Black Silicon with high density and high aspect ratio nanowhiskers

Physical properties of black Silicon (b-Si) formed on Si wafers by reactive ion etching in chlorine plasma are reported in an attempt to clarify the formation mechanism and the origin of the observed optical and electrical phenomena which are promising for a variety of applications. The b-Si consisting of high density and high aspect ratio sub-micron length whiskers or pillars with tip diameters of well under 3 nm exhibits strong photoluminescence (PL) both in visible and infrared, which are interpreted in conjunction with defects, confinement effects and near band-edge emission. Structural analysis indicate that the whiskers are all crystalline and encapsulated by a thin Si oxide layer. Infrared vibrational spectrum of Si-O-Si bondings in terms of transverse-optic (TO) and longitudinal-optic (LO) phonons indicates that disorder induced LO-TO optical mode coupling can be an effective tool in assessing structural quality of the b-Si. The same phonons are likely coupled to electrons in visible region PL transitions. Field emission properties of these nanoscopic features are demonstrated indicating the influence of the tip shape on the emission. Overall properties are discussed in terms of surface morphology of the nano whiskers

The Quantum Socket: Three-Dimensional Wiring for Extensible Quantum Computing

Quantum computing architectures are on the verge of scalability, a key requirement for the implementation of a universal quantum computer. The next stage in this quest is the realization of quantum error correction codes, which will mitigate the impact of faulty quantum information on a quantum computer. Architectures with ten or more quantum bits (qubits) have been realized using trapped ions and superconducting circuits. While these implementations are potentially scalable, true scalability will require systems engineering to combine quantum and classical hardware. One technology demanding imminent efforts is the realization of a suitable wiring method for the control and measurement of a large number of qubits. In this work, we introduce an interconnect solution for solid-state qubits: The quantum socket. The quantum socket fully exploits the third dimension to connect classical electronics to qubits with higher density and better performance than two-dimensional methods based on wire bonding. The quantum socket is based on spring-mounted micro wires the three-dimensional wires that push directly on a micro-fabricated chip, making electrical contact. A small wire cross section (~1 mmm), nearly non-magnetic components, and functionality at low temperatures make the quantum socket ideal to operate solid-state qubits. The wires have a coaxial geometry and operate over a frequency range from DC to 8 GHz, with a contact resistance of ~150 mohm, an impedance mismatch of ~10 ohm, and minimal crosstalk. As a proof of principle, we fabricated and used a quantum socket to measure superconducting resonators at a temperature of ~10 mK.Comment: Main: 31 pages, 19 figs., 8 tables, 8 apps.; suppl.: 4 pages, 5 figs. (HiRes figs. and movies on request). Submitte

Water Flooding and Viscous Fingering in Fracture and Porous Media by Lattice Boltzmann Method

The study of fluid front in porous media in enhanced oil recovery is important. The purpose of this study is to simulate water flooding, and investigate the factors affecting the fluid front across a microfracture and simple porous media using Shan-Chen type of the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM). Various factors, including velocity and dynamic viscosity that define the capillary number and wettability are considered. Independently, the increase in velocity and dynamic viscosity ratio results in viscous fingering and its narrowness. Increasing the wettability of the displacing fluid decreases viscous fingering, and as a result, it makes the fluid move in piston form. The lowest sweep efficiency occurs when the displacing fluid has a neutral wettability. Simulation results show the strength and accuracy of Shan-Chen type of LBM in fluid front tracking in porous media in pore scale. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Investigating the Physicochemical Properties of Healthy Yogurt Containing Bitter Gourd Powder

Introduction  Yogurt is one of the most widely consumed fermented milk products, which, like any other dairy products, is prone to spoilage and poor quality. On the other hand consumers have become more cautious about their diet and health. Their is an increasing demand for food products with higher nutritional values and health benefits. The continuous improvement of the production process and the quality of yogurt is at the heart of manufacturers’ concerns. Also, finding a safe, cheap and affordable solution that, in addition to controlling blood sugar and preventing the complications of diabetes, relieves the pain of diabetic patients; has always been of interest to researchers. The medicinal plant Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) from the cucurbitaceae family is used in traditional medicine to control blood sugar. Carla fruit is a rich source of phytochemical compounds such as proteins, steroids, alkaloids, mineral compounds, lipids, triterpenoids and polyphenols. Functional yogurt is one of the dairy products that can contain bioactive compounds in order to increase its acceptability and improve its nutritional and medicinal properties. Therefore, this study was carried out with the aim of producing colored yogurt containing Carla fruit powder in order to increase the variety of appearance, marketability of the product and improve the nutritional characteristics of yogurt with emphasis on the consumption of novel product.   Materials and Methods  In this study, the effects of adding Carla powder to yogurt were investigated with the aim of producing a beneficial food for diabetics. Carla fruit was collected from the medicinal plants collection of the Agriculture Institute, Research Institute of Zabol, Zabol, Iran. Then it was washed with water and cut into thin layers. These parts were completely dried in an electric oven at 40 ºC for 48 hours and pulverized with an electric mill. Carla fruit powder was added to the samples in four levels of 0 (control), 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6%. Physicochemical properties of samples such as pH, acidity, viscosity (using Brookfield spindle viscometer) and water holding capacity were measured. Total phenol content was measured by Folin Ciocalteu reagent method. Antioxidant properties were investigated by scavenging rate of DPPH free radicals. The results were analyzed by SPSS version 21 statistical software at the probability level of 5% (P˂ 0.05). Duncan's multiple range test was performed to determine the statistically significant difference between the means.   Results and Discussion  The results of this study showed that the highest pH (4.17) was detected in the control and the addition of Carla fruit powder led to a decrease in pH. Storage time also lower the pH in yogurt samples. The highest acidity (1.3%) was measured in the treatment containing 0.6% Carla fruit powder and the lowest (0.59%) was in the control. It means that adding Carla powder to yogurt leads to an increase in acidity. The highest amount of phenolic compounds (475.63 μg equivalent of gallic acid/ml yogurt), was calculated in a sample containing 0.6% of Carla fruit powder. However, extended storage time, decreases the amount of phenolic compounds. By increasing the percentage of Carla fruit powder in yogurt samples, the amount of antioxidant activity increased. So that the highest antioxidant activity (93%) was related to the treatment containing 0.6% Carla powder on the 28th day of the storage. In the present study, the highest percentage of water holding capacity (84%) was observed in samples containing 0.6% Carla powder. The lowest water holding capacity (57.61%) was measured in the control sample at the first day of storage.   Conclusion  According to the results of this study, adding Carla powder to yogurt at the level of 0.6%, in addition to maintaining appearance properties, can increase its physicochemical properties and produce a novel food. In general, Carla powder can play a significant role in improving the textural properties of yogurt, and by increasing the viscosity and the water holding capacity, can reduce the negative effects of the storage period.   Acknowledgement  This research was conducted with the financial support by Research Institute of Zabol (Grant code: IR-RIOZ-GR-9027)

Sniffer dogs as a screening/diagnostic tool for COVID-19: a proof of concept study

Background: Sniffer dogs are able to detect certain chemical particles and are suggest to be capable of helping diagnose some medical conditions and complications, such as colorectal cancer, melanoma, bladder cancer, and even critical states such as hypoglycemia in diabetic patients. With the global spread of COVID-19 throughout the world and the need to have a real-time screening of the population, especially in crowded places, this study aimed to investigate the applicability of sniffer dogs to carry out such a task. Methods: Firstly, three male and female dogs from German shepherd (Saray), German black (Kuzhi) and Labrador (Marco) breeds had been intensively trained throughout the classical conditioning method for 7 weeks. They were introduced to human specimens obtained from the throat and pharyngeal secretions of participants who were already reported positive or negative for SARS-COV-2 infection be RT-PCR. Each dog underwent the conditioning process for almost 1000 times. In the meantime another similar condition process was conducted on clothes and masks of COVID-19 patient using another three male and female dogs from Labrador (Lexi), Border gypsy (Sami), and Golden retriever (Zhico) breeds. In verification test for the first three dogs, 80 pharyngeal secretion samples consisting of 26 positive and 54 negative samples from different medical centers who underwent RT-PCR test were in a single-blind method. In the second verification test for the other three dogs, masks and clothes of 50 RT-PCR positive and 70 RT-PCR negative cases from different medical center were used. Results: In verification test using pharyngeal secretion, the sniffer dogs� detection capability was associated with a 65 of sensitivity and 89 of specificity and they amanged to identify 17 out of the 26 positive and 48 out of the 54 true negative samples. In the next verification test using patients� face masks and clothes, 43 out of the 50 positive samples were correctly identified by the dogs. Moreover, out of the 70 negative samples, 65 samples were correctly found to be negative. The sensitivity of this test was as high as 86 and its specificity was 92.9. In addition, the positive and negative predictive values were 89.6 and 90.3, respectively. Conclusion: Dogs are capable of being trained to identify COVID-19 cases by sniffing their odour, so they can be used as a reliable tool in limited screening. © 2021, The Author(s)

Simplicial quantum dynamics

Present-day quantum field theory can be regularized by a decomposition into quantum simplices. This replaces the infinite-dimensional Hilbert space by a high-dimensional spinor space and singular canonical Lie groups by regular spin groups. It radically changes the uncertainty principle for small distances. Gaugeons, including the gravitational, are represented as bound fermion-pairs, and space-time curvature as a singular organized limit of quantum non-commutativity. Keywords: Quantum logic, quantum set theory, quantum gravity, quantum topology, simplicial quantization.Comment: 25 pages. 1 table. Conference of the International Association for Relativistic Dynamics, Taiwan, 201