Metered oxygen supply aids treatment of domestic sewage

Microbiological fixed-bed process was developed in which supplementary oxygen required by microbial species is supplied by electrochemical device. Rate of addition of oxygen to waste treatment process is controlled to maintain aerobic metabolism and prevent anaerobic metabolisms which produce odorous or toxic products

Probing Exotic Physics With Cosmic Neutrinos

Traditionally, collider experiments have been the primary tool used in searching for particle physics beyond the Standard Model. In this talk, I will discuss alternative approaches for exploring exotic physics scenarios using high energy and ultra-high energy cosmic neutrinos. Such neutrinos can be used to study interactions at energies higher, and over baselines longer, than those accessible to colliders. In this way, neutrino astronomy can provide a window into fundamental physics which is highly complementary to collider techniques. I will discuss the role of neutrino astronomy in fundamental physics, considering the use of such techniques in studying several specific scenarios including low scale gravity models, Standard Model electroweak instanton induced interactions, decaying neutrinos and quantum decoherence.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures; For the proceedings of From Colliders To Cosmic Rays, Prague, Czech Republic, September 7-13, 200

Development of a bedrest muscle stress apparatus

In attempting further to define the deleterious effects of spaceflight on the human body, measurement systems and techniques were devised to determine the loss of skeletal muscle strength and tone as a result of spaceflight exposure. In order to determine how the muscle degradation process progresses with time during nonuse, a system for measuring muscle stress during bedrest was developed. The Bedrest Muscle Stress Apparatus is configured to slip snugly over the foot board of a standard hospital bed. Data collected with this device correlated well with pre- and post-bedrest data collected with the original skeletal muscle stress apparatus

Satellite applications to marine geodesy

Potential use of satellites for enhancing positioning capabilities and for marine geodetic contro

On The Origin Of The Gamma Rays From The Galactic Center

The region surrounding the center of the Milky Way is both astrophysically rich and complex, and is predicted to contain very high densities of dark matter. Utilizing three years of data from the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope (and the recently available Pass 7 ultraclean event class), we study the morphology and spectrum of the gamma ray emission from this region and find evidence of a spatially extended component which peaks at energies between 300 MeV and 10 GeV. We compare our results to those reported by other groups and find good agreement. The extended emission could potentially originate from either the annihilations of dark matter particles in the inner galaxy, or from the collisions of high energy protons that are accelerated by the Milky Way's supermassive black hole with gas. If interpreted as dark matter annihilation products, the emission spectrum favors dark matter particles with a mass in the range of 7-12 GeV (if annihilating dominantly to leptons) or 25-45 GeV (if annihilating dominantly to hadronic final states). The intensity of the emission corresponds to a dark matter annihilation cross section consistent with that required to generate the observed cosmological abundance in the early universe (sigma v ~ 3 x 10^-26 cm^3/s). We also present conservative limits on the dark matter annihilation cross section which are at least as stringent as those derived from other observations.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figure

Lorentz and CPT Invariance Violation In High-Energy Neutrinos

High-energy neutrino astronomy will be capable of observing particles at both extremely high energies and over extremely long baselines. These features make such experiments highly sensitive to the effects of CPT and Lorentz violation. In this article, we review the theoretical foundation and motivation for CPT and Lorentz violating effects, and then go on to discuss the related phenomenology within the neutrino sector. We describe several signatures which might be used to identify the presence of CPT or Lorentz violation in next generation neutrino telescopes and cosmic ray experiments. In many cases, high-energy neutrino experiments can test for CPT and Lorentz violation effects with much greater precision than other techniques.Comment: 27 pages, 8 figure

Biomass Fuel Use and Cardiac Function in Nepali Women.

BackgroundExposure to household air pollution (HAP) from cooking with biomass fuel affects billions of people. We hypothesized that HAP from woodsmoke, compared to other household fuels, was associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes, of which there have been few studies.MethodsA cross-sectional study was completed in 299 females aged 40-70 years in Kaski District, Nepal, during 2017-18. All participants underwent a standard 12-lead ECG, ankle and brachial systolic blood pressure measurement, and 2D color and Doppler echocardiography. Current stove type was confirmed by inspection. Blood pressure, height, and weight were measured using a standardized protocol. Hypertension was defined as ≥140/90 mmHg or prior diagnosis. Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) was obtained, with diabetes mellitus defined as a prior diagnosis or HbA1C ≥ 6.5%. We used adjusted linear and logistic multivariable regressions to examine the relationship of stove type with cardiac structure and function.ResultsThe majority of women primarily used liquified petroleum gas (LPG) stoves (65%), while 12% used biogas, and 23% used wood-burning cook-stoves. Prevalence of major cardiovascular risk factors was 35% with hypertension, 19% with diabetes mellitus, and 15% current smokers. After adjustment, compared to LPG, wood stove use was associated with increased indexed left atrial volume (β = 3.15, 95% CI 1.22 to 5.09) and increased indexed left ventricular end diastolic volume (β = 7.97, 95% CI 3.11 to 12.83). There was no association between stove type and systemic hypertension, left ventricular mass, systolic dysfunction, diastolic dysfunction, pulmonary hypertension, abnormal ankle-brachial index, or clinically significant ECG abnormalities.ConclusionBiomass fuel use was associated with increased indexed left atrial volume and increased indexed left ventricular diastolic volume in Nepali women, suggesting subclinical adverse cardiac remodeling from HAP in this cross-sectional study. We did not find evidence of an association with hypertension or typical cardiac sequelae of hypertension. Future studies to confirm these results are needed

The importance of being exchanged: [Gd III 4M II 8(OH) 8(L) 8(O 2CR) 8] 4+ clusters for magnetic refrigeration

El pdf del artículo es la versión post-print.-- et al.Playing it cool: Almost all of the constituent parts of the complex [Ln III 4M II 8(OH) 8(L) 8(O 2CR) 8]X 4, namely the lanthanide ions Ln 3+, the transition-metal ions M 2+, the bridging ligand L, the carboxylates, and the counterions X can be exchanged, thus allowing a thorough understanding of the individual contributions to the magnetocaloric effect. Example in picture: Gd purple, Cu green, O red, N blue. Copyright © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.E.K.B. wishes to thank the EPSRC for funding. M.E. acknowledges contracts MAT2009-13977-C03 and CSD2007-00010. S.P. thanks the Danish Natural Science Research Council for a Sapere Aude Fellowship (10-081659).Peer Reviewe

Two photon annihilation of Kaluza-Klein dark matter

We investigate the fermionic one-loop cross section for the two photon annihilation of Kaluza-Klein (KK) dark matter particles in a model of universal extra dimensions (UED). This process gives a nearly mono-energetic gamma-ray line with energy equal to the KK dark matter particle mass. We find that the cross section is large enough that if a continuum signature is detected, the energy distribution of gamma-rays should end at the particle mass with a peak that is visible for an energy resolution of the detector at the percent level. This would give an unmistakable signature of a dark matter origin of the gamma-rays, and a unique determination of the dark matter particle mass, which in the case studied should be around 800 GeV. Unlike the situation for supersymmetric models where the two-gamma peak may or may not be visible depending on parameters, this feature seems to be quite robust in UED models, and should be similar in other models where annihilation into fermions is not helicity suppressed. The observability of the signal still depends on largely unknown astrophysical parameters related to the structure of the dark matter halo. If the dark matter near the galactic center is adiabatically contracted by the central star cluster, or if the dark matter halo has substructure surviving tidal effects, prospects for detection look promising.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures; slightly revised versio