No description available.

Cold, trapped atomic ions have enabled the investigation of fundamental physics and generated a rich field of applications. Foremost among these is quantum computation which has recently driven the development of the sophisticated, scalable surface-electrode trap. Despite the many advantages of surface-electrode traps, the typically smaller ion-electrode distance, d, in these traps results in an increased ion heating rate that is proportional to d^(-4) and a decreased trap well-depth that is proportional to d^(-2). These shortcomings can be simultaneously addressed by installing the trap into a cryogenic environment. With this in mind, a closed-cycle, cryogenic ion trapping apparatus that maintains excellent vacuum, is highly modular, has increased optical access, and uses a simple vibration isolation system has been developed. Single ions are trapped and used to characterize system properties such as the motion of the vibration isolation stage. In order to compare this system to a similar room temperature apparatus, the ion trapping lifetime and heating rate are determined. A single ion also serves as a sensitive electric field probe that is used to measure and compensate stray electric fields across the trap. Due to the long dark ion lifetimes in this system, it is well-suited to probing the stability of small, linear ion crystals. Linear ion crystals of arbitrary length are built in an automated fashion using transport waveforms and the scaling of dark lifetime with ion number for N <= 6 is investigated. These data are then used to consider the relevance of various loss channels.

No description available.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:30:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-12-02Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:59:59Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 neves_cl_me_rcla.pdf: 579299 bytes, checksum: 4e0eb889aafa2deb8e85b3bfdbcfb15a (MD5) / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / As armadilhas convencionais são amplamente utilizadas em estudos com pequenos mamíferos não-voadores, mas geralmente acarretam um viés de amostragem. Além disso, efeitos da qualidade do microhabitat e da sazonalidade podem influenciar a estimativa da diversidade. 2. Nós comparamos dois métodos de amostragem de pequenos mamíferos: armadilhas de captura viva e de queda, sendo a riqueza de espécies e número de indivíduos variáveis resposta. Os levantamentos de campo foram realizados em uma área contínua de Mata Atlântica. Os efeitos das variáveis de microhabitat e da sazonalidade sobre capturabilidade também foram investigados. 3. As armadilhas de queda capturaram maior número de espécies e indivíduos durante a estação chuvosa, quando comparadas com armadilhas de captura viva. Portanto, as armadilhas de queda foram o melhor método para estimar a riqueza e abundância de pequenos mamíferos, principalmente de espécies semi-fossoriais. 4. Nossos resultados mostraram a importância de considerar o esforço amostral despendido em armadilhas de captura vida e de queda ao se comparar a eficiência de captura entre elas. O uso da abundância relativa resolveu problemas de sub e de superestimativa da capturabilidade em cada tipo de armadilha. 5. Embora o microhabitat seja considerado um importante fator que pode influenciar o número de indivíduos em determinada área de estudo, não encontramos influência do mesmo na capturabilidade de armadilhas de captura viva e de queda na comunidade de pequenos mamíferos. No entanto, verificamos que as estações de captura que apresentaram maior área basal de samambaias e de árvores mortas capturaram mais indivíduos de Brucepattersonius soricinus, Oligoryzomys nigripes e Akodon montensis. 6. Concluímos, portanto que a maioria dos inventários de pequenos mamíferos em regiões tropicais não conseguiu captar a riqueza... / 1onventional traps are widely used in studies of non-volant small mammals, but usually lead to sampling bias. Also, microhabitat quality and seasonality effects may influence the estimate of diversity. 2. We compared two small mammal sampling methods: live and pitfall traps. Species richness and number of individuals were our response variables, and field surveys were carried out in a continuous area of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Effects of microhabitat variables and seasonality on trappability were also investigated. 3. Pitfall traps captured more number of species and more individuals during the wet season, when compared with live traps. Therefore, pitfall-traps were a better method for estimating the richness and abundance of small mammals, especially semi-fossorial species. 4. Our results showed the importance of considering the sampling effort dispended in live and pitfall traps when comparing the capture efficiency between them. The use of weighted abundance solved trappability problems of underestimation and overestimation in each trap type to capture small mammals. 5. Although the microhabitat is considered an important factor that can influence the number of individuals in the study area, we found no influence of microhabitat on trappability of live and pitfall traps on small mammal community. However, we found that the trap stations with higher basal area of dead trees and ferns captured more individuals of Brucepattersonius soricinus, Oligoryzomys nigripes, and Akodon montensis. 6. We conclude that most small mammal inventories in tropical regions failed to capture the true species richness. Several species considered “rare” and underlisted as data deficient in IUCN criterion could be in fact common

Caixas de gordura são dispositivos para retenção de material gorduroso, de origem animal e vegetal, proveniente de pias de cozinha. Sua instalação é exigida por muitos municípios para liberação de ligações de esgoto, visando reduzir as concentrações de óleos e graxas (OG) lançadas no sistema público de coleta e tratamento. Um fator primordial para que estas caixas cumpram suas funções é o estabelecimento de rotinas de manutenção envolvendo inspeção e limpeza periódica. A instalação de locais para recebimento e pré-tratamento dos resíduos retirados das caixas de gordura pode incentivar boas práticas de operação e manutenção destes dispositivos. Diante disso, os objetivos desta pesquisa contemplam a caracterização de resíduos acumulados em caixas de gordura e a avaliação da flotação como alternativa para o seu pré- tratamento, seguido de caracterização do óleo extraído da escuma produzida no flotador. Para tanto, materiais acumulados em caixas de gorduras de fontes distintas foram caracterizados, possibilitando observar grande variação em sua composição, e elevadas concentrações de DBO, DQO, SST e OG. Para verificar o desempenho da flotação visando à redução de OG no efluente pré-tratado, foram realizados ensaios em bancadas e testados quatro produtos químicos coagulantes, sendo eles o PAC, o cloreto férrico, o tanino e o polímero catiônico. Todos apresentaram eficiências elevadas na remoção de OG, porém o produto que apresentou mais vantagens na aplicação foi o polímero. Utilizando o polímero, foram realizados ensaios para verificação do desempenho de várias dosagens associadas a três pH de coagulação diferentes e o melhor desempenho se deu com a aplicação de 30 mg/L de polímero combinada ao pH 4,3, natural da amostra. Foram também realizados ensaios utilizando diferentes relações A/S (7,5/1000, 15/1000 e 22/1000 gar/gsólidos),obtendo-se melhores remoções de OG com a utilização da relação 22/1000 gar/gsólidos. Os materiais flotados obtidos nos ensaios de avaliação da relação A/S foram caracterizados e apresentaram concentrações de ST entre 9,7 e 10,6% e de OG entre 6,1 e 6,7%. Baseado nos resultados obtidos a flotação mostra-se como alternativa com bom desempenho para o pré- tratamento dos resíduos estudados. Para avaliar a dificuldade do manuseio dos resíduos provenientes de caixas de gordura, uma planta piloto foi operada, e entre as principias dificuldades observadas estão o odor intenso, a necessidade de remoção de sólidos grosseiros e de homogeneização do resíduo no tanque de equalização. Visando reaproveitamento do resíduo flotado, foi realizada a extração do óleo com solvente de uma amostra deste material (com teor de sólidos de 8,86%), obtendo a recuperação de 30g óleo/L resíduo com acidez de 13,76 mg KOH/L. A elevada acidez indica a necessidade de purificação, se o objetivo for a produção de biodiesel. / Grease traps are devices that retain animal and vegetal fatty material from kitchen sinks. Many municipalities demand its installation in order to connect house wastewater to the public network, aiming to reduce fat, oil and grease concentration in the collecting and treatment systems. The establishment of maintenance schedule involving inspection and periodic cleaning is a key factor to the right functioning of the device. The existence of appropriated sites to receive and pretreat grease trap wastes may stimulate good practices on maintenance and operation of these devices. In this direction, the objectives of this research are the characterization of grease trap wastes and the evaluation of flotation as an alternative for its pretreatment, followed by characterization of the oil extracted from the scum formed at flotator. Therefore, grease trap wastes from different sources were collected and characterized. It could be observed a wide variation on its composition and high concentrations of BOD, COD, TSS and FOG. Lab scale tests were performed to assess flotation performance to reduce pretreated effluent FOG using four chemical coagulants: PAC, ferric chloride, tannin and cationic polymer. All of them achieved high efficiency on FOG removal, however the product that presented more advantages on application was polymer. More tests were performed using several dosages of polymer associated to three pH coagulation conditions. The combination that resulted in the best efficiency was 30 mg/L of polymer combined to pH 4.3, samples natural pH. Different A/S ratios were also tested (7.5/1000, 15/1000, 22/1000 gair/gsolids), the ratio 22/1000 gair/gsolids presented the best FOG removal efficiencies. Floated material from A/S ratio tests were characterized and presented TS concentrations between 9.7% and 10.6% and FOG was from 6.1% to 6.7%. Based on the obtained results, flotation appears as a high performance alternative for the pretreatment of studied wastes. A pilot plant was operated to evaluate problems related to grease trap waste handling. The main problems were: bad odor, the need of screening and waste homogenization in equalization tank. Aiming to reuse the floated waste, oil was extracted from a sample (8.86% solid content) using solvent, achieving the recovery of 30g oil/L waste with 13.76 mgKOH/L acidity. The high acidity points to the need of purification if biodiesel production is intended.

No description available.

Volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds are ubiquitous, and some of them are hazardous. The ability to rapidly detect and identify trace levels of them in air has become increasingly important. The conventional device used today for sampling and concentrating them in air is thermal desorption tubes filled with specific sorbents, which can only collect air samples at flow rates of 100-200 mL/min. In order to detect low concentration (ppt level) VOC compounds, long sampling time (>2 h) and sensitive detection are required. At the same time, portable instrumentation for on-site analysis has been developing rapidly. The somewhat lower performance of portable instruments compared to benchtop systems requires the sampling of even greater sample volume in order to reach the same detection limits. In this study, two high flow rate air sampling devices, i.e., a multi-capillary trap and a concentric packed trap, were developed to sample a large volume of air in a short time period. The multi-capillary trap was constructed by bundling analytical capillary gas chromatography columns together in parallel. As low as single digit ppt detection limits were reached in less than 25 min with this trap, and as high as 8.0 L/min flow rate was sampled. The simple and compact multi-capillary trap could be easily used with a conventional thermal desorption system to perform high flow rate sampling. A concentric packed high flow rate trap was also developed by packing sorbent layers concentrically around an empty tube. The concentric packed trap achieved a high flow rate (>10 L/min) because it had a high surface area and short sorbent bed. Also, its large sorbent amount (>1 g) provided large breakthrough volume (>100 L) required to achieve low detection limits. An equilibrium distribution sampling system was developed by absorbing selected analytes in granular PDMS to provide calibration for on-site instrumentation. Furthermore, a needle trap device was coupled in tandem to both high flow rate air samplers to perform second-stage concentration of VOCs down to the ppt level. Concentration factors of 104 to 105 were achieved within 30 min using both systems, i.e., over 10 to 100 times more sample was collected compared to conventional TD systems.

L'un des défis actuels de la chimie alimentaire est de développer des produits avec une qualité sanitaire et sensorielle optimale. Ceci est particulièrement important dans les produits traités thermiquement, tels que les produits céréaliers. Lors de la cuisson et à partir des ingrédients, un nombre considérable de composés peuvent se former. Certains suscitent une préoccupation sanitaire émergente, lorsque d'autres jouent un rôle sensoriel indéniable. Comprendre la réactivité des constituants devient alors un levier puissant pour développer des voies d'amélioration des aliments. Ce travail porte sur les effets des ingrédients et conditions de cuisson dans la génération de furane, composé possiblement cancérigène, et furfural, composé odorant contribuant à l'arôme caractéristique de la génoise. Afin de maîtriser la réactivité et ainsi optimiser la qualité des produits, une approche globale a été adoptée, incluant l'étude des composés volatils, des propriétés physicochimiques et sensorielles et l'appréciation hédonique des consommateurs. Ce travail propose une méthodologie et ouvre des pistes intéressantes pour développer des stratégies efficaces de maîtrise de la qualité globale des produits transformés. / A current challenge for food chemists consists in developing safe yet appealing food. This is particularly difficult in thermally-treated foods, like baked products, since a great number of compounds may be produced during heating. While some of these are of health concern, others contribute to other key aspects of quality, such as aroma or color, revealing the need of considering reactivity into food quality design. This work deals with the effects of formulation and baking conditions on the generation of furan, a heatinduced contaminant, and furfural, contributing typical aroma to sponge cake. Moreover, a holistic approach was adopted, covering volatile generation, physical properties, sensory evaluation and consumer tests, both for further understanding reactivity and optimizing product quality. This work is certainly an important step towards the development of novel strategies for qualitydriven design of heat-treated food.

No description available.

Here we present the design, assembly and successful ion trapping of a room-temperature ion trap system with a custom designed and fabricated surface electrode ion trap, which allows for rapid prototyping of novel trap designs such that new chips can be installed and reach UHV in under 2 days. The system has demonstrated success at trapping and maintaining both single ions and cold crystals of ions. We achieve this by fabricating our own custom surface Paul traps in the UMass Amherst cleanroom facilities, which are then argon ion milled, diced, mounted and wire bonded to an interposer which is placed in an ultra-high vacuum chamber and baked in a conventional oven for 46 hours. We demonstrate the system’s ability to confine strontium ions and present preliminary data towards calibrating the ion trap parameters for reduced heating rates. Future work will see the system being used to study the effects of various trap geometries, process fabrication steps and surface treatments on anomalous heating rates, and for portable quantum sensing applications, as an optical atomic clock.