Salinity tolerance screening for biodiesel cultivars

Non-Peer Reviewe

Interface reaction characterization and interfacial effects in multilayers

The performance of multilayer structures as x-ray, soft x-ray, and extreme ultraviolet optics is dependent an the nature of the interfaces between constituent layers. Interfacial structure and the interaction between atoms at interfaces have also been demonstrated to have significant impact on the physical properties of multilayer materials in general and thus in their performance in other applied areas. As short summary of the approaches to characterization of interfaces in multilayer structures is presented as background. Two new techniques for the experimental evaluation of interfacial structure and interfacial structure effects are then considered and examples presented. Model calculations for one of these techniques which support the experimental results are also presented. In conclusion these results are reviewed of and an assessment of their implications relative to multilayer development given

Bilevel optimization approach to design of network of bike lanes

A bike lane is an effective way to improve cycling safety and to decrease greenhouse gas emissions with the promotion of cycling. Improvements include high-quality off-road facilities and on-road bike lanes. Whereas construction of off-road lanes is not always possible because of urban land constraints and construction costs, on-road lanes can be a cost-effective alternative. An optimization framework for the design of a network of bike lanes in an urban road network was proposed. This framework identified links on which a bike lane could be introduced. Allocation of a lane to cyclists would increase the use of cycling, although it could disadvantage auto traffic. The presented approach balances the effects of a bike lane for all stakeholders. A bilevel optimization was proposed to encompass the benefits of cyclists and car users at the upper level and a model for traffic and bike demand assignment at the lower level. The objective function was defined by a weighted sum of a measure for private car users (total travel time) versus a measure for bike users (total travel distance on bike lanes). A genetic algorithm was developed to solve the bilevel formulation, which included introduction of a special crossover technique and a mutation technique. The proposed optimization will help transport authorities at the planning stage to quantify the outcomes of various strategies for active transport

From Household Size to the Life Course

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66696/2/10.1177_000276427702100207.pd

Molecular simulation of chevrons in confined smectic liquid crystals

Chevron structures adopted by confined smectic liquid crystals are investigated via molecular dynamics simulations of the Gay-Berne model. The chevrons are formed by quenching nematic films confined between aligning planar substrates whose easy axes have opposing azimuthal components. When the substrates are perfectly smooth, the chevron formed migrates rapidly towards one of the confining walls to yield a tilted layer structure. However, when substrate roughness is included, by introducing a small-amplitude modulation to the particle- substrate interaction well-depth, a symmetric chevron is formed which remains stable over sufficiently long runtimes for detailed structural information, such as the relevant order parameters and director orien- tation, to be determined. For both smooth and rough boundaries, the smectic order parameter remains non-zero across the entire chevron, implying that layer identity is maintained across the chevron tip. Also, when the surface-stabilised chevron does eventually revert to a tilted layer structure, it does so via surface slippage, such that layer integrity is maintained throughout the chevron to tilted layer relaxation process. </p

Observing Supermassive Black Holes across cosmic time: from phenomenology to physics

In the last decade, a combination of high sensitivity, high spatial resolution observations and of coordinated multi-wavelength surveys has revolutionized our view of extra-galactic black hole (BH) astrophysics. We now know that supermassive black holes reside in the nuclei of almost every galaxy, grow over cosmological times by accreting matter, interact and merge with each other, and in the process liberate enormous amounts of energy that influence dramatically the evolution of the surrounding gas and stars, providing a powerful self-regulatory mechanism for galaxy formation. The different energetic phenomena associated to growing black holes and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), their cosmological evolution and the observational techniques used to unveil them, are the subject of this chapter. In particular, I will focus my attention on the connection between the theory of high-energy astrophysical processes giving rise to the observed emission in AGN, the observable imprints they leave at different wavelengths, and the methods used to uncover them in a statistically robust way. I will show how such a combined effort of theorists and observers have led us to unveil most of the SMBH growth over a large fraction of the age of the Universe, but that nagging uncertainties remain, preventing us from fully understating the exact role of black holes in the complex process of galaxy and large-scale structure formation, assembly and evolution.Comment: 46 pages, 21 figures. This review article appears as a chapter in the book: "Astrophysical Black Holes", Haardt, F., Gorini, V., Moschella, U and Treves A. (Eds), 2015, Springer International Publishing AG, Cha

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio