Conceptual design study of a coal gasification combined-cycle powerplant for industrial cogeneration

A conceptual design study was conducted to assess technical feasibility, environmental characteristics, and economics of coal gasification. The feasibility of a coal gasification combined cycle cogeneration powerplant was examined in response to energy needs and to national policy aimed at decreasing dependence on oil and natural gas. The powerplant provides the steam heating and baseload electrical requirements while serving as a prototype for industrial cogeneration and a modular building block for utility applications. The following topics are discussed: (1) screening of candidate gasification, sulfur removal and power conversion components; (2) definition of a reference system; (3) quantification of plant emissions and waste streams; (4) estimates of capital and operating costs; and (5) a procurement and construction schedule. It is concluded that the proposed powerplant is technically feasible and environmentally superior

Silver Nanoparticle Aggregates as Highly Efficient Plasmonic Antennas for Fluorescence Enhancement

The enhanced local fields around plasmonic structures can lead to enhancement of the excitation and modification of the emission quantum yield of fluorophores. So far, high enhancement of fluorescence intensity from dye molecules was demonstrated using bow-tie gap antenna made by e-beam lithography. However, the high manufacturing cost and the fact that currently there are no effective ways to place fluorophores only at the gap prevent the use of these structures for enhancing fluorescence-based biochemical assays. We report on the simultaneous modification of fluorescence intensity and lifetime of dye-labeled DNA in the presence of aggregated silver nanoparticles. The nanoparticle aggregates act as efficient plasmonic antennas, leading to more than 2 orders of magnitude enhancement of the average fluorescence. This is comparable to the best-reported fluorescence enhancement for a single molecule but here applies to the average signal detected from all fluorophores in the system. This highlights the remarkable efficiency of this system for surface-enhanced fluorescence. Moreover, we show that the fluorescence intensity enhancement varies with the plasmon resonance position and measure a significant reduction (300×) of the fluorescence lifetime. Both observations are shown to be in agreement with the electromagnetic model of surface-enhanced fluorescence

Multifractality and Conformal Invariance at 2D Metal-Insulator Transition in the Spin-Orbit Symmetry Class

We study the multifractality (MF) of critical wave functions at boundaries and corners at the metal-insulator transition (MIT) for noninteracting electrons in the two-dimensional (2D) spin-orbit (symplectic) universality class. We find that the MF exponents near a boundary are different from those in the bulk. The exponents at a corner are found to be directly related to those at a straight boundary through a relation arising from conformal invariance. This provides direct numerical evidence for conformal invariance at the 2D spin-orbit MIT. The presence of boundaries modifies the MF of the whole sample even in the thermodynamic limit.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Genome sequence of an alphaherpesvirus from a beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas)

Beluga whale alphaherpesvirus 1 was isolated from a blowhole swab taken from a juvenile beluga whale. The genome is 144,144 bp in size and contains 86 putative genes. The virus groups phylogenetically with members of the genus Varicellovirus in subfamily Alphaherpesvirinae and is the first alphaherpesvirus sequenced from a marine mammal

Boundary criticality and multifractality at the 2D spin quantum Hall transition

Multifractal scaling of critical wave functions at a disorder-driven (Anderson) localization transition is modified near boundaries of a sample. Here this effect is studied for the example of the spin quantum Hall plateau transition using the supersymmetry technique for disorder averaging. Upon mapping of the spin quantum Hall transition to the classical percolation problem with reflecting boundaries, a number of multifractal exponents governing wave function scaling near a boundary are obtained exactly. Moreover, additional exact boundary scaling exponents of the localization problem are extracted, and the problem is analyzed in other geometries.Comment: v2, 17 pages, 10 figures, published versio

Modeling blue stragglers in young clusters

In this paper, a grid of the binary evolution models are calculated for the study of blue straggler (BS) population in intermediate age ($\log Age$=7.85-8.95) star clusters. The BS formation via mass transfer and merging is studied systematically using our models. Both Case A and B close binary evolutionary tracks are calculated in a large range of parameters. The results show that BSs formed via Case B are generally bluer and even more luminous than those produced by Case A. Furthermore, the larger range in orbital separations of Case B models provide a probability of producing more BSs than Case A. Based on the grid of models, several Monte-Carlo simulations of BS populations in the clusters in the age range are carried out. The results show that BSs formed via different channels populate different areas in color magnitude diagram(CMD). The locations of BSs in CMD for a number of clusters are compared to our simulations as well. In order to investigate the influence of mass transfer efficiency in the models and simulations, a set of models are also calculated by implementing a constant mass transfer efficiency, $\beta$=0.5 during Roche lobe overflow (Case A binary evolution excluded). The result shows BSs can be formed via mass transfer at any given age in both cases. However, the distributions of the BS populations on CMD are different.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, 2 table

A discrete event modeling and simulation of wave division multiplexing unidirectional slotted ring metropolitan area network

Problem statement: The lack of uniformity in the choice of simulation platforms for optical WDM networks stands behind the difficulty of developing a common simulation environment. Correlating WDM unidirectional slotted ring network to Discrete Event Simulation (DES) encompassing event definition, time advancing mechanism and scheduler has yet to be developed. Approach: The study focused on the proposed and the development of an event based discrete simulator for the WDM unidirectional slotted ring network to facilitate the reuse of the protocol modules under a common simulation environment. The proposed network architecture implemented for the developed simulator employs a separate wavelength as the control information channel. This control information enabled the nodes to monitor their access to the transmission media. Each node was equipped with a tunable transmitter and fixed receiver for data communication. Access nodes were equipped with a fixed transmitter and fixed receiver for the control information exchange. The developed simulator had derived the use of dividing the wavelength into slots. Nodes used these slots to transmit fixed size packets. Slots can be reused by the access node after receiving packets by the deployment of the spatial reuse scheme, thus enhancing the bandwidth utilization. The developed simulator had derived the set of the parameters, events, performance metrics and other unique WDM simulator elements according to a detailed analysis of the base model. Results: The network delay and packet loss were investigated and compared to a benchmark of the modeled domain. Successful deployment of the developed simulator was proven by the generated results. Conclusion: Extensive performance analysis of WDM unidirectional slotted ring network can be deployed using the developed simulator with low computational overheads. Further enhancements were to extend the developed simulator for bidirectional slotted ring supporting fairness control and considering both uniform and non-uniform traffic

Intra-laser-cavity sensing with a dual-wavelength distributed-feedback laser

An integrated intra-laser-cavity microparticle sensor based on a dual-wavelength distributed-feedback channel waveguide laser in Al2O3:Yb3+ on silicon is demonstrated. Real-time detection and accurate size measurement of single micro-particles with diameters of 1-20 μm are achieved. A limit of detection of ~500 nm is deduced. The sensing principle relies on measuring changes in the frequency difference between the two longitudinal laser modes as the evanescent field of the dual-wavelength laser interacts with micro-sized particles on the waveguide surface