Strong deflection gravitational lensing by a modified Hayward black hole

A modified Hayward black hole is a nonsingular black hole. It is proposed to form when the pressure generated by quantum gravity can stop matter's collapse as the matter reaches Planck density. Strong deflection gravitational lensing happening nearby its event horizon might provide some clues of these quantum effects in its central core. We investigate observables of the strong deflection lensing, including angular separations, brightness differences and time delays between its relativistic images, and estimate their values for the supermassive black hole in the Galactic center. We find that it is possible to distinguish the modified Hayward black hole from a Schwarzschild one, but it demands very high resolution beyond current stage.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur

Opinion formation about childhood immunization and disease spread on networks

People are physically and socially connected with each other. Those connections between people represent two, probably overlapping, networks: biological networks, through which physical contacts occur, or social network, through which information diffuse. In my thesis research, I am trying to answer that question in the context of pediatric disease spread on the biological network between households as well as within them and its relationship with information sharing on the social network of households (parents in that case) via Information Cascades. I mainly focus on the Erdos-Renyi network model. In particular, I use two different but overlapping Erdos-Renyi networks for the biological and social networks in the model. I am using agent-based stochastic simulations implemented in MatLab to study the modeling results

STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS AND CORROSION BEHAVIOR OF BIO-DEGRADABLE ZN-LI ALLOYS IN STENT APPLICATION

Zinc has begun to be studied as a bio-degradable material in recent years due to its excellent corrosion rate and optimal biocompatibility. Unfortunately, pure Zn’s intrinsic ultimate tensile strength (UTS; below 120 MPa) is lower than the benchmark (about 300 MPa) for cardiovascular stent materials, raising concerns about sufficient strength to support the blood vessel. Thus, modifying pure Zn to improve its mechanical properties is an important research topic. In this dissertation project, a new Zn-Li alloy has been developed to retain the outstanding corrosion behavior from Zn while improving the mechanical characteristics and uniform biodegradation once it is implanted into the artery of Sprague-Dawley rats. The completed work includes: Manufactured Zn-Li alloy ingots and sheets via induction vacuum casting, melt spinning, hot rolling deformation, and wire electro discharge machining (wire EDM) technique; processed alloy samples using cross sectioning, mounting, etching and polishing technique; Characterized alloy ingots, sheets and wires using hardness and tensile test, XRD, BEI imaging, SEM, ESEM, FTIR, ICP-OES and electrochemical test; then selected the optimum composition for in vitro and in vivo experiments; Mimicked the degradation behavior of the Zn-Li alloy in vitro using simulated body fluid (SBF) and explored the relations between corrosion rate, corrosion products and surface morphology with changing compositions; Explanted the Zn-Li alloy wire in abdominal aorta of rat over 12 months and studied its degradation mechanism, rate of bioabsorption, cytotoxicity and corrosion product migration from histological analysis