The interactive wireless sensor detects many hazardous gases such as Hexane, Propane, Carbon monoxide and Hydrogen. These gases are highly toxic and used in different kinds of manufacturing industries, domestic purpose and so on. So, building a sensor that can detect this kind of gases can save the environment; prevent the potential for explosion, and endangering human life. In long term, interactive wireless sensor can also prevent the financial losses that might occur due to the hazardous incident that might occur due to these toxic gases. Hexane is a colorless, strong gas which inhaled in significant amounts by a person then he may suffer with hexane poisoning and suffocation. It also causes skin burns when exposed in high concentrations. Propane, carbon monoxide and hydrogen can easily freeze in room temperature, if in contact with eye, it could permanently damage eye or cause blindness. The advantage of this wireless sensor is the use of artificial olfactory system (electronic nose) that can be taught to detect these hazardous gases. This sensor has a unique molecular combination of analysts, impurities and background that corresponds to a gas leak. It consists of a chemiresistor, such as an array of conductometric sensors, and a mechanism analyzing the data in real time. A smell-print is composed of many molecules which reaches receptor in the human nose. When a specific receptor receives a molecule, it sends a signal to the brain where the smell is identified and associated with that particular molecule. Similar manner, albeit substituting sensors for the receptors, and transmitting the signal to a machine learning algorithm for processing, rather than to the brain. This wireless gas leak sensing consists of microchip Pic 32, integrated electronic nose, automated data analysis unit, power supply, and communications. The communication channel will use the ZigBee link, or the cellular links, or other specific frequency wireless link. The time-stamped and position-stamped sensor measurement data are transmitted to the central computer in predetermined periods of time. The data will be stored in the computer database for possible future analysis of the gas leak development process.

Methylation is involved in the regulation of varied biological processes, from cancer to embryonic development. In B-DNA, methylation can alter the frequency with which a dinucleotide step samples one of two substates: BI and BII. Changing the BI-BII equilibrium can in turn affect the ability of proteins to bind to DNA, which may ultimately alter the transcription of genes. Using MD simulations, we evaluate the effects of cytosine methylation on the BI-BII equilibrium and the RMS atomic fluctuations of the backbone of two sequences: (GC)5 and the Dickerson dodecamer (DD). Methylation in (GC)5 stabilizes the BII state in CpG steps and stabilizes the BI state in GpC steps, but the BII state is always less favored than the BI state. The activation energy between the BI/BII states in (GC)5 increases in GpC steps and decreases in CpG steps upon methylation, indicating that backbone dynamics are affected by methylation in a step-dependent manner. The DD simulations suggest that methylation stabilizes the BII state in both CpG and GpC steps, although more sampling is needed to determine the significance of these results. Methylation has little effect on the atomic fluctuations of the backbone in (GC)5 or DD simulations. Thus, in these sequences, methylation does not uniformly stabilize one state, nor does methylation stabilize the state that is favored in the native sequence.

The subject of this theoretical  study is the role ofelectronic structure as well as of rotational and vibrational motionson interactions between molecules and electromagnetic radiation,ranging from optical to x-ray. The thesis concerns both linear and nonlinear regimes of the light-matter interaction. The first part of the thesis is devoted to propagation of opticalpulses with different time-structure through various nonlinear absorbers.First we explain the double-exponential decay of fluorescence caused by photobleaching of pyrylium  salt irradiated by a train of short (100 fs) optical pulses. The main reason for this effect is the transversal inhomogeneity of the light beam which makes the dynamics of the photobleaching differ in the core of the pulse and on its periphery. We also explore the optical power limitingof C60 fullerene irradiated by either microsecond optical pulses or a picosecond pulse trains. Enhancement of nonlinear absorption is caused by strong triplet-triplet absorption that becomes important due toelongation of the interaction time.Here we show the importance of the repetitionrate for the optical power limiting performance.The second part of the thesis addresses the interaction of optical and x-rayfields with rotational degrees of freedom of molecules. In this part the main attention is paid to the rotational heating caused by the recoil, experienced by molecules due to the ejection of photoelectrons. We have quantitatively explained two qualitatively different experiments with the N2 molecule.We predict the interference modulation of the recoil-induced shift,which is a shift of the photoelectron line caused by the rotational recoil effect, as a function of the photon energy.The developed theory also explains the rotational heating ofmolecules observed in the optical fluorescence induced by x-ray radiation.Based on this explanation, we suggest a new scheme of the optical fluorescence induced by x-rays that allows to detect the recoil effect via the recoil-inducedsplitting of the optical resonance.The last part of the thesis focuses on multi-mode nuclear dynamics of the resonant Auger scattering from the C2H2 molecule, that was the subject of a recent experimental study.Here we develop a theory that explains the observed vibrationalscattering anisotropy. We have found that three qualitatively different mechanisms are responsible for this phenomenon. The first mechanism is the interference of the direct and resonance scattering channels. The second mechanismis the interference of the resonant scattering channels through core excitedstate with the orthogonal orientation of the vibrational modes of core excitedstate. The Young's double slit like interference of the quantum pathways through the double-well potential of the bending motion of core excited state is the third mechanism of the vibrational scattering anisotropy. / QC 20100713

In the Kane silicon-based electron-mediated nuclear spin quantum computer architecture, phosphorus is doped at precise positions in a silicon lattice, and the P donor nuclear spins act as qubits. Logical operations on the nuclear spins are performed using externally applied magnetic and electric fields. There are two important interactions: the hyperfine and exchange interactions, crucial for logical qubit operations. Single qubit operations are performed by applying radio frequency magnetic fields resonant with targeted nuclear spin transition frequencies, tuned by the gate-controlled hyperfine interaction. Two qubit operations are mediated through the exchange interaction between adjacent donor electrons. It is important to examine how these two interactions vary as functions of experimental parameters. Here we provide such an investigation. First, we examine the effects of varying several experimental parameters: gate voltage, magnetic field strength, inter donor separation, donor depth below the silicon oxide interface and back gate depth, to explore how these variables affect the donor electron density. Second, we calculate the hyperfine interaction and the exchange coupling as a function of these parameters. These calculations were performed using various levels of effective mass theory. In the first part of this thesis we use a multi-valley effective mass approach where we incorporate the full Si crystal Bloch structure in calculating the donor electron energy in the bulk silicon. Including the detailed Bloch structure is very computationally intensive, thus when we considered the effect of the externally applied fields in the second and third part, we employ an approach where we focus on the smooth donor-modulated envelope function to determine the response of the donor electron to the applied electric and magnetic fields and qubit position in the lattice. The electric field potential was obtained using Technology Computer Aided Design software, and the interfaces were modelled as a barrier using a step function. One of the critical results of this theoretical study was finding that there exist two regimes for the behaviour of the donor electron in response to the applied gate voltage, dependent on donor distance from the gate. When the qubit is in close proximity to the gate the electron transfer to the gate is gradual. However if the qubit is located far enough from the gate, we found that the donor electron is ionised toward the gate for gate voltages above a certain threshold. Another significant development we have made is in our calculations of the exchange coupling between two adjacent donor electrons. We extended our original Heitler-London basis to describe the two-electron system, and adopted a molecular orbital method where we included a a basis of 78 singlet and 66 triplet two-electron states. In addition to calculating a more accurate exchange coupling, we also evaluated the energy spectrum of the two electron double donor system. We aim to provide relevant information for the experimental design of these devices and highlight the significance of environmental factors other than gate potential that affect the donor electron.

Les plasmas inductifs radiofréquence basse pression sont utilisés pour la gravure de motifs nanométriques. Ces plasmas contiennent des ions négatifs et peuvent être soumis à deux types d'instabilités. La première est décrite par des oscillations de relaxation entre les modes de couplage de l'énergie capacitif (E) et inductif (H). Les mesures temporelles au cours de ces oscillations sont conformes aux résultats publiés. L'autre instabilité, liée au transport des espèces chargées, n'existe que lorsque le plasma peut diffuser. Des mesures spatio-temporelles montrent que les fluctuations des paramètres plasma sont liées à la formation et à la propagation périodique d'une double couche d'amplitude moyenne. Cette double couche est une gaine interne séparant un plasma haute densité, forte temp! érature électroniques et sans ions négatifs dans la source d'un plasma faible densité, faible température électronique et de forte fraction d'ions négatifs dans la chambre de diffusion. Cette double couche propagative apparaît lorsque la fraction d'ions négatifs dépasse un seuil. Sous ce seuil, la double couche est statique et disparaît pour des fractions d'ions négatifs très faibles. Les transitions entre ces trois états sont soumises à une forte activité acoustique ionique. L'ajout d'un champ magnétique modifie le chauffage des électrons par absorption de l'onde hélicon (mode W). Des oscillations de relaxation H/W ont été observées dans une fenêtre restreinte de paramètres. D'autre part, le confinement des espèces chargées est modifié: au centre, le plasma ne contient pas d'ions négatifs; au bord, le plasma ne contient plus d'électrons, un plasma ions - ions a été créé.

In this thesis, an experimental and theoretical study of two and three vector correlations in the inelastic scattering of NO(X) with various rare gas atoms is presented. Vector correlations for a selection of rare gas systems were determined experimentally, and the observations were interpreted using a variety of classical and quantum mechanical models. The experiment is able to provide state-to-state resolution of the dynamics by means of an electrostatic hexapole and 1+1' resonantly enhanced multi-photon ionisation (REMPI). The simplest vector correlation of interest is the differential cross section (DCS), given by the <b>k</b>-<b>k</b>' correlation. The DCSs were determined experimentally for the NO(X)--Kr and NO(X)--Xe collision systems, both characterised by the relatively deep (&asymp;140cm^-1) attractive well and large extent of the attractive potential. The agreement between the experimental angular distributions and quantum mechanical DCS is very good for both systems. Classical calculations fail to correctly reproduce the form and magnitude of the DCS for either system, reflecting the inherently quantum mechanical nature of the collision. The classical calculations do however provide mechanistic insight into regions where the attractive part of the potential plays an important role in determining the dynamics. In order to investigate narrow angular features in the forward scattered direction, several experimental improvements to molecular beams and the detection ion-optic stack were made. Investigation into these structures revealed a strong contribution from molecular diffraction into the classical shadow of the NO(X), and the simple Fraunhofer model revealed a preference for scattering from an individual m&rarr;m' sub-state. Such measurements are in a region of the DCS where scattering is forbidden classically, and reveal the purely quantum nature of the collision interaction in the forward scattered direction. The low order <b>k</b>-<b>k</b>' correlation was then extended by using linearly or circularly polarised laser excitation. The interaction of the light with the molecular dipole allows the measurement of the <b>k</b>-<b>k</b>'-<b>j</b>' correlation. When linearly polarised light was used for the excitation laser, two of the rank two p^{2}_q(&theta;) renormalised polarisation dependent differential cross sections (PDDCSs), which describe rotational alignment, were obtained. With circularly polarised light, the rank one p^{1}_1-(&theta;) renormalised PDDCSs describing rotational orientation were determined. The collision induced alignment in NO(X)--Xe scattering was found to be well reproduced by classical and impulsive theories, highlighting the fact that the alignment is dominated by the propensity for the projection of <b>j</b> onto the kinematic apse to be conserved. The attractive part of the potential does augment the alignment renormalised PDDCSs, and this is most evident in states with strong features of the attractive part of the potential such as ℓ-type rainbows. The orientation is more strongly influenced by the attractive part of the potential and is also influenced by parity. In addition to the parity effect, there exist two limiting classical mechanisms which govern the orientation, one caused by attraction and the other repulsion. Finally, the bond axis of the NO(X) can be oriented by means of hexapole state selection combined with adiabatic orientation using a set of guiding rods. The integral steric effect, an <b>r</b>-<b>k</b> correlation, was measured for the NO(X)--Kr and NO(X)--Ar spin-orbit changing systems. There are large oscillations in the sign of the steric asymmetry which occur for scattering with the various rare gases. There are also large differences between the rare gases as the potentials become more attractive, and more isotropic. The steric asymmetry is well reproduced by quantum mechanics, however, a classical mechanism becomes dominant at high &Delta;j.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:34:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:10:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Dissertação (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN-CNEN/SP

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:34:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:10:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Os lodos provenientes de estação de tratamento de água brasileira são, frequentemente, dispostos e lançados diretamente nos corpos d\'água, causando um impacto negativo no meio ambiente. Também, cinzas de carvão são produzidas pela queima de carvão em usinas termelétricas e é o resíduo sólido industrial mais gerado no sul do Brasil: cerca de 4 milhões ton/ano. A disposição eficiente das cinzas de carvão é um problema devido ao seu volume maciço e aos riscos nocivos para o ambiente. O objetivo deste trabalho foi estudar a viabilidade da incorporação desses dois resíduos industriais em uma massa utilizada na fabricação de tijolos ecológicos. As amostras de cinzas leve do filtro ciclone da usina termelétrica localizada no Município de Figueira, Estado do Paraná, Brasil e o lodo de estação de tratamento de água localizada no município de Terra Preta, Estado de São Paulo, Brasil, foram utilizados no estudo. Tijolos de cinzas leve-lodo e cinzas leve-lodo-solo-cimento foram moldados e testados de acordo com padrões brasileiros. Os materiais foram caracterizados por análises físico-químicas, difração de raios X, análise térmica, análise morfológica, espectroscopia no infravermelho com transformada de Fourier e análise granulométrica. Os resultados indicaram que o lodo de estação de tratamento de água e as cinzas de carvão podem ser usados na manufatura de tijolos prensados solo-cimento de acordo com a Norma Brasileira NBR 10836/94. / Dissertação (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN-CNEN/SP

Using iron super-paramagnetic and ferromagnetic nanoparticles composed of Fe3O4 molecules, scientists analyze the effectiveness and practicality of this new treatment theory, hyperthermia. The problems of magnetic particle density, isothermal barriers/cellular cooling thresholds, and nanoparticle specific targeting are addressed in this review. Iron magnetic nanoparticles were chosen due to their relatively low biological reactivates and lack of subsequent cellular toxicity. However, there are significant heating problems associated with these magnetic nanoparticles due to their relative size and short thermal time constants or thermal half-lives. Effectively, these aforementioned issues create a phenomenon where cancerous cells, surrounded by unheated healthy tissue, exhibit properties similar to those of an isothermal barrier. As a result, target cells experience limited gross heating, which is localized to the area directly surrounding the active magnetic nanoparticle within the cytoplasm. The effects of isothermal barriers and HSP up regulation on particle-based hypothermia are profound and prevent therapeutic temperatures from being achieved in single cell heating limiting the applications for Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia applications. It has been shown that reaching a certain magnetic nanoparticle density within the cell can result in a larger heating capacity, though this effect is also dependent on the particle dispersion pattern within cytoplasm. It has yet to be concluded whether ferromagnetic particles or super-paramagnetic particles are superior or more practical for hyperthermic treatments as they each have distinct benefits, and further study is needed. Finally, the popular targeting mechanism associated with magnetic nanoparticle research, monoclonal antibodies, require that they have an organic coating (such as starch) as a means of both providing an organic binding point and as camouflage for avoiding host filtration pathways. Forgoing this organic coating could lead to increased particle density within the cell and the adoption of a more specific targeting mechanism such as virus like particles (VLPs) altered to target HSP’s could lead to an increase in yield. Furthermore the up regulation of HSPs in response to therapeutic temperature is problematic for the therapies practically.

Although the association between social inequality and poor adult health is well established, the mechanisms by which inequality is translated into poor adult health are less clear. Increasingly, evidence suggests that many adult health problems and health disparities have their origins in early life; the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) hypothesis provides an explanatory mechanism linking adverse early life conditions with permanent structural or functional changes that increase the risk for disease. This hypothesis is consistent with bioarchaeological research noting reduced lifespan among individuals exhibiting signs of childhood stress. The principal aim of this dissertation is to contribute a bioarchaeological perspective to health disparities research by investigating how health disparities can be measured and understood in the past. This study focuses on early life conditions as a source of adult health disparity by examining a skeletal sample for the association between childhood stress and adult longevity; the relationship between childhood stress and the presence of adult health conditions; and sex, ancestry, and regional differences in these relationships. The study sampled 830 age-documented, U.S. born African American males and females and Euro-American males from the Terry and the Hamann-Todd anatomical collections, representing socially-marginalized individuals from the late 19th- to early 20th centuries. Enamel hypoplasia, femoral length, and vertebral neural canal diameters represented childhood stress; skeletal fractures, tibial periostosis, and the diseased, missing, and filled tooth index represented adult health. Longevity was modeled with Kaplan-Meier survival curves and adult health relationships were modeled with logistic regression. Additionally, cause of death data from historic health department publications and the study sample morgue records were examined for disparity in the epidemiological transition from infectious to degenerative cause of death. The study found mixed results for all analyses. There was no reduction in longevity for the presence of enamel hypoplasia, short femoral length, or reduced thoracic neural canal diameter. African American males had statistically significant reduced longevity for small lumbar vertebral neural canal diameters. African American males from the Hamann-Todd Collection and Euro-American males from both collections had significant relationships between vertebral neural canal diameters and adult conditions; these relationships varied among the groups but in most cases demonstrated reduced odds for having the adult condition for individuals with smaller canal diameters. African American females had no differential survival or relationships between variables over the lifecourse. All groups except for the Terry Collection Euro-American males continued to have more infectious disease deaths than degenerative disease deaths. The study results contribute to disparities research by demonstrating that the consequences of childhood stress varied by sex and ancestry and by demonstrating within-population variation in timing of the epidemiological transition. Additionally, the study results support the contention of greater male sensitivity to environmental conditions and contributes evidence supporting the DOHaD hypothesis.