947 research outputs found
Experimental Investigation on Use of Wheat Straw Ash and Bentonite in Self-Compacting Cementitious System
In this research, we evaluated the feasibility of wheat straw ash and bentonite (raw and heated at 150°C for 8 hrs) as secondary raw materials in self-compacting paste (SCP). The fresh and hardened properties of SCP formulations including water and superplasticizer demand, flow behavior, compressive and flexural strength development, water absorption, and acid attack
resistance were evaluated. Moreover, porosity, microstructural, and mineralogical investigations were also carried out on SCP formulations. Test results showed that the properties of SCP formulations in fresh state depend on the morphology of secondary raw materials. For heated bentonite and wheat straw ash formulations, the 28 days of compressive and flexural strength were higher
or almost similar to reference SCP formulation. Among SCP formulations, wheat straw ash formulation was found to be more effective in consuming free lime and showed significant decrease in porosity with time, which in turn improved the resistance of this SCP formulation against water absorption and acid attack. Based on the test results, it can be concluded that the successful
utilization of wheat straw ash and bentonite SCP formulations will offer durable and environmental friendly option to construction industry
Jacobi Fields on Statistical Manifolds of Negative Curvature
Two entropic dynamical models are considered. The geometric structure of the
statistical manifolds underlying these models is studied. It is found that in
both cases, the resulting metric manifolds are negatively curved. Moreover, the
geodesics on each manifold are described by hyperbolic trajectories. A detailed
analysis based on the Jacobi equation for geodesic spread is used to show that
the hyperbolicity of the manifolds leads to chaotic exponential instability. A
comparison between the two models leads to a relation among statistical
curvature, stability of geodesics and relative entropy-like quantities.
Finally, the Jacobi vector field intensity and the entropy-like quantity are
suggested as possible indicators of chaoticity in the ED models due to their
similarity to the conventional chaos indicators based on the Riemannian
geometric approach and the Zurek-Paz criterion of linear entropy growth,
respectively.Comment: 22 page
A spherical perfect lens
It has been recently proved that a slab of negative refractive index material
acts as a perfect lens in that it makes accessible the sub-wavelength image
information contained in the evanescent modes of a source. Here we elaborate on
perfect lens solutions to spherical shells of negative refractive material
where magnification of the near-field images becomes possible. The negative
refractive materials then need to be spatially dispersive with and . We concentrate on lens-like solutions for the
extreme near-field limit. Then the conditions for the TM and TE polarized modes
become independent of and respectively.Comment: Revtex4, 9 pages, 2 figures (eps
Fast Transition between High-soft and Low-soft States in GRS 1915+105: Evidence for a Critically Viscous Accretion Flow
We present the results of a detailed analysis of RXTE observations of class
which show an unusual state transition between high-soft and low-soft
states in the microquasar GRS 1915+105. Out of about 600 pointed RXTE
observations, the source was found to exhibit such state transition only on 16
occasions. An examination of the RXTE/ASM data in conjunction with the pointed
observations reveals that these events appeared as a series of quasi-regular
dips in two stretches of long duration (about 20 days during each occasions)
when hard X-ray and radio flux were very low. The X-ray light curve and
color-color diagram of the source during these observations are found to be
different from any reported so far. The duration of these dips is found to be
of the order of a few tens of seconds with a repetition time of a few hundred
seconds. The transition between these dips and non-dips which differ in
intensity by a factor of ~ 3.5, is observed to be very fast (~ a few seconds).
It is observed that the low-frequency narrow QPOs are absent in the power
density spectrum (PDS) of the dip and non-dip regions of class and the
PDS is a power law in 0.1 - 10 Hz frequency range. There is a remarkable
similarity in the spectral and timing properties of the source during the dip
and non-dip regions in these set of observations. These properties of the
source are distinctly different from those seen in the observations of other
classes. This indicates that the basic accretion disk structure during both dip
and non-dip regions of class is similar, but differ only in intensity.
To explain these observations, we invoke a model in which the viscosity is very
close to critical viscosity and the shock wave is weak or absent.Comment: Replaced with correct figures, Jour. of Astrophysics and Astronomy
(accepted
A methodology for determining amino-acid substitution matrices from set covers
We introduce a new methodology for the determination of amino-acid
substitution matrices for use in the alignment of proteins. The new methodology
is based on a pre-existing set cover on the set of residues and on the
undirected graph that describes residue exchangeability given the set cover.
For fixed functional forms indicating how to obtain edge weights from the set
cover and, after that, substitution-matrix elements from weighted distances on
the graph, the resulting substitution matrix can be checked for performance
against some known set of reference alignments and for given gap costs. Finding
the appropriate functional forms and gap costs can then be formulated as an
optimization problem that seeks to maximize the performance of the substitution
matrix on the reference alignment set. We give computational results on the
BAliBASE suite using a genetic algorithm for optimization. Our results indicate
that it is possible to obtain substitution matrices whose performance is either
comparable to or surpasses that of several others, depending on the particular
scenario under consideration
Itinerant electron metamagnetism in LaCoSi
The strongly exchange enhanced Pauli paramagnet LaCoSi is found to
exhibit an itinerant metamagnetic phase transition with indications for
metamagnetic quantum criticality. Our investigation comprises magnetic,
specific heat, and NMR measurements as well as ab-initio electronic structure
calculations. The critical field is about 3.5 T for and 6 T for , which is the lowest value ever found for rare earth intermetallic
compounds. In the ferromagnetic state there appears a moment of about 0.2
/Co at the Co-sites, but sigificantly smaller moments at the 4d
and Co-sites.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, PRB Rapid Communication, in prin
Amplification of evanescent waves in a lossy left-handed material slab
We carry out finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations, with a
specially-designed boundary condition, on pure evanescent waves interacting
with a lossy left-handed material (LHM) slab. Our results provide the first
full-wave numerical evidence for the amplification of evanescent waves inside a
LHM slab of finite absorption. The amplification is due to the interactions
between the evanescent waves and the coupled surface polaritons at the two
surfaces of the LHM slab and the physical process can be described by a simple
model.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure
Sedimentation record in the Konkan-Kerala Basin: implications for the evolution of the Western Ghats and the Western Indian passive margin
The Konkan and Kerala Basins constitute a major depocentre for sediment from the onshore hinterland of Western India and as such provide a valuable record of the timing and magnitude of Cenozoic denudation along the continental margin. This paper presents an analysis of sedimentation in the Konkan-Kerala Basin, coupledwith a mass balance study, and numerical modelling of flexural responses to onshore denudational unloading and o¡shore sediment loading in order to test competing conceptual models for the development of high-elevation passive margins. The Konkan-Kerala Basin contains an estimated 109,000 km<sup>3</sup>; of Cenozoic clastic sediment, a volume difficult to reconcile with the denudation of a downwarped rift flank onshore, and more consistent with denudation of an elevated rift flank. We infer from modelling of the isostatic response of the lithosphere to sediment loading offshore and denudation onshore that flexure is an important component in the development of the Western Indian Margin.There is evidence for two major pulses in sedimentation: an early phase in the Palaeocene, and a second beginning in the Pliocene. The Palaeocene increase in sedimentation can be interpreted in terms of a denudational response to the rifting between India and the Seychelles, whereas the mechanism responsible for the Pliocene pulse is more enigmatic
Thermodynamics of the incommensurate state in Rb_2WO_4: on the Lifshitz point in A`A``BX_4 compounds
We consider the evolution of the phase transition from the parent hexagonal
phase to the orthorhombic phase that occurs in several
compounds of family as a function of the hcp lattice parameter
. For compounds of type with larger than the threshold
value 1.26 the direct first-order transition is characterized
by the large entropy jump . For compounds , ,
with this transition occurs via an intermediate
incommensurate phase. DSC measurements were performed in
to characterize the thermodynamics of the transitions. It
was found that both transitions are again of the first order with entropy jumps
0.3Rln2c/a ~ 1.26A'A''BX_{4}BX_{4}$ tetrahedra
orientation as a possible source of the transitions discontinuity.Comment: 13 pages,1 Postscript figure. Submitted as Brief Report to Phys. Rev.
B, this paper reports a new work in Theory and Experiment, directed to
Structural Phase Transition
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