46 research outputs found
Magnetohydrodynamics of Magnetars\u27 High-Energy And Radio Emissions: A Simulation Study
No full textThis article-based dissertation provides a review on the broad subject of magnetars - their characteristics, giant flares (GFs) and associated observations of X-ray, γ-ray, and radio emissions and their proposed physical mechanisms. The primary purpose of this dissertation is to provide an extensive description of the two research projects I undertook during my tenure as a Graduate Research Assistant, under the guidance of my advisor. Broadly, my research was focused on building analytical models and running three-dimensional (3-D), high-resolution magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations using the astrophysical PLUTO code to investigate the physical mechanisms behind high-energy (X-ray and γ-ray) and radio emissions associated with magnetar GFs using observational constraints. This, in turn, aided in either validating or disfavoring existing theories behind such energetic explosions.Chapter 1 . provides a review on magnetars, their GFs and associated high-energy and radio emissions, largely based on excellent reviews by [1 . ]–[5 . ]. I summarize interesting observational features of magnetars, specifically those of soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) and anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs), along with known aspects of their X-ray and γ-ray activity. I focus on the December 27, 2004 GF emitted by SGR 1806-20, the most energetic GF out of the three that occurred to date, describe its energetics and summarize existing theories behind the physical mechanisms that give rise to two emission characteristics associated with the GF - (i) quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) seen in the tail, and (ii) a radio afterglow detected a week after the GF. Lastly, I describe the methods I used to hypothesize the physical mechanisms behind QPOs and the radio emission and compare and contrast them with those suggested previously.In chapter 2 . , I present a version of the research article in preparation and pending publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The work titled “Radio afterglow of magnetars’ giant flares”, undertaken under the supervision of Dr. Maxim Lyutikov and in collaboration with Dr. Maxim Barkov, explores the possible physical mechanisms behind the radio afterglow associated with the SGR 1806-20 GF using high-resolution 3-D MHD simulations
Lobe based risk analysis of discharges and in-hospital mortality of lung cancer patients
No full textLung cancer occurrences are more likely as compared to any other type of cancer in the world with very high mortality rate. Based on the past research, smoking and family history of smoking are the most common causes of lung cancer by per age, race and gender. Lung cancer is the second deadliest cancer in this world after prostate cancer and breast cancer. In this research, we have used the Nationwide Inpatient Sample Data from the year 2003 to 2007 to analyze current and predict future trend of lung cancer. Towards the analyses, we have included all the anatomical sub categories of lung to determine, which lobe of lung is having considerably higher risk of catching cancer. Our anatomical analysis concludes the risk occurrence of lung cancer follows an order from high to low: Upper lobe, Lower lobe, Other-parts of the lung, Main bronchus, and Middle lobe. We have also examined the association of each category of lung with race across the gender. The overall lung cancer analysis indicates, White American and Black have the higher risk of getting lung cancer as compared with other races. Further analysis of individual lobe of lung denotes, among the all races, White American is more susceptible to each lobe of lung except other-parts of lung. The odds ratio analysis for individual anatomical site concludes white male and female [odds ratio of all sub category- male/female 1.03 to 1.08] are equally susceptible to each lobe of lung. The black females [odds ratio of Lower lobe-male/female 1.08] are highly associated with lower lobe of lung cancer as compared with black males. Whereas Hispanic, Asian and Native American females are more associated with middle lobe lung cancer as compared with Hispanic, Asian and native American males [odds ratio for middle lobe - male/female 0.89 to 0.95]. Based on the past research, smoking is the primary cause of the death in the lung cancer by age, race and gender. In this research, we have used National Impatient Sample and census population for the state CA, Fl, TX, NY, IL, RI, VA, SC, and WI to determine the association of geographical variation with the risk factors by population. We have confirmed that incidence of lung cancer cases in CA (bigger state by population) is lower than RI and VA (smaller state by population). In other word, we confirmed our hypothesis that higher population, need not have to have higher incidence rate (In this research, incidence rate refers to discharged), but other factors like race, gender, pollution, exposure to chemical factor also play an important role to measure susceptibility of the occurrences. This research study was limited to the National Inpatient database across the United State. Lung cancer patients were extracted base on principle diagnosis of the lung cancer symptoms.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Riddhi. J. Vya
The Political Economy Of Public Pension Funds And Investment Privatization
No full textThesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2022Over the past decade, alternative assets such as private equity have been growing rapidly, twice as fast as the growth in public markets. Private equity’s growth has significant consequences for our economy and our ability to hold corporate power accountable. Through a combination of high levels of debt and other people’s institutional capital, private equity is able to acquire and operate a growing percentage of our economy, with very little skin in the game – all of which can raise concerns about the rise of business power and the societal structures in place to contest its growth. One avenue in which private equity’s business power could be challenged is through labor’s retirement capital. Depending on the specific constellation of constituents represented on a pension fund’s investment board and the power imbalance associated with that structure, concerns about headline, political, and reputational risks can expand the set of conventional market factors that challenge private equity investment allocation – or further investment privatization – and hold the industry accountable. This dissertation presents an analysis that speaks to private equity’s growing power and explores ways in which that power can be contested. The first paper showcases how private equity’s own business model, that relies on debt and opacity, facilitates the strengthening of its extractive business power. Empirical examples within the energy sector trace how these mechanisms operate through three levels of private equity’s extraction – through the extraction of natural resources, the extraction of labor’s retirement capital, and the extraction of a company’s value through rent-seeking behaviors. The latter two papers focus on the role of public pension funds as not only private equity’s largest investors, but also as key arenas for contestation. The second paper explores how the power dynamics and preferences within the public pension fund investment board, between plan participant and financial elite trustees, impacts the capital growth of private equity. I adopt a mixed-methods approach that uses compositional covariates to model the effects of board composition and pension fund sector on the probability of investment privatization as well as the portfolio share invested in alternative assets across 82 U.S. state-level public pension funds from 2001 to 2017. The results suggest that increasing participant trustee representation, particularly on those investment boards associated with more social movement unions (public-sector and teachers’ investment boards) can curtail investment privatization, whereas increasing elite trustee representation on the same investment boards, can spur investment privatization. This effect is clearest when investment boards are contending whether to privatize investment, rather than how much they will allocate to alternative assets. The third paper takes a more structural approach and explores how the power dynamics within the state – both through alliances between labor unions and gubernatorial partisanship as well as broader social mobilizations – impact private equity’s capital allocation from public pension funds. Using tobit models of over 80 state-level public pension funds, again between 2001 and 2017, the findings suggests that after the Occupy Wall Street mobilization, there was a partisan difference between pension fund investment privatization, compared to before Occupy. The findings suggest that pension funds in states with Democratic governors and high union strength tended to reduce investment privatization. Whereas pension funds in states with Republican governors and high union strength were associated with increasing investment privatization of public funds
Evaluation of carbon reduction options in industrial combined heat and power plants
No full textIndustry is a major contributor to the rise in global CO2 emissions, constituting one fifth of the global energy consumption, of which significant amount is provided by fossil fuel combustion. Following the Paris agreement, emphasis has been made on decarbonization of the industrial sector. This thesis focuses on industrial decarbonization by employing Carbon Capture and Storage for Combined Heat and Power (CHP) gas turbine plants. The scope of this thesis includes conceptual modelling and thermodynamic analysis of potential decarbonization options for zero carbon CHP plants. The studied options include post-combustion capture, exhaust gas recirculation, pre-combustion capture and oxyfuel combustion. As conventional air Brayton cycles are not applicable for oxy-fuel combustion in gas turbines, different working fluids and cycle configurations are proposed and thermodynamic performance is evaluated. Selected cycles were then compared based on thermodynamics, economics and off-design performance at a typical constant power to heat ratio of 0.78. It was observed that oxyfuel CHP cycle with CO2 working fluid is a promising solution for zero carbon CHP with 100% CO2 reduction. However, this solution requires new turbomachinery design. In view of this, a retrofit analysis is also performed in this thesis which evaluates if an existing air designed gas turbine can be used for CO2 operation. It was concluded from this analysis that it is possible to operate an air gas turbine on CO2 by incorporating proposed modifications of higher compressor inlet temperature (473K) and a turbine inlet nozzle area 20% larger than design. These modifications, however also lead to serious performance deterioration.Mechanical Engineering | Energy, Flow and Process Technolog
An Insight into Real Time Vehicle Detection and Classification Methods using ML/DL based Approach
No full textVehicle detection and classification is one of the major challenges for automated traffic surveillance as well as for military defence systems to identify enemy vehicles. For efficient real-time surveillance, accurate detection and classification of many vehicle kinds, including cars, trucks, buses, and so forth are important. This paper focuses on different methods of machine learning used toidentify thevehicle and then then categorize each vehicle according to the classes. It also explores the critical insight of existing vehicle detection and classification approaches using various machine learning methods like YOLO, CNN, R-CNN, and AdaBoost. The majority of the research projects now in existence solely consider increasing image-based accuracy, which has poor real-time performance and uses more computational resources
Dermatoglyphic Patterns in Patients Having Impacted and Erupted Third Molars—A Comparative Study
No full textBackground: The dermatoglyphics have been used in several researches for predicting various pathologies of oral cavity like periodontitis, dental caries, impacted teeth, mal-occlusion, developmental defects such as cleft lip and palate, and potentially malignant disorders. Impacted teeth may be associated with various pathologies such as caries, pericoronitis, dentigerous cysts, and keratocystic odontogenic tumors; therefore, predicting impacted teeth through dermatoglyphic patterns can help in diagnosis and future treatment planning of such event. Aims and Objectives: The aim and objective of the study were to evaluate and compare various dermatoglyphic patterns in the patients with the impacted maxillary and/or mandibular third molar (group 1) and patients having erupted maxillary and/or mandibular third molar (group 2). Materials and Methods: This study comprised totally 300 patients, which were divided into two groups, according to erupted or impacted maxillary and/or mandibular third molar visiting outpatient department, who fulfilled the selection criteria for the study. After a comprehensive clinical examination, dermatoglyphic patterns were recorded from the same individuals. Panoramic radiographs were taken to confirm the diagnosis. Data collected were entered in the spreadsheet and analyzed. For all tests, P value was set at <0.05 and was considered statistically significant. Result: There was statistical significance noted in frequencies of whorl pattern in patients of group 1 and loop pattern in patients of group 2. Conclusion: This study concluded that dermatoglyphic patterns can be used to assess the prevalence of impacted wisdom teeth
A micro-solid phase extraction device to prepare a molecularly imprinted porous monolith in a facile mode for fast protein separation
No full textA molecularly imprinted polymeric monolith was synthesized in an aqueous environment in 15 min via UV-irradiation. The imprinted monolith was composed of hydroxyethyl methacrylate as monomer, dimethyl amino ethyl methacrylate as functional monomer, methylene bisacrylamide and piperazine di- acrylamide as crosslinkers and human serum albumin as template molecule. The synthesis took place in a PDMS-based device (2.5 cm long) yielding a micro-solid phase extraction column (3 ×5 mm) with two built-in fingertight connectors for an infusion pump and fraction collector. The imprinted monolith displayed the characteristic features of a porous polymeric monolith, had dimethyl amino ethyl methacry- late and human serum albumin as functional groups within the monolith and showed high permeability (0.51 ×10 −13 m 2 ). 85% of the imprinted cavities were readily available for rebinding of human serum albumin with an imprinting factor of 1.3. In comparison to a non-imprinted monolith, molecular imprint- ing increased human serum albumin adsorption by > 30%. Imprinted monolith displayed selectivity for human serum albumin over other competing proteins (human transferrin, ovalbumin and carbonic an- hydrase) with similar or different isoelectric points and size. Human serum albumin was adsorbed (in dynamic mode) with > 98% selectivity from diluted human plasma using the imprinted monolith de- vice. Device to device reproducibility and reusability of the device for 5 cycles showcase the imprinted monolith micro-device efficiency
Comparative study for hospitalization characteristics and predictors of ovarian cancer of inpatients in the United States
No full textOvarian cancer is the second most common type of gynecologic cancer, and it causes more death than any other female reproductive cancer. It is the 7th most common women's cancer. The objective of the present study is to highlight the risk factors of ovarian cancer related to hospitalization outcomes such as mortality, length of stay, and total medical charges when there is a presence of Congestive heart failure and other complications. The study implemented a cross-sectional design to achieve the primary objectives. Data were downloaded and extracted, with permission, from Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS). The collected data included patient demographic characteristics, such as age, gender, race, and income. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 28.0 was used to analyze the present study's data, and all outcomes with a p-value less than 0.05 were found to be significant. Overall mortality showed a higher incidence of epithelial ovarian cancer. The incidence of mortality increased with congestive heart failure (CHF) and hypertension (HT), in which the patients with HT had a higher death rate with epithelial ovarian cancer than CHF. Regarding the length of stay, increasing age and being white results in an average decrease in length of stay. Those patients with weight loss comorbidities resulted in the greatest mean increase in length of stay. The increasing number of diagnoses, procedures, age, and being Hispanic results in an average increase in total cost. Being white or black results in an average decrease in total cost. The deceased risk of dying was associated with the number of procedures. Increased age and number of diagnoses were associated with an increased likelihood of dying. The increase in procedures and SES will increase the length of stay. And when it comes to comorbidities, among those with hypertension, these predictors are significant. The predictors of mortality were assessed by age and number of diagnoses, which were associated with an increased likelihood of dying.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical reference
Rising Above Themselves: Why Today’s Lawyers of Color Must Look Beyond Color
No full textThis way particular sympathies, biases, and prejudices are replaced by the judge\u27s non-discriminatory appreciation of the rule of law and the obligation of courts to both respect elected authorities and to behave as a check against democracy run amok. Lawyers of color could contribute to society by the awareness that their promise is greater than race or color and by channeling race as a means but not as an endpoint to understand (and to aspire to remedy inasmuch as the relevant constitutional, positive law, or regulatory provision permits) discrimination in all its forms. In other words, minority lawyers must rise above themselves. That will be a necessary, even if not a sufficient, fulfillment of a more perfect [U]nion. The Author argues that lawyers of color, just like women and other groups once heavily disadvantaged both by law and in the legal profession, do sometimes bring a comprehensive awareness benefiting the particular legal provision
