High-throughput synthesis of thermoelectric Ca3_3Co4_4O9_9 films

Properties of complex oxide thin films can be tuned over a range of values as a function of mismatch, composition, orientation, and structure. Here, we report a strategy for growing structured epitaxial thermoelectric thin films leading to improved Seebeck coefficient. Instead of using single-crystal sapphire substrates to support epitaxial growth, Ca$_3$Co$_4$O$_9$ films are deposited, using the Pulsed Laser Deposition technique, onto Al$_2$O$_3$ polycrystalline substrates textured by Spark Plasma Sintering. The structural quality of the 2000 \AA thin film was investigated by Transmission Electron Microscopy, while the crystallographic orientation of the grains and the epitaxial relationships were determined by Electron Back Scatter Diffraction. The use of a polycrystalline ceramic template leads to structured films that are in good local epitaxial registry. The Seebeck coefficient is about 170 $\mu$V/K at 300 K, a typical value of misfit material with low carrier density. This high-throughput process, called combinatorial substrate epitaxy, appears to facilitate the rational tuning of functional oxide films, opening a route to the epitaxial synthesis of high quality complex oxides.Comment: Submitted to Applied Physics Letters (2013

A Metropolitan Optical Network with Support for Multicasting in the Optical Domain

We present the FLAMINGO1 network architecture, an all-optical wavelength-and-timeslotted Metropolitan Optical Network based on a multiple-ring topology. A couple of important aspects of this architecture include all-optical packet switching at intermediate nodes on a ring and the ability to put IP packets directly over WDM channels. The rings of the network are interconnected with intelligent bridges, architecture of which is presented. The network also enables all-optical multicasting at intermediate nodes, the architecture of which is also presented. Power budget calculations have also been dealt with and discussed in detail

STRUCTURAL CHANGE OR LOGICAL INCREMENTALISM? TURBULENCE IN THE GLOBAL MEAT SYSTEM

In the last ten years the global meat industry has encountered numerous critical events related to food safety and food quality. These events in turn have caused the industry to re-evaluate how the meat supply chain functions and how to service the new social attributes demanded in the market place. Issues like source-verified, non-GMO, and organic are becoming important sources of product differentiation. How should firms in the meat supply chain respond? This study uses a needs assessment approach with meat supply chain managers and direct cataloguing of retail meat cases to better understand how the US meat supply chain is reacting to the turbulence in the industry.Livestock Production/Industries,

Using a homogeneous equilibrium model for the study of the inner nozzle flow and cavitation pattern in convergent-divergent nozzles of diesel injectors

[EN] In this paper, the behaviour of the internal nozzle flow and cavitation phenomenon are numerically studied for non-conventional Diesel convergent-divergent nozzles in order to assess their potential in terms of flow characteristics. The used nozzles differs each other in the convergence-divergence level of the orifices but all of them keep the same diameter at the middle of the nozzle orifice. The calculations have been performed using a code previously validated and able to simulate cavitation phenomenon using a homogeneous equilibrium model for the biphasic fluid and using a RANS method (RNG k-ε) as a turbulence modelling approach. For the simulations, one injection pressure and different discharge pressures were used in order to assess the characteristics of nozzles for different Reynolds conditions involving cavitating and non-cavitating conditions. The comparison of the nozzles has been carried out in terms of flow characteristics such as mass flow, momentum flux, effective velocity and other important dimensionless parameters which help to describe the behaviour of the inner flow: discharge coefficient (Cd), area coefficient (Ca) and velocity coefficient (Cv). Additionally, the nozzles have been compared in terms of cavitation inception conditions and cavitation development. The study has shown a high influence on the results of the level of convergence-divergence used in the nozzles. In these nozzles, the vapour originated from cavitation phenomenon came from the throttle of the orifice at the midpoint, and it extended along the whole wall of the divergent nozzle part towards the outlet of the orifice. The main results of the investigation have shown how the different geometries modify the cavitation conditions as well as the discharge coefficient and effective velocity. In particular, the nozzle with highest convergence-divergence level showed cavitation for all the tested conditions while for the nozzle with lowest convergence-divergence level, the cavitation phenomenon could be avoided for high discharge pressures. Additionally, the nozzle with highest convergence-divergence level showed the lowest discharge coefficient values but similar effective injection velocity than the nozzle with lowest level of convergence-divergence level despite of its higher orifice outlet area.This work was partly sponsored by ‘‘Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad’’ of the Spanish Government, in the frame of the project ‘‘Estudio de la interacción chorro-pared em condiciones realistas de motor’’, Reference TRA2015-67679-c2-1- R. This support is gratefully acknowledged by the authors. Mr. Jaramillo’s thesis is supported by ‘‘Conselleria d’Educació, Cultura I Esports’’ of ‘‘Generalitat Valenciana’’ through the program ‘‘Programa VALI+D para investigadores en Formación’’, Reference ACIF/2015/040. The authors would like to express gratitude for the computer resources, technical expertise and assistance provided by the Universidad de Valencia relating to the use of the supercomputer ‘‘Tirant’’.Salvador, FJ.; Jaramillo-Císcar, D.; Romero, J.; Roselló, M. (2017). Using a homogeneous equilibrium model for the study of the inner nozzle flow and cavitation pattern in convergent-divergent nozzles of diesel injectors. Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics. 309:630-641. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cam.2016.04.010S63064130

Role of Endomucin in Hypoxia-Induced Retinopathy of Prematurity

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a major cause of blindness among premature, low birth weight infants as a result of pathological angiogenesis. Angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels from preexisting vessels, occurs in the veins and capillaries of the body. The process is highly regulated during early development and maturation. However, under abnormal conditions such as a decrease in oxygen levels or hypoxia, angiogenesis can become dysregulated and pathogenic. Currently, the best treatment for ROP is laser therapy, which does not significantly improve vision. Alternatively, glycoproteins are believed to play an important role in angiogenesis. Endomucin (EMCN), a glycoprotein, has been shown to be expressed by the venous and capillary endothelium. EMCN is believed to be associated with angiogenesis and could be a potential target for treatment of ROP. Thus, we hypothesize that EMCN is regulated by hypoxia and plays an important role in pathological angiogenesis. Human retinal endothelial cells (HRECs), representative of endothelial cells involved in retinal angiogenesis, were deprived of oxygen using a hypoxia chamber. We established the optimal oxygen dosage, determined the optimal cell density, and monitored EMCN expression at different time points after exposure to hypoxia. Changes in gene expression in response to hypoxia were compared to control cells. Our preliminary data indicates that EMCN is regulated by hypoxia. Currently, we are investigating whether EMCN has similar effects in regulating revascularization in vivo. Taken together, our study indicates a novel role for EMCN during hypoxia-induced angiogenesis which may serve as a therapeutic target

Simulation study on light ions identification methods for carbon beams from 95 to 400 MeV/A

Monte Carlo simulations have been performed in order to evaluate the efficiencies of several light ions identification techniques. The detection system was composed with layers of scintillating material to measure either the deposited energy or the time-of-flight of ions produced by nuclear reactions between 12C projectiles and a PMMA target. Well known techniques such as (DELTA) E--Range, (DELTA) E--E--ToF and (DELTA)E--E are presented and their particle identification efficiencies are compared one to another regarding the generated charge and mass of the particle to be identified. The simulations allowed to change the beam energy matching the ones proposed in an hadron therapy facility, namely from 95 to 400 MeV/A

Total variation denoising in l1l^1 anisotropy

We aim at constructing solutions to the minimizing problem for the variant of Rudin-Osher-Fatemi denoising model with rectilinear anisotropy and to the gradient flow of its underlying anisotropic total variation functional. We consider a naturally defined class of functions piecewise constant on rectangles (PCR). This class forms a strictly dense subset of the space of functions of bounded variation with an anisotropic norm. The main result shows that if the given noisy image is a PCR function, then solutions to both considered problems also have this property. For PCR data the problem of finding the solution is reduced to a finite algorithm. We discuss some implications of this result, for instance we use it to prove that continuity is preserved by both considered problems.Comment: 34 pages, 9 figure