39,697 research outputs found
Modeling of secondary organic aerosol yields from laboratory chamber data
Laboratory chamber data serve as the basis for constraining models of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation. Current models fall into three categories: empirical two-product (Odum), product-specific, and volatility basis set. The product-specific and volatility basis set models are applied here to represent laboratory data on the ozonolysis of α-pinene under dry, dark, and low-NOx conditions in the presence of ammonium sulfate seed aerosol. Using five major identified products, the model is fit to the chamber data. From the optimal fitting, SOA oxygen-to-carbon (O/C) and hydrogen-to-carbon (H/C) ratios are modeled. The discrepancy between measured H/C ratios and those based on the oxidation products used in the model fitting suggests the potential importance of particle-phase reactions. Data fitting is also carried out using the volatility basis set, wherein oxidation products are parsed into volatility bins. The product-specific model is most likely hindered by lack of explicit inclusion of particle-phase accretion compounds. While prospects for identification of the majority of SOA products for major volatile organic compounds (VOCs) classes remain promising, for the near future empirical product or volatility basis set models remain the approaches of choice
Low Temperature Susceptibility of the Noncentrosymmetric Superconductor CePt_3Si
We report ac susceptibility measurements of polycrystalline CePt_3Si down to
60 mK and in applied fields up to 9 T. In zero field, a full Meissner state
emerges at temperatures T/Tc < 0.3, where Tc=0.65 K is the onset transition
temperature. Though transport measurements show a relatively high upper
critical field Bc2 ~ 4-5 T, the low temperature susceptibility, \chi', is quite
fragile to applied field, with \chi' diminishing rapidly in fields of a few kG.
Interestingly, the field dependence of \chi' is well described by the power
law, 4\pi\chi'=(B/B_c)^{1/2}, where Bc is the field at which the onset of
resistance is observed in transport measurements.Comment: 5 figure
Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy study of HgBaCuO
HgBaCuO (Hg1201) has been shown to be a model cuprate for
scattering, optical, and transport experiments, but angle-resolved
photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) data are still lacking owing to the absence
of a charge-neutral cleavage plane. We report on progress in achieving the
experimental conditions for which quasiparticles can be observed in the
near-nodal region of the Fermi surface. The d-wave superconducting gap is
measured and found to have a maximum of 39 meV. At low temperature, a kink is
detected in the nodal dispersion at approximately 51 meV below the Fermi level,
an energy that is different from other cuprates with comparable T. The
superconducting gap, Fermi surface, and nodal band renormalization measured
here provide a crucial momentum-space complement to other experimental probes
Role of aldehyde chemistry and NO_x concentrations in secondary organic aerosol formation
Aldehydes are an important class of products from atmospheric oxidation of hydrocarbons. Isoprene (2-methyl-1,3-butadiene), the most abundantly emitted atmospheric non-methane hydrocarbon, produces a significant amount of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) via methacrolein (a C_4-unsaturated aldehyde) under urban high-NO_x conditions. Previously, we have identified peroxy methacryloyl nitrate (MPAN) as the important intermediate to isoprene and methacrolein SOA in this NO_x regime. Here we show that as a result of this chemistry, NO_2 enhances SOA formation from methacrolein and two other α, β-unsaturated aldehydes, specifically acrolein and crotonaldehyde, a NO_x effect on SOA formation previously unrecognized. Oligoesters of dihydroxycarboxylic acids and hydroxynitrooxycarboxylic acids are observed to increase with increasing NO_2/NO ratio, and previous characterizations are confirmed by both online and offline high-resolution mass spectrometry techniques. Molecular structure also determines the amount of SOA formation, as the SOA mass yields are the highest for aldehydes that are α, β-unsaturated and contain an additional methyl group on the α-carbon. Aerosol formation from 2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol (MBO232) is insignificant, even under high-NO_2 conditions, as PAN (peroxy acyl nitrate, RC(O)OONO_2) formation is structurally unfavorable. At atmospherically relevant NO_2/NO ratios (3–8), the SOA yields from isoprene high-NO_x photooxidation are 3 times greater than previously measured at lower NO_2/NO ratios. At sufficiently high NO_2 concentrations, in systems of α, β-unsaturated aldehydes, SOA formation from subsequent oxidation of products from acyl peroxyl radicals+NO_2 can exceed that from RO_2+HO_2 reactions under the same inorganic seed conditions, making RO_2+NO_2 an important channel for SOA formation
Secondary organic aerosol formation from photooxidation of naphthalene and alkylnaphthalenes: implications for oxidation of intermediate volatility organic compounds (IVOCs)
Current atmospheric models do not include secondary
organic aerosol (SOA) production from gas-phase reactions
of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Recent
studies have shown that primary emissions undergo oxidation
in the gas phase, leading to SOA formation. This
opens the possibility that low-volatility gas-phase precursors
are a potentially large source of SOA. In this work,
SOA formation from gas-phase photooxidation of naphthalene,
1-methylnaphthalene (1-MN), 2-methylnaphthalene (2-
MN), and 1,2-dimethylnaphthalene (1,2-DMN) is studied in
the Caltech dual 28-m^3 chambers. Under high-NO_x conditions
and aerosol mass loadings between 10 and 40μgm^(−3),
the SOA yields (mass of SOA per mass of hydrocarbon reacted)
ranged from 0.19 to 0.30 for naphthalene, 0.19 to 0.39
for 1-MN, 0.26 to 0.45 for 2-MN, and constant at 0.31 for
1,2-DMN. Under low-NO_x conditions, the SOA yields were
measured to be 0.73, 0.68, and 0.58, for naphthalene, 1-
MN, and 2-MN, respectively. The SOA was observed to be
semivolatile under high-NO_x conditions and essentially nonvolatile
under low-NO_x conditions, owing to the higher fraction
of ring-retaining products formed under low-NO_x conditions.
When applying these measured yields to estimate
SOA formation from primary emissions of diesel engines
and wood burning, PAHs are estimated to yield 3–5 times
more SOA than light aromatic compounds over photooxidation
timescales of less than 12 h. PAHs can also account for
up to 54% of the total SOA from oxidation of diesel emissions,
representing a potentially large source of urban SOA
Evaluating urban housing development patterns in developing countries: Case study of Worn-out Urban Fabrics in Iran
The restoration of Worn-out Urban Fabrics (WoUFs), i.e., the disfiguration of fabric components of the city from their main shape, and the implementation of the urban housing development plan have always been pivotal activities for designing livable cities – especially in developing countries. Prior research, however, did not identify an appropriate model of sustainable housing development for the recovery of WoUFs. To fill this gap, housing development patterns – i.e., supportive housing, Mehr housing, rental, and social housing – aimed at restoring the WoUF of the Hemmatabad district in Isfahan city (Iran) were studied. Expert opinions, on the criteria affecting the selection of housing development patterns, from 40 professionals in urban management and urban development models were collected and then analyzed by the Analytic Hierarchical Process and VIKOR method. It resulted that, in order to revive the WoUF of Hemmatabad, social housing is the more desirable pattern of housing development (Qi = 1) compared to supportive housing (Qi = 0.911), Mehr housing (Qi = 0.117) and rental housing (Qi = 0.004). Results help governments of developing countries in directing their effort in the decision of which housing development pattern for WoUFs to implement
Assessing the Barriers and Risks to Private Sector Participation in Infrastructure Construction Projects in Developing Countries of Middle East
In developing countries, governments are often unable to implement urban infrastructure construction projects (UICPs) on their own, mainly due to budget and financial resource limitations. The participation of the private sector, through public–private partnerships (PPPs), has been considered as an alternative effective method for increasing the efficiency and productivity of urban infrastructure development. However, in many developing countries such as those situated in the Middle East, attracting private sector investments for UICPs uncovers profound challenges that have not ever been comprehensively accounted for and prioritized. To fill this knowledge gap, this study seeks to determine and prioritize the major barriers and risks faced by governments and urban managers in attracting private sector investments through the PPP schemes launched by developing countries in the Middle East. Based on a Delphi study conducted in Iran as an example, the opinions of 60 UICPs experts in both the public and private sectors were collected and analyzed. Results show that technical and organizational barriers and risks were perceived as the most important to private sector participation, followed by economic and financial barriers and risks, and then political and legal barriers and risk
Enabling Proactive Adaptation through Just-in-time Testing of Conversational Services
Service-based applications (SBAs) will increasingly be composed of third-party services available over the Internet. Reacting to failures of those third-party services by dynamically adapting the SBAs will become a key enabler for ensuring reliability. Determining when to adapt an SBA is especially challenging in the presence of conversational (aka. stateful) services. A conversational service might fail in the middle of an invocation sequence, in which case adapting the SBA might be costly; e.g., due to the necessary state transfer to an alternative service. In this paper we propose just-in-time testing of conversational services as a novel approach to detect potential problems and to proactively trigger adaptations, thereby preventing costly compensation activities. The approach is based on a framework for online testing and a formal test-generation method which guarantees functional correctness for conversational services. The applicability of the approach is discussed with respect to its underlying assumptions and its performance. The benefits of the approach are demonstrated using a realistic example
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