Investigation of the Effect of Biodiesel Blends on Fuel Injection Pumps based on Vibration and Pressure Measurements

Amongst alternative fuels for diesel-engine application, biodiesel is very attractive because it is biodegradable, an environmentally-friendly and sustainable source that can meet future energy demands. However, there are few published studies of the impact of biodiesel fuel and its blends on fuel injection pumps (FIPs). This study will investigate the influence of biodiesels derived from waste cooking oils with incremental blends of B10, B20, B30, B40 and B100. The FIP in this study is a rotary type attached to a four-cylinder, four-stroke direct injection, turbocharged diesel engine. Vibration and pressure measurements were made on the FIP. The results show the peak pressure close to the pump increases slightly the higher the proportion of biodiesel because of increased viscosity, density and bulk modulus of the fuel. Low frequency vibration increased as the proportion of biodiesel increased. These results demonstrate an increase in dynamic load on the pump components. However, high frequency vibration levels are lowest for the blends B10, B20 and B30, which may be helpful for improving the service life of the delivery

Distributed leadership, trust and online communities

This paper analyses the role of distributed leadership and trust in online communities. The team-based informal ethos of online collaboration requires a different kind of leadership from that in formal positional hierarchies. Such leadership may be more flexible and sophisticated, capable of encompassing ambiguity and rapid change. Online leaders need to be partially invisible, delegating power and distributing tasks. Yet, simultaneously, online communities are facilitated by the high visibility and subtle control of expert leaders. This paradox: that leaders need to be both highly visible and invisible as appropriate, was derived from prior research and tested in the analysis of online community discussions using a pattern-matching process. It is argued that both leader visibility and invisibility are important for the facilitation of trusting collaboration via distributed leadership. Advanced leadership responses to complex situations in online communities foster positive group interaction and decision-making, facilitated through active distribution of specific tasks

Strong Couplings of Heavy Mesons to A Light Vector Meson in QCD

We make a detailed analysis of the $BB\rho(DD\rho)$ and $B^*B\rho(D^{*}D\rho)$ strong couplings $g_{BB\rho}(g_{DD\rho})$ and $g_{B^*B\rho}(g_{D^{*}D\rho})$ using QCD light cone sum rules(LCSR). The existing some negligence is pointed out in the previous LCSR calculation on $g_{B^*B\rho} (g_{D^{\ast}D\rho}$) and an updated estimate is presented. Our findings can be used to understand the behavior of the $B,D \to \rho$ semileptonic form factors at large momentum transitions.Comment: 15 pages, latex, 2 figures, version appearing in PRD, typos correcte

The transition form factors for semi-leptonic weak decays of J/ψJ/\psi in QCD sum rules

Within the Standard Model, we investigate the semi-leptonic weak decays of $J/\psi$. The various form factors of $J/\psi$ transiting to a single charmed meson ($D^{(*)}_{(d,s)}$) are studied in the framework of the QCD sum rules. These form factors fully determine the rates of the weak semi-leptonic decays of $J/\psi$ and provide valuable information about the non-perturbative QCD effects. Our results indicate that the decay rate of the semi-leptonic weak decay mode $J/\psi \to D^{(*)-}_{s}+e^{+}+\nu_{e}$ is at order of $10^{-10}$.Comment: 28 pages, 6 figures, revised version to be published in Eur.Phys.J.

Calibration of Plastic Phoswich Detectors for Charged Particle Detection

The response of an array of plastic phoswich detectors to ions of $1\le Z\le 18$ has been measured from $E/A$=12 to 72 MeV. The detector response has been parameterized by a three parameter fit which includes both quenching and high energy delta-ray effects. The fits have a mean variation of $\le 4\%$ with respect to the data.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure

The semileptonic B->pi decay in a Constituent Quark-Meson model

We evaluate the form factors describing the exclusive decay B-> pi l nu by using a Constituent Quark-Meson model based on an effective quark-meson Lagrangian (CQM). The model allows for an expansion in the pion momenta and we consider terms up to the first order in the pion field derivatives. We compute the leading terms in the soft pion limit and consider corrections to this limit.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, LaTeX (uses aps, epsf, revtex), formula 26 corrected, discussion enlarged, references updated and other minor change

Charming penguins in B => K* pi, K (rho,omega,phi) decays

We evaluate the decays B => K* pi, K (rho,omega,phi) adding the long distance charming penguin contributions to the short distance: Tree+Penguin amplitudes. We estimate the imaginary part of the charming penguin by an effective field theory inspired by the Heavy Quark Effective Theory and parameterize its real part. The final results for branching ratios depend on only two real parameters and show a significant role of the charming penguins. The overall agreement with the available experimental data is satisfactory.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figur

Shape Analysis in the Absence of Pointers and Structure

discover properties of dynamic and/or mutable structures. We ask, “Is there an equivalent to shape analysis for purely functional programs, and if so, what ‘shapes ’ does it discover? ” By treating binding environments as dynamically allocated structures, by treating bindings as addresses, and by treating value environments as heaps, we argue that we can analyze the “shape ” of higher-order functions. To demonstrate this, we enrich an abstract-interpretive control-flow analysis with principles from shape analysis. In particular, we promote “anodization ” as a way to generalize both singleton abstraction and the notion of focusing, and we promote “binding invariants ” as the analog of shape predicates. Our analysis enables two optimizations known to be beyond the reach of control-flow analysis (globalization and super-β inlining) and one previously unknown optimization (higher-order rematerialization).

A measurement of the tau mass and the first CPT test with tau leptons

We measure the mass of the tau lepton to be 1775.1+-1.6(stat)+-1.0(syst.) MeV using tau pairs from Z0 decays. To test CPT invariance we compare the masses of the positively and negatively charged tau leptons. The relative mass difference is found to be smaller than 3.0 10^-3 at the 90% confidence level.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, Submitted to Phys. Letts.

Measurement of the Michel Parameters in Leptonic Tau Decays

The Michel parameters of the leptonic tau decays are measured using the OPAL detector at LEP. The Michel parameters are extracted from the energy spectra of the charged decay leptons and from their energy-energy correlations. A new method involving a global likelihood fit of Monte Carlo generated events with complete detector simulation and background treatment has been applied to the data recorded at center-of-mass energies close to sqrt(s) = M(Z) corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 155 pb-1 during the years 1990 to 1995. If e-mu universality is assumed and inferring the tau polarization from neutral current data, the measured Michel parameters are extracted. Limits on non-standard coupling constants and on the masses of new gauge bosons are obtained. The results are in agreement with the V-A prediction of the Standard Model.Comment: 32 pages, LaTeX, 9 eps figures included, submitted to the European Physical Journal