169 research outputs found
Bi Odegradability of Polyvinyl Alcohol in Sand for Resin Bonded Sand Casting Process
Resin bonded sand casting is widely used for manufacturing automotive parts, especially those made of aluminium alloys. In general, resin bonded sand casting use alkaline resin as binding agent. Typically, they are from non-biodegradable materials that have issues on reclamation and disposal of the sand as well as cause hazard to the environment. Therefore, a biodegradable resin consisting of Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA) as one of the solution contents was developed to substitute the non-environmental friendly resin. The purpose of this investigation is to attest that PVA is a biodegradable material under natural environment. Weight loss quantification was used as a method to study the biodegradability of PVA and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy were used to examine the molecular bonding as well as the morphological structure of the resin after biodegradation. The degradation process was evaluated by the weight loss and molecular structure of the PVA. At the end of this study, the weight loss of PVA is insignificant to show the biodegradation process. However, further investigation using FTIR and Raman spectroscopy methods; it is observed that there is a significant change in molecular and morphological structure of PVA
WDM for Multi-user Indoor VLC Systems with SCM
A system that employs wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) in conjunction with subcarrier multiplexing (SCM) tones is proposed to realize high data rate multi-user indoor visible light communication (VLC). The SCM tones, which are unmodulated signals, are used to identify each light unit, to find the optimum light unit for each user and to calculate the level of the co-channel interference (CCI). WDM is utilized to attain a high data rate for each user. In this paper, multicolour (four colours) laser diodes (LDs) are utilized as sources of lighting and data communication. One of the WDM colours is used to convey the SCM tones at the beginning of the connection to set up the connection among receivers and light units (to find the optimum light unit for each user). To evaluate the performance of our VLC system, we propose two types of receivers: an array of non-imaging receivers (NI-R) and an array of non-imaging angle diversity receivers (NI-ADR). In this paper, we consider the effects of diffuse reflections, CCI and mobility on the system performance
Shrinking a large dataset to identify variables associated with increased risk of Plasmodium falciparum infection in Western Kenya
Large datasets are often not amenable to analysis using traditional single-step approaches. Here, our general objective was to apply imputation techniques, principal component analysis (PCA), elastic net and generalized linear models to a large dataset in a systematic approach to extract the most meaningful predictors for a health outcome. We extracted predictors for Plasmodium falciparum infection, from a large covariate dataset while facing limited numbers of observations, using data from the People, Animals, and their Zoonoses (PAZ) project to demonstrate these techniques: data collected from 415 homesteads in western Kenya, contained over 1500 variables that describe the health, environment, and social factors of the humans, livestock, and the homesteads in which they reside. The wide, sparse dataset was simplified to 42 predictors of P. falciparum malaria infection and wealth rankings were produced for all homesteads. The 42 predictors make biological sense and are supported by previous studies. This systematic data-mining approach we used would make many large datasets more manageable and informative for decision-making processes and health policy prioritization
Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set
We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s
using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays
in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at
production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton
collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment
at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity.
We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the
B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2,
-1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in
agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model
value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +-
0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +-
0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by
other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012
Perspective Chapter: The Toxic Silver (Hg)
In the late 1950s, residents of a Japanese fishing village known as âMinamataâ began falling ill and dying at an alarming rate. The Japanese authorities stated that methyl-mercury-rich seafood and shellfish caused the sickness. Burning fossil fuels represent â52.7% of Hg emissions. The majorities of mercuryâs compounds are volatile and thus travel hundreds of miles with wind before being deposited on the earthâs surface. High acidity and dissolved organic carbon increase Hg-mobility in soil to enter the food chain. Additionally, Hg is taken up by areal plant parts via gas exchange. Mercury has no identified role in plants while exhibiting high affinity to form complexes with soft ligands such as sulfur and this consequently inactivates amino acids and sulfur-containing antioxidants. Long-term human exposure to Hg leads to neurotoxicity in children and adults, immunological, cardiac, and motor reproductive and genetic disorders. Accordingly, remediating contaminated soils has become an obligation. Mercury, like other potentially toxic elements, is not biodegradable, and therefore, its remediation should encompass either removal of Hg from soils or even its immobilization. This chapter discusses Hgâs chemical behavior, sources, health dangers, and soil remediation methods to lower Hg levels
Saethre-Chotzen syndrome : cranofacial anomalies caused by genetic changes in the TWIST gene
In this thesis, one of the most frequently occurring and most variable craniosynostosis
syndromes was investigated; Saethre-Chotzen syndrome. Craniosynostosis is the premature
obliteration of cranial sutures in the developing embryo. It can also occur in the first few
months of life. Saethre-Chotzen syndrome is, besides craniosynostosis, characterized by
specific facial and limb abnormalities, of which the most frequently reported are ptosis,
prominent crus helicis, cutaneous syndactyly of digit 2 and 3 on both hands and feet, and
broad halluces. Saethre-Chotzen syndrome has been linked to the TWIST gene on
chromosome 7p21.1. Mutations in and variably sized deletions of this gene can be found in
patients with clinical features of Saethre-Chotzen syndrome. The latter, TWIST deletions,
often also include part of the surrounding chromosome 7p and are reported to be associated
with mental retardation. In Saethre-Chotzen patients, in whom neither a mutation nor a
deletion of TWIST had been found, the FGFR3 P250R mutation was in some cases detected.
This mutation has specifically been linked to Muenke syndrome that is characterized by unior
bicoronal synostosis and slight facial dysmorphology. However, a Saethre-Chotzen like
phenotype can also result from this mutation.
Because of the possible overlap of Saethre-Chotzen with Muenke syndrome, these syndromes
were studied in order to provide clinical criteria that discriminate between the two (chapter 4).
Many phenotypic features occur in both syndromes. In addition, although unicoronal
synostosis occurs slightly more frequently in Muenke syndrome, unicoronal and bicoronal
synostosis are seen in both syndromes. The discrimination between Saethre-Chotzen and
Muenke is often not made easily and the associated genes, TWIST and FGFR3, respectively,
are simultaneously tested for pathogenic m
Search for charged Higgs bosons in decays of top quarks in p-pbar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV
7 pages, 2 figuresWe report the recent charged Higgs search in top quark decays in 2.2/fb CDF data. This is the first attempt to search for charged Higgs using fully reconstructed mass assuming H->c-sbar in small tan beta region. No evidence of a charged Higgs is observed in the CDF data, hence 95% upper limits are placed at B(t->H+b)We report on the first direct search for charged Higgs bosons decaying into csÌ
in ttÌ
events produced by ppÌ
collisions at âs=1.96ââTeV. The search uses a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.2ââfb-1 collected by the CDF II detector at Fermilab and looks for a resonance in the invariant mass distribution of two jets in the lepton+jets sample of ttÌ
candidates. We observe no evidence of charged Higgs bosons in top quark decays. Hence, 95% upper limits on the top quark decay branching ratio are placed at B(tâH+b)< 0.1 to 0.3 for charged Higgs boson masses of 60 to 150ââGeV/c2 assuming B(H+âcsÌ
)=1.0. The upper limits on B(tâH+b) are also used as model-independent limits on the decay branching ratio of top quarks to generic scalar charged bosons beyond the standard model.Peer reviewe
W boson polarization measurement in the ttbar dilepton channel using the CDF II Detector
We present a measurement of boson polarization in top-quark decays in
events with decays to dilepton final states using of integrated luminosity in collisions collected by the
CDF II detector at the Tevatron. A simultaneous measurement of the fractions of
longitudinal () and right-handed () bosons yields the results
and . Combining this measurement
with our previous result based on single lepton final states, we obtain and . The results are consistent with standard
model expectation.Comment: Published in Phys. Lett.
Measurement of the Bs Lifetime in Fully and Partially Reconstructed Bs -> Ds- (phi pi-)X Decays in pbar-p Collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV
We present a measurement of the Bs lifetime in fully and partially
reconstructed Bs -> Ds(phi pi)X decays in 1.3 fb-1 of pbar-p collisions at
sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV collected by the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron.
We measure tau(Bs) = 1.518 +/- 0.041 (stat.) +/- 0.027 (syst.) ps. The ratio of
this result and the world average B0 lifetime yields tau(Bs)/tau(B0) = 0.99
+/-0.03, which is in agreement with recent theoretical predictions.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
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