procedure was optimized as follows: 60 min adsorption time, 50 mL sample volume, solution pH 4.5, and 25 mg adsorbent dosage. Under the optimum conditions, the adsorption efficiency obtained was greater than 75% (C = 50 mg L-1). The adsorption isotherm of Fe3O4@GO magnetic adsorbent was studied for Pb(II) adsorption using two isotherm adsorption models namely Langmuir and Freundlich. The adsorption isotherm data fits well with Langmuir isotherm (R2 = 0.9988) rather than with Freundlich isotherm. The maximum adsorption capacity (qm) obtained was 86.2 mg g-1. The results signified that the prepared Fe3O4/GO nanocomposite has a great adsorptive ability towards the Pb(II) from environmental water samples

Supersymmetric Relations Among Electromagnetic Dipole Operators

Supersymmetric contributions to all leptonic electromagnetic dipole operators have essentially identical diagramatic structure. With approximate slepton universality this allows the muon anomalous magnetic moment to be related to the electron electric dipole moment in terms of supersymmetric phases, and to radiative flavor changing lepton decays in terms of small violations of slepton universality. If the current discrepancy between the measured and Standard Model values of the muon anomalous magnetic moment is due to supersymmetry, the current bound on the electron electric dipole moment then implies that the phase of the electric dipole operator is less than $2 \times 10^{-3}$. Likewise the current bound on $\mu \to e \gamma$ decay implies that the fractional selectron-smuon mixing in the left-left mass squared matrix, \delta m_{\smuon \selectron}^2 / m_{\slepton}^2, is less than $10^{-4}$. These relations and constraints are fairly insensitive to details of the superpartner spectrum for moderate to large $\tan \beta$.Comment: Latex, 38 pages, 2 figure