Real-Time Black Carbon Emission Factor Measurements from Light Duty Vehicles

Eight light-duty gasoline low emission vehicles (LEV I) were tested on a Chassis dynamometer using the California Unified Cycle (UC) at the Haagen-Smit vehicle test facility at the California Air Resources Board in El Monte, CA during September 2011. The UC includes a cold start phase followed by a hot stabilized running phase. In addition, a light-duty gasoline LEV vehicle and ultralow emission vehicle (ULEV), and a light-duty diesel passenger vehicle and gasoline direct injection (GDI) vehicle were tested on a constant velocity driving cycle. A variety of instruments with response times ≥0.1 Hz were used to characterize how the emissions of the major particulate matter components varied for the LEVs during a typical driving cycle. This study focuses primarily on emissions of black carbon (BC). These measurements allowed for the determination of BC emission factors throughout the driving cycle, providing insights into the temporal variability of BC emission factors during different phases of a typical driving cycle

Structural monitoring and modeling of the mechanical deformation of three-dimensional printed poly(ε-caprolactone) scaffolds

Three-dimensional (3D) printed poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) based scaffolds have being proposed for different tissue engineering applications. This study addresses the design and fabrication of 3D PCL constructs with different struts alignments at 90°, 45° and 90° with offset. The morphology and the mechanical behavior under uniaxial compressive load were assessed at different strain percentages. The combination of a new compressionCT device and micro computed tomography (micro-CT) allowed understanding the influence of pore geometry under controlled compressive strain in the mechanical and structural behavior of PCL constructs. Finite element analysis (FEA) was applied using the micro-CT data to modulate the mechanical response and compare with the conventional uniaxial compression tests. Scanning electron microscopic analysis showed a very high level of reproducibility and a low error comparing with the theoretical values, confirming that the alignment and the dimensional features of the printed struts are reliable. The mechanical tests showed that the 90° architecture presented the highest stiffness. With the compressionCT device was observed that the 90° and 90° with offset architectures presented similar values of porosity at same strain and similar pore size, contrary to the 45° architecture. Thus, pore geometric configurations affected significantly the deformability of the all PCL scaffolds under compression. The prediction of the FEA showed a good agreement to the conventional mechanical tests revealing the areas more affected under compression load. The methodology proposed in this study using 3D printed scaffolds with compressionCT device and FEA is a framework that offers great potential in understanding the mechanical and structural behavior of soft systems for different applications, including for the biomedical engineering field.The author Fernandes E M acknowledges the financial support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and 'Programa Operacional Potencial Humano-POPH' and 'Fundo Social Europeu-FSE' for the post-doctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/96197/2013).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Global Analysis of RNA Secondary Structure in Two Metazoans

The secondary structure of RNA is necessary for its maturation, regulation, processing, and function. However, the global influence of RNA folding in eukaryotes is still unclear. Here, we use a high-throughput, sequencing-based, structure-mapping approach to identify the paired (double-stranded RNA [dsRNA]) and unpaired (single-stranded RNA [ssRNA]) components of the Drosophila melanogaster and Caenorhabditis elegans transcriptomes, which allows us to identify conserved features of RNA secondary structure in metazoans. From this analysis, we find that ssRNAs and dsRNAs are significantly correlated with specific epigenetic modifications. Additionally, we find key structural patterns across protein-coding transcripts that indicate that RNA folding demarcates regions of protein translation and likely affects microRNA-mediated regulation of mRNAs in animals. Finally, we identify and characterize 546 mRNAs whose folding pattern is significantly correlated between these metazoans, suggesting that their structure has some function. Overall, our findings provide a global assessment of RNA folding in animals

A network analysis to identify mediators of germline-driven differences in breast cancer prognosis.

Identifying the underlying genetic drivers of the heritability of breast cancer prognosis remains elusive. We adapt a network-based approach to handle underpowered complex datasets to provide new insights into the potential function of germline variants in breast cancer prognosis. This network-based analysis studies ~7.3 million variants in 84,457 breast cancer patients in relation to breast cancer survival and confirms the results on 12,381 independent patients. Aggregating the prognostic effects of genetic variants across multiple genes, we identify four gene modules associated with survival in estrogen receptor (ER)-negative and one in ER-positive disease. The modules show biological enrichment for cancer-related processes such as G-alpha signaling, circadian clock, angiogenesis, and Rho-GTPases in apoptosis

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson

Measurement of the top quark pair cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV using final states with an electron or a muon and a hadronically decaying τ lepton

A measurement of the cross section of top quark pair production in proton-proton collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is reported. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.05 fb -1. Events with an isolated electron or muon and a τ lepton decaying hadronically are used. In addition, a large missing transverse momentum and two or more energetic jets are required. At least one of the jets must be identified as originating from a b quark. The measured cross section, σtt-=186±13(stat.)±20(syst.)±7(lumi.) pb, is in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction

Measurement of the top quark-pair production cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at \sqrt{s}=7\TeV

A measurement of the production cross-section for top quark pairs(\ttbar) in $pp$ collisions at \sqrt{s}=7 \TeV is presented using data recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in two different topologies: single lepton (electron $e$ or muon $\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least four jets, and dilepton ($ee$, $\mu\mu$ or $e\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least two jets. In a data sample of 2.9 pb-1, 37 candidate events are observed in the single-lepton topology and 9 events in the dilepton topology. The corresponding expected backgrounds from non-\ttbar Standard Model processes are estimated using data-driven methods and determined to be $12.2 \pm 3.9$ events and $2.5 \pm 0.6$ events, respectively. The kinematic properties of the selected events are consistent with SM \ttbar production. The inclusive top quark pair production cross-section is measured to be \sigmattbar=145 \pm 31 ^{+42}_{-27} pb where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The measurement agrees with perturbative QCD calculations.Comment: 30 pages plus author list (50 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, CERN-PH number and final journal adde