Modeling of Diffusion in Capillary Porous Materials During the Drying Process

This paper presents a model of heterogenous diffusion in capillary porous materials during the process of drying. The governing heat and mass transfer equations have been established using the liquid as well as vapor flow. Two models have been presented. Model 1 does not consider the heat conduction while the model 2 has been established by considering the conduction. The developed models and the numerical solutions of the resulting differential equations can take into account the moisture and temperature dependent thermophysical properties of the product. All equations have been established in spherical coordinates but the programme written for the purpose of calculations can be used for other geometries also. Numerical calculations have been performed for gas concrete and tiles using model 1, while model 2 has been used for gas concrete only because of the lack of data for thermophysical properties of the tile. For gas concrete it was seen that conduction has only marginal effect on the drying process and the numerical predictions of the drying process were reasonably accurate.     

The reliability of a new 12-channel ECG with telephone transmission

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Different from the situation in the USA, Canada, Israel, Italy and Great Britain transmission of electrocardiograms (ECG) by telephone plays an unimportant part in Germany because existing technology is at best adequate for the diagnosis of arrhythmias. A new simple system, the size of a mobile phone (P12, Aerotel, Israel), was tested: for the first time in Europe it allows patients themselves to obtain a 12-lead ECG and transmit it via any telephone to a centre for analysis. This system was evaluated for its reliability when used by lay persons. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Qualitative and quantitative parameters of a conventional 12-lead ECG obtained in 217 patients (86 women, 131 men) were compared with those of 12-lead ECGs recorded and stored by lay persons, transmitted via telephone to a computer and then printed out. RESULTS: All ECGs transmitted with the P12 were analysable: quality was good or very good in 86%. Heart rate, transmission time and the various durations agreed with the conventional leads, while P12 underregistered amplitudes by about 15%. This difference was correctable by a constant or by adjusting the ECG machine. Atrial fibrillation (in eight of eight cases), infarct changes (40 of 40), ST elevations or depressions (15 of 15) and T negativities (80 of 82) were also reliably recognized. CONCLUSIONS: The described method proved simple and reliable. Clinically significant information in the ECG can be transmitted within minutes and with high diagnostic reliability to a central station via any telephone. P12 is thus suitable for self-recording of ECGs by patients with potentially dangerous cardiac conditions. However a centre with cardiologically trained personnel should be available where telephone transmission of the ECGs and dialogue with the patients is possible around the clock.     

Placentation in the human: a transplantation or tumor model?

The polyamines putrescine, spermidine and spermine are involved in the regulation of various metabolic processes. It is therefore desirable to detect and quantify the polyamines with NMR. We present the proton and carbon assignments for all polyamine signals obtained from PCA extracts of F98 glioma cells with high resolution using a semi-selective HSQC 2D-experiment. The biosynthesis of the polyamines in cell culture was examined using the labeled substrates [U-13C]glucose and [U-13C]glutamate. In such studies the high resolution of the semi-selective HSQC experiment at very high magnetic fields (14-19 T) allows the analysis of carbon-carbon couplings, and isotopomer patterns. The different effects of osmotic stress on the concentrations of polyamines and amino acids are also reported.     

Ferromagnetic Semiconductor Heterostructures for Spintronics

Ferromagnetism in transition-metal-doped III-V and II-VI compound semiconductors and their heterostructures allow exploration of unprecedented possibilities, in which spin degrees of freedom and more common charge degrees of freedom are combined. These include quantum heterostructures that incorporate ferromagnetism, electric field as well as light control of ferromagnetism, and magnetization reversal by electrical means. Possibilities of achieving high ferromagnetic-transition temperature are also discussed     

The Influence of System Pressure on Bubble Coalescence in Nucleate Boiling

Boiling is one of the most effective heat transfer mechanisms. In spite of a long time of research, the physical fundamentals are still not sufficiently understood. Pursuing the objective to predict heat transfer based on physical and geometrical properties, experimental and numerical investigations are conducted at the institute of the authors. The focus of the presented research is the coalescence of two single bubbles under varying pressure conditions. In the experiment a thin stainless-steel foil is used as a Joule heater. The experiments were performed in a pressure range of 300–1000 mbar using FC72 as working fluid. Two types of heaters with a distance between two artificial nucleation sites of 300 μm (type 3) and 500 μm (type 5) were used. The experimental results indicate a strong dependence of the occurrence of bubble coalescence on pressure. For the type 5 heater, a Gaussian distribution for the coalescence frequency when plotted over pressure is observed. Experimental results with the type 3 heater show a similar distribution of the frequency with a shifted maximum. Further, it is shown that during bubble coalescence a small droplet can remain inside the bubble and enhance the heat transfer, which is attributed to an additional thin film region. The formation of this remaining droplet is sensitive to system pressure. Numerical investigations of bubble coalescence were conducted with the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software OpenFOAM. In OpenFOAM, dynamic mesh handling allows high spatial resolution at the phase boundary, which is captured with the volume-of fluid method. Evaporation and a subgrid microscale model were implemented in the flow solver to account for evaporation at the phase boundary and the three-phase contact line. The results show a strong dependence of bubble dynamics and coalescence on contact angle and bubble growth rate. Although it was possible to observe the creation of the residual droplet, more effort needs to be put into finding appropriate initial conditions.     

Control of Magnetic Properties in (Cd,Mn)Te Quantum Wells Inserted in Pin Diodes

Using photoluminescence and photoluminescence excitation, weinvestigate the magnetic properties of (Cd,Mn)Te quantum wells inserted in pin diodes. Such structures give us the opportunity to tune the carrier density by applying a bias of the order of 1 V. Results obtained in a small magnetic field show the presence of magnetic domains, which persist as long as the quantum well is populated.     

The Influence of Repetition and Famousness on the Intracranially Recorded Temporobasal N200.

It is still a matter of debate at which time point faces are recognized as familiar, with some studies claiming a relatively early face recognition and others later effects of familiarity. The authors report on effects of famousness of depicted persons and stimulus repetition on intracranially recorded event-related potentials. Famousness resulted in an increased latency of the N200 component, as well as in an increased amplitude of a later long-lasting potential (N700). In contrast, repetition led to an increased amplitude of the N200 but no increase of its latency. They suppose that the recognition of faces becomes observable within the N200 latency range and that the increased N200 latency reflects a feature processing additional to the holistic face processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Families of magnetic semiconductors — an overview

The interplay of magnetic and semiconducting properties has been in the focus for more than a half of the century. In this introductory article we briefly review the key properties and functionalities of various magnetic semiconductor families, including europium chalcogenides, chromium spinels, dilute magnetic semiconductors, dilute ferromagnetic semiconductors and insulators, mentioning also sources of non-uniformities in the magnetization distribution, accounting for an apparent high Curie temperature ferromagnetism in many systems. Our survey is carried out from today's perspective of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic spintronics as well as of the emerging fields of magnetic topological materials and atomically thin 2D layers.