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Sample records for subsequent ad lib

  1. AD-LIBS: inferring ancestry across hybrid genomes using low-coverage sequence data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schaefer, Nathan K; Shapiro, Beth; Green, Richard E

    2017-04-04

    Inferring the ancestry of each region of admixed individuals' genomes is useful in studies ranging from disease gene mapping to speciation genetics. Current methods require high-coverage genotype data and phased reference panels, and are therefore inappropriate for many data sets. We present a software application, AD-LIBS, that uses a hidden Markov model to infer ancestry across hybrid genomes without requiring variant calling or phasing. This approach is useful for non-model organisms and in cases of low-coverage data, such as ancient DNA. We demonstrate the utility of AD-LIBS with synthetic data. We then use AD-LIBS to infer ancestry in two published data sets: European human genomes with Neanderthal ancestry and brown bear genomes with polar bear ancestry. AD-LIBS correctly infers 87-91% of ancestry in simulations and produces ancestry maps that agree with published results and global ancestry estimates in humans. In brown bears, we find more polar bear ancestry than has been published previously, using both AD-LIBS and an existing software application for local ancestry inference, HAPMIX. We validate AD-LIBS polar bear ancestry maps by recovering a geographic signal within bears that mirrors what is seen in SNP data. Finally, we demonstrate that AD-LIBS is more effective than HAPMIX at inferring ancestry when preexisting phased reference data are unavailable and genomes are sequenced to low coverage. AD-LIBS is an effective tool for ancestry inference that can be used even when few individuals are available for comparison or when genomes are sequenced to low coverage. AD-LIBS is therefore likely to be useful in studies of non-model or ancient organisms that lack large amounts of genomic DNA. AD-LIBS can therefore expand the range of studies in which admixture mapping is a viable tool.

  2. Satiation deficits and binge eating: Probing differences between bulimia nervosa and purging disorder using an ad lib test meal.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keel, Pamela K; Haedt-Matt, Alissa A; Hildebrandt, Britny; Bodell, Lindsay P; Wolfe, Barbara E; Jimerson, David C

    2018-04-11

    Purging disorder (PD) has been included as a named condition within the DSM-5 category of Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder and differs from bulimia nervosa (BN) in the absence of binge-eating episodes. The current study evaluated satiation through behavioral and self-report measures to understand how this construct may explain distinct symptom presentations for bulimia nervosa (BN) and purging disorder (PD). Women (N = 119) were recruited from the community if they met DSM-5 criteria for BN (n = 57), PD (n = 31), or were free of eating pathology (n = 31 controls). Participants completed structured clinical interviews and questionnaires and an ad lib test meal during which they provided reports of subjective states. Significant group differences were found on self-reported symptoms, ad lib test meal intake, and subjective responses to food intake between individuals with eating disorders and controls and between BN and PD. Further, ad lib intake was associated with self-reported frequency and size of binge episodes. In a multivariable model, the amount of food consumed during binges as reported during clinical interviews predicted amount of food consumed during the ad lib test meal, controlling for other binge-related variables. Satiation deficits distinguish BN from PD and appear to be specifically linked to the size of binge episodes. Future work should expand exploration of physiological bases of these differences to contribute to novel interventions. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Rotating and propagating LIB stabilized by self-induced magnetic field

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Murakami, H.; Aoki, T.; Kawata, S.; Niu, K.

    1984-01-01

    Rotating motion of a propagating LIB is analyzed in order to suppress the mixed mode of the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, the tearing instability and the sausage instability by the action of a self-induced magnetic field in the axial direction. The beams are assumed to be charge-neutralized but not current-neutralized. The steady-state solutions of a propagating LIB with rotation are first obtained numerically. Through the dispersion relation with respect to the ikonal type of perturbations, which are added to the steady-state solutions, the growth rates of instabilities appearing in an LIB are obtained. It is concluded that if the mean rotating velocity of an LIB is comparable to the propagation velocity, the instability disappears in the propagating ion beam. (author)

  4. ZoneLib

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jessen, Jan Jacob; Schiøler, Henrik

    2006-01-01

    We present a dynamic model for climate in a livestock building divided into a number of zones, and a corresponding modular Simulink library (ZoneLib). While most literature in this area consider air flow as a control parameter we show how to model climate dynamics using actual control signals...... development of ZoneLib....

  5. EFFECTS OF THE NICOTINIC RECEPTOR ANTAGONIST MECAMYLAMINE ON AD-LIB SMOKING BEHAVIOR, TOPOGRAPHY, AND NICOTINE LEVELS IN SMOKERS WITH AND WITHOUT SCHIZOPHRENIA: A PRELIMINARY STUDY

    OpenAIRE

    McKee, Sherry A.; Weinberger, Andrea H.; Harrison, Emily L. R.; Coppola, Sabrina; George, Tony P.

    2009-01-01

    Individuals with schizophrenia have higher plasma nicotine levels in comparison to non-psychiatric smokers, even when differences in smoking are equated. This difference may be related to how intensely cigarettes are smoked but this has not been well-studied. Mecamylamine (MEC), a non-competitive nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) antagonist, which has been shown to increase ad-lib smoking and to affect smoking topography, was used in the current study as a pharmacological probe to incr...

  6. Downhole Elemental Analysis with LIBS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moreschini, Paolo; Zacny, Kris; Rickman, Doug

    2011-01-01

    In this paper we discuss a novel instrument, currently under development at Honeybee Robotics with SBIR funding from NASA. The device is designed to characterize elemental composition as a function of depth in non-terrestrial geological formations. The instrument consists of a miniaturized laser-induced breakdown spectrometer (LIBS) analyzer integrated in a 2" diameter drill string. While the drill provides subsurface access, the LIBS analyzer provides information on the elemental composition of the borehole wall. This instrument has a variety of space applications ranging from exploration of the Moon for which it was originally designed, to Mars, as well as a variety of terrestrial applications. Subsurface analysis is usually performed by sample acquisition through a drill or excavator, followed by sample preparation and subsequent sample presentation to an instrument or suite of instruments. An alternative approach consisting in bringing a miniaturized version of the instrument to the sample has many advantages over the traditional methodology, as it allows faster response, reduced probability of cross-contamination and a simplification in the sampling mechanisms. LIBS functions by focusing a high energy laser on a material inducing a plasma consisting of a small fraction of the material under analysis. Optical emission from the plasma, analyzed by a spectrometer, can be used to determine elemental composition. A triangulation sensor located in the sensor head determines the distance of the sensor from the borehole wall. An actuator modifies the position of the sensor accordingly, in order to compensate for changes due to the profile of the borehole walls. This is necessary because LIBS measurements are negatively affected by changes in the relative position of the focus of the laser with respect to the position of the sample (commonly referred to as the "lens to sample distance"). Profiling the borehole is done by adjusting the position of the sensor with a

  7. Quantitative LIBS analysis of vanadium in samples of hexagonal mesoporous silica catalysts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pouzar, Miloslav; Kratochvíl, Tomás; Capek, Libor; Smoláková, Lucie; Cernohorský, Tomás; Krejcová, Anna; Hromádko, Ludek

    2011-02-15

    The method for the analysis of vanadium in hexagonal mesoporous silica (V-HMS) catalysts using Laser Induced Breakdown Spectrometry (LIBS) was suggested. Commercially available LIBS spectrometer was calibrated with the aid of authentic V-HMS samples previously analyzed by ICP OES after microwave digestion. Deposition of the sample on the surface of adhesive tape was adopted as a sample preparation method. Strong matrix effect connected with the catalyst preparation technique (1st vanadium added in the process of HMS synthesis, 2nd already synthesised silica matrix was impregnated by vanadium) was observed. The concentration range of V in the set of nine calibration standards was 1.3-4.5% (w/w). Limit of detection was 0.13% (w/w) and it was calculated as a triple standard deviation from five replicated determinations of vanadium in the real sample with a very low vanadium concentration. Comparable results of LIBS and ED XRF were obtained if the same set of standards was used for calibration of both methods and vanadium was measured in the same type of real samples. LIBS calibration constructed using V-HMS-impregnated samples failed for measuring of V-HMS-synthesized samples. LIBS measurements seem to be strongly influenced with different chemical forms of vanadium in impregnated and synthesised samples. The combination of LIBS and ED XRF is able to provide new information about measured samples (in our case for example about procedure of catalyst preparation). Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  8. Underwater inverse LIBS (iLIBS) for marine archaeology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Asmus, J.; Magde, M.; Elford, J.; Magde, D.; Parfenov, V.

    2013-05-01

    In recent years there have been enormous advances in nautical archaeology through developments in SONAR technologies as well as in manned and robotic submersible vehicles. The number of sunken vessel discoveries has escalated in many of the seas of the world in response to the widespread application of these and other new tools. Customarily, surviving artifacts within the debris field of a wreck are collected and then moved to laboratories, centers, or institutions for analyses and possible conservation. Frequently, the conservation phase involves chemical treatments to stabilize an artefact to standard temperature, pressure, and humidity instead of an undersea environment. Many of the artefacts encountered at an underwater site are now characterized and restored in-situ in accordance with modern trends in art conservation. Two examples of this trend are exemplified by the resting place of the wreck of the Titanic in the Atlantic and the Cancun Underwater Park in the Caribbean Sea. These two debris fields have been turned into museums for diving visitors. Several research groups have investigated the possibility of adapting the well-established analytical tool Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) to in-situ elemental analyses of underwater cultural, historic, and archaeological artefacts where discovered, rather than as a phase of a salvage operation. As the underwater laser ablation associated with LIBS generates a "snowplough" shockwave within the aqueous matrix, the atomic emission spectrum is usually severely attenuated in escaping from the target. Consequently, probative experiments to date generally invoke a submerged air chamber or air jet to isolate water from the interaction zone as well as employ more complex double-pulse lasers. These measures impose severe logistical constraints on the examination of widely dispersed underwater artefacts. In order to overcome this constraint we report on water-immersion LIBS experiments performed with oblique

  9. Návrh posuvu fokusačního objektivu uvnitř interakční komory LIBS aparatury

    OpenAIRE

    Olejník, Ivan

    2008-01-01

    Diplomová práca popisuje návrh posuvu fokusačného objektívu vo vnútri interakčnej komory LIBS. Obsahuje popis základných vlastností a funkcií LIBS spektroskopie. Opisuje prehžad použitežných komponentov, hodnotí ich vlastnosti a vhodnosť použitia v konštrukcii posuvu do vákua. Ďalej uvádza výsledné konštrukčné riešenie lineárneho posuvu do vákua a hodnotí jeho výhody pre metódu LIBS. This diploma thesis describes the design of a translation stage for focusing objective inside the LIBS inte...

  10. Effects of the nicotinic receptor antagonist mecamylamine on ad-lib smoking behavior, topography, and nicotine levels in smokers with and without schizophrenia: a preliminary study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McKee, Sherry A; Weinberger, Andrea H; Harrison, Emily L R; Coppola, Sabrina; George, Tony P

    2009-12-01

    Individuals with schizophrenia have higher plasma nicotine levels in comparison to non-psychiatric smokers, even when differences in smoking are equated. This difference may be related to how intensely cigarettes are smoked but this has not been well studied. Mecamylamine (MEC), a non-competitive nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) antagonist, which has been shown to increase ad-lib smoking and to affect smoking topography, was used in the current study as a pharmacological probe to increase our understanding of smoking behavior, smoking topography, and resulting nicotine levels in smokers with schizophrenia. This preliminary study used a within-subject, placebo-controlled design in smokers with schizophrenia (n=6) and healthy control smokers (n=8) to examine the effects of MEC (10mg/day) on ad-lib smoking behavior, topography, nicotine levels, and tobacco craving across two smoking deprivation conditions (no deprivation and 12-h deprivation). MEC, compared to placebo, increased the number of cigarettes smoked and plasma nicotine levels. MEC increased smoking intensity and resulted in greater plasma nicotine levels in smokers with schizophrenia compared to controls, although these results were not consistent across deprivation conditions. MEC also increased tobacco craving in smokers with schizophrenia but not in control smokers. Our results suggest that antagonism of high-affinity nAChRs in smokers with schizophrenia may prompt compensatory smoking, increasing the intensity of smoking and nicotine exposure without alleviating craving. Further work is needed to assess whether nicotine levels are directly mediated by how intensely the cigarettes are smoked, and to confirm whether this effect is more pronounced in smokers with schizophrenia.

  11. Using LIBS Method in Safeguards

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kovacs-Szeles, E.; Almasi, I.

    2015-01-01

    Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is a type of atomic emission spectroscopic technique which is capable to detect almost all the elements from the periodic table in different sample types (solid, liquid or gas). Other advantage of the technique is that a LIBS analysis is much faster than a conventional laboratory technique. Beside the easy usability and fastness of the system the main advantages of the technique is that portable systems are also available. Using a so-called ''backpack'' version in-field analysis can be carried out. Therefore, LIBS is a more and more popular technique also e.g., in the nuclear analytics due to its several advantages. It is also tested for Safeguards purposes as a novel technology. In this work development and test of a portable LIBS system is discussed in detail. Detector system with higher resolution and specific software for evaluation of uranium isotope composition has been developed. Different kind of uranium fuel pellets with various enrichments was analyzed as test samples. Concerning the test measurements the developed LIBS instrument was found well-applicable for analysis of Safeguards samples and determination of higher enrichment of uranium in-field. The method is rapid and simple enough for short in-field sample analysis. (author)

  12. Expanding Library Services and Instruction Through LibGuides.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ream, Tim; Parker-Kelly, Darlene

    2016-01-01

    Beginning in 2012, the Charles R. Drew University (CDU) Health Sciences Library used LibGuides in a number of innovative ways. Librarians constructed e-book databases, in-depth tutorials on technology-related topics, and web pages highlighting special events. To assess similar LibGuides innovation, CDU librarians developed an eight-question survey distributed to health sciences and hospital libraries throughout Southern California and Arizona. Results showed that libraries used LibGuides primarily to deliver access to online resources and to provide supplementary materials supporting instruction. Responses also revealed that many libraries had not yet adopted LibGuides. These findings were analyzed and compared to past and current LibGuides design at CDU.

  13. Effect of Atmospheric Conditions on LIBS Spectra

    OpenAIRE

    Effenberger, Andrew J.; Scott, Jill R.

    2010-01-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is typically performed at ambient Earth atmospheric conditions. However, interest in LIBS in other atmospheric conditions has increased in recent years, especially for use in space exploration (e.g., Mars and Lunar) or to improve resolution for isotopic signatures. This review focuses on what has been reported about the performance of LIBS in reduced pressure environments as well as in various gases other than air.

  14. Effect of Atmospheric Conditions on LIBS Spectra

    Science.gov (United States)

    Effenberger, Andrew J.; Scott, Jill R.

    2010-01-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is typically performed at ambient Earth atmospheric conditions. However, interest in LIBS in other atmospheric conditions has increased in recent years, especially for use in space exploration (e.g., Mars and Lunar) or to improve resolution for isotopic signatures. This review focuses on what has been reported about the performance of LIBS in reduced pressure environments as well as in various gases other than air. PMID:22399914

  15. Adding Bite to the Bark: Using LibGuides2 Migration as Impetus to Introduce Strong Content Standards

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fritch, Melia; Pitts, Joelle E.

    2016-01-01

    The authors discuss the long-term accumulation of unstandardized and inaccessible content within the Libguides system and the decision-making process to create and implement a set of standards using the migration to the LibGuides2 platform as a vehicle for change. Included in the discussion are strategies for the creation of standards and…

  16. A cosmology forecast toolkit — CosmoLib

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Huang, Zhiqi, E-mail: zqhuang@cita.utoronto.ca [CEA, Institut de Physique Théorique, Orme des Merisiers, Saint-Aubin, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cédex (France)

    2012-06-01

    The package CosmoLib is a combination of a cosmological Boltzmann code and a simulation toolkit to forecast the constraints on cosmological parameters from future observations. In this paper we describe the released linear-order part of the package. We discuss the stability and performance of the Boltzmann code. This is written in Newtonian gauge and including dark energy perturbations. In CosmoLib the integrator that computes the CMB angular power spectrum is optimized for a l-by-l brute-force integration, which is useful for studying inflationary models predicting sharp features in the primordial power spectrum of metric fluctuations. As an application, CosmoLib is used to study the axion monodromy inflation model that predicts cosine oscillations in the primordial power spectrum. In contrast to the previous studies by Aich et al. and Meerburg et al., we found no detection or hint of the osicllations. We pointed out that the CAMB code modified by Aich et al. does not have sufficient numerical accuracy. CosmoLib and its documentation are available at http://www.cita.utoronto.ca/∼zqhuang/CosmoLib.

  17. Holocene closure of Lib Pond, Marshall Islands.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Conor L Myhrvold

    Full Text Available Well-preserved sediment from closed water bodies of atolls such as Lib Pond are rare opportunities to reconstruct the past regional climate, which pieced together across a latitude and longitude range identify the range of movement patterns of wider scale climate phenomena such as the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO. We conducted the first physico-chemical survey of Lib Pond, a shallow, closed-water saline lake located on remote and difficult to access Lib Island in the Marshall Islands at 8° 18' 48.99″ N, 167 22' 51.90″ E in the Pacific Ocean, in July 2009. We performed a bathymetric survey, recorded salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, and temperature profiles, monitored the tidal variability, and conducted a vegetation survey surrounding the lake. From bathymetric data we calculated the lake volume, which we used to estimate the lake's salt budget, and ultimately the residence time of water in the lake basin. We took a series of sediment cores from the lake, cores which indicate Lib Island's changing environment and climate. Radiocarbon measurements determined sediment age, and reveal significant mixing over the last 2 ka of deposition. We conclude that prior to 3 ka, Lib Island was an atoll with a central lagoon connected to the open ocean, which was then closed off from the open ocean to form the brackish system that exists today. We predict that the sediment accumulation in Lib Pond evident today will continue. As seawater is inhibited from exchanging with fresh water, Lib Pond will become a shallower lake with increasingly fresh water.

  18. Holocene closure of Lib Pond, Marshall Islands.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Myhrvold, Conor L; Janny, Fran; Nelson, Daniel; Ladd, S Nemiah; Atwood, Alyssa; Sachs, Julian P

    2014-01-01

    Well-preserved sediment from closed water bodies of atolls such as Lib Pond are rare opportunities to reconstruct the past regional climate, which pieced together across a latitude and longitude range identify the range of movement patterns of wider scale climate phenomena such as the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). We conducted the first physico-chemical survey of Lib Pond, a shallow, closed-water saline lake located on remote and difficult to access Lib Island in the Marshall Islands at 8° 18' 48.99″ N, 167 22' 51.90″ E in the Pacific Ocean, in July 2009. We performed a bathymetric survey, recorded salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, and temperature profiles, monitored the tidal variability, and conducted a vegetation survey surrounding the lake. From bathymetric data we calculated the lake volume, which we used to estimate the lake's salt budget, and ultimately the residence time of water in the lake basin. We took a series of sediment cores from the lake, cores which indicate Lib Island's changing environment and climate. Radiocarbon measurements determined sediment age, and reveal significant mixing over the last 2 ka of deposition. We conclude that prior to 3 ka, Lib Island was an atoll with a central lagoon connected to the open ocean, which was then closed off from the open ocean to form the brackish system that exists today. We predict that the sediment accumulation in Lib Pond evident today will continue. As seawater is inhibited from exchanging with fresh water, Lib Pond will become a shallower lake with increasingly fresh water.

  19. Overview of applications of Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cremers, D.A.

    1987-01-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a method of performing elemental analyses of solids, liquids, and gases using the microplasma produced by a focused laser pulse. Because the microplasma is formed by optical radiation, LIBS has some important advantages compared to conventional laboratory based analytical methods. Three applications are discussed which use the LIBS method. 6 refs., 8 figs., 2 tabs

  20. LiB and its boron-deficient variants under pressure

    KAUST Repository

    Hermann, Andreas

    2012-10-15

    Results of computational investigations of the structural and electronic properties of the ground states of binary compounds LiB x with 0.67 ≤x≤1.00 under pressure are reported. Structure predictions based on evolutionary algorithms and particle swarm optimization reveal that with increasing pressure, stoichiometric 1:1-LiB undergoes a variety of phase transitions, is significantly stabilized with respect to the elements and takes up a diamondoid boron network at high pressures. The Zintl picture is very useful in understanding the evolution of structures with pressure. The experimentally seen finite range of stability for LiB x phases with 0.8≤x≤1.00 is modeled both by boron-deficient variants of the 1:1-LiB structure and lithium-enriched intercalation structures. We find that the finite stability range vanishes at pressures P≥40GPa, where stoichiometric compounds then become more stable. A metal-to-insulator transition for LiB is predicted at P = 70 GPa. © 2012 American Physical Society.

  1. LiB and its boron-deficient variants under pressure

    KAUST Repository

    Hermann, Andreas; Suarez-Alcubilla, Ainhoa; Gurtubay, Idoia G.; Yang, Li-Ming; Bergara, Aitor; Ashcroft, N. W.; Hoffmann, Roald

    2012-01-01

    Results of computational investigations of the structural and electronic properties of the ground states of binary compounds LiB x with 0.67 ≤x≤1.00 under pressure are reported. Structure predictions based on evolutionary algorithms and particle swarm optimization reveal that with increasing pressure, stoichiometric 1:1-LiB undergoes a variety of phase transitions, is significantly stabilized with respect to the elements and takes up a diamondoid boron network at high pressures. The Zintl picture is very useful in understanding the evolution of structures with pressure. The experimentally seen finite range of stability for LiB x phases with 0.8≤x≤1.00 is modeled both by boron-deficient variants of the 1:1-LiB structure and lithium-enriched intercalation structures. We find that the finite stability range vanishes at pressures P≥40GPa, where stoichiometric compounds then become more stable. A metal-to-insulator transition for LiB is predicted at P = 70 GPa. © 2012 American Physical Society.

  2. Characterization of organic materials by LIBS for exploration of correlation between molecular and elemental LIBS signals

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shikha Rai

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available The present study is performed for the preparation of a database by accumulating LIBS spectra of 4-nitroaniline and 4-nitrotoluene in air and argon. Changes in the behavior of the molecular bands of the C2 Swan system and CN violet system as well as of atomic lines of C, H and N in the LIBS signal are appreciable in argon. In order to explore the correlation between observed LIBS signal and molecular composition of these materials, normalized intensities of the emission lines have been estimated for each compound. It has been found that the relative rates of increase/decrease in the normalized intensities for all sets are higher for 4-nitrotoluene in argon. The cause of the higher rate for 4-nitrotoluene might be due to the possession of a distinctive functional group. The ultimate goal behind the whole study is to use this data-base as input for the discrimination of energetic materials.

  3. Monitoring of heavy metal particle emission in the exhaust duct of a foundry using LIBS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dutouquet, C.; Le Bihan, O.; Dermigny, A.; Frejafon, E.; Gallou, G.; Sirven, J.B.; Torralba, B.

    2014-01-01

    Heavy metals have long been known to be detrimental to human health and the environment.Their emission is mainly considered to occur via the atmospheric route. Most of airborne heavy metals are of anthropogenic origin and produced through combustion processes at industrial sites such as incinerators and foundries. Current regulations impose threshold limits on heavy metal emissions. The reference method currently implemented for quantitative measurements at exhaust stacks consists of on-site sampling of heavy metals on filters for the particulate phase (the most prominent and only fraction considered in this study) prior to subsequent laboratory analysis. Results are therefore known only a few days after sampling. Stiffer regulations require the development of adapted tools allowing automatic, on-site or even in-situ measurements with temporal resolutions. The Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) technique was deemed as a potential candidate to meet these requirements. On site experiments were run by melting copper bars and monitoring emission of this element in an exhaust duct at a pilot-scale furnace in a French research center dedicated to metal casting. Two approaches designated as indirect and direct analysis were broached in these experiments. The former corresponds to filter enrichment prior to subsequent LIBS interrogation whereas the latter entails laser focusing right through the aerosol for detection. On-site calibration curves were built and compared with those obtained at laboratory scale in order to investigate possible matrix and analyte effects. Eventually, the obtained results in terms of detection limits and quantitative temporal monitoring of copper emission clearly emphasize the potentialities of the direct LIBS measurements. (authors)

  4. Study of different concentric rings inside gallstones with LIBS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pathak, Ashok Kumar; Singh, Vivek Kumar; Rai, Nilesh Kumar; Rai, Awadhesh Kumar; Rai, Pradeep Kumar; Rai, Pramod Kumar; Rai, Suman; Baruah, G D

    2011-07-01

    Gallstones obtained from patients from the north-east region of India (Assam) were studied using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique. LIBS spectra of the different layers (in cross-section) of the gallstones were recorded in the spectral region 200-900 nm. Several elements, including calcium, magnesium, manganese, copper, silicon, phosphorus, iron, sodium and potassium, were detected in the gallstones. Lighter elements, including carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen were also detected, which demonstrates the superiority of the LIBS technique over other existing analytical techniques. The LIBS technique was applied to investigate the evolution of C(2) swan bands and CN violet bands in the LIBS spectra of the gallstones in air and an argon atmosphere. The different layers (dark and light layers) of the gallstones were discriminated on the basis of the presence and intensities of the spectral lines for carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and copper. An attempt was also made to correlate the presence of major and minor elements in the gallstones with the common diet of the population of Assam.

  5. Identification of Polymers by Means of LIBS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anzano, Jesús M.; Bello-Gálvez, Cristina; Lasheras, Roberto J.

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is mainly an elemental analysis technique which is applied several fields. However, molecular materials are almost entirely atomized when exposed to intense laser radiation sufficient for breakdown. This limitation has been solved by researchers using statistical tools as chemometric techniques. In this chapter, the authors expose one review about the identification of polymeric materials using LIBS; and particularly, the different chemometric techniques.

  6. Micro-Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (Micro-LIBS) Study on Ancient Roman Mortars.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pagnotta, Stefano; Lezzerini, Marco; Ripoll-Seguer, Laura; Hidalgo, Montserrat; Grifoni, Emanuela; Legnaioli, Stefano; Lorenzetti, Giulia; Poggialini, Francesco; Palleschi, Vincenzo

    2017-04-01

    The laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique was used for analyzing the composition of an ancient Roman mortar (5th century A.D.), exploiting an experimental setup which allows the determination of the compositions of binder and aggregate in few minutes, without the need for sample treatment. Four thousand LIBS spectra were acquired from an area of 10 mm 2 , with a 50 µm lateral resolution. The elements of interest in the mortar sample (H, C, O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Ti, Mn, Fe) were detected and mapped. The collected data graphically shown as compositional images were interpreted using different statistical approaches for the determination of the chemical composition of the binder and aggregate fraction. The methods of false color imaging, blind separation, and self-organizing maps were applied and their results are discussed in this paper. In particular, the method based on the use of self-organizing maps gives well interpretable results in very short times, without any reduction in the dimensionality of the system.

  7. Monitoring of heavy metal particle emission in the exhaust duct of a foundry using LIBS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dutouquet, C; Gallou, G; Le Bihan, O; Sirven, J B; Dermigny, A; Torralba, B; Frejafon, E

    2014-09-01

    Heavy metals have long been known to be detrimental to human health and the environment. Their emission is mainly considered to occur via the atmospheric route. Most of airborne heavy metals are of anthropogenic origin and produced through combustion processes at industrial sites such as incinerators and foundries. Current regulations impose threshold limits on heavy metal emissions. The reference method currently implemented for quantitative measurements at exhaust stacks consists of on-site sampling of heavy metals on filters for the particulate phase (the most prominent and only fraction considered in this study) prior to subsequent laboratory analysis. Results are therefore known only a few days after sampling. Stiffer regulations require the development of adapted tools allowing automatic, on-site or even in-situ measurements with temporal resolutions. The Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) technique was deemed as a potential candidate to meet these requirements. On site experiments were run by melting copper bars and monitoring emission of this element in an exhaust duct at a pilot-scale furnace in a French research center dedicated to metal casting. Two approaches designated as indirect and direct analysis were broached in these experiments. The former corresponds to filter enrichment prior to subsequent LIBS interrogation whereas the latter entails laser focusing right through the aerosol for detection. On-site calibration curves were built and compared with those obtained at laboratory scale in order to investigate possible matrix and analyte effects. Eventually, the obtained results in terms of detection limits and quantitative temporal monitoring of copper emission clearly emphasize the potentialities of the direct LIBS measurements. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  8. Effect of salt intensity in soup on ad libitum intake and on subsequent food choice

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bolhuis, D.P.; Lakemond, C.M.M.; Wijk, de R.A.; Luning, P.A.; Graaf, de C.

    2012-01-01

    The effect of salt intensity on ad libitum intake of tomato soup was investigated when soup was served as a first course and as a second course. Also the effect of salt intensity in soup on subsequent sweet vs. savory choice of sandwich fillings was investigated. Forty-three healthy subjects

  9. LIBS analysis of artificial calcified tissues matrices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kasem, M A; Gonzalez, J J; Russo, R E; Harith, M A

    2013-04-15

    In most laser-based analytical methods, the reproducibility of quantitative measurements strongly depends on maintaining uniform and stable experimental conditions. For LIBS analysis this means that for accurate estimation of elemental concentration, using the calibration curves obtained from reference samples, the plasma parameters have to be kept as constant as possible. In addition, calcified tissues such as bone are normally less "tough" in their texture than many samples, especially metals. Thus, the ablation process could change the sample morphological features rapidly, and result in poor reproducibility statistics. In the present work, three artificial reference sample sets have been fabricated. These samples represent three different calcium based matrices, CaCO3 matrix, bone ash matrix and Ca hydroxyapatite matrix. A comparative study of UV (266 nm) and IR (1064 nm) LIBS for these three sets of samples has been performed under similar experimental conditions for the two systems (laser energy, spot size, repetition rate, irradiance, etc.) to examine the wavelength effect. The analytical results demonstrated that UV-LIBS has improved reproducibility, precision, stable plasma conditions, better linear fitting, and the reduction of matrix effects. Bone ash could be used as a suitable standard reference material for calcified tissue calibration using LIBS with a 266 nm excitation wavelength. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  10. Implementing LibGuides 2: An Academic Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duncan, Vicky; Lucky, Shannon; McLean, Jaclyn

    2015-01-01

    Since 1997, the University of Saskatchewan Library has used "subject pages" to highlight key library resources. When Springshare announced it was launching LibGuides v2, a project team was assembled to transition a mixture of locally produced guides and guides created with the original LibGuides v1 software. This article synthesizes best…

  11. Évaluation de la qualité de la connaissance dans une perspective délibérative

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van der Sluijs, J.P.; Douguet, J.M.; O'Connor, M.; Ravetz, J.

    2008-01-01

    sh Cet article propose une vision des démarches d’évaluation de l’adéquation de la connaissance scientifique dans des situations d’incertitude forte et irréductible en recourant à des processus délibératifs élargis. Dans l’optique de la Science Post-Normale, la démarche s’appuie, d’un point de vue

  12. Effect of salt intensity in soup on ad libitum intake and on subsequent food choice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bolhuis, Dieuwerke P; Lakemond, Catriona M M; de Wijk, Rene A; Luning, Pieternel A; de Graaf, Cees

    2012-02-01

    The effect of salt intensity on ad libitum intake of tomato soup was investigated when soup was served as a first course and as a second course. Also the effect of salt intensity in soup on subsequent sweet vs. savory choice of sandwich fillings was investigated. Forty-three healthy subjects consumed ad libitum a low-salt (LS), ideal-salt (IS) and high-salt (HS) tomato soup in both meal settings. The salt concentrations were selected on an individual basis, in a way that IS was most pleasant and LS and HS were similar in pleasantness. The ad libitum intake of IS soup was higher than that of LS and HS soup, and the ad libitum intake of LS soup was higher than that of HS soup. The meal setting, soup as a first or as a second course, did not affect ad libitum intake. Salt intensity in soup did not predict sweet vs. savory choice of fillings in grams or energy, although most sodium from fillings was consumed after intake of HS soup. In conclusion, a higher salt intensity lead to lower ad libitum intake of soup similar in palatability (LS vs. HS). In addition, salt intensity in soup does not predict sweet vs. savory food choice. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Elemental misinterpretation in automated analysis of LIBS spectra.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hübert, Waldemar; Ankerhold, Georg

    2011-07-01

    In this work, the Stark effect is shown to be mainly responsible for wrong elemental allocation by automated laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) software solutions. Due to broadening and shift of an elemental emission line affected by the Stark effect, its measured spectral position might interfere with the line position of several other elements. The micro-plasma is generated by focusing a frequency-doubled 200 mJ pulsed Nd/YAG laser on an aluminum target and furthermore on a brass sample in air at atmospheric pressure. After laser pulse excitation, we have measured the temporal evolution of the Al(II) ion line at 281.6 nm (4s(1)S-3p(1)P) during the decay of the laser-induced plasma. Depending on laser pulse power, the center of the measured line is red-shifted by 130 pm (490 GHz) with respect to the exact line position. In this case, the well-known spectral line positions of two moderate and strong lines of other elements coincide with the actual shifted position of the Al(II) line. Consequently, a time-resolving software analysis can lead to an elemental misinterpretation. To avoid a wrong interpretation of LIBS spectra in automated analysis software for a given LIBS system, we recommend using larger gate delays incorporating Stark broadening parameters and using a range of tolerance, which is non-symmetric around the measured line center. These suggestions may help to improve time-resolving LIBS software promising a smaller probability of wrong elemental identification and making LIBS more attractive for industrial applications.

  14. OML for the Libs+ system using PFW

    CERN Document Server

    Hahn, J A

    1999-01-01

    Passport for Windows (PFW) is not limited to accessing OCLC's systems. It can also access a local Libs+ system through the Internet. Such a connection makes it possible to use the automation capabilities of the OCLC Macro Language (OML), which is built into PFW, for the local Libs+ system. Once certain setup requirements have been completed, PFW can be used to quickly accomplish many routine tasks and thereby increase productivity and decrease error rates. Because it can be used to automate many local tasks, PFW remains an important tool for librarians. (0 refs).

  15. Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) as a rapid tool for material analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hussain, T; Gondal, M A

    2013-01-01

    Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a novel technique for elemental analysis based on laser-generated plasma. In this technique, laser pulses are applied for ablation of the sample, resulting in the vaporization and ionization of sample in hot plasma which is finally analyzed by the spectrometer. The elements are identified by their unique spectral signatures. LIBS system was developed for elemental analysis of solid and liquid samples. The developed system was applied for qualitative as well as quantitative measurement of elemental concentration present in iron slag and open pit ore samples. The plasma was generated by focusing a pulsed Nd:YAG laser at 1064 nm on test samples to study the capabilities of LIBS as a rapid tool for material analysis. The concentrations of various elements of environmental significance such as cadmium, calcium, magnesium, chromium, manganese, titanium, barium, phosphorus, copper, iron, zinc etc., in these samples were determined. Optimal experimental conditions were evaluated for improving the sensitivity of developed LIBS system through parametric dependence study. The laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) results were compared with the results obtained using standard analytical technique such as inductively couple plasma emission spectroscopy (ICP). Limit of detection (LOD) of our LIBS system were also estimated for the above mentioned elements. This study demonstrates that LIBS could be highly appropriate for rapid online analysis of iron slag and open pit waste.

  16. Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) as a rapid tool for material analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hussain, T.; Gondal, M. A.

    2013-06-01

    Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a novel technique for elemental analysis based on laser-generated plasma. In this technique, laser pulses are applied for ablation of the sample, resulting in the vaporization and ionization of sample in hot plasma which is finally analyzed by the spectrometer. The elements are identified by their unique spectral signatures. LIBS system was developed for elemental analysis of solid and liquid samples. The developed system was applied for qualitative as well as quantitative measurement of elemental concentration present in iron slag and open pit ore samples. The plasma was generated by focusing a pulsed Nd:YAG laser at 1064 nm on test samples to study the capabilities of LIBS as a rapid tool for material analysis. The concentrations of various elements of environmental significance such as cadmium, calcium, magnesium, chromium, manganese, titanium, barium, phosphorus, copper, iron, zinc etc., in these samples were determined. Optimal experimental conditions were evaluated for improving the sensitivity of developed LIBS system through parametric dependence study. The laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) results were compared with the results obtained using standard analytical technique such as inductively couple plasma emission spectroscopy (ICP). Limit of detection (LOD) of our LIBS system were also estimated for the above mentioned elements. This study demonstrates that LIBS could be highly appropriate for rapid online analysis of iron slag and open pit waste.

  17. Effect of epidermal growth factor (EGF) on [3H]TdR incorporation into DNA in ad lib fed and fasted CD2F1 mice

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Scheving, L.A.; Tsai, T.H.; Scheving, L.E.; Hoke, W.S.

    1987-01-01

    The effect of EGF on the incorporation of [ 3 H]TdR into DNA (DNA synthesis) was determined in the esophagus, liver, pancreas, and kidney in mice standardized to 12 hours (hr) of light alternating with 12 hr of darkness. A question asked was whether intraperitoneally administered EGF could alter the circadian patterns of DNA synthesis in these organs. The most marked effects of EGF were: an increase in DNA synthesis but only after a specific duration of time after treatment, ranging from 8 to 23 hr, which differed for each tissue, a similarity in the response of the esophagus in both ad lib fed and fasted mice, but not in the response of the liver, where the stimulatory effect of EGF observed in fed mice was dramatically reduced in fasted ones, and an advance in the phasing of the circadian rhythm in DNA synthesis of the esophagus by about 12 hr. In addition, no sex differences in fasted animals were found under the conditions of this study

  18. [Quantitative analysis of Cu in water by collinear DP-LIBS].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zheng, Mei-Lan; Yao, Ming-Yin; Chen, Tian-Bing; Lin, Yong-Zeng; Li, Wen-Bing; Liu, Mu-Hua

    2014-07-01

    The purpose of this research is to study the influence of double pulse laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (DP-LIBS) on the sensitivity of Cu in water. The water solution of Cu was tested by collinear DP-LIBS in this article. The results show that spectral intensity of Cu can be enhanced obviously by DP-LIBS, compared with single pulse laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (SP-LIBS). Besides, the experimental results were significantly impacted by delay time between laser pulse and spectrometer acquisition, delay time of double laser pulse and energy of laser pulse and so on. The paper determined the best conditions for DP-LIBS detecting Cu in water. The optimal acquisition delay time was 1 380 ns. The best laser pulse delay time was 25 ns. The most appropriate energy of double laser pulse was 100 mJ. Characteristic analysis of spectra of Cu at 324.7 and 327.4 nm was done for quantitative analysis. The detection limit was 3.5 microg x mL(-1) at 324.7 nm, and the detection limit was 4.84 microg x mL(-1) at 327.4 nm. The relative standard deviation of the two characteristic spectral lines was within 10%. The calibration curve of characteristic spectral line, established by 327.4 nm, was verified with 500 microg x mL(-1) sample. Concentration of the sample was 446 microg x mL(-1) calculated by the calibration curve. This research shows that the detection sensitivity of Cu in water can be improved by DP-LIBS. At the same time, it had high stability.

  19. Study of archaeological coins of different dynasties using libs coupled with multivariate analysis

    Science.gov (United States)

    Awasthi, Shikha; Kumar, Rohit; Rai, G. K.; Rai, A. K.

    2016-04-01

    Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is an atomic emission spectroscopic technique having unique capability of an in-situ monitoring tool for detection and quantification of elements present in different artifacts. Archaeological coins collected form G.R. Sharma Memorial Museum; University of Allahabad, India has been analyzed using LIBS technique. These coins were obtained from excavation of Kausambi, Uttar Pradesh, India. LIBS system assembled in the laboratory (laser Nd:YAG 532 nm, 4 ns pulse width FWHM with Ocean Optics LIBS 2000+ spectrometer) is employed for spectral acquisition. The spectral lines of Ag, Cu, Ca, Sn, Si, Fe and Mg are identified in the LIBS spectra of different coins. LIBS along with Multivariate Analysis play an effective role for classification and contribution of spectral lines in different coins. The discrimination between five coins with Archaeological interest has been carried out using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The results show the potential relevancy of the methodology used in the elemental identification and classification of artifacts with high accuracy and robustness.

  20. [Comparative investigation of underwater-LIBS using 532 and 1 064 nm lasers].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Song, Jiao-Jian; Tian, Ye; Lu, Yuan; Li, Ying; Zheng, Rong-Er

    2014-11-01

    With the hope of applying laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to the ocean applications, the laser energy at 532 and 1 064 nm wavelength with 3 and 40 mj respectively was used, which was near their breakdown threshold. Extensive experimental investigations of LIBS from CaCl2 water solution were carried out in this paper using different laser wavelengths of 532 and 1 064 nm. The obtained results show that compared with the 532 nm laser, the 1 064 nm laser can induce the plasma in water with higher emission intensity and longer lifetime, while the reproducibility of LIBS signal under 1 064 nm laser is poorer. On the other hand, due to the different attenuation ratios of 532 and 1 064 nm laser energies in water, the LIBS signal of 1 064 nm laser decreases a lot within the transmission distance range 2-5 cm, while LIBS signal of 532 nm remains the same, because that the wavelength of 532 nm lies in the "transmission window" of the water solution. This study will provide valuable design considerations for the development of LIBS-sea system in near future.

  1. SeqLib: a C ++ API for rapid BAM manipulation, sequence alignment and sequence assembly.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wala, Jeremiah; Beroukhim, Rameen

    2017-03-01

    We present SeqLib, a C ++ API and command line tool that provides a rapid and user-friendly interface to BAM/SAM/CRAM files, global sequence alignment operations and sequence assembly. Four C libraries perform core operations in SeqLib: HTSlib for BAM access, BWA-MEM and BLAT for sequence alignment and Fermi for error correction and sequence assembly. Benchmarking indicates that SeqLib has lower CPU and memory requirements than leading C ++ sequence analysis APIs. We demonstrate an example of how minimal SeqLib code can extract, error-correct and assemble reads from a CRAM file and then align with BWA-MEM. SeqLib also provides additional capabilities, including chromosome-aware interval queries and read plotting. Command line tools are available for performing integrated error correction, micro-assemblies and alignment. SeqLib is available on Linux and OSX for the C ++98 standard and later at github.com/walaj/SeqLib. SeqLib is released under the Apache2 license. Additional capabilities for BLAT alignment are available under the BLAT license. jwala@broadinstitue.org ; rameen@broadinstitute.org. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com

  2. Long-wave, infrared laser-induced breakdown (LIBS) spectroscopy emissions from energetic materials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Clayton S-C; Brown, Ei E; Hommerich, Uwe; Jin, Feng; Trivedi, Sudhir B; Samuels, Alan C; Snyder, A Peter

    2012-12-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has shown great promise for applications in chemical, biological, and explosives sensing and has significant potential for real-time standoff detection and analysis. In this study, LIBS emissions were obtained in the mid-infrared (MIR) and long-wave infrared (LWIR) spectral regions for potential applications in explosive material sensing. The IR spectroscopy region revealed vibrational and rotational signatures of functional groups in molecules and fragments thereof. The silicon-based detector for conventional ultraviolet-visible LIBS operations was replaced with a mercury-cadmium-telluride detector for MIR-LWIR spectral detection. The IR spectral signature region between 4 and 12 μm was mined for the appearance of MIR and LWIR-LIBS emissions directly indicative of oxygenated breakdown products as well as dissociated, and/or recombined sample molecular fragments. Distinct LWIR-LIBS emission signatures from dissociated-recombination sample molecular fragments between 4 and 12 μm are observed for the first time.

  3. LIBS coupled with ICP/OES for the spectral analysis of betel leaves

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rehan, I.; Rehan, K.; Sultana, S.; Khan, M. Z.; Muhammad, R.

    2018-05-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) system was optimized and was applied for the elemental analysis and exposure of the heavy metals in betel leaves in air. Pulsed Nd:YAG (1064 nm) in conjunction with a suitable detector (LIBS 2000+, Ocean Optics, Inc) having the optical resolution of 0.06 nm was used to record the emission spectra from 200 to 720 nm. Elements like Al, Ba, Ca, Cr, Cu, P, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, P, S, Sr, and Zn were found to be present in the samples. The abundances of observed elements were calculated through normalized calibration curve method, integrated intensity ratio method, and calibration free-LIBS approach. Quantitative analyses were accomplished under the assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) and optically thin plasma. LIBS findings were validated by comparing its results with the results obtained using a typical analytical technique of inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP/OES). Limit of detection (LOD) of the LIBS system was also estimated for heavy metals.

  4. LIBS Sensor for Sub-surface CO2 Leak Detection in Carbon Sequestration

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jinesh JAIN

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Monitoring carbon sequestration poses numerous challenges to the sensor community. For example, the subsurface environment is notoriously harsh, with large potential mechanical, thermal, and chemical stresses, making long-term stability and survival a challenge to any potential in situ monitoring method. Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS has been demonstrated as a promising technology for chemical monitoring of harsh environments and hard to reach places. LIBS has a real- time monitoring capability and can be used for the elemental and isotopic analysis of solid, liquid, and gas samples. The flexibility of the probe design and the use of fiber- optics has made LIBS particularly suited for remote measurements. The paper focuses on developing a LIBS instrument for downhole high-pressure, high-temperature brine experiments, where CO2 leakage could result in changes in the trace mineral composition of an aquifer. The progress in fabricating a compact, robust, and simple LIBS sensor for widespread subsurface leak detection is presented.

  5. ImgLib2--generic image processing in Java.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pietzsch, Tobias; Preibisch, Stephan; Tomancák, Pavel; Saalfeld, Stephan

    2012-11-15

    ImgLib2 is an open-source Java library for n-dimensional data representation and manipulation with focus on image processing. It aims at minimizing code duplication by cleanly separating pixel-algebra, data access and data representation in memory. Algorithms can be implemented for classes of pixel types and generic access patterns by which they become independent of the specific dimensionality, pixel type and data representation. ImgLib2 illustrates that an elegant high-level programming interface can be achieved without sacrificing performance. It provides efficient implementations of common data types, storage layouts and algorithms. It is the data model underlying ImageJ2, the KNIME Image Processing toolbox and an increasing number of Fiji-Plugins. ImgLib2 is licensed under BSD. Documentation and source code are available at http://imglib2.net and in a public repository at https://github.com/imagej/imglib. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics Online. saalfeld@mpi-cbg.de

  6. Wavelength dependence of laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) on questioned document investigation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elsherbiny, Nany; Aied Nassef, O

    2015-07-01

    The fast and nearly non-destructive criteria of laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique has been exploited for forensic purposes, specifically, document investigation. The dependence of the optical emission spectra of different black gel ink samples on the excitation laser wavelength, namely the visible wavelength at λ=532 nm and the IR wavelength at λ=1064 nm, was studied. The inks of thirty black gel-ink pens comprising ten brands were analyzed to determine the variation of the chemical composition of ink and to discriminate among them with minimum mass removal and minimum damage to the document's paper. Under the adopted experimental conditions, the ability of the visible LIBS to differentiate among the different ink samples was successful compared to IR LIBS at the same laser pulse energy (~25 mJ/pulse, laser fluence is ~1400J·cm(-2) for visible laser and ~1100J·cm(-2) for IR laser) which could be attributed to the IR absorption effects by the black ink. However, the visible LIBS produces deeper crater with respect to that produced by IR LIBS. Applying IR LIBS with higher pulse energy of ~87mJ (laser fluence is ~4100J·cm(-2)), identification and differentiation of the adopted samples was performed with producing a larger-diameter but superficial crater. The plasma parameters are discussed at the adopted experimental conditions. The results support the potential of LIBS technique using both the visible and IR lasers to be commercially developed for forensic document examination. Copyright © 2015 Forensic Science Society. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Identification and sorting of materials with portable LIBS before decommissioning

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vors, Evelyne; Sirven, Jean-Baptiste; Dehayem-Massop, Alix; Gallou, Guillaume

    2016-01-01

    Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is a technique of elemental analysis. A laser beam is focused on the surface of the sample to be analyzed. A small quantity of matter is ablated and a plasma formed by the atomized compounds is created. The spectral lines of the light emitted by the plasma are detected by an optical spectrometer. LIBS is a fully optical, multi-elementary and fast analytical technique, requiring no or little sample preparation. These features make the LIBS technique particularly suited for in situ measurements, and portable instruments are currently developed. LIBS analysis can be applied to the identification of materials using chemometric statistical methods (multivariate analysis) connecting the spectrum to the nature of the sample. Such methods have been successfully applied in our laboratory to the determination of the geographical origin of yellow cakes and to the identification of alloys. We present here the work performed with a portable LIBS instrument to meet the needs of waste sorting in industrial domain and in nuclear domain (inventory before decommissioning). A data base of LIBS spectra was built with a commercial instrument (IVEA SAS Easylibs) with samples of four categories of interest for industrial waste sorting: alloys, plastics, concrete and glasses. Different correct identification rates are requested by categories. The alloy spectra contain characteristic spectral lines and sub-categories can be easily discriminated (for example, different steel classes can be identified). The components of the plastics (mainly C, H, O and N) give rise to less characteristic lines and the plastics identification requires a separate study. Supervised statistical models are built with the data base spectra and predictions are instantly calculated for the spectra of unknown materials to identify in order to direct them to the correct waste stream. (authors)

  8. [Rapid measurement of trace mercury in aqueous solutions with optical-electrical dual pulse LIBS technique].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Qian; Xiong, Wei; Chen, Yu-Qi; Li, Run-Hua

    2011-02-01

    A wood slice was used as absorber to transfer liquid sample to solid sample in order to solve the problems existing in directly analyzing aqueous solutions with laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). An optical-electrical dual pulse LIBS (OEDP-LIBS) technique was first used to enhance atomic emission of mercury in laser-induced plasma. The calibration curves of mercury were obtained by typical single pulse LIBS and OEDP-LIBS techniques. The limit of detection (LOD) of mercury in these two techniques reaches 2.4 and 0.3 mg x L(-1), respectively. Under current experimental conditions, the time-integrated a tomic emission of mercury at 253.65 nm was enhanced 50 times and the LOD of mercury was improved by one order, if comparing OEDP-LIBS to single pulse LIBS. The required time for a whole analysis process is less than 5 minutes. As the atomic emission of mercury decays slowly while increasing the delay time between electrical pulse and laser pulse, increasing the electrical pulse width can further enhance the time integrated intensity of mercury emission and improve the detection sensitivity of mercury by OEDP-LIBS technique.

  9. Laser induced spectroscopy breakdown (LIBS) application to heavy metal detection in soils

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barbini, R.; Fantoni, R.; Palucci, A.; Ribezzo, S.; Colao, F.; Capitelli, F.

    2000-01-01

    LIBS (Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy) is a new spectroscopic technique suitable to the use in the analysis of samples of environmental interest, such as soils and rocks, and of industrial interest, such as alloys. Results dealing with the application of the technique to heterogeneous soil samples certified by Ispra Joint Research Centre in the contest of heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn) with an agronomical interest are presented in this report. In the LIBS technique, a high power laser beam is focused onto the sample in order to generate a small volume of plasma at its surface. Emissions from single atomic species are collected by a lens system coupled to an optical fiber bundle, dispersed on a monochromator and analyzed by an iCCD. the identification and the assignment of emission lines relevant to single atomic species allows to determine the sample elemental composition and, after calibration against reference samples, to perform quantitative analysis for a large number of species. This technique requires no sample pre-treatment, a part from eventually compacting powders by mechanical press. This is a considerable advantage with respect to traditional spectroscopic techniques, such as the ICP (Inductively Coupled Plasma) which needs sample mineralization by acid attack. Measurements performed on soil samples by means of the LIBS technique at ENEA Frascati were compared with the results obtained by ICP, which is considered a traditional technique for this kind of analysis. Results showed a general overestimation of the LIBS values with respect to the ICP ones, probably due to differences in lytologic matrix between the analyzed samples and the standard. The phenomenon is usually referred to the matrix effect, which is held responsible for the deviation from linearity between single element concentration and its row intensity. The effect is due to local plasma density variations and limit the correlation between the plasma elemental composition

  10. LibKiSAO: a Java library for Querying KiSAO.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhukova, Anna; Adams, Richard; Laibe, Camille; Le Novère, Nicolas

    2012-09-24

    The Kinetic Simulation Algorithm Ontology (KiSAO) supplies information about existing algorithms available for the simulation of Systems Biology models, their characteristics, parameters and inter-relationships. KiSAO enables the unambiguous identification of algorithms from simulation descriptions. Information about analogous methods having similar characteristics and about algorithm parameters incorporated into KiSAO is desirable for simulation tools. To retrieve this information programmatically an application programming interface (API) for KiSAO is needed. We developed libKiSAO, a Java library to enable querying of the KiSA Ontology. It implements methods to retrieve information about simulation algorithms stored in KiSAO, their characteristics and parameters, and methods to query the algorithm hierarchy and search for similar algorithms providing comparable results for the same simulation set-up. Using libKiSAO, simulation tools can make logical inferences based on this knowledge and choose the most appropriate algorithm to perform a simulation. LibKiSAO also enables simulation tools to handle a wider range of simulation descriptions by determining which of the available methods are similar and can be used instead of the one indicated in the simulation description if that one is not implemented. LibKiSAO enables Java applications to easily access information about simulation algorithms, their characteristics and parameters stored in the OWL-encoded Kinetic Simulation Algorithm Ontology. LibKiSAO can be used by simulation description editors and simulation tools to improve reproducibility of computational simulation tasks and facilitate model re-use.

  11. libRoadRunner: a high performance SBML simulation and analysis library.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Somogyi, Endre T; Bouteiller, Jean-Marie; Glazier, James A; König, Matthias; Medley, J Kyle; Swat, Maciej H; Sauro, Herbert M

    2015-10-15

    This article presents libRoadRunner, an extensible, high-performance, cross-platform, open-source software library for the simulation and analysis of models expressed using Systems Biology Markup Language (SBML). SBML is the most widely used standard for representing dynamic networks, especially biochemical networks. libRoadRunner is fast enough to support large-scale problems such as tissue models, studies that require large numbers of repeated runs and interactive simulations. libRoadRunner is a self-contained library, able to run both as a component inside other tools via its C++ and C bindings, and interactively through its Python interface. Its Python Application Programming Interface (API) is similar to the APIs of MATLAB ( WWWMATHWORKSCOM: ) and SciPy ( HTTP//WWWSCIPYORG/: ), making it fast and easy to learn. libRoadRunner uses a custom Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler built on the widely used LLVM JIT compiler framework. It compiles SBML-specified models directly into native machine code for a variety of processors, making it appropriate for solving extremely large models or repeated runs. libRoadRunner is flexible, supporting the bulk of the SBML specification (except for delay and non-linear algebraic equations) including several SBML extensions (composition and distributions). It offers multiple deterministic and stochastic integrators, as well as tools for steady-state analysis, stability analysis and structural analysis of the stoichiometric matrix. libRoadRunner binary distributions are available for Mac OS X, Linux and Windows. The library is licensed under Apache License Version 2.0. libRoadRunner is also available for ARM-based computers such as the Raspberry Pi. http://www.libroadrunner.org provides online documentation, full build instructions, binaries and a git source repository. hsauro@u.washington.edu or somogyie@indiana.edu Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. Published by Oxford University Press 2015. This work is written

  12. Laser induced spectroscopy breakdown (LIBS) application to heavy metal detection in soils; Applicazioni della tecnica Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) alla determinazione dei metalli pesanti nei suoli

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Barbini, R.; Fantoni, R.; Palucci, A.; Ribezzo, S.; Colao, F. [ENEA, Centro Ricerche Frascati, Frascati, RM (Italy). Div. Fisica Applicata; Capitelli, F. [Bari, Univ., Bari (Italy). Dipt. di Biologia e Chimica Agroforestale ed Ambientale

    2000-07-01

    LIBS (Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy) is a new spectroscopic technique suitable to the use in the analysis of samples of environmental interest, such as soils and rocks, and of industrial interest, such as alloys. Results dealing with the application of the technique to heterogeneous soil samples certified by Ispra Joint Research Centre in the contest of heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn) with an agronomical interest are presented in this report. In the LIBS technique, a high power laser beam is focused onto the sample in order to generate a small volume of plasma at its surface. Emissions from single atomic species are collected by a lens system coupled to an optical fiber bundle, dispersed on a monochromator and analyzed by an iCCD. the identification and the assignment of emission lines relevant to single atomic species allows to determine the sample elemental composition and, after calibration against reference samples, to perform quantitative analysis for a large number of species. This technique requires no sample pre-treatment, a part from eventually compacting powders by mechanical press. This is a considerable advantage with respect to traditional spectroscopic techniques, such as the ICP (Inductively Coupled Plasma) which needs sample mineralization by acid attack. Measurements performed on soil samples by means of the LIBS technique at ENEA Frascati were compared with the results obtained by ICP, which is considered a traditional technique for this kind of analysis. Results showed a general overestimation of the LIBS values with respect to the ICP ones, probably due to differences in lytologic matrix between the analyzed samples and the standard. The phenomenon is usually referred to the matrix effect, which is held responsible for the deviation from linearity between single element concentration and its row intensity. The effect is due to local plasma density variations and limit the correlation between the plasma elemental composition

  13. Effective laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) detection using double pulse at optimum configuration.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, Soo Jin; Yoh, Jack J

    2011-08-01

    A short laser pulse is irradiated on a sample to create a highly energetic plasma that emits light of a specific peak wavelength according to the material. By identifying different peaks for the analyzed samples, their chemical composition can be rapidly determined. The characteristics of the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) plasma are strongly dependent on the ambient conditions. Research aimed at enhancing LIBS intensity is of great benefit in advancing LIBS for the exploration of harsh environments. By using double-pulse LIBS, the signal intensity of Al and Ca lines was enhanced by five times compared to the single-pulse signal. Also, the angles of the target and detector are adjusted to simulate samples of arbitrary shape. We verified that there exists an optimal angle at which specific elements of a test sample may be detected with stronger signal intensity. We provide several optimum configurations for the LIBS system for maximizing the signal intensity for the analysis of a nonstandard aluminum sample.

  14. Fast LIBS Identification of Aluminum Alloys

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tawfik W.

    2007-04-01

    Full Text Available Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS has been applied to analysis aluminum alloy targets. The plasma is generated by focusing a 300 mJ pulsed Nd: YAG laser on the target in air at atmospheric pressure. Such plasma emission spectrum was collected using a one-meter length wide band fused-silica optical fiber connected to a portable Echelle spectrometer with intensified CCD camera. Spectroscopic analysis of plasma evolution of laser produced plasmas has been characterized in terms of their spectra, electron density and electron temperature assuming the LTE and optically thin plasma conditions. The LIBS spectrum was optimized for high S/N ratio especially for trace elements. The electron temperature and density were determined using the emission intensity and stark broadening, respectively, of selected aluminum spectral lines. The values of these parameters were found to change with the aluminum alloy matrix, i.e. they could be used as a fingerprint character to distinguish between different aluminum alloy matrices using only one major element (aluminum without needing to analysis the rest of elements in the matrix. Moreover, It was found that the values of T(e and N(e decrease with increasing the trace elements concentrations in the aluminum alloy samples. The obtained results indicate that it is possible to improve the exploitation of LIBS in the remote on-line industrial monitoring application, by following up only the values of T(e and N(e for the aluminum in aluminum alloys using an optical fiber probe.

  15. Remote-LIBS characterization of ITER-like plasma facing materials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Almaviva, S.; Caneve, L.; Colao, F.; Fantoni, R.; Maddaluno, G.

    2012-01-01

    Graphical abstract: Display Omitted Highlights: ► Description of a LIBS set-up as remote diagnostics in new generation fusion machines. ► Identification of the atomic composition of samples simulating plasma facing components. ► Submicrometric resolution in depth profiling the elemental composition of the samples. ► Identification of elements present in traces or as impurities on the sample surface. ► Discussion on the applicability of the Calibration Free method for quantitative analysis. - Abstract: The occurrence of several plasma-wall interaction processes, eventually affecting the overall system performances, is expected in a working fusion device chamber. Monitoring the changes in the composition of the plasma facing component (PFC) surface layer, as a result of erosion and redeposition mechanisms, can provide useful information on the possible plasma pollution and fuel retention. To this aim, suitable diagnostic techniques able to perform depth profiling analysis of the superficial layers on the PFCs have been developed. Due to the constraints commonly found in fusion devices, the measuring apparatus must be non invasive, remote and sensitive to light elements. These requirements make LIBS (Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy) an ideal candidate for on-line monitoring the walls of current and of next generation (as ITER) fusion devices. LIBS is a well established tool for qualitative, semi-quantitative and quantitative analysis of surfaces, with micro-destructive characteristics and some capabilities for stratigraphy. In this work, LIBS depth profiling capability has been verified for the determination of the composition of multilayer structures simulating plasma facing components covered with deposited impurity layers. A new experimental setup has been designed and realized in order to optimize the characteristics of a LIBS system working in vacuum conditions and remotely, two noticeable properties for an ITER-relevant diagnostics. A quantitative

  16. Emission Characteristics of Laser-Induced Plasma Using Collinear Long and Short Dual-Pulse Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Zhenzhen; Deguchi, Yoshihiro; Liu, Renwei; Ikutomo, Akihiro; Zhang, Zhenzhen; Chong, Daotong; Yan, Junjie; Liu, Jiping; Shiou, Fang-Jung

    2017-09-01

    Collinear long and short dual-pulse laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (DP-LIBS) was employed to clarify the emission characteristics from laser-induced plasma. The plasma was sustained and became stable by the long pulse-width laser with the pulse width of 60 μs under free running (FR) conditions as an external energy source. Comparing the measurement results of stainless steel in air using single-pulse LIBS (SP-LIBS) and DP-LIBS, the emission intensity was markedly enhanced using DP-LIBS. The temperature of plasma induced by DP-LIBS was maintained at a higher temperature under different gate delay time and short pulse-width laser power conditions compared with those measured using short SP-LIBS. Moreover, the variation rates of plasma temperatures measured using DP-LIBS were also lower. The superior detection ability was verified by the measurement of aluminum sample in water. The spectra were clearly detected using DP-LIBS, whereas it cannot be identified using SP-LIBS of short and long pulse widths. The effects of gate delay time and short pulse-width laser power were also discussed. These results demonstrate the feasibility and enhanced detection ability of the proposed collinear long and short DP-LIBS method.

  17. libChEBI: an API for accessing the ChEBI database.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Swainston, Neil; Hastings, Janna; Dekker, Adriano; Muthukrishnan, Venkatesh; May, John; Steinbeck, Christoph; Mendes, Pedro

    2016-01-01

    ChEBI is a database and ontology of chemical entities of biological interest. It is widely used as a source of identifiers to facilitate unambiguous reference to chemical entities within biological models, databases, ontologies and literature. ChEBI contains a wealth of chemical data, covering over 46,500 distinct chemical entities, and related data such as chemical formula, charge, molecular mass, structure, synonyms and links to external databases. Furthermore, ChEBI is an ontology, and thus provides meaningful links between chemical entities. Unlike many other resources, ChEBI is fully human-curated, providing a reliable, non-redundant collection of chemical entities and related data. While ChEBI is supported by a web service for programmatic access and a number of download files, it does not have an API library to facilitate the use of ChEBI and its data in cheminformatics software. To provide this missing functionality, libChEBI, a comprehensive API library for accessing ChEBI data, is introduced. libChEBI is available in Java, Python and MATLAB versions from http://github.com/libChEBI, and provides full programmatic access to all data held within the ChEBI database through a simple and documented API. libChEBI is reliant upon the (automated) download and regular update of flat files that are held locally. As such, libChEBI can be embedded in both on- and off-line software applications. libChEBI allows better support of ChEBI and its data in the development of new cheminformatics software. Covering three key programming languages, it allows for the entirety of the ChEBI database to be accessed easily and quickly through a simple API. All code is open access and freely available.

  18. The use and effectiveness of the eLib subject gateways: a preliminary investigation

    OpenAIRE

    Mackie, M.; Burton, P.F.

    1999-01-01

    Internet subject gateways were set up under the Electronic Libraries Programme (eLib) in order to address some of the problems of searching the Internet which have been identified by information professionals, i.e. locating relevant, good quality information. This preliminary study examines the extent to which academics in two universities use three eLib subject gateways (EEVL, OMNI and SOSIG). The results are generally encouraging for the eLib programme, but it is necessary for the gateways ...

  19. Fast LIBS Identification of Aluminum Alloys

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tawfik W.

    2007-04-01

    Full Text Available Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS has been applied to analysis aluminum alloy targets. The plasma is generated by focusing a 300 mJ pulsed Nd: YAG laser on the target in air at atmospheric pressure. Such plasma emission spectrum was collected using a one-meter length wide band fused-silica optical fiber connected to a portable Echelle spectrometer with intensified CCD camera. Spectroscopic analysis of plasma evolution of laser produced plasmas has been characterized in terms of their spectra, electron density and electron temperature assuming the LTE and optically thin plasma conditions. The LIBS spectrum was optimized for high S/N ratio especially for trace elements. The electron temperature and density were determined using the emission intensity and stark broadening, respectively, of selected aluminum spectral lines. The values of these parameters were found to change with the aluminum alloy matrix, i.e. they could be used as a fingerprint character to distinguish between different aluminum alloy matrices using only one major element (aluminum without needing to analysis the rest of elements in the matrix. Moreover, It was found that the values of T e and N e decrease with increasing the trace elements concentrations in the aluminum alloy samples. The obtained results indicate that it is possible to improve the exploitation of LIBS in the remote on-line industrial monitoring application, by following up only the values of T e and N e for aluminum in aluminum alloys as a marker for the correct alloying using an optical fiber probe.

  20. Feasibility of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for classification of sea salts.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tan, Man Minh; Cui, Sheng; Yoo, Jonghyun; Han, Song-Hee; Ham, Kyung-Sik; Nam, Sang-Ho; Lee, Yonghoon

    2012-03-01

    We have investigated the feasibility of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) as a fast, reliable classification tool for sea salts. For 11 kinds of sea salts, potassium (K), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), and aluminum (Al), concentrations were measured by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), and the LIBS spectra were recorded in the narrow wavelength region between 760 and 800 nm where K (I), Mg (I), Ca (II), Al (I), and cyanide (CN) band emissions are observed. The ICP-AES measurements revealed that the K, Mg, Ca, and Al concentrations varied significantly with the provenance of each salt. The relative intensities of the K (I), Mg (I), Ca (II), and Al (I) peaks observed in the LIBS spectra are consistent with the results using ICP-AES. The principal component analysis of the LIBS spectra provided the score plot with quite a high degree of clustering. This indicates that classification of sea salts by chemometric analysis of LIBS spectra is very promising. Classification models were developed by partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and evaluated. In addition, the Al (I) peaks enabled us to discriminate between different production methods of the salts. © 2012 Society for Applied Spectroscopy

  1. Analysis of LiSn alloy at several depths using LIBS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Suchoňová, M., E-mail: maria.suchonova@fmph.uniba.sk [Dept. of Experimental Physics, Faculty of Mathematics Physics and Informatics, Comenius University in Bratislava, Mlynská dolina F2, 842 48 Bratislava (Slovakia); Krištof, J.; Pribula, M. [Dept. of Experimental Physics, Faculty of Mathematics Physics and Informatics, Comenius University in Bratislava, Mlynská dolina F2, 842 48 Bratislava (Slovakia); Veis, M. [Dept. of Inorganic Chemistry, Faculty of Natural Science, Comenius University, Mlynská dolina, Ilkovičova 6, 842 15 Bratislava 4 (Slovakia); Tabarés, F.L. [Fusion Department, Ciemat, Av Complutense 40, 28040 Madrid (Spain); Veis, P., E-mail: pavel.veis@fmph.uniba.sk [Dept. of Experimental Physics, Faculty of Mathematics Physics and Informatics, Comenius University in Bratislava, Mlynská dolina F2, 842 48 Bratislava (Slovakia)

    2017-04-15

    The difference between the composition of the surface and the inner part of the LiSn sample was studied using Calibration Free Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (CF-LIBS) method. The sample was analysed under the low pressure (1330 Pa) in Ar atmosphere. The spectra were record using Echelle spectrometer (Mechelle ME5000). Gate delay and gate width was optimised and set to 300 ns. In order to analyse depth profile the LIBS spectra was recorded after each laser shot. The electron density analysed by laser induced plasma was determined separately for each laser shot, which means for each ablated layer of investigated sample. The difference between the individual shots taken at distinct sites of the sample are shown. The CF-LIBS method was used to determine the elemental composition near the surface and in the central part of the LiSn sample.

  2. A combined remote Raman and LIBS instrument for characterizing minerals with 532 nm laser excitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sharma, Shiv K; Misra, Anupam K; Lucey, Paul G; Lentz, Rachel C F

    2009-08-01

    The authors have developed an integrated remote Raman and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) system for measuring both the Raman and LIBS spectra of minerals with a single 532 nm laser line of 35 mJ/pulse and 20 Hz. The instrument has been used for analyzing both Raman and LIBS spectra of carbonates, sulfates, hydrous and anhydrous silicates, and iron oxide minerals in air. These experiments demonstrate that by focusing a frequency-doubled 532 nm Nd:YAG pulsed laser beam with a 10x beam expander to a 529-microm diameter spot on a mineral surface located at 9 m, it is possible to measure simultaneously both the remote Raman and LIBS spectra of calcite, gypsum and olivine by adjusting the laser power electronically. The spectra of calcite, gypsum, and olivine contain fingerprint Raman lines; however, it was not possible to measure the remote Raman spectra of magnetite and hematite at 9 m because of strong absorption of 532 nm laser radiation and low intensities of Raman lines from these minerals. The remote LIBS spectra of both magnetite and hematite contain common iron emission lines but show difference in the minor amount of Li present in these two minerals. Remote Raman and LIBS spectra of a number of carbonates, sulfates, feldspars and phyllosilicates at a distance of 9 m were measured with a 532-nm laser operating at 35 mJ/pulse and by changing photon flux density at the sample by varying the spot diameter from 10 mm for Raman to 530 microm for LIBS measurements. The complementary nature of these spectra is highlighted and discussed. The combined Raman and LIBS system can also be re-configured to perform micro-Raman and micro-LIBS analyses, which have applications in trace/residue analysis and analysis of very small samples in the nano-gram range.

  3. Wheel-running reinforcement in free-feeding and food-deprived rats.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Belke, Terry W; Pierce, W David

    2016-03-01

    Rats experiencing sessions of 30min free access to wheel running were assigned to ad-lib and food-deprived groups, and given additional sessions of free wheel activity. Subsequently, both ad-lib and deprived rats lever pressed for 60s of wheel running on fixed ratio (FR) 1, variable ratio (VR) 3, VR 5, and VR 10 schedules, and on a response-initiated variable interval (VI) 30s schedule. Finally, the ad-lib rats were switched to food deprivation and the food-deprived rats were switched to free food, as rats continued responding on the response-initiated VI 30-s schedule. Wheel running functioned as reinforcement for both ad-lib and food-deprived rats. Food-deprived rats, however, ran faster and had higher overall lever-pressing rates than free-feeding rats. On the VR schedules, wheel-running rates positively correlated with local and overall lever pressing rates for deprived, but not ad-lib rats. On the response-initiated VI 30s schedule, wheel-running rates and lever-pressing rates changed for ad-lib rats switched to food deprivation, but not for food-deprived rats switched to free-feeding. The overall pattern of results suggested different sources of control for wheel running: intrinsic motivation, contingencies of automatic reinforcement, and food-restricted wheel running. An implication is that generalizations about operant responding for wheel running in food-deprived rats may not extend to wheel running and operant responding of free-feeding animals. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  4. Characterization and forensic analysis of soil samples using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jantzi, Sarah C; Almirall, José R

    2011-07-01

    A method for the quantitative elemental analysis of surface soil samples using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was developed and applied to the analysis of bulk soil samples for discrimination between specimens. The use of a 266 nm laser for LIBS analysis is reported for the first time in forensic soil analysis. Optimization of the LIBS method is discussed, and the results compared favorably to a laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) method previously developed. Precision for both methods was LIBS limits of detection were LIBS method successfully discriminated samples from two different sites in Dade County, FL. Analysis of variance, Tukey's post hoc test and Student's t test resulted in 100% discrimination with no type I or type II errors. Principal components analysis (PCA) resulted in clear groupings of the two sites. A correct classification rate of 99.4% was obtained with linear discriminant analysis using leave-one-out validation. Similar results were obtained when the same samples were analyzed by LA-ICP-MS, showing that LIBS can provide similar information to LA-ICP-MS. In a forensic sampling/spatial heterogeneity study, the variation between sites, between sub-plots, between samples and within samples was examined on three similar Dade sites. The closer the sampling locations, the closer the grouping on a PCA plot and the higher the misclassification rate. These results underscore the importance of careful sampling for geographic site characterization.

  5. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) analysis of calcium ions dissolved in water using filter paper substrates: an ideal internal standard for precision improvement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, Daewoong; Gong, Yongdeuk; Nam, Sang-Ho; Han, Song-Hee; Yoo, Jonghyun; Lee, Yonghoon

    2014-01-01

    We report an approach for selecting an internal standard to improve the precision of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) analysis for determining calcium (Ca) concentration in water. The dissolved Ca(2+) ions were pre-concentrated on filter paper by evaporating water. The filter paper was dried and analyzed using LIBS. By adding strontium chloride to sample solutions and using a Sr II line at 407.771 nm for the intensity normalization of Ca II lines at 393.366 or 396.847 nm, the analysis precision could be significantly improved. The Ca II and Sr II line intensities were mapped across the filter paper, and they showed a strong positive shot-to-shot correlation with the same spatial distribution on the filter paper surface. We applied this analysis approach for the measurement of Ca(2+) in tap, bottled, and ground water samples. The Ca(2+) concentrations determined using LIBS are in good agreement with those obtained from flame atomic absorption spectrometry. Finally, we suggest a homologous relation of the strongest emission lines of period 4 and 5 elements in groups IA and IIA based on their similar electronic structures. Our results indicate that the LIBS can be effectively applied for liquid analysis at the sub-parts per million level with high precision using a simple drying of liquid solutions on filter paper and the use of the correct internal standard elements with the similar valence electronic structure with respect to the analytes of interest.

  6. Optimalizace experimentálních parametrů v sestavě dvoupulzní LIBS

    OpenAIRE

    Roščák, Michal

    2010-01-01

    V diplomovej práci je opísaná metóda spektroskopie laserom indukovanej plazmy (LIBS) ako aj možnosť zníženia detekčných limitov použitím metódy dvojpulznej LIBS (DP-LIBS). Práca taktiež pojednáva o vlastnostiach laserom indukovanej plazmy (LIP). Obsahuje opis DP-LIBS aparatúry laboratória laserovej spektroskopie Fakulty strojního inženýrství, Vysoké učení technické v Brně, ako aj postup optimalizácie jej parametrov. Optimalizácia bola vykonaná pre detekciu chrómu v oceli s ohľadom na detekčné...

  7. Novel high-density packaging of solid state diode pumped eye-safe laser for LIBS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bares, Kim; Torgerson, Justin; McNeil, Laine; Maine, Patrick; Patterson, Steve

    2018-02-01

    Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) has proven to be a useful research tool for material analysis for decades. However, because of the amount of energy required in a few nanosecond pulse to generate a stable and reliable LIBS signal, the lasers are often large and inefficient, relegating their implementation to research facilities, factory floors, and assembly lines. Small portable LIBS systems are now possible without having to compromise on energy needs by leveraging off of advances in high-density packaging of electronics, opto-mechanics, and highly efficient laser resonator architecture. This paper explores the integration of these techniques to achieve a mJ class eye-safe LIBS laser source, while retaining a small, light-weight package suitable for handheld systems.

  8. The effect of nutrient media water purity on LIBS based identification of bacteria

    Science.gov (United States)

    Single pulse laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is used as the basis for discrimination between 3 genera of Gram-negative bacteria and 2 genera of gram-positive bacteria representing pathogenic threats commonly found in poultry processing rinse waters. Because LIBS-based discrimination reli...

  9. [An automatic peak detection method for LIBS spectrum based on continuous wavelet transform].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Peng-Fei; Tian, Di; Qiao, Shu-Jun; Yang, Guang

    2014-07-01

    Spectrum peak detection in the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an essential step, but the presence of background and noise seriously disturb the accuracy of peak position. The present paper proposed a method applied to automatic peak detection for LIBS spectrum in order to enhance the ability of overlapping peaks searching and adaptivity. We introduced the ridge peak detection method based on continuous wavelet transform to LIBS, and discussed the choice of the mother wavelet and optimized the scale factor and the shift factor. This method also improved the ridge peak detection method with a correcting ridge method. The experimental results show that compared with other peak detection methods (the direct comparison method, derivative method and ridge peak search method), our method had a significant advantage on the ability to distinguish overlapping peaks and the precision of peak detection, and could be be applied to data processing in LIBS.

  10. Detection of Anomalies in Citrus Leaves Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sankaran, Sindhuja; Ehsani, Reza; Morgan, Kelly T

    2015-08-01

    Nutrient assessment and management are important to maintain productivity in citrus orchards. In this study, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was applied for rapid and real-time detection of citrus anomalies. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy spectra were collected from citrus leaves with anomalies such as diseases (Huanglongbing, citrus canker) and nutrient deficiencies (iron, manganese, magnesium, zinc), and compared with those of healthy leaves. Baseline correction, wavelet multivariate denoising, and normalization techniques were applied to the LIBS spectra before analysis. After spectral pre-processing, features were extracted using principal component analysis and classified using two models, quadratic discriminant analysis and support vector machine (SVM). The SVM resulted in a high average classification accuracy of 97.5%, with high average canker classification accuracy (96.5%). LIBS peak analysis indicated that high intensities at 229.7, 247.9, 280.3, 393.5, 397.0, and 769.8 nm were observed of 11 peaks found in all the samples. Future studies using controlled experiments with variable nutrient applications are required for quantification of foliar nutrients by using LIBS-based sensing.

  11. Gallium Content in PuO2 Using Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smith, C.A.; Martinez, M.A.; Veirs, D.K.

    1999-01-01

    Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) has been applied to the semi-quantitative analysis of gallium in plutonium oxide at the Los Alamos Plutonium Facility. The oxide samples were generated by the Thermally Induced Gallium Removal (TIGR) process, a pretreatment step prior to MOX fuel processing. The TIGR process uses PuO 2 containing 1 wt% gallium (nominal) as feed material. Following the TIGR process, gallium content was analyzed by LIBS and also by conventional wet chemical analysis (ICP-MS). Although the data range was insufficient to obtain an adequate calibration, general agreement between the two techniques was good. LIBS was found to have a useful analytical range of 34-400 ppm for Ga in PuO 2

  12. Monitoring of toxic elements present in sludge of industrial waste using CF-LIBS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumar, Rohit; Rai, Awadhesh K; Alamelu, Devanathan; Aggarwal, Suresh K

    2013-01-01

    Industrial waste is one of the main causes of environmental pollution. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was applied to detect the toxic metals in the sludge of industrial waste water. Sludge on filter paper was obtained after filtering the collected waste water samples from different sections of a water treatment plant situated in an industrial area of Kanpur City. The LIBS spectra of the sludge samples were recorded in the spectral range of 200 to 500 nm by focusing the laser light on sludge. Calibration-free laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (CF-LIBS) technique was used for the quantitative measurement of toxic elements such as Cr and Pb present in the sample. We also used the traditional calibration curve approach to quantify these elements. The results obtained from CF-LIBS are in good agreement with the results from the calibration curve approach. Thus, our results demonstrate that CF-LIBS is an appropriate technique for quantitative analysis where reference/standard samples are not available to make the calibration curve. The results of the present experiment are alarming to the people living nearby areas of industrial activities, as the concentrations of toxic elements are quite high compared to the admissible limits of these substances.

  13. Quantitative analysis of titanium concentration using calibration-free laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zaitun; Prasetyo, S.; Suliyanti, M. M.; Isnaeni; Herbani, Y.

    2018-03-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) can be used for quantitative and qualitative analysis. Calibration-free LIBS (CF-LIBS) is a method to quantitatively analyze concentration of elements in a sample in local thermodynamic equilibrium conditions without using available matrix-matched calibration. In this study, we apply CF-LIBS for quantitative analysis of Ti in TiO2 sample. TiO2 powder sample was mixed with polyvinyl alcohol and formed into pellets. An Nd:YAG pulsed laser at a wavelength of 1064 nm was focused onto the sample to generate plasma. The spectrum of plasma was recorded using spectrophotometer then compared to NIST spectral line to determine energy levels and other parameters. The value of plasma temperature obtained using Boltzmann plot is 8127.29 K and electron density from calculation is 2.49×1016 cm-3. Finally, the concentration of Ti in TiO2 sample from this study is 97% that is in proximity with the sample certificate.

  14. A novel specimen-preparing method using epoxy resin as binding material for LIBS analysis of powder samples.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shi, Linli; Lin, Qingyu; Duan, Yixiang

    2015-11-01

    In view of the inevitable preprocessing of powder samples for LIBS detection, epoxy resin glue was investigated for the first time as a binder of powder samples due to its superior property of improved performance in laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique as a quantitative analytical tool. For comparative studies of the epoxy resin and traditional polyethylene (PE) pellets in soil, sample detection, the signal intensities of Fe (I) at 404.58 nm, Ca (I) at 443.57 nm, and Cr (I) at 453.52 nm, were studied and subsequently, the calibration curves for these elements were constructed using the standard samples with variable concentrations. The signal intensities of epoxy resin samples were, on average, about 2 times greater than those obtained with the traditional PE pellet samples. Meanwhile, the resin samples showed better R square values of 0.981, 0.985 and 0.979 for curves of Fe (I) 404.58 nm, Ca (I) 443.57 nm, and Cr (I) 453.52 nm, compared to the 0.974, 0.950 and 0.934, of the PE pellet samples. Furthermore, the former represented lower limits of detection (LOD) for Fe, Ca and Cr. These experimental results indicated that this proposed novel method based on epoxy resin can attach samples of properties of high homogeneity, cohesiveness, smoothness and hardness, which are conducive to system stability, testing accuracy and signal enhancement. This method can make LIBS more practical in powder sample analysis. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  15. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS): an overview of recent progress and future potential for biomedical applications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rehse, S J; Salimnia, H; Miziolek, A W

    2012-02-01

    The recent progress made in developing laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has transformed LIBS from an elemental analysis technique to one that can be applied for the reagentless analysis of molecularly complex biological materials or clinical specimens. Rapid advances in the LIBS technology have spawned a growing number of recently published articles in peer-reviewed journals which have consistently demonstrated the capability of LIBS to rapidly detect, biochemically characterize and analyse, and/or accurately identify various biological, biomedical or clinical samples. These analyses are inherently real-time, require no sample preparation, and offer high sensitivity and specificity. This overview of the biomedical applications of LIBS is meant to summarize the research that has been performed to date, as well as to suggest to health care providers several possible specific future applications which, if successfully implemented, would be significantly beneficial to humankind.

  16. Superhumps linked to X-ray emission. The superoutbursts of SSS J122221.7-311525 and GW Lib

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neustroev, V. V.; Page, K. L.; Kuulkers, E.; Osborne, J. P.; Beardmore, A. P.; Knigge, C.; Marsh, T.; Suleimanov, V. F.; Zharikov, S. V.

    2018-03-01

    Context. We present more than 4 years of Swift X-ray observations of the 2013 superoutburst, subsequent decline and quiescence of the WZ Sge-type dwarf nova SSS J122221.7-311525 (SSS J122222) from 6 days after discovery. Aims: Only a handful of WZ Sge-type dwarf novae have been observed in X-rays, and until recently GW Lib was the only binary of this type with complete coverage of an X-ray light curve throughout a superoutburst. We collected extensive X-ray data of a second such system to understand the extent to which the unexpected properties of GW Lib are common to the WZ Sge class. Methods: We collected 60 Swift-XRT observations of SSS J122222 between 2013 January 6 and 2013 July 1. Four follow-up observations were performed in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. The total exposure time of our observations is 86.6 ks. We analysed the X-ray light curve and compared it with the behaviour of superhumps which were detected in the optical light curve. We also performed spectral analysis of the data. The results were compared with the properties of GW Lib, for which new X-ray observations were also obtained. Results: SSS J122222 was variable and around five times brighter in 0.3-10 keV X-rays during the superoutburst than in quiescence, mainly because of a significant strengthening of a high-energy component of the X-ray spectrum. The post-outburst decline of the X-ray flux lasted at least 500 d. The data show no evidence of the expected optically thick boundary layer in the system during the outburst. SSS J122222 also exhibited a sudden X-ray flux change in the middle of the superoutburst, which occurred exactly at the time of the superhump stage transition. A similar X-ray behaviour was also detected in GW Lib. Conclusions: We show that the X-ray flux exhibits changes at the times of changes in the superhump behaviour of both SSS J122222 and GW Lib. This result demonstrates a relationship between the outer disc and the white dwarf boundary layer for the first time, and

  17. Applications of Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) in Molten Metal Processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hudson, Shaymus W.; Craparo, Joseph; De Saro, Robert; Apelian, Diran

    2017-10-01

    In order for metals to meet the demand for critical applications in the automotive, aerospace, and defense industries, tight control over the composition and cleanliness of the metal must be achieved. The use of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for applications in metal processing has generated significant interest for its ability to perform quick analyses in situ. The fundamentals of LIBS, current techniques for deployment on molten metal, demonstrated capabilities, and possible avenues for development are reviewed and discussed.

  18. ADS-Lib/V1.0. A test library for Accelerator Driven Systems. Summary documentation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lopez Aldama, D.; Trkov, A.

    2005-08-01

    The report describes the generation of a test library for a number of code systems used in the analysis of Accelerator Driven Systems (ADS). The generation of the ADS library was undertaken by IAEA-NDS and the data files are available to users at http://wwwnds. iaea.org/ads/ and also as CD-ROM (upon request).The source of the evaluated nuclear data was the JEFF-3.1 library. Processing was carried out using NJOY-99.90 with the local updates at IAEA-NDS. The resulting processed files are available in ACE format for MCNP and in MATXS format for multi-group transport calculations. (author)

  19. ANALISIS KUALITATIF PADA BATU KECUBUNG KOPI MENGGUNAKAN LIBS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ida Ayu Gede Kusuma Dewi

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available It has been conducted research on the qualitative analysis on amethyst coffee using LIBS.This study aims to determine the content of the element in amethyst coffee that can later be used as a comparison or reference further research in the elemental analysis amethyst coffee. With treatment, the laser irradiated amethyst coffee at 100 mJ, and the data retrieved by the accumulation of 3, delay time 1 µs and repetition as much as 3 points in different areas of each region analysis of depth function (Depth Profile with 60 times the laser irradiation. The main element as a constituent amethyst Coffee is silicon (Si, Sodium (Na, calcium (Ca, potassium (K and oxygen (O2, while the element on its outer surface is iron (Fe and phosphorus (P were analyzed using LIBS.

  20. Development of LIBS for online analysis of solid nuclear materials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Picard, Jessica

    2015-01-01

    With the objective to implement a fast, online analysis technique for control of solid metal nuclear materials, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique is developed for quantitative analysis in uranium and plutonium. Since these matrices have a very dense emission spectrum in the UV-Visible range, the Vacuum Ultra-Violet (VUV) spectral range, less rich in lines, is explored. The aim of this thesis is to perform the analytical development of VUV-LIBS for quantitative analysis between 500 and 5000 ppm with an uncertainty of 3%. For that purpose, four steps were defined. First, for practical and safety reasons, it is generally better to perform experiments on surrogate materials. LIBS based on laser-material interaction, it is relevant to seek a surrogate of material of interest from the viewpoint of the ablated mass. Thus, a complete study of laser ablation of several metals was enabled to build a predictive model of the ablation efficiency. Titanium and stainless steel were defined as surrogate materials of plutonium and uranium for laser ablation. Secondly, the VUV-LIBS setup analytical performances were optimized for several elements of interest in four metals. Then, two calibration methods are used to determine the analytical performances. The limits of quantification are of the order of a few hundreds of ppm for all studied matrices, which validates the objective of impurities quantitation in the 500-5000 ppm range. Uncertainty is lower than 3% in the best cases. Finally, the calibration transfer between the four matrices was studied. A normalization of the nickel net signal measured in three matrices was presented. (author) [fr

  1. Feasibility Study for Monitoring Actinide Elements in Process Materials Using FO-LIBS at Advanced spent fuel Conditioning Process Facility

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Han, Bo-Young; Choi, Daewoong; Park, Se Hwan; Kim, Ho-Dong [Nonproliferation System Research Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon, 305-353 (Korea, Republic of); Dae, Dongsun [Department of Chemistry, Mokpo National University, Jeonnam 534-729 (Korea, Republic of); Whitehouse, Andrew I. [Applied Photonics Ltd., Unit 8 Carleton Business Park, Skipton, North Yorkshire BD23 2DE (United Kingdom)

    2015-07-01

    Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) have been developing the design and deployment methodology of Laser- Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument for safeguards application within the argon hot cell environment at Advanced spent fuel Conditioning Process Facility (ACPF), where ACPF is a facility being refurbished for the laboratory-scaled demonstration of advanced spent fuel conditioning process. LIBS is an analysis technology used to measure the emission spectra of excited elements in the local plasma of a target material induced by a laser. The spectra measured by LIBS are analyzed to verify the quality and quantity of the specific element in the target matrix. Recently LIBS has been recognized as a promising technology for safeguards purposes in terms of several advantages including a simple sample preparation and in-situ analysis capability. In particular, a feasibility study of LIBS to remotely monitor the nuclear material in a high radiation environment has been carried out for supporting the IAEA safeguards implementation. Fiber-Optic LIBS (FO-LIBS) deployment was proposed by Applied Photonics Ltd because the use of fiber optics had benefited applications of LIBS by delivering the laser energy to the target and by collecting the plasma light. The design of FO-LIBS instrument for the measurement of actinides in the spent fuel and high temperature molten salt at ACPF had been developed in cooperation with Applied Photonics Ltd. FO-LIBS has some advantages as followings: the detectable plasma light wavelength range is not limited by the optical properties of the thick lead-glass shield window and the potential risk of laser damage to the lead-glass shield window is not considered. The remote LIBS instrument had been installed at ACPF and then the feasibility study for monitoring actinide elements such as uranium, plutonium, and curium in process materials has been carried out. (authors)

  2. Feasibility Study for Monitoring Actinide Elements in Process Materials Using FO-LIBS at Advanced spent fuel Conditioning Process Facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Han, Bo-Young; Choi, Daewoong; Park, Se Hwan; Kim, Ho-Dong; Dae, Dongsun; Whitehouse, Andrew I.

    2015-01-01

    Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) have been developing the design and deployment methodology of Laser- Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument for safeguards application within the argon hot cell environment at Advanced spent fuel Conditioning Process Facility (ACPF), where ACPF is a facility being refurbished for the laboratory-scaled demonstration of advanced spent fuel conditioning process. LIBS is an analysis technology used to measure the emission spectra of excited elements in the local plasma of a target material induced by a laser. The spectra measured by LIBS are analyzed to verify the quality and quantity of the specific element in the target matrix. Recently LIBS has been recognized as a promising technology for safeguards purposes in terms of several advantages including a simple sample preparation and in-situ analysis capability. In particular, a feasibility study of LIBS to remotely monitor the nuclear material in a high radiation environment has been carried out for supporting the IAEA safeguards implementation. Fiber-Optic LIBS (FO-LIBS) deployment was proposed by Applied Photonics Ltd because the use of fiber optics had benefited applications of LIBS by delivering the laser energy to the target and by collecting the plasma light. The design of FO-LIBS instrument for the measurement of actinides in the spent fuel and high temperature molten salt at ACPF had been developed in cooperation with Applied Photonics Ltd. FO-LIBS has some advantages as followings: the detectable plasma light wavelength range is not limited by the optical properties of the thick lead-glass shield window and the potential risk of laser damage to the lead-glass shield window is not considered. The remote LIBS instrument had been installed at ACPF and then the feasibility study for monitoring actinide elements such as uranium, plutonium, and curium in process materials has been carried out. (authors)

  3. Fire debris analysis for forensic fire investigation using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, Soojin; Yoh, Jack J.

    2017-08-01

    The possibility verification of the first attempt to apply LIBS to arson investigation was performed. LIBS has capabilities for real time in-situ analysis and depth profiling. It can provide valuable information about the fire debris that are complementary to the classification of original sample components and combustion residues. In this study, fire debris was analyzed to determine the ignition source and existence of a fire accelerant using LIBS spectra and depth profiling analysis. Fire debris chemical composition and carbon layer thickness determines the possible ignition source while the carbon layer thickness of combusted samples represents the degree of sample carbonization. When a sample is combusted with fire accelerants, a thicker carbon layer is formed because the burning rate is increased. Therefore, depth profiling can confirm the existence of combustion accelerants, which is evidence of arson. Also investigation of fire debris by depth profiling is still possible when a fire is extinguished with water from fire hose. Such data analysis and in-situ detection of forensic signals via the LIBS may assist fire investigation at crime scenes.

  4. LIBS: study of elemental profile of different layers of the optical window of Tokamak

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maurya, Gulab Singh; Jyotsna, Aradhana; Rai, Awadhesh Kumar; Ajai Kumar

    2012-01-01

    In the Tokamak, during confinement of plasma, impurities are deposited on optical window, mirror, limiters, etc. of the tokamak. Thus a layer of impurity on the surface of the optical window causes less visibility which creates problem in the study of plasma parameters and other diagnostics of the plasma generated in the tokamak. Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is a useful atomic spectroscopic technique for analysis of materials in any phase (Solid, Liquid, Gas etc). LIBS spectra of optical window have been recorded in the spectral range of 200-500 nm. In present study we have focused laser on the surface of the window, to study the layer-wise elemental profile of optical window, we have recorded the LIBS spectra with increasing number of laser shots on the same point of the window. In first laser shot, spectral signature of Cr, Fe, and Ni etc. are present in the LIBS spectra, which is related with the impurity but after five to six laser shots at the same point of the optical window spectral signature Si, B are observed which is related to the glass material. Thus our study demonstrates the capability of LIBS as an in-situ monitoring tool for detection of elemental profile in different layers of optical window of the Tokamak. (author)

  5. Does LibQUAL+[TM] Account for Student Loyalty to a University College Library?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Helgesen, Oyvind; Nesset, Erik

    2011-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to find out whether LibQUAL+[TM]can account for student loyalty to the library of an institution of higher education. LibQUAL+[TM] is a marketing tool that is used to measure perceived service quality of libraries, and the present analysis aims at validating this service quality instrument within a more…

  6. Rapid detection of soils contaminated with heavy metals and oils by laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Gibaek; Kwak, Jihyun; Kim, Ki-Rak; Lee, Heesung; Kim, Kyoung-Woong; Yang, Hyeon; Park, Kihong

    2013-12-15

    A laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) coupled with the chemometric method was applied to rapidly discriminate between soils contaminated with heavy metals or oils and clean soils. The effects of the water contents and grain sizes of soil samples on LIBS emissions were also investigated. The LIBS emission lines decreased by 59-75% when the water content increased from 1.2% to 7.8%, and soil samples with a grain size of 75 μm displayed higher LIBS emission lines with lower relative standard deviations than those with a 2mm grain size. The water content was found to have a more pronounced effect on the LIBS emission lines than the grain size. Pelletizing and sieving were conducted for all samples collected from abandoned mining areas and military camp to have similar water contents and grain sizes before being analyzed by the LIBS with the chemometric analysis. The data show that three types of soil samples were clearly discerned by using the first three principal components from the spectral data of soil samples. A blind test was conducted with a 100% correction rate for soil samples contaminated with heavy metals and oil residues. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. In situ semi-quantitative analysis of polluted soils by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ismaël, Amina; Bousquet, Bruno; Michel-Le Pierrès, Karine; Travaillé, Grégoire; Canioni, Lionel; Roy, Stéphane

    2011-05-01

    Time-saving, low-cost analyses of soil contamination are required to ensure fast and efficient pollution removal and remedial operations. In this work, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been successfully applied to in situ analyses of polluted soils, providing direct semi-quantitative information about the extent of pollution. A field campaign has been carried out in Brittany (France) on a site presenting high levels of heavy metal concentrations. Results on iron as a major component as well as on lead and copper as minor components are reported. Soil samples were dried and prepared as pressed pellets to minimize the effects of moisture and density on the results. LIBS analyses were performed with a Nd:YAG laser operating at 1064 nm, 60 mJ per 10 ns pulse, at a repetition rate of 10 Hz with a diameter of 500 μm on the sample surface. Good correlations were obtained between the LIBS signals and the values of concentrations deduced from inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). This result proves that LIBS is an efficient method for optimizing sampling operations. Indeed, "LIBS maps" were established directly on-site, providing valuable assistance in optimizing the selection of the most relevant samples for future expensive and time-consuming laboratory analysis and avoiding useless analyses of very similar samples. Finally, it is emphasized that in situ LIBS is not described here as an alternative quantitative analytical method to the usual laboratory measurements but simply as an efficient time-saving tool to optimize sampling operations and to drastically reduce the number of soil samples to be analyzed, thus reducing costs. The detection limits of 200 ppm for lead and 80 ppm for copper reported here are compatible with the thresholds of toxicity; thus, this in situ LIBS campaign was fully validated for these two elements. Consequently, further experiments are planned to extend this study to other chemical elements and other

  8. Combined Raman/LIBS spectrometer elegant breadboard: built and tested - and flight model spectrometer unit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ahlers, B.; Hutchinson, I.; Ingley, R.

    2017-11-01

    A spectrometer for combined Raman and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is amongst the different instruments that have been pre-selected for the Pasteur payload of the ExoMars rover. It is regarded as a fundamental, next-generation instrument for organic, mineralogical and elemental characterisation of Martian soil, rock samples and organic molecules. Raman spectroscopy and LIBS will be integrated into a single instrument sharing many hardware commonalities [1]. The combined Raman / LIBS instrument has been recommended as the highest priority mineralogy instrument to be included in the rover's analytical laboratory for the following tasks: Analyse surface and sub-surface soil and rocks on Mars, identify organics in the search for life and determine soil origin & toxicity. The synergy of the system is evident: the Raman spectrometer is dedicated to molecular analysis of organics and minerals; the LIBS provides information on the sample's elemental composition. An international team, under ESA contract and with the leadership of TNO Science and Industry, has built and tested an Elegant Bread Board (EBB) of the combined Raman / LIBS instrument. The EBB comprises a specifically designed, extremely compact, spectrometer with high resolution over a large wavelength range, suitable for both Raman spectroscopy and LIBS measurements. The EBB also includes lasers, illumination and imaging optics as well as fibre optics for light transfer. A summary of the functional and environmental requirements together with a description of the optical design and its expected performance are described in [2]. The EBB was developed and constructed to verify the instruments' end-to-end functional performance with natural samples. The combined Raman / LIBS EBB realisation and test results of natural samples will be presented. For the Flight Model (FM) instrument, currently in the design phase, the Netherlands will be responsible for the design, development and verification of the

  9. A Simple LIBS (Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy) Laboratory Experiment to Introduce Undergraduates to Calibration Functions and Atomic Spectroscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chinni, Rosemarie C.

    2012-01-01

    This laboratory experiment introduces students to a different type of atomic spectroscopy: laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). LIBS uses a laser-generated spark to excite the sample; once excited, the elemental emission is spectrally resolved and detected. The students use LIBS to analyze a series of standard synthetic silicate samples…

  10. Comparison of LIBS and {mu}-XRF measurements on bronze alloys for monitoring plasma effects

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Alberghina, M F; Barraco, R; Brai, M; Schillaci, T; Tranchina, L, E-mail: tschillaci@unipa.it [Dipartimento di Fisica e Tecnologie Relative, Universita di Palermo, Viale delle Scienze Ed. 18, 90128 Palermo (Italy)

    2011-01-01

    The laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique is often used as atomic spectroscopic technique for elemental analysis of materials. However, it presents some drawbacks that make an accurate quantitative analysis difficult. Since the plasma properties, such as spatial inhomogeneity and plume stoichiometry strongly depend on the experimental conditions, the measurements are less reproducible. In order to evaluate the measurement fluctuations, we propose to use the more established micro X-Ray fluorescence ({mu}-XRF) technique for validating LIBS data. In particular, the quantitative data, obtained by varying the laser fluence, the shot numbers and the temporal acquisition parameters, were compared with those obtained by {mu}-XRF on laboratory made samples of binary, ternary and quaternary bronze alloys. For LIBS measurements a mobile double pulse laser instrument equipped with an high resolution Echelle type monochromator coupled to an intensified CCD camera was used. {mu}-XRF analyses were performed with a portable instrument that uses a micro collimated X-Ray beam and it is equipped with an high resolution detector. The LIBS results show a strong dependence both on the instrumental set up and the chemical-physical properties of the sample. With our findings we could identify the most suitable parameters to be used in the investigation of the different bronze alloys. The possibility to carry out a quantitative analysis by using the LIBS technique was checked through the comparison with related {mu}-XRF data. In particular in this paper we identified a set of reliable LIBS parameters for the quantitative analysis of copper, tin and zinc. Further analyses will be necessary to reach this goal also for the minor constituents as lead.

  11. Effects of laser wavelengths and pulse energy ratio on the emission enhancement in dual pulse LIBS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ahmed, Rizwan; Iqbal, Javed; Baig, M Aslam

    2015-01-01

    We present new studies on the effects of laser wavelengths, pulse energy ratio and interpulse delay between two laser pulses in the collinear dual pulse configuration of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) on an iron sample in air using the fundamental (1064 nm) and the second harmonics (532 nm) of Nd:YAG lasers. In the dual pulse LIBS, an optimum value of interpulse delay with an appropriate combination of laser wavelengths, and laser pulse energy ratio, yields a 30 times signal intensity enhancement in the neutral iron lines as compared with single pulse LIBS. A comparison in the spatial variations of electron temperature along the axis of the plume expansion in single and double pulse LIBS has also been studied. (letter)

  12. New Library, New Librarian, New Student: Using LibGuides to Reach the Virtual Student

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roberts, Sara; Hunter, Dwight

    2011-01-01

    This article examines the virtual pathfinder and its relationship with distance education students. Various topics are addressed in relation to virtual students, LibGuides and collaborative efforts between librarians and teaching faculty. A brief history of the subject guide is presented, advantages and disadvantages of LibGuides are discussed and…

  13. Accuracy Enhancement of Raman Spectroscopy Using Complementary Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) with Geologically Mixed Samples.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Choi, Soojin; Kim, Dongyoung; Yang, Junho; Yoh, Jack J

    2017-04-01

    Quantitative Raman analysis was carried out with geologically mixed samples that have various matrices. In order to compensate the matrix effect in Raman shift, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) analysis was performed. Raman spectroscopy revealed the geological materials contained in the mixed samples. However, the analysis of a mixture containing different matrices was inaccurate due to the weak signal of the Raman shift, interference, and the strong matrix effect. On the other hand, the LIBS quantitative analysis of atomic carbon and calcium in mixed samples showed high accuracy. In the case of the calcite and gypsum mixture, the coefficient of determination of atomic carbon using LIBS was 0.99, while the signal using Raman was less than 0.9. Therefore, the geological composition of the mixed samples is first obtained using Raman and the LIBS-based quantitative analysis is then applied to the Raman outcome in order to construct highly accurate univariate calibration curves. The study also focuses on a method to overcome matrix effects through the two complementary spectroscopic techniques of Raman spectroscopy and LIBS.

  14. Ultrasonic Nebulizer Assisted LIBS: a Promising Metal Elements Detection Method for Aqueous Sample Analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhong Shilei; Zheng Ronger; Lu Yuan; Cheng Kai; Xiu Junshan

    2015-01-01

    A newly developed approach for trace metal elements detection for aqueous samples analysis is presented in this paper. The idea of this approach is to improve ablation efficiency by transforming the liquid sample into a dense cloud of droplets using an ultrasonic nebulizer. The resulting droplets are then subjected to analysis by laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). A purpose-built ultrasonic nebulizer assisted LIBS (UN-LIBS) system has been applied to the analysis of aqueous samples at trace levels of concentration. Experimental investigations of solution samples were carried out with various dissolved trace metal elements (Mn, Zn, Cu, Pb, Fe, Mg and Na) using this approach. The characteristics of UN-LIBS signal of the elements were investigated regarding the lifetime and S/B ratio and the calibration curves for trace metal elements analyses. The obtained LODs are comparable or much better than the LODS of the reported signal enhancement approaches when the laser pulse energy was as low as 30 mJ. The good linearity of calibration curves and the low LODs shows the potential ability of this method for metal elements analysis application. The density of the electrons was calculated by measuring the Stark width of the line of H α . The possible mechanism of the LIBS signal enhancement of this approach was briefly discussed. (paper)

  15. [Rapid multi-elemental analysis on four precious Tibetan medicines based on LIBS technique].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Xiao-na; Shi, Xin-yuan; Jia, Shuai-yun; Zhao, Na; Wu, Zhi-sheng; Qiao, Yan-jiang

    2015-06-01

    The laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was applied to perform a qualitative elementary analysis on four precious Tibetan medicines, i. e. Renqing Mangjue, Renqing Changjue, 25-herb coral pills and 25-herb pearl pills. The specific spectra of the four Tibetan medicines were established. In the experiment, Nd: YAG and 1 064 nm-baseband pulse laser were adopted to collect the spectra. A laser beam focused on the surface of the samples to generate plasma. Its spectral signal was detected by using spectrograph. Based on the National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST) database, LIBS spectral lines were indentified. The four Tibetan medicines mainly included Ca, Na, K, Mg and other elements and C-N molecular band. Specifically, Fe was detected in Renqing Changjue and 25-herb pearl pills; heavy mental elements Hg and Cu were shown in Renqing Mangjue and Renqing Changjue; Ag was found in Renqing Changjue. The results demonstrated that LIBS is a reliable and rapid multi-element analysis on the four Tibetan medicines. With Real-time, rapid and nondestructive advantages, LIBS has a wide application prospect in the element analysis on ethnic medicines.

  16. In-vitro analysis of early calcification in aortic valvular interstitial cells using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davari, Seyyed Ali; Masjedi, Shirin; Ferdous, Zannatul; Mukherjee, Dibyendu

    2018-01-01

    Calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) is a major cardiovascular disorder caused by osteogenic differentiation of valvular interstitial cells (VICs) within aortic valves. Conventional methods like colorimetric assays and histology fail to detect small calcium depositions during in-vitro VIC cultures. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a robust analytical tool used for inorganic materials characterizations, but relatively new to biomedical applications. We employ LIBS, for the first time, for quantitative in-vitro detection of calcium depositions in VICs at various osteogenic differentiation stages. VICs isolated from porcine aortic valves were cultured in osteogenic media over various days. Colorimetric calcium assays based on arsenazo dye and Von Kossa staining measured the calcium depositions within VICs. Simultaneously, LIBS signatures for Ca I (422.67 nm) atomic emission lines were collected for estimating calcium depositions in lyophilized VIC samples. Our results indicate excellent linear correlation between the calcium assay and our LIBS measurements. Furthermore, unlike the assay results, the LIBS results could resolve calcium signals from cell samples with as early as 2 days of osteogenic culture. Quantitatively, the LIBS measurements establish the limit of detection for calcium content in VICs to be ∼0.17±0.04 μg which indicates a 5-fold improvement over calcium assay. Picture: Quantitative LIBS enables in-vitro analysis for early stage detection of calcium deposition within aortic valvular interstitial cells (VICs). © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  17. Final report on feasibility of real-time geochemical analysis at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, using LIBS technology

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blacic, J.D.; Pettit, D.R.; Cremers, D.A.

    1996-12-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an analytic method whereby an intense laser pulse is used to vaporize and excite a small volume of material into atomic emission. Calibrated spectral analysis of the laser spark light provides detection and quantification of the elemental composition of the target material. We performed laboratory and field tests to assess the feasibility of developing field-portable LIBS-based instruments for real-time analyses of Yucca Mountain rocks in conjunction with Yucca Mountain Project drilling, coring, sampling, and characterization tasks. We developed one prototype instrument designed to analyze air core drilling dust and another prototype instrument designed to analyze rock and fracture surfaces. In realistic field tests at the Exploratory Studies Facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, we demonstrated that the LIBS prototypes are capable of measuring major, minor, and some trace elements in real time. Laboratory LIBS analyses show that we can identify characteristic element ratios in a range of manganese oxide minerals present at Yucca Mountain as fracture surface coatings and matrix grains. Preliminary LIBS analyses also indicate that the U/Na ratio may distinguish tuffs containing the hazardous zeolite mineral erionite from non-erionite bearing tuffs, and that a LIBS-based instrument may be useful to detect in real time the probable presence of erionite encountered in core drilling and other operations at Yucca Mountain

  18. Calibration of the MSL/ChemCam/LIBS Remote Sensing Composition Instrument

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wiens, R. C.; Maurice S.; Bender, S.; Barraclough, B. L.; Cousin, A.; Forni, O.; Ollila, A.; Newsom, H.; Vaniman, D.; Clegg, S.; hide

    2011-01-01

    The ChemCam instrument suite on board the 2011 Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Rover, Curiosity, will provide remote-sensing composition information for rock and soil samples within seven meters of the rover using a laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) system, and will provide context imaging with a resolution of 0.10 mradians using the remote micro-imager (RMI) camera. The high resolution is needed to image the small analysis footprint of the LIBS system, at 0.2-0.6 mm diameter. This fine scale analytical capability will enable remote probing of stratigraphic layers or other small features the size of "blueberries" or smaller. ChemCam is intended for rapid survey analyses within 7 m of the rover, with each measurement taking less than 6 minutes. Repeated laser pulses remove dust coatings and provide depth profiles through weathering layers, allowing detailed investigation of rock varnish features as well as analysis of the underlying pristine rock composition. The LIBS technique uses brief laser pulses greater than 10 MW/square mm to ablate and electrically excite material from the sample of interest. The plasma emits photons with wavelengths characteristic of the elements present in the material, permitting detection and quantification of nearly all elements, including the light elements H, Li, Be, B, C, N, O. ChemCam LIBS projects 14 mJ of 1067 nm photons on target and covers a spectral range of 240-850 nm with resolutions between 0.15 and 0.60 nm FWHM. The Nd:KGW laser is passively cooled and is tuned to provide maximum power output from -10 to 0 C, though it can operate at 20% degraded energy output at room temperature. Preliminary calibrations were carried out on the flight model (FM) in 2008. However, the detectors were replaced in 2009, and final calibrations occurred in April-June, 2010. This presentation describes the LIBS calibration and characterization procedures and results, and details plans for final analyses during rover system thermal testing

  19. Application and development of laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) instrumentation for international safeguards

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Barefield, II, James E.; Le, Loan; Lopez, Leon; Jolin, John L.; Clegg, Samuel M. [Chemical Diagnostic and Engineering and Physical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, (United States)

    2011-12-15

    Advanced methodologies and improvements to current measurements techniques are needed to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of international safeguards. The primary tool employed by the IAEA to detect undeclared processes and activities at special nuclear material facilities and sites still is environmental sampling. This type of environmental sampling is both time consuming and costly since many samples must be collected, packaged, and shipped to an analytical laboratory for analysis that in some cases can take weeks to months to complete. Los Alamos National Laboratory is currently investigating potential uses of LIBS for safeguards applications, including(1) a user-friendly man-portable LIBS system to characterize samples in real to near-real time (typical analysis time are on the order of minutes) across a wide range of elements in the periodic table from hydrogen up to heavy elements like plutonium and uranium, (2) a LIBS system that can be deployed in harsh environments such as hot cells and glove boxes providing relative compositional analysis of process streams for example, ratios like Cm Division-Slash Pu and Cm Division-Slash / U, (3) an inspector field deployable system that can be used to analyze microscopic and single particle samples containing plutonium and uranium, and (4) a high resolution LIBS system that can be used to determine the isotopic composition of samples containing for example uranium and plutonium. In this paper, we will describe our current development and performance testing results for LIBS instrumentation both in a fixed lab and measurements in field deployable configurations.

  20. Relations between passage rates of rumen fluid and particulate matter and foam production in rumen contents of cattle fed on different diets ad lib.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Okine, E K; Mathison, G W; Hardin, R T

    1989-03-01

    1. A group of six cattle, three of which had a non-bloating history (group A) and had been ruminally cannulated for the previous 2 years, and three with a history of being bloat-prone (group B) and which had been ruminally cannulated only 3 months before the study, were fed ad lib. on chopped lucerne (Medicago sativa) hay, lucerne pellets, or a 100 g chopped hay and 900 g rolled barley grain/kg diet over three periods of 30 d each. Flow of rumen digesta, by reference to CoEDTA and chromium-mordanted fibres, and foam production from samples of rumen contents were measured. 2. Samples of rumen contents (50 ml) from group A produced foam heights of 150 and 60 mm, 2 and 4 h after feeding respectively, compared with 240 and 150 mm for group B (P less than 0.05). 3. The fractional passage rate of the 1-2 mm particles mordanted with Cr did not differ (P greater than 0.05) between groups. 4. The fractional outflow rates (FOR) for CoEDTA 0-2 h and 2-7 h after feed was offered were 0.205 and 0.160/h for group A and 0.093 and 0.086/h for group B respectively (P less than 0.05). 5. Rumen-fluid FOR 0-2 h and 2-7 h after provision of feed were significantly (P less than 0.05) inversely correlated (r -0.74 and -0.85 respectively) with the amount of foam produced from rumen contents at these times.

  1. Qualitative evaluation of maternal milk and commercial infant formulas via LIBS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Abdel-Salam, Z; Al Sharnoubi, J; Harith, M A

    2013-10-15

    This study focuses on the use of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for the evaluation of the nutrients in maternal milk and some commercially available infant formulas. The results of such evaluation are vital for adequate and healthy feeding for babies during lactation period. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy offers special advantages in comparison to the other conventional analytical techniques. Specifically, LIBS is a straightforward technique that can be used in situ to provide qualitative analytical information in few minutes for the samples under investigation without preparation processes. The samples studied in the current work were maternal milk samples collected during the first 3 months of lactation (not colostrum milk) and samples from six different types of commercially available infant formulas. The samples' elemental composition has been compared with respect to the relative abundance of the elements of nutrition importance, namely Mg, Ca, Na, and Fe using their spectral emission lines in the relevant LIBS spectra. In addition, CN and C2 molecular emission bands in the same spectra have been studied as indicators of proteins content in the samples. The obtained analytical results demonstrate the higher elemental contents of the maternal milk compared with the commercial formulas samples. Similar results have been obtained as for the proteins content. It has been also shown that calcium and proteins have similar relative concentration trends in the studied samples. This work demonstrates the feasibility of adopting LIBS as a fast, safe, less costly technique evaluating qualitatively the nutrients content of both maternal and commercial milk samples. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  2. Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) in a Novel Molten Salt Aerosol System.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Ammon N; Phongikaroon, Supathorn

    2017-04-01

    In the pyrochemical separation of used nuclear fuel (UNF), fission product, rare earth, and actinide chlorides accumulate in the molten salt electrolyte over time. Measuring this salt composition in near real-time is advantageous for operational efficiency, material accountability, and nuclear safeguards. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been proposed and demonstrated as a potential analytical approach for molten LiCl-KCl salts. However, all the studies conducted to date have used a static surface approach which can lead to issues with splashing, low repeatability, and poor sample homogeneity. In this initial study, a novel molten salt aerosol approach has been developed and explored to measure the composition of the salt via LIBS. The functionality of the system has been demonstrated as well as a basic optimization of the laser energy and nebulizer gas pressure used. Initial results have shown that this molten salt aerosol-LIBS system has a great potential as an analytical technique for measuring the molten salt electrolyte used in this UNF reprocessing technology.

  3. Analysis of heterogeneous gallstones using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WD-XRF).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaswal, Brij Bir S; Kumar, Vinay; Sharma, Jitendra; Rai, Pradeep K; Gondal, Mohammed A; Gondal, Bilal; Singh, Vivek K

    2016-04-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an emerging analytical technique with numerous advantages such as rapidity, multi-elemental analysis, no specific sample preparation requirements, non-destructiveness, and versatility. It has been proven to be a robust elemental analysis tool attracting interest because of being applied to a wide range of materials including biomaterials. In this paper, we have performed spectroscopic studies on gallstones which are heterogeneous in nature using LIBS and wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WD-XRF) techniques. It has been observed that the presence and relative concentrations of trace elements in different kind of gallstones (cholesterol and pigment gallstones) can easily be determined using LIBS technique. From the experiments carried out on gallstones for trace elemental mapping and detection, it was found that LIBS is a robust tool for such biomedical applications. The stone samples studied in the present paper were classified using the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. WD-XRF spectroscopy has been applied for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of major and trace elements present in the gallstone which was compared with the LIBS data. The results obtained in the present paper show interesting prospects for LIBS and WD-XRF to study cholelithiasis better.

  4. A Simple Device for Lens-to-Sample Distance Adjustment in Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cortez, Juliana; Farias Filho, Benedito B; Fontes, Laiane M; Pasquini, Celio; Raimundo, Ivo M; Pimentel, Maria Fernanda; de Souza Lins Borba, Flávia

    2017-04-01

    A simple device based on two commercial laser pointers is described to assist in the analysis of samples that present uneven surfaces and/or irregular shapes using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). The device allows for easy positioning of the sample surface at a reproducible distance from the focusing lens that conveys the laser pulse to generate the micro-plasma in a LIBS system, with reproducibility better than ±0.2 mm. In this way, fluctuations in the fluence (J cm -2 ) are minimized and the LIBS analytical signals can be obtained with a better precision even when samples with irregular surfaces are probed.

  5. MEvoLib v1.0: the first molecular evolution library for Python.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Álvarez-Jarreta, Jorge; Ruiz-Pesini, Eduardo

    2016-10-28

    Molecular evolution studies involve many different hard computational problems solved, in most cases, with heuristic algorithms that provide a nearly optimal solution. Hence, diverse software tools exist for the different stages involved in a molecular evolution workflow. We present MEvoLib, the first molecular evolution library for Python, providing a framework to work with different tools and methods involved in the common tasks of molecular evolution workflows. In contrast with already existing bioinformatics libraries, MEvoLib is focused on the stages involved in molecular evolution studies, enclosing the set of tools with a common purpose in a single high-level interface with fast access to their frequent parameterizations. The gene clustering from partial or complete sequences has been improved with a new method that integrates accessible external information (e.g. GenBank's features data). Moreover, MEvoLib adjusts the fetching process from NCBI databases to optimize the download bandwidth usage. In addition, it has been implemented using parallelization techniques to cope with even large-case scenarios. MEvoLib is the first library for Python designed to facilitate molecular evolution researches both for expert and novel users. Its unique interface for each common task comprises several tools with their most used parameterizations. It has also included a method to take advantage of biological knowledge to improve the gene partition of sequence datasets. Additionally, its implementation incorporates parallelization techniques to enhance computational costs when handling very large input datasets.

  6. Multivariate analysis of remote LIBS spectra using partial least squares, principal component analysis, and related techniques

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Clegg, Samuel M [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Barefield, James E [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Wiens, Roger C [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Sklute, Elizabeth [MT HOLYOKE COLLEGE; Dyare, Melinda D [MT HOLYOKE COLLEGE

    2008-01-01

    Quantitative analysis with LIBS traditionally employs calibration curves that are complicated by the chemical matrix effects. These chemical matrix effects influence the LIBS plasma and the ratio of elemental composition to elemental emission line intensity. Consequently, LIBS calibration typically requires a priori knowledge of the unknown, in order for a series of calibration standards similar to the unknown to be employed. In this paper, three new Multivariate Analysis (MV A) techniques are employed to analyze the LIBS spectra of 18 disparate igneous and highly-metamorphosed rock samples. Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis is used to generate a calibration model from which unknown samples can be analyzed. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and Soft Independent Modeling of Class Analogy (SIMCA) are employed to generate a model and predict the rock type of the samples. These MV A techniques appear to exploit the matrix effects associated with the chemistries of these 18 samples.

  7. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), part II: review of instrumental and methodological approaches to material analysis and applications to different fields.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hahn, David W; Omenetto, Nicoló

    2012-04-01

    The first part of this two-part review focused on the fundamental and diagnostics aspects of laser-induced plasmas, only touching briefly upon concepts such as sensitivity and detection limits and largely omitting any discussion of the vast panorama of the practical applications of the technique. Clearly a true LIBS community has emerged, which promises to quicken the pace of LIBS developments, applications, and implementations. With this second part, a more applied flavor is taken, and its intended goal is summarizing the current state-of-the-art of analytical LIBS, providing a contemporary snapshot of LIBS applications, and highlighting new directions in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, such as novel approaches, instrumental developments, and advanced use of chemometric tools. More specifically, we discuss instrumental and analytical approaches (e.g., double- and multi-pulse LIBS to improve the sensitivity), calibration-free approaches, hyphenated approaches in which techniques such as Raman and fluorescence are coupled with LIBS to increase sensitivity and information power, resonantly enhanced LIBS approaches, signal processing and optimization (e.g., signal-to-noise analysis), and finally applications. An attempt is made to provide an updated view of the role played by LIBS in the various fields, with emphasis on applications considered to be unique. We finally try to assess where LIBS is going as an analytical field, where in our opinion it should go, and what should still be done for consolidating the technique as a mature method of chemical analysis. © 2012 Society for Applied Spectroscopy

  8. Raman/LIBS Data Fusion via Two-Way Variational Autoencoders

    Science.gov (United States)

    Parente, M.; Gemp, I.

    2018-04-01

    We propose an original solution to extracting mineral abundances from Raman spectra by combining Raman data with LIBS using a novel deep learning model based on variational autoencoders and data fusion, which outperforms the current state of the art.

  9. Secular Variation and Physical Characteristics Determination of the HADS Star EH Lib

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pena, J. H.; Villarreal, C.; Pina, D. S.; Renteria, A.; Soni, A., Guillen, J. Calderon, J.

    2017-12-01

    Physical parameters of EH Lib have been determined based on observations carried out in 2015 with photometry. They have also served, along with samples from the years 1969 and 1986, to analyse the frequency content of EH Lib with Fourier Transforms. Recent CCD observations increased the times of maximum with twelve new times which helped us study the secular variation of the period with a method based on the minimization of the standard deviation of the O-C residuals. It is concluded that there may be a long-term period change.

  10. Zlepšování limitů detekce spektroskopie laserem indukovaného plazmatu (LIBS) pomocí aplikace nanočástic

    OpenAIRE

    Képeš, Erik

    2014-01-01

    Bakalárska práca popisuje možnosti zlepšovania detekčných limít metódy spektroskopie laserom indukovanej plazmy (LIBS). Zhŕňa modifikácie klasickej aparatúry, ktoré využívajú metódy double-pulsed LIBS (DPLIBS), Townsend effect plasma sectroscopy (TEPS), resonance enhanced LIBS (RELIBS), spark discharge LIBS (SDLIBS), flame-enhanced LIBS (FELIBS) aj nové postupy pri príprave vzoriek, ktoré používa metóda nanoparticle enhanced LIBS (NELIBS). Popisuje mechanizmy, ktoré využívajú jednotlivé metód...

  11. A brief history of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy: From the concept of atoms to LIBS 2012

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Radziemski, Leon; Cremers, David

    2013-01-01

    LIBS did not appear de novo in 1962, but was built upon accomplishments of the past. These started with very old concepts of indivisible units (atomos), chemical and physical experiments and theoretical advances that took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the development of the laser, the discovery of gas breakdown, and the realization of the application to spectrochemistry. We sketch the historical developments and focus as well on the advances in LIBS methodology and instrumentation over the past 50 years, culminating with a synopsis of the LIBS 2012 Conference in Luxor, Egypt

  12. A brief history of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy: From the concept of atoms to LIBS 2012

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Radziemski, Leon, E-mail: ljrbwr@comcast.net [Tucson, AZ (United States); Cremers, David [Applied Research Associates Inc., Albuquerque, NM (United States)

    2013-09-01

    LIBS did not appear de novo in 1962, but was built upon accomplishments of the past. These started with very old concepts of indivisible units (atomos), chemical and physical experiments and theoretical advances that took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the development of the laser, the discovery of gas breakdown, and the realization of the application to spectrochemistry. We sketch the historical developments and focus as well on the advances in LIBS methodology and instrumentation over the past 50 years, culminating with a synopsis of the LIBS 2012 Conference in Luxor, Egypt.

  13. Application of Handheld Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) to Geochemical Analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Connors, Brendan; Somers, Andrew; Day, David

    2016-05-01

    While laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been in use for decades, only within the last two years has technology progressed to the point of enabling true handheld, self-contained instruments. Several instruments are now commercially available with a range of capabilities and features. In this paper, the SciAps Z-500 handheld LIBS instrument functionality and sub-systems are reviewed. Several assayed geochemical sample sets, including igneous rocks and soils, are investigated. Calibration data are presented for multiple elements of interest along with examples of elemental mapping in heterogeneous samples. Sample preparation and the data collection method from multiple locations and data analysis are discussed. © The Author(s) 2016.

  14. Evaluation of the efficacy of a portable LIBS system for detection of CWA on surfaces.

    Science.gov (United States)

    L'Hermite, D; Vors, E; Vercouter, T; Moutiers, G

    2016-05-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a laser-based optical technique particularly suited for in situ surface analysis. A portable LIBS instrument was tested to detect surface chemical contamination by chemical warfare agents (CWAs). Test of detection of surface contamination was carried out in a toxlab facility with four CWAs, sarin (GB), lewisite (L1), mustard gas (HD), and VX, which were deposited on different substrates, wood, concrete, military green paint, gloves, and ceramic. The CWAs were detected by means of the detection of atomic markers (As, P, F, Cl, and S). The LIBS instrument can give a direct response in terms of detection thanks to an integrated interface for non-expert users or so called end-users. We have evaluated the capability of automatic detection of the selected CWAs. The sensitivity of our portable LIBS instrument was confirmed for the detection of a CWA at surface concentrations above 15 μg/cm(2). The simultaneous detection of two markers may lead to a decrease of the number of false positive.

  15. Remote quantitative analysis of minerals based on multispectral line-calibrated laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wan, Xiong; Wang, Peng

    2014-01-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a feasible remote sensing technique used for mineral analysis in some unapproachable places where in situ probing is needed, such as analysis of radioactive elements in a nuclear leak or the detection of elemental compositions and contents of minerals on planetary and lunar surfaces. Here a compact custom 15 m focus optical component, combining a six times beam expander with a telescope, has been built, with which the laser beam of a 1064 nm Nd ; YAG laser is focused on remote minerals. The excited LIBS signals that reveal the elemental compositions of minerals are collected by another compact single lens-based signal acquisition system. In our remote LIBS investigations, the LIBS spectra of an unknown ore have been detected, from which the metal compositions are obtained. In addition, a multi-spectral line calibration (MSLC) method is proposed for the quantitative analysis of elements. The feasibility of the MSLC and its superiority over a single-wavelength determination have been confirmed by comparison with traditional chemical analysis of the copper content in the ore.

  16. Identification of offal adulteration in beef by laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Velioglu, Hasan Murat; Sezer, Banu; Bilge, Gonca; Baytur, Süleyman Efe; Boyaci, Ismail Hakki

    2018-04-01

    Minced meat is the major ingredient in sausages, beef burgers, and similar products; and thus it is the main product subjected to adulteration with meat offal. Determination of this kind of meat adulteration is crucial due to religious, economic and ethical concerns. The aim of the present study is to discriminate the beef meat and offal samples by using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). To this end, LIBS and multivariate data analysis were used to discriminate pure beef and offal samples qualitatively and to determine the offal mixture adulteration quantitatively. In this analysis, meat samples were frozen and LIBS analysis were performed. The results indicate that by using principal component analysis (PCA), discrimination of pure offal and offal mixture adulterated beef samples can be achieved successfully. Besides, adulteration ratio can be determined using partial least square analysis method (PLS) with 0.947 coefficient of determination (R 2 ) and 3.8% of limit of detection (LOD) values for offal mixture adulterated beef samples. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  17. Mid-infrared, long wave infrared (4-12 μm) molecular emission signatures from pharmaceuticals using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Clayton S-C; Brown, Ei E; Kumi-Barimah, Eric; Hommerich, Uwe H; Jin, Feng; Trivedi, Sudhir B; Samuels, Alan C; Snyder, A Peter

    2014-01-01

    In an effort to augment the atomic emission spectra of conventional laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and to provide an increase in selectivity, mid-wave to long-wave infrared (IR), LIBS studies were performed on several organic pharmaceuticals. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy signature molecular emissions of target organic compounds are observed for the first time in the IR fingerprint spectral region between 4-12 μm. The IR emission spectra of select organic pharmaceuticals closely correlate with their respective standard Fourier transform infrared spectra. Intact and/or fragment sample molecular species evidently survive the LIBS event. The combination of atomic emission signatures derived from conventional ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared LIBS with fingerprints of intact molecular entities determined from IR LIBS promises to be a powerful tool for chemical detection.

  18. Loading of deuterium and helium by Pilot-PSI plasma and their detection by in-situ LIBS

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Piip, K.; van der Meiden, H. J.; Bystrov, K.; Hämarik, L.; Karhunen, J.; Aints, M.; Laan, M.; Paris, P.; Seemen, H.; Hakola, A.; Brezinsek, S.

    2017-01-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a promising method for quantifying the fuel content of the plasma-facing components of ITER both in between plasma discharges (in-situ) and after maintenance operations. The aim of the present study is to test the applicability of in-situ LIBS for

  19. EggLib: processing, analysis and simulation tools for population genetics and genomics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    De Mita Stéphane

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background With the considerable growth of available nucleotide sequence data over the last decade, integrated and flexible analytical tools have become a necessity. In particular, in the field of population genetics, there is a strong need for automated and reliable procedures to conduct repeatable and rapid polymorphism analyses, coalescent simulations, data manipulation and estimation of demographic parameters under a variety of scenarios. Results In this context, we present EggLib (Evolutionary Genetics and Genomics Library, a flexible and powerful C++/Python software package providing efficient and easy to use computational tools for sequence data management and extensive population genetic analyses on nucleotide sequence data. EggLib is a multifaceted project involving several integrated modules: an underlying computationally efficient C++ library (which can be used independently in pure C++ applications; two C++ programs; a Python package providing, among other features, a high level Python interface to the C++ library; and the egglib script which provides direct access to pre-programmed Python applications. Conclusions EggLib has been designed aiming to be both efficient and easy to use. A wide array of methods are implemented, including file format conversion, sequence alignment edition, coalescent simulations, neutrality tests and estimation of demographic parameters by Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC. Classes implementing different demographic scenarios for ABC analyses can easily be developed by the user and included to the package. EggLib source code is distributed freely under the GNU General Public License (GPL from its website http://egglib.sourceforge.net/ where a full documentation and a manual can also be found and downloaded.

  20. EggLib: processing, analysis and simulation tools for population genetics and genomics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    De Mita, Stéphane; Siol, Mathieu

    2012-04-11

    With the considerable growth of available nucleotide sequence data over the last decade, integrated and flexible analytical tools have become a necessity. In particular, in the field of population genetics, there is a strong need for automated and reliable procedures to conduct repeatable and rapid polymorphism analyses, coalescent simulations, data manipulation and estimation of demographic parameters under a variety of scenarios. In this context, we present EggLib (Evolutionary Genetics and Genomics Library), a flexible and powerful C++/Python software package providing efficient and easy to use computational tools for sequence data management and extensive population genetic analyses on nucleotide sequence data. EggLib is a multifaceted project involving several integrated modules: an underlying computationally efficient C++ library (which can be used independently in pure C++ applications); two C++ programs; a Python package providing, among other features, a high level Python interface to the C++ library; and the egglib script which provides direct access to pre-programmed Python applications. EggLib has been designed aiming to be both efficient and easy to use. A wide array of methods are implemented, including file format conversion, sequence alignment edition, coalescent simulations, neutrality tests and estimation of demographic parameters by Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC). Classes implementing different demographic scenarios for ABC analyses can easily be developed by the user and included to the package. EggLib source code is distributed freely under the GNU General Public License (GPL) from its website http://egglib.sourceforge.net/ where a full documentation and a manual can also be found and downloaded.

  1. Studies of Basalt Through Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS for the Manufacturing of Lapilli Blocks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ismael De la Viuda-Pérez

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available Basaltic samples selected from different areas of Tenerife were analyzed by applying laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS, Raman spectroscopy and X Ray Diffraction (XRD in order to identify the basic chemical composition and mineralogy. The basic composition obtained from the analysis was: O, F, Na, K, Mg, Al Si, Ca, Ti and Fe. Raman spectroscopic and XRD analyses indicated a basaltic mineralogy which is consistent with the basic composition results obtained from LIBS. The results of the analyses carried out using portable instrumentation proved the suitability of the LIBS, specially combined with the Raman spectroscopy for their application in the mineralogical-chemical identification in the areas where basalts and lapilli are extracted for construction works in Tenerife.

  2. An Exploratory study on the use of LibAnswers to Resolve, Track and Monitor Electronic Resources Issues: The KAUST Library experience

    KAUST Repository

    Ramli, Rindra M.

    2017-01-01

    An Exploratory study on KAUST library use of LibAnswers in resolving electronic resources questions received in LibAnswers. It describes the findings of the questions received in LibAnswers. The author made suggestions based on the findings to improve the reference services in responding to e-resources questions.

  3. An Exploratory study on the use of LibAnswers to Resolve, Track and Monitor Electronic Resources Issues: The KAUST Library experience

    KAUST Repository

    Ramli, Rindra M.

    2017-05-03

    An Exploratory study on KAUST library use of LibAnswers in resolving electronic resources questions received in LibAnswers. It describes the findings of the questions received in LibAnswers. The author made suggestions based on the findings to improve the reference services in responding to e-resources questions.

  4. Improved intact soil-core carbon determination applying regression shrinkage and variable selection techniques to complete spectrum laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bricklemyer, Ross S; Brown, David J; Turk, Philip J; Clegg, Sam M

    2013-10-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) provides a potential method for rapid, in situ soil C measurement. In previous research on the application of LIBS to intact soil cores, we hypothesized that ultraviolet (UV) spectrum LIBS (200-300 nm) might not provide sufficient elemental information to reliably discriminate between soil organic C (SOC) and inorganic C (IC). In this study, using a custom complete spectrum (245-925 nm) core-scanning LIBS instrument, we analyzed 60 intact soil cores from six wheat fields. Predictive multi-response partial least squares (PLS2) models using full and reduced spectrum LIBS were compared for directly determining soil total C (TC), IC, and SOC. Two regression shrinkage and variable selection approaches, the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and sparse multivariate regression with covariance estimation (MRCE), were tested for soil C predictions and the identification of wavelengths important for soil C prediction. Using complete spectrum LIBS for PLS2 modeling reduced the calibration standard error of prediction (SEP) 15 and 19% for TC and IC, respectively, compared to UV spectrum LIBS. The LASSO and MRCE approaches provided significantly improved calibration accuracy and reduced SEP 32-55% over UV spectrum PLS2 models. We conclude that (1) complete spectrum LIBS is superior to UV spectrum LIBS for predicting soil C for intact soil cores without pretreatment; (2) LASSO and MRCE approaches provide improved calibration prediction accuracy over PLS2 but require additional testing with increased soil and target analyte diversity; and (3) measurement errors associated with analyzing intact cores (e.g., sample density and surface roughness) require further study and quantification.

  5. Development of laser-based technology for the routine first wall diagnostic on the tokamak EAST: LIBS and LIAS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Z.; Gierse, N.; Li, C.; Liu, P.; Zhao, D.; Sun, L.; Oelmann, J.; Nicolai, D.; Wu, D.; Wu, J.; Mao, H.; Ding, F.; Brezinsek, S.; Liang, Y.; Ding, H.; Luo, G.; Linsmeier, C.; EAST Team

    2017-12-01

    A laser based method combined with spectroscopy, such as laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and laser-induced ablation spectroscopy (LIAS), is a promising technology for plasma-wall interaction studies. In this work, we report the development of in situ laser-based diagnostics (LIBS and LIAS) for the assessment of static and dynamic fuel retention on the first wall without removing the tiles between and during plasma discharges in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST). The fuel retention on the first wall was measured after different wall conditioning methods and daily plasma discharges by in situ LIBS. The result indicates that the LIBS can be a useful tool to predict the wall condition in EAST. With the successful commissioning of a refined timing system for LIAS, an in situ approach to investigate fuel retention is proposed.

  6. Temperature and Electron Density Determination on Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) Plasmas: A Physical Chemistry Experiment

    Science.gov (United States)

    Najarian, Maya L.; Chinni, Rosemarie C.

    2013-01-01

    This laboratory is designed for physical chemistry students to gain experience using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) in understanding plasma diagnostics. LIBS uses a high-powered laser that is focused on the sample causing a plasma to form. The emission of this plasma is then spectrally resolved and detected. Temperature and electron…

  7. Występowanie szarej pleśni tulipanow – Botrytis tulipae (Lib. Lind na plantacjach produkcyjnych [Botrytis tulipae (Lib. Lind in tulip plantations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cz. Zamorski

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available The incidence of disease caused by Botrytis tulipae (Lib. Lind was studied in selected tulip plantations. Primary and secondary infection, as well as infections of daughter bulbs were observed. The number of affected plants differed according (to the variety, season, and rainfall.

  8. Homogeneity testing and quantitative analysis of manganese (Mn in vitrified Mn-doped glasses by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    V. K. Unnikrishnan

    2014-09-01

    Full Text Available Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS, an atomic emission spectroscopy method, has rapidly grown as one of the best elemental analysis techniques over the past two decades. Homogeneity testing and quantitative analysis of manganese (Mn in manganese-doped glasses have been carried out using an optimized LIBS system employing a nanosecond ultraviolet Nd:YAG laser as the source of excitation. The glass samples have been prepared using conventional vitrification methods. The laser pulse irradiance on the surface of the glass samples placed in air at atmospheric pressure was about 1.7×109 W/cm2. The spatially integrated plasma emission was collected and imaged on to the spectrograph slit using an optical-fiber-based collection system. Homogeneity was checked by recording LIBS spectra from different sites on the sample surface and analyzing the elemental emission intensities for concentration determination. Validation of the observed LIBS results was done by comparison with scanning electron microscope- energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX surface elemental mapping. The analytical performance of the LIBS system has been evaluated through the correlation of the LIBS determined concentrations of Mn with its certified values. The results are found to be in very good agreement with the certified concentrations.

  9. Monitoring of Cr, Cu, Pb, V and Zn in polluted soils by laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dell'Aglio, Marcella; Gaudiuso, Rosalba; Senesi, Giorgio S; De Giacomo, Alessandro; Zaccone, Claudio; Miano, Teodoro M; De Pascale, Olga

    2011-05-01

    Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is a fast and multi-elemental analytical technique particularly suitable for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of heavy metals in solid samples, including environmental ones. Although LIBS is often recognised in the literature as a well-established analytical technique, results about quantitative analysis of elements in chemically complex matrices such as soils are quite contrasting. In this work, soil samples of various origins have been analyzed by LIBS and data compared to those obtained by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES). The emission intensities of one selected line for each of the five analytes (i.e., Cr, Cu, Pb, V, and Zn) were normalized to the background signal, and plotted as a function of the concentration values previously determined by ICP-OES. Data showed a good linearity for all calibration lines drawn, and the correlation between ICP-OES and LIBS was confirmed by the satisfactory agreement obtained between the corresponding values. Consequently, LIBS method can be used at least for metal monitoring in soils. In this respect, a simple method for the estimation of the soil pollution degree by heavy metals, based on the determination of an anthropogenic index, was proposed and determined for Cr and Zn.

  10. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS): a new spectrochemical technique

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Radziemski, L.J.; Loree, T.R.; Cremers, D.A.

    1982-01-01

    We have used the breakdown spark from a focused laser beam to generate analytically useful emission spectra of minor constituents in air and other carrier gases. The medium was sampled directly. It was not necessary to reduce the sample to solution nor to introduce electrodes. The apparatus is particularly simple; a pulsed laser, spectrometer, and some method for time resolution. The latter is essential in laser-induced-breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) because of the strong early continuum. High temperatures in the spark result in vaporization of small particles, dissociation of molecules, and excitation of atomic and ionic spectra, including species which are normally difficult to detect. In one application, we have monitored beryllium in air at conventrations below 1 μg/m 3 , which is below 1 ppB (w/w). In another we have monitored chlorine and fluorine atoms in real time. LIBS has the potential for real-time direct sampling of contaminants in situ

  11. [Effect of Characteristic Variable Extraction on Accuracy of Cu in Navel Orange Peel by LIBS].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Wen-bing; Yao, Ming-yin; Huang, Lin; Chen, Tian-bing; Zheng, Jian-hong; Fan, Shi-quan; Liu Mu-hua HE, Mu-hua; Lin, Jin-long; Ouyang, Jing-yi

    2015-07-01

    Heavy metals pollution in foodstuffs is more and more serious. It is impossible to satisfy the modern agricultural development by conventional chemical analysis. Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an emerging technology with the characteristic of rapid and nondestructive detection. But LIBS' s repeatability, sensitivity and accuracy has much room to improve. In this work, heavy metal Cu in Gannan Navel Orange which is the Jiangxi specialty fruit will be predicted by LIBS. Firstly, the navel orange samples were contaminated in our lab. The spectra of samples were collected by irradiating the peel by optimized LIBS parameters. The laser energy was set as 20 mJ, delay time of Spectral Data Gathering was set as 1.2 micros, the integration time of Spectral data gathering was set as 2 ms. The real concentration in samples was obtained by AAS (atom absorption spectroscopy). The characteristic variables Cu I 324.7 and Cu I 327.4 were extracted. And the calibration model was constructed between LIBS spectra and real concentration about Cu. The results show that relative error of the predicted concentrations of three relational model were 7.01% or less, reached a minimum of 0.02%, 0.01% and 0.02% respectively. The average relative errors were 2.33%, 3.10% and 26.3%. Tests showed that different characteristic variables decided different accuracy. It is very important to choose suitable characteristic variable. At the same time, this work is helpful to explore the distribution of heavy metals between pulp and peel.

  12. Simulated In Situ Determination of Soil Profile Organic and Inorganic Carbon With LIBS and VisNIR

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bricklemyer, R. S.; Brown, D. J.; Clegg, S. M.; Barefield, J. E.

    2008-12-01

    There is growing need for rapid, accurate, and inexpensive methods to measure, and verify soil organic carbon (SOC) change for national greenhouse gas accounting and the development of a soil carbon trading market. Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and Visible and Near Infrared Spectroscopy (VisNIR) are complementary analytical techniques that have the potential to fill that need. The LIBS method provides precise elemental analysis of soils, but generally cannot distinguish between organic C and inorganic C. VisNIR has been established as a viable technique for measuring soil properties including SOC and inorganic carbon (IC). As part of the Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Regional Partnership, 240 intact core samples (3.8 x 50 cm) have been collected from six agricultural fields in north central Montana, USA. Each of these core samples were probed concurrently with LIBS and VisNIR at 2.5, 7.5, 12.5, 17.5, 22.5, 27.5, 35 and 45 cm (+/- 1.5 cm) depths. VisNIR measurements were taken using an Analytical Spectral Devices (ASD, Boulder, CO, USA) Agrispec spectrometer to determine the partition of SOC vs. IC in the samples. The LIBS scans were collected with the LANL LIBS Core Scanner Instrument which collected the entire 200 - 900 nm plasma emission including the 247.8 nm carbon emission line. This instrument also collected the emission from the elements typically found in inorganic carbon (Ca and Mg) and organic carbon (H, O, and N). Subsamples of soil (~ 4 g) were taken from interrogation points for laboratory determination of SOC and IC. Using this analytical data, we constructed several full spectrum multivariate VisNIR/LIBS calibration models for SOC and IC. These models were then applied to independent validation cores for model evaluation.

  13. Multi-Pulse Excitation for Underwater Analysis of Copper-Based Alloys Using a Novel Remote Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) System.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guirado, Salvador; Fortes, Francisco J; Laserna, J Javier

    2016-04-01

    In this work, the use of multi-pulse excitation has been evaluated as an effective solution to mitigate the preferential ablation of the most volatile elements, namely Sn, Pb, and Zn, observed during laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) analysis of copper-based alloys. The novel remote LIBS prototype used in this experiments featured both single-pulse (SP-LIBS) and multi-pulse excitation (MP-LIBS). The remote instrument is capable of performing chemical analysis of submersed materials up to a depth of 50 m. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy analysis was performed at air pressure settings simulating the conditions during a real subsea analysis. A set of five certified bronze standards with variable concentration of Cu, As, Sn, Pb, and Zn were used. In SP-LIBS, signal emission is strongly sensitive to ambient pressure. In this case, fractionation effect was observed. Multi-pulse excitation circumvents the effect of pressure over the quantitative analysis, thus avoiding the fractionation phenomena observed in single pulse LIBS. The use of copper as internal standard minimizes matrix effects and discrepancies due to variation in ablated mass. © The Author(s) 2016.

  14. [Determination of Cu in Shell of Preserved Egg by LIBS Coupled with PLS].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Hui-qin; Xu, Xue-hong; Liu, Mu-hua; Tu, Jian-ping; Huang, Le; Huang, Lin; Yao, Ming-yin; Chen, Tian-bing; Yang, Ping

    2015-12-01

    In this work, the content of copper in the shell of preserved eggs were determined directly by Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), and the characteristics lines of Cu was obtained. The samples of eggshell were pretreated by acid wet digestion, and the real content of Cu was obtained by atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). Due to the test precision and accuracy of LIBS was influenced by a serious of factors, for example, the complex matrix effect of sample, the enviro nment noise, the system noise of the instrument, the stability of laser energy and so on. And the conventional unvariate linear calibration curve between LIBS intensity and content of element of sample, such as by use of Schiebe G-Lomakin equation, can not meet the requirement of quantitative analysis. In account of that, a kind of multivariate calibration method is needed. In this work, the data of LIBS spectra were processed by partial least squares (PLS), the precision and accuracy of PLS model were compared by different smoothing treatment and five pretreatment methods. The result showed that the correlation coefficient and the accuracy of the PLS model were improved, and the root mean square error and the average relative error were reduced effectively by 11 point smoothing with Multiplicative scatter correction (MSC) pretreatment. The results of the study show that, heavy metal Cu in preserved egg shells can be direct detected accurately by laser induced breakdown spectroscopy, and the next step batch tests will been conducted to find out the relationship of heavy metal Cu content in the preserved egg between the eggshell, egg white and egg yolk. And the goal of the contents of heavy metals in the egg white, egg yolk can be knew through determinate the eggshell by the LIBS can be achieved, to provide new method for rapid non-destructive testing technology for quality and satety of agricultural products.

  15. Evaluation of Optical Depths and Self-Absorption of Strontium and Aluminum Emission Lines in Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alfarraj, Bader A; Bhatt, Chet R; Yueh, Fang Yu; Singh, Jagdish P

    2017-04-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a widely used laser spectroscopic technique in various fields, such as material science, forensic science, biological science, and the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. In most LIBS work, the analysis is performed using radiative transitions from atomic emissions. In this study, the plasma temperature and the product [Formula: see text] (the number density N and the absorption path length [Formula: see text]) were determined to evaluate the optical depths and the self-absorption of Sr and Al lines. A binary mixture of strontium nitrate and aluminum oxide was used as a sample, consisting of variety of different concentrations in powder form. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy spectra were collected by varying various parameters, such as laser energy, gate delay time, and gate width time to optimize the LIBS signals. Atomic emission from Sr and Al lines, as observed in the LIBS spectra of different sample compositions, was used to characterize the laser induced plasma and evaluate the optical depths and self-absorption of LIBS.

  16. Contestation internationale contre élites mondiales : l’action directe et la politique délibérative sont-elles conciliables ?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francis Dupuis-Déri

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available Dans cet article, j’analyse à la lumière des normes libérales de la politique délibérative le bien-fondé de l’action directe contre les institutions internationales associées au néolibéralisme et à la mondialisation du capitalisme (Banque mondiale, Organisation mondiale du commerce, etc.. Le processus délibératif de ces organismes étant illégitime du point de vue de la théorie de la politique délibérative, les activistes du mouvement altermondialiste sont en droit de contester ces organismes. De plus, une attitude de contestation peut avoir en elle-même une valeur délibérative pour au moins sept raisons : (1 lancer une délibération ; (2 élargir la participation à la délibération ; (3 renforcer la représentativité ; (4 faire circuler l’information et faire connaître les arguments (publicité ; (5 stimuler l’imagination ; (6 pousser à l’action ; (7 relancer la délibération. Finalement, les mouvements sociaux tels que le mouvement altermondialiste peuvent être vus comme des forums délibératifs. Ainsi, qui veut évaluer la légitimité de l’action directe doit prendre en considération la nature délibérative du processus par lequel les activistes choisissent les moyens les plus efficaces à utiliser pour corriger les défauts du processus délibératif officiel et pour faire avancer l’égalité, la liberté et la justice.In this article I examine the legitimacy of direct action in relation to liberal deliberative norms and global institutions (World Bank, World Trade Organization, etc.. Since the deliberative processes of these institutions are illegitimate according to the theory of deliberative politics, the activists of the movement for global justice should be legitimate to confront these institutions. Moreover, confrontational action in itself may have a deliberative value for at least seven reasons: (1 initiating deliberation (agenda-setting ; (2 enlarging participation ; (3 enlarging

  17. Forensic Discrimination of Latent Fingerprints Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and Chemometric Approaches.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Jun-Ho; Yoh, Jack J

    2018-01-01

    A novel technique is reported for separating overlapping latent fingerprints using chemometric approaches that combine laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and multivariate analysis. The LIBS technique provides the capability of real time analysis and high frequency scanning as well as the data regarding the chemical composition of overlapping latent fingerprints. These spectra offer valuable information for the classification and reconstruction of overlapping latent fingerprints by implementing appropriate statistical multivariate analysis. The current study employs principal component analysis and partial least square methods for the classification of latent fingerprints from the LIBS spectra. This technique was successfully demonstrated through a classification study of four distinct latent fingerprints using classification methods such as soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA) and partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). The novel method yielded an accuracy of more than 85% and was proven to be sufficiently robust. Furthermore, through laser scanning analysis at a spatial interval of 125 µm, the overlapping fingerprints were reconstructed as separate two-dimensional forms.

  18. Advanced recognition of explosives in traces on polymer surfaces using LIBS and supervised learning classifiers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Serrano, Jorge; Moros, Javier; Sánchez, Carlos; Macías, Jorge; Laserna, J Javier

    2014-01-02

    The large similarity existing in the spectral emissions collected from organic compounds by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a limiting factor for the use of this technology in the real world. Specifically, among the most ambitious challenges of today's LIBS involves the recognition of an organic residue when neglected on the surface of an object of identical nature. Under these circumstances, the development of an efficient algorithm to disclose the minute differences within this highly complex spectral information is crucial for a realistic application of LIBS in countering explosive threats. An approach cemented on scatter plots of characteristic emission features has been developed to identify organic explosives when located on polymeric surfaces (teflon, nylon and polyethylene). By using selected spectral variables, the approach allows to design a concise classifier for alerting when one of four explosives (DNT, TNT, RDX and PETN) is present on the surface of the polymer. Ordinary products (butter, fuel oil, hand cream, olive oil and motor oil) cause no confusion in the decisions taken by the classifier. With rates of false negatives and false positives below 5%, results demonstrate that the classification algorithm enables to label residues according to their harmful nature in the most demanding scenario for a LIBS sensor. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  19. An exploratory study of the potential of LIBS for visualizing gunshot residue patterns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    López-López, María; Alvarez-Llamas, César; Pisonero, Jorge; García-Ruiz, Carmen; Bordel, Nerea

    2017-04-01

    The study of gunshot residue (GSR) patterns can assist in the reconstruction of shooting incidences. Currently, there is a real need of methods capable of furnishing simultaneous elemental analysis with higher specificity for the GSR pattern visualization. Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) provides a multi-elemental analysis of the sample, requiring very small amounts of material and no sample preparation. Due to these advantages, this study aims at exploring the potential of LIBS imaging for the visualization of GSR patterns. After the spectral characterization of individual GSR particles, the distribution of Pb, Sb and Ba over clothing targets, shot from different distances, were measured in laser raster mode. In particular, an array of spots evenly spaced at 800μm, using a stage displacement velocity of 4mm/s and a laser frequency of 5Hz was employed (e.g. an area of 130×165mm 2 was measured in less than 3h). A LIBS set-up based on the simultaneous use of two spectrographs with iCCD cameras and a motorized stage was used. This set-up allows obtaining information from two different wavelength regions (258-289 and 446-463nm) from the same laser induced plasma, enabling the simultaneous detection of the three characteristic elements (Pb, Sb, and Ba) of GSR particles from conventional ammunitions. The ability to visualize the 2D distribution GSR pattern by LIBS may have an important application in the forensic field, especially for the ballistics area. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. Rapid Analysis of Ash Composition Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Tyler L. Westover

    2013-01-01

    Inorganic compounds are known to be problematic in the thermochemical conversion of biomass to syngas and ultimately hydrocarbon fuels. The elements Si, K, Ca, Na, S, P, Cl, Mg, Fe, and Al are particularly problematic and are known to influence reaction pathways, contribute to fouling and corrosion, poison catalysts, and impact waste streams. Substantial quantities of inorganic species can be entrained in the bark of trees during harvest operations. Herbaceous feedstocks often have even greater quantities of inorganic constituents, which can account for as much as one-fifth of the total dry matter. Current methodologies to measure the concentrations of these elements, such as inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry/mass spectrometry (ICP-OES/MS) are expensive in time and reagents. This study demonstrates that a new methodology employing laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) can rapidly and accurately analyze the inorganic constituents in a wide range of biomass materials, including both woody and herbaceous examples. This technique requires little or no sample preparation, does not consume any reagents, and the analytical data is available immediately. In addition to comparing LIBS data with the results from ICP-OES methods, this work also includes discussions of sample preparation techniques, calibration curves for interpreting LIBS spectra, minimum detection limits, and the use of internal standards and standard reference materials.

  1. Study of atomic and molecular emission spectra of Sr by laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhatt, Chet R; Alfarraj, Bader; Ayyalasomayajula, Krishna K; Ghany, Charles; Yueh, Fang Y; Singh, Jagdish P

    2015-12-01

    Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is an ideal analytical technique for in situ analysis of elemental composition. We have performed a comparative study of the quantitative and qualitative analysis of atomic and molecular emission from LIBS spectra. In our experiments, a mixture of SrCl2 and Al2O3 in powder form was used as a sample. The atomic emission from Sr and molecular emission from SrCl and SrO observed in LIBS spectra were analyzed. The optimum laser energies, gate delays, and gate widths for selected atomic lines and molecular bands were determined from spectra recorded at various experimental parameters. These optimum experimental conditions were used to collect calibration data, and the calibration curves were used to predict the Sr concentration. Limits of detection (LODs) for selected atomic and molecular emission spectra were determined.

  2. Pour une anthropologie de la libération For an Anthropology of the Liberation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael Singleton

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available Foncièrement constructiviste, l’Anthropologie elle-même (à supposer, dato non concesso, que le singulier substantiel soit de mise n’est pas moins le “fait” d’une culture à l’exclusion, en dernière analyse, de toute autre. Néanmoins, produit en surface, mais processus en profondeur, bien que née et grandie dans un certain Occident, rien ne l’empêche d’inventer une identité inédite. D’où l’émergence à l’Université Catholique de Louvain d’une Anthropologie Prospective dont l’intentionnalité identitaire, impliquée jusqu’à l’indignation, rend libératrice. La Culture l’abhorrant autant sinon plus que la Nature, le vide laissé par la théologie de la libération, morte avec Dieu lui-même, pourrait être rempli par son pendant anthropo-logique.Fundamentally constructivist, Anthropology itself (supposing, but “dato non concesso”, that such a substantial singularity exists is no less the “fact” of one culture to the exclusion, in the last analysis, of all others.  However, seemingly a product but basically a process, though born and bred in the West, there is nothing to prevent anthropology from reinventing its identity.  Hence the emergence in the Catholic University of Louvain, of a Prospective Anthropology whose committed and at times indignant intentionality makes for freedom. Culture abhorring it as much if not more than Nature, the vacuum left by the demise of liberation theology subsequent to the Death of God himself, could be filled by an anthropo-logical equivalent.

  3. Standoff Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) Using a Miniature Wide Field of View Spatial Heterodyne Spectrometer with Sub-Microsteradian Collection Optics.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barnett, Patrick D; Lamsal, Nirmal; Angel, S Michael

    2017-04-01

    A spatial heterodyne spectrometer (SHS) is described for standoff laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) measurements. The spatial heterodyne LIBS spectrometer (SHLS) is a diffraction grating based interferometer with no moving parts that offers a very large field of view, high light throughput, and high spectral resolution in a small package. The field of view of the SHLS spectrometer is shown to be ∼1° in standoff LIBS measurements. In the SHLS system described here, the collection aperture was defined by the 10 mm diffraction gratings in the SHS and standoff LIBS measurements were made up to 20 m with no additional collection optics, corresponding to a collection solid angle of 0.2 μsr, or f/2000, and also using a small telescope to increase the collection efficiency. The use of a microphone was demonstrated to rapidly optimize laser focus for 20 m standoff LIBS measurements.

  4. [Research on fast classification based on LIBS technology and principle component analyses].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Qi; Ma, Xiao-Hong; Wang, Rui; Zhao, Hua-Feng

    2014-11-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and the principle component analysis (PCA) were combined to study aluminum alloy classification in the present article. Classification experiments were done on thirteen different kinds of standard samples of aluminum alloy which belong to 4 different types, and the results suggested that the LIBS-PCA method can be used to aluminum alloy fast classification. PCA was used to analyze the spectrum data from LIBS experiments, three principle components were figured out that contribute the most, the principle component scores of the spectrums were calculated, and the scores of the spectrums data in three-dimensional coordinates were plotted. It was found that the spectrum sample points show clear convergence phenomenon according to the type of aluminum alloy they belong to. This result ensured the three principle components and the preliminary aluminum alloy type zoning. In order to verify its accuracy, 20 different aluminum alloy samples were used to do the same experiments to verify the aluminum alloy type zoning. The experimental result showed that the spectrum sample points all located in their corresponding area of the aluminum alloy type, and this proved the correctness of the earlier aluminum alloy standard sample type zoning method. Based on this, the identification of unknown type of aluminum alloy can be done. All the experimental results showed that the accuracy of principle component analyses method based on laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy is more than 97.14%, and it can classify the different type effectively. Compared to commonly used chemical methods, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy can do the detection of the sample in situ and fast with little sample preparation, therefore, using the method of the combination of LIBS and PCA in the areas such as quality testing and on-line industrial controlling can save a lot of time and cost, and improve the efficiency of detection greatly.

  5. Quantitative Analysis of Heavy Metals in Water Based on LIBS with an Automatic Device for Sample Preparation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hu Li; Zhao Nanjing; Liu Wenqing; Meng Deshuo; Fang Li; Wang Yin; Yu Yang; Ma Mingjun

    2015-01-01

    Heavy metals in water can be deposited on graphite flakes, which can be used as an enrichment method for laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and is studied in this paper. The graphite samples were prepared with an automatic device, which was composed of a loading and unloading module, a quantitatively adding solution module, a rapid heating and drying module and a precise rotating module. The experimental results showed that the sample preparation methods had no significant effect on sample distribution and the LIBS signal accumulated in 20 pulses was stable and repeatable. With an increasing amount of the sample solution on the graphite flake, the peak intensity at Cu I 324.75 nm accorded with the exponential function with a correlation coefficient of 0.9963 and the background intensity remained unchanged. The limit of detection (LOD) was calculated through linear fitting of the peak intensity versus the concentration. The LOD decreased rapidly with an increasing amount of sample solution until the amount exceeded 20 mL and the correlation coefficient of exponential function fitting was 0.991. The LOD of Pb, Ni, Cd, Cr and Zn after evaporating different amounts of sample solution on the graphite flakes was measured and the variation tendency of their LOD with sample solution amounts was similar to the tendency for Cu. The experimental data and conclusions could provide a reference for automatic sample preparation and heavy metal in situ detection. (paper)

  6. Development of an Automated LIBS Analytical Test System Integrated with Component Control and Spectrum Analysis Capabilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ding Yu; Tian Di; Chen Feipeng; Chen Pengfei; Qiao Shujun; Yang Guang; Li Chunsheng

    2015-01-01

    The present paper proposes an automated Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) analytical test system, which consists of a LIBS measurement and control platform based on a modular design concept, and a LIBS qualitative spectrum analysis software and is developed in C#. The platform provides flexible interfacing and automated control; it is compatible with different manufacturer component models and is constructed in modularized form for easy expandability. During peak identification, a more robust peak identification method with improved stability in peak identification has been achieved by applying additional smoothing on the slope obtained by calculation before peak identification. For the purpose of element identification, an improved main lines analysis method, which detects all elements on the spectral peak to avoid omission of certain elements without strong spectral lines, is applied to element identification in the tested LIBS samples. This method also increases the identification speed. In this paper, actual applications have been carried out. According to tests, the analytical test system is compatible with components of various models made by different manufacturers. It can automatically control components to get experimental data and conduct filtering, peak identification and qualitative analysis, etc. on spectral data. (paper)

  7. Constrained supermanifolds for AdS M-theory backgrounds

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fre, Pietro; Grassi, Pietro Antonio

    2008-01-01

    A long standing problem is the supergauge completion of AdS 4 x ({G/H}) 7 or AdS 5 x ({G/H}) 5 backgrounds which preserve less then maximal supersymmetry. In parallel with the supersolvable realization of the AdS 4 x S 7 background based on κ-symmetry, we develop a technique which amounts to solving the above-mentioned problem in a way useful for pure spinor quantization for supermembranes and superstrings. Instead of gauge fixing some of the superspace coordinates using κ-symmetry, we impose an additional constraint on them reproducing the simplifications of the supersolvable representations. The constraints are quadratic, homogeneous, Sp(4,R)-covariant, and consistent from the quantum point of view in the pure spinor approach. Here we provide the geometrical solution which, in a subsequent work, will be applied to the membrane and the superstring sigma models

  8. A Combined Remote LIBS and Raman Spectroscopic Study of Minerals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hubble, H. W.; Ghosh, M.; Sharma, S. K.; Horton, K. A.; Lucey, P. G.; Angel, S. M.; Wiens, R. C.

    2002-01-01

    In this paper, we explore the use of remote LIBS combined with pulsed-laser Raman spectroscopy for mineral analysis at a distance of 10 meters. Samples analyzed include: carbonates (both biogenic and abiogenic), silicates, and sulfates. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

  9. Effects of house type and early feed restriction on performance and fat deposition in unsexed broilers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    U Santoso

    2002-06-01

    Full Text Available The present experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of house type and early feed restriction on performance and fat deposition of unsexed broilers. Four hundreds seven-day old unsexed broilers (Arbor Acres CP 707 were distributed into eight treatment groups. Each treatment group was represented by five replicates of ten broilers each. Two types of house (cage vs litter and four levels of feeding (ad lib., 75% ad lib., 50% ad lib. and 25% ad lib. were tested as treatment factors. Broilers were feed-restricted for 6 days from 7 to 13 days of age and thereafter they were fed ad lib. Feed intake of restricted broilers during restriction period was calculated from feed consumed by ad lib. group in the previous day. Results showed that unsexed broilers raised in litter had higher body weight (P<0.05, lower abdominal fat and higher triglyceride concentration at 42 days of age (P<0.05, and lower liver fat and higher carcass percentage at 56 days of age (P<0.05. Early feed restriction reduced body weight of 42-day old unsexed broilers except for broilers fed 75% ad lib. At 56 days of age, restricted broilers had similar body weight to those fed ad lib. At 56 days of age, broilers fed 25% ad lib. had lower FCR (P<0.05, lower abdominal fat (P<0.05 and lower triglyceride concentration (P<0,05. In conclusion, unsexed broilers fed 25% ad lib. showed compensatory growth with better FCR and lower fat accumulation at 56 days of age. Broilers raised in litter had higher body weight and lower abdominal and liver fat deposition.

  10. Assessment and forensic application of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for the discrimination of Australian window glass.

    Science.gov (United States)

    El-Deftar, Moteaa M; Speers, Naomi; Eggins, Stephen; Foster, Simon; Robertson, James; Lennard, Chris

    2014-08-01

    A commercially available laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument was evaluated for the determination of elemental composition of twenty Australian window glass samples, consisting of 14 laminated samples and 6 non-laminated samples (or not otherwise specified) collected from broken windows at crime scenes. In this study, the LIBS figures of merit were assessed in terms of accuracy, limits of detection and precision using three standard reference materials (NIST 610, 612, and 1831). The discrimination potential of LIBS was compared to that obtained using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), X-ray microfluorescence spectroscopy (μXRF) and scanning electron microscopy energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDX) for the analysis of architectural window glass samples collected from crime scenes in the Canberra region, Australia. Pairwise comparisons were performed using a three-sigma rule, two-way ANOVA and Tukey's HSD test at 95% confidence limit in order to investigate the discrimination power for window glass analysis. The results show that the elemental analysis of glass by LIBS provides a discrimination power greater than 97% (>98% when combined with refractive index data), which was comparable to the discrimination powers obtained by LA-ICP-MS and μXRF. These results indicate that LIBS is a feasible alternative to the more expensive LA-ICP-MS and μXRF options for the routine forensic analysis of window glass samples. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. El vuelo zumbón de la libélula

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Fernando González Cajiao

    1992-01-01

    Full Text Available Delírium titerensis. Tres obras de la Libélula Dorada: el dulce encanto de la isla Acracic, Los espíritus lúdicos y Ese chivo es puro cuento (ilustraciones de Carlos Rojas. Arango Editores, Bogotá, 1991, 129 págs.

  12. Getting More Value from the LibQUAL+® Survey: The Merits of Qualitative Analysis and Importance-Satisfaction Matrices in Assessing Library Patron Comments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Detlor, Brian; Ball, Kathryn

    2015-01-01

    This paper examines the merit of conducting a qualitative analysis of LibQUAL+® survey comments as a means of leveraging quantitative LibQUAL+ results, and using importance-satisfaction matrices to present and assess qualitative findings. Comments collected from the authors' institution's LibQUAL+ survey were analyzed using a codebook based on…

  13. LibGuide som social platform

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Susanne; Volder Kjær, Berit; Andersen, Bente Thorup

    2011-01-01

    undervisningsforløb. Det er formålet herved at højne både kvaliteten af undervisningen og udviklingen af elevernes informationskompetence. LibGuide er planlagt til at skulle understøtte en kommunikativ forståelse og samarbejdet mellem eleverne og bibliotekar/lærer, dvs. der er fokus på det sociale aspekt. Artiklen...... viser at de nævnte mål indebærer et eksplorativt udviklingsforløb. Udviklingen af et værktøj, der skal indfri de nævnte samarbejdsmæssige aspekter, forudsætter en evalueringsproces, hvor der gives tid til erhvervelsen af mange erfaringer og refleksioner. Artiklen gør rede for de ideer, der ligger bag...

  14. ANALISIS UNSUR Ag PADA SAMPEL CAIR DENGAN LASER INDUCED BREAKDOWN SPECTROSCOPY (LIBS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sinaga Natalia Declarossy

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available It has been done research on the analysis of Ag element in the liquid electrolyte with Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS through electrolysis method. Observations conducted by LIBS using Nd-YAG laser (1064nm, 7ns. Prior to analyze, first looking for the optimum conditions of experiments had been done. The results showed that the optimum laser energy to the characterization of the elements Ag was 100 mJ and optimum conditions of electric current and time deposition on electrolysis process were 4.93 mA and 10 minutes, respectively. These conditions, next, for the application of quantitative analysis of Ag solution that started from concentration 300 ppm to the lowest concentration and limit of detection obtained 1 ppm.

  15. Decomposition and correction overlapping peaks of LIBS using an error compensation method combined with curve fitting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tan, Bing; Huang, Min; Zhu, Qibing; Guo, Ya; Qin, Jianwei

    2017-09-01

    The laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique is an effective method to detect material composition by obtaining the plasma emission spectrum. The overlapping peaks in the spectrum are a fundamental problem in the qualitative and quantitative analysis of LIBS. Based on a curve fitting method, this paper studies an error compensation method to achieve the decomposition and correction of overlapping peaks. The vital step is that the fitting residual is fed back to the overlapping peaks and performs multiple curve fitting processes to obtain a lower residual result. For the quantitative experiments of Cu, the Cu-Fe overlapping peaks in the range of 321-327 nm obtained from the LIBS spectrum of five different concentrations of CuSO 4 ·5H 2 O solution were decomposed and corrected using curve fitting and error compensation methods. Compared with the curve fitting method, the error compensation reduced the fitting residual about 18.12-32.64% and improved the correlation about 0.86-1.82%. Then, the calibration curve between the intensity and concentration of the Cu was established. It can be seen that the error compensation method exhibits a higher linear correlation between the intensity and concentration of Cu, which can be applied to the decomposition and correction of overlapping peaks in the LIBS spectrum.

  16. Using LibGuides to enhance library services a LITA guide

    CERN Document Server

    Dobbs, Aaron W

    2013-01-01

    The easy-to-use tools in Springshare's LibGuides help you organize webpages, improve students' research experience and learning, and offer an online community of librarians sharing their work and ideas. Editors Dobbs, Sittler, and Cook have recruited expert contributors to address specific applications, creating a one-stop reference.

  17. [Quantitative Analysis of Heavy Metals in Water with LIBS Based on Signal-to-Background Ratio].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Li; Zhao, Nan-jing; Liu, Wen-qing; Fang, Li; Zhang, Da-hai; Wang, Yin; Meng, De Shuo; Yu, Yang; Ma, Ming-jun

    2015-07-01

    There are many influence factors in the precision and accuracy of the quantitative analysis with LIBS technology. According to approximately the same characteristics trend of background spectrum and characteristic spectrum along with the change of temperature through in-depth analysis, signal-to-background ratio (S/B) measurement and regression analysis could compensate the spectral line intensity changes caused by system parameters such as laser power, spectral efficiency of receiving. Because the measurement dates were limited and nonlinear, we used support vector machine (SVM) for regression algorithm. The experimental results showed that the method could improve the stability and the accuracy of quantitative analysis of LIBS, and the relative standard deviation and average relative error of test set respectively were 4.7% and 9.5%. Data fitting method based on signal-to-background ratio(S/B) is Less susceptible to matrix elements and background spectrum etc, and provides data processing reference for real-time online LIBS quantitative analysis technology.

  18. Applicability of Machine-Learning Enabled LIBS in Post Irradiation Nuclear Forensic Analysis of High Level Waste

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Onkongi, J.; Maina, D.; Angeyo, H.K.

    2017-01-01

    Nuclear Forensics seeks Information to determine; Chemical Composition, Routes of transit, Origin (Provenance) and Intended use. Post Irradiation/Post detonation NF In a post-detonation event could you get clues/signatures from glass debris, minute sample sizes? Nuclear Forensic Technique Should be State-of -the art that is Rapid, Non-invasive, Remote ability and Non-destructive. Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) unlike other Analytic Techniques that require tedious sample preparations such as Dissolution, digestion & matrix removal, which generate additional nuclear wastes that require proper Procedures for handling, storage & ultimate disposal, LIBS overcomes these limitations. Utility of Machine Learning Techniques employed include; Artificial Neural Networks, ANN (Regression/Modelling), Principal component Analysis, PCA (Classification) and Support Vector Machine SVM (Comparative study/Classification Machine Learning coupled with LIBS gives a state of the art analytic method. Utility of the technic in safeguards security and non-proliferation

  19. Correlation between Fe–V–C alloys surface hardness and plasma temperature via LIBS technique

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Messaoud Aberkane, S., E-mail: smessaoud@cdta.dz [Centre de Développement des Technologies Avancées, Baba Hassen, Alger (Algeria); Bendib, A. [Université des Sciences et de Technologie Houari Boumediene, Bab-Ezzouar, Alger (Algeria); Yahiaoui, K.; Boudjemai, S.; Abdelli-Messaci, S.; Kerdja, T. [Centre de Développement des Technologies Avancées, Baba Hassen, Alger (Algeria); Amara, S.E. [Université des Sciences et de Technologie Houari Boumediene, Bab-Ezzouar, Alger (Algeria); Harith, M.A. [National Institute of Laser Enhanced Science, Cairo University (Egypt)

    2014-05-01

    Highlights: • New application of LIBS in industry. • Hardness of metallic alloys estimation using LIBS calibration curves. • Linear correlation between the plasma temperature and the hardness of metallic alloys. • The shock wave is fast when the material is hard. - Abstract: Surface hardness is a very important characteristic of metals. Its monitoring plays a key role in industry. In the present paper, using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), Fe–V{sub 18%}–C{sub 1%} alloys with different heat treatments have been used for making the correlation between surface hardness and laser-induced plasma temperatures. All investigated samples were characterized by the same ferrite phase with different Vickers surface hardnesses. The differences in hardness values were attributed to the crystallite size changes. A linear relationship has been obtained between the Vickers surface hardness and the laser induced plasma temperature. For comparison the relation between surface hardness and the ratio of the vanadium ionic to atomic spectral lines intensities (VII/VI) provided good linear results too. However, adopting the proposed approach of using the plasma temperature, instead, is more reliable in view of the difficulties that could be encountered in choosing the proper ionic and atomic spectral lines. To validate this approach we have investigated the shock wave speed induced by laser interaction with the used samples. It was found that harder is the material faster is the shock wave. The determination of the surface hardness via measuring T{sub e} shows the feasibility of using LIBS as an easy and reliable method for in situ industrial application for production control.

  20. Effects of dietary vanadium on growth and lipid storage in a larval anuran: Results from studies employing ad libitum and rationed feeding

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rowe, Christopher L.; Heyes, Andrew; Hopkins, William

    2009-01-01

    Vanadium (V) exerts a variety of effects related to metabolic function in vertebrates, including modifying glycolytic pathways and lipid metabolism. However, little is known about toxicity of V to wildlife in natural systems. We conducted parallel, independent studies to evaluate the effect of dietary exposure to vanadium on survival, metabolism, growth, and lipid storage of larval leopard frogs (Rana sphenocephala). In one study ('Ad lib') larvae were fed unlimited food and in the other ('Ration') larvae were fed a restricted diet. Experimental diets contained 10 ppm dw V total (Control, 'C'), 109 ppm (Low, 'L'), and 363 ppm (High, 'H'). In neither study did V affect metabolic rate or survival to forelimb emergence. However, in the Ration study, 31% of individuals in H that had initiated metamorphosis died prior to completion of metamorphosis, compared with 22% in M and 9% in C, however the difference was not significant at α = 0.05. Mortality during metamorphosis in the Ad lib study was more variable, yet followed a similar trend (26, 14, and 12% mortality in H, L, and C). In both studies, individuals that died during the metamorphic period were smaller at the time of forelimb emergence than those that survived. In the Ration study, individuals in H also had significantly lower growth rates, delayed metamorphosis, and reduced lipid content at metamorphosis compared to C and L. Growth was not affected by V in the Ad lib study. Our results suggest that habitat contamination by V may present risks to amphibians during the metamorphic period attributable to energetic responses influencing size at the initiation of metamorphosis and body lipid stores. Furthermore, while we cannot make formal comparisons between the studies, our results imply that protocols that employ ad libitum feeding regimes could fail to capture the effects of contaminants as they may be expressed in natural situations in which resources are typically more limited

  1. Effects of dietary vanadium on growth and lipid storage in a larval anuran: Results from studies employing ad libitum and rationed feeding

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Rowe, Christopher L. [University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, P.O. Box 38, Solomons, MD 20688 (United States)], E-mail: Rowe@cbl.umces.edu; Heyes, Andrew [University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, P.O. Box 38, Solomons, MD 20688 (United States); Hopkins, William [Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 100 Cheatham Hall, Blacksburg, VA 24061 (United States)

    2009-01-31

    Vanadium (V) exerts a variety of effects related to metabolic function in vertebrates, including modifying glycolytic pathways and lipid metabolism. However, little is known about toxicity of V to wildlife in natural systems. We conducted parallel, independent studies to evaluate the effect of dietary exposure to vanadium on survival, metabolism, growth, and lipid storage of larval leopard frogs (Rana sphenocephala). In one study ('Ad lib') larvae were fed unlimited food and in the other ('Ration') larvae were fed a restricted diet. Experimental diets contained 10 ppm dw V{sub total} (Control, 'C'), 109 ppm (Low, 'L'), and 363 ppm (High, 'H'). In neither study did V affect metabolic rate or survival to forelimb emergence. However, in the Ration study, 31% of individuals in H that had initiated metamorphosis died prior to completion of metamorphosis, compared with 22% in M and 9% in C, however the difference was not significant at {alpha} = 0.05. Mortality during metamorphosis in the Ad lib study was more variable, yet followed a similar trend (26, 14, and 12% mortality in H, L, and C). In both studies, individuals that died during the metamorphic period were smaller at the time of forelimb emergence than those that survived. In the Ration study, individuals in H also had significantly lower growth rates, delayed metamorphosis, and reduced lipid content at metamorphosis compared to C and L. Growth was not affected by V in the Ad lib study. Our results suggest that habitat contamination by V may present risks to amphibians during the metamorphic period attributable to energetic responses influencing size at the initiation of metamorphosis and body lipid stores. Furthermore, while we cannot make formal comparisons between the studies, our results imply that protocols that employ ad libitum feeding regimes could fail to capture the effects of contaminants as they may be expressed in natural situations in which resources

  2. Detection of pesticides and dioxins in tissue fats and rendering oils using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Multari, Rosalie A; Cremers, David A; Scott, Thomas; Kendrick, Peter

    2013-03-13

    In laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), a series of powerful laser pulses are directed at a surface to form microplasmas from which light is collected and spectrally analyzed to identify the surface material. In most cases, no sample preparation is needed, and results can be automated and made available within seconds to minutes. Advances in LIBS spectral data analysis using multivariate regression techniques have led to the ability to detect organic chemicals in complex matrices such as foods. Here, the use of LIBS to differentiate samples contaminated with aldrin, 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-heptachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, chlorpyrifos, and dieldrin in the complex matrices of tissue fats and rendering oils is described. The pesticide concentrations in the samples ranged from 0.005 to 0.1 μg/g. All samples were successfully differentiated from each other and from control samples. Sample concentrations could also be differentiated for all of the pesticides and the dioxin included in this study. The results presented here provide first proof-of-principle data for the ability to create LIBS-based instrumentation for the rapid analysis of pesticide and dioxin contamination in tissue fat and rendered oils.

  3. Direct measurements of sample heating by a laser-induced air plasma in pre-ablation spark dual-pulse laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Register, Janna; Scaffidi, Jonathan; Angel, S Michael

    2012-08-01

    Direct measurements of temperature changes were made using small thermocouples (TC), placed near a laser-induced air plasma. Temperature changes up to ~500 °C were observed. From the measured temperature changes, estimates were made of the amount of heat absorbed per unit area. This allowed calculations to be made of the surface temperature, as a function of time, of a sample heated by the air plasma that is generated during orthogonal pre-ablation spark dual-pulse (DP) LIBS measurements. In separate experiments, single-pulse (SP) LIBS emission and sample ablation rate measurements were performed on nickel at sample temperatures ranging from room temperature to the maximum surface temperature that was calculated using the TC measurement results (500 °C). A small, but real sample temperature-dependent increase in both SP LIBS emission and the rate of sample ablation was found for nickel samples heated up to 500 °C. Comparison of DP LIBS emission enhancement values for bulk nickel samples at room temperature versus the enhanced SP LIBS emission and sample ablation rates observed as a function of increasing sample temperature suggests that sample heating by the laser-induced air plasma plays only a minor role in DP LIBS emission enhancement.

  4. Effects of house type and early feed restriction on performance and fat deposition in unsexed broilers

    OpenAIRE

    U Santoso

    2002-01-01

    The present experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of house type and early feed restriction on performance and fat deposition of unsexed broilers. Four hundreds seven-day old unsexed broilers (Arbor Acres CP 707) were distributed into eight treatment groups. Each treatment group was represented by five replicates of ten broilers each. Two types of house (cage vs litter) and four levels of feeding (ad lib., 75% ad lib., 50% ad lib. and 25% ad lib.) were tested as treatment factors. B...

  5. Lithium tri borate (LiB3O5) embedded polymer electret for mechanical sensing application

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murugan, S.; Praveen, E.; Prasad, M. V. N.; Jayakumar, K.

    2017-05-01

    Lithium tri borate (LiB3O5) particles were synthesized by precipitation assisted high temperature solid state reaction. The particles were embedded in chitosan polymer and used as an electret. This electret was characterized for the suitability as a sensing element in vibration accelerometer. It is observed that LiB3O5 embedded electret exhibiting piezoelectric property. The electret is also giving an isolation of > 999 MΩ at 100 Vdc, 250 Vdc, 500 Vdc and 1kVdc confirms compatible for intrinsically safe sensing alternative in vibration accelerometer.

  6. FermiLib v0.1

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    2017-02-27

    FermiLib is an open source software package designed to facilitate the development and testing of algorithms for simulations of fermionic systems on quantum computers. Fermionic simulations represent an important application of early quantum devices with a lot of potential high value targets, such as quantum chemistry for the development of new catalysts. This software strives to provide a link between the required domain expertise in specific fermionic applications and quantum computing to enable more users to directly interface with, and develop for, these applications. It is an extensible Python library designed to interface with the high performance quantum simulator, ProjectQ, as well as application specific software such as PSI4 from the domain of quantum chemistry. Such software is key to enabling effective user facilities in quantum computation research.

  7. Incorporation of support vector machines in the LIBS toolbox for sensitive and robust classification amidst unexpected sample and system variability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dingari, Narahara Chari; Barman, Ishan; Myakalwar, Ashwin Kumar; Tewari, Surya P; Kumar Gundawar, Manoj

    2012-03-20

    Despite the intrinsic elemental analysis capability and lack of sample preparation requirements, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has not been extensively used for real-world applications, e.g., quality assurance and process monitoring. Specifically, variability in sample, system, and experimental parameters in LIBS studies present a substantive hurdle for robust classification, even when standard multivariate chemometric techniques are used for analysis. Considering pharmaceutical sample investigation as an example, we propose the use of support vector machines (SVM) as a nonlinear classification method over conventional linear techniques such as soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA) and partial least-squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) for discrimination based on LIBS measurements. Using over-the-counter pharmaceutical samples, we demonstrate that the application of SVM enables statistically significant improvements in prospective classification accuracy (sensitivity), because of its ability to address variability in LIBS sample ablation and plasma self-absorption behavior. Furthermore, our results reveal that SVM provides nearly 10% improvement in correct allocation rate and a concomitant reduction in misclassification rates of 75% (cf. PLS-DA) and 80% (cf. SIMCA)-when measurements from samples not included in the training set are incorporated in the test data-highlighting its robustness. While further studies on a wider matrix of sample types performed using different LIBS systems is needed to fully characterize the capability of SVM to provide superior predictions, we anticipate that the improved sensitivity and robustness observed here will facilitate application of the proposed LIBS-SVM toolbox for screening drugs and detecting counterfeit samples, as well as in related areas of forensic and biological sample analysis.

  8. The effect of bacterial environmental and metabolic stresses on a laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) based identification of Escherichia coli and Streptococcus viridans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mohaidat, Qassem; Palchaudhuri, Sunil; Rehse, Steven J

    2011-04-01

    In this paper we investigate the effect that adverse environmental and metabolic stresses have on the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) identification of bacterial specimens. Single-pulse LIBS spectra were acquired from a non-pathogenic strain of Escherichia coli cultured in two different nutrient media: a trypticase soy agar and a MacConkey agar with a 0.01% concentration of deoxycholate. A chemometric discriminant function analysis showed that the LIBS spectra acquired from bacteria grown in these two media were indistinguishable and easily discriminated from spectra acquired from two other non-pathogenic E. coli strains. LIBS spectra were obtained from specimens of a nonpathogenic E. coli strain and an avirulent derivative of the pathogen Streptococcus viridans in three different metabolic situations: live bacteria reproducing in the log-phase, bacteria inactivated on an abiotic surface by exposure to bactericidal ultraviolet irradiation, and bacteria killed via autoclaving. All bacteria were correctly identified regardless of their metabolic state. This successful identification suggests the possibility of testing specimens that have been rendered safe for handling prior to LIBS identification. This would greatly enhance personnel safety and lower the cost of a LIBS-based diagnostic test. LIBS spectra were obtained from pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria that were deprived of nutrition for a period of time ranging from one day to nine days by deposition on an abiotic surface at room temperature. All specimens were successfully classified by species regardless of the duration of nutrient deprivation. © 2011 Society for Applied Spectroscopy

  9. Depth-resolved multilayer pigment identification in paintings: combined use of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and optical coherence tomography (OCT).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaszewska, Ewa A; Sylwestrzak, Marcin; Marczak, Jan; Skrzeczanowski, Wojciech; Iwanicka, Magdalena; Szmit-Naud, Elżbieta; Anglos, Demetrios; Targowski, Piotr

    2013-08-01

    A detailed feasibility study on the combined use of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy with optical coherence tomography (LIBS/OCT), aiming at a realistic depth-resolved elemental analysis of multilayer stratigraphies in paintings, is presented. Merging a high spectral resolution LIBS system with a high spatial resolution spectral OCT instrument significantly enhances the quality and accuracy of stratigraphic analysis. First, OCT mapping is employed prior to LIBS analysis in order to assist the selection of specific areas of interest on the painting surface to be examined in detail. Then, intertwined with LIBS, the OCT instrument is used as a precise profilometer for the online determination of the depth of the ablation crater formed by individual laser pulses during LIBS depth-profile analysis. This approach is novel and enables (i) the precise in-depth scaling of elemental concentration profiles, and (ii) the recognition of layer boundaries by estimating the corresponding differences in material ablation rate. Additionally, the latter is supported, within the transparency of the object, by analysis of the OCT cross-sectional views. The potential of this method is illustrated by presenting results on the detailed analysis of the structure of an historic painting on canvas performed to aid planned restoration of the artwork.

  10. Evaluation of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for measurement of silica on filter samples of coal dust.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stipe, Christopher B; Miller, Arthur L; Brown, Jonathan; Guevara, Edward; Cauda, Emanuele

    2012-11-01

    Airborne silica dust (quartz) is common in coal mines and represents a respiratory hazard that can lead to silicosis, a potentially fatal lung disease. With an eye toward developing a portable monitoring device for rapid analysis of silica dust, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was used to quantify quartz in coal dust samples collected on filter media. Pure silica (Min-U-Sil™ 5), Georgia kaolin, and Pittsburgh-4 and Illinois-6 coal dusts were deposited separately and at multiple mass loadings onto 37-mm polyvinylchloride (PVC) filters. LIBS-generated silicon emission was monitored at 288.16 nm, and non-silica contributions to that signal from kaolinite were removed by simultaneously detecting aluminum. Measurements of the four samples were used to calculate limits of detection (LOD) for silicon and aluminum of approximately 0.08 μg/cm(2) and 0.05 μg/cm(2), respectively (corresponding to 0.16 μg/cm(2) and 0.20 μg/cm(2) for silica and kaolinite, respectively). Relative errors of prediction are around 10%. Results demonstrate that LIBS can dependably quantify silica on filter samples of coal dust and confirm that accurate quantification can be achieved for very lightly loaded samples, which supports the potential application of LIBS for rapid, in-field monitoring.

  11. Determination of Rare Earth Elements in Geological Samples Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhatt, Chet R; Jain, Jinesh C; Goueguel, Christian L; McIntyre, Dustin L; Singh, Jagdish P

    2018-01-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) was used to detect rare earth elements (REEs) in natural geological samples. Low and high intensity emission lines of Ce, La, Nd, Y, Pr, Sm, Eu, Gd, and Dy were identified in the spectra recorded from the samples to claim the presence of these REEs. Multivariate analysis was executed by developing partial least squares regression (PLS-R) models for the quantification of Ce, La, and Nd. Analysis of unknown samples indicated that the prediction results of these samples were found comparable to those obtained by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry analysis. Data support that LIBS has potential to quantify REEs in geological minerals/ores.

  12. A matrix effect and accuracy evaluation for the determination of elements in milk powder LIBS and laser ablation/ICP-OES spectrometry.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gilon, N; El-Haddad, J; Stankova, A; Lei, W; Ma, Q; Motto-Ros, V; Yu, J

    2011-11-01

    Laser ablation coupled to inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (LA-ICP-OES) and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) were investigated for the determination of Ca, Mg, Zn and Na in milk samples. The accuracy of both methods was evaluated by comparison of the concentration found using LA-ICP-OES and LIBS with classical wet digestion associated with ICP-OES determination. The results were not fully acceptable, with biases from less than 1% to more than 60%. Matrix effects were also investigated. The sample matrix can influence the temperature, electron number density (n (e)) and other excitation characteristics in the ICP. These ICP characteristics were studied and evaluated during ablation of eight milk samples. Differences in n (e) (from 8.9 to 13.8 × 10(14) cm(-3)) and rotational temperature (ranging from 3,400 to 4,400 K) occurred with no correlation with trueness. LIBS results obtained after classical external calibration procedure gave degraded accuracy, indicating a strong matrix effect. The LIBS measurements clearly showed that the major problem in LA-ICP was related to the ablation process and that LIBS spectroscopy is an excellent diagnostic tool for LA-ICP techniques.

  13. Applicability of Machine-Learning Enabled LIBS in Post Irradiation Nuclear Forensic Analysis of High Level Nuclear Waste

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Onkongi, J.; Maina, D.; Angeyo, H. K.

    2017-01-01

    Nuclear Forensics seeks Information to determine; Chemical Composition, Routes of transit, Origin (Provenance) and Intended use. Post Irradiation/Post detonation NF In a post-detonation event could you get clues/signatures from glass debris, minute sample sizes? Nuclear Forensic Technique Should be State-of -the art that is Rapid, Non-invasive, Remote ability and Non-destructive. Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) unlike other Analytic Techniques that require tedious sample preparations such as Dissolution, digestion & matrix removal, which generate additional nuclear wastes that require proper Procedures for handling, storage & ultimate disposal, LIBS overcomes these limitations. Utility of Machine Learning Techniques employed include; Artificial Neural Networks, ANN (Regression/Modelling), Principal component Analysis, PCA (Classification) and Support Vector Machine SVM (Comparative study/Classification Machine Learning coupled with LIBS gives a state of the art analytic method. Utility of the technic in safeguards security and non-proliferation

  14. Fabrication of Si negative electrodes for Li-ion batteries (LIBs) using cross-linked polymer binders.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jang, Suk-Yong; Han, Sien-Ho

    2016-12-19

    Currently, Si as an active material for LIBs has been attracting much attention due to its high theoretical specific capacity (3572 mAh g -1 ). However, a disadvantage when using a Si negative electrode for LIBs is the abrupt drop of its capabilities during the cycling process. Therefore, there have been a few studies of polymers such as poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVdF), carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) and polyacrylic acid (PAA) given that the robust structure of a polymeric binder to LIBs anodes is a promising means by which to enhance the performance of high-capacity anodes. These studies essentially focused mainly on modifying of the linear-polymer component or on copolymers dissolved in solvents. Cross-linking polymers as a binder may be preferred due to their good scratch resistance, excellent chemical resistance and high levels of adhesion and resilience. However, because these types of polymers (with a rigid structure and cross-linking points) are also insoluble in general organic solvents, applying these types in this capacity is virtually impossible.

  15. Partial Least Squares and Neural Networks for Quantitative Calibration of Laser-induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBs) of Geologic Samples

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, R. B.; Morris, Richard V.; Clegg, S. M.; Humphries, S. D.; Wiens, R. C.; Bell, J. F., III; Mertzman, S. A.

    2010-01-01

    The ChemCam instrument [1] on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover will be used to obtain the chemical composition of surface targets within 7 m of the rover using Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS). ChemCam analyzes atomic emission spectra (240-800 nm) from a plasma created by a pulsed Nd:KGW 1067 nm laser. The LIBS spectra can be used in a semiquantitative way to rapidly classify targets (e.g., basalt, andesite, carbonate, sulfate, etc.) and in a quantitative way to estimate their major and minor element chemical compositions. Quantitative chemical analysis from LIBS spectra is complicated by a number of factors, including chemical matrix effects [2]. Recent work has shown promising results using multivariate techniques such as partial least squares (PLS) regression and artificial neural networks (ANN) to predict elemental abundances in samples [e.g. 2-6]. To develop, refine, and evaluate analysis schemes for LIBS spectra of geologic materials, we collected spectra of a diverse set of well-characterized natural geologic samples and are comparing the predictive abilities of PLS, cascade correlation ANN (CC-ANN) and multilayer perceptron ANN (MLP-ANN) analysis procedures.

  16. Determination of the penetration hardness and analysis of stainless steel alloys by means of Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    mohamad Vahid Dastjerdi

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available A significant feature of alloys is the surfaces hardness that is always accompanied by challenges when it’s measured by common mechanical techniques. In this investigation, we used Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS as a replacement method for common mechanical techniques to measure the surfaces hardness of different alloys. After recording the spectrum of alloy samples in order to identify the surface hardness of analyzed sample, K-Nearest Neighbors method (KNN was used and obtained results showed that the LIBS-KNN method can separate and identify the surfaces hardness of samples with precision of 93.3%. In addition, in order to identify the percentage of constituent elements of alloys and their hardness, calibration approach was investigated that showed there is an appropriate linear relation between recorded emission lines from the LIB spectra of sample alloys and the percentage of their constituent elements and also their Vickers hardness numbers. Therefore, According to exclusive advantages of LIBS technique i.e. high speed analysis, non-destructive analysis and being portable, some of available difficulties in conventional mechanical techniques can be removed.

  17. Rapid analysis of pharmaceutical drugs using LIBS coupled with multivariate analysis.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tiwari, P K; Awasthi, S; Kumar, R; Anand, R K; Rai, P K; Rai, A K

    2018-02-01

    Type 2 diabetes drug tablets containing voglibose having dose strengths of 0.2 and 0.3 mg of various brands have been examined, using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique. The statistical methods such as the principal component analysis (PCA) and the partial least square regression analysis (PLSR) have been employed on LIBS spectral data for classifying and developing the calibration models of drug samples. We have developed the ratio-based calibration model applying PLSR in which relative spectral intensity ratios H/C, H/N and O/N are used. Further, the developed model has been employed to predict the relative concentration of element in unknown drug samples. The experiment has been performed in air and argon atmosphere, respectively, and the obtained results have been compared. The present model provides rapid spectroscopic method for drug analysis with high statistical significance for online control and measurement process in a wide variety of pharmaceutical industrial applications.

  18. Different milk feeding intensities during the first 4 weeks of rearing in dairy calves: Part 1: Effects on performance and production from birth over the first lactation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Korst, M; Koch, C; Kesser, J; Müller, U; Romberg, F-J; Rehage, J; Eder, K; Sauerwein, H

    2017-04-01

    We aimed to test the effects of ad libitum feeding of whole milk (WM) or milk replacer (MR) versus restrictive feeding of MR during the first 4 wk of life on growth performance and on milk yield in the first lactation. We studied 57 German Holstein calves (29 females, 28 males) from birth until d 110 of life (trial 1). The 28 females from trial 1 were further studied during their first lactation (trial 2). In trial 1, all calves were randomly allocated at birth to 1 of 3 groups: MR-res [n = 20, 6.78 kg MR (11.5% solids)/calf per day], MR-ad lib (n = 17, 13.8% solids) or WM-ad lib (n = 20). All calves received colostrum ad libitum from their dam until d 3 of age. From d 4 to 27, calves were fed according to their group regimen. From d 28 to 55, all calves received MR-res feeding and were then gradually weaned until d 69. We recorded body weight (until d 110) and feed intake (amount, metabolizable energy, and frequency of liquid feed intake until weaning). We estimated the profitability of the different feeding regimens, taking into account income from milk yield (trial 2) and feed costs during rearing. In trial 1, the calves from WM-ad lib and MR-ad lib had total metabolizable energy intakes 2.02- and 1.65-fold greater than the MR-res group during the first 4 wk of life. During this period, concentrate intake did not differ among groups, but tended to be greater in WM-ad lib than in MR-ad lib calves from d 28 to 69. The MR-res calves visited the automatic feeders more often than the ad libitum-fed groups during differential feeding, but 70% of the visits were unrewarded (calves). When all calves were fed at the MR-res level, the average proportion of unrewarded visits was 65% in all groups. Average daily gain and body weight were greater among MR-ad lib and WM-ad lib calves than among MR-res animals during the first 4 wk of life, but not from d 1 to 110. In trial 2, age at first calving, dry matter intake, and body weight over the first 10 mo of lactation were not

  19. Calibration-free quantitative analysis of elemental ratios in intermetallic nanoalloys and nanocomposites using Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Davari, Seyyed Ali; Hu, Sheng; Mukherjee, Dibyendu

    2017-03-01

    Intermetallic nanoalloys (NAs) and nanocomposites (NCs) have increasingly gained prominence as efficient catalytic materials in electrochemical energy conversion and storage systems. But their morphology and chemical compositions play critical role in tuning their catalytic activities, and precious metal contents. While advanced microscopy techniques facilitate morphological characterizations, traditional chemical characterizations are either qualitative or extremely involved. In this study, we apply Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) for quantitative compositional analysis of NAs and NCs synthesized with varied elemental ratios by our in-house built pulsed laser ablation technique. Specifically, elemental ratios of binary PtNi, PdCo (NAs) and PtCo (NCs) of different compositions are determined from LIBS measurements employing an internal calibration scheme using the bulk matrix species as internal standards. Morphology and qualitative elemental compositions of the aforesaid NAs and NCs are confirmed from Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) images and Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX) measurements. LIBS experiments are carried out in ambient conditions with the NA and NC samples drop cast on silicon wafers after centrifugation to increase their concentrations. The technique does not call for cumbersome sample preparations including acid digestions and external calibration standards commonly required in Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) techniques. Yet the quantitative LIBS results are in good agreement with the results from ICP-OES measurements. Our results indicate the feasibility of using LIBS in future for rapid and in-situ quantitative chemical characterizations of wide classes of synthesized NAs and NCs. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  20. Identifikasi Unsur Radioaktif Pada Batako Ringan Aerasi Citicon Dengan Metode Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Wahyulianti Wahyulianti

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Research has been done to identify the radioactive elements in the Citicon aerated lightweight concrete block sample. In this research used a Citicon aerated lightweight concrete block as a sample with 1 cm x 3 cm in size and identification process used LIBS method. Radioactive elements identified in Citicon aerated lightweight concrete block the LIBS method were Th, Ra, and K. The number of photon emission intensity at the wavelength of each element is 396.710 nm, 620.033 nm, and 766.497 nm respectively by 62.33 a.u, 1.67 a.u, and 72.75 a.u.

  1. Single-shot LIBS spectral quality for waste particles in open air

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Xia, H.; Bakker, M.C.M.

    2015-01-01

    This work investigates the ability of LIBS to produce quality spectra from small particles of concrete demolition waste using single-shot spectra collected in open air. The 2–8?mm materials are rounded river gravel, green glass shards, and plastic flakes. Considered are focal length, air, moisture,

  2. Moon4You : a combined Raman/LIBS instrument for lunar exploration

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Laan, E.C.; Ahlers, B.; Westrenen, W.V.; Heiligers, J.; Wielders, A.

    2009-01-01

    Moon4You is a project led by the Dutch Organisation for Applied Scientific Research TNO, with partners from industry and universities in the Netherlands that aims to provide a combined Raman/LIBS instrument as scientific payload for lunar exploration missions. It is the first time that Raman

  3. Moon4You: A combined Raman / LIBS instrument for lunar exploration

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Laan, E.C.; Ahlers, B.; van Westrenen, W.; Heiligers, J.; Wielders, A.

    2009-01-01

    Moon4You is a project led by the Dutch Organisation for Applied Scientific Research TNO, with partners from industry and universities in the Netherlands that aims to provide a combined Raman/LIBS instrument as scientific payload for lunar exploration missions. It is the first time that Raman

  4. arriba-lib: evaluation of an electronic library of decision aids in primary care physicians

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hirsch Oliver

    2012-06-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Background The successful implementation of decision aids in clinical practice initially depends on how clinicians perceive them. Relatively little is known about the acceptance of decision aids by physicians and factors influencing the implementation of decision aids from their point of view. Our electronic library of decision aids (arriba-lib is to be used within the encounter and has a modular structure containing evidence-based decision aids for the following topics: cardiovascular prevention, atrial fibrillation, coronary heart disease, oral antidiabetics, conventional and intensified insulin therapy, and unipolar depression. The aim of our study was to evaluate the acceptance of arriba-lib in primary care physicians. Methods We conducted an evaluation study in which 29 primary care physicians included 192 patients. The physician questionnaire contained information on which module was used, how extensive steps of the shared decision making process were discussed, who made the decision, and a subjective appraisal of consultation length. We used generalised estimation equations to measure associations within patient variables and traditional crosstab analyses. Results Only a minority of consultations (8.9% was considered to be unacceptably extended. In 90.6% of consultations, physicians said that a decision could be made. A shared decision was perceived by physicians in 57.1% of consultations. Physicians said that a decision was more likely to be made when therapeutic options were discussed “detailed”. Prior experience with decision aids was not a critical variable for implementation within our sample of primary care physicians. Conclusions Our study showed that it might be feasible to apply our electronic library of decision aids (arriba-lib in the primary care context. Evidence-based decision aids offer support for physicians in the management of medical information. Future studies should monitor the long-term adoption of

  5. Proteomic analysis of fetal programming-related obesity markers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Ji Hye; Yoo, Jae Young; You, Young-Ah; Kwon, Woo-Sung; Lee, Sang Mi; Pang, Myung-Geol; Kim, Young Ju

    2015-08-01

    The objectives of this study were to analyze fetal programming in rat brain using proteomic analysis and to identify fetal programming-related obesity markers. Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into four feeding groups: (i) the Ad Libitum (AdLib)/AdLib group was given a normal diet during pregnancy and the lactation period; (ii) the AdLib/maternal food restriction group (FR) was subjected to 50% FR during the lactation period; (iii) the FR/AdLib group was subjected to 50% FR during pregnancy; and (iv) the FR/FR group was subjected to 50% FR during pregnancy and the lactation period. Offspring from each group were sacrificed at 3 weeks of age and whole brains were dissected. To obtain a maximum number of protein markers related to obesity, 2DE and Pathway Studio bioinformatics analysis were performed. The identities of the markers among the selected and candidate proteins were confirmed by Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. Proteomic and bioinformatics analyses revealed that expression of ubiquitin carboxy-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCHL1) and Secernin 1 (SCRN1) were significantly different in the FR/AdLib group compared with the AdLib/AdLib group for both male and female offspring. These findings suggest that UCHL1 and SCRN1 may be used as fetal programming-related obesity markers. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  6. Quantitative feed restriction of Pekin breeder ducks from 3 weeks of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    giving some idea of the physiological phenomena that accompany feed restriction. Ses manlike en 24 vroulike Cherry Valley Pekineendjies is ... bepaaI. Die drie behandelings was as volg: 50% van ad lib.-inname vanaf 3 tot 20 weke; 50% van ad lib. inname vanaf 8 tot 20 weke; en ad lib. inname vir die volle periode.

  7. Long-Wave Infrared (LWIR) Molecular Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) Emissions of Thin Solid Explosive Powder Films Deposited on Aluminum Substrates.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Clayton S-C; Jin, Feng; Trivedi, Sudhir B; Brown, Ei E; Hommerich, Uwe; Tripathi, Ashish; Samuels, Alan C

    2017-04-01

    Thin solid films made of high nitro (NO 2 )/nitrate (NO 3 ) content explosives were deposited on sand-blasted aluminum substrates and then studied using a mercury-cadmium-telluride (MCT) linear array detection system that is capable of rapidly capturing a broad spectrum of atomic and molecular laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) emissions in the long-wave infrared region (LWIR; ∼5.6-10 µm). Despite the similarities of their chemical compositions and structures, thin films of three commonly used explosives (RDX, HMX, and PETN) studied in this work can be rapidly identified in the ambient air by their molecular LIBS emission signatures in the LWIR region. A preliminary assessment of the detection limit for a thin film of RDX on aluminum appears to be much lower than 60 µg/cm 2 . This LWIR LIBS setup is capable of rapidly probing and charactering samples without the need for elaborate sample preparation and also offers the possibility of a simultaneous ultraviolet visible and LWIR LIBS measurement.

  8. Direct Determination of Contaminants and Major and Minor Nutrients in Solid Fertilizers Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Andrade, Daniel F; Pereira-Filho, Edenir Rodrigues

    2016-10-11

    Contaminants (Cd, Cr, and Pb) as well as minor (B, Cu, Mn, Na, and Zn) and major (Ca and Mg) elements were directly determined in solid fertilizer samples using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). Factorial designs were used to define the most appropriate LIBS parameters and pellet pressure on solid fertilizers. Emission lines for all of the analytes were collected and employed 12 signal normalization modes. The best results were obtained using a laser energy of 75 mJ, a spot size of 50 μm, a pressure of 10 t/in., and a delay of 2.0 μs. Good correlation was obtained between the calibration model's prediction using the proposed LIBS method and the reference values obtained with ICP-OES. The limits of detection (LOD) for the proposed method varied from 2 mg/kg (for Cd) to 1% (for Zn).

  9. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of milk for the detection of adulteration by Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moncayo, S; Manzoor, S; Rosales, J D; Anzano, J; Caceres, J O

    2017-10-01

    The present work focuses on the development of a fast and cost effective method based on Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) to the quality control, traceability and detection of adulteration in milk. Two adulteration cases have been studied; a qualitative analysis for the discrimination between different milk blends and quantification of melamine in adulterated toddler milk powder. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and neural networks (NN) have been used to analyze LIBS spectra obtaining a correct classification rate of 98% with a 100% of robustness. For the quantification of melamine, two methodologies have been developed; univariate analysis using CN emission band and multivariate calibration NN model obtaining correlation coefficient (R 2 ) values of 0.982 and 0.999 respectively. The results of the use of LIBS technique coupled with chemometric analysis are discussed in terms of its potential use in the food industry to perform the quality control of this dairy product. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  10. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for rapid analysis of ash, potassium and magnesium in gluten free flours.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Markiewicz-Keszycka, Maria; Casado-Gavalda, Maria P; Cama-Moncunill, Xavier; Cama-Moncunill, Raquel; Dixit, Yash; Cullen, Patrick J; Sullivan, Carl

    2018-04-01

    Gluten free (GF) diets are prone to mineral deficiency, thus effective monitoring of the elemental composition of GF products is important to ensure a balanced micronutrient diet. The objective of this study was to test the potential of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) analysis combined with chemometrics for at-line monitoring of ash, potassium and magnesium content of GF flours: tapioca, potato, maize, buckwheat, brown rice and a GF flour mixture. Concentrations of ash, potassium and magnesium were determined with reference methods and LIBS. PCA analysis was performed and presented the potential for discrimination of the six GF flours. For the quantification analysis PLSR models were developed; R 2 cal were 0.99 for magnesium and potassium and 0.97 for ash. The study revealed that LIBS combined with chemometrics is a convenient method to quantify concentrations of ash, potassium and magnesium and present the potential to classify different types of flours. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  11. Good practices in LIBS analysis: Review and advices

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    El Haddad, J.; Canioni, L.; Bousquet, B., E-mail: bruno.bousquet@u-bordeaux.fr

    2014-11-01

    This paper presents a review on the analytical results obtained by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). In the first part, results on identification and classification of samples are presented including the risk of misclassification, and in the second part, results on concentration measurement based on calibration are accompanied with significant figures of merit including the concept of accuracy. Both univariate and multivariate approaches are discussed with special emphasis on the methodology, the way of presenting the results and the assessment of the methods. Finally, good practices are proposed for both classification and concentration measurement.

  12. Good practices in LIBS analysis: Review and advices

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    El Haddad, J.; Canioni, L.; Bousquet, B.

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents a review on the analytical results obtained by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). In the first part, results on identification and classification of samples are presented including the risk of misclassification, and in the second part, results on concentration measurement based on calibration are accompanied with significant figures of merit including the concept of accuracy. Both univariate and multivariate approaches are discussed with special emphasis on the methodology, the way of presenting the results and the assessment of the methods. Finally, good practices are proposed for both classification and concentration measurement

  13. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of human nails to find correlation between nutrients and vitamin D deficiency using LIBS and ICP-AES.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Almessiere, M A; Altuwiriqi, R; Gondal, M A; AlDakheel, R K; Alotaibi, H F

    2018-08-01

    In this work, we analysed human fingernails of people who suffer from vitamin D deficiency using the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS) and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES)techniques. The measurements have been conducted on 71 nail samples collected randomly from volunteers of different genders and ages ranged between 20 and 50 years. The main aim of this study is to find the correlation between vitamin D deficiency and the intensity of some dominated lines in the LIBS spectra. A LIBS spectrum consists of dominant lines of fifteen elements including calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, titanium, iron, chloride, sulphur, copper, chromium, zinc, nitrogen, phosphor, and oxygen. By recording the spectrum in specific ranges and focusing on calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium, we found a correlation between the intensity of the potassium (K) lines at (766.5 and 769.9 nm)and vitamin D level in both age groups (20 and 25 years old), with weak correlation for the calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sodium (Na) lines. To verify the validity of the LIBS results, we analysed the nail samples with ICP, a standard analytical technique. The elements detected with our LIBS technique are in a good agreement with those identified by ICP-AES. From the health and physiological perspectives, the LIBS system, which is used for spectral analysis in this work, is appropriate for diagnostic purposes such as to find the correlation between vitamin D deficiency and potassium content, especially for hypertensive patients who simultaneously take potassium-based medication and vitamin D supplement. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. Navázání svazku Ti:Sa laseru do interakční komory v sestavě LIBS+LIFS

    OpenAIRE

    Vémola, Tomáš

    2009-01-01

    Práce se zabývá problematikou navázání svazku Ti:Safírového laseru do interakní komory v soustavě LIBS+LIFS. Cílem je navrhnout optickou soustavu s požadovanými vlastnostmi. Součástí práce je i teoretický popis základních principů atomové spektroskopie s důrazem na metodu LIBS+LIFS. In this work, the problem of focusing Ti:Sapphire laser beam into LIBS+LIFS interaction chamber is resolved. The task is to design an optical setup with demanded properties. Short theoretical description of the...

  15. Effect of self-absorption correction on surface hardness estimation of Fe-Cr-Ni alloys via LIBS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramezanian, Zahra; Darbani, Seyyed Mohammad Reza; Majd, Abdollah Eslami

    2017-08-20

    The effect of self-absorption was investigated on the estimation of surface hardness of Fe-Cr-Ni metallic alloys by the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique. For this purpose, the linear relationship between the ratio of chromium ionic to atomic line intensities (CrII/CrI) and surface hardness was studied, both before and after correcting the self-absorption effect. The correlation coefficient significantly increased from 47% to 90% after self-absorption correction. The results showed the measurements of surface hardness using LIBS can be more accurate and valid by correcting the self-absorption effect.

  16. Detection of heavy metals in soils by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sirven, Jean-Baptiste

    2006-01-01

    In the fields of analysis, control and physical measurement, the laser constitutes a particularly powerful and multi-purpose metrological tool, capable to bring concrete solutions to various matters, including of a societal nature. Among the latter, contamination of sites and soils by heavy metals is an important issue of public health which requires to have measurement means adapted to existing regulations and whose use be sufficiently flexible. As a fast technique which does not need any sample preparation, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) offers very interesting advantages for making on-site measurements of heavy metals content at the 10-ppm level; the design of a portable system is conceivable in the medium term. In this work we first show that the femtosecond regime presents no advantages with respect to the standard nanosecond regime for our issue. Then we implement an advanced treatment of LIBS spectra by chemometric techniques whose performances significantly improve the results of qualitative and quantitative analyses of soils samples. (author)

  17. The extraction and determination of free lithium in Li-B alloys

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kilroy, W.P.; Angres, I.

    1979-01-01

    Extraction of the lithium phase from lithium-rich Li-B alloys was achieved by reaction of the alloy with dry naphthalene dissolved in anhydrous tetrahydrofuran. The resulting radical anion was hydrolyzed and the lithium was determined by potentiometric titration from the moles of hydroxide formed. The composition of the Lisub(x)Bsub(y) residue was determined by difference. (Auth.)

  18. Education et Libération

    CERN Multimedia

    Jean-Pierre Lagnaux

    2013-01-01

    Vente d’artisanat du Tiers Monde Jeudi 23 et vendredi 24 mai 2013 CERN, Bâtiment principal Togo, Ecole Arc en ciel, construction des salles de classe. Appel pour le financement de ce chantier afin de libérer l’école de la charge des loyers payés pendant des années. Après nos réalisations en Amérique latine et au Bénin, nous mobilisons nos efforts pour l’école Arc en ciel de Kpeme, au Togo, sur les bords de l’Océan, à mi-chemin entre Lome et la frontière entre le Bénin et le Togo. Il s’agit d’une école primaire privée, laïque qui a très bonne réputation en termes de résultats, notamment pour les écoliers  en fin de scolarité primaire. Cela fait plusieurs années déjà que no...

  19. Development of a compact underwater laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) system and preliminary results in sea trials.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, Jinjia; Lu, Yuan; Cheng, Kai; Song, Jiaojian; Ye, Wangquan; Li, Nan; Zheng, Ronger

    2017-10-10

    The exploitation and research of deep-sea hydrothermal vent has been an issue of great interest in ocean research in recent years. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has great potential for ocean application due to the capabilities of stand-off, multiphase, and multielement analysis. In this work, a newly developed compact 4000 m rated LIBS system (LIBSea) is introduced with preliminary results of sea trials. The underwater system consists of an Nd:YAG single-pulsed laser operating at 1064 nm, an optical fiber spectrometer, an optics module, and an electronic controller module. The whole system is housed in an L800  mm×ϕ258  mm pressure housing with an optical window on the end cap. It was deployed on the remote operated vehicle Faxian on the research vessel Kexue, and in June 2015 was successfully applied for hydrothermal field measurements at the Manus area. The obtained results are shown that the LIBS system is capable of detecting elements Li, Na, K, Ca, and Mg in the hydrothermal area. Profiles of LIBS signals of elements K and Ca have also been obtained during the sea trial. The results show that the K emission line is gradually broadened with depth from sea surface to sea floor (1800 m or so); the K intensity shows a hump shape with maximum value at about 1050 m. The Ca emission line is rapidly broadened below 400 m and slowly narrowed to the sea floor; the Ca intensity shows no obvious change below 400 m and increases continuously to sea floor. A very interesting finding is that the small fluctuations of intensity profile curve of Ca show a degree of correlation with seawater temperature change. The sea trial results prove the performance of LIBSea. After further optimization, it is hoped to apply the LIBS system to the in situ mineral deposits and hydrothermal vent fluid detection in deep sea.

  20. Mixed Methods Not Mixed Messages: Improving LibGuides with Student Usability Data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nora Almeida

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Objective – This article describes a mixed methods usability study of research guides created using the LibGuides 2.0 platform conducted in 2016 at an urban, public university library. The goal of the study was to translate user design and learning modality preferences into executable design principles, and ultimately to improve the design and usage of LibGuides at the New York City College of Technology Library. Methods – User-centred design demands that stakeholders participate in each stage of an application’s development and that assumptions about user design preferences are validated through testing. Methods used for this usability study include: a task analysis on paper prototypes with a think aloud protocol (TAP, an advanced scribbling technique modeled on the work of Linek and Tochtermann (2015, and semi-structured interviews. The authors introduce specifics of each protocol in addition to data collection and analysis methods. Results – The authors present quantitative and qualitative student feedback on navigation layouts, terminology, and design elements and discuss concrete institutional and technical measures they will take to implement best practices. Additionally, the authors discuss students’ impressions of multimedia, text-based, and interactive instructional content in relation to specific research scenarios defined during the usability test. Conclusion – The authors translate study findings into best practices that can be incorporated into custom user-centric LibGuide templates and assets. The authors also discuss relevant correlations between students’ learning modality preferences and design feedback, and identify several areas that warrant further research. The authors believe this study will spark a larger discussion about relationships between instructional design, learning modalities, and research guide use contexts.

  1. New ways for the quantification by the laser-induced plasma spectroscopy; Neue Wege zur Quantifizierung mit der laserinduzierten Plasmaspektroskopie (LIBS)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mueller, Maike

    2010-04-27

    Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is capable of a fast and multielement analysis of various samples types and matrices which makes the method particularly attractive for industrial process analysis. However, for LIBS to become well accepted as an analytical method some issues in calibration and understanding of the underlying transient plasma processes have to be solved. The objective of this work was to identify influential instrumental parameters and plasma conditions in order to improve the overall quantitative performance of LIBS. As the spectral sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio of the detector represents a decisive element for the application of LIBS in an industrial environment, two detectors, an ICCD and CCD camera, were compared. In combination with a high-resolution echelle spectrograph, the superior or at least equivalent efficiency of the non-intensified CCD was experimentally demonstrated and supported by corresponding plasma simulations. Further investigations of the plasma expansion under different atmospheric conditions revealed that the geometry of observing the expanding plasma influences the sensitivity and reproducibility of the measurements considerably. The diagnostics of self-absorbed spectral lines and their use for calibration purposes were studied with a mirror-based duplication method and a statistical line shape analysis employing linear correlation. The linear correlation approach displayed good performance for identifying the on-set of self absorption in comparison to the duplication method. As matrixmatched reference materials are essential to validate laser ablation methods, two novel preparations of individual calibration standards based on a copper-and polyacrylamide matrix were tested for their applicability to LIBS. (orig.)

  2. LIB LAB the Library Laboratory: hands-on multimedia science communication

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fillo, Aaron; Niemeyer, Kyle

    2017-11-01

    Teaching scientific research topics to K-12 audiences in an engaging and meaningful way does not need to be hard; with the right insight and techniques it can be fun to encourage self-guided STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) exploration. LIB LAB, short for Library Laboratory, is an educational video series produced by Aaron J. Fillo at Oregon State University in partnership with the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library targeted at K-12 students. Each episode explores a variety of scientific fundamentals with playful experiments and demonstrations. The video lessons are developed using evidence-based practices such as dispelling misconceptions, and language immersion. Each video includes directions for a related experiment that young viewers can conduct at home. In addition, science kits for these at-home experiments are distributed for free to students through the public library network in Benton County, Oregon. This talk will focus on the development of multimedia science education tools and several techniques that scientists can use to engage with a broad audience more effectively. Using examples from the LIB LAB YouTube Channel and collection of hands-on science demonstrations and take-home kits, this talk will present STEAM education in action. Corvallis-Benton County Public Library.

  3. Qualitative Analysis of Dairy and Powder Milk Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alfarraj, Bader A; Sanghapi, Herve K; Bhatt, Chet R; Yueh, Fang Y; Singh, Jagdish P

    2018-01-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique was used to compare various types of commercial milk products. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy spectra were investigated for the determination of the elemental composition of soy and rice milk powder, dairy milk, and lactose-free dairy milk. The analysis was performed using radiative transitions. Atomic emissions from Ca, K, Na, and Mg lines observed in LIBS spectra of dairy milk were compared. In addition, proteins and fat level in milks can be determined using molecular emissions such as CN bands. Ca concentrations were calculated to be 2.165 ± 0.203 g/L in 1% of dairy milk fat samples and 2.809 ± 0.172 g/L in 2% of dairy milk fat samples using the standard addition method (SAM) with LIBS spectra. Univariate and multivariate statistical analysis methods showed that the contents of major mineral elements were higher in lactose-free dairy milk than those in dairy milk. The principal component analysis (PCA) method was used to discriminate four milk samples depending on their mineral elements concentration. In addition, proteins and fat level in dairy milks were determined using molecular emissions such as CN band. We applied partial least squares regression (PLSR) and simple linear regression (SLR) models to predict levels of milk fat in dairy milk samples. The PLSR model was successfully used to predict levels of milk fat in dairy milk sample with the relative accuracy (RA%) less than 6.62% using CN (0,0) band.

  4. Entwicklung der Reglementierung von 10 MEM-Berufen im Kontext von Bildungsreformen und dem Wandel in der Arbeitswelt: Eine Kurzstudie im Auftrag von LIBS: Eine Kurzstudie im Auftrag von LIBS Industrielle Berufslehren Schweiz, Baden

    OpenAIRE

    Egg, Maria Esther; Renold, Ursula

    2015-01-01

    Im Auftrag der LIBS Industrielle Berufslehren Schweiz, hat die KOF die Entwicklung von 10 MEM1-Berufsbildern seit dem ersten Berufsbildungsgesetz dargestellt und diese eingebettet in eine kurze Zusammenfassung der wichtigsten Etappenschritte des Schweizer Berufsbildungssystems.

  5. The determination of V and Mo by dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction (DLLME) combined with laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS)

    OpenAIRE

    Jesus, Amanda M. D. de; Aguirre Pastor, Miguel Ángel; Hidalgo Núñez, Montserrat; Canals Hernández, Antonio; Pereira-Filho, Edenir R.

    2014-01-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a promising analytical technique with well-known advantages and limitations. However, despite its growing popularity, this technique has been applied mainly to solid samples and there have been a smaller number of studies devoted to liquid samples. This lack of studies is mainly due to experimental difficulties in the analysis of liquid matrices. Sensitivity can be improved and matrix effects minimized in the LIBS analysis of aqueous samples by u...

  6. Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib.) de Bary: biology and molecular traits of a cosmopolitan pathogen

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bolton, M.D.; Thomma, B.P.H.J.; Nelson, B.D.

    2006-01-01

    Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (Lib.) de Bary is a necrotrophic fungal pathogen causing disease in a wide range of plants. This review summarizes current knowledge of mechanisms employed by the fungus to parasitize its host with emphasis on biology, physiology and molecular aspects of pathogenicity. In

  7. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to measure quantitatively soil carbon with emphasis on soil organic carbon. A review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Senesi, Giorgio S; Senesi, Nicola

    2016-09-28

    Soil organic carbon (OC) measurement is a crucial factor for quantifying soil C pools and inventories and monitoring the inherent temporal and spatial heterogeneity and changes of soil OC content. These are relevant issues in addressing sustainable management of terrestrial OC aiming to enhance C sequestration in soil, thus mitigating the impact of increasing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere and related effects on global climate change. Nowadays, dry combustion by an elemental analyzer or wet combustion by dichromate oxidation of the soil sample are the most recommended and commonly used methods for quantitative soil OC determination. However, the unanimously recognized uncertainties and limitations of these classical laboursome methods have prompted research efforts focusing on the development and application of more advanced and appealing techniques and methods for the measurement of soil OC in the laboratory and possibly in situ in the field. Among these laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has raised the highest interest for its unique advantages. After an introduction and a highlight of the LIBS basic principles, instrumentation, methodologies and supporting chemometric methods, the main body of this review provides an historical and critical overview of the developments and results obtained up-to-now by the application of LIBS to the quantitative measurement of soil C and especially OC content. A brief critical summary of LIBS advantages and limitations/drawbacks including some final remarks and future perspectives concludes this review. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  8. Determination of calcium to phosphate elemental ratio in natural hydroxypatite using LIBS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mazalan, Elham; Chaudhary, Kashif; Haider, Zuhaib; Hadi, Siti Fatimah Abd; Ali, Jalil

    2018-05-01

    In this work, laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is employed for determination of calcium to phosphate (Ca/P) ratio in hydroxyapatite (HA) extracted from animal bones. HA was extracted from the biological bones of lamb, bovine, and fish separately. Fresh bones were boiled in deuterium-depleted water (DDW) for 4 hours and immersed it in acetone for 15 hours followed by drying process in the oven. Dried bones were heated at 600 °C and crushed into powder form which was then mixed with potassium bromide (KBr) in a known quantity. The mixture for each sample was palletized into pellets of identical mass using a hydraulic press. The palletized samples of HA extracted from the bones were ablated with 10 ns Q-switched Nd-YAG laser pulses having an energy of 320 mJ/pulse. The optical emissions produced from the laser induced plasma were recorded. Ca and P emission lines are identified and the Ca/P is calculated. Ca/P ratio by LIBS analysis has been verified by EDX measurements and are found in good agreement.

  9. Controlled laser cleaning of artworks via low resolution LIBS and linear correlation analysis

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lentjes, M.; Dickmann, Klaus; Meijer, J.; Ostendof, A.; Hoult, A.; Lu, Y.

    2005-01-01

    Based on a fibre optic miniature spectrometer (spectral range 200-1100 nm, λ-resolution 2 nm) we have built up a LIBS-system (Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy) for online monitoring during laser cleaning of artworks. This system is unsuitable for high resolved elemental identification but is

  10. Calibration Transfer in LIBS and Raman Spectroscopy for Planetary Applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dyar, M. D.; Thomas, B. F.; Parente, M.; Gemp, I.; Mullen, T. H.

    2017-12-01

    Planetary scientists rely on spectral libraries and instrument reproducibility to interpret results from missions. Major investments have been made into assembling libraries, but they often naively assume that spectra of single crystals versus powders and from varying instruments will be the same. Calibration transfer (CT) seeks to algorithmically resolve discrepancies among datasets from different instruments or conditions. It offers the ability to align suites of spectra with a small number of common samples, allowing better models to be built with combined data sets. LIBS and Raman data present different challenges for CT. Quantitative geochemical analyses by LIBS spectroscopy are limited by lack of consistency among repeated laser shots and across instruments. Many different factors affect the presence/absence of emission lines and their intensities, such as laser power/plasma temperature, angle of incidence, detector sensitivity/resolution. To overcome these, models in which disparate datasets are projected into a joint low-dimensional subspace where all data can be aligned before quantitative analysis, such as Correlation Analysis for Domain Adaptation (CADA), have proven very effective. They require some overlap between the populations of spectra to be aligned. For example, prediction of SiO2 on 80 samples from two different LIBS labs show errors of ±16-29 wt.% when the training and test sets have no overlap, and ±4.94 wt% SiO2 when CADA is used. Uncorrected Earth-Mars spectral differences are likely to cause errors with the same order of magnitude. As with other types of reflectance spectroscopy, Raman data are plagued by differences among single crystal/powder samples and laser wavelength that affect peak intensities, and by spectral offsets from instruments with varying resolution and wavenumber alignment schemes. These problems persist even within the archetypal RRUFF database. Pre-processing transformation functions such as optimized baseline removal

  11. A Deep Learning Approach to LIBS Spectroscopy for Planetary Applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mullen, T. H.; Parente, M.; Gemp, I.; Dyar, M. D.

    2017-12-01

    The ChemCam instrument on the Curiousity rover has collected >440,000 laser-induced breakdown spectra (LIBS) from 1500 different geological targets since 2012. The team is using a pipeline of preprocessing and partial least squares techniques to predict compositions of surface materials [1]. Unfortunately, such multivariate techniques are plagued by hard-to-meet assumptions involving constant hyperparameter tuning to specific elements and the amount of training data available; if the whole distribution of data is not seen, the method will overfit to the training data and generalizability will suffer. The rover only has 10 calibration targets on-board that represent a small subset of the geochemical samples the rover is expected to investigate. Deep neural networks have been used to bypass these issues in other fields. Semi-supervised techniques allow researchers to utilized small labeled datasets and vast amounts of unlabeled data. One example is the variational autoencoder model, a semi-supervised generative model in the form of a deep neural network. The autoencoder assumes that LIBS spectra are generated from a distribution conditioned on the elemental compositions in the sample and some nuisance. The system is broken into two models: one that predicts elemental composition from the spectra and one that generates spectra from compositions that may or may not be seen in the training set. The synthesized spectra show strong agreement with geochemical conventions to express specific compositions. The predictions of composition show improved generalizability to PLS. Deep neural networks have also been used to transfer knowledge from one dataset to another to solve unlabeled data problems. Given that vast amounts of laboratry LIBS spectra have been obtained in the past few years, it is now feasible train a deep net to predict elemental composition from lab spectra. Transfer learning (manifold alignment or calibration transfer) [2] is then used to fine-tune the model

  12. Multivariate innovative approaches to the treatment of the emission of LIBS plasmas. Application to chemical online analysis in a nuclear environment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    El-Rakwe, Maria

    2016-01-01

    Online and in situ analysis is now a strategic development for analytical chemistry. This is especially true in the nuclear field for which the security constraints related to the radioactivity of samples, and the need to minimize waste from analyzes argue for remote measurement techniques without sampling or sample preparation. Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) technique for elemental analysis of materials based on laser ablation and the optical emission spectroscopy, has these qualities. It is a technique of choice for online analysis. However, processes involved in LIBS, namely laser ablation, atomization, plasma formation and emission, are quite complex and difficult to control because the underlying physical phenomena are coupled and nonlinear. In addition, the analytical performance of the LIBS technique depends strongly on the choice of experimental conditions. Finally, an online analysis system should be as robust as possible face to uncontrolled variations in measurement conditions. The objective of this thesis is to improve control and performance of quantitative analysis by LIBS using multivariate methods capable of handling multi-dimensionality, nonlinearity and the coupling between parameters and data. For this, the work is divided into two parts. First the optimization is carried out using a central composite design to model the relationship between the experimental parameters of laser ablation (pulse energy and beam focusing parameters) and signal detection (delay time) to the physical characteristics of plasma (ablated mass, temperature) and the analytical performance (intensity and repeatability of the signal). The optimization parameters that results is then interpreted as the best compromise for the quantitative analysis between efficiency of laser ablation and plasma heating. Secondly, a multivariate methodology based on MCR-ALS, ICA and PLS techniques, was developed to quantify certain elements in different metallic matrices

  13. Investigation of non-uniformity and inclusions in 6LiInSe2 utilizing laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wiggins, Brenden; Tupitsyn, Eugene; Bhattacharya, Pijush; Rowe, Emmanuel; Lukosi, Eric; Chvala, Ondrej; Burger, Arnold; Stowe, Ashley

    2013-09-01

    Impurity analysis and compositional distribution studies have been conducted on a crystal of LiInSe2, a compound semiconductor which recently has been shown to respond to ionizing radiation. IR microscopy and laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) revealed the presence of inclusions within the crystal lattice. These precipitates were revealed to be alkali and alkaline earth elemental impurities with non-uniform spatial distribution in the crystal. LIBS compositional maps correlate the presence of these impurities with visual color differences in the crystal as well as a significant shift of the band gap. Further, LIBS revealed variation in the ratio of I-III-VI2 elemental constituents throughout the crystal. Analysis of compositional variation and impurities will aid in discerning optimal synthesis and crystal growth parameters to maximize the mobility-lifetime product and charge collection efficiency in the LiInSe2 crystal. Preliminary charge trapping calculations have also been conducted with the Monte Carlo N-particle eXtended (MCNPx) package indicating preferential trapping of holes during irradiation with thermal neutrons.

  14. Le délibéré aux assises, ultime point aveugle dans l’affaire d’Outreau

    OpenAIRE

    Fayol-Noireterre, Jean-Marie

    2009-01-01

    Cet article envisage les délibérés des cours d’assises, en premier ressort et en appel, de l’affaire d’Outreau, à partir des auditions de la commission d’enquête parlementaire, et à la lumière d’une expérience professionnelle de magistrat (17 années comme juge des enfants, 16 années comme président d'assises). Cette libre projection permet de parcourir, à partir des textes de loi, des pratiques de conduites de délibérés. Il s'agit aussi d'aborder les problèmes inhérents au traitement judiciai...

  15. Health, body condition and blood metabolites in reindeer after submaintenance feed intake and subsequent feeding

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A. Nilsson

    2000-03-01

    Full Text Available The transition from experimentally induced poor nutritional conditions to feeding was studied with 69 eight-month-old female reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus. During a pre-experimental period, all reindeer were fed a simulated winter diet with 80% lichens Cladina spp. and 20% Vaccinum myrtillus shrubs and Salix spp. leaves (lichen diet ad lib. The reindeer were divided into five groups. A control group (group C was fed the lichen diet ad lib. throughout the experiment. Four groups were fed half of that ration for eight days and were then totally deprived of feed for one day (restriction period. During the following 34 days (feeding period the groups were re-fed the lichen diet (group L, fed pelleted reindeer feed combined with either lichen (group PL or grass silage (group PS, or fed silage with a gradually increasing addition of pellets (group SP. Weekly measurements of blood samples and body weighr showed that the control group remained clinically healthy and had stable blood plasma concentrations of protein, urea, glucose and insulin throughout the experiment, but they lost weight. At slaughter, before and after the restriction period, all animals had lost rumen-free body weight, but the reindeer fed a restricted amount of feed lost more than the control group. Also the plasma metabolites were affected by the restricted feeding, with increased concentrations of urea and decreased concentrations of glucose. Group L responded immediately to the ad lib. feeding with blood metabolite levels rapidly approaching those of group C. The body weight developments were similar in groups L and C. Although the feed rations were increased gradually, diarrhoea occurred in some animals belonging to groups PL and PS within the first week of the feeding period. All reindeer recovered, after antibiotic treatment of the worst affected animals. The PL and PS groups, which had high contents of metabolisable energy and crude protein in their diets, showed

  16. Libéralisation commerciale et pauvreté en Afrique | CRDI - Centre ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    25 mai 2010 ... Bien que le principal argument des partisans de la libéralisation commerciale soit les gains de bien-être, à l'échange, ceux-ci reconnaissent qu'il y a des gagnants et des perdants. Face à ce constat, la problématique de la répartition des gains de l'échange dans les pays en développement, où les ...

  17. Quantitative Analysis of KF-LiF-ZrF4 Molten Salt by Probe Assisted in-situ LIBS Systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, S.H.; Moon, J.H.; Kim, D.H.; Hwang, I.S.; Lee, J.H.

    2015-01-01

    Full text of publication follows: Pyro-processing draws attention as a recycling process of spent nuclear fuel for future nuclear reactor. In the aspect of process control and safeguards of the pyro-processing, it requires a technology to measure the concentration of molten salt in real-time. The existing technologies measure the concentration by chemical analysis of sampled molten salt in the hot cell but it is disadvantageous in the aspects of cost, safety and time. The LIBS (Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy) is a form of atomic emission spectroscopy in which a pulsed laser is used as the excitation source. LIBS technology is appropriate to measure sensitive nuclear materials in hot cell because it is capable of measuring specimen quantitatively and qualitatively by exited atom by laser. Spectrum obtained from plasma is largely influenced by laser operation conditions and physical properties of specimens. Also, plasma induction is limited on the surface of specimen, so analysis of composition inside of the molten salt is extremely difficult. Thus, several restrictions should be overcome in order to apply LIBS for the measurement of molten salt (KF-LiF-ZrF 4 ) composition in real-time. In this study probe assisted LIBS system will be introduced with KF-LiF-ZrF 4 to quantitatively measure molten salt composition. Echelle spectrometer was used and the measurable wavelength area was 250-400 nm, the range of UV ray. NIST atomic spectra database measured the wavelength for molten salt composition, and each element was selected high signal intensity and wavelength range that is not overlapped by other elements. (authors)

  18. Measurement system for high-sensitivity LIBS analysis using ICCD camera in LabVIEW environment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zaytsev, S M; Popov, A M; Zorov, N B; Labutin, T A

    2014-01-01

    A measurement system based on ultrafast (up to 10 ns time resolution) intensified CCD detector ''Nanogate-2V'' (Nanoscan, Russia) was developed for high-sensitivity analysis by Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectrometry (LIBS). LabVIEW environment provided a high level of compatibility with variety of electronic instruments and an easy development of user interface, while Visual Studio environment was used for creation of LabVIEW compatible dll library with the use of ''Nanogate-2V'' SDK. The program for camera management and laser-induced plasma spectra registration was created with the use of Call Library Node in LabVIEW. An algorithm of integration of the second device ADC ''PCI-9812'' (ADLINK) to the measurement system was proposed and successfully implemented. This allowed simultaneous registration of emission and acoustic signals under laser ablation. The measured resolving power of spectrometer-ICCD system was equal to 12000 at 632 nm. An electron density of laser plasma was estimated with the use of H-α Balmer line. Steel spectra obtained at different delays were used for selection of the optimal conditions for manganese analytical signal registration. The feature of accumulation of spectra from several laser pulses was shown. The accumulation allowed reliable observation of silver signal at 328.07 nm in the LIBS spectra of soil (C Ag = 4.5 ppm). Finally, the correlation between acoustic and emission signals of plasma was found. Thus, technical possibilities of the developed LIBS system were demonstrated both for plasma diagnostics and analytical measurements

  19. Fast detection and characterization of organic and inorganic gunshot residues on the hands of suspects by CMV-GC-MS and LIBS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tarifa, Anamary; Almirall, José R

    2015-05-01

    A rapid method for the characterization of both organic and inorganic components of gunshot residues (GSR) is proposed as an alternative tool to facilitate the identification of a suspected shooter. In this study, two fast screening methods were developed and optimized for the detection of organic compounds and inorganic components indicative of GSR presence on the hands of shooters and non-shooters. The proposed methods consist of headspace extraction of volatile organic compounds using a capillary microextraction of volatiles (CMV) device previously reported as a high-efficiency sampler followed by detection by GC-MS. This novel sampling technique has the potential to yield fast results (LIBS) screening method for the detection of the inorganic components indicative of the presence of GSR (Sb, Pb and Ba) is described. The sampling method for the inorganics consists of liquid extraction of the target elements from the same cotton swabs (previously analyzed for VOCs) and an additional 30 swab samples followed by spiking 1μL of the extract solution onto a Teflon disk and then analyzed by LIBS. Advantages of LIBS include fast analysis (~12s per sample) and high selectivity and sensitivity, with expected LODs 0.1-18ng for each of the target elements after sampling. The analytical performance of the LIBS method is also compared to previously reported methods (inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy). The combination of fast CMV sampling, unambiguous organic compound identification with GC-MS and fast LIBS analysis provides the basis for a new comprehensive screening method for GSR. Copyright © 2015 Forensic Science Society. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. LibAnswers: Analyzing tickets (questions) to improve our library's virtual reference service(s)

    KAUST Repository

    Ramli, Rindra M.

    2017-05-01

    Analyze the questions received in LibAnswers (ticketing system) in order to improve the quality of our virtual reference services. Tickets that were received between June 2015 to April 2017 were analyzed and categorized. It was noted that most questions asked revolved around electronic resources issues as well as circulation/access issues.

  1. LibAnswers: Analyzing tickets (questions) to improve our library's virtual reference service(s)

    KAUST Repository

    Ramli, Rindra M.; Ba-Rayyan, Faten A.

    2017-01-01

    Analyze the questions received in LibAnswers (ticketing system) in order to improve the quality of our virtual reference services. Tickets that were received between June 2015 to April 2017 were analyzed and categorized. It was noted that most questions asked revolved around electronic resources issues as well as circulation/access issues.

  2. Éducation et Libération

    CERN Multimedia

    Education et Libération

    2013-01-01

    Vente d’artisanat du Tiers Monde Mardi 29 et mercredi 30 octobre 2013 CERN, Bâtiment principal Togo, Ecole Arc en ciel, construction des salles de classe. Appel pour le financement de ce chantier afin de libérer l’école de la charge des loyers payés pendant des années. Après nos réalisations en Amérique latine et au Bénin, nous mobilisons nos efforts pour l’école Arc en ciel de Kpeme, au Togo, sur les bords de l’Océan, à mi-chemin entre Lome et la frontière entre le Bénin et le Togo. Il s’agit d’une école primaire privée, laïque qui a très bonne réputation en termes de résultats, notamment pour les écoliers  en fin de scolarité primaire. Cela fait plusieurs années déjà q...

  3. A hybrid LIBS-Raman system combined with chemometrics: an efficient tool for plastic identification and sorting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shameem, K M Muhammed; Choudhari, Khoobaram S; Bankapur, Aseefhali; Kulkarni, Suresh D; Unnikrishnan, V K; George, Sajan D; Kartha, V B; Santhosh, C

    2017-05-01

    Classification of plastics is of great importance in the recycling industry as the littering of plastic wastes increases day by day as a result of its extensive use. In this paper, we demonstrate the efficacy of a combined laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS)-Raman system for the rapid identification and classification of post-consumer plastics. The atomic information and molecular information of polyethylene terephthalate, polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene were studied using plasma emission spectra and scattered signal obtained in the LIBS and Raman technique, respectively. The collected spectral features of the samples were analyzed using statistical tools (principal component analysis, Mahalanobis distance) to categorize the plastics. The analyses of the data clearly show that elemental information and molecular information obtained from these techniques are efficient for classification of plastics. In addition, the molecular information collected via Raman spectroscopy exhibits clearly distinct features for the transparent plastics (100% discrimination), whereas the LIBS technique shows better spectral feature differences for the colored samples. The study shows that the information obtained from these complementary techniques allows the complete classification of the plastic samples, irrespective of the color or additives. This work further throws some light on the fact that the potential limitations of any of these techniques for sample identification can be overcome by the complementarity of these two techniques. Graphical Abstract ᅟ.

  4. Diversité des théories libérales en Grèce au XIXe siècle

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roxane D. Argyropoulos

    2005-01-01

    Full Text Available Étudier l'émergence du mouvement libéral en Grèce au XIXe siècle implique une série de difficultés d'interprétation. C'est appréhender un univers qui a été légué par la Révolution française et nous conduit à l'acquisition de principes indispensables au fonctionnement d'une société démocratique moderne. Υ travers des types de discours différents, nous essayons de suivre les traces de cette mise en œuvre du principe de la liberté de 1830 jusqu'à la veille du premier conflit mondial. On assiste après 1830, à une période de transition mais également de mise en œuvre des idées novatrices des Lumières. Les libéraux grecs ont pris fait et cause pour des combats concernant le respect de la vie humaine, la réciprocité des droits et des devoirs et sont dominés par la préoccupation de la liberté d'expression et de création, l'abolition de la peine de mort, l'idéal républicain, l'instruction publique, le défi du progrès. Depuis les années 1830 jusqu'en 1870, se réclamer du libéralisme, c'est s'inscrire dans les forces progressistes. Mais, la dernière phase de son édification fut liée à la montée du socialisme et du marxisme, qu'il allait remettre en question, et dans les années qui ont suivi la défaite de 1897, le libéralisme est confronté à des théories comme la pensée polyvalente de Nietzsche. Dans les différentes phases de l'évolution de la pensée libérale en Grèce, on observe des variations qui pour la plupart sont des étapes du processus vers la démocratie.

  5. Dehydrated Carbon Coupled with Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectrometry (LIBS) for the Determination of Heavy Metals in Solutions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Niu, Guanghui; Shi, Qi; Xu, Mingjun; Lai, Hongjun; Lin, Qingyu; Liu, Kunping; Duan, Yixiang

    2015-10-01

    In this article, a novel and alternative method of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) analysis for liquid sample is proposed, which involves the removal of metal ions from a liquid to a solid substrate using a cost-efficient adsorbent, dehydrated carbon, obtained using a dehydration reaction. Using this new technique, researchers can detect trace metal ions in solutions qualitatively and quantitatively, and the drawbacks of performing liquid analysis using LIBS can be avoided because the analysis is performed on a solid surface. To achieve better performance using this technique, we considered parameters potentially influencing both adsorption performance and LIBS analysis. The calibration curves were evaluated, and the limits of detection obtained for Cu(2+), Pb(2+), and Cr(3+) were 0.77, 0.065, and 0.46 mg/L, respectively, which are better than those in the previous studies. In addition, compared to other absorbents, the adsorbent used in this technique is much cheaper in cost, easier to obtain, and has fewer or no other elements other than C, H, and O that could result in spectral interference during analysis. We also used the recommended method to analyze spiked samples, obtaining satisfactory results. Thus, this new technique is helpful and promising for use in wastewater analysis and management.

  6. [Influence of Spectral Pre-Processing on PLS Quantitative Model of Detecting Cu in Navel Orange by LIBS].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Wen-bing; Yao, Lin-tao; Liu, Mu-hua; Huang, Lin; Yao, Ming-yin; Chen, Tian-bing; He, Xiu-wen; Yang, Ping; Hu, Hui-qin; Nie, Jiang-hui

    2015-05-01

    Cu in navel orange was detected rapidly by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) combined with partial least squares (PLS) for quantitative analysis, then the effect on the detection accuracy of the model with different spectral data ptetreatment methods was explored. Spectral data for the 52 Gannan navel orange samples were pretreated by different data smoothing, mean centralized and standard normal variable transform. Then 319~338 nm wavelength section containing characteristic spectral lines of Cu was selected to build PLS models, the main evaluation indexes of models such as regression coefficient (r), root mean square error of cross validation (RMSECV) and the root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) were compared and analyzed. Three indicators of PLS model after 13 points smoothing and processing of the mean center were found reaching 0. 992 8, 3. 43 and 3. 4 respectively, the average relative error of prediction model is only 5. 55%, and in one word, the quality of calibration and prediction of this model are the best results. The results show that selecting the appropriate data pre-processing method, the prediction accuracy of PLS quantitative model of fruits and vegetables detected by LIBS can be improved effectively, providing a new method for fast and accurate detection of fruits and vegetables by LIBS.

  7. Libéralisation du commerce des biens et services TIC : enjeux et ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Libéralisation du commerce des biens et services TIC : enjeux et implications pour la mise en oeuvre de politiques publiques en Afrique de l'Ouest. En Afrique de l'Ouest, les entreprises du secteur privé des technologies d'information et de la communication (TIC) ont démontré leur capacité à créer des emplois et à stimuler ...

  8. Mercury Amalgam Diffusion in Human Teeth Probed Using Femtosecond LIBS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bello, Liciane Toledo; da Ana, Patricia Aparecida; Santos, Dário; Krug, Francisco José; Zezell, Denise Maria; Vieira, Nilson Dias; Samad, Ricardo Elgul

    2017-04-01

    In this work the diffusion of mercury and other elements from amalgam tooth restorations through the surrounding dental tissue (dentin) was evaluated using femtosecond laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (fs-LIBS). To achieve this, seven deciduous and eight permanent extracted human molar teeth with occlusal amalgam restorations were half-sectioned and analyzed using pulses from a femtosecond laser. The measurements were performed from the amalgam restoration along the amalgam/dentin interface to the apical direction. It was possible to observe the presence of metallic elements (silver, mercury, copper and tin) emission lines, as well as dental constituent ones, providing fingerprints of each material and comparable data for checking the consistence of the results. It was also shown that the elements penetration depth values in each tooth are usually similar and consistent, for both deciduous and permanent teeth, indicating that all the metals diffuse into the dentin by the same mechanism. We propose that this diffusion mechanism is mainly through liquid dragging inside the dentin tubules. The mercury diffused further in permanent teeth than in deciduous teeth, probably due to the longer diffusion times due to the age of the restorations. It was possible to conclude that the proposed femtosecond-LIBS system can detect the presence of metals in the dental tissue, among the tooth constituent elements, and map the distribution of endogenous and exogenous chemical elements, with a spatial resolution that can be brought under 100 µm.

  9. Characterization of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for application to space exploration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Knight, Andrew K.; Scherbarth, Nancy L.; Cremers, David A.; Ferris, Monty J.

    2000-01-01

    Early in the next century, several space missions are planned with the goal of landing craft on asteroids, comets, the Moon, and Mars. To increase the scientific return of these missions, new methods are needed to provide (1) significantly more analyses per mission lifetime, and (2) expanded analytical capabilities. One method that has the potential to meet both of these needs for the elemental analysis of geological samples is laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). These capabilities are possible because the laser plasma provides rapid analysis and the laser pulse can be focused on a remotely located sample to perform a stand-off measurement. Stand-off is defined as a distance up to 20 m between the target and laser. Here we present the results of a characterization of LIBS for the stand-off analysis of soils at reduced air pressures and in a simulated Martian atmosphere (5-7 torr pressure of CO 2 ) showing the feasibility of LIBS for space exploration. For example, it is demonstrated that an analytically useful laser plasma can be generated at distances up to 19 m by using only 35 mJ/pulse from a compact laser. Some characteristics of the laser plasma at reduced pressure were also investigated. Temporally and spectrally resolved imaging showed significant changes in the plasma as the pressure was reduced and also showed that the analyte signals and mass ablated from a target were strongly dependent on pressure. As the pressure decreased from 590 torr to the 40-100 torr range, the signals increased by a factor of about 3-4, and as the pressure was further reduced the signals decreased. This behavior can be explained by pressure-dependent changes in the mass of material vaporized and the frequency of collisions between species in the plasma. Changes in the temperature and the electron density of the plasmas with pressure were also examined and detection limits for selected elements were determined. (c) 2000 Society for Applied Spectroscopy

  10. Characterization of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for application to space exploration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Knight, Andrew K. [Group CST-1, MS J565, Chemical Science and Technology Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States); Scherbarth, Nancy L. [Group CST-1, MS J565, Chemical Science and Technology Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States); Cremers, David A. [Group CST-1, MS J565, Chemical Science and Technology Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States); Ferris, Monty J. [Group CST-1, MS J565, Chemical Science and Technology Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States)

    2000-03-01

    Early in the next century, several space missions are planned with the goal of landing craft on asteroids, comets, the Moon, and Mars. To increase the scientific return of these missions, new methods are needed to provide (1) significantly more analyses per mission lifetime, and (2) expanded analytical capabilities. One method that has the potential to meet both of these needs for the elemental analysis of geological samples is laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). These capabilities are possible because the laser plasma provides rapid analysis and the laser pulse can be focused on a remotely located sample to perform a stand-off measurement. Stand-off is defined as a distance up to 20 m between the target and laser. Here we present the results of a characterization of LIBS for the stand-off analysis of soils at reduced air pressures and in a simulated Martian atmosphere (5-7 torr pressure of CO{sub 2}) showing the feasibility of LIBS for space exploration. For example, it is demonstrated that an analytically useful laser plasma can be generated at distances up to 19 m by using only 35 mJ/pulse from a compact laser. Some characteristics of the laser plasma at reduced pressure were also investigated. Temporally and spectrally resolved imaging showed significant changes in the plasma as the pressure was reduced and also showed that the analyte signals and mass ablated from a target were strongly dependent on pressure. As the pressure decreased from 590 torr to the 40-100 torr range, the signals increased by a factor of about 3-4, and as the pressure was further reduced the signals decreased. This behavior can be explained by pressure-dependent changes in the mass of material vaporized and the frequency of collisions between species in the plasma. Changes in the temperature and the electron density of the plasmas with pressure were also examined and detection limits for selected elements were determined. (c) 2000 Society for Applied Spectroscopy.

  11. Monitoring uranium, hydrogen, and lithium and their isotopes using a compact laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) probe and high-resolution spectrometer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cremers, David A; Beddingfield, Alan; Smithwick, Robert; Chinni, Rosemarie C; Jones, C Randy; Beardsley, Burt; Karch, Larry

    2012-03-01

    The development of field-deployable instruments to monitor radiological, nuclear, and explosive (RNE) threats is of current interest for a number of assessment needs such as the on-site screening of suspect facilities and nuclear forensics. The presence of uranium and plutonium and radiological materials can be determined through monitoring the elemental emission spectrum using relatively low-resolution spectrometers. In addition, uranium compounds, explosives, and chemicals used in nuclear fuel processing (e.g., tributyl-phosphate) can be identified by applying chemometric analysis to the laser-induced breakdown (LIBS) spectrum recorded by these spectrometers. For nuclear forensic applications, however, isotopes of U and Pu and other elements (e.g., H and Li) must also be determined, requiring higher resolution spectrometers given the small magnitude of the isotope shifts for some of these elements (e.g., 25 pm for U and 13 pm for Pu). High-resolution spectrometers will be preferred for several reasons but these must fit into realistic field-based analysis scenarios. To address the need for field instrumentation, we evaluated a previously developed field-deployable hand-held LIBS interrogation probe combined with two relatively new high-resolution spectrometers (λ/Δλ ~75,000 and ~44,000) that have the potential to meet field-based analysis needs. These spectrometers are significantly smaller and lighter in weight than those previously used for isotopic analysis and one unit can provide simultaneous wide spectral coverage and high resolution in a relatively small package. The LIBS interrogation probe was developed initially for use with low resolution compact spectrometers in a person-portable backpack LIBS instrument. Here we present the results of an evaluation of the LIBS probe combined with a high-resolution spectrometer and demonstrate rapid detection of isotopes of uranium and hydrogen and highly enriched samples of (6)Li and (7)Li. © 2012 Society for

  12. Usability Testing, User-Centered Design, and LibGuides Subject Guides: A Case Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sonsteby, Alec; DeJonghe, Jennifer

    2013-01-01

    Usability testing has become a routine way for many libraries to ensure that their Web presence is user-friendly and accessible. At the same time, popular subject guide creation systems, such as LibGuides, decentralize Web content creation and put authorship into the hands of librarians who may not be trained in user-centered design principles. At…

  13. L'institutionnalisation des délibérations dans l'espace public au sein ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    seriane.camara

    16 sept. 2010 ... prise de décision occuperont une place importante dans cette étude, l'accent sera surtout mis sur le processus par lequel la délibération dans l' ...... autorités traditionnelles mettent en œuvre pour essayer de faire face aux.

  14. Sausage instability of Z-discharged plasma channel in LIB-fusion device

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Murakami, H.; Kawata, S.; Niu, K.

    1982-07-01

    Current-carring plasma channels have been proposed for transporting intense ion beams from diodes to a target in a LIB-fusion device. In this paper, the growth rate of the most dangerous surface mode, that is, axisymmetric sausage instability is examined for the plasma channel. The growth rate is shown to be smaller than that of the plasma channel with no fluid motion in a sharp boundary. It is concluded that the stable plasma channel can be formed. (author)

  15. Calibrating the ChemCam LIBS for Carbonate Minerals on Mars

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wiens, Roger C.; Clegg, Samuel M.; Ollila, Ann M.; Barefield, James E.; Lanza, Nina; Newsom, Horton E.

    2009-01-01

    The ChemCam instrument suite on board the NASA Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover includes the first LIBS instrument for extraterrestrial applications. Here we examine carbonate minerals in a simulated martian environment using the LIDS technique in order to better understand the in situ signature of these materials on Mars. Both chemical composition and rock type are determined using multivariate analysis (MVA) techniques. Composition is confirmed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. Our initial results suggest that ChemCam can recognize and differentiate between carbonate materials on Mars.

  16. The 1064 nm laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) inspection to detect the nutrient elements in freshly cut carrot samples

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yudasari, N.; Prasetyo, S.; Suliyanti, M. M.

    2018-03-01

    The laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique was applied to detect the nutrient elements contained in fresh carrot. Nd:YAG laser the wavelength of 1064 nm was employed in the experiments for ablation. Employing simple set-up of LIBS and preparing the sample with less step method, we are able to detect 18 chemical elements including some fundamental element of carrot, i.e Mg, Al, Fe, Mn, Ti, Ca, and Mn. By applying normalized profiles calculation on some of the element, we are able to compare the concentration level of each element of the outer and inner part of carrot.

  17. Remote Raman - laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) geochemical investigation under Venus atmospheric conditions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Clegg, Sanuel M [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Barefield, James E [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Humphries, Seth D [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Wiens, Roger C [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Vaniman, D. T. [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Sharma, S. K. [UNIV OF HAWAII; Misra, A. K. [UNIV OF HAWAII; Dyar, M. D. [MT. HOLYOKE COLLEGE; Smrekar, S. E. [JET PROPULSION LAB.

    2010-12-13

    The extreme Venus surface temperatures ({approx}740 K) and atmospheric pressures ({approx}93 atm) create a challenging environment for surface missions. Scientific investigations capable of Venus geochemical observations must be completed within hours of landing before the lander will be overcome by the harsh atmosphere. A combined remote Raman - LIBS (Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy) instrument is capable of accomplishing the geochemical science goals without the risks associated with collecting samples and bringing them into the lander. Wiens et al. and Sharma et al. demonstrated that both analytical techniques can be integrated into a single instrument capable of planetary missions. The focus of this paper is to explore the capability to probe geologic samples with Raman - LIBS and demonstrate quantitative analysis under Venus surface conditions. Raman and LIBS are highly complementary analytical techniques capable of detecting both the mineralogical and geochemical composition of Venus surface materials. These techniques have the potential to profoundly increase our knowledge of the Venus surface composition, which is currently limited to geochemical data from Soviet Venera and VEGA landers that collectively suggest a surface composition that is primarily tholeiitic basaltic with some potentially more evolved compositions and, in some locations, K-rich trachyandesite. These landers were not equipped to probe the surface mineralogy as can be accomplished with Raman spectroscopy. Based on the observed compositional differences and recognizing the imprecise nature of the existing data, 15 samples were chosen to constitute a Venus-analog suite for this study, including five basalts, two each of andesites, dacites, and sulfates, and single samples of a foidite, trachyandesite, rhyolite, and basaltic trachyandesite under Venus conditions. LIBS data reduction involved generating a partial least squares (PLS) model with a subset of the rock powder standards to

  18. Updates of the KArLE Experiment: New Libs Calibration Under High Vacuum for the Quantification of Potassium in Basalt for In Situ Geochronology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Devismes, D.; Cohen, B. A.; Li, Z.-H.; Miller, J. S.

    2014-01-01

    In planetary exploration, in situ absolute geochronology is one of the main important measurements that needs to be accomplished. Until now, on Mars, the age of the surface is only determined by crater density counting, which gives relative ages. These ages can have a lot of uncertainty as they depend on many parameters. More than that, the curves must be ties to absolute ages. Thus far, only the lost lander Beagle 2 was designed to conduct absolute geochronology measurements, though some recent attempts using MSL Curiosity show that this investigation is feasible and should be strongly encouraged for future flight. Experimental: The Potassium (K)-Argon Laser Experiment (KArLE) is being developed at MSFC through the NASA Planetary Instrument Definition and Development Program (PIDDP). The goal of this experiment is to provide in situ geochronology based on the K-Ar method. A laser ablates a rock under high vacuum, creating a plasma which is sensed by an optical spectrometer to do Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS). The ablated material frees gases, including radiogenic 40Ar,which is measured by a mass spectrometer (MS). As the potassium is a content and the 40Ar is a quantity, the ablated mass needed in order to relate them. The mass is given by the product of the ablated volume by the density of this material. So we determine the mineralogy of the ablated material with the LIBS spectra and images and calculate its density. The volume of the pit is measured by using microscopy. LIBS measurement of K under high vacuum: Three independant projects [1, 2, 3] including KArLE, are developing geochronological instruments based on this LA-LIBS-MS method. Despite several differences in their setup, all of them have validated the methods with analyses and ages. However, they all described difficulties with the LIBS measurements of K [3,4]. At ambient pressure, the quantification of K by LIBS on geological materials can be accurate [5]. However the protocol of the LA-LIBS

  19. Répercussions de la libéralisation du commerce des services sur le ...

    International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Digital Library (Canada)

    Répercussions de la libéralisation du commerce des services sur le développement. La documentation économique a démontré l'importance du secteur des services dans le processus de croissance économique et de développement social. Le principal défi auquel sont confrontés aujourd'hui les pays en développement ...

  20. La libéralisation comme source du dérèglement des transports ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Mots clés: Libéralisation - Transport public - Chronologie - Urbain - Organisation. English Title: Liberalization as a source of deregulation of public transport in Annaba city. English Abstract. Similarly at almost of the Algerian cities, after the dissolution of the Municipal Board RMCA, the city of Annaba doesn't escape from the ...

  1. Recent advances in the use of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) as a rapid point-of-care pathogen diagnostic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rehse, Steven J.; Miziolek, Andrzej W.

    2012-06-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has made tremendous progress in becoming a viable technology for rapid bacterial pathogen detection and identification. The significant advantages of LIBS include speed (present the latest advances achieved in LIBS-based bacterial sensing including the ability to uniquely identify species from more than five bacterial genera with high-sensitivity and specificity. Bacterial identifications are completely unaffected by environment, nutrition media, or state of growth and accurate diagnoses can be made on autoclaved or UV-irradiated specimens. Efficient discrimination of bacteria at the strain level has been demonstrated. A rapid urinary tract infection diagnosis has been simulated with no sample preparation and a one second diagnosis of a pathogen surrogate has been demonstrated using advanced chemometric analysis with a simple "stop-light" user interface. Stand-off bacterial identification at a 20-m distance has been demonstrated on a field-portable instrument. This technology could be implemented in doctors' offices, clinics, or hospital laboratories for point-of-care medical specimen analysis; mounted on military medical robotic platforms for in-the- field diagnostics; or used in stand-off configuration for remote sensing and detection.

  2. Classification of red wine based on its protected designation of origin (PDO) using Laser-induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moncayo, S; Rosales, J D; Izquierdo-Hornillos, R; Anzano, J; Caceres, J O

    2016-09-01

    This work reports on a simple and fast classification procedure for the quality control of red wines with protected designation of origin (PDO) by means of Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) technique combined with Neural Networks (NN) in order to increase the quality assurance and authenticity issues. A total of thirty-eight red wine samples from different PDO were analyzed to detect fake wines and to avoid unfair competition in the market. LIBS is well known for not requiring sample preparation, however, in order to increase its analytical performance a new sample preparation treatment by previous liquid-to-solid transformation of the wine using a dry collagen gel has been developed. The use of collagen pellets allowed achieving successful classification results, avoiding the limitations and difficulties of working with aqueous samples. The performance of the NN model was assessed by three validation procedures taking into account their sensitivity (internal validation), generalization ability and robustness (independent external validation). The results of the use of a spectroscopic technique coupled with a chemometric analysis (LIBS-NN) are discussed in terms of its potential use in the food industry, providing a methodology able to perform the quality control of alcoholic beverages. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  3. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), part I: review of basic diagnostics and plasma-particle interactions: still-challenging issues within the analytical plasma community.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hahn, David W; Omenetto, Nicoló

    2010-12-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has become a very popular analytical method in the last decade in view of some of its unique features such as applicability to any type of sample, practically no sample preparation, remote sensing capability, and speed of analysis. The technique has a remarkably wide applicability in many fields, and the number of applications is still growing. From an analytical point of view, the quantitative aspects of LIBS may be considered its Achilles' heel, first due to the complex nature of the laser-sample interaction processes, which depend upon both the laser characteristics and the sample material properties, and second due to the plasma-particle interaction processes, which are space and time dependent. Together, these may cause undesirable matrix effects. Ways of alleviating these problems rely upon the description of the plasma excitation-ionization processes through the use of classical equilibrium relations and therefore on the assumption that the laser-induced plasma is in local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE). Even in this case, the transient nature of the plasma and its spatial inhomogeneity need to be considered and overcome in order to justify the theoretical assumptions made. This first article focuses on the basic diagnostics aspects and presents a review of the past and recent LIBS literature pertinent to this topic. Previous research on non-laser-based plasma literature, and the resulting knowledge, is also emphasized. The aim is, on one hand, to make the readers aware of such knowledge and on the other hand to trigger the interest of the LIBS community, as well as the larger analytical plasma community, in attempting some diagnostic approaches that have not yet been fully exploited in LIBS.

  4. Enhancement of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) Detection limit using a low-pressure and short-pulse laser-induced plasma process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Zhen Zhen; Deguchi, Yoshihiro; Kuwahara, Masakazu; Yan, Jun Jie; Liu, Ji Ping

    2013-11-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technology is an appealing technique compared with many other types of elemental analysis because of the fast response, high sensitivity, real-time, and noncontact features. One of the challenging targets of LIBS is the enhancement of the detection limit. In this study, the detection limit of gas-phase LIBS analysis has been improved by controlling the pressure and laser pulse width. In order to verify this method, low-pressure gas plasma was induced using nanosecond and picosecond lasers. The method was applied to the detection of Hg. The emission intensity ratio of the Hg atom to NO (IHg/INO) was analyzed to evaluate the LIBS detection limit because the NO emission (interference signal) was formed during the plasma generation and cooling process of N2 and O2 in the air. It was demonstrated that the enhancement of IHg/INO arose by decreasing the pressure to a few kilopascals, and the IHg/INO of the picosecond breakdown was always much higher than that of the nanosecond breakdown at low buffer gas pressure. Enhancement of IHg/INO increased more than 10 times at 700 Pa using picosecond laser with 35 ps pulse width. The detection limit was enhanced to 0.03 ppm (parts per million). We also saw that the spectra from the center and edge parts of plasma showed different features. Comparing the central spectra with the edge spectra, IHg/INO of the edge spectra was higher than that of the central spectra using the picosecond laser breakdown process.

  5. A study of using femtosecond LIBS in analyzing metallic thin film-semiconductor interface

    Science.gov (United States)

    Galmed, A. H.; Kassem, A. K.; von Bergmann, H.; Harith, M. A.

    2011-01-01

    Metals and metal alloys are usually employed as interconnections to guide electrical signals between components into the very large scale integrated (VLSI) devices. These devices demand higher complexity, better performance and lower cost. Thin film is a common geometry for these metallic applications, requiring a substrate for rigidity. Accurate depth profile analysis of coatings is becoming increasingly important with expanding industrial use in technological fields. A number of articles devoted to LIBS applications for depth-resolved analysis have been published in recent years. In the present work, we are studying the ability of femtosecond LIBS to make depth profiling for a Ti thin film of thickness 213 nm deposited onto a silicon (100) substrate before and after thermal annealing. The measurements revealed that an average ablation rates of 15 nm per pulse have been achieved. The thin film was examined using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), while the formation of the interface was examined using Rutherford Back Scattering (RBS) before and after annealing. To verify the depth profiling results, a theoretical simulation model is presented that gave a very good agreement with the experimental results.

  6. Design and development of a LIBS system on linear plasma device PSI-2 for in situ real-time diagnostics of plasma-facing materials

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    X. Jiang

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS is a strong candidate for detecting and monitoring the H/D/T content on the surface of plasma facing components (PFCs due to its capability of fast direct in situ measurement in extreme environment (e.g., vacuum, magnetic field, long distance, complex geometry. To study the feasibilities and encounter the challenges of LIBS on plasma devices, a LIBS system has been set up on the linear plasma device PSI-2. A number of key parameters including laser energy, the influence of magnetic field and the persistence of laser induced plasma are studied. Real-time measurements of deuterium outgassing on tungsten samples exposed to deuterium plasma of 1025 D/m2 are performed in the first 40–130 min after plasma exposure. The experimental results are compared to the calculations in the literature.

  7. Analisi sui pigmenti di ceramica neolitica tramite tecniche Raman e LIBS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cristina Fabbri

    2007-04-01

    Full Text Available I dati presentati in questo breve contributo provengono da uno studio condotto in collaborazione dal Dipartimento di Scienze Archeologiche dell’Università di Pisa e dall’Istituto per i Processi Chimico-Fisici di Fisica molecolare del CNR di Pisa. Le metodologie applicate sono basate sull’analisi integrata delle tecniche spettroscopiche Raman e LIBS già ampiamente utilizzate nel campo dei Beni Culturali; i metodi sono infatti essenzialmente non distruttivi, non richiedono di un pre trattamento del campione e l’acquisizione delle misure è immediata.

  8. Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) for Monitoring the Formation of Hydroxyapatite Porous Layers

    OpenAIRE

    Sola, Daniel; Paulés, Daniel; Grima, Lorena; Anzano, Jesús

    2017-01-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is applied to characterize the formation of porous hydroxyapatite layers on the surface of 0.8CaSiO3-0.2Ca3(PO4)2 biocompatible eutectic glass immersed in simulated body fluid (SBF). Compositional and structural characterization analyses were also conducted by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and micro-Raman spectroscopy.

  9. Effect of Sample Preparation on the Discrimination of Bacterial Isolates Cultured in Liquid Nutrient Media Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gamble, Gary R; Park, Bosoon; Yoon, Seung-Chul; Lawrence, Kurt C

    2016-03-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is used as the basis for discrimination between two genera of gram-negative bacteria and two genera of gram-positive bacteria representing pathogenic threats commonly found in poultry processing rinse waters. Because LIBS-based discrimination relies primarily upon the relative proportions of inorganic cell components including Na, K, Mg, and Ca, this study aims to determine the effects of trace mineral content and pH found in the water source used to isolate the bacteria upon the reliability of the resulting discriminant analysis. All four genera were cultured using tryptic soy agar (TSA) as the nutrient medium, and were grown under identical environmental conditions. The only variable introduced is the source water used to isolate the cultured bacteria. Cultures of each bacterium were produced using deionized (DI) water under two atmosphere conditions, reverse osmosis (RO) water, tap water, phosphate buffered saline (PBS) water, and TRIS buffered water. After 3 days of culture growth, the bacteria were centrifuged and washed three times in the same water source. Bacteria were then freeze dried, mixed with microcrystalline cellulose, and a pellet was made for LIBS analysis. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to extract related variations in LIBS spectral data among the four bacteria genera and six water types used to isolate the bacteria, and Mahalanobis discriminant analysis (MDA) was used for classification. Results indicate not only that the four genera can be discriminated from each other in each water type, but that each genus can be discriminated by water type used for isolation. It is concluded that in order for LIBS to be a reliable and repeatable method for discrimination of bacteria grown in liquid nutrient media, care must be taken to insure that the water source used in purification of the culture be precisely controlled regarding pH, ionic strength, and proportionate amounts of mineral cations

  10. Using Localized Survey Items to Augment Standardized Benchmarking Measures: A LibQUAL+[TM] Study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, Bruce; Cook, Colleen; Kyrillidou, Martha

    2006-01-01

    The LibQUAL+[TM] protocol solicits open-ended comments from users with regard to library service quality, gathers data on 22 core items, and, at the option of individual libraries, also garners ratings on five items drawn from a pool of more than 100 choices selected by libraries. In this article, the relationship of scores on these locally…

  11. First measurements of LIBS in the Zr-Nb system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Previtali, E; Ararat, C; Corvalan, C; Iribarren, M

    2012-01-01

    The Zr-based alloys are used in the nuclear industry. Particularly these alloys are used for the nuclear fuel elements in PWR reactors and CANDU type reactors. For this last case, zirconium-niobium (Zr-Nb) alloys have a particular importance for its special features like: resistance to corrosion, appropriate mechanic features and a low capture effective cross section for thermal neutrons. In this work the first LIBS measurements on Zr-Nb samples are shown. The spectrums from the plasma emission for Zr-Nb alloys are studied and discussed. Particularly, the variation of intensities as a function of laser energy is presented. Finally, the ablation morphology and the depth of the crater ablation are studied

  12. Can overeating induce conditioned taste avoidance in previously food restricted rats?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hertel, Amanda; Eikelboom, Roelof

    2010-03-30

    While feeding is rewarding, the feeling of satiation has been theorized to have a mixed affect. Using a food restriction model of overeating we examined whether bingeing was capable of supporting conditioned taste avoidance (CTA). Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were maintained on either an ad lib (n=8) or restricted (50% of regular consumption; n=24) food access for 20 days. On Days 9, 14, and 19 all rats were given access to a novel saccharin solution in place of water, and two groups of food restricted rats were given access to either 100% of regular food consumption or ad lib food. Ad lib access in the restricted rats induced significant overeating on all three exposures. After all rats were returned to ad lib feeding, a 24h two-bottle saccharin/water choice test displayed significantly reduced saccharin consumption in the overeating rats, compared to those in the other 3 groups. To determine whether this avoidance was due to a learned association, a second experiment used a latent inhibition paradigm, familiarizing half the rats with the saccharin for 8 days prior to pairing it with overeating. Using the design of Experiment 1, with only the continuously ad lib and the restricted to ad lib feeding groups, it was found that the overeating-induced saccharin avoidance was attenuated by the pre-exposure. These results suggest that self-induced overeating is capable of supporting a learned avoidance of a novel solution suggestive of a conditioned satiety or taste avoidance. (c) 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. Qualitative versus quantitative feed restriction in Pekin breeder ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    titative (60% of a group fed ad lib) feed restriction during the rearing period with a ... restriction to reduce growth rate and delay sexual maturity. Since the amount of .... ing in the cost of feed when compared to the more expensive ad lib diet.

  14. Sensitivity, stability, and precision of quantitative Ns-LIBS-based fuel-air-ratio measurements for methane-air flames at 1-11 bar.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hsu, Paul S; Gragston, Mark; Wu, Yue; Zhang, Zhili; Patnaik, Anil K; Kiefer, Johannes; Roy, Sukesh; Gord, James R

    2016-10-01

    Nanosecond laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (ns-LIBS) is employed for quantitative local fuel-air (F/A) ratio (i.e., ratio of actual fuel-to-oxidizer mass over ratio of fuel-to-oxidizer mass at stoichiometry, measurements in well-characterized methane-air flames at pressures of 1-11 bar). We selected nitrogen and hydrogen atomic-emission lines at 568 nm and 656 nm, respectively, to establish a correlation between the line intensities and the F/A ratio. We have investigated the effects of laser-pulse energy, camera gate delay, and pressure on the sensitivity, stability, and precision of the quantitative ns-LIBS F/A ratio measurements. We determined the optimal laser energy and camera gate delay for each pressure condition and found that measurement stability and precision are degraded with an increase in pressure. We have identified primary limitations of the F/A ratio measurement employing ns-LIBS at elevated pressures as instabilities caused by the higher density laser-induced plasma and the presence of the higher level of soot. Potential improvements are suggested.

  15. Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS for Monitoring the Formation of Hydroxyapatite Porous Layers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel Sola

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS is applied to characterize the formation of porous hydroxyapatite layers on the surface of 0.8CaSiO3-0.2Ca3(PO42 biocompatible eutectic glass immersed in simulated body fluid (SBF. Compositional and structural characterization analyses were also conducted by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX, and micro-Raman spectroscopy.

  16. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for detection of ammonium nitrate in soils

    Science.gov (United States)

    Díaz, Daniel; Hahn, David W.; Molina, Alejandro

    2009-05-01

    The extensive use of improvised explosive devices (IED) by irregular armed groups in Colombia has posed a threat, not only to the Colombian regular army but to the civilian population. It is expected that in future years, after an eventual cease fire, humanitarian missions for IED clearance will be fundamental to secure safe transit of people and goods, particularly in Colombian rural areas. The clandestine nature of IEDs preparation in Colombia yielded a rather diverse nature of these irregular weapons. Although, some have metal parts such as nails and shrapnel, others are metal-free devices in which detonation is obtained by chemical means. Despite this variability in IEDs design, one thing that is common in IEDs preparation is the use of significant amounts of ANFO (ammonium nitrate (AN), fuel oil (FO)) in their construction. The goal of this work was to identify AN and FO in soils using LIBS. Experiments showed the ability of LIBS to identify the presence of AN based on Hα (656.3 nm) and Hβ (486.1 nm) emission lines. It was not possible to identify FO mixed with soils in the spectral windows studied. FO caused a reduction on spark intensity on the samples. This would represent a challenge for identification of chemical compounds in wet soils. Potential interferences with fertilizers are discussed as well.

  17. Preliminary study on detection sediment contamination in soil affected by the Indian Ocean giant tsunami 2004 in Aceh, Indonesia using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Idris, Nasrullah, E-mail: nasrullah.idris@unsyiah.ac.id [Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Syiah Kuala University, Jl. Syech Abdurrauf No. 3 Darussalam, 23111 Banda Aceh, Aceh (Indonesia); Ramli, Muliadi [Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Syiah Kuala University, Jl. Syech Abdurrauf No. 3 Darussalam, 23111 Banda Aceh, Aceh (Indonesia); Hedwig, Rinda; Lie, Zener Sukra [Department of Computer Engineering, Bina Nusantara University, 9 K. H. Syahdan, Jakarta 14810 (Indonesia); Kurniawan, Koo Hendrik [Research Center of Maju Makmur Mandiri Foundation, 40 Srengseng Raya, Kembangan, Jakarta Barat 11630, Jakarta (Indonesia)

    2016-03-11

    This work is intended to asses the capability of LIBS for the detection of the tsunami sediment contamination in soil. LIBS apparatus used in this work consist of a laser system and an optical multichannel analyzer (OMA) system. The soil sample was collected from in Banda Aceh City, Aceh, Indonesia, the most affected region by the giant Indian Ocean tsunami 2004. The laser beam was focused onto surface of the soil pellet using a focusing lens to produce luminous plasma. The experiment was conducted under air as surrounding gas at 1 atmosphere. The emission spectral lines from the plasma were detected by the OMA system. It was found that metal including heavy metals can surely be detected, thus implying the potent of LIBS technique as a fast screening tools of tsunami sediment contamination.

  18. Quantification of trace metals in infant formula premixes using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cama-Moncunill, Raquel; Casado-Gavalda, Maria P.; Cama-Moncunill, Xavier; Markiewicz-Keszycka, Maria; Dixit, Yash; Cullen, Patrick J.; Sullivan, Carl

    2017-09-01

    Infant formula is a human milk substitute generally based upon fortified cow milk components. In order to mimic the composition of breast milk, trace elements such as copper, iron and zinc are usually added in a single operation using a premix. The correct addition of premixes must be verified to ensure that the target levels in infant formulae are achieved. In this study, a laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) system was assessed as a fast validation tool for trace element premixes. LIBS is a promising emission spectroscopic technique for elemental analysis, which offers real-time analyses, little to no sample preparation and ease of use. LIBS was employed for copper and iron determinations of premix samples ranging approximately from 0 to 120 mg/kg Cu/1640 mg/kg Fe. LIBS spectra are affected by several parameters, hindering subsequent quantitative analyses. This work aimed at testing three matrix-matched calibration approaches (simple-linear regression, multi-linear regression and partial least squares regression (PLS)) as means for precision and accuracy enhancement of LIBS quantitative analysis. All calibration models were first developed using a training set and then validated with an independent test set. PLS yielded the best results. For instance, the PLS model for copper provided a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.995 and a root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 14 mg/kg. Furthermore, LIBS was employed to penetrate through the samples by repetitively measuring the same spot. Consequently, LIBS spectra can be obtained as a function of sample layers. This information was used to explore whether measuring deeper into the sample could reduce possible surface-contaminant effects and provide better quantifications.

  19. Libérer le double, la beauté sera convulsive…

    OpenAIRE

    Beauvoir-Dominique, Rachel

    2008-01-01

    Rachel Beauvoir-Dominique, Libérer le double, la beauté sera convulsive... À propos d’une collection d’art vodou. — De 1980 à ce jour, grâce au dévouement de Madame Marianne Lehmann, une collection unique de trésors du répertoire plastique vodou et « Makaya » a été rassemblée. Dotée de plusieurs milliers d’objets de culte, cette impressionnante collection n’a pas encore été exposée publiquement de manière permanente ; elle a cependant déjà attiré l’attention de nombreuses institutions nationa...

  20. Minimizing core deposits radiation fields in PWRs by coordinated Li/B chemistry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Roesmer, J.

    1983-01-01

    The effect of coolant chemistry on the buildup and composition of core deposits and on out-of-core radiation fields was investigated in the Beaver Valley and Trojan plants. Coordinated Li/B coolant chemistry led to an appreciable reduction of the surface concentration of core deposits, decreased greatly the formation of crud films on fresh fuel, and resulted in a reduction in the rate and level of radiation field buildup in the out-of-core regions of the primary circuits. (author)

  1. Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) for the Measurement of Spatial Structures and Fuel Distribution in Flames.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kotzagianni, Maria; Kakkava, Eirini; Couris, Stelios

    2016-04-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is used for the mapping of local structures (i.e., reactants and products zones) and for the determination of fuel distribution by means of the local equivalence ratio ϕ in laminar, premixed air-hydrocarbon flames. The determination of laser threshold energy to induce breakdown in the different zones of flames is employed for the identification and demarcation of the local structures of a premixed laminar flame, while complementary results about fuel concentration were obtained from measurements of the cyanogen (CN) band Β(2)Σ(+)--Χ(2)Σ(+), (Δυ = 0) at 388.3 nm and the ratio of the atomic lines of hydrogen (Hα) and oxygen (O(I)), Hα/O. The combination of these LIBS-based methods provides a relatively simple to use, rapid, and accurate tool for online and in situ combustion diagnostics, providing valuable information about the fuel distribution and the spatial variations of the local structures of a flame. © The Author(s) 2016.

  2. Scintillation characteristics of LiB3O5 and β-BaB2O4 single crystals

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nazarenko, B.P.; Pedash, V.Yu.; Shekhovtsov, A.N.; Tarasov, V.A.; Zelenskaya, O.V.

    2006-01-01

    LiB 3 O 5 and β-BaB 2 O 4 single crystals have been grown by the top seeded solution growth technique. The optical characteristics and scintillation parameters of the grown single crystals have been tested and discussed

  3. A kinetics study of acetic acid on cobalt leaching of spent LIBs: Shrinking Core Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Setiawan Hendrik

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs are secondary rechargeable power sources which increasing production also leads to large amount of waste. In order to environmentally friendly reduce the waste, this work aimed to use acetic acid as a substitute leaching agent to leach Co metals which constitutes about 72.39% wt of the battery cathode. The leaching process was done in a three-necked-flask where calcined LIB cathode powder was mixed with acetic acid solution. The variables of the leaching process under investigation were solution pH, concentration of H2O2 in the solution, S/L ratio, temperature and reaction time. Experimental results showed that only temperature significantly influenced the leaching rate of Co. Since the process was exothermic, the maximum recovery decreased as temperature increased. Conventional shrinking core model that considers diffusion and irreversible surface reaction resistances was found not sufficient to predict the kinetics of the Co leaching with acetic acid. A more representative kinetics model that considers a reversible reaction of Co complex formation needs to be further developed.

  4. La libéralisation comme source du dérèglement des transports ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    proposant un phasage chronologique relatif à son évolution, tout en mettant la lumière sur ses effets les plus manifestes à l'échelle nationale et surtout sur le plan urbain par rapport au périmètre de transport de la ville d'Annaba, ceci à travers ses différents volets organisationnels et fonctionnels. Mots clés: Libéralisation ...

  5. Relationship between LIBS Ablation and Pit Volume for Geologic Samples: Applications for in situ Absolute Geochronology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Devismes, D.; Cohen, Barbara A.

    2014-01-01

    In planetary sciences, in situ absolute geochronology is a scientific and engineering challenge. Currently, the age of the Martian surface can only be determined by crater density counting. However this method has significant uncertainties and needs to be calibrated with absolute ages. We are developing an instrument to acquire in situ absolute geochronology based on the K-Ar method. The protocol is based on the laser ablation of a rock by hundreds of laser pulses. Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) gives the potassium content of the ablated material and a mass spectrometer (quadrupole or ion trap) measures the quantity of 40Ar released. In order to accurately measure the quantity of released 40Ar in cases where Ar is an atmospheric constituent (e.g., Mars), the sample is first put into a chamber under high vacuum. The 40Arquantity, the concentration of K and the estimation of the ablated mass are the parameters needed to give the age of the rocks. The main uncertainties with this method are directly linked to the measures of the mass (typically some µg) and of the concentration of K by LIBS (up to 10%). Because the ablated mass is small compared to the mass of the sample, and because material is redeposited onto the sample after ablation, it is not possible to directly measure the ablated mass. Our current protocol measures the ablated volume and estimates the sample density to calculate ablated mass. The precision and accuracy of this method may be improved by using knowledge of the sample's geologic properties to predict its response to laser ablation, i.e., understanding whether natural samples have a predictable relationship between laser energy deposited and resultant ablation volume. In contrast to most previous studies of laser ablation, theoretical equations are not highly applicable. The reasons are numerous, but the most important are: a) geologic rocks are complex, polymineralic materials; b) the conditions of ablation are unusual (for example

  6. Trollope, Liberalism and Scripture Libéralisme et Écritures dans l’œuvre d’Anthony Trollope

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hervé Picton

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available Si au début de sa carrière littéraire Trollope était un partisan de la théologie anglo-catholique et antilibérale des Tractariens, il devint au fil des années sensible aux arguments des théologiens libéraux de la Broad Church. En effet, tous ses prêtres modèles après 1867 appartiennent à cette « Église large » (par opposition aux héros tractariens de ses premiers romans et il écrivit au cours des années 1865-1866 une série d’articles pour des revues libérales (PMG, Fornightly Review dans lesquelles il devait notamment soutenir l’évêque Colenso et son interprétation critique du Pentateuque. Trollope dénonce à présent le littéralisme biblique et soutient par ailleurs que le doute, aussi douloureux soit-il, est salutaire. Comment expliquer un tel revirement ? (Newman et les libéraux étaient après tout les pires ennemis. Les facteurs explicatifs sont nombreux et relèvent tant de la biographie que de l’évolution générale du climat intellectuel, avec en particulier la publication de The Origin of Species en 1859 et des Essays and Reviews en 1860. Anglican convaincu, Trollope ne devait toutefois jamais perdre la foi, contrairement à certains de ses amis libres penseurs tels que George Eliot ou G. H. Lewes.

  7. Improving Library Service Quality to Graduate Students: LibQual+[TM] Survey Results in a Practical Setting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jankowska, Maria Anna; Hertel, Karen; Young, Nancy J.

    2006-01-01

    The LibQUAL+[TM] survey was conducted to determine user satisfaction and expectations concerning library service quality. The results of the "22 items and a box" constituted a rich source of information for the University of Idaho (UI) Library's strategic planning process. Focusing on graduate students, this study used three…

  8. NextLib : un sistema de software basado en ontologías para la consulta automática de OPACs desde sedes web especializadas

    OpenAIRE

    Felip Vidal, Lledó; Orduña-Malea, Enrique

    2008-01-01

    Las extensiones para navegadores web (Add-ons) están ampliando las funcionalidades de éstos. Entre ellas cabe destacar la reciente aparición de LibX, herramienta que permite la interacción entre el OPAC de una biblioteca y la Web. Se estudian las limitaciones de esta herramienta en cuanto a detección automática de datos y automatización de tareas para proponer un sistema (NextLib) que, mediante la combinación de diferentes aplicaciones, permita superarlas. Este sistema estaría for...

  9. Mapping of the spatial distribution of silver nanoparticles in root tissues of Vicia faba by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Krajcarová, L; Novotný, K; Kummerová, M; Dubová, J; Gloser, V; Kaiser, J

    2017-10-01

    The manuscript presents a procedure for optimal sample preparation and the mapping of the spatial distribution of metal ions and nanoparticles in plant roots using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) in a double-pulse configuration (DP LIBS) in orthogonal reheating mode. Two Nd:YAG lasers were used; the first one was an ablation laser (UP-266 MACRO, New Wave, USA) with a wavelength of 266nm, and the second one (Brilliant, Quantel, France), with a fundamental wavelength of 1064nm, was used to reheat the microplasma. Seedlings of Vicia faba were cultivated for 7 days in CuSO 4 or AgNO 3 solutions with a concentration of 10µmoll -1 or in a solution of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with a concentration of 10µmoll -1 of total Ag, and in distilled water as a control. The total contents of the examined metals in the roots after sample mineralization as well as changes in the concentrations of the metals in the cultivation solutions were monitored by ICP-OES. Root samples embedded in the TissueTek medium and cut into 40µm thick cross sections using the Cryo-Cut Microtome proved to be best suited for an accurate LIBS analysis with a 50µm spatial resolution. 2D raster maps of elemental distribution were created for the emission lines of Cu(I) at 324.754nm and Ag(I) at 328.068nm. The limits of detection of DP LIBS for the root cross sections were estimated to be 4pg for Cu, 18pg for Ag, and 3pg for AgNPs. The results of Ag spatial distribution mapping indicated that unlike Ag + ions, AgNPs do not penetrate into the inner tissues of Vicia faba roots but stay in their outermost layers. The content of Ag in roots cultivated in the AgNP solution was one order of magnitude lower compared to roots cultivated in the metal ion solutions. The significantly smaller concentration of Ag in root tissues cultivated in the AgNP solution also supports the conclusion that the absorption and uptake of AgNPs by roots of Vicia faba is very slow. LIBS mapping of root sections

  10. Snakes or Ladders? Evaluating a LibGuides pilot at University College Dublin Library

    OpenAIRE

    Dalton, Michelle; Pan, Rosalind

    2014-01-01

    Online subject guides are commonly used by libraries to provide information support to students. LibGuides (a cloud-based commercial product launched in 2007) represent one of the latest incarnations of the traditional subject guide or portal, and are widely used across American academic libraries. In Ireland however, library subject guides of entirely local design and hosted on a local web server still dominate. This paper outlines the project management process involved in implementing a Li...

  11. Characterizing the economic value of an epithermal Au-Ag ore with Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Dalm, M.; Buxton, M.W.N.

    2016-01-01

    LIBS was applied to 19 Au-Ag ore samples to investigate if this technique can be used to distinguish between economic and sub-economic ore either by direct detection of these elements or by using other elements as indicators. However, the Au and Ag grades of the samples are below the detection limit

  12. Taguchi Ukichi, un libéral opiniâtre de l’ère Meiji

    OpenAIRE

    Hurth, Pascal

    2014-01-01

    Journaliste, historien et homme politique, Taguchi Ukichi s’est fait le chantre du libéralisme à la fin du xixe siècle en défendant le libre-échange et en s’opposant aux propriétaires fonciers. Champion of Liberalism at the end of the 19th century, Taguchi Ukichi (journalist, historian and politician) was a staunch advocate of free trade, strongly opposed to landowners.

  13. Effect of sodium chloride concentration on elemental analysis of brines by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goueguel, Christian; Singh, Jagdish P; McIntyre, Dustin L; Jain, Jinesh; Karamalidis, Athanasios K

    2014-01-01

    Leakage of injected carbon dioxide (CO2) or resident fluids, such as brine, is a major concern associated with the injection of large volumes of CO2 into deep saline formations. Migration of brine could contaminate drinking water resources by increasing their salinity or endanger vegetation and animal life as well as human health. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of sodium chloride (NaCl) concentration on the detection of calcium and potassium in brine samples using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). The ultimate goals were to determine the suitability of the LIBS technique for in situ measurements of metal ion concentrations in NaCl-rich solution and to develop a chemical sensor that can provide the early detection of brine intrusion into formations used for domestic or agricultural water production. Several brine samples of NaCl-CaCl2 and NaCl-KCl were prepared at NaCl concentrations between 0.0 and 3.0 M. The effect of NaCl concentration on the signal-to-background ratio (SBR) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for calcium (422.67 nm) and potassium (769.49 nm) emission lines was evaluated. Results show that, for a delay time of 300 ns and a gate width of 3 μs, the presence of and changes in NaCl concentration significantly affect the SBR and SNR for both emission lines. An increase in NaCl concentration from 0.0 to 3.0 M produced an increase in the SNR, whereas the SBR dropped continuously. The detection limits obtained for both elements were in the milligrams per liter range, suggesting that a NaCl-rich solution does not severely limit the ability of LIBS to detect trace amount of metal ions.

  14. Heavy metal concentrations in soils as determined by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), with special emphasis on chromium

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Senesi, G.S.; Dell'Aglio, M.; Gaudiuso, R.; De Giacomo, A.; Zaccone, C.; De Pascale, O.; Miano, T.M.; Capitelli, M.

    2009-01-01

    Soil is unanimously considered as one of the most important sink of heavy metals released by human activities. Heavy metal analysis of natural and polluted soils is generally conducted by the use of atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) or inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) on adequately obtained soil extracts. Although in recent years the emergent technique of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been applied widely and with increasing success for the qualitative and quantitative analyses of a number of heavy metals in soil matrices with relevant simplification of the conventional methodologies, the technique still requires further confirmation before it can be applied fully successfully in soil analyses. The main objective of this work was to demonstrate that new developments in LIBS technique are able to provide reliable qualitative and quantitative analytical evaluation of several heavy metals in soils, with special focus on the element chromium (Cr), and with reference to the concentrations measured by conventional ICP spectroscopy. The preliminary qualitative LIBS analysis of five soil samples and one sewage sludge sample has allowed the detection of a number of elements including Al, Ca, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Pb, Si, Ti, V and Zn. Of these, a quantitative analysis was also possible for the elements Cr, Cu, Pb, V and Zn based on the obtained linearity of the calibration curves constructed for each heavy metal, i.e., the proportionality between the intensity of the LIBS emission peaks and the concentration of each heavy metal in the sample measured by ICP. In particular, a triplet of emission lines for Cr could be used for its quantitative measurement. The consistency of experiments made on various samples was supported by the same characteristics of the laser-induced plasma (LIP), i.e., the typical linear distribution confirming the existence of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) condition, and similar excitation

  15. Heavy metal concentrations in soils as determined by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), with special emphasis on chromium.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Senesi, G S; Dell'Aglio, M; Gaudiuso, R; De Giacomo, A; Zaccone, C; De Pascale, O; Miano, T M; Capitelli, M

    2009-05-01

    Soil is unanimously considered as one of the most important sink of heavy metals released by human activities. Heavy metal analysis of natural and polluted soils is generally conducted by the use of atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) or inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) on adequately obtained soil extracts. Although in recent years the emergent technique of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been applied widely and with increasing success for the qualitative and quantitative analyses of a number of heavy metals in soil matrices with relevant simplification of the conventional methodologies, the technique still requires further confirmation before it can be applied fully successfully in soil analyses. The main objective of this work was to demonstrate that new developments in LIBS technique are able to provide reliable qualitative and quantitative analytical evaluation of several heavy metals in soils, with special focus on the element chromium (Cr), and with reference to the concentrations measured by conventional ICP spectroscopy. The preliminary qualitative LIBS analysis of five soil samples and one sewage sludge sample has allowed the detection of a number of elements including Al, Ca, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Pb, Si, Ti, V and Zn. Of these, a quantitative analysis was also possible for the elements Cr, Cu, Pb, V and Zn based on the obtained linearity of the calibration curves constructed for each heavy metal, i.e., the proportionality between the intensity of the LIBS emission peaks and the concentration of each heavy metal in the sample measured by ICP. In particular, a triplet of emission lines for Cr could be used for its quantitative measurement. The consistency of experiments made on various samples was supported by the same characteristics of the laser-induced plasma (LIP), i.e., the typical linear distribution confirming the existence of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) condition, and similar excitation

  16. The added value of business models

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vliet, Harry van

    An overview of innovations in a particular area, for example retail developments in the fashion sector (Van Vliet, 2014), and a subsequent discussion about the probability as to whether these innovations will realise a ‘breakthrough’, has to be supplemented with the question of what the added value

  17. Creating a Current Awareness Service Using Yahoo! Pipes and LibGuides

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elizabeth Kiscaden

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available Migration from print to electronic journals brought an end to traditional current awareness services, which primarily utilized print routing. The emergence of Real Simple Syndication, or RSS feeds, and email alerting systems provided users with alternative services. To assist users with adopting these technologies, a service utilizing aggregate feeds to the library’s electronic journal content was created and made available through LibGuides. Libraries can resurrect current awareness services using current technologies to increase awareness and usage of library-provided electronic journal content. The current awareness service presented is an example of how libraries can build simple current awareness services utilizing freely accessible technologies.

  18. Occurrence of pathotypes of Ascochyta pisi (Lib. in the Olsztyn district

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Helena Furgał-Węgrzycka

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The causal agents of leaf and pods spot-pot of peas and field peas in the Olsztyn district was the fungus Ascochyta pisi (Lib.. Investigated isolates of A. pisi differed by macroscopic and microscopic features. From diseases leaves and pods of peas and field peas obtained also saprophitic fungi among which Alternaria alternata, Botrytis cinerea, Cladosporium c1adosporioides, Epicoccum purpurascens, Stemphylium botryosum, Sordaria fimicola and mycelia starilia were dominated. In the study of the identification and distribution of pathotypes of A. pisi five pathotypes were identified among which pathotype 2 were dominated. The identified the pathotypes differed by macroscopic and microscopic features.

  19. Secondary plasma formation after single pulse laser ablation underwater and its advantages for laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gavrilović, M R; Cvejić, M; Lazic, V; Jovićević, S

    2016-06-07

    In this work we present studies of spatial and temporal plasma evolution after single pulse ablation of an aluminium target in water. The laser ablation was performed using 20 ns long pulses emitted at 1064 nm. The plasma characterization was performed by fast photography, the Schlieren technique, shadowgraphy and optical emission spectroscopy. The experimental results indicate the existence of two distinct plasma stages: the first stage has a duration of approximately 500 ns from the laser pulse, and is followed by a new plasma growth starting from the crater center. The secondary plasma slowly evolves inside the growing vapor bubble, and its optical emission lasts over several tens of microseconds. Later, the hot glowing particles, trapped inside the vapor cavity, were detected during the whole cycle of the bubble, where the first collapse occurs after 475 μs from the laser pulse. Differences in the plasma properties during the two evolution phases are discussed, with an accent on the optical emission since its detection is of primary importance for LIBS. Here we demonstrate that the LIBS signal quality in single pulse excitation underwater can be greatly enhanced by detecting only the secondary plasma emission, and also by applying long acquisition gates (in the order of 10-100 μs). The presented results are of great importance for LIBS measurements inside a liquid environment, since they prove that a good analytical signal can be obtained by using nanosecond pulses from a single commercial laser source and by employing cost effective, not gated detectors.

  20. libNeuroML and PyLEMS: using Python to combine procedural and declarative modeling approaches in computational neuroscience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vella, Michael; Cannon, Robert C; Crook, Sharon; Davison, Andrew P; Ganapathy, Gautham; Robinson, Hugh P C; Silver, R Angus; Gleeson, Padraig

    2014-01-01

    NeuroML is an XML-based model description language, which provides a powerful common data format for defining and exchanging models of neurons and neuronal networks. In the latest version of NeuroML, the structure and behavior of ion channel, synapse, cell, and network model descriptions are based on underlying definitions provided in LEMS, a domain-independent language for expressing hierarchical mathematical models of physical entities. While declarative approaches for describing models have led to greater exchange of model elements among software tools in computational neuroscience, a frequent criticism of XML-based languages is that they are difficult to work with directly. Here we describe two Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) written in Python (http://www.python.org), which simplify the process of developing and modifying models expressed in NeuroML and LEMS. The libNeuroML API provides a Python object model with a direct mapping to all NeuroML concepts defined by the NeuroML Schema, which facilitates reading and writing the XML equivalents. In addition, it offers a memory-efficient, array-based internal representation, which is useful for handling large-scale connectomics data. The libNeuroML API also includes support for performing common operations that are required when working with NeuroML documents. Access to the LEMS data model is provided by the PyLEMS API, which provides a Python implementation of the LEMS language, including the ability to simulate most models expressed in LEMS. Together, libNeuroML and PyLEMS provide a comprehensive solution for interacting with NeuroML models in a Python environment.

  1. libNeuroML and PyLEMS: using Python to combine imperative and declarative modelling approaches in computational neuroscience

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michael eVella

    2014-04-01

    Full Text Available NeuroML is an XML-based model description language, which provides a powerful common data format for defining and exchanging models of neurons and neuronal networks. In the latest version of NeuroML, the structure and behavior of ion channel, synapse, cell,and network model descriptions are based on underlying definitions provided in LEMS, a domain-independent language for expressing hierarchical mathematical models of physical entities. While declarative approaches for describing models have led to greater exchange of model elements among software tools in computational neuroscience, a frequent criticism of XML-based languages is that they are difficult to work with directly. Here we describe two APIs (Application Programming Interfaces written in Python (http://www.python.org, which simplify the process of developing and modifying models expressed in NeuroML and LEMS. The libNeuroML API provides a Python object model with a direct mapping to all NeuroML concepts defined by the NeuroML Schema, which facilitates reading and writing the XML equivalents. In addition, it offers a memory-efficient, array-based internal representation, which is useful for handling large-scale connectomics data. The libNeuroML API also includes support for performing common operations that are required when working with NeuroML documents. Access to the LEMS data model is provided by the PyLEMS API, which provides a Python implementation of the LEMS language, including the ability to simulate most models expressed in LEMS. Together, libNeuroML and PyLEMS provide a comprehensive solution for interacting with NeuroML models in a Python environment.

  2. A note on the effect of wheat versus maize on the backfat ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    mass (85 or 120 kg) on the fatty acid composition of backfat was studied on 40 ad lib. fed Landrace x Large ... so€:)en lewende massa (85 of 120 kg) op die vetsuursamestelling van rugspek isop 40 ad lib. -gevoerde Landras x ... During the catastrophic drought of 1984, the local maize crop had to be supplemented by grain ...

  3. Portable LIBS system for determining the composition of multilayer structures on objects of cultural value

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moreira Osorio, Lesther; Ponce Cabrera, Luis V; Arronte Garcia, Miguel A; Flores Reyes, Teresa; Ravelo, Ivette

    2011-01-01

    This study presents the use of a portable Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) prototype for determining the elemental composition of a metal jug. The system includes emission from a multiuse Q-switched Nd:YAG laser. By sampling at different points, the surface composition is determined. Furthermore, the presence of two layers of Pb and Cu and their thicknesses are determined through in-depth analysis.

  4. Supersymmetric AdS3, AdS2 and bubble solutions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gauntlett, Jerome P.; Waldram, Daniel; Kim, Nakwoo

    2007-01-01

    We present new supersymmetric AdS 3 solutions of type IIB supergravity and AdS 2 solutions of D = 11 supergravity. The former are dual to conformal field theories in two dimensions with N = (0, 2) supersymmetry while the latter are dual to conformal quantum mechanics with two supercharges. Our construction also includes AdS 2 solutions of D = 11 supergravity that have non-compact internal spaces which are dual to three-dimensional N = 2 superconformal field theories coupled to point-like defects. We also present some new bubble-type solutions, corresponding to BPS states in conformal theories, that preserve four supersymmetries

  5. Identification of Four Wood Species by an Electronic Nose and by LIBS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Juliana R. Cordeiro

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper presents two complementary methods capable of identifying four wood species (Cedrela fissilis, Ocotea porosa, Hymenolobium petraeum, and Aspidosperma subincanum both by their volatile organic compounds and by the presence of 10 chemical elements: Al, B, Ca, Mg, Zn, Cu, Mn, Fe, Na, and Si. The volatile compounds were detected by an electronic nose formed by an array of three different conductive polymer gas sensors. The elemental determination was made by laser-induced breakdown spectrometry (LIBS. The emissions measured were treated by principal component analysis (PCA. Leave-one-out analysis showed a rate of hits of 100%.

  6. Arriba-lib: association of an evidence-based electronic library of decision aids with communication and decision-making in patients and primary care physicians.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hirsch, Oliver; Keller, Heidemarie; Krones, Tanja; Donner-Banzhoff, Norbert

    2012-03-01

    In shared decision-making, patients are empowered to actively ask questions and participate in decisions about their healthcare based on their preferences and values. Decision aids should help patients make informed choices among diagnostic or treatment options by delivering evidence-based information on options and outcomes; however, they have rarely been field tested, especially in the primary care context. We therefore evaluated associations between the use of an interactive, transactional and evidence-based library of decision aids (arriba-lib) and communication and decision-making in patients and physicians in the primary care context. Our electronic library of decision aids ('arriba-lib') includes evidence-based modules for cardiovascular prevention, diabetes, coronary heart disease, atrial fibrillation and depression. Twenty-nine primary care physicians recruited 192 patients. We used questionnaires to ask patients and physicians about their experiences with and attitudes towards the programme. Patients were interviewed via telephone 2 months after the consultation. Data were analysed by general estimation equations, cross tab analyses and by using effect sizes. Only a minority (8.9%) of the consultations were felt to be too long because physicians said consultations were unacceptably extended by arriba-lib. We found a negative association between the detailedness of the discussion of the clinical problem's definition and the age of the patients. Physicians discuss therapeutic options in less detail with patients who have a formal education of less than 8 years. Patients who were counselled by a physician with no experience in using a decision aid more often reported that they do not remember being counselled with the help of a decision aid or do not wish to be counselled again with a decision aid. Arriba-lib has positive associations to the decision-making process in patients and physicians. It can also be used with older age groups and patients with less

  7. Effect of skipping breakfast on subsequent energy intake.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levitsky, David A; Pacanowski, Carly R

    2013-07-02

    The objective was to examine the effect of consuming breakfast on subsequent energy intake. Participants who habitually ate breakfast and those who skipped breakfast were recruited for two studies. Using a randomized crossover design, the first study examined the effect of having participants consume either (a) no breakfast, (b) a high carbohydrate breakfast (335 kcals), or (c) a high fiber breakfast (360 kcals) on three occasions and measured ad libitum intake at lunch. The second study again used a randomized crossover design but with a larger, normal carbohydrate breakfast consumed ad libtum. Intake averaged 624 kcals and subsequent food intake was measured throughout the day. Participants ate only foods served from the Cornell Human Metabolic Research Unit where all foods were weighed before and after consumption. In the first study, neither eating breakfast nor the kind of breakfast consumed had an effect on the amount consumed at lunch despite a reduction in hunger ratings. In the second study, intake at lunch as well as hunger ratings were significantly increased after skipping breakfast (by 144 kcal), leaving a net caloric deficit of 408 kcal by the end of the day. These data are consistent with published literature demonstrating that skipping a meal does not result in accurate energy compensation at subsequent meals and suggests that skipping breakfast may be an effective means to reduce daily energy intake in some adults. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  8. Detection and quantification of a toxic salt substitute (LiCl) by using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sezer, Banu; Velioglu, Hasan Murat; Bilge, Gonca; Berkkan, Aysel; Ozdinc, Nese; Tamer, Ugur; Boyaci, Ismail Hakkı

    2018-01-01

    The use of Li salts in foods has been prohibited due to their negative effects on central nervous system; however, they might still be used especially in meat products as Na substitutes. Lithium can be toxic and even lethal at higher concentrations and it is not approved in foods. The present study focuses on Li analysis in meatballs by using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). Meatball samples were analyzed using LIBS and flame atomic absorption spectroscopy. Calibration curves were obtained by utilizing Li emission lines at 610nm and 670nm for univariate calibration. The results showed that Li calibration curve at 670nm provided successful determination of Li with 0.965 of R 2 and 4.64ppm of limit of detection (LOD) value. While Li Calibration curve obtained using emission line at 610nm generated R 2 of 0.991 and LOD of 22.6ppm, calibration curve obtained at 670nm below 1300ppm generated R 2 of 0.965 and LOD of 4.64ppm. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  9. A Simple Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) System for Use at Multiple Levels in the Undergraduate Chemistry Curriculum

    Science.gov (United States)

    Randall, David W.; Hayes, Ryan T.; Wong, Peter A.

    2013-01-01

    A LIBS (laser induced breakdown spectroscopy) spectrometer constructed by the instructor is reported for use in undergraduate analytical chemistry experiments. The modular spectrometer described here is based on commonly available components including a commercial Nd:YAG laser and a compact UV-vis spectrometer. The modular approach provides a…

  10. Double Pulse LIBS of Titanium-Based PVD-Coatings with Submicron Resolution

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    K. Ermalitskaia

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The possibility for double pulse LIBS in the process of a direct layer-by-layer analysis of the titanium-based PVD-coatings on polished flat blank samples of steel and silicon and also of the TiAlN/TiN-coating on a milling cutter is considered. A method is proposed to control thickness of the radiation evaporated layer by defocusing the laser beam with respect to the surface, making it possible to attain the depth resolution of 0.1 μm. The Ti and Ti-Zr-coatings produced using the ion-assisted condensation method and subjected to streams of the nitrogen plasma in a magnetic-plasma compressor are studied.

  11. Feasibility of atomic and molecular laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) to in-situ determination of chlorine in concrete : final report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-10-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been studied as a fast method of detecting chlorine in concrete samples. Both single pulse (SP) and double pulse (DP) experiments have been tested. Several combinations of lasers (Neodymium-Yttrium Alum...

  12. Less is more: Avoiding the LIBS dimensionality curse through judicious feature selection for explosive detection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumar Myakalwar, Ashwin; Spegazzini, Nicolas; Zhang, Chi; Kumar Anubham, Siva; Dasari, Ramachandra R.; Barman, Ishan; Kumar Gundawar, Manoj

    2015-01-01

    Despite its intrinsic advantages, translation of laser induced breakdown spectroscopy for material identification has been often impeded by the lack of robustness of developed classification models, often due to the presence of spurious correlations. While a number of classifiers exhibiting high discriminatory power have been reported, efforts in establishing the subset of relevant spectral features that enable a fundamental interpretation of the segmentation capability and avoid the ‘curse of dimensionality’ have been lacking. Using LIBS data acquired from a set of secondary explosives, we investigate judicious feature selection approaches and architect two different chemometrics classifiers –based on feature selection through prerequisite knowledge of the sample composition and genetic algorithm, respectively. While the full spectral input results in classification rate of ca.92%, selection of only carbon to hydrogen spectral window results in near identical performance. Importantly, the genetic algorithm-derived classifier shows a statistically significant improvement to ca. 94% accuracy for prospective classification, even though the number of features used is an order of magnitude smaller. Our findings demonstrate the impact of rigorous feature selection in LIBS and also hint at the feasibility of using a discrete filter based detector thereby enabling a cheaper and compact system more amenable to field operations. PMID:26286630

  13. Design and Construction of a pulsed Nd:YAG laser for LIBS applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Garcia-Villarreal, A.; Sobral, H.

    2015-01-01

    A multi-pulse Nd:YAG laser was designed and built, that can be used as an excitation source for Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) experiments. A trigger and a power supply for the flash lamp has been successfully developed. A cooling system that uses a distilled water flow for the active medium was implemented. The laser has an output energy of 306 ± 7 mJ for 1 Hz repetition rate and its temporal profile is multi-pulse with 1 ps of average separation between them. To validate the system, the output was used as an ablation source of an aluminum target and the emission was investigated by spectroscopy analysis.

  14. Acute effects of protein composition and fibre enrichment of yogurt consumed as snacks on appetite sensations and subsequent ad libitum energy intake in healthy men.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doyon, Caroline Y; Tremblay, Angelo; Rioux, Laurie-Eve; Rhéaume, Caroline; Cianflone, Katherine; Poursharifi, Pegah; Turgeon, Sylvie L

    2015-10-01

    The objective of the study was to assess the impact of protein composition and/or fibre enrichment of yogurt on appetite sensations and subsequent energy intake. In this double-blind crossover study, 20 healthy men (aged 32.4 ± 9.1 years) were submitted to 5 randomized testing sessions, during which they had to consume 5 isocaloric and isonproteinemic yogurt snacks (120-g servings, ∼230 kJ, ∼4.5 g protein) differing by their casein-to-whey protein ratio (C:W) or dietary fibre content: (i) control C:W = 2.8:1; (ii) high whey (HW) C:W = 1.5:1, and fibre-enriched formulations using control; (iii) 2.4 g of inulin; (iv) 1.9 g of inulin and 0.5 g of β-glucan (+IN-βG); and (v) 0.5 g of β-glucan. Appetite sensations were assessed using 150-mm visual analog scales. Plasma variables (glucose, insulin, ghrelin) were measured at 30-min intervals post-yogurt consumption for 2 h. Finally, energy intakes during ad libitum lunches offered 2 h after yogurt snacks were recorded. None of the yogurts impacted appetite sensations. Ad libitum energy intake was significantly different only between HW and control yogurts (-812 kJ; p = 0.03). Regarding post-yogurt plasma variables, a significant difference was found only between ghrelin area under the curve of the +IN-βG and the HW yogurts (-15 510 pmol/L per 120 min, p = 0.04). In conclusion, although appetite sensations were not influenced by variations in yogurts' protein compositions, a reduced energy intake was observed during the ad libitum lunch after the HW yogurt that may be attributable to its lower C:W. Surprisingly, the fibre enrichments studied did not exert effect on appetite sensations and energy intake.

  15. Evaluation of elemental profiling methods, including laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), for the differentiation of Cannabis plant material grown in different nutrient solutions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    El-Deftar, Moteaa M; Robertson, James; Foster, Simon; Lennard, Chris

    2015-06-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an emerging atomic emission based solid sampling technique that has many potential forensic applications. In this study, the analytical performance of LIBS, as well as that of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) and X-ray microfluorescence (μXRF), was evaluated for the ability to conduct elemental analyses on Cannabis plant material, with a specific investigation of the possible links between hydroponic nutrients and elemental profiles from associated plant material. No such study has been previously published in the literature. Good correlation among the four techniques was observed when the concentrations or peak areas of the elements of interest were monitored. For Cannabis samples collected at the same growth time, the elemental profiles could be related to the use of particular commercial nutrients. In addition, the study demonstrated that ICP-MS, LA-ICP-MS and LIBS are suitable techniques for the comparison of Cannabis samples from different sources, with high discriminating powers being achieved. On the other hand, μXRF method was not suitable for the discrimination of Cannabis samples originating from different growth nutrients. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Exploration of Mars with the ChemCam LIBS Instrument and the Curiosity Rover

    Science.gov (United States)

    Newsom, Horton E.

    2016-01-01

    The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover landed on Mars in August 2012, and has been exploring the planet ever since. Dr. Horton E. Newsom will discuss the MSL's design and main goal, which is to characterize past environments that may have been conducive to the evolution and sustainability of life. He will also discuss Curiosity's science payload, and remote sensing, analytical capabilities, and direct discoveries of the Chemistry & Camera (ChemCam) instrument, which is the first Laser Induced Breakdown Spectrometer (LIBS) to operate on another planetary surface and determine the chemistry of the rocks and soils.

  17. [Analysis of Cr in soil by LIBS based on conical spatial confinement of plasma].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Yong-Zeng; Yao, Ming-Yin; Chen, Tian-Bing; Li, Wen-Bing; Zheng, Mei-Lan; Xu, Xue-Hong; Tu, Jian-Ping; Liu, Mu-Hua

    2013-11-01

    The present study is to improve the sensitivity of detection and reduce the limit of detection in detecting heavy metal of soil by laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). The Cr element of national standard soil was regarded as the research object. In the experiment, a conical cavity with small diameter end of 20 mm and large diameter end of 45 mm respectively was installed below the focusing lens near the experiment sample to mainly confine the signal transmitted by plasma and to some extent to confine the plasma itself in the LIBS setup. In detecting Cr I 425.44 nm, the beast delay time gained from experiment is 1.3 micros, and the relative standard deviation is below 10%. Compared with the setup of non-spatial confinement, the spectral intensity of Cr in the soil sample was enhanced more than 7%. Calibration curve was established in the Cr concentration range from 60 to 400 microg x g(-1). Under the condition of spatial confinement, the liner regression coefficient and the limit of detection were 0.997 71 and 18.85 microg x g(-1) respectively, however, the regression coefficient and the limit of detection were 0.991 22 and 36.99 microg x g(-1) without spatial confinement. So, this shows that conical spatial confinement can/improve the sensitivity of detection and enhance the spectral intensity. And it is a good auxiliary function in detecting Cr in the soil by laser induced breakdown spectroscopy.

  18. Quantum mechanical design and structure of the Li@B10H14 basket with a remarkably enhanced electro-optical response.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Muhammad, Shabbir; Xu, Hongliang; Liao, Yi; Kan, Yuhe; Su, Zhongmin

    2009-08-26

    An innovative type of lithium decahydroborate (Li@B(10)H(14)) complex with a basketlike complexant of decaborane (B(10)H(14)) has been designed using quantum mechanical methods. As Li atom binds in a handle fashion to terminal electrophilic boron atoms of the decaborane basket, its NBO charge q (Li) is found to be 0.876, close to +1. This shows that the Li atom has been ionized to form a cation and an anion at the open end of B(10)H(14). The most fascinating feature of this Li doping is its loosely bound valence electron, which has been pulled into the cavity of the B(10)H(14) basket and become diffuse by the electron-deficient morphological features of the open end of the B(10)H(14) basket. Strikingly, the first hyperpolarizability (beta(0)) of Li@B(10)H(14) is about 340 times larger than that of B(10)H(14), computed to be 23,075 au (199 x 10(-30) esu) and 68 au, respectively. Besides this, the intercalation of the Li atom to the B(10)H(14) basket brings some distinctive changes in its Raman, (11)B NMR, and UV-vis spectra along with its other electronic properties that might be used by the experimentalists to identify this novel kind of Li@B(10)H(14) complex with a large electro-optical response. This study may evoke the possibility to explore a new thriving area, i.e., alkali metal-boranes for NLO application.

  19. Routing Protocol for Mobile Ad-hoc Wireless Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    I. M. B. Nogales

    2007-09-01

    Full Text Available Bluetooth is a cutting-edge technology used for implementing wireless ad hoc networks. In order to provide an overall scheme for mobile ad hoc networks, this paper deals with scatternet topology formation and routing algorithm to form larger ad hoc wireless Networks. Scatternet topology starts by forming a robust network, which is less susceptible to the problems posed by node mobility. Mobile topology relies on the presence of free nodes that create multiple connections with the network and on their subsequently rejoining the network. Our routing protocol is a proactive routing protocol, which is tailor made for the Bluetooth ad hoc network. The connection establishment connects nodes in a structure that simplifies packet routing and scheduling. The design allows nodes to arrive and leave arbitrarily, incrementally building the topology and healing partitions when they occur. We present simulation results that show that the algorithm presents low formation latency and also generates an efficient topology for forwarding packets along ad-hoc wireless networks.

  20. IDENTIFICACIÓN DE POLÍMEROS MEDIANTE ESPECTROSCOPIA DE EMISIÓN DE PLASMAS PRODUCIDOS POR LÁSER (LIBS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    DANIEL DÍAZ

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Se espera que en Colombia en los próximos años se realicen misiones humanitarias para la remoción de Artefactos Explosivos Improvisados (AEI para asegurar el tránsito de personas y bienes, particularmente en zonas rurales. Entre las tecnologías que apoyan las labores de desminado humanitario, la espectroscopia de emisión de plasmas producidos por láser (LIBS tiene la capacidad de identificar explosivos y las cubiertas utilizadas en la fabricación de AEIs. En este trabajo la técnica LIBS se usó para identificar y caracterizar a nivel de laboratorio cinco polímeros que pueden ser usados en la fabricación de AEIs: polivinil cloruro, polietileno de alta densidad, polietileno tereftalato, poliestireno y polipropileno. Se utilizó el coeficiente de correlación lineal para la identificación de los polímeros. Se lograron identificar satisfactoriamente todos los polímeros al compararlos con librerías de distintas sustancias utilizando el promedio de cinco espectros en la ventana de análisis centrada en 255 nm.

  1. Accurate quantitative CF-LIBS analysis of both major and minor elements in alloys via iterative correction of plasma temperature and spectral intensity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shuxia, ZHAO; Lei, ZHANG; Jiajia, HOU; Yang, ZHAO; Wangbao, YIN; Weiguang, MA; Lei, DONG; Liantuan, XIAO; Suotang, JIA

    2018-03-01

    The chemical composition of alloys directly determines their mechanical behaviors and application fields. Accurate and rapid analysis of both major and minor elements in alloys plays a key role in metallurgy quality control and material classification processes. A quantitative calibration-free laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (CF-LIBS) analysis method, which carries out combined correction of plasma temperature and spectral intensity by using a second-order iterative algorithm and two boundary standard samples, is proposed to realize accurate composition measurements. Experimental results show that, compared to conventional CF-LIBS analysis, the relative errors for major elements Cu and Zn and minor element Pb in the copper-lead alloys has been reduced from 12%, 26% and 32% to 1.8%, 2.7% and 13.4%, respectively. The measurement accuracy for all elements has been improved substantially.

  2. Design of the Modelica Library VehProLib with Non-ideal Gas Models in Engines

    OpenAIRE

    Andersson, Conny

    2015-01-01

    This thesis covers the reconstruction and the redesign of the modeling library VehProLib,which is constructed in the modeling language Modelica with help of the modeling toolWolfram SystemModeler. The design choices are discussed and implemented. This thesisalso includes the implementation of a turbocharger package and an initial study of the justificationof the ideal gas law in vehicle modeling. The study is made with help of Van derWaals equation of states as a reference of non-ideal gas mo...

  3. Inclusion Detection in Aluminum Alloys Via Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hudson, Shaymus W.; Craparo, Joseph; De Saro, Robert; Apelian, Diran

    2018-04-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has shown promise as a technique to quickly determine molten metal chemistry in real time. Because of its characteristics, LIBS could also be used as a technique to sense for unwanted inclusions and impurities. Simulated Al2O3 inclusions were added to molten aluminum via a metal-matrix composite. LIBS was performed in situ to determine whether particles could be detected. Outlier analysis on oxygen signal was performed on LIBS data and compared to oxide volume fraction measured through metallography. It was determined that LIBS could differentiate between melts with different amounts of inclusions by monitoring the fluctuations in signal for elements of interest. LIBS shows promise as an enabling tool for monitoring metal cleanliness.

  4. Software support for SBGN maps: SBGN-ML and LibSBGN.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Iersel, Martijn P; Villéger, Alice C; Czauderna, Tobias; Boyd, Sarah E; Bergmann, Frank T; Luna, Augustin; Demir, Emek; Sorokin, Anatoly; Dogrusoz, Ugur; Matsuoka, Yukiko; Funahashi, Akira; Aladjem, Mirit I; Mi, Huaiyu; Moodie, Stuart L; Kitano, Hiroaki; Le Novère, Nicolas; Schreiber, Falk

    2012-08-01

    LibSBGN is a software library for reading, writing and manipulating Systems Biology Graphical Notation (SBGN) maps stored using the recently developed SBGN-ML file format. The library (available in C++ and Java) makes it easy for developers to add SBGN support to their tools, whereas the file format facilitates the exchange of maps between compatible software applications. The library also supports validation of maps, which simplifies the task of ensuring compliance with the detailed SBGN specifications. With this effort we hope to increase the adoption of SBGN in bioinformatics tools, ultimately enabling more researchers to visualize biological knowledge in a precise and unambiguous manner. Milestone 2 was released in December 2011. Source code, example files and binaries are freely available under the terms of either the LGPL v2.1+ or Apache v2.0 open source licenses from http://libsbgn.sourceforge.net. sbgn-libsbgn@lists.sourceforge.net.

  5. Recovery Of Electrodic Powder From Spent Lithium Ion Batteries (LIBs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shin S.M.

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available This study was focused on recycling process newly proposed to recover electrodic powder enriched in cobalt (Co and lithium (Li from spent lithium ion battery. In addition, this new process was designed to prevent explosion of batteries during thermal treatment under inert atmosphere. Spent lithium ion batteries (LIBs were heated over the range of 300°C to 600°C for 2 hours and each component was completely separated inside reactor after experiment. Electrodic powder was successfully recovered from bulk components containing several pieces of metals through sieving operation. The electrodic powder obtained was examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS, and atomic absorption spectroscopy (AA and furthermore image of the powder was taken by scanning electron microscopy (SEM. It was finally found that cobalt and lithium were mainly recovered to about 49 wt.% and 4 wt.% in electrodic powder, respectively.

  6. In situ NIR reflectance and LIBS measurements in lava tubes in preparation for future Mars missions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leveille, R.; Sobron, P.

    2017-12-01

    The ATiLT (Astrobiology Training in Lava Tubes) program addresses Mars astrobiology exploration objectives by performing field work and instrumental analyses in lava tubes as high fidelity analog environments to putative lava tubes on Mars. The main field location for ATiLT is the Lava Beds National Monument (LABE) in Northern California. LABE is situated on the lower north flank of the Medicine Lake Volcano of the Cascade arc. This location features hundreds of caves, most of which are relatively shallow, typically well above the water table, reaching 20-45m below land surface at their maximum depth. Some LABE caves feature `cold sinks' where cold air sinks and becomes trapped in deeper cave passages, thus allowing perennial ice to accumulate despite above freezing surface temperatures. Several lava tube caves in LABE also contain seasonal or perennial ice accumulations, which makes them excellent analogs to Mars lava tubes where the presence of ice has been predicted. While lava tubes are very attractive systems to test hypotheses related to habitability and the possibility for life on Mars, at present there are no comprehensive in-situ instrument-driven characterizations of the mineralogy and geochemistry of lava tubes. ATiLT fills this gap by providing detailed, in-situ investigations with scientific instruments relevant to Mars exploration. Our aim is to help constrain future exploration targets on Mars and define future mission operations and requirements. For this purpose, in May 2017 we carried out a field campaign in several lava tubes at LABE. We deployed two miniature spectroscopic sensors suitable for dark, humid, cave conditions: NIR reflectance (1-5 μm) and LIBS (300-900 nm). The advantages of combining NIR reflectance and LIBS are evident: LIBS can reveal the relative concentration of major (and often trace) elements present in a bulk sample, whereas NIR reflectance yields information on the individual mineral species and their chemical and

  7. Supergravity one-loop corrections on AdS7 and AdS3, higher spins and AdS/CFT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Matteo Beccaria

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available As was shown earlier, the one-loop correction in 10d supergravity on AdS5×S5 corresponds to the contributions to the vacuum energy and 4d boundary conformal anomaly which are minus the values for one N=4 Maxwell supermultiplet, thus reproducing the subleading term in the N2−1 coefficient in the dual SU(N SYM theory. We perform similar one-loop computations in 11d supergravity on AdS7×S4 and 10d supergravity on AdS3×S3×T4. In the AdS7 case we find that the corrections to the 6d conformal anomaly a-coefficient and the vacuum energy are again minus the ones for one (2,0 tensor multiplet, suggesting that the total a-anomaly coefficient for the dual (2,0 theory is 4N3−9/4N−7/4 and thus vanishes for N=1. In the AdS3 case the one-loop correction to the vacuum energy or 2d central charge turns out to be equal to that of one free (4,4 scalar multiplet, i.e. is c=+6. This reproduces the subleading term in the central charge c=6(Q1Q5+1 of the dual 2d CFT describing decoupling limit of D5–D1 system. We also present the expressions for the 6d a-anomaly coefficient and vacuum energy contributions of general-symmetry higher spin field in AdS7 and consider their application to tests of vectorial AdS/CFT with the boundary conformal 6d theory represented by free scalars, spinors or rank-2 antisymmetric tensors.

  8. Effects of undernutrition and litter size on material variables and pup development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jen, K C; Wehmer, F; Morofski, J

    1978-05-01

    Differential effects of maternal nutrition and litter size variation were examined in a 2 x 2 factorial design in which undernourished or lib fed mothers nursed litters of 4 or 12. Litter size accounted for a greater proportion of pup body weight a weaning than did maternal nutrition. When the mother was fed ad lib, birth weight of individual pups and later body weight were correlated regardless of litter size. When the mother was undernourished, these correlations were not found. Enlargement of littersize increased the pup weight coefficient of variability only when the mother was fed ad lib. Size of the litter did not influence the maternal variables under study: open field behavior, adrenal weight, and body weight.

  9. Decreases in fasting leptin and insulin concentrations after acute energy restriction and subsequent compensation in food intake.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mars, Monica; de Graaf, Cees; de Groot, Lisette C P G M; Kok, Frans J

    2005-03-01

    The decrease in leptin after energy restriction is a starvation signal to the brain. Several studies have found an association between this decrease and subjective appetite; however, no solid data are available on the acute decrease in fasting leptin concentration and subsequent caloric compensation. The objective was to assess the effect of acute decreases in fasting leptin concentrations, induced by energy restriction, on subsequent energy intake compensation. We hypothesized that men with a large decrease in fasting leptin concentrations would have larger ad libitum energy intakes than would men with a small decrease in leptin. Thirty-four male unrestrained eaters [age: 23 +/- 3 y; body mass index (in kg/m(2)): 22.3 +/- 1.6] participated in a semicontrolled intervention study. Fasting serum leptin and insulin concentrations were measured before and 2 d after 62% energy restriction. Energy intake was measured on the 2 following days on which food was provided ad libitum. During energy restriction, fasting leptin and insulin concentrations decreased by 27.2% (95% CI: -34.4%, -19.9%) and 30.7% (95% CI: -41.0%, -20.4%), respectively. Subjects consumed 143 +/- 27% of their estimated energy requirements (18.3 +/- 2.9 MJ) on the first day and 124 +/- 20% (16.0 +/- 2.6 MJ) on the second day of ad libitum intake. No significant correlations were observed between decreases in fasting leptin or insulin concentrations and subsequent ad libitum energy intake; however, decreases in insulin were correlated with an increase in carbohydrate intake (r=-0.49, P < 0.01). Although fasting leptin concentrations decreased significantly during energy restriction and subjects showed compensatory behavior during subsequent ad libitum food intake, no association was observed between the decrease in fasting leptin concentrations and caloric compensation.

  10. Hairy AdS solitons

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anabalón, Andrés; Astefanesei, Dumitru; Choque, David

    2016-01-01

    We construct exact hairy AdS soliton solutions in Einstein-dilaton gravity theory. We examine their thermodynamic properties and discuss the role of these solutions for the existence of first order phase transitions for hairy black holes. The negative energy density associated to hairy AdS solitons can be interpreted as the Casimir energy that is generated in the dual filed theory when the fermions are antiperiodic on the compact coordinate.

  11. Hairy AdS solitons

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Anabalón, Andrés, E-mail: andres.anabalon@uai.cl [Departamento de Ciencias, Facultad de Artes Liberales and Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Av. Padre Hurtado 750, Viña del Mar (Chile); Astefanesei, Dumitru, E-mail: dumitru.astefanesei@pucv.cl [Instituto de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Casilla 4059, Valparaíso (Chile); Choque, David, E-mail: brst1010123@gmail.com [Instituto de Física, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Casilla 4059, Valparaíso (Chile); Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Av. España 1680, Valparaíso (Chile)

    2016-11-10

    We construct exact hairy AdS soliton solutions in Einstein-dilaton gravity theory. We examine their thermodynamic properties and discuss the role of these solutions for the existence of first order phase transitions for hairy black holes. The negative energy density associated to hairy AdS solitons can be interpreted as the Casimir energy that is generated in the dual filed theory when the fermions are antiperiodic on the compact coordinate.

  12. libLocation: acceso a dispositivos de localización para gvSIG Desktop y Mobile

    OpenAIRE

    Jordán Aldasorro, Juan G.; Planells Jiménez, Manuel

    2009-01-01

    Inicialmente integrada en el piloto de gvSIG Mobile, la librería libLocation tiene como objetivo dotar a los proyectos gvSIG Desktop y gvSIG Mobile un acceso transparente a fuentes de localización. La librería se fundamenta en las especificaciones JSR-179 -API de localización para J2ME- y JSR-293 -API de localización para J2ME v2.0-, proporcionando una interfaz uniforme a diferentes fuentes de localización, mediante funciones de alto nivel. Asimismo, se extiende la funcionalida...

  13. AdS solutions through transgression

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Donos, Aristomenis; Gauntlett, Jerome P.; Kim, Nakwoo

    2008-01-01

    We present new classes of explicit supersymmetric AdS 3 solutions of type IIB supergravity with non-vanishing five-form flux and AdS 2 solutions of D = 11 supergravity with electric four-form flux. The former are dual to two-dimensional SCFTs with (0,2) supersymmetry and the latter to supersymmetric quantum mechanics with two supercharges. We also investigate more general classes of AdS 3 solutions of type IIB supergravity and AdS 2 solutions of D = 11 supergravity which in addition have non-vanishing three-form flux and magnetic four-form flux, respectively. The construction of these more general solutions makes essential use of the Chern-Simons or 'transgression' terms in the Bianchi identity or the equation of motion of the field strengths in the supergravity theories. We construct infinite new classes of explicit examples and for some of the type IIB solutions determine the central charge of the dual SCFTs. The type IIB solutions with non-vanishing three-form flux that we construct include a two-torus, and after two T-dualities and an S-duality, we obtain new AdS 3 solutions with only the NS fields being non-trivial.

  14. Detection of salts in soil using transversely excited atmospheric (TEA) carbon dioxide (CO2) laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) by the aid of a metal mesh

    Science.gov (United States)

    Idris, N.; Ramli, M.; Khumaeni, A.; Kurihara, K.

    2018-04-01

    In this work, a nickel metal mesh was used to allow a direct detection of salt in soil sample by LIBS utilizing unique characteristics of a TEA CO2. The metal mesh is placed in the front of the soil sample to prevent the soil sample from blowing off upon focusing the high pulsed laser beam irradiation. LIBS apparatus used in this work is a TEA CO2 laser operated at wavelength of 10.6 μm with pulse energy and duration of 3J and 200 ns, respectively. The laser beam was focused using a ZnSe lens (f = 200 mm) onto soil sample after passing through the metal mesh. The emission spectrum from the induced plasma was detected using an optical multichannel analyzer (OMA) system consisting of a 0.32-m-focal length spectrograph with a grating of 1200 graves/mm and a 1024-channel photodiode detector array with a micro-channel plate intensifier. The soil sample used is a standard soil and ordinary soil containing several salts such as Ca, Mg at high concentration. The LIBS experiment was carried out at high pressure surrounding gas of 1 atmosphere. It was observed that by the aid of the metal mesh, strong breakdown gas plasma can be produced just after TEA CO2 laser irradiation on soil sample without significant sample blowing off. It was found that emission lines from salts, Ca (Ca II 393. 3 nm, Ca II 396.3 nm, Ca I 422.5 nm), and also other salts including Mg and Na can clearly be detected with strong emission intensity and narrow spectral width. This result implies that a TEA CO2 LIBS assisted by the metal mesh (metal mesh method) can be used for direct analysis several salts such as Ca, Mg, and Na in soil sample.

  15. Active and separate secretion of fiber and penton base during the early phase of Ad2 or Ad5 infection

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yan, Yuhua; Zhang, Bo; Hou, Weihong; Lin, Hongyu [Beijing Key Laboratory of Gene Resource and Molecular Development, Beijing Normal University, Beijing (China); Rebetz, Johan [The Rausing Laboratory, Department of Neurosurgery, Lund University, Lund (Sweden); Hong, Saw-See [Viral Infections & Comparative Pathology, UMR-754 UCBL-INRA-EPHE, Université Lyon 1, Lyon Cedex 07 (France); Wang, Youjun; Ran, Liang [Beijing Key Laboratory of Gene Resource and Molecular Development, Beijing Normal University, Beijing (China); Fan, Xiaolong, E-mail: XFan@bnu.edu.cn [Beijing Key Laboratory of Gene Resource and Molecular Development, Beijing Normal University, Beijing (China)

    2017-05-15

    Fiber and penton base overproduced in adenovirus (Ad) infected cells can be secreted prior to progeny release and thereby regulate progeny spread. We aimed to investigate the mechanisms of fiber and penton base secretion in Ad2- or Ad5-infected A549 cells. Our flow cytometry analyses detected abundant surface fiber molecules, but little penton base molecules at 12 h post infection. Immunogold staining combined with transmission electron microscopic analyses revealed separate, non-co-localized release of fiber and penton base in the proximity of the plasma membrane. Depolymerization of microtubule and actin cytoskeletons, and inhibition of Rock kinase and myosin II activity together demonstrated cytoskeletal network-dependent fiber secretion. Inhibition of intracellular calcium [Ca{sup 2+}]{sub i} signaling caused diminished fiber secretion, which was associated with diminished progeny production. Thus, fiber and penton base are actively and separately secreted during the early stages of Ad2 or Ad5 infection, their secretion may play important role in Ad life cycle. - Highlights: •Excessive production of structural proteins is common to viral infection, which may regulate the host-virus equilibrium and the spreading of viruses. •The adenovirus (Ad) structural proteins, fiber and penton base, are respectively important for Ad binding to its receptor and subsequent internalization in host cells. In Ad infected cells, these two structural proteins are excessively produced. •The mechanisms underlying the release of fiber and penton base molecules at the early phase of Ad infection is yet poorly understood. •Our studies show that in Ad5 or Ad2 infected A549 cells, fiber and penton base molecules are actively and separately secreted. •Fiber secretion is dependent on cytoskeleton-mediated protein traffic. •Inhibition of myosin II motor and Ca{sup 2+} signaling activity significantly diminishes fiber secretion. •These findings could contribute to our

  16. Active and separate secretion of fiber and penton base during the early phase of Ad2 or Ad5 infection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yan, Yuhua; Zhang, Bo; Hou, Weihong; Lin, Hongyu; Rebetz, Johan; Hong, Saw-See; Wang, Youjun; Ran, Liang; Fan, Xiaolong

    2017-01-01

    Fiber and penton base overproduced in adenovirus (Ad) infected cells can be secreted prior to progeny release and thereby regulate progeny spread. We aimed to investigate the mechanisms of fiber and penton base secretion in Ad2- or Ad5-infected A549 cells. Our flow cytometry analyses detected abundant surface fiber molecules, but little penton base molecules at 12 h post infection. Immunogold staining combined with transmission electron microscopic analyses revealed separate, non-co-localized release of fiber and penton base in the proximity of the plasma membrane. Depolymerization of microtubule and actin cytoskeletons, and inhibition of Rock kinase and myosin II activity together demonstrated cytoskeletal network-dependent fiber secretion. Inhibition of intracellular calcium [Ca 2+ ] i signaling caused diminished fiber secretion, which was associated with diminished progeny production. Thus, fiber and penton base are actively and separately secreted during the early stages of Ad2 or Ad5 infection, their secretion may play important role in Ad life cycle. - Highlights: •Excessive production of structural proteins is common to viral infection, which may regulate the host-virus equilibrium and the spreading of viruses. •The adenovirus (Ad) structural proteins, fiber and penton base, are respectively important for Ad binding to its receptor and subsequent internalization in host cells. In Ad infected cells, these two structural proteins are excessively produced. •The mechanisms underlying the release of fiber and penton base molecules at the early phase of Ad infection is yet poorly understood. •Our studies show that in Ad5 or Ad2 infected A549 cells, fiber and penton base molecules are actively and separately secreted. •Fiber secretion is dependent on cytoskeleton-mediated protein traffic. •Inhibition of myosin II motor and Ca 2+ signaling activity significantly diminishes fiber secretion. •These findings could contribute to our understanding of Ad

  17. Direct spectral analysis of tea samples using 266 nm UV pulsed laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy and cross validation of LIBS results with ICP-MS.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gondal, M A; Habibullah, Y B; Baig, Umair; Oloore, L E

    2016-05-15

    Tea is one of the most common and popular beverages spanning vast array of cultures all over the world. The main nutritional benefits of drinking tea are its anti-oxidant properties, presumed protection against certain cancers, inhibition of inflammation and possible protective effects against diabetes. Laser induced breakdown spectrometer (LIBS) was assembled as a powerful tool for qualitative and quantitative analysis of various brands of tea samples using 266 nm pulsed UV laser. LIBS spectra for six brands of tea samples in the wavelength range of 200-900 nm was recorded and all elements present in our tea samples were identified. The major toxic elements detected in several brands of tea samples were bromine, chromium and minerals like iron, calcium, potassium and silicon. The spectral assignment was conducted prior to the determination of concentration of each element. For quantitative analysis, calibration curves were drawn for each element using standard samples prepared in known concentration in the tea matrix. The plasma parameters (electron temperature and electron density) were also determined prior to the tea samples spectroscopic analysis. The concentration of iron, chromium, potassium, bromine, copper, silicon and calcium detected in all tea samples was between 378-656, 96-124, 1421-6785, 99-1476, 17-36, 2-11 and 92-130 mg L(-1) respectively. The limits of detection estimated for Fe, Cr, K, Br, Cu, Si, Ca in tea samples were 22, 12, 14, 11, 6, 1 and 12 mg L(-1) respectively. To further confirm the accuracy of our LIBS results, we determined the concentration of each element present in tea samples by using standard analytical technique like ICP-MS. The concentrations detected with our LIBS system are in excellent agreement with ICP-MS results. The system assembled for spectral analysis in this work could be highly applicable for testing the quality and purity of food and also pharmaceuticals products. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  18. Investigation of the differentiation of ex vivo nerve and fat tissues using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS): Prospects for tissue-specific laser surgery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mehari, Fanuel; Rohde, Maximillian; Kanawade, Rajesh; Knipfer, Christian; Adler, Werner; Klämpfl, Florian; Stelzle, Florian; Schmidt, Michael

    2016-10-01

    In the present study, the elemental compositions of fat and nerve tissue during their plasma mediated laser ablation are studied in the context of tissue differentiation for laser surgery applications by using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS). Tissue samples of porcine fat and nerve were prepared as ex vivo experimental objects. Plasma mediated laser ablation is performed using an Nd : YAG laser in open air and under normal stray light conditions. The performed measurements suggest that the two tissue types show a high similarity in terms of qualitative elemental composition while at the same time revealing a distinct difference in the concentration of the constituent elements. Different analysis approaches are evaluated and discussed to optimize the tissue-differentiation performance of the LIBS approach. Plasma mediated laser tissue ablation. © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  19. Field deployment test of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technology at the Yucca Mountain Exploratory Studies Facility, Test Alcove No. 1, March 2-9, 1994: Milestone Report LA4047

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Blacic, J.; Pettit, D.; Cremers, D.

    1996-01-01

    A field test in the Exploratory Studies Facility at Yucca Mountain, Nevada was performed to determine the feasibility of real-time elemental analysis of rock encountered in air core drilling using the technique of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). Over the period March 2-9, 1994, hundreds of LIBS spectra were collected in real-time, reflecting the elemental composition of dust produced at the drill head of the second horizontal core hole in Test Alcove No. 1. The particle-laden, drill-coring effluent air stream served as the means to obtain a representative rock sample immediately surrounding the drill bit. LIBS spectra were taken with the spectral range centered at 250, 330, 410, and 500 nm so that representative, overlapping spectral coverage from 200 to 550 nm was obtained for the dust. Spectral lines for the major elements Si, Al, K, Na, and Fe and the minor elements Ca, Mg, Ti, and Mn were observed. Some simple engineering improvements to the cyclone separator were identified if this approach to dust analysis is pursued in the future

  20. Matrix effect on emission/current correlated analysis in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy of liquid droplets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Huang, J.-S.; Ke, C.-B.; Lin, K.-C.

    2004-01-01

    We have investigated influence of matrix salts on the liquid droplets by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). An electrospray ionization technique coupled with LIBS is employed to generate the microdroplets of the Na sample solution with various matrix salts added. A sequence of single-shot time-resolved LIB emission signals is detected. The LIB signal intensity integrated within a gate linearly correlates with the plasma-induced current response obtained simultaneously on a single-shot basis. The slopes thus obtained increase with the sample concentration, but appear to be irrespective of different matrix salts, added up to a 2000 mg/l concentration. The matrix salts involved have the same K + cation but different anions. Given a laser radiation emitting at 355 nm with the energy fixed at 23±1 mJ, a limit of detection (LOD) of 1.0 mg/l may be achieved for the Na analysis. The current normalization might have probably taken into account the ablated amount of the sample and the plasma temperature. Accordingly, the LIB/current correlated analysis becomes efficient to suppress the signal fluctuation, improve the LOD determination, and concurrently correct the matrix effect

  1. Warped AdS3 black holes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anninos, Dionysios; Li Wei; Padi, Megha; Song Wei; Strominger, Andrew

    2009-01-01

    Three dimensional topologically massive gravity (TMG) with a negative cosmological constant -l -2 and positive Newton constant G admits an AdS 3 vacuum solution for any value of the graviton mass μ. These are all known to be perturbatively unstable except at the recently explored chiral point μl = 1. However we show herein that for every value of μl ≠ 3 there are two other (potentially stable) vacuum solutions given by SL(2,R) x U(1)-invariant warped AdS 3 geometries, with a timelike or spacelike U(1) isometry. Critical behavior occurs at μl = 3, where the warping transitions from a stretching to a squashing, and there are a pair of warped solutions with a null U(1) isometry. For μl > 3, there are known warped black hole solutions which are asymptotic to warped AdS 3 . We show that these black holes are discrete quotients of warped AdS 3 just as BTZ black holes are discrete quotients of ordinary AdS 3 . Moreover new solutions of this type, relevant to any theory with warped AdS 3 solutions, are exhibited. Finally we note that the black hole thermodynamics is consistent with the hypothesis that, for μl > 3, the warped AdS 3 ground state of TMG is holographically dual to a 2D boundary CFT with central charges c R -formula and c L -formula.

  2. Exploring the Relationship between Patron Type, Carnegie Classification, and Satisfaction with Library Services: An Analysis of LibQUAL+® Results

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guder, Christopher S.

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this study was to explore how faculty and students responded to the Information Control section of the LibQUAL+® survey at two libraries with different Carnegie Classifications. As one of the institutions being studied was considering a shift from a research institution to one more focused on teaching and learning, this study used…

  3. A quantum check of AdS/dCFT

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Buhl-Mortensen, Isak; de Leeuw, Marius; Ipsen, Asger C.

    2017-01-01

    -time dependence of the theory’s Minkowski space propagators is handled by reformulating these as propagators in an effective AdS4. Subsequently, we initiate the computation of quantum corrections. The one-loop correction to the one-point function of any local gauge-invariant scalar operator is shown to receive......We build the framework for performing loop computations in the defect version of N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory which is dual to the probe D5-D3 brane system with background gauge-field flux. In this dCFT, a codimension-one defect separates two regions of space-time with different ranks of the gauge...

  4. Identification of metal elements by time-resolved LIBS technique in sediments lake the “Cisne”

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pacheco, P.; Arregui, E.; Álvarez, J.; Rangel, N.; Sarmiento, R.

    2017-01-01

    Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), is a kind of spectral method of atomic emission that uses pulses of radiation high energy laser as excitation source. One of the advantages of technical LIBS lies in the possibility of analyse the substances in any State of aggregation, already is solid, liquid or gaseous, even in colloids as aerosols, gels and others. Another advantage over other conventional techniques is the simultaneous analysis of elements present in a sample of multielement. This work is made in the use of this technique for the identification of metal pollutants in the Swan Lake sediment samples, collected by drilling cores. Plasmas were generated by focusing the radiation of Nd: YAG laser with an energy per pulse 13mJ and 4ns duration, wavelength of 532nm. The spectra of radiation from the plasmas of sediment were recorded with an Echelle spectrograph type coupled to an ICCD camera. The delay times were between 0.5μs and 7μs, while the gate width was of 2μs. To ensure the homogeneity of the plasmas, the sediment sample was placed in a positioning system of linear and rotary adjustment of smooth step synchronized with the trigger of the laser pulse. The registration of the spectra of the sediment to different times of delay, allowed to identify the lines prominent of the different elements present in the sample. The analysis of the Spectra allowed the identification of some elements in the sample as if, Ca, Na, Mg, and Al through the measurement of wavelengths of the prominent peaks.

  5. Identification of metal elements by time-resolved LIBS technique in sediments lake the “Cisne”

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pacheco, P; Arregui, E; Álvarez, J; Rangel, N; Sarmiento, R

    2017-01-01

    Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), is a kind of spectral method of atomic emission that uses pulses of radiation high energy laser as excitation source. One of the advantages of technical LIBS lies in the possibility of analyse the substances in any State of aggregation, already is solid, liquid or gaseous, even in colloids as aerosols, gels and others. Another advantage over other conventional techniques is the simultaneous analysis of elements present in a sample of multielement. This work is made in the use of this technique for the identification of metal pollutants in the Swan Lake sediment samples, collected by drilling cores. Plasmas were generated by focusing the radiation of Nd: YAG laser with an energy per pulse 13mJ and 4ns duration, wavelength of 532nm. The spectra of radiation from the plasmas of sediment were recorded with an Echelle spectrograph type coupled to an ICCD camera. The delay times were between 0.5μs and 7μs, while the gate width was of 2μs. To ensure the homogeneity of the plasmas, the sediment sample was placed in a positioning system of linear and rotary adjustment of smooth step synchronized with the trigger of the laser pulse. The registration of the spectra of the sediment to different times of delay, allowed to identify the lines prominent of the different elements present in the sample. The analysis of the Spectra allowed the identification of some elements in the sample as if, Ca, Na, Mg, and Al through the measurement of wavelengths of the prominent peaks. (paper)

  6. LibCPIXE: A PIXE simulation open-source library for multilayered samples

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pascual-Izarra, C.; Barradas, N.P.; Reis, M.A.

    2006-01-01

    Most particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE) data analysis codes are not focused on handling multilayered samples. We have developed an open-source library called 'LibCPIXE', for PIXE data analysis. It is written in standard C and implements functions for simulating X-ray yields of PIXE spectra taken from arbitrary samples, including multilayered targets. The library is designed to be fast, portable, modular and scalable, as well as to facilitate its incorporation into any existing program. In order to demonstrate the capabilities of the library, a program called CPIXE was developed and used to analyze various real samples involving both bulk and layered samples. Just as the library, the CPIXE source code is freely available under the General Public License. We demonstrate that it runs both under GNU/Linux systems as well as under MS Windows. There is in principle no limitation to port it to other platforms

  7. Acceptance of shared decision making with reference to an electronic library of decision aids (arriba-lib) and its association to decision making in patients: an evaluation study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hirsch, Oliver; Keller, Heidemarie; Krones, Tanja; Donner-Banzhoff, Norbert

    2011-07-07

    Decision aids based on the philosophy of shared decision making are designed to help patients make informed choices among diagnostic or treatment options by delivering evidence-based information on options and outcomes. A patient decision aid can be regarded as a complex intervention because it consists of several presumably relevant components. Decision aids have rarely been field tested to assess patients' and physicians' attitudes towards them. It is also unclear what effect decision aids have on the adherence to chosen options. The electronic library of decision aids (arriba-lib) to be used within the clinical encounter has a modular structure and contains evidence-based decision aids for the following topics: cardiovascular prevention, atrial fibrillation, coronary heart disease, oral antidiabetics, conventional and intensified insulin therapy, and unipolar depression. We conducted an evaluation study in which 29 primary care physicians included 192 patients. After the consultation, patients filled in questionnaires and were interviewed via telephone two months later. We used generalised estimation equations to measure associations within patient variables and traditional crosstab analyses. Patients were highly satisfied with arriba-lib and the process of shared decision making. Two-thirds of patients reached in the telephone interview wanted to be counselled again with arriba-lib. There was a high congruence between preferred and perceived decision making. Of those patients reached in the telephone interview, 80.7% said that they implemented the decision, independent of gender and education. Elderly patients were more likely to say that they implemented the decision. Shared decision making with our multi-modular electronic library of decision aids (arriba-lib) was accepted by a high number of patients. It has positive associations to general aspects of decision making in patients. It can be used for patient groups with a wide range of individual

  8. Hawking radiation from AdS black holes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hubeny, Veronika E; Rangamani, Mukund; Marolf, Donald

    2010-01-01

    We study Hartle-Hawking-like states of quantum field theories on asymptotically AdS black hole backgrounds, with particular regard to the phase structure of interacting theories. By a suitable analytic continuation we show that the equilibrium dynamics of field theories on large asymptotically AdS black holes can be related to the low-temperature states of the same field theory on the AdS soliton (or pure AdS) background. This allows us to gain insight into Hartle-Hawking-like states on large-radius Schwarzschild- or rotating-AdS black holes. Furthermore, we exploit the AdS/CFT correspondence to explore the physics of strongly coupled large N theories on asymptotically AdS black holes. In particular, we exhibit a plausibly complete set of phases for the M2-brane world-volume superconformal field theory on a BTZ black hole background. Our analysis partially resolves puzzles previously raised in connection with Hawking radiation on large AdS black holes.

  9. Detection of calculus by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) using an ultra-short pulse laser system (USPL)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schelle, F.; Brede, O.; Krueger, S.; Oehme, B.; Dehn, C.; Frentzen, M.; Braun, A.

    2011-03-01

    The aim of this study was to assess the detection of calculus by Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS). The study was performed with an Nd:YVO4 laser, emitting pulses with a duration of 8 ps at a wavelength of 1064 nm. A repetition rate of 500 kHz at an average power of 5 W was used. Employing a focusing lense, intensities of the order of 1011 W/cm2 were reached on the tooth surface. These high intensities led to the generation of a plasma. The light emitted by the plasma was collimated into a fibre and then analyzed by an echelle spectroscope in the wavelength region from 220 nm - 900 nm. A total number of 15 freshly extracted teeth was used for this study. For each tooth the spectra of calculus and cementum were assessed separately. Comprising all single measurements median values were calculated for the whole spectrum, leading to two specific spectra, one for calculus and one for cementum. For further statistical analysis 28 areas of interest were defined as wavelength regions, in which the signal strength differed regarding the material. In 7 areas the intensity of the calculus spectrum differed statistically significant from the intensity of the cementum spectrum (p calculus. Further studies are necessary to verify that LIBS is a minimally invasive method allowing a safe application in laser-guided dentistry.

  10. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique for the determination of the chemical composition of complex inorganic materials

    Science.gov (United States)

    Łazarek, Łukasz; Antończak, Arkadiusz J.; Wójcik, Michał R.; Kozioł, Paweł E.; Stepak, Bogusz; Abramski, Krzysztof M.

    2014-08-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a fast, fully optical method, that needs little or no sample preparation. In this technique qualitative and quantitative analysis is based on comparison. The determination of composition is generally based on the construction of a calibration curve namely the LIBS signal versus the concentration of the analyte. Typically, to calibrate the system, certified reference materials with known elemental composition are used. Nevertheless, such samples due to differences in the overall composition with respect to the used complex inorganic materials can influence significantly on the accuracy. There are also some intermediate factors which can cause imprecision in measurements, such as optical absorption, surface structure, thermal conductivity etc. This paper presents the calibration procedure performed with especially prepared pellets from the tested materials, which composition was previously defined. We also proposed methods of post-processing which allowed for mitigation of the matrix effects and for a reliable and accurate analysis. This technique was implemented for determination of trace elements in industrial copper concentrates standardized by conventional atomic absorption spectroscopy with a flame atomizer. A series of copper flotation concentrate samples was analyzed for contents of three elements, that is silver, cobalt and vanadium. It has been shown that the described technique can be used to qualitative and quantitative analyses of complex inorganic materials, such as copper flotation concentrates.

  11. Polarised Black Holes in AdS

    CERN Document Server

    Costa, Miguel S.; Oliveira, Miguel; Penedones, João; Santos, Jorge E.

    2016-05-03

    We consider solutions in Einstein-Maxwell theory with a negative cosmological constant that asymptote to global $AdS_{4}$ with conformal boundary $S^{2}\\times\\mathbb{R}_{t}$. At the sphere at infinity we turn on a space-dependent electrostatic potential, which does not destroy the asymptotic $AdS$ behaviour. For simplicity we focus on the case of a dipolar electrostatic potential. We find two new geometries: (i) an $AdS$ soliton that includes the full backreaction of the electric field on the $AdS$ geometry; (ii) a polarised neutral black hole that is deformed by the electric field, accumulating opposite charges in each hemisphere. For both geometries we study boundary data such as the charge density and the stress tensor. For the black hole we also study the horizon charge density and area, and further verify a Smarr formula. Then we consider this system at finite temperature and compute the Gibbs free energy for both $AdS$ soliton and black hole phases. The corresponding phase diagram generalizes the Hawkin...

  12. Measurement of Cerium and Gadolinium in Solid Lithium Chloride-Potassium Chloride Salt Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Williams, Ammon; Bryce, Keith; Phongikaroon, Supathorn

    2017-10-01

    Pyroprocessing of used nuclear fuel (UNF) has many advantages-including that it is proliferation resistant. However, as part of the process, special nuclear materials accumulate in the electrolyte salt and present material accountability and safeguards concerns. The main motivation of this work was to explore a laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) approach as an online monitoring technique to enhance the material accountability of special nuclear materials in pyroprocessing. In this work, a vacuum extraction method was used to draw the molten salt (CeCl 3 -GdCl 3 -LiCl-KCl) up into 4 mm diameter Pyrex tubes where it froze. The salt was then removed and the solid salt was measured using LIBS and inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS). A total of 36 samples were made that varied the CeCl 3 and GdCl 3 (surrogates for uranium and plutonium, respectively) concentrations from 0.5 wt% to 5 wt%. From these samples, univariate calibration curves for Ce and Gd were generated using peak area and peak intensity methods. For Ce, the Ce 551.1 nm line using the peak area provided the best calibration curve with a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.099 wt% and a root mean squared error of cross-validation (RMSECV) of 0.197 wt%. For Gd, the best curve was generated using the peak intensities of the Gd 564.2 nm line resulting in a LOD of 0.027 wt% and a RMSECV of 0.295 wt%. The RMSECV for the univariate cases were determined using leave-one-out cross-validation. In addition to the univariate calibration curves, partial least squares (PLS) regression was done to develop a calibration model. The PLS models yielded similar results with RMSECV (determined using Venetian blind cross-validation with 17% left out per split) values of 0.30 wt% and 0.29 wt% for Ce and Gd, respectively. This work has shown that solid pyroprocessing salt can be qualitatively and quantitatively monitored using LIBS. This work has the potential of significantly enhancing

  13. Optimal conditions for taking spectra of coffee beans plasma spectroscopy induced by laser (LIBS)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Diaz Guerrero, A. M.; Flores Reyes; Ponce Cabrera, L. V.

    2016-01-01

    Coffee beans, arabica and robusta, from Mexico (Chiapas and Veracruz), Colombia, Kenya and Sumatra were analyzed by Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). The time delay and pulse energy were varied in order to find the optimal conditions for taking spectra in coffee beans; finding that the increased visibility of the peaks and the lowest electronic background is observed with 1 s and 450 mJ. Spectra were taken in different regions of grain area to confirm its homogeneous composition. It was found that the intensity of the signal Ca is much higher than that of K in African coffee, lower in the coffee of America, and much lower in the coffee from Asia. (Author)

  14. String Theory on AdS Spaces

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    de Boer, J.

    2000-01-01

    In these notes we discuss various aspects of string theory in AdS spaces. We briefly review the formulation in terms of Green-Schwarz, NSR, and Berkovits variables, as well as the construction of exact conformal field theories with AdS backgrounds. Based on lectures given at the Kyoto YITP Workshop

  15. Nicotine levels, withdrawal symptoms, and smoking reduction success in real world use: A comparison of cigarette smokers and dual users of both cigarettes and E-cigarettes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jorenby, Douglas E; Smith, Stevens S; Fiore, Michael C; Baker, Timothy B

    2017-01-01

    To evaluate how experienced dual users used cigarettes and e-cigarettes in real-world use and under different levels of cigarette availability. Dual users (cigarettes+e-cigarettes; n=74) and a smoke-only group (just cigarettes; n=74) engaged in a 26-day study with two ad lib use intervals, a week of 75% cigarette reduction and three days of 100% cigarette reduction. After a week of ad lib use of products, all participants were asked to reduce smoking by 75% (dual users were free to use their e-cigarettes as they wished), followed by another week of ad lib use. All participants were then asked to reduce smoking by 100% (cessation) for three days. Primary outcomes were biological samples (carbon monoxide, urinary nicotine and cotinine). Participants also provided real-time reports of product use, craving, and withdrawal symptoms using a smartphone app. Dual users did not smoke fewer cigarettes than smoke-only participants during ad lib periods, but quadrupled their use of e-cigarettes during smoking reduction periods. Dual users were significantly more likely to maintain 100% reduction (97.1% vs. 81.2%). Amongst women, dual use was associated with higher nicotine levels and withdrawal suppression. Among a group of experienced dual users, e-cigarettes helped maintain smoking reduction and reduced some withdrawal symptoms, although both withdrawal symptoms and nicotine levels varied as a function of gender. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. Open strings on AdS2 branes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lee, Peter; Ooguri, Hirosi.; Park, Jongwon; Tannenhauser, Jonathan

    2001-01-01

    We study the spectrum of open strings on AdS 2 branes in AdS 3 in an NS-NS background, using the SL(2,R) WZW model. When the brane carries no fundamental string charge, the open string spectrum is the holomorphic square root of the spectrum of closed strings in AdS 3 . It contains short and long strings, and is invariant under spectral flow. When the brane carries fundamental string charge, the open string spectrum again contains short and long strings in all winding sectors. However, branes with fundamental string charge break half the spectral flow symmetry. This has different implications for short and long strings. As the fundamental string charge increases, the brane approaches the boundary of AdS 3 . In this limit, the induced electric field on the worldvolume reaches its critical value, producing noncommutative open string theory on AdS 2

  17. Voxel-based analysis of cerebral glucose metabolism in AD and non-AD degenerative dementia using statistical parametric mapping

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li Zugui; Gao Shuo; Zhang Benshu; Ma Aijun; Cai Li; Li Dacheng; Li Yansheng; Liu Lei

    2008-01-01

    Objective: It is know that Alzheimer's disease (AD) and non-AD degenerative dementia have some clinical features in common. The aim of this study was to investigate the specific patterns of regional, cerebral glucose metabolism of AD and non-AD degenerative dementia patients, using a voxel-based 18 F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET study. Methods: Twenty-three AD patients and 24 non-AD degenerative dementia patients including 9 Parkinson's disease with dementia(PDD), 7 frontal-temporal dementia (FTD), 8 dementia of Lewy bodies (DLB) patients, and 40 normal controls (NC)were included in the study. To evaluate the relative cerebral metabolic rate of glucose (rCMRglc), 18 F-FDG PET imaging was performed in all subjects. Subsequently, statistical comparison of PET data with NC was performed using statistical parametric mapping (SPM). Results: The AD-associated FDG imaging pattern typically presented as focal cortical hypometabolism in bilateral parietotemporal association cortes and(or) frontal lobe and the posterior cingulate gyms. As compared with the comparative NC, FTD group demonstrated significant regional reductions in rCMRglc in bilateral frontal, parietal lobes, the cingulate gyri, insulae, left precuneus, and the subcortical structures (including right putamen, right medial dorsal nucleus and ventral anterior nucleus). The PDD group showed regional reductions in rCMRglc in bilateral frontal cortexes, parietotemporal association cortexes, and the subcortical structures (including left caudate, right putamen, the dorsomedial thalamus, lateral posterior nucleus, and pulvinar). By the voxel-by-voxel comparison between the DLB group and NC group, regional reductions in rCMRglc included bilateral occipital cortexes, precuneuses, frontal and parietal lobes, left anterior cingulate gyms, right superior temporal cortex, and the subcortical structures including putamen, caudate, lateral posterior nucleus, and pulvinar. Conclusions: The rCMRglc was found to be different

  18. Creating Tomorrow's Technologists: Contrasting Information Technology Curriculum in North American Library and Information Science Graduate Programs against Code4lib Job Listings

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maceli, Monica

    2015-01-01

    This research study explores technology-related course offerings in ALA-accredited library and information science (LIS) graduate programs in North America. These data are juxtaposed against a text analysis of several thousand LIS-specific technology job listings from the Code4lib jobs website. Starting in 2003, as a popular library technology…

  19. What Technology Skills Do Developers Need? A Text Analysis of Job Listings in Library and Information Science (LIS from Jobs.code4lib.org

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Monica Maceli

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Technology plays an indisputably vital role in library and information science (LIS work; this rapidly moving landscape can create challenges for practitioners and educators seeking to keep pace with such change.  In pursuit of building our understanding of currently sought technology competencies in developer-oriented positions within LIS, this paper reports the results of a text analysis of a large collection of job listings culled from the Code4lib jobs website.  Beginning over a decade ago as a popular mailing list covering the intersection of technology and library work, the Code4lib organization's current offerings include a website that collects and organizes LIS-related technology job listings.  The results of the text analysis of this dataset suggest the currently vital technology skills and concepts that existing and aspiring practitioners may target in their continuing education as developers.

  20. Memory for Emotional Pictures in Patients with Alzheimer's Dementia: Comparing Picture-Location Binding and Subsequent Recognition

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marloes J. Huijbers

    2011-01-01

    Full Text Available Emotional content typically facilitates subsequent memory, known as the emotional enhancement effect. We investigated whether emotional content facilitates spatial and item memory in patients with Alzheimer's dementia (AD. Twenty-three AD patients, twenty-three healthy elderly, and twenty-three young adults performed a picture relocation task and a delayed recognition task with positive, negative, and neutral stimuli. AD patients showed a benefit in immediate spatial memory for positive pictures, while healthy young and older participants did not benefit from emotional content. No emotional enhancement effects on delayed item recognition were seen. We conclude that AD patients may have a memory bias for positive information in spatial memory. Discrepancies between our findings and earlier studies are discussed.

  1. Conical singularities in AdS space time

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ferreira, Cristine Nunes

    2011-01-01

    Full text: In recent years, the study of conformal gauge theories from 10-D has been motivated by the AdS d+1 /CFT d correspondence, first conjectured by J. Maldacena. The aim of this work is to consider the d = 4 case by analysing the configuration of the N coincident D3 branes. In this context, the work shows that there is a duality between type IIB string theory in AdS 5 x S 5 and N = 4 SU(N) Super Yang-Mills Theory in the IR. The AdS 5 /CFT 4 correspondence brought also new approaches to the strong coupling problem in QCD. Nowadays, there is a whole line of works that focus on the low dimensional correspondence AdS 4 /CFT 3 , like the application to graphene and topological insulators, and the AdS 3 /CFT 2 correspondence, related with the entanglement entropy. In this work, we consider the vortex configuration solution to the AdS 4 and AdS 3 space-time. The most important motivation is to discuss the boundary theory resulting from these solutions. We have examined a straightforward approach to a holographic computation of the graphene and entanglement entropy in the presence of the conical singularity. After this analysis, we consider the scalar field in the bulk in the presence of this metrics and work out the compactification modes. Taking the holographic point of view, we study and discuss the resulting Green function. (author)

  2. Recent advances in the use of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) as a rapid point-of-care pathogen diagnostic

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rehse, Steven; Trojand, Daniel; Putnam, Russell; Gillies, Derek; Woodman, Ryan; Sheikh, Khadija; Daabous, Andrew

    2013-05-01

    There is a well-known and urgent need in the fields of medicine, environmental health and safety, food-processing, and defense/security to develop new 21st Century technologies for the rapid and sensitive identification of bacterial pathogens. In only the last five years, the use of a real-time elemental (atomic) analysis performed with laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has made tremendous progress in becoming a viable technology for rapid bacterial pathogen detection and identification. In this talk we will show how this laser-based optical emission spectroscopic technique is able to sensitively assay the elemental composition of bacterial cells in situ. We will also present the latest achievements of our lab to fully develop LIBS-based bacterial sensing including simulation of a rapid urinary tract infection diagnosis and investigation of a variety of autonomous multivariate analysis algorithms. Lastly, we will show how this technology is now ready to be transitioned from the laboratory to field-portable and potentially man-portable instrumentation. The introduction of such a technology into popular use could very well transform the field of bacterial biosensing - a market valued at approximately 10 billion/year world-wide. Funding for this project was provided in part by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant.

  3. Chronic central administration of Ghrelin increases bone mass through a mechanism independent of appetite regulation.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hyung Jin Choi

    Full Text Available Leptin plays a critical role in the central regulation of bone mass. Ghrelin counteracts leptin. In this study, we investigated the effect of chronic intracerebroventricular administration of ghrelin on bone mass in Sprague-Dawley rats (1.5 μg/day for 21 days. Rats were divided into control, ghrelin ad libitum-fed (ghrelin ad lib-fed, and ghrelin pair-fed groups. Ghrelin intracerebroventricular infusion significantly increased body weight in ghrelin ad lib-fed rats but not in ghrelin pair-fed rats, as compared with control rats. Chronic intracerebroventricular ghrelin infusion significantly increased bone mass in the ghrelin pair-fed group compared with control as indicated by increased bone volume percentage, trabecular thickness, trabecular number and volumetric bone mineral density in tibia trabecular bone. There was no significant difference in trabecular bone mass between the control group and the ghrelin ad-lib fed group. Chronic intracerebroventricular ghrelin infusion significantly increased the mineral apposition rate in the ghrelin pair-fed group as compared with control. In conclusion, chronic central administration of ghrelin increases bone mass through a mechanism that is independent of body weight, suggesting that ghrelin may have a bone anabolic effect through the central nervous system.

  4. Globally regular instability of AdS_3

    OpenAIRE

    Bizon, P.; Jałmużna, J.

    2013-01-01

    We consider three-dimensional AdS gravity minimally coupled to a massless scalar field and study numerically the evolution of small smooth circularly symmetric perturbations of the $AdS_3$ spacetime. As in higher dimensions, for a large class of perturbations, we observe a turbulent cascade of energy to high frequencies which entails instability of $AdS_3$. However, in contrast to higher dimensions, the cascade cannot be terminated by black hole formation because small perturbations have ener...

  5. Investigation of the wavelength dependence of laser stratigraphy on Cu and Ni coatings using LIBS compared to a pure thermal ablation model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Paulis, Evgeniya; Pacher, Ulrich; Weimerskirch, Morris J. J.; Nagy, Tristan O.; Kautek, Wolfgang

    2017-12-01

    In this study, galvanic coatings of Cu and Ni, typically applied in industrial standard routines, were investigated. Ablation experiments were carried out using the first two harmonic wavelengths of a pulsed Nd:YAG laser and the resulting plasma spectra were analysed using a linear Pearson correlation method. For both wavelengths the absorption/ablation behaviour as well as laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) depth profiles were studied varying laser fluences between 4.3-17.2 J/cm^2 at 532 nm and 2.9-11.7 J/cm^2 at 1064 nm. The LIBS-stratigrams were compared with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy of cross-sections. The ablation rates were calculated and compared to theoretical values originating from a thermal ablation model. Generally, higher ablation rates were obtained with 532 nm light for both materials. The light-plasma interaction is suggested as possible cause of the lower ablation rates in the infrared regime. Neither clear evidence of the pure thermal ablation, nor correlation with optical properties of investigated materials was obtained.

  6. Manifestly T-dual formulation of AdS space

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hatsuda, Machiko; Kamimura, Kiyoshi; Siegel, Warren

    2017-01-01

    We present a manifestly T-dual formulation of curved spaces such as an AdS space. For group manifolds related by the orthogonal vielbein fields the three form H=dB in the doubled space is universal at least locally. We construct an affine nondegenerate doubled bosonic AdS algebra to define the AdS space with the Ramond-Ramond flux. The non-zero commutator of the left and right momenta leads to that the left momentum is in an AdS space while the right momentum is in a dS space. Dimensional reduction constraints and the physical AdS algebra are shown to preserve all the doubled coordinates.

  7. Manifestly T-dual formulation of AdS space

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hatsuda, Machiko [Physics Division, Faculty of Medicine, Juntendo University,Chiba 270-1695 (Japan); KEK Theory Center, High Energy Accelerator Research Organization,Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801 (Japan); Kamimura, Kiyoshi [Physics Division, Faculty of Medicine, Juntendo University,Chiba 270-1695 (Japan); Siegel, Warren [C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stony Brook University,Stony Brook, NY 11794-3840 (United States)

    2017-05-12

    We present a manifestly T-dual formulation of curved spaces such as an AdS space. For group manifolds related by the orthogonal vielbein fields the three form H=dB in the doubled space is universal at least locally. We construct an affine nondegenerate doubled bosonic AdS algebra to define the AdS space with the Ramond-Ramond flux. The non-zero commutator of the left and right momenta leads to that the left momentum is in an AdS space while the right momentum is in a dS space. Dimensional reduction constraints and the physical AdS algebra are shown to preserve all the doubled coordinates.

  8. Relationship Between LIBS Ablation and Pit Volume for Geologic Samples: Applications for the In Situ Absolute Geochronology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Devismes, Damien; Cohen, Barbara; Miller, J.-S.; Gillot, P.-Y.; Lefevre, J.-C.; Boukari, C.

    2014-01-01

    These first results demonstrate that LIBS spectra can be an interesting tool to estimate the ablated volume. When the ablated volume is bigger than 9.10(exp 6) cubic micrometers, this method has less than 10% of uncertainties. Far enough to be directly implemented in the KArLE experiment protocol. Nevertheless, depending on the samples and their mean grain size, the difficulty to have homogeneous spectra will increase with the ablated volume. Several K-Ar dating studies based on this approach will be implemented. After that, the results will be shown and discussed.

  9. Sausage instabilities stabilized by radial motion in Z-discharged plasma channel for beam propagation in LIB-fusion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Murakami, Hiroyuki; Kawata, Shigeo; Niu, Keishiro.

    1983-01-01

    The stability of current-carrying plasma channels, which have been proposed for transporting intense ion beams from the diodes to the target in LIB-fusion devices, is discussed. The growth rate of the most dangerous surface mode, that is, the axisymmetric sausage instabilities, are examined for plasma channels with or without radial fluid motion. The growth rate of the channel with radial fluid motion is shown to be far smaller than that of the channel with no fluid motion. It is concluded that a stable plasma channel can be formed by radial fluid motion. (author)

  10. Mixed-symmetry fields in AdS(5), conformal fields, and AdS/CFT

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Metsaev, R.R. [Department of Theoretical Physics, P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute,Leninsky prospect 53, Moscow 119991 (Russian Federation)

    2015-01-15

    Mixed-symmetry arbitrary spin massive, massless, and self-dual massive fields in AdS(5) are studied. Light-cone gauge actions for such fields leading to decoupled equations of motion are constructed. Light-cone gauge formulation of mixed-symmetry anomalous conformal currents and shadows in 4d flat space is also developed. AdS/CFT correspondence for normalizable and non-normalizable modes of mixed-symmetry AdS fields and the respective boundary mixed-symmetry anomalous conformal currents and shadows is studied. We demonstrate that the light-cone gauge action for massive mixed-symmetry AdS field evaluated on solution of the Dirichlet problem amounts to the light-cone gauge 2-point vertex of mixed-symmetry anomalous shadow. Also we show that UV divergence of the action for mixed-symmetry massive AdS field with some particular value of mass parameter evaluated on the Dirichlet problem amounts to the action of long mixed-symmetry conformal field, while UV divergence of the action for mixed-symmetry massless AdS field evaluated on the Dirichlet problem amounts to the action of short mixed-symmetry conformal field. We speculate on string theory interpretation of a model which involves short low-spin conformal fields and long higher-spin conformal fields.

  11. Lorentzian AdS, Wormholes and Holography

    CERN Document Server

    Arias, Raul E; Silva, Guillermo A

    2011-01-01

    We investigate the structure of two point functions for the QFT dual to an asymptotically Lorentzian AdS-wormhole. The bulk geometry is a solution of 5-dimensional second order Einstein Gauss Bonnet gravity and causally connects two asymptotically AdS space times. We revisit the GKPW prescription for computing two-point correlation functions for dual QFT operators O in Lorentzian signature and we propose to express the bulk fields in terms of the independent boundary values phi_0^\\pm at each of the two asymptotic AdS regions, along the way we exhibit how the ambiguity of normalizable modes in the bulk, related to initial and final states, show up in the computations. The independent boundary values are interpreted as sources for dual operators O^\\pm and we argue that, apart from the possibility of entanglement, there exists a coupling between the degrees of freedom leaving at each boundary. The AdS_(1+1) geometry is also discussed in view of its similar boundary structure. Based on the analysis, we propose a ...

  12. Associations between blood gastrin, ghrelin, leptin, pepsinogen and Ostertagia ostertagi antibody concentrations and voluntary feed intake in calves exposed to a trickle infection with O. ostertagi.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Forbes, A B; Warren, M; Upjohn, M; Jackson, B; Jones, J; Charlier, J; Fox, M T

    2009-06-10

    Twenty-five, castrated male Holstein-cross calves, between 4 and 5 months of age, weighing 156.5+/-12.2 kg and reared under conditions designed to minimise the risk of parasitic infection, were allocated to one of the five treatment groups on the basis of initial bodyweight. The groups were (1) ad libitum (ad lib) fed controls (ALC); (2) ad lib fed infected (INF) and treated with topical eprinomectin on Day 56; (3) controls pair-fed with the INF group (PFC); (4) ad lib fed controls treated with eprinomectin on Days 0 and 56 (E-ALC) and (5) ad lib fed, infected and treated with eprinomectin on Days 0 and 56 (E-INF). Infection comprised a trickle infection with the equivalent of 10,000 larvae of Ostertagia ostertagi per day from Day 0 to Day 56 and the study concluded on Day 77. Parameters measured throughout the study included: liveweight, feed intake, faecal egg counts; plasma pepsinogen, gastrin, ghrelin and leptin; plasma antibodies to adult O. ostertagi. No significant differences in feed intake or liveweight gain were observed between any of the different groups, a finding thought to result from the high quality of feed offered. Significant differences between the INF and control groups however were observed in faecal egg counts, plasma pepsinogen, gastrin and O. ostertagi antibodies, which were all elevated, and leptin, which was reduced. Values of these parameters for the E-INF group were intermediate between the INF and ALC groups. Plasma ghrelin showed no association with either feed intake or parasitism. Further studies are needed to fully elucidate the roles of various biochemical and neuroendocrine mediators for inappetence in ruminants with parasitic gastroenteritis.

  13. Nonlinear realization of supersymmetric AdS space isometries

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Clark, T. E.; Love, S. T.

    2006-01-01

    The isometries of AdS 5 space and supersymmetric AdS 5 xS 1 space are nonlinearly realized on four-dimensional Minkowski space. The resultant effective actions in terms of the Nambu-Goldstone modes are constructed. The dilatonic mode governing the motion of the Minkowski space probe brane into the covolume of supersymmetric AdS 5 space is found to be unstable and the bulk of the AdS 5 space is unable to sustain the brane. No such instability appears in the nonsupersymmetric case

  14. User library service expectations in health science vs. other settings: a LibQUAL+ Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, Bruce; Kyrillidou, Martha; Cook, Colleen

    2007-12-01

    To explore how the library service expectations and perceptions of users might differ across health-related libraries as against major research libraries not operating in a medical context; to determine whether users of medical libraries demand better library service quality, because the inability of users to access needed literature promptly may lead to a patient who cannot be properly diagnosed, or a diagnosis that cannot be properly treated. We compared LibQUAL+ total and subscale scores across three groups of US, Canadian and British libraries for this purpose. Anticipated differences in expectations for health as other library settings did not emerge. The expectations and perceptions are similar across different types of health science library settings, hospital and academic, and across other general research libraries.

  15. STUDI PERBANDINGAN ANALISIS UNSUR PLUMBUM (PB DARI HASIL ELEKTROLISIS ANTARA METODE LASER- INDUCED BREAKDOWN SPECTROSCOPY (LIBS DENGAN METODE KONVENSIONAL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H. S. Suyanto

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Penelitian ini bertujuan menganalisis unsur Pb hasil proses elektrolisis dengan metode alternatif laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS dan metode konvensional. Elektrolisis menggunakan tembaga (Cu sebagai katoda dan karbon sebagai anoda. Unsur Pb yang terdeposisi pada katoda diirradiasi laser Nd-YAG (model CFR 200, 1064nm dan emisinya (Pb I 405.7 nm ditangkap spektrometer HR 2500++ yang kemudian ditampilkan dalam intensitas fungsi panjang gelombang. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa energi laser, arus listrik dan waktu deposisi proses elektrolisis yang optimum untuk karakterisasi unsur Pb masing - masing adalah 100 mJ, 5,28 mA dan 15 menit. Aplikasi metode ini untuk analisis kuantitatif larutan Pb dengan membuat kurva kalibrasi dari kosentrasi 300 ppm sampai kosentrasi terendah yaitu 0,5 ppm, serta diperoleh deteksi limit sebesar 0,44 ppm. Sebagai perbandingan metode deteksi dengan LIBS ini telah dilakukan analisis dengan metode konvensional dengan menentukan selisih massa katoda sebelum dan sesudah elektrolisis dan diperoleh hasil yang sebanding.ABSTRACTThe aim of this research was to compare between a method of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS and the conventional one to analyse of Plumbum (Pb element resulted from electrolysis process. Electrolysis used copper (Cu and carbon (C as cathode and anode respectively. Plumbum element which was deposited on cathode was irradiated by Nd-YAG laser (model CFR 200, 1064nm and its emission intensity of neutral Pb I 405.7 nm in the plasma was captured by HR 2500++ spectrometer and displayed in a form of intensity as a function of wavelength. The experiment result showed that the optimum condition parameters of electrolysis: laser energy, electric current and electrolysis time duration were 100 mJ, 5.28 mA and 15 minutes respectively. An application of these conditions was done to make calibration curve of Pb element in liquid sample from 300 ppm to 0.5 ppm and resulted a limit of

  16. Non-relativistic AdS branes and Newton-Hooke superalgebra

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sakaguchi, Makoto; Yoshida, Kentaroh

    2006-01-01

    We examine a non-relativistic limit of D-branes in AdS 5 x S 5 and M-branes in AdS 4/7 x S 7/4 . First, Newton-Hooke superalgebras for the AdS branes are derived from AdS x S superalgebras as Inoenue-Wigner contractions. It is shown that the directions along which the AdS-brane worldvolume extends are restricted by requiring that the isometry on the AdS-brane worldvolume and the Lorentz symmetry in the transverse space naturally extend to the super-isometry. We also derive Newton-Hooke superalgebras for pp-wave branes and show that the directions along which a brane worldvolume extends are restricted. Then the Wess-Zumino terms of the AdS branes are derived by using the Chevalley-Eilenberg cohomology on the super-AdS x S algebra, and the non-relativistic limit of the AdS-brane actions is considered. We show that the consistent limit is possible for the following branes: Dp (even,even) for p = 1 mod 4 and Dp (odd,odd) for p = 3 mod 4 in AdS 5 x S 5 , and M2 (0,3), M2 (2,1), M5 (1,5) and M5 (3,3) in AdS 4 x S 7 and S 4 x AdS 7 . We furthermore present non-relativistic actions for the AdS branes

  17. Le délibéré aux assises, ultime point aveugle dans l’affaire d’Outreau The deliberation in the Cour d’assises, last blind spot in the Outreau case

    OpenAIRE

    Jean-Marie Fayol-Noireterre

    2009-01-01

    Cet article envisage les délibérés des cours d’assises, en premier ressort et en appel, de l’affaire d’Outreau, à partir des auditions de la commission d’enquête parlementaire, et à la lumière d’une expérience professionnelle de magistrat (17 années comme juge des enfants, 16 années comme président d'assises). Cette libre projection permet de parcourir, à partir des textes de loi, des pratiques de conduites de délibérés. Il s'agit aussi d'aborder les problèmes inhérents au traitement judiciai...

  18. A closer look at two AdS4 branes in an AdS5 bulk

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Thambyahpillai, Shiyamala

    2005-01-01

    We investigate a scenario with two AdS 4 branes in an AdS 5 bulk. In this scenario there are two gravitons and we investigate the role played by each of them for different positions of the second brane. We show that both gravitons play a significant role only when the turn-around point in the warp factor is approximately equidistant from both branes. We find that the ultralight mode becomes heavy as the second brane approaches the turn-around point, and the physics begins to resemble that of the RS model. Thus we demonstrate the crucial role played by the turn-around in the warp factor in enabling the presence of both gravitons. (author)

  19. Ultrafast Laser-Based Spectroscopy and Sensing: Applications in LIBS, CARS, and THz Spectroscopy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leahy-Hoppa, Megan R.; Miragliotta, Joseph; Osiander, Robert; Burnett, Jennifer; Dikmelik, Yamac; McEnnis, Caroline; Spicer, James B.

    2010-01-01

    Ultrafast pulsed lasers find application in a range of spectroscopy and sensing techniques including laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), coherent Raman spectroscopy, and terahertz (THz) spectroscopy. Whether based on absorption or emission processes, the characteristics of these techniques are heavily influenced by the use of ultrafast pulses in the signal generation process. Depending on the energy of the pulses used, the essential laser interaction process can primarily involve lattice vibrations, molecular rotations, or a combination of excited states produced by laser heating. While some of these techniques are currently confined to sensing at close ranges, others can be implemented for remote spectroscopic sensing owing principally to the laser pulse duration. We present a review of ultrafast laser-based spectroscopy techniques and discuss the use of these techniques to current and potential chemical and environmental sensing applications. PMID:22399883

  20. Ultrafast Laser-Based Spectroscopy and Sensing: Applications in LIBS, CARS, and THz Spectroscopy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Megan R. Leahy-Hoppa

    2010-04-01

    Full Text Available Ultrafast pulsed lasers find application in a range of spectroscopy and sensing techniques including laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS, coherent Raman spectroscopy, and terahertz (THz spectroscopy. Whether based on absorption or emission processes, the characteristics of these techniques are heavily influenced by the use of ultrafast pulses in the signal generation process. Depending on the energy of the pulses used, the essential laser interaction process can primarily involve lattice vibrations, molecular rotations, or a combination of excited states produced by laser heating. While some of these techniques are currently confined to sensing at close ranges, others can be implemented for remote spectroscopic sensing owing principally to the laser pulse duration. We present a review of ultrafast laser-based spectroscopy techniques and discuss the use of these techniques to current and potential chemical and environmental sensing applications.

  1. N-acetylcysteine amide (AD4) reduces cocaine-induced reinstatement.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jastrzębska, Joanna; Frankowska, Malgorzata; Filip, Malgorzata; Atlas, Daphne

    2016-09-01

    Chronic exposure to drugs of abuse changes glutamatergic transmission in human addicts and animal models. N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is a cysteine prodrug that indirectly activates cysteine-glutamate antiporters. In the extrasynaptic space, NAC restores basal glutamate levels during drug abstinence and normalizes increased glutamatergic tone in rats during reinstatement to drugs of abuse. In initial clinical trials, repeated NAC administration seems to be promising for reduced craving in cocaine addicts. In this study, NAC-amide, called AD4 or NACA, was examined in intravenous cocaine self-administration and extinction/reinstatement procedures in rats. We investigated the behavioral effects of AD4 in the olfactory bulbectomized (OBX) rats, considered an animal model of depression. Finally, we tested rats injected with AD4 or NAC during 10-daily extinction training sessions to examine subsequent cocaine seeking. AD4 (25-75 mg kg(-1)) given acutely did not alter the rewarding effects of cocaine in OBX rats and sham-operated controls. However, at 6.25-50 mg kg(-1), AD4 decreased dose-dependently cocaine seeking and relapse triggered by cocaine priming or drug-associated conditioned cues in both phenotypes. Furthermore, repeated treatment with AD4 (25 mg kg(-1)) or NAC (100 mg kg(-1)) during daily extinction trials reduced reinstatement of drug-seeking behavior in sham-operated controls. In the OBX rats only, AD4 effectively blocked cocaine-seeking behavior. Our results demonstrate that AD4 is effective at blocking cocaine-seeking behavior, highlighting its potential clinical use toward cocaine use disorder.

  2. KITAB AL-SANĪ AL-MAṬĀLIB: INTERKONEKSI NAHWU DAN TASAWUF

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zakiyah Zakiyah

    2012-12-01

    Tulisan ini mereview buku yang berjudul al-Sanī al-Maṭālib yang ditulis oleh Kiai Nur Iman Mlangi Yogyakarta. Buku ini ditulis dalam bahasa Arab yang me­ngandung interkoneksi antara ilmu Nahwu (tata bahasa Arab dengan mis­tisis­me. Buku ini sangat menarik karena kenyataan bahwa kedua pengetahuan tersebut memiliki aturan sendiri-sendiri. Selain itu, sangat sedikit penulis yang menulis dengan gaya seperti itu. Salah satunya adalah Syaikh Abdul Qadir bin Ahmad al-Kuhany dengan karyanya yang berjudul Manniyat al-Fāqir al-Munjarid wa Sayrat al-Murīd al-Mutafarrid. Buku al-Saniy al-Muthalib diduga telah ditulis pada akhir abad ke-18 atau awal abad ke-19, menurut periode kehidupan Kiai Nur Iman yaitu sekitar pertengahan abad ke-18. Aturan Nahwu dalam buku ini dijelaskan secara teosofi yang dimulai dengan penjelasan mengenai tauhid (keesaan Tuhan sebagai kajian dasar bagi orang Islam, yang diikuti dengan makna dari masing-masing aturan bahasa Arab dalam aspek mistiknya.

  3. Evaporation of large black holes in AdS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rocha, Jorge V

    2010-01-01

    The AdS/CFT correspondence offers a new perspective on the long-standing black hole information paradox. However, to be able to use the available gauge/gravity machinery one is forced to consider so-called 'large' black holes in AdS, and these objects are thermodynamically stable - they do not evaporate. We describe a simple toy model that allows large AdS black holes to decay, by coupling the emitted radiation to an external scalar field propagating in an auxiliary space. This effectively changes the properties of the boundary of AdS, making it partly absorbing. We demonstrate that the evaporation process never ceases by explicitly presenting (a) the transmission coefficient for a wave scattering from the bulk into auxiliary space and (b) the greybody factor for a black 3-brane in an AdS background. Therefore, the model provides an interesting framework to address the information paradox using AdS/CFT techniques.

  4. Application of a spectrum standardization method for carbon analysis in coal using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Xiongwei; Wang, Zhe; Fu, Yangting; Li, Zheng; Liu, Jianmin; Ni, Weidou

    2014-01-01

    Measurement of coal carbon content using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is limited by its low precision and accuracy. A modified spectrum standardization method was proposed to achieve both reproducible and accurate results for the quantitative analysis of carbon content in coal using LIBS. The proposed method used the molecular emissions of diatomic carbon (C2) and cyanide (CN) to compensate for the diminution of atomic carbon emissions in high volatile content coal samples caused by matrix effect. The compensated carbon line intensities were further converted into an assumed standard state with standard plasma temperature, electron number density, and total number density of carbon, under which the carbon line intensity is proportional to its concentration in the coal samples. To obtain better compensation for fluctuations of total carbon number density, the segmental spectral area was used and an iterative algorithm was applied that is different from our previous spectrum standardization calculations. The modified spectrum standardization model was applied to the measurement of carbon content in 24 bituminous coal samples. The results demonstrate that the proposed method has superior performance over the generally applied normalization methods. The average relative standard deviation was 3.21%, the coefficient of determination was 0.90, the root mean square error of prediction was 2.24%, and the average maximum relative error for the modified model was 12.18%, showing an overall improvement over the corresponding values for the normalization with segmental spectrum area, 6.00%, 0.75, 3.77%, and 15.40%, respectively.

  5. Study and development of the laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for the realization of field measurements: application to analysis on-line of metals in liquids

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rosado, J.C.D.

    2013-01-01

    Metal contamination of water is a major public health issue. Controls and treatments are more drastic and performed on them for human consumption. It is essential for this to possess reliable and sensitive analytical tools adapted to the existing regulations and flexible enough to use. The technique of 'Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy' (LIBS), proven for the analysis of solids, including exo-terrestrial explorations, this very interesting advantages for liquids including, for example, are multi-character elementary and the possibility of in-situ measurements of water contamination by metals. A first part of this study thesis allowed to explore the potential (LIBS) for the analysis of dissolved metals or suspensions in water. Study has found an important effect related to the particle size in the analysis of suspensions. A second prong is to look at the effects of organic matrix represented by humic acid and those natural minerals represented by the bentonite and alumina particles. The matrix effect observed was corrected by normalization by internal standard. (author) [fr

  6. AdS Black Hole with Phantom Scalar Field

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Limei Zhang

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available We present an AdS black hole solution with Ricci flat horizon in Einstein-phantom scalar theory. The phantom scalar fields just depend on the transverse coordinates x and y, which are parameterized by the parameter α. We study the thermodynamics of the AdS phantom black hole. Although its horizon is a Ricci flat Euclidean space, we find that the thermodynamical properties of the black hole solution are qualitatively the same as those of AdS Schwarzschild black hole. Namely, there exists a minimal temperature and the large black hole is thermodynamically stable, while the smaller one is unstable, so there is a so-called Hawking-Page phase transition between the large black hole and the thermal gas solution in the AdS space-time in Poincare coordinates. We also calculate the entanglement entropy for a strip geometry dual to the AdS phantom black holes and find that the behavior of the entanglement entropy is qualitatively the same as that of the black hole thermodynamical entropy.

  7. Universal regularization prescription for Lovelock AdS gravity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kofinas, Georgios; Olea, Rodrigo

    2007-01-01

    A definite form for the boundary term that produces the finiteness of both the conserved quantities and Euclidean action for any Lovelock gravity with AdS asymptotics is presented. This prescription merely tells even from odd bulk dimensions, regardless the particular theory considered, what is valid even for Einstein-Hilbert and Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet AdS gravity. The boundary term is a given polynomial of the boundary extrinsic and intrinsic curvatures (also referred to as Kounterterms series). Only the coupling constant of the boundary term changes accordingly, such that it always preserves a well-posed variational principle for boundary conditions suitable for asymptotically AdS spaces. The background-independent conserved charges associated to asymptotic symmetries are found. In odd bulk dimensions, this regularization produces a generalized formula for the vacuum energy in Lovelock AdS gravity. The standard entropy for asymptotically AdS black holes is recovered directly from the regularization of the Euclidean action, and not only from the first law of thermodynamics associated to the conserved quantities

  8. AdS Branes from Partial Breaking of Superconformal Symmetries

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ivanov, E.A.

    2005-01-01

    It is shown how the static-gauge world-volume superfield actions of diverse superbranes on the AdS d+1 superbackgrounds can be systematically derived from nonlinear realizations of the appropriate AdS supersymmetries. The latter are treated as superconformal symmetries of flat Minkowski superspaces of the bosonic dimension d. Examples include the N = 1 AdS 4 supermembrane, which is associated with the 1/2 partial breaking of the OSp(1|4) supersymmetry down to the N = 1, d = 3 Poincare supersymmetry, and the T-duality related L3-brane on AdS 5 and scalar 3-brane on AdS 5 x S 1 , which are associated with two different patterns of 1/2 breaking of the SU(2, 2|1) supersymmetry. Another (closely related) topic is the AdS/CFT equivalence transformation. It maps the world-volume actions of the codimension-one AdS d+1 (super)branes onto the actions of the appropriate Minkowski (super)conformal field theories in the dimension d

  9. AdS2 models in an embedding superspace

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    McKeon, D.G.C.; Sherry, T.N.

    2003-01-01

    An embedding superspace, whose bosonic part is the flat (2+1)-dimensional embedding space for AdS 2 , is introduced. Superfields and several supersymmetric models are examined in the embedded AdS 2 superspace

  10. AdS. Klein-Gordon equation

    OpenAIRE

    Bel, Ll.

    2014-01-01

    I propose a generalization of the Klein-Gordon equation in the framework of AdS space-time and exhibit a four parameter family of solutions among which there is a two parameter family of time-dependent bound states.

  11. ECONOMIC VALUE ADDED AND MARKET VALUE ADDED - MODERN INDICATORS FOR ASSESSMENT THE FIRM’S VALUE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    NICOLAE SICHIGEA

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The financial theory developed different categories of indicators - traditional and modern - in order to evaluate the firm’s value creation. The shareholders are directly interested by the value added in the company. The value creation is a complex process that implies correct decisions, common responsibility (managers and shareholders and actions towards an efficient and profitable activity. The traditional indicators of performance are not teoritically correlated with the the value creation and in these circumstances, should be used appropriate financial indicators in order to reflect the value of the company. Therefore, the modern indicators used in the value based management framework offer a greater flexibility and efficiency and represent a good alternative for companies. Such performance indicators used to measure the financial results correlated with shareholder wealth are the Economic Value Added (EVA, as a measure of internal performance and the Market Value Added (MVA as a measure of external performance of the company. Starting from the main deficiencies of the accounting indicators, the objective of this this study is to present the relationship between EVA and MVA and their implications on firms’valuation. Thus, the presentation and analysis of these indicators – EVA and MVA - will underline the main features, their correlations, and influence factors but also the main advantage and disadvantage of each indicator, which will enable the managers to make the correct choice and subsequently the best decision regarding the performance measures.

  12. Baby Skyrmions in AdS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Elliot-Ripley, Matthew; Winyard, Thomas [Department of Mathematical Sciences, Durham University,South Rd, Durham (United Kingdom)

    2015-09-01

    We study the baby Skyrme model in a pure AdS background without a mass term. The tail decays and scalings of massless radial solutions are demonstrated to take a similar form to those of the massive flat space model, with the AdS curvature playing a similar role to the flat space pion mass. We also numerically find minimal energy solutions for a range of higher topological charges and find that they form concentric ring-like solutions. Popcorn transitions (named in analogy with studies of toy models of holographic QCD) from an n layer to an n+1-layer configuration are observed at topological charges 9 and 27 and further popcorn transitions for higher charges are predicted. Finally, a point-particle approximation for the model is derived and used to successfully predict the ring structures and popcorn transitions for higher charge solitons.

  13. Wess-Zumino terms for AdS D-branes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hatsuda, Machiko; Kamimura, Kiyoshi

    2004-01-01

    We show that Wess-Zumino terms for Dp branes with p>0 in the anti-de Sitter (AdS) space are given in terms of 'left-invariant' currents on the super-AdS group or the 'expanded' super-AdS group. As a result there is no topological extension of the super-AdS algebra. In the flat limit the global Lorentz rotational charges of the AdS space turn out to be brane charges of the supertranslation algebra representing the BPS mass. We also show that a D-instanton is described by the GL(1) degree of freedom in the Roiban-Siegel formalism based on the GL(4 vertical bar 4)/[Sp(4)xGL(1)]2 coset

  14. Estimation of Soil Nitrate (NO3) Level Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Angkat, A. R.; Seminar, K. B.; Rahmat, M.; Sutandi, A.

    2018-05-01

    Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is a method for measuring level of nitrogen (N) in the soil in the form of N-nitrate (NO3) rapidly without going through the process of sieving and drying. The sample soil in the form of pellets subjected to laser pulses using a wavelength of 532 nm, pulse duration 5.5 ns, repetition rate of 10 Hz, and Q-switch delay of 150 μs. Emissions are captured by the spectrometer with the wavelength range of 190-1130 nm. Spectrum characterization was processed through the second derivative in order to obtain a wavelength identity that could be rapidly used to estimate the nitrate content of the soil with a determination coefficient of (R2) 0.9254 and a coefficient of variation (CV) of 8.41%. The results of this study are very potential to be applied for rapid measurement of soil nitrate.

  15. The group approach to AdS space propagators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Leonhardt, Thorsten; Manvelyan, Ruben; Ruehl, Werner

    2003-01-01

    We show that AdS two-point functions can be obtained by connecting two points in the interior of AdS space with one point on its boundary by a dual pair of Dobrev's boundary-to-bulk intertwiners and integrating over the boundary point

  16. Elemental analysis of soils using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) with multivariate discrimination: tape mounting as an alternative to pellets for small forensic transfer specimens.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jantzi, Sarah C; Almirall, José R

    2014-01-01

    Elemental analysis of soil is a useful application of both laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) in geological, agricultural, environmental, archeological, planetary, and forensic sciences. In forensic science, the question to be answered is often whether soil specimens found on objects (e.g., shoes, tires, or tools) originated from the crime scene or other location of interest. Elemental analysis of the soil from the object and the locations of interest results in a characteristic elemental profile of each specimen, consisting of the amount of each element present. Because multiple elements are measured, multivariate statistics can be used to compare the elemental profiles in order to determine whether the specimen from the object is similar to one of the locations of interest. Previous work involved milling and pressing 0.5 g of soil into pellets before analysis using LA-ICP-MS and LIBS. However, forensic examiners prefer techniques that require smaller samples, are less time consuming, and are less destructive, allowing for future analysis by other techniques. An alternative sample introduction method was developed to meet these needs while still providing quantitative results suitable for multivariate comparisons. The tape-mounting method involved deposition of a thin layer of soil onto double-sided adhesive tape. A comparison of tape-mounting and pellet method performance is reported for both LA-ICP-MS and LIBS. Calibration standards and reference materials, prepared using the tape method, were analyzed by LA-ICP-MS and LIBS. As with the pellet method, linear calibration curves were achieved with the tape method, as well as good precision and low bias. Soil specimens from Miami-Dade County were prepared by both the pellet and tape methods and analyzed by LA-ICP-MS and LIBS. Principal components analysis and linear discriminant analysis were applied to the multivariate data

  17. Holographic description of AdS2 black holes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Castro, Alejandra; Larsen, Finn; Grumiller, Daniel; McNees, Robert

    2008-01-01

    We develop the holographic renormalization of AdS 2 gravity systematically. We find that a bulk Maxwell term necessitates a boundary mass term for the gauge field and verify that this unusual term is invariant under gauge transformations that preserve the boundary conditions. We determine the energy-momentum tensor and the central charge, recovering recent results by Hartman and Strominger. We show that our expressions are consistent with dimensional reduction of the AdS 3 energy-momentum tensor and the Brown-Henneaux central charge. As an application of our results we interpret the entropy of AdS 2 black holes as the ground state entropy of a dual CFT.

  18. Sugar Restriction Leads to Increased Ad Libitum Sugar Intake by Overweight Adolescents in an Experimental Test Meal Setting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Reilly, Gillian A; Black, David S; Huh, Jimi; Davis, Jaimie N; Unger, Jennifer; Spruijt-Metz, Donna

    2017-07-01

    The impact of sugar restriction on subsequent sugar intake by overweight adolescents is unknown. Our aim was to examine the effect of sugar restriction on subsequent ad libitum sugar intake by overweight adolescents and whether habitual sugar intake and impulsivity influence the effect of sugar restriction on subsequent sugar intake. This was an in-laboratory crossover feeding trial with sugar-exposure and sugar-restriction conditions. Eighty-seven overweight Latino and African-American adolescents underwent both meal conditions in two separate 8-hour in-laboratory visits. Participants had access to ad libitum snack trays for 3 hours after the condition-specific meals. Ad libitum sugar intake during the snack period was measured at each visit. Habitual sugar intake and impulsivity were assessed at baseline. Repeated measures analysis of covariance was used to examine the within-person effect of meal condition on ad libitum sugar intake. Mixed models were used to examine the moderating effects of habitual sugar intake and impulsivity on the meal condition-ad libitum sugar intake relationship. Participants consumed more ad libitum sugar during the snack period in the sugar-restriction condition than in the sugar-exposure condition (sugar restriction=78.63±38.84 g, sugar exposure=70.86±37.73 g; F=9.64, P=0.002). There was no relationship between habitual sugar intake and how much ad libitum sugar participants consumed during either condition. Higher impulsivity was associated with greater ad libitum sugar intake during both conditions (sugar restriction: b=.029, standard error=.01, Poverweight adolescents restricted from sugar intake consume greater amounts of sugar when they are later given access to high-sugar foods. Overweight adolescents with higher impulsivity appear to consume greater amounts of sugar regardless of previous levels of sugar consumption. Compensatory sugar intake and trait impulsivity may have implications for dietary interventions in this

  19. Light-cone AdS/CFT-adapted approach to AdS fields/currents, shadows, and conformal fields

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Metsaev, R.R. [Department of Theoretical Physics, P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute, Leninsky prospect 53, Moscow 119991 (Russian Federation)

    2015-10-16

    Light-cone gauge formulation of fields in AdS space and conformal field theory in flat space adapted for the study of AdS/CFT correspondence is developed. Arbitrary spin mixed-symmetry fields in AdS space and arbitrary spin mixed-symmetry currents, shadows, and conformal fields in flat space are considered on an equal footing. For the massless and massive fields in AdS and the conformal fields in flat space, simple light-cone gauge actions leading to decoupled equations of motion are found. For the currents and shadows, simple expressions for all 2-point functions are also found. We demonstrate that representation of conformal algebra generators on space of currents, shadows, and conformal fields can be built in terms of spin operators entering the light-cone gauge formulation of AdS fields. This considerably simplifies the study of AdS/CFT correspondence. Light-cone gauge actions for totally symmetric arbitrary spin long conformal fields in flat space are presented. We apply our approach to the study of totally antisymmetric (one-column) and mixed-symmetry (two-column) fields in AdS space and currents, shadows, and conformal fields in flat space.

  20. Preliminary panoramic study of river calm muscle using neodymium:yttrium-aluminum-garnet (Nd: YAG) laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Idris, N.; Lahna, K.; Usmawanda, T. N.; Herman; Ramli, M.; Hedwig, R.; Marpaung, A. M.; Kurniawan, K. H.

    2018-04-01

    A wide coverage spectral investigation on the muscle of river calm sample has been carried out using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for examining the overall profile of the emission spectra from the produced plasma. The basic apparatus of LIBS system used is a Nd-YAG laser and wide coverage optical multichannel analyzer (OMA) system. The river clam samples used is collected from Panga River in Aceh Jaya Regency, Aceh, Indonesia up streaming in a mountain of Gunong Ujeun, which is used as a location of the intensive traditional mining activity. Assuming that heavy metal accumulated in the clam muscle, LIBS experiments were carried out on the muscle of the calm. The sample used was fresh muscle sliced and attached to a copper plate. Plasma was generated by focusing the laser beam on the sample surface under air surrounding gas at 1 atmosphere. It is found that there are only major elements of host organic, namely C, H, O, N and the minor element of salts can be detected from fresh the clam sample when using a high pulse laser energy under air surrounding at high pressure of 1 atmosphere. There is no emission lines from any metal can be detected. Several experimental parameters were explored to study the panoramic dynamic of the emission spectra. It is found that the lower energy and the lower pressure is better for obtaining better emission spectra showing the possibility for determination of the analyte.

  1. Central charge for AdS2 quantum gravity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hartman, Thomas; Strominger, Andrew

    2009-01-01

    Two-dimensional Maxwell-dilaton quantum gravity on AdS 2 with radius l and a constant electric field E is studied. In conformal gauge, this is equivalent to a CFT on a strip. In order to maintain consistent boundary conditions, the usual conformal diffeomorphisms must be accompanied by a certain U(1) gauge transformation. The resulting conformal transformations are generated by a twisted stress tensor, which has a central charge c = 3kE 2 l 4 /4 where k is the level of the U(1) current. This is an AdS 2 analog of the Brown-Henneaux formula c = 3l/2G for the central charge of quantum gravity on AdS 3 .

  2. AdS5 black holes with fermionic hair

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Burrington, Benjamin A.; Liu, James T.; Sabra, W. A.

    2005-01-01

    The study of new Bogomol'nyi-Prasad-Sommerfield (BPS) objects in AdS 5 has led to a deeper understanding of AdS/CFT. To help complete this picture, and to fully explore the consequences of the supersymmetry algebra, it is also important to obtain new solutions with bulk fermions turned on. In this paper we construct superpartners of the 1/2 BPS black hole in AdS 5 using a natural set of fermion zero modes. We demonstrate that these superpartners, carrying fermionic hair, have conserved charges differing from the original bosonic counterpart. To do so, we find the R-charge and dipole moment of the new system, as well as the mass and angular momentum, defined through the boundary stress tensor. The complete set of superpartners fits nicely into a chiral representation of AdS 5 supersymmetry, and the spinning solutions have the expected gyromagnetic ratio, g=1

  3. Phases of global AdS black holes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Basu, Pallab; Krishnan, Chethan; Subramanian, P.N. Bala

    2016-01-01

    We study the phases of gravity coupled to a charged scalar and gauge field in an asymptotically Anti-de Sitter spacetime (AdS_4) in the grand canonical ensemble. For the conformally coupled scalar, an intricate phase diagram is charted out between the four relevant solutions: global AdS, boson star, Reissner-Nordstrom black hole and the hairy black hole. The nature of the phase diagram undergoes qualitative changes as the charge of the scalar is changed, which we discuss. We also discuss the new features that arise in the extremal limit.

  4. lib and data: a new way of inhabiting the city

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dominique Boullier

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The Vélib bike rental system is worth analyzing in order to understand how cities move out of a model of large infrastructures towards a personal service principle connected to digital traceability and mapping of all activities. The new offer of bikes distributed all over the city creates a new map for access to mobility resources while introducing citizens to a “personal-public” device. Each feature of the system requires a very well designed information system to match the needs for bikes and to charge the users through cards (credit or transportation cards. Personal data is the essential entity that fuels the whole system and that creates potential privacy problems as well as monetization opportunities. The paper relies on a theoretical framework, called habitele, which accounts for the process of inhabiting that is now extended to the personal data ecosystem. The portability of mobile phones (and other devices such as cards creates an envelope that follows the urban citizen and equips all his activities while it makes a new layer of the city appear, adapted to the personal involvement in the urban environment

  5. New Massive Gravity and AdS4 Counterterms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jatkar, Dileep P.; Sinha, Aninda

    2011-01-01

    We show that the recently proposed Dirac-Born-Infeld extension of new massive gravity emerges naturally as a counterterm in four-dimensional anti-de Sitter space (AdS 4 ). The resulting on-shell Euclidean action is independent of the cutoff at zero temperature. We also find that the same choice of counterterm gives the usual area law for the AdS 4 Schwarzschild black hole entropy in a cutoff-independent manner. The parameter values of the resulting counterterm action correspond to a c=0 theory in the context of the duality between AdS 3 gravity and two-dimensional conformal field theory. We rewrite this theory in terms of the gauge field that is used to recast 3D gravity as a Chern-Simons theory.

  6. Monosodium L-glutamate in soup reduces subsequent energy intake from high-fat savoury food in overweight and obese women.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miyaki, Takashi; Imada, Toshifumi; Hao, Susan Shuzhen; Kimura, Eiichiro

    2016-01-14

    The umami seasoning, monosodium L-glutamate (MSG), has been shown to increase satiety in normal body weight adults, although the results have not been consistent. The satiety effect of MSG in overweight and obese adults has not been examined yet. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effect of MSG in a vegetable soup on subsequent energy intakes as well as food selection in overweight and obese adult women without eating disorders. A total of sixty-eight overweight and obese women (BMI range: 25·0-39·9 kg/m²), otherwise healthy, were recruited to our study. A fixed portion (200 ml) of control vegetable soup or the same soup with added MSG (0·5 g/100 ml) was provided 10 min before an ad libitum lunch and an ad libitum snack in the mid-afternoon. The control soup had equivalent amount of Na to the soup with added MSG. Energy intakes at the ad libitum lunch and ad libitum snack time after the soup preload were assessed using a randomised, double-blind, two-way cross-over design. The soup with MSG in comparison with the control soup resulted in significantly lower consumption of energy at lunch. The addition of MSG in the soup also reduced energy intake from high-fat savoury foods. The soup with MSG showed lower but no significant difference in energy intake at mid-afternoon. The addition of umami seasoning MSG in a vegetable soup may decrease subsequent energy intake in overweight and obese women who do not have eating disorders.

  7. Enhancing the Performance of LibSVM Classifier by Kernel F-Score Feature Selection

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sarojini, Balakrishnan; Ramaraj, Narayanasamy; Nickolas, Savarimuthu

    Medical Data mining is the search for relationships and patterns within the medical datasets that could provide useful knowledge for effective clinical decisions. The inclusion of irrelevant, redundant and noisy features in the process model results in poor predictive accuracy. Much research work in data mining has gone into improving the predictive accuracy of the classifiers by applying the techniques of feature selection. Feature selection in medical data mining is appreciable as the diagnosis of the disease could be done in this patient-care activity with minimum number of significant features. The objective of this work is to show that selecting the more significant features would improve the performance of the classifier. We empirically evaluate the classification effectiveness of LibSVM classifier on the reduced feature subset of diabetes dataset. The evaluations suggest that the feature subset selected improves the predictive accuracy of the classifier and reduce false negatives and false positives.

  8. Antismoking Ads at the Point of Sale: The Influence of Ad Type and Context on Ad Reactions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Annice; Nonnemaker, James; Guillory, Jamie; Shafer, Paul; Parvanta, Sarah; Holloway, John; Farrelly, Matthew

    2017-06-01

    Efforts are underway to educate consumers about the dangers of smoking at the point of sale (POS). Research is limited about the efficacy of POS antismoking ads to guide campaign development. This study experimentally tests whether the type of antismoking ad and the context in which ads are viewed influence people's reactions to the ads. A national convenience sample of 7,812 adult current smokers and recent quitters was randomized to 1 of 39 conditions. Participants viewed one of the four types of antismoking ads (negative health consequences-graphic, negative social consequences-intended emotive, benefits of quitting-informational, benefits of quitting-graphic) in one of the three contexts (alone, next to a cigarette ad, POS tobacco display). We assessed participants' reactions to the ads, including perceived effectiveness, negative emotion, affective dissonance, and motivational reaction. Graphic ads elicited more negative emotion and affective dissonance than benefits of quitting ads. Graphic ads elicited higher perceived effectiveness and more affective dissonance than intended emotive ads. Antismoking ads fared best when viewed alone, and graphic ads were least influenced by the context in which they were viewed. These results suggest that in developing POS campaigns, it is important to consider the competitive pro-tobacco context in which antismoking ads will be viewed.

  9. Investigation of Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) for the Differentiation of Nerve and Gland Tissue—A Possible Application for a Laser Surgery Feedback Control Mechanism

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mehari, F.; Rohde, M.; Knipfer, C.; Kanawade, R.; Klämpfl, F.; W., Adler; Oetter, N.; Stelzle, F.; Schmidt, M.

    2016-06-01

    Laser surgery provides clean, fast and accurate modeling of tissue. However, the inability to determine what kind of tissue is being ablated at the bottom of the cut may lead to the iatrogenic damage of structures that were meant to be preserved. In this context, nerve preservation is one of the key challenges in any surgical procedure. One example is the treatment of parotid gland pathologies, where the facial nerve (N. VII) and its main branches run through and fan out inside the glands parenchyma. A feedback system that automatically stops the ablation to prevent nerve-tissue damage could greatly increase the applicability and safety of surgical laser systems. In the present study, Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is used to differentiate between nerve and gland tissue of an ex-vivo pig animal model. The LIBS results obtained in this preliminary experiment suggest that the measured spectra, containing atomic and molecular emissions, can be used to differentiate between the two tissue types. The measurements and differentiation were performed in open air and under normal stray light conditions.

  10. Quantum local quench, AdS/BCFT and Yo-Yo string

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Astaneh, Amin Faraji; Mosaffa, Amir Esmaeil

    2015-01-01

    We propose a holographic model for local quench in 1+1 dimensional Conformal Field Theory (CFT). The local quench is produced by joining two identical CFT’s on semi-infinite lines. When these theories have a zero boundary entropy, we use the AdS/Boundary CFT proposal to describe this process in terms of bulk physics. Boundaries of the original CFT’s are extended in AdS as dynamical surfaces. In our holographic picture these surfaces detach from the boundary and form a closed folded string which can propagate in the bulk. The dynamics of this string is governed by the tensionless Yo-Yo string solution and its subsequent evolution determines the time dependence after quench. We use this model to calculate holographic Entanglement Entropy (EE) of an interval as a function of time. We propose how the falling string deforms Ryu-Takayanagi’s curves. Using the deformed curves we calculate EE and find complete agreement with field theory results.

  11. Current status of AdS instability

    CERN Multimedia

    CERN. Geneva

    2016-01-01

    arXiv:1403.6471 and thoroughly developed in arXiv:1407.6273. On the other hand the negative cosmological constant allows for the existence of stable, time-periodic, asymptotically AdS solutions of Einstein equations [arXiv:1303.3186].

  12. Loops in AdS from conformal field theory

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aharony, Ofer; Alday, Luis F.; Bissi, Agnese; Perlmutter, Eric

    2017-07-01

    We propose and demonstrate a new use for conformal field theory (CFT) crossing equations in the context of AdS/CFT: the computation of loop amplitudes in AdS, dual to non-planar correlators in holographic CFTs. Loops in AdS are largely unexplored, mostly due to technical difficulties in direct calculations. We revisit this problem, and the dual 1 /N expansion of CFTs, in two independent ways. The first is to show how to explicitly solve the crossing equations to the first subleading order in 1 /N 2, given a leading order solution. This is done as a systematic expansion in inverse powers of the spin, to all orders. These expansions can be resummed, leading to the CFT data for finite values of the spin. Our second approach involves Mellin space. We show how the polar part of the four-point, loop-level Mellin amplitudes can be fully reconstructed from the leading-order data. The anomalous dimensions computed with both methods agree. In the case of ϕ 4 theory in AdS, our crossing solution reproduces a previous computation of the one-loop bubble diagram. We can go further, deriving the four-point scalar triangle diagram in AdS, which had never been computed. In the process, we show how to analytically derive anomalous dimensions from Mellin amplitudes with an infinite series of poles, and discuss applications to more complicated cases such as the N = 4 super-Yang-Mills theory.

  13. Supersymmetric warped AdS in extended topologically massive supergravity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Deger, N.S.; Kaya, A.; Samtleben, H.; Sezgin, E.

    2014-01-01

    We determine the most general form of off-shell N=(1,1) supergravity field configurations in three dimensions by requiring that at least one off-shell Killing spinor exists. We then impose the field equations of the topologically massive off-shell supergravity and find a class of solutions whose properties crucially depend on the norm of the auxiliary vector field. These are spacelike-squashed and timelike-stretched AdS 3 for the spacelike and timelike norms, respectively. At the transition point where the norm vanishes, the solution is null warped AdS 3 . This occurs when the coefficient of the Lorentz–Chern–Simons term is related to the AdS radius by μℓ=2. We find that the spacelike-squashed AdS 3 can be modded out by a suitable discrete subgroup of the isometry group, yielding an extremal black hole solution which avoids closed timelike curves

  14. New supersymmetric AdS4 type II vacua

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tsimpis, D.

    2010-01-01

    We review the supersymmetric AdS 4 x w M 6 backgrounds of type IIA/IIB supergravity constructed in[1]. In type IIA the supersymmetry is N=2, and the six-dimensional internal space is locally an S 2 bundle over a four-dimensional Kaehler-Einstein base; in IIB the internal space is the direct product of a circle and a five-dimensional squashed Sasaki-Einstein manifold. These backgrounds do not contain any sources, all fluxes (including the Romans mass in IIA) are generally non-zero, and the dilaton and warp factor are non-constant. The IIA solutions include the massive deformations of the IIA reduction of the eleven-dimensional AdS 4 x Y p,q solutions, and had been predicted to exist on the basis of the AdS 4 /CFT 3 correspondence. (Abstract Copyright [2010], Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

  15. Instantons from geodesics in AdS moduli spaces

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ruggeri, Daniele; Trigiante, Mario; Van Riet, Thomas

    2018-03-01

    We investigate supergravity instantons in Euclidean AdS5 × S5/ℤk. These solutions are expected to be dual to instantons of N = 2 quiver gauge theories. On the supergravity side the (extremal) instanton solutions are neatly described by the (lightlike) geodesics on the AdS moduli space for which we find the explicit expression and compute the on-shell actions in terms of the quantised charges. The lightlike geodesics fall into two categories depending on the degree of nilpotency of the Noether charge matrix carried by the geodesic: for degree 2 the instantons preserve 8 supercharges and for degree 3 they are non-SUSY. We expect that these findings should apply to more general situations in the sense that there is a map between geodesics on moduli-spaces of Euclidean AdS vacua and instantons with holographic counterparts.

  16. Impact socio professionnel de la libération chirurgicale du syndrome du canal carpien

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kraiem, Aouatef Mahfoudh; Hnia, Hajer; Bouzgarrou, Lamia; Henchi, Mohamed Adnène; Khalfallah, Taoufik

    2016-01-01

    L’objectif de notre travail était d’étudier les conséquences socioprofessionnelles d’une libération chirurgicale du SCC. Il s’agit d’une étude transversale portant sur les sujets opérés pour un SCC d’origine professionnelle ; recensés dans le Service de Médecine de Travail et de Pathologies Professionnelles au CHU Tahar Sfar de Mahdia en Tunisie sur une période de 8 ans allant du 1 Janvier 2006 au mois Décembre 2013. Le recueil des données s’est basé sur une fiche d’enquête, portant sur la description des caractéristiques socioprofessionnelles, médicales, et sur le devenir professionnel des participants. Pour étudier les contraintes psychosociales au travail, nous avons adopté le questionnaire de Karasek. La durée d’arrêt de travail après libération chirurgicale du SCC était significativement liée à l’existence d’autres troubles musculo-squelettiques autre que le SCC, la déclaration du SCC en maladie professionnelle et à l’ancienneté professionnelle des salariés. Quant au devenir professionnel des salariés opérés, 50,7% ont gardé le même poste, 15,3% ont bénéficié d’un aménagement de poste et 33,8% ont bénéficié d’un changement de poste dans la même entreprise. Le devenir professionnel de ces salariés était corrélé à leurs qualifications professionnelles et au type de l’atteinte sensitive et/ou motrice du nerf médian à l’EMG. Un certain nombre de facteurs non lésionnels déterminaient la durée de l’arrêt de travail, alors que le devenir professionnel des opérés pour SCC dépendait essentiellement de leurs qualifications professionnelles et des données de l’électromyogramme. Il est certain que des travaux beaucoup plus larges permettraient d’affiner encore ces résultats. PMID:27800089

  17. Vote for your favorite tourist attraction on "Le Dauphiné Libéré"

    CERN Multimedia

    2015-01-01

    Dear colleagues, During the summer, the French regional daily newspaper Le Dauphiné Libéré has been inviting its readers to vote for their favourite tourist attraction (natural or otherwise) in the Bellegarde area and the Pays de Gex, and CERN is one of the nominees. This is a great opportunity for us to communicate directly with people living in the region, particularly those who have not yet had the chance to visit CERN, and who, thanks to this survey, might be curious to learn more about the Laboratory and pay us a visit. Remember, visits to CERN are free of charge all year round! We invite you to vote for CERN by clicking on this link: http://www.ledauphine.com/ain/2015/07/10/votez-pur-votre-site-prefere-dans-le-bassin-bellegardien-et-le-pays-de-gex. We’re counting on your votes! CERN Local Communication team

  18. Digital content sewed together within a library catalogue WebLib - The CERN Document Server

    CERN Document Server

    Vigen, Jens

    2002-01-01

    Aggregation, harvesting, personalization techniques, portals, service provision, etc. have all become buzzwords. Most of them simply describing what librarians have been doing for hundreds of years. Prior to the Web few people outside the libraries were concerned about these issues, a situation which today it is completely turned upside down. Hopefully the new actors on the arena of knowledge management will take full advantage of all the available "savoir faire". At CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, librarians and informaticians have set up a complete system, WebLib, actually based on the traditional library catalogue. Digital content is, within this framework, being integrated to the highest possible level in order to meet the strong requirements of the particle physics community. The paper gives an overview of the steps CERN has made towards the digital library from the day the laboratory conceived the World Wide Web to present.

  19. Monosodium glutamate delivered in a protein-rich soup improves subsequent energy compensation

    OpenAIRE

    Masic, Una; Yeomans, Martin R.

    2014-01-01

    Previous research suggests that monosodium glutamate (MSG) may have a biphasic effect on appetite, increasing appetite within a meal with its flavour-enhancing effect, but enhancing subsequent satiety due to its proposed role as a predictor of protein content. The present study explored this by assessing the impact of a 450 g soup preload differing in MSG concentration (1 % MSG added (MSG+) or no MSG (MSG-)) and nutrient content (low-energy control or high-energy carbohydrate or high-energy p...

  20. Noncommutative D-branes from covariant AdS superstring

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sakaguchi, Makoto; Yoshida, Kentaroh

    2008-01-01

    We study noncommutative (NC) D-branes on AdS 5 xS 5 from κ-invariance of covariant Green-Schwarz action of an open string with a non-trivial world-volume flux. Finding boundary conditions to ensure the κ-invariance, we can see possible configurations of the NC D-branes. With this method 1/4 BPS NC D-branes are discussed. The resulting NC Dp-branes are 1/4 BPS at arbitrary position other than the p=1 case. The exceptional D-string is 1/2 BPS at the origin and 1/4 BPS outside the origin. Those are reduced to possible 1/4 BPS or 1/2 BPS AdS D-branes in the commutative limit. The same analysis is applied to an open superstring in a pp-wave and leads to 1/4 BPS configurations of NC D-branes. These D-branes are consistently obtained from AdS D-branes via the Penrose limit

  1. Twistor description of spinning particles in AdS

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arvanitakis, Alex S.; Barns-Graham, Alec E.; Townsend, Paul K.

    2018-01-01

    The two-twistor formulation of particle mechanics in D-dimensional anti-de Sitter space for D = 4 , 5 , 7, which linearises invariance under the AdS isometry group Sp(4; K ) for K=R,C,H, is generalized to the massless N -extended "spinning particle". The twistor variables are gauge invariant with respect to the initial N local worldline supersymmetries; this simplifies aspects of the quantum theory such as implications of global gauge anomalies. We also give details of the two-supertwistor form of the superparticle, in particular the massive superparticle on AdS5.

  2. Holography in Lovelock Chern-Simons AdS gravity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cvetković, Branislav; Miskovic, Olivera; Simić, Dejan

    2017-08-01

    We analyze holographic field theory dual to Lovelock Chern-Simons anti-de Sitter (AdS) gravity in higher dimensions using first order formalism. We first find asymptotic symmetries in the AdS sector showing that they consist of local translations, local Lorentz rotations, dilatations and non-Abelian gauge transformations. Then, we compute 1-point functions of energy-momentum and spin currents in a dual conformal field theory and write Ward identities. We find that the holographic theory possesses Weyl anomaly and also breaks non-Abelian gauge symmetry at the quantum level.

  3. Wholegrain vs. refined wheat bread and pasta. Effect on postprandial glycemia, appetite, and subsequent ad libitum energy intake in young healthy adults

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kristensen, M.; Jensen, M.G.; Riboldi, G.

    2010-01-01

    based oil wholemeal wheat breads and pasta in comparison to similar refined wheat products on postprandial glycemia, appetite and ad libitum energy intake (EI). Test meals (50 g carbohydrates; 2MJ) consisted of refined wheat bread (RWB), wholegrain wheat bread (WWB), refined wheat pasta (RWP......) and wholegrain wheat pasta (WWP) and were served after an overnight fast. Appetite ratings and blood glucose were assessed for 180 min after which an ad libitum lunch meal was served and El measured. The 180 min glucose responses were similar for wholemeal and refined products, but pasta meals gave significantly...

  4. Cropland Field Monitoring: MMV Page 1 Montana Cropland Enrolled Farm Fields Carbon Sequestration Field Sampling, Measurement, Monitoring, and Verification: Application of Visible-Near Infrared Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (VNIR) and Laser-induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee Spangler; Ross Bricklemyer; David Brown

    2012-03-15

    There is growing need for rapid, accurate, and inexpensive methods to measure, and verify soil organic carbon (SOC) change for national greenhouse gas accounting and the development of a soil carbon trading market. Laboratory based soil characterization typically requires significant soil processing, which is time and resource intensive. This severely limits application for large-region soil characterization. Thus, development of rapid and accurate methods for characterizing soils are needed to map soil properties for precision agriculture applications, improve regional and global soil carbon (C) stock and flux estimates and efficiently map sub-surface metal contamination, among others. The greatest gains for efficient soil characterization will come from collecting soil data in situ, thus minimizing soil sample transportation, processing, and lab-based measurement costs. Visible and near-infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (VisNIR) and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) are two complementary, yet fundamentally different spectroscopic techniques that have the potential to meet this need. These sensors have the potential to be mounted on a soil penetrometer and deployed for rapid soil profile characterization at field and landscape scales. Details of sensor interaction, efficient data management, and appropriate statistical analysis techniques for model calibrations are first needed. In situ or on-the-go VisNIR spectroscopy has been proposed as a rapid and inexpensive tool for intensively mapping soil texture and organic carbon (SOC). While lab-based VisNIR has been established as a viable technique for estimating various soil properties, few experiments have compared the predictive accuracy of on-the-go and lab-based VisNIR. Eight north central Montana wheat fields were intensively interrogated using on-the-go and lab-based VisNIR. Lab-based spectral data consistently provided more accurate predictions than on-the-go data. However, neither in situ

  5. Exploring AdS waves via nonminimal coupling

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ayon-Beato, Eloy; Hassaiene, Mokhtar

    2006-01-01

    We consider nonminimally coupled scalar fields to explore the Siklos spacetimes in three dimensions. Their interpretation as exact gravitational waves propagating on AdS space restrict the source to behave as a pure radiation field. We show that the related pure radiation constraints single out a unique self-interaction potential depending on one coupling constant. For a vanishing coupling constant, this potential reduces to a mass term with a mass fixed in terms of the nonminimal-coupling parameter. This mass dependence allows the existence of several free cases including massless and tachyonic sources. There even exists a particular value of the nonminimal-coupling parameter for which the corresponding mass exactly compensates the contribution generated by the negative scalar curvature, producing a genuinely massless field in this curved background. The self-interacting case is studied in detail for the conformal coupling. The resulting gravitational wave is formed by the superposition of the free and the self-interaction contributions, except for a critical value of the coupling constant where a nonperturbative effect relating the strong and weak regimes of the source appears. We establish a correspondence between the scalar source supporting an AdS wave and a pp wave by showing that their respective pure radiation constraints are conformally related, while their involved backgrounds are not. Finally, we consider the AdS waves for topologically massive gravity and its limit to conformal gravity

  6. Asymptotically AdS spacetimes with a timelike Kasner singularity

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ren, Jie [Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904 (Israel)

    2016-07-21

    Exact solutions to Einstein’s equations for holographic models are presented and studied. The IR geometry has a timelike cousin of the Kasner singularity, which is the less generic case of the BKL (Belinski-Khalatnikov-Lifshitz) singularity, and the UV is asymptotically AdS. This solution describes a holographic RG flow between them. The solution’s appearance is an interpolation between the planar AdS black hole and the AdS soliton. The causality constraint is always satisfied. The entanglement entropy and Wilson loops are discussed. The boundary condition for the current-current correlation function and the Laplacian in the IR is examined. There is no infalling wave in the IR, but instead, there is a normalizable solution in the IR. In a special case, a hyperscaling-violating geometry is obtained after a dimensional reduction.

  7. Confinement, glueballs and strings from deformed AdS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Apreda, Riccardo; Crooks, David E.; Evans, Nick; Petrini, Michela

    2004-01-01

    We study aspects of confinement in two deformed versions of the AdS/CFT correspondence - the GPPZ dual of N = 1* Yang Mills, and the Yang Mills* N 0 dual. Both geometries describe discrete glueball spectra which we calculate numerically. The results agree at the 10% level with previous AdS/CFT computations in the Klebanov Strassler background and AdS Schwarzchild respectively. We also calculate the spectra of bound states of the massive fermions in these geometries and show that they are light, so not decoupled from the dynamics. We then study the behaviour of Wilson loops in the 10d lifts of these geometries. We find a transition from AdS-like strings in the UV to strings that interact with the unknown physics of the central singularity of the space in the IR. (author)

  8. On thermodynamics of AdS black holes in M-theory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Belhaj, A.; Chabab, M.; Masmar, K.; El Moumni, H.; Sedra, M.B.

    2016-01-01

    Motivated by recent work on asymptotically AdS 4 black holes in M-theory, we investigate the thermodynamics and thermodynamical geometry of AdS black holes from M2- and M5-branes. Concretely, we consider AdS black holes in AdS p+2 x S 11-p-2 , where p = 2,5 by interpreting the number of M2- (and M5-branes) as a thermodynamical variable. More precisely, we study the corresponding phase transition to examine their stabilities by calculating and discussing various thermodynamical quantities including the chemical potential. Then we compute the thermodynamical curvatures from the Quevedo metric for M2- and M5-branes geometries to reconsider the stability of such black holes. The Quevedo metric singularities recover similar stability results provided by the phase-transition program. It has been shown that similar behaviors are also present in the limit of large N. (orig.)

  9. A Grassmann path from AdS3 to flat space

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Krishnan, Chethan; Raju, Avinash; Roy, Shubho

    2014-01-01

    We show that interpreting the inverse AdS 3 radius 1/l as a Grassmann variable results in a formal map from gravity in AdS 3 to gravity in flat space. The underlying reason for this is the fact that ISO(2,1) is the Inonu-Wigner contraction of SO(2,2). We show how this works for the Chern-Simons actions, demonstrate how the general (Banados) solution in AdS 3 maps to the general flat space solution, and how the Killing vectors, charges and the Virasoro algebra in the Brown-Henneaux case map to the corresponding quantities in the BMS 3 case. Our results straightforwardly generalize to the higher spin case: the recently constructed flat space higher spin theories emerge automatically in this approach from their AdS counterparts. We conclude with a discussion of singularity resolution in the BMS gauge as an application

  10. Low body temperature in long-lived Ames dwarf mice at rest and during stress.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hunter, W S; Croson, W B; Bartke, A; Gentry, M V; Meliska, C J

    1999-09-01

    Among homeothermic animals, larger species generally have lower metabolic rates and live longer than do smaller species. Because Ames dwarf mice (dwarfs) live approximately 1 year longer than their larger normal sex- and age-matched siblings (normals), we hypothesized that they would have lower body core temperature (Tco). We, therefore, measured Tco of six dwarfs and six normals during 24-h periods of ad lib feeding, 24-h food deprivation, and emotional stress induced by cage switching. With ad lib feeding, Tco of dwarfs averaged 1.6 degrees C lower than normals; during food deprivation, Tco of both dwarfs and controls was significantly lower than when food was available ad lib; and following cage switch, Tco was elevated in both groups. However, during all three experiments, Tco was significantly lower in dwarfs than in normals. These data support the hypothesis that Ames dwarf mice, which live longer than normal size controls, maintain lower Tco than normals. Because dwarfs are deficient in thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and growth hormone (GH), their low Tco may be a result of reduced thermogenesis due to lack of those hormones. However, whether low Tco per se is related to the increased longevity of the dwarf mice remains an interesting possibility to be investigated.

  11. Interpolating from Bianchi attractors to Lifshitz and AdS spacetimes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kachru, Shamit; Kundu, Nilay; Saha, Arpan; Samanta, Rickmoy; Trivedi, Sandip P.

    2014-01-01

    We construct classes of smooth metrics which interpolate from Bianchi attractor geometries of Types II, III, VI and IX in the IR to Lifshitz or AdS 2 ×S 3 geometries in the UV. While we do not obtain these metrics as solutions of Einstein gravity coupled to a simple matter field theory, we show that the matter sector stress-energy required to support these geometries (via the Einstein equations) does satisfy the weak, and therefore also the null, energy condition. Since Lifshitz or AdS 2 ×S 3 geometries can in turn be connected to AdS 5 spacetime, our results show that there is no barrier, at least at the level of the energy conditions, for solutions to arise connecting these Bianchi attractor geometries to AdS 5 spacetime. The asymptotic AdS 5 spacetime has no non-normalizable metric deformation turned on, which suggests that furthermore, the Bianchi attractor geometries can be the IR geometries dual to field theories living in flat space, with the breaking of symmetries being either spontaneous or due to sources for other fields. Finally, we show that for a large class of flows which connect two Bianchi attractors, a C-function can be defined which is monotonically decreasing from the UV to the IR as long as the null energy condition is satisfied. However, except for special examples of Bianchi attractors (including AdS space), this function does not attain a finite and non-vanishing constant value at the end points

  12. Vacuum degeneracy and Conformal Mass in Lovelock AdS gravity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arenas-Henriquez, Gabriel; Miskovic, Olivera; Olea, Rodrigo

    2017-11-01

    It is shown that the notion of Conformal Mass can be defined within a given anti-de Sitter (AdS) branch of a Lovelock gravity theory as long as the corresponding vacuum is not degenerate. Indeed, conserved charges obtained by the addition of Kounterterms to the bulk action turn out to be proportional to the electric part of the Weyl tensor, when the fall-off of a generic solution in that AdS branch is considered. The factor of proportionality is the degeneracy condition for the vacua in the particular Lovelock AdS theory under study. This last feature explains the obstruction to define Conformal Mass in the degenerate case.

  13. Flotation performances and surface properties of chalcopyrite with xanthate collector added before and after grinding

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peng, Huiqing; Wu, Di; Abdelmonem, Mohamed

    In this study, effects of the collector added before grinding and after grinding on the subsequent flotation and mineral surface properties were investigated. The pH was controlled at 10 during the grinding and flotation processes opened to the atmosphere. With enough amounts of sodium butyl xanthate addition, adding the collector before grinding recovered more chalcopyrite than adding it after grinding in single mineral flotation. The Eh of each ground pulp before and after conditioning were measured and it was found that adding collector before grinding obtained higher and relatively suitable pulp potential for chalcopyrite flotation. Particle size analyses of the flotation products indicate that the different flotation recoveries occurred due to the different flotation losses in fine particles (flotation feedings and found that more carbon and oxygen, and less iron were remained on mineral surfaces when the collector was added before grinding, due to the higher collector adsorption capacity, larger free oxygen adsorbance and less iron oxide/hydroxide species.

  14. Intellectual Capital Approach to Modern Management through the Perspective of a Company’s Value Added

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Simona Survilaitė

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available The importance of value creation in small and medium-sized business companies has always been in focus. The changing environment makes a strong impact on all companies all over the world. Nowadays, the value added, which is created by the company, not only depends on tangible but also on intangible assets. It is not enough just to manage internal resources to be efficient or generate high value added. Knowledge and information as an important tool for the management of the external environment have become a new factor of a company. Since elements of the intellectual capital system are intangible and hardly measurable in company’s value added, this paper aims to create a model for the analysis of the creation of a company’s value added through intellectual capital. Subsequent to the review of literature on value creation and management, the authors proposed a model for value creation through intermediate, which presented three main elements of value added creation.

  15. Perturbative entanglement thermodynamics for AdS spacetime: renormalization

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mishra, Rohit; Singh, Harvendra

    2015-01-01

    We study the effect of charged excitations in the AdS spacetime on the first law of entanglement thermodynamics. It is found that ‘boosted’ AdS black holes give rise to a more general form of first law which includes chemical potential and charge density. To obtain this result we have to resort to a second order perturbative calculation of entanglement entropy for small size subsystems. At first order the form of entanglement law remains unchanged even in the presence of charged excitations. But the thermodynamic quantities have to be appropriately ‘renormalized’ at the second order due to the corrections. We work in the perturbative regime where T thermal ≪T E .

  16. Heavy ion collisions in AdS5

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kovchegov, Yuri V.

    2011-01-01

    We study heavy ion collisions at strong 't Hooft coupling using AdS/CFT correspondence. Heavy ion collisions correspond to gravitational shock wave collisions in AdS 5 . We construct the metric in the forward light cone after the collision perturbatively through expansion of Einstein equations in graviton exchanges. We obtain an analytic expression for the metric including all-order graviton exchanges with one shock wave, while keeping the exchanges with another shock wave at the lowest order. We read off the corresponding energy-momentum tensor of the produced medium. Unfortunately this energy-momentum tensor does not correspond to ideal hydrodynamics, indicating that higher order graviton exchanges are needed to construct the full solution of the problem. We also show that shock waves must completely stop almost immediately after the collision in AdS 5 , which, on the field theory side, corresponds to complete nuclear stopping due to strong coupling effects, likely leading to Landau hydrodynamics. Finally, we perform trapped surface analysis of the shock wave collisions demonstrating that a bulk black hole, corresponding to ideal hydrodynamics on the boundary, has to be created in such collisions, thus constructing a proof of thermalization in heavy ion collisions at strong coupling.

  17. Supersymmetric giant graviton solutions in AdS3

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mandal, Gautam; Raju, Suvrat; Smedbaeck, Mikael

    2008-01-01

    We parametrize all classical probe brane configurations that preserve four supersymmetries in (a) the extremal D1-D5 geometry, (b) the extremal D1-D5-P geometry, (c) the smooth D1-D5 solutions proposed by Lunin and Mathur, and (d) global AdS 3 xS 3 xT 4 /K3. These configurations consist of D1 branes, D5 branes, and bound states of D5 and D1 branes with the property that a particular Killing vector is tangent to the brane world volume at each point. We show that the supersymmetric sector of the D5-brane world volume theory may be analyzed in an effective 1+1 dimensional framework that places it on the same footing as D1 branes. In global AdS and the corresponding Lunin-Mathur solution, the solutions we describe are ''bound'' to the center of AdS for generic parameters and cannot escape to infinity. We show that these probes only exist on the submanifold of moduli space where the background B NS field and theta angle vanish. We quantize these probes in the near-horizon region of the extremal D1-D5 geometry and obtain the theory of long strings discussed by Seiberg and Witten

  18. Analytical study on holographic superfluid in AdS soliton background

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lai, Chuyu; Pan, Qiyuan; Jing, Jiliang; Wang, Yongjiu

    2016-01-01

    We analytically study the holographic superfluid phase transition in the AdS soliton background by using the variational method for the Sturm–Liouville eigenvalue problem. By investigating the holographic s-wave and p-wave superfluid models in the probe limit, we observe that the spatial component of the gauge field will hinder the phase transition. Moreover, we note that, different from the AdS black hole spacetime, in the AdS soliton background the holographic superfluid phase transition always belongs to the second order and the critical exponent of the system takes the mean-field value in both s-wave and p-wave models. Our analytical results are found to be in good agreement with the numerical findings.

  19. Joule-Thomson expansion of the charged AdS black holes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oekcue, Oezguer; Aydiner, Ekrem

    2017-01-01

    In this paper, we study Joule-Thomson effects for charged AdS black holes. We obtain inversion temperatures and curves. We investigate similarities and differences between van der Waals fluids and charged AdS black holes for the expansion. We obtain isenthalpic curves for both systems in the T-P plane and determine the cooling-heating regions. (orig.)

  20. Joule-Thomson expansion of the charged AdS black holes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Oekcue, Oezguer; Aydiner, Ekrem [Istanbul University, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Vezneciler, Istanbul (Turkey)

    2017-01-15

    In this paper, we study Joule-Thomson effects for charged AdS black holes. We obtain inversion temperatures and curves. We investigate similarities and differences between van der Waals fluids and charged AdS black holes for the expansion. We obtain isenthalpic curves for both systems in the T-P plane and determine the cooling-heating regions. (orig.)

  1. Control of SIV infection and subsequent induction of pandemic H1N1 immunity in rhesus macaques using an Ad5 [E1-, E2b-] vector platform.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gabitzsch, Elizabeth S; Balint-Junior, Joseph P; Xu, Younong; Balcaitis, Stephanie; Sanders-Beer, Brigitte; Karl, Julie; Weinhold, Kent J; Paessler, Slobodan; Jones, Frank R

    2012-11-26

    Anti-vector immunity mitigates immune responses induced by recombinant adenovirus vector vaccines, limiting their prime-boost capabilities. We have developed a novel gene delivery and expression platform (Ad5 [E1-, E2b-]) that induces immune responses despite pre-existing and/or developed concomitant Ad5 immunity. In the present study, we evaluated if this new Ad5 platform could overcome the adverse condition of pre-existing Ad5 immunity to induce effective immune responses in prime-boost immunization regimens against two different infectious diseases in the same animal. Ad5 immune rhesus macaques (RM) were immunized multiple times with the Ad5 [E1-, E2b-] platform expressing antigens from simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV). Immunized RM developed cell-mediated immunity against SIV antigens Gag, Pol, Nef and Env as well as antibody against Env. Vaccinated and vector control RMs were challenged intra-rectally with homologous SIVmac239. During a 7-week follow-up, there was perturbation of SIV load in some immunized RM. At 7 weeks post-challenge, eight immunized animals (53%) did not have detectable SIV, compared to two RM controls (13%) (Pnow hyper immune to Ad5, were then vaccinated with the same Ad5 [E1-, E2b-] platform expressing H1N1 influenza hemagglutinin (HA). Thirty days post Ad5 [E1-, E2b-]-HA vaccination, significant levels of influenza neutralizing antibody were induced in all animals that increased after an Ad5 [E1-, E2b-]-HA homologous boost. These data demonstrate the versatility of this new vector platform to immunize against two separate disease targets in the same animal despite the presence of immunity against the delivery platform, permitting homologous repeat immunizations with an Ad5 gene delivery platform. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  2. Critical gravity on AdS2 spacetimes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Myung, Yun Soo; Kim, Yong-Wan; Park, Young-Jai

    2011-01-01

    We study the critical gravity in two-dimensional anti-de Sitter (AdS 2 ) spacetimes, which was obtained from the cosmological topologically massive gravity (TMG Λ ) in three dimensions by using the Kaluza-Klein dimensional reduction. We perform the perturbation analysis around AdS 2 , which may correspond to the near-horizon geometry of the extremal Banados, Teitelboim, and Zanelli (BTZ) black hole obtained from the TMG Λ with identification upon uplifting three dimensions. A massive propagating scalar mode δF satisfies the second-order differential equation away from the critical point of K=l, whose solution is given by the Bessel functions. On the other hand, δF satisfies the fourth-order equation at the critical point. We exactly solve the fourth-order equation, and compare it with the log gravity in two dimensions. Consequently, the critical gravity in two dimensions could not be described by a massless scalar δF ml and its logarithmic partner δF log 4th .

  3. Ad gist : Ad communication in a single eye fixation

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Pieters, R.; Wedel, M.

    2012-01-01

    Most ads in practice receive no more than a single eye fixation. This study investigates the limits of what ads can communicate under such adverse exposure conditions. We find that consumers already know at maximum levels of accuracy and with high degree of certainty whether something is an ad or is

  4. Ethoxy (pentafluoro) cyclotriphosphazene (PFPN) as a multi-functional flame retardant electrolyte additive for lithium-ion batteries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Xi; Li, Weikang; Chen, Lai; Lu, Yun; Su, Yuefeng; Bao, Liying; Wang, Jing; Chen, Renjie; Chen, Shi; Wu, Feng

    2018-02-01

    With the wide application of lithium-ion batteries (LiBs), safety performance is an important constraint on the commercialization of large-scale, high-capacity LIBs. The main reason for the safety problem is that the electrolyte of LiBs is highly flammable, especially under high temperature and high voltage. It is an effective method to improve the safety of cells by mixing flame retardant with conventional electrolyte comprising of LiPF6 and carbonates. Herein, ethoxy (pentafluoro) cyclotriphosphazene (PFPN) is studied as a high efficiency flame retardant. Adding 5 vol% of PFPN results in a non-flammable electrolyte with self-extinguishing time (SET) of 12.38 s g-1 and critical oxygen index (COI) of 22.9, without compromising the capacity of cathode material. The initial discharge capacity of the LiCoO2 electrode with 5% PFPN is 150.7 mAh g-1, with a capacity retention of 99.14% after 30 cycles at 0.1 C. The results show that 5 vol% is the best adding amount of PFPN for electrolyte, which can modify the solid electrolyte interface (SEI). Moreover, PFPN reduces charge transfer resistance of the cells, resulting decreased electrode polarization and enhanced electrochemistry performances at low temperature. These results have confirmed that PFPN has the potential to be a multi-function additive for commercial LIBs production.

  5. Factorized tree-level scattering in AdS4 x CP3

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kalousios, Chrysostomos; Vergu, C.; Volovich, Anastasia

    2009-01-01

    AdS 4 /CFT 3 duality relating IIA string theory on AdS 4 x CP 3 to N = 6 superconformal Chern-Simons theory provides an arena for studying aspects of integrability in a new potentially exactly solvable system. In this paper we explore the tree-level worldsheet scattering for strings on AdS 4 x CP 3 . We compute all bosonic four-, five- and six-point amplitudes in the gauge-fixed action and demonstrate the absence of particle production.

  6. Wilson lines for AdS5 black strings

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hristov, Kiril; Katmadas, Stefanos

    2015-01-01

    We describe a simple method of extending AdS 5 black string solutions of 5d gauged supergravity in a supersymmetric way by addition of Wilson lines along a circular direction in space. When this direction is chosen along the string, and due to the specific form of 5d supergravity that features Chern-Simons terms, the existence of magnetic charges automatically generates conserved electric charges in a 5d analogue of the Witten effect. Therefore we find a rather generic, model-independent way of adding electric charges to already existing solutions with no backreaction from the geometry or breaking of any symmetry. We use this method to explicitly write down more general versions of the Benini-Bobev black strings (http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.061601, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/JHEP06(2013)005) and comment on the implications for the dual field theory and the similarities with generalizations of the Cacciatori-Klemm black holes (http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/JHEP01(2010)085) in AdS 4 .

  7. Comparative Study of Elemental Nutrients in Organic and Conventional Vegetables Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bhatt, Chet R; Alfarraj, Bader; Ghany, Charles T; Yueh, Fang Y; Singh, Jagdish P

    2017-04-01

    In this study, the laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique was used to identify and compare the presence of major nutrient elements in organic and conventional vegetables. Different parts of cauliflowers and broccolis were used as working samples. Laser-induced breakdown spectra from these samples were acquired at optimum values of laser energy, gate delay, and gate width. Both univariate and multivariate analyses were performed for the comparison of these organic and conventional vegetable flowers. Principal component analysis (PCA) was taken into account for multivariate analysis while for univariate analysis, the intensity of selected atomic lines of different elements and their intensity ratio with some reference lines of organic cauliflower and broccoli samples were compared with those of conventional ones. In addition, different parts of the cauliflower and broccoli were compared in terms of intensity and intensity ratio of elemental lines.

  8. LIBS detection of heavy metal elements in liquid solutions by using wood pellet as sample matrix

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wen Guanhong; Sun Duixiong; Su Maogen; Dong Chenzhong

    2013-01-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been applied to the analysis of heavy metals in liquid sample. A new approach was presented to improve the detection limit and minimize the sample matrix effects, in which dried wood pellets absorbed the given amounts of Cr standard solutions and then were baked because they have stronger and rapid absorption properties for liquid samples as well as simple elemental compositions. In this work, we have taken a typical heavy metal Cr element as an example, and investigated the spectral feasibility of Cr solutions and dried wood pellets before and after absorbing Cr solutions at the same experimental conditions, respectively. The results were demonstrated to successfully produce a superior analytical response for heavy metal elements by using wood pellet as sample matrix according to obtained LOD of 0.07 ppm for Cr element in solutions. (author)

  9. LIBS Detection of Heavy Metal Elements in Liquid Solutions by Using Wood Pellet as Sample Matrix

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wen Guanhong; Sun Duixiong; Su Maogen; Dong Chenzhong

    2014-01-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been applied to the analysis of heavy metals in liquid samples. A new approach was presented to lower the limit of detection (LOD) and minimize the sample matrix effects, in which dried wood pellets absorbed the given amounts of Cr standard solutions and then were baked because they have stronger and rapid absorption properties for liquid samples as well as simple elemental compositions. In this work, we have taken a typical heavy metal Cr element as an example, and investigated the spectral feasibility of Cr solutions and dried wood pellets before and after absorbing Cr solutions at the same experimental conditions. The results were demonstrated to successfully produce a superior analytical response for heavy metal elements by using wood pellet as sample matrix according to the obtained LOD of 0.07 ppm for Cr element in solutions

  10. Financial and health literacy predict incident AD dementia and AD pathology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Lei; Wilson, Robert S.; Schneider, Julie A.; Bennett, David A.; Boyle, Patricia A.

    2017-01-01

    Background Domain specific literacy is a multidimensional construct that requires multiple resources including cognitive and non-cognitive factors. Objective We test the hypothesis that domain specific literacy is associated with AD dementia and AD pathology after controlling for cognition. Methods Participants were community based older persons who completed a baseline literacy assessment, underwent annual clinical evaluations for up to 8 years and agreed to organ donation after death. Financial and health literacy was measured using 32 questions and cognition was measured using 19 tests. Annual diagnosis of AD dementia followed standard criteria. AD pathology was examined post-mortem by quantifying plaques and tangles. Cox models examined the association of literacy with incident AD dementia. Performance of model prediction for incident AD dementia was assessed using indices for integrated discrimination improvement and continuous net reclassification improvement. Linear regression models examined the independent association of literacy with AD pathology in autopsied participants. Results All 805 participants were free of dementia at baseline and 102 (12.7%) developed AD dementia during the follow-up. Lower literacy was associated with higher risk for incident AD dementia (pliteracy measure had better predictive performance than the one with demographics and cognition only. Lower literacy also was associated with higher burden of AD pathology after controlling for cognition (β=0.07, p=0.035). Conclusion Literacy predicts incident AD dementia and AD pathology in community-dwelling older persons, and the association is independent of traditional measures of cognition. PMID:28157101

  11. Enthalpy and the mechanics of AdS black holes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kastor, David; Traschen, Jennie; Ray, Sourya

    2009-01-01

    We present geometric derivations of the Smarr formula for static AdS black holes and an expanded first law that includes variations in the cosmological constant. These two results are further related by a scaling argument based on Euler's theorem. The key new ingredient in the constructions is a two-form potential for the static Killing field. Surface integrals of the Killing potential determine the coefficient of the variation of Λ in the first law. This coefficient is proportional to a finite, effective volume for the region outside the AdS black hole horizon, which can also be interpreted as minus the volume excluded from a spatial slice by the black hole horizon. This effective volume also contributes to the Smarr formula. Since Λ is naturally thought of as a pressure, the new term in the first law has the form of effective volume times change in pressure that arises in the variation of the enthalpy in classical thermodynamics. This and related arguments suggest that the mass of an AdS black hole should be interpreted as the enthalpy of the spacetime.

  12. Effect of dietary restriction and subsequent re-alimentation on the transcriptional profile of bovine ruminal epithelium.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keogh, Kate; Waters, Sinead M; Cormican, Paul; Kelly, Alan K; O'Shea, Emma; Kenny, David A

    2017-01-01

    Compensatory growth (CG) is utilised worldwide in beef production systems as a management approach to reduce feed costs. However the underlying biology regulating the expression of CG remains to be fully elucidated. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of dietary restriction and subsequent re-alimentation induced CG on the global gene expression profile of ruminal epithelial papillae. Holstein Friesian bulls (n = 60) were assigned to one of two groups: restricted feed allowance (RES; n = 30) for 125 days (Period 1) followed by ad libitum access to feed for 55 days (Period 2) or (ii) ad libitum access to feed throughout (ADLIB; n = 30). At the end of each period, 15 animals from each treatment were slaughtered and rumen papillae harvested. mRNA was isolated from all papillae samples collected. cDNA libraries were then prepared and sequenced. Resultant reads were subsequently analysed bioinformatically and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) are defined as having a Benjamini-Hochberg P value of alimentation in Period 2, RES animals displayed CG, growing at 1.8 times the rate of their ADLIB contemporary animals in Period 2 (P alimentation.

  13. Reliable classification of moving waste materials with LIBS in concrete recycling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xia, Han; Bakker, M C M

    2014-03-01

    Effective discrimination between different waste materials is of paramount importance for inline quality inspection of recycle concrete aggregates from demolished buildings. The moving targeted materials in the concrete waste stream are wood, PVC, gypsum block, glass, brick, steel rebar, aggregate and cement paste. For each material, up to three different types were considered, while thirty particles of each material were selected. Proposed is a reliable classification methodology based on integration of the LIBS spectral emissions in a fixed time window, starting from the deployment of the laser shot. PLS-DA (multi class) and the hybrid combination PCA-Adaboost (binary class) were investigated as efficient classifiers. In addition, mean centre and auto scaling approaches were compared for both classifiers. Using 72 training spectra and 18 test spectra per material, each averaged by ten shots, only PLS-DA achieved full discrimination, and the mean centre approach made it slightly more robust. Continuing with PLS-DA, the relation between data averaging and convergence to 0.3% average error was investigated using 9-fold cross-validations. Single-shot PLS-DA presented the highest challenge and most desirable methodology, which converged with 59 PC. The degree of success in practical testing will depend on the quality of the training set and the implications of the possibly remaining false positives. © 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V.

  14. Thermodynamic and classical instability of AdS black holes in fourth-order gravity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Myung, Yun Soo; Moon, Taeyoon

    2014-01-01

    We study thermodynamic and classical instability of AdS black holes in fourth-order gravity. These include the BTZ black hole in new massive gravity, Schwarzschild-AdS black hole, and higher-dimensional AdS black holes in fourth-order gravity. All thermodynamic quantities which are computed using the Abbot-Deser-Tekin method are used to study thermodynamic instability of AdS black holes. On the other hand, we investigate the s-mode Gregory-Laflamme instability of the massive graviton propagating around the AdS black holes. We establish the connection between the thermodynamic instability and the GL instability of AdS black holes in fourth-order gravity. This shows that the Gubser-Mitra conjecture holds for AdS black holes found from fourth-order gravity

  15. Winding strings and AdS3 black holes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Troost, Jan

    2002-01-01

    We start a systematic study of string theory in AdS 3 black hole backgrounds. Firstly, we analyse in detail the geodesic structure of the BTZ black hole, including spacelike geodesics. Secondly, we study the spectrum for massive and massless scalar fields, paying particular attention to the connection between Sl(2,R) subgroups, the theory of special functions and global properties of the BTZ black holes. We construct classical strings that wind the black holes. Finally, we apply the general formalism to the vacuum black hole background, and formulate the boundary spacetime Virasoro algebra in terms of worldsheet operators. We moreover establish the link between a proposal for a ghost free spectrum for Sl(2,R) string propagation and the massless black hole background, thereby claryfing aspects of the AdS 3 /CFT correspondence. (author)

  16. AdS strings with torsion: Noncomplex heterotic compactifications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Frey, Andrew R.; Lippert, Matthew

    2005-01-01

    Combining the effects of fluxes and gaugino condensation in heterotic supergravity, we use a ten-dimensional approach to find a new class of four-dimensional supersymmetric AdS 4 compactifications on almost-Hermitian manifolds of SU(3) structure. Computation of the torsion allows a classification of the internal geometry, which for a particular combination of fluxes and condensate, is nearly Kaehler. We argue that all moduli are fixed, and we show that the Kaehler potential and superpotential proposed in the literature yield the correct AdS 4 radius. In the nearly Kaehler case, we are able to solve the H Bianchi identity using a nonstandard embedding. Finally, we point out subtleties in deriving the effective superpotential and understanding the heterotic supergravity in the presence of a gaugino condensate

  17. Contextual advertising using Google AdWords and Google AdSense

    OpenAIRE

    Mihok, Radovan

    2008-01-01

    The thesis introduces contextual advertising on internet using Google AdWords. The paper describes individual steps of an ad campaign (product choosing, ad types, keywords), its management and success evaluation (calculation of ROI and modified ROI).

  18. Supersymmetric black holes in AdS4 from very special geometry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gnecchi, Alessandra; Halmagyi, Nick

    2014-01-01

    Supersymmetric black holes in AdS spacetime are inherently interesting for the AdS/CFT correspondence. Within a four dimensional gauged supergravity theory coupled to vector multiplets, the only analytic solutions for regular, supersymmetric, static black holes in AdS 4 are those in the STU-model due to Cacciatori and Klemm. We study a class of U(1)-gauged supergravity theories coupled to vector multiplets which have a cubic prepotential, the scalar manifold is then a very special Kähler manifold. When the resulting very special Kähler manifold is a homogeneous space, we find analytic solutions for static, supersymmetric AdS 4 black holes with vanishing axions. The horizon geometries of our solutions are constant curvature Riemann surfaces of arbitrary genus

  19. A flexible mesoporous Li4Ti5O12-rGO nanocomposite film as free-standing anode for high rate lithium ion batteries

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Kunxu; Gao, Hanyang; Hu, Guoxin

    2018-01-01

    Advanced flexible electrode is crucial in the development of flexible energy storage devices for emerging wearable and portable electronics. Herein, a free-standing flexible mesoporous Li4Ti5O12-rGO (LTO-rGO) nanocomposite film is rationally designed and fabricated for lithium ion batteries (LIBs). This efficient synthesis involves the growth of lithium titanate hydrate (LTH) precursors on the graphene oxide (GO) by a hydrothermal reaction, assembly into LTH-GO film by vacuum filtration with some extra GO added, and subsequent conversion into LTO-rGO nanocomposite film through calcination. When rGO content in the LTO-rGO film is set, the addition sequence of GO is found to affect its textural and mechanical properties. The resultant free-standing LTO-rGO electrode, taking advantages of high Li4Ti5O12 loading of 73.9%, mesoporous layer-stacked channels with good electron/ion conductivity, good mechanical strength, and enlarged electrode/electrolyte contact area, delivers excellent electrochemical performance (e.g., specific capacity of 135.4 mAh g-1 at 40 C) over the electrode of conventional configuration. Moreover, no organic but all inorganic reagents are used in the synthesis, offering an eco-friendly, cost-efficient, and easily scalable way to fabricate binder-free flexible electrode for LIBs.

  20. Thermodynamic geometry and phase transitions of AdS braneworld black holes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chaturvedi, Pankaj, E-mail: cpankaj@iitk.ac.in; Sengupta, Gautam, E-mail: sengupta@iitk.ac.in

    2017-02-10

    The thermodynamics and phase transitions of charged RN–AdS and rotating Kerr–AdS black holes in a generalized Randall–Sundrum braneworld are investigated in the framework of thermodynamic geometry. A detailed analysis of the thermodynamics, stability and phase structures in the canonical and the grand canonical ensembles for these AdS braneworld black holes are described. The thermodynamic curvatures for both these AdS braneworld black holes are computed and studied as a function of the thermodynamic variables. Through this analysis we illustrate an interesting dependence of the phase structures on the braneworld parameter for these black holes.

  1. Google Advertising Tools Cashing in with AdSense and AdWords

    CERN Document Server

    Davis, Harold

    2010-01-01

    With this book, you'll learn how to take full advantage of Google AdWords and AdSense, the sophisticated online advertising tools used by thousands of large and small businesses. This new edition provides a substantially updated guide to advertising on the Web, including how it works in general, and how Google's advertising programs in particular help you make money. You'll find everything you need to work with AdWords, which lets you generate text ads to accompany specific search term results, and AdSense, which automatically delivers precisely targeted text and image ads to your website.

  2. An Online Satellite Altimetry Data Processing System: Ads Central

    Science.gov (United States)

    Helm, A.; Braun, A.; Schöne, T.; Wen, H.; Reigber, C.

    To help solving important issues of climate change and sea level change and to un- derstand the complex system Earth, an interdisciplinary interpretation of various data sets is needed. Several groups on the national and international level are recently ac- tive in building up services to faciliate the access to geoscientific data to a broader community, especially the access to higher level products. In Germany, GFZ-Potsdam is currently building up the modular German Earth Science and Information System (GESIS). In the frame of GESIS the Altimeter Database System (ADS) has been com- pleted recently. This modul provides high quality data and processing capabilities for radar altimetry data to a wide range of users. The ADS modul can be accessed worldwide via the internet based user-interface "ADS Central" with a standard browser at (http://gesis.gfz-potsdam.de/ads). After a registra- tion process the system offers higher level standard products, calculated routinely from the harmonised and intercalibrated satellite database. Additionally, ADS allows to generate individual user specific products. The user is able to perform several processing and analysing steps, e.g. to generate mean sea sur- face height grids, to extract altimetry data time series around a given location, to anal- yse parameter variability, or to perform a crossover analysis. The user can specify general parameters like the satellite mission, time interval and region of the used data. Additionally, different available correction models can be choosen, which will be ap- plied to the data. It is further possible to enter several quality parameters to optimize the data for individual applications. These individual user defined products are au- tomatically processed by ADS at GFZ-Potsdam and are subsequently distributed via anonymous ftp. The system is an attempt to offer easy access to the daily growing satellite altime- try database and numerous correction models and orbits. Due to the effectiveness

  3. Light-cone gauge formulation for AdS4 x CP3

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Uvarov, D.V.

    2011-01-01

    We review the Type IIA superstring on the AdS 4 x CP 3 background in the k-symmetry light-cone gauge characterized by the choice of the lightlike directions from the D = 3 Minkowski boundary of AdS 4 both in the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations

  4. Quantitative analysis of Al-Si alloy using calibration free laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (CF-LIBS)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shakeel, Hira; Haq, S. U.; Aisha, Ghulam; Nadeem, Ali

    2017-06-01

    The quantitative analysis of the standard aluminum-silicon alloy has been performed using calibration free laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (CF-LIBS). The plasma was produced using the fundamental harmonic (1064 nm) of the Nd: YAG laser and the emission spectra were recorded at 3.5 μs detector gate delay. The qualitative analysis of the emission spectra confirms the presence of Mg, Al, Si, Ti, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Sn, and Pb in the alloy. The background subtracted and self-absorption corrected emission spectra were used for the estimation of plasma temperature as 10 100 ± 300 K. The plasma temperature and self-absorption corrected emission lines of each element have been used for the determination of concentration of each species present in the alloy. The use of corrected emission intensities and accurate evaluation of plasma temperature yield reliable quantitative analysis up to a maximum 2.2% deviation from reference sample concentration.

  5. Penrose inequality for asymptotically AdS spaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Itkin, Igor; Oz, Yaron

    2012-01-01

    In general relativity, the Penrose inequality relates the mass and the entropy associated with a gravitational background. If the inequality is violated by an initial Cauchy data, it suggests a creation of a naked singularity, thus providing means to consider the cosmic censorship hypothesis. We propose a general form of Penrose inequality for asymptotically locally AdS spaces.

  6. Penrose inequality for asymptotically AdS spaces

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Itkin, Igor [Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978 (Israel); Oz, Yaron, E-mail: yaronoz@post.tau.ac.il [Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978 (Israel)

    2012-02-28

    In general relativity, the Penrose inequality relates the mass and the entropy associated with a gravitational background. If the inequality is violated by an initial Cauchy data, it suggests a creation of a naked singularity, thus providing means to consider the cosmic censorship hypothesis. We propose a general form of Penrose inequality for asymptotically locally AdS spaces.

  7. Phase transition and thermodynamical geometry for Schwarzschild AdS black hole in AdS_5×S"5 spacetime

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, Jia-Lin; Cai, Rong-Gen; Yu, Hongwei

    2015-01-01

    We study the thermodynamics and thermodynamic geometry of a five-dimensional Schwarzschild AdS black hole in AdS_5×S"5 spacetime by treating the cosmological constant as the number of colors in the boundary gauge theory and its conjugate quantity as the associated chemical potential. It is found that the chemical potential is always negative in the stable branch of black hole thermodynamics and it has a chance to be positive, but appears in the unstable branch. We calculate the scalar curvatures of the thermodynamical Weinhold metric, Ruppeiner metric and Quevedo metric, respectively and we find that the scalar curvature in the Weinhold metric is always vanishing, while in the Ruppeiner metric the divergence of the scalar curvature is related to the divergence of the heat capacity with fixed chemical potential, and in the Quevedo metric the divergence of the scalar curvature is related to the divergence of the heat capacity with fixed number of colors and to the vanishing of the heat capacity with fixed chemical potential.

  8. Merck Ad5/HIV induces broad innate immune activation that predicts CD8⁺ T-cell responses but is attenuated by preexisting Ad5 immunity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zak, Daniel E; Andersen-Nissen, Erica; Peterson, Eric R; Sato, Alicia; Hamilton, M Kristina; Borgerding, Joleen; Krishnamurty, Akshay T; Chang, Joanne T; Adams, Devin J; Hensley, Tiffany R; Salter, Alexander I; Morgan, Cecilia A; Duerr, Ann C; De Rosa, Stephen C; Aderem, Alan; McElrath, M Juliana

    2012-12-11

    To better understand how innate immune responses to vaccination can lead to lasting protective immunity, we used a systems approach to define immune signatures in humans over 1 wk following MRKAd5/HIV vaccination that predicted subsequent HIV-specific T-cell responses. Within 24 h, striking increases in peripheral blood mononuclear cell gene expression associated with inflammation, IFN response, and myeloid cell trafficking occurred, and lymphocyte-specific transcripts decreased. These alterations were corroborated by marked serum inflammatory cytokine elevations and egress of circulating lymphocytes. Responses of vaccinees with preexisting adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5) neutralizing antibodies were strongly attenuated, suggesting that enhanced HIV acquisition in Ad5-seropositive subgroups in the Step Study may relate to the lack of appropriate innate activation rather than to increased systemic immune activation. Importantly, patterns of chemoattractant cytokine responses at 24 h and alterations in 209 peripheral blood mononuclear cell transcripts at 72 h were predictive of subsequent induction and magnitude of HIV-specific CD8(+) T-cell responses. This systems approach provides a framework to compare innate responses induced by vectors, as shown here by contrasting the more rapid, robust response to MRKAd5/HIV with that to yellow fever vaccine. When applied iteratively, the findings may permit selection of HIV vaccine candidates eliciting innate immune response profiles more likely to drive HIV protective immunity.

  9. Minimal surfaces in AdS space and integrable systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Burrington, Benjamin A.; Gao, Peng

    2010-04-01

    We consider the Pohlmeyer reduction for spacelike minimal area worldsheets in AdS5. The Lax pair for the reduced theory is found, and written entirely in terms of the A3 = D3 root system, generalizing the B2 affine Toda system which appears for the AdS4 string. For the B2 affine Toda system, we show that the area of the worlsheet is obtainable from the moduli space Kähler potential of a related Hitchin system. We also explore the Saveliev-Leznov construction for solutions of the B2 affine Toda system, and recover the rotationally symmetric solution associated to Painleve transcendent.

  10. AdS5 magnetized solutions in minimal gauged supergravity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jose Luis Blázquez-Salcedo

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available We construct a generalization of the AdS charged rotating black holes with two equal magnitude angular momenta in five-dimensional minimal gauged supergravity. In addition to the mass, electric charge and angular momentum, the new solutions possess an extra-parameter associated with a non-zero magnitude of the magnetic potential at infinity. In contrast with the known cases, these new black holes possess a non-trivial zero-horizon size limit which describes a one parameter family of spinning charged solitons. All configurations reported in this work approach asymptotically an AdS5 spacetime in global coordinates and are free of pathologies.

  11. Folded three-spin string solutions in AdS5 x S5

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ryang Shijong

    2004-01-01

    We construct a spinning closed string solution in AdS 5 x S 5 which is folded in the radial direction and has two equal spins in AdS 5 and a spin in S 5 . The energy expression of the three-spin solution specified by the folding and winding numbers for the small S 5 spin shows a logarithmic behavior and a one-third power behavior of the large total AdS 5 spin, in the long string and in the short string located near the boundary of AdS 5 respectively. It exhibits the non-regular expansion in the 't Hooft coupling constant, while it takes the regular one when the S 5 spin becomes large. (author)

  12. Invariant differential operators and characters of the AdS4 algebra

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dobrev, V K

    2006-01-01

    The aim of this paper is to apply systematically to AdS 4 some modern tools in the representation theory of Lie algebras which are easily generalized to the supersymmetric and quantum group settings and necessary for applications to string theory and integrable models. Here we introduce the necessary representations of the AdS 4 algebra and group. We give explicitly all singular (null) vectors of the reducible AdS 4 Verma modules. These are used to obtain the AdS 4 invariant differential operators. Using this we display a new structure-a diagram involving four partially equivalent reducible representations one of which contains all finite-dimensional irreps of the AdS 4 algebra. We study in more detail the cases involving UIRs, in particular, the Di and the Rac singletons, and the massless UIRs. In the massless case, we discover the structure of sets of 2s 0 - 1 conserved currents for each spin s 0 UIR, s 0 = 1, 3/2,.... All massless cases are contained in a one-parameter subfamily of the quartet diagrams mentioned above, the parameter being the spin s 0 . Further we give the classification of the so(5,C) irreps presented in a diagrammatic way which makes easy the derivation of all character formulae. The paper concludes with a speculation on the possible applications of the character formulae to integrable models

  13. Microparticules composites lipide-silice pour la libération prolongée d'un principe actif dans l'estomac.

    OpenAIRE

    Perge , Laurent; Robitzer , Mike; Quignard , Françoise; Devoisselle , Jean-Marie; Legrand , Philippe

    2010-01-01

    International audience; Ces dernières années, les avancés scientifiques et technologiques ont été menées dans le développement de systèmes par voie orale à libération contrôlée de principe actif indépendants du ntemps de transit dans le tractus digestif et capables de résider plus longtemps dans l'estomac en évitant une vidange gastrique prématurée. Différentes approches ont été développées pour permettre de surpasser ces problèmes, comme des systèmes flottants, des systèmes polymères bioadhé...

  14. [6-chloro-3-pyridylmethyl-3H]neonicotinoids as high-affinity radioligands for the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor: preparation using NaB3H4 and LiB3H4

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Latli, Bachir; Casida, J.E.

    1996-01-01

    NaB 3 H 4 and LiB 3 H 4 at 78% and 97% isotopic enrichments, respectively, were used in the synthesis of 3 H-labeled 1-(6-chloro-3-pyridyl)-methyl-2-nitromethyleneimidazolidine (CH-IMI) and N'-[(6-chloro-3-pyridyl)methyl]-n''-cyano-n'-methylacetamidine (acetamiprid) (two very potent insecticides) and of 1-(6-chloro-3-pyridyl)methyl-2-iminoimidazolidine (desnitro-IMI) (a metabolite of the commercial insecticides imidacloprid). 6-Chloronicotinoyl chloride was treated with either NaB 3 H 4 in methanol or LiB 3 H 4 in tetrahydrofuran and the resulting alcohol transformed to 2-chloro-5-chloromethylpyridine, which was then coupled to N-cyano-N'-methylacetamidine to give [ 3 H] acetamiprid (45 Ci/mmol). 2-Chloro-5-chloro[ 3 H]methylpyridine was also reacted with ethylenediamine and the product was either refluxed in absolute ethanol with 1,1-bis(methylthio)-2-nitro-ethylene to provide [ 3 H]CH-IMI or reacted in toluene with a solution of cyanogen bromide to produce [ 3 H] desnitro-IMI (each 55 Ci/mmol. (author)

  15. An AdS3 dual for minimal model CFTs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gaberdiel, Matthias R.; Gopakumar, Rajesh

    2011-01-01

    We propose a duality between the 2d W N minimal models in the large N't Hooft limit, and a family of higher spin theories on AdS 3 . The 2d conformal field theories (CFTs) can be described as Wess-Zumino-Witten coset models, and include, for N=2, the usual Virasoro unitary series. The dual bulk theory contains, in addition to the massless higher spin fields, two complex scalars (of equal mass). The mass is directly related to the 't Hooft coupling constant of the dual CFT. We give convincing evidence that the spectra of the two theories match precisely for all values of the 't Hooft coupling. We also show that the renormalization group flows in the 2d CFT agree exactly with the usual AdS/CFT prediction of the gravity theory. Our proposal is in many ways analogous to the Klebanov-Polyakov conjecture for an AdS 4 dual for the singlet sector of large N vector models.

  16. AdS pure spinor superstring in constant backgrounds

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chandia, Osvaldo; Bevilaqua, L. Ibiapina; Vallilo, Brenno Carlini

    2014-01-01

    In this paper we study the pure spinor formulation of the superstring in AdS_5×S"5 around point particle solutions of the classical equations of motion. As a particular example we quantize the pure spinor string in the BMN background

  17. Smoothed transitions in higher spin AdS gravity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Banerjee, Shamik; Shenker, Stephen; Castro, Alejandra; Hellerman, Simeon; Hijano, Eliot; Lepage-Jutier, Arnaud; Maloney, Alexander

    2013-01-01

    We consider CFTs conjectured to be dual to higher spin theories of gravity in AdS 3 and AdS 4 . Two-dimensional CFTs with W N symmetry are considered in the λ = 0 (k → ∞) limit where they are conjectured to be described by continuous orbifolds. The torus partition function is computed, using reasonable assumptions, and equals that of a free-field theory. We find no phase transition at temperatures of order 1; the usual Hawking–Page phase transition is removed by the highly degenerate light states associated with conical defect states in the bulk. Three-dimensional Chern–Simons matter CFTs with vector-like matter are considered on T 3 , where the dynamics is described by an effective theory for the eigenvalues of the holonomies. Likewise, we find no evidence for a Hawking–Page phase transition at a large level k. (paper)

  18. On thermodynamics of AdS black holes in M-theory

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Belhaj, A. [Universite Sultan Moulay Slimane, Departement de Physique, LIRST, Faculte Polydisciplinaire, Beni Mellal (Morocco); Cadi Ayyad University, High Energy Physics and Astrophysics Laboratory, FSSM, Marrakesh (Morocco); Chabab, M.; Masmar, K. [Cadi Ayyad University, High Energy Physics and Astrophysics Laboratory, FSSM, Marrakesh (Morocco); El Moumni, H. [Cadi Ayyad University, High Energy Physics and Astrophysics Laboratory, FSSM, Marrakesh (Morocco); Universite Ibn Zohr, Departement de Physique, Faculte des Sciences, Agadir (Morocco); Sedra, M.B. [Universite Ibn Tofail, Departement de Physique, LASIMO, Faculte des Sciences, Kenitra (Morocco)

    2016-02-15

    Motivated by recent work on asymptotically AdS{sub 4} black holes in M-theory, we investigate the thermodynamics and thermodynamical geometry of AdS black holes from M2- and M5-branes. Concretely, we consider AdS black holes in AdS{sub p+2} x S{sup 11-p-2}, where p = 2,5 by interpreting the number of M2- (and M5-branes) as a thermodynamical variable. More precisely, we study the corresponding phase transition to examine their stabilities by calculating and discussing various thermodynamical quantities including the chemical potential. Then we compute the thermodynamical curvatures from the Quevedo metric for M2- and M5-branes geometries to reconsider the stability of such black holes. The Quevedo metric singularities recover similar stability results provided by the phase-transition program. It has been shown that similar behaviors are also present in the limit of large N. (orig.)

  19. Shock wave collisions and thermalization in AdS5

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kovchegov, Yuri V.

    2011-01-01

    We study heavy ion collisions at strong 't Hooft coupling using AdS/CFT correspondence. According to the AdS/CFT dictionary heavy ion collisions correspond to gravitational shock wave collisions in AdS 5 . We construct the metric in the forward light cone after the collision perturbatively through expansion of Einstein equations in graviton exchanges. We obtain an analytic expression for the metric including all-order graviton exchanges with one shock wave, while keeping the exchanges with another shock wave at the lowest order. We read off the corresponding energy-momentum tensor of the produced medium. Unfortunately this energy-momentum tensor does not correspond to ideal hydrodynamics, indicating that higher order graviton exchanges are needed to construct the full solution of the problem. We also show that shock waves must completely stop almost immediately after the collision in AdS 5 , which, on the field theory side, corresponds to complete nuclear stopping due to strong coupling effects, likely leading to Landau hydrodynamics. Finally, we perform trapped surface analysis of the shock wave collisions demonstrating that a bulk black hole, corresponding to ideal hydrodynamics on the boundary, has to be created in such collisions, thus constructing a proof of thermalization in heavy ion collisions at strong coupling. (author)

  20. The validity and reliability of value-added and target-setting procedures with special reference to Key Stage 3

    OpenAIRE

    Moody, Ian Robin

    2003-01-01

    The validity of value-added systems of measurement is crucially dependent upon there being a demonstrably unambiguous relationship between the so-called baseline, or intake measures, and any subsequent measure of performance at a later stage. The reliability of such procedures is dependent on the relationships between these two measures being relatively stable over time. A number of questions arise with regard to both the validity and reliability of value-added procedures at any level in educ...

  1. Development of a Method for the Determination of Chromium and Cadmium in Tannery Wastewater Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mahwish Bukhari

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper illustrates systematic development of a convenient analytical method for the determination of chromium and cadmium in tannery wastewater using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS. A new approach was developed by which liquid was converted into solid phase sample surface using absorption paper for subsequent LIBS analysis. The optimized values of LIBS parameters were 146.7 mJ for chromium and 89.5 mJ for cadmium (laser pulse energy, 4.5 μs (delay time, 70 mm (lens to sample surface distance, and 7 mm (light collection system to sample surface distance. Optimized values of LIBS parameters demonstrated strong spectrum lines for each metal keeping the background noise at minimum level. The new method of preparing metal standards on absorption papers exhibited calibration curves with good linearity with correlation coefficients, R2 in the range of 0.992 to 0.998. The developed method was tested on real tannery wastewater samples for determination of chromium and cadmium.

  2. Short Communication on “Direct compositional quantification of (U-Th)O{sub 2} - MOX nuclear fuel using ns-UV-LIBS and chemometric regression models”

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Singh, Manjeet [Fuel Chemistry Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400 085 (India); Sarkar, Arnab, E-mail: arnab@barc.gov.in [Fuel Chemistry Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400 085 (India); Mao, Xianglei; Russo, Richard E. [Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)

    2017-02-15

    The determination of uranium with composition varying from 0% to 35 wt% in (Th-U)O{sub 2} mixed oxide fuel using laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) utilizing partial least square regression (PLSR) has been demonstrated. Good agreement between expected and experiment results using 266 nm, 532 nm and 1064 nm was shown. The analytical results at 266 nm of 2–3% precision and ∼1% accuracy (bias) satisfy the acceptance criteria range for chemical analysis in the nuclear industry.

  3. F-theory and AdS3/CFT2 (2, 0)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Couzens, Christopher; Martelli, Dario; Schäfer-Nameki, Sakura

    2018-06-01

    We continue to develop the program initiated in [1] of studying supersymmetric AdS3 backgrounds of F-theory and their holographic dual 2d superconformal field theories, which are dimensional reductions of theories with varying coupling. Imposing 2d N=(0,2) supersymmetry,wederivethegeneralconditionsonthegeometryforTypeIIB AdS3 solutions with varying axio-dilaton and five-form flux. Locally the compact part of spacetime takes the form of a circle fibration over an eight-fold Y_8^{τ } , which is elliptically fibered over a base \\tilde{M}_6 . We construct two classes of solutions given in terms of a product ansatz \\tilde{M}_6}=Σ × {M}_4 , where Σ is a complex curve and \\tilde{M}_4 is locally a Kähler surface. In the first class \\tilde{M}_4 is globally a Kähler surface and we take the elliptic fibration to vary non-trivially over either of these two factors, where in both cases the metrics on the total space of the elliptic fibrations are not Ricci-flat. In the second class the metric on the total space of the elliptic fibration over either curve or surface are Ricci-flat. This results in solutions of the type AdS3 × K3 × ℳ 5 τ , dual to 2d (0, 2) SCFTs, and AdS3 × S 3/Γ × CY 3, dual to 2d (0, 4) SCFTs, respectively. In all cases we compute the charges for the dual field theories with varying coupling and find agreement with the holographic results. We also show that solutions with enhanced 2d N=(2,2) supersymmetry must have constant axio-dilaton. Allowing the internal geometry to be non-compact leads to the most general class of Type IIB AdS5 solutions with varying axio-dilaton, i.e. F-theoretic solutions, that are dual to 4d N=1 SCFTs.

  4. AdS3/CFT2, finite-gap equations and massless modes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lloyd, Thomas; Stefański, Bogdan Jr.

    2014-01-01

    It is known that string theory on AdS 3 ×M 7 backgrounds, where M 7 =S 3 ×S 3 ×S 1 or S 3 ×T 4 , is classically integrable. This integrability has been previously used to write down a set of integral equations, known as the finite-gap equations. These equations can be solved for the closed string spectrum of the theory. However, it has been known for some time that the finite-gap equations on these AdS 3 ×M 7 backgrounds do not capture the dynamics of the massless modes of the closed string theory. In this paper we re-examine the derivation of the AdS 3 ×M 7 finite-gap system. We find that the conditions that had previously been imposed on these integral equations in order to implement the Virasoro constraints are too strict, and are in fact not required. We identify the correct implementation of the Virasoro constraints on finite-gap equations and show that this new, less restrictive condition captures the complete closed string spectrum on AdS 3 ×M 7

  5. Closed string tachyons on AdS orbifolds and dual Yang-Mills instantons

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Hikida, Y. [Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany); Iizuka, N. [California Univ., Santa Barbara, CA (United States). Kavli Inst. for Theoretical Physics

    2007-06-15

    We study the condensation of localized closed string tachyons on AdS orbifolds both from the bulk and boundary theory viewpoints. We first extend the known results for AdS{sub 5}/Z{sub k} to AdS{sub 3}/Z{sub k} case, and we proposed that the AdS{sub 3}/Z{sub k} decays into AdS{sub 3}/Z{sub k'} with k{sup '} < k. From the bulk viewpoint, we obtain a time-dependent gravity solution describing the decay of AdS orbifold numerically. From the dual gauge theory viewpoint, we calculated the Casimir energies of gauge theory vacua and it is found that their values are exactly the same as the masses of dual geometries, even though they are in different parameter regimes of 't Hooft coupling. We also consider AdS{sub 5} orbifold. The decay of AdS{sub 5}/Z{sub k} is dual to the transition between the vacua of dual gauge theory on R{sub t} x S{sup 3}/Z{sub k}. We constructed the instanton solutions describing the transitions by making use of instanton solutions on R{sub t} x S{sup 2}. (orig.)

  6. Winding strings in AdS3

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Herscovich, Estanislao; Minces, Pablo; Nunez, Carmen

    2006-01-01

    Correlation functions of one-unit spectral flowed states in string theory on AdS 3 are considered. We present the modified Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov and null vector equations to be satisfied by amplitudes containing states in winding sector one and study their solution corresponding to the four point function including one w = 1 field. We compute the three point function involving two one-unit spectral flowed operators and find expressions for amplitudes of three w = 1 states satisfying certain particular relations among the spins of the fields. Several consistency checks are performed

  7. An artificial neural network approach to laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy quantitative analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    D’Andrea, Eleonora; Pagnotta, Stefano; Grifoni, Emanuela; Lorenzetti, Giulia; Legnaioli, Stefano; Palleschi, Vincenzo; Lazzerini, Beatrice

    2014-01-01

    The usual approach to laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) quantitative analysis is based on the use of calibration curves, suitably built using appropriate reference standards. More recently, statistical methods relying on the principles of artificial neural networks (ANN) are increasingly used. However, ANN analysis is often used as a ‘black box’ system and the peculiarities of the LIBS spectra are not exploited fully. An a priori exploration of the raw data contained in the LIBS spectra, carried out by a neural network to learn what are the significant areas of the spectrum to be used for a subsequent neural network delegated to the calibration, is able to throw light upon important information initially unknown, although already contained within the spectrum. This communication will demonstrate that an approach based on neural networks specially taylored for dealing with LIBS spectra would provide a viable, fast and robust method for LIBS quantitative analysis. This would allow the use of a relatively limited number of reference samples for the training of the network, with respect to the current approaches, and provide a fully automatizable approach for the analysis of a large number of samples. - Highlights: • A methodological approach to neural network analysis of LIBS spectra is proposed. • The architecture of the network and the number of inputs are optimized. • The method is tested on bronze samples already analyzed using a calibration-free LIBS approach. • The results are validated, compared and discussed

  8. Black hole formation in AdS Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet gravity

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Deppe, Nils [Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science andDepartment of Physics, Cornell University,122 Sciences Drive, Ithaca, New York 14853 (United States); Kolly, Allison [Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, McGill University,805 Sherbrooke Street West, Montréal, Québec H3A 0B9 (Canada); Frey, Andrew R.; Kunstatter, Gabor [Department of Physics and Winnipeg Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Winnipeg,515 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9 (Canada)

    2016-10-17

    AdS spacetime has been shown numerically to be unstable against a large class of arbitrarily small perturbations. In http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.071102, the authors presented a preliminary study of the effects on stability of changing the local dynamics by adding a Gauss-Bonnet term to the Einstein action. Here we provide further details as well as new results with improved numerical methods. In particular, we elucidate new structure in Choptuik scaling plots. We also provide evidence of chaotic behavior at the transition between immediate horizon formation and horizon formation after the matter pulse reflects from the AdS conformal boundary. Finally, we present data suggesting the formation of naked singularities in spacetimes with ADM mass below the algebraic bound for black hole formation.

  9. Internet Advertising. Google AdWords versus Facebook Ads

    OpenAIRE

    Paul PAŞCU

    2014-01-01

    This article describes how to use the applications for Internet advertising, Google AdWords and Facebook Ads. Our attempt is to present the advantages and disadvantages of each of them, the costs and benefits, a useful aspect for companies that plan to start advertising campaigns on the Internet.

  10. Stability of warped AdS3 vacua of topologically massive gravity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Anninos, Dionysios; Esole, Mboyo; Guica, Monica

    2009-01-01

    AdS 3 vacua of topologically massive gravity (TMG) have been shown to be perturbatively unstable for all values of the coupling constant except the chiral point μl = 1. We study the possibility that the warped vacua of TMG, which exist for all values of μ, are stable under linearized perturbations. In this paper, we show that spacelike warped AdS 3 vacua with Compere-Detournay boundary conditions are indeed stable in the range μl>3. This is precisely the range in which black hole solutions arise as discrete identifications of the warped AdS 3 vacuum. The situation somewhat resembles chiral gravity: although negative energy modes do exist, they are all excluded by the boundary conditions, and the perturbative spectrum solely consists of boundary (pure large gauge) gravitons.

  11. Internet Advertising. Google AdWords versus Facebook Ads

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paul PAŞCU

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available This article describes how to use the applications for Internet advertising, Google AdWords and Facebook Ads. Our attempt is to present the advantages and disadvantages of each of them, the costs and benefits, a useful aspect for companies that plan to start advertising campaigns on the Internet.

  12. What's the point? Hole-ography in Poincare AdS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Espindola, Ricardo; Gueijosa, Alberto; Landetta, Alberto; Pedraza, Juan F.

    2018-01-01

    In the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence, we study bulk reconstruction of the Poincare wedge of AdS 3 via hole-ography, i.e., in terms of differential entropy of the dual CFT 2 . Previous work had considered the reconstruction of closed or open spacelike curves in global AdS, and of infinitely extended spacelike curves in Poincare AdS that are subject to a periodicity condition at infinity. Working first at constant time, we find that a closed curve in Poincare is described in the CFT by a family of intervals that covers the spatial axis at least twice. We also show how to reconstruct open curves, points and distances, and obtain a CFT action whose extremization leads to bulk points. We then generalize all of these results to the case of curves that vary in time, and discover that generic curves have segments that cannot be reconstructed using the standard hole-ographic construction. This happens because, for the nonreconstructible segments, the tangent geodesics fail to be fully contained within the Poincare wedge. We show that a previously discovered variant of the hole-ographic method allows us to overcome this challenge, by reorienting the geodesics touching the bulk curve to ensure that they all remain within the wedge. Our conclusion is that all spacelike curves in Poincare AdS can be completely reconstructed with CFT data, and each curve has in fact an infinite number of representations within the CFT. (orig.)

  13. Predicting AD conversion

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Liu, Yawu; Mattila, Jussi; Ruiz, Miguel �ngel Mu�oz

    2013-01-01

    To compare the accuracies of predicting AD conversion by using a decision support system (PredictAD tool) and current research criteria of prodromal AD as identified by combinations of episodic memory impairment of hippocampal type and visual assessment of medial temporal lobe atrophy (MTA) on MRI...

  14. MYRRHA. An experimental ADS Facility for Research and Development

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ait Abderrahim, H.

    2006-01-01

    Full text of publication follows: Since 1998, SCK-CEN in partnership with IBA s.a. and many European research laboratories, is designing a multipurpose ADS for R and D applications MYRRHA - and is conducting an associated R and D support programme. MYRRHA is an Accelerator Driven System (ADS) under development at Mol in Belgium and aiming to serve as a basis for the European experimental ADS to provide protons and neutrons for various R and D applications. It consists of a proton accelerator delivering a 350 MeV * 5 mA proton beam to a liquid Pb-Bi spallation target that in turn couples to a Pb-Bi cooled, subcritical fast core. In a first stage, the project focuses mainly on demonstration of the ADS concept, safety research on sub-critical systems and nuclear waste transmutation studies. In a later stage, the device will also be dedicated to research on structural materials, nuclear fuel, liquid metal technology and associated aspects and on sub-critical reactor physics. Subsequently, it will be used as fast spectrum irradiation facility and as radioisotope production facility. Along the above design features, the MYRRHA project team is developing the MYRRHA project as a multipurpose irradiation facility for R and D applications on the basis of an Accelerator Driven System (ADS). The project is intended to fit into the European strategy towards an ADS Demo facility for nuclear waste transmutation as described in the PDS-XADS FP5 Project. As such it should serve the following task catalogue: ADS concept demonstration, Safety studies for ADS, MA transmutation studies, LLFP transmutation studies, Medical radioisotopes, Material research, Fuel research. A first preliminary conceptual design file of MYRRHA was completed by the end of 2001 and has been reviewed by an International Technical Guidance Committee that concluded that there are no show stoppers in the project even thought some topics such as the safety studies and the fuel qualification need to be addressed

  15. Holographic dual of de Sitter universe with AdS bubbles

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kanno, Sugumi; Sasaki, Misao; Soda, Jiro

    2012-01-01

    We study the proposal that a de Sitter (dS) universe with an Anti-de Sitter (AdS) bubble can be replaced by a dS universe with a boundary CFT. To explore this duality, we consider incident gravitons coming from the dS universe through the bubble wall into the AdS bubble in the original picture. In the dual picture, this process has to be identified with the absorption of gravitons by CFT matter. We have obtained a general formula for the absorption probability in general d+1 spacetime dimensions. The result shows the different behavior depending on whether spacetime dimensions are even or odd. We find that the absorption process of gravitons from the dS universe by CFT matter is controlled by localized gravitons (massive bound state modes in the Kaluza-Klein decomposition) in the dS universe. The absorption probability is determined by the effective degrees of freedom of the CFT matter and the effective gravitational coupling constant which encodes information of localized gravitons. We speculate that the dual of (d+1)-dimensional dS universe with an AdS bubble is also dual to a d-dimensional dS universe with CFT matter.

  16. Zero added oxygen for high quality sputtered ITO: A data science investigation of reduced Sn-content and added Zr

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Peshek, Timothy J.; Burst, James M.; Coutts, Timothy J.; Gessert, Timothy A.

    2016-01-01

    The authors demonstrate mobilities of >45 cm 2 /V s for sputtered tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) films at zero added oxygen. All films were deposited with 5 wt. % SnO 2 , instead of the more conventional 8–10 wt. %, and had varying ZrO 2 content from 0 to 3 wt. %, with a subsequent reduction in In 2 O 3 content. These films were deposited by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering from nominally stoichiometric targets with varying oxygen partial pressure in the sputter ambient. Anomalous behavior was discovered for films with no Zr-added, where a bimodality of high and low mobilities was discovered for nominally similar growth conditions. However, all films showed the lowest resistivity and highest mobilities when the oxygen partial pressure in the sputter ambient was zero. This result is contrasted with several other reports of ITO transport performance having a maximum for small but nonzero oxygen partial pressure. This result is attributed to the reduced concentration of SnO 2 . The addition of ZrO 2 yielded the highest mobilities at >55 cm 2 /V s and the films showed a modest increase in optical transmission with increasing Zr-content

  17. Infrared realization of dS2 in AdS2

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anninos, Dionysios; Hofman, Diego M.

    2018-04-01

    We describe a two-dimensional geometry that smoothly interpolates between an asymptotically AdS2 geometry and the static patch of dS2. We find this ‘centaur’ geometry to be a solution of dilaton gravity with a specific class of potentials for the dilaton. We interpret the centaur geometry as a thermal state in the putative quantum mechanics dual to the AdS2 evolved with the global Hamiltonian. We compute the thermodynamic properties and observe that the centaur state has finite entropy and positive specific heat. The static patch is the infrared part of the centaur geometry. We discuss boundary observables sensitive to the static patch region.

  18. Bubbling AdS3

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Martelli, Dario; Morales, Jose Francisco

    2005-01-01

    In the light of the recent Lin, Lunin, Maldacena (LLM) results, we investigate 1/2-BPS geometries in minimal (and next to minimal) supergravity in D = 6 dimensions. In the case of minimal supergravity, solutions are given by fibrations of a two-torus T 2 specified by two harmonic functions. For a rectangular torus the two functions are related by a non-linear equation with rare solutions: AdS 3 x S 3 , the pp-wave and the multi-center string. 'Bubbling', i.e. superpositions of droplets, is accommodated by allowing the complex structure of the T 2 to vary over the base. The analysis is repeated in the presence of a tensor multiplet and similar conclusions are reached, with generic solutions describing D1D5 (or their dual fundamental string-momentum) systems. In this framework, the profile of the dual fundamental string-momentum system is identified with the boundaries of the droplets in a two-dimensional plane. (author)

  19. The Mixed Phase of Charged AdS Black Holes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Piyabut Burikham

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available We study the mixed phase of charged AdS black hole and radiation when the total energy is fixed below the threshold to produce a stable charged black hole branch. The coexistence conditions for the charged AdS black hole and radiation are derived for the generic case when radiation particles carry charge. The phase diagram of the mixed phase is demonstrated for both fixed potential and charge ensemble. In the dual gauge picture, they correspond to the mixed phase of quark-gluon plasma (QGP and hadron gas in the fixed chemical potential and density ensemble, respectively. In the nuclei and heavy-ion collisions at intermediate energies, the mixed phase of exotic QGP and hadron gas could be produced. The mixed phase will condense and evaporate into the hadron gas as the fireball expands.

  20. The effect of adding urea, manganese and linoleic acid to wheat straw and wood chips on lignin degradation by fungi and subsequent

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kuijk, van S.J.A.; Sonnenberg, A.S.M.; Baars, J.J.P.; Hendriks, W.H.; Cone, J.W.

    2016-01-01

    The aim of this study was optimizing Ceriporiopsis subvermispora and Lentinula edodes pre-treatment of wheat straw and wood chips by adding urea, manganese and linoleic acid. Optimization was defined as more lignin degradation and an increase in in vitro gas

  1. AdS2 holographic dictionary

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cvetič, Mirjam; Papadimitriou, Ioannis

    2016-01-01

    We construct the holographic dictionary for both running and constant dilaton solutions of the two dimensional Einstein-Maxwell-Dilaton theory that is obtained by a circle reduction from Einstein-Hilbert gravity with negative cosmological constant in three dimensions. This specific model ensures that the dual theory has a well defined ultraviolet completion in terms of a two dimensional conformal field theory, but our results apply qualitatively to a wider class of two dimensional dilaton gravity theories. For each type of solutions we perform holographic renormalization, compute the exact renormalized one-point functions in the presence of arbitrary sources, and derive the asymptotic symmetries and the corresponding conserved charges. In both cases we find that the scalar operator dual to the dilaton plays a crucial role in the description of the dynamics. Its source gives rise to a matter conformal anomaly for the running dilaton solutions, while its expectation value is the only non trivial observable for constant dilaton solutions. The role of this operator has been largely overlooked in the literature. We further show that the only non trivial conserved charges for running dilaton solutions are the mass and the electric charge, while for constant dilaton solutions only the electric charge is non zero. However, by uplifting the solutions to three dimensions we show that constant dilaton solutions can support non trivial extended symmetry algebras, including the one found by Compère, Song and Strominger http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2013)152, in agreement with the results of Castro and Song http://arxiv.org/abs/1411.1948. Finally, we demonstrate that any solution of this specific dilaton gravity model can be uplifted to a family of asymptotically AdS 2 ×S 2 or conformally AdS 2 ×S 2 solutions of the STU model in four dimensions, including non extremal black holes. The four dimensional solutions obtained by uplifting the running dilaton solutions coincide

  2. Crystal manyfold universes in /AdS space

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaloper, N.

    2000-02-01

    We derive crystal braneworld solutions, comprising of intersecting families of parallel /n+2-branes in a /4+n-dimensional /AdS space. Each family consists of alternating positive and negative tension branes. In the simplest case of exactly orthogonal families, there arise different crystals with unbroken /4D Poincaré invariance on the intersections, where our world can reside. A crystal can be finite along some direction, either because that direction is compact, or because it ends on a segment of /AdS bulk, or infinite, where the branes continue forever. If the crystal is interlaced by connected /3-branes directed both along the intersections and orthogonal to them, it can be viewed as an example of a Manyfold universe proposed recently by Arkani-Hamed, Dimopoulos, Dvali and the author. There are new ways for generating hierarchies, since the bulk volume of the crystal and the lattice spacing affect the /4D Planck mass. The low energy physics is sensitive to the boundary conditions in the bulk, and has to satisfy the same constraints discussed in the Manyfold universe. Phenomenological considerations favor either finite crystals, or crystals which are infinite but have broken translational invariance in the bulk. The most distinctive signature of the bulk structure is that the bulk gravitons are Bloch waves, with a band spectrum, which we explicitly construct in the case of a /5-dimensional theory.

  3. Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy Infrared Emission From Inorganic and Organic Substances

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Yang, C.S; Brown, E; Hommerich, U; Trivedi, S. B; Snyder, A. P; Samuels, A. C

    2006-01-01

    Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) has been established as a powerful method for identifying trace elemental contaminants by analyzing the atomic spectral emission lines that result subsequent to plasmas generated by laser power...

  4. Supersymmetric AdS6 solutions of type IIB supergravity

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Hyojoong; Kim, Nakwoo; Suh, Minwoo

    2015-01-01

    We study the general requirement for supersymmetric AdS 6 solutions in type IIB supergravity. We employ the Killing spinor technique and study the differential and algebraic relations among various Killing spinor bilinears to find the canonical form of the solutions. Our result agrees precisely with the work of Apruzzi et al. (JHEP 1411:099, 2014), which used the pure spinor technique. Hoping to identify the geometry of the problem, we also computed four-dimensional theory through the dimensional reduction of type IIB supergravity on AdS 6 . This effective action is essentially a non-linear sigma model with five scalar fields parametrizing SL(3,ℝ)/SO(2,1), modified by a scalar potential and coupled to Einstein gravity in Euclidean signature. We argue that the scalar potential can be explained by a subgroup CSO(1,1,1) ⊂SL(3,ℝ) in a way analogous to gauged supergravity

  5. Renormalization, averaging, conservation laws and AdS (in)stability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Craps, Ben; Evnin, Oleg; Vanhoof, Joris

    2015-01-01

    We continue our analytic investigations of non-linear spherically symmetric perturbations around the anti-de Sitter background in gravity-scalar field systems, and focus on conservation laws restricting the (perturbatively) slow drift of energy between the different normal modes due to non-linearities. We discover two conservation laws in addition to the energy conservation previously discussed in relation to AdS instability. A similar set of three conservation laws was previously noted for a self-interacting scalar field in a non-dynamical AdS background, and we highlight the similarities of this system to the fully dynamical case of gravitational instability. The nature of these conservation laws is best understood through an appeal to averaging methods which allow one to derive an effective Lagrangian or Hamiltonian description of the slow energy transfer between the normal modes. The conservation laws in question then follow from explicit symmetries of this averaged effective theory.

  6. Foundations of the AdS5 x S5 superstring: I

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Arutyunov, Gleb; Frolov, Sergey

    2009-01-01

    We review the recent advances towards finding the spectrum of the AdS 5 x S 5 superstring. We thoroughly explain the theoretical techniques which should be useful for the ultimate solution of the spectral problem. In certain cases our exposition is original and cannot be found in the existing literature. The present part I deals with foundations of classical string theory in AdS 5 x S 5 , light-cone perturbative quantization and the derivation of the exact light-cone world-sheet scattering matrix

  7. LIBS, Raman spectroscopy, and optical microscopy analyses of superficial encrustations on ancient tesserae in Lebanon

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tomkowska, Anna; Chmielewski, Krzysztof; Skrzyczanowski, Wojciech; Mularczyk-Oliwa, Monika; Ostrowski, Roman; Strzelec, Marek

    2017-07-01

    The aim of research was determination of composition and nature of superficial deposits, cumulated at the selected mosaic's tesserae from Lebanon. Selected were three series of objects from different locations, namely from the seaside and mountain archaeological sites as well as from the mosaics exposed in the city center. Analyzed were stone and ceramic tesserae. The selection of objects was dictated by wide diversification of factors influencing the state of preservation and composition of deposits in given location. Investigations were performed including LIBS, FT-IR, Raman spectroscopy and optical 3D microscopy. The experimental results included composition and kind of deposit at the tesserae surfaces, and composition of tesserae itself. Compounds in the superficial deposits were identified. Confirmed was occurrence of different encrustations in dependence on geographic localization of a given sample. The interpretation of results was supported by multivariate statistical techniques, especially by the factor analysis. Performed analyses constitute the pioneer realization in terms of determination of deposits composition at the surface of mosaics from the Lebanon territory.

  8. Integrable systems from membranes on AdS4 x S7

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bozhilov, P.

    2008-01-01

    We describe how Neumann and Neumann-Rosochatius type integrable systems, as well as the continuous limit of the SU(2) integrable spin chain, can be obtained from membranes on AdS 4 x S 7 background, in the framework of AdS/CFT correspondence. (Abstract Copyright [2008], Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

  9. What's the point? Hole-ography in Poincare AdS

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Espindola, Ricardo [Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Departamento de Fisica de Altas Energias, Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Mexico City (Mexico); University of Southampton, Mathematical Sciences and STAG Research Centre, Southampton (United Kingdom); Gueijosa, Alberto; Landetta, Alberto [Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Departamento de Fisica de Altas Energias, Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Mexico City (Mexico); Pedraza, Juan F. [University of Amsterdam, Institute for Theoretical Physics, Amsterdam (Netherlands)

    2018-01-15

    In the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence, we study bulk reconstruction of the Poincare wedge of AdS{sub 3} via hole-ography, i.e., in terms of differential entropy of the dual CFT{sub 2}. Previous work had considered the reconstruction of closed or open spacelike curves in global AdS, and of infinitely extended spacelike curves in Poincare AdS that are subject to a periodicity condition at infinity. Working first at constant time, we find that a closed curve in Poincare is described in the CFT by a family of intervals that covers the spatial axis at least twice. We also show how to reconstruct open curves, points and distances, and obtain a CFT action whose extremization leads to bulk points. We then generalize all of these results to the case of curves that vary in time, and discover that generic curves have segments that cannot be reconstructed using the standard hole-ographic construction. This happens because, for the nonreconstructible segments, the tangent geodesics fail to be fully contained within the Poincare wedge. We show that a previously discovered variant of the hole-ographic method allows us to overcome this challenge, by reorienting the geodesics touching the bulk curve to ensure that they all remain within the wedge. Our conclusion is that all spacelike curves in Poincare AdS can be completely reconstructed with CFT data, and each curve has in fact an infinite number of representations within the CFT. (orig.)

  10. Smooth causal patches for AdS black holes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Raju, Suvrat

    2017-06-01

    We review the paradox of low energy excitations of a black hole in anti-de Sitter space (AdS). An appropriately chosen unitary operator in the boundary theory can create a locally strong excitation near the black hole horizon, whose global energy is small as a result of the gravitational redshift. The paradox is that this seems to violate a general rule of statistical mechanics, which states that an operator with energy parametrically smaller than k T cannot create a significant excitation in a thermal system. When we carefully examine the position dependence of the boundary unitary operator that produces the excitation and the bulk observable necessary to detect the anomalously large effect, we find that they do not both fit in a single causal patch. This follows from a remarkable property of position-space AdS correlators that we establish explicitly and resolves the paradox in a generic state of the system, since no combination of observers can both create the excitation and observe its effect. As a special case of our analysis, we show how this resolves the "Born rule" paradox of Marolf and Polchinski [J. High Energy Phys. 01 (2016) 008, 10.1007/JHEP01(2016)008] and we verify our solution using an independent calculation. We then consider boundary states that are finely tuned to display a spontaneous excitation outside the causal patch of the infalling observer, and we propose a version of causal patch complementarity in AdS/CFT that resolves the paradox for such states as well.

  11. Position space analysis of the AdS (in)stability problem

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dimitrakopoulos, Fotios V.; Freivogel, Ben; Lippert, Matthew; Yang, I.-Sheng

    2015-08-01

    We investigate whether arbitrarily small perturbations in global AdS space are generically unstable and collapse into black holes on the time scale set by gravitational interactions. We argue that current evidence, combined with our analysis, strongly suggests that a set of nonzero measure in the space of initial conditions does not collapse on this time scale. We perform an analysis in position space to study this puzzle, and our formalism allows us to directly study the vanishing-amplitude limit. We show that gravitational self-interaction leads to tidal deformations which are equally likely to focus or defocus energy, and we sketch the phase diagram accordingly. We also clarify the connection between gravitational evolution in global AdS and holographic thermalization.

  12. Position space analysis of the AdS (in)stability problem

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Dimitrakopoulos, Fotios V.; Freivogel, Ben; Lippert, Matthew; Yang, I-Sheng [ITFA and GRAPPA, Universiteit van Amsterdam,Science Park 904, 1090 GL Amsterdam (Netherlands)

    2015-08-17

    We investigate whether arbitrarily small perturbations in global AdS space are generically unstable and collapse into black holes on the time scale set by gravitational interactions. We argue that current evidence, combined with our analysis, strongly suggests that a set of nonzero measure in the space of initial conditions does not collapse on this time scale. We perform an analysis in position space to study this puzzle, and our formalism allows us to directly study the vanishing-amplitude limit. We show that gravitational self-interaction leads to tidal deformations which are equally likely to focus or defocus energy, and we sketch the phase diagram accordingly. We also clarify the connection between gravitational evolution in global AdS and holographic thermalization.

  13. verskillende vertiouding van mieliekuilvoer en kragvoer vir die ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Wcancd Simnrentaler steers were ted one of three basic rations viz. (l) silage ad lib.,Q'l silageadtib. + maue meal at l/c of live mass and (3) 4 kg silage * maize meal ad lid. ln addition each of these basic rations was supplemented by one of twoconcentrates which were composed as follows: A. 100 parts maiz.e meal, 75 parts ...

  14. Closed-String Tachyons and the Hagedorn Transition in AdS Space

    CERN Document Server

    Barbón, José L F

    2002-01-01

    We discuss some aspects of the behaviour of a string gas at the Hagedorn temperature from a Euclidean point of view. Using AdS space as an infrared regulator, the Hagedorn tachyon can be effectively quasi-localized and its dynamics controled by a finite energetic balance. We propose that the off-shell RG flow matches to an Euclidean AdS black hole geometry in a generalization of the string/black-hole correspondence principle. The final stage of the RG flow can be interpreted semiclassically as the growth of a cool black hole in a hotter radiation bath. The end-point of the condensation is the large Euclidan AdS black hole, and the part of spacetime behind the horizon has been removed. In the flat-space limit, holography is manifest by the system creating its own transverse screen at infinity. This leads to an argument, based on the energetics of the system, explaining why the non-supersymmetric type 0A string theory decays into the supersymmetric type IIB vacuum. We also suggest a notion of `boundary entropy'...

  15. State Operator Correspondence and Entanglement in AdS2/CFT1

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ashoke Sen

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available Since Euclidean global AdS2 space represented as a strip has two boundaries, the state-operator correspondence in the dual CFT1 reduces to the standard map from the operators acting on a single copy of the Hilbert space to states in the tensor product of two copies of the Hilbert space. Using this picture we argue that the corresponding states in the dual string theory living on AdS2 × K are described by the twisted version of the Hartle–Hawking states, the twists being generated by a large unitary group of symmetries that this string theory must possess. This formalism makes natural the dual interpretation of the black hole entropy—as the logarithm of the degeneracy of ground states of the quantum mechanics describing the low energy dynamics of the black hole, and also as an entanglement entropy between the two copies of the same quantum theory living on the two boundaries of global AdS2 separated by the event horizon.

  16. Quantum spectral curve for the η-deformed AdS5 × S5 superstring

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klabbers, Rob; van Tongeren, Stijn J.

    2017-12-01

    The spectral problem for the AdS5 ×S5 superstring and its dual planar maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory can be efficiently solved through a set of functional equations known as the quantum spectral curve. We discuss how the same concepts apply to the η-deformed AdS5 ×S5 superstring, an integrable deformation of the AdS5 ×S5 superstring with quantum group symmetry. This model can be viewed as a trigonometric version of the AdS5 ×S5 superstring, like the relation between the XXZ and XXX spin chains, or the sausage and the S2 sigma models for instance. We derive the quantum spectral curve for the η-deformed string by reformulating the corresponding ground-state thermodynamic Bethe ansatz equations as an analytic Y system, and map this to an analytic T system which upon suitable gauge fixing leads to a Pμ system - the quantum spectral curve. We then discuss constraints on the asymptotics of this system to single out particular excited states. At the spectral level the η-deformed string and its quantum spectral curve interpolate between the AdS5 ×S5 superstring and a superstring on "mirror" AdS5 ×S5, reflecting a more general relationship between the spectral and thermodynamic data of the η-deformed string. In particular, the spectral problem of the mirror AdS5 ×S5 string, and the thermodynamics of the undeformed AdS5 ×S5 string, are described by a second rational limit of our trigonometric quantum spectral curve, distinct from the regular undeformed limit.

  17. Partition functions in even dimensional AdS via quasinormal mode methods

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Keeler, Cynthia; Ng, Gim Seng

    2014-01-01

    In this note, we calculate the one-loop determinant for a massive scalar (with conformal dimension Δ) in even-dimensional AdS d+1 space, using the quasinormal mode method developed in http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0264-9381/27/12/125001 by Denef, Hartnoll, and Sachdev. Working first in two dimensions on the related Euclidean hyperbolic plane H 2 , we find a series of zero modes for negative real values of Δ whose presence indicates a series of poles in the one-loop partition function Z(Δ) in the Δ complex plane; these poles contribute temperature-independent terms to the thermal AdS partition function computed in http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0264-9381/27/12/125001. Our results match those in a series of papers by Camporesi and Higuchi, as well as Gopakumar et al. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/JHEP11(2011)010 and Banerjee et al. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2011)147. We additionally examine the meaning of these zero modes, finding that they Wick-rotate to quasinormal modes of the AdS 2 black hole. They are also interpretable as matrix elements of the discrete series representations of SO(2,1) in the space of smooth functions on S 1 . We generalize our results to general even dimensional AdS 2n , again finding a series of zero modes which are related to discrete series representations of SO(2n,1), the motion group of H 2n .

  18. Small AdS black holes from SYM

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Asplund, Curtis; Berenstein, David

    2009-01-01

    We provide a characterization of the set of configurations in N=4 SYM theory that are dual to small AdS black holes. Our construction shows that the black hole dual states are approximately thermal on a SU(M) subset of degrees of freedom of a SU(N) gauge theory. M is determined dynamically and the black hole degrees of freedom are dynamically insulated from the rest. These states are localized on the S 5 and have dynamical processes that correspond to matter absorption that make them behave as black objects

  19. Time-dependent AdS backgrounds from S-branes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Deger, Nihat Sadik, E-mail: sadik.deger@boun.edu.tr [Department of Mathematics, Bogazici University, Bebek, 34342, Istanbul (Turkey); Feza Gursey Center for Physics and Mathematics, Bogazici University, Kandilli, 34684, Istanbul (Turkey)

    2016-11-10

    We construct time and radial dependent solutions that describe p-branes in chargeless S-brane backgrounds. In particular, there are some new M5- and D3-branes among our solutions which have AdS limits and contain a cosmological singularity as well. We also find a time-dependent version of the dyonic membrane configuration in 11-dimensions by applying a Lunin–Maldacena deformation to our new M5-brane solution.

  20. Matching Subsequences in Trees

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bille, Philip; Gørtz, Inge Li

    2009-01-01

    Given two rooted, labeled trees P and T the tree path subsequence problem is to determine which paths in P are subsequences of which paths in T. Here a path begins at the root and ends at a leaf. In this paper we propose this problem as a useful query primitive for XML data, and provide new...