Nuclear modification factor in intermediate-energy heavy-ion collisions

The transverse momentum dependent nuclear modification factors (NMF), namely $R_{CP}$, is investigated for protons produced in Au + Au at 1$A$ GeV within the framework of the isospin-dependent quantum molecular dynamics (IQMD) model. It is found that the radial collective motion during the expansion stage affects the NMF at low transverse momentum a lot. By fitting the transverse mass spectra of protons with the distribution function from the Blast-Wave model, the magnitude of radial flow can be extracted. After removing the contribution from radial flow, the $R_{CP}$ can be regarded as a thermal one and is found to keep unitary at transverse momentum lower than 0.6 GeV/c and enhance at higher transverse momentum, which can be attributed to Cronin effect.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures; aceepted by Physics Letters

Numerical simulation of solid tumor blood perfusion and drug delivery during the “vascular normalization window” with antiangiogenic therapy

This Article is provided by the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund - Copyright @ 2011 Hindawi PublishingTo investigate the influence of vascular normalization on solid tumor blood perfusion and drug delivery, we used the generated blood vessel network for simulations. Considering the hemodynamic parameters changing after antiangiogenic therapies, the results show that the interstitial fluid pressure (IFP) in tumor tissue domain decreases while the pressure gradient increases during the normalization window. The decreased IFP results in more efficient delivery of conventional drugs to the targeted cancer cells. The outcome of therapies will improve if the antiangiogenic therapies and conventional therapies are carefully scheduled

Dual function flexible coplanar waveguide for feeding antenna of balanced structure

A flexible coplanar waveguide (CPW) design is presented suitable for feeding planar antenna with a balanced structure. Two features are provided by the flexible design, transition from balance on the antenna side to unbalance on the receiver side; transformation of characteristic input impedance of the antenna to the value of a standard load. It is essential for the CPW to be bended to fit the purposes hence the effect of bending of CPW on the transmission performance and method to feed planar antenna are investigated. The common mode propagation due to the inserted feedline is observed and the solution to eliminate the auxiliary common-mode effect in the structure is also discussed

Statistical experimental methods for optimizing the cultivating conditions for Rhodococcus erythropolis

Rhodococcus erythropolis was found to effectively degrade aflatoxin Bl produced by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. However, one problem of concern was the slow growth of this strain. In this study, Plackett–Burman design was used to select the most important variables, namely, temperature, pH, inoculum size, liquid volume, agitation speed and culture time that affected the growth of R. erythropolis. Central composite experimental design and response surface analysis were adopted to derive a statistical model for optimizing the culture conditions. From the obtained results, it can be concluded that the optimum parameters were: temperature, 15.3°C; pH, 5.56; inoculum size, 4%; liquid volume, 70 ml in 250 ml flask; agitation speed, 180 rpm; and culture time, 58.2 h. At this optimum point, the populations of the viable organisms could reach 108 colony forming units (CFU)/ml, which was 100 times higher than that incubated under the initial conditions. After 58.2 h incubation in this optimum cultivating conditions, 53.9 ± 2.1% of aflatoxin B1 was degraded, while only 20.6±1.4% of aflatoxin B1 was degraded in the initial conditions.Key words: Rhodococcus erythropolis, culture condition, optimization, Plackett–Burman design, central composite design, response surface methodology

A new 111 type iron pnictide superconductor LiFeP

A new iron pnictide LiFeP superconductor was found. The compound crystallizes into a Cu2Sb structure containing an FeP layer showing superconductivity with maximum Tc of 6K. This is the first 111 type iron pnictide superconductor containing no arsenic. The new superconductor is featured with itinerant behavior at normal state that could helpful to understand the novel superconducting mechanism of iron pnictide compounds.Comment: 3 figures + 1 tabl

Examining Food Quality via RFID Tag Array

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags are widely used in the food supply chain where they can be used to hold identification data of tagged objects. They can also be used to provide information related to the quality and safety of the tagged object. This can be achieved by analyzing the RF signals emitted by the tag which couples with the tagged objects, and hence can be used to acquire useful information related to the safety and quality of that object. This paper investigates the correlation between the radiated signals from the tags and the quality characteristics of the tagged objects. It focuses on analyzing the mutual coupling between the tags in an array, in particular, of orthogonal polarization configuration, which shows that more information can be extracted by an array of tags compared to the use of a single RFID tag emitter