Values Of Nc Research Articles

Numerical study of third‐grade nanofluid flow with motile microorganisms under the mixed convection regime over a stretching cylinder

AbstractThe investigation of mixed convective flow involving microorganisms in nanofluid has garnered considerable interest in recent times owing to its extensive applicability in the biomedical domain. However, there has been a lack of study investigating a comprehensive parameter analysis for the flow of a third‐grade nanofluid around a cylinder in the presence of microorganisms. This study focuses on numerically investigating the flow of nanofluid around a stretched cylinder in the presence of motile microorganisms. The study also considers convective boundary conditions. Moreover, this study explores the nanofluid qualities related to Brownian motion and thermophoresis diffusion characteristics. The variable parameters include the Prandtl number (Pr), Peclet number (Pe), buoyancy ratio parameter (Nr), mixed convection parameter (), bioconvection Lewis number (Lb), Biot number (Bi), and Marangoni number (Ma). The bvp4c issue solver tool in MATLAB is used to numerically solve the nonlinear governing differential equations. The numerical model has been validated using prior papers. Graphical representations are created to depict several important measurements, such as velocity streamlines, velocity profiles, temperature distributions, nanoparticle concentrations, densities of gyrotactic motile microorganisms, local Nusselt numbers, skin friction, and Sherwood numbers. The link between the Nusselt number and the parameters Nt and Rd suggests that as Nt falls and Rd increases, the Nusselt number increases. The skin friction value is directly proportional to the values of Nr and Nc. There is a positive correlation between the rise in the local mass transfer rate and the values of Rd and Nt. The population of mobile microorganisms grows as the values of Lb and Pe decrease.

Building models of quarks and gluons with an arbitrary number of colors using Cartan-Polyakov loops

In this work we introduce the concept of Cartan-Polyakov loops, a special subset of Polyakov loops in the fundamental and antifundamental representation of the SU(Nc) group, ℓF,k and ℓ‾F,k respectively, with charges k=1,…,(Nc−1)/2. It constitutes a sufficient set of independent degrees of freedom and it is used to parametrize the thermal Wilson line. Polyakov loops not contained in this set are classified as non-Cartan-Polyakov loops. Using properties of the characteristic polynomial of the thermal Wilson line, we write a non-Cartan-Polyakov loop charge decomposition formula. This formalism allows one to readily build effective models of quarks and gluons with an arbitrary number of colors. We apply it to the Polyakov-Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model and to an effective glue model, in the mean field approximation, showing how to directly extend these models to higher values of Nc.

A Hybrid Watermarking Approach for DICOM Images Security

A hybrid watermarking approach for DICOM medical image protection is proposed in this paper. The medical image is first separated into two parts: the region used for the diagnosis, called Region Of Interest (ROI), and the remaining, called Region Of Non-Interest (RONI). The patient’s name is then extracted from the header of the DICOM image and pertinent features from the ROI. These data are therefore used to construct a watermark based on a Jacobian model. On the one hand, this watermark is used for the zero watermarking of the ROI. On the other hand, it is divided into blocks that are embedded in the RONI using a linear interpolation technique. Experiment results show a good performance of the proposed approach. The average values of SSIM, PSNR, NC, and BER are respectively 0.98, 71 dB, 0.98, and 0.0054, and the watermark embedding and extraction times do not exceed 12 s.

Numerical simulation of bioconvective Casson nanofluid through an exponentially permeable stretching surface

Nanofluids are a very productive etymology of intensifying the process of heat and mass transport systems linked with the industrial and thermal engineering systems. Nanomaterials have effective thermal properties and various applications in our daily life like in heat transfer, electronic cooling systems, energy production and biomedicine and also in the food industry. Keeping the entire motivating potential ramifications of nanoparticles in mind, this work is visualized in the mathematical model developed to show the heat and mass transport behavior of swimming motile organisms in the existence of the magnetic field, heat conduction source, thermal radiation, chemical processes and viscous dissipation. The flow of mass and heat transport under consideration is governed by nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) transformed into ordinary differential equations (ODEs) by implementing an eminent method called similarity transform and then numerical results obtained through MATLAB inbuilt package ‘bvp4c’. Numerical solution is visualized through the comparison of Casson fluid results with Newtonian fluid. The impact of numerous nondimensional parameters of temperature, heat transfer, velocity and concentration profiles involved in governing equations is debated and visualized graphically. Furthermore, the effects of parameters and local Nusselt number, motile organism’s number, Biot number, Sherwood number, thermal radiation and microorganism concentration are elaborated through graphical representation. From these results, we clearly see that the velocity profile shows a decrement by raising the values of Buoyancy ratio Nr and Bioconvection Rayleigh number Nc, thermal profile depicted propagation by incrementing the values of Biot and radiation variables, concentration profile decreases by incrementing Lewis parameter Le and microorganisms profile revealed an increase and decrease by the presence of magnetic M and bioconvection Lewis variable Lb, respectively.

A New Blind IoT-Based MP3 Audio Watermarking Scheme for Content Integrity Checking and Copyright Protection

Rapid development in the area of information and embedded technology, mobile communication networks, IoT multimedia applications, compression, and distribution over Internet has led to a significant need to answer the question: “How to protect, secure, and authenticate multimedia documents?” One of the proposed responses to this challenge is digital watermarking, which hides an inaudible watermark in digital multimedia content. Despite the large number of proposed competent watermarking algorithms in the literature, few are suitable for the compression domain, mainly the authentication application. In this context, this paper depicts a new MP3 audio watermarking scheme for copyright protection and content integrity checking operating directly in the compression domain using Huffman data and side information features. This scheme overcomes the problem of computational time as it operates directly on the compressed bitstream. In addition, it provides enough embedding space by using Huffman data features. A strong advantage of our scheme is that it has been used successfully for both authentication and copyright protection applications. Experimental results have revealed that the proposed watermarking schema has achieved very competitive results compared to others from the literature in terms of inaudibility, robustness, and especially capacity ratio. Our approach offers also good values of ODG and NC even after double recompression-StirMark attacks.

Three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic flow around a 180° sharp bend under transverse magnetic field

This study attempts to characterize the variation of pressure loss and the evolution of vortex structures in the steady three-dimensional flow around a 180° sharp bend under a transverse magnetic field. This study is conducted with the Reynolds number, 100≤Re≤400, and Hartmann number, 0≤Ha≤2000. This range of Re and Ha captures both complex three-dimensional structures and the inception of quasi-two-dimensional flows. Numerical simulations display how the pressure loss across the bend region (Δp0) and the vortex structures undergo four regimes by increasing Ha for fixed Re. These regimes are referred to as regimes I–IV. N1c, N2c, and N3c, the critical values of interaction number Nc for the first appearance of regimes II–IV, are recognized at values 0.8, 3.2, and 40, respectively. In regime I (N≤0.8), Δp0 increases slightly and the magnetohydrodynamic flow promotes the recirculating bubble. In regime II (0.8<N≤3.2), as Δp0 decreases, the scope of the recirculating bubble reaches its peak. In regime III (3.2<N≤40), Δp0 grows, while the shrinkage of the recirculating bubble is triggered. Simultaneously, the flow tends to be two-dimensional [J. Sommeria and R. Moreau, “Why, how, and when, MHD turbulence becomes two-dimensional,” J. Fluid Mech. 118, 507 (1982)]. In regime IV (40<N), Δp0 is linearly dependent on Ha/Re. The non-monotonic behavior of the recirculating bubble length is caused by the redistribution of momentum at low Ha and by the predominant effect of the Lorentz force at large Ha. The law of how to distinguish the three-dimensional (3D) flow and quasi-two-dimensional (Q2D) flow is discovered by assessing the recirculating bubble length in the center plane.

Vertical Distributions of Aerosol and Cloud Microphysical Properties and the Aerosol Impact on a Continental Cumulus Cloud Based on Aircraft Measurements From the Loess Plateau of China

Based on aircraft measurements of aerosols and continental cumulus clouds made over the Loess Plateau of China (Xinzhou, Shanxi Province) on 30 July 2020, this study focuses on the vertical profiles of microphysical properties of aerosols and cumulus clouds, and use them to study aerosol-cloud interactions. During the study period, the boundary layer was stable with a height ∼1,500 m above sea level. Aerosols in the boundary layer mainly came from local emissions, while aerosols above this layer were mostly dust aerosols transported over long distances. Vertical profiles of aerosols and cloud condensation nuclei were obtained, and aerosol activation ratios at different supersaturation (SS) levels ranged from 0.16 to 0.32 at 0.2% SS and 0.70 to 0.85 at 0.8% SS. A thick cumulus cloud in the development stage was observed from the bottom to the top with the horizontal dimension of 10 km by 7 km, the cloud-base height of 2,450 m (15.8°C), and the cloud-top height of 5,400 m (−3°C). The maximum updraft velocity near the cloud top was 13.45 m s−1, and the maximum downdraft velocity occuring in the upper-middle part of the cloud was 4.44 ms−1. The temperature inside the cloud was higher than the outside, with their difference being positively correlated with the cloud water content. The temperature lapse rate inside the cloud was about −6.5°C km−1. The liquid water content and droplet effective radius (Re) increased with increasing height. The cloud droplet number concentration (Nc) increased first then decreased, peaking in the middle and lower part of the cloud, the average values of Nc and Re were 767.9 cm−3 and 5.17 μm, respectively. The cloud droplet spectrum had a multi-peak distribution, with the first appearing at ∼4.5 μm. SS in the cloud first increased then decreased with height. The maximum SS is ∼0.7% appearing at ∼3,800 m. The conversion rate of intra-cloud aerosols to cloud droplets was between 0.2 and 0.54, with the ratio increasing gradually with increasing height. The cloud droplet spectral dispersion and Nc were positively correlated. The aerosol indirect effect (AIE) was estimated to be 0.245 and 0.16, based on Nc and Re, respectively. The cloud droplet dispersion mainly attenuated the AIE, up to ∼34.7%.

Effect of Intermediate Principal Stress on the Bearing Capacity of Footings in Soft Rock

The bearing capacity for footings is a fundamental scientific problem in civil engineering. The evaluation of the bearing capacity of footings usually does not take into account the effect of the intermediate principal stress. In practice, the intermediate principal stress has certain influences on the strength of geomaterials (e.g., rock and soil) or concrete. In this paper, a series of numerical solutions are presented to evaluate the bearing capacity of footings in a soft rock foundation via a two-dimensional finite difference code (FLAC) with a strain hardening/softening constitutive model based on the unified strength theory (UST). The values of the bearing capacity factor Nc and Nγ for strip, circular and square footings in a soft rock foundation were evaluated using the strain hardening/softening constitutive model. The effect of the intermediate principal stress on the bearing capacity of strip, circular and square footings in a soft rock foundation was analyzed. The results of the numerical computation show that the intermediate principal stress has a significant influence on the bearing capacity and failure mechanisms of a soft rock medium. The influence of the intermediate principal stress on the peak and residual values of the bearing capacity for a strip footing is much greater than for circular and square footings. Research works for the reasonable estimation of the bearing capacity of footings in soft rock are facilitated by this study.

Maritime Cloud and Drizzle Microphysical Properties Retrieved From Ship‐Based Observations During MAGIC

AbstractThe Marine ARM GPCI Investigation of Clouds (MAGIC) field campaign provided a wealth of information looking at the stratocumulus to cumulus transition (SCT) over the Eastern‐North Pacific (ENP), however, the lack of cloud in situ measurements gave limited information. Using the observations of Marine W‐band ARM cloud radar, ceilometer, and three‐channel microwave radiometer onboard the ship, we retrieve the single‐layer, low‐level cloud‐droplet effective radius and drizzle median radius (rc and rm,d), number concentration (Nc and Nd), and liquid water content (LWCc and LWCd) using the methods in Wu et al. (2020, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD032205). Based on the results during MAGIC, we found that both cloud base and top heights increase approximately 0.75 km from Los Angeles (LA) until cloud breakup (CB) before leveling off. Low cloud fractions (CFs) ranged from ∼85% halfway between LA and CB to ∼20% near Hawaii. Retrieved rc values decreased approximately 2 μm from peak CF to Hawaii while rm,d increased more than 20 μm over the same path. Mean values of rc, rm,d, Nc, Nd, LWCc, and LWCd during MAGIC are 12.1 μm, 55.8 μm, 97.9 cm−3, 0.09 cm−3, 0.40 g m−3, and 0.05 g m−3, respectively. Compared to the mean values over the Azores in Wu et al. (2020, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD032205), the mean cloud and drizzle microphysical properties during MAGIC, except LWCd which is roughly equal, are greater due to higher liquid water path and warmer sea surface temperature. This information allows for a better understanding of the SCT over the ENP and can be used to better improve model simulations.

Thermal Analysis of Conductive-Convective-Radiative Heat Exchangers With Temperature Dependent Thermal Conductivity

In this paper, one dimensional mathematical model of convective-conductive-radiative fins is presented with thermal conductivity depending on temperature. The temperature field with insulated tip is determined for a fin in convective, conductive and radiative environments. Moreover, an intelligent soft computing paradigm named as the LeNN-WOA-NM algorithm is designed to analyze the mathematical model for the temperature field of convective-conductive-radiative fins. The proposed algorithm uses function approximating ability of Legendre polynomials based on artificial neural networks (ANN’s), global search optimization ability of Whale optimization algorithm (WOA), and local search convergence of Nelder-Mead algorithm. The proposed algorithm is applied to illustrate the effect of variations in coefficients of convection, radiation heat losses, and dimensionless parameter of thermal conductivity on temperature distribution of conductive-convective and radiative fins in convective and radiative environments. The experimental data establishes the effectiveness of the design scheme when compared with techniques in the latest literature. It can be observed that accuracy of approximate temperature increases with lower values of Nc and Nr while decreases with increase in λ. The quality of solutions obtained by LeNN-WOA-NM algorithm are validated through performance indicators including absolute errors, MAD, TIC, and ENSE.

Diagnosing the start of a slow HTTP DDoS attack based on two-parameter traffic correlation analysis

The article investigates the problem of detecting slow DDoS attacks based on network traffic analysis. Detecting a slow HTTP attack is a significant challenge because the attacker's behavior can mimic that of a legitimate user with slow resources. The authors proposed a four-zone attack detection architecture based on the analysis of two parameters: the number of connections to the server and the average client response delay time. A technique for detecting slow DDOS attacks based on correlation analysis and parameter forecasting is proposed. The author's approach uses an original two-parameter correlation analysis model based on the number of connections and the average real delay in the network. An algorithm for detecting a slow DDoS attack based on the prediction of two parameters has been developed. These parameters are used both for analysis and for short-term prediction of traffic behavior. The forecasting algorithm uses the method of calculating the posterior trajectory of the time series depending on a priori statistical observations. Prediction of user behavior parameters allows early detection of slow DDoS attacks based on an algorithm for searching for unknown future values for a time series of parameters. Using the relative values of NC and ARNL as prediction parameters makes it possible to build a flexible recognition system adapted to the specifics of a particular system. Simulation of the two-parameter algorithm for detecting slow DDOS attacks based on prediction was carried out and its effectiveness was evaluated. The proposed method is a combination of artificial intelligence and statistical analysis and uses a self-learning algorithm with sufficient attack statistics. Experimental results show that the method is suitable for early detection of attacks such as Slow HTTP Headers, Slow HTTP Body, Slow HTTP Read. Simulation of traffic parameters confirms the method's ability to detect slow attacks at different time intervals, since the accuracy of the forecast depends on the timeliness of the observations. With sufficient statistics of observations, the deviation of the forecast curve can be less than 5%.

Metabolic Specialization and Codon Preference of Lignocellulolytic Genes in the White Rot Basidiomycete Ceriporiopsis subvermispora.

Ceriporiopsis subvermispora is a white-rot fungus with a high specificity towards lignin mineralization when colonizing dead wood or lignocellulosic compounds. Its lignocellulose degrading system is formed by cellulose hydrolytic enzymes, manganese peroxidases, and laccases that catalyze the efficient depolymerization and mineralization of lignocellulose. To determine if this metabolic specialization has modified codon usage of the lignocellulolytic system, improving its adaptation to the fungal translational machine, we analyzed the adaptation to host codon usage (CAI), tRNA pool (tAI, and AAtAI), codon pair bias (CPB), and the number of effective codons (Nc). These indexes were correlated with gene expression of C. subvermispora, in the presence of glucose and Aspen wood. General gene expression was not correlated with the index values. However, in media containing Aspen wood, the induction of expression of lignocellulose-degrading genes, showed significantly (p < 0.001) higher values of CAI, AAtAI, CPB, tAI, and lower values of Nc than non-induced genes. Cellulose-binding proteins and manganese peroxidases presented the highest adaptation values. We also identified an expansion of genes encoding glycine and glutamic acid tRNAs. Our results suggest that the metabolic specialization to use wood as the sole carbon source has introduced a bias in the codon usage of genes involved in lignocellulose degradation. This bias reduces codon diversity and increases codon usage adaptation to the tRNA pool available in C. subvermispora. To our knowledge, this is the first study showing that codon usage is modified to improve the translation efficiency of a group of genes involved in a particular metabolic process.

Comparison of Selection Traits for Effective Popcorn (Zea mays L. var. Everta) Breeding Under Water Limiting Conditions

Climate change is expected to intensify water restriction to crops, impacting on the yield potential of crops such as popcorn. This work aimed to evaluate the performance of 10 field cultivated popcorn inbred lines during two growing seasons, under well-watered (WW) and water stressed (WS) (ψsoil≥ −1.5 MPa) conditions. Water stress was applied by withholding irrigation in the phenological phase of male pre-anthesis. Additionally, two contrasting inbred lines, P7 (superior line) and L75 (low performer) were compared for grain yield (GY) and expanded popcorn volume (EPV), selected from previous studies, were tested under greenhouse conditions. In the field, no genotype x water condition x crop season (G×WC×CS) interaction was observed, whereas GY (−51%), EPV (−55%) and leaf greenness (SPAD index) measured 17 days after anthesis (DAA) (> −10%) were highly affected by water limitation. In general, root traits (angles, number, and density) presented G×WC×CS interaction, which did not support their use as selection parameters. In relation to leaf senescence, for both WS and WW conditions, the superior inbred lines maintained a stay-green condition (higher SPAD index) until physiological maturity, but maximum SPAD index values were observed later in WW (48.7 by 14 DAA) than in WS (43.9 by 7 DAA). Under both water conditions, negative associations were observed between SPAD index values 15 and 8 days before anthesis DBA), and GY and EPV (r ≥ −0.69), as well as between SPAD index 7, 17, and 22 DAA, and angles of brace root (AB), number of crown roots (NC) and crown root density (CD), in WS (r ≥ −0.69), and AB and CD, in WW (r ≥ −0.70). Lower NC and CD values may allow further root deepening in WS conditions. Under WS P7 maintained higher net photosynthesis values, stomatal conductance, and transpiration, than L75. Additionally, L75 exhibited a lower (i.e., more negative) carbon isotope composition value than P7 under WS, confirming a lower stomatal aperture in L75. In summary, besides leaf greenness, traits related to leaf photosynthetic status, and stomatal conductance were shown to be good indicators of the agronomic performance of popcorn under water constraint.

Laterally asymmetric channel-based tunnel fieldeffect transistors: design and investigation

ABSTRACT In this paper, we propose and simulate a lateral asymmetrically doped channel-based tunnel field-effect transistor. The impact of laterally asymmetric channel (LAC) on the performance of a Tunnel Field-effect transistor, along with a detailed comparison with a uniformly doped TFET (UD-TFET) has been studied. The proposed TFET has uniformly doped source and drain regions and the asymmetrically doped channel is realised by employing the Gaussian profile doping in the channel. The peak doping (NC) and the standard deviation (σ) of Gaussian doping profile used in the LAC-TFET channel are varied and their impact on the DC and AC performances is studied. It has been observed that the use of laterally asymmetric-doped channel in a TFET enhances its ON current (ION), transconductance (gm ) and the cut-off frequency (fT ), without increasing the OFF state current. At optimum values of NC and σ, the ION, g m and the f T are enhanced by more two order of magnitude in the LAC TFET. Hence, we propose that LAC-TFET can serve as a viable alternative to improve the DC and AC characteristics of TFETs.

Three-dimensional lattice multiflavor scalar chromodynamics: Interplay between global and gauge symmetries

We study the nature of the finite-temperature transition of the three-dimensional scalar chromodynamics with N_f flavors. These models are constructed by considering maximally O(M)-symmetric multicomponent scalar models, whose symmetry is partially gauged to obtain SU(N_c) gauge theories, with a residual nonabelian global symmetry given by U(N_f) for N_c>2 and Sp(N_f) for N_c=2, so that M = 2 N_c N_f. We find that their finite-temperature transition is continuous for N_f=2 and for all values of Nc we investigated, N_c=2,3,4. Such continuous transitions belong to universality classes related to the global symmetry group of the theory. For N_c=2 it belongs to the SO(5)=Sp(2)/Z_2 universality class, while for N_c>2 it belongs to the SO(3)=SU(2)/Z_2 universality class. For N_f>2, the transition is always of first order. These results match the predictions obtained by using the effective Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson approach in terms of a gauge-invariant order parameter. Our results indicate that the nonabelian gauge degrees of freedom are irrelevant at the transition. These conclusions are supported by an analysis of gauge-field dependent correlation functions, that are always short-ranged, even at the transition.

Influence of Both Soil Properties and Geometric Parameters on Failure Mechanisms and Stability of Two‐Layer Undrained Slopes

The stability of the two‐layer undrained clay slopes should be given considerable attention since they are commonly observed in nature and in manmade structures, and they traditionally have low stability. Therefore, with the elastoplastic finite element method, this paper thoroughly explores the influence of the soil strength parameter cu, slope angle β, and slope depth ratio DH on the slope stability and failure mechanisms by the wide‐ranging parametric changes. The aims of this study are also to find the critical strength ratio (cu2/cu1)crit and the maximum values of the stability number Nc that were observed in the parametric studies. Numerical results are displayed in the form of charts to give Nc and (cu2/cu1)crit as a function of cu, β, and DH. Moreover, influences of DH and β on Nc and failure mechanisms are examined in this study. The results of numerical analysis demonstrate that cu2/cu1 significantly affects both the critical failure mechanism and the stability of the two‐layer undrained slope. Improved knowledge of the location of the critical failure mechanism allows for accurately estimating the stability of the two‐layer undrained slopes for future strengthening measurements to preserve stability.

Numerical Study of Performance of Porous Fin Heat Sink of Functionally Graded Material for Improved Thermal Management of Consumer Electronics

The ever-increasing demand for high-performance electronic and computer systems has unequivocally called for increased microprocessor performance. However, increasing microprocessor performance requires increasing the power and on-chip power density of the microprocessor, both of which are associated with increased heat dissipation. In recent times, thermal management of electronic systems has gained intense research attention due to increased miniaturization trend in the electronics industry. In this paper, we present a numerical study on the performance of a convective–radiative porous heat sink with functionally graded material (FGM) for improved cooling of various consumer electronics. For the theoretical investigation, the thermal property of the FGM is assumed as a linear and power-law function. We solved the developed thermal models using the Chebyshev spectral collocation method (CSCM). The effects of inhomogeneity index of FGM and convective and radiative parameters on the thermal behavior of the porous heat sink are investigated. This paper shows that increase in the inhomogeneity index of FGM and convective and radiative parameters improves the thermal efficiency of the porous fin heat sink. Moreover, for all values of Nc and Rd, the temperature gradient along the fin of FGM is negligible compared to HM fin in both linear and power-law functions. For comparison, the thermal predictions made in this paper using CSCM agree excellently with the established results of Runge–Kutta with shooting and homotopy analytical method.

One-Dimensional Multi-Channel Photonic Crystal Resonators Based on Silicon-On-Insulator With High Quality Factor

We have theoretically and experimentally demonstrated a Fabry-Perot (FP) resonators based on a Si-air one-dimensional photonic crystal (1D PhC) with coupled triple-cavity modes (or defects). These defects are obtained by filling selected air channels in the 1D PhC with an actively reconfigurable fluid. Simulations of the optical properties of these FP resonators were performed in the wide infrared spectral range. It is shown that by changing the refractive index, nc, of the fluid simultaneously in all three channels, a set of narrow triple resonance peaks can be obtained within wide stop-bands of different order in the infrared range. In addition, at certain values of nc, splitting of the triple resonance peaks into a doublet and a single peak with a significantly larger quality factor, Q=21200, occurs. Prototype devices based on Silicon-On-Insulator platform were fabricated and characterized by electro-optical and spectroscopic measurements. The electro-optical measurements demonstrate the possibility of refractive index manipulation of the filler in the FP channels individually or simultaneously. Spectroscopic measurements performed in the range 1540 – 1630 nm using fibre-coupling confirm the presence of triple resonance peaks in the 3rd stop-band in the absence of an electric field applied to the FP channels. At an applied voltage of 10 V to the middle channel, an increase of Q to 3720 in the single peak is registered which is the highest Q demonstrated in SOI based 1D PhC to date.

Hematologic Toxicity of Conformal Radiotherapy and Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy in Prostate and Bladder Cancer Patients

Background:The purpose of this study was to compare hematologic adverse effects and hematologic toxicity (HT) of pelvic irradiation in patients treated with conformal radiotherapy (CRT) and intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) for radical treatment of prostate and bladder cancer.Methods:A group of 115 patients with prostate or bladder cancer treated with definitive radical radiotherapy was evaluated retrospectively. Blood test were taken before and after treatment comprising of following indices: white blood cells (WBC) hemoglobin (HGB), red blood cell (RBC), lymphocyte (LC), neutrophil (NC) and platelet (PLT) count. Patients were divided into several subgroups and the data was evaluated statistically using absolute and relative values.Results:There was a statistically significant difference in WBC (p=0.007), NC (p=0.031) and PLT (p=0.026) count decrease (absolute values) after treatment, between two treatment methods (CRT and IMRT), all in favor of IMRT. The relationship still proves to be significant regarding WBC (p=0,02) and (NC) (p=0,049) after presenting the data as relative percentage loss of starting value. However using Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Effects (CTCAE), PLT count toxicity was more common in IMRT group (p=0.045).Conclusion:IMRT in comparison to CRT in bladder and prostate cancer patients is associated with a lesser absolute and relative decrease of hematologic indices. The hematologic effect of radiation was observed mainly regarding LC. Patients treated with IMRT suffered from significantly lesser decrease in relative and absolute values of WBC and NC. The mean of absolute PLT decrease count was lower in IMRT group; however, toxicity according to CTCAE was slightly more prevalent in IMRT group.

Bearing capacity of a strip footing situated on soil slope using a non-associated flow rule in lower bound limit analysis

In this paper, bearing capacity of a surface strip footing on slope is computed through lower bound finite elements limit analysis technique. A non-associated flow is considered to account for the dilation of the soil. Influence of parameters such as, slope angle (β), footing setback distance (b), soil friction angle (ϕ) and dilative coefficient (η) on the bearing capacity of the footing is explored. Results obtained indicate that with the increase in slope angle the Nc and Nγ values tend to reduce considerably. It is observed that with the increment in the values of ϕ, b and η, there is a rapid proliferation in the values of Nc and Nγ. State of stress with respect to the yield of soil are brought out. Based on the data obtained a set of design charts are developed through which the bearing capacity factors Nc and Nγ for different cases can be easily obtained.