Strangeness production at finite temperature and baryon density in an effective relativistic mean field model

We study the strangeness production in hot and dense nuclear medium, by requiring the conservation of the baryon density, electric charge fraction and zero net strangeness. The hadronic equation of state is investigated by means of an effective relativistic mean field model, with the inclusion of the full octet of baryons and kaon mesons. Kaons are considered taking into account of an effective chemical potential depending on the self-consistent interaction between baryons. The obtained results are compared with a minimal coupling scheme, calculated for different values of the anti-kaon optical potential and with non-interacting kaon particles. In this context, we also consider the possible onset of the kaon condensation for a wide range of temperatures and baryon densities.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Practical tips for teaching academic integrity in the digital age

Background: Medical education, as with other areas of healthcare education, is susceptible to cheating, with national and international examples cited in the literature. There are documented examples in the lay press, but limited scholarly activity in the field, which can be a challenging area to research and tackle. We have begun to explicitly address academic integrity within our undergraduate curriculum, including a focus on plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and covert sharing of questions. We believe this is an important curricular topic as exhibiting unprofessional behaviours can correlate with professional practice and can potentially have implications for practitioners and patients. Aim: To present 12 tips on teaching academic integrity in the digital age to medical students. Method: The tips presented are based on our experiences of teaching academic digital integrity to medical students, primarily in the form of a scenario based quiz. We do also extrapolate from content on academic integrity elsewhere within our professionalism syllabus. Results: The tips suggest that early, contemporary and contextualised material that is co-produced with students may offer a useful prophylactic approach to teaching about academic integrity. Conclusions: The principles presented could be adapted to other healthcare students and settings, including postgraduate education

Image Compression Using Tap 9/7 Wavelet Transform and Quadtree Coding Scheme

This paper is concerned with the design and implementation of an image compression method based on biorthogonal tap-9/7 discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and quadtree coding method. As a first step the color correlation is handled using YUV color representation instead of RGB. Then, the chromatic sub-bands are downsampled, and the data of each color band is transformed using wavelet transform. The produced wavelet sub-bands are quantized using hierarchal scalar quantization method. The detail quantized coefficient is coded using quadtree coding followed by Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) encoding. While the approximation coefficients are coded using delta coding followed by LZW encoding. The test results indicated that the compression results are comparable to those gained by standard compression schemes

Prediction of Flow Duration Curve for Seasonal Rivers in Iraq

This paper presents a new method to estimate the flow duration curves [FDCs] for ungauged river basins whose natural and meterological characteristics are known. This study highlights the modeling of the lower three-quarters of the section of the flow duration curves [FDCs]. Eight sub-catchments were used to develop and evaluate the proposed flow duration model in the north of Iraq. The logarithmic type function has been found appropriate for the lower three-quarters of the section of [FDCs] for all river sub-catchments located in the study area. Parameter values of the logarithmic function model were calculated using topographic, hydrological and climatic characteristics of the basins under study by two regional regression models: first CA-MAP (catchment area-mean annual precipitation) model and second MAF-PE (mean annual flowpotential evapotranspiration) model. Generally, it is found that both models used were predicting a good estimate at the end of the flow duration curve (low-flows). In most cases, the statistics and graphical results showed that the agreement between observed and estimated FDCs is very good by using MAF-PE model as compared to CA-MAP model

Thermal and mechanical development of extremely high heat flux cooling modules based on jet array technology

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 1997.Includes bibliographical references.by Rudy S. Dahbura.M.S

A piecewise-linear reduced-order model of squeeze-film damping for deformable structures including large displacement effects

This paper presents a reduced-order model for the Reynolds equation for deformable structure and large displacements. It is based on the model established in [11] which is piece-wise linearized using two different methods. The advantages and drawbacks of each method are pointed out. The pull-in time of a microswitch is determined and compared to experimental and other simulation data.Comment: Submitted on behalf of EDA Publishing Association (http://irevues.inist.fr/handle/2042/16838

Bioregulators can improve biomass production, photosynthetic efficiency, and ornamental quality of gazania rigens L

Gazania rigens L. is a perennial herbaceous plant that belongs to the Asteraceae family, widely used as bedding or ornamental potted plants. The environmental and economic sustainability of ornamental production can be enhanced using environmentally friendly bioregulators. A pot experiment was conducted to evaluate the influence of key bioregulators gibberellic acid ((GA3) at 50, 100 or 150 mg L 121), humic acid ((HA) at 100, 300 or 600 mg L 121), and ascorbic acid ((AA) at 50, 100 or 200 mg L 121)), on the growth, leaf gas exchange, and ornamental quality of G. rigens. The results indicated that plants treated with foliar applications of GA3, HA, or AA exhibited higher plant fresh and dry biomass, plant height, leaf area, and leaf area ratio, root-shoot ratio, root-shoot mass fractions, and number of flowers, as well as the flowers display time. All bioregulator treatments enhanced the vegetative and floral characteristics of Gazania plants. The GA3 was the most efficient at the concentration of 100 mg L 121. The highest efficacy of HA and AA treatments was observed at the higher concentrations, 600 and 200 mg L 121, respectively. These results were associated with higher photosynthetic rate (A), transpiration rate (E) as well as stomatal conductance (gs), and water use efficiency (WUE). In conclusion, the results suggest that foliar-applied bioregulators to Gazania are promising and represent sustainable strategies to enhance growth, flowering, and flower display time of Gazania plants

DNA Polymorphism of Gaucher Disease in Iraqi Patients

Gaucher disease is the autosomally recessively inherited deficiency of the lysosomal enzyme glucocerebrosidase. Increasing storage of glucocerebrosides leads to a multisystem disease, the prevalence of which is about 1 : 40,000 in central Europe and up to 1 : 2,000 in some other countries (e. g. Israel). The acute and chronic neuronopathic forms of the disease (formerly defined as Gaucher types 2 and 3) account for only 5 to 10% of all Gaucher patients in Central Europe and Germany and are thus less frequent than the nonneuronopathic disease (formerly defined as Gaucher type 1). Gaucher's disease is usually associated with splenoand hepatomegaly, fatigue, skeletal complications, and several corresponding hematological and laboratory abnormalities. In 5 to 10% of the patients there are also central nervous symptoms such as myoclonic seizures, oculomotoric apraxia and a slight mental retardation. Recent epidemiological data indicate that only 10 to 20% of all Gaucher patients are correctly diagnosed (and treated) in Germany. The diagnosis today can be done in all patients by noninvasive methods, i. e. determination of the glucocerebrosidase activity in peripheral leukocytes and of the genetic defect, in this research the PCR technique was used to analyze the mutation in glucocerebrosidases gene (G ---C). Key words: Gaucher disease (GD), lysosomal storage disorder (LSD),lysosomal enzyme glucocerebrosidase, PCR, Mutation