5,092 research outputs found
The migration of fluid droplets and their interactions in a thermal gradient
When materials are processed in free fall, buoyant forces will be substantially reduced. Thus, the buoyant migration of droplets and bubbles which normally occurs on earth is expected to be overshadowed by migration due to other mechanisms in space processing. In particular, capillary forces on droplets due to the variation of interfacial tension around their periphery will play a significant role in governing their motion in space. While such interfacial tension gradients can be caused by thermal, compositional, and/or electrical gradients in the continuous phase, thermal gradients are convenient to use in controlled experimentation. On earth, due to interference from buoyant effects, it is difficult to study thermocapillary migration in sufficient detail. Also, the effects of a thermal gradient on the interactions among droplets are hard to study on Earth. Thus, an orbital facility for conducting experiments on the migration and interactions of fluid droplets in a continuous phase due to the action of a thermal gradient appears attractive
Interaction effects in thermocapillary bubble migration
Two bubbles migrating along their line of centers under the influence of an imposed thermal gradient are considered in the quasi-static limit. Results are reported for representative values of the governing parameters
Electric Polarizability of Neutral Hadrons from Lattice QCD
By simulating a uniform electric field on a lattice and measuring the change
in the rest mass, we calculate the electric polarizability of neutral mesons
and baryons using the methods of quenched lattice QCD. Specifically, we measure
the electric polarizability coefficient from the quadratic response to the
electric field for 10 particles: the vector mesons and ; the
octet baryons n, , , , and ;
and the decouplet baryons , , and .
Independent calculations using two fermion actions were done for consistency
and comparison purposes. One calculation uses Wilson fermions with a lattice
spacing of fm. The other uses tadpole improved L\"usher-Weiss gauge
fields and clover quark action with a lattice spacing fm. Our results
for neutron electric polarizability are compared to experiment.Comment: 25 pages, 20 figure
The polarizability of the pion: no conflict between dispersion theory and chiral perturbation theory
Recent attempts to determine the pion polarizability by dispersion relations
yield values that disagree with the predictions of chiral perturbation theory.
These dispersion relations are based on specific forms for the absorptive part
of the Compton amplitudes. The analytic properties of these forms are examined,
and the strong enhancement of intermediate-meson contributions is shown to be
connected with spurious singularities. If the basic requirements of dispersion
relations are taken into account, the results of dispersion theory and
effective field theory are not inconsistent.Comment: 30 pages, 8 figures, 6 table
Observation of String Breaking in QCD
We numerically investigate the transition of the static quark-antiquark
string into a static-light meson-antimeson system. Improving noise reduction
techniques, we are able to resolve the signature of string breaking dynamics
for n_f=2 lattice QCD at zero temperature. This result can be related to
properties of quarkonium systems. We also study short-distance interactions
between two static-light mesons.Comment: 27 pages, 22 figures, changed decimal place of errors in 3 entries of
Table, corrected reference
Semi-Analytical Finite Element Analysis of the Influence of Axial Loads on Elastic Waveguides
A preliminary analysis of the data from experiment 77-13 and final report on glass fining experiments in zero gravity
Thermal fining, thermal migration of bubbles under reduced gravity conditions, and data to verify current theoretical models of bubble location and temperatures as a function of time are discussed. A sample, sodium borate glass, was tested during 5 to 6 minutes of zero gravity during rocket flight. The test cell contained a heater strip; thermocouples were in the sample. At present quantitative data are insufficient to confirm results of theoretical calculations
Association of antihypertensive monotherapy with serum sodium and potassium levels in Chinese patients
<b>Background</b> International guidelines on management of hypertension recommend any major classes of antihypertensive drugs. However, the low prescribing rate of thiazides has been attributed to concerns about electrolyte disturbances and studies between antihypertensive drug classes and hyponatremia/hypokalemia among Chinese patients were scarce. <p></p>
<b>Methods</b> From clinical databases we included 2,759 patients who received their first-ever antihypertensive monotherapy from January 2004 to June 2007 in a large territory of Hong Kong. We studied the plasma sodium and potassium levels 8 weeks after prescriptions and factors associated with hyponatremia and hypokalemia by multivariable regression analyses. <p></p>
<b>Results</b> Among major antihypertensive drug classes, thiazide users had the lowest sodium level (139.6 mEq/l, 95% confidence interval (CI) 139.3, 140.0, P < 0.001) and patients-prescribed calcium channel blockers (CCBs; 3.92 mEq/l, 95% CI 3.89, 3.95) or thiazide diuretics (3.99 mEq/l, 95% CI 3.93, 4.04) had the lowest potassium levels (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis reported that advanced age (>/=70 years, odds ratio (OR) 7.49, 95% CI 2.84, 19.8, P < 0.001), male gender (OR 2.38, 95% CI 1.45, 3.91, P < 0.001), and thiazide users (OR 2.42, 95% CI 1.29, 4.56, P = 0.006) were significantly associated with hyponatremia, while renin-angiotensin system (RAS) (OR 0.31, 95% CI 0.13, 0.73, P = 0.008) and beta-blockers (BBs) (OR 0.35, 95% CI 0.23, 0.54, P < 0.001) users were less likely to present with hypokalemia. However, the proportions having normonatremic (95.1%) and normokalemic (89.4%) levels were high. <p></p>
<b>Conclusions</b> In view of the low prevalence of hyponatremia and hypokalemia associated with thiazides, physicians should not be deterred from prescribing thiazide diuretics as first-line antihypertensive agents as recommended by most international guidelines
Laser-modified one- and two-photon absorption:Expanding the scope of optical nonlinearity
It is shown that conventional one-photon and two-photon absorption processes can be made subject to nonlinear optical control, in each case significantly modifying the efficiency of absorption, through the effect of a secondary, off-resonant stimulus laser beam. The mechanistic origin of these laser-modified absorption processes, in which the stimulus beam emerges unchanged, is traced to higher-order terms in standard perturbation treatments. These normally insignificant terms become unusually prominent when the secondary optical stimulus is moderately intense. Employing a quantum formulation, the effects of the stimulus beam on one-photon and two-photon absorption are analyzed, and calculations are performed to determine the degree of absorption enhancement, and the form of spectral manifestation, under various laser intensities. The implications of differences in selection rules are also considered and exemplified, leading to the identification of dark states that can be populated as a result of laser-modified absorption. Attention is also drawn to the possibility of quantum nondemolition measurements, based on such a form of optical nonlinearity
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