Organochlorine pesticide, polychlorinated biphenyl and heavy metal concentrations in wolves (Canis lupus L. 1758) from north-west Russia.

The wolf Canis lupus is a major terrestrial predator in eastern Europe and, as a top carnivore, may be exposed to high concentrations of contaminants that are readily transferred through the food chain. Despite this, there are few published data on pollutant and pesticide levels in wolves. This study utilised tissues from animals legally killed by hunters for other reasons (animals were not killed for the purposes of this study) to carry out the only detailed investigation of contaminants in wolves in Europe and the first in animals from Eastern Europe. The livers of 58 wolves from the Tver and Smoliensk regions of northwest Russia (54 degrees N 31 degrees E to 57 degrees N 35 degrees E) were analysed for seven organochlorine pesticides, 24 PCB congeners, Aroclor 1254-matched summed PCBs (sigmaPCBs), total mercury, cadmium and lead. Cadmium, most of the organochlorine pesticides and many PCB congeners were not detectable in any of the wolves. Hexachlorobenzene, alpha-HCH, pp'DDE, PCB congeners 118, 138, 149 and 156 and lead were detected in up to 6% of livers. Dieldrin, PCB congeners 153, 170 and 180, sigmaPCBs and mercury were detected more frequently. Contaminant levels were generally low; maximum wet weight concentrations of any of the organochlorine pesticides, sigmaPCBs and mercury were less than 0.1, 1 and 0.25 microg g(-1), respectively. PCB congeners 153, 170 and 180 accounted for 41% of the sigmaPCBs. Dieldrin, sigmaPCBs and mercury concentrations did not vary significantly between males and females nor between adult and juvenile (< 12 months old) wolves apart from the sigmaPCB concentration, which was on average five times higher in adults than juveniles. Liver residues were generally below the level normally associated with adverse effects except for lead levels which exceeded the critical 5 microg g(-1) dry wt. concentration in three of the 58 animals examined.     

Heat transfer in a turbulent jet impinging on a moving plate considering high plate-to-jet velocity ratios

In this paper, heat transfer characteristics of a turbulent slot jet impinging orthogonally on an isothermal moving hot plate is studied numerically. The governing equations were discretized using the finite volume method and the υ ² — f turbulence model was employed for turbulence modeling. The effect of the jet Reynolds number and the plate-to-jet velocity ratio (R) on the Nusselt were investigated. Despite of most previous studies, which have been restricted to R≤2, in the present research higher values of R, also were considered (0≤R≤6). Range of studied jet Reynolds number was between 3000 and 60000. The results indicate that at a fixed plate-to-jet velocity ratio increment of the Reynolds number leads to the enhancement of the average Nusselt number. For each Reynolds number, the average Nusselt number reduces with increasing the plate-to-jet velocity ratio until it becomes minimum at R = 1.25. For R>1.25 trend changes so that these parameters increase. In addition, it was found that only for R>2.5 the average Nusselt number is improved due to the plate motion in comparison with the stationary jet. The results are validated against available experimental data, showing good agreement.     

An Adaptable and Scalable Generator of Distributed Massive MIMO Baseband Processing Systems

Journal of Signal Processing Systems - This paper presents an algorithm-adaptable, scalable, and platform-portable generator for massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) baseband processing...     

An Analytical Equation of State for Alkaline Earth Metals

In this work, an analytical equation of state based on statistical mechanical perturbation theory, which was initially developed for normal fluids and can be applied to predict the P–V–T data for saturated liquid alkaline earth metals, is presented. The equation of state is that of Ihm, Song, and Mason, and the temperature-dependent parameters of the equation of state are calculated from a corresponding-states correlation as functions of the reduced temperature. Two scaling constants are sufficient for this purpose, the surface tension and the liquid density at the melting point. The equation of state is used to predict the saturated liquid density of molten alkaline earth metals from the melting point up to 2000 K, for which experimental data exist, within an accuracy of 5%.     

Higher order tip enrichment of eXtended Finite Element Method in thermoelasticity

An eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM) is presented that can accurately predict the stress intensity factors (SIFs) for thermoelastic cracks. The method uses higher order terms of the thermoelastic asymptotic crack tip fields to enrich the approximation space of the temperature and displacement fields in the vicinity of crack tips—away from the crack tip the step function is used. It is shown that improved accuracy is obtained by using the higher order crack tip enrichments and that the benefit of including such terms is greater for thermoelastic problems than for either purely elastic or steady state heat transfer problems. The computation of SIFs directly from the XFEM degrees of freedom and using the interaction integral is studied. Directly computed SIFs are shown to be significantly less accurate than those computed using the interaction integral. Furthermore, the numerical examples suggest that the directly computed SIFs do not converge to the exact SIFs values, but converge roughly to values near the exact result. Numerical simulations of straight cracks show that with the higher order enrichment scheme, the energy norm converges monotonically with increasing number of asymptotic enrichment terms and with decreasing element size. For curved crack there is no further increase in accuracy when more than four asymptotic enrichment terms are used and the numerical simulations indicate that the SIFs obtained directly from the XFEM degrees of freedom are inaccurate, while those obtained using the interaction integral remain accurate for small integration domains. It is recommended in general that at least four higher order terms of the asymptotic solution be used to enrich the temperature and displacement fields near the crack tips and that the J- or interaction integral should always be used to compute the SIFs.     

Designing a secure designated server identity-based encryption with keyword search scheme: still unsolved

There exist only a few papers in the literature which target the problem of “proposing a secure designated server identity-based encryption with keyword search scheme.” In this paper, we prove that they all suffer from security issues, and therefore, this challenging problem still remains open.     

Window materials for high power gyrotron

The room temperature application of sapphire as window material at higher frequencies is not feasible since its absorption coefficient increases almost linearly with increasing frequency in the millimeter wavelength region. At cryogenic temperature the absorption coefficient value decreases only by a few factors (factor of 2 to 3) in the 90 – 200 GHz region. The earlier reported temperature squared dependence (decrease) in the absorption coefficient or the loss tangent value is totally absent in our broad band continuous wave data we are reporting here (at 6.5 K, 35K, 77K and 300K) and one we reported at conferences earlier. Our results are verified by another technique. We utilize our precision millimeter wave dispersive Fourier transform spectroscopic techniques at room temperature and at cryogenic temperatures The extra high resistivity single crystal compensated silicon is no doubt the lowest loss material available at room temperature in the entire millimeter wavelength region At higher millimeter wave frequencies an extra high resistivity silicon window or an window made with extra high resistivity silicon coated with diamond film would certainly make a better candidate in the future. A single free standing synthetic diamond window seems to have higher absorption coefficient values at millimeter wavelength region at this time although it is claimed that it possesses good mechanical strength and higher thermal conductivity characteristics. It certainly does not rule out the use of diamond film on a single crystal high resistivity silicon to improve its mechanical strength and thermal conductivity     

Reliable far-infrared photoconductivity method to identify a variety of residual donors in epitaxial GaAs

The chemical identity of unintentional contaminants in ultra-high purity eipitaxial GaAs and related semiconductor crystals can be distinguished by submillimeter wave magneto-spectroscopy at low temperature. An improved method of identifying hydrogen-like donors such as sulfur, silicon, selenium and germanium has been developed for the purpose of correcting some mistaken identifications that have been published during the past ten years. The new method requires the development of an experimental “signature curve” for each contaminant by measuring the energy of its 1s to 2p (m=?1) transition at several values of magnetic field intensity. The energy of this transition at a given magnetic field intensity is different depending upon the nucleus to which the electron is bound in the 1s state. The validity of the improved method was tested by means of transmutation doping.     

Stress intensity factors of two diametrically opposed edge cracks in a thick-walled functionally graded material cylinder

A method is developed to evaluate stress intensity factors for two diametrically-opposed edge cracks emanating from the inner surface of a thick-walled functionally graded material (FGM) cylinder. The crack and the cylinder inner surfaces are subjected to an internal pressure. The thermal eigenstrain induced in the cylinder material due to nonuniform coefficient of thermal expansion after cooling from the sintering temperature is taken into account. First, the FGM cylinder is homogenized by simulating its nonhomogeneous material properties by an equivalent eigenstrain, whereby the problem is reduced to the solution of a cracked homogenized cylinder with an induced thermal and an equivalent eigenstrains and under an internal pressure. Then, representing the cracks by a continuous distribution of edge dislocations and using their complex potential functions, generalized formulations are developed to calculate stress intensity factors for the cracks in the homogenized cylinder. The stress intensity factors calculated for the cracks in homogenized cylinder represents the stress intensity factors for the same cracks in the FGM cylinder. The application of the formulations are demonstrated for a thick-walled TiC/Al₂O₃ FGM cylinder and some numerical results of stress intensity factors are presented for different profiles of material distribution in the FGM cylinder.     

Effect of FGM coating thickness on apparent fracture toughness of a thick-walled cylinder

This study describes the effect of FGM coating thickness on apparent fracture toughness (AFT) of a thick-walled cylinder containing two diametrically-opposed edge cracks emanating from the inner surface of the cylinder. The incompatible eigenstrain developed in the cylinder due to nonuniform coefficient of thermal expansion because of cooling from sintering temperature is taken into account. Based on a generalized method of evaluating stress intensity factor (SIF) addressed in a previous study, an approach is developed to calculate AFT. Some numerical results of AFT are presented for a TiC/Al₂O₃ FGM coating at the inner surface of an Al₂O₃ thick-walled cylinder.