Sample records for estimate diffusion coefficients

  1. Anisotropic diffusion of fluorescently labeled ATP in rat cardiomyocytes determined by raster image correlation spectroscopy

    PubMed Central

    Vendelin, Marko; Birkedal, Rikke

    2008-01-01

    A series of experimental data points to the existence of profound diffusion restrictions of ADP/ATP in rat cardiomyocytes. This assumption is required to explain the measurements of kinetics of respiration, sarcoplasmic reticulum loading with calcium, and kinetics of ATP-sensitive potassium channels. To be able to analyze and estimate the role of intracellular diffusion restrictions on bioenergetics, the intracellular diffusion coefficients of metabolites have to be determined. The aim of this work was to develop a practical method for determining diffusion coefficients in anisotropic medium and to estimate the overall diffusion coefficients of fluorescently labeled ATP in rat cardiomyocytes. For that, we have extended raster image correlation spectroscopy (RICS) protocols to be able to discriminate the anisotropy in the diffusion coefficient tensor. Using this extended protocol, we estimated diffusion coefficients of ATP labeled with the fluorescent conjugate Alexa Fluor 647 (Alexa-ATP). In the analysis, we assumed that the diffusion tensor can be described by two values: diffusion coefficient along the myofibril and that across it. The average diffusion coefficients found for Alexa-ATP were as follows: 83 ± 14 μm2/s in the longitudinal and 52 ± 16 μm2/s in the transverse directions (n = 8, mean ± SD). Those values are ∼2 (longitudinal) and ∼3.5 (transverse) times smaller than the diffusion coefficient value estimated for the surrounding solution. Such uneven reduction of average diffusion coefficient leads to anisotropic diffusion in rat cardiomyocytes. Although the source for such anisotropy is uncertain, we speculate that it may be induced by the ordered pattern of intracellular structures in rat cardiomyocytes. PMID:18815224

  2. Combined inverse-forward artificial neural networks for fast and accurate estimation of the diffusion coefficients of cartilage based on multi-physics models.

    PubMed

    Arbabi, Vahid; Pouran, Behdad; Weinans, Harrie; Zadpoor, Amir A

    2016-09-06

    Analytical and numerical methods have been used to extract essential engineering parameters such as elastic modulus, Poisson׳s ratio, permeability and diffusion coefficient from experimental data in various types of biological tissues. The major limitation associated with analytical techniques is that they are often only applicable to problems with simplified assumptions. Numerical multi-physics methods, on the other hand, enable minimizing the simplified assumptions but require substantial computational expertise, which is not always available. In this paper, we propose a novel approach that combines inverse and forward artificial neural networks (ANNs) which enables fast and accurate estimation of the diffusion coefficient of cartilage without any need for computational modeling. In this approach, an inverse ANN is trained using our multi-zone biphasic-solute finite-bath computational model of diffusion in cartilage to estimate the diffusion coefficient of the various zones of cartilage given the concentration-time curves. Robust estimation of the diffusion coefficients, however, requires introducing certain levels of stochastic variations during the training process. Determining the required level of stochastic variation is performed by coupling the inverse ANN with a forward ANN that receives the diffusion coefficient as input and returns the concentration-time curve as output. Combined together, forward-inverse ANNs enable computationally inexperienced users to obtain accurate and fast estimation of the diffusion coefficients of cartilage zones. The diffusion coefficients estimated using the proposed approach are compared with those determined using direct scanning of the parameter space as the optimization approach. It has been shown that both approaches yield comparable results. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Comparison of Experimental Methods for Estimating Matrix Diffusion Coefficients for Contaminant Transport Modeling

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Telfeyan, Katherine Christina; Ware, Stuart Douglas; Reimus, Paul William

    Diffusion cell and diffusion wafer experiments were conducted to compare methods for estimating matrix diffusion coefficients in rock core samples from Pahute Mesa at the Nevada Nuclear Security Site (NNSS). A diffusion wafer method, in which a solute diffuses out of a rock matrix that is pre-saturated with water containing the solute, is presented as a simpler alternative to the traditional through-diffusion (diffusion cell) method. Both methods yielded estimates of matrix diffusion coefficients that were within the range of values previously reported for NNSS volcanic rocks. The difference between the estimates of the two methods ranged from 14 to 30%,more » and there was no systematic high or low bias of one method relative to the other. From a transport modeling perspective, these differences are relatively minor when one considers that other variables (e.g., fracture apertures, fracture spacings) influence matrix diffusion to a greater degree and tend to have greater uncertainty than diffusion coefficients. For the same relative random errors in concentration measurements, the diffusion cell method yields diffusion coefficient estimates that have less uncertainty than the wafer method. However, the wafer method is easier and less costly to implement and yields estimates more quickly, thus allowing a greater number of samples to be analyzed for the same cost and time. Given the relatively good agreement between the methods, and the lack of any apparent bias between the methods, the diffusion wafer method appears to offer advantages over the diffusion cell method if better statistical representation of a given set of rock samples is desired.« less

  4. Comparison of experimental methods for estimating matrix diffusion coefficients for contaminant transport modeling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Telfeyan, Katherine; Ware, S. Doug; Reimus, Paul W.; Birdsell, Kay H.

    2018-02-01

    Diffusion cell and diffusion wafer experiments were conducted to compare methods for estimating effective matrix diffusion coefficients in rock core samples from Pahute Mesa at the Nevada Nuclear Security Site (NNSS). A diffusion wafer method, in which a solute diffuses out of a rock matrix that is pre-saturated with water containing the solute, is presented as a simpler alternative to the traditional through-diffusion (diffusion cell) method. Both methods yielded estimates of effective matrix diffusion coefficients that were within the range of values previously reported for NNSS volcanic rocks. The difference between the estimates of the two methods ranged from 14 to 30%, and there was no systematic high or low bias of one method relative to the other. From a transport modeling perspective, these differences are relatively minor when one considers that other variables (e.g., fracture apertures, fracture spacings) influence matrix diffusion to a greater degree and tend to have greater uncertainty than effective matrix diffusion coefficients. For the same relative random errors in concentration measurements, the diffusion cell method yields effective matrix diffusion coefficient estimates that have less uncertainty than the wafer method. However, the wafer method is easier and less costly to implement and yields estimates more quickly, thus allowing a greater number of samples to be analyzed for the same cost and time. Given the relatively good agreement between the methods, and the lack of any apparent bias between the methods, the diffusion wafer method appears to offer advantages over the diffusion cell method if better statistical representation of a given set of rock samples is desired.

  5. Extracting surface diffusion coefficients from batch adsorption measurement data: application of the classic Langmuir kinetics model.

    PubMed

    Chu, Khim Hoong

    2017-11-09

    Surface diffusion coefficients may be estimated by fitting solutions of a diffusion model to batch kinetic data. For non-linear systems, a numerical solution of the diffusion model's governing equations is generally required. We report here the application of the classic Langmuir kinetics model to extract surface diffusion coefficients from batch kinetic data. The use of the Langmuir kinetics model in lieu of the conventional surface diffusion model allows derivation of an analytical expression. The parameter estimation procedure requires determining the Langmuir rate coefficient from which the pertinent surface diffusion coefficient is calculated. Surface diffusion coefficients within the 10 -9 to 10 -6  cm 2 /s range obtained by fitting the Langmuir kinetics model to experimental kinetic data taken from the literature are found to be consistent with the corresponding values obtained from the traditional surface diffusion model. The virtue of this simplified parameter estimation method is that it reduces the computational complexity as the analytical expression involves only an algebraic equation in closed form which is easily evaluated by spreadsheet computation.

  6. Comparison of experimental methods for estimating matrix diffusion coefficients for contaminant transport modeling

    DOE PAGES

    Telfeyan, Katherine Christina; Ware, Stuart Doug; Reimus, Paul William; ...

    2018-01-31

    Here, diffusion cell and diffusion wafer experiments were conducted to compare methods for estimating effective matrix diffusion coefficients in rock core samples from Pahute Mesa at the Nevada Nuclear Security Site (NNSS). A diffusion wafer method, in which a solute diffuses out of a rock matrix that is pre-saturated with water containing the solute, is presented as a simpler alternative to the traditional through-diffusion (diffusion cell) method. Both methods yielded estimates of effective matrix diffusion coefficients that were within the range of values previously reported for NNSS volcanic rocks. The difference between the estimates of the two methods ranged frommore » 14 to 30%, and there was no systematic high or low bias of one method relative to the other. From a transport modeling perspective, these differences are relatively minor when one considers that other variables (e.g., fracture apertures, fracture spacings) influence matrix diffusion to a greater degree and tend to have greater uncertainty than effective matrix diffusion coefficients. For the same relative random errors in concentration measurements, the diffusion cell method yields effective matrix diffusion coefficient estimates that have less uncertainty than the wafer method. However, the wafer method is easier and less costly to implement and yields estimates more quickly, thus allowing a greater number of samples to be analyzed for the same cost and time. Given the relatively good agreement between the methods, and the lack of any apparent bias between the methods, the diffusion wafer method appears to offer advantages over the diffusion cell method if better statistical representation of a given set of rock samples is desired.« less

  7. Comparison of experimental methods for estimating matrix diffusion coefficients for contaminant transport modeling

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Telfeyan, Katherine Christina; Ware, Stuart Doug; Reimus, Paul William

    Here, diffusion cell and diffusion wafer experiments were conducted to compare methods for estimating effective matrix diffusion coefficients in rock core samples from Pahute Mesa at the Nevada Nuclear Security Site (NNSS). A diffusion wafer method, in which a solute diffuses out of a rock matrix that is pre-saturated with water containing the solute, is presented as a simpler alternative to the traditional through-diffusion (diffusion cell) method. Both methods yielded estimates of effective matrix diffusion coefficients that were within the range of values previously reported for NNSS volcanic rocks. The difference between the estimates of the two methods ranged frommore » 14 to 30%, and there was no systematic high or low bias of one method relative to the other. From a transport modeling perspective, these differences are relatively minor when one considers that other variables (e.g., fracture apertures, fracture spacings) influence matrix diffusion to a greater degree and tend to have greater uncertainty than effective matrix diffusion coefficients. For the same relative random errors in concentration measurements, the diffusion cell method yields effective matrix diffusion coefficient estimates that have less uncertainty than the wafer method. However, the wafer method is easier and less costly to implement and yields estimates more quickly, thus allowing a greater number of samples to be analyzed for the same cost and time. Given the relatively good agreement between the methods, and the lack of any apparent bias between the methods, the diffusion wafer method appears to offer advantages over the diffusion cell method if better statistical representation of a given set of rock samples is desired.« less

  8. A feasibility study for measuring stratospheric turbulence using metrac positioning system

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Gage, K. S.; Jasperson, W. H.

    1975-01-01

    The feasibility of obtaining measurements of Lagrangian turbulence at stratospheric altitudes is demonstrated by using the METRAC System to track constant-level balloons. The basis for current estimates of diffusion coefficients are reviewed and it is pointed out that insufficient data is available upon which to base reliable estimates of vertical diffusion coefficients. It is concluded that diffusion coefficients could be directly obtained from Lagrangian turbulence measurements. The METRAC balloon tracking system is shown to possess the necessary precision in order to resolve the response of constant-level balloons to turbulence at stratospheric altitudes. A small sample of data recorded from a tropospheric tetroon flight tracked by the METRAC System is analyzed to obtain estimates of small-scale three-dimensional diffusion coefficients. It is recommended that this technique be employed to establish a climatology of diffusion coefficients and to ascertain the variation of these coefficients with altitude, season, and latitude.

  9. A data-drive analysis for heavy quark diffusion coefficient

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xu, Yingru; Nahrgang, Marlene; Cao, Shanshan; Bernhard, Jonah E.; Bass, Steffen A.

    2018-02-01

    We apply a Bayesian model-to-data analysis on an improved Langevin framework to estimate the temperature and momentum dependence of the heavy quark diffusion coefficient in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP). The spatial diffusion coefficient is found to have a minimum around 1-3 near Tc in the zero momentum limit, and has a non-trivial momentum dependence. With the estimated diffusion coefficient, our improved Langevin model is able to simultaneously describe the D-meson RAA and v2 in three different systems at RHIC and the LHC.

  10. Estimation of diffusion coefficients from voltammetric signals by support vector and gaussian process regression

    PubMed Central

    2014-01-01

    Background Support vector regression (SVR) and Gaussian process regression (GPR) were used for the analysis of electroanalytical experimental data to estimate diffusion coefficients. Results For simulated cyclic voltammograms based on the EC, Eqr, and EqrC mechanisms these regression algorithms in combination with nonlinear kernel/covariance functions yielded diffusion coefficients with higher accuracy as compared to the standard approach of calculating diffusion coefficients relying on the Nicholson-Shain equation. The level of accuracy achieved by SVR and GPR is virtually independent of the rate constants governing the respective reaction steps. Further, the reduction of high-dimensional voltammetric signals by manual selection of typical voltammetric peak features decreased the performance of both regression algorithms compared to a reduction by downsampling or principal component analysis. After training on simulated data sets, diffusion coefficients were estimated by the regression algorithms for experimental data comprising voltammetric signals for three organometallic complexes. Conclusions Estimated diffusion coefficients closely matched the values determined by the parameter fitting method, but reduced the required computational time considerably for one of the reaction mechanisms. The automated processing of voltammograms according to the regression algorithms yields better results than the conventional analysis of peak-related data. PMID:24987463

  11. Maxwell-Stefan diffusion coefficient estimation for ternary systems: an ideal ternary alcohol system.

    PubMed

    Allie-Ebrahim, Tariq; Zhu, Qingyu; Bräuer, Pierre; Moggridge, Geoff D; D'Agostino, Carmine

    2017-06-21

    The Maxwell-Stefan model is a popular diffusion model originally developed to model diffusion of gases, which can be considered thermodynamically ideal mixtures, although its application has been extended to model diffusion in non-ideal liquid mixtures as well. A drawback of the model is that it requires the Maxwell-Stefan diffusion coefficients, which are not based on measurable quantities but they have to be estimated. As a result, numerous estimation methods, such as the Darken model, have been proposed to estimate these diffusion coefficients. However, the Darken model was derived, and is only well defined, for binary systems. This model has been extended to ternary systems according to two proposed forms, one by R. Krishna and J. M. van Baten, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 2005, 44, 6939-6947 and the other by X. Liu, T. J. H. Vlugt and A. Bardow, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 2011, 50, 10350-10358. In this paper, the two forms have been analysed against the ideal ternary system of methanol/butan-1-ol/propan-1-ol and using experimental values of self-diffusion coefficients. In particular, using pulsed gradient stimulated echo nuclear magnetic resonance (PGSTE-NMR) we have measured the self-diffusion coefficients in various methanol/butan-1-ol/propan-1-ol mixtures. The experimental values of self-diffusion coefficients were then used as the input data required for the Darken model. The predictions of the two proposed multicomponent forms of this model were then compared to experimental values of mutual diffusion coefficients for the ideal alcohol ternary system. This experimental-based approach showed that the Liu's model gives better predictions compared to that of Krishna and van Baten, although it was only accurate to within 26%. Nonetheless, the multicomponent Darken model in conjunction with self-diffusion measurements from PGSTE-NMR represents an attractive method for a rapid estimation of mutual diffusion in multicomponent systems, especially when compared to exhaustive MD simulations.

  12. Estimating the Diffusion Coefficients of Sugars Using Diffusion Experiments in Agar-Gel and Computer Simulations.

    PubMed

    Miyamoto, Shuichi; Atsuyama, Kenji; Ekino, Keisuke; Shin, Takashi

    2018-01-01

    The isolation of useful microbes is one of the traditional approaches for the lead generation in drug discovery. As an effective technique for microbe isolation, we recently developed a multidimensional diffusion-based gradient culture system of microbes. In order to enhance the utility of the system, it is favorable to have diffusion coefficients of nutrients such as sugars in the culture medium beforehand. We have, therefore, built a simple and convenient experimental system that uses agar-gel to observe diffusion. Next, we performed computer simulations-based on random-walk concepts-of the experimental diffusion system and derived correlation formulas that relate observable diffusion data to diffusion coefficients. Finally, we applied these correlation formulas to our experimentally-determined diffusion data to estimate the diffusion coefficients of sugars. Our values for these coefficients agree reasonably well with values published in the literature. The effectiveness of our simple technique, which has elucidated the diffusion coefficients of some molecules which are rarely reported (e.g., galactose, trehalose, and glycerol) is demonstrated by the strong correspondence between the literature values and those obtained in our experiments.

  13. Effective gaseous diffusion coefficients of select ultra-fine, super-fine and medium grain nuclear graphite

    DOE PAGES

    Kane, Joshua J.; Matthews, Austin C.; Orme, Christopher J.; ...

    2018-05-05

    Understanding “Where?” and “How much?” oxidation has occurred in a nuclear graphite component is critical to predicting any deleterious effects to physical, mechanical, and thermal properties. A key factor in answering these questions is characterizing the effective mass transport rates of gas species in nuclear graphites. Effective gas diffusion coefficients were determined for twenty-six graphite specimens spanning six modern grades of nuclear graphite. A correlation was established for the majority of grades examined allowing a reasonable estimate of the effective diffusion coefficient to be determined purely from an estimate of total porosity. The importance of Knudsen diffusion to the measuredmore » diffusion coefficients is also shown for modern grades. Furthermore, Knudsen diffusion has not historically been considered to contribute to measured diffusion coefficients of nuclear graphite.« less

  14. Effective gaseous diffusion coefficients of select ultra-fine, super-fine and medium grain nuclear graphite

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Kane, Joshua J.; Matthews, Austin C.; Orme, Christopher J.

    Understanding “Where?” and “How much?” oxidation has occurred in a nuclear graphite component is critical to predicting any deleterious effects to physical, mechanical, and thermal properties. A key factor in answering these questions is characterizing the effective mass transport rates of gas species in nuclear graphites. Effective gas diffusion coefficients were determined for twenty-six graphite specimens spanning six modern grades of nuclear graphite. A correlation was established for the majority of grades examined allowing a reasonable estimate of the effective diffusion coefficient to be determined purely from an estimate of total porosity. The importance of Knudsen diffusion to the measuredmore » diffusion coefficients is also shown for modern grades. Furthermore, Knudsen diffusion has not historically been considered to contribute to measured diffusion coefficients of nuclear graphite.« less

  15. Effective diffusion coefficient including the Marangoni effect

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kitahata, Hiroyuki; Yoshinaga, Natsuhiko

    2018-04-01

    Surface-active molecules supplied from a particle fixed at the water surface create a spatial gradient of the molecule concentration, resulting in Marangoni convection. Convective flow transports the molecules far from the particle, enhancing diffusion. We analytically derive the effective diffusion coefficient associated with the Marangoni convection rolls. The resulting estimated effective diffusion coefficient is consistent with our numerical results and the apparent diffusion coefficient measured in experiments.

  16. Effective diffusion coefficients of DNAPL waste components in saturated low permeability soil materials

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ayral-Cinar, Derya; Demond, Avery H.

    2017-12-01

    Diffusion is regarded as the dominant transport mechanism into and out of low permeable subsurface lenses and layers in the subsurface. But, some reports of mass storage in such zones are higher than what might be attributable to diffusion, based on estimated diffusion coefficients. Despite the importance of diffusion to efforts to estimate the quantity of residual contamination in the subsurface, relatively few studies present measured diffusion coefficients of organic solutes in saturated low permeability soils. This study reports the diffusion coefficients of a trichloroethylene (TCE), and an anionic surfactant, Aerosol OT (AOT), in water-saturated silt and a silt-montmorillonite (25:75) mixture, obtained using steady-state experiments. The relative diffusivity ranged from 0.11 to 0.17 for all three compounds for the silt and the silt-clay mixture that was allowed to expand. In the case in which the swelling was constrained, the relative diffusivity was about 0.07. In addition, the relative diffusivity of 13C-labeled TCE through a water saturated silt-clay mixture that had contacted a field dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) for 18 months was measured and equaled 0.001. These experimental results were compared with the estimates generated using common correlations, and it was found that, in all cases, the measured diffusion coefficients were significantly lower than the estimated. Thus, the discrepancy between mass accumulations observed in the field and the mass storage that can attributable to diffusion may be greater than previously believed.

  17. Effective diffusion coefficients of DNAPL waste components in saturated low permeability soil materials.

    PubMed

    Ayral-Cinar, Derya; Demond, Avery H

    2017-12-01

    Diffusion is regarded as the dominant transport mechanism into and out of low permeable subsurface lenses and layers in the subsurface. But, some reports of mass storage in such zones are higher than what might be attributable to diffusion, based on estimated diffusion coefficients. Despite the importance of diffusion to efforts to estimate the quantity of residual contamination in the subsurface, relatively few studies present measured diffusion coefficients of organic solutes in saturated low permeability soils. This study reports the diffusion coefficients of a trichloroethylene (TCE), and an anionic surfactant, Aerosol OT (AOT), in water-saturated silt and a silt-montmorillonite (25:75) mixture, obtained using steady-state experiments. The relative diffusivity ranged from 0.11 to 0.17 for all three compounds for the silt and the silt-clay mixture that was allowed to expand. In the case in which the swelling was constrained, the relative diffusivity was about 0.07. In addition, the relative diffusivity of 13 C-labeled TCE through a water saturated silt-clay mixture that had contacted a field dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) for 18months was measured and equaled 0.001. These experimental results were compared with the estimates generated using common correlations, and it was found that, in all cases, the measured diffusion coefficients were significantly lower than the estimated. Thus, the discrepancy between mass accumulations observed in the field and the mass storage that can attributable to diffusion may be greater than previously believed. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  18. Gas-film coefficients for streams

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Rathbun, R.E.; Tai, D.Y.

    1983-01-01

    Equations for predicting the gas-film coefficient for the volatilization of organic solutes from streams are developed. The film coefficient is a function of windspeed and water temperature. The dependence of the coefficient on windspeed is determined from published information on the evaporation of water from a canal. The dependence of the coefficient on temperature is determined from laboratory studies on the evaporation of water. Procedures for adjusting the coefficients for different organic solutes are based on the molecular diffusion coefficient and the molecular weight. The molecular weight procedure is easiest to use because of the availability of molecular weights. However, the theoretical basis of the procedure is questionable. The diffusion coefficient procedure is supported by considerable data. Questions, however, remain regarding the exact dependence of the film coefficint on the diffusion coefficient. It is suggested that the diffusion coefficient procedure with a 0.68-power dependence be used when precise estimate of the gas-film coefficient are needed and that the molecular weight procedure be used when only approximate estimates are needed.

  19. Optimal estimation of diffusion coefficients from single-particle trajectories

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vestergaard, Christian L.; Blainey, Paul C.; Flyvbjerg, Henrik

    2014-02-01

    How does one optimally determine the diffusion coefficient of a diffusing particle from a single-time-lapse recorded trajectory of the particle? We answer this question with an explicit, unbiased, and practically optimal covariance-based estimator (CVE). This estimator is regression-free and is far superior to commonly used methods based on measured mean squared displacements. In experimentally relevant parameter ranges, it also outperforms the analytically intractable and computationally more demanding maximum likelihood estimator (MLE). For the case of diffusion on a flexible and fluctuating substrate, the CVE is biased by substrate motion. However, given some long time series and a substrate under some tension, an extended MLE can separate particle diffusion on the substrate from substrate motion in the laboratory frame. This provides benchmarks that allow removal of bias caused by substrate fluctuations in CVE. The resulting unbiased CVE is optimal also for short time series on a fluctuating substrate. We have applied our estimators to human 8-oxoguanine DNA glycolase proteins diffusing on flow-stretched DNA, a fluctuating substrate, and found that diffusion coefficients are severely overestimated if substrate fluctuations are not accounted for.

  20. Influence of diffuse reflectance measurement accuracy on the scattering coefficient in determination of optical properties with integrating sphere optics (a secondary publication).

    PubMed

    Horibe, Takuro; Ishii, Katsunori; Fukutomi, Daichi; Awazu, Kunio

    2015-12-30

    An estimation error of the scattering coefficient of hemoglobin in the high absorption wavelength range has been observed in optical property calculations of blood-rich tissues. In this study, the relationship between the accuracy of diffuse reflectance measurement in the integrating sphere and calculated scattering coefficient was evaluated with a system to calculate optical properties combined with an integrating sphere setup and the inverse Monte Carlo simulation. Diffuse reflectance was measured with the integrating sphere using a small incident port diameter and optical properties were calculated. As a result, the estimation error of the scattering coefficient was improved by accurate measurement of diffuse reflectance. In the high absorption wavelength range, the accuracy of diffuse reflectance measurement has an effect on the calculated scattering coefficient.

  1. An improved strip FRAP method for estimating diffusion coefficients: correcting for the degree of photobleaching.

    PubMed

    Yang, J; Köhler, K; Davis, D M; Burroughs, N J

    2010-06-01

    Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching is a widely established method for the estimation of diffusion coefficients, strip bleaching with an associated recovery curve analysis being one of the simplest techniques. However, its implementation requires near 100% bleaching in the region of interest with negligible fluorescence loss outside, both constraints being hard to achieve concomitantly for fast diffusing molecules. We demonstrate that when these requirements are not met there is an error in the estimation of the diffusion coefficient D, either an under- or overestimation depending on which assumption is violated the most. We propose a simple modification to the recovery curve analysis incorporating the concept of the relative bleached mass m giving a revised recovery time parametrization tau=m(2)w(2)/4piD for a strip of width w. This modified model removes the requirement of 100% bleaching in the region of interest and allows for limited diffusion of the fluorophore during bleaching. We validate our method by estimating the (volume) diffusion coefficient of FITC-labelled IgG in 60% glycerol solution, D= 4.09 +/- 0.21 microm(2) s(-1), and the (surface) diffusion coefficient of a green-fluorescent protein-tagged class I MHC protein expressed at the surface of a human B cell line, D= 0.32 +/- 0.03 microm(2) s(-1) for a population of cells.

  2. In situ estimation of the effective chemical diffusion coefficient of a rock matrix in a fractured aquifer

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Gebrekristos, R.A.; Shapiro, A.M.; Usher, B.H.

    2008-01-01

    An in situ method of estimating the effective diffusion coefficient for a chemical constituent that diffuses into the primary porosity of a rock is developed by abruptly changing the concentration of the dissolved constituent in a borehole in contact with the rock matrix and monitoring the time-varying concentration. The experiment was conducted in a borehole completed in mudstone on the campus of the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Numerous tracer tests were conducted at this site, which left a residual concentration of sodium chloride in boreholes that diffused into the rock matrix over a period of years. Fresh water was introduced into a borehole in contact with the mudstone, and the time-varying increase of chloride was observed by monitoring the electrical conductivity (EC) at various depths in the borehole. Estimates of the effective diffusion coefficient were obtained by interpreting measurements of EC over 34 d. The effective diffusion coefficient at a depth of 36 m was approximately 7.8??10-6 m2/d, but was sensitive to the assumed matrix porosity. The formation factor and mass flux for the mudstone were also estimated from the experiment. ?? Springer-Verlag 2007.

  3. Seasonal Variability in Global Eddy Diffusion and the Effect on Thermospheric Neutral Density

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pilinski, M.; Crowley, G.

    2014-12-01

    We describe a method for making single-satellite estimates of the seasonal variability in global-average eddy diffusion coefficients. Eddy diffusion values as a function of time between January 2004 and January 2008 were estimated from residuals of neutral density measurements made by the CHallenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP) and simulations made using the Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Electrodynamics - Global Circulation Model (TIME-GCM). The eddy diffusion coefficient results are quantitatively consistent with previous estimates based on satellite drag observations and are qualitatively consistent with other measurement methods such as sodium lidar observations and eddy-diffusivity models. The eddy diffusion coefficient values estimated between January 2004 and January 2008 were then used to generate new TIME-GCM results. Based on these results, the RMS difference between the TIME-GCM model and density data from a variety of satellites is reduced by an average of 5%. This result, indicates that global thermospheric density modeling can be improved by using data from a single satellite like CHAMP. This approach also demonstrates how eddy diffusion could be estimated in near real-time from satellite observations and used to drive a global circulation model like TIME-GCM. Although the use of global values improves modeled neutral densities, there are some limitations of this method, which are discussed, including that the latitude-dependence of the seasonal neutral-density signal is not completely captured by a global variation of eddy diffusion coefficients. This demonstrates the need for a latitude-dependent specification of eddy diffusion consistent with diffusion observations made by other techniques.

  4. Seasonal variability in global eddy diffusion and the effect on neutral density

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pilinski, M. D.; Crowley, G.

    2015-04-01

    We describe a method for making single-satellite estimates of the seasonal variability in global-average eddy diffusion coefficients. Eddy diffusion values as a function of time were estimated from residuals of neutral density measurements made by the Challenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP) and simulations made using the thermosphere-ionosphere-mesosphere electrodynamics global circulation model (TIME-GCM). The eddy diffusion coefficient results are quantitatively consistent with previous estimates based on satellite drag observations and are qualitatively consistent with other measurement methods such as sodium lidar observations and eddy diffusivity models. Eddy diffusion coefficient values estimated between January 2004 and January 2008 were then used to generate new TIME-GCM results. Based on these results, the root-mean-square sum for the TIME-GCM model is reduced by an average of 5% when compared to density data from a variety of satellites, indicating that the fidelity of global density modeling can be improved by using data from a single satellite like CHAMP. This approach also demonstrates that eddy diffusion could be estimated in near real-time from satellite observations and used to drive a global circulation model like TIME-GCM. Although the use of global values improves modeled neutral densities, there are limitations to this method, which are discussed, including that the latitude dependence of the seasonal neutral-density signal is not completely captured by a global variation of eddy diffusion coefficients. This demonstrates the need for a latitude-dependent specification of eddy diffusion which is also consistent with diffusion observations made by other techniques.

  5. An Ab Initio and Kinetic Monte Carlo Simulation Study of Lithium Ion Diffusion on Graphene

    PubMed Central

    Zhong, Kehua; Yang, Yanmin; Xu, Guigui; Zhang, Jian-Min; Huang, Zhigao

    2017-01-01

    The Li+ diffusion coefficients in Li+-adsorbed graphene systems were determined by combining first-principle calculations based on density functional theory with Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. The calculated results indicate that the interactions between Li ions have a very important influence on lithium diffusion. Based on energy barriers directly obtained from first-principle calculations for single-Li+ and two-Li+ adsorbed systems, a new equation predicting energy barriers with more than two Li ions was deduced. Furthermore, it is found that the temperature dependence of Li+ diffusion coefficients fits well to the Arrhenius equation, rather than meeting the equation from electrochemical impedance spectroscopy applied to estimate experimental diffusion coefficients. Moreover, the calculated results also reveal that Li+ concentration dependence of diffusion coefficients roughly fits to the equation from electrochemical impedance spectroscopy in a low concentration region; however, it seriously deviates from the equation in a high concentration region. So, the equation from electrochemical impedance spectroscopy technique could not be simply used to estimate the Li+ diffusion coefficient for all Li+-adsorbed graphene systems with various Li+ concentrations. Our work suggests that interactions between Li ions, and among Li ion and host atoms will influence the Li+ diffusion, which determines that the Li+ intercalation dependence of Li+ diffusion coefficient should be changed and complex. PMID:28773122

  6. Experimental Method Development for Estimating Solid-phase Diffusion Coefficients and Material/Air Partition Coefficients of SVOCs

    EPA Science Inventory

    The solid-phase diffusion coefficient (Dm) and material-air partition coefficient (Kma) are key parameters for characterizing the sources and transport of semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs) in the indoor environment. In this work, a new experimental method was developed to es...

  7. Approximation of effective moisture-diffusion coefficient to characterize performance of a barrier coating

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nagai, Shingo

    2013-11-01

    We report estimation of the effective diffusion coefficient of moisture through a barrier coating to develop an encapsulation technology for the thin-film electronics industry. This investigation targeted a silicon oxide (SiOx) film that was deposited on a plastic substrate by a large-process-area web coater. Using the finite difference method based on diffusion theory, our estimation of the effective diffusion coefficient of a SiOx film corresponded to that of bulk glass that was previously reported. This result suggested that the low diffusivities of barrier films can be obtained on a mass-production level in the factory. In this investigation, experimental observations and mathematical confirmation revealed the limit of the water vapor transmission rate on the single barrier coating.

  8. Molecular modeling of diffusion coefficient and ionic conductivity of CO2 in aqueous ionic solutions.

    PubMed

    Garcia-Ratés, Miquel; de Hemptinne, Jean-Charles; Bonet Avalos, Josep; Nieto-Draghi, Carlos

    2012-03-08

    Mass diffusion coefficients of CO(2)/brine mixtures under thermodynamic conditions of deep saline aquifers have been investigated by molecular simulation. The objective of this work is to provide estimates of the diffusion coefficient of CO(2) in salty water to compensate the lack of experimental data on this property. We analyzed the influence of temperature, CO(2) concentration,and salinity on the diffusion coefficient, the rotational diffusion, as well as the electrical conductivity. We observe an increase of the mass diffusion coefficient with the temperature, but no clear dependence is identified with the salinity or with the CO(2) mole fraction, if the system is overall dilute. In this case, we notice an important dispersion on the values of the diffusion coefficient which impairs any conclusive statement about the effect of the gas concentration on the mobility of CO(2) molecules. Rotational relaxation times for water and CO(2) increase by decreasing temperature or increasing the salt concentration. We propose a correlation for the self-diffusion coefficient of CO(2) in terms of the rotational relaxation time which can ultimately be used to estimate the mutual diffusion coefficient of CO(2) in brine. The electrical conductivity of the CO(2)-brine mixtures was also calculated under different thermodynamic conditions. Electrical conductivity tends to increase with the temperature and salt concentration. However, we do not observe any influence of this property with the CO(2) concentration at the studied regimes. Our results give a first evaluation of the variation of the CO(2)-brine mass diffusion coefficient, rotational relaxation times, and electrical conductivity under the thermodynamic conditions typically encountered in deep saline aquifers.

  9. Estimation of water diffusion coefficient into polycarbonate at different temperatures using numerical simulation

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Nasirabadi, P. Shojaee; Jabbari, M.; Hattel, J. H.

    2016-06-08

    Nowadays, many electronic systems are exposed to harsh conditions of relative humidity and temperature. Mass transport properties of electronic packaging materials are needed in order to investigate the influence of moisture and temperature on reliability of electronic devices. Polycarbonate (PC) is widely used in the electronics industry. Thus, in this work the water diffusion coefficient into PC is investigated. Furthermore, numerical methods used for estimation of the diffusion coefficient and their assumptions are discussed. 1D and 3D numerical solutions are compared and based on this, it is shown how the estimated value can be different depending on the choice ofmore » dimensionality in the model.« less

  10. Correlation Between the Field Line and Particle Diffusion Coefficients in the Stochastic Fields of a Tokamak

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Calvin, Mark; Punjabi, Alkesh

    1996-11-01

    We use the method of quasi-magnetic surfaces to calculate the correlation between the field line and particle diffusion coefficients. The magnetic topology of a tokamak is perturbed by a spectrum of neighboring resonant resistive modes. The Hamiltonian equations of motion for the field line are integrated numerically. Poincare plots of the quasi-magnetic surfaces are generated initially and after the field line has traversed a considerable distance. From the areas of the quasi-magnetic surfaces and the field line distance, we estimate the field line diffusion coefficient. We start plasma particles on the initial quasi-surface, and calculate the particle diffusion coefficient from our Monte Carlo method (Punjabi A., Boozer A., Lam M., Kim H. and Burke K., J. Plasma Phys.), 44, 405 (1990). We then estimate the correlation between the particle and field diffusion as the strength of the resistive modes is varied.

  11. Critical role for mesoscale eddy diffusion in supplying oxygen to hypoxic ocean waters

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gnanadesikan, Anand; Bianchi, Daniele; Pradal, Marie-Aude

    2013-10-01

    of the oceanic lateral eddy diffusion coefficient Aredi vary by more than an order of magnitude, ranging from less than a few hundred m2/s to thousands of m2/s. This uncertainty has first-order implications for the intensity of oceanic hypoxia, which is poorly simulated by the current generation of Earth System Models. Using satellite-based estimate of oxygen consumption in hypoxic waters to estimate the required diffusion coefficient for these waters gives a value of order 1000 m2/s. Varying Aredi across a suite of Earth System Models yields a broadly consistent result given a thermocline diapycnal diffusion coefficient of 1 × 10-5 m2/s.

  12. Mixing Efficiency in the Ocean.

    PubMed

    Gregg, M C; D'Asaro, E A; Riley, J J; Kunze, E

    2018-01-03

    Mixing efficiency is the ratio of the net change in potential energy to the energy expended in producing the mixing. Parameterizations of efficiency and of related mixing coefficients are needed to estimate diapycnal diffusivity from measurements of the turbulent dissipation rate. Comparing diffusivities from microstructure profiling with those inferred from the thickening rate of four simultaneous tracer releases has verified, within observational accuracy, 0.2 as the mixing coefficient over a 30-fold range of diapycnal diffusivities. Although some mixing coefficients can be estimated from pycnocline measurements, at present mixing efficiency must be obtained from channel flows, laboratory experiments, and numerical simulations. Reviewing the different approaches demonstrates that estimates and parameterizations for mixing efficiency and coefficients are not converging beyond the at-sea comparisons with tracer releases, leading to recommendations for a community approach to address this important issue.

  13. Mixing Efficiency in the Ocean

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gregg, M. C.; D'Asaro, E. A.; Riley, J. J.; Kunze, E.

    2018-01-01

    Mixing efficiency is the ratio of the net change in potential energy to the energy expended in producing the mixing. Parameterizations of efficiency and of related mixing coefficients are needed to estimate diapycnal diffusivity from measurements of the turbulent dissipation rate. Comparing diffusivities from microstructure profiling with those inferred from the thickening rate of four simultaneous tracer releases has verified, within observational accuracy, 0.2 as the mixing coefficient over a 30-fold range of diapycnal diffusivities. Although some mixing coefficients can be estimated from pycnocline measurements, at present mixing efficiency must be obtained from channel flows, laboratory experiments, and numerical simulations. Reviewing the different approaches demonstrates that estimates and parameterizations for mixing efficiency and coefficients are not converging beyond the at-sea comparisons with tracer releases, leading to recommendations for a community approach to address this important issue.

  14. Molecular dynamics simulation of three plastic additives' diffusion in polyethylene terephthalate.

    PubMed

    Li, Bo; Wang, Zhi-Wei; Lin, Qin-Bao; Hu, Chang-Ying

    2017-06-01

    Accurate diffusion coefficient data of additives in a polymer are of paramount importance for estimating the migration of the additives over time. This paper shows how this diffusion coefficient can be estimated for three plastic additives [2-(2'-hydroxy-5'-methylphenyl) (UV-P), 2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-methylphenol (BHT) and di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP)] in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) using the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation method. MD simulations were performed at temperatures of 293-433 K. The diffusion coefficient was calculated through the Einstein relationship connecting the data of mean-square displacement at different times. Comparison of the diffusion coefficients simulated by the MD simulation technique, predicted by the Piringer model and experiments, showed that, except for a few samples, the MD-simulated values were in agreement with the experimental values within one order of magnitude. Furthermore, the diffusion process for additives is discussed in detail, and four factors - the interaction energy between additive molecules and PET, fractional free volume, molecular shape and size, and self-diffusion of the polymer - are proposed to illustrate the microscopic diffusion mechanism. The movement trajectories of additives in PET cell models suggested that the additive molecules oscillate slowly rather than hopping for a long time. Occasionally, when a sufficiently large hole was created adjacently, the molecule could undergo spatial motion by jumping into the free-volume hole and consequently start a continuous oscillation and hop. The results indicate that MD simulation is a useful approach for predicting the microstructure and diffusion coefficient of plastic additives, and help to estimate the migration level of additives from PET packaging.

  15. Gyrokinetic modelling of the quasilinear particle flux for plasmas with neutral-beam fuelling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Narita, E.; Honda, M.; Nakata, M.; Yoshida, M.; Takenaga, H.; Hayashi, N.

    2018-02-01

    A quasilinear particle flux is modelled based on gyrokinetic calculations. The particle flux is estimated by determining factors, namely, coefficients of off-diagonal terms and a particle diffusivity. In this paper, the methodology to estimate the factors is presented using a subset of JT-60U plasmas. First, the coefficients of off-diagonal terms are estimated by linear gyrokinetic calculations. Next, to obtain the particle diffusivity, a semi-empirical approach is taken. Most experimental analyses for particle transport have assumed that turbulent particle fluxes are zero in the core region. On the other hand, even in the stationary state, the plasmas in question have a finite turbulent particle flux due to neutral-beam fuelling. By combining estimates of the experimental turbulent particle flux and the coefficients of off-diagonal terms calculated earlier, the particle diffusivity is obtained. The particle diffusivity should reflect a saturation amplitude of instabilities. The particle diffusivity is investigated in terms of the effects of the linear instability and linear zonal flow response, and it is found that a formula including these effects roughly reproduces the particle diffusivity. The developed framework for prediction of the particle flux is flexible to add terms neglected in the current model. The methodology to estimate the quasilinear particle flux requires so low computational cost that a database consisting of the resultant coefficients of off-diagonal terms and particle diffusivity can be constructed to train a neural network. The development of the methodology is the first step towards a neural-network-based particle transport model for fast prediction of the particle flux.

  16. Estimation of CO2 diffusion coefficient at 0-10 cm depth in undisturbed and tilled soils

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Diffusion coefficients (D) of CO2 at 0 – 10 cm layers in undisturbed and tilled soil conditions were estimated using Penman, Millington-Quirk, Ridgwell et al. (1999), Troeh et al., and Moldrup et al. models. Soil bulk density and volumetric soil water content ('v) at 0 – 10 cm were measured on April...

  17. In Silico Estimation of Skin Concentration Following the Dermal Exposure to Chemicals.

    PubMed

    Hatanaka, Tomomi; Yoshida, Shun; Kadhum, Wesam R; Todo, Hiroaki; Sugibayashi, Kenji

    2015-12-01

    To develop an in silico method based on Fick's law of diffusion to estimate the skin concentration following dermal exposure to chemicals with a wide range of lipophilicity. Permeation experiments of various chemicals were performed through rat and porcine skin. Permeation parameters, namely, permeability coefficient and partition coefficient, were obtained by the fitting of data to two-layered and one-layered diffusion models for whole and stripped skin. The mean skin concentration of chemicals during steady-state permeation was calculated using the permeation parameters and compared with the observed values. All permeation profiles could be described by the diffusion models. The estimated skin concentrations of chemicals using permeation parameters were close to the observed levels and most data fell within the 95% confidence interval for complete prediction. The permeability coefficient and partition coefficient for stripped skin were almost constant, being independent of the permeant's lipophilicity. Skin concentration following dermal exposure to various chemicals can be accurately estimated based on Fick's law of diffusion. This method should become a useful tool to assess the efficacy of topically applied drugs and cosmetic ingredients, as well as the risk of chemicals likely to cause skin disorders and diseases.

  18. Research and Development of Methods for Estimating Physicochemical Properties of Organic Compounds of Environmental Concern

    DTIC Science & Technology

    1979-02-01

    coefficient (at equilibrium) when hysteresis is apparent. 6. Coefficient n in Freundlich equation for 1/n soil or sediment adsorption isotherms ýX - KC . 7...Biodegradation Chemical structures cal clasaes (e.g., Diffusion Correlations phenols). General Diffusion coefficients Equations terms for organic...OF THE FATE AND TRANSPORT OF ORGANIC CHEMICALS Adsorption coefficients: K, n* from Freundlich equation + Desorption coefficients: K’*, n’* from

  19. Messages Do Diffuse Faster than Messengers: Reconciling Disparate Estimates of the Morphogen Bicoid Diffusion Coefficient

    PubMed Central

    Sigaut, Lorena; Pearson, John E.; Colman-Lerner, Alejandro; Ponce Dawson, Silvina

    2014-01-01

    The gradient of Bicoid (Bcd) is key for the establishment of the anterior-posterior axis in Drosophila embryos. The gradient properties are compatible with the SDD model in which Bcd is synthesized at the anterior pole and then diffuses into the embryo and is degraded with a characteristic time. Within this model, the Bcd diffusion coefficient is critical to set the timescale of gradient formation. This coefficient has been measured using two optical techniques, Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching (FRAP) and Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS), obtaining estimates in which the FCS value is an order of magnitude larger than the FRAP one. This discrepancy raises the following questions: which estimate is "correct''; what is the reason for the disparity; and can the SDD model explain Bcd gradient formation within the experimentally observed times? In this paper, we use a simple biophysical model in which Bcd diffuses and interacts with binding sites to show that both the FRAP and the FCS estimates may be correct and compatible with the observed timescale of gradient formation. The discrepancy arises from the fact that FCS and FRAP report on different effective (concentration dependent) diffusion coefficients, one of which describes the spreading rate of the individual Bcd molecules (the messengers) and the other one that of their concentration (the message). The latter is the one that is more relevant for the gradient establishment and is compatible with its formation within the experimentally observed times. PMID:24901638

  20. Messages do diffuse faster than messengers: reconciling disparate estimates of the morphogen bicoid diffusion coefficient.

    PubMed

    Sigaut, Lorena; Pearson, John E; Colman-Lerner, Alejandro; Ponce Dawson, Silvina

    2014-06-01

    The gradient of Bicoid (Bcd) is key for the establishment of the anterior-posterior axis in Drosophila embryos. The gradient properties are compatible with the SDD model in which Bcd is synthesized at the anterior pole and then diffuses into the embryo and is degraded with a characteristic time. Within this model, the Bcd diffusion coefficient is critical to set the timescale of gradient formation. This coefficient has been measured using two optical techniques, Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching (FRAP) and Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS), obtaining estimates in which the FCS value is an order of magnitude larger than the FRAP one. This discrepancy raises the following questions: which estimate is "correct''; what is the reason for the disparity; and can the SDD model explain Bcd gradient formation within the experimentally observed times? In this paper, we use a simple biophysical model in which Bcd diffuses and interacts with binding sites to show that both the FRAP and the FCS estimates may be correct and compatible with the observed timescale of gradient formation. The discrepancy arises from the fact that FCS and FRAP report on different effective (concentration dependent) diffusion coefficients, one of which describes the spreading rate of the individual Bcd molecules (the messengers) and the other one that of their concentration (the message). The latter is the one that is more relevant for the gradient establishment and is compatible with its formation within the experimentally observed times.

  1. Estimation of the radial diffusion coefficient using REE-associated ground Pc 5 pulsations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fujimoto, A.; Yumoto, K.

    2010-12-01

    Pc 5 pulsations with frequencies between 1.67 and 6.67 mHz are believed to contribute to the REE in the outer radiation belt during magnetic storms, by means of the observations [Baker et al., 1998; Rostoker et al., 1998; Mathie and Mann, 2000; O'Brien et al., 2001, 2003] and several theoretical studies. The latter studies are roughly categorized into two themes: in-situ acceleration at L lower than 6.6 by wave-particle interactions [Liu et al., 199 9; Summers et al., 1999; Summers and Ma, 2000] and acceleration by radial diffusion from the outer to the inner magnetosphere [Elkington et al., 1999, 2003; Hudson et al., 2000; Kim et al., 2001]. One possible acceleration mechanism is the resonant interaction with Pc 5 toroidal and poloidal pulsations, referred as the radial diffusion mechanism. One of unsolved problems is where and which Pc 5 pulsation mode (toroidal and/or poloidal) play effective role in the radial diffusion process. In order to verify Pc 5 pulsation as the major roles for REEs, we have to examine the time variation of electron phase space density (cf. Green et al., 2004). Electron phase space density is not directly measured, but we can estimate radial diffusion coefficients which determine the electron transportation efficiency, using ground-based magnetic field data. We estimated the radial diffusion coefficient of ground Pc 5 pulsations associated with the Relativistic Electron Enhancement (REE) in the geosynchronous orbit. In order to estimate the radial diffusion coefficient D_LL, we need the value of in-situ Pc 5 electric field power spectral density. In this paper, however, we estimated the equatorial electric field mapped from Pc 5 pulsations power spectral density on the ground. Reciprocal of radial diffusion coefficient describes the timescale T_LL for an electron to diffuse 1 Re. Applying a superposed epoch analysis about timescales T_LL of the radial diffusion for 12 REE events in 2008, we found that when the relativistic electron enhancements occur, T_LL at higher latitude (L larger than 5) is predominantly diffusional, whereas T_LL at lower latitude (L less than 4) is mainly convectional. We concluded that higher-latitude Pc 5 pulsations play more effective roles than lower latitude Pc 5 pulsations in the radial diffusion process.

  2. Quantitative differentiation of breast lesions at 3T diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) using the ratio of distributed diffusion coefficient (DDC).

    PubMed

    Ertas, Gokhan; Onaygil, Can; Akin, Yasin; Kaya, Handan; Aribal, Erkin

    2016-12-01

    To investigate the accuracy of diffusion coefficients and diffusion coefficient ratios of breast lesions and of glandular breast tissue from mono- and stretched-exponential models for quantitative diagnosis in diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We analyzed pathologically confirmed 170 lesions (85 benign and 85 malignant) imaged using a 3.0T MR scanner. Small regions of interest (ROIs) focusing on the highest signal intensity for lesions and also for glandular tissue of contralateral breast were obtained. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and distributed diffusion coefficient (DDC) were estimated by performing nonlinear fittings using mono- and stretched-exponential models, respectively. Coefficient ratios were calculated by dividing the lesion coefficient by the glandular tissue coefficient. A stretched exponential model provides significantly better fits then the monoexponential model (P < 0.001): 65% of the better fits for glandular tissue and 71% of the better fits for lesion. High correlation was found in diffusion coefficients (0.99-0.81 and coefficient ratios (0.94) between the models. The highest diagnostic accuracy was found by the DDC ratio (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.93) when compared with lesion DDC, ADC ratio, and lesion ADC (AUC = 0.91, 0.90, 0.90) but with no statistically significant difference (P > 0.05). At optimal thresholds, the DDC ratio achieves 93% sensitivity, 80% specificity, and 87% overall diagnostic accuracy, while ADC ratio leads to 89% sensitivity, 78% specificity, and 83% overall diagnostic accuracy. The stretched exponential model fits better with signal intensity measurements from both lesion and glandular tissue ROIs. Although the DDC ratio estimated by using the model shows a higher diagnostic accuracy than the ADC ratio, lesion DDC, and ADC, it is not statistically significant. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2016;44:1633-1641. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

  3. Validation of drift and diffusion coefficients from experimental data

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Riera, R.; Anteneodo, C.

    2010-04-01

    Many fluctuation phenomena, in physics and other fields, can be modeled by Fokker-Planck or stochastic differential equations whose coefficients, associated with drift and diffusion components, may be estimated directly from the observed time series. Its correct characterization is crucial to determine the system quantifiers. However, due to the finite sampling rates of real data, the empirical estimates may significantly differ from their true functional forms. In the literature, low-order corrections, or even no corrections, have been applied to the finite-time estimates. A frequent outcome consists of linear drift and quadratic diffusion coefficients. For this case, exact corrections have been recently found, from Itô-Taylor expansions. Nevertheless, model validation constitutes a necessary step before determining and applying the appropriate corrections. Here, we exploit the consequences of the exact theoretical results obtained for the linear-quadratic model. In particular, we discuss whether the observed finite-time estimates are actually a manifestation of that model. The relevance of this analysis is put into evidence by its application to two contrasting real data examples in which finite-time linear drift and quadratic diffusion coefficients are observed. In one case the linear-quadratic model is readily rejected while in the other, although the model constitutes a very good approximation, low-order corrections are inappropriate. These examples give warning signs about the proper interpretation of finite-time analysis even in more general diffusion processes.

  4. An inverse moisture diffusion algorithm for the determination of diffusion coefficient

    Treesearch

    Jen Y. Liu; William T. Simpson; Steve P. Verrill

    2000-01-01

    The finite difference approximation is applied to estimate the moisture-dependent diffusion coefficient by utilizing test data of isothermal moisture desorption in northern red oak (Quercus rubra). The test data contain moisture distributions at discrete locations across the thickness of specimens, which coincides with the radial direction of northern red oak, and at...

  5. An inverse moisture diffusion algorithm for the determination of diffusion coefficient

    Treesearch

    Jen Y. Liu; William T. Simpson; Steve P. Verrill

    2001-01-01

    The finite difference approximation is applied to estimate the moisture-dependent diffusion coefficient by utilizing test data of isothermal moisture desorption in northern red oak (Quercus rubra). The test data contain moisture distributions at discrete locations across the thickness of specimens, which coincides with the radial direction of northern red oak, and at...

  6. A quantitative property-property relationship for the internal diffusion coefficients of organic compounds in solid materials.

    PubMed

    Huang, L; Fantke, P; Ernstoff, A; Jolliet, O

    2017-11-01

    Indoor releases of organic chemicals encapsulated in solid materials are major contributors to human exposures and are directly related to the internal diffusion coefficient in solid materials. Existing correlations to estimate the diffusion coefficient are only valid for a limited number of chemical-material combinations. This paper develops and evaluates a quantitative property-property relationship (QPPR) to predict diffusion coefficients for a wide range of organic chemicals and materials. We first compiled a training dataset of 1103 measured diffusion coefficients for 158 chemicals in 32 consolidated material types. Following a detailed analysis of the temperature influence, we developed a multiple linear regression model to predict diffusion coefficients as a function of chemical molecular weight (MW), temperature, and material type (adjusted R 2 of .93). The internal validations showed the model to be robust, stable and not a result of chance correlation. The external validation against two separate prediction datasets demonstrated the model has good predicting ability within its applicability domain (Rext2>.8), namely MW between 30 and 1178 g/mol and temperature between 4 and 180°C. By covering a much wider range of organic chemicals and materials, this QPPR facilitates high-throughput estimates of human exposures for chemicals encapsulated in solid materials. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  7. Metal Accretion onto White Dwarfs. I. The Approximate Approach Based on Estimates of Diffusion Timescales

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fontaine, G.; Brassard, P.; Dufour, P.; Tremblay, P.-E.

    2015-06-01

    The accretion-diffusion picture is the model par excellence for describing the presence of planetary debris polluting the atmospheres of relatively cool white dwarfs. Some important insights into the process may be derived using an approximate approach which combines static stellar models with estimates of diffusion timescales at the base of the outer convection zone or, in its absence, at the photosphere. Until recently, and to our knowledge, values of diffusion timescales in white dwarfs have all been obtained on the basis of the same physics as that developed initially by Paquette et al., including their diffusion coefficients and thermal diffusion coefficients. In view of the recent exciting discoveries of a plethora of metals (including some never seen before) polluting the atmospheres of an increasing number of cool white dwarfs, we felt that a new look at the estimates of settling timescales would be worthwhile. We thus provide improved estimates of diffusion timescales for all 27 elements from Li to Cu in the periodic table in a wide range of the surface gravity-effective temperature domain and for both DA and non-DA stars.

  8. Diffusion and solubility coefficients determined by permeation and immersion experiments for organic solvents in HDPE geomembrane.

    PubMed

    Chao, Keh-Ping; Wang, Ping; Wang, Ya-Ting

    2007-04-02

    The chemical resistance of eight organic solvents in high density polyethylene (HDPE) geomembrane has been investigated using the ASTM F739 permeation method and the immersion test at different temperatures. The diffusion of the experimental organic solvents in HDPE geomembrane was non-Fickian kinetic, and the solubility coefficients can be consistent with the solubility parameter theory. The diffusion coefficients and solubility coefficients determined by the ASTM F739 method were significantly correlated to the immersion tests (p<0.001). The steady state permeation rates also showed a good agreement between ASTM F739 and immersion experiments (r(2)=0.973, p<0.001). Using a one-dimensional diffusion equation based on Fick's second law, the diffusion and solubility coefficients obtained by immersion test resulted in over estimates of the ASTM F739 permeation results. The modeling results indicated that the diffusion and solubility coefficients should be obtained using ASTM F739 method which closely simulates the practical application of HDPE as barriers in the field.

  9. Data-driven analysis for the temperature and momentum dependence of the heavy-quark diffusion coefficient in relativistic heavy-ion collisions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Xu, Yingru; Bernhard, Jonah E.; Bass, Steffen A.; Nahrgang, Marlene; Cao, Shanshan

    2018-01-01

    By applying a Bayesian model-to-data analysis, we estimate the temperature and momentum dependence of the heavy quark diffusion coefficient in an improved Langevin framework. The posterior range of the diffusion coefficient is obtained by performing a Markov chain Monte Carlo random walk and calibrating on the experimental data of D -meson RAA and v2 in three different collision systems at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collidaer (RHIC) and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC): Au-Au collisions at 200 GeV and Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 and 5.02 TeV. The spatial diffusion coefficient is found to be consistent with lattice QCD calculations and comparable with other models' estimation. We demonstrate the capability of our improved Langevin model to simultaneously describe the RAA and v2 at both RHIC and the LHC energies, as well as the higher order flow coefficient such as D meson v3. We show that by applying a Bayesian analysis, we are able to quantitatively and systematically study the heavy flavor dynamics in heavy-ion collisions.

  10. Translational diffusion coefficients of volatile compounds in various aqueous solutions at low and subzero temperatures.

    PubMed

    Covarrubias-Cervantes, Marco; Champion, Dominique; Debeaufort, Frédéric; Voilley, Andrée

    2005-08-24

    Translational diffusion coefficients (D(12)) of volatile compounds were measured in model media with the profile concentration method. The influence of sample temperature (from 25 to -10 degrees C) was studied on translational diffusion in sucrose or maltodextrin solutions at various concentrations. Results show that diffusivity of volatile compounds in sucrose solutions is controlled by temperature, molecule size, and the viscosity of the liquid phase as expected with the Stokes-Einstein equation; moreover, physicochemical interactions between volatile compounds and the medium are determinant for diffusion estimation. At negative temperature, the winding path induced by an ice crystal content of >70% lowered volatile compound diffusion. On the contrary, no influence on translational diffusion coefficients was observed for lower ice content.

  11. Method for Calculating the Optical Diffuse Reflection Coefficient for the Ocular Fundus

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lisenko, S. A.; Kugeiko, M. M.

    2016-07-01

    We have developed a method for calculating the optical diffuse reflection coefficient for the ocular fundus, taking into account multiple scattering of light in its layers (retina, epithelium, choroid) and multiple refl ection of light between layers. The method is based on the formulas for optical "combination" of the layers of the medium, in which the optical parameters of the layers (absorption and scattering coefficients) are replaced by some effective values, different for cases of directional and diffuse illumination of the layer. Coefficients relating the effective optical parameters of the layers and the actual values were established based on the results of a Monte Carlo numerical simulation of radiation transport in the medium. We estimate the uncertainties in retrieval of the structural and morphological parameters for the fundus from its diffuse reflectance spectrum using our method. We show that the simulated spectra correspond to the experimental data and that the estimates of the fundus parameters obtained as a result of solving the inverse problem are reasonable.

  12. Efficient estimation of diffusion during dendritic solidification

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Yeum, K. S.; Poirier, D. R.; Laxmanan, V.

    1989-01-01

    A very efficient finite difference method has been developed to estimate the solute redistribution during solidification with diffusion in the solid. This method is validated by comparing the computed results with the results of an analytical solution derived by Kobayashi (1988) for the assumptions of a constant diffusion coefficient, a constant equilibrium partition ratio, and a parabolic rate of the advancement of the solid/liquid interface. The flexibility of the method is demonstrated by applying it to the dendritic solidification of a Pb-15 wt pct Sn alloy, for which the equilibrium partition ratio and diffusion coefficient vary substantially during solidification. The fraction eutectic at the end of solidification is also obtained by estimating the fraction solid, in greater resolution, where the concentration of solute in the interdendritic liquid reaches the eutectic composition of the alloy.

  13. Extending the Diffuse Layer Model of Surface Acidity Behavior: III. Estimating Bound Site Activity Coefficients

    EPA Science Inventory

    Although detailed thermodynamic analyses of the 2-pK diffuse layer surface complexation model generally specify bound site activity coefficients for the purpose of accounting for those non-ideal excess free energies contributing to bound site electrochemical potentials, in applic...

  14. Arbitrary-order corrections for finite-time drift and diffusion coefficients

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Anteneodo, C.; Riera, R.

    2009-09-01

    We address a standard class of diffusion processes with linear drift and quadratic diffusion coefficients. These contributions to dynamic equations can be directly drawn from data time series. However, real data are constrained to finite sampling rates and therefore it is crucial to establish a suitable mathematical description of the required finite-time corrections. Based on Itô-Taylor expansions, we present the exact corrections to the finite-time drift and diffusion coefficients. These results allow to reconstruct the real hidden coefficients from the empirical estimates. We also derive higher-order finite-time expressions for the third and fourth conditional moments that furnish extra theoretical checks for this class of diffusion models. The analytical predictions are compared with the numerical outcomes of representative artificial time series.

  15. Diffusion coefficient and shear viscosity of rigid water models.

    PubMed

    Tazi, Sami; Boţan, Alexandru; Salanne, Mathieu; Marry, Virginie; Turq, Pierre; Rotenberg, Benjamin

    2012-07-18

    We report the diffusion coefficient and viscosity of popular rigid water models: two non-polarizable ones (SPC/E with three sites, and TIP4P/2005 with four sites) and a polarizable one (Dang-Chang, four sites). We exploit the dependence of the diffusion coefficient on the system size (Yeh and Hummer 2004 J. Phys. Chem. B 108 15873) to obtain the size-independent value. This also provides an estimate of the viscosity of all water models, which we compare to the Green-Kubo result. In all cases, a good agreement is found. The TIP4P/2005 model is in better agreement with the experimental data for both diffusion and viscosity. The SPC/E and Dang-Chang models overestimate the diffusion coefficient and underestimate the viscosity.

  16. Communication: Coordinate-dependent diffusivity from single molecule trajectories

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Berezhkovskii, Alexander M.; Makarov, Dmitrii E.

    2017-11-01

    Single-molecule observations of biomolecular folding are commonly interpreted using the model of one-dimensional diffusion along a reaction coordinate, with a coordinate-independent diffusion coefficient. Recent analysis, however, suggests that more general models are required to account for single-molecule measurements performed with high temporal resolution. Here, we consider one such generalization: a model where the diffusion coefficient can be an arbitrary function of the reaction coordinate. Assuming Brownian dynamics along this coordinate, we derive an exact expression for the coordinate-dependent diffusivity in terms of the splitting probability within an arbitrarily chosen interval and the mean transition path time between the interval boundaries. This formula can be used to estimate the effective diffusion coefficient along a reaction coordinate directly from single-molecule trajectories.

  17. SPECIAL ISSUE DEVOTED TO THE 80TH BIRTHDAY OF S.A. AKHMANOV: Transient coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering spectroscopy as a tool for measuring the diffusion coefficient and size of gas molecules

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nikitin, Sergei Yu

    2009-07-01

    Formulas are derived for evaluating the diffusion coefficient and size of gas molecules from transient coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering measurements. Numerical estimates are presented for hydrogen.

  18. New method and installation for rapid determination of radon diffusion coefficient in various materials.

    PubMed

    Tsapalov, Andrey; Gulabyants, Loren; Livshits, Mihail; Kovler, Konstantin

    2014-04-01

    The mathematical apparatus and the experimental installation for the rapid determination of radon diffusion coefficient in various materials are developed. The single test lasts not longer than 18 h and allows testing numerous materials, such as gaseous and liquid media, as well as soil, concrete and radon-proof membranes, in which diffusion coefficient of radon may vary in an extremely wide range, from 1·10(-12) to 5·10(-5) m(2)/s. The uncertainty of radon diffusion coefficient estimation depends on the permeability of the sample and varies from about 5% (for the most permeable materials) to 40% (for less permeable materials, such as radon-proof membranes). Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  19. Uncertainty for calculating transport on Titan: A probabilistic description of bimolecular diffusion parameters

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Plessis, S.; McDougall, D.; Mandt, K.; Greathouse, T.; Luspay-Kuti, A.

    2015-11-01

    Bimolecular diffusion coefficients are important parameters used by atmospheric models to calculate altitude profiles of minor constituents in an atmosphere. Unfortunately, laboratory measurements of these coefficients were never conducted at temperature conditions relevant to the atmosphere of Titan. Here we conduct a detailed uncertainty analysis of the bimolecular diffusion coefficient parameters as applied to Titan's upper atmosphere to provide a better understanding of the impact of uncertainty for this parameter on models. Because temperature and pressure conditions are much lower than the laboratory conditions in which bimolecular diffusion parameters were measured, we apply a Bayesian framework, a problem-agnostic framework, to determine parameter estimates and associated uncertainties. We solve the Bayesian calibration problem using the open-source QUESO library which also performs a propagation of uncertainties in the calibrated parameters to temperature and pressure conditions observed in Titan's upper atmosphere. Our results show that, after propagating uncertainty through the Massman model, the uncertainty in molecular diffusion is highly correlated to temperature and we observe no noticeable correlation with pressure. We propagate the calibrated molecular diffusion estimate and associated uncertainty to obtain an estimate with uncertainty due to bimolecular diffusion for the methane molar fraction as a function of altitude. Results show that the uncertainty in methane abundance due to molecular diffusion is in general small compared to eddy diffusion and the chemical kinetics description. However, methane abundance is most sensitive to uncertainty in molecular diffusion above 1200 km where the errors are nontrivial and could have important implications for scientific research based on diffusion models in this altitude range.

  20. The rate of equilibration of viscous aerosol particles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    O'Meara, Simon; Topping, David O.; McFiggans, Gordon

    2016-04-01

    The proximity of atmospheric aerosol particles to equilibrium with their surrounding condensable vapours can substantially impact their transformations, fate and impacts and is the subject of vibrant research activity. In this study we first compare equilibration timescales estimated by three different models for diffusion through aerosol particles to assess any sensitivity to choice of model framework. Equilibration times for diffusion coefficients with varying dependencies on composition are compared for the first time. We show that even under large changes in the saturation ratio of a semi-volatile component (es) of 1-90 % predicted equilibration timescales are in agreement, including when diffusion coefficients vary with composition. For condensing water and a diffusion coefficient dependent on composition, a plasticising effect is observed, leading to a decreased estimated equilibration time with increasing final es. Above 60 % final es maximum equilibration times of around 1 s are estimated for comparatively large particles (10 µm) containing a relatively low diffusivity component (1 × 10-25 m2 s-1 in pure form). This, as well as other results here, questions whether particle-phase diffusion through water-soluble particles can limit hygroscopic growth in the ambient atmosphere. In the second part of this study, we explore sensitivities associated with the use of particle radius measurements to infer diffusion coefficient dependencies on composition using a diffusion model. Given quantified similarities between models used in this study, our results confirm considerations that must be taken into account when designing such experiments. Although quantitative agreement of equilibration timescales between models is found, further work is necessary to determine their suitability for assessing atmospheric impacts, such as their inclusion in polydisperse aerosol simulations.

  1. Random diffusion and leverage effect in financial markets.

    PubMed

    Perelló, Josep; Masoliver, Jaume

    2003-03-01

    We prove that Brownian market models with random diffusion coefficients provide an exact measure of the leverage effect [J-P. Bouchaud et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 228701 (2001)]. This empirical fact asserts that past returns are anticorrelated with future diffusion coefficient. Several models with random diffusion have been suggested but without a quantitative study of the leverage effect. Our analysis lets us to fully estimate all parameters involved and allows a deeper study of correlated random diffusion models that may have practical implications for many aspects of financial markets.

  2. Numerical and analytical assessment of radon diffusion in various media and potential of charcoal as radon detector

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rybalkin, Andrey

    Numerical assessments of radon diffusion together with analytical estimates for short-time and long-time exposure were the first objective of this thesis with the goal to demonstrate how radon propagates in various media. Theoretical predictions were compared to numerical simulations, and obtained values of total radon activities inside each material match quite well with the analytical estimates. These estimates, for activated and nonactivated charcoal, were then used to evaluate the possibility of designing a charcoal system to be used as a radon detector. Another objective was to use nonactivated charcoal samples and measure the level of radon accumulation, and use these data to estimate radon diffusion and adsorption coefficients. The analytical approach was developed to estimate these values. Radon adsorption coefficient in nonactivated charcoal was found to be from 0.2 to 0.4 m3/kg. Radon diffusion coefficient for nonactivated charcoal is in the range of 1.2×10-11 to 5.1×10-10 m2/s in comparison to activated charcoal with adsorption coefficient of 4 m3/kg and diffusion coefficient of 1.43×10-9 m2/s. The third objective was to use GEANT4 numerical code to simulate decay of 238U series and 222Rn in an arbitrary soil sample. Based on that model, the goal was to provide a guideline for merging GEANT4 radioactive decay modeling with the diffusion of radon in a soil sample. It is known that radon can be used as an earthquake predictor by measuring its concentration in groundwater, or if possible, along the faults. Numerical simulations of radon migration by diffusion only were made to estimate how fast and how far radon can move along the fault strands. Among the known cases of successful correlations between radon concentration anomalies and earthquake are the 1966 Tashkent and 1976 Songpan-Pingwu earthquakes. Thus, an idea of radon monitoring along the Wasatch Fault, using system of activated/nonactivated charcoals together with solid state radon detectors is suggested in the thesis. Also, the use of neutron activation analysis for soil samples, collected along and away from Wasatch Fault, and looking for the trace elements can result in correlation with earthquakes, occurred in the past. This approach can be used for earthquake prediction in future.

  3. Measurement of effective air diffusion coefficients for trichloroethene in undisturbed soil cores.

    PubMed

    Bartelt-Hunt, Shannon L; Smith, James A

    2002-06-01

    In this study, we measure effective diffusion coefficients for trichloroethene in undisturbed soil samples taken from Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey. The measured effective diffusion coefficients ranged from 0.0053 to 0.0609 cm2/s over a range of air-filled porosity of 0.23-0.49. The experimental data were compared to several previously published relations that predict diffusion coefficients as a function of air-filled porosity and porosity. A multiple linear regression analysis was developed to determine if a modification of the exponents in Millington's [Science 130 (1959) 100] relation would better fit the experimental data. The literature relations appeared to generally underpredict the effective diffusion coefficient for the soil cores studied in this work. Inclusion of a particle-size distribution parameter, d10, did not significantly improve the fit of the linear regression equation. The effective diffusion coefficient and porosity data were used to recalculate estimates of diffusive flux through the subsurface made in a previous study performed at the field site. It was determined that the method of calculation used in the previous study resulted in an underprediction of diffusive flux from the subsurface. We conclude that although Millington's [Science 130 (1959) 100] relation works well to predict effective diffusion coefficients in homogeneous soils with relatively uniform particle-size distributions, it may be inaccurate for many natural soils with heterogeneous structure and/or non-uniform particle-size distributions.

  4. The effect of recombination and attachment on meteor radar diffusion coefficient profiles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lee, C. S.; Younger, J. P.; Reid, I. M.; Kim, Y. H.; Kim, J.-H.

    2013-04-01

    Estimates of the ambipolar diffusion coefficient producedusing meteor radar echo decay times display an increasing trend below 80-85 km, which is inconsistent with a diffusion-only theory of the evolution of meteor trails. Data from the 33 MHz meteor radar at King Sejong Station, Antarctica, have been compared with observations from the Aura Earth Observing System Microwave Limb Sounder satellite instrument. It has been found that the height at which the diffusion coefficient gradient reverses follows the height of a constant neutral atmospheric density surface. Numerical simulations of meteor trail diffusion including dissociative recombination with atmospheric ions and three-body attachment of free electrons to neutral molecules indicate that three-body attachment is responsible for the distortion of meteor radar diffusion coefficient profiles at heights below 90 km, including the gradient reversal below 80-85 km. Further investigation has revealed that meteor trails with low initial electron line density produce decay times more consistent with a diffusion-only model of meteor trail evolution.

  5. Diffusion and mobility of atomic particles in a liquid

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smirnov, B. M.; Son, E. E.; Tereshonok, D. V.

    2017-11-01

    The diffusion coefficient of a test atom or molecule in a liquid is determined for the mechanism where the displacement of the test molecule results from the vibrations and motion of liquid molecules surrounding the test molecule and of the test particle itself. This leads to a random change in the coordinate of the test molecule, which eventually results in the diffusion motion of the test particle in space. Two models parameters of interaction of a particle and a liquid are used to find the activation energy of the diffusion process under consideration: the gas-kinetic cross section for scattering of test molecules in the parent gas and the Wigner-Seitz radius for test molecules. In the context of this approach, we have calculated the diffusion coefficient of atoms and molecules in water, where based on experimental data, we have constructed the dependence of the activation energy for the diffusion of test molecules in water on the interaction parameter and the temperature dependence for diffusion coefficient of atoms or molecules in water within the models considered. The statistically averaged difference of the activation energies for the diffusion coefficients of different test molecules in water that we have calculated based on each of the presented models does not exceed 10% of the diffusion coefficient itself. We have considered the diffusion of clusters in water and present the dependence of the diffusion coefficient on the cluster size. The accuracy of the presented formulas for the diffusion coefficient of atomic particles in water is estimated to be 50%.

  6. Calculation method for steady-state pollutant concentration in mixing zones considering variable lateral diffusion coefficient.

    PubMed

    Wu, Wen; Wu, Zhouhu; Song, Zhiwen

    2017-07-01

    Prediction of the pollutant mixing zone (PMZ) near the discharge outfall in Huangshaxi shows large error when using the methods based on the constant lateral diffusion assumption. The discrepancy is due to the lack of consideration of the diffusion coefficient variation. The variable lateral diffusion coefficient is proposed to be a function of the longitudinal distance from the outfall. Analytical solution of the two-dimensional advection-diffusion equation of a pollutant is derived and discussed. Formulas to characterize the geometry of the PMZ are derived based on this solution, and a standard curve describing the boundary of the PMZ is obtained by proper choices of the normalization scales. The change of PMZ topology due to the variable diffusion coefficient is then discussed using these formulas. The criterion of assuming the lateral diffusion coefficient to be constant without large error in PMZ geometry is found. It is also demonstrated how to use these analytical formulas in the inverse problems including estimating the lateral diffusion coefficient in rivers by convenient measurements, and determining the maximum allowable discharge load based on the limitations of the geometrical scales of the PMZ. Finally, applications of the obtained formulas to onsite PMZ measurements in Huangshaxi present excellent agreement.

  7. Estimation of biomedical optical properties by simultaneous use of diffuse reflectometry and photothermal radiometry: investigation of light propagation models

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fonseca, E. S. R.; de Jesus, M. E. P.

    2007-07-01

    The estimation of optical properties of highly turbid and opaque biological tissue is a difficult task since conventional purely optical methods rapidly loose sensitivity as the mean photon path length decreases. Photothermal methods, such as pulsed or frequency domain photothermal radiometry (FD-PTR), on the other hand, show remarkable sensitivity in experimental conditions that produce very feeble optical signals. Photothermal Radiometry is primarily sensitive to absorption coefficient yielding considerably higher estimation errors on scattering coefficients. Conversely, purely optical methods such as Local Diffuse Reflectance (LDR) depend mainly on the scattering coefficient and yield much better estimates of this parameter. Therefore, at moderate transport albedos, the combination of photothermal and reflectance methods can improve considerably the sensitivity of detection of tissue optical properties. The authors have recently proposed a novel method that combines FD-PTR with LDR, aimed at improving sensitivity on the determination of both optical properties. Signal analysis was performed by global fitting the experimental data to forward models based on Monte-Carlo simulations. Although this approach is accurate, the associated computational burden often limits its use as a forward model. Therefore, the application of analytical models based on the diffusion approximation offers a faster alternative. In this work, we propose the calculation of the diffuse reflectance and the fluence rate profiles under the δ-P I approximation. This approach is known to approximate fluence rate expressions better close to collimated sources and boundaries than the standard diffusion approximation (SDA). We extend this study to the calculation of the diffuse reflectance profiles. The ability of the δ-P I based model to provide good estimates of the absorption, scattering and anisotropy coefficients is tested against Monte-Carlo simulations over a wide range of scattering to absorption ratios. Experimental validation of the proposed method is accomplished by a set of measurements on solid absorbing and scattering phantoms.

  8. Swelling mechanism of urea cross-linked starch-lignin films in water.

    PubMed

    Sarwono, Ariyanti; Man, Zakaria; Bustam, M Azmi; Subbarao, Duvvuri; Idris, Alamin; Muhammad, Nawshad; Khan, Amir Sada; Ullah, Zahoor

    2018-06-01

    Coating fertilizer particles with thin films is a possibility to control fertilizer release rates. It is observed that novel urea cross-linked starch-lignin composite thin films, prepared by solution casting, swell on coming into contact with water due to the increase in volume by water uptake by diffusion. The effect of lignin content, varied from 0% to 20% in steps of 5% at three different temperatures (25°C, 35°C and 45°C), on swelling of the film was investigated. By gravimetric analysis, the equilibrium water uptake and diffusion coefficient decrease with lignin content, indicating that the addition of lignin increases the hydrophobicity of the films. When temperature increases, the diffusion coefficient and the amount of water absorbed tend to increase. Assuming that swelling of the thin film is by water uptake by diffusion, the diffusion coefficient is estimated. The estimated diffusion coefficient decreases from 4.3 to 2.1 × 10 -7  cm 2 /s at 25°C, from 5.3 to 2.9 × 10 -7  cm 2 /s at 35°C and from 6.2 to 3.8 × 10 -7  cm 2 /s at 45°C depending on the lignin content. Activation energy for the increase in diffusion coefficient with temperature is observed to be 16.55 kJ/mol. An empirical model of water uptake as a function of percentage of lignin and temperature was also developed based on Fick's law.

  9. FADTTS: functional analysis of diffusion tensor tract statistics.

    PubMed

    Zhu, Hongtu; Kong, Linglong; Li, Runze; Styner, Martin; Gerig, Guido; Lin, Weili; Gilmore, John H

    2011-06-01

    The aim of this paper is to present a functional analysis of a diffusion tensor tract statistics (FADTTS) pipeline for delineating the association between multiple diffusion properties along major white matter fiber bundles with a set of covariates of interest, such as age, diagnostic status and gender, and the structure of the variability of these white matter tract properties in various diffusion tensor imaging studies. The FADTTS integrates five statistical tools: (i) a multivariate varying coefficient model for allowing the varying coefficient functions in terms of arc length to characterize the varying associations between fiber bundle diffusion properties and a set of covariates, (ii) a weighted least squares estimation of the varying coefficient functions, (iii) a functional principal component analysis to delineate the structure of the variability in fiber bundle diffusion properties, (iv) a global test statistic to test hypotheses of interest, and (v) a simultaneous confidence band to quantify the uncertainty in the estimated coefficient functions. Simulated data are used to evaluate the finite sample performance of FADTTS. We apply FADTTS to investigate the development of white matter diffusivities along the splenium of the corpus callosum tract and the right internal capsule tract in a clinical study of neurodevelopment. FADTTS can be used to facilitate the understanding of normal brain development, the neural bases of neuropsychiatric disorders, and the joint effects of environmental and genetic factors on white matter fiber bundles. The advantages of FADTTS compared with the other existing approaches are that they are capable of modeling the structured inter-subject variability, testing the joint effects, and constructing their simultaneous confidence bands. However, FADTTS is not crucial for estimation and reduces to the functional analysis method for the single measure. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. Quantitative Characterization of the Microstructure and Transport Properties of Biopolymer Networks

    PubMed Central

    Jiao, Yang; Torquato, Salvatore

    2012-01-01

    Biopolymer networks are of fundamental importance to many biological processes in normal and tumorous tissues. In this paper, we employ the panoply of theoretical and simulation techniques developed for characterizing heterogeneous materials to quantify the microstructure and effective diffusive transport properties (diffusion coefficient De and mean survival time τ) of collagen type I networks at various collagen concentrations. In particular, we compute the pore-size probability density function P(δ) for the networks and present a variety of analytical estimates of the effective diffusion coefficient De for finite-sized diffusing particles, including the low-density approximation, the Ogston approximation, and the Torquato approximation. The Hashin-Strikman upper bound on the effective diffusion coefficient De and the pore-size lower bound on the mean survival time τ are used as benchmarks to test our analytical approximations and numerical results. Moreover, we generalize the efficient first-passage-time techniques for Brownian-motion simulations in suspensions of spheres to the case of fiber networks and compute the associated effective diffusion coefficient De as well as the mean survival time τ, which is related to nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxation times. Our numerical results for De are in excellent agreement with analytical results for simple network microstructures, such as periodic arrays of parallel cylinders. Specifically, the Torquato approximation provides the most accurate estimates of De for all collagen concentrations among all of the analytical approximations we consider. We formulate a universal curve for τ for the networks at different collagen concentrations, extending the work of Yeong and Torquato [J. Chem. Phys. 106, 8814 (1997)]. We apply rigorous cross-property relations to estimate the effective bulk modulus of collagen networks from a knowledge of the effective diffusion coefficient computed here. The use of cross-property relations to link other physical properties to the transport properties of collagen networks is also discussed. PMID:22683739

  11. Spectrum of spin waves in cold polarized gases

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Andreeva, T. L., E-mail: phdocandreeva@yandex.ru

    2017-02-15

    The spin dynamics of cold polarized gases are investigated using the Boltzmann equation. The dispersion relation for spin waves (transverse component of the magnetic moment) and the spin diffusion coefficient of the longitudinal component of the magnetic moment are calculated without using fitting parameters. The spin wave frequency and the diffusion coefficient for rubidium atoms are estimated numerically.

  12. The estimation method on diffusion spot energy concentration of the detection system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gao, Wei; Song, Zongxi; Liu, Feng; Dan, Lijun; Sun, Zhonghan; Du, Yunfei

    2016-09-01

    We propose a method to estimate the diffusion spot energy of the detection system. We do outdoor observation experiments in Xinglong Observatory, by using a detection system which diffusion spot energy concentration is estimated (the correlation coefficient is approximate 0.9926).The aperture of system is 300mm and limiting magnitude of system is 14.15Mv. Observation experiments show that the highest detecting magnitude of estimated system is 13.96Mv, and the average detecting magnitude of estimated system is about 13.5Mv. The results indicate that this method can be used to evaluate the energy diffusion spot concentration level of detection system efficiently.

  13. Analysis of redox additive-based overcharge protection for rechargeable lithium batteries

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Narayanan, S. R.; Surampudi, S.; Attia, A. I.; Bankston, C. P.

    1991-01-01

    The overcharge condition in secondary lithium batteries employing redox additives for overcharge protection, has been theoretically analyzed in terms of a finite linear diffusion model. The analysis leads to expressions relating the steady-state overcharge current density and cell voltage to the concentration, diffusion coefficient, standard reduction potential of the redox couple, and interelectrode distance. The model permits the estimation of the maximum permissible overcharge rate for any chosen set of system conditions. Digital simulation of the overcharge experiment leads to numerical representation of the potential transients, and estimate of the influence of diffusion coefficient and interelectrode distance on the transient attainment of the steady state during overcharge. The model has been experimentally verified using 1,1-prime-dimethyl ferrocene as a redox additive. The analysis of the experimental results in terms of the theory allows the calculation of the diffusion coefficient and the formal potential of the redox couple. The model and the theoretical results may be exploited in the design and optimization of overcharge protection by the redox additive approach.

  14. Effect of upstream ULF waves on the energetic ion diffusion at the earth's foreshock: Theory, Simulation, and Observations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Otsuka, F.; Matsukiyo, S.; Kis, A.; Hada, T.

    2017-12-01

    Spatial diffusion of energetic particles is an important problem not only from a fundamental physics point of view but also for its application to particle acceleration processes at astrophysical shocks. Quasi-linear theory can provide the spatial diffusion coefficient as a function of the wave turbulence spectrum. By assuming a simple power-law spectrum for the turbulence, the theory has been successfully applied to diffusion and acceleration of cosmic rays in the interplanetary and interstellar medium. Near the earth's foreshock, however, the wave spectrum often has an intense peak, presumably corresponding to the upstream ULF waves generated by the field-aligned beam (FAB). In this presentation, we numerically and theoretically discuss how the intense ULF peak in the wave spectrum modifies the spatial parallel diffusion of energetic ions. The turbulence is given as a superposition of non-propagating transverse MHD waves in the solar wind rest frame, and its spectrum is composed of a piecewise power-law spectrum with different power-law indices. The diffusion coefficients are then estimated by using the quasi-linear theory and test particle simulations. We find that the presence of the ULF peak produces a concave shape of the diffusion coefficient when it is plotted versus the ion energy. The results above are used to discuss the Cluster observations of the diffuse ions at the Earth's foreshock. Using the density gradients of the energetic ions detected by the Cluster spacecraft, we determine the e-folding distances, equivalently, the spatial diffusion coefficients, of ions with their energies from 10 to 32 keV. The observed e-folding distances are significantly smaller than those estimated in the past statistical studies. This suggests that the particle acceleration at the foreshock can be more efficient than considered before. Our test particle simulation explains well the small estimate of the e-folding distances, by using the observed wave turbulence spectrum near the shock.

  15. Air sparging: Air-water mass transfer coefficients

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Braida, Washington J.; Ong, Say Kee

    1998-12-01

    Experiments investigating the mass transfer of several dissolved volatile organic compounds (VOCs) across the air-water interface were conducted using a single-air- channel air-sparging system. Three different porous media were used in the study. Air velocities ranged from 0.2 cm s-1 to 2.5 cm s-1. The tortuosity factor for each porous medium and the air-water mass transfer coefficients were estimated by fitting experimental data to a one-dimensional diffusion model. The estimated mass transfer coefficients KG ranged from 1.79 × 10-3 cm min-1 to 3.85 × 10-2 cm min-1. The estimated lumped gas phase mass transfer coefficients KGa were found to be directly related to the air diffusivity of the VOC, air velocity, and particle size, and inversely related to the Henry's law constant of the VOCs. Of the four parameters investigated, the parameter that controlled or had a dominant effect on the lumped gas phase mass transfer coefficient was the air diffusivity of the VOC. Two empirical models were developed by correlating the Damkohler and the modified air phase Sherwood numbers with the air phase Peclet number, Henry's law constant, and the reduced mean particle size of porous media. The correlation developed in this study may be used to obtain better predictions of mass transfer fluxes for field conditions.

  16. A study of atmospheric diffusion from the LANDSAT imagery. [pollution transport over the ocean

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Dejesusparada, N. (Principal Investigator); Viswanadham, Y.; Torsani, J. A.

    1981-01-01

    LANDSAT multispectral scanner data of the smoke plumes which originated in eastern Cabo Frio, Brazil and crossed over into the Atlantic Ocean, are analyzed to illustrate how high resolution LANDSAT imagery can aid meteorologists in evaluating specific air pollution events. The eleven LANDSAT images selected are for different months and years. The results show that diffusion is governed primarily by water and air temperature differences. With colder water, low level air is very stable and the vertical diffusion is minimal; but water warmer than the air induces vigorous diffusion. The applicability of three empirical methods for determining the horizontal eddy diffusivity coefficient in the Gaussian plume formula was evaluated with the estimated standard deviation of the crosswind distribution of material in the plume from the LANDSAT imagery. The vertical diffusion coefficient in stable conditions is estimated using Weinstock's formulation. These results form a data base for use in the development and validation of meso scale atmospheric diffusion models.

  17. Perturbative studies of toroidal momentum transport in KSTAR H-mode and the effect of ion temperature perturbation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yang, S. M.; Na, Yong-Su; Na, D. H.; Park, J.-K.; Shi, Y. J.; Ko, W. H.; Lee, S. G.; Hahm, T. S.

    2018-06-01

    Perturbative experiments have been carried out using tangential neutral beam injection (NBI) and non-resonant magnetic perturbation (NRMP) to analyze the momentum transport properties in KSTAR H-modes. Diffusive and non-diffusive terms of momentum transport are evaluated from the transient analysis. Although the operating conditions and methodologies applied in the two cases are similar, the momentum transport properties obtained show clear differences. The estimated momentum diffusivity and pinch obtained in the NBI modulation experiments is larger than that in the NRMP modulation experiments. We found that this discrepancy could be a result of uncertainties in the assumption for the analysis. By introducing time varying momentum transport coefficients depending on the temperature gradient, the linearized equation shows that if the temperature perturbation exists, the evolution of toroidal rotation perturbation could be faster than the transport rate of mean quantity, since the evolution of toroidal rotation perturbation is related to , a momentum diffusivity from perturbative analysis. This could explain the estimated higher momentum diffusivity using time independent transport coefficients in NBI experiments with higher ion temperature perturbation compared to that in NRMP modulation experiments. The differences in the momentum transport coefficient with NRMP and NBI are much reduced by considering time varying momentum transport coefficients in the time dependent transport simulation.

  18. Diffusion heterogeneity tensor MRI (?-Dti): mathematics and initial applications in spinal cord regeneration after trauma - biomed 2009.

    PubMed

    Ellington, Benjamin M; Schmit, Brian D; Gourab, Krishnaj; Sieber-Blum, Maya; Hu, Yao F; Schmainda, Kathleen M

    2009-01-01

    Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) is a powerful tool for evaluation of microstructural anomalies in numerous central nervous system pathologies. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) allows for the magnitude and direction of water self diffusion to be estimated by sampling the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) in various directions. Clinical DWI and DTI performed at a single level of diffusion weighting, however, does not allow for multiple diffusion compartments to be elicited. Furthermore, assumptions made regarding the precise number of diffusion compartments intrinsic to the tissue of interest have resulted in a lack of consensus between investigations. To overcome these challenges, a stretched-exponential model of diffusion was applied to examine the diffusion coefficient and "heterogeneity index" within highly compartmentalized brain tumors. The purpose of the current study is to expand on the stretched-exponential model of diffusion to include directionality of both diffusion heterogeneity and apparent diffusion coefficient. This study develops the mathematics of this new technique along with an initial application in quantifying spinal cord regeneration following acute injection of epidermal neural crest stem cell (EPI-NCSC) grafts.

  19. Variability of non-Gaussian diffusion MRI and intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) measurements in the breast.

    PubMed

    Iima, Mami; Kataoka, Masako; Kanao, Shotaro; Kawai, Makiko; Onishi, Natsuko; Koyasu, Sho; Murata, Katsutoshi; Ohashi, Akane; Sakaguchi, Rena; Togashi, Kaori

    2018-01-01

    We prospectively examined the variability of non-Gaussian diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) measurements with different numbers of b-values and excitations in normal breast tissue and breast lesions. Thirteen volunteers and fourteen patients with breast lesions (seven malignant, eight benign; one patient had bilateral lesions) were recruited in this prospective study (approved by the Internal Review Board). Diffusion-weighted MRI was performed with 16 b-values (0-2500 s/mm2 with one number of excitations [NEX]) and five b-values (0-2500 s/mm2, 3 NEX), using a 3T breast MRI. Intravoxel incoherent motion (flowing blood volume fraction [fIVIM] and pseudodiffusion coefficient [D*]) and non-Gaussian diffusion (theoretical apparent diffusion coefficient [ADC] at b value of 0 sec/mm2 [ADC0] and kurtosis [K]) parameters were estimated from IVIM and Kurtosis models using 16 b-values, and synthetic apparent diffusion coefficient (sADC) values were obtained from two key b-values. The variabilities between and within subjects and between different diffusion acquisition methods were estimated. There were no statistical differences in ADC0, K, or sADC values between the different b-values or NEX. A good agreement of diffusion parameters was observed between 16 b-values (one NEX), five b-values (one NEX), and five b-values (three NEX) in normal breast tissue or breast lesions. Insufficient agreement was observed for IVIM parameters. There were no statistical differences in the non-Gaussian diffusion MRI estimated values obtained from a different number of b-values or excitations in normal breast tissue or breast lesions. These data suggest that a limited MRI protocol using a few b-values might be relevant in a clinical setting for the estimation of non-Gaussian diffusion MRI parameters in normal breast tissue and breast lesions.

  20. Variability of non-Gaussian diffusion MRI and intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) measurements in the breast

    PubMed Central

    Kataoka, Masako; Kanao, Shotaro; Kawai, Makiko; Onishi, Natsuko; Koyasu, Sho; Murata, Katsutoshi; Ohashi, Akane; Sakaguchi, Rena; Togashi, Kaori

    2018-01-01

    We prospectively examined the variability of non-Gaussian diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) measurements with different numbers of b-values and excitations in normal breast tissue and breast lesions. Thirteen volunteers and fourteen patients with breast lesions (seven malignant, eight benign; one patient had bilateral lesions) were recruited in this prospective study (approved by the Internal Review Board). Diffusion-weighted MRI was performed with 16 b-values (0–2500 s/mm2 with one number of excitations [NEX]) and five b-values (0–2500 s/mm2, 3 NEX), using a 3T breast MRI. Intravoxel incoherent motion (flowing blood volume fraction [fIVIM] and pseudodiffusion coefficient [D*]) and non-Gaussian diffusion (theoretical apparent diffusion coefficient [ADC] at b value of 0 sec/mm2 [ADC0] and kurtosis [K]) parameters were estimated from IVIM and Kurtosis models using 16 b-values, and synthetic apparent diffusion coefficient (sADC) values were obtained from two key b-values. The variabilities between and within subjects and between different diffusion acquisition methods were estimated. There were no statistical differences in ADC0, K, or sADC values between the different b-values or NEX. A good agreement of diffusion parameters was observed between 16 b-values (one NEX), five b-values (one NEX), and five b-values (three NEX) in normal breast tissue or breast lesions. Insufficient agreement was observed for IVIM parameters. There were no statistical differences in the non-Gaussian diffusion MRI estimated values obtained from a different number of b-values or excitations in normal breast tissue or breast lesions. These data suggest that a limited MRI protocol using a few b-values might be relevant in a clinical setting for the estimation of non-Gaussian diffusion MRI parameters in normal breast tissue and breast lesions. PMID:29494639

  1. Protein diffusiophoresis and salt osmotic diffusion in aqueous solutions.

    PubMed

    Annunziata, Onofrio; Buzatu, Daniela; Albright, John G

    2012-10-25

    Diffusion of a solute can be induced by the concentration gradient of another solute in solution. This transport mechanism is known as cross-diffusion. We have investigated cross-diffusion in a ternary protein-salt-water system. Specifically, we measured the two cross-diffusion coefficients for the lysozyme-NaCl-water system at 25 °C and pH 4.5 as a function of protein and salt concentrations by Rayleigh interferometry. One cross-diffusion coefficient characterizes salt osmotic diffusion induced by a protein concentration gradient, and is related to protein-salt thermodynamic interactions as described by the theories of Donnan membrane equilibrium and protein preferential hydration. The other cross-diffusion coefficient characterizes protein diffusiophoresis induced by a salt concentration gradient, and is described as the difference between a preferential-interaction coefficient and a transport parameter. We first relate our experimental results to the protein net charge and the thermodynamic excess of water near the protein surface. We then extract the Stefan-Maxwell diffusion coefficient describing protein-salt interactions in water. We find that the value of this coefficient is negative, contrary to the friction interpretation of Stefan-Maxwell equations. This result is explained by considering protein hydration. Finally, protein diffusiophoresis is quantitatively examined by considering electrophoretic and hydration effects on protein migration and utilized to accurately estimate lysozyme electrophoretic mobility. To our knowledge, this is the first time that protein diffusiophoresis has been experimentally characterized and a protein-salt Stefan-Maxwell diffusion coefficient reported. This work represents a significant contribution for understanding and modeling the effect of concentration gradients in protein-salt aqueous systems relevant to diffusion-based mass-transfer technologies and transport in living systems.

  2. Diffusion coefficients of organic molecules in sucrose-water solutions and comparison with Stokes-Einstein predictions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chenyakin, Yuri; Ullmann, Dagny A.; Evoy, Erin; Renbaum-Wolff, Lindsay; Kamal, Saeid; Bertram, Allan K.

    2017-02-01

    The diffusion coefficients of organic species in secondary organic aerosol (SOA) particles are needed to predict the growth and reactivity of these particles in the atmosphere. Previously, viscosity measurements, along with the Stokes-Einstein relation, have been used to estimate the diffusion rates of organics within SOA particles or proxies of SOA particles. To test the Stokes-Einstein relation, we have measured the diffusion coefficients of three fluorescent organic dyes (fluorescein, rhodamine 6G and calcein) within sucrose-water solutions with varying water activity. Sucrose-water solutions were used as a proxy for SOA material found in the atmosphere. Diffusion coefficients were measured using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching. For the three dyes studied, the diffusion coefficients vary by 4-5 orders of magnitude as the water activity varied from 0.38 to 0.80, illustrating the sensitivity of the diffusion coefficients to the water content in the matrix. At the lowest water activity studied (0.38), the average diffusion coefficients were 1.9 × 10-13, 1.5 × 10-14 and 7.7 × 10-14 cm2 s-1 for fluorescein, rhodamine 6G and calcein, respectively. The measured diffusion coefficients were compared with predictions made using literature viscosities and the Stokes-Einstein relation. We found that at water activity ≥ 0.6 (which corresponds to a viscosity of ≤ 360 Pa s and Tg/T ≤ 0.81), predicted diffusion rates agreed with measured diffusion rates within the experimental uncertainty (Tg represents the glass transition temperature and T is the temperature of the measurements). When the water activity was 0.38 (which corresponds to a viscosity of 3.3 × 106 Pa s and a Tg/T of 0.94), the Stokes-Einstein relation underpredicted the diffusion coefficients of fluorescein, rhodamine 6G and calcein by a factor of 118 (minimum of 10 and maximum of 977), a factor of 17 (minimum of 3 and maximum of 104) and a factor of 70 (minimum of 8 and maximum of 494), respectively. This disagreement is significantly smaller than the disagreement observed when comparing measured and predicted diffusion coefficients of water in sucrose-water mixtures.

  3. Diffusion of organic pollutants within a biofilm in porous media

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fan, Chihhao; Kao, Chen-Fei; Liu, You-Hsi

    2017-04-01

    The occurrence of aquatic pollution is an inevitable environmental impact resulting from human civilization and societal advancement. Either from the natural or anthropogenic sources, the aqueous contaminants enter the natural environment and aggravate its quality. To assure the aquatic environment quality, the attached-growth biological degradation is often applied to removing organic contaminants by introducing contaminated water into a porous media which is covered by microorganism. Additionally, many natural aquatic systems also form such similar mechanism to increase their self-purification capability. To better understand this transport phenomenon and degradation mechanism in the biofilm for future application, the mathematic characterization of organic contaminant diffusion within the biofilm requires further exploration. The present study aimed to formulate a mathematic representation to quantify the diffusion of the organic contaminant in the biofilm. The BOD was selected as the target contaminant. A series of experiments were conducted to quantify the BOD diffusion in the biofilm under the conditions of influent BOD variation from 50 to 300 mg/L, COD:N:P ratios of 100:5:1 and 100:15:3, with or without auxiliary aeration. For diffusion coefficient calculation, the boundary condition of zero diffusion at the interface between microbial phase and contact media was assumed. With the principle of conservation of mass, the removed contaminants equal those that diffuse into the biofilm, and eq 1 results, and the diffusion coefficient (i.e., eq 2) can be solved through calculus with equations from table of integral. ∂2Sf- Df ∂z2 = Rf (1) --(QSin--QSout)2Y--- Df = 2μmaxxf(Sb + Ks ln-Ks-) Sb+Ks (2) Using the obtained experimental data, the diffusion coefficient was calculated to be 2.02*10-6 m2/d with influent COD of 50 mg/L at COD:N:P ratio of 100:5:1 with aeration, and this coefficient increased to 6.02*10-6 m2/d as the influent concentration increased to 300 mg/L. Meanwhile, the diffusion coefficient decreased to 2.61*10-7 m2/d as the retention time increased to 3 hours. Generally, the variation in diffusion coefficients between different COD:N:P ratios exhibits similar pattern with a slight decrease for the ratio of 100:15:3. The difference in diffusion coefficients between 1 and 2 hours was apparently greater than that between 2 and 3 hours, implying the diffusion was a critical factor for contaminant removal for the treatment condition with retention time of 1 hour or less, because higher retention time leads to better microbial degradation due to sufficient contact time for biological reactions. For 1 hour retention time, the increase in diffusion coefficient becomes limited as the influent COD concentration was equal to or above 150 mg/L. These obtained diffusion coefficients were applied to estimating the treatment efficiency for real domestic sewage. The result was found that the estimated effluent BOD concentrations were quite comparable to that obtained through experimental measurements.

  4. Interpreting high time resolution galactic cosmic ray observations in a diffusive context

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jordan, A.; Spence, H. E.; Blake, J. B.; Shaul, D. A.

    2009-12-01

    We interpret galactic cosmic ray (GCR) variations near Earth within a diffusive context. The variations occur on time-/size-scales ranging from Forbush decreases (Fds), to substructure embedded within Fds, to smaller amplitude and shorter duration variations during relatively benign interplanetary conditions. We use high time resolution GCR observations from the High Sensitivity Telescope (HIST) on Polar and from the Spectrometer for INTEGRAL (SPI) and also use solar wind plasma and magnetic field observations from ACE and/or Wind. To calculate the coefficient of diffusion, we combine these datasets with a simple convection-diffusion model for relativistic charged particles in a magnetic field. We find reasonable agreement between our and previous estimates of the coefficient. We also show whether changes in the coefficient of diffusion are sufficient to explain the above GCR variations.

  5. Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy experiments to quantify free diffusion coefficients in reaction-diffusion systems: The case of Ca2 + and its dyes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sigaut, Lorena; Villarruel, Cecilia; Ponce, María Laura; Ponce Dawson, Silvina

    2017-06-01

    Many cell signaling pathways involve the diffusion of messengers that bind and unbind to and from intracellular components. Quantifying their net transport rate under different conditions then requires having separate estimates of their free diffusion coefficient and binding or unbinding rates. In this paper, we show how performing sets of fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) experiments under different conditions, it is possible to quantify free diffusion coefficients and on and off rates of reaction-diffusion systems. We develop the theory and present a practical implementation for the case of the universal second messenger, calcium (Ca2 +) and single-wavelength dyes that increase their fluorescence upon Ca2 + binding. We validate the approach with experiments performed in aqueous solutions containing Ca2 + and Fluo4 dextran (both in its high and low affinity versions). Performing FCS experiments with tetramethylrhodamine-dextran in Xenopus laevis oocytes, we infer the corresponding free diffusion coefficients in the cytosol of these cells. Our approach can be extended to other physiologically relevant reaction-diffusion systems to quantify biophysical parameters that determine the dynamics of various variables of interest.

  6. Identification of diffusive transport properties of poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogels from reservoir test.

    PubMed

    Kazimierska-Drobny, Katarzyna; Kaczmarek, Mariusz

    2013-12-01

    In this paper the identification of diffusion coefficient, retardation factor and surface distribution coefficient for selected salts in poly(vinyl alcohol) hydrogels is performed. The identification of the transport parameters is based on the previously developed inverse problem technique using experimental data from the reservoir test and the solution of the diffusive transport equation with linear equilibrium sorption. The estimated values of diffusion coefficient are: for physiological fluid (6.30±0.10)×10(-10) m(2)/s, for 1 M NaCl (6.42±0.39)×10(-10) m(2)/s, and for 1 M KCl (7.94±0.38)×10(-10) m(2)/s. The retardation factor for all tested materials and salts is equal or close to one. The average value of the effective surface distribution coefficient is equal to 0.5. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. Microscale diffusion measurements and simulation of a scaffold with a permeable strut.

    PubMed

    Lee, Seung Youl; Lee, Byung Ryong; Lee, Jongwan; Kim, Seongjun; Kim, Jung Kyung; Jeong, Young Hun; Jin, Songwan

    2013-10-10

    Electrospun nanofibrous structures provide good performance to scaffolds in tissue engineering. We measured the local diffusion coefficients of 3-kDa FITC-dextran in line patterns of electrospun nanofibrous structures fabricated by the direct-write electrospinning (DWES) technique using the fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) method. No significant differences were detected between DWES line patterns fabricated with polymer supplied at flow rates of 0.1 and 0.5 mL/h. The oxygen diffusion coefficients of samples were estimated to be ~92%-94% of the oxygen diffusion coefficient in water based on the measured diffusion coefficient of 3-kDa FITC-dextran. We also simulated cell growth and distribution within spatially patterned scaffolds with struts consisting of either oxygen-permeable or non-permeable material. The permeable strut scaffolds exhibited enhanced cell growth. Saturated depths at which cells could grow to confluence were 15% deeper for the permeable strut scaffolds than for the non-permeable strut scaffold.

  8. Fractal Theory and Field Cover Experiments: Implications for the Fractal Characteristics and Radon Diffusion Behavior of Soils and Rocks.

    PubMed

    Tan, Wanyu; Li, Yongmei; Tan, Kaixuan; Duan, Xianzhe; Liu, Dong; Liu, Zehua

    2016-12-01

    Radon diffusion and transport through different media is a complex process affected by many factors. In this study, the fractal theories and field covering experiments were used to study the fractal characteristics of particle size distribution (PSD) of six kinds of geotechnical materials (e.g., waste rock, sand, laterite, kaolin, mixture of sand and laterite, and mixture of waste rock and laterite) and their effects on radon diffusion. In addition, the radon diffusion coefficient and diffusion length were calculated. Moreover, new formulas for estimating diffusion coefficient and diffusion length functional of fractal dimension d of PSD were proposed. These results demonstrate the following points: (1) the fractal dimension d of the PSD can be used to characterize the property of soils and rocks in the studies of radon diffusion behavior; (2) the diffusion coefficient and diffusion length decrease with increasing fractal dimension of PSD; and (3) the effectiveness of final covers in reducing radon exhalation of uranium tailings impoundments can be evaluated on the basis of the fractal dimension of PSD of materials.

  9. Determination of diffusion coefficients of carbon dioxide in water between 268 and 473 K in a high-pressure capillary optical cell with in situ Raman spectroscopic measurements

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Lu, Wanjun; Guo, Huirong; Chou, I.-Ming; Burruss, R.C.; Li, Lanlan

    2013-01-01

    Accurate values of diffusion coefficients for carbon dioxide in water and brine at reservoir conditions are essential to our understanding of transport behavior of carbon dioxide in subsurface pore space. However, the experimental data are limited to conditions at low temperatures and pressures. In this study, diffusive transfer of carbon dioxide in water at pressures up to 45 MPa and temperatures from 268 to 473 K was observed within an optical capillary cell via time-dependent Raman spectroscopy. Diffusion coefficients were estimated by the least-squares method for the measured variations in carbon dioxide concentration in the cell at various sample positions and time. At the constant pressure of 20 MPa, the measured diffusion coefficients of carbon dioxide in water increase with increasing temperature from 268 to 473 K. The relationship between diffusion coefficient of carbon dioxide in water [D(CO2) in m2/s] and temperature (T in K) was derived with Speedy–Angell power-law approach as: D(CO2)=D0[T/Ts-1]m where D0 = 13.942 × 10−9 m2/s, Ts = 227.0 K, and m = 1.7094. At constant temperature, diffusion coefficients of carbon dioxide in water decrease with pressure increase. However, this pressure effect is rather small (within a few percent).

  10. Diffusion relaxation times of nonequilibrium isolated small bodies and their solid phase ensembles to equilibrium states

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tovbin, Yu. K.

    2017-08-01

    The possibility of obtaining analytical estimates in a diffusion approximation of the times needed by nonequilibrium small bodies to relax to their equilibrium states based on knowledge of the mass transfer coefficient is considered. This coefficient is expressed as the product of the self-diffusion coefficient and the thermodynamic factor. A set of equations for the diffusion transport of mixture components is formulated, characteristic scales of the size of microheterogeneous phases are identified, and effective mass transfer coefficients are constructed for them. Allowing for the developed interface of coexisting and immiscible phases along with the porosity of solid phases is discussed. This approach can be applied to the diffusion equalization of concentrations of solid mixture components in many physicochemical systems: the mutual diffusion of components in multicomponent systems (alloys, semiconductors, solid mixtures of inert gases) and the mass transfer of an absorbed mobile component in the voids of a matrix consisting of slow components or a mixed composition of mobile and slow components (e.g., hydrogen in metals, oxygen in oxides, and the transfer of molecules through membranes of different natures, including polymeric).

  11. Study of Water Absorption in Raffia vinifera Fibres from Bandjoun, Cameroon

    PubMed Central

    Sikame Tagne, N. R.; Njeugna, E.; Fogue, M.; Drean, J.-Y.; Nzeukou, A.; Fokwa, D.

    2014-01-01

    The study is focused on the water diffusion phenomenon through the Raffia vinifera fibre from the stem. The knowledge on the behavior of those fibres in presence of liquid during the realization of biocomposite, is necessary. The parameters like percentage of water gain at the point of saturation, modelling of the kinetic of water absorption, and the effective diffusion coefficient were the main objectives. Along a stem of raffia, twelve zones of sampling were defined. From Fick's 2nd law of diffusion, a new model was proposed and evaluated compared to four other models at a constant temperature of 23°C. From the proposed model, the effective diffusion coefficient was deduced. The percentage of water gain was in the range of 303–662%. The proposed model fitted better to the experimental data. The estimated diffusion coefficient was evaluated during the initial phase and at the final phase. In any cross section located along the stem of Raffia vinifera, it was found that the effective diffusion coefficient increases from the periphery to the centre during the initial and final phases. PMID:24592199

  12. Vapor-phase interactions and diffusion of organic solvents in the unsaturated zone

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Roy, W.R.; Griffin, R.A.

    1990-01-01

    This article presents an analysis of the interactions and static movement of 37 organic solvents as vapors through the unsaturated soil zone. The physicochemical interactions of the organic vapors with unsaturated soil materials were emphasized with focus on diffusive, and adsorptive interactions. Fick's Law and porous media diffusion coefficients for most of the solvent vapors were either compiled or estimated; coefficients were not available for some of the fluorinated solvents. The adsorption of some of the solvent vapors by silica was concluded to be due to hydrogen bond formation with surface silanol groups. Heats of adsorption data for different adsorbents were also compiled. There were very few data on the adsorption of these solvent vapors by soils, but it appears that the magnitude of adsorption of nonpolar solvents is reduced as the relative humidity of the vapor-solid system is increased. Consequently, the interaction of the vapors may then separated into two processes; (1) gas-water partitioning described by Henry's Law constants, and (2) solid-water adsorption coefficients which may be estimated from liquid-solid partition coefficients (Kd values). ?? 1990 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

  13. Determination of the diffusion coefficient and phase-transfer rate parameter in LaNi{sub 5} and MmNi{sub 3.6}Co{sub 0.8}Mn{sub 0.4}Al{sub 0.3} using microelectrodes

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Lundqvist, A.; Lindbergh, G.

    1998-11-01

    A potential-step method for determining the diffusion coefficient and phase-transfer parameter in metal hydrides by using microelectrodes was investigated. It was shown that a large potential step is not enough to ensure a completely diffusion-limited mass transfer if a surface-phase transfer reaction takes place at a finite rate. It was shown, using a kinetic expression for the surface phase-transfer reaction, that the slope of the logarithm of the current vs. time curve will be constant both in the case of the mass-transfer limited by diffusion or by diffusion and a surface-phase transfer. The diffusion coefficient and phase-transfer rate parameter weremore » accurately determined for MmNi{sub 3.6}Co{sub 0.8}Mn{sub 0.4}Al{sub 0.3} using a fit to the whole transient. The diffusion coefficient was found to be (1.3 {+-} 0.3) {times} 10{sup {minus}13} m{sup 2}/s. The fit was good and showed that a pure diffusion model was not enough to explain the observed transient. The diffusion coefficient and phase-transfer rate parameter were also estimated for pure LaNi{sub 5}. A fit of the whole curve showed that neither a pure diffusion model nor a model including phase transfer could explain the whole transient.« less

  14. Effect of field-aligned-beam in parallel diffusion of energetic particles in the Earth's foreshock

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Matsukiyo, S.; Nakanishi, K.; Otsuka, F.; Kis, A.; Lemperger, I.; Hada, T.

    2016-12-01

    Diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) is one of the plausible acceleration mechanisms of cosmic rays. In the standard DSA model the partial density of the accelerated particles, diffused into upstream, exponentially decreases as the distance to the shock increases. Kis et al. (GRL, 31, L20801, 2004) examined the density gradients of energetic ions upstream of the bow shock with high accuracy by using Cluster data. They estimated the diffusion coefficients of energetic ions for the event in February 18, 2003 and showed that the obtained diffusion coefficients are significantly smaller than those estimated in the past statistical study. This implies that particle acceleration at the bow shock can be more efficient than considered before. Here, we focus on the effect of the field-aligned-beam (FAB) which is often observed in the foreshock, and examine how the FAB affects the efficiency of diffusion of the energetic ions by performing test particle simulations. The upstream turbulence is given by the superposition of parallel Alfven waves with power-law energy spectrum with random phase approximation. In the spectrum we further add a peak corresponding to the waves resonantly generated by the FAB. The dependence of the diffusion coefficient on the presence of the FAB as well as total energy of the turbulence, power-law index of the turbulence, and intensity of FAB oriented waves are discussed.

  15. Banded Structures in Electron Pitch Angle Diffusion Coefficients from Resonant Wave Particle Interactions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tripathi, A. K.; Singhal, R. P.; Khazanov, G. V.; Avanov, L. A.

    2016-01-01

    Electron pitch angle (D (alpha)) and momentum (D(pp)) diffusion coefficients have been calculated due to resonant interactions with electrostatic electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) and whistler mode chorus waves. Calculations have been performed at two spatial locations L = 4.6 and 6.8 for electron energies 10 keV. Landau (n = 0) resonance and cyclotron harmonic resonances n = +/-1, +/-2,...+/-5 have been included in the calculations. It is found that diffusion coefficient versus pitch angle (alpha) profiles show large dips and oscillations or banded structures. The structures are more pronounced for ECH and lower band chorus (LBC) and particularly at location 4.6. Calculations of diffusion coefficients have also been performed for individual resonances. It is noticed that the main contribution of ECH waves in pitch angle diffusion coefficient is due to resonances n = +1 and n = +2. A major contribution to momentum diffusion coefficients appears from n = +2. However, the banded structures in D alpha and Dpp coefficients appear only in the profile of diffusion coefficients for n = +2. The contribution of other resonances to diffusion coefficients is found to be, in general, quite small or even negligible. For LBC and upper band chorus waves, the banded structures appear only in Landau resonance. The Dpp diffusion coefficient for ECH waves is one to two orders smaller than D alpha coefficients. For chorus waves, Dpp coefficients are about an order of magnitude smaller than D alpha coefficients for the case n does not = 0. In case of Landau resonance, the values of Dpp coefficient are generally larger than the values of D alpha coefficients particularly at lower energies. As an aid to the interpretation of results, we have also determined the resonant frequencies. For ECH waves, resonant frequencies have been estimated for wave normal angle 89 deg and harmonic resonances n = +1, +2, and +3, whereas for whistler mode waves, the frequencies have been calculated for angle 10 deg and Landau resonance. Further, in ECH waves, the banded structures appear for electron energies (is) greater than1 keV, and for whistler mode chorus waves, structures appear for energies greater than 2 keV at L = 4.6 and above 200 eV for L = 6.8. The results obtained in the present work will be helpful in the study of diffusion curves and will have important consequences for diffuse aurora and pancake distributions.

  16. Banded Structures in Electron Pitch Angle Diffusion Coefficients from Resonant Wave-Particle Interactions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tripathi, A. K.; Singhal, R. P.; Khazanov, G. V.; Avanov, L. A.

    2016-01-01

    Electron pitch angle (D(sub (alpha alpha))) and momentum (D(sub pp)) diffusion coefficients have been calculated due to resonant interactions with electrostatic electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) and whistler mode chorus waves. Calculations have been performed at two spatial locations L=4.6 and 6.8 for electron energies less than or equal to 10 keV. Landau (n=0) resonance and cyclotron harmonic resonances n= +/- 1, +/-2, ... +/-5 have been included in the calculations. It is found that diffusion coefficient versus pitch angle (alpha) profiles show large dips and oscillations or banded structures. The structures are more pronounced for ECH and lower band chorus (LBC) and particularly at location 4.6. Calculations of diffusion coefficients have also been performed for individual resonances. It is noticed that the main contribution of ECH waves in pitch angle diffusion coefficient is due to resonances n=+1 and n=+2. A major contribution to momentum diffusion coefficients appears from n=+2. However, the banded structures in D(sub alpha alpha) and D(sub pp) coefficients appear only in the profile of diffusion coefficients for n=+2. The contribution of other resonances to diffusion coefficients is found to be, in general, quite small or even negligible. For LBC and upper band chorus waves, the banded structures appear only in Landau resonance. The D(sub pp) diffusion coefficient for ECH waves is one to two orders smaller than D(sub alpha alpha) coefficients. For chorus waves, D(sub pp) coefficients are about an order of magnitude smaller than D(sub alpha alpha) coefficients for the case n does not equal 0. In case of Landau resonance, the values of D(sub pp) coefficient are generally larger than the values of D(sub alpha alpha) coefficients particularly at lower energies. As an aid to the interpretation of results, we have also determined the resonant frequencies. For ECH waves, resonant frequencies have been estimated for wave normal angle 89 deg and harmonic resonances n= +1, +2, and +3, whereas for whistler mode waves, the frequencies have been calculated for angle 10 deg and Landau resonance. Further, in ECH waves, the banded structures appear for electron energies 1 greater than or equal to keV, and for whistler mode chorus waves, structures appear for energies greater than 2 keV at L=4.6 and above 200 eV for L=6.8. The results obtained in the present work will be helpful in the study of diffusion curves and will have important consequences for diffuse aurora and pancake distributions.

  17. Methods for characterizing subsurface volatile contaminants using in-situ sensors

    DOEpatents

    Ho, Clifford K [Albuquerque, NM

    2006-02-21

    An inverse analysis method for characterizing diffusion of vapor from an underground source of volatile contaminant using data taken by an in-situ sensor. The method uses one-dimensional solutions to the diffusion equation in Cartesian, cylindrical, or spherical coordinates for isotropic and homogenous media. If the effective vapor diffusion coefficient is known, then the distance from the source to the in-situ sensor can be estimated by comparing the shape of the predicted time-dependent vapor concentration response curve to the measured response curve. Alternatively, if the source distance is known, then the effective vapor diffusion coefficient can be estimated using the same inverse analysis method. A triangulation technique can be used with multiple sensors to locate the source in two or three dimensions. The in-situ sensor can contain one or more chemiresistor elements housed in a waterproof enclosure with a gas permeable membrane.

  18. Computing diffuse fraction of global horizontal solar radiation: A model comparison.

    PubMed

    Dervishi, Sokol; Mahdavi, Ardeshir

    2012-06-01

    For simulation-based prediction of buildings' energy use or expected gains from building-integrated solar energy systems, information on both direct and diffuse component of solar radiation is necessary. Available measured data are, however, typically restricted to global horizontal irradiance. There have been thus many efforts in the past to develop algorithms for the derivation of the diffuse fraction of solar irradiance. In this context, the present paper compares eight models for estimating diffuse fraction of irradiance based on a database of measured irradiance from Vienna, Austria. These models generally involve mathematical formulations with multiple coefficients whose values are typically valid for a specific location. Subsequent to a first comparison of these eight models, three better performing models were selected for a more detailed analysis. Thereby, the coefficients of the models were modified to account for Vienna data. The results suggest that some models can provide relatively reliable estimations of the diffuse fractions of the global irradiance. The calibration procedure could only slightly improve the models' performance.

  19. Response of radiation belt simulations to different radial diffusion coefficients for relativistic and ultra-relativistic electrons

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Drozdov, Alexander; Mann, Ian; Baker, Daniel N.; Subbotin, Dmitriy; Ozeke, Louis; Shprits, Yuri; Kellerman, Adam

    Two parameterizations of the resonant wave-particle interactions of electrons with ULF waves in the magnetosphere by Brautigam and Albert [2000] and Ozeke et al. [2012] are evaluated using the Versatile Electron Radiation Belt (VERB) diffusion code to estimate the effect of changing a diffusion coefficient on the radiation belt simulation. The period of investigation includes geomagnetically quiet and active time. The simulations take into account wave-particle interactions represented by radial diffusion transport, local acceleration, losses due to pitch-angle diffusion, and mixed diffusion. 1. Brautigam, D. H., and J. M. Albert (2000), Radial diffusion analysis of outer radiation belt electrons during the October 9, 1990, magnetic storm, J. Geophys. Res., 105(A1), 291-309, doi:10.1029/1999JA900344 2. Ozeke, L. G., I. R. Mann, K. R. Murphy, I. J. Rae, D. K. Milling, S. R. Elkington, A. A. Chan, and H. J. Singer (2012), ULF wave derived radiation belt radial diffusion coefficients, J. Geophys. Res., 117, A04222, doi:10.1029/2011JA017463.

  20. Augmentation of oxygen transport by various hemoglobins as determined by pulsed field gradient NMR.

    PubMed

    Budhiraja, Vikas; Hellums, J David; Post, Jan F M

    2002-11-01

    Diffusion of oxyhemoglobin has been shown to augment the oxygen transport inside the red blood cells. Measurement of hemoglobin diffusion coefficients by pulsed-field gradient (PFG) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique can be used for estimating this augmentation effect. Self-diffusion coefficients of polymerized and unpolymerized bovine hemoglobin (Hb) and several other proteins were measured using this technique. The Hb diffusion coefficient was used to determine the effective permeability of oxygen and augmentation of oxygen transport through samples of Hb solutions due to diffusion of oxyhemoglobin. The values compared well with our previous diffusion cell measurements of effective diffusivity and augmentation. Our NMR studies show that even at low concentrations the augmentation of oxygen transport due to diffusion can be significant. The PFG NMR technique can thus provide an accurate and easy method for measuring augmentation of oxygen transport, especially in dilute samples of Hb. The results on polyhemoglobin and high-molecular-weight hemoglobin are of both basic interest and practical value in assessing the promise and performance of hemoglobin-based blood substitutes.

  1. An extended model of vesicle fusion at the plasma membrane to estimate protein lateral diffusion from TIRF microscopy images.

    PubMed

    Basset, Antoine; Bouthemy, Patrick; Boulanger, Jérôme; Waharte, François; Salamero, Jean; Kervrann, Charles

    2017-07-24

    Characterizing membrane dynamics is a key issue to understand cell exchanges with the extra-cellular medium. Total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM) is well suited to focus on the late steps of exocytosis at the plasma membrane. However, it is still a challenging task to quantify (lateral) diffusion and estimate local dynamics of proteins. A new model was introduced to represent the behavior of cargo transmembrane proteins during the vesicle fusion to the plasma membrane at the end of the exocytosis process. Two biophysical parameters, the diffusion coefficient and the release rate parameter, are automatically estimated from TIRFM image sequences, to account for both the lateral diffusion of molecules at the membrane and the continuous release of the proteins from the vesicle to the plasma membrane. Quantitative evaluation on 300 realistic computer-generated image sequences demonstrated the efficiency and accuracy of the method. The application of our method on 16 real TIRFM image sequences additionally revealed differences in the dynamic behavior of Transferrin Receptor (TfR) and Langerin proteins. An automated method has been designed to simultaneously estimate the diffusion coefficient and the release rate for each individual vesicle fusion event at the plasma membrane in TIRFM image sequences. It can be exploited for further deciphering cell membrane dynamics.

  2. Empirical constraints on closure temperatures from a single diffusion coefficient

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lee, J. K. W.

    The elucidation of thermal histories by geochronological and isotopic means is based fundamentally on solid-state diffusion and the concept of closure temperatures. Because diffusion is thermally activated, an analytical solution of the closure temperature (Tc*) can only be obtained if the diffusion coefficient D of the diffusion process is measured at two or more different temperatures. If the diffusion coefficient is known at only one temperature, however, the true closure temperature (Tc*) cannot be calculated analytically because there exist an infinite number of possible (apparent) closure temperatures (Tc) which can be generated by this single datum. By introducing further empirical constraints to limit the range of possible closure temperatures, however, mathematical analysis of a modified form of the closure temperature equation shows that it is possible to make both qualitative and quantitative estimates of Tc* given knowledge of only one diffusion coefficient DM measured at one temperature TM. Qualitative constraints of the true closure temperature Tc* are obtained from the shapes of curves on a graph of the apparent Tc (Tc) vs. activation energy E, in which each curve is based on a single diffusion coefficient measurement DM at temperature TM. Using a realistic range of E, the concavity of the curve shows whether TM is less than, approximately equal to, or greater than Tc*. Quantitative estimates are obtained by considering two dimensionless parameters [lnÊRT^c vs. Tc*/TM] derived from these curves. When these parameters are plotted for known argon diffusion data and for a given diffusion size and cooling rate, it is found that the resultant curves are almost identical for all of the commonly dated K-Ar minerals - biotite, phlogopite, muscovite, hornblende and orthoclase - in spite of differences in their diffusion parameters. A common curve for Ar diffusion can be derived by least-squares fitting of all the Ar diffusion data and provides a way of predicting a ``model'' closure temperature Tcm from a single diffusion coefficient DM at temperature TM. Preliminary diffusion data for a labradorite lead to a Tcm of 507+/-17°C and a corresponding activation energy of about 65kcal/mol, given a grain size of 200μm and a cooling rate of 5°C/Ma. Curves for He diffusion in silicates (augite, quartz and sanidine) also overlap to a significant degree, both among themselves and with the Ar model curve, suggesting that a single model curve may be a good representation of noble gas closure temperatures in silicates. An analogous model curve for a selection of 18O data can also be constructed, but this curve differs from the Ar model curve. A single model curve for cationic species does not appear to exist, however, suggesting that chemical bonding relationships between the ionic size/charge and crystal structure may influence the closure temperatures of diffusing cations. An indication of the degree of overlap among the various curves for Ar, He, 18O and cations is also obtained by considering the dimensionless parameter E/RTc*; for the noble gases and 18O, E/RTc* values for the respective minerals are very similar, whereas for cations, there is significant dispersion. Given these constraints, this may be a potential method of estimating closure temperatures for certain diffusing species when there are limited diffusion data.

  3. Measurement of diffusion coefficients of VOCs for building materials: review and development of a calculation procedure.

    PubMed

    Haghighat, F; Lee, C S; Ghaly, W S

    2002-06-01

    The measurement and prediction of building material emission rates have been the subject of intensive research over the past decade, resulting in the development of advanced sensory and chemical analysis measurement techniques as well as the development of analytical and numerical models. One of the important input parameters for these models is the diffusion coefficient. Several experimental techniques have been applied to estimate the diffusion coefficient. An extensive literature review of the techniques used to measure this coefficient was carried out, for building materials exposed to volatile organic compounds (VOC). This paper reviews these techniques; it also analyses the results and discusses the possible causes of difference in the reported data. It was noted that the discrepancy between the different results was mainly because of the assumptions made in and the techniques used to analyze the data. For a given technique, the results show that there can be a difference of up to 700% in the reported data. Moreover, the paper proposes what is referred to as the mass exchanger method, to calculate diffusion coefficients considering both diffusion and convection. The results obtained by this mass exchanger method were compared with those obtained by the existing method considering only diffusion. It was demonstrated that, for porous materials, the convection resistance could not be ignored when compared with the diffusion resistance.

  4. Modeling cesium ion exchange on fixed-bed columns of crystalline silicotitanate granules

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Latheef, I.M.; Huckman, M.E.; Anthony, R.G.

    2000-05-01

    A mathematical model is presented to simulate Cs exchange in fixed-bed columns of a novel crystalline silicotitanate (CST) material, UOP IONSIV IE-911. A local equilibrium is assumed between the macropores and the solid crystals for the particle material balance. Axial dispersed flow and film mass-transfer resistance are incorporated into the column model. Cs equilibrium isotherms and diffusion coefficients were measured experimentally, and dispersion and film mass-transfer coefficients were estimated from correlations. Cs exchange column experiments were conducted in 5--5.7 M Na solutions and simulated using the proposed model. Best-fit diffusion coefficients from column simulations were compared with previously reported batchmore » values of Gu et al. and Huckman. Cs diffusion coefficients for the column were between 2.5 and 5.0 x 10{sup {minus}11} m{sup 2}/s for 5--5.7 M Na solutions. The effect of the isotherm shape on the Cs diffusion coefficient was investigated. The proposed model provides good fits to experimental data and may be utilized in designing commercial-scale units.« less

  5. NMR investigation of water diffusion in different biofilm structures.

    PubMed

    Herrling, Maria P; Weisbrodt, Jessica; Kirkland, Catherine M; Williamson, Nathan H; Lackner, Susanne; Codd, Sarah L; Seymour, Joseph D; Guthausen, Gisela; Horn, Harald

    2017-12-01

    Mass transfer in biofilms is determined by diffusion. Different mostly invasive approaches have been used to measure diffusion coefficients in biofilms, however, data on heterogeneous biomass under realistic conditions is still missing. To non-invasively elucidate fluid-structure interactions in complex multispecies biofilms pulsed field gradient-nuclear magnetic resonance (PFG-NMR) was applied to measure the water diffusion in five different types of biomass aggregates: one type of sludge flocs, two types of biofilm, and two types of granules. Data analysis is an important issue when measuring heterogeneous systems and is shown to significantly influence the interpretation and understanding of water diffusion. With respect to numerical reproducibility and physico-chemical interpretation, different data processing methods were explored: (bi)-exponential data analysis and the Γ distribution model. Furthermore, the diffusion coefficient distribution in relation to relaxation was studied by D-T 2 maps obtained by 2D inverse Laplace transform (2D ILT). The results show that the effective diffusion coefficients for all biofilm samples ranged from 0.36 to 0.96 relative to that of water. NMR diffusion was linked to biofilm structure (e.g., biomass density, organic and inorganic matter) as observed by magnetic resonance imaging and to traditional biofilm parameters: diffusion was most restricted in granules with compact structures, and fast diffusion was found in heterotrophic biofilms with fluffy structures. The effective diffusion coefficients in the biomass were found to be broadly distributed because of internal biomass heterogeneities, such as gas bubbles, precipitates, and locally changing biofilm densities. Thus, estimations based on biofilm bulk properties in multispecies systems can be overestimated and mean diffusion coefficients might not be sufficiently informative to describe mass transport in biofilms and the near bulk. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  6. Investigation of heat and mass transfer under the influence of variable diffusion coefficient and thermal conductivity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mohyud Din, S. T.; Zubair, T.; Usman, M.; Hamid, M.; Rafiq, M.; Mohsin, S.

    2018-04-01

    This study is devoted to analyze the influence of variable diffusion coefficient and variable thermal conductivity on heat and mass transfer in Casson fluid flow. The behavior of concentration and temperature profiles in the presence of Joule heating and viscous dissipation is also studied. The dimensionless conversation laws with suitable BCs are solved via Modified Gegenbauer Wavelets Method (MGWM). It has been observed that increase in Casson fluid parameter (β ) and parameter ɛ enhances the Nusselt number. Moreover, Nusselt number of Newtonian fluid is less than that of the Casson fluid. The phenomenon of mass transport can be increased by solute of variable diffusion coefficient rather than solute of constant diffusion coefficient. A detailed analysis of results is appropriately highlighted. The obtained results, error estimates, and convergence analysis reconfirm the credibility of proposed algorithm. It is concluded that MGWM is an appropriate tool to tackle nonlinear physical models and hence may be extended to some other nonlinear problems of diversified physical nature also.

  7. Random walk numerical simulation for hopping transport at finite carrier concentrations: diffusion coefficient and transport energy concept.

    PubMed

    Gonzalez-Vazquez, J P; Anta, Juan A; Bisquert, Juan

    2009-11-28

    The random walk numerical simulation (RWNS) method is used to compute diffusion coefficients for hopping transport in a fully disordered medium at finite carrier concentrations. We use Miller-Abrahams jumping rates and an exponential distribution of energies to compute the hopping times in the random walk simulation. The computed diffusion coefficient shows an exponential dependence with respect to Fermi-level and Arrhenius behavior with respect to temperature. This result indicates that there is a well-defined transport level implicit to the system dynamics. To establish the origin of this transport level we construct histograms to monitor the energies of the most visited sites. In addition, we construct "corrected" histograms where backward moves are removed. Since these moves do not contribute to transport, these histograms provide a better estimation of the effective transport level energy. The analysis of this concept in connection with the Fermi-level dependence of the diffusion coefficient and the regime of interest for the functioning of dye-sensitised solar cells is thoroughly discussed.

  8. Quantitative characterization of organic diffusion using an analytical diffusion-reaction model and its application to assessing BOD removal when treating municipal wastewater in a plug flow reactor.

    PubMed

    Fan, Chihhao; Kao, Chen-Fei; Liu, Yu-Hsi

    2017-09-15

    The present study aimed to derive an analytical formula to quantify the diffusion of organic contaminant in a biofilm. The experiments were conducted to investigate the BOD degradation under the conditions of influent COD concentration from 50 to 300 mg/L, COD:N:P ratios of 100:5:1 and 100:15:3, with and without auxiliary aeration. The BOD removal rate was around 73% for non-aerated influent COD of 50 mg/L with 1-h hydraulic retention time. The BOD removal rate increased as the influent loading and hydraulic retention time increased while the influent COD was no more than 150 mg/L. Without aeration, the removal rate dropped significantly when influent COD increased to the range no less than 200 mg/L, due to the fact that the BOD diffusive flux driven by the biomass uptake was not further enhanced by higher ambient organic loading. The diffusion coefficient was calculated to be 1.12 × 10 -6  m 2 /d with influent COD of 50 mg/L at COD:N:P ratio of 100:5:1 and 1 h hydraulic retention time and aeration, and the coefficient increased to 3.35 × 10 -6  m 2 /d as the influent COD concentration increased to 300 mg/L. The diffusion coefficient decreased to 4.09 × 10 -7  m 2 /d as the retention time increased to 3 h. The overall diffusion coefficients showed an increasing trend as the influent organic loading increased. The difference in diffusion coefficients between 1 and 2 h was apparently greater than that between 2 and 3 h, indicating a smaller overall diffusive flux due to a longer retention time. Further analysis revealed that BOD diffusion activity exhibited a declining trend as the wastewater travelled through the system. An analytical diffusion-reaction model was developed to characterize the diffusion behaviour, and applied to estimating the treatment efficiency for real domestic sewage. The result showed that the estimated effluent BOD concentrations were quite comparable to those from experimental measurements. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Kinetics of intercalation of lithium into NbSe3 and TiS2 cathodes

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ratnakumar, B. V.; Nagasubramanian, G.; Di Stefano, S.; Bankston, C. P.

    1992-01-01

    Titanium disulfide and niobium triselenide are two well-studied candidate materials for positive electrodes in rechargeable lithium cells. A comparative study of the kinetics of intercalation of lithium in both the cathodes is made here based on various electrochemical techniques, i.e., linear polarization, potentiodynamic polarization, and ac impedance under different experimental conditions such as prismatic or disk configuration of fresh, partially discharged, or cycled electrode. Further, the diffusion coefficients of lithium ions in these cathodes are estimated under these conditions using conventional techniques, i.e., ac impedance, chronocoulometry, chronoamperometry, and current pulse relaxation. Based on the values of the diffusion coefficients, the applicability of these methods for the determination of diffusion coefficients is discussed.

  10. Effect of intravascular contrast agent on diffusion and perfusion fraction coefficients in the peripheral zone and prostate cancer.

    PubMed

    Mazaheri, Yousef; Hötker, Andreas M; Shukla-Dave, Amita; Akin, Oguz; Hricak, Hedvig

    2018-09-01

    To determine whether water diffusion and the perfusion fraction coefficients in prostate peripheral zone (PZ) and prostate cancer (PCa) are affected by intravenous contrast injection and explore the potential mechanism behind previously reported differences between pre- and post-contrast ADC values. Our institutional review board waived informed consent for this HIPAA-compliant, retrospective study, which included 32 patients (median age, 63 years; range, 47-77 years) with biopsy-proven, untreated PCa who underwent 3-Tesla MRI, including DW-MRI at b-values 0, 400, 700, 1000 s/mm 2 before and after gadolinium injection. For regions of interest (ROIs) in presumed benign PZ and PZ PCa, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), perfusion fraction f, and diffusion coefficient D were estimated voxel-wise, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise (CNR) were estimated. Pre- and post-contrast measurements were compared by Wilcoxon signed-rank test; P < 0.05 was considered significant. In PZ, f (P = 0.002) was significantly higher on post-contrast imaging than on pre-contrast imaging, but ADC and D values did not change significantly (P = 0.562 and 0.295 respectively). In PCa, all parameters differed significantly between post-contrast and pre-contrast imaging (P < 0.0001 for ADC, P = 0.0084 for D, and P = 0.029 for f). On post-contrast imaging, SNR was not significantly different in PZ (P = 0.260) but was significantly lower in PCa (P < 0.0001); CNR did not change significantly (P = 0.059). After contrast injection, ADC and D declined significantly in PCa only, while f increased significantly in both PCa and PZ. Pre- and post-contrast diffusion parameters cannot be used interchangeably for diagnostic purposes that require quantitative diffusion estimates. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  11. Ocean Lidar Measurements of Beam Attenuation and a Roadmap to Accurate Phytoplankton Biomass Estimates

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hu, Yongxiang; Behrenfeld, Mike; Hostetler, Chris; Pelon, Jacques; Trepte, Charles; Hair, John; Slade, Wayne; Cetinic, Ivona; Vaughan, Mark; Lu, Xiaomei; Zhai, Pengwang; Weimer, Carl; Winker, David; Verhappen, Carolus C.; Butler, Carolyn; Liu, Zhaoyan; Hunt, Bill; Omar, Ali; Rodier, Sharon; Lifermann, Anne; Josset, Damien; Hou, Weilin; MacDonnell, David; Rhew, Ray

    2016-06-01

    Beam attenuation coefficient, c, provides an important optical index of plankton standing stocks, such as phytoplankton biomass and total particulate carbon concentration. Unfortunately, c has proven difficult to quantify through remote sensing. Here, we introduce an innovative approach for estimating c using lidar depolarization measurements and diffuse attenuation coefficients from ocean color products or lidar measurements of Brillouin scattering. The new approach is based on a theoretical formula established from Monte Carlo simulations that links the depolarization ratio of sea water to the ratio of diffuse attenuation Kd and beam attenuation C (i.e., a multiple scattering factor). On July 17, 2014, the CALIPSO satellite was tilted 30° off-nadir for one nighttime orbit in order to minimize ocean surface backscatter and demonstrate the lidar ocean subsurface measurement concept from space. Depolarization ratios of ocean subsurface backscatter are measured accurately. Beam attenuation coefficients computed from the depolarization ratio measurements compare well with empirical estimates from ocean color measurements. We further verify the beam attenuation coefficient retrievals using aircraft-based high spectral resolution lidar (HSRL) data that are collocated with in-water optical measurements.

  12. Nonparametric estimates of drift and diffusion profiles via Fokker-Planck algebra.

    PubMed

    Lund, Steven P; Hubbard, Joseph B; Halter, Michael

    2014-11-06

    Diffusion processes superimposed upon deterministic motion play a key role in understanding and controlling the transport of matter, energy, momentum, and even information in physics, chemistry, material science, biology, and communications technology. Given functions defining these random and deterministic components, the Fokker-Planck (FP) equation is often used to model these diffusive systems. Many methods exist for estimating the drift and diffusion profiles from one or more identifiable diffusive trajectories; however, when many identical entities diffuse simultaneously, it may not be possible to identify individual trajectories. Here we present a method capable of simultaneously providing nonparametric estimates for both drift and diffusion profiles from evolving density profiles, requiring only the validity of Langevin/FP dynamics. This algebraic FP manipulation provides a flexible and robust framework for estimating stationary drift and diffusion coefficient profiles, is not based on fluctuation theory or solved diffusion equations, and may facilitate predictions for many experimental systems. We illustrate this approach on experimental data obtained from a model lipid bilayer system exhibiting free diffusion and electric field induced drift. The wide range over which this approach provides accurate estimates for drift and diffusion profiles is demonstrated through simulation.

  13. Estimation of Knudsen diffusion coefficients from tracer experiments conducted with a binary gas system and a porous medium.

    PubMed

    Hibi, Yoshihiko; Kashihara, Ayumi

    2018-03-01

    A previous study has reported that Knudsen diffusion coefficients obtained by tracer experiments conducted with a binary gas system and a porous medium are consistently smaller than those obtained by permeability experiments conducted with a single-gas system and a porous medium. To date, however, that study is the only one in which tracer experiments have been conducted with a binary gas system. Therefore, to confirm this difference in Knudsen diffusion coefficients, we used a method we had developed previously to conduct tracer experiments with a binary carbon dioxide-nitrogen gas system and five porous media with permeability coefficients ranging from 10 -13 to 10 -11  m 2 . The results showed that the Knudsen diffusion coefficient of N 2 (D N2 ) (cm 2 /s) was related to the effective permeability coefficient k e (m 2 ) as D N2  = 7.39 × 10 7 k e 0.767 . Thus, the Knudsen diffusion coefficients of N 2 obtained by our tracer experiments were consistently 1/27 of those obtained by permeability experiments conducted with many porous media and air by other researchers. By using an inversion simulation to fit the advection-diffusion equation to the distribution of concentrations at observation points calculated by mathematically solving the equation, we confirmed that the method used to obtain the Knudsen diffusion coefficient in this study yielded accurate values. Moreover, because the Knudsen diffusion coefficient did not differ when columns with two different lengths, 900 and 1500 mm, were used, this column property did not influence the flow of gas in the column. The equation of the dusty gas model already includes obstruction factors for Knudsen diffusion and molecular diffusion, which relate to medium heterogeneity and tortuosity and depend only on the structure of the porous medium. Furthermore, there is no need to take account of any additional correction factor for molecular diffusion except the obstruction factor because molecular diffusion is only treated in a multicomponent gas system. Thus, molecular diffusion considers only the obstruction factor related to tortuosity. Therefore, we introduced a correction factor for a multicomponent gas system into the DGM equation, multiplying the Knudsen diffusion coefficient, which includes the obstruction factor related to tortuosity, by this correction factor. From the present experimental results, the value of this correction factor was 1/27, and it depended only on the structure of the gas system in the porous medium. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  14. Estimation of Knudsen diffusion coefficients from tracer experiments conducted with a binary gas system and a porous medium

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hibi, Yoshihiko; Kashihara, Ayumi

    2018-03-01

    A previous study has reported that Knudsen diffusion coefficients obtained by tracer experiments conducted with a binary gas system and a porous medium are consistently smaller than those obtained by permeability experiments conducted with a single-gas system and a porous medium. To date, however, that study is the only one in which tracer experiments have been conducted with a binary gas system. Therefore, to confirm this difference in Knudsen diffusion coefficients, we used a method we had developed previously to conduct tracer experiments with a binary carbon dioxide-nitrogen gas system and five porous media with permeability coefficients ranging from 10-13 to 10-11 m2. The results showed that the Knudsen diffusion coefficient of N2 (DN2) (cm2/s) was related to the effective permeability coefficient ke (m2) as DN2 = 7.39 × 107ke0.767. Thus, the Knudsen diffusion coefficients of N2 obtained by our tracer experiments were consistently 1/27 of those obtained by permeability experiments conducted with many porous media and air by other researchers. By using an inversion simulation to fit the advection-diffusion equation to the distribution of concentrations at observation points calculated by mathematically solving the equation, we confirmed that the method used to obtain the Knudsen diffusion coefficient in this study yielded accurate values. Moreover, because the Knudsen diffusion coefficient did not differ when columns with two different lengths, 900 and 1500 mm, were used, this column property did not influence the flow of gas in the column. The equation of the dusty gas model already includes obstruction factors for Knudsen diffusion and molecular diffusion, which relate to medium heterogeneity and tortuosity and depend only on the structure of the porous medium. Furthermore, there is no need to take account of any additional correction factor for molecular diffusion except the obstruction factor because molecular diffusion is only treated in a multicomponent gas system. Thus, molecular diffusion considers only the obstruction factor related to tortuosity. Therefore, we introduced a correction factor for a multicomponent gas system into the DGM equation, multiplying the Knudsen diffusion coefficient, which includes the obstruction factor related to tortuosity, by this correction factor. From the present experimental results, the value of this correction factor was 1/27, and it depended only on the structure of the gas system in the porous medium.

  15. Inversely Estimating the Vertical Profile of the Soil CO2 Production Rate in a Deciduous Broadleaf Forest Using a Particle Filtering Method

    PubMed Central

    Sakurai, Gen; Yonemura, Seiichiro; Kishimoto-Mo, Ayaka W.; Murayama, Shohei; Ohtsuka, Toshiyuki; Yokozawa, Masayuki

    2015-01-01

    Carbon dioxide (CO2) efflux from the soil surface, which is a major source of CO2 from terrestrial ecosystems, represents the total CO2 production at all soil depths. Although many studies have estimated the vertical profile of the CO2 production rate, one of the difficulties in estimating the vertical profile is measuring diffusion coefficients of CO2 at all soil depths in a nondestructive manner. In this study, we estimated the temporal variation in the vertical profile of the CO2 production rate using a data assimilation method, the particle filtering method, in which the diffusion coefficients of CO2 were simultaneously estimated. The CO2 concentrations at several soil depths and CO2 efflux from the soil surface (only during the snow-free period) were measured at two points in a broadleaf forest in Japan, and the data were assimilated into a simple model including a diffusion equation. We found that there were large variations in the pattern of the vertical profile of the CO2 production rate between experiment sites: the peak CO2 production rate was at soil depths around 10 cm during the snow-free period at one site, but the peak was at the soil surface at the other site. Using this method to estimate the CO2 production rate during snow-cover periods allowed us to estimate CO2 efflux during that period as well. We estimated that the CO2 efflux during the snow-cover period (about half the year) accounted for around 13% of the annual CO2 efflux at this site. Although the method proposed in this study does not ensure the validity of the estimated diffusion coefficients and CO2 production rates, the method enables us to more closely approach the “actual” values by decreasing the variance of the posterior distribution of the values. PMID:25793387

  16. An integrated fiber-optic probe combined with support vector regression for fast estimation of optical properties of turbid media.

    PubMed

    Zhou, Yang; Fu, Xiaping; Ying, Yibin; Fang, Zhenhuan

    2015-06-23

    A fiber-optic probe system was developed to estimate the optical properties of turbid media based on spatially resolved diffuse reflectance. Because of the limitations in numerical calculation of radiative transfer equation (RTE), diffusion approximation (DA) and Monte Carlo simulations (MC), support vector regression (SVR) was introduced to model the relationship between diffuse reflectance values and optical properties. The SVR models of four collection fibers were trained by phantoms in calibration set with a wide range of optical properties which represented products of different applications, then the optical properties of phantoms in prediction set were predicted after an optimal searching on SVR models. The results indicated that the SVR model was capable of describing the relationship with little deviation in forward validation. The correlation coefficient (R) of reduced scattering coefficient μ'(s) and absorption coefficient μ(a) in the prediction set were 0.9907 and 0.9980, respectively. The root mean square errors of prediction (RMSEP) of μ'(s) and μ(a) in inverse validation were 0.411 cm(-1) and 0.338 cm(-1), respectively. The results indicated that the integrated fiber-optic probe system combined with SVR model were suitable for fast and accurate estimation of optical properties of turbid media based on spatially resolved diffuse reflectance. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. The determination of solubility and diffusion coefficient for solids in liquids by an inverse measurement technique using cylinders of amorphous glucose as a model compound

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hu, Chengyao; Huang, Pei

    2011-05-01

    The importance of sugar and sugar-containing materials is well recognized nowadays, owing to their application in industrial processes, particularly in the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Because of the large numbers of those compounds involved and the relatively small number of solubility and/or diffusion coefficient data for each compound available, it is highly desirable to measure the solubility and/or diffusion coefficient as efficiently as possible and to be able to improve the accuracy of the methods used. In this work, a new technique was developed for the measurement of the diffusion coefficient of a stationary solid solute in a stagnant solvent which simultaneously measures solubility based on an inverse measurement problem algorithm with the real-time dissolved amount profile as a function of time. This study differs from established techniques in both the experimental method and the data analysis. The experimental method was developed in which the dissolved amount of solid solute in quiescent solvent was investigated using a continuous weighing technique. In the data analysis, the hybrid genetic algorithm is used to minimize an objective function containing a calculated and a measured dissolved amount with time. This is measured on a cylindrical sample of amorphous glucose in methanol or ethanol. The calculated dissolved amount, that is a function of the unknown physical properties of the solid solute in the solvent, is calculated by the solution of the two-dimensional nonlinear inverse natural convection problem. The estimated values of the solubility of amorphous glucose in methanol and ethanol at 293 K were respectively 32.1 g/100 g methanol and 1.48 g/100 g ethanol, in agreement with the literature values, and support the validity of the simultaneously measured diffusion coefficient. These results show the efficiency and the stability of the developed technique to simultaneously estimate the solubility and diffusion coefficient. Also the influence of the solution density change and the initial concentration conditions on the dissolved amount was investigated by the numerical results using the estimated parameters. It is found that the theoretical assumption to simplify the inverse measurement problem algorithm is reasonable for low solubility.

  18. The Shannon entropy as a measure of diffusion in multidimensional dynamical systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Giordano, C. M.; Cincotta, P. M.

    2018-05-01

    In the present work, we introduce two new estimators of chaotic diffusion based on the Shannon entropy. Using theoretical, heuristic and numerical arguments, we show that the entropy, S, provides a measure of the diffusion extent of a given small initial ensemble of orbits, while an indicator related with the time derivative of the entropy, S', estimates the diffusion rate. We show that in the limiting case of near ergodicity, after an appropriate normalization, S' coincides with the standard homogeneous diffusion coefficient. The very first application of this formulation to a 4D symplectic map and to the Arnold Hamiltonian reveals very successful and encouraging results.

  19. Measurement of cesium diffusion coefficients in graphite IG-110

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Carter, L. M.; Brockman, J. D.; Loyalka, S. K.; Robertson, J. D.

    2015-05-01

    An understanding of the transport of fission products in High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors (HTGRs) is needed for operational safety as well as source term estimations. We have measured diffusion coefficients of Cs in IG-110 by using the release method, wherein we infused small graphite spheres with Cs and measured the release rates using ICP-MS. Diffusion behavior was investigated in the temperature range of 1100-1300 K. We have obtained: DCs = (1.0 ×10-7m2 /s) exp(-1.1/×105J /mol RT) and, compared our results with those available in the literature.

  20. Pc 5 Spectral Density at ULTIMA stataions and its Radial Diffusion Coefficients for REE

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Fujimoto, A.; Tokunaga, T.; Abe, S.; Uozumi, T.; Yoshikawa, A.; Mann, I. R.; Chi, P. J.; Engebretson, M. J.; Yumoto, K.

    2009-12-01

    Pc 5 magnetic pulsations with frequencies between 1.67 and 6.67 mHz, are believed to contribute to the Relativistic Electron Enhancement (REE) in the outer radiation belt during magnetic storms. Ground-based observations suggested that high-speed solar wind and large-amplitude Pc 5 waves with a long duration during the storm recovery phase are closely associated with the production of relativistic electrons [Baker et al., 1998; Rostoker et al., 1998; Mathie and Mann, 2000; O’Brien et al., 2001, 2003]. On the other hand, many relativistic electron acceleration mechanisms have been proposed theoretically. They are separated roughly into two themes: in situ acceleration at L lower than 6.6 by wave particle interactions (as internal source acceleration mechanisms) [Liu et al., 1999; Summers et al., 1999; Summers and Ma, 2000] and acceleration by radial diffusion to transport and accelerate a source population of electrons from the outer to the inner magnetosphere (as external source acceleration mechanisms) [Elkington et al., 1999, 2003; Hudson et al., 2000; Kim et al., 2001]. One possible external source acceleration mechanism is the resonant interaction with ULF toroidal and poloidal waves. In order to verify which of the two mechanisms is more effective for the REE, we have to examine the time variation of electron phase space density. Electron phase space density is not directly measured, but we can estimate radial diffusion coefficients using observational electric and magnetic data. The goal of this paper is to get more reliable radial diffusion coefficient from ground-based observational magnetic field and to show reasonability of it for radial diffusion model. We use the global magnetometer data obtained from ULTIMA (Ultra Large Terrestrial International Magnetic Array, see http://www.serc.kyushu-u.ac.jp/ultima/ultima.html) stations, to precisely define the radial diffusion timescales. The ULTIMA includes McMAC, CARISAM, 210MM and MAGDAS/CPMN magnetometer arrays. The radial diffusion coefficient can be given from the magnetic field power spectral density as a function of L, frequency (f) and m-number (m) in the Pc 5 frequency range during the REE related magnetic storms [see Brautigam et al., 2005]. We can fit Pc 5 power spectral density (L, f, m) using the ULTIMA data. The m-number of global Pc 5 pulsation on the ground is found to be almost less than 5. This is consistent with m-number required in the radial diffusion theory by Elkington et al. [1999, 2003]. We will compare the observationally estimated diffusion coefficient with theoretical diffusion coefficient [e.g. Elkington et al., 2006], and discuss adequacy of our diffusion coefficient.

  1. Approximation of epidemic models by diffusion processes and their statistical inference.

    PubMed

    Guy, Romain; Larédo, Catherine; Vergu, Elisabeta

    2015-02-01

    Multidimensional continuous-time Markov jump processes [Formula: see text] on [Formula: see text] form a usual set-up for modeling [Formula: see text]-like epidemics. However, when facing incomplete epidemic data, inference based on [Formula: see text] is not easy to be achieved. Here, we start building a new framework for the estimation of key parameters of epidemic models based on statistics of diffusion processes approximating [Formula: see text]. First, previous results on the approximation of density-dependent [Formula: see text]-like models by diffusion processes with small diffusion coefficient [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] is the population size, are generalized to non-autonomous systems. Second, our previous inference results on discretely observed diffusion processes with small diffusion coefficient are extended to time-dependent diffusions. Consistent and asymptotically Gaussian estimates are obtained for a fixed number [Formula: see text] of observations, which corresponds to the epidemic context, and for [Formula: see text]. A correction term, which yields better estimates non asymptotically, is also included. Finally, performances and robustness of our estimators with respect to various parameters such as [Formula: see text] (the basic reproduction number), [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] are investigated on simulations. Two models, [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], corresponding to single and recurrent outbreaks, respectively, are used to simulate data. The findings indicate that our estimators have good asymptotic properties and behave noticeably well for realistic numbers of observations and population sizes. This study lays the foundations of a generic inference method currently under extension to incompletely observed epidemic data. Indeed, contrary to the majority of current inference techniques for partially observed processes, which necessitates computer intensive simulations, our method being mostly an analytical approach requires only the classical optimization steps.

  2. Precise Inference and Characterization of Structural Organization (PICASO) of tissue from molecular diffusion

    PubMed Central

    Ning, Lipeng; Özarslan, Evren; Westin, Carl-Fredrik; Rathi, Yogesh

    2017-01-01

    Inferring the microstructure of complex media from the diffusive motion of molecules is a challenging problem in diffusion physics. In this paper, we introduce a novel representation of diffusion MRI (dMRI) signal from tissue with spatially-varying diffusivity using a diffusion disturbance function. This disturbance function contains information about the (intra-voxel) spatial fluctuations in diffusivity due to restrictions, hindrances and tissue heterogeneity of the underlying tissue substrate. We derive the short- and long-range disturbance coefficients from this disturbance function to characterize the tissue structure and organization. Moreover, we provide an exact relation between the disturbance coefficients and the time-varying moments of the diffusion propagator, as well as their relation to specific tissue microstructural information such as the intra-axonal volume fraction and the apparent axon radius. The proposed approach is quite general and can model dMRI signal for any type of gradient sequence (rectangular, oscillating, etc.) without using the Gaussian phase approximation. The relevance of the proposed PICASO model is explored using Monte-Carlo simulations and in-vivo dMRI data. The results show that the estimated disturbance coefficients can distinguish different types of microstructural organization of axons. PMID:27751940

  3. Precise Inference and Characterization of Structural Organization (PICASO) of tissue from molecular diffusion.

    PubMed

    Ning, Lipeng; Özarslan, Evren; Westin, Carl-Fredrik; Rathi, Yogesh

    2017-02-01

    Inferring the microstructure of complex media from the diffusive motion of molecules is a challenging problem in diffusion physics. In this paper, we introduce a novel representation of diffusion MRI (dMRI) signal from tissue with spatially-varying diffusivity using a diffusion disturbance function. This disturbance function contains information about the (intra-voxel) spatial fluctuations in diffusivity due to restrictions, hindrances and tissue heterogeneity of the underlying tissue substrate. We derive the short- and long-range disturbance coefficients from this disturbance function to characterize the tissue structure and organization. Moreover, we provide an exact relation between the disturbance coefficients and the time-varying moments of the diffusion propagator, as well as their relation to specific tissue microstructural information such as the intra-axonal volume fraction and the apparent axon radius. The proposed approach is quite general and can model dMRI signal for any type of gradient sequence (rectangular, oscillating, etc.) without using the Gaussian phase approximation. The relevance of the proposed PICASO model is explored using Monte-Carlo simulations and in-vivo dMRI data. The results show that the estimated disturbance coefficients can distinguish different types of microstructural organization of axons. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Relation between the structural parameters of metallic glasses at the onset crystallization temperatures and threshold values of the effective diffusion coefficients

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tkatch, V. I.; Svyrydova, K. A.; Vasiliev, S. V.; Kovalenko, O. V.

    2017-08-01

    Using the results of differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffractometry, an analysis has been carried out of the initial stages of the eutectic and primary mechanisms of crystallization of a series of metallic glasses based on Fe and Al with the established temperature dependences of the effective diffusion coefficients. Analytical relationships, which relate the volume density of crystallites formed in the glasses at the temperatures of the onset of crystallization with the values of the effective diffusion coefficients at these temperatures have been proposed. It has been established that, in the glasses, the crystallization of which begins at the lower boundary of the threshold values of the effective diffusion coefficients ( 10-20 m2/s), structures are formed with the volume density of crystallites on the order of 1023-1024 m-3 and, at the upper boundary (10-18 m2/s), of the order of 1018 and 1020 m-3 in the glasses that are crystallized via the eutectic and primary mechanisms, respectively. Good agreement between the calculated and experimental estimates indicates that the threshold values of the effective diffusion coefficients are the main factors that determine the structure of glasses at the initial stages of crystallization.

  5. Determination of heat transfer parameters by use of finite integral transform and experimental data for regular geometric shapes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Talaghat, Mohammad Reza; Jokar, Seyyed Mohammad

    2017-12-01

    This article offers a study on estimation of heat transfer parameters (coefficient and thermal diffusivity) using analytical solutions and experimental data for regular geometric shapes (such as infinite slab, infinite cylinder, and sphere). Analytical solutions have a broad use in experimentally determining these parameters. Here, the method of Finite Integral Transform (FIT) was used for solutions of governing differential equations. The temperature change at centerline location of regular shapes was recorded to determine both the thermal diffusivity and heat transfer coefficient. Aluminum and brass were used for testing. Experiments were performed for different conditions such as in a highly agitated water medium ( T = 52 °C) and in air medium ( T = 25 °C). Then, with the known slope of the temperature ratio vs. time curve and thickness of slab or radius of the cylindrical or spherical materials, thermal diffusivity value and heat transfer coefficient may be determined. According to the method presented in this study, the estimated of thermal diffusivity of aluminum and brass is 8.395 × 10-5 and 3.42 × 10-5 for a slab, 8.367 × 10-5 and 3.41 × 10-5 for a cylindrical rod and 8.385 × 10-5 and 3.40 × 10-5 m2/s for a spherical shape, respectively. The results showed there is close agreement between the values estimated here and those already published in the literature. The TAAD% is 0.42 and 0.39 for thermal diffusivity of aluminum and brass, respectively.

  6. Symplastic Transport of Carboxyfluorescein in Staminal Hairs of Setcreasea purpurea Is Diffusive and Includes Loss to the Vacuole.

    PubMed

    Tucker, J E; Mauzerall, D; Tucker, E B

    1989-07-01

    The kinetics of symplastic transport in staminal hairs of Setcreasea purpurea was studied. The tip cell of a staminal hair was microinjected with carboxyfluorescein (CF) and the symplastic transport of this CF was videotaped and the digital data analyzed to produce kinetic curves. Using a finite difference equation for diffusion between cells and for loss of dye into the vacuole, kinetic curves were calculated and fitted to the observed data. These curves were matched with data from actual microinjection experiments by adjusting K (the coefficient of intercellular junction diffusion) and L (the coefficient of intracellular loss) until a minimum in the least squares difference between the curves was obtained. (a) Symplastic transport of CF was governed by diffusion through intercellular pores (plasmodesmata) and intracellular loss. Diffusion within the cell cytoplasm was never limiting. (b) Each cell and its plasmodesmata must be considered as its own diffusion system. Therefore, a diffusion coefficient cannot be calculated for an entire chain of cells. (c) The movement through plasmodesmata in either direction was the same since the data are fit by a diffusion equation. (d) Diffusion through the intercellular pores was estimated to be slower than diffusion through similar pores filled with water.

  7. Symplastic Transport of Carboxyfluorescein in Staminal Hairs of Setcreasea purpurea Is Diffusive and Includes Loss to the Vacuole 1

    PubMed Central

    Tucker, Joseph E.; Mauzerall, David; Tucker, Edward B.

    1989-01-01

    The kinetics of symplastic transport in staminal hairs of Setcreasea purpurea was studied. The tip cell of a staminal hair was microinjected with carboxyfluorescein (CF) and the symplastic transport of this CF was videotaped and the digital data analyzed to produce kinetic curves. Using a finite difference equation for diffusion between cells and for loss of dye into the vacuole, kinetic curves were calculated and fitted to the observed data. These curves were matched with data from actual microinjection experiments by adjusting K (the coefficient of intercellular junction diffusion) and L (the coefficient of intracellular loss) until a minimum in the least squares difference between the curves was obtained. (a) Symplastic transport of CF was governed by diffusion through intercellular pores (plasmodesmata) and intracellular loss. Diffusion within the cell cytoplasm was never limiting. (b) Each cell and its plasmodesmata must be considered as its own diffusion system. Therefore, a diffusion coefficient cannot be calculated for an entire chain of cells. (c) The movement through plasmodesmata in either direction was the same since the data are fit by a diffusion equation. (d) Diffusion through the intercellular pores was estimated to be slower than diffusion through similar pores filled with water. PMID:16666864

  8. Electrochemical evidences and consequences of significant differences in ions diffusion rate in polyacrylate-based ion-selective membranes.

    PubMed

    Woźnica, Emilia; Mieczkowski, Józef; Michalska, Agata

    2011-11-21

    The origin and effect of surface accumulation of primary ions within the ion-selective poly(n-butyl acrylate)-based membrane, obtained by thermal polymerization, is discussed. Using a new method, based on the relation between the shape of a potentiometric plot and preconditioning time, the diffusion of copper ions in the membrane was found to be slow (the diffusion coefficient estimated to be close to 10(-11) cm(2) s(-1)), especially when compared to ion-exchanger counter ions--sodium cations diffusion (a diffusion coefficient above 10(-9) cm(2) s(-1)). The higher mobility of sodium ions than those of the copper-ionophore complex results in exposed ion-exchanger role leading to undesirably exposed sensitivity to sodium or potassium ions.

  9. Banded structures in electron pitch angle diffusion coefficients from resonant wave-particle interactions

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Tripathi, A. K., E-mail: aktrip2001@yahoo.co.in; Singhal, R. P., E-mail: rpsiitbhu@yahoo.com; Khazanov, G. V., E-mail: George.V.Khazanov@nasa.gov

    2016-04-15

    Electron pitch angle (D{sub αα}) and momentum (D{sub pp}) diffusion coefficients have been calculated due to resonant interactions with electrostatic electron cyclotron harmonic (ECH) and whistler mode chorus waves. Calculations have been performed at two spatial locations L = 4.6 and 6.8 for electron energies ≤10 keV. Landau (n = 0) resonance and cyclotron harmonic resonances n = ±1, ±2, … ±5 have been included in the calculations. It is found that diffusion coefficient versus pitch angle (α) profiles show large dips and oscillations or banded structures. The structures are more pronounced for ECH and lower band chorus (LBC) and particularly at location 4.6. Calculations of diffusionmore » coefficients have also been performed for individual resonances. It is noticed that the main contribution of ECH waves in pitch angle diffusion coefficient is due to resonances n = +1 and n = +2. A major contribution to momentum diffusion coefficients appears from n = +2. However, the banded structures in D{sub αα} and D{sub pp} coefficients appear only in the profile of diffusion coefficients for n = +2. The contribution of other resonances to diffusion coefficients is found to be, in general, quite small or even negligible. For LBC and upper band chorus waves, the banded structures appear only in Landau resonance. The D{sub pp} diffusion coefficient for ECH waves is one to two orders smaller than D{sub αα} coefficients. For chorus waves, D{sub pp} coefficients are about an order of magnitude smaller than D{sub αα} coefficients for the case n ≠ 0. In case of Landau resonance, the values of D{sub pp} coefficient are generally larger than the values of D{sub αα} coefficients particularly at lower energies. As an aid to the interpretation of results, we have also determined the resonant frequencies. For ECH waves, resonant frequencies have been estimated for wave normal angle 89° and harmonic resonances n = +1, +2, and +3, whereas for whistler mode waves, the frequencies have been calculated for angle 10° and Landau resonance. Further, in ECH waves, the banded structures appear for electron energies ≥1 keV, and for whistler mode chorus waves, structures appear for energies >2 keV at L = 4.6 and above 200 eV for L = 6.8. The results obtained in the present work will be helpful in the study of diffusion curves and will have important consequences for diffuse aurora and pancake distributions.« less

  10. Vertical eddy diffusion coefficient from the LANDSAT imagery

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Viswanadham, Y. (Principal Investigator); Torsani, J. A.

    1982-01-01

    Analysis of five stable cases of the smoke plumes that originated in eastern Cabo Frio (22 deg 59'S; 42 deg 02'W), Brazil using LANDSAT imagery is presented for different months and years. From these images the lateral standard deviation (sigma sub y) and the lateral eddy diffusion coefficient (K sub y) are obtained from the formula based on Taylor's theory of diffusion by continuous moment. The rate of kinetic energy dissipation (e) is evaluated from the diffusion parameters sigma sub y and K sub y. Then, the vertical diffusion coefficient (K sub z) is estimated using Weinstock's formulation. These results agree well with the previous experimental values obtained over water surfaces by various workers. Values of e and K sub z show the weaker mixing processes in the marine stable boundary layer. The data sample is apparently to small to include representative active turbulent regions because such regions are so intermittent in time and in space. These results form a data base for use in the development and validation of mesoscale atmospheric diffusion models.

  11. A Functional Varying-Coefficient Single-Index Model for Functional Response Data

    PubMed Central

    Li, Jialiang; Huang, Chao; Zhu, Hongtu

    2016-01-01

    Motivated by the analysis of imaging data, we propose a novel functional varying-coefficient single index model (FVCSIM) to carry out the regression analysis of functional response data on a set of covariates of interest. FVCSIM represents a new extension of varying-coefficient single index models for scalar responses collected from cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. An efficient estimation procedure is developed to iteratively estimate varying coefficient functions, link functions, index parameter vectors, and the covariance function of individual functions. We systematically examine the asymptotic properties of all estimators including the weak convergence of the estimated varying coefficient functions, the asymptotic distribution of the estimated index parameter vectors, and the uniform convergence rate of the estimated covariance function and their spectrum. Simulation studies are carried out to assess the finite-sample performance of the proposed procedure. We apply FVCSIM to investigating the development of white matter diffusivities along the corpus callosum skeleton obtained from Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) study. PMID:29200540

  12. A Functional Varying-Coefficient Single-Index Model for Functional Response Data.

    PubMed

    Li, Jialiang; Huang, Chao; Zhu, Hongtu

    2017-01-01

    Motivated by the analysis of imaging data, we propose a novel functional varying-coefficient single index model (FVCSIM) to carry out the regression analysis of functional response data on a set of covariates of interest. FVCSIM represents a new extension of varying-coefficient single index models for scalar responses collected from cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. An efficient estimation procedure is developed to iteratively estimate varying coefficient functions, link functions, index parameter vectors, and the covariance function of individual functions. We systematically examine the asymptotic properties of all estimators including the weak convergence of the estimated varying coefficient functions, the asymptotic distribution of the estimated index parameter vectors, and the uniform convergence rate of the estimated covariance function and their spectrum. Simulation studies are carried out to assess the finite-sample performance of the proposed procedure. We apply FVCSIM to investigating the development of white matter diffusivities along the corpus callosum skeleton obtained from Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) study.

  13. Coastal Zone Color Scanner data of rich coastal waters

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wrigley, R. C.; Klooster, S. A.

    1983-01-01

    Comparisons of chlorophyll concentrations and diffuse attenuation coefficients measured from ships off the central California coast were made with satellite derived estimates of the same parameters using data from the Coastal Zone Color Scanner. Very high chlorophyll concentrations were encountered in Monterey Bay. Although lower chlorophyll values acquired off Pt. Sur agreed satisfactorily with the satellite data, the high chlorophyll values departed markedly from agreement. Two possible causes for the disagreement are suggested. Comparison of diffuse attenuation coefficients from the same data sets showed closer agreement.

  14. Non-Markovian Effects in Turbulent Diffusion in Magnetized Plasmas

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Zagorodny, Anatoly; Weiland, Jan

    2009-10-08

    The derivation of the kinetic equations for inhomogeneous plasma in an external magnetic field is presented. The Fokker-Planck-type equations with the non-Markovian kinetic coefficients are proposed. In the time-local limit (small correlation times with respect to the distribution function relaxation time) the relations obtained recover the results known from the appropriate quasilinear theory and the Dupree-Weinstock theory of plasma turbulence. The equations proposed are used to describe zonal flow generation and to estimate the diffusion coefficient for saturated turbulence.

  15. Comparison of GEOS-5 AGCM planetary boundary layer depths computed with various definitions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McGrath-Spangler, E. L.; Molod, A.

    2014-07-01

    Accurate models of planetary boundary layer (PBL) processes are important for forecasting weather and climate. The present study compares seven methods of calculating PBL depth in the GEOS-5 atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) over land. These methods depend on the eddy diffusion coefficients, bulk and local Richardson numbers, and the turbulent kinetic energy. The computed PBL depths are aggregated to the Köppen-Geiger climate classes, and some limited comparisons are made using radiosonde profiles. Most methods produce similar midday PBL depths, although in the warm, moist climate classes the bulk Richardson number method gives midday results that are lower than those given by the eddy diffusion coefficient methods. Additional analysis revealed that methods sensitive to turbulence driven by radiative cooling produce greater PBL depths, this effect being most significant during the evening transition. Nocturnal PBLs based on Richardson number methods are generally shallower than eddy diffusion coefficient based estimates. The bulk Richardson number estimate is recommended as the PBL height to inform the choice of the turbulent length scale, based on the similarity to other methods during the day, and the improved nighttime behavior.

  16. Comparison of GEOS-5 AGCM Planetary Boundary Layer Depths Computed with Various Definitions

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mcgrath-Spangler, E. L.; Molod, A.

    2014-01-01

    Accurate models of planetary boundary layer (PBL) processes are important for forecasting weather and climate. The present study compares seven methods of calculating PBL depth in the GEOS-5 atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) over land. These methods depend on the eddy diffusion coefficients, bulk and local Richardson numbers, and the turbulent kinetic energy. The computed PBL depths are aggregated to the Koppen climate classes, and some limited comparisons are made using radiosonde profiles. Most methods produce similar midday PBL depths, although in the warm, moist climate classes, the bulk Richardson number method gives midday results that are lower than those given by the eddy diffusion coefficient methods. Additional analysis revealed that methods sensitive to turbulence driven by radiative cooling produce greater PBL depths, this effect being most significant during the evening transition. Nocturnal PBLs based on Richardson number are generally shallower than eddy diffusion coefficient based estimates. The bulk Richardson number estimate is recommended as the PBL height to inform the choice of the turbulent length scale, based on the similarity to other methods during the day, and the improved nighttime behavior.

  17. Comparison of GEOS-5 AGCM planetary boundary layer depths computed with various definitions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McGrath-Spangler, E. L.; Molod, A.

    2014-03-01

    Accurate models of planetary boundary layer (PBL) processes are important for forecasting weather and climate. The present study compares seven methods of calculating PBL depth in the GEOS-5 atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) over land. These methods depend on the eddy diffusion coefficients, bulk and local Richardson numbers, and the turbulent kinetic energy. The computed PBL depths are aggregated to the Köppen climate classes, and some limited comparisons are made using radiosonde profiles. Most methods produce similar midday PBL depths, although in the warm, moist climate classes, the bulk Richardson number method gives midday results that are lower than those given by the eddy diffusion coefficient methods. Additional analysis revealed that methods sensitive to turbulence driven by radiative cooling produce greater PBL depths, this effect being most significant during the evening transition. Nocturnal PBLs based on Richardson number are generally shallower than eddy diffusion coefficient based estimates. The bulk Richardson number estimate is recommended as the PBL height to inform the choice of the turbulent length scale, based on the similarity to other methods during the day, and the improved nighttime behavior.

  18. Practical estimate of gradient nonlinearity for implementation of apparent diffusion coefficient bias correction.

    PubMed

    Malkyarenko, Dariya I; Chenevert, Thomas L

    2014-12-01

    To describe an efficient procedure to empirically characterize gradient nonlinearity and correct for the corresponding apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) bias on a clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. Spatial nonlinearity scalars for individual gradient coils along superior and right directions were estimated via diffusion measurements of an isotropicic e-water phantom. Digital nonlinearity model from an independent scanner, described in the literature, was rescaled by system-specific scalars to approximate 3D bias correction maps. Correction efficacy was assessed by comparison to unbiased ADC values measured at isocenter. Empirically estimated nonlinearity scalars were confirmed by geometric distortion measurements of a regular grid phantom. The applied nonlinearity correction for arbitrarily oriented diffusion gradients reduced ADC bias from 20% down to 2% at clinically relevant offsets both for isotropic and anisotropic media. Identical performance was achieved using either corrected diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) intensities or corrected b-values for each direction in brain and ice-water. Direction-average trace image correction was adequate only for isotropic medium. Empiric scalar adjustment of an independent gradient nonlinearity model adequately described DWI bias for a clinical scanner. Observed efficiency of implemented ADC bias correction quantitatively agreed with previous theoretical predictions and numerical simulations. The described procedure provides an independent benchmark for nonlinearity bias correction of clinical MRI scanners.

  19. Spectrophotometric Method for Differentiation of Human Skin Melanoma. I. Optical Diffuse Reflection Coefficient

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Petruk, V. G.; Ivanov, A. P.; Kvaternyuk, S. M.; Barun, V. V.

    2016-03-01

    We have designed an experimental setup, based on two integrating spheres, that lets us measure the optical diffuse reflectance spectra (diffuse reflection coefficient vs. wavelength) of human skin quickly under clinical conditions in vivo. For the wavelength interval 520-1100 nm, we give the values of the diffuse reflection coefficient for healthy tissue, skin with a benign nevus, and skin with a malignant melanoma for a large group of test subjects. We experimentally established a number of wavelengths in the red-near IR region of the spectrum which can be used for early differential diagnosis of nevi and melanoma in patient cancer screening. According to the Kramer-Welch test, the probability of the diffuse reflection coefficient for skin with melanoma and a nevus having different distributions is >0.94, and at many wavelengths it is >0.999. By solving the inverse problem, we estimated the changes in a number of structural and biophysical parameters of the tissue on going from healthy skin to nevus and melanoma. The results obtained can provide a basis for developing a clinical approach to identifying the risk of malignant transformation of the skin before surgery and histological analysis of the tissue.

  20. Two-cation competition in ionic-liquid-modified electrolytes for lithium ion batteries.

    PubMed

    Lee, Sang-Young; Yong, Hyun Hang; Lee, Young Joo; Kim, Seok Koo; Ahn, Soonho

    2005-07-21

    It is a common observation that when ionic liquids are added to electrolytes the performances of lithium ion cells become poor, while the thermal safeties of the electrolytes might be improved. In this study, this behavior is investigated based on the kinetics of ionic diffusion. As a model ionic liquid, we chose butyldimethylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate (BDMIPF(6)). The common solvent was propylene carbonate (PC), and lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF(6)) was selected as the lithium conducting salt. Ionic diffusion coefficients are estimated by using a pulsed field gradient NMR technique. From a basic study on the model electrolytes (BDMIPF(6) in PC, LiPF(6) in PC, and BDMIPF(6) + LiPF(6) in PC), it was found that the BDMI(+) from BDMIPF(6) shows larger diffusion coefficients than the Li(+) from LiPF(6). However, the anionic (PF(6)(-)) diffusion coefficients present little difference between the model electrolytes. The higher diffusion coefficient of BDMI(+) than that of Li(+) suggests that the poor C-rate performance of lithium ion cells containing ionic liquids as an electrolyte component can be attributed to the two-cation competition between Li(+) and BDMI(+).

  1. Fetal lung apparent diffusion coefficient measurement using diffusion-weighted MRI at 3 Tesla: Correlation with gestational age.

    PubMed

    Afacan, Onur; Gholipour, Ali; Mulkern, Robert V; Barnewolt, Carol E; Estroff, Judy A; Connolly, Susan A; Parad, Richard B; Bairdain, Sigrid; Warfield, Simon K

    2016-12-01

    To evaluate the feasibility of using diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) to assess the fetal lung apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) at 3 Tesla (T). Seventy-one pregnant women (32 second trimester, 39 third trimester) were scanned with a twice-refocused Echo-planar diffusion-weighted imaging sequence with 6 different b-values in 3 orthogonal diffusion orientations at 3T. After each scan, a region-of-interest (ROI) mask was drawn to select a region in the fetal lung and an automated robust maximum likelihood estimation algorithm was used to compute the ADC parameter. The amount of motion in each scan was visually rated. When scans with unacceptable levels of motion were eliminated, the lung ADC values showed a strong association with gestational age (P < 0.01), increasing dramatically between 16 and 27 weeks and then achieving a plateau around 27 weeks. We show that to get reliable estimates of ADC values of fetal lungs, a multiple b-value acquisition, where motion is either corrected or considered, can be performed. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2016;44:1650-1655. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

  2. Predicting First Traversal Times for Virions and Nanoparticles in Mucus with Slowed Diffusion

    PubMed Central

    Erickson, Austen M.; Henry, Bruce I.; Murray, John M.; Klasse, Per Johan; Angstmann, Christopher N.

    2015-01-01

    Particle-tracking experiments focusing on virions or nanoparticles in mucus have measured mean-square displacements and reported diffusion coefficients that are orders of magnitude smaller than the diffusion coefficients of such particles in water. Accurate description of this subdiffusion is important to properly estimate the likelihood of virions traversing the mucus boundary layer and infecting cells in the epithelium. However, there are several candidate models for diffusion that can fit experimental measurements of mean-square displacements. We show that these models yield very different estimates for the time taken for subdiffusive virions to traverse through a mucus layer. We explain why fits of subdiffusive mean-square displacements to standard diffusion models may be misleading. Relevant to human immunodeficiency virus infection, using computational methods for fractional subdiffusion, we show that subdiffusion in normal acidic mucus provides a more effective barrier against infection than previously thought. By contrast, the neutralization of the mucus by alkaline semen, after sexual intercourse, allows virions to cross the mucus layer and reach the epithelium in a short timeframe. The computed barrier protection from fractional subdiffusion is some orders of magnitude greater than that derived by fitting standard models of diffusion to subdiffusive data. PMID:26153713

  3. Diffusion of Magnesium in Led Structures with InGaN/GaN Quantum Wells at True Growth Temperatures 860-980°C of p-GaN

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Romanov, I. S.; Prudaev, I. A.; Brudnyi, V. N.

    2018-05-01

    The results of an investigation of Mg diffusion in blue LED structures with InGaN/GaN quantum wells are presented for various growth temperatures of the p-GaN layer. The values of the diffusion coefficient estimated for true growth temperatures of 860, 910, and 980°C were 7.5·10-17, 2.8·10-16, and 1.2·10-15 cm2/s, respectively. The temperature values given in the work were measured on the surface of the growing layer in situ using a pyrometer. The calculated activation energy for the temperature dependence of the diffusion coefficient was 2.8 eV.

  4. Correlation Between Minimum Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADCmin) and Tumor Cellularity: A Meta-analysis.

    PubMed

    Surov, Alexey; Meyer, Hans Jonas; Wienke, Andreas

    2017-07-01

    Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) is a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique based on measure of water diffusion that can provide information about tissue microstructure, especially about cell count. Increase of cell density induces restriction of water diffusion and decreases apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC). ADC can be divided into three sub-parameters: ADC minimum or ADC min , mean ADC or ADC mean and ADC maximum or ADC max Some studies have suggested that ADC min shows stronger correlations with cell count in comparison to other ADC fractions and may be used as a parameter for estimation of tumor cellularity. The aim of the present meta-analysis was to summarize correlation coefficients between ADC min and cellularity in different tumors based on large patient data. For this analysis, MEDLINE database was screened for associations between ADC and cell count in different tumors up to September 2016. For this work, only data regarding ADC min were included. Overall, 12 publications with 317 patients were identified. Spearman's correlation coefficient was used to analyze associations between ADC min and cellularity. The reported Pearson correlation coefficients in some publications were converted into Spearman correlation coefficients. The pooled correlation coefficient for all included studies was ρ=-0.59 (95% confidence interval (CI)=-0.72 to -0.45), heterogeneity Tau 2 =0.04 (p<0.0001), I 2 =73%, test for overall effect Z=8.67 (p<0.00001). ADC min correlated moderately with tumor cellularity. The calculated correlation coefficient is not stronger in comparison to the reported coefficient for ADC mean and, therefore, ADC min does not represent a better means to reflect cellularity. Copyright© 2017, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.

  5. Mutual diffusion of binary liquid mixtures containing methanol, ethanol, acetone, benzene, cyclohexane, toluene, and carbon tetrachloride

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Guevara-Carrion, Gabriela; Janzen, Tatjana; Muñoz-Muñoz, Y. Mauricio

    Mutual diffusion coefficients of all 20 binary liquid mixtures that can be formed out of methanol, ethanol, acetone, benzene, cyclohexane, toluene, and carbon tetrachloride without a miscibility gap are studied at ambient conditions of temperature and pressure in the entire composition range. The considered mixtures show a varying mixing behavior from almost ideal to strongly non-ideal. Predictive molecular dynamics simulations employing the Green-Kubo formalism are carried out. Radial distribution functions are analyzed to gain an understanding of the liquid structure influencing the diffusion processes. It is shown that cluster formation in mixtures containing one alcoholic component has a significant impactmore » on the diffusion process. The estimation of the thermodynamic factor from experimental vapor-liquid equilibrium data is investigated, considering three excess Gibbs energy models, i.e., Wilson, NRTL, and UNIQUAC. It is found that the Wilson model yields the thermodynamic factor that best suits the simulation results for the prediction of the Fick diffusion coefficient. Four semi-empirical methods for the prediction of the self-diffusion coefficients and nine predictive equations for the Fick diffusion coefficient are assessed and it is found that methods based on local composition models are more reliable. Finally, the shear viscosity and thermal conductivity are predicted and in most cases favorably compared with experimental literature values.« less

  6. Effects of calcium leaching on diffusion properties of hardened and altered cement pastes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kurumisawa, Kiyofumi; Haga, Kazuko; Hayashi, Daisuke; Owada, Hitoshi

    2017-06-01

    It is very important to predict alterations in the concrete used for fabricating disposal containers for radioactive waste. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the alteration of cementitious materials caused by calcium leaching when they are in contact with ground water in the long term. To evaluate the long-term transport characteristics of cementitious materials, the microstructural behavior of these materials should be considered. However, many predictive models of transport characteristics focus on the pore structure, while only few such models consider both, the spatial distribution of calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H), portlandite, and the pore spaces. This study focused on the spatial distribution of these cement phases. The auto-correlation function of each phase of cementitious materials was calculated from two-dimensional backscattered electron imaging, and the three-dimensional spatial image of the cementitious material was produced using these auto-correlation functions. An attempt was made to estimate the diffusion coefficient of chloride from the three-dimensional spatial image. The estimated diffusion coefficient of the altered sample from the three-dimensional spatial image was found to be comparable to the measured value. This demonstrated that it is possible to predict the diffusion coefficient of the altered cement paste by using the proposed model.

  7. Kinetic modeling of copper biosorption by immobilized biomass

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Veglio, F.; Beolchini, F.; Toro, L.

    1998-03-01

    Biosorption of heavy metals is one of the most promising technologies involved in the removal of toxic metals from industrial waste streams and natural waters. The kinetic modeling of copper biosorption by Arthrobacter sp. immobilized in a hydroxyethyl methacrylate-based matrix is reported in this work. The resin-biomass complex (RBC) has been used for copper biosorption in different conditions according to a factorial experiment. Factors investigated were cross-linker (trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate) concentration, biomass concentration in the solid, and particles` granulometry. A maximum copper specific uptake of abut 7 mg of Cu/g of biomass (dry weight) has been observed, in the case ofmore » a RBC with the following characteristics: 2% (w/w) cross-linker concentration, 8% (w/w) biomass concentration, and 425--750 {micro}m granulometry. The shrinking core model has been used for the fitting of experimental data. A good fit has been found in the case of controlling intraparticle diffusion in all experimental trials. The copper diffusion coefficient in RBC has been estimated from the slope of the regression lines. Values obtained for the diffusion coefficients do not differ from one another with respect to the estimated standard error. An average apparent copper diffusion coefficient of about 3 {times} 10{sup {minus}6} cm{sup 2}/s has been found.« less

  8. Optimal estimates of the diffusion coefficient of a single Brownian trajectory.

    PubMed

    Boyer, Denis; Dean, David S; Mejía-Monasterio, Carlos; Oshanin, Gleb

    2012-03-01

    Modern developments in microscopy and image processing are revolutionizing areas of physics, chemistry, and biology as nanoscale objects can be tracked with unprecedented accuracy. The goal of single-particle tracking is to determine the interaction between the particle and its environment. The price paid for having a direct visualization of a single particle is a consequent lack of statistics. Here we address the optimal way to extract diffusion constants from single trajectories for pure Brownian motion. It is shown that the maximum likelihood estimator is much more efficient than the commonly used least-squares estimate. Furthermore, we investigate the effect of disorder on the distribution of estimated diffusion constants and show that it increases the probability of observing estimates much smaller than the true (average) value.

  9. Preliminary quantification of the permeability, solubility and diffusion coefficients of major aroma compounds present in herbs through various plastic packaging materials.

    PubMed

    Leelaphiwat, Pattarin; Auras, Rafael A; Burgess, Gary J; Harte, Janice B; Chonhenchob, Vanee

    2018-03-01

    Aroma permeation through packaging material is an important factor when designing a package for food products. The masses of aroma compounds permeating through films over time were measured at 25 °C using a quasi-isostatic system. A model was proposed for estimating the permeability coefficients (P) of key aroma compounds present in fresh herbs (i.e. eucalyptol, estragole, linalool and citral) through major plastic films used by the food industry [i.e. low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP), nylon (Nylon), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), metalised-polyethylene terephthalate (MPET) and poly(lactic acid) (PLA)]. Solubility coefficients (S) were estimated from the amount of aroma compound sorbed in the films. Diffusion coefficients (D) were estimated following from the relation P = D*S. P and D for all four aroma compounds were highest in LDPE, except for eucalyptol, which P was slightly higher in PLA. The solubility coefficients and contact angles were highest in PLA suggesting the highest affinity of PLA to these aroma compounds. The theoretical solubility parameters were correlated with the solubility coefficients for estragole and citral, but not for eucalyptol and linalool. The preliminary P, D and S of eucalyptol, estragole, linalool and citral through LDPE, PP, Nylon, PET, MPET and PLA can be useful in selecting the proper packaging material for preserving these specific aroma compounds in food products and can potentially be used for estimating the shelf life of food products based on aroma loss. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

  10. Parameterization and sensitivity analyses of a radiative transfer model for remote sensing plant canopies

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hall, Carlton Raden

    A major objective of remote sensing is determination of biochemical and biophysical characteristics of plant canopies utilizing high spectral resolution sensors. Canopy reflectance signatures are dependent on absorption and scattering processes of the leaf, canopy properties, and the ground beneath the canopy. This research investigates, through field and laboratory data collection, and computer model parameterization and simulations, the relationships between leaf optical properties, canopy biophysical features, and the nadir viewed above-canopy reflectance signature. Emphasis is placed on parameterization and application of an existing irradiance radiative transfer model developed for aquatic systems. Data and model analyses provide knowledge on the relative importance of leaves and canopy biophysical features in estimating the diffuse absorption a(lambda,m-1), diffuse backscatter b(lambda,m-1), beam attenuation alpha(lambda,m-1), and beam to diffuse conversion c(lambda,m-1 ) coefficients of the two-flow irradiance model. Data sets include field and laboratory measurements from three plant species, live oak (Quercus virginiana), Brazilian pepper (Schinus terebinthifolius) and grapefruit (Citrus paradisi) sampled on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Kennedy Space Center Florida in March and April of 1997. Features measured were depth h (m), projected foliage coverage PFC, leaf area index LAI, and zenith leaf angle. Optical measurements, collected with a Spectron SE 590 high sensitivity narrow bandwidth spectrograph, included above canopy reflectance, internal canopy transmittance and reflectance and bottom reflectance. Leaf samples were returned to laboratory where optical and physical and chemical measurements of leaf thickness, leaf area, leaf moisture and pigment content were made. A new term, the leaf volume correction index LVCI was developed and demonstrated in support of model coefficient parameterization. The LVCI is based on angle adjusted leaf thickness Ltadj, LAI, and h (m). Its function is to translate leaf level estimates of diffuse absorption and backscatter to the canopy scale allowing the leaf optical properties to directly influence above canopy estimates of reflectance. The model was successfully modified and parameterized to operate in a canopy scale and a leaf scale mode. Canopy scale model simulations produced the best results. Simulations based on leaf derived coefficients produced calculated above canopy reflectance errors of 15% to 18%. A comprehensive sensitivity analyses indicated the most important parameters were beam to diffuse conversion c(lambda, m-1), diffuse absorption a(lambda, m-1), diffuse backscatter b(lambda, m-1), h (m), Q, and direct and diffuse irradiance. Sources of error include the estimation procedure for the direct beam to diffuse conversion and attenuation coefficients and other field and laboratory measurement and analysis errors. Applications of the model include creation of synthetic reflectance data sets for remote sensing algorithm development, simulations of stress and drought on vegetation reflectance signatures, and the potential to estimate leaf moisture and chemical status.

  11. Visualization of hemodynamics and light scattering in exposed brain of rat using multispectral image reconstruction based on Wiener estimation method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nishidate, Izumi; Ishizuka, Tomohiro; Yoshida, Keiichiro; Kawauchi, Satoko; Sato, Shunichi; Sato, Manabu

    2015-07-01

    We investigate a method to estimate the spectral images of reduced scattering coefficients and the absorption coefficients of in vivo exposed brain tissues in the range from visible to near-infrared wavelength (500-760 nm) based on diffuse reflectance spectroscopy using a digital RGB camera. In the proposed method, the multi-spectral reflectance images of in vivo exposed brain are reconstructed from the digital red, green, blue images using the Wiener estimation algorithm. The Monte Carlo simulation-based multiple regression analysis for the absorbance spectra is then used to specify the absorption and scattering parameters of brain tissue. In this analysis, the concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin and that of deoxygenated hemoglobin are estimated as the absorption parameters whereas the scattering amplitude a and the scattering power b in the expression of μs'=aλ-b as the scattering parameters, respectively. The spectra of absorption and reduced scattering coefficients are reconstructed from the absorption and scattering parameters, and finally, the spectral images of absorption and reduced scattering coefficients are estimated. We performed simultaneous recordings of spectral diffuse reflectance images and of the electrophysiological signals for in vivo exposed rat brain during the cortical spreading depression evoked by the topical application of KCl. Changes in the total hemoglobin concentration and the tissue oxygen saturation imply the temporary change in cerebral blood flow during CSD. Change in the reduced scattering coefficient was observed before the profound increase in the total hemoglobin concentration, and its occurrence was synchronized with the negative dc shift of the local field potential.

  12. The effect of multiplicity of stellar encounters and the diffusion coefficients in a locally homogeneous three-dimensional stellar medium: Removing the classical divergence

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rastorguev, A. S.; Utkin, N. D.; Chumak, O. V.

    2017-08-01

    Agekyan's λ-factor that allows for the effect of multiplicity of stellar encounters with large impact parameters has been used for the first time to directly calculate the diffusion coefficients in the phase space of a stellar system. Simple estimates show that the cumulative effect, i.e., the total contribution of distant encounters to the change in the velocity of a test star, given the multiplicity of stellar encounters, is finite, and the logarithmic divergence inherent in the classical description of diffusion is removed, as was shown previously byKandrup using a different, more complex approach. In this case, the expressions for the diffusion coefficients, as in the classical description, contain the logarithm of the ratio of two independent quantities: the mean interparticle distance and the impact parameter of a close encounter. However, the physical meaning of this logarithmic factor changes radically: it reflects not the divergence but the presence of two characteristic length scales inherent in the stellar medium.

  13. Diffusion of Magnesium in Led Structures with InGaN/GaN Quantum Wells at True Growth Temperatures 860–980°C of p-GaN

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Romanov, I. S.; Prudaev, I. A.; Brudnyi, V. N.

    2018-05-01

    The results of an investigation of Mg diffusion in blue LED structures with InGaN/GaN quantum wells are presented for various growth temperatures of the p-GaN layer. The values of the diffusion coefficient estimated for true growth temperatures of 860, 910, and 980°C were 7.5·10-17, 2.8·10-16, and 1.2·10-15 cm2/s, respectively. The temperature values given in the work were measured on the surface of the growing layer in situ using a pyrometer. The calculated activation energy for the temperature dependence of the diffusion coefficient was 2.8 eV.

  14. Transport coefficients of hard-sphere mixtures. III. Diameter ratio 0. 4 and mass ratio 0. 03 at high fluid density

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Erpenbeck, J.J.

    1993-07-01

    The equation of state and the transport coefficients of shear viscosity, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusion, and mutal diffusion are estimated for a binary, equimolar mixture of hard spheres having a diameter ratio of 0.4 and a mass ratio of 0.03 at volumes in the range 1.7[ital V][sub 0] to 3[ital V][sub 0] ([ital V][sub 0]=1/2 [radical]2 N[ital tsum][sub [ital a]x[ital a

  15. Non-Gaussian diffusion in static disordered media

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Luo, Liang; Yi, Ming

    2018-04-01

    Non-Gaussian diffusion is commonly considered as a result of fluctuating diffusivity, which is correlated in time or in space or both. In this work, we investigate the non-Gaussian diffusion in static disordered media via a quenched trap model, where the diffusivity is spatially correlated. Several unique effects due to quenched disorder are reported. We analytically estimate the diffusion coefficient Ddis and its fluctuation over samples of finite size. We show a mechanism of population splitting in the non-Gaussian diffusion. It results in a sharp peak in the distribution of displacement P (x ,t ) around x =0 , that has frequently been observed in experiments. We examine the fidelity of the coarse-grained diffusion map, which is reconstructed from particle trajectories. Finally, we propose a procedure to estimate the correlation length in static disordered environments, where the information stored in the sample-to-sample fluctuation has been utilized.

  16. Investigation of Processes Controlling Elution of Solutes from Nonaqueous Phase Liquid (NAPL) Pools into Groundwater

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Seyedabbasi, M.; Pirestani, K.; Holland, S. B.; Imhoff, P. T.

    2005-12-01

    Two major processes influencing the elution of solutes from porous media contaminated with nonaqueous phase liquids (NAPLs) are external mass transfer between the NAPL and groundwater and internal diffusion through NAPL ganglia and pools. There is a relatively large body of literature on the dissolution of single-species NAPLs. Less is known about the rates of elution of compounds dissolving from multicomponent NAPLs. We examined the mass transfer of one solute, 2,3-dimethyl-2-butanol (DMB) - a partitioning tracer, between groundwater and a dense NAPL - trichloroethylene (TCE). Diffusion cell experiments were used to measure the molecular diffusion coefficient of DMB in pure TCE and in porous media contaminated with a TCE pool. Measured diffusion coefficients were compared with empirical correlations (pure TCE) and a parallel resistance model (TCE pool). Based on the results from these analyses, a dimensionless Biot number was derived to express the ratio of the external rate of mass transfer from a NAPL pool to the internal rate of diffusion within the pool, which varies with NAPL saturation and NAPL-water partition coefficient. Biot numbers were then estimated for several laboratory scale experiments involving DMB transport between NAPL pools and groundwater. The estimated Biot numbers were in good agreement with experimental results. The expression for the Biot number developed here may be used to assess the processes controlling the elution of solutes from NAPL pools, which has implications on long-term predictions of solute dissolution from NAPLs in the field.

  17. Estimation of the Thermal Process in the Honeycomb Panel by a Monte Carlo Method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gusev, S. A.; Nikolaev, V. N.

    2018-01-01

    A new Monte Carlo method for estimating the thermal state of the heat insulation containing honeycomb panels is proposed in the paper. The heat transfer in the honeycomb panel is described by a boundary value problem for a parabolic equation with discontinuous diffusion coefficient and boundary conditions of the third kind. To obtain an approximate solution, it is proposed to use the smoothing of the diffusion coefficient. After that, the obtained problem is solved on the basis of the probability representation. The probability representation is the expectation of the functional of the diffusion process corresponding to the boundary value problem. The process of solving the problem is reduced to numerical statistical modelling of a large number of trajectories of the diffusion process corresponding to the parabolic problem. It was used earlier the Euler method for this object, but that requires a large computational effort. In this paper the method is modified by using combination of the Euler and the random walk on moving spheres methods. The new approach allows us to significantly reduce the computation costs.

  18. Calculation of Transport Coefficients in Dense Plasma Mixtures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Haxhimali, T.; Cabot, W. H.; Caspersen, K. J.; Greenough, J.; Miller, P. L.; Rudd, R. E.; Schwegler, E. R.

    2011-10-01

    We use classical molecular dynamics (MD) to estimate species diffusivity and viscosity in mixed dense plasmas. The Yukawa potential is used to describe the screened Coulomb interaction between the ions. This potential has been used widely, providing the basis for models of dense stellar materials, inertial confined plasmas, and colloidal particles in electrolytes. We calculate transport coefficients in equilibrium simulations using the Green- Kubo relation over a range of thermodynamic conditions including the viscosity and the self - diffusivity for each component of the mixture. The interdiffusivity (or mutual diffusivity) can then be related to the self-diffusivities by using a generalization of the Darken equation. We have also employed non-equilibrium MD to estimate interdiffusivity during the broadening of the interface between two regions each with a high concentration of either species. Here we present results for an asymmetric mixture between Ar and H. These can easily be extended to other plasma mixtures. A main motivation for this study is to develop accurate transport models that can be incorporated into the hydrodynamic codes to study hydrodynamic instabilities. We use classical molecular dynamics (MD) to estimate species diffusivity and viscosity in mixed dense plasmas. The Yukawa potential is used to describe the screened Coulomb interaction between the ions. This potential has been used widely, providing the basis for models of dense stellar materials, inertial confined plasmas, and colloidal particles in electrolytes. We calculate transport coefficients in equilibrium simulations using the Green- Kubo relation over a range of thermodynamic conditions including the viscosity and the self - diffusivity for each component of the mixture. The interdiffusivity (or mutual diffusivity) can then be related to the self-diffusivities by using a generalization of the Darken equation. We have also employed non-equilibrium MD to estimate interdiffusivity during the broadening of the interface between two regions each with a high concentration of either species. Here we present results for an asymmetric mixture between Ar and H. These can easily be extended to other plasma mixtures. A main motivation for this study is to develop accurate transport models that can be incorporated into the hydrodynamic codes to study hydrodynamic instabilities. This work was performed under the auspices of the US Dept. of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.

  19. An Innovative Concept for Spacebased Lidar Measurement of Ocean Carbon Biomass

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hu, Yongxiang; Behrenfeld, Michael; Hostetler, Chris; Pelon, Jacques; Trepte, Charles; Hair, John; Slade, Wayne; Cetinic, Ivona; Vaughan, Mark; Lu, Xiaomei; hide

    2015-01-01

    Beam attenuation coefficient, c, provides an important optical index of plankton standing stocks, such as phytoplankton biomass and total particulate carbon concentration. Unfortunately, c has proven difficult to quantify through remote sensing. Here, we introduce an innovative approach for estimating c using lidar depolarization measurements and diffuse attenuation coefficients from ocean color products or lidar measurements of Brillouin scattering. The new approach is based on a theoretical formula established from Monte Carlo simulations that links the depolarization ratio of sea water to the ratio of diffuse attenuation Kd and beam attenuation C (i.e., a multiple scattering factor). On July 17, 2014, the CALIPSO satellite was tilted 30Âdeg off-nadir for one nighttime orbit in order to minimize ocean surface backscatter and demonstrate the lidar ocean subsurface measurement concept from space. Depolarization ratios of ocean subsurface backscatter are measured accurately. Beam attenuation coefficients computed from the depolarization ratio measurements compare well with empirical estimates from ocean color measurements. We further verify the beam attenuation coefficient retrievals using aircraft-based high spectral resolution lidar (HSRL) data that are collocated with in-water optical measurements.

  20. Diffusive shock acceleration at non-relativistic highly oblique shocks

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Meli, Athina; Biermann, P. L.

    2004-10-01

    Our aim here is to evaluate the rate of the maximum energy and the acceleration rate that Cosmic Rays (CRs) acquire in the non-relativistic diffusive shock acceleration as it could apply during their lifetime in various astrophysical sites. We examine numerically (using Monte Carlo simulations) the effect of the diffusion coefficients on the energy gain and the acceleration rate, by testing the role between the obliquity of the magnetic field at the shock normal, and the significance of both perpendicular cross-field diffusion and parallel diffusion coefficients to the aceleration rate. We find (and justify previous analytical work -Jokipii 1987) that in highly oblique shocks the smaller the perpendicular diffusion gets compared to the parallel diffusion coefficient values, the greater the energy gain of the CRs to be obtained. An explanation of the Cosmic Ray Spectrum in High Energies, between 1015 and 1018eV is claimed, as we estimate the upper limit of energy that CRs could gain in plausible astrophysical regimes; interpreted by the scenario of CRs which are injected by three different kind of sources, (i) supernovae (SN) which explode into the interstellar medium (ISM), (ii) Red Supergiants (RSG), and (iii) Wolf-Rayet stars (WR), where the two latter explode into their pre-SN winds Biermann (2001); Sina (2001).

  1. Deep Learning Role in Early Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer

    PubMed Central

    Reda, Islam; Khalil, Ashraf; Elmogy, Mohammed; Abou El-Fetouh, Ahmed; Shalaby, Ahmed; Abou El-Ghar, Mohamed; Elmaghraby, Adel; Ghazal, Mohammed; El-Baz, Ayman

    2018-01-01

    The objective of this work is to develop a computer-aided diagnostic system for early diagnosis of prostate cancer. The presented system integrates both clinical biomarkers (prostate-specific antigen) and extracted features from diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging collected at multiple b values. The presented system performs 3 major processing steps. First, prostate delineation using a hybrid approach that combines a level-set model with nonnegative matrix factorization. Second, estimation and normalization of diffusion parameters, which are the apparent diffusion coefficients of the delineated prostate volumes at different b values followed by refinement of those apparent diffusion coefficients using a generalized Gaussian Markov random field model. Then, construction of the cumulative distribution functions of the processed apparent diffusion coefficients at multiple b values. In parallel, a K-nearest neighbor classifier is employed to transform the prostate-specific antigen results into diagnostic probabilities. Finally, those prostate-specific antigen–based probabilities are integrated with the initial diagnostic probabilities obtained using stacked nonnegativity constraint sparse autoencoders that employ apparent diffusion coefficient–cumulative distribution functions for better diagnostic accuracy. Experiments conducted on 18 diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging data sets achieved 94.4% diagnosis accuracy (sensitivity = 88.9% and specificity = 100%), which indicate the promising results of the presented computer-aided diagnostic system. PMID:29804518

  2. Characteristics of Perforated Diffusers at Free-stream Mach Number 1.90

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Hunczak, Henry R; Kremzier, Emil J

    1950-01-01

    An investigation was conducted at Mach number 1.90 to determine pressure recovery and mass-flow characteristics of series of perforated convergent-divergent supersonic diffusers. Pressure recoveries as high as 96 percent were obtained, but at reduced mass flows through the diffuser. Theoretical considerations of effect of perforation distribution on shock stability in converging section of diffuser are presented and correlated with experimental data. A method of estimating relative importance of pressure recovery and mass flow on internal thrust coefficient basis is given and a comparison of various diffusers investigated is made.

  3. Unconfined lateral diffusion and an estimate of pericellular matrix viscosity revealed by measuring the mobility of gold-tagged lipids

    PubMed Central

    1993-01-01

    Nanovid (video-enhanced) microscopy was used to determine whether lateral diffusion in the plasma membrane of colloidal gold-tagged lipid molecules is confined or is unrestricted. Confinement could be produced by domains within the plane of the plasma membrane or by filamentous barriers within the pericellular matrix. Fluorescein- phosphatidylethanolamine (F1-PE), incorporated into the plasma membranes of cultured fibroblasts, epithelial cells and keratocytes, was labeled with 30-nm colloidal gold conjugated to anti-fluorescein (anti-F1). The trajectories of the gold-labeled lipids were used to compute diffusion coefficients (DG) and to test for restricted motion. On the cell lamella, the gold-labeled lipids diffused freely in the plasma membrane. Since the gold must move through the pericellular matrix as the attached lipid diffuses in the plasma membrane, this result suggests that any extensive filamentous barriers in the pericellular matrix are at least 40 nm from the plasma membrane surface. The average diffusion coefficients ranged from 1.1 to 1.7 x 10(-9) cm2/s. These values were lower than the average diffusion coefficients (DF) (5.4 to 9.5 x 10(-9) cm2/s) obtained by FRAP. The lower DG is partially due to the pericellular matrix as demonstrated by the result that heparinase treatment of keratocytes significantly increased DG to 2.8 x 10(-9) cm2/s, but did not affect DF. Pericellular matrix viscosity was estimated from the frictional coefficients computed from DG and DF and ranged from 0.5 to 0.9 poise for untreated cells. Heparinase treatment of keratocytes decreased the apparent viscosity to approximately 0.1 poise. To evaluate the presence of domains or barriers, the trajectories and corresponding mean square displacement (MSD) plots of gold-labeled lipids were compared to the trajectories and MSD plots resulting from computer simulations of random walks within corrals. Based on these comparisons, we conclude that, if there are domains limiting the diffusion of F1-PE, most are larger than 5 microns in diameter. PMID:8416991

  4. [Assessment of motor and sensory pathways of the brain using diffusion-tensor tractography in children with cerebral palsy].

    PubMed

    Memedyarov, A M; Namazova-Baranova, L S; Ermolina, Y V; Anikin, A V; Maslova, O I; Karkashadze, M Z; Klochkova, O A

    2014-01-01

    Diffusion tensor tractography--a new method of magnetic resonance imaging, that allows to visualize the pathways of the brain and to study their structural-functional state. The authors investigated the changes in motor and sensory pathways of brain in children with cerebral palsy using routine magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion-tensor tractography. The main group consisted of 26 patients with various forms of cerebral palsy and the comparison group was 25 people with normal psychomotor development (aged 2 to 6 years) and MR-picture of the brain. Magnetic resonance imaging was performed on the scanner with the induction of a magnetic field of 1,5 Tesla. Coefficients of fractional anisotropy and average diffusion coefficient estimated in regions of the brain containing the motor and sensory pathways: precentral gyrus, posterior limb of the internal capsule, thalamus, posterior thalamic radiation and corpus callosum. Statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) values of fractional anisotropy and average diffusion coefficient in patients with cerebral palsy in relation to the comparison group. All investigated regions, the coefficients of fractional anisotropy in children with cerebral palsy were significantly lower, and the average diffusion coefficient, respectively, higher. These changes indicate a lower degree of ordering of the white matter tracts associated with damage and subsequent development of gliosis of varying severity in children with cerebral palsy. It is shown that microstructural damage localized in both motor and sensory tracts that plays a leading role in the development of the clinical picture of cerebral palsy.

  5. High-throughput migration modelling for estimating exposure to chemicals in food packaging in screening and prioritization tools.

    PubMed

    Ernstoff, Alexi S; Fantke, Peter; Huang, Lei; Jolliet, Olivier

    2017-11-01

    Specialty software and simplified models are often used to estimate migration of potentially toxic chemicals from packaging into food. Current models, however, are not suitable for emerging applications in decision-support tools, e.g. in Life Cycle Assessment and risk-based screening and prioritization, which require rapid computation of accurate estimates for diverse scenarios. To fulfil this need, we develop an accurate and rapid (high-throughput) model that estimates the fraction of organic chemicals migrating from polymeric packaging materials into foods. Several hundred step-wise simulations optimised the model coefficients to cover a range of user-defined scenarios (e.g. temperature). The developed model, operationalised in a spreadsheet for future dissemination, nearly instantaneously estimates chemical migration, and has improved performance over commonly used model simplifications. When using measured diffusion coefficients the model accurately predicted (R 2  = 0.9, standard error (S e ) = 0.5) hundreds of empirical data points for various scenarios. Diffusion coefficient modelling, which determines the speed of chemical transfer from package to food, was a major contributor to uncertainty and dramatically decreased model performance (R 2  = 0.4, S e  = 1). In all, this study provides a rapid migration modelling approach to estimate exposure to chemicals in food packaging for emerging screening and prioritization approaches. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  6. Using genetic data to estimate diffusion rates in heterogeneous landscapes.

    PubMed

    Roques, L; Walker, E; Franck, P; Soubeyrand, S; Klein, E K

    2016-08-01

    Having a precise knowledge of the dispersal ability of a population in a heterogeneous environment is of critical importance in agroecology and conservation biology as it can provide management tools to limit the effects of pests or to increase the survival of endangered species. In this paper, we propose a mechanistic-statistical method to estimate space-dependent diffusion parameters of spatially-explicit models based on stochastic differential equations, using genetic data. Dividing the total population into subpopulations corresponding to different habitat patches with known allele frequencies, the expected proportions of individuals from each subpopulation at each position is computed by solving a system of reaction-diffusion equations. Modelling the capture and genotyping of the individuals with a statistical approach, we derive a numerically tractable formula for the likelihood function associated with the diffusion parameters. In a simulated environment made of three types of regions, each associated with a different diffusion coefficient, we successfully estimate the diffusion parameters with a maximum-likelihood approach. Although higher genetic differentiation among subpopulations leads to more accurate estimations, once a certain level of differentiation has been reached, the finite size of the genotyped population becomes the limiting factor for accurate estimation.

  7. Iron and nickel isotope fractionation by diffusion, with applications to iron meteorites

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Watson, Heather C.; Richter, Frank; Liu, Ankun; Huss, Gary R.

    2016-10-01

    Mass-dependent, kinetic fractionation of isotopes through processes such as diffusion can result in measurable isotopic signatures. When these signatures are retained in geologic materials, they can be used to help interpret their thermal histories. The mass dependence of the diffusion coefficient of isotopes 1 and 2 can be written as (D1 /D2) =(m2 /m1) β, where D1 and D2 are the diffusion coefficients of m1 and m2 respectively, and β is an empirical coefficient that relates the two ratios. Experiments have been performed to measure β in the Fe-Ni alloy system. Diffusion couple experiments between pure Fe and Ni metals were run in a piston cylinder at 1300-1400 °C and 1 GPa. Concentration and isotopic profiles were measured by electron microprobe and ion microprobe respectively. We find that a single β coefficient of β = 0.32 ± 0.04 can describe the isotopic effect in all experiments. This result is comparable to the isotope effect determined in many other similar alloy systems. The new β coefficient is used in a model of the isotopic profiles to be expected during the Widmanstätten pattern formation in iron meteorites. The results are consistent with previous estimates of the cooling rate of the iron meteorite Toluca. The application of isotopic constraints based on these results in addition to conventional cooling rate models could provide a more robust picture of the thermal history of these early planetary bodies.

  8. Study of sorption-retarded U(VI) diffusion in Hanford silt/clay material.

    PubMed

    Bai, Jing; Liu, Chongxuan; Ball, William P

    2009-10-15

    A diffusion cell method was applied to measure the effective pore diffusion coefficient (Dp) for U(VI) under strictly controlled chemical conditions in a silt/clay sediment from the U.S. Department of Energy Hanford site, WA. "Inward-flux" diffusion studies were conducted in which [U(VI)] in both aqueous and solid phases was measured as a function of distance in the diffusion cell under conditions of constant concentration at the cell boundaries. A sequential extraction method was developed to measure sorbed contaminant U(VI) in the solid phase containing extractable background U(VI). The effect of sorption kinetics on U(VI) interparticle diffusion was evaluated by comparing sorption-retarded diffusion models with sorption described either as equilibrium or intraparticle diffusion-limited processes. Both experimental and modeling results indicated that (1) a single pore diffusion coefficient can simulate the diffusion of total aqueous U(VI), and (2) the local equilibrium assumption (LEA) is appropriate for modeling sorption-retarded diffusion under the given experimental conditions. Dp of 1.6-1.7 x 10(-6) cm2/s was estimated in aqueous solution at pH 8.0 and saturated with respect to calcite, as relevant to some subsurface regions of the Hanford site.

  9. Formation of parametric images using mixed-effects models: a feasibility study.

    PubMed

    Huang, Husan-Ming; Shih, Yi-Yu; Lin, Chieh

    2016-03-01

    Mixed-effects models have been widely used in the analysis of longitudinal data. By presenting the parameters as a combination of fixed effects and random effects, mixed-effects models incorporating both within- and between-subject variations are capable of improving parameter estimation. In this work, we demonstrate the feasibility of using a non-linear mixed-effects (NLME) approach for generating parametric images from medical imaging data of a single study. By assuming that all voxels in the image are independent, we used simulation and animal data to evaluate whether NLME can improve the voxel-wise parameter estimation. For testing purposes, intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) diffusion parameters including perfusion fraction, pseudo-diffusion coefficient and true diffusion coefficient were estimated using diffusion-weighted MR images and NLME through fitting the IVIM model. The conventional method of non-linear least squares (NLLS) was used as the standard approach for comparison of the resulted parametric images. In the simulated data, NLME provides more accurate and precise estimates of diffusion parameters compared with NLLS. Similarly, we found that NLME has the ability to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of parametric images obtained from rat brain data. These data have shown that it is feasible to apply NLME in parametric image generation, and the parametric image quality can be accordingly improved with the use of NLME. With the flexibility to be adapted to other models or modalities, NLME may become a useful tool to improve the parametric image quality in the future. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  10. TrackArt: the user friendly interface for single molecule tracking data analysis and simulation applied to complex diffusion in mica supported lipid bilayers.

    PubMed

    Matysik, Artur; Kraut, Rachel S

    2014-05-01

    Single molecule tracking (SMT) analysis of fluorescently tagged lipid and protein probes is an attractive alternative to ensemble averaged methods such as fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) or fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) for measuring diffusion in artificial and plasma membranes. The meaningful estimation of diffusion coefficients and their errors is however not straightforward, and is heavily dependent on sample type, acquisition method, and equipment used. Many approaches require advanced computing and programming skills for their implementation. Here we present TrackArt software, an accessible graphic interface for simulation and complex analysis of multiple particle paths. Imported trajectories can be filtered to eliminate spurious or corrupted tracks, and are then analyzed using several previously described methodologies, to yield single or multiple diffusion coefficients, their population fractions, and estimated errors. We use TrackArt to analyze the single-molecule diffusion behavior of a sphingolipid analog SM-Atto647N, in mica supported DOPC (1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine) bilayers. Fitting with a two-component diffusion model confirms the existence of two separate populations of diffusing particles in these bilayers on mica. As a demonstration of the TrackArt workflow, we characterize and discuss the effective activation energies required to increase the diffusion rates of these populations, obtained from Arrhenius plots of temperature-dependent diffusion. Finally, TrackArt provides a simulation module, allowing the user to generate models with multiple particle trajectories, diffusing with different characteristics. Maps of domains, acting as impermeable or permeable obstacles for particles diffusing with given rate constants and diffusion coefficients, can be simulated or imported from an image. Importantly, this allows one to use simulated data with a known diffusion behavior as a comparison for results acquired using particular algorithms on actual, "natural" samples whose diffusion behavior is to be extracted. It can also serve as a tool for demonstrating diffusion principles. TrackArt is an open source, platform-independent, Matlab-based graphical user interface, and is easy to use even for those unfamiliar with the Matlab programming environment. TrackArt can be used for accurate simulation and analysis of complex diffusion data, such as diffusion in lipid bilayers, providing publication-quality formatted results.

  11. Effect of the magnetism of impurities on their diffusion in metals: Bulk diffusion of iron, cobalt, and rhodium in iridium single crystals

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Klotsman, S. M.; Tatarinova, G. N.

    2008-12-01

    The coefficients and parameters of the temperature dependences of the coefficients of bulk diffusion of Fe, Co, Rh, and Au atomic probes (APs) in iridium single crystals (mono-Ir) have been determined from the diffusion profiles obtained using secondary-ion mass spectrometry of the diffusion zones. The enthalpies of activation of diffusion of Fe, Co, and Rh APs are considerably lower than the enthalpy of activation of selfdiffusion in mono-Ir. This is caused by the negative contributions of the intraatomic exchange energy and energy of relaxation of the environment of the d transition APs to the enthalpy of interaction of magnetically active APs with the vacancies in the iridium lattice. The interaction energy of partners in such complexes and the relationships between the magnetic moments of d transition APs in complexes with vacancies have been estimated. The Rh APs in complexes with vacancies in iridium possess stable magnetic moments.

  12. Lithium manganese oxide spinel electrodes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Darling, Robert Mason

    Batteries based oil intercalation eletrodes are currently being considered for a variety of applications including automobiles. This thesis is concerned with the simulation and experimental investigation of one such system: spinel LiyMn2O4. A mathematical model simulating the behavior of an electrochemical cell containing all intercalation electrode is developed and applied to Li yMn2O4 based systems. The influence of the exchange current density oil the propagation of the reaction through the depth of the electrode is examined theoretically. Galvanostatic cycling and relaxation phenomena on open circuit are simulated for different particle-size distributions. The electrode with uniformly sized particles shows the best performance when the current is on, and relaxes towards equilibrium most quickly. The impedance of a porous electrode containing a particle-size distribution at low frequencies is investigated with all analytic solution and a simplified version of the mathematical model. The presence of the particle-size distribution leads to an apparent diffusion coefficient which has all incorrect concentration dependence. A Li/1 M LiClO4 in propylene carbonate (PC)/ LiyMn 2O4 cell is used to investigate the influence of side reactions oil the current-potential behavior of intercalation electrodes. Slow cyclic voltammograms and self-discharge data are combined to estimate the reversible potential of the host material and the kinetic parameters for the side reaction. This information is then used, together with estimates of the solid-state diffusion coefficient and main-reaction exchange current density, in a mathematical model of the system. Predictions from the model compare favorably with continuous cycling results and galvanostatic experiments with periodic current interruptions. The variation with respect to composition of' the diffusion coefficient of lithium in LiyMn2O4 is estimated from incomplete galvanostatic discharges following open-circult periods. The results compared favorably with those available in the literature. Dynamic Monte Carlo simulations were conducted to investigate the concentration dependence of the diffusion coefficient fundamentally. The dynamic Monte Carlo predictions compare favorably with the experimental data.

  13. Effect of concentration dependence of the diffusion coefficient on homogenization kinetics in multiphase binary alloy systems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tenney, D. R.; Unnam, J.

    1978-01-01

    Diffusion calculations were performed to establish the conditions under which concentration dependence of the diffusion coefficient was important in single, two, and three phase binary alloy systems. Finite-difference solutions were obtained for each type of system using diffusion coefficient variations typical of those observed in real alloy systems. Solutions were also obtained using average diffusion coefficients determined by taking a logarithmic average of each diffusion coefficient variation considered. The constant diffusion coefficient solutions were used as reference in assessing diffusion coefficient variation effects. Calculations were performed for planar, cylindrical, and spherical geometries in order to compare the effect of diffusion coefficient variations with the effect of interface geometries. In most of the cases considered, the diffusion coefficient of the major-alloy phase was the key parameter that controlled the kinetics of interdiffusion.

  14. Space-time modeling of the photon diffusion in a three-layered model: application to the study of muscular oxygenation

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mansouri, C.; L'Huillier, J. P.; Piron, V.

    2007-07-01

    This work presents results on the modeling of the photon diffusion in a three-layered model, (skin, fat and muscle). The Finite Element method was performed in order to calculate the temporal response of the above-mentioned structure. The thickness of the fat layer was varied from 1 to 15 mm to investigate the effects of increasing fat thickness on the muscle layer absorption coefficient measurements for a source-detector spacing of 30 mm. The simulated time-resolved reflectance data, at different wavelengths, were fitted to the diffusion model to yield the scattering and absorption coefficients of muscle. The errors in estimating muscle absorption coefficients μ α depend on the thickness of the fat layer and its optical properties. In addition, it was shown that it is possible to recover with a good precision (~2.6 % of error) the absorption coefficient of muscle and this up to a thickness of the fat layer not exceeding 4mm. Beyond this limit a correction is proposed in order to make measurements coherent. The muscle-corrected absorption coefficient can be then used to calculate hemoglobin oxygenation.

  15. Light Diffusion in the Tropical Dry Forest of Costa Rica

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Calvo-Rodriguez, S.; Sanchez-Azofeifa, G. A.

    2016-06-01

    Leaf Area Index (LAI) has been defined as the total leaf area (one-sided) in relation to the ground. LAI has an impact on tree growth and recruitment through the interception of light, which in turn affects primary productivity. Even though many instruments exist for estimating LAI from ground, they are often laborious and costly to run continuously. Measurements of LAI from the field using traditional sensors (e.g., LAI-2000) require multiple visits to the field under very specific sky conditions, making them unsuitable to operate in inaccessible areas and forests with dense vegetation, as well as areas where persistent sunny conditions are the norm like tropical dry forests. With this context, we proposed a methodology to characterize light diffusion based on NDVI and LAI measurements taken from the field in two successional stages in the tropical dry forest of Santa Rosa National Park in Costa Rica. We estimate a "K" coefficient to characterize light diffusion by the canopy, based on field NDVI measurements derived from optical phenology instruments and MODIS NDVI. From the coefficients determined, we estimated LAI values and compared them with ground measurements of LAI. In both successional stages ground measurements of LAI had no significant difference to the tower-derived LAI and the estimated LAI from MODIS NDVI.

  16. Radial Diffusion Coefficients Using E and B Field Data from the Van Allen Probes: Comparison with the CRRES Study

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ali, A.; Elkington, S. R.; Malaspina, D.

    2014-12-01

    The Van Allen radiation belts contain highly energetic particles which interact with a variety of plasma and MHD waves. Waves with frequencies in the ULF range are understood to play an important role in loss and acceleration of energetic particles. We are investigating the contributions from perturbations in both the magnetic and the electric fields in driving radial diffusion of charged particles and wish to probe two unanswered questions about ULF wave driven radial transport. First, how important are the fluctuations in the magnetic field compared with the fluctuations in the electric field in driving radial diffusion? Second, how does ULF wave power distribution in azimuth affect radial diffusion? Analytic treatments of the diffusion coefficients generally assume uniform distribution of power in azimuth but in situ measurements suggest otherwise. We present results from a study using the electric and magnetic field measurements from the Van Allen Probes to estimate the radial diffusion coefficients as a function of L and Kp. During the lifetime of the RBSP mission to date, there has been a dearth of solar activity. This compels us to consider Kp as the only time and activity dependent parameter instead of solar wind velocity and pressure.

  17. In situ diffusion experiment in granite: Phase I

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Vilks, P.; Cramer, J. J.; Jensen, M.; Miller, N. H.; Miller, H. G.; Stanchell, F. W.

    2003-03-01

    A program of in situ experiments, supported by laboratory studies, was initiated to study diffusion in sparsely fractured rock (SFR), with a goal of developing an understanding of diffusion processes within intact crystalline rock. Phase I of the in situ diffusion experiment was started in 1996, with the purpose of developing a methodology for estimating diffusion parameter values. Four in situ diffusion experiments, using a conservative iodide tracer, were performed in highly stressed SFR at a depth of 450 m in the Underground Research Laboratory (URL). The experiments, performed over a 2 year period, yielded rock permeability estimates of 2×10 -21 m 2 and effective diffusion coefficients varying from 2.1×10 -14 to 1.9×10 -13 m 2/s, which were estimated using the MOTIF code. The in situ diffusion profiles reveal a characteristic "dog leg" pattern, with iodide concentrations decreasing rapidly within a centimeter of the open borehole wall. It is hypothesized that this is an artifact of local stress redistribution and creation of a zone of increased constrictivity close to the borehole wall. A comparison of estimated in situ and laboratory diffusivities and permeabilities provides evidence that the physical properties of rock samples removed from high-stress regimes change. As a result of the lessons learnt during Phase I, a Phase II in situ program has been initiated to improve our general understanding of diffusion in SFR.

  18. Migration of antioxidants from polylactic acid films: A parameter estimation approach and an overview of the current mass transfer models.

    PubMed

    Samsudin, Hayati; Auras, Rafael; Mishra, Dharmendra; Dolan, Kirk; Burgess, Gary; Rubino, Maria; Selke, Susan; Soto-Valdez, Herlinda

    2018-01-01

    Migration studies of chemicals from contact materials have been widely conducted due to their importance in determining the safety and shelf life of a food product in their packages. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) require this safety assessment for food contact materials. So, migration experiments are theoretically designed and experimentally conducted to obtain data that can be used to assess the kinetics of chemical release. In this work, a parameter estimation approach was used to review and to determine the mass transfer partition and diffusion coefficients governing the migration process of eight antioxidants from poly(lactic acid), PLA, based films into water/ethanol solutions at temperatures between 20 and 50°C. Scaled sensitivity coefficients were calculated to assess simultaneously estimation of a number of mass transfer parameters. An optimal experimental design approach was performed to show the importance of properly designing a migration experiment. Additional parameters also provide better insights on migration of the antioxidants. For example, the partition coefficients could be better estimated using data from the early part of the experiment instead at the end. Experiments could be conducted for shorter periods of time saving time and resources. Diffusion coefficients of the eight antioxidants from PLA films were between 0.2 and 19×10 -14 m 2 /s at ~40°C. The use of parameter estimation approach provided additional and useful insights about the migration of antioxidants from PLA films. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Interdiffusion and reaction between U and Zr

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Park, Y.; Newell, R.; Mehta, A.; Keiser, D. D.; Sohn, Y. H.

    2018-04-01

    The microstructural development and diffusion kinetics were examined for the binary U vs. Zr system using solid-to-solid diffusion couples, U vs. Zr, annealed at 580 °C for 960 h, 650 °C for 480 h, 680 °C for 240 h, and 710 °C for 96 h. Scanning and transmission electron microscopies with X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy were employed for detailed microstructural and compositional analyses. Interdiffusion and reaction in U vs. Zr diffusion couples primarily produced: δ-UZr2 solid solution (hP3) and α‧-U at 580 °C; and (γU,βZr) solid solution (cI2) and α‧-U at 650°, 680° and 710 °C. The α‧-phase was confirmed as a reduced variant of the α-U orthorhombic structure with lattice parameters, a × b × c = 2.65 × 5.40 × 4.75 (Å) with a negligible solubility for Zr at room temperature. Concentration profiles were examined to determine interdiffusion coefficients, integrated interdiffusion coefficients, and intrinsic diffusion coefficients using Boltzmann-Matano, Wagner, and Heumann analyses, respectively. Composition-dependence of interdiffusion coefficients were documented for α-U, δ-UZr2 (at 580 °C) and (γU,βZr) solid solution (at 650°, 680° and 710 °C). U was determined to intrinsically diffuse faster than Zr, approximately by an order of magnitude, in the δ-UZr2 at 580 °C, and (γU,βZr) phases at 650°, 680° and 710 °C. Based on Darken's approach, thermodynamic data available in literature were coupled to estimate the tracer diffusion coefficients and atomic mobilities of U and Zr.

  20. An elemental mercury diffusion coefficient for natural waters determined by molecular dynamics simulation.

    PubMed

    Kuss, Joachim; Holzmann, Jörg; Ludwig, Ralf

    2009-05-01

    Mercury is a priority pollutant as its mobility between the hydrosphere and the atmosphere threatens the biosphere globally. The air-water gas transfer of elemental mercury (Hg0) is controlled by its diffusion through the water-side boundary layer and thus by its diffusion coefficient, D(Hg), the value of which, however, has not been established. Here, the diffusion of Hg0 in water was modeled by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and the diffusion coefficient subsequently determined. Therefore the movement of either Hg(0) or xenon and 1000 model water molecules (TIP4P-Ew) were traced for time spans of 50 ns. The modeled D(Xe) of the monatomic noble gas agreed well with measured data; thus, MD simulation was assumed to be a reliable approach to determine D(Hg) for monatomic Hg(0) as well. Accordingly, Hg(0) diffusion was then simulated for freshwater and seawater, and the data were well-described by the equation of Eyring. The activation energies for the diffusion of Hg0 in freshwater was 17.0 kJ mol(-1) and in seawater 17.8 kJ mol(-1). The newly determined D(Hg) is clearly lower than the one previously used for an oceanic mercury budget. Thus, its incorporation into the model should lead to lower estimates of global ocean mercury emissions.

  1. Incorporation of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging data into a simple mathematical model of tumor growth

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Atuegwu, N. C.; Colvin, D. C.; Loveless, M. E.; Xu, L.; Gore, J. C.; Yankeelov, T. E.

    2012-01-01

    We build on previous work to show how serial diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI) data can be used to estimate proliferation rates in a rat model of brain cancer. Thirteen rats were inoculated intracranially with 9L tumor cells; eight rats were treated with the chemotherapeutic drug 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea and five rats were untreated controls. All animals underwent DW-MRI immediately before, one day and three days after treatment. Values of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) were calculated from the DW-MRI data and then used to estimate the number of cells in each voxel and also for whole tumor regions of interest. The data from the first two imaging time points were then used to estimate the proliferation rate of each tumor. The proliferation rates were used to predict the number of tumor cells at day three, and this was correlated with the corresponding experimental data. The voxel-by-voxel analysis yielded Pearson's correlation coefficients ranging from -0.06 to 0.65, whereas the region of interest analysis provided Pearson's and concordance correlation coefficients of 0.88 and 0.80, respectively. Additionally, the ratio of positive to negative proliferation values was used to separate the treated and control animals (p <0.05) at an earlier point than the mean ADC values. These results further illustrate how quantitative measurements of tumor state obtained non-invasively by imaging can be incorporated into mathematical models that predict tumor growth.

  2. Effect of gradient pulse duration on MRI estimation of the diffusional kurtosis for a two-compartment exchange model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jensen, Jens H.; Helpern, Joseph A.

    2011-06-01

    Hardware constraints typically require the use of extended gradient pulse durations for clinical applications of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI), which can potentially influence the estimation of diffusion metrics. Prior studies have examined this effect for the apparent diffusion coefficient. This study employs a two-compartment exchange model in order to assess the gradient pulse duration sensitivity of the apparent diffusional kurtosis (ADK), a quantitative index of diffusional non-Gaussianity. An analytic expression is derived and numerically evaluated for parameter ranges relevant to DW-MRI of brain. It is found that the ADK differs from the true diffusional kurtosis by at most a few percent. This suggests that ADK estimates for brain may be robust with respect to changes in pulse gradient duration.

  3. Exploratory laboratory study of lateral turbulent diffusion at the surface of an alluvial channel

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Sayre, William W.; Chamberlain, A.R.

    1964-01-01

    In natural streams turbulent diffusion is one of the principal mechanisms by which liquid and suspended-particulate contaminants are dispersed in the flow. A knowledge of turbulence characteristics is therefore essential in predicting the dispersal rates of contaminants in streams. In this study the theory of diffusion by continuous movements for homogeneous turbulence is applied to lateral diffusion at the surface of an open channel in which there is uniform flow. An exploratory-laboratory investigation was conducted in which the lateral dispersion at the water surface of a sand-Led flume was studied by measuring the lateral spread from a point source of small floating polyethylene articles. The experiment was restricted to a single set of low and channel geometry conditions. The results of the study indicate that with certain restrictions lateral dispersion in alluvial channels may be successfully described by the theory of diffusion by continuous movements. The experiment demonstrates a means for evaluating the lateral diffusion coefficient and also methods for quantitatively estimating fundamental turbulence properties, such as the intensity and the Lagrangian integral scale of turbulence in an alluvial channel. The experimental results show that with increasing distance from the source the coefficient of lateral turbulent diffusion increases initially but tends toward a constant limiting value. This result is in accordance with turbulent diffusion theory. Indications are that the distance downstream from the source required for the diffusion coefficient to reach its limiting value is actually very small when compared to the length scale of most diffusion phenomena in natural streams which are of practical interest.

  4. Controlled drug release from hydrogels for contact lenses: Drug partitioning and diffusion.

    PubMed

    Pimenta, A F R; Ascenso, J; Fernandes, J C S; Colaço, R; Serro, A P; Saramago, B

    2016-12-30

    Optimization of drug delivery from drug loaded contact lenses assumes understanding the drug transport mechanisms through hydrogels which relies on the knowledge of drug partition and diffusion coefficients. We chose, as model systems, two materials used in contact lens, a poly-hydroxyethylmethacrylate (pHEMA) based hydrogel and a silicone based hydrogel, and three drugs with different sizes and charges: chlorhexidine, levofloxacin and diclofenac. Equilibrium partition coefficients were determined at different ionic strength and pH, using water (pH 5.6) and PBS (pH 7.4). The measured partition coefficients were related with the polymer volume fraction in the hydrogel, through the introduction of an enhancement factor following the approach developed by the group of C. J. Radke (Kotsmar et al., 2012; Liu et al., 2013). This factor may be decomposed in the product of three other factors E HS , E el and E ad which account for, respectively, hard-sphere size exclusion, electrostatic interactions, and specific solute adsorption. While E HS and E el are close to 1, E ad >1 in all cases suggesting strong specific interactions between the drugs and the hydrogels. Adsorption was maximal for chlorhexidine on the silicone based hydrogel, in water, due to strong hydrogen bonding. The effective diffusion coefficients, D e , were determined from the drug release profiles. Estimations of diffusion coefficients of the non-adsorbed solutes D=D e ×E ad allowed comparison with theories for solute diffusion in the absence of specific interaction with the polymeric membrane. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  5. Development of advanced methods for analysis of experimental data in diffusion

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Jaques, Alonso V.

    There are numerous experimental configurations and data analysis techniques for the characterization of diffusion phenomena. However, the mathematical methods for estimating diffusivities traditionally do not take into account the effects of experimental errors in the data, and often require smooth, noiseless data sets to perform the necessary analysis steps. The current methods used for data smoothing require strong assumptions which can introduce numerical "artifacts" into the data, affecting confidence in the estimated parameters. The Boltzmann-Matano method is used extensively in the determination of concentration - dependent diffusivities, D(C), in alloys. In the course of analyzing experimental data, numerical integrations and differentiations of the concentration profile are performed. These methods require smoothing of the data prior to analysis. We present here an approach to the Boltzmann-Matano method that is based on a regularization method to estimate a differentiation operation on the data, i.e., estimate the concentration gradient term, which is important in the analysis process for determining the diffusivity. This approach, therefore, has the potential to be less subjective, and in numerical simulations shows an increased accuracy in the estimated diffusion coefficients. We present a regression approach to estimate linear multicomponent diffusion coefficients that eliminates the need pre-treat or pre-condition the concentration profile. This approach fits the data to a functional form of the mathematical expression for the concentration profile, and allows us to determine the diffusivity matrix directly from the fitted parameters. Reformulation of the equation for the analytical solution is done in order to reduce the size of the problem and accelerate the convergence. The objective function for the regression can incorporate point estimations for error in the concentration, improving the statistical confidence in the estimated diffusivity matrix. Case studies are presented to demonstrate the reliability and the stability of the method. To the best of our knowledge there is no published analysis of the effects of experimental errors on the reliability of the estimates for the diffusivities. For the case of linear multicomponent diffusion, we analyze the effects of the instrument analytical spot size, positioning uncertainty, and concentration uncertainty on the resulting values of the diffusivities. These effects are studied using Monte Carlo method on simulated experimental data. Several useful scaling relationships were identified which allow more rigorous and quantitative estimates of the errors in the measured data, and are valuable for experimental design. To further analyze anomalous diffusion processes, where traditional diffusional transport equations do not hold, we explore the use of fractional calculus in analytically representing these processes is proposed. We use the fractional calculus approach for anomalous diffusion processes occurring through a finite plane sheet with one face held at a fixed concentration, the other held at zero, and the initial concentration within the sheet equal to zero. This problem is related to cases in nature where diffusion is enhanced relative to the classical process, and the order of differentiation is not necessarily a second--order differential equation. That is, differentiation is of fractional order alpha, where 1 ≤ alpha < 2. For alpha = 2, the presented solutions reduce to the classical second-order diffusion solution for the conditions studied. The solution obtained allows the analysis of permeation experiments. Frequently, hydrogen diffusion is analyzed using electrochemical permeation methods using the traditional, Fickian-based theory. Experimental evidence shows the latter analytical approach is not always appropiate, because reported data shows qualitative (and quantitative) deviation from its theoretical scaling predictions. Preliminary analysis of data shows better agreement with fractional diffusion analysis when compared to traditional square-root scaling. Although there is a large amount of work in the estimation of the diffusivity from experimental data, reported studies typically present only the analytical description for the diffusivity, without scattering. However, because these studies do not consider effects produced by instrument analysis, their direct applicability is limited. We propose alternatives to address these, and to evaluate their influence on the final resulting diffusivity values.

  6. Determination of the effect of lipophilicity on the in vitro permeability and tissue reservoir characteristics of topically applied solutes in human skin layers.

    PubMed

    Cross, Sheree E; Magnusson, Beatrice M; Winckle, Gareth; Anissimov, Yuri; Roberts, Michael S

    2003-05-01

    In order to establish the relationship between solute lipophilicity and skin penetration (including flux and concentration behavior), we examined the in vitro penetration and membrane concentration of a series of homologous alcohols (C2-C10) applied topically in aqueous solutions to human epidermal, full-thickness, and dermal membranes. The partitioning/distribution of each alcohol between the donor solution, stratum corneum, viable epidermis, dermis, and receptor phase compartments was determined during the penetration process and separately to isolated samples of each tissue type. Maximum flux and permeability coefficients are compared for each membrane and estimates of alcohol diffusivity are made based on flux/concentration data and also the related tissue resistance (the reciprocal of permeability coefficient) for each membrane type. The permeability coefficient increased with increasing lipophilicity to alcohol C8 (octanol) with no further increase for C10 (decanol). Log vehicle:stratum corneum partition coefficients were related to logP, and the concentration of alcohols in each of the tissue layers appeared to increase with lipophilicity. No difference was measured in the diffusivity of smaller more polar alcohols in the three membranes; however, the larger more lipophilic solutes showed slower diffusivity values. The study showed that the dermis may be a much more lipophilic environment than originally believed and that distribution of smaller nonionized solutes into local tissues below a site of topical application may be estimated based on knowledge of their lipophilicity alone.

  7. Diffusion parameter mapping with the combined intravoxel incoherent motion and kurtosis model using artificial neural networks at 3 T.

    PubMed

    Bertleff, Marco; Domsch, Sebastian; Weingärtner, Sebastian; Zapp, Jascha; O'Brien, Kieran; Barth, Markus; Schad, Lothar R

    2017-12-01

    Artificial neural networks (ANNs) were used for voxel-wise parameter estimation with the combined intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) and kurtosis model facilitating robust diffusion parameter mapping in the human brain. The proposed ANN approach was compared with conventional least-squares regression (LSR) and state-of-the-art multi-step fitting (LSR-MS) in Monte-Carlo simulations and in vivo in terms of estimation accuracy and precision, number of outliers and sensitivity in the distinction between grey (GM) and white (WM) matter. Both the proposed ANN approach and LSR-MS yielded visually increased parameter map quality. Estimations of all parameters (perfusion fraction f, diffusion coefficient D, pseudo-diffusion coefficient D*, kurtosis K) were in good agreement with the literature using ANN, whereas LSR-MS resulted in D* overestimation and LSR yielded increased values for f and D*, as well as decreased values for K. Using ANN, outliers were reduced for the parameters f (ANN, 1%; LSR-MS, 19%; LSR, 8%), D* (ANN, 21%; LSR-MS, 25%; LSR, 23%) and K (ANN, 0%; LSR-MS, 0%; LSR, 15%). Moreover, ANN enabled significant distinction between GM and WM based on all parameters, whereas LSR facilitated this distinction only based on D and LSR-MS on f, D and K. Overall, the proposed ANN approach was found to be superior to conventional LSR, posing a powerful alternative to the state-of-the-art method LSR-MS with several advantages in the estimation of IVIM-kurtosis parameters, which might facilitate increased applicability of enhanced diffusion models at clinical scan times. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  8. The Effects of Population Size Histories on Estimates of Selection Coefficients from Time-Series Genetic Data

    PubMed Central

    Jewett, Ethan M.; Steinrücken, Matthias; Song, Yun S.

    2016-01-01

    Many approaches have been developed for inferring selection coefficients from time series data while accounting for genetic drift. These approaches have been motivated by the intuition that properly accounting for the population size history can significantly improve estimates of selective strengths. However, the improvement in inference accuracy that can be attained by modeling drift has not been characterized. Here, by comparing maximum likelihood estimates of selection coefficients that account for the true population size history with estimates that ignore drift by assuming allele frequencies evolve deterministically in a population of infinite size, we address the following questions: how much can modeling the population size history improve estimates of selection coefficients? How much can mis-inferred population sizes hurt inferences of selection coefficients? We conduct our analysis under the discrete Wright–Fisher model by deriving the exact probability of an allele frequency trajectory in a population of time-varying size and we replicate our results under the diffusion model. For both models, we find that ignoring drift leads to estimates of selection coefficients that are nearly as accurate as estimates that account for the true population history, even when population sizes are small and drift is high. This result is of interest because inference methods that ignore drift are widely used in evolutionary studies and can be many orders of magnitude faster than methods that account for population sizes. PMID:27550904

  9. Tissue microstructure estimation using a deep network inspired by a dictionary-based framework.

    PubMed

    Ye, Chuyang

    2017-12-01

    Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) captures the anisotropic pattern of water displacement in the neuronal tissue and allows noninvasive investigation of the complex tissue microstructure. A number of biophysical models have been proposed to relate the tissue organization with the observed diffusion signals, so that the tissue microstructure can be inferred. The Neurite Orientation Dispersion and Density Imaging (NODDI) model has been a popular choice and has been widely used for many neuroscientific studies. It models the diffusion signal with three compartments that are characterized by distinct diffusion properties, and the parameters in the model describe tissue microstructure. In NODDI, these parameters are estimated in a maximum likelihood framework, where the nonlinear model fitting is computationally intensive. Therefore, efforts have been made to develop efficient and accurate algorithms for NODDI microstructure estimation, which is still an open problem. In this work, we propose a deep network based approach that performs end-to-end estimation of NODDI microstructure, which is named Microstructure Estimation using a Deep Network (MEDN). MEDN comprises two cascaded stages and is motivated by the AMICO algorithm, where the NODDI microstructure estimation is formulated in a dictionary-based framework. The first stage computes the coefficients of the dictionary. It resembles the solution to a sparse reconstruction problem, where the iterative process in conventional estimation approaches is unfolded and truncated, and the weights are learned instead of predetermined by the dictionary. In the second stage, microstructure properties are computed from the output of the first stage, which resembles the weighted sum of normalized dictionary coefficients in AMICO, and the weights are also learned. Because spatial consistency of diffusion signals can be used to reduce the effect of noise, we also propose MEDN+, which is an extended version of MEDN. MEDN+ allows incorporation of neighborhood information by inserting a stage with learned weights before the MEDN structure, where the diffusion signals in the neighborhood of a voxel are processed. The weights in MEDN or MEDN+ are jointly learned from training samples that are acquired with diffusion gradients densely sampling the q-space. We performed MEDN and MEDN+ on brain dMRI scans, where two shells each with 30 gradient directions were used, and measured their accuracy with respect to the gold standard. Results demonstrate that the proposed networks outperform the competing methods. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  10. Uncertainty in assessment of radiation-induced diffusion index changes in individual patients

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nazem-Zadeh, Mohammad-Reza; Chapman, Christopher H.; Lawrence, Theodore S.; Tsien, Christina I.; Cao, Yue

    2013-06-01

    The purpose of this study is to evaluate repeatability coefficients of diffusion tensor indices to assess whether longitudinal changes in diffusion indices were true changes beyond the uncertainty for individual patients undergoing radiation therapy (RT). Twenty-two patients who had low-grade or benign tumors and were treated by partial brain radiation therapy (PBRT) participated in an IRB-approved MRI protocol. The diffusion tensor images in the patients were acquired pre-RT, week 3 during RT, at the end of RT, and 1, 6, and 18 months after RT. As a measure of uncertainty, repeatability coefficients (RC) of diffusion indices in the segmented cingulum, corpus callosum, and fornix were estimated by using test-retest diffusion tensor datasets from the National Biomedical Imaging Archive (NBIA) database. The upper and lower limits of the 95% confidence interval of the estimated RC from the test and retest data were used to evaluate whether the longitudinal percentage changes in diffusion indices in the segmented structures in the individual patients were beyond the uncertainty and thus could be considered as true radiation-induced changes. Diffusion indices in different white matter structures showed different uncertainty ranges. The estimated RC for fractional anisotropy (FA) ranged from 5.3% to 9.6%, for mean diffusivity (MD) from 2.2% to 6.8%, for axial diffusivity (AD) from 2.4% to 5.5%, and for radial diffusivity (RD) from 2.9% to 9.7%. Overall, 23% of the patients treated by RT had FA changes, 44% had MD changes, 50% had AD changes, and 50% had RD changes beyond the uncertainty ranges. In the fornix, 85.7% and 100% of the patients showed changes beyond the uncertainty range at 6 and 18 months after RT, demonstrating that radiation has a pronounced late effect on the fornix compared to other segmented structures. It is critical to determine reliability of a change observed in an individual patient for clinical decision making. Assessments of the repeatability and confidence interval of diffusion tensor measurements in white matter structures allow us to determine the true longitudinal change in individual patients.

  11. Diffusion amid random overlapping obstacles: Similarities, invariants, approximations

    PubMed Central

    Novak, Igor L.; Gao, Fei; Kraikivski, Pavel; Slepchenko, Boris M.

    2011-01-01

    Efficient and accurate numerical techniques are used to examine similarities of effective diffusion in a void between random overlapping obstacles: essential invariance of effective diffusion coefficients (Deff) with respect to obstacle shapes and applicability of a two-parameter power law over nearly entire range of excluded volume fractions (ϕ), except for a small vicinity of a percolation threshold. It is shown that while neither of the properties is exact, deviations from them are remarkably small. This allows for quick estimation of void percolation thresholds and approximate reconstruction of Deff (ϕ) for obstacles of any given shape. In 3D, the similarities of effective diffusion yield a simple multiplication “rule” that provides a fast means of estimating Deff for a mixture of overlapping obstacles of different shapes with comparable sizes. PMID:21513372

  12. Enhanced Diffusion of Chlorinated Organic Compounds into Aquitards due to Cracking

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ayral, D.; Otero, M.; Chung, S.; Goltz, M. N.; Huang, J.; Demond, A. H.

    2012-12-01

    Despite great efforts, remediation of sites contaminated with dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPLs) is very challenging because, even at residual saturations, DNAPLs can act as a long-term source for a dissolved phase contaminant plume. Current models consider the possibility of diffusion and storage of these compounds in unfractured low permeability layers. However, there is a need to consider the impact of cracks, whether naturally occurring or induced by the interaction between low permeable layers and DNAPLs. To evaluate the impact on diffusive fluxes, diffusion coefficients were measured in low permeability materials representative of aquitards at steady-state using the time-lag method. The experimental setup comprised silty soil, packed into a retaining ring, sandwiched in between two reservoirs. The analytical solution for the time-lag method requires constant conditions in the upper and lower reservoirs. The lower reservoir contained pure trichloroethylene (TCE), while the upper reservoir was maintained at a concentration of zero by bubbling air through it, sweeping TCE into toluene trap. In order to predict the flux, the experimental effective diffusion coefficients were used to calculate the flux through uncracked matrix whereas bulk diffusion coefficient was used to calculate flux through the cracks. By using the experimentally-obtained diffusion coefficients and experimentally-measured crack intensity factors (the ratio of the area of cracks to the uncracked area), the total flux was estimated over extended time periods. These calculations, based on experimental data, were used to evaluate if diffusive-based fluxes in the presence of cracks were significantly greater than in the case of diffusion into an uncracked matrix. The enhanced diffusive fluxes were evaluated to determine whether there is the potential for significantly greater storage in the low permeable layers in the case of cracks, or whether the possibility of advective fluxes into the cracks needs to be considered as well.

  13. On the chaotic diffusion in multidimensional Hamiltonian systems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cincotta, P. M.; Giordano, C. M.; Martí, J. G.; Beaugé, C.

    2018-01-01

    We present numerical evidence that diffusion in the herein studied multidimensional near-integrable Hamiltonian systems departs from a normal process, at least for realistic timescales. Therefore, the derivation of a diffusion coefficient from a linear fit on the variance evolution of the unperturbed integrals fails. We review some topics on diffusion in the Arnold Hamiltonian and yield numerical and theoretical arguments to show that in the examples we considered, a standard coefficient would not provide a good estimation of the speed of diffusion. However, numerical experiments concerning diffusion would provide reliable information about the stability of the motion within chaotic regions of the phase space. In this direction, we present an extension of previous results concerning the dynamical structure of the Laplace resonance in Gliese-876 planetary system considering variations of the orbital parameters accordingly to the error introduced by the radial velocity determination. We found that a slight variation of the eccentricity of planet c would destabilize the inner region of the resonance that, though chaotic, shows stable when adopting the best fit values for the parameters.

  14. Quantification and significance of diffuse myocardial fibrosis and diastolic dysfunction in childhood hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

    PubMed

    Hussain, Tarique; Dragulescu, Andreea; Benson, Lee; Yoo, Shi-Joon; Meng, Howard; Windram, Jonathan; Wong, Derek; Greiser, Andreas; Friedberg, Mark; Mertens, Luc; Seed, Michael; Redington, Andrew; Grosse-Wortmann, Lars

    2015-06-01

    The purpose of this study was to evaluate the presence of diffuse myocardial fibrosis in children and adolescents with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and to assess associations with echocardiographic and clinical parameters of disease. While a common end point in adults with HCM, it is unclear whether diffuse myocardial fibrosis occurs early in the disease. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) estimation of myocardial post-contrast longitudinal relaxation time (T1) is an increasingly used method to estimate diffuse fibrosis. T1 measurements were taken using standard multi-breath-hold spoiled gradient echo phase-sensitive inversion-recovery CMR before and 15 min after the injection of gadolinium. The tissue-blood partition coefficient was calculated as a function of the ratio of T1 change of myocardium compared with blood. An echocardiogram and blood brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels were obtained on the day of the CMR. Twelve controls (mean age 12.8 years; 7 male) and 28 patients with HCM (mean age 12.8 years; 21 male) participated. The partition coefficient for both septal (0.27 ± 0.17 vs. 0.13 ± 0.09; p = 0.03) and lateral walls (0.22 ± 0.09 vs. 0.07 ± 0.10; p < 0.001) was increased in patients compared with controls. Eight patients had overt areas of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE). These patients did not show increased partition coefficient compared with those without LGE (0.27 ± 0.15 vs. 0.27 ± 0.19 and 0.22 ± 0.09 vs. 0.22 ± 0.09; p = 0.95 and 0.98, respectively). However, patients who were symptomatic (dyspnea, arrhythmia and/or chest pain) had higher lateral wall partition coefficient than asymptomatic HCM patients (0.27 ± 0.08 vs. 0.17 ± 0.08; p = 0.006). Similarly, patients with raised BNP (>100 pg/ml) had raised lateral wall coefficients (0.27 ± 0.07 vs. 0.20 ± 0.07; p = 0.03), as did those with traditional risk factors for sudden death (0.27 ± 0.06 vs. 0.18 ± 0.08; p = 0.007). Diffuse fibrosis, measured by the partition coefficient technique, is demonstrable in children and adolescents with HCM. Markers of fibrosis show an association with symptoms and raised serum BNP. Further study of the prognostic implication of this technique in young patients with HCM is warranted.

  15. Intermixing in Cu/Ni multilayers induced by cold rolling

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wang, Z.; Perepezko, J. H., E-mail: perepezk@engr.wisc.edu; Larson, D.

    2015-04-28

    Repeated cold rolling was performed on multilayers of Cu60/Ni40 and Cu40/Ni60 foil arrays to study the details of driven atomic scale interfacial mixing. With increasing deformation, there is a significant layer refinement down to the nm level that leads to the formation of a solid solution phase from the elemental end members. Intriguingly, the composition of the solid solution is revealed by an oscillation in the composition profile across the multilayers, which is different from the smoothly varying profile due to thermally activated diffusion. During the reaction, Cu mixed into Ni preferentially compared to Ni mixing into Cu, which ismore » also in contrast to the thermal diffusion behavior. This is confirmed by observations from X-ray diffraction, electron energy loss spectrum and atom probe tomography. The diffusion coefficient induced by cold rolling is estimated as 1.7 × 10{sup −17} m{sup 2}/s, which cannot be attributed to any thermal effect. The effective temperature due to the deformation induced mixing is estimated as 1093 K and an intrinsic diffusivity d{sub b}, which quantifies the tendency towards equilibrium in the absence of thermal diffusion, is estimated as 6.38 × 10{sup −18} m{sup 2}/s. The fraction of the solid solution phase formed is illustrated by examining the layer thickness distribution and is described by using an error function representation. The evolution of mixing in the solid solution phase is described by a simplified sinusoid model, in which the amplitude decays with increased deformation level. The promoted diffusion coefficient could be related to the effective temperature concept, but the establishment of an oscillation in the composition profile is a characteristic behavior that develops due to deformation.« less

  16. Model of turnover kinetics in the lamellipodium: implications of slow- and fast- diffusing capping protein and Arp2/3 complex

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    McMillen, Laura M.; Vavylonis, Dimitrios

    2016-12-01

    Cell protrusion through polymerization of actin filaments at the leading edge of motile cells may be influenced by spatial gradients of diffuse actin and regulators. Here we study the distribution of two of the most important regulators, capping protein and Arp2/3 complex, which regulate actin polymerization in the lamellipodium through capping and nucleation of free barbed ends. We modeled their kinetics using data from prior single molecule microscopy experiments on XTC cells. These experiments have provided evidence for a broad distribution of diffusion coefficients of both capping protein and Arp2/3 complex. The slowly diffusing proteins appear as extended ‘clouds’ while proteins bound to the actin filament network appear as speckles that undergo retrograde flow. Speckle appearance and disappearance events correspond to assembly and dissociation from the actin filament network and speckle lifetimes correspond to the dissociation rate. The slowly diffusing capping protein could represent severed capped actin filament fragments or membrane-bound capping protein. Prior evidence suggests that slowly diffusing Apr2/3 complex associates with the membrane. We use the measured rates and estimates of diffusion coefficients of capping protein and Arp2/3 complex in a Monte Carlo simulation that includes particles in association with a filament network and diffuse in the cytoplasm. We consider two separate pools of diffuse proteins, representing fast and slowly diffusing species. We find a steady state with concentration gradients involving a balance of diffusive flow of fast and slow species with retrograde flow. We show that simulations of FRAP are consistent with prior experiments performed on different cell types. We provide estimates for the ratio of bound to diffuse complexes and calculate conditions where Arp2/3 complex recycling by diffusion may become limiting. We discuss the implications of slowly diffusing populations and suggest experiments to distinguish among mechanisms that influence long range transport.

  17. Establishing the diffuse correlation spectroscopy signal relationship with blood flow.

    PubMed

    Boas, David A; Sakadžić, Sava; Selb, Juliette; Farzam, Parisa; Franceschini, Maria Angela; Carp, Stefan A

    2016-07-01

    Diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS) measurements of blood flow rely on the sensitivity of the temporal autocorrelation function of diffusively scattered light to red blood cell (RBC) mean square displacement (MSD). For RBCs flowing with convective velocity [Formula: see text], the autocorrelation is expected to decay exponentially with [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] is the delay time. RBCs also experience shear-induced diffusion with a diffusion coefficient [Formula: see text] and an MSD of [Formula: see text]. Surprisingly, experimental data primarily reflect diffusive behavior. To provide quantitative estimates of the relative contributions of convective and diffusive movements, we performed Monte Carlo simulations of light scattering through tissue of varying vessel densities. We assumed laminar vessel flow profiles and accounted for shear-induced diffusion effects. In agreement with experimental data, we found that diffusive motion dominates the correlation decay for typical DCS measurement parameters. Furthermore, our model offers a quantitative relationship between the RBC diffusion coefficient and absolute tissue blood flow. We thus offer, for the first time, theoretical support for the empirically accepted ability of the DCS blood flow index ([Formula: see text]) to quantify tissue perfusion. We find [Formula: see text] to be linearly proportional to blood flow, but with a proportionality modulated by the hemoglobin concentration and the average blood vessel diameter.

  18. A robust nonparametric framework for reconstruction of stochastic differential equation models

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rajabzadeh, Yalda; Rezaie, Amir Hossein; Amindavar, Hamidreza

    2016-05-01

    In this paper, we employ a nonparametric framework to robustly estimate the functional forms of drift and diffusion terms from discrete stationary time series. The proposed method significantly improves the accuracy of the parameter estimation. In this framework, drift and diffusion coefficients are modeled through orthogonal Legendre polynomials. We employ the least squares regression approach along with the Euler-Maruyama approximation method to learn coefficients of stochastic model. Next, a numerical discrete construction of mean squared prediction error (MSPE) is established to calculate the order of Legendre polynomials in drift and diffusion terms. We show numerically that the new method is robust against the variation in sample size and sampling rate. The performance of our method in comparison with the kernel-based regression (KBR) method is demonstrated through simulation and real data. In case of real dataset, we test our method for discriminating healthy electroencephalogram (EEG) signals from epilepsy ones. We also demonstrate the efficiency of the method through prediction in the financial data. In both simulation and real data, our algorithm outperforms the KBR method.

  19. Relationship between intracellular pH and proton mobility in rat and guinea-pig ventricular myocytes.

    PubMed

    Swietach, Pawel; Vaughan-Jones, Richard D

    2005-08-01

    Intracellular H+ ion mobility in eukaryotic cells is low because of intracellular buffering. We have investigated whether Hi+ mobility varies with pHi. A dual microperfusion apparatus was used to expose guinea-pig or rat myocytes to small localized doses (3-5 mm) of ammonium chloride (applied in Hepes-buffered solution). Intracellular pH (pHi) was monitored confocally using the fluorescent dye, carboxy-SNARF-1. Local ammonium exposure produced a stable, longitudinal pHi gradient. Its size was fed into a look-up table (LUT) to give an estimate of the apparent intracellular proton diffusion coefficient (D(app)H). LUTs were generated using a diffusion-reaction model of Hi+ mobility based on intracellular buffer diffusion. To examine the pHi sensitivity of D(app)H, whole-cell pHi was initially displaced using a whole-cell ammonium or acetate prepulse, before locally applying the low dose of ammonium. In both rat and guinea-pig, D(app)H decreased with pHi over the range 7.5-6.5. In separate pipette-loading experiments, the intracellular diffusion coefficient for carboxy-SNARF-1 (a mobile-buffer analogue) exhibited no significant pHi dependence. The pHi sensitivity of D(app)H is thus likely to be governed by the mobile fraction of intrinsic buffering capacity. These results reinforce the buffer hypothesis of Hi+ mobility. The pHi dependence of D(app)H was used to characterize the mobile and fixed buffer components, and to estimate D(mob) (the average diffusion coefficient for intracellular mobile buffer). One consequence of a decline in Hi+ mobility at low pHi is that it will predispose the myocardium to pHi nonuniformity. The physiological relevance of this is discussed.

  20. In situ study of mass transfer in aqueous solutions under high pressures via Raman spectroscopy: A new method for the determination of diffusion coefficients of methane in water near hydrate formation conditions

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Lu, W.J.; Chou, I.-Ming; Burruss, R.C.; Yang, M.Z.

    2006-01-01

    A new method was developed for in situ study of the diffusive transfer of methane in aqueous solution under high pressures near hydrate formation conditions within an optical capillary cell. Time-dependent Raman spectra of the solution at several different spots along the one-dimensional diffusion path were collected and thus the varying composition profile of the solution was monitored. Diffusion coefficients were estimated by the least squares method based on the variations in methane concentration data in space and time in the cell. The measured diffusion coefficients of methane in water at the liquid (L)-vapor (V) stable region and L-V metastable region are close to previously reported values determined at lower pressure and similar temperature. This in situ monitoring method was demonstrated to be suitable for the study of mass transfer in aqueous solution under high pressure and at various temperature conditions and will be applied to the study of nucleation and dissolution kinetics of methane hydrate in a hydrate-water system where the interaction of methane and water would be more complicated than that presented here for the L-V metastable condition. ?? 2006 Society for Applied Spectroscopy.

  1. Current understanding of point defects and diffusion processes in silicon

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Tan, T. Y.; Goesele, U.

    1985-01-01

    The effects of oxidation of Si which established that vacancies (V) and Si self interstitials (I) coexist in Si at high temperatures under thermal equilibrium and oxidizing conditions are discussed. Some essential points associated with Au diffusion in Si are then discussed. Analysis of Au diffusion results allowed a determination of the I component and an estimate of the V component of the Si self diffusion coefficient. A discussion of theories on high concentration P diffusion into Si is then presented. Although presently there still is no theory that is completely satisfactory, significant progresses are recently made in treating some essential aspects of this subject.

  2. Two-step reconstruction method using global optimization and conjugate gradient for ultrasound-guided diffuse optical tomography.

    PubMed

    Tavakoli, Behnoosh; Zhu, Quing

    2013-01-01

    Ultrasound-guided diffuse optical tomography (DOT) is a promising method for characterizing malignant and benign lesions in the female breast. We introduce a new two-step algorithm for DOT inversion in which the optical parameters are estimated with the global optimization method, genetic algorithm. The estimation result is applied as an initial guess to the conjugate gradient (CG) optimization method to obtain the absorption and scattering distributions simultaneously. Simulations and phantom experiments have shown that the maximum absorption and reduced scattering coefficients are reconstructed with less than 10% and 25% errors, respectively. This is in contrast with the CG method alone, which generates about 20% error for the absorption coefficient and does not accurately recover the scattering distribution. A new measure of scattering contrast has been introduced to characterize benign and malignant breast lesions. The results of 16 clinical cases reconstructed with the two-step method demonstrates that, on average, the absorption coefficient and scattering contrast of malignant lesions are about 1.8 and 3.32 times higher than the benign cases, respectively.

  3. Vertical eddy diffusivity as a control parameter in the tropical Pacific

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Martinez Avellaneda, N.; Cornuelle, B.

    2011-12-01

    Ocean models suffer from errors in the treatment of turbulent sub-grid-scale motions responsible for mixing and energy dissipation. Unrealistic small-scale physics in models can have large-scale consequences, such as biases in the upper ocean temperature, a symptom of poorly-simulated upwelling, currents and air-sea interactions. This is of special importance in the tropical Pacific Ocean (TP), which is home to energetic air-sea interactions that affect global climate. It has been shown in a number of studies that the simulated ENSO variability is highly dependent on the state of the ocean (e.g.: background mixing). Moreover, the magnitude of the vertical numerical diffusion is of primary importance in properly reproducing the Pacific equatorial thermocline. This work is part of a NASA-funded project to estimate the space- and time-varying ocean mixing coefficients in an eddy-permitting (1/3dgr) model of the TP to obtain an improved estimate of its time-varying circulation and its underlying dynamics. While an estimation procedure for the TP (26dgr S - 30dgr N) in underway using the MIT general circulation model, complementary adjoint-based sensitivity studies have been carried out for the starting ocean state from Forget (2010). This analysis aids the interpretation of the estimated mixing coefficients and possible error compensation. The focus of the sensitivity tests is the Equatorial Undercurrent and sub-thermocline jets (i.e., Tsuchiya Jets), which have been thought to have strong dependence on vertical diffusivity and should provide checks on the estimated mixing parameters. In order to build intuition for the vertical diffusivity adjoint results in the TP, adjoint and forward perturbed simulations were carried out for an idealized sharp thermocline in a rectangular domain.

  4. Explicit approximations to estimate the perturbative diffusivity in the presence of convectivity and damping. III. Cylindrical approximations for heat waves traveling inwards

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Berkel, M. van; Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; FOM Institute DIFFER-Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research, Association EURATOM-FOM, Trilateral Euregio Cluster, P.O. Box 1207, 3430 BE Nieuwegein

    In this paper, a number of new explicit approximations are introduced to estimate the perturbative diffusivity (χ), convectivity (V), and damping (τ) in cylindrical geometry. For this purpose, the harmonic components of heat waves induced by localized deposition of modulated power are used. The approximations are based on the heat equation in cylindrical geometry using the symmetry (Neumann) boundary condition at the plasma center. This means that the approximations derived here should be used only to estimate transport coefficients between the plasma center and the off-axis perturbative source. If the effect of cylindrical geometry is small, it is also possiblemore » to use semi-infinite domain approximations presented in Part I and Part II of this series. A number of new approximations are derived in this part, Part III, based upon continued fractions of the modified Bessel function of the first kind and the confluent hypergeometric function of the first kind. These approximations together with the approximations based on semi-infinite domains are compared for heat waves traveling towards the center. The relative error for the different derived approximations is presented for different values of the frequency, transport coefficients, and dimensionless radius. Moreover, it is shown how combinations of different explicit formulas can be used to estimate the transport coefficients over a large parameter range for cases without convection and damping, cases with damping only, and cases with convection and damping. The relative error between the approximation and its underlying model is below 2% for the case, where only diffusivity and damping are considered. If also convectivity is considered, the diffusivity can be estimated well in a large region, but there is also a large region in which no suitable approximation is found. This paper is the third part (Part III) of a series of three papers. In Part I, the semi-infinite slab approximations have been treated. In Part II, cylindrical approximations are treated for heat waves traveling towards the plasma edge assuming a semi-infinite domain.« less

  5. Multivariate space - time analysis of PRE-STORM precipitation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Polyak, Ilya; North, Gerald R.; Valdes, Juan B.

    1994-01-01

    This paper presents the methodologies and results of the multivariate modeling and two-dimensional spectral and correlation analysis of PRE-STORM rainfall gauge data. Estimated parameters of the models for the specific spatial averages clearly indicate the eastward and southeastward wave propagation of rainfall fluctuations. A relationship between the coefficients of the diffusion equation and the parameters of the stochastic model of rainfall fluctuations is derived that leads directly to the exclusive use of rainfall data to estimate advection speed (about 12 m/s) as well as other coefficients of the diffusion equation of the corresponding fields. The statistical methodology developed here can be used for confirmation of physical models by comparison of the corresponding second-moment statistics of the observed and simulated data, for generating multiple samples of any size, for solving the inverse problem of the hydrodynamic equations, and for application in some other areas of meteorological and climatological data analysis and modeling.

  6. Correlation of human papillomavirus status with apparent diffusion coefficient of diffusion-weighted MRI in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas.

    PubMed

    Driessen, Juliette P; van Bemmel, Alexander J M; van Kempen, Pauline M W; Janssen, Luuk M; Terhaard, Chris H J; Pameijer, Frank A; Willems, Stefan M; Stegeman, Inge; Grolman, Wilko; Philippens, Marielle E P

    2016-04-01

    Identification of prognostic patient characteristics in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is of great importance. Human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive HNSCCs have favorable response to (chemo)radiotherapy. Apparent diffusion coefficient, derived from diffusion-weighted MRI, has also shown to predict treatment response. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the correlation between HPV status and apparent diffusion coefficient. Seventy-three patients with histologically proven HNSCC were retrospectively analyzed. Mean pretreatment apparent diffusion coefficient was calculated by delineation of total tumor volume on diffusion-weighted MRI. HPV status was analyzed and correlated to apparent diffusion coefficient. Six HNSCCs were HPV-positive. HPV-positive HNSCC showed significantly lower apparent diffusion coefficient compared to HPV-negative. This correlation was independent of other patient characteristics. In HNSCC, positive HPV status correlates with low mean apparent diffusion coefficient. The favorable prognostic value of low pretreatment apparent diffusion coefficient might be partially attributed to patients with a positive HPV status. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 38: E613-E618, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  7. Theory and simulation of ion conduction in the pentameric GLIC channel.

    PubMed

    Zhu, Fangqiang; Hummer, Gerhard

    2012-10-09

    GLIC is a bacterial member of the large family of pentameric ligand-gated ion channels. To study ion conduction through GLIC and other membrane channels, we combine the one-dimensional potential of mean force for ion passage with a Smoluchowski diffusion model, making it possible to calculate single-channel conductance in the regime of low ion concentrations from all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. We then perform MD simulations to examine sodium ion conduction through the GLIC transmembrane pore in two systems with different bulk ion concentrations. The ion potentials of mean force, calculated from umbrella sampling simulations with Hamiltonian replica exchange, reveal a major barrier at the hydrophobic constriction of the pore. The relevance of this barrier for ion transport is confirmed by a committor function that rises sharply in the barrier region. From the free evolution of Na(+) ions starting at the barrier top, we estimate the effective diffusion coefficient in the barrier region, and subsequently calculate the conductance of the pore. The resulting diffusivity compares well with the position-dependent ion diffusion coefficient obtained from restrained simulations. The ion conductance obtained from the diffusion model agrees with the value determined via a reactive-flux rate calculation. Our results show that the conformation in the GLIC crystal structure, with an estimated conductance of ~1 picosiemens at 140 mM ion concentration, is consistent with a physiologically open state of the channel.

  8. A determination of the L dependence of the radial diffusion coefficient for protons in Jupiter's inner magnetosphere

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Thomsen, M. F.; Goertz, C. K.; Van Allen, J. A.

    1977-01-01

    In a previous paper (Thomsen et al., 1977), a technique was proposed for estimating the radial diffusion coefficient (n) in the inner magnetosphere of Jupiter from the observations of the sweeping effect of the inner Jovian satellites on the fluxes of the energetic charged particles. The present paper extends this technique to permit the unique identification of the parameters D sub O and n, where the diffusion coefficient is assumed to be of the form D = D sub O L to the nth. The derived value of D sub O depends directly on assumptions regarding the nature and efficiency of the loss mechanism operating on the particles, while the value of n depends only on the assumed width of the loss region. The extended technique is applied to the University of Iowa Pioneer 11 proton data, leading to values of n of about O and D(6) of about 3 x 10 to the -8th (R sub J)-squared/sec, when satellite sweepup losses are assumed to be the only loss operating on the protons. The small value of n is strong evidence that the radial diffusion is driven by ionospheric winds.

  9. Pulsed field gradient magic angle spinning NMR self-diffusion measurements in liquids

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Viel, Stéphane; Ziarelli, Fabio; Pagès, Guilhem; Carrara, Caroline; Caldarelli, Stefano

    2008-01-01

    Several investigations have recently reported the combined use of pulsed field gradient (PFG) with magic angle spinning (MAS) for the analysis of molecular mobility in heterogeneous materials. In contrast, little attention has been devoted so far to delimiting the role of the extra force field induced by sample rotation on the significance and reliability of self-diffusivity measurements. The main purpose of this work is to examine this phenomenon by focusing on pure liquids for which its impact is expected to be largest. Specifically, we show that self-diffusion coefficients can be accurately determined by PFG MAS NMR diffusion measurements in liquids, provided that specific experimental conditions are met. First, the methodology to estimate the gradient uniformity and to properly calibrate its absolute strength is briefly reviewed and applied on a MAS probe equipped with a gradient coil aligned along the rotor spinning axis, the so-called 'magic angle gradient' coil. Second, the influence of MAS on the outcome of PFG MAS diffusion measurements in liquids is investigated for two distinct typical rotors of different active volumes, 12 and 50 μL. While the latter rotor led to totally unreliable results, especially for low viscosity compounds, the former allowed for the determination of accurate self-diffusion coefficients both for fast and slowly diffusing species. Potential implications of this work are the possibility to measure accurate self-diffusion coefficients of sample-limited mixtures or to avoid radiation damping interferences in NMR diffusion measurements. Overall, the outlined methodology should be of interest to anyone who strives to improve the reliability of MAS diffusion studies, both in homogeneous and heterogeneous media.

  10. Evaporation Kinetics of Polyol Droplets: Determination of Evaporation Coefficients and Diffusion Constants

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Su, Yong-Yang; Marsh, Aleksandra; Haddrell, Allen E.; Li, Zhi-Ming; Reid, Jonathan P.

    2017-11-01

    In order to quantify the kinetics of mass transfer between the gas and condensed phases in aerosol, physicochemical properties of the gas and condensed phases and kinetic parameters (mass/thermal accommodation coefficients) are crucial for estimating mass fluxes over a wide size range from the free molecule to continuum regimes. In this study, we report measurements of the evaporation kinetics of droplets of 1-butanol, ethylene glycol (EG), diethylene glycol (DEG), and glycerol under well-controlled conditions (gas flow rates and temperature) using the previously developed cylindrical electrode electrodynamic balance technique. Measurements are compared with a model that captures the heat and mass transfer occurring at the evaporating droplet surface. The aim of these measurements is to clarify the discrepancy in the reported values of mass accommodation coefficient (αM, equals to evaporation coefficient based on microscopic reversibility) for 1-butanol, EG, and DEG and improve the accuracy of the value of the diffusion coefficient for glycerol in gaseous nitrogen. The uncertainties in the thermophysical and experimental parameters are carefully assessed, the literature values of the vapor pressures of these components are evaluated, and the plausible ranges of the evaporation coefficients for 1-butanol, EG, and DEG as well as uncertainty in diffusion coefficient for glycerol are reported. Results show that αM should be greater than 0.4, 0.2, and 0.4 for EG, DEG, and 1-butanol, respectively. The refined values are helpful for accurate prediction of the evaporation/condensation rates.

  11. A novel inverse numerical modeling method for the estimation of water and salt mass transfer coefficients during ultrasonic assisted-osmotic dehydration of cucumber cubes.

    PubMed

    Kiani, Hosein; Karimi, Farzaneh; Labbafi, Mohsen; Fathi, Morteza

    2018-06-01

    The objective of this paper was to study the moisture and salt diffusivity during ultrasonic assisted-osmotic dehydration of cucumbers. Experimental measurements of moisture and salt concentration versus time were carried out and an inverse numerical method was performed by coupling a CFD package (OpenFOAM) with a parameter estimation software (DAKOTA) to determine mass transfer coefficients. A good agreement between experimental and numerical results was observed. Mass transfer coefficients were from 3.5 × 10 -9 to 7 × 10 -9  m/s for water and from 4.8 × 10 -9  m/s to 7.4 × 10 -9  m/s for salt at different conditions (diffusion coefficients of around 3.5 × 10 -12 -11.5 × 10 -12  m 2 /s for water and 5 × 10 -12  m/s-12 × 10 -12  m 2 /s for salt). Ultrasound irradiation could increase the mass transfer coefficient. The values obtained by this method were closer to the actual data. The inverse simulation method can be an accurate technique to study the mass transfer phenomena during food processing. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  12. Diffusion coefficients in organic-water solutions and comparison with Stokes-Einstein predictions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Evoy, E.; Kamal, S.; Bertram, A. K.

    2017-12-01

    Diffusion coefficients of organic species in particles containing secondary organic material (SOM) are necessary for predicting the growth and reactivity of these particles in the atmosphere. Previously, the Stokes-Einstein equation combined with viscosity measurements have been used to predict these diffusion coefficients. However, the accuracy of the Stokes-Einstein equation for predicting diffusion coefficients in SOM-water particles has not been quantified. To test the Stokes-Einstein equation, diffusion coefficients of fluorescent organic probe molecules were measured in citric acid-water and sorbitol-water solutions. These solutions were used as proxies for SOM-water particles found in the atmosphere. Measurements were performed as a function of water activity, ranging from 0.26-0.86, and as a function of viscosity ranging from 10-3 to 103 Pa s. Diffusion coefficients were measured using fluorescence recovery after photobleaching. The measured diffusion coefficients were compared with predictions made using the Stokes-Einstein equation combined with literature viscosity data. Within the uncertainties of the measurements, the measured diffusion coefficients agreed with the predicted diffusion coefficients, in all cases.

  13. Simultaneous estimation of transcutaneous bilirubin, hemoglobin, and melanin based on diffuse reflectance spectroscopy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nishidate, Izumi; Abdul, Wares MD.; Ohtsu, Mizuki; Nakano, Kazuya; Haneishi, Hideaki

    2018-02-01

    We propose a method to estimate transcutaneous bilirubin, hemoglobin, and melanin based on the diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. In the proposed method, the Monte Carlo simulation-based multiple regression analysis for an absorbance spectrum in the visible wavelength region (460-590 nm) is used to specify the concentrations of bilirubin (Cbil), oxygenated hemoglobin (Coh), deoxygenated hemoglobin (Cdh), and melanin (Cm). Using the absorbance spectrum calculated from the measured diffuse reflectance spectrum as a response variable and the extinction coefficients of bilirubin, oxygenated hemoglobin, deoxygenated hemoglobin, and melanin, as predictor variables, multiple regression analysis provides regression coefficients. Concentrations of bilirubin, oxygenated hemoglobin, deoxygenated hemoglobin, and melanin, are then determined from the regression coefficients using conversion vectors that are numerically deduced in advance by the Monte Carlo simulations for light transport in skin. Total hemoglobin concentration (Cth) and tissue oxygen saturation (StO2) are simply calculated from the oxygenated hemoglobin and deoxygenated hemoglobin. In vivo animal experiments with bile duct ligation in rats demonstrated that the estimated Cbil is increased after ligation of bile duct and reaches to around 20 mg/dl at 72 h after the onset of the ligation, which corresponds to the reference value of Cbil measured by a commercially available transcutaneous bilirubin meter. We also performed in vivo experiments with rats while varying the fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO2). Coh and Cdh decreased and increased, respectively, as FiO2 decreased. Consequently, StO2 was dramatically decreased. The results in this study indicate potential of the method for simultaneous evaluation of multiple chromophores in skin tissue.

  14. Estimation of Mesospheric Densities at Low Latitudes Using the Kunming Meteor Radar Together With SABER Temperatures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yi, Wen; Xue, Xianghui; Reid, Iain M.; Younger, Joel P.; Chen, Jinsong; Chen, Tingdi; Li, Na

    2018-04-01

    Neutral mesospheric densities at a low latitude have been derived during April 2011 to December 2014 using data from the Kunming meteor radar in China (25.6°N, 103.8°E). The daily mean density at 90 km was estimated using the ambipolar diffusion coefficients from the meteor radar and temperatures from the Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) instrument. The seasonal variations of the meteor radar-derived density are consistent with the density from the Mass Spectrometer and Incoherent Scatter (MSIS) model, show a dominant annual variation, with a maximum during winter, and a minimum during summer. A simple linear model was used to separate the effects of atmospheric density and the meteor velocity on the meteor radar peak detection height. We find that a 1 km/s difference in the vertical meteor velocity yields a change of approximately 0.42 km in peak height. The strong correlation between the meteor radar density and the velocity-corrected peak height indicates that the meteor radar density estimates accurately reflect changes in neutral atmospheric density and that meteor peak detection heights, when adjusted for meteoroid velocity, can serve as a convenient tool for measuring density variations around the mesopause. A comparison of the ambipolar diffusion coefficient and peak height observed simultaneously by two co-located meteor radars indicates that the relative errors of the daily mean ambipolar diffusion coefficient and peak height should be less than 5% and 6%, respectively, and that the absolute error of the peak height is less than 0.2 km.

  15. Diffusive exchange of trace elements between alkaline melts: Implications for element fractionation and timescale estimations during magma mixing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    González-Garcia, Diego; Petrelli, Maurizio; Behrens, Harald; Vetere, Francesco; Fischer, Lennart A.; Morgavi, Daniele; Perugini, Diego

    2018-07-01

    The diffusive exchange of 30 trace elements (Cs, Rb, Ba, Sr, Co, Y, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, Ta, V, Cr, Pb, Th, U, Zr, Hf, Sn and Nb) during the interaction of natural mafic and silicic alkaline melts was experimentally studied at conditions relevant to shallow magmatic systems. In detail, a set of 12 diffusion couple experiments have been performed between natural shoshonitic and rhyolitic melts from the Vulcano Island (Aeolian archipelago, Italy) at a temperature of 1200 °C, pressures from 50 to 500 MPa, and water contents ranging from nominally dry to ca. 2 wt.%. Concentration-distance profiles, measured by Laser Ablation ICP-MS, highlight different behaviours, and trace elements were divided into two groups: (1) elements with normal diffusion profiles (13 elements, mainly low field strength and transition elements), and (2) elements showing uphill diffusion (17 elements including Y, Zr, Nb, Pb and rare earth elements, except Eu). For the elements showing normal diffusion profiles, chemical diffusion coefficients were estimated using a concentration-dependent evaluation method, and values are given at four intermediate compositions (SiO2 equal to 58, 62, 66 and 70 wt.%, respectively). A general coupling of diffusion coefficients to silica diffusivity is observed, and variations in systematics are observed between mafic and silicic compositions. Results show that water plays a decisive role on diffusive rates in the studied conditions, producing an enhancement between 0.4 and 0.7 log units per 1 wt.% of added H2O. Particularly notable is the behaviour of the trivalent-only REEs (La to Nd and Gd to Lu), with strong uphill diffusion minima, diminishing from light to heavy REEs. Modelling of REE profiles by a modified effective binary diffusion model indicates that activity gradients induced by the SiO2 concentration contrast are responsible for their development, inducing a transient partitioning of REEs towards the shoshonitic melt. These results indicate that diffusive fractionation of trace elements is possible during magma mixing events, especially in the more silicic melts, and that the presence of water in such events can lead to enhanced chemical diffusive mixing efficiency, affecting also the estimation of mixing to eruption timescales.

  16. ANALYTIC FORMS OF THE PERPENDICULAR DIFFUSION COEFFICIENT IN NRMHD TURBULENCE

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Shalchi, A., E-mail: andreasm4@yahoo.com

    2015-02-01

    In the past different analytic limits for the perpendicular diffusion coefficient of energetic particles interacting with magnetic turbulence were discussed. These different limits or cases correspond to different transport modes describing how the particles are diffusing across the large-scale magnetic field. In the current paper we describe a new transport regime by considering the model of noisy reduced magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. We derive different analytic forms of the perpendicular diffusion coefficient, and while we do this, we focus on the aforementioned new transport mode. We show that for this turbulence model a small perpendicular diffusion coefficient can be obtained so thatmore » the latter diffusion coefficient is more than hundred times smaller than the parallel diffusion coefficient. This result is relevant to explain observations in the solar system where such small perpendicular diffusion coefficients have been reported.« less

  17. Reagentless and calibrationless silicate measurement in oceanic waters.

    PubMed

    Giraud, William; Lesven, Ludovic; Jońca, Justyna; Barus, Carole; Gourdal, Margaux; Thouron, Danièle; Garçon, Véronique; Comtat, Maurice

    2012-08-15

    Determination of silicate concentration in seawater without addition of liquid reagents was the key prerequisite for developing an autonomous in situ electrochemical silicate sensor (Lacombe et al., 2007) [11]. The present challenge is to address the issue of calibrationless determination. To achieve such an objective, we chose chronoamperometry performed successively on planar microelectrode (ME) and ultramicroelectrode (UME) among the various possibilities. This analytical method allows estimating simultaneously the diffusion coefficient and the concentration of the studied species. Results obtained with ferrocyanide are in excellent agreement with values of the imposed concentration and diffusion coefficient found in the literature. For the silicate reagentless method, successive chronoamperometric measurements have been performed using a pair of gold disk electrodes for both UME and ME. Our calibrationless method was tested with different concentrations of silicate in artificial seawater from 55 to 140×10(-6) mol L(-1). The average value obtained for the diffusion coefficient of the silicomolybdic complex is 2.2±0.4×10(-6) cm(2) s(-1), consistent with diffusion coefficient values of molecules in liquid media. Good results were observed when comparing known concentration of silicate with experimentally derived ones. Further work is underway to explore silicate determination within the lower range of oceanic silicate concentration, down to 0.1×10(-6) mol L(-1). Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  18. The Effects of Population Size Histories on Estimates of Selection Coefficients from Time-Series Genetic Data.

    PubMed

    Jewett, Ethan M; Steinrücken, Matthias; Song, Yun S

    2016-11-01

    Many approaches have been developed for inferring selection coefficients from time series data while accounting for genetic drift. These approaches have been motivated by the intuition that properly accounting for the population size history can significantly improve estimates of selective strengths. However, the improvement in inference accuracy that can be attained by modeling drift has not been characterized. Here, by comparing maximum likelihood estimates of selection coefficients that account for the true population size history with estimates that ignore drift by assuming allele frequencies evolve deterministically in a population of infinite size, we address the following questions: how much can modeling the population size history improve estimates of selection coefficients? How much can mis-inferred population sizes hurt inferences of selection coefficients? We conduct our analysis under the discrete Wright-Fisher model by deriving the exact probability of an allele frequency trajectory in a population of time-varying size and we replicate our results under the diffusion model. For both models, we find that ignoring drift leads to estimates of selection coefficients that are nearly as accurate as estimates that account for the true population history, even when population sizes are small and drift is high. This result is of interest because inference methods that ignore drift are widely used in evolutionary studies and can be many orders of magnitude faster than methods that account for population sizes. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.

  19. Detection of Diffusion Heterogeneity in Single Particle Tracking Trajectories Using a Hidden Markov Model with Measurement Noise Propagation

    PubMed Central

    Slator, Paddy J.; Cairo, Christopher W.; Burroughs, Nigel J.

    2015-01-01

    We develop a Bayesian analysis framework to detect heterogeneity in the diffusive behaviour of single particle trajectories on cells, implementing model selection to classify trajectories as either consistent with Brownian motion or with a two-state (diffusion coefficient) switching model. The incorporation of localisation accuracy is essential, as otherwise false detection of switching within a trajectory was observed and diffusion coefficient estimates were inflated. Since our analysis is on a single trajectory basis, we are able to examine heterogeneity between trajectories in a quantitative manner. Applying our method to the lymphocyte function-associated antigen 1 (LFA-1) receptor tagged with latex beads (4 s trajectories at 1000 frames s−1), both intra- and inter-trajectory heterogeneity were detected; 12–26% of trajectories display clear switching between diffusive states dependent on condition, whilst the inter-trajectory variability is highly structured with the diffusion coefficients being related by D 1 = 0.68D 0 − 1.5 × 104 nm2 s−1, suggestive that on these time scales we are detecting switching due to a single process. Further, the inter-trajectory variability of the diffusion coefficient estimates (1.6 × 102 − 2.6 × 105 nm2 s−1) is very much larger than the measurement uncertainty within trajectories, suggesting that LFA-1 aggregation and cytoskeletal interactions are significantly affecting mobility, whilst the timescales of these processes are distinctly different giving rise to inter- and intra-trajectory variability. There is also an ‘immobile’ state (defined as D < 3.0 × 103 nm2 s−1) that is rarely involved in switching, immobility occurring with the highest frequency (47%) under T cell activation (phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (PMA) treatment) with enhanced cytoskeletal attachment (calpain inhibition). Such ‘immobile’ states frequently display slow linear drift, potentially reflecting binding to a dynamic actin cortex. Our methods allow significantly more information to be extracted from individual trajectories (ultimately limited by time resolution and time-series length), and allow statistical comparisons between trajectories thereby quantifying inter-trajectory heterogeneity. Such methods will be highly informative for the construction and fitting of molecule mobility models within membranes incorporating aggregation, binding to the cytoskeleton, or traversing membrane microdomains. PMID:26473352

  20. Physics of ultra-high bioproductivity in algal photobioreactors

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Greenwald, Efrat; Gordon, Jeffrey M.; Zarmi, Yair

    2012-04-01

    Cultivating algae at high densities in thin photobioreactors engenders time scales for random cell motion that approach photosynthetic rate-limiting time scales. This synchronization allows bioproductivity above that achieved with conventional strategies. We show that a diffusion model for cell motion (1) accounts for high bioproductivity at irradiance values previously deemed restricted by photoinhibition, (2) predicts the existence of optimal culture densities and their dependence on irradiance, consistent with available data, (3) accounts for the observed degree to which mixing improves bioproductivity, and (4) provides an estimate of effective cell diffusion coefficients, in accord with independent hydrodynamic estimates.

  1. Estimating the gas and dye quantities for modified tracer technique measurements of stream reaeration coefficients

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Rathbun, R.E.

    1979-01-01

    Measuring the reaeration coefficient of a stream with a modified tracer technique has been accomplished by injecting either ethylene or ethylene and propane together and a rhodamine-WT dye solution into the stream. The movement of the tracers through the stream reach after injection is described by a one-dimensional diffusion equation. The peak concentrations of the tracers at the downstream end of the reach depend on the concentrations of the tracers in the stream at the injection site, the longitudinal dispersion coefficient, the mean water velocity, the length of the reach, and the duration of the injection period. The downstream gas concentrations also depend on the gas desorption coefficients of the reach. The concentrations of the tracer gases in the stream at the injection site depend on the flow rates of the gases through the injection diffusers, the efficiency of the gas absorption process, and the stream discharge. The concentration of dye in the stream at the injection site depends on the flow rate of the dye solution, the concentration of the dye solution, and the stream discharge. Equations for estimating the gas flow rates, the quantities of the gases, the dye concentration, and the quantity of dye together with procedures for determining the variables in these equations are presented. (Woodard-USGS)

  2. Dynamical Stochastic Processes of Returns in Financial Markets

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kim, Kyungsik; Kim, Soo Yong; Lim, Gyuchang; Zhou, Junyuan; Yoon, Seung-Min

    2006-03-01

    We show how the evolution of probability distribution functions of the returns from the tick data of the Korean treasury bond futures (KTB) and the S&P 500 stock index can be described by means of the Fokker-Planck equation. We derive the Fokker- Planck equation from the estimated Kramers-Moyal coefficients estimated directly from the empirical data. By analyzing the statistics of the returns, we present the quantitative deterministic and random influences on both financial time series, for which we can give a simple physical interpretation. Finally, we remark that the diffusion coefficient should be significantly considered to make a portfolio.

  3. Diffuse interstellar clouds as a chemical laboratory - The chemistry of diatomic carbon species

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Federman, S. R.; Huntress, W. T., Jr.

    1989-01-01

    The chemistry of C2, CH, and CO in diffuse interstellar clouds is analyzed and compared to absorption line measurements toward background stars. Analytical expressions in terms of column densities are derived for the rate equations. The results indicate that in clouds with 4 mag of visual extinction, the abundance of C+ has to decrease by a factor of about 15 from the value traditionally used for clouds with 1 mag of extinction. The rate coefficients for the reactions C+ + CH - C2+ + H and C+ + H2 - CH2+ + h-nu need to be reduced from previous estimates. Chemical arguments are presented for the revised rate coefficients.

  4. Theory of Transport of Long Polymer Molecules through Carbon Nanotube Channels

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Wei, Chenyu; Srivastava, Deepak

    2003-01-01

    A theory of transport of long chain polymer molecules through carbon nanotube (CNT) channels is developed using Fokker-Planck equation and direct molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The mean transport or translocation time tau is found to depend on the chemical potential energy, entropy and diffusion coefficient. A power law dependence tau approx. N(sup 2)is found where N is number of monomers in a molecule. For 10(exp 5)-unit long polyethylene molecules, tau is estimated to be approx. 1micro-s. The diffusion coefficient of long polymer molecules inside CNTs, like that of short ones, are found to be few orders of magnitude larger than in ordinary silicate based zeolite systems.

  5. Predicting the Kinetics of Ice Recrystallization in Aqueous Sugar Solutions

    PubMed Central

    2018-01-01

    The quality of stored frozen products such as foods and biomaterials generally degrades in time due to the growth of large ice crystals by recrystallization. While there is ample experimental evidence that recrystallization within such products (or model systems thereof) is often dominated by diffusion-limited Ostwald ripening, the application of Ostwald-ripening theories to predict measured recrystallization rates has only met with limited success. For a model system of polycrystalline ice within an aqueous solution of sugars, we here show recrystallization rates can be predicted on the basis of Ostwald ripening theory, provided (1) the theory accounts for the fact the solution can be nonideal, nondilute and of different density than the crystals, (2) the effect of ice-phase volume fraction on the diffusional flux of water between crystals is accurately described, and (3) all relevant material properties (involving binary Fick diffusion coefficients, the thermodynamic factor of the solution, and the surface energy of ice) are carefully estimated. To enable calculation of material properties, we derive an alternative formulation of Ostwald ripening in terms of the Maxwell–Stefan instead of the Fick approach to diffusion. First, this leads to a cancellation of the thermodynamic factor (a measure for the nonideality of a solution), which is a notoriously difficult property to obtain. Second, we show that Maxwell–Stefan diffusion coefficients can to a reasonable approximation be related to self-diffusion coefficients, which are relatively easy to measure or predict in comparison to Fick diffusion coefficients. Our approach is validated for a binary system of water and sucrose, for which we show predicted recrystallization rates of ice compare well to experimental results, with relative deviations of at most a factor of 2. PMID:29651228

  6. Equilibrium sorption and diffusion rate studies with halogenated organic chemical and sandy aquifer material

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Ball, W.P.

    1990-01-01

    Concepts for rate limitation of sorptive uptake of hydrophobic organic solutes by aquifer solids are reviewed, emphasizing physical diffusion models and in the context of effects on contaminant transport. Data for the sorption of tetrachloroethene (PCE) and 1,2,4,5-tetrachlorobenzene (TeCB) on Borden sand are presented, showing that equilibrium is attained very slowly, requiring equilibration times on the order of tens of days for PCE and hundreds of days for TeCB. The rate of approach to equilibrium decreased with increasing particle size and sorption distribution coefficient, in accordance with retarded intragranular diffusion models. Pulverization of the samples significantly decreased the required timemore » to equilibrium without changing the sorption capacity of the solids. Batch sorption methodology was refined to allow accurate measurement of long-term distribution coefficients, using purified {sup 14}C-labelled solute spikes and sealed glass ampules. Sorption isotherms for PCE and TeCB were conducted with size fractions of Borden sand over four to five orders of magnitude in aqueous concentration, and were found to be slightly nonlinear (Freundlich exponent = 0.8). A concentrated set of data in the low concentration range (<50 ug/L) revealed that sorption in this range could be equally well described by a linear isotherm. Distribution coefficients of the two solutes with seven size fractions of Borden sand, measured at low concentration and at full equilibrium, were between seven and sixty times the value predicted on the basis of recent correlations with organic carbon content. Rate results for coarse size fractions support a simple pore diffusion model, with pore diffusion coefficients estimated to be approximately 3 {times} 10{sup {minus}8} cm{sup 2}/sec, more than 200{times} lower than the aqueous diffusivities.« less

  7. Predicting the Kinetics of Ice Recrystallization in Aqueous Sugar Solutions.

    PubMed

    van Westen, Thijs; Groot, Robert D

    2018-04-04

    The quality of stored frozen products such as foods and biomaterials generally degrades in time due to the growth of large ice crystals by recrystallization. While there is ample experimental evidence that recrystallization within such products (or model systems thereof) is often dominated by diffusion-limited Ostwald ripening, the application of Ostwald-ripening theories to predict measured recrystallization rates has only met with limited success. For a model system of polycrystalline ice within an aqueous solution of sugars, we here show recrystallization rates can be predicted on the basis of Ostwald ripening theory, provided (1) the theory accounts for the fact the solution can be nonideal, nondilute and of different density than the crystals, (2) the effect of ice-phase volume fraction on the diffusional flux of water between crystals is accurately described, and (3) all relevant material properties (involving binary Fick diffusion coefficients, the thermodynamic factor of the solution, and the surface energy of ice) are carefully estimated. To enable calculation of material properties, we derive an alternative formulation of Ostwald ripening in terms of the Maxwell-Stefan instead of the Fick approach to diffusion. First, this leads to a cancellation of the thermodynamic factor (a measure for the nonideality of a solution), which is a notoriously difficult property to obtain. Second, we show that Maxwell-Stefan diffusion coefficients can to a reasonable approximation be related to self-diffusion coefficients, which are relatively easy to measure or predict in comparison to Fick diffusion coefficients. Our approach is validated for a binary system of water and sucrose, for which we show predicted recrystallization rates of ice compare well to experimental results, with relative deviations of at most a factor of 2.

  8. Dynamic characterization of external and internal mass transport in heterotrophic biofilms from microsensors measurements.

    PubMed

    Guimerà, Xavier; Dorado, Antonio David; Bonsfills, Anna; Gabriel, Gemma; Gabriel, David; Gamisans, Xavier

    2016-10-01

    Knowledge of mass transport mechanisms in biofilm-based technologies such as biofilters is essential to improve bioreactors performance by preventing mass transport limitation. External and internal mass transport in biofilms was characterized in heterotrophic biofilms grown on a flat plate bioreactor. Mass transport resistance through the liquid-biofilm interphase and diffusion within biofilms were quantified by in situ measurements using microsensors with a high spatial resolution (<50 μm). Experimental conditions were selected using a mathematical procedure based on the Fisher Information Matrix to increase the reliability of experimental data and minimize confidence intervals of estimated mass transport coefficients. The sensitivity of external and internal mass transport resistances to flow conditions within the range of typical fluid velocities over biofilms (Reynolds numbers between 0.5 and 7) was assessed. Estimated external mass transfer coefficients at different liquid phase flow velocities showed discrepancies with studies considering laminar conditions in the diffusive boundary layer near the liquid-biofilm interphase. The correlation of effective diffusivity with flow velocities showed that the heterogeneous structure of biofilms defines the transport mechanisms inside biofilms. Internal mass transport was driven by diffusion through cell clusters and aggregates at Re below 2.8. Conversely, mass transport was driven by advection within pores, voids and water channels at Re above 5.6. Between both flow velocities, mass transport occurred by a combination of advection and diffusion. Effective diffusivities estimated at different biofilm densities showed a linear increase of mass transport resistance due to a porosity decrease up to biofilm densities of 50 g VSS·L(-1). Mass transport was strongly limited at higher biofilm densities. Internal mass transport results were used to propose an empirical correlation to assess the effective diffusivity within biofilms considering the influence of hydrodynamics and biofilm density. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  9. Chemical compatibility study between ceramic breeder and EUROFER97 steel for HCPB-DEMO blanket

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mukai, Keisuke; Sanchez, Fernando; Knitter, Regina

    2017-05-01

    Chemical compatibility between ceramic breeder (Li4SiO4 + 20 mol% addition of Li2TiO3) and EUROFER97 steel was examined in this study. These materials were contacted and heated at 623, 823 and 1073 K under He + 0.1 vol.% H2 atmosphere for up to 12 weeks. Limited influence was found in the breeder specimens, although losses of the constituent elements appeared near the surface of the breeder pellets heated at 1073 K. For the EUROFER specimens with formation of a corrosion layer, element diffusivity was estimated based on diffusion kinetics. In the temperature range, effective diffusion coefficients of oxygen into EUROFER steel were in the range from 3.5 × 10-14 to 2.5 × 10-12 cm2/s and found to be faster than that of Li. The coefficients yielded an activation energy of 0.93 eV for oxygen diffusion into EUROFER steel and predicted the possible thickness of the corrosion layer after operational periods.

  10. Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Grain Boundary and Bulk Diffusion in Metals.

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Plimpton, Steven James

    Diffusion is a microscopic mass transport mechanism that underlies many important macroscopic phenomena affecting the structural, electrical, and mechanical properties of metals. This thesis presents results from atomistic simulation studies of diffusion both in bulk and in the fast diffusion paths known as grain boundaries. Using the principles of molecular dynamics single boundaries are studied and their structure and dynamic properties characterized. In particular, tilt boundary bicrystal and bulk models of fcc Al and bcc alpha-Fe are simulated. Diffusion coefficients and activation energies for atomic motion are calculated for both models and compared to experimental data. The influence of the interatomic pair potential on the diffusion is studied in detail. A universal relation between the melting temperature that a pair potential induces in a simulated bulk model and the potential energy barrier height for atomic hopping is derived and used to correlate results for a wide variety of pair potentials. Using these techniques grain boundary and bulk diffusion coefficients for any fcc material can be estimated from simple static calculations without the need to perform more time-consuming dynamic simulations. The influences of two other factors on grain boundary diffusion are also studied because of the interest of the microelectronics industry in the diffusion related reliability problem known as electromigration. The first factor, known to affect the self diffusion rate of Al, is the presence of Cu impurity atoms in Al tilt boundaries. The bicrystal model for Al is seeded randomly with Cu atoms and a simple hybrid Morse potential used to model the Al-Cu interaction. While some effect due to the Cu is noted, it is concluded that pair potentials are likely an inadequate approximation for the alloy system. The second factor studied is the effect of the boundary orientation angle on the diffusion rate. Symmetric bcc Fe boundaries are relaxed to find optimal structures and their diffusion coefficients calculated. Good agreement is found with the dislocation pipe model for tilt boundary diffusion.

  11. Electrostatic coupling between DNA and its counterions modulates the observed translational diffusion coefficients.

    PubMed

    Stellwagen, Earle; Stellwagen, Nancy C

    2015-09-01

    Free solution capillary electrophoresis (CE) is a useful technique for measuring the translational diffusion coefficients of charged analytes. The measurements are relatively fast if the polarity of the electric field is reversed to drive the analyte back and forth past the detection window during each run. We have tested the validity of the resulting diffusion coefficients using double-stranded DNA molecules ranging in size from 20 to 960 base pairs as the model system. The diffusion coefficients of small DNAs are equal to values in the literature measured by other techniques. However, the diffusion coefficients of DNA molecules larger than ∼30 base pairs are anomalously high and deviate increasingly from the literature values with increasing DNA molar mass. The anomalously high diffusion coefficients are due to electrostatic coupling between the DNA and its counterions. As a result, the measured diffusion coefficients vary with the diffusion coefficient of the counterion, as well as with cation concentration and electric field strength. These effects can be reduced or eliminated by measuring apparent diffusion coefficients of the DNA at several different electric field strengths and extrapolating the results to zero electric field.

  12. Analytical model of diffuse reflectance spectrum of skin tissue

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lisenko, S. A.; Kugeiko, M. M.; Firago, V. A.; Sobchuk, A. N.

    2014-01-01

    We have derived simple analytical expressions that enable highly accurate calculation of diffusely reflected light signals of skin in the spectral range from 450 to 800 nm at a distance from the region of delivery of exciting radiation. The expressions, taking into account the dependence of the detected signals on the refractive index, transport scattering coefficient, absorption coefficient and anisotropy factor of the medium, have been obtained in the approximation of a two-layer medium model (epidermis and dermis) for the same parameters of light scattering but different absorption coefficients of layers. Numerical experiments on the retrieval of the skin biophysical parameters from the diffuse reflectance spectra simulated by the Monte Carlo method show that commercially available fibre-optic spectrophotometers with a fixed distance between the radiation source and detector can reliably determine the concentration of bilirubin, oxy- and deoxyhaemoglobin in the dermis tissues and the tissue structure parameter characterising the size of its effective scatterers. We present the examples of quantitative analysis of the experimental data, confirming the correctness of estimates of biophysical parameters of skin using the obtained analytical expressions.

  13. The role of intra-NAPL diffusion on mass transfer from MGP residuals

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shafieiyoun, Saeid; Thomson, Neil R.

    2018-06-01

    An experimental and computational study was performed to investigate the role of multi-component intra-NAPL diffusion on NAPL-water mass transfer. Molecular weight and the NAPL component concentrations were determined to be the most important parameters affecting intra-NAPL diffusion coefficients. Four NAPLs with different viscosities but the same quantified mass were simulated. For a spherical NAPL body, a combination of NAPL properties and interphase mass transfer rate can result in internal diffusion limitations. When the main intra-NAPL diffusion coefficients are in the range of self-diffusion coefficients (10-5 to 10-6 cm2/s), dissolution is not limited by internal diffusion except for high mass transfer rate coefficients (>180 cm/day). For a complex and relatively high viscous NAPL (>50 g/(cm s)), smaller intra-NAPL diffusion coefficients (<10-8) are expected and even low mass transfer rate coefficients ( 6 cm/day) can result in diffusion-limited dissolution.

  14. Fluorescence fluctuation analysis of BACE1-GFP fusion protein in cultured HEK293 cells

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gardeen, Spencer; Johnson, Joseph L.; Heikal, Ahmed A.

    2016-10-01

    Beta-site APP cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1) is a type I transmembrane aspartyl protease. In the amyloidogenic pathway, BACE1 provides β-secretase activity that cleaves the amyloid precursor protein (APP) that leads to amyloid beta (Aβ) peptides. The aggregation of these Aβ will ultimately results in amyloid plaque formation, a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Amyloid aggregation leads to progressive memory impairment and neural loss. Recent detergent protein extraction studies suggest that the untreated BACE1 protein forms a dimer that has significantly higher catalytic activity than its monomeric counterpart. Here, we examine the dimerization hypothesis of BACE1 in cultured HEK293 cells using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). Cells were transfected with a BACE1-EGFP fusion protein construct and imaged using confocal and DIC microscopy to monitor labeled BACE1 localization and distribution within the cell. Our one-photon fluorescence fluctuation autocorrelation of BACE1- EGFP on the plasma membrane of HEK cells is modeled using two diffusing species on the plasma membrane with estimated diffusion coefficients of 1.39 x 10-7 cm2/sec and 2.8 x 10-8 cm2/sec under resting conditions and STA-200 inhibition, respectively. Anomalous diffusion model also provided adequate description of the observed autocorrelation function of BACE1- EGFP on the plasma membrane with an estimate exponent (α) of 0.8 and 0.5 for resting and STA-200 treated cells, respectively. The corresponding hydrodynamic radius of this transmembrane fusion protein was estimated using the measured diffusion coefficients assuming both Stokes-Einstein and Saffman-Delbruck models. Our results suggest a complex diffusion pattern of BACE1-EGFP on the plasma membrane of HEK cells with the possibility for dimer formation, especially under STA-200 inhibition.

  15. Enhanced diffusion on oscillating surfaces through synchronization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Jin; Cao, Wei; Ma, Ming; Zheng, Quanshui

    2018-02-01

    The diffusion of molecules and clusters under nanoscale confinement or absorbed on surfaces is the key controlling factor in dynamical processes such as transport, chemical reaction, or filtration. Enhancing diffusion could benefit these processes by increasing their transport efficiency. Using a nonlinear Langevin equation with an extensive number of simulations, we find a large enhancement in diffusion through surface oscillation. For helium confined in a narrow carbon nanotube, the diffusion enhancement is estimated to be over three orders of magnitude. A synchronization mechanism between the kinetics of the particles and the oscillating surface is revealed. Interestingly, a highly nonlinear negative correlation between diffusion coefficient and temperature is predicted based on this mechanism, and further validated by simulations. Our results provide a general and efficient method for enhancing diffusion, especially at low temperatures.

  16. In vivo imaging of scattering and absorption properties of exposed brain using a digital red-green-blue camera

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nishidate, Izumi; Yoshida, Keiichiro; Kawauchi, Satoko; Sato, Shunichi; Sato, Manabu

    2014-03-01

    We investigate a method to estimate the spectral images of reduced scattering coefficients and the absorption coefficients of in vivo exposed brain tissues in the range from visible to near-infrared wavelength (500-760 nm) based on diffuse reflectance spectroscopy using a digital RGB camera. In the proposed method, the multi-spectral reflectance images of in vivo exposed brain are reconstructed from the digital red, green blue images using the Wiener estimation algorithm. The Monte Carlo simulation-based multiple regression analysis for the absorbance spectra is then used to specify the absorption and scattering parameters of brain tissue. In this analysis, the concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin and that of deoxygenated hemoglobin are estimated as the absorption parameters whereas the scattering amplitude a and the scattering power b in the expression of μs'=aλ-b as the scattering parameters, respectively. The spectra of absorption and reduced scattering coefficients are reconstructed from the absorption and scattering parameters, and finally, the spectral images of absorption and reduced scattering coefficients are estimated. The estimated images of absorption coefficients were dominated by the spectral characteristics of hemoglobin. The estimated spectral images of reduced scattering coefficients showed a broad scattering spectrum, exhibiting larger magnitude at shorter wavelengths, corresponding to the typical spectrum of brain tissue published in the literature. In vivo experiments with exposed brain of rats during CSD confirmed the possibility of the method to evaluate both hemodynamics and changes in tissue morphology due to electrical depolarization.

  17. MR Scanner Systems Should Be Adequately Characterized in Diffusion-MRI of the Breast

    PubMed Central

    Giannelli, Marco; Sghedoni, Roberto; Iacconi, Chiara; Iori, Mauro; Traino, Antonio Claudio; Guerrisi, Maria; Mascalchi, Mario; Toschi, Nicola; Diciotti, Stefano

    2014-01-01

    Breast imaging represents a relatively recent and promising field of application of quantitative diffusion-MRI techniques. In view of the importance of guaranteeing and assessing its reliability in clinical as well as research settings, the aim of this study was to specifically characterize how the main MR scanner system-related factors affect quantitative measurements in diffusion-MRI of the breast. In particular, phantom acquisitions were performed on three 1.5 T MR scanner systems by different manufacturers, all equipped with a dedicated multi-channel breast coil as well as acquisition sequences for diffusion-MRI of the breast. We assessed the accuracy, inter-scan and inter-scanner reproducibility of the mean apparent diffusion coefficient measured along the main orthogonal directions () as well as of diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI)-derived mean diffusivity (MD) measurements. Additionally, we estimated spatial non-uniformity of (NU) and MD (NUMD) maps. We showed that the signal-to-noise ratio as well as overall calibration of high strength diffusion gradients system in typical acquisition sequences for diffusion-MRI of the breast varied across MR scanner systems, introducing systematic bias in the measurements of diffusion indices. While and MD values were not appreciably different from each other, they substantially varied across MR scanner systems. The mean of the accuracies of measured and MD was in the range [−2.3%,11.9%], and the mean of the coefficients of variation for and MD measurements across MR scanner systems was 6.8%. The coefficient of variation for repeated measurements of both and MD was < 1%, while NU and NUMD values were <4%. Our results highlight that MR scanner system-related factors can substantially affect quantitative diffusion-MRI of the breast. Therefore, a specific quality control program for assessing and monitoring the performance of MR scanner systems for diffusion-MRI of the breast is highly recommended at every site, especially in multicenter and longitudinal studies. PMID:24489711

  18. Non-Invasive Prostate Cancer Characterization with Diffusion-Weighted MRI: Insight from In silico Studies of a Transgenic Mouse Model

    PubMed Central

    Hill, Deborah K.; Heindl, Andreas; Zormpas-Petridis, Konstantinos; Collins, David J.; Euceda, Leslie R.; Rodrigues, Daniel N.; Moestue, Siver A.; Jamin, Yann; Koh, Dow-Mu; Yuan, Yinyin; Bathen, Tone F.; Leach, Martin O.; Blackledge, Matthew D.

    2017-01-01

    Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) enables non-invasive, quantitative staging of prostate cancer via measurement of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of water within tissues. In cancer, more advanced disease is often characterized by higher cellular density (cellularity), which is generally accepted to correspond to a lower measured ADC. A quantitative relationship between tissue structure and in vivo measurements of ADC has yet to be determined for prostate cancer. In this study, we establish a theoretical framework for relating ADC measurements with tissue cellularity and the proportion of space occupied by prostate lumina, both of which are estimated through automatic image processing of whole-slide digital histology samples taken from a cohort of six healthy mice and nine transgenic adenocarcinoma of the mouse prostate (TRAMP) mice. We demonstrate that a significant inverse relationship exists between ADC and tissue cellularity that is well characterized by our model, and that a decrease of the luminal space within the prostate is associated with a decrease in ADC and more aggressive tumor subtype. The parameters estimated from our model in this mouse cohort predict the diffusion coefficient of water within the prostate-tissue to be 2.18 × 10−3 mm2/s (95% CI: 1.90, 2.55). This value is significantly lower than the diffusion coefficient of free water at body temperature suggesting that the presence of organelles and macromolecules within tissues can drastically hinder the random motion of water molecules within prostate tissue. We validate the assumptions made by our model using novel in silico analysis of whole-slide histology to provide the simulated ADC (sADC); this is demonstrated to have a significant positive correlation with in vivo measured ADC (r2 = 0.55) in our mouse population. The estimation of the structural properties of prostate tissue is vital for predicting and staging cancer aggressiveness, but prostate tissue biopsies are painful, invasive, and are prone to complications such as sepsis. The developments made in this study provide the possibility of estimating the structural properties of prostate tissue via non-invasive virtual biopsies from MRI, minimizing the need for multiple tissue biopsies and allowing sequential measurements to be made for prostate cancer monitoring. PMID:29250485

  19. Thermal diffusivity and adiabatic limit temperature characterization of consolidate granular expanded perlite using the flash method

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Raefat, Saad; Garoum, Mohammed; Laaroussi, Najma; Thiam, Macodou; Amarray, Khaoula

    2017-07-01

    In this work experimental investigation of apparent thermal diffusivity and adiabatic limit temperature of expanded granular perlite mixes has been made using the flash technic. Perlite granulates were sieved to produce essentially three characteristic grain sizes. The consolidated samples were manufactured by mixing controlled proportions of the plaster and water. The effect of the particle size on the diffusivity was examined. The inverse estimation of the diffusivity and the adiabatic limit temperature at the rear face as well as the heat losses coefficients were performed using several numerical global minimization procedures. The function to be minimized is the quadratic distance between the experimental temperature rise at the rear face and the analytical model derived from the one dimension heat conduction. It is shown that, for all granulometry tested, the estimated parameters lead to a good agreement between the mathematical model and experimental data.

  20. On the diffusion of ferrocenemethanol in room-temperature ionic liquids: an electrochemical study.

    PubMed

    Lovelock, Kevin R J; Ejigu, Andinet; Loh, Sook Fun; Men, Shuang; Licence, Peter; Walsh, Darren A

    2011-06-07

    The electrochemical behaviour of ferrocenemethanol (FcMeOH) has been studied in a range of room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) using cyclic voltammetry, chronoamperomery and scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM). The diffusion coefficient of FcMeOH, measured using chronoamperometry, decreased with increasing RTIL viscosity. Analysis of the mass transport properties of the RTILs revealed that the Stokes-Einstein equation did not apply to our data. The "correlation length" was estimated from diffusion coefficient data and corresponded well to the average size of holes (voids) in the liquid, suggesting that a model in which the diffusing species jumps between holes in the liquid is appropriate in these liquids. Cyclic voltammetry at ultramicroelectrodes demonstrated that the ability to record steady-state voltammograms during ferrocenemethanol oxidation depended on the voltammetric scan rate, the electrode dimensions and the RTIL viscosity. Similarly, the ability to record steady-state SECM feedback approach curves depended on the RTIL viscosity, the SECM tip radius and the tip approach speed. Using 1.3 μm Pt SECM tips, steady-state SECM feedback approach curves were obtained in RTILs, provided that the tip approach speed was low enough to maintain steady-state diffusion at the SECM tip. In the case where tip-induced convection contributed significantly to the SECM tip current, this effect could be accounted for theoretically using mass transport equations that include diffusive and convective terms. Finally, the rate of heterogeneous electron transfer across the electrode/RTIL interface during ferrocenemethanol oxidation was estimated using SECM, and k(0) was at least 0.1 cm s(-1) in one of the least viscous RTILs studied.

  1. Observations of Ag diffusion in ion implanted SiC

    DOE PAGES

    Gerczak, Tyler J.; Leng, Bin; Sridharan, Kumar; ...

    2015-03-17

    The nature and magnitude of Ag diffusion in SiC has been a topic of interest in connection with the performance of tristructural isotropic (TRISO) coated particle fuel for high temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactors. Ion implantation diffusion couples have been revisited to continue developing a more complete understanding of Ag fission product diffusion in SiC. Ion implantation diffusion couples fabricated from single crystal 4H-SiC and polycrystalline 3C-SiC substrates and exposed to 1500–1625°C, were investigated in this study by transmission electron microscopy and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). The high dynamic range of SIMS allowed for multiple diffusion régimes to be investigated,more » including enhanced diffusion by implantation-induced defects and grain boundary (GB) diffusion in undamaged SiC. Lastly, estimated diffusion coefficients suggest GB diffusion in bulk SiC does not properly describe the release observed from TRISO fuel.« less

  2. Modeling and experiments for the time-dependent diffusion coefficient during methane desorption from coal

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cheng-Wu, Li; Hong-Lai, Xue; Cheng, Guan; Wen-biao, Liu

    2018-04-01

    Statistical analysis shows that in the coal matrix, the diffusion coefficient for methane is time-varying, and its integral satisfies the formula μt κ /(1 + β κ ). Therefore, a so-called dynamic diffusion coefficient model (DDC model) is developed. To verify the suitability and accuracy of the DDC model, a series of gas diffusion experiments were conducted using coal particles of different sizes. The results show that the experimental data can be accurately described by the DDC and bidisperse models, but the fit to the DDC model is slightly better. For all coal samples, as time increases, the effective diffusion coefficient first shows a sudden drop, followed by a gradual decrease before stabilizing at longer times. The effective diffusion coefficient has a negative relationship with the size of the coal particle. Finally, the relationship between the constants of the DDC model and the effective diffusion coefficient is discussed. The constant α (μ/R 2 ) denotes the effective coefficient at the initial time, and the constants κ and β control the attenuation characteristic of the effective diffusion coefficient.

  3. Continuous Diffusion Model for Concentration Dependence of Nitroxide EPR Parameters in Normal and Supercooled Water.

    PubMed

    Merunka, Dalibor; Peric, Miroslav

    2017-05-25

    Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra of radicals in solution depend on their relative motion, which modulates the Heisenberg spin exchange and dipole-dipole interactions between them. To gain information on radical diffusion from EPR spectra demands both reliable spectral fitting to find the concentration coefficients of EPR parameters and valid expressions between the concentration and diffusion coefficients. Here, we measured EPR spectra of the 14 N- and 15 N-labeled perdeuterated TEMPONE radicals in normal and supercooled water at various concentrations. By fitting the EPR spectra to the functions based on the modified Bloch equations, we obtained the concentration coefficients for the spin dephasing, coherence transfer, and hyperfine splitting parameters. Assuming the continuous diffusion model for radical motion, the diffusion coefficients of radicals were calculated from the concentration coefficients using the standard relations and the relations derived from the kinetic equations for the spin evolution of a radical pair. The latter relations give better agreement between the diffusion coefficients calculated from different concentration coefficients. The diffusion coefficients are similar for both radicals, which supports the presented method. They decrease with lowering temperature slower than is predicted by the Stokes-Einstein relation and slower than the rotational diffusion coefficients, which is similar to the diffusion of water molecules in supercooled water.

  4. On the interdiffusion in multilayered silicide coatings for the vanadium-based alloy V-4Cr-4Ti

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chaia, N.; Portebois, L.; Mathieu, S.; David, N.; Vilasi, M.

    2017-02-01

    To provide protection against corrosion at high temperatures, silicide diffusion coatings were developed for the V-4Cr-4Ti alloy, which can be used as the fuel cladding in next-generation sodium-cooled fast breeder reactors. The multilayered coatings were prepared by halide-activated pack cementation using MgF2 as the transport agent and pure silicon (high activity) as the master alloy. Coated pure vanadium and coated V-4Cr-4Ti alloy were studied and compared as substrates. In both cases, the growth of the silicide layers (V3Si, V5Si3, V6Si5 and VSi2) was controlled exclusively by solid-state diffusion, and the growth kinetics followed a parabolic law. Wagner's analysis was adopted to calculate the integrated diffusion coefficients for all silicides. The estimated values of the integrated diffusion coefficients range from approximately 10-9 to 10-13 cm2 s-1. Then, a diffusion-based numerical approach was used to evaluate the growth and consumption of the layers when the coated substrates were exposed at critical temperatures. The estimated lifetimes of the upper VSi2 layer were 400 h and 280 h for pure vanadium and the V-4Cr-4Ti alloy, respectively. The result from the numeric simulation was in good agreement with the layer thicknesses measured after aging the coated samples at 1150 °C under vacuum.

  5. Fluid self-diffusion in Scots pine sapwood tracheid cells.

    PubMed

    Johannessen, Espen H; Hansen, Eddy W; Rosenholm, Jarl B

    2006-02-09

    The self-diffusion coefficients of water and toluene in Scots pine sapwood was measured using low field pulsed field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance (PFG-NMR). Wood chips of 8 mm diameter were saturated with the respective liquids, and liquid self-diffusion was then traced in one dimension orthogonal to the tracheid cell walls in the wood's radial direction. The experimental echo attenuation curves were exponential, and characteristic self-diffusion coefficients were produced for diffusion times spanning from very short times to times on the order of magnitude of seconds. Observed self-diffusion coefficients were decaying asymptotically as a function of diffusion time, an effect which was ascribed to the cell walls' restriction on confined liquid diffusion. The observed self-diffusion behavior in Scots pine sapwood was compared to self-diffusion coefficients obtained from simulations of diffusion in a square. Principles of molecular displacements in confined geometries were used for elucidating the wood's cellular structure from the observed diffusion coefficients. The results were compared with a mathematical model for diffusion between parallel planes.

  6. Turbulent eddy diffusion models in exposure assessment - Determination of the eddy diffusion coefficient.

    PubMed

    Shao, Yuan; Ramachandran, Sandhya; Arnold, Susan; Ramachandran, Gurumurthy

    2017-03-01

    The use of the turbulent eddy diffusion model and its variants in exposure assessment is limited due to the lack of knowledge regarding the isotropic eddy diffusion coefficient, D T . But some studies have suggested a possible relationship between D T and the air changes per hour (ACH) through a room. The main goal of this study was to accurately estimate D T for a range of ACH values by minimizing the difference between the concentrations measured and predicted by eddy diffusion model. We constructed an experimental chamber with a spatial concentration gradient away from the contaminant source, and conducted 27 3-hr long experiments using toluene and acetone under different air flow conditions (0.43-2.89 ACHs). An eddy diffusion model accounting for chamber boundary, general ventilation, and advection was developed. A mathematical expression for the slope based on the geometrical parameters of the ventilation system was also derived. There is a strong linear relationship between D T and ACH, providing a surrogate parameter for estimating D T in real-life settings. For the first time, a mathematical expression for the relationship between D T and ACH has been derived that also corrects for non-ideal conditions, and the calculated value of the slope between these two parameters is very close to the experimentally determined value. The values of D T obtained from the experiments are generally consistent with values reported in the literature. They are also independent of averaging time of measurements, allowing for comparison of values obtained from different measurement settings. These findings make the use of turbulent eddy diffusion models for exposure assessment in workplace/indoor environments more practical.

  7. Laboratory Experiments to Evaluate Matrix Diffusion of Dissolved Organic Carbon Carbon-14 in Southern Nevada Fractured-rock Aquifers

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hershey, Ronald L.; Fereday, Wyatt

    Dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) carbon-14 ( 14C) is used to estimate groundwater ages by comparing the DIC 14C content in groundwater in the recharge area to the DIC 14C content in the downgradient sampling point. However, because of chemical reactions and physical processes between groundwater and aquifer rocks, the amount of DIC 14C in groundwater can change and result in 14C loss that is not because of radioactive decay. This loss of DIC 14C results in groundwater ages that are older than the actual groundwater ages. Alternatively, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) 14C in groundwater does not react chemically with aquifermore » rocks, so DOC 14C ages are generally younger than DIC 14C ages. In addition to chemical reactions, 14C ages may also be altered by the physical process of matrix diffusion. The net effect of a continuous loss of 14C to the aquifer matrix by matrix diffusion and then radioactive decay is that groundwater appears to be older than it actually is. Laboratory experiments were conducted to measure matrix diffusion coefficients for DOC 14C in volcanic and carbonate aquifer rocks from southern Nevada. Experiments were conducted using bromide (Br-) as a conservative tracer and 14C-labeled trimesic acid (TMA) as a surrogate for groundwater DOC. Outcrop samples from six volcanic aquifers and five carbonate aquifers in southern Nevada were used. The average DOC 14C matrix diffusion coefficient for volcanic rocks was 2.9 x 10 -7 cm 2/s, whereas the average for carbonate rocks was approximately the same at 1.7 x 10 -7 cm 2/s. The average Br- matrix diffusion coefficient for volcanic rocks was 10.4 x 10 -7 cm 2/s, whereas the average for carbonate rocks was less at 6.5 x 10 -7 cm 2/s. Carbonate rocks exhibited greater variability in DOC 14C and Br- matrix diffusion coefficients than volcanic rocks. These results confirmed, at the laboratory scale, that the diffusion of DOC 14C into southern Nevada volcanic and carbonate aquifers is slower than DIC 14C. Because of the apparent sorption of 14C-labeled TMA in the experiments, matrix diffusion coefficients are likely even lower. The reasons for the higher than expected Br-/ 14C-labeled TMA are unknown. Because the molecular size of TMA is on the low end of the range in molecular size for typical humic substances, the matrix diffusion coefficients for the 14C-labeled TMA likely represent close to the maximum diffusion rates for DOC 14C in the volcanic and carbonate aquifers in southern Nevada.« less

  8. On time-dependent diffusion coefficients arising from stochastic processes with memory

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Carpio-Bernido, M. Victoria; Barredo, Wilson I.; Bernido, Christopher C.

    2017-08-01

    Time-dependent diffusion coefficients arise from anomalous diffusion encountered in many physical systems such as protein transport in cells. We compare these coefficients with those arising from analysis of stochastic processes with memory that go beyond fractional Brownian motion. Facilitated by the Hida white noise functional integral approach, diffusion propagators or probability density functions (pdf) are obtained and shown to be solutions of modified diffusion equations with time-dependent diffusion coefficients. This should be useful in the study of complex transport processes.

  9. In Situ Effective Diffusion Coefficient Profiles in Live Biofilms Using Pulsed-Field Gradient Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Renslow, Ryan S.; Majors, Paul D.; McLean, Jeffrey S.

    2010-08-15

    Diffusive mass transfer in biofilms is characterized by the effective diffusion coefficient. It is well-documented that the effective diffusion coefficient can vary by location in a biofilm. The current literature is dominated by effective diffusion coefficient measurements for distinct cell clusters and stratified biofilms showing this spatial variation. Regardless of whether distinct cell clusters or surface-averaging methods are used, position-dependent measurements of the effective diffusion coefficient are currently: 1) invasive to the biofilm, 2) performed under unnatural conditions, 3) lethal to cells, and/or 4) spatially restricted to only certain regions of the biofilm. Invasive measurements can lead to inaccurate resultsmore » and prohibit further (time dependent) measurements which are important for the mathematical modeling of biofilms. In this study our goals were to: 1) measure the effective diffusion coefficient for water in live biofilms, 2) monitor how the effective diffusion coefficient changes over time under growth conditions, and 3) correlate the effective diffusion coefficient with depth in the biofilm. We measured in situ two-dimensional effective diffusion coefficient maps within Shewanella oneidensis MR-1biofilms using pulsed-field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance methods, and used them to calculate surface-averaged relative effective diffusion coefficient (Drs) profiles. We found that 1) Drs decreased from the top of the biofilm to the bottom, 2) Drs profiles differed for biofilms of different ages, 3) Drs profiles changed over time and generally decreased with time, 4) all the biofilms showed very similar Drs profiles near the top of the biofilm, and 5) the Drs profile near the bottom of the biofilm was different for each biofilm. Practically, our results demonstrate that advanced biofilm models should use a variable effective diffusivity which changes with time and location in the biofilm.« less

  10. C-Depth Method to Determine Diffusion Coefficient and Partition Coefficient of PCB in Building Materials.

    PubMed

    Liu, Cong; Kolarik, Barbara; Gunnarsen, Lars; Zhang, Yinping

    2015-10-20

    Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been found to be persistent in the environment and possibly harmful. Many buildings are characterized with high PCB concentrations. Knowledge about partitioning between primary sources and building materials is critical for exposure assessment and practical remediation of PCB contamination. This study develops a C-depth method to determine diffusion coefficient (D) and partition coefficient (K), two key parameters governing the partitioning process. For concrete, a primary material studied here, relative standard deviations of results among five data sets are 5%-22% for K and 42-66% for D. Compared with existing methods, C-depth method overcomes the inability to obtain unique estimation for nonlinear regression and does not require assumed correlations for D and K among congeners. Comparison with a more sophisticated two-term approach implies significant uncertainty for D, and smaller uncertainty for K. However, considering uncertainties associated with sampling and chemical analysis, and impact of environmental factors, the results are acceptable for engineering applications. This was supported by good agreement between model prediction and measurement. Sensitivity analysis indicated that effective diffusion distance, contacting time of materials with primary sources, and depth of measured concentrations are critical for determining D, and PCB concentration in primary sources is critical for K.

  11. Estimating oxygen diffusive conductances of gas-exchange systems: A stereological approach illustrated with the human placenta.

    PubMed

    Mayhew, Terry M

    2014-01-01

    For many organisms, respiratory gas exchange is a vital activity and different types of gas-exchange apparatus have evolved to meet individual needs. They include not only skin, gills, tracheal systems and lungs but also transient structures such as the chorioallantois of avian eggs and the placenta of eutherian mammals. The ability of these structures to allow passage of oxygen by passive diffusion can be expressed as a diffusive conductance (units: cm(3) O2 min(-1) kPa(-1)). Occasionally, the ability to estimate diffusive conductance by physiological techniques is compromised by the difficulty of obtaining O2 partial pressures on opposite sides of the tissue interface between the delivery medium (air, water, blood) and uptake medium (usually blood). An alternative strategy is to estimate a morphometric diffusive conductance by combining stereological estimates of key structural quantities (volumes, surface areas, membrane thicknesses) with complementary physicochemical data (O2-haemoglobin chemical reaction rates and Krogh's permeability coefficients). This approach has proved valuable in a variety of comparative studies on respiratory organs from diverse species. The underlying principles were formulated in pioneering studies on the pulmonary lung but are illustrated here by taking the human placenta as the gas exchanger. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

  12. Study of diffusion coefficient of anhydrous trehalose glasses by using PFG-NMR spectroscopy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kwon, Hyun-Joung; Takekawa, Reiji; Kawamura, Junichi; Tokuyama, Michio

    2013-02-01

    We investigated the temperature dependent long time self-diffusion coefficient of the anhydrous trehalose supercooled liquids by using pulsed field gradient nuclear magnetic resonance (PFG-NMR) spectroscopy. At the same temperature ranges, the diffusion coefficient convoluted from the α-relaxation time as Einstein-Smoluchowski relaxation, measured by using the dielectric loss spectroscopy are well overlapped with diffusion coefficients within experimental error. The temperature dependent diffusion coefficients obtained from different methods are normalized by fictive temperature and well satisfied the single master curve, proposed by Tokuyama.

  13. Computational Material Processing in Microgravity

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    2005-01-01

    Working with Professor David Matthiesen at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) a computer model of the DPIMS (Diffusion Processes in Molten Semiconductors) space experiment was developed that is able to predict the thermal field, flow field and concentration profile within a molten germanium capillary under both ground-based and microgravity conditions as illustrated. These models are coupled with a novel nonlinear statistical methodology for estimating the diffusion coefficient from measured concentration values after a given time that yields a more accurate estimate than traditional methods. This code was integrated into a web-based application that has become a standard tool used by engineers in the Materials Science Department at CWRU.

  14. Measurement of distributions of temperature and wavelength-dependent emissivity of a laminar diffusion flame using hyper-spectral imaging technique

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Huawei; Zheng, Shu; Zhou, Huaichun; Qi, Chaobo

    2016-02-01

    A generalized method to estimate a two-dimensional (2D) distribution of temperature and wavelength-dependent emissivity in a sooty flame with spectroscopic radiation intensities is proposed in this paper. The method adopts a Newton-type iterative method to solve the unknown coefficients in the polynomial relationship between the emissivity and the wavelength, as well as the unknown temperature. Polynomial functions with increasing order are examined, and final results are determined as the result converges. Numerical simulation on a fictitious flame with wavelength-dependent absorption coefficients shows a good performance with relative errors less than 0.5% in the average temperature. What’s more, a hyper-spectral imaging device is introduced to measure an ethylene/air laminar diffusion flame with the proposed method. The proper order for the polynomial function is selected to be 2, because every one order increase in the polynomial function will only bring in a temperature variation smaller than 20 K. For the ethylene laminar diffusion flame with 194 ml min-1 C2H4 and 284 L min-1 air studied in this paper, the 2D distribution of average temperature estimated along the line of sight is similar to, but smoother than that of the local temperature given in references, and the 2D distribution of emissivity shows a cumulative effect of the absorption coefficient along the line of sight. It also shows that emissivity of the flame decreases as the wavelength increases. The emissivity under wavelength 400 nm is about 2.5 times as much as that under wavelength 1000 nm for a typical line-of-sight in the flame, with the same trend for the absorption coefficient of soot varied with the wavelength.

  15. Diffusion Coefficients of a Non-Linear Astrophysical Process: Luis Carrasco's Scientific (and other) Contributions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Aguilar, L. A.

    2009-11-01

    The Luis Carrasco phenomenon in Astrophysics is a widespread event that has appeared in many branches of theoretical and observational Astronomy, as well as in astronomical instrumentation. It is an ubiquitous and highly non-linear effect with multiple coupling constants. To understand it, it is necessary to dwell, not only into many areas of Astronomy, but of human culture and knowledge in general. Some authors believe that it is only through the ``many-worlds'' interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, that this effect can be understood. In this work, we will demonstrate its fractal nature, present a panoramic view of this global effect, and estimate its diffusion coefficients in the regular and irregular regimes. Connections with areas outside Astronomy will be shown.

  16. Measurement of diffusion coefficient of propylene glycol in skin tissue

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Genin, Vadim D.; Bashkatov, Alexey N.; Genina, Elina A.; Tuchin, Valery V.

    2015-03-01

    Optical clearing of the rat skin under the action of propylene glycol was studied ex vivo. It was found that collimated transmittance of skin samples increased, whereas weight and thickness of the samples decreased during propylene glycol penetration in skin tissue. A mechanism of the optical clearing under the action of propylene glycol is discussed. Diffusion coefficient of propylene glycol in skin tissue ex vivo has been estimated as (1.35±0.95)×10-7 cm2/s with the taking into account of kinetics of both weight and thickness of skin samples. The presented results can be useful for enhancement of many methods of laser therapy and optical diagnostics of skin diseases and localization of subcutaneous neoplasms.

  17. Effective matrix diffusion in kilometer‐scale transport in fractured crystalline rock

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Shapiro, Allen M.

    2001-01-01

    Concentrations of tritium (3H) and dichlorodifluoromethane (CFC‐12) in water samples taken from glacial drift and fractured crystalline rock over 4 km2 in central New Hampshire are interpreted to identify a conceptual model of matrix diffusion and the magnitude of the diffusion coefficient. Dispersion and mass transfer to and from fractures has affected the 3H concentration to the extent that the peak 3H concentration of the 1960s is no longer distinguishable. Because of heterogeneity in the bedrock the sparsely distributed chemical data do not warrant a three‐dimensional transport model. Instead, a one‐dimensional model of CFC‐12 and 3H migration along flow lines in the glacial drift and bedrock is used to place bounds on the processes affecting kilometer‐scale transport, arid model parameters are varied to reproduce the measured relation between 3H and CFC‐12, rather than their spatial distributions. A model of mass exchange to and from fractures that is dependent on the time‐varying concentration gradient at fracture surfaces qualitatively reproduces the measured relation between 3H and CFC‐12 with an upper bound for the fracture dispersivity approximately equal to 250 m and a lower bound for the effective matrix diffusion coefficient equal to 1 m2 yr−1. The diffusion coefficient at the kilometer scale is at least 3 orders of magnitude greater than laboratory estimates of diffusion in crystalline rock. The large diffusion coefficient indicates that diffusion into an immobile fluid phase (rock matrix) is masked at the kilometer scale by advective mass exchange between fractures with large contrasts in trarismissivity. The measured transmissivity of fractures in the study area varies over more than 6 orders of magnitude. Advective mass exchange from high‐permeability fractures to low‐permeability fractures results in short migration distances of a chemical constituent in low‐permeability fractures over an extended period of time before reentering high‐permeability fractures; viewed at the kilometer scale, this process is analogous to the chemical constituent diffusing into and out of an immobile fluid phase.

  18. Chaotic ion motion in magnetosonic plasma waves

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Varvoglis, H.

    1984-01-01

    The motion of test ions in a magnetosonic plasma wave is considered, and the 'stochasticity threshold' of the wave's amplitude for the onset of chaotic motion is estimated. It is shown that for wave amplitudes above the stochasticity threshold, the evolution of an ion distribution can be described by a diffusion equation with a diffusion coefficient D approximately equal to 1/v. Possible applications of this process to ion acceleration in flares and ion beam thermalization are discussed.

  19. Model-based performance and energy analyses of reverse osmosis to reuse wastewater in a PVC production site.

    PubMed

    Hu, Kang; Fiedler, Thorsten; Blanco, Laura; Geissen, Sven-Uwe; Zander, Simon; Prieto, David; Blanco, Angeles; Negro, Carlos; Swinnen, Nathalie

    2017-11-10

    A pilot-scale reverse osmosis (RO) followed behind a membrane bioreactor (MBR) was developed for the desalination to reuse wastewater in a PVC production site. The solution-diffusion-film model (SDFM) based on the solution-diffusion model (SDM) and the film theory was proposed to describe rejections of electrolyte mixtures in the MBR effluent which consists of dominant ions (Na + and Cl - ) and several trace ions (Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , K + and SO 4 2- ). The universal global optimisation method was used to estimate the ion permeability coefficients (B) and mass transfer coefficients (K) in SDFM. Then, the membrane performance was evaluated based on the estimated parameters which demonstrated that the theoretical simulations were in line with the experimental results for the dominant ions. Moreover, an energy analysis model with the consideration of limitation imposed by the thermodynamic restriction was proposed to analyse the specific energy consumption of the pilot-scale RO system in various scenarios.

  20. Computationally effective solution of the inverse problem in time-of-flight spectroscopy.

    PubMed

    Kamran, Faisal; Abildgaard, Otto H A; Subash, Arman A; Andersen, Peter E; Andersson-Engels, Stefan; Khoptyar, Dmitry

    2015-03-09

    Photon time-of-flight (PTOF) spectroscopy enables the estimation of absorption and reduced scattering coefficients of turbid media by measuring the propagation time of short light pulses through turbid medium. The present investigation provides a comparison of the assessed absorption and reduced scattering coefficients from PTOF measurements of intralipid 20% and India ink-based optical phantoms covering a wide range of optical properties relevant for biological tissues and dairy products. Three different models are used to obtain the optical properties by fitting to measured temporal profiles: the Liemert-Kienle model (LKM), the diffusion model (DM) and a white Monte-Carlo (WMC) simulation-based algorithm. For the infinite space geometry, a very good agreement is found between the LKM and WMC, while the results obtained by the DM differ, indicating that the LKM can provide accurate estimation of the optical parameters beyond the limits of the diffusion approximation in a computational effective and accurate manner. This result increases the potential range of applications for PTOF spectroscopy within industrial and biomedical applications.

  1. Spatially constrained incoherent motion method improves diffusion-weighted MRI signal decay analysis in the liver and spleen

    PubMed Central

    Taimouri, Vahid; Afacan, Onur; Perez-Rossello, Jeannette M.; Callahan, Michael J.; Mulkern, Robert V.; Warfield, Simon K.; Freiman, Moti

    2015-01-01

    Purpose: To evaluate the effect of the spatially constrained incoherent motion (SCIM) method on improving the precision and robustness of fast and slow diffusion parameter estimates from diffusion-weighted MRI in liver and spleen in comparison to the independent voxel-wise intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) model. Methods: We collected diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI) data of 29 subjects (5 healthy subjects and 24 patients with Crohn’s disease in the ileum). We evaluated parameters estimates’ robustness against different combinations of b-values (i.e., 4 b-values and 7 b-values) by comparing the variance of the estimates obtained with the SCIM and the independent voxel-wise IVIM model. We also evaluated the improvement in the precision of parameter estimates by comparing the coefficient of variation (CV) of the SCIM parameter estimates to that of the IVIM. Results: The SCIM method was more robust compared to IVIM (up to 70% in liver and spleen) for different combinations of b-values. Also, the CV values of the parameter estimations using the SCIM method were significantly lower compared to repeated acquisition and signal averaging estimated using IVIM, especially for the fast diffusion parameter in liver (CVIV IM = 46.61 ± 11.22, CVSCIM = 16.85 ± 2.160, p < 0.001) and spleen (CVIV IM = 95.15 ± 19.82, CVSCIM = 52.55 ± 1.91, p < 0.001). Conclusions: The SCIM method characterizes fast and slow diffusion more precisely compared to the independent voxel-wise IVIM model fitting in the liver and spleen. PMID:25832079

  2. A quiescent state of 3 to 8 MeV radiation belt electrons

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Selesnick, R. S.; Blake, J. B.; Kolasinski, W. A.; Fritz, T. A.

    During a ∼3 month period in mid-1996 outer radiation belt electrons in the energy range from ∼ 3 to 8 MeV were diffusing inward and decaying in intensity with no internal or external source. Measurements from the HIST instrument on POLAR are used to constrain a model for time dependent lossy radial diffusion of these electrons, and to obtain estimates of a parameterized radial diffusion coefficient and lifetime. For lower energy electrons, of ∼ 1 to 3 MeV, a source at L > 6 is apparent throughout most of the same period.

  3. Effective transient behaviour of inclusions in diffusion problems

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Brassart, Laurence; Stainier, Laurent

    2018-06-01

    This paper is concerned with the effective transport properties of heterogeneous media in which there is a high contrast between the phase diffusivities. In this case the transient response of the slow phase induces a memory effect at the macroscopic scale, which needs to be included in a macroscopic continuum description. This paper focuses on the slow phase, which we take as a dispersion of inclusions of arbitrary shape. We revisit the linear diffusion problem in such inclusions in order to identify the structure of the effective (average) inclusion response to a chemical load applied on the inclusion boundary. We identify a chemical creep function (similar to the creep function of viscoelasticity), from which we construct estimates with a reduced number of relaxation modes. The proposed estimates admit an equivalent representation based on a finite number of internal variables. These estimates allow us to predict the average inclusion response under arbitrary time-varying boundary conditions at very low computational cost. A heuristic generalisation to concentration-dependent diffusion coefficient is also presented. The proposed estimates for the effective transient response of an inclusion can serve as a building block for the formulation of multi-inclusion homogenisation schemes.

  4. Analytic expressions for ULF wave radiation belt radial diffusion coefficients

    PubMed Central

    Ozeke, Louis G; Mann, Ian R; Murphy, Kyle R; Jonathan Rae, I; Milling, David K

    2014-01-01

    We present analytic expressions for ULF wave-derived radiation belt radial diffusion coefficients, as a function of L and Kp, which can easily be incorporated into global radiation belt transport models. The diffusion coefficients are derived from statistical representations of ULF wave power, electric field power mapped from ground magnetometer data, and compressional magnetic field power from in situ measurements. We show that the overall electric and magnetic diffusion coefficients are to a good approximation both independent of energy. We present example 1-D radial diffusion results from simulations driven by CRRES-observed time-dependent energy spectra at the outer boundary, under the action of radial diffusion driven by the new ULF wave radial diffusion coefficients and with empirical chorus wave loss terms (as a function of energy, Kp and L). There is excellent agreement between the differential flux produced by the 1-D, Kp-driven, radial diffusion model and CRRES observations of differential electron flux at 0.976 MeV—even though the model does not include the effects of local internal acceleration sources. Our results highlight not only the importance of correct specification of radial diffusion coefficients for developing accurate models but also show significant promise for belt specification based on relatively simple models driven by solar wind parameters such as solar wind speed or geomagnetic indices such as Kp. Key Points Analytic expressions for the radial diffusion coefficients are presented The coefficients do not dependent on energy or wave m value The electric field diffusion coefficient dominates over the magnetic PMID:26167440

  5. Comparison of cumulant expansion and q-space imaging estimates for diffusional kurtosis in brain.

    PubMed

    Mohanty, Vaibhav; McKinnon, Emilie T; Helpern, Joseph A; Jensen, Jens H

    2018-05-01

    To compare estimates for the diffusional kurtosis in brain as obtained from a cumulant expansion (CE) of the diffusion MRI (dMRI) signal and from q-space (QS) imaging. For the CE estimates of the kurtosis, the CE was truncated to quadratic order in the b-value and fit to the dMRI signal for b-values from 0 up to 2000s/mm 2 . For the QS estimates, b-values ranging from 0 up to 10,000s/mm 2 were used to determine the diffusion displacement probability density function (dPDF) via Stejskal's formula. The kurtosis was then calculated directly from the second and fourth order moments of the dPDF. These two approximations were studied for in vivo human data obtained on a 3T MRI scanner using three orthogonal diffusion encoding directions. The whole brain mean values for the CE and QS kurtosis estimates differed by 16% or less in each of the considered diffusion encoding directions, and the Pearson correlation coefficients all exceeded 0.85. Nonetheless, there were large discrepancies in many voxels, particularly those with either very high or very low kurtoses relative to the mean values. Estimates of the diffusional kurtosis in brain obtained using CE and QS approximations are strongly correlated, suggesting that they encode similar information. However, for the choice of b-values employed here, there may be substantial differences, depending on the properties of the diffusion microenvironment in each voxel. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  6. Controlling mechanisms of moisture diffusion in convective drying of leather

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Benmakhlouf, Naima; Azzouz, Soufien; Monzó-Cabrera, Juan; Khdhira, Hechmi; ELCafsi, Afif

    2017-04-01

    Leather manufacturing involves a crucial energy-intensive drying stage in the finishing process to remove its residual moisture. It occurs several times in the tanning course. As it is the target of this paper to depict an experimental way to determine moisture diffusion in the convective drying of leather. The effective diffusion coefficient is estimated by a method derived from Fick's law and by analytic method. The effective diffusion coefficients are obtained from drying tests and the diffusivity behaviour is studied versus the controlling parameter such as the convective airflow temperature. The experiments were conducted at hot air temperatures of 40, 45, 50, 55 and 60 °C and hot air speed of 1 m/s. The hot air temperature had significant effect on the effective moisture diffusivity of the leather sample. The average effective moisture diffusivity in rosehip ranged between 5.87 × 10-11 and 14.48 × 10-11 m2/s for leather at the temperatures studied. Activation energy for convective drying was found to be 38.46 kJ/mol for leather. The obtained results fully confirm the theoretical study in which an exponentially increasing relationship between effective diffusivity and temperature is predicted. The results of this study provide a better understanding of the drying mechanisms and may lead to a series of recommendations for leather drying optimization. It opens the possibility for further investigations on the description of drying conditions.

  7. Lambert-Beer law in ocean waters: optical properties of water and of dissolved/suspended material, optical energy budgets.

    PubMed

    Stavn, R H

    1988-01-15

    The role of the Lambert-Beer law in ocean optics is critically examined. The Lambert-Beer law and the three-parameter model of the submarine light field are used to construct an optical energy budget for any hydrosol. It is further applied to the analytical exponential decay coefficient of the light field and used to estimate the optical properties and effects of the dissolved/suspended component in upper ocean layers. The concepts of the empirical exponential decay coefficient (diffuse attenuation coefficient) of the light field and a constant exponential decay coefficient for molecular water are analyzed quantitatively. A constant exponential decay coefficient for water is rejected. The analytical exponential decay coefficient is used to analyze optical gradients in ocean waters.

  8. Diffusion coefficient of the protein in various crystallization solutions: The key to growing high-quality crystals in space

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tanaka, Hiroaki; Takahashi, Sachiko; Yamanaka, Mari; Yoshizaki, Izumi; Sato, Masaru; Sano, Satoshi; Motohara, Moritoshi; Kobayashi, Tomoyuki; Yoshitomi, Susumu; Tanaka, Tetsuo; Fukuyama, Seijiro

    2006-09-01

    The diffusion coefficients of lysozyme and alpha-amylase were measured in the various polyethylene glycol (PEG) solutions. Obtained diffusion coefficients were studied with the viscosity coefficient of the solution. It was found that the diffusion process of the protein was suppressed with a factor of vγ, where ν is a relative viscosity coefficient of the PEG solution. The value of γ is -0.64 at PEG1500 for both proteins. The value increased to -0.48 at PEG8000 for lysozyme, while decreased to -0.72 for alpha-amylase. The equation of an approximate diffusion coefficient at certain PEG molecular weight and concentration was roughly obtained.

  9. PREDICTION OF THE VAPOR PRESSURE, BOILING POINT, HEAT OF VAPORIZATION AND DIFFUSION COEFFICIENT OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS

    EPA Science Inventory

    The prototype computer program SPARC has been under development for several years to estimate physical properties and chemical reactivity parameters of organic compounds strictly from molecular structure. SPARC solute-solute physical process models have been developed and tested...

  10. Fundamental mass transfer modeling of emission of volatile organic compounds from building materials

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bodalal, Awad Saad

    In this study, a mass transfer theory based model is presented for characterizing the VOC emissions from building materials. A 3-D diffusion model is developed to describe the emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from individual sources. Then the formulation is extended to include the emissions from composite sources (system comprising an assemblage of individual sources). The key parameters for the model (The diffusion coefficient of the VOC in the source material D, and the equilibrium partition coefficient k e) were determined independently (model parameters are determined without the use of chamber emission data). This procedure eliminated to a large extent the need for emission testing using environmental chambers, which is costly, time consuming, and may be subject to confounding sink effects. An experimental method is developed and implemented to measure directly the internal diffusion (D) and partition coefficients ( ke). The use of the method is illustrated for three types of VOC's: (i) Aliphatic Hydrocarbons, (ii) Aromatic Hydrocarbons and ( iii) Aldehydes, through typical dry building materials (carpet, plywood, particleboard, vinyl floor tile, gypsum board, sub-floor tile and OSB). Then correlations for predicting D and ke based solely on commonly available properties such as molecular weight and vapour pressure were proposed for each product and type of VOC. These correlations can be used to estimate the D and ke when direct measurement data are not available, and thus facilitate the prediction of VOC emissions from the building materials using mass transfer theory. The VOC emissions from a sub-floor material (made of the recycled automobile tires), and a particleboard are measured and predicted. Finally, a mathematical model to predict the diffusion coefficient through complex sources (floor adhesive) as a function of time was developed. Then this model (for diffusion coefficient in complex sources) was used to predict the emission rate from material system (namely, substrate//glue//vinyl tile).

  11. Symmetry of the gradient profile as second experimental dimension in the short-time expansion of the apparent diffusion coefficient as measured with NMR diffusometry.

    PubMed

    Laun, Frederik Bernd; Kuder, Tristan Anselm; Zong, Fangrong; Hertel, Stefan; Galvosas, Petrik

    2015-10-01

    The time-dependent apparent diffusion coefficient as measured by pulsed gradient NMR can be used to estimate parameters of porous structures including the surface-to-volume ratio and the mean curvature of pores. In this work, the short-time diffusion limit and in particular the influence of the temporal profile of diffusion gradients on the expansion as proposed by Mitra et al. (1993) is investigated. It is shown that flow-compensated waveforms, i.e. those whose first moment is zero, are blind to the term linear in observation time, which is the term that is proportional to mean curvature and surface permeability. A gradient waveform that smoothly interpolates between flow-compensated and bipolar waveform is proposed and the degree of flow-compensation is used as a second experimental dimension. This two-dimensional ansatz is shown to yield an improved precision when characterizing the confining domain. This technique is demonstrated with simulations and in experiments performed with cylindrical capillaries of 100 μm radius. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. Azimuthal ULF Structure and Radial Transport of Charged Particles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ali, A.; Elkington, S. R.

    2015-12-01

    The Van Allen radiation belts contain highly energetic particles which interact with a variety of plasma and MHD waves. Waves with frequencies in the ULF range are understood to play an important role in loss and acceleration of energetic particles. There is still much to be understood about the interaction between charged particles and ULF waves in the inner magnetosphere and how they influence particle diffusion. We investigate how ULF wave power distribution in azimuth affects radial diffusion of charged particles. Analytic treatments of the diffusion coefficients generally assume uniform distribution of power in azimuth but in situ measurements suggest otherwise. The power profiles obtained from in situ measurements will be used to conduct particle simulations to see how well do the simulated diffusion coefficients agree with diffusion coefficients estimated directly from in situ measurements. We also look at the ULF wave power distribution across different modes. In order to use in situ point measurements from spacecraft, it is typically assumed that all of the wave power exists in m=1 mode. How valid is this assumption? Do higher modes contain a major fraction of the total power? If yes, then under what conditions? One strategy is to use the obtained realistic azimuthal power profiles from in situ measurements (such as from the Van Allen Probes) to drive simulations and see how the power distributions across modes larger than one depends on parameters such as the level of geomagnetic activity.

  13. Temperature effects on diffusion coefficient for 6-gingerol and 6-shogaol in subcritical water extraction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ilia Anisa, Nor; Azian, Noor; Sharizan, Mohd; Iwai, Yoshio

    2014-04-01

    6-gingerol and 6-shogaol are the main constituents as anti-inflammatory or bioactive compounds from zingiber officinale Roscoe. These bioactive compounds have been proven for inflammatory disease, antioxidatives and anticancer. The effect of temperature on diffusion coefficient for 6-gingerol and 6-shogaol were studied in subcritical water extraction. The diffusion coefficient was determined by Fick's second law. By neglecting external mass transfer and solid particle in spherical form, a linear portion of Ln (1-(Ct/Co)) versus time was plotted in determining the diffusion coefficient. 6-gingerol obtained the higher yield at 130°C with diffusion coefficient of 8.582x10-11 m2/s whilst for 6-shogaol, the higher yield and diffusion coefficient at 170°C and 19.417 × 10-11 m2/s.

  14. Transport properties in mixtures involving carbon dioxide at low and moderate density: test of several intermolecular potential energies and comparison with experiment

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Moghadasi, Jalil; Yousefi, Fakhri; Papari, Mohammad Mehdi; Faghihi, Mohammad Ali; Mohsenipour, Ali Asghar

    2009-09-01

    It is the purpose of this paper to extract unlike intermolecular potential energies of five carbon dioxide-based binary gas mixtures including CO2-He, CO2-Ne, CO2-Ar, CO2-Kr, and CO2-Xe from viscosity data and compare the calculated potentials with other models potential energy reported in literature. Then, dilute transport properties consisting of viscosity, diffusion coefficient, thermal diffusion factor, and thermal conductivity of aforementioned mixtures are calculated from the calculated potential energies and compared with literature data. Rather accurate correlations for the viscosity coefficient of afore-cited mixtures embracing the temperature range 200 K < T < 3273.15 K is reproduced from the present unlike intermolecular potentials energy. Our estimated accuracies for the viscosity are to within ±2%. In addition, the calculated potential energies are used to present smooth correlations for other transport properties. The accuracies of the binary diffusion coefficients are of the order of ±3%. Finally, the unlike interaction energy and the calculated low density viscosity have been employed to calculate high density viscosities using Vesovic-Wakeham method.

  15. Derivation of diffusion coefficient of a Brownian particle in tilted periodic potential from the coordinate moments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zhang, Yunxin

    2009-07-01

    In this research, diffusion of an overdamped Brownian particle in the tilted periodic potential is investigated. Using the one-dimensional hopping model, the formulations of the mean velocity V and effective diffusion coefficient D of the Brownian particle have been obtained [B. Derrida, J. Stat. Phys. 31 (1983) 433]. Based on the relation between the effective diffusion coefficient and the moments of the mean first passage time, the formulation of effective diffusion coefficient D of the Brownian particle also has been obtained [P. Reimann, et al., Phys. Rev. E 65 (2002) 031104]. In this research, we'll give another analytical expression of the effective diffusion coefficient D from the moments of the particle's coordinate.

  16. Methods to Estimate Solar Radiation Dosimetry in Coral Reefs Using Remote Sensed, Modeled, and in Situ Data.

    EPA Science Inventory

    Solar irradiance has been increasingly recognized as an important determinant of bleaching in coral reefs, but measurements of solar radiation exposure within coral reefs have been relatively limited. Solar irradiance and diffuse down welling attenuation coefficients (Kd, m-1) we...

  17. A METHOD FOR ESTIMATING DISTRIBUTIONS OF MASS TRANSFER RATE COEFFICIENTS WITH APPLICATION TO PURGING AND BATCH EXPERIMENTS. (R825825)

    EPA Science Inventory

    Mass transfer between aquifer material and groundwater is often modeled as first-order rate-limited sorption or diffusive exchange between mobile zones and immobile zones with idealized geometries. Recent improvements in experimental techniques and advances in our understanding o...

  18. Diffusion coefficients of Mg isotopes in enstatite and forsterite melts calculated by first-principles molecular dynamic simulations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, F.; Qi, Y.; Liu, X.; He, L.

    2016-12-01

    Stable isotopes can be fractionated by kinetic chemical diffusion because diffusion coefficients (D) of isotopes are mass-dependent. Diffusive isotopic fractionation recorded in rocks and minerals provide unique temporal constrains on geological processes. The mass dependence of D can be described in the form of Di/Dj= (mj/mi)β, where m denotes masses of isotope i and j, and β is an emperical parameter used to quantify the diffusive transport of isotopes [1]. β values can be estimated by experimental calibration and observation of natural samples, which are still rarely reported because it is challenging to precisely quantify the boundary conditions of diffusion processes [2,3,4]. Recent advances in computation technique provide a new way to theoretically calculate β values. For instance, classical molecular dynamics with empirical potential have been used to simulate interactions between atoms and estimate β of Mg isotopes in MgSiO3 melt [3]. Here, to further consider the effect of bonding and electron properties on β values, we apply first-principles Born-Oppenheimer Molecular Dynamics and pseudo-isotope methods (assuming mj/mi = 1/24, 1/4, 2, and 5) to estimate β for MgSiO3 and Mg2SiO4 melts. Our calculation shows that β of Mg isotopes with pseudo-mass ratios are consistent, indicating the reliability of the pseudo-isotope method. For MgSiO3 melt, β is 0.18 at 4000K and 0 GPa, higher than the value calculatedusing molecular dynamics simulations (0.135) [3]. For Mg2SiO4 melt at 0 GPa, β values are: 0.23 ± 0.04 at 2300K, 0.24 ± 0.07 at 3000K, and 0.24 ± 0.01 at 4000K. Notably, β of MgSiO3 and Mg2SiO4 melts are significantly higher than the value determined by diffusion experiments (0.05) [2]. These results indicate that β values are not sensitive to temperature, but dependent on melt composition.

  19. Determination of diffusion coefficients of biocides on their passage through organic resin-based renders.

    PubMed

    Styszko, Katarzyna; Kupiec, Krzysztof

    2016-10-01

    In this study the diffusion coefficients of isoproturon, diuron and cybutryn in acrylate and silicone resin-based renders were determined. The diffusion coefficients were determined using measuring concentrations of biocides in the liquid phase after being in contact with renders for specific time intervals. The mathematical solution of the transient diffusion equation for an infinite plate contacted on one side with a limited volume of water was used to calculate the diffusion coefficient. The diffusion coefficients through the acrylate render were 8.10·10(-9) m(2) s(-1) for isoproturon, 1.96·10(-9) m(2) s(-1) for diuron and 1.53·10(-9) m(2) s(-1) for cybutryn. The results for the silicone render were lower by one order of magnitude. The compounds with a high diffusion coefficient for one polymer had likewise high values for the other polymer. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  20. Simultaneous Rapid Determination of the Solubility and Diffusion Coefficients of a Poorly Water-Soluble Drug Based on a Novel UV Imaging System.

    PubMed

    Lu, Yan; Li, Mingzhong

    2016-01-01

    The solubility and diffusion coefficient are two of the most important physicochemical properties of a drug compound. In practice, both have been measured separately, which is time consuming. This work utilizes a novel technique of UV imaging to determine the solubility and diffusion coefficients of poorly water-soluble drugs simultaneously. A 2-step optimal method is proposed to determine the solubility and diffusion coefficients of a poorly water-soluble pharmaceutical substance based on the Fick's second law of diffusion and UV imaging measurements. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can be used to determine the solubility and diffusion coefficients of a drug with reasonable accuracy, indicating that UV imaging may provide a new opportunity to accurately measure the solubility and diffusion coefficients of a poorly water-soluble drug simultaneously and rapidly. Copyright © 2016 American Pharmacists Association®. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  1. Lipid diffusion in the distal and proximal leaflets of supported lipid bilayer membranes studied by single particle tracking

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schoch, Rafael L.; Barel, Itay; Brown, Frank L. H.; Haran, Gilad

    2018-03-01

    Supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) have been studied extensively as simple but powerful models for cellular membranes. Yet, potential differences in the dynamics of the two leaflets of a SLB remain poorly understood. Here, using single particle tracking, we obtain a detailed picture of bilayer dynamics. We observe two clearly separate diffusing populations, fast and slow, that we associate with motion in the distal and proximal leaflets of the SLB, respectively, based on fluorescence quenching experiments. We estimate diffusion coefficients using standard techniques as well as a new method based on the blur of images due to motion. Fitting the observed diffusion coefficients to a two-leaflet membrane hydrodynamic model allows for the simultaneous determination of the intermonolayer friction coefficient and the substrate-membrane friction coefficient, without any prior assumptions on the strengths of the relevant interactions. Remarkably, our calculations suggest that the viscosity of the interfacial water confined between the membrane and the substrate is elevated by ˜104 as compared to bulk water. Using hidden Markov model analysis, we then obtain insight into the transbilayer movement of lipids. We find that lipid flip-flop dynamics are very fast, with half times in the range of seconds. Importantly, we find little evidence for membrane defect mediated lipid flip-flop for SLBs at temperatures well above the solid-to-liquid transition, though defects seem to be involved when the SLBs are cooled down. Our work thus shows that the combination of single particle tracking and advanced hydrodynamic modeling provides a powerful means to obtain insight into membrane dynamics.

  2. Mutual influence of molecular diffusion in gas and surface phases

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hori, Takuma; Kamino, Takafumi; Yoshimoto, Yuta; Takagi, Shu; Kinefuchi, Ikuya

    2018-01-01

    We develop molecular transport simulation methods that simultaneously deal with gas- and surface-phase diffusions to determine the effect of surface diffusion on the overall diffusion coefficients. The phenomenon of surface diffusion is incorporated into the test particle method and the mean square displacement method, which are typically employed only for gas-phase transport. It is found that for a simple cylindrical pore, the diffusion coefficients in the presence of surface diffusion calculated by these two methods show good agreement. We also confirm that both methods reproduce the analytical solution. Then, the diffusion coefficients for ink-bottle-shaped pores are calculated using the developed method. Our results show that surface diffusion assists molecular transport in the gas phase. Moreover, the surface tortuosity factor, which is known to be uniquely determined by physical structure, is influenced by the presence of gas-phase diffusion. This mutual influence of gas-phase diffusion and surface diffusion indicates that their simultaneous calculation is necessary for an accurate evaluation of the diffusion coefficients.

  3. Spin Diffusion Coefficient of A1-PHASE of Superfluid 3He at Low Temperatures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Afzali, R.; Pashaee, F.

    The spin diffusion coefficient tensor of the A1-phase of superfluid 3He at low temperatures and melting pressure is calculated using the Boltzmann equation approach and Pfitzner procedure. Then considering Bogoliubov-normal interaction, we show that the total spin diffusion is proportional to 1/T2, the spin diffusion coefficient of superfluid component D\\uparrowxzxz is proportional to T-2, and the spin diffusion coefficient of super-fluid component D\\uparrowxxxx (=D\\uarrowxyxy) is independent of temperature. Furthermore, it is seen that superfluid components play an important role in spin diffusion of the A1-phase.

  4. Dynamical stochastic processes of returns in financial markets

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lim, Gyuchang; Kim, SooYong; Yoon, Seong-Min; Jung, Jae-Won; Kim, Kyungsik

    2007-03-01

    We study the evolution of probability distribution functions of returns, from the tick data of the Korean treasury bond (KTB) futures and the S&P 500 stock index, which can be described by means of the Fokker-Planck equation. We show that the Fokker-Planck equation and the Langevin equation from the estimated Kramers-Moyal coefficients can be estimated directly from the empirical data. By analyzing the statistics of the returns, we present quantitatively the deterministic and random influences on financial time series for both markets, for which we can give a simple physical interpretation. We particularly focus on the diffusion coefficient, which may be important for the creation of a portfolio.

  5. Solubility and diffusivity of nitrous oxide in ternary mixtures of water, monoethanolamine, and N-methyldiethanolamine and solution densities and viscosities

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Hagewiesche, D.P.; Ashour, S.S.; Sandall, O.C.

    1995-05-01

    Recently, several researchers have suggested using aqueous mixtures of small amounts of monoethanolamine and much larger amounts of N-methyldiethanolamine for the absorption of CO{sub 2} and for the selective removal of H{sub 2}S from gas streams of mixtures of CO{sub 2} and H{sub 2}S. The densities and viscosities of aqueous N-methyldiethanolamine/monoethanolamine (MDEA/MEA) blends containing 30 and 40 mass % total amine with MEA concentrations of 5, 10, and 15 mass % of the total amine concentration were measured at temperatures of 303, 313, and 323 K. The diffusion coefficients and Henry`s law constants of N{sub 2}O in these solutions weremore » also measured and were used to estimate the diffusion coefficients and Henry`s law constants of CO{sub 2} in these solutions according to the N{sub 2}O/CO{sub 2} analogy technique.« less

  6. Static and Dynamic Effects of Lateral Carrier Diffusion in Semiconductor Lasers

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Li, Jian-Zhong; Cheung, Samson H.; Ning, C. Z.; Biegel, Bryan A. (Technical Monitor)

    2002-01-01

    Electron and hole diffusions in the plane of semiconductor quantum wells play an important part in the static and dynamic operations of semiconductor lasers. It is well known that the value of diffusion coefficients affects the threshold pumping current of a semiconductor laser. At the same time, the strength of carrier diffusion process is expected to affect the modulation bandwidth of an AC-modulated laser. It is important not only to investigate the combined DC and AC effects due to carrier diffusion, but also to separate the AC effects from that of the combined effects in order to provide design insights for high speed modulation. In this presentation, we apply a hydrodynamic model developed by the present authors recently from the semiconductor Bloch equations. The model allows microscopic calculation of the lateral carrier diffusion coefficient, which is a nonlinear function of the carrier density and plasma temperature. We first studied combined AC and DC effects of lateral carrier diffusion by studying the bandwidth dependence on diffusion coefficient at a given DC current under small signal modulation. The results show an increase of modulation bandwidth with decrease in the diffusion coefficient. We simultaneously studied the effects of nonlinearity in the diffusion coefficient. To clearly identify how much of the bandwidth increase is a result of decrease in the threshold pumping current for smaller diffusion coefficient, thus an effective increase of DC pumping, we study the bandwidth dependence on diffusion coefficient at a given relative pumping. A detailed comparison of the two cases will be presented.

  7. Unsaturated soil moisture drying and wetting diffusion coefficient measurements in the laboratory.

    DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

    2009-09-01

    ABSTRACTTransient moisture flow in an unsaturated soil in response to suction changes is controlled by the unsaturated moisture diffusion coefficient. The moisture diffusion coefficient can be determined by measuring suction profiles over time. The l...

  8. Regression approach to non-invasive determination of bilirubin in neonatal blood

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lysenko, S. A.; Kugeiko, M. M.

    2012-07-01

    A statistical ensemble of structural and biophysical parameters of neonatal skin was modeled based on experimental data. Diffuse scattering coefficients of the skin in the visible and infrared regions were calculated by applying a Monte-Carlo method to each realization of the ensemble. The potential accuracy of recovering the bilirubin concentration in dermis (which correlates closely with that in blood) was estimated from spatially resolved spectrometric measurements of diffuse scattering. The possibility to determine noninvasively the bilirubin concentration was shown by measurements of diffuse scattering at λ = 460, 500, and 660 nm at three source-detector separations under conditions of total variability of the skin biophysical parameters.

  9. Determination of silicone rubber and low-density polyethylene diffusion and polymer/water partition coefficients for emerging contaminants.

    PubMed

    Pintado-Herrera, Marina G; Lara-Martín, Pablo A; González-Mazo, Eduardo; Allan, Ian J

    2016-09-01

    There is a growing interest in assessing the concentration and distribution of new nonregulated organic compounds (emerging contaminants) in the environment. The measurement of freely dissolved concentrations using conventional approaches is challenging because of the low concentrations that may be encountered and their temporally variable emissions. Absorption-based passive sampling enables the estimation of freely dissolved concentrations of hydrophobic contaminants of emerging concern in water. In the present study, calibration was undertaken for 2 polymers, low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and silicone rubber for 11 fragrances, 5 endocrine-disrupting compounds, 7 ultraviolet (UV) filters, and 8 organophosphate flame retardant compounds. Batch experiments were performed to estimate contaminant diffusion coefficients in the polymers (Dp ), which in general decreased with increasing molecular weight. The values for fragrances, endocrine-disrupting compounds, and UV filters were in ranges similar to those previously reported for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, but were 1 order of magnitude lower for organophosphate flame retardant compounds. Silicone rubber had higher Dp values than LDPE and was therefore selected for further experiments to calculate polymer/water partition coefficients (KPW ). The authors observed a positive correlation between log KPW and log octanol/water partition coefficient values. Field testing of silicone rubber passive samplers was undertaken though exposure in the River Alna (Norway) for an exposure time of 21 d to estimate freely dissolved concentration. Some fragrances and UV filters were predominant over other emerging and regulated contaminants, at levels up to 1600 ng L(-1) for galaxolide and 448 ng L(-1) for octocrylene. Environ Toxicol Chem 2016;35:2162-2172. © 2016 SETAC. © 2016 SETAC.

  10. Absorption and scattering of laser radiation by the diffusion flame of aviation kerosene

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Gvozdev, S V; Glova, A F; Dubrovskii, V Yu

    2012-04-30

    The absorption coefficient of the radiation of a repetitively pulsed Nd : YAG laser with an average output power up to 6 W and of a cw ytterbium optical fibre laser with an output power up to 3 kW was measured in the diffusion flame of aviation kerosene burning on a free surface in the atmospheric air. The absorption coefficient as a function of flame length, radiation power, and radiation intensity, which was varied in the {approx}10{sup 3} - 5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 4} W cm{sup -2} range, was obtained for two distances (1 and 2 cm) between the laser beammore » axis and the surface. The coefficient of radiation absorption by kerosene flame was compared with that in ethanol and kerosene - ethanol mixture flames. The radiation power scattered by a small segment of the kerosene flame irradiated by Nd : YAG laser radiation was measured as a function of longitudinal and azimuthal coordinates. An estimate was made of the total scattered radiation power.« less

  11. Absorption and scattering of laser radiation by the diffusion flame of aviation kerosene

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gvozdev, S. V.; Glova, A. F.; Dubrovskii, V. Yu; Durmanov, S. T.; Krasyukov, A. G.; Lysikov, A. Yu; Smirnov, G. V.; Solomakhin, V. B.

    2012-04-01

    The absorption coefficient of the radiation of a repetitively pulsed Nd : YAG laser with an average output power up to 6 W and of a cw ytterbium optical fibre laser with an output power up to 3 kW was measured in the diffusion flame of aviation kerosene burning on a free surface in the atmospheric air. The absorption coefficient as a function of flame length, radiation power, and radiation intensity, which was varied in the ~103 — 5×104 W cm-2 range, was obtained for two distances (1 and 2 cm) between the laser beam axis and the surface. The coefficient of radiation absorption by kerosene flame was compared with that in ethanol and kerosene — ethanol mixture flames. The radiation power scattered by a small segment of the kerosene flame irradiated by Nd : YAG laser radiation was measured as a function of longitudinal and azimuthal coordinates. An estimate was made of the total scattered radiation power.

  12. A novel approach to interpretation of the time-dependent self-diffusion coefficient as a probe of porous media geometry.

    PubMed

    Loskutov, V V; Sevriugin, V A

    2013-05-01

    This article presents a new approximation describing fluid diffusion in porous media. Time dependence of the self-diffusion coefficient D(t) in the permeable porous medium is studied based on the assumption that diffusant molecules move randomly. An analytical expression for time dependence of the self-diffusion coefficient was obtained in the following form: D(t)=(D0-D∞)exp(-D0t/λ)+D∞, where D0 is the self-diffusion coefficient of bulk fluid, D∞ is the asymptotic value of the self-diffusion coefficient in the limit of long time values (t→∞), λ is the characteristic parameter of this porous medium with dimensionality of length. Applicability of the solution obtained to the analysis of experimental data is shown. The possibility of passing to short-time and long-time regimes is discussed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. Single-image diffusion coefficient measurements of proteins in free solution.

    PubMed

    Zareh, Shannon Kian; DeSantis, Michael C; Kessler, Jonathan M; Li, Je-Luen; Wang, Y M

    2012-04-04

    Diffusion coefficient measurements are important for many biological and material investigations, such as studies of particle dynamics and kinetics, and size determinations. Among current measurement methods, single particle tracking (SPT) offers the unique ability to simultaneously obtain location and diffusion information about a molecule while using only femtomoles of sample. However, the temporal resolution of SPT is limited to seconds for single-color-labeled samples. By directly imaging three-dimensional diffusing fluorescent proteins and studying the widths of their intensity profiles, we were able to determine the proteins' diffusion coefficients using single protein images of submillisecond exposure times. This simple method improves the temporal resolution of diffusion coefficient measurements to submilliseconds, and can be readily applied to a range of particle sizes in SPT investigations and applications in which diffusion coefficient measurements are needed, such as reaction kinetics and particle size determinations. Copyright © 2012 Biophysical Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. Transport coefficients of hard-sphere mixtures. II. Diameter ratio 0. 4 and mass ratio 0. 03 at low density

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Erpenbeck, J.J.

    1992-02-15

    The transport coefficients of shear viscosity, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusion, and mutual diffusion are estimated for a binary, equimolar mixture of hard spheres having a diameter ratio of 0.4 and a mass ratio of 0.03 at volumes of 5{ital V}{sub 0}, 10{ital V}{sub 0}, and 20{ital V}{sub 0} (where {ital V}{sub 0}=1/2 {radical}2 {ital N} {ital tsum}{sub {ital a}} x{sub {ital a}}{sigma}{sub {ital a}}{sup 3}, {ital x}{sub {ital a}} are mole fractions, {sigma}{sub {ital a}} are diameters, and {ital N} is the number of particles) through Monte Carlo, molecular-dynamics calculations using the Green-Kubo formulas. Calculations are reported for as fewmore » as 108 and as many as 4000 particles, but not for each value of the volume. Both finite-system and long-time-tail corrections are applied to obtain estimates of the transport coefficients in the thermodynamic limit; corrections of both types are found to be small. The results are compared with the predictions of the revised Enskog theory and the linear density corrections to that theory are reported. The mean free time is also computed as a function of density and the linear and quadratic corrections to the Boltzmann theory are estimated. The mean free time is also compared with the expression from the Mansoori-Carnahan-Starling-Leland equation of state.« less

  15. Diffusion coefficients in systems with inclusion compounds. 1. alpha. -Cyclodextrin-L-phenylalanine-water at 25 degree C

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Paduano, L.; Sartorio, R.; Vitagliano, V.

    Diffusion coefficients in the ternary system {alpha}-cyclodextrin (at one concentration)-L-phenylalanine (at four concentrations)-water have been measured by using the Gouy interferometric technique. The effect of the inclusion equilibrium on the cross-term diffusion coefficients was observed. The measured diffusion coefficients in the ternary systems were used to calculate values of the binding constants. These values are in good agreement with the value obtained from calorimetric studies.

  16. Plasma Diffusion in Self-Consistent Fluctuations

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Smets, R.; Belmont, G.; Aunai, N.

    2012-01-01

    The problem of particle diffusion in position space, as a consequence ofeleclromagnetic fluctuations is addressed. Numerical results obtained with a self-consistent hybrid code are presented, and a method to calculate diffusion coefficient in the direction perpendicular to the mean magnetic field is proposed. The diffusion is estimated for two different types of fluctuations. The first type (resuiting from an agyrotropic in itiai setting)is stationary, wide band white noise, and associated to Gaussian probability distribution function for the magnetic fluctuations. The second type (result ing from a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability) is non-stationary, with a power-law spectrum, and a non-Gaussian probabi lity distribution function. The results of the study allow revisiting the question of loading particles of solar wind origin in the Earth magnetosphere.

  17. Estimation of the Number of Compartments Associated With the Apparent Diffusion Coefficient in MRI: The Theoretical and Experimental Investigations.

    PubMed

    Ashoor, Mansour; Khorshidi, Abdollah

    2016-03-01

    The goal of the present study was to estimate the number of compartments and the mean apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) value with the use of the DWI signal curve. A useful new mathematic model that includes internal correlation among subcompartments with a distinct number of compartments was proposed. The DWI signal was simulated to estimate the approximate association between the number of subcompartments and the molecular density, with density corresponding to the ratio of the ADC values of the compartments, as determined using the Monte Carlo method. Various factors, such as energy depletion, temperature, intracellular water accumulation, changes in the tortuosity of the extracellular diffusion paths, and changes in cell membrane permeability, have all been implicated as factors contributing to changes in the ADC of water (ADCw); therefore, one may consider them as pseudocompartments in the new model proposed in this study. The lower the coefficient is, the lower the contribution of the compartment to the net signal will be. The results of the simulation indicate that when the number of compartments increases, the signal will become significantly lower, because the gradient factor (i.e., the b value) will increase. In other words, the signal curve is approximately linear at all b values when the number of compartments in which the tissues have been severely damaged is low; however, when the number of compartments is high, the curve will become constant at high b values, and the perfusion parameters will prevail on the diffusion parameters at low b values. Therefore, normal tissues will be investigated when the number of compartments and the ADC values are high and the b values are low, whereas damaged tissues will be evaluated when the number of compartments and the ADC values are low and the b values are high. The present study investigates damaged tissues at high b values for which the effect of eddy currents will also be compensated. These b values will probably be used in functional MRI.

  18. Bulk diffusion in a kinetically constrained lattice gas

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Arita, Chikashi; Krapivsky, P. L.; Mallick, Kirone

    2018-03-01

    In the hydrodynamic regime, the evolution of a stochastic lattice gas with symmetric hopping rules is described by a diffusion equation with density-dependent diffusion coefficient encapsulating all microscopic details of the dynamics. This diffusion coefficient is, in principle, determined by a Green-Kubo formula. In practice, even when the equilibrium properties of a lattice gas are analytically known, the diffusion coefficient cannot be computed except when a lattice gas additionally satisfies the gradient condition. We develop a procedure to systematically obtain analytical approximations for the diffusion coefficient for non-gradient lattice gases with known equilibrium. The method relies on a variational formula found by Varadhan and Spohn which is a version of the Green-Kubo formula particularly suitable for diffusive lattice gases. Restricting the variational formula to finite-dimensional sub-spaces allows one to perform the minimization and gives upper bounds for the diffusion coefficient. We apply this approach to a kinetically constrained non-gradient lattice gas in two dimensions, viz. to the Kob-Andersen model on the square lattice.

  19. Experimental Determination of Fe-Mg Interdiffusion Coefficients in Orthopyroxene Using Pulsed Laser Ablation and Nanoscale Thin Films

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ter Heege, J. H.; Dohmen, R.; Becker, H.; Chakraborty, S.

    2006-12-01

    Fe-Mg interdiffusion in silicate minerals is of interest in petrological studies for determining the closure temperature of geothermometers and for determining cooling rates from compositional profiles. It is also relevant for studies of the physical properties of silicates, such as rheology or electrical conductivity, because knowledge of its dependence on oxygen fugacity can aid in the understanding of point defect chemistry. Compositionally zoned orthopyroxenes are common in meteorites, mantle rocks, lower crustal rocks and a variety of plutonic and volcanic igneous rocks. However, experimental difficulties have precluded direct determination of Fe-Mg diffusion rates in orthopyroxenes so far and the available information comes from (1) Mg tracer diffusion coefficients obtained from isotope tracer studies using enriched ^{25}MgO films [1], (2) calculations of interdiffusion rates based on the (diffusion-controlled) order-disorder kinetics measured in orthopyroxene [2], and (3) indirect estimates from the comparison of diffusion widths in coexisting garnets and olivines, in which Fe-Mg diffusion rates are relatively well known [e.g., 3]. We have directly measured Fe-Mg interdiffusion coefficients parallel to the [001] direction in two natural orthopyroxene single crystals (approximately En95Fs5 and En90Fs10) using diffusion couples consisting of an olivine thin film (Fo30Fa70, typically 20 - 50 nm thick) deposited under vacuum on pre-heated, polished and oriented pyroxene single crystals using a pulsed laser ablation deposition technique. Samples were annealed for 4 - 337 hours at 800 - 1100 °C under atmospheric pressure in a continuous flow of CO + CO2 to control the oxygen fugacity between 10-16 and 10^{-12} bar within the stability field of pyroxene. Film thickness and compositional profiles were measured using Rutherford backscattering Spectroscopy (RBS) on reference and annealed samples, and Fe concentration depth profiles were extracted from the RBS spectra and fitted numerically. At an oxygen fugacity of 10-16 bar, Fe-Mg interdiffusion coefficients in the Fs richer orthopyroxene vary between 4.10^{-22} m2/s and 2.10^{-20} m2/s for temperatures between 800 and 1000°C. Diffusion coefficients decrease by a factor of ~ 4 with decreasing oxygen fugacity between 10^{-12} and 10-16 bar at 1000 °C. Comparison of our data with other Fe-Mg diffusion data shows that these diffusion coefficients are (1) similar to Mg tracer diffusion coefficients measured in orthopyroxene at somewhat more reducing (e.g. fO2 = 10-16 to 10^{-19} bar) conditions at the same temperatures [1], (2) similar to Mg tracer diffusion in garnets measured at higher pressures of 10 kbar at an oxygen fugacity corresponding to the C-O equilibrium in graphite present systems [4], and (3) slower than Fe-Mg diffusion rates in olivine by a factor of ~10 at the same oxygen fugacities [5]. Further experiments to quantify the dependence on composition, temperature and oxygen fugacity are in progress. References: [1] Schwandt et al. (1998), Contr. Mineral. Petrol. 130: 390-396; [2] Ganguly and Tazzoli (1994), Am. Mineral. 79: 930-937; [3] Smith and Barron (1991), Am. Mineral. 76: 1950-1963; [4] Ganguly et al. (1998), Contr. Mineral. Petrol. 131: 171-180; [5] Chakraborty (1997), J. Geoph. Res. 102: 12317-12331.

  20. Operando XRD studies as a tool for determination of transport parameters of mobile ions in electrode materials

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kondracki, Łukasz; Kulka, Andrzej; Świerczek, Konrad; Ziąbka, Magdalena; Molenda, Janina

    2017-11-01

    In this work a detailed operando XRD investigations of structural properties of LixMn2O4 manganese spinel are shown to be a complementary, successful method of determination of diffusion coefficient D and surface exchange coefficient k in the working electrode. Kinetics of lithium ions transport are estimated on the basis of rate of structural changes of the cathode material during a relaxation stage after a high current charge, i.e. during structural relaxation of the material. The presented approach seems to be applicable as a complementary method of determination of transport coefficients for all intercalation-type electrode materials.

  1. A spin echo sequence with a single-sided bipolar diffusion gradient pulse to obtain snapshot diffusion weighted images in moving media

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Freidlin, R. Z.; Kakareka, J. W.; Pohida, T. J.; Komlosh, M. E.; Basser, P. J.

    2012-08-01

    In vivo MRI data can be corrupted by motion. Motion artifacts are particularly troublesome in Diffusion Weighted MRI (DWI), since the MR signal attenuation due to Brownian motion can be much less than the signal loss due to dephasing from other types of complex tissue motion, which can significantly degrade the estimation of self-diffusion coefficients, diffusion tensors, etc. This paper describes a snapshot DWI sequence, which utilizes a novel single-sided bipolar diffusion sensitizing gradient pulse within a spin echo sequence. The proposed method shortens the diffusion time by applying a single refocused bipolar diffusion gradient on one side of a refocusing RF pulse, instead of a set of diffusion sensitizing gradients, separated by a refocusing RF pulse, while reducing the impact of magnetic field inhomogeneity by using a spin echo sequence. A novel MRI phantom that can exhibit a range of complex motions was designed to demonstrate the robustness of the proposed DWI sequence.

  2. Determination of the diffusion coefficient of hydrogen ion in hydrogels.

    PubMed

    Schuszter, Gábor; Gehér-Herczegh, Tünde; Szűcs, Árpád; Tóth, Ágota; Horváth, Dezső

    2017-05-17

    The role of diffusion in chemical pattern formation has been widely studied due to the great diversity of patterns emerging in reaction-diffusion systems, particularly in H + -autocatalytic reactions where hydrogels are applied to avoid convection. A custom-made conductometric cell is designed to measure the effective diffusion coefficient of a pair of strong electrolytes containing sodium ions or hydrogen ions with a common anion. This together with the individual diffusion coefficient for sodium ions, obtained from PFGSE-NMR spectroscopy, allows the determination of the diffusion coefficient of hydrogen ions in hydrogels. Numerical calculations are also performed to study the behavior of a diffusion-migration model describing ionic diffusion in our system. The method we present for one particular case may be extended for various hydrogels and diffusing ions (such as hydroxide) which are relevant e.g. for the development of pH-regulated self-healing mechanisms and hydrogels used for drug delivery.

  3. Transport parameter estimation from lymph measurements and the Patlak equation.

    PubMed

    Watson, P D; Wolf, M B

    1992-01-01

    Two methods of estimating protein transport parameters for plasma-to-lymph transport data are presented. Both use IBM-compatible computers to obtain least-squares parameters for the solvent drag reflection coefficient and the permeability-surface area product using the Patlak equation. A matrix search approach is described, and the speed and convenience of this are compared with a commercially available gradient method. The results from both of these methods were different from those of a method reported by Reed, Townsley, and Taylor [Am. J. Physiol. 257 (Heart Circ. Physiol. 26): H1037-H1041, 1989]. It is shown that the Reed et al. method contains a systematic error. It is also shown that diffusion always plays an important role for transmembrane transport at the exit end of a membrane channel under all conditions of lymph flow rate and that the statement that diffusion becomes zero at high lymph flow rate depends on a mathematical definition of diffusion.

  4. Extensive database of liquid phase diffusion coefficients of some frequently used test molecules in reversed-phase liquid chromatography and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography.

    PubMed

    Song, Huiying; Vanderheyden, Yoachim; Adams, Erwin; Desmet, Gert; Cabooter, Deirdre

    2016-07-15

    Diffusion plays an important role in all aspects of band broadening in chromatography. An accurate knowledge of molecular diffusion coefficients in different mobile phases is therefore crucial in fundamental column performance studies. Correlations available in literature, such as the Wilke-Chang equation, can provide good approximations of molecular diffusion under reversed-phase conditions. However, these correlations have been demonstrated to be less accurate for mobile phases containing a large percentage of acetonitrile, as is the case in hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography. A database of experimentally measured molecular diffusion coefficients of some 45 polar and apolar compounds that are frequently used as test molecules under hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography and reversed-phase conditions is therefore presented. Special attention is given to diffusion coefficients of polar compounds obtained in large percentages of acetonitrile (>90%). The effect of the buffer concentration (5-10mM ammonium acetate) on the obtained diffusion coefficients is investigated and is demonstrated to mainly influence the molecular diffusion of charged molecules. Diffusion coefficients are measured using the Taylor-Aris method and hence deduced from the peak broadening of a solute when flowing through a long open tube. The validity of the set-up employed for the measurement of the diffusion coefficients is demonstrated by ruling out the occurrence of longitudinal diffusion, secondary flow interactions and extra-column effects, while it is also shown that radial equilibration in the 15m long capillary is effective. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  5. Method of producing microporous joints in metal bodies

    DOEpatents

    Danko, Joseph C.

    1982-01-01

    Tungsten is placed in contact with either molybdenum, tantalum, niobium, vanadium, rhenium, or other metal of atoms having a different diffusion coefficient than tungsten. The metals are heated so that the atoms having the higher diffusion coefficient migrate to the metal having the lower diffusion rate, leaving voids in the higher diffusion coefficient metal. Heating is continued until the voids are interconnected.

  6. First-principles multiple-barrier diffusion theory. The case study of interstitial diffusion in CdTe

    DOE PAGES

    Yang, Ji -Hui; Park, Ji -Sang; Kang, Joongoo; ...

    2015-02-17

    The diffusion of particles in solid-state materials generally involves several sequential thermal-activation processes. However, presently, diffusion coefficient theory only deals with a single barrier, i.e., it lacks an accurate description to deal with multiple-barrier diffusion. Here, we develop a general diffusion coefficient theory for multiple-barrier diffusion. Using our diffusion theory and first-principles calculated hopping rates for each barrier, we calculate the diffusion coefficients of Cd, Cu, Te, and Cl interstitials in CdTe for their full multiple-barrier diffusion pathways. As a result, we found that the calculated diffusivity agrees well with the experimental measurement, thus justifying our theory, which is generalmore » for many other systems.« less

  7. Improving the accuracy of the gradient method for determining soil carbon dioxide efflux

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    Continuous soil CO2 efflux (Fsoil) estimates can be obtained by the gradient method (GM), but the utility of the method is hindered by uncertainties in the application of published models for the diffusion coefficient (Ds). We compared two in-situ methods for determining Ds, one based calibrating th...

  8. Age-related apparent diffusion coefficient changes in the normal brain.

    PubMed

    Watanabe, Memi; Sakai, Osamu; Ozonoff, Al; Kussman, Steven; Jara, Hernán

    2013-02-01

    To measure the mean diffusional age-related changes of the brain over the full human life span by using diffusion-weighted spin-echo single-shot echo-planar magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and sequential whole-brain apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) histogram analysis and, secondarily, to build mathematical models of these normal age-related changes throughout human life. After obtaining institutional review board approval, a HIPAA-compliant retrospective search was conducted for brain MR imaging studies performed in 2007 for various clinical indications. Informed consent was waived. The brain data of 414 healthy subjects (189 males and 225 females; mean age, 33.7 years; age range, 2 days to 89.3 years) were obtained with diffusion-weighted spin-echo single-shot echo-planar MR imaging. ADC histograms of the whole brain were generated. ADC peak values, histogram widths, and intracranial volumes were plotted against age, and model parameters were estimated by using nonlinear regression. Four different stages were identified for aging changes in ADC peak values, as characterized by specific mathematical terms: There were age-associated exponential decays for the maturation period and the development period, a constant term for adulthood, and a linear increase for the senescence period. The age dependency of ADC peak value was simulated by using four-term six-coefficient function, including biexponential and linear terms. This model fit the data very closely (R(2) = 0.91). Brain diffusivity as a whole demonstrated age-related changes through four distinct periods of life. These results could contribute to establishing an ADC baseline of the normal brain, covering the full human life span.

  9. Normalized sensitivities and parameter identifiability of in situ diffusion experiments on Callovo Oxfordian clay at Bure site

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Samper, J.; Dewonck, S.; Zheng, L.; Yang, Q.; Naves, A.

    Diffusion of inert and reactive tracers (DIR) is an experimental program performed by ANDRA at Bure underground research laboratory in Meuse/Haute Marne (France) to characterize diffusion and retention of radionuclides in Callovo-Oxfordian (C-Ox) argillite. In situ diffusion experiments were performed in vertical boreholes to determine diffusion and retention parameters of selected radionuclides. C-Ox clay exhibits a mild diffusion anisotropy due to stratification. Interpretation of in situ diffusion experiments is complicated by several non-ideal effects caused by the presence of a sintered filter, a gap between the filter and borehole wall and an excavation disturbed zone (EdZ). The relevance of such non-ideal effects and their impact on estimated clay parameters have been evaluated with numerical sensitivity analyses and synthetic experiments having similar parameters and geometric characteristics as real DIR experiments. Normalized dimensionless sensitivities of tracer concentrations at the test interval have been computed numerically. Tracer concentrations are found to be sensitive to all key parameters. Sensitivities are tracer dependent and vary with time. These sensitivities are useful to identify which are the parameters that can be estimated with less uncertainty and find the times at which tracer concentrations begin to be sensitive to each parameter. Synthetic experiments generated with prescribed known parameters have been interpreted automatically with INVERSE-CORE 2D and used to evaluate the relevance of non-ideal effects and ascertain parameter identifiability in the presence of random measurement errors. Identifiability analysis of synthetic experiments reveals that data noise makes difficult the estimation of clay parameters. Parameters of clay and EdZ cannot be estimated simultaneously from noisy data. Models without an EdZ fail to reproduce synthetic data. Proper interpretation of in situ diffusion experiments requires accounting for filter, gap and EdZ. Estimates of the effective diffusion coefficient and the porosity of clay are highly correlated, indicating that these parameters cannot be estimated simultaneously. Accurate estimation of De and porosities of clay and EdZ is only possible when the standard deviation of random noise is less than 0.01. Small errors in the volume of the circulation system do not affect clay parameter estimates. Normalized sensitivities as well as the identifiability analysis of synthetic experiments provide additional insight on inverse estimation of in situ diffusion experiments and will be of great benefit for the interpretation of real DIR in situ diffusion experiments.

  10. Use of LARS system for the quantitative determination of smoke plume lateral diffusion coefficients from ERTS images of Virginia

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Blais, R. N.; Copeland, G. E.; Lerner, T. H.

    1975-01-01

    A technique for measuring smoke plume of large industrial sources observed by satellite using LARSYS is proposed. A Gaussian plume model is described, integrated in the vertical, and inverted to yield a form for the lateral diffusion coefficient, Ky. Given u, wind speed; y sub l, the horizontal distance of a line of constant brightness from the plume symmetry axis a distance x sub l, downstream from reference point at x=x sub 2, y=0, then K sub y = u ((y sub 1) to the 2nd power)/2 x sub 1 1n (x sub 2/x sub 1). The technique is applied to a plume from a power plant at Chester, Virginia, imaged August 31, 1973 by LANDSAT I. The plume bends slightly to the left 4.3 km from the source and estimates yield Ky of 28 sq m/sec near the source, and 19 sq m/sec beyond the bend. Maximum ground concentrations are estimated between 32 and 64 ug/cu m. Existing meteorological data would not explain such concentrations.

  11. On the Ageing of High Energy Lithium-Ion Batteries—Comprehensive Electrochemical Diffusivity Studies of Harvested Nickel Manganese Cobalt Electrodes

    PubMed Central

    Jaguemont, Joris; Van Den Bossche, Peter; Omar, Noshin; Van Mierlo, Joeri

    2018-01-01

    This paper examines the impact of the characterisation technique considered for the determination of the Li+ solid state diffusion coefficient in uncycled as in cycled Nickel Manganese Cobalt oxide (NMC) electrodes. As major characterisation techniques, Cyclic Voltammetry (CV), Galvanostatic Intermittent Titration Technique (GITT) and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) were systematically investigated. Li+ diffusion coefficients during the lithiation process of the uncycled and cycled electrodes determined by CV at 3.71 V are shown to be equal to 3.48×10−10 cm2·s−1 and 1.56×10−10 cm2·s−1 , respectively. The dependency of the Li+ diffusion with the lithium content in the electrodes is further studied in this paper with GITT and EIS. Diffusion coefficients calculated by GITT and EIS characterisations are shown to be in the range between 1.76×10−15 cm2·s−1 and 4.06×10−12 cm2·s−1, while demonstrating the same decreasing trend with the lithiation process of the electrodes. For both electrode types, diffusion coefficients calculated by CV show greater values compared to those determined by GITT and EIS. With ageing, CV and EIS techniques lead to diffusion coefficients in the electrodes at 3.71 V that are decreasing, in contrast to GITT for which results indicate increasing diffusion coefficient. After long-term cycling, ratios of the diffusion coefficients determined by GITT compared to CV become more significant with an increase about 1 order of magnitude, while no significant variation is seen between the diffusion coefficients calculated from EIS in comparison to CV. PMID:29360787

  12. On the Ageing of High Energy Lithium-Ion Batteries-Comprehensive Electrochemical Diffusivity Studies of Harvested Nickel Manganese Cobalt Electrodes.

    PubMed

    Capron, Odile; Gopalakrishnan, Rahul; Jaguemont, Joris; Van Den Bossche, Peter; Omar, Noshin; Van Mierlo, Joeri

    2018-01-23

    This paper examines the impact of the characterisation technique considered for the determination of the L i + solid state diffusion coefficient in uncycled as in cycled Nickel Manganese Cobalt oxide (NMC) electrodes. As major characterisation techniques, Cyclic Voltammetry (CV), Galvanostatic Intermittent Titration Technique (GITT) and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) were systematically investigated. L i + diffusion coefficients during the lithiation process of the uncycled and cycled electrodes determined by CV at 3.71 V are shown to be equal to 3 . 48 × 10 - 10 cm 2 ·s - 1 and 1 . 56 × 10 - 10 cm 2 ·s - 1 , respectively. The dependency of the L i + diffusion with the lithium content in the electrodes is further studied in this paper with GITT and EIS. Diffusion coefficients calculated by GITT and EIS characterisations are shown to be in the range between 1 . 76 × 10 - 15 cm 2 ·s - 1 and 4 . 06 × 10 - 12 cm 2 ·s - 1 , while demonstrating the same decreasing trend with the lithiation process of the electrodes. For both electrode types, diffusion coefficients calculated by CV show greater values compared to those determined by GITT and EIS. With ageing, CV and EIS techniques lead to diffusion coefficients in the electrodes at 3.71 V that are decreasing, in contrast to GITT for which results indicate increasing diffusion coefficient. After long-term cycling, ratios of the diffusion coefficients determined by GITT compared to CV become more significant with an increase about 1 order of magnitude, while no significant variation is seen between the diffusion coefficients calculated from EIS in comparison to CV.

  13. Reduction of shading-derived artifacts in skin chromophore imaging without measurements or assumptions about the shape of the subject

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yoshida, Kenichiro; Nishidate, Izumi; Ojima, Nobutoshi; Iwata, Kayoko

    2014-01-01

    To quantitatively evaluate skin chromophores over a wide region of curved skin surface, we propose an approach that suppresses the effect of the shading-derived error in the reflectance on the estimation of chromophore concentrations, without sacrificing the accuracy of that estimation. In our method, we use multiple regression analysis, assuming the absorbance spectrum as the response variable and the extinction coefficients of melanin, oxygenated hemoglobin, and deoxygenated hemoglobin as the predictor variables. The concentrations of melanin and total hemoglobin are determined from the multiple regression coefficients using compensation formulae (CF) based on the diffuse reflectance spectra derived from a Monte Carlo simulation. To suppress the shading-derived error, we investigated three different combinations of multiple regression coefficients for the CF. In vivo measurements with the forearm skin demonstrated that the proposed approach can reduce the estimation errors that are due to shading-derived errors in the reflectance. With the best combination of multiple regression coefficients, we estimated that the ratio of the error to the chromophore concentrations is about 10%. The proposed method does not require any measurements or assumptions about the shape of the subjects; this is an advantage over other studies related to the reduction of shading-derived errors.

  14. Radon diffusion coefficients in 360 waterproof materials of different chemical composition.

    PubMed

    Jiránek, M; Kotrbatá, M

    2011-05-01

    This paper summarises the results of radon diffusion coefficient measurements in 360 common waterproof materials available throughout Europe. The materials were grouped into 26 categories according to their chemical composition. It was found that the diffusion coefficients of materials used for protecting houses against radon vary within eight orders from 10(-15) to 10(-8) m(2) s(-1). The lowest values were obtained for bitumen membranes with an Al carrier film and for ethylene vinyl acetate membranes. The highest radon diffusion coefficient values were discovered for sodium bentonite membranes, rubber membranes made of ethylene propylene diene monomer and polymer cement coatings. The radon diffusion coefficients for waterproofings widely used for protecting houses, i.e. flexible polyvinyl chloride, high-, low-density polyethylene, polypropylene and bitumen membranes, vary in the range from 3 × 10(-12) to 3 × 10(-11) m(2) s(-1). Tests were performed which confirmed that the radon diffusion coefficient is also an effective tool for verifying the air-tightness of joints.

  15. Electronic speckle pattern interferometry: a tool for determining diffusion and partition coefficients for proteins in gels.

    PubMed

    Karlsson, David; Zacchi, Guido; Axelsson, Anders

    2002-01-01

    The aim of this study was to demonstrate electronic speckle pattern interferometry (ESPI) as a powerful tool in determining diffusion coefficients and partition coefficients for proteins in gels. ESPI employs a CCD camera instead of a holographic plate as in conventional holographic interferometry. This gives the advantage of being able to choose the reference state freely. If a hologram at the reference state is taken and compared to a hologram during the diffusion process, an interferometric picture can be generated that describes the refraction index gradients and thus the concentration gradients in the gel as well as in the liquid. MATLAB is then used to fit Fick's law to the experimental data to obtain the diffusion coefficients in gel and liquid. The partition coefficient is obtained from the same experiment from the flux condition at the interface between gel and liquid. This makes the comparison between the different diffusants more reliable than when the measurements are performed in separate experiments. The diffusion and partitioning coefficients of lysozyme, BSA, and IgG in 4% agarose gel at pH 5.6 and in 0.1 M NaCl have been determined. In the gel the diffusion coefficients were 11.2 +/- 1.6, 4.8 +/- 0.6, and 3.0 +/- 0.3 m(2)/s for lysozyme, BSA, and IgG, respectively. The partition coefficients were determined to be 0.65 +/- 0.04, 0.44 +/- 0.06, and 0.51 +/- 0.04 for lysozyme, BSA, and IgG, respectively. The current study shows that ESPI is easy to use and gives diffusion coefficients and partition coefficients for proteins with sufficient accuracy from the same experiment.

  16. Diffusion of rhodamine B and bovine serum albumin in fibrin gels seeded with primary endothelial cells.

    PubMed

    Shkilnyy, Andriy; Proulx, Pierre; Sharp, Jamie; Lepage, Martin; Vermette, Patrick

    2012-05-01

    Scaffolds with adequate mass transport properties are needed in many tissue engineering applications. Fibrin is considered a good biological material to fabricate such scaffolds. However, very little is known about mass transport in fibrin. Therefore, a method based on the analysis of fluorescence intensity for measuring the apparent diffusion coefficient of rhodamine B and fluorescein-labelled bovine serum albumin (FITC-BSA) is described. The experiments are performed in fibrin gels with and without human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). The apparent diffusion coefficients of rhodamine B and FITC-BSA in fibrin (fibrinogen concentration of 4 mg/mL) with different cell densities are reported. A LIVE/DEAD(®) assay is performed to confirm the viability of HUVEC seeded at high densities. Diffusion coefficients for rhodamine B remain more or less constant up to 5×10(5) cells/mL and correlate well with literature values measured by other methods in water systems. This indicates that the presence of HUVEC in the fibrin gels (up to 5×10(5) cells/mL) has almost no effect on the diffusion coefficients. Higher cell densities (>5×10(5) cells/mL) result in a decrease of the diffusion coefficients. Diffusion coefficients of rhodamine B and FITC-BSA obtained by this method agree with diffusion coefficients in water predicted by the Stokes-Einstein equation. The experimental design used in this study can be applied to measure diffusion coefficients in different types of gels seeded or not with living cells. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  17. Recharge rates and aquifer hydraulic characteristics for selected drainage basins in middle and east Tennessee

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Hoos, A.B.

    1990-01-01

    Quantitative information concerning aquifer hydrologic and hydraulic characteristics is needed to manage the development of ground-water resources. These characteristics are poorly defined for the bedrock aquifers in Middle and East Tennessee where demand for water is increasing. This report presents estimates of recharge rate, storage coefficient, diffusivity, and transmissivity for representative drainage basins in Middle and East Tennessee, as determined from analyses of stream-aquifer interactions. The drainage basins have been grouped according to the underlying major aquifer, then statistical descriptions applied to each group, in order to define area1 distribution of these characteristics. Aquifer recharge rates are estimated for representative low, average, and high flow years for 63 drainage basins using hydrograph analysis techniques. Net annual recharge during average flow years for all basins ranges from 4.1 to 16.8 in/yr (inches per year), with a mean value of 7.3 in. In general, recharge rates are highest for basins underlain by the Blue Ridge aquifer (mean value11.7 in/yr) and lowest for basins underlain by the Central Basin aquifer (mean value 5.6 in/yr). Mean recharge values for the Cumberland Plateau, Highland Rim, and Valley and Ridge aquifers are 6.5, 7.4, and 6.6 in/yr, respectively. Gravity drainage characterizes ground-water flow in most surficial bedrock aquifer in Tennessee. Accordingly, a gravity yield analysis, which compares concurrent water-level and streamflow hydrographs, was used to estimate aquifer storage coefficient for nine study basins. The basin estimates range from 0.002 to 0.140; however, most estimates are within a narrow range of values, from 0.01 to 0.025. Accordingly, storage coefficient is estimated to be 0.01 for all aquifers in Middle and East Tennessee, with the exception of the aquifer in the inner part of the Central Basin, for which storage coefficient is estimated to be 0.002. Estimates of aquifer hydraulic diffusivity are derived from estimates of the streamflow recession index and drainage density for 75 drainage basins; values range from 3,300 to 130,000 ft^2/d (feet squared per day). Basin-specific and site-specific estimates of transmissivity are computed from estimates of hydraulic diffusivity and specific-capacity test data, respectively. Basin-specific, or areal, estimates of transmissivity range from 22 to 1,300 ft^2/d, with a mean of 240 ft^2/d In general, areal transmissivity is highest for basins underlain by the Cumberland Plateau aquifer (mean value 480 ft^2/d) and lowest for basins underlain by the Central Basin aquifer (mean value 79 ft^2/d). Mean transmissivity values for the Highland Rim, Valley and Ridge, and Blue Ridge aquifer are 320,140, and 120 ft^2/d respectively. Site-specific estimates of transmissivity, computed from specific-capacity data from 118 test wells in Middle and East Tennessee range from 2 to 93,000 ft^2/d with a mean of 2,600 ft^2/d Mean transmissivity values for the Cumberland Plateau, Highland Rim, Central Basin, Valley and Ridge, and Blue Ridge aquifers are 2,800,1,200, 7,800, 390, and 65Oft Id, respectively.

  18. Demonstration of Nonlinearity Bias in the Measurement of the Apparent Diffusion Coefficient in Multicenter Trials

    PubMed Central

    Malyarenko, Dariya; Newitt, David; Wilmes, Lisa; Tudorica, Alina; Helmer, Karl G.; Arlinghaus, Lori R.; Jacobs, Michael A.; Jajamovich, Guido; Taouli, Bachir; Yankeelov, Thomas E.; Huang, Wei; Chenevert, Thomas L.

    2015-01-01

    Purpose Characterize system-specific bias across common magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) platforms for quantitative diffusion measurements in multicenter trials. Methods Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) was performed on an ice-water phantom along the superior-inferior (SI) and right-left (RL) orientations spanning ±150 mm. The same scanning protocol was implemented on 14 MRI systems at seven imaging centers. The bias was estimated as a deviation of measured from known apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) along individual DWI directions. The relative contributions of gradient nonlinearity, shim errors, imaging gradients and eddy currents were assessed independently. The observed bias errors were compared to numerical models. Results The measured systematic ADC errors scaled quadratically with offset from isocenter, and ranged between −55% (SI) and 25% (RL). Nonlinearity bias was dependent on system design and diffusion gradient direction. Consistent with numerical models, minor ADC errors (±5%) due to shim, imaging and eddy currents were mitigated by double echo DWI and image co-registration of individual gradient directions. Conclusion The analysis confirms gradient nonlinearity as a major source of spatial DW bias and variability in off-center ADC measurements across MRI platforms, with minor contributions from shim, imaging gradients and eddy currents. The developed protocol enables empiric description of systematic bias in multicenter quantitative DWI studies. PMID:25940607

  19. Demonstration of nonlinearity bias in the measurement of the apparent diffusion coefficient in multicenter trials.

    PubMed

    Malyarenko, Dariya I; Newitt, David; J Wilmes, Lisa; Tudorica, Alina; Helmer, Karl G; Arlinghaus, Lori R; Jacobs, Michael A; Jajamovich, Guido; Taouli, Bachir; Yankeelov, Thomas E; Huang, Wei; Chenevert, Thomas L

    2016-03-01

    Characterize system-specific bias across common magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) platforms for quantitative diffusion measurements in multicenter trials. Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) was performed on an ice-water phantom along the superior-inferior (SI) and right-left (RL) orientations spanning ± 150 mm. The same scanning protocol was implemented on 14 MRI systems at seven imaging centers. The bias was estimated as a deviation of measured from known apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) along individual DWI directions. The relative contributions of gradient nonlinearity, shim errors, imaging gradients, and eddy currents were assessed independently. The observed bias errors were compared with numerical models. The measured systematic ADC errors scaled quadratically with offset from isocenter, and ranged between -55% (SI) and 25% (RL). Nonlinearity bias was dependent on system design and diffusion gradient direction. Consistent with numerical models, minor ADC errors (± 5%) due to shim, imaging and eddy currents were mitigated by double echo DWI and image coregistration of individual gradient directions. The analysis confirms gradient nonlinearity as a major source of spatial DW bias and variability in off-center ADC measurements across MRI platforms, with minor contributions from shim, imaging gradients and eddy currents. The developed protocol enables empiric description of systematic bias in multicenter quantitative DWI studies. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  20. Response of radiation belt simulations to different radial diffusion coefficients

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Drozdov, A.; Shprits, Y.; Subbotin, D.; Kellerman, A. C.

    2013-12-01

    Resonant interactions between Ultra Low Frequency (ULF) waves and relativistic electrons may violate the third adiabatic invariant of motion, which produces radial diffusion in the electron radiation belts. This process plays an important role in the formation and structure of the outer electron radiation belt and is important for electron acceleration and losses in that region. Two parameterizations of the resonant wave-particle interaction of electrons with ULF waves in the magnetosphere by Brautigam and Albert [2000] and Ozeke et al. [2012] are evaluated using the Versatile Electron Radiation Belt (VERB) diffusion code to estimate their relative effect on the radiation belt simulation. The period of investigation includes quiet time and storm time geomagnetic activity and is compared to data based on satellite observations. Our calculations take into account wave-particle interactions represented by radial diffusion transport, local acceleration, losses due to pitch-angle diffusion, and mixed diffusion. We show that the results of the 3D diffusion simulations depend on the assumed parametrization of waves. The differences between the simulations and potential missing physical mechanisms are discussed. References Brautigam, D. H., and J. M. Albert (2000), Radial diffusion analysis of outer radiation belt electrons during the October 9, 1990, magnetic storm, J. Geophys. Res., 105(A1), 291-309, doi:10.1029/1999JA900344 Ozeke, L. G., I. R. Mann, K. R. Murphy, I. J. Rae, D. K. Milling, S. R. Elkington, A. A. Chan, and H. J. Singer (2012), ULF wave derived radiation belt radial diffusion coefficients, J. Geophys. Res., 117, A04222, doi:10.1029/2011JA017463.

  1. Exploring the dynamics of balance data — movement variability in terms of drift and diffusion

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gottschall, Julia; Peinke, Joachim; Lippens, Volker; Nagel, Volker

    2009-02-01

    We introduce a method to analyze postural control on a balance board by reconstructing the underlying dynamics in terms of a Langevin model. Drift and diffusion coefficients are directly estimated from the data and fitted by a suitable parametrization. The governing parameters are utilized to evaluate balance performance and the impact of supra-postural tasks on it. We show that the proposed method of analysis gives not only self-consistent results but also provides a plausible model for the reconstruction of balance dynamics.

  2. Diffusive smoothing of surfzone bathymetry by gravity-driven sediment transport

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Moulton, M. R.; Elgar, S.; Raubenheimer, B.

    2012-12-01

    Gravity-driven sediment transport often is assumed to have a small effect on the evolution of nearshore morphology. Here, it is shown that down-slope gravity-driven sediment transport is an important process acting to smooth steep bathymetric features in the surfzone. Gravity-driven transport can be modeled as a diffusive term in the sediment continuity equation governing temporal (t) changes in bed level (h): ∂h/∂t ≈ κ ▽2h, where κ is a sediment diffusion coefficient that is a function of the bed shear stress (τb) and sediment properties, such as the grain size and the angle of repose. Field observations of waves, currents, and the evolution of large excavated holes (initially 10-m wide and 2-m deep, with sides as steep as 35°) in an energetic surfzone are consistent with diffusive smoothing by gravity. Specifically, comparisons of κ estimated from the measured bed evolution with those estimated with numerical model results for several transport theories suggest that gravity-driven sediment transport dominates the bed evolution, with κ proportional to a power of τb. The models are initiated with observed bathymetry and forced with observed waves and currents. The diffusion coefficients from the measurements and from the model simulations were on average of order 10-5 m2/s, implying evolution time scales of days for features with length scales of 10 m. The dependence of κ on τb varies for different transport theories and for high and low shear stress regimes. The US Army Corps of Engineers Field Research Facility, Duck, NC provided excellent logistical support. Funded by a National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship, a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, and the Office of Naval Research.

  3. Ion radial diffusion in an electrostatic impulse model for stormtime ring current formation

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Chen, Margaret W.; Schulz, Michael; Lyons, Larry R.; Gorney, David J.

    1992-01-01

    Two refinements to the quasi-linear theory of ion radial diffusion are proposed and examined analytically with simulations of particle trajectories. The resonance-broadening correction by Dungey (1965) is applied to the quasi-linear diffusion theory by Faelthammar (1965) for an individual model storm. Quasi-linear theory is then applied to the mean diffusion coefficients resulting from simulations of particle trajectories in 20 model storms. The correction for drift-resonance broadening results in quasi-linear diffusion coefficients with discrepancies from the corresponding simulated values that are reduced by a factor of about 3. Further reductions in the discrepancies are noted following the averaging of the quasi-linear diffusion coefficients, the simulated coefficients, and the resonance-broadened coefficients for the 20 storms. Quasi-linear theory provides good descriptions of particle transport for a single storm but performs even better in conjunction with the present ensemble-averaging.

  4. Perpendicular Diffusion Coefficient of Comic Rays: The Presence of Weak Adiabatic Focusing

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, J. F.; Qin, G.; Ma, Q. M.; Song, T.; Yuan, S. B.

    2017-08-01

    The influence of adiabatic focusing on particle diffusion is an important topic in astrophysics and plasma physics. In the past, several authors have explored the influence of along-field adiabatic focusing on the parallel diffusion of charged energetic particles. In this paper, using the unified nonlinear transport theory developed by Shalchi and the method of He and Schlickeiser, we derive a new nonlinear perpendicular diffusion coefficient for a non-uniform background magnetic field. This formula demonstrates that the particle perpendicular diffusion coefficient is modified by along-field adiabatic focusing. For isotropic pitch-angle scattering and the weak adiabatic focusing limit, the derived perpendicular diffusion coefficient is independent of the sign of adiabatic focusing characteristic length. For the two-component model, we simplify the perpendicular diffusion coefficient up to the second order of the power series of the adiabatic focusing characteristic quantity. We find that the first-order modifying factor is equal to zero and that the sign of the second order is determined by the energy of the particles.

  5. Thermodynamic properties and diffusion of water + methane binary mixtures

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Shvab, I.; Sadus, Richard J., E-mail: rsadus@swin.edu.au

    2014-03-14

    Thermodynamic and diffusion properties of water + methane mixtures in a single liquid phase are studied using NVT molecular dynamics. An extensive comparison is reported for the thermal pressure coefficient, compressibilities, expansion coefficients, heat capacities, Joule-Thomson coefficient, zero frequency speed of sound, and diffusion coefficient at methane concentrations up to 15% in the temperature range of 298–650 K. The simulations reveal a complex concentration dependence of the thermodynamic properties of water + methane mixtures. The compressibilities, heat capacities, and diffusion coefficients decrease with increasing methane concentration, whereas values of the thermal expansion coefficients and speed of sound increase. Increasing methanemore » concentration considerably retards the self-diffusion of both water and methane in the mixture. These effects are caused by changes in hydrogen bond network, solvation shell structure, and dynamics of water molecules induced by the solvation of methane at constant volume conditions.« less

  6. Determination of Diffusion Coefficients in Cement-Based Materials: An Inverse Problem for the Nernst-Planck and Poisson Models

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Szyszkiewicz-Warzecha, Krzysztof; Jasielec, Jerzy J.; Fausek, Janusz; Filipek, Robert

    2016-08-01

    Transport properties of ions have significant impact on the possibility of rebars corrosion thus the knowledge of a diffusion coefficient is important for reinforced concrete durability. Numerous tests for the determination of diffusion coefficients have been proposed but analysis of some of these tests show that they are too simplistic or even not valid. Hence, more rigorous models to calculate the coefficients should be employed. Here we propose the Nernst-Planck and Poisson equations, which take into account the concentration and electric potential field. Based on this model a special inverse method is presented for determination of a chloride diffusion coefficient. It requires the measurement of concentration profiles or flux on the boundary and solution of the NPP model to define the goal function. Finding the global minimum is equivalent to the determination of diffusion coefficients. Typical examples of the application of the presented method are given.

  7. Kinetics of dodecanoic acid adsorption from caustic solution by activated carbon.

    PubMed

    Pendleton, Phillip; Wu, Sophie Hua

    2003-10-15

    This study examines the influences of adsorbent porosity and surface chemistry and of carbon dosage on dodecanoic acid adsorption kinetics from aqueous and 2 M NaOH solutions as batch adsorption processes. Both adsorbents are steam-activated carbons prepared from either coconut or coal precursors. Prior to use the adsorbents were washed in deionized water or 2 M NaOH. Mass transfer coefficients and effective overall diffusion coefficients indicate a minor contribution from adsorbent porosity. In contrast, high surface oxygen content impedes transport to and into the adsorbent structure. Carbon dosage shows a proportional increase in transport coefficients with increasing mass; these coefficients are constant when normalized per unit mass. Neither water nor NaOH treatment of the adsorbents has a significant influence on dodecanoic acid adsorption kinetics. Molecular and Knudsen diffusion coefficients are defined to demonstrate that the overall effective diffusion coefficient values and the diffusion process are controlled by surface diffusion.

  8. Effective Stochastic Model for Reactive Transport

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Tartakovsky, A. M.; Zheng, B.; Barajas-Solano, D. A.

    2017-12-01

    We propose an effective stochastic advection-diffusion-reaction (SADR) model. Unlike traditional advection-dispersion-reaction models, the SADR model describes mechanical and diffusive mixing as two separate processes. In the SADR model, the mechanical mixing is driven by random advective velocity with the variance given by the coefficient of mechanical dispersion. The diffusive mixing is modeled as a fickian diffusion with the effective diffusion coefficient. Both coefficients are given in terms of Peclet number (Pe) and the coefficient of molecular diffusion. We use the experimental results of to demonstrate that for transport and bimolecular reactions in porous media the SADR model is significantly more accurate than the traditional dispersion model, which overestimates the mass of the reaction product by as much as 25%.

  9. Solar energy distribution over Egypt using cloudiness from Meteosat photos

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Mosalam Shaltout, M.A.; Hassen, A.H.

    1990-01-01

    In Egypt, there are 10 ground stations for measuring the global solar radiation, and five stations for measuring the diffuse solar radiation. Every day at noon, the Meteorological Authority in Cairo receives three photographs of cloudiness over Egypt from the Meteosat satellite, one in the visible, and two in the infra-red bands (10.5-12.5 {mu}m) and (5.7-7.1 {mu}m). The monthly average cloudiness for 24 sites over Egypt are measured and calculated from Meteosat observations during the period 1985-1986. Correlation analysis between the cloudiness observed by Meteosat and global solar radiation measured from the ground stations is carried out. It is foundmore » that, the correlation coefficients are about 0.90 for the simple linear regression, and increase for the second and third degree regressions. Also, the correlation coefficients for the cloudiness with the diffuse solar radiation are about 0.80 for the simple linear regression, and increase for the second and third degree regression. Models and empirical relations for estimating the global and diffuse solar radiation from Meteosat cloudiness data over Egypt are deduced and tested. Seasonal maps for the global and diffuse radiation over Egypt are carried out.« less

  10. Predictive model to describe water migration in cellular solid foods during storage.

    PubMed

    Voogt, Juliën A; Hirte, Anita; Meinders, Marcel B J

    2011-11-01

    Water migration in cellular solid foods during storage causes loss of crispness. To improve crispness retention, physical understanding of this process is needed. Mathematical models are suitable tools to gain this physical knowledge. Water migration in cellular solid foods involves migration through both the air cells and the solid matrix. For systems in which the water migration distance is large compared with the cell wall thickness of the solid matrix, the overall water flux through the system is dominated by the flux through the air. For these systems, water migration can be approximated well by a Fickian diffusion model. The effective diffusion coefficient can be expressed in terms of the material properties of the solid matrix (i.e. the density, sorption isotherm and diffusion coefficient of water in the solid matrix) and the morphological properties of the cellular structure (i.e. water vapour permeability and volume fraction of the solid matrix). The water vapour permeability is estimated from finite element method modelling using a simplified model for the cellular structure. It is shown that experimentally observed dynamical water profiles of bread rolls that differ in crust permeability are predicted well by the Fickian diffusion model. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry.

  11. Predicting Salt Permeability Coefficients in Highly Swollen, Highly Charged Ion Exchange Membranes.

    PubMed

    Kamcev, Jovan; Paul, Donald R; Manning, Gerald S; Freeman, Benny D

    2017-02-01

    This study presents a framework for predicting salt permeability coefficients in ion exchange membranes in contact with an aqueous salt solution. The model, based on the solution-diffusion mechanism, was tested using experimental salt permeability data for a series of commercial ion exchange membranes. Equilibrium salt partition coefficients were calculated using a thermodynamic framework (i.e., Donnan theory), incorporating Manning's counterion condensation theory to calculate ion activity coefficients in the membrane phase and the Pitzer model to calculate ion activity coefficients in the solution phase. The model predicted NaCl partition coefficients in a cation exchange membrane and two anion exchange membranes, as well as MgCl 2 partition coefficients in a cation exchange membrane, remarkably well at higher external salt concentrations (>0.1 M) and reasonably well at lower external salt concentrations (<0.1 M) with no adjustable parameters. Membrane ion diffusion coefficients were calculated using a combination of the Mackie and Meares model, which assumes ion diffusion in water-swollen polymers is affected by a tortuosity factor, and a model developed by Manning to account for electrostatic effects. Agreement between experimental and predicted salt diffusion coefficients was good with no adjustable parameters. Calculated salt partition and diffusion coefficients were combined within the framework of the solution-diffusion model to predict salt permeability coefficients. Agreement between model and experimental data was remarkably good. Additionally, a simplified version of the model was used to elucidate connections between membrane structure (e.g., fixed charge group concentration) and salt transport properties.

  12. Vacuum ultraviolet photolysis of hydrogenated amorphous carbons. III. Diffusion of photo-produced H2 as a function of temperature

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Martín-Doménech, R.; Dartois, E.; Muñoz Caro, G. M.

    2016-06-01

    Context. Hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) has been proposed as one of the carbonaceous solids detected in the interstellar medium. Energetic processing of the a-C:H particles leads to the dissociation of the C-H bonds and the formation of hydrogen molecules and small hydrocarbons. Photo-produced H2 molecules in the bulk of the dust particles can diffuse out to the gas phase and contribute to the total H2 abundance. Aims: We have simulated this process in the laboratory with plasma-produced a-C:H and a-C:D analogs under astrophysically relevant conditions to investigate the dependence of the diffusion as a function of temperature. Methods: Experimental simulations were performed in a high-vacuum chamber, with complementary experiments carried out in an ultra-high-vacuum chamber. Plasma-produced a-C:H and a-C:D analogs were UV-irradiated using a microwave-discharged hydrogen flow lamp. Molecules diffusing to the gas-phase were detected by a quadrupole mass spectrometer, providing a measurement of the outgoing H2 or D2 flux. By comparing the experimental measurements with the expected flux from a one-dimensional diffusion model, a diffusion coefficient D could be derived for experiments carried out at different temperatures. Results: Dependence on the diffusion coefficient D with the temperature followed an Arrhenius-type equation. The activation energy for the diffusion process was estimated (ED(H2) = 1660 ± 110 K, ED(D2) = 2090 ± 90 K), as well as the pre-exponential factor (D0(H2) = 0.0007 cm2 s-1, D0(D2) = 0.0045 cm2 s-1). Conclusions: The strong decrease of the diffusion coefficient at low dust particle temperatures exponentially increases the diffusion times in astrophysical environments. Therefore, transient dust heating by cosmic rays needs to be invoked for the release of the photo-produced H2 molecules in cold photon-dominated regions, where destruction of the aliphatic component in hydrogenated amorphous carbons most probably takes place.

  13. Solid-state diffusion-controlled growth of the phases in the Au-Sn system

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Baheti, Varun A.; Kashyap, Sanjay; Kumar, Praveen; Chattopadhyay, Kamanio; Paul, Aloke

    2018-01-01

    The solid state diffusion-controlled growth of the phases is studied for the Au-Sn system in the range of room temperature to 200 °C using bulk and electroplated diffusion couples. The number of product phases in the interdiffusion zone decreases with the decrease in annealing temperature. These phases grow with significantly high rates even at the room temperature. The growth rate of the AuSn4 phase is observed to be higher in the case of electroplated diffusion couple because of the relatively small grains and hence high contribution of the grain boundary diffusion when compared to the bulk diffusion couple. The diffraction pattern analysis indicates the same equilibrium crystal structure of the phases in these two types of diffusion couples. The analysis in the AuSn4 phase relating the estimated tracer diffusion coefficients with grain size, crystal structure, the homologous temperature of experiments and the concept of the sublattice diffusion mechanism in the intermetallic compounds indicate that Au diffuses mainly via the grain boundaries, whereas Sn diffuses via both the grain boundaries and the lattice.

  14. Apparent diffusion coefficient evaluation for secondary changes in the cerebellum of rats after middle cerebral artery occlusion

    PubMed Central

    Yang, Yunjun; Gao, Lingyun; Fu, Jun; Zhang, Jun; Li, Yuxin; Yin, Bo; Chen, Weijian; Geng, Daoying

    2013-01-01

    Supratentorial cerebral infarction can cause functional inhibition of remote regions such as the cerebellum, which may be relevant to diaschisis. This phenomenon is often analyzed using positron emission tomography and single photon emission CT. However, these methods are expensive and radioactive. Thus, the present study quantified the changes of infarction core and remote regions after unilateral middle cerebral artery occlusion using apparent diffusion coefficient values. Diffusion-weighted imaging showed that the area of infarction core gradually increased to involve the cerebral cortex with increasing infarction time. Diffusion weighted imaging signals were initially increased and then stabilized by 24 hours. With increasing infarction time, the apparent diffusion coefficient value in the infarction core and remote bilateral cerebellum both gradually decreased, and then slightly increased 3–24 hours after infarction. Apparent diffusion coefficient values at remote regions (cerebellum) varied along with the change of supratentorial infarction core, suggesting that the phenomenon of diaschisis existed at the remote regions. Thus, apparent diffusion coefficient values and diffusion weighted imaging can be used to detect early diaschisis. PMID:25206615

  15. Excess entropy scaling for the segmental and global dynamics of polyethylene melts.

    PubMed

    Voyiatzis, Evangelos; Müller-Plathe, Florian; Böhm, Michael C

    2014-11-28

    The range of validity of the Rosenfeld and Dzugutov excess entropy scaling laws is analyzed for unentangled linear polyethylene chains. We consider two segmental dynamical quantities, i.e. the bond and the torsional relaxation times, and two global ones, i.e. the chain diffusion coefficient and the viscosity. The excess entropy is approximated by either a series expansion of the entropy in terms of the pair correlation function or by an equation of state for polymers developed in the context of the self associating fluid theory. For the whole range of temperatures and chain lengths considered, the two estimates of the excess entropy are linearly correlated. The scaled bond and torsional relaxation times fall into a master curve irrespective of the chain length and the employed scaling scheme. Both quantities depend non-linearly on the excess entropy. For a fixed chain length, the reduced diffusion coefficient and viscosity scale linearly with the excess entropy. An empirical reduction to a chain length-independent master curve is accessible for both dynamic quantities. The Dzugutov scheme predicts an increased value of the scaled diffusion coefficient with increasing chain length which contrasts physical expectations. The origin of this trend can be traced back to the density dependence of the scaling factors. This finding has not been observed previously for Lennard-Jones chain systems (Macromolecules, 2013, 46, 8710-8723). Thus, it limits the applicability of the Dzugutov approach to polymers. In connection with diffusion coefficients and viscosities, the Rosenfeld scaling law appears to be of higher quality than the Dzugutov approach. An empirical excess entropy scaling is also proposed which leads to a chain length-independent correlation. It is expected to be valid for polymers in the Rouse regime.

  16. Solute partitioning under continuous cooling conditions as a cooling rate indicator. [in lunar rocks

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Onorato, P. I. K.; Hopper, R. W.; Yinnon, H.; Uhlmann, D. R.; Taylor, L. A.; Garrison, J. R.; Hunter, R.

    1981-01-01

    A model of solute partitioning in a finite body under conditions of continuous cooling is developed for the determination of cooling rates from concentration profile data, and applied to the partitioning of zirconium between ilmenite and ulvospinel in the Apollo 15 Elbow Crater rocks. Partitioning in a layered composite solid is described numerically in terms of concentration profiles and diffusion coefficients which are functions of time and temperature, respectively; a program based on the model can be used to calculate concentration profiles for various assumed cooling rates given the diffusion coefficients in the two phases and the equilibrium partitioning ratio over a range of temperatures. In the case of the Elbow Rock gabbros, the cooling rates are calculated from measured concentration ratios 10 microns from the interphase boundaries under the assumptions of uniform and equilibrium initial conditions at various starting temperatures. It is shown that the specimens could not have had uniform concentrations profiles at the previously suggested initial temperature of 1350 K. It is concluded that even under conditions where the initial temperature, grain sizes and solute diffusion coefficients are not well characterized, the model can be used to estimate the cooling rate of a grain assemblage to within an order of magnitude.

  17. Estimating the Underwater Diffuse Attenuation Coefficient with a Low-Cost Instrument: The KdUINO DIY Buoy.

    PubMed

    Bardaji, Raul; Sánchez, Albert-Miquel; Simon, Carine; Wernand, Marcel R; Piera, Jaume

    2016-03-15

    A critical parameter to assess the environmental status of water bodies is the transparency of the water, as it is strongly affected by different water quality related components (such as the presence of phytoplankton, organic matter and sediment concentrations). One parameter to assess the water transparency is the diffuse attenuation coefficient. However, the number of subsurface irradiance measurements obtained with conventional instrumentation is relatively low, due to instrument costs and the logistic requirements to provide regular and autonomous observations. In recent years, the citizen science concept has increased the number of environmental observations, both in time and space. The recent technological advances in embedded systems and sensors also enable volunteers (citizens) to create their own devices (known as Do-It-Yourself or DIY technologies). In this paper, a DIY instrument to measure irradiance at different depths and automatically calculate the diffuse attenuation Kd coefficient is presented. The instrument, named KdUINO, is based on an encapsulated low-cost photonic sensor and Arduino (an open-hardware platform for the data acquisition). The whole instrument has been successfully operated and the data validated comparing the KdUINO measurements with the commercial instruments. Workshops have been organized with high school students to validate its feasibility.

  18. Radial mixing in turbomachines

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Segaert, P.; Hirsch, Ch.; Deruyck, J.

    1991-03-01

    A method for computing the effects of radial mixing in a turbomachinery blade row has been developed. The method fits in the framework of a quasi-3D flow computation and hence is applied in a corrective fashion to through flow distributions. The method takes into account both secondary flows and turbulent diffusion as possible sources of mixing. Secondary flow velocities determine the magnitude of the convection terms in the energy redistribution equation while a turbulent diffusion coefficient determines the magnitude of the diffusion terms. Secondary flows are computed by solving a Poisson equation for a secondary streamfunction on a transversal S3-plane, whereby the right-hand side axial vorticity is composed of different contributions, each associated to a particular flow region: inviscid core flow, end-wall boundary layers, profile boundary layers and wakes. The turbulent mixing coefficient is estimated by a semi-empirical correlation. Secondary flow theory is applied to the VUB cascade testcase and comparisons are made between the computational results and the extensive experimental data available for this testcase. This comparison shows that the secondary flow computations yield reliable predictions of the secondary flow pattern, both qualitatively and quantitatively, taking into account the limitations of the model. However, the computations show that use of a uniform mixing coefficient has to be replaced by a more sophisticated approach.

  19. Estimating the Underwater Diffuse Attenuation Coefficient with a Low-Cost Instrument: The KdUINO DIY Buoy

    PubMed Central

    Bardaji, Raul; Sánchez, Albert-Miquel; Simon, Carine; Wernand, Marcel R.; Piera, Jaume

    2016-01-01

    A critical parameter to assess the environmental status of water bodies is the transparency of the water, as it is strongly affected by different water quality related components (such as the presence of phytoplankton, organic matter and sediment concentrations). One parameter to assess the water transparency is the diffuse attenuation coefficient. However, the number of subsurface irradiance measurements obtained with conventional instrumentation is relatively low, due to instrument costs and the logistic requirements to provide regular and autonomous observations. In recent years, the citizen science concept has increased the number of environmental observations, both in time and space. The recent technological advances in embedded systems and sensors also enable volunteers (citizens) to create their own devices (known as Do-It-Yourself or DIY technologies). In this paper, a DIY instrument to measure irradiance at different depths and automatically calculate the diffuse attenuation Kd coefficient is presented. The instrument, named KdUINO, is based on an encapsulated low-cost photonic sensor and Arduino (an open-hardware platform for the data acquisition). The whole instrument has been successfully operated and the data validated comparing the KdUINO measurements with the commercial instruments. Workshops have been organized with high school students to validate its feasibility. PMID:26999132

  20. Diffusion in the system K2O-SrO-SiO2. II - Cation self-diffusion coefficients.

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Varshneya, A. K.; Cooper, A. R.

    1972-01-01

    The self-diffusion coefficients were measured by introducing a slab of glass previously irradiated in a reactor between two slabs of unirradiated glass. By heating the specimens, etching them sequentially and determining the radioactivity, self-diffusion coefficients for K and Sr were measured. It is pointed out that the results obtained in the investigations appear to support the proposal that the network of the base glass predominantly controls the activation energy for the diffusion of ions.

  1. Effects of the approximations of light propagation on quantitative photoacoustic tomography using two-dimensional photon diffusion equation and linearization

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Okawa, Shinpei; Hirasawa, Takeshi; Kushibiki, Toshihiro; Ishihara, Miya

    2017-12-01

    Quantitative photoacoustic tomography (QPAT) employing a light propagation model will play an important role in medical diagnoses by quantifying the concentration of hemoglobin or a contrast agent. However, QPAT by the light propagation model with the three-dimensional (3D) radiative transfer equation (RTE) requires a huge computational load in the iterative forward calculations involved in the updating process to reconstruct the absorption coefficient. The approximations of the light propagation improve the efficiency of the image reconstruction for the QPAT. In this study, we compared the 3D/two-dimensional (2D) photon diffusion equation (PDE) approximating 3D RTE with the Monte Carlo simulation based on 3D RTE. Then, the errors in a 2D PDE-based linearized image reconstruction caused by the approximations were quantitatively demonstrated and discussed in the numerical simulations. It was clearly observed that the approximations affected the reconstructed absorption coefficient. The 2D PDE-based linearized algorithm succeeded in the image reconstruction of the region with a large absorption coefficient in the 3D phantom. The value reconstructed in the phantom experiment agreed with that in the numerical simulation, so that it was validated that the numerical simulation of the image reconstruction predicted the relationship between the true absorption coefficient of the target in the 3D medium and the reconstructed value with the 2D PDE-based linearized algorithm. Moreover, the the true absorption coefficient in 3D medium was estimated from the 2D reconstructed image on the basis of the prediction by the numerical simulation. The estimation was successful in the phantom experiment, although some limitations were revealed.

  2. Technical Note: A safe, cheap, and easy-to-use isotropic diffusion MRI phantom for clinical and multicenter studies.

    PubMed

    Pullens, Pim; Bladt, Piet; Sijbers, Jan; Maas, Andrew I R; Parizel, Paul M

    2017-03-01

    Since Diffusion Weighted Imaging (DWI) data acquisition and processing are not standardized, substantial differences in DWI derived measures such as Apparent Diffusion Coefficient (ADC) may arise which are related to the acquisition or MRI processing method, but not to the sample under study. Quality assurance using a standardized test object, or phantom, is a key factor in standardizing DWI across scanners. Current diffusion phantoms are either complex to use, not available in larger quantities, contain substances unwanted in a clinical environment, or are expensive. A diffusion phantom based on a polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) solution, together with a phantom holder, is presented and compared to existing diffusion phantoms for use in clinical DWI scans. An ADC vs. temperature calibration curve was obtained. ADC of the phantom (808 to 857 ± 0.2 mm 2 /s) is in the same range as ADC values found in brain tissue. ADC measurements are highly reproducible across time with an intra-class correlation coefficient of > 0.8. ADC as function of temperature (in Kelvin) can be estimated as ADCm(T)=[exp(-7.09)·exp-2903.81T-1293.55] with a total uncertainty (95% confidence limit) of ± 1.7%. We present an isotropic diffusion MRI phantom, together with its temperature calibration curve, that is easy-to-use in a clinical environment, cost-effective, reproducible to produce, and that contains no harmful substances. © 2017 American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

  3. Gene interference regulates aquaporin-4 expression in swollen tissue of rats with cerebral ischemic edema: Correlation with variation in apparent diffusion coefficient.

    PubMed

    Hu, Hui; Lu, Hong; He, Zhanping; Han, Xiangjun; Chen, Jing; Tu, Rong

    2012-07-25

    To investigate the effects of mRNA interference on aquaporin-4 expression in swollen tissue of rats with ischemic cerebral edema, and diagnose the significance of diffusion-weighted MRI, we injected 5 μL shRNA- aquaporin-4 (control group) or siRNA- aquaporin-4 solution (1:800) (RNA interference group) into the rat right basal ganglia immediately before occlusion of the middle cerebral artery. At 0.25 hours after occlusion of the middle cerebral artery, diffusion-weighted MRI displayed a high signal; within 2 hours, the relative apparent diffusion coefficient decreased markedly, aquaporin-4 expression increased rapidly, and intracellular edema was obviously aggravated; at 4 and 6 hours, the relative apparent diffusion coefficient slowly returned to control levels, aquaporin-4 expression slightly increased, and angioedema was observed. In the RNA interference group, during 0.25-6 hours after injection of siRNA- aquaporin-4 solution, the relative apparent diffusion coefficient slightly fluctuated and aquaporin-4 expression was upregulated; during 0.5-4 hours, the relative apparent diffusion coefficient was significantly higher, while aquaporin-4 expression was significantly lower when compared with the control group, and intracellular edema was markedly reduced; at 0.25 and 6 hours, the relative apparent diffusion coefficient and aquaporin-4 expression were similar when compared with the control group; obvious angioedema remained at 6 hours. Pearson's correlation test results showed that aquaporin-4 expression was negatively correlated with the apparent diffusion coefficient (r = -0.806, P < 0.01). These findings suggest that upregulated aquaporin-4 expression is likely to be the main molecular mechanism of intracellular edema and may be the molecular basis for decreased relative apparent diffusion coefficient. Aquaporin-4 gene interference can effectively inhibit the upregulation of aquaporin-4 expression during the stage of intracellular edema with time-effectiveness. Moreover, diffusion-weighted MRI can accurately detect intracellular edema.

  4. The Stokes-Einstein relation at moderate Schmidt number.

    PubMed

    Balboa Usabiaga, Florencio; Xie, Xiaoyi; Delgado-Buscalioni, Rafael; Donev, Aleksandar

    2013-12-07

    The Stokes-Einstein relation for the self-diffusion coefficient of a spherical particle suspended in an incompressible fluid is an asymptotic result in the limit of large Schmidt number, that is, when momentum diffuses much faster than the particle. When the Schmidt number is moderate, which happens in most particle methods for hydrodynamics, deviations from the Stokes-Einstein prediction are expected. We study these corrections computationally using a recently developed minimally resolved method for coupling particles to an incompressible fluctuating fluid in both two and three dimensions. We find that for moderate Schmidt numbers the diffusion coefficient is reduced relative to the Stokes-Einstein prediction by an amount inversely proportional to the Schmidt number in both two and three dimensions. We find, however, that the Einstein formula is obeyed at all Schmidt numbers, consistent with linear response theory. The mismatch arises because thermal fluctuations affect the drag coefficient for a particle due to the nonlinear nature of the fluid-particle coupling. The numerical data are in good agreement with an approximate self-consistent theory, which can be used to estimate finite-Schmidt number corrections in a variety of methods. Our results indicate that the corrections to the Stokes-Einstein formula come primarily from the fact that the particle itself diffuses together with the momentum. Our study separates effects coming from corrections to no-slip hydrodynamics from those of finite separation of time scales, allowing for a better understanding of widely observed deviations from the Stokes-Einstein prediction in particle methods such as molecular dynamics.

  5. Finite linear diffusion model for design of overcharge protection for rechargeable lithium batteries

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Narayanan, S. R.; Surampudi, S.; Attia, A. I.

    1991-01-01

    The overcharge condition in secondary lithium batteries employing redox additives for overcharge protection has been theoretically analyzed in terms of a finite linear diffusion model. The analysis leads to expressions relating the steady-state overcharge current density and cell voltage to the concentration, diffusion coefficient, standard reduction potential of the redox couple, and interelectrode distance. The model permits the estimation of the maximum permissible overcharge rate for any chosen set of system conditions. The model has been experimentally verified using 1,1-prime-dimethylferrocene as a redox additive. The theoretical results may be exploited in the design and optimization of overcharge protection by the redox additive approach.

  6. Effect of diffuser vane shape on the performance of a centrifugal compressor stage

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reddy, T. Ch Siva; Ramana Murty, G. V.; Prasad, M. V. S. S. S. M.

    2014-04-01

    The present paper reports the results of experimental investigations on the effect of diffuser vane shape on the performance of a centrifugal compressor stage. These studies were conducted on the chosen stage having a backward curved impeller of 500 mm tip diameter and 24.5 mm width and its design flow coefficient is ϕd=0.0535. Three different low solidity diffuser vane shapes namely uncambered aerofoil, constant thickness flat plate and circular arc cambered constant thickness plate were chosen as the variants for diffuser vane shape and all the three shapes have the same thickness to chord ratio (t/c=0.1). Flow coefficient, polytropic efficiency, total head coefficient, power coefficient and static pressure recovery coefficient were chosen as the parameters for evaluating the effect of diffuser vane shape on the stage performance. The results show that there is reasonable improvement in stage efficiency and total head coefficient with the use of the chosen diffuser vane shapes as compared to conventional vaneless diffuser. It is also noticed that the aero foil shaped LSD has shown better performance when compared to flat plate and circular arc profiles. The aerofoil vane shape of the diffuser blade is seen to be tolerant over a considerable range of incidence.

  7. Application of the compensated Arrhenius formalism to self-diffusion: implications for ionic conductivity and dielectric relaxation.

    PubMed

    Petrowsky, Matt; Frech, Roger

    2010-07-08

    Self-diffusion coefficients are measured from -5 to 80 degrees C in a series of linear alcohols using pulsed field gradient NMR. The temperature dependence of these data is studied using a compensated Arrhenius formalism that assumes an Arrhenius-like expression for the diffusion coefficient; however, this expression includes a dielectric constant dependence in the exponential prefactor. Scaling temperature-dependent diffusion coefficients to isothermal diffusion coefficients so that the exponential prefactors cancel results in calculated energies of activation E(a). The exponential prefactor is determined by dividing the temperature-dependent diffusion coefficients by the Boltzmann term exp(-E(a)/RT). Plotting the prefactors versus the dielectric constant places the data on a single master curve. This procedure is identical to that previously used to study the temperature dependence of ionic conductivities and dielectric relaxation rate constants. The energies of activation determined from self-diffusion coefficients in the series of alcohols are strikingly similar to those calculated for the same series of alcohols from both dielectric relaxation rate constants and ionic conductivities of dilute electrolytes. The experimental results are described in terms of an activated transport mechanism that is mediated by relaxation of the solution molecules. This microscopic picture of transport is postulated to be common to diffusion, dielectric relaxation, and ionic transport.

  8. Neoclassical diffusion at low L-shel

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Cunningham, G.; Ripoll, J. F.; Loridan, V.; Schulz, M.

    2017-12-01

    At very low L-shell, the lifetime of MeV electrons is dominated by pitch-angle scattering due to Coulomb collisions with background neutrals and ions. Walt's evaluation of this lifetime explained Van Allen's observations of the decay of the radiation belts in the early 1960's, for L<1.25 but Imhof et al showed that the apparent lifetime of >500 keV electrons for L=[1.15,1.21] was much greater than predicted by Walt's model when the decay was observed over 3 years rather than just a few months. Imhof et al argued that inward radial diffusion from larger L would be a source of electrons at low L, thus increasing the apparent lifetimes that were observed, but did not speculate on the cause of such diffusion across L. Newkirk and Walt estimated the radial diffusion coefficient that would be needed to explain the apparent lifetimes observed by Imhof et al. The radial diffusion coefficients they inferred dropped sharply as L increased, contrasting with the radial diffusion coefficients that had been recently developed by Falthammar [1965], which increase as a power law in L. Newkirk and Walt noted Falthammar's speculation that pitch-angle diffusion caused by Coulomb scattering, when coupled to drift-shell splitting associated with non-dipolar terms in the near-Earth geomagnetic field, might be the physical basis for the radial diffusion, but they did not attempt to quantify this effect. Roederer et al demonstrated that Coulomb scattering plus drift-shell splitting could explain the Newkirk and Walt results but they did not perform an exhaustive study. In the field of magnetically confined fusion, the movement of charged particles to different drift-shells caused by the combination of collisions and drift-shell splitting is labeled `neoclassical' diffusion. By contrast, `anomalous' diffusion results from pitch-angle diffusion caused by wave turbulence combined with drift-shell splitting, an effect recently studied by O'Brien in the outer radiation belt. We have constructed a comprehensive model of neoclassical diffusion at low L as a function of pitch-angle, energy and L-shell, and find that we quantitatively reproduce the results in Newkirk and Walt and Imhof et al, conclusively demonstrating that neoclassical diffusion is an important effect for energetic electrons in the deep inner belt.

  9. Ultra-fast grain boundary diffusion and its contribution to surface segregation on a martensitic steel. Experiments and modeling

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Christien, F.; Le Gall, R.

    2011-09-01

    Phosphorus surface segregation was measured by Auger Electron Spectroscopy on a 17-4 PH martensitic stainless steel at 450, 550 and 600 °C. Surface segregation was shown to be much faster than expected which was attributed to a high contribution of phosphorus diffusion along the former austenitic grain boundaries. A model of surface segregation was developed following the Darken-du Plessis approach and taking account of both bulk and grain boundary solute diffusion. The phosphorus grain boundary diffusion coefficient in 17-4 PH was estimated: DGB< = 6.2 10 4 exp(- 157 kJ mol - 1 /RT)cm 2 s - 1 . It is found to be more than three orders of magnitude higher in 17-4 PH steel than in α-iron.

  10. Estimation of underwater visibility in coastal and inland waters using remote sensing data.

    PubMed

    Kulshreshtha, Anuj; Shanmugam, Palanisamy

    2017-04-01

    An optical method is developed to estimate water transparency (or underwater visibility) in terms of Secchi depth (Z sd ), which follows the remote sensing and contrast transmittance theory. The major factors governing the variation in Z sd , namely, turbidity and length attenuation coefficient (1/(c + K d ), c = beam attenuation coefficient; K d  = diffuse attenuation coefficient at 531 nm), are obtained based on band rationing techniques. It was found that the band ratio of remote sensing reflectance (expressed as (R rs (443) + R rs (490))/(R rs (555) + R rs (670)) contains essential information about the water column optical properties and thereby positively correlates to turbidity. The beam attenuation coefficient (c) at 531 nm is obtained by a linear relationship with turbidity. To derive the vertical diffuse attenuation coefficient (K d ) at 531 nm, K d (490) is estimated as a function of reflectance ratio (R rs (670)/R rs (490)), which provides the bio-optical link between chlorophyll concentration and K d (531). The present algorithm was applied to MODIS-Aqua images, and the results were evaluated by matchup comparisons between the remotely estimated Z sd and in situ Z sd in coastal waters off Point Calimere and its adjoining regions on the southeast coast of India. The results showed the pattern of increasing Z sd from shallow turbid waters to deep clear waters. The statistical evaluation of the results showed that the percent mean relative error between the MODIS-Aqua-derived Z sd and in situ Z sd values was within ±25%. A close agreement achieved in spatial contours of MODIS-Aqua-derived Z sd and in situ Z sd for the month of January 2014 and August 2013 promises the model capability to yield accurate estimates of Z sd in coastal, estuarine, and inland waters. The spatial contours have been included to provide the best data visualization of the measured, modeled (in situ), and satellite-derived Z sd products. The modeled and satellite-derived Z sd values were compared with measurement data which yielded RMSE = 0.079, MRE = -0.016, and R 2  = 0.95 for the modeled Z sd and RMSE = 0.075, MRE = 0.020, and R 2  = 0.95 for the satellite-derived Z sd products.

  11. Surface diffusivity measurements on 8mol.% yttrium oxide-zirconia bicrystals via grain boundary grooving experiments

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Nassirou, Maissarath

    Thermal grooving at grain boundaries (GBs) is a capillary-driven evolution of surface topography in the region where the grain boundary emerges at a free surface. The study of these topographic changes can provide insight into surface energetics, and in our particular case, the measurement of surface diffusivity. We have measured the surface diffusion coefficient of 8mol% Y 2O3-ZrO2 by studying the formation of thermal grooves. We studied a total of five bicrystals, with well defined orientation relationships; random [110] -60°, random [001] -30°, Sigma13 [001]/{510}, Sigma13 [001]/{320}, Sigma5 [001]/{210}. Our calculations employed the Herring relation (1951), in which the variation in the chemical potential is related to changes in topography. The samples were annealed at 1300°C and 1400°C for various period of time. Atomic Force Microscopy was used to determine the exact geometry of the thermal grooves. A first approach consisted of estimating the diffusion coefficient by using Mullins' equation. yx=0= dsDs1/ 4gb2g s12G 5/4( WkTgs) 1/4t 1/4 Where y(x =0) is the groove depth at the GB triple junction, O is the atomic volume, gs is the surface tension, gb is the grain boundary surface energy, ds is the thickness of the diffusion layer, t is the annealing time, and Ds is the surface diffusion coefficient. In Mullins' derivation, the atomic structure of the surface was ignored and it was assumed that the surface energy is independent of crystallographic orientation. In the case of zirconia, the surface energy is anisotropic. We will describe in this work a new approach to measuring surface diffusivity which accounts for the surface energy anisotropy. The study of these bicrystals will emphasize the effect of grain boundary structure on the surface diffusion coefficient, and it is for that purpose that we selected bicrystals with different tilt axes and angles. The results obtained using the equation set we have developed will be compared to those obtained by Mullins, and we show that the anisotropic groove evolution, even when perfectly symmetrical, is much slower than the corresponding isotropic case.

  12. An Exploration into Diffusion Tensor Imaging in the Bovine Ocular Lens

    PubMed Central

    Vaghefi, Ehsan; Donaldson, Paul J.

    2013-01-01

    We describe our development of the diffusion tensor imaging modality for the bovine ocular lens. Diffusion gradients were added to a spin-echo pulse sequence and the relevant parameters of the sequence were refined to achieve good diffusion weighting in the lens tissue, which demonstrated heterogeneous regions of diffusive signal attenuation. Decay curves for b-value (loosely summarizes the strength of diffusion weighting) and TE (determines the amount of magnetic resonance imaging-obtained signal) were used to estimate apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC) and T2 in different lens regions. The ADCs varied by over an order of magnitude and revealed diffusive anisotropy in the lens. Up to 30 diffusion gradient directions, and 8 signal acquisition averages, were applied to lenses in culture in order to improve maps of diffusion tensor eigenvalues, equivalent to ADC, across the lens. From these maps, fractional anisotropy maps were calculated and compared to known spatial distributions of anisotropic molecular fluxes in the lens. This comparison suggested new hypotheses and experiments to quantitatively assess models of circulation in the avascular lens. PMID:23459990

  13. Transport properties of carbon dioxide and methane from molecular dynamics simulations.

    PubMed

    Aimoli, C G; Maginn, E J; Abreu, C R A

    2014-10-07

    Transport properties of carbon dioxide and methane are predicted for temperatures between (273.15 and 573.15) K and pressures up to 800 MPa by molecular dynamics simulations. Viscosities and thermal conductivities were obtained through the Green-Kubo formalism, whereas the Einstein relation was used to provide self-diffusion coefficient estimates. The differences in property predictions due to the force field nature and parametrization were investigated by the comparison of seven different CO2 models (two single-site models, three rigid three-site models, and two fully flexible three-site models) and three different CH4 models (two single-site models and one fully flexible five-site model). The simulation results show good agreement with experimental data, except for thermal conductivities at low densities. The molecular structure and force field parameters play an important role in the accuracy of the simulations, which is within the experimental deviations reported for viscosities and self-diffusion coefficients considering the most accurate CO2 and CH4 models studied. On the other hand, the molecular flexibility does not seem to improve accuracy, since the explicit account of vibrational and bending degrees of freedom in the CO2 flexible models leads to slightly less accurate results. Nonetheless, the use of a correctional term to account for vibrational modes in rigid models generally improves estimations of thermal conductivity values. At extreme densities, the caging effect observed with single-site representations of the molecules restrains mobility and leads to an unphysical overestimation of viscosities and, conversely, to the underestimation of self-diffusion coefficients. This result may help to better understand the limits of applicability of such force fields concerning structural and transport properties of dense systems.

  14. Diffusion and sorption of organic micropollutants in biofilms with varying thicknesses.

    PubMed

    Torresi, Elena; Polesel, Fabio; Bester, Kai; Christensson, Magnus; Smets, Barth F; Trapp, Stefan; Andersen, Henrik R; Plósz, Benedek Gy

    2017-10-15

    Solid-liquid partitioning is one of the main fate processes determining the removal of micropollutants in wastewater. Little is known on the sorption of micropollutants in biofilms, where molecular diffusion may significantly influence partitioning kinetics. In this study, the diffusion and the sorption of 23 micropollutants were investigated in novel moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) carriers with controlled biofilm thickness (50, 200 and 500 μm) using targeted batch experiments (initial concentration = 1 μg L -1 , for X-ray contrast media 15 μg L -1 ) and mathematical modelling. We assessed the influence of biofilm thickness and density on the dimensionless effective diffusivity coefficient f (equal to the biofilm-to-aqueous diffusivity ratio) and the distribution coefficient K d,eq (L g -1 ). Sorption was significant only for eight positively charged micropollutants (atenolol, metoprolol, propranolol, citalopram, venlafaxine, erythromycin, clarithromycin and roxithromycin), revealing the importance of electrostatic interactions with solids. Sorption equilibria were likely not reached within the duration of batch experiments (4 h), particularly for the thickest biofilm, requiring the calculation of the distribution coefficient K d,eq based on the approximation of the asymptotic equilibrium concentration (t > 4 h). K d,eq values increased with increasing biofilm thickness for all sorptive micropollutants (except atenolol), possibly due to higher porosity and accessible surface area in the thickest biofilm. Positive correlations between K d,eq and micropollutant properties (polarity and molecular size descriptors) were identified but not for all biofilm thicknesses, thus confirming the challenge of improving predictive sorption models for positively charged compounds. A diffusion-sorption model was developed and calibrated against experimental data, and estimated f values also increased with increasing biofilm thickness. This indicates that diffusion in thin biofilms may be strongly limited (f ≪ 0.1) by the high biomass density (reduced porosity). Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  15. Diffusion in different models of active Brownian motion

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lindner, B.; Nicola, E. M.

    2008-04-01

    Active Brownian particles (ABP) have served as phenomenological models of self-propelled motion in biology. We study the effective diffusion coefficient of two one-dimensional ABP models (simplified depot model and Rayleigh-Helmholtz model) differing in their nonlinear friction functions. Depending on the choice of the friction function the diffusion coefficient does or does not attain a minimum as a function of noise intensity. We furthermore discuss the case of an additional bias breaking the left-right symmetry of the system. We show that this bias induces a drift and that it generally reduces the diffusion coefficient. For a finite range of values of the bias, both models can exhibit a maximum in the diffusion coefficient vs. noise intensity.

  16. Interaction of ring current and radiation belt protons with ducted plasmaspheric hiss. 1: Diffusion coefficients and timescales

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Kozyra, J. U.; Rasmussen, C. E.; Miller, R. H.; Lyons, L. R.

    1994-01-01

    Protons that are convected into the inner magnetosphere in response to enhanced magnetic activity can resonate with ducted plasmaspheric hiss in the outer plasmasphere via an anomalous Doppler-shifted cyclotron resonance. Plasmaspheric hiss is a right-hand-polarized electromagnetic emission that is observed to fill the plasmasphere on a routine basis. When plasmaspheric hiss is confined within field-aligned ducts or guided along density gradients, wave normal angles remain largely below 45 deg. This allows resonant interactions with ions at typical ring current and radiation belt energies to take place. Such field-aligned ducts have been observed both within the plasmasphere and in regions outside of the plasmasphere. Wave intensities are estimated using statistical information from studies of detached plasma regions. Diffusion coefficients are presented for a range of L shells and proton energies for a fixed wave distribution. Harmonic resonances in the range N = +/-100 are considered in order to include interactions between hiss at 100 Hz to 2 kHz frequencies, and protons in the energy range between approximately 10 keV and 1000 keV. Diffusion timescales are estimated to be of the order of tens of days and comparable to or shorter than lifetimes for Coulomb decay and charge exchange losses over most of the energy and spatial ranges of interest.

  17. Unusual refilling of the slot region between the Van Allen radiation belts

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yang, X.; Yu, J.; Ni, B.; Zhang, Y.; Zhang, X.

    2017-12-01

    Using multi-satellite measurements, the dynamics of relativistic electrons in the slot region are investigated from 2000 to 2011. The dependences of relativistic electron enhancements in the slot region on interplanetary and magnetospheric conditions are researched. It is resulted that the relativistic electron enhancements in the slot region occurred under remarkable interplanetary and magnetospheric conditions. A uniquely strong and long-lived relativistic electron slot region refilling event from November 2004 to January 2005 is studied especially. Both empirically modeled and observationally estimated plasmapause locations demonstrate that the plasmasphere eroded significantly prior to the enhancement phase of this event. The estimated diffusion coefficients indicate that the radial diffusion due to ULF waves is insufficient to account for the observed enhancement of slot region electrons. However, the diffusion coefficients evaluated using the distribution of chorus wave intensities derived from low-altitude POES electron observations indicate that the local acceleration induced by chorus could account for the major feature of observed enhancement outside the plasmapause. When the plasmasphere recovered, the refilled slot region was enveloped inside the plasmapause. In the plasmasphere, while the efficiency of hiss scattering loss increases by including unusually low frequency hiss waves, the interaction with hiss alone cannot fully explain the decay of this event, especially at higher energies, which suggests that EMIC waves contribute to the relativistic electron loss process at such low L-shells for this refilling event.

  18. Non-Markovian renormalization of kinetic coefficients for drift-type turbulence in magnetized plasmas

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Zagorodny, A.; Weiland, J.

    2009-05-15

    The problem of derivation of the kinetic equations for inhomogeneous plasma in an external magnetic field is considered. The Fokker-Planck-type equations with the non-Markovian kinetic coefficients are proposed. In the time-local limit (small correlation times with respect to the distribution function relaxation time) the relations obtained recover the results known from the appropriate quasilinear theory and the Dupree-Weinstock theory of plasma turbulence. Kinetic calculations of the dielectric response function are also performed with regard to the influence of turbulent fields on particle motion. The equations proposed are used to describe zonal flow generation and to estimate the diffusion coefficient formore » saturated turbulence.« less

  19. MEASUREMENT OF EFFECTIVE AIR DIFFUSION COEFFICIENTS FOR TRICHLOROETHENE IN UNDISTURBED SOIL CORES. (R826162)

    EPA Science Inventory

    Abstract

    In this study, we measure effective diffusion coefficients for trichloroethene in undisturbed soil samples taken from Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey. The measured effective diffusion coefficients ranged from 0.0053 to 0.0609 cm2/s over a range of air...

  20. Thermodiffusion, molecular diffusion and Soret coefficient of binary and ternary mixtures of n-hexane, n-dodecane and toluene.

    PubMed

    Alonso de Mezquia, David; Wang, Zilin; Lapeira, Estela; Klein, Michael; Wiegand, Simone; Mounir Bou-Ali, M

    2014-11-01

    In this study, the thermodiffusion, molecular diffusion, and Soret coefficients of 12 binary mixtures composed of toluene, n-hexane and n-dodecane in the whole range of concentrations at atmospheric pressure and temperatures of 298.15 K and 308.15 K have been determined. The experimental measurements have been carried out using the Thermogravitational Column, the Sliding Symmetric Tubes and the Thermal Diffusion Forced Rayleigh Scattering techniques. The results obtained using the different techniques show a maximum deviation of 9% for the thermodiffusion coefficient, 8% for the molecular diffusion coefficient and 2% for the Soret coefficient. For the first time we report a decrease of the thermodiffusion coefficient with increasing ratio of the thermal expansion coefficient and viscosity for a binary mixture of an organic ring compound with a short n-alkane. This observation is discussed in terms of interactions between the different components. Additionally, the thermogravitational technique has been used to measure the thermodiffusion coefficients of four ternary mixtures consisting of toluene, n-hexane and n-dodecane at 298.15 K. In order to complete the study, the values obtained for the molecular diffusion coefficient in binary mixtures, and the thermodiffusion coefficient of binary and ternary mixtures have been compared with recently derived correlations.

  1. Diffusion properties of conventional and calcium-sensitive MRI contrast agents in the rat cerebral cortex.

    PubMed

    Hagberg, Gisela E; Mamedov, Ilgar; Power, Anthony; Beyerlein, Michael; Merkle, Hellmut; Kiselev, Valerij G; Dhingra, Kirti; Kubìček, Vojtĕch; Angelovski, Goran; Logothetis, Nikos K

    2014-01-01

    Calcium-sensitive MRI contrast agents can only yield quantitative results if the agent concentration in the tissue is known. The agent concentration could be determined by diffusion modeling, if relevant parameters were available. We have established an MRI-based method capable of determining diffusion properties of conventional and calcium-sensitive agents. Simulations and experiments demonstrate that the method is applicable both for conventional contrast agents with a fixed relaxivity value and for calcium-sensitive contrast agents. The full pharmacokinetic time-course of gadolinium concentration estimates was observed by MRI before, during and after intracerebral administration of the agent, and the effective diffusion coefficient D* was determined by voxel-wise fitting of the solution to the diffusion equation. The method yielded whole brain coverage with a high spatial and temporal sampling. The use of two types of MRI sequences for sampling of the diffusion time courses was investigated: Look-Locker-based quantitative T(1) mapping, and T(1) -weighted MRI. The observation times of the proposed MRI method is long (up to 20 h) and consequently the diffusion distances covered are also long (2-4 mm). Despite this difference, the D* values in vivo were in agreement with previous findings using optical measurement techniques, based on observation times of a few minutes. The effective diffusion coefficient determined for the calcium-sensitive contrast agents may be used to determine local tissue concentrations and to design infusion protocols that maintain the agent concentration at a steady state, thereby enabling quantitative sensing of the local calcium concentration. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  2. Mass transport in polyelectrolyte solutions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schipper, F. J. M.; Leyte, J. C.

    1999-02-01

    The self-diffusion coefficients of the three components of a salt-free heavy-water solution of polymethacrylic acid, completely neutralized with tetra-methylammonium hydroxide, were measured over a broad concentration range. Three concentration regions were observed for the self-diffusion of both the polyions and the counterions. At polyion concentrations below 0.01 mol monomer kg-1, the dilute concentration regime for the polymer, the polyion self-diffusion coefficient approaches the self-diffusion coefficient of a freely diffusing rod upon dilution. At polyelectrolyte concentrations above 0.1 mol monomer kg-1, the self-diffusion coefficients of the solvent, the counterions and the polymer decreased with concentration, suggesting that this decrease is due to a topological constraint on the motions of the components. In the intermediate-concentration region, the self-diffusion coefficients of the polyions and the counterions are independent of the concentration. The polyion dynamic behaviour is, in the intermediate- and high-concentration regions, reasonably well described by that of a hard sphere, with a radius of 3.7 nm. A correct prediction for the solvent dynamics is given by the obstruction effect of this hard sphere on the solvent. The relative counterion self-diffusion coefficient is predicted almost quantitatively over the entire concentration range with the Poisson-Boltzmann-Smoluchowski model for the spherical cell, provided that the sphere radius and the number of charges are chosen appropriately (approximately the number of charges in a persistence length). Using this model, the dependence of the counterion self-diffusion coefficient on the ionic strength, polyion concentration and counterion radius is calculated quantitatively over a large concentration range.

  3. Population genetics inference for longitudinally-sampled mutants under strong selection.

    PubMed

    Lacerda, Miguel; Seoighe, Cathal

    2014-11-01

    Longitudinal allele frequency data are becoming increasingly prevalent. Such samples permit statistical inference of the population genetics parameters that influence the fate of mutant variants. To infer these parameters by maximum likelihood, the mutant frequency is often assumed to evolve according to the Wright-Fisher model. For computational reasons, this discrete model is commonly approximated by a diffusion process that requires the assumption that the forces of natural selection and mutation are weak. This assumption is not always appropriate. For example, mutations that impart drug resistance in pathogens may evolve under strong selective pressure. Here, we present an alternative approximation to the mutant-frequency distribution that does not make any assumptions about the magnitude of selection or mutation and is much more computationally efficient than the standard diffusion approximation. Simulation studies are used to compare the performance of our method to that of the Wright-Fisher and Gaussian diffusion approximations. For large populations, our method is found to provide a much better approximation to the mutant-frequency distribution when selection is strong, while all three methods perform comparably when selection is weak. Importantly, maximum-likelihood estimates of the selection coefficient are severely attenuated when selection is strong under the two diffusion models, but not when our method is used. This is further demonstrated with an application to mutant-frequency data from an experimental study of bacteriophage evolution. We therefore recommend our method for estimating the selection coefficient when the effective population size is too large to utilize the discrete Wright-Fisher model. Copyright © 2014 by the Genetics Society of America.

  4. Determination of pollutant diffusion coefficients in naturally formed biofilms using a single tube extractive membrane bioreactor

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Zhang, S.F.; Splendiani, A.; Freitas dos Santos, L.M.

    A novel technique has been used to determine the effective diffusion coefficients for 1,1,2-trichloroethane (TCE), a nonreacting tracer, in biofilms growing on the external surface of a silicone rubber membrane tube during degradation of 1,2-dichloroethane (DCE) by Xanthobacter autotrophicus GJ10 and monochlorobenzene (MCB) by Pseudomonas JS150. Experiments were carried out in a single tube extractive membrane bioreactor (STEMB), whose configuration makes it possible to measure the transmembrane flux of substrates. A video imaging technique (VIT) was employed for in situ biofilm thickness measurement and recording. Diffusion coefficients of TCE in the biofilms and TCE mass transfer coefficients in the liquidmore » films adjacent to the biofilms were determined simultaneously using a resistances-in-series diffusion model. It was found that the flux and overall mass transfer coefficient of TCE decrease with increasing biofilm thickness, showing the importance of biofilm diffusion on the mass transfer process. Similar fluxes were observed for the nonreacting tracer (TCE) and the reactive substrates (MCB or DCE), suggesting that membrane-attached biofilm systems can be rate controlled primarily by substrate diffusion. The TCE diffusion coefficient in the JS150 biofilm appeared to be dependent on biofilm thickness, decreasing markedly for biofilm thicknesses of >1 mm. The values of the TCE diffusion coefficients in the JS150 biofilms <1-mm thick are approximately twice those in water and fall to around 30% of the water value for biofilms >1-mm thick.« less

  5. Diffusion and plasticity at high temperature

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Philibert, J.

    1991-06-01

    High temperature plastic deformation requires atomic migration whatever the mechanism of deformation. The constitutive equations contain a diffusion coefficient and the deformation rate follows an Arrhenius law. This paper will only discuss the case of viscous creep in order to elucidate the nature of the diffusion processes and the expression of the diffusion coefficient involved in alloys or compounds. La déformation plastique à haute température met en jeu des migrations atomiques, quel que soit le mécanisme de déformation. Les lois de comportement contiennent donc un coefficient de diffusion et la vitesse de déformation obéit à une loi d'Arrhenius. Dans cet article, qui ne conceme qu'un seul type de déformation, lefluage visqueux, on s'efforce de préciser la nature des processus de diffusion et du coefficient de diffusion mis en jeu dans le cas des alliages et des composés.

  6. Theoretical and Experimental Investigation of the Translational Diffusion of Proteins in the Vicinity of Temperature-Induced Unfolding Transition.

    PubMed

    Molchanov, Stanislav; Faizullin, Dzhigangir A; Nesmelova, Irina V

    2016-10-06

    Translational diffusion is the most fundamental form of transport in chemical and biological systems. The diffusion coefficient is highly sensitive to changes in the size of the diffusing species; hence, it provides important information on the variety of macromolecular processes, such as self-assembly or folding-unfolding. Here, we investigate the behavior of the diffusion coefficient of a macromolecule in the vicinity of heat-induced transition from folded to unfolded state. We derive the equation that describes the diffusion coefficient of the macromolecule in the vicinity of the transition and use it to fit the experimental data from pulsed-field-gradient nuclear magnetic resonance (PFG NMR) experiments acquired for two globular proteins, lysozyme and RNase A, undergoing temperature-induced unfolding. A very good qualitative agreement between the theoretically derived diffusion coefficient and experimental data is observed.

  7. Three FORTRAN programs for finite-difference solutions to binary diffusion in one and two phases with composition-and time-dependent diffusion coefficients

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Sanford, R.F.

    1982-01-01

    Geological examples of binary diffusion are numerous. They are potential indicators of the duration and rates of geological processes. Analytical solutions to the diffusion equations generally do not allow for variable diffusion coefficients, changing boundary conditions, and impingement of diffusion fields. The three programs presented here are based on Crank-Nicholson finite-difference approximations, which can take into account these complicating factors. Program 1 describes the diffusion of a component into an initially homogeneous phase that has a constant surface composition. Specifically it is written for Fe-Mg exchange in olivine at oxygen fugacities appropriate for the lunar crust, but other components, phases, or fugacities may be substituted by changing the values of the diffusion coefficient. Program 2 simulates the growth of exsolution lamellae. Program 3 describes the growth of reaction rims. These two programs are written for pseudobinary Ca-(Mg, Fe) exchange in pyroxenes. In all three programs, the diffusion coefficients and boundary conditions can be varied systematically with time. To enable users to employ widely different numerical values for diffusion coefficients and diffusion distance, the grid spacing in the space dimension and the increment by which the grid spacing in the time dimension is increased at each time step are input constants that can be varied each time the programs are run to yield a solution of the desired accuracy. ?? 1982.

  8. Holographic estimate of heavy quark diffusion in a magnetic field

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Dudal, David; Mertens, Thomas G.

    2018-03-01

    We study the influence of a background magnetic field on the J /ψ vector meson in a Dirac-Born-Infeld-extension of the soft wall model, building upon our earlier work [D. Dudal and T. G. Mertens Phys. Rev. D 91, 086002 (2015), 10.1103/PhysRevD.91.086002]. In this specific holographic QCD model, we discuss the heavy quark number susceptibility and diffusion constants of charm quarks and their dependence on the magnetic field by either a hydrodynamic expansion or by numerically solving the differential equation. This allows us to determine the response of these transport coefficients to the magnetic field. The effects of the latter are considered both from a direct as indirect (medium) viewpoint. As expected, we find a magnetic field induced anisotropic diffusion, with a stronger diffusion in the longitudinal direction compared to the transversal one. We backup, at least qualitatively, our findings with a hanging string analysis of heavy quark diffusion in a magnetic field. From the quark number susceptibility we can extract an estimate for the effective deconfinement temperature in the heavy quark sector, reporting consistency with the phenomenon of inverse magnetic catalysis.

  9. Self diffusion of interacting membrane proteins.

    PubMed Central

    Abney, J R; Scalettar, B A; Owicki, J C

    1989-01-01

    A two-dimensional version of the generalized Smoluchowski equation is used to analyze the time (or distance) dependent self diffusion of interacting membrane proteins in concentrated membrane systems. This equation provides a well established starting point for descriptions of the diffusion of particles that interact through both direct and hydrodynamic forces; in this initial work only the effects of direct interactions are explicitly considered. Data describing diffusion in the presence of hard-core repulsions, soft repulsions, and soft repulsions with weak attractions are presented. The effect that interactions have on the self-diffusion coefficient of a real protein molecule from mouse liver gap junctions is also calculated. The results indicate that self diffusion is always inhibited by direct interactions; this observation is interpreted in terms of the caging that will exist at finite protein concentration. It is also noted that, over small distance scales, the diffusion coefficient is determined entirely by the very strong Brownian forces; therefore, as a function of displacement the self-diffusion coefficient decays (rapidly) from its value at infinite dilution to its steady-state interaction-averaged value. The steady-state self-diffusion coefficient describes motion over distance scales that range from approximately 10 nm to cellular dimensions and is the quantity measured in fluorescence recovery after photobleaching experiments. The short-ranged behavior of the diffusion coefficient is important on the interparticle-distance scale and may therefore influence the rate at which nearest-neighbor collisional processes take place. The hard-disk theoretical results presented here are in excellent agreement with lattice Monte-Carlo results obtained by other workers. The concentration dependence of experimentally measured diffusion coefficients of antibody-hapten complexes bound to the membrane surface is consistent with that predicted by the theory. The variation in experimental diffusion coefficients of integral membrane proteins is greater than that predicted by the theory, and may also reflect protein-induced perturbations in membrane viscosity. PMID:2720077

  10. Determination of malignancy and characterization of hepatic tumor type with diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging: comparison of apparent diffusion coefficient and intravoxel incoherent motion-derived measurements.

    PubMed

    Doblas, Sabrina; Wagner, Mathilde; Leitao, Helena S; Daire, Jean-Luc; Sinkus, Ralph; Vilgrain, Valérie; Van Beers, Bernard E

    2013-10-01

    The objective of this study was to compare the value of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) determined with 3 b values and the intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM)-derived parameters in the determination of malignancy and characterization of hepatic tumor type. Seventy-six patients with 86 solid hepatic lesions, including 8 hemangiomas, 20 lesions of focal nodular hyperplasia, 9 adenomas, 30 hepatocellular carcinomas, 13 metastases, and 6 cholangiocarcinomas, were assessed in this prospective study. Diffusion-weighted images were acquired with 11 b values to measure the ADCs (with b = 0, 150, and 500 s/mm) and the IVIM-derived parameters, namely, the pure diffusion coefficient and the perfusion-related diffusion fraction and coefficient. The diffusion parameters were compared between benign and malignant tumors and between tumor types, and their diagnostic value in identifying tumor malignancy was assessed. The apparent and pure diffusion coefficients were significantly higher in benign than in malignant tumors (benign: 2.32 [0.87] × 10 mm/s and 1.42 [0.37] × 10 mm/s vs malignant: 1.64 [0.51] × 10 mm/s and 1.14 [0.28] × 10 mm/s, respectively; P < 0.0001 and P = 0.0005), whereas the perfusion-related diffusion parameters did not differ significantly between the 2 groups. The apparent and pure diffusion coefficients provided similar accuracy in assessing tumor malignancy (areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.770 and 0.723, respectively). In the multigroup analysis, the ADC was found to be significantly higher in hemangiomas than in hepatocellular carcinomas, metastases, and cholangiocarcinomas. In the same manner, it was higher in lesions of focal nodular hyperplasia than in metastases and cholangiocarcinomas. However, the pure diffusion coefficient was significantly higher only in hemangiomas versus hepatocellular and cholangiocellular carcinomas. Compared with the ADC, the diffusion parameters derived from the IVIM model did not improve the determination of malignancy and characterization of hepatic tumor type.

  11. Experimental study of mass diffusion coefficients of hydrogen in dimethyl phosphate and n-heptane

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Guo, Y.; Zhu, L. K.; Zhang, Y. P.; Liu, J.; Guo, J. S.

    2017-11-01

    In this study, a laser holographic interferometer experimental system was developed for studying the gas-liquid mass diffusion coefficient. Then the experimental system’s uncertainty was analyzed to be at most ±0.2% therefore, this system was reliable. The mass diffusion coefficient of hydrogen in dimethyl phosphate and n-heptane was measured at atmospheric pressure in the temperature range of 273.15-338.15 K. Then, the experimental data were used to fit the correlations of the mass diffusion coefficient of hydrogen in dimethyl phosphate and n-heptane with temperature.

  12. Chromatographic determination of the diffusion coefficients of light hydrocarbons in polymers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yakubenko, E. E.; Korolev, A. A.; Chapala, P. P.; Bermeshev, M. V.; Kanat'eva, A. Yu.; Kurganov, A. A.

    2017-01-01

    Gas-chromatographic determination of the diffusion coefficients that allows for the compressibility of the mobile phase has been suggested. The diffusion coefficients were determined for light hydrocarbons C1-C4 in four polymers with a high free volume, which are candidates for use as gas-separating membranes. The diffusion coefficients calculated from chromatographic data were shown to be one or two orders of magnitude smaller than the values obtained by the membrane method. This may be due to the presence of an additional flow through the membrane caused by the pressure gradient across the membrane in membrane methods.

  13. Symmetric Positive 4th Order Tensors & Their Estimation from Diffusion Weighted MRI⋆

    PubMed Central

    Barmpoutis, Angelos; Jian, Bing; Vemuri, Baba C.; Shepherd, Timothy M.

    2009-01-01

    In Diffusion Weighted Magnetic Resonance Image (DW-MRI) processing a 2nd order tensor has been commonly used to approximate the diffusivity function at each lattice point of the DW-MRI data. It is now well known that this 2nd-order approximation fails to approximate complex local tissue structures, such as fibers crossings. In this paper we employ a 4th order symmetric positive semi-definite (PSD) tensor approximation to represent the diffusivity function and present a novel technique to estimate these tensors from the DW-MRI data guaranteeing the PSD property. There have been several published articles in literature on higher order tensor approximations of the diffusivity function but none of them guarantee the positive semi-definite constraint, which is a fundamental constraint since negative values of the diffusivity coefficients are not meaningful. In our methods, we parameterize the 4th order tensors as a sum of squares of quadratic forms by using the so called Gram matrix method from linear algebra and its relation to the Hilbert’s theorem on ternary quartics. This parametric representation is then used in a nonlinear-least squares formulation to estimate the PSD tensors of order 4 from the data. We define a metric for the higher-order tensors and employ it for regularization across the lattice. Finally, performance of this model is depicted on synthetic data as well as real DW-MRI from an isolated rat hippocampus. PMID:17633709

  14. Field-scale effective matrix diffusion coefficient for fractured rock: results from literature survey.

    PubMed

    Zhou, Quanlin; Liu, Hui-Hai; Molz, Fred J; Zhang, Yingqi; Bodvarsson, Gudmundur S

    2007-08-15

    Matrix diffusion is an important mechanism for solute transport in fractured rock. We recently conducted a literature survey on the effective matrix diffusion coefficient, D(m)(e), a key parameter for describing matrix diffusion processes at the field scale. Forty field tracer tests at 15 fractured geologic sites were surveyed and selected for the study, based on data availability and quality. Field-scale D(m)(e) values were calculated, either directly using data reported in the literature, or by reanalyzing the corresponding field tracer tests. The reanalysis was conducted for the selected tracer tests using analytic or semi-analytic solutions for tracer transport in linear, radial, or interwell flow fields. Surveyed data show that the scale factor of the effective matrix diffusion coefficient (defined as the ratio of D(m)(e) to the lab-scale matrix diffusion coefficient, D(m), of the same tracer) is generally larger than one, indicating that the effective matrix diffusion coefficient in the field is comparatively larger than the matrix diffusion coefficient at the rock-core scale. This larger value can be attributed to the many mass-transfer processes at different scales in naturally heterogeneous, fractured rock systems. Furthermore, we observed a moderate, on average trend toward systematic increase in the scale factor with observation scale. This trend suggests that the effective matrix diffusion coefficient is likely to be statistically scale-dependent. The scale-factor value ranges from 0.5 to 884 for observation scales from 5 to 2000 m. At a given scale, the scale factor varies by two orders of magnitude, reflecting the influence of differing degrees of fractured rock heterogeneity at different geologic sites. In addition, the surveyed data indicate that field-scale longitudinal dispersivity generally increases with observation scale, which is consistent with previous studies. The scale-dependent field-scale matrix diffusion coefficient (and dispersivity) may have significant implications for assessing long-term, large-scale radionuclide and contaminant transport events in fractured rock, both for nuclear waste disposal and contaminant remediation.

  15. Advective and diapycnal diffusive oceanic flux in Tenerife - La Gomera Channel

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Marrero-Díaz, A.; Rodriguez-Santana, A.; Hernández-Arencibia, M.; Machín, F.; García-Weil, L.

    2012-04-01

    During the year 2008, using the commercial passenger ship Volcán de Tauce of the Naviera Armas company several months, it was possible to obtain vertical profiles of temperature from expandable bathythermograph probes in eight stations across the Tenerife - La Gomera channel. With these data of temperature we have been estimated vertical sections of potential density and geostrophic transport with high spatial and temporal resolution (5 nm between stations, and one- two months between cruises). The seasonal variability obtained for the geostrophic transport in this channel shows important differences with others Canary Islands channels. From potential density and geostrophic velocity data we estimated the vertical diffusion coefficients and diapycnal diffusive fluxes, using a parameterization that depends of Richardson gradient number. In the center of the channel and close to La Gomera Island, we found higher values for these diffusive fluxes. Convergence and divergence of these fluxes requires further study so that we can draw conclusions about its impact on the distribution of nutrients in the study area and its impact in marine ecosystems. This work is being used in research projects TRAMIC and PROMECA.

  16. Molecular dynamics simulation of real-fluid mutual diffusion coefficients with the Lennard-Jones potential model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Stoker, J. M.; Rowley, R. L.

    1989-09-01

    Mutual diffusion coefficients for selected alkanes in carbon tetrachloride were calculated using molecular dynamics and Lennard-Jones (LJ) potentials. Use of effective spherical LJ parameters is desirable when possible for two reasons: (i) computer time is saved due to the simplicity of the model and (ii) the number of parameters in the model is kept to a minimum. Results of this study indicate that mutual diffusivity is particularly sensitive to the molecular size cross parameter, σ12, and that the commonly used Lorentz-Berthelot rules are inadequate for mixtures in which the component structures differ significantly. Good agreement between simulated and experimental mutual diffusivities is obtained with a combining rule for σ12 which better represents these asymmetric mixtures using pure component LJ parameters obtained from self-diffusion coefficient data. The effect of alkane chain length on the mutual diffusion coefficient is correctly predicted. While the effects of alkane branching upon the diffusion coefficient are comparable in size to the uncertainty of these calculations, the qualitative trend due to branching is also correctly predicted by the MD results.

  17. Time of Flight Electrochemistry: Diffusion Coefficient Measurements Using Interdigitated Array (IDA) Electrodes

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Liu, Fei; Kolesov, Grigory; Parkinson, Bruce A.

    2014-09-26

    A simple and straightforward method for measuring diffusion coefficients using interdigitated array (IDA) electrodes is reported. The method does not require that the exact electrode area be known but depends only the size of the gap between the IDA electrode pairs. Electroactive molecules produced at the generator electrode of the IDA by a voltage step or scan can diffuse to the collector electrode and the time delay before the current for the reverse electrochemical reaction is detected at the collector is used to calculate the diffusion coefficient. The measurement of the diffusion rate of Ru(NH3)6+2 in aqueous solution has beenmore » used as an example measuring diffusion coefficients using this method. Additionally, a digital simulation of the electrochemical response of the IDA electrodes was used to simulate the entire current/voltage/time behavior of the system and verify the experimentally measured diffusion coefficients. This work was supported as part of the Center for Molecular Electrocatalysis, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences.« less

  18. Serial diffusion-weighted imaging in subacute sclerosing panencephalitis.

    PubMed

    Kanemura, Hideaki; Aihara, Masao

    2008-06-01

    Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis may be associated with clinical features of frontal lobe dysfunction. We previously reported that frontal lobe volume falls significantly as clinical stage progresses, using three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging-based brain volumetry. The hypothesis that frontal volume increases correlate with clinical improvement, however, was not tested in our previous study. Therefore, we reevaluated our patient with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, to determine whether apparent diffusion coefficient maps can characterize the clinical course of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis. We studied an 8-year-old boy with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis, using serial diffusion-weighted imaging magnetic resonance imaging, and measured the regional apparent diffusion coefficient. The regional apparent diffusion coefficient of the frontal lobe decreased significantly with clinical progression, whereas it increased to within normal range during clinical improvements. The apparent diffusion coefficient of the other regions did not change. These results suggest that the clinical signs of patients with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis are attributable to frontal lobe dysfunction, and that apparent diffusion coefficient measurements may be useful in predicting the clinical course of subacute sclerosing panencephalitis.

  19. Na Diffusion in Quasi One-Dimensional Ion Conductor NaMn2O4 Observed by μ+SR

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Umegaki, Izumi; Nozaki, Hiroshi; Harada, Masashi; Månsson, Martin; Sakurai, Hiroya; Kawasaki, Ikuto; Watanabe, Isao; Sugiyama, Jun

    A quasi one-dimensional (1D) compound, NaMn2O4, in which Mn2O4 zigzag chains form a 1D channel along the b-axis and Na ions locate at the center of the channel, is thought to be a good Na ionic conductor. In order to study Na-ion diffusion, we have measured μ+SR spectra using a powder sample in the temperature range between 100 and 500 K. A diffusive behavior was clearly observed above 325 K. Assuming a thermal activate process for jump diffusion of Na-ion between two nearest neighboring sites, a self diffusion coefficient of Na ion (DNa) and its activation energy (Ea) were estimated as DNa = (3.1 ± 0.2) × 10 - 11 cm2/s at 350 K and Ea = 180(9) meV.

  20. Real-space analysis of diffusion behavior and activation energy of individual monatomic ions in a liquid.

    PubMed

    Miyata, Tomohiro; Uesugi, Fumihiko; Mizoguchi, Teruyasu

    2017-12-01

    Investigation of the local dynamic behavior of atoms and molecules in liquids is crucial for revealing the origin of macroscopic liquid properties. Therefore, direct imaging of single atoms to understand their motions in liquids is desirable. Ionic liquids have been studied for various applications, in which they are used as electrolytes or solvents. However, atomic-scale diffusion and relaxation processes in ionic liquids have never been observed experimentally. We directly observe the motion of individual monatomic ions in an ionic liquid using scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and reveal that the ions diffuse by a cage-jump mechanism. Moreover, we estimate the diffusion coefficient and activation energy for the diffusive jumps from the STEM images, which connect the atomic-scale dynamics to macroscopic liquid properties. Our method is the only available means to observe the motion, reactions, and energy barriers of atoms/molecules in liquids.

  1. Diffusion coefficients of nitric oxide in water: A molecular dynamics study

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Pokharel, Sunil; Pantha, Nurapati; Adhikari, N. P.

    2016-09-01

    Self-diffusion coefficients along with the mutual diffusion coefficients of nitric oxide (NO) and SPC/E water (H2O) as solute and solvent of the mixture, have been studied within the framework of classical molecular dynamics level of calculations using GROMACS package. The radial distribution function (RDF) of the constituent compounds are calculated to study solute-solute, solute-solvent and solvent-solvent molecular interactions as a function of temperature. A dilute solution of five NO molecules (mole fraction 0.018) and 280 H2O molecules (mole fraction 0.982) has been taken as the sample. The self-diffusion coefficient of the solvent is calculated by using mean square displacement (MSD) where as that for solute (NO) is calculated by using MSD and velocity auto-correlation function (VACF). The results are then compared with the available experimental values. The results from the present work for water come in good agreement, very precise at low temperatures, with the experimental values. The diffusion coefficients of NO, on the other hands, agree well with the available theoretical studies, and also with experiment at low temperatures (up to 310 K). The results at the higher temperatures (up to 333 K), however, deviate significantly with the experimental observations. Also, the mutual diffusion coefficients of NO in water have been calculated by using Darken’s relation. The temperature dependence of the calculated diffusion coefficients follow the Arrhenius behavior.

  2. The Gini coefficient: a methodological pilot study to assess fetal brain development employing postmortem diffusion MRI.

    PubMed

    Viehweger, Adrian; Riffert, Till; Dhital, Bibek; Knösche, Thomas R; Anwander, Alfred; Stepan, Holger; Sorge, Ina; Hirsch, Wolfgang

    2014-10-01

    Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) is important in the assessment of fetal brain development. However, it is clinically challenging and time-consuming to prepare neuromorphological examinations to assess real brain age and to detect abnormalities. To demonstrate that the Gini coefficient can be a simple, intuitive parameter for modelling fetal brain development. Postmortem fetal specimens(n = 28) were evaluated by diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) on a 3-T MRI scanner using 60 directions, 0.7-mm isotropic voxels and b-values of 0, 150, 1,600 s/mm(2). Constrained spherical deconvolution (CSD) was used as the local diffusion model. Fractional anisotropy (FA), apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and complexity (CX) maps were generated. CX was defined as a novel diffusion metric. On the basis of those three parameters, the Gini coefficient was calculated. Study of fetal brain development in postmortem specimens was feasible using DWI. The Gini coefficient could be calculated for the combination of the three diffusion parameters. This multidimensional Gini coefficient correlated well with age (Adjusted R(2) = 0.59) between the ages of 17 and 26 gestational weeks. We propose a new method that uses an economics concept, the Gini coefficient, to describe the whole brain with one simple and intuitive measure, which can be used to assess the brain's developmental state.

  3. Drying behaviour, effective diffusivity and energy of activation of olive leaves dried by microwave, vacuum and oven drying methods

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Elhussein, Elaf Abdelillah Ali; Şahin, Selin

    2018-07-01

    Drying is the crucial food processing for bioactive components from plant materials before strating extraction in addition to preservation of raw plant materials during storage period. Olive leaves were dried by various methods such as microwave drying (MD), oven drying (OD) and vacuum drying (VD) at several temperature values in the present study. Mathematical models allow to develop, design and control the processes. 14 emprical equations were used to estimate the drying behaviour and the time required for drying. Convenience of the models were evaluated according to the correlation coefficient ( R 2 ), varience ( S 2 ) and root mean square deviation ( D RMS ). On the other hand, the effective diffusion coefficient and energy for activation were also calculated. Effects of the drying methods on the total phenolic (TPC), flavonoid (TFC) and oleuropein contents and free radical scavenging activity (FRSA) of the olive leaves were also investigated to take into considiration the quality of the dried product. MD has proved to be the fastest drying method having the highest effective diffusivity and the lowest activation energy with a more qualitive product.

  4. Drying behaviour, effective diffusivity and energy of activation of olive leaves dried by microwave, vacuum and oven drying methods

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Elhussein, Elaf Abdelillah Ali; Şahin, Selin

    2018-01-01

    Drying is the crucial food processing for bioactive components from plant materials before strating extraction in addition to preservation of raw plant materials during storage period. Olive leaves were dried by various methods such as microwave drying (MD), oven drying (OD) and vacuum drying (VD) at several temperature values in the present study. Mathematical models allow to develop, design and control the processes. 14 emprical equations were used to estimate the drying behaviour and the time required for drying. Convenience of the models were evaluated according to the correlation coefficient (R 2 ), varience (S 2 ) and root mean square deviation (D RMS ). On the other hand, the effective diffusion coefficient and energy for activation were also calculated. Effects of the drying methods on the total phenolic (TPC), flavonoid (TFC) and oleuropein contents and free radical scavenging activity (FRSA) of the olive leaves were also investigated to take into considiration the quality of the dried product. MD has proved to be the fastest drying method having the highest effective diffusivity and the lowest activation energy with a more qualitive product.

  5. Diffusion of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) through a high density polyethylene (HDPE) geomembrane.

    PubMed

    Saheli, P T; Rowe, R K; Petersen, E J; O'Carroll, D M

    2017-05-01

    The new applications for carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in various fields and consequently their greater production volume have increased their potential release to the environment. Landfills are one of the major locations where carbon nanotubes are expected to be disposed and it is important to ensure that they can limit the release of CNTs. Diffusion of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) dispersed in an aqueous media through a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) geomembrane (as a part of the landfill barrier system) was examined. Based on the laboratory tests, the permeation coefficient was estimated to be less than 5.1×10 -15 m 2 /s. The potential performance of a HDPE geomembrane and geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) as parts of a composite liner in containing MWCNTs was modelled for six different scenarios. The results suggest that the low value of permeation coefficient of an HDPE geomembrane makes it an effective diffusive barrier for MWCNTs and by keeping the geomembrane defects to minimum during the construction (e.g., number of holes and length of wrinkles) a composite liner commonly used in municipal solid waste landfills will effectively contain MWCNTs.

  6. Assessing Diffusion in the Extra-Cellular Space of Brain Tissue by Dynamic MRI Mapping of Contrast Agent Concentrations

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Mériaux, Sébastien; Conti, Allegra; Larrat, Benoît

    2018-05-01

    The characterization of extracellular space (ECS) architecture represents valuable information for the understanding of transport mechanisms occurring in brain parenchyma. ECS tortuosity reflects the hindrance imposed by cell membranes to molecular diffusion. Numerous strategies have been proposed to measure the diffusion through ECS and to estimate its tortuosity. The first method implies the perfusion for several hours of a radiotracer which effective diffusion coefficient D* is determined after post mortem processing. The most well-established techniques are real-time iontophoresis that measures the concentration of a specific ion at known distance from its release point, and integrative optical imaging that relies on acquiring microscopy images of macromolecules labelled with fluorophore. After presenting these methods, we focus on a recent Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)-based technique that consists in acquiring concentration maps of a contrast agent diffusing within ECS. Thanks to MRI properties, molecular diffusion and tortuosity can be estimated in 3D for deep brain regions. To further discuss the reliability of this technique, we point out the influence of the delivery method on the estimation of D*. We compare the value of D* for a contrast agent intracerebrally injected, with its value when the agent is delivered to the brain after an ultrasound-induced blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeabilization. Several studies have already shown that tortuosity may be modified in pathological conditions. Therefore, we believe that MRI-based techniques could be useful in a clinical context for characterizing the diffusion properties of pathological ECS and thus predicting the drug biodistribution into the targeted area.

  7. Single-particle trajectories reveal two-state diffusion-kinetics of hOGG1 proteins on DNA.

    PubMed

    Vestergaard, Christian L; Blainey, Paul C; Flyvbjerg, Henrik

    2018-03-16

    We reanalyze trajectories of hOGG1 repair proteins diffusing on DNA. A previous analysis of these trajectories with the popular mean-squared-displacement approach revealed only simple diffusion. Here, a new optimal estimator of diffusion coefficients reveals two-state kinetics of the protein. A simple, solvable model, in which the protein randomly switches between a loosely bound, highly mobile state and a tightly bound, less mobile state is the simplest possible dynamic model consistent with the data. It yields accurate estimates of hOGG1's (i) diffusivity in each state, uncorrupted by experimental errors arising from shot noise, motion blur and thermal fluctuations of the DNA; (ii) rates of switching between states and (iii) rate of detachment from the DNA. The protein spends roughly equal time in each state. It detaches only from the loosely bound state, with a rate that depends on pH and the salt concentration in solution, while its rates for switching between states are insensitive to both. The diffusivity in the loosely bound state depends primarily on pH and is three to ten times higher than in the tightly bound state. We propose and discuss some new experiments that take full advantage of the new tools of analysis presented here.

  8. Glucose diffusion in colorectal mucosa—a comparative study between normal and cancer tissues

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Carvalho, Sónia; Gueiral, Nuno; Nogueira, Elisabete; Henrique, Rui; Oliveira, Luís; Tuchin, Valery V.

    2017-09-01

    Colorectal carcinoma is a major health concern worldwide and its high incidence and mortality require accurate screening methods. Following endoscopic examination, polyps must be removed for histopathological characterization. Aiming to contribute to the improvement of current endoscopy methods of colorectal carcinoma screening or even for future development of laser treatment procedures, we studied the diffusion properties of glucose and water in colorectal healthy and pathological mucosa. These parameters characterize the tissue dehydration and the refractive index matching mechanisms of optical clearing (OC). We used ex vivo tissues to measure the collimated transmittance spectra and thickness during treatments with OC solutions containing glucose in different concentrations. These time dependencies allowed for estimating the diffusion time and diffusion coefficient values of glucose and water in both types of tissues. The measured diffusion times for glucose in healthy and pathological mucosa samples were 299.2±4.7 s and 320.6±10.6 s for 40% and 35% glucose concentrations, respectively. Such a difference indicates a slower glucose diffusion in cancer tissues, which originate from their ability to trap far more glucose than healthy tissues. We have also found a higher free water content in cancerous tissue that is estimated as 64.4% instead of 59.4% for healthy mucosa.

  9. The tracer diffusion coefficient of soft nanoparticles in a linear polymer matrix

    DOE PAGES

    Imel, Adam E.; Rostom, Sahar; Holley, Wade; ...

    2017-03-09

    The diffusion properties of nanoparticles in polymer nanocomposites are largely unknown and are often difficult to determine experimentally. To address this shortcoming, we have developed a novel method to determine the tracer diffusion coefficient of soft polystyrene nanoparticles in a linear polystyrene matrix. Monitoring the interdiffusion of soft nanoparticles into a linear polystyrene matrix provides the mutual diffusion coefficient of this system, from which the tracer diffusion coefficient of the soft nanoparticle can be determined using the slow mode theory. Utilizing this protocol, the role of nanoparticle molecular weight and rigidity on its tracer diffusion coefficient is provided. These resultsmore » demonstrate that the diffusive behavior of these soft nanoparticles differ from that of star polymers, which is surprising since our recent studies suggest that the nanoparticle interacts with a linear polymer similarly to that of a star polymer. It appears that these deformable nanoparticles mostly closely mimic the diffusive behavior of fractal macromolecular architectures or microgels, where the transport of the nanoparticle relies on the cooperative motion of neighboring linear chains. Finally, the less cross-linked, and thus more deformable, nanoparticles diffuse faster than the more highly crosslinked nanoparticles, presumably because the increased deformability allows the nanoparticle to distort and fit into available space.« less

  10. Product selectivity control induced by using liquid-liquid parallel laminar flow in a microreactor.

    PubMed

    Amemiya, Fumihiro; Matsumoto, Hideyuki; Fuse, Keishi; Kashiwagi, Tsuneo; Kuroda, Chiaki; Fuchigami, Toshio; Atobe, Mahito

    2011-06-07

    Product selectivity control based on a liquid-liquid parallel laminar flow has been successfully demonstrated by using a microreactor. Our electrochemical microreactor system enables regioselective cross-coupling reaction of aldehyde with allylic chloride via chemoselective cathodic reduction of substrate by the combined use of suitable flow mode and corresponding cathode material. The formation of liquid-liquid parallel laminar flow in the microreactor was supported by the estimation of benzaldehyde diffusion coefficient and computational fluid dynamics simulation. The diffusion coefficient for benzaldehyde in Bu(4)NClO(4)-HMPA medium was determined to be 1.32 × 10(-7) cm(2) s(-1) by electrochemical measurements, and the flow simulation using this value revealed the formation of clear concentration gradient of benzaldehyde in the microreactor channel over a specific channel length. In addition, the necessity of the liquid-liquid parallel laminar flow was confirmed by flow mode experiments.

  11. Modelling the growth of triglycine sulphate crystals in Spacelab 3

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Yoo, Hak-Do; Wilcox, William R.; Lal, Ravindra; Trolinger, James D.

    1988-01-01

    Two triglycine sulphate crystals were grown from an aqueous solution in Spacelab 3 aboard a Space Shuttle. Using a diffusion coefficient of 0.00002 sq cm/s, a computerized simulation gave reasonable agreement between experimental and theoretical crystal sizes and interferometric lines in the solution near the growing crystal. This diffusion coefficient is larger than most measured values, possibly due to fluctuating accelerations on the order of .001 g (Earth's gravity). The average acceleration was estimated to be less than .000001 g. At this level, buoyancy driven convection is predicted to add approx. 20 percent to the steady state growth rate. Only very slight distortion of the interferometric lines was observed at the end of a 33 hr run. It is suggested that the time to reach steady state convective transport may be inversely proportional to g at low g, so that the full effect of convection was not realized in these experiments.

  12. Apparent diffusion coefficient in the analysis of prostate cancer: determination of optimal b-value pair to differentiate normal from malignant tissue.

    PubMed

    Adubeiro, Nuno; Nogueira, Maria Luísa; Nunes, Rita G; Ferreira, Hugo Alexandre; Ribeiro, Eduardo; La Fuente, José Maria Ferreira

    Determining optimal b-value pair for differentiation between normal and prostate cancer (PCa) tissues. Forty-three patients with diagnosis or PCa symptoms were included. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) was estimated using minimum and maximum b-values of 0, 50, 100, 150, 200, 500s/mm2 and 500, 800, 1100, 1400, 1700 and 2000s/mm2, respectively. Diagnostic performances were evaluated when Area-under-the-curve (AUC)>95%. 15 of the 35 b-values pair surpassed this AUC threshold. The pair (50, 2000s/mm2) provided the highest AUC (96%) with ADC cutoff 0.89×10- 3 mm 2 /s, sensitivity 95.5%, specificity 93.2% and accuracy 94.4%. The best b-value pair was b=50, 2000s/mm2. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  13. Application of a planetary wave breaking parameterization to stratospheric circulation statistics

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Randel, William J.; Garcia, Rolando R.

    1994-01-01

    The planetary wave parameterization scheme developed recently by Garcia is applied to statospheric circulation statistics derived from 12 years of National Meteorological Center operational stratospheric analyses. From the data a planetary wave breaking criterion (based on the ratio of the eddy to zonal mean meridional potential vorticity (PV) gradients), a wave damping rate, and a meridional diffusion coefficient are calculated. The equatorward flank of the polar night jet during winter is identified as a wave breaking region from the observed PV gradients; the region moves poleward with season, covering all high latitudes in spring. Derived damping rates maximize in the subtropical upper stratosphere (the 'surf zone'), with damping time scales of 3-4 days. Maximum diffusion coefficients follow the spatial patterns of the wave breaking criterion, with magnitudes comparable to prior published estimates. Overall, the observed results agree well with the parameterized calculations of Garcia.

  14. Simultaneous characterization of lateral lipid and prothrombin diffusion coefficients by z-scan fluorescence correlation spectroscopy.

    PubMed

    Stefl, Martin; Kułakowska, Anna; Hof, Martin

    2009-08-05

    A new (to our knowledge) robust approach for the determination of lateral diffusion coefficients of weakly bound proteins is applied for the phosphatidylserine specific membrane interaction of bovine prothrombin. It is shown that z-scan fluorescence correlation spectroscopy in combination with pulsed interleaved dual excitation allows simultaneous monitoring of the lateral diffusion of labeled protein and phospholipids. Moreover, from the dependencies of the particle numbers on the axial sample positions at different protein concentrations phosphatidylserine-dependent equilibrium dissociation constants are derived confirming literature values. Increasing the amount of membrane-bound prothrombin retards the lateral protein and lipid diffusion, indicating coupling of both processes. The lateral diffusion coefficients of labeled lipids are considerably larger than the simultaneously determined lateral diffusion coefficients of prothrombin, which contradicts findings reported for the isolated N-terminus of prothrombin.

  15. Transport of neutral solute across articular cartilage: the role of zonal diffusivities.

    PubMed

    Arbabi, V; Pouran, B; Weinans, H; Zadpoor, A A

    2015-07-01

    Transport of solutes through diffusion is an important metabolic mechanism for the avascular cartilage tissue. Three types of interconnected physical phenomena, namely mechanical, electrical, and chemical, are all involved in the physics of transport in cartilage. In this study, we use a carefully designed experimental-computational setup to separate the effects of mechanical and chemical factors from those of electrical charges. Axial diffusion of a neutral solute Iodixanol into cartilage was monitored using calibrated microcomputed tomography micro-CT images for up to 48 hr. A biphasic-solute computational model was fitted to the experimental data to determine the diffusion coefficients of cartilage. Cartilage was modeled either using one single diffusion coefficient (single-zone model) or using three diffusion coefficients corresponding to superficial, middle, and deep cartilage zones (multizone model). It was observed that the single-zone model cannot capture the entire concentration-time curve and under-predicts the near-equilibrium concentration values, whereas the multizone model could very well match the experimental data. The diffusion coefficient of the superficial zone was found to be at least one order of magnitude larger than that of the middle zone. Since neutral solutes were used, glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content cannot be the primary reason behind such large differences between the diffusion coefficients of the different cartilage zones. It is therefore concluded that other features of the different cartilage zones such as water content and the organization (orientation) of collagen fibers may be enough to cause large differences in diffusion coefficients through the cartilage thickness.

  16. Unifying diffusion and seepage for nonlinear gas transport in multiscale porous media

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Song, Hongqing; Wang, Yuhe; Wang, Jiulong; Li, Zhengyi

    2016-09-01

    We unify the diffusion and seepage process for nonlinear gas transport in multiscale porous media via a proposed new general transport equation. A coherent theoretical derivation indicates the wall-molecule and molecule-molecule collisions drive the Knudsen and collective diffusive fluxes, and constitute the system pressure across the porous media. A new terminology, nominal diffusion coefficient can summarize Knudsen and collective diffusion coefficients. Physical and numerical experiments show the support of the new formulation and provide approaches to obtain the diffusion coefficient and permeability simultaneously. This work has important implication for natural gas extraction and greenhouse gases sequestration in geological formations.

  17. Numerical study of centrifugal compressor stage vaneless diffusers

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Galerkin, Y.; Soldatova, K.; Solovieva, O.

    2015-08-01

    The authors analyzed CFD calculations of flow in vaneless diffusers with relative width in range from 0.014 to 0.100 at inlet flow angles in range from 100 to 450 with different inlet velocity coefficients, Reynolds numbers and surface roughness. The aim is to simulate calculated performances by simple algebraic equations. The friction coefficient that represents head losses as friction losses is proposed for simulation. The friction coefficient and loss coefficient are directly connected by simple equation. The advantage is that friction coefficient changes comparatively little in range of studied parameters. Simple equations for this coefficient are proposed by the authors. The simulation accuracy is sufficient for practical calculations. To create the complete algebraic model of the vaneless diffuser the authors plan to widen this method of modeling to diffusers with different relative length and for wider range of Reynolds numbers.

  18. Determination of partition and diffusion coefficients of formaldehyde in selected building materials and impact of relative humidity.

    PubMed

    Xu, Jing; Zhang, Jianshun S; Liu, Xiaoyu; Gao, Zhi

    2012-06-01

    The partition and effective diffusion coefficients of formaldehyde were measured for three materials (conventional gypsum wallboard, "green" gypsum wallboard, and "green" carpet) under three relative humidity (RH) conditions (20%, 50%, and 70% RH). The "green" materials contained recycled materials and were friendly to environment. A dynamic dual-chamber test method was used. Results showed that a higher relative humidity led to a larger effective diffusion coefficient for two kinds of wallboards and carpet. The carpet was also found to be very permeable resulting in an effective diffusion coefficient at the same order of magnitude with the formaldehyde diffusion coefficient in air. The partition coefficient (K(ma)) of formaldehyde in conventional wallboard was 1.52 times larger at 50% RH than at 20% RH, whereas it decreased slightly from 50% to 70% RH, presumably due to the combined effects of water solubility of formaldehyde and micro-pore blocking by condensed moisture at the high RH level. The partition coefficient of formaldehyde increased slightly with the increase of relative humidity in "green" wallboard and "green" carpet. At the same relative humidity level, the "green" wallboard had larger partition coefficient and effective diffusion coefficient than the conventional wallboard, presumably due to the micro-pore structure differences between the two materials. The data generated could be used to assess the sorption effects of formaldehyde on building materials and to evaluate its impact on the formaldehyde concentration in buildings.

  19. Determination of diffusion coefficients of various livestock antibiotics in water at infinite dilution

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Soriano, Allan N.; Adamos, Kristoni G.; Bonifacio, Pauline B.; Adornado, Adonis P.; Bungay, Vergel C.; Vairavan, Rajendaran

    2017-11-01

    The fate of antibiotics entering the environment raised concerns on the possible effect of antimicrobial resistance bacteria. Prediction of the fate and transport of these particles are needed to be determined, significantly the diffusion coefficient of antibiotic in water at infinite dilution. A systematic determination of diffusion coefficient of antibiotic in water at infinite dilution of five different kinds of livestock antibiotics namely: Amtyl, Ciprotyl, Doxylak Forte, Trisullak, and Vetracin Gold in the 293.15 to 313.15 K temperature range are reported through the use of the method involving the electrolytic conductivity measurements. A continuous stirred tank reactor is utilized to measure the electrolytic conductivities of the considered systems. These conductivities are correlated by using the Nernst-Haskell equation to determine the infinite dilution diffusion coefficient. Determined diffusion coefficients are based on the assumption that in dilute solution, these antibiotics behave as strong electrolyte from which H+ cation dissociate from the antibiotic's anion.

  20. Determination of molecular diffusion coefficient in n-alkane binary mixtures: empirical correlations.

    PubMed

    De Mezquia, D Alonso; Bou-Ali, M Mounir; Larrañaga, M; Madariaga, J A; Santamaría, C

    2012-03-08

    In this work we have measured the molecular diffusion coefficient of the n-alkane binary series nC(i)-nC(6), nC(i)-nC(10), and nC(i)-nC(12) at 298 K and 1 atm and a mass fraction of 0.5 by using the so-called sliding symmetric tubes technique. The results show that the diffusion coefficient at this concentration is proportional to the inverse viscosity of the mixture. In addition, we have also measured the diffusion coefficient of the systems nC(12)-nC(6), nC(12)-nC(7), and nC(12)-nC(8) as a function of concentration. From the data obtained, it is shown that the diffusion coefficient of the n-alkane binary mixtures at any concentration can be calculated from the molecular weight of the components and the dynamic viscosity of the corresponding mixture at 50% mass fraction.

  1. Full Tensor Diffusion Imaging Is Not Required To Assess the White-Matter Integrity in Mouse Contusion Spinal Cord Injury

    PubMed Central

    Tu, Tsang-Wei; Kim, Joong H.; Wang, Jian

    2010-01-01

    Abstract In vivo diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) derived indices have been demonstrated to quantify accurately white-matter injury after contusion spinal cord injury (SCI) in rodents. In general, a full diffusion tensor analysis requires the acquisition of diffusion-weighted images (DWI) along at least six independent directions of diffusion-sensitizing gradients. Thus, DTI measurements of the rodent central nervous system are time consuming. In this study, diffusion indices derived using the two-direction DWI (parallel and perpendicular to axonal tracts) were compared with those obtained using six-direction DTI in a mouse model of SCI. It was hypothesized that the mouse spinal cord ventral-lateral white-matter (VLWM) tracts, T8–T10 in this study, aligned with the main magnet axis (z) allowing the apparent diffusion coefficient parallel and perpendicular to the axis of the spine to be derived with diffusion-weighting gradients in the z and y axes of the magnet coordinate respectively. Compared with six-direction full tensor DTI, two-direction DWI provided comparable diffusion indices in mouse spinal cords. The measured extent of spared white matter after injury, estimated by anisotropy indices, using both six-direction DTI and two-direction DWI were in close agreement and correlated well with histological staining and behavioral assessment. The results suggest that the two-direction DWI derived indices may be used, with significantly reduced imaging time, to estimate accurately spared white matter in mouse SCI. PMID:19715399

  2. Measurement of the ferric diffusion coefficient in agarose and gelatine gels by utilization of the evolution of a radiation induced edge as reflected in relaxation rate images.

    PubMed

    Pedersen, T V; Olsen, D R; Skretting, A

    1997-08-01

    A method has been developed to determine the diffusion coefficients of ferric ions in ferrous sulphate doped gels. A radiation induced edge was created in the gel, and two spin-echo sequences were used to acquire a pair of images of the gel at different points of time. For each of these image pairs, a longitudinal relaxation rate image was derived. From profiles through these images, the standard deviations of the Gaussian functions that characterize diffusion were determined. These data provided the basis for the determination of the ferric diffusion coefficients by two different methods. Simulations indicate that the use of single spin-echo images in this procedure may in some cases lead to a significant underestimation of the diffusion coefficient. The technique was applied to different agarose and gelatine gels that were prepared, irradiated and imaged simultaneously. The results indicate that the diffusion coefficient is lower in a gelatine gel than in an agarose gel. Addition of xylenol orange to a gelatine gel lowers the diffusion coefficient from 1.45 to 0.81 mm2 h-1, at the cost of significantly lower Rl sensitivity. The addition of benzoic acid to the latter gel did not increase the Rl sensitivity.

  3. Effects of different cooling treatments on water diffusion, microcirculation, and water content within exercised muscles: evaluation by magnetic resonance T2-weighted and diffusion-weighted imaging.

    PubMed

    Yanagisawa, Osamu; Takahashi, Hideyuki; Fukubayashi, Toru

    2010-09-01

    In this study, we determined the effects of different cooling treatments on exercised muscles. Seven adults underwent four post-exercise treatments (20-min ice-bag application, 60-min gel-pack application at 10 degrees C and 17 degrees C, and non-cooling treatment) with at least 1 week between treatments. Magnetic resonance diffusion- and T2-weighted images were obtained to calculate the apparent diffusion coefficients (apparent diffusion coefficient 1, which reflects intramuscular water diffusion and microcirculation, and apparent diffusion coefficient 2, which is approximately equal to the true diffusion coefficient that excludes as much of the effect of intramuscular microcirculation as possible) and the T2 values (intramuscular water content level) of the ankle dorsiflexors, respectively, before and after ankle dorsiflexion exercise and after post-exercise treatment. The T2 values increased significantly after exercise and returned to pre-exercise values after each treatment; no significant differences were observed among the four post-exercise treatments. Both apparent diffusion coefficients also increased significantly after exercise and decreased significantly after the three cooling treatments; no significant difference was detected among the three cooling treatments. Local cooling suppresses both water diffusion and microcirculation within exercised muscles. Moreover, although the treatment time was longer, adequate cooling effects could be achieved using the gel-pack applications at relatively mild cooling temperatures.

  4. CO2 diffusion in champagne wines: a molecular dynamics study.

    PubMed

    Perret, Alexandre; Bonhommeau, David A; Liger-Belair, Gérard; Cours, Thibaud; Alijah, Alexander

    2014-02-20

    Although diffusion is considered as the main physical process responsible for the nucleation and growth of carbon dioxide bubbles in sparkling beverages, the role of each type of molecule in the diffusion process remains unclear. In the present study, we have used the TIP5P and SPC/E water models to perform force field molecular dynamics simulations of CO2 molecules in water and in a water/ethanol mixture respecting Champagne wine proportions. CO2 diffusion coefficients were computed by applying the generalized Fick's law for the determination of multicomponent diffusion coefficients, a law that simplifies to the standard Fick's law in the case of champagnes. The CO2 diffusion coefficients obtained in pure water and water/ethanol mixtures composed of TIP5P water molecules were always found to exceed the coefficients obtained in mixtures composed of SPC/E water molecules, a trend that was attributed to a larger propensity of SPC/E water molecules to form hydrogen bonds. Despite the fact that the SPC/E model is more accurate than the TIP5P model to compute water self-diffusion and CO2 diffusion in pure water, the diffusion coefficients of CO2 molecules in the water/ethanol mixture are in much better agreement with the experimental values of 1.4 - 1.5 × 10(-9) m(2)/s obtained for Champagne wines when the TIP5P model is employed. This difference was deemed to rely on the larger propensity of SPC/E water molecules to maintain the hydrogen-bonded network between water molecules and form new hydrogen bonds with ethanol, although statistical issues cannot be completely excluded. The remarkable agreement between the theoretical CO2 diffusion coefficients obtained within the TIP5P water/ethanol mixture and the experimental data specific to Champagne wines makes us infer that the diffusion coefficient in these emblematic hydroalcoholic sparkling beverages is expected to remain roughly constant whathever their proportions in sugars, glycerol, or peptides.

  5. Dissolution and solubility behavior of fenofibrate in sodium lauryl sulfate solutions.

    PubMed

    Granero, Gladys E; Ramachandran, Chandrasekharan; Amidon, Gordon L

    2005-10-01

    The solubility of fenofibrate in pH 6.8 McIlvaine buffers containing varying concentrations of sodium lauryl sulfate was determined. The dissolution behavior of fenofibrate was also examined in the same solutions with rotating disk experiments. It was observed that the enhancement in intrinsic dissolution rate was approximately 500-fold and the enhancement in solubility was approximately 2000-fold in a pH 6.8 buffer containing 2% (w/v) sodium lauryl sulfate compared to that in buffer alone. The micellar solubilization equilibrium coefficient (k*) was estimated from the solubility data and found to be 30884+/-213 L/mol. The diffusivity for the free solute, 7.15x10(-6) cm2/s, was calculated using Schroeder's additive molal volume estimates and Hayduk-Laurie correlation. The diffusivity of the drug-loaded micelle, estimated from the experimental solubility and dissolution data and the calculated value for free solute diffusivity, was 0.86x10(-6) cm2/s. Thus, the much lower enhancement in dissolution of fenofibrate compared to its enhancement in solubility in surfactant solutions appears to be consistent with the contribution to the total transport due to enhanced micellar solubilization as well as a large decrease (approximately 8-fold) in the diffusivity of the drug-loaded micelle.

  6. Multispecies diffusion models: A study of uranyl species diffusion

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Chongxuan; Shang, Jianying; Zachara, John M.

    2011-12-01

    Rigorous numerical description of multispecies diffusion requires coupling of species, charge, and aqueous and surface complexation reactions that collectively affect diffusive fluxes. The applicability of a fully coupled diffusion model is, however, often constrained by the availability of species self-diffusion coefficients, as well as by computational complication in imposing charge conservation. In this study, several diffusion models with variable complexity in charge and species coupling were formulated and compared to describe reactive multispecies diffusion in groundwater. Diffusion of uranyl [U(VI)] species was used as an example in demonstrating the effectiveness of the models in describing multispecies diffusion. Numerical simulations found that a diffusion model with a single, common diffusion coefficient for all species was sufficient to describe multispecies U(VI) diffusion under a steady state condition of major chemical composition, but not under transient chemical conditions. Simulations revealed that for multispecies U(VI) diffusion under transient chemical conditions, a fully coupled diffusion model could be well approximated by a component-based diffusion model when the diffusion coefficient for each chemical component was properly selected. The component-based diffusion model considers the difference in diffusion coefficients between chemical components, but not between the species within each chemical component. This treatment significantly enhanced computational efficiency at the expense of minor charge conservation. The charge balance in the component-based diffusion model can be enforced, if necessary, by adding a secondary migration term resulting from model simplification. The effect of ion activity coefficient gradients on multispecies diffusion is also discussed. The diffusion models were applied to describe U(VI) diffusive mass transfer in intragranular domains in two sediments collected from U.S. Department of Energy's Hanford 300A, where intragranular diffusion is a rate-limiting process controlling U(VI) adsorption and desorption. The grain-scale reactive diffusion model was able to describe U(VI) adsorption/desorption kinetics that had been previously described using a semiempirical, multirate model. Compared with the multirate model, the diffusion models have the advantage to provide spatiotemporal speciation evolution within the diffusion domains.

  7. Time-frequency analysis of backscattered signals from diffuse radar targets

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kenny, O. P.; Boashash, B.

    1993-06-01

    The need for analysis of time-varying signals has led to the formulation of a class of joint time-frequency distributions (TFDs). One of these TFDs, the Wigner-Ville distribution (WVD), has useful properties which can be applied to radar imaging. The authors discuss time-frequency representation of the backscattered signal from a diffuse radar target. It is then shown that for point scatterers which are statistically dependent or for which the reflectivity coefficient has a nonzero mean value, reconstruction using time of flight positron emission tomography on time-frequency images is effective for estimating the scattering function of the target.

  8. Self-Diffusion and Heteroassociation in an Acetone-Chloroform Mixture at 298 K

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Golubev, V. A.; Gurina, D. L.; Kumeev, R. S.

    2018-01-01

    The self-diffusion coefficients of acetone and chloroform in a binary acetone-chloroform mixture at 298 K are determined via pulsed field gradient NMR spectroscopy. It is estimated that the hydrodynamic radii of the mixture's components, calculated using the Stokes-Einstein equation, grow as the concentrations of the components fall. It is shown that such behavior of hydrodynamic radii is due to acetone-chloroform heteroassociation. The hydrodynamic radii of monomers and heteroassociates in a 1: 1 ratio are determined along with the constant of heteroassociation, using the proposed model of an associated solution.

  9. The influence of screening of the polyion electrostatic potential on the counterion dynamics in polyelectrolyte solutions

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Schipper, F. J. M.; Hollander, J. G.; Leyte, J. C.

    1998-10-01

    The self-diffusion coefficient of tetra-methylammonium counterion in solutions of polymethacrylic acid in 0953-8984/10/41/004/img1 has been measured over a broad polyion concentration range at a constant degree of neutralization and at different ratios of added monovalent or bivalent salt to polyions. A maximum counterion self-diffusion coefficient was observed as a function of polyion concentration. The value of the self-diffusion coefficient at the maximum did not depend on the valency of the added salt. The maximum was found at lower polymer concentrations and with a higher value, when the ratio of added salt to polyions was increased, as predicted by the Poisson-Boltzmann-Smoluchowski equation in the cylindrical cell model for polyelectrolytes. At higher polyion concentrations a maximum counterion self-diffusion coefficient against the ratio of added salt and polyions was observed, which has not been reported before. Upon increasing this ratio the electrostatic potential of the polyelectrolyte gets screened, leading to an increase of the counterion self-diffusion coefficient. Concentration effects of the added salt on the other hand ultimately lead to a decrease of the counterion self-diffusion coefficient, which explains the occurrence of a maximum.

  10. Multilevel Preconditioners for Reaction-Diffusion Problems with Discontinuous Coefficients

    DOE PAGES

    Kolev, Tzanio V.; Xu, Jinchao; Zhu, Yunrong

    2015-08-23

    In this study, we extend some of the multilevel convergence results obtained by Xu and Zhu, to the case of second order linear reaction-diffusion equations. Specifically, we consider the multilevel preconditioners for solving the linear systems arising from the linear finite element approximation of the problem, where both diffusion and reaction coefficients are piecewise-constant functions. We discuss in detail the influence of both the discontinuous reaction and diffusion coefficients to the performance of the classical BPX and multigrid V-cycle preconditioner.

  11. Note: On the relation between Lifson-Jackson and Derrida formulas for effective diffusion coefficient

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kalnin, Juris R.; Berezhkovskii, Alexander M.

    2013-11-01

    The Lifson-Jackson formula provides the effective free diffusion coefficient for a particle diffusing in an arbitrary one-dimensional periodic potential. Its counterpart, when the underlying dynamics is described in terms of an unbiased nearest-neighbor Markovian random walk on a one-dimensional periodic lattice is given by the formula obtained by Derrida. It is shown that the latter formula can be considered as a discretized version of the Lifson-Jackson formula with correctly chosen position-dependent diffusion coefficient.

  12. Statistical interpretation of pollution data from satellites. [for levels distribution over metropolitan area

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Smith, G. L.; Green, R. N.; Young, G. R.

    1974-01-01

    The NIMBUS-G environmental monitoring satellite has an instrument (a gas correlation spectrometer) onboard for measuring the mass of a given pollutant within a gas volume. The present paper treats the problem: How can this type measurement be used to estimate the distribution of pollutant levels in a metropolitan area. Estimation methods are used to develop this distribution. The pollution concentration caused by a point source is modeled as a Gaussian plume. The uncertainty in the measurements is used to determine the accuracy of estimating the source strength, the wind velocity, diffusion coefficients and source location.

  13. Consequences of using nonlinear particle trajectories to compute spatial diffusion coefficients. [for cosmic ray propagation in interstellar and interplanetary space

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Goldstein, M. L.

    1977-01-01

    In a study of cosmic ray propagation in interstellar and interplanetary space, a perturbed orbit resonant scattering theory for pitch angle diffusion in a slab model of magnetostatic turbulence is slightly generalized and used to compute the diffusion coefficient for spatial propagation parallel to the mean magnetic field. This diffusion coefficient has been useful for describing the solar modulation of the galactic cosmic rays, and for explaining the diffusive phase in solar flares in which the initial anisotropy of the particle distribution decays to isotropy.

  14. Diffusion of cations in chromia layers grown on iron-base alloys

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Lobnig, R.E.; Hennesen, K.; Grabke, H.J.

    Diffusion of the cations Cr, Fe, Mn, and Ni in Cr{sub 2}O{sub 3} has been investigated at 1,173 K. The diffusion measurements were performed on chromia layers grown on the model alloys Fe-20Cr and Fe-20Cr-12Ni in order to consider effects of small amounts of dissolved alien cations in Cr{sub 2}O{sub 3}. The samples were diffusion annealed in H{sub 2}-H{sub 2}O at an oxygen partial pressure close to the Cr{sub 2}O{sub 3}/Cr equilibrium. For all tracers the lattice-diffusion coefficients are 3-5 orders of magnitude smaller than the grain-boundary diffusion coefficients. The lattice diffusivity of Mn is about two orders of magnitudemore » greater than the other lattice-diffusion coefficients, especially in Cr{sub 2}O{sub 3} grown on Fe-20Cr-12Ni. The values of the diffusion coefficients for Cr, Fe, and Ni are in the same range. Diffusion of the tracers in Cr{sub 2}O{sub 3} grown on different alloys did not show significant differences with the exception of Mn.« less

  15. Giant enhancement of fluctuation in small biological systems under external fields

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Hayashi, Kumiko; Hasegawa, Shin; Tsunoda, Satoshi P.

    2016-05-01

    The giant enhancement (GE) of fluctuation under an external field is a universal phenomenon predicted by the theoretical analysis given in (Reimann et al 2001 Phys. Rev. Lett.). Here, we propose the application of the theory of the GE of fluctuation to estimate the energy barrier of a biomolecule that exhibits its function subject to thermal noise. The rotary motor protein F1 was used as a model, which is a component of FoF1 adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-synthase. In the single-molecule experiment on F1, the diffusion coefficients of a rotary probe attached to F1, which characterised the fluctuation of the system, were measured under the influence of an electro-rotary field. These diffusion coefficients were then used to estimate a high-energy barrier of the rotary potential of F1 based on the theory of the GE of fluctuation. Furthermore, the ion channel protein channelrhodopsin (ChR) was used as another research model. The current fluctuations of ions moving through ChR were numerically investigated using a simulation model of the protein in the presence of an external voltage. The energy barrier for ion conduction is discussed based on the current fluctuations.

  16. Length of intact plasma membrane determines the diffusion properties of cellular water.

    PubMed

    Eida, Sato; Van Cauteren, Marc; Hotokezaka, Yuka; Katayama, Ikuo; Sasaki, Miho; Obara, Makoto; Okuaki, Tomoyuki; Sumi, Misa; Nakamura, Takashi

    2016-01-11

    Molecular diffusion in a boundary-free medium depends only on the molecular size, the temperature, and medium viscosity. However, the critical determinant of the molecular diffusion property in inhomogeneous biological tissues has not been identified. Here, using an in vitro system and a high-resolution MR imaging technique, we show that the length of the intact plasma membrane is a major determinant of water diffusion in a controlled cellular environment and that the cell perimeter length (CPL) is sufficient to estimate the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of water in any cellular environment in our experimental system (ADC = -0.21 × CPL + 1.10). We used this finding to further explain the different diffusion kinetics of cells that are dying via apoptotic or non-apoptotic cell death pathways exhibiting characteristic changes in size, nuclear and cytoplasmic architectures, and membrane integrity. These results suggest that the ADC value can be used as a potential biomarker for cell death.

  17. Length of intact plasma membrane determines the diffusion properties of cellular water

    PubMed Central

    Eida, Sato; Van Cauteren, Marc; Hotokezaka, Yuka; Katayama, Ikuo; Sasaki, Miho; Obara, Makoto; Okuaki, Tomoyuki; Sumi, Misa; Nakamura, Takashi

    2016-01-01

    Molecular diffusion in a boundary-free medium depends only on the molecular size, the temperature, and medium viscosity. However, the critical determinant of the molecular diffusion property in inhomogeneous biological tissues has not been identified. Here, using an in vitro system and a high-resolution MR imaging technique, we show that the length of the intact plasma membrane is a major determinant of water diffusion in a controlled cellular environment and that the cell perimeter length (CPL) is sufficient to estimate the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of water in any cellular environment in our experimental system (ADC = −0.21 × CPL + 1.10). We used this finding to further explain the different diffusion kinetics of cells that are dying via apoptotic or non-apoptotic cell death pathways exhibiting characteristic changes in size, nuclear and cytoplasmic architectures, and membrane integrity. These results suggest that the ADC value can be used as a potential biomarker for cell death. PMID:26750342

  18. Low-resolution mapping of the effective attenuation coefficient of the human head: a multidistance approach applied to high-density optical recordings

    PubMed Central

    Chiarelli, Antonio M.; Maclin, Edward L.; Low, Kathy A.; Fantini, Sergio; Fabiani, Monica; Gratton, Gabriele

    2017-01-01

    Abstract. Near infrared (NIR) light has been widely used for measuring changes in hemoglobin concentration in the human brain (functional NIR spectroscopy, fNIRS). fNIRS is based on the differential measurement and estimation of absorption perturbations, which, in turn, are based on correctly estimating the absolute parameters of light propagation. To do so, it is essential to accurately characterize the baseline optical properties of tissue (absorption and reduced scattering coefficients). However, because of the diffusive properties of the medium, separate determination of absorption and scattering across the head is challenging. The effective attenuation coefficient (EAC), which is proportional to the geometric mean of absorption and reduced scattering coefficients, can be estimated in a simpler fashion by multidistance light decay measurements. EAC mapping could be of interest for the scientific community because of its absolute information content, and because light propagation is governed by the EAC for source–detector distances exceeding 1 cm, which sense depths extending beyond the scalp and skull layers. Here, we report an EAC mapping procedure that can be applied to standard fNIRS recordings, yielding topographic maps with 2- to 3-cm resolution. Application to human data indicates the importance of venous sinuses in determining regional EAC variations, a factor often overlooked. PMID:28466026

  19. Low-resolution mapping of the effective attenuation coefficient of the human head: a multidistance approach applied to high-density optical recordings.

    PubMed

    Chiarelli, Antonio M; Maclin, Edward L; Low, Kathy A; Fantini, Sergio; Fabiani, Monica; Gratton, Gabriele

    2017-04-01

    Near infrared (NIR) light has been widely used for measuring changes in hemoglobin concentration in the human brain (functional NIR spectroscopy, fNIRS). fNIRS is based on the differential measurement and estimation of absorption perturbations, which, in turn, are based on correctly estimating the absolute parameters of light propagation. To do so, it is essential to accurately characterize the baseline optical properties of tissue (absorption and reduced scattering coefficients). However, because of the diffusive properties of the medium, separate determination of absorption and scattering across the head is challenging. The effective attenuation coefficient (EAC), which is proportional to the geometric mean of absorption and reduced scattering coefficients, can be estimated in a simpler fashion by multidistance light decay measurements. EAC mapping could be of interest for the scientific community because of its absolute information content, and because light propagation is governed by the EAC for source-detector distances exceeding 1 cm, which sense depths extending beyond the scalp and skull layers. Here, we report an EAC mapping procedure that can be applied to standard fNIRS recordings, yielding topographic maps with 2- to 3-cm resolution. Application to human data indicates the importance of venous sinuses in determining regional EAC variations, a factor often overlooked.

  20. Many-body Effects in a Laterally Inhomogeneous Semiconductor Quantum Well

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Ning, Cun-Zheng; Li, Jian-Zhong; Biegel, Bryan A. (Technical Monitor)

    2002-01-01

    Many body effects on conduction and diffusion of electrons and holes in a semiconductor quantum well are studied using a microscopic theory. The roles played by the screened Hartree-Fock (SHE) terms and the scattering terms are examined. It is found that the electron and hole conductivities depend only on the scattering terms, while the two-component electron-hole diffusion coefficients depend on both the SHE part and the scattering part. We show that, in the limit of the ambipolax diffusion approximation, however, the diffusion coefficients for carrier density and temperature are independent of electron-hole scattering. In particular, we found that the SHE terms lead to a reduction of density-diffusion coefficients and an increase in temperature-diffusion coefficients. Such a reduction or increase is explained in terms of a density-and temperature dependent energy landscape created by the bandgap renormalization.

  1. Determination of the zincate diffusion coefficient and its application to alkaline battery problems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    May, C. E.; Kautz, Harold E.

    1978-01-01

    The diffusion coefficient for the zincate ion at 24 C was found to be 9.9 X 10 to the minus 7th power squared cm per sec + or - 30 percent in 45 percent potassium hydroxide and 1.4 x 10 to the minus 7 squared cm per sec + or - 25 percent in 40 percent sodium hydroxide. Comparison of these values with literature values at different potassium hydroxide concentrations show that the Stokes-Einstein equation is obeyed. The diffusion coefficient is characteristic of the zincate ion (not the cation) and independent of its concentration. Calculations with the measured value of the diffusion coefficient show that the zinc concentration in an alkaline zincate half cell becomes uniform throughout in tens of hours by diffusion alone. Diffusion equations are derived which are applicable to finite size chambers. Details and discussion of the experimental method are also given.

  2. Coiled to diffuse: Brownian motion of a helical bacterium.

    PubMed

    Butenko, Alexander V; Mogilko, Emma; Amitai, Lee; Pokroy, Boaz; Sloutskin, Eli

    2012-09-11

    We employ real-time three-dimensional confocal microscopy to follow the Brownian motion of a fixed helically shaped Leptospira interrogans (LI) bacterium. We extract from our measurements the translational and the rotational diffusion coefficients of this bacterium. A simple theoretical model is suggested, perfectly reproducing the experimental diffusion coefficients, with no tunable parameters. An older theoretical model, where edge effects are neglected, dramatically underestimates the observed rates of translation. Interestingly, the coiling of LI increases its rotational diffusion coefficient by a factor of 5, compared to a (hypothetical) rectified bacterium of the same contour length. Moreover, the translational diffusion coefficients would have decreased by a factor of ~1.5, if LI were rectified. This suggests that the spiral shape of the spirochaete bacteria, in addition to being employed for their active twisting motion, may also increase the ability of these bacteria to explore the surrounding fluid by passive Brownian diffusion.

  3. Determination of the zincate diffusion coefficient and its application to alkaline battery problems

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    May, C. E.; Kautz, H. E.

    1978-01-01

    The diffusion coefficient for the zincate ion at 24 C was found to be 9.9 x 10 to the -7th power sq cm/sec + or - 30% in 45% potassium hydroxide and 1.4 x 10 to the -7th power sq cm/sec + or - 25% in 40% sodium hydroxide. Comparison of these values with literature values at different potassium hydroxide concentrations show that the Stokes-Einstein equation is obeyed. The diffusion coefficient is characteristic of the zincate ion (not the cation) and independent of its concentration. Calculations with the measured value of the diffusion coefficient show that the zinc concentration in an alkaline zincate half-cell becomes uniform throughout in tens of hours by diffusion alone. Diffusion equations are derived which are applicable to finite-size chambers. Details and discussion of the experimental method are also given.

  4. Slow-Down in Diffusion in Crowded Protein Solutions Correlates with Transient Cluster Formation.

    PubMed

    Nawrocki, Grzegorz; Wang, Po-Hung; Yu, Isseki; Sugita, Yuji; Feig, Michael

    2017-12-14

    For a long time, the effect of a crowded cellular environment on protein dynamics has been largely ignored. Recent experiments indicate that proteins diffuse more slowly in a living cell than in a diluted solution, and further studies suggest that the diffusion depends on the local surroundings. Here, detailed insight into how diffusion depends on protein-protein contacts is presented based on extensive all-atom molecular dynamics simulations of concentrated villin headpiece solutions. After force field adjustments in the form of increased protein-water interactions to reproduce experimental data, translational and rotational diffusion was analyzed in detail. Although internal protein dynamics remained largely unaltered, rotational diffusion was found to slow down more significantly than translational diffusion as the protein concentration increased. The decrease in diffusion is interpreted in terms of a transient formation of protein clusters. These clusters persist on sub-microsecond time scales and follow distributions that increasingly shift toward larger cluster size with increasing protein concentrations. Weighting diffusion coefficients estimated for different clusters extracted from the simulations with the distribution of clusters largely reproduces the overall observed diffusion rates, suggesting that transient cluster formation is a primary cause for a slow-down in diffusion upon crowding with other proteins.

  5. Application of the two-film model to the volatilization of acetone and t-butyl alcohol from water as a function of temperature

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Rathbun, R.E.; Tai, D.Y.

    1988-01-01

    The two-film model is often used to describe the volatilization of organic substances from water. This model assumes uniformly mixed water and air phases separated by thin films of water and air in which mass transfer is by molecular diffusion. Mass-transfer coefficients for the films, commonly called film coefficients, are related through the Henry's law constant and the model equation to the overall mass-transfer coefficient for volatilization. The films are modeled as two resistances in series, resulting in additive resistances. The two-film model and the concept of additivity of resistances were applied to experimental data for acetone and t-butyl alcohol. Overall mass-transfer coefficients for the volatilization of acetone and t-butyl alcohol from water were measured in the laboratory in a stirred constant-temperature bath. Measurements were completed for six water temperatures, each at three water mixing conditions. Wind-speed was constant at about 0.1 meter per second for all experiments. Oxygen absorption coefficients were measured simultaneously with the measurement of the acetone and t-butyl alcohol mass-transfer coefficients. Gas-film coefficients for acetone, t-butyl alcohol, and water were determined by measuring the volatilization fluxes of the pure substances over a range of temperatures. Henry's law constants were estimated from data from the literature. The combination of high resistance in the gas film for solutes with low values of the Henry's law constants has not been studied previously. Calculation of the liquid-film coefficients for acetone and t-butyl alcohol from measured overall mass-transfer and gas-film coefficients, estimated Henry's law constants, and the two-film model equation resulted in physically unrealistic, negative liquid-film coefficients for most of the experiments at the medium and high water mixing conditions. An analysis of the two-film model equation showed that when the percentage resistance in the gas film is large and the gas-film resistance approaches the overall resistance in value, the calculated liquid-film coefficient becomes extremely sensitive to errors in the Henry's law constant. The negative coefficients were attributed to this sensitivity and to errors in the estimated Henry's law constants. Liquid-film coefficients for the absorption of oxygen were correlated with the stirrer Reynolds number and the Schmidt number. Application of this correlation with the experimental conditions and a molecular-diffusion coefficient adjustment resulted in values of the liquid-film coefficients for both acetone and t-butyl alcohol within the range expected for all three mixing conditions. Comparison of Henry's law constants calculated from these film coefficients and the experimental data with the constants calculated from literature data showed that the differences were small relative to the errors reported in the literature as typical for the measurement or estimation of Henry's law constants for hydrophilic compounds such as ketones and alcohols. Temperature dependence of the mass-transfer coefficients was expressed in two forms. The first, based on thermodynamics, assumed the coefficients varied as the exponential of the reciprocal absolute temperature. The second empirical approach assumed the coefficients varied as the exponential of the absolute temperature. Both of these forms predicted the temperature dependence of the experimental mass-transfer coefficients with little error for most of the water temperature range likely to be found in streams and rivers. Liquid-film and gas-film coefficients for acetone and t-butyl alcohol were similar in value. However, depending on water mixing conditions, overall mass-transfer coefficients for acetone were from two to four times larger than the coefficients for t-butyl alcohol. This difference in behavior of the coefficients resulted because the Henry's law constant for acetone was about three times larger than that of

  6. Negative Correlation between the Diffusion Coefficient and Transcriptional Activity of the Glucocorticoid Receptor.

    PubMed

    Mikuni, Shintaro; Yamamoto, Johtaro; Horio, Takashi; Kinjo, Masataka

    2017-08-25

    The glucocorticoid receptor (GR) is a transcription factor, which interacts with DNA and other cofactors to regulate gene transcription. Binding to other partners in the cell nucleus alters the diffusion properties of GR. Raster image correlation spectroscopy (RICS) was applied to quantitatively characterize the diffusion properties of EGFP labeled human GR (EGFP-hGR) and its mutants in the cell nucleus. RICS is an image correlation technique that evaluates the spatial distribution of the diffusion coefficient as a diffusion map. Interestingly, we observed that the averaged diffusion coefficient of EGFP-hGR strongly and negatively correlated with its transcriptional activities in comparison to that of EGFP-hGR wild type and mutants with various transcriptional activities. This result suggests that the decreasing of the diffusion coefficient of hGR was reflected in the high-affinity binding to DNA. Moreover, the hyper-phosphorylation of hGR can enhance the transcriptional activity by reduction of the interaction between the hGR and the nuclear corepressors.

  7. Rumor Diffusion in an Interests-Based Dynamic Social Network

    PubMed Central

    Mao, Xinjun; Guessoum, Zahia; Zhou, Huiping

    2013-01-01

    To research rumor diffusion in social friend network, based on interests, a dynamic friend network is proposed, which has the characteristics of clustering and community, and a diffusion model is also proposed. With this friend network and rumor diffusion model, based on the zombie-city model, some simulation experiments to analyze the characteristics of rumor diffusion in social friend networks have been conducted. The results show some interesting observations: (1) positive information may evolve to become a rumor through the diffusion process that people may modify the information by word of mouth; (2) with the same average degree, a random social network has a smaller clustering coefficient and is more beneficial for rumor diffusion than the dynamic friend network; (3) a rumor is spread more widely in a social network with a smaller global clustering coefficient than in a social network with a larger global clustering coefficient; and (4) a network with a smaller clustering coefficient has a larger efficiency. PMID:24453911

  8. Rumor diffusion in an interests-based dynamic social network.

    PubMed

    Tang, Mingsheng; Mao, Xinjun; Guessoum, Zahia; Zhou, Huiping

    2013-01-01

    To research rumor diffusion in social friend network, based on interests, a dynamic friend network is proposed, which has the characteristics of clustering and community, and a diffusion model is also proposed. With this friend network and rumor diffusion model, based on the zombie-city model, some simulation experiments to analyze the characteristics of rumor diffusion in social friend networks have been conducted. The results show some interesting observations: (1) positive information may evolve to become a rumor through the diffusion process that people may modify the information by word of mouth; (2) with the same average degree, a random social network has a smaller clustering coefficient and is more beneficial for rumor diffusion than the dynamic friend network; (3) a rumor is spread more widely in a social network with a smaller global clustering coefficient than in a social network with a larger global clustering coefficient; and (4) a network with a smaller clustering coefficient has a larger efficiency.

  9. Venus' superrotation, mixing length theory and eddy diffusion - A parametric study

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Mayr, H. G.; Harris, I.; Schatten, K. H.; Stevens-Rayburn, D. R.; Chan, K. L.

    1988-01-01

    The concept of the Hadley mechanism is adopted to describe the axisymmetric circulation of the Venus atmosphere. It is shown that, for the atmosphere of a slowly rotating planet such as Venus, a form of the nonliner 'closure' (self-consistent solution) of the fluid dynamics system which constrains the magnitude of the eddy diffusion coefficients can be postulated. A nonlinear one-layer spectral model of the zonally symmetric circulation was then used to establish the relationship between the heat source, the meridional circulation, and the eddy diffusion coefficients, yielding large zonal velocities. Computer experiments indicated that proportional changes in the heat source and eddy diffusion coefficients do not significantly change the zonal velocities. It was also found that, for large eddy diffusion coefficients, the meridional velocity is virtually constant; below a threshold in the diffusion rate, the meridional velocity decreases; and, for large eddy diffusion and small heating rates, the zonal velocities decrease with decreasing planetary rotation rates.

  10. Measurement of gas diffusion coefficient in liquid-saturated porous media using magnetic resonance imaging

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Song, Yongchen; Hao, Min; Zhao, Yuechao; Zhang, Liang

    2014-12-01

    In this study, the dual-chamber pressure decay method and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were used to dynamically visualize the gas diffusion process in liquid-saturated porous media, and the relationship of concentration-distance for gas diffusing into liquid-saturated porous media at different times were obtained by MR images quantitative analysis. A non-iterative finite volume method was successfully applied to calculate the local gas diffusion coefficient in liquid-saturated porous media. The results agreed very well with the conventional pressure decay method, thus it demonstrates that the method was feasible of determining the local diffusion coefficient of gas in liquid-saturated porous media at different times during diffusion process.

  11. Spectral Properties of Limit-Periodic Schrödinger Operators (PhD Thesis)

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gideonse, Hendrik David, XIX

    The Acoustic Ramp is a wedge-shaped, number-theoretical quadratic-residue-type acoustic diffuser. Since the late 1970's, several methodologies for the testing and analysis of diffusers have been developed including, the ISO Scattering Coefficient and the AES Diffusion Coefficient. These coefficients are the source of some controversy today and this paper makes the attempt to investigate the benefits and weaknesses of these tools by using them to research and test the Acoustic Ramp. Several issues are exposed in using the coefficients, the most important of which being the validity of the comparison of the diffuser's behavior to that of a like sized flat panel. Further issues comprise of an intuitive disconnect between the perceived merits of polar plots and the numerical value of coefficients derived from the plots.

  12. Distributional behavior of diffusion coefficients obtained by single trajectories in annealed transit time model

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Akimoto, Takuma; Yamamoto, Eiji

    2016-12-01

    Local diffusion coefficients in disordered systems such as spin glass systems and living cells are highly heterogeneous and may change over time. Such a time-dependent and spatially heterogeneous environment results in irreproducibility of single-particle-tracking measurements. Irreproducibility of time-averaged observables has been theoretically studied in the context of weak ergodicity breaking in stochastic processes. Here, we provide rigorous descriptions of equilibrium and non-equilibrium diffusion processes for the annealed transit time model, which is a heterogeneous diffusion model in living cells. We give analytical solutions for the mean square displacement (MSD) and the relative standard deviation of the time-averaged MSD for equilibrium and non-equilibrium situations. We find that the time-averaged MSD grows linearly with time and that the time-averaged diffusion coefficients are intrinsically random (irreproducible) even in the long-time measurements in non-equilibrium situations. Furthermore, the distribution of the time-averaged diffusion coefficients converges to a universal distribution in the sense that it does not depend on initial conditions. Our findings pave the way for a theoretical understanding of distributional behavior of the time-averaged diffusion coefficients in disordered systems.

  13. Measurement of diffusion coefficients important in modeling the absorption rate of carbon dioxide into aqueous N-methyldiethanolamine

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Rowley, R.L.; Adams, M.E.; Marshall, T.L.

    1997-03-01

    Natural gas processors use amine treating processes to remove the acid gases H{sub 2}S and CO{sub 2} from gas streams. Absorption rates of gaseous CO{sub 2} into aqueous N-methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) solutions were measured in a quiescent, inverted-tube diffusiometer by monitoring the rate of pressure drop. The absorption rate was found to be insensitive to the diffusion coefficient of CO{sub 2} in solution but very sensitive to the diffusion rate of bicarbonate and protonated MDEA ions. Evidence also suggested that chemical reaction equilibrium is rapid relative to diffusion. A numerical model was developed on the basis of these observations. The modelmore » was used to regress diffusion coefficients of bicarbonate and protonated amine, which must be equivalent by electroneutrality arguments, from measured absorption rates. Complete modeling of the absorption process also required data for the diffusion coefficient of MDEA in water. These were measured using a Taylor dispersion apparatus. CO{sub 2} absorption rates and diffusion coefficients of bicarbonate and protonated MDEA were obtained at 298.2 K and 318.2 K in solutions containing 20, 35, and 50 mass % MDEA in water.« less

  14. Determination of diffusion and partition coefficients of model migrants by direct contact and vapour phase transfer from low-density polyethylene films into cake.

    PubMed

    Paseiro-Cerrato, Rafael; Rodríguez-Bernaldo de Quirós, Ana; Otero-Pazos, Pablo; Sendón, Raquel; Paseiro-Losada, Perfecto

    2018-03-01

    The aim of the present study was to determine the migration kinetics of one photoinitiator, benzophenone, and two optical brighteners, Uvitex OB and 1,4-diphenyl-1,3-butadiene (DPBD), from low-density polyethylene (LDPE) films into cake. Transfer was assessed by both direct contact and also the vapour phase. To perform the migration tests by direct contact, plastic films enriched with the additives were placed between two cake slices. To evaluate the migration through the gas phase, cake and the fortified LDPE film were placed with no direct contact in a glass container that was hermetically closed. Samples were stored at different time-temperature conditions. Target compounds were extracted from the films with ethanol (70°C, 24 h) and analysed by HPLC-DAD. Relevant parameters such as partition and diffusion coefficients between food and plastic film were calculated. The Arrhenius equation was applied to estimate the diffusion coefficient at any temperature. The data indicate that migration of benzophenone occurs in a significant extent into cake by both direct contact and through the gas phase (no direct contact). Conversely, very little migration occurred for Uvitex OB by direct contact and none through the gas phase. Results for benzophenone suggest that migration through the gas phase should be considered when evaluating migration from food packaging materials into food.

  15. Renormalization group estimates of transport coefficients in the advection of a passive scalar by incompressible turbulence

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Zhou, YE; Vahala, George

    1993-01-01

    The advection of a passive scalar by incompressible turbulence is considered using recursive renormalization group procedures in the differential sub grid shell thickness limit. It is shown explicitly that the higher order nonlinearities induced by the recursive renormalization group procedure preserve Galilean invariance. Differential equations, valid for the entire resolvable wave number k range, are determined for the eddy viscosity and eddy diffusivity coefficients, and it is shown that higher order nonlinearities do not contribute as k goes to 0, but have an essential role as k goes to k(sub c) the cutoff wave number separating the resolvable scales from the sub grid scales. The recursive renormalization transport coefficients and the associated eddy Prandtl number are in good agreement with the k-dependent transport coefficients derived from closure theories and experiments.

  16. Empirical algorithms for ocean optics parameters

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Smart, Jeffrey H.

    2007-06-01

    As part of the Worldwide Ocean Optics Database (WOOD) Project, The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory has developed and evaluated a variety of empirical models that can predict ocean optical properties, such as profiles of the beam attenuation coefficient computed from profiles of the diffuse attenuation coefficient. In this paper, we briefly summarize published empirical optical algorithms and assess their accuracy for estimating derived profiles. We also provide new algorithms and discuss their applicability for deriving optical profiles based on data collected from a variety of locations, including the Yellow Sea, the Sea of Japan, and the North Atlantic Ocean. We show that the scattering coefficient (b) can be computed from the beam attenuation coefficient (c) to about 10% accuracy. The availability of such relatively accurate predictions is important in the many situations where the set of data is incomplete.

  17. Interdiffusion, Intrinsic Diffusion, Atomic Mobility, and Vacancy Wind Effect in γ(bcc) Uranium-Molybdenum Alloy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Huang, Ke; Keiser, Dennis D.; Sohn, Yongho

    2013-02-01

    U-Mo alloys are being developed as low enrichment uranium fuels under the Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactor (RERTR) Program. In order to understand the fundamental diffusion behavior of this system, solid-to-solid pure U vs Mo diffusion couples were assembled and annealed at 923 K, 973 K, 1073 K, 1173 K, and 1273 K (650 °C, 700 °C, 800 °C, 900 °C, and 1000 °C) for various times. The interdiffusion microstructures and concentration profiles were examined via scanning electron microscopy and electron probe microanalysis, respectively. As the Mo concentration increased from 2 to 26 at. pct, the interdiffusion coefficient decreased, while the activation energy increased. A Kirkendall marker plane was clearly identified in each diffusion couple and utilized to determine intrinsic diffusion coefficients. Uranium intrinsically diffused 5-10 times faster than Mo. Molar excess Gibbs free energy of U-Mo alloy was applied to calculate the thermodynamic factor using ideal, regular, and subregular solution models. Based on the intrinsic diffusion coefficients and thermodynamic factors, Manning's formalism was used to calculate the tracer diffusion coefficients, atomic mobilities, and vacancy wind parameters of U and Mo at the marker composition. The tracer diffusion coefficients and atomic mobilities of U were about five times larger than those of Mo, and the vacancy wind effect increased the intrinsic flux of U by approximately 30 pct.

  18. Experimental investigation of turbulent diffusion of slightly buoyant droplets in locally isotropic turbulence

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Gopalan, Balaji; Malkiel, Edwin; Katz, Joseph

    2008-09-01

    High-speed inline digital holographic cinematography is used for studying turbulent diffusion of slightly buoyant 0.5-1.2 mm diameter diesel droplets and 50 μm diameter neutral density particles. Experiments are performed in a 50×50×70 mm3 sample volume in a controlled, nearly isotropic turbulence facility, which is characterized by two dimensional particle image velocimetry. An automated tracking program has been used for measuring velocity time history of more than 17 000 droplets and 15 000 particles. For most of the present conditions, rms values of horizontal droplet velocity exceed those of the fluid. The rms values of droplet vertical velocity are higher than those of the fluid only for the highest turbulence level. The turbulent diffusion coefficient is calculated by integration of the ensemble-averaged Lagrangian velocity autocovariance. Trends of the asymptotic droplet diffusion coefficient are examined by noting that it can be viewed as a product of a mean square velocity and a diffusion time scale. To compare the effects of turbulence and buoyancy, the turbulence intensity (ui') is scaled by the droplet quiescent rise velocity (Uq). The droplet diffusion coefficients in horizontal and vertical directions are lower than those of the fluid at low normalized turbulence intensity, but exceed it with increasing normalized turbulence intensity. For most of the present conditions the droplet horizontal diffusion coefficient is higher than the vertical diffusion coefficient, consistent with trends of the droplet velocity fluctuations and in contrast to the trends of the diffusion timescales. The droplet diffusion coefficients scaled by the product of turbulence intensity and an integral length scale are a monotonically increasing function of ui'/Uq.

  19. Diffusivity Measurements of Volatile Organics in Levitated Viscous Aerosol Particles

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bastelberger, Sandra; Krieger, Ulrich; Luo, Beiping; Peter, Thomas

    2017-04-01

    Field measurements indicating that atmospheric secondary aerosol (SOA) particles can be present in a highly viscous, glassy state have spurred numerous studies addressing low water diffusivities in glassy aerosols, focusing on kinetic limitations to hygroscopic growth and the plasticizing effect of water. Less is known about diffusion limitations of organic molecules and oxidants in viscous matrices and how these might affect atmospheric chemistry and gas-particle phase partitioning of complex mixtures with constituents of different volatility. Often viscosity data has been used to infer diffusivity via the Stokes- Einstein relationship even though strong deviations from this relationship have been observed for matrices of high viscosity. In this study, we provide a quantitative estimate for the diffusivity of a volatile organic in a viscous matrix. Evaporation of single particles generated from an aqueous solution of sucrose and a small quantity of volatile tetraethylene glycol (PEG-4) is investigated in an electrodynamic balance at controlled relative humidity (RH) and temperature conditions, thereby varying the viscosity of the sucrose matrix. The evaporative loss of tetraethylene glycol as determined by Mie resonance spectroscopy is used in conjunction with a diffusion model to retrieve translational diffusion coefficients of tetraethylene glycol. The evaporation of PEG-4 shows a pronounced RH and temperature dependence and is severely depressed for RH 30% corresponding to diffusivities < 10-14 cm2/s at temperatures as high as 15 °C, implying that atmospheric volatile organic compounds (VOC) can be subject to severe diffusion limitations in glassy SOA. Comparison of the experimentally derived diffusivities with viscosity estimates for the ternary system reveals a breakdown of the Stokes-Einstein relationship.

  20. Gene interference regulates aquaporin-4 expression in swollen tissue of rats with cerebral ischemic edema

    PubMed Central

    Hu, Hui; Lu, Hong; He, Zhanping; Han, Xiangjun; Chen, Jing; Tu, Rong

    2012-01-01

    To investigate the effects of mRNA interference on aquaporin-4 expression in swollen tissue of rats with ischemic cerebral edema, and diagnose the significance of diffusion-weighted MRI, we injected 5 μL shRNA- aquaporin-4 (control group) or siRNA- aquaporin-4 solution (1:800) (RNA interference group) into the rat right basal ganglia immediately before occlusion of the middle cerebral artery. At 0.25 hours after occlusion of the middle cerebral artery, diffusion-weighted MRI displayed a high signal; within 2 hours, the relative apparent diffusion coefficient decreased markedly, aquaporin-4 expression increased rapidly, and intracellular edema was obviously aggravated; at 4 and 6 hours, the relative apparent diffusion coefficient slowly returned to control levels, aquaporin-4 expression slightly increased, and angioedema was observed. In the RNA interference group, during 0.25–6 hours after injection of siRNA- aquaporin-4 solution, the relative apparent diffusion coefficient slightly fluctuated and aquaporin-4 expression was upregulated; during 0.5–4 hours, the relative apparent diffusion coefficient was significantly higher, while aquaporin-4 expression was significantly lower when compared with the control group, and intracellular edema was markedly reduced; at 0.25 and 6 hours, the relative apparent diffusion coefficient and aquaporin-4 expression were similar when compared with the control group; obvious angioedema remained at 6 hours. Pearson's correlation test results showed that aquaporin-4 expression was negatively correlated with the apparent diffusion coefficient (r = −0.806, P < 0.01). These findings suggest that upregulated aquaporin-4 expression is likely to be the main molecular mechanism of intracellular edema and may be the molecular basis for decreased relative apparent diffusion coefficient. Aquaporin-4 gene interference can effectively inhibit the upregulation of aquaporin-4 expression during the stage of intracellular edema with time-effectiveness. Moreover, diffusion-weighted MRI can accurately detect intracellular edema. PMID:25657707

  1. Perpendicular Diffusion Coefficient of Comic Rays: The Presence of Weak Adiabatic Focusing

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Wang, J. F.; Ma, Q. M.; Song, T.

    The influence of adiabatic focusing on particle diffusion is an important topic in astrophysics and plasma physics. In the past, several authors have explored the influence of along-field adiabatic focusing on the parallel diffusion of charged energetic particles. In this paper, using the unified nonlinear transport theory developed by Shalchi and the method of He and Schlickeiser, we derive a new nonlinear perpendicular diffusion coefficient for a non-uniform background magnetic field. This formula demonstrates that the particle perpendicular diffusion coefficient is modified by along-field adiabatic focusing. For isotropic pitch-angle scattering and the weak adiabatic focusing limit, the derived perpendicular diffusionmore » coefficient is independent of the sign of adiabatic focusing characteristic length. For the two-component model, we simplify the perpendicular diffusion coefficient up to the second order of the power series of the adiabatic focusing characteristic quantity. We find that the first-order modifying factor is equal to zero and that the sign of the second order is determined by the energy of the particles.« less

  2. Coupled Protein Diffusion and Folding in the Cell

    PubMed Central

    Guo, Minghao; Gelman, Hannah; Gruebele, Martin

    2014-01-01

    When a protein unfolds in the cell, its diffusion coefficient is affected by its increased hydrodynamic radius and by interactions of exposed hydrophobic residues with the cytoplasmic matrix, including chaperones. We characterize protein diffusion by photobleaching whole cells at a single point, and imaging the concentration change of fluorescent-labeled protein throughout the cell as a function of time. As a folded reference protein we use green fluorescent protein. The resulting region-dependent anomalous diffusion is well characterized by 2-D or 3-D diffusion equations coupled to a clustering algorithm that accounts for position-dependent diffusion. Then we study diffusion of a destabilized mutant of the enzyme phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK) and of its stable control inside the cell. Unlike the green fluorescent protein control's diffusion coefficient, PGK's diffusion coefficient is a non-monotonic function of temperature, signaling ‘sticking’ of the protein in the cytosol as it begins to unfold. The temperature-dependent increase and subsequent decrease of the PGK diffusion coefficient in the cytosol is greater than a simple size-scaling model suggests. Chaperone binding of the unfolding protein inside the cell is one plausible candidate for even slower diffusion of PGK, and we test the plausibility of this hypothesis experimentally, although we do not rule out other candidates. PMID:25436502

  3. Coupled protein diffusion and folding in the cell.

    PubMed

    Guo, Minghao; Gelman, Hannah; Gruebele, Martin

    2014-01-01

    When a protein unfolds in the cell, its diffusion coefficient is affected by its increased hydrodynamic radius and by interactions of exposed hydrophobic residues with the cytoplasmic matrix, including chaperones. We characterize protein diffusion by photobleaching whole cells at a single point, and imaging the concentration change of fluorescent-labeled protein throughout the cell as a function of time. As a folded reference protein we use green fluorescent protein. The resulting region-dependent anomalous diffusion is well characterized by 2-D or 3-D diffusion equations coupled to a clustering algorithm that accounts for position-dependent diffusion. Then we study diffusion of a destabilized mutant of the enzyme phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK) and of its stable control inside the cell. Unlike the green fluorescent protein control's diffusion coefficient, PGK's diffusion coefficient is a non-monotonic function of temperature, signaling 'sticking' of the protein in the cytosol as it begins to unfold. The temperature-dependent increase and subsequent decrease of the PGK diffusion coefficient in the cytosol is greater than a simple size-scaling model suggests. Chaperone binding of the unfolding protein inside the cell is one plausible candidate for even slower diffusion of PGK, and we test the plausibility of this hypothesis experimentally, although we do not rule out other candidates.

  4. Entropy-scaling laws for diffusion coefficients in liquid metals under high pressures

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Cao, Qi-Long, E-mail: qlcao@mail.ustc.edu.cn; Shao, Ju-Xiang; Wang, Fan-Hou, E-mail: eatonch@gmail.com

    2015-04-07

    Molecular dynamic simulations on the liquid copper and tungsten are used to investigate the empirical entropy-scaling laws D{sup *}=A exp(BS{sub ex}), proposed independently by Rosenfeld and Dzugutov for diffusion coefficient, under high pressure conditions. We show that the scaling laws hold rather well for them under high pressure conditions. Furthermore, both the original diffusion coefficients and the reduced diffusion coefficients exhibit an Arrhenius relationship D{sub M}=D{sub M}{sup 0} exp(−E{sub M}/K{sub B}T), (M=un,R,D) and the activation energy E{sub M} increases with increasing pressure, the diffusion pre-exponential factors (D{sub R}{sup 0} and D{sub D}{sup 0}) are nearly independent of the pressure and element. Themore » pair correlation entropy, S{sub 2}, depends linearly on the reciprocal temperature S{sub 2}=−E{sub S}/T, and the activation energy, E{sub S}, increases with increasing pressure. In particular, the ratios of the activation energies (E{sub un}, E{sub R}, and E{sub D}) obtained from diffusion coefficients to the activation energy, E{sub S}, obtained from the entropy keep constants in the whole pressure range. Therefore, the entropy-scaling laws for the diffusion coefficients and the Arrhenius law are linked via the temperature dependence of entropy.« less

  5. Solute diffusion in liquid metals

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Bhat, B. N.

    1973-01-01

    A gas model of diffusion in liquid metals is presented. In this model, ions of liquid metals are assumed to behave like the molecules in a dense gas. Diffusion coefficient of solute is discussed with reference to its mass, ionic size, and pair potential. The model is applied to the case of solute diffusion in liquid silver. An attempt was made to predict diffusion coefficients of solutes with reasonable accuracy.

  6. Probabilistic migration modelling focused on functional barrier efficiency and low migration concepts in support of risk assessment.

    PubMed

    Brandsch, Rainer

    2017-10-01

    Migration modelling provides reliable migration estimates from food-contact materials (FCM) to food or food simulants based on mass-transfer parameters like diffusion and partition coefficients related to individual materials. In most cases, mass-transfer parameters are not readily available from the literature and for this reason are estimated with a given uncertainty. Historically, uncertainty was accounted for by introducing upper limit concepts first, turning out to be of limited applicability due to highly overestimated migration results. Probabilistic migration modelling gives the possibility to consider uncertainty of the mass-transfer parameters as well as other model inputs. With respect to a functional barrier, the most important parameters among others are the diffusion properties of the functional barrier and its thickness. A software tool that accepts distribution as inputs and is capable of applying Monte Carlo methods, i.e., random sampling from the input distributions of the relevant parameters (i.e., diffusion coefficient and layer thickness), predicts migration results with related uncertainty and confidence intervals. The capabilities of probabilistic migration modelling are presented in the view of three case studies (1) sensitivity analysis, (2) functional barrier efficiency and (3) validation by experimental testing. Based on the predicted migration by probabilistic migration modelling and related exposure estimates, safety evaluation of new materials in the context of existing or new packaging concepts is possible. Identifying associated migration risk and potential safety concerns in the early stage of packaging development is possible. Furthermore, dedicated material selection exhibiting required functional barrier efficiency under application conditions becomes feasible. Validation of the migration risk assessment by probabilistic migration modelling through a minimum of dedicated experimental testing is strongly recommended.

  7. Matrix diffusion coefficients in volcanic rocks at the Nevada test site: influence of matrix porosity, matrix permeability, and fracture coating minerals.

    PubMed

    Reimus, Paul W; Callahan, Timothy J; Ware, S Doug; Haga, Marc J; Counce, Dale A

    2007-08-15

    Diffusion cell experiments were conducted to measure nonsorbing solute matrix diffusion coefficients in forty-seven different volcanic rock matrix samples from eight different locations (with multiple depth intervals represented at several locations) at the Nevada Test Site. The solutes used in the experiments included bromide, iodide, pentafluorobenzoate (PFBA), and tritiated water ((3)HHO). The porosity and saturated permeability of most of the diffusion cell samples were measured to evaluate the correlation of these two variables with tracer matrix diffusion coefficients divided by the free-water diffusion coefficient (D(m)/D*). To investigate the influence of fracture coating minerals on matrix diffusion, ten of the diffusion cells represented paired samples from the same depth interval in which one sample contained a fracture surface with mineral coatings and the other sample consisted of only pure matrix. The log of (D(m)/D*) was found to be positively correlated with both the matrix porosity and the log of matrix permeability. A multiple linear regression analysis indicated that both parameters contributed significantly to the regression at the 95% confidence level. However, the log of the matrix diffusion coefficient was more highly-correlated with the log of matrix permeability than with matrix porosity, which suggests that matrix diffusion coefficients, like matrix permeabilities, have a greater dependence on the interconnectedness of matrix porosity than on the matrix porosity itself. The regression equation for the volcanic rocks was found to provide satisfactory predictions of log(D(m)/D*) for other types of rocks with similar ranges of matrix porosity and permeability as the volcanic rocks, but it did a poorer job predicting log(D(m)/D*) for rocks with lower porosities and/or permeabilities. The presence of mineral coatings on fracture walls did not appear to have a significant effect on matrix diffusion in the ten paired diffusion cell experiments.

  8. Matrix diffusion coefficients in volcanic rocks at the Nevada test site: Influence of matrix porosity, matrix permeability, and fracture coating minerals

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Reimus, Paul W.; Callahan, Timothy J.; Ware, S. Doug; Haga, Marc J.; Counce, Dale A.

    2007-08-01

    Diffusion cell experiments were conducted to measure nonsorbing solute matrix diffusion coefficients in forty-seven different volcanic rock matrix samples from eight different locations (with multiple depth intervals represented at several locations) at the Nevada Test Site. The solutes used in the experiments included bromide, iodide, pentafluorobenzoate (PFBA), and tritiated water ( 3HHO). The porosity and saturated permeability of most of the diffusion cell samples were measured to evaluate the correlation of these two variables with tracer matrix diffusion coefficients divided by the free-water diffusion coefficient ( Dm/ D*). To investigate the influence of fracture coating minerals on matrix diffusion, ten of the diffusion cells represented paired samples from the same depth interval in which one sample contained a fracture surface with mineral coatings and the other sample consisted of only pure matrix. The log of ( Dm/ D*) was found to be positively correlated with both the matrix porosity and the log of matrix permeability. A multiple linear regression analysis indicated that both parameters contributed significantly to the regression at the 95% confidence level. However, the log of the matrix diffusion coefficient was more highly-correlated with the log of matrix permeability than with matrix porosity, which suggests that matrix diffusion coefficients, like matrix permeabilities, have a greater dependence on the interconnectedness of matrix porosity than on the matrix porosity itself. The regression equation for the volcanic rocks was found to provide satisfactory predictions of log( Dm/ D*) for other types of rocks with similar ranges of matrix porosity and permeability as the volcanic rocks, but it did a poorer job predicting log( Dm/ D*) for rocks with lower porosities and/or permeabilities. The presence of mineral coatings on fracture walls did not appear to have a significant effect on matrix diffusion in the ten paired diffusion cell experiments.

  9. Photon diffusion coefficient in scattering and absorbing media.

    PubMed

    Pierrat, Romain; Greffet, Jean-Jacques; Carminati, Rémi

    2006-05-01

    We present a unified derivation of the photon diffusion coefficient for both steady-state and time-dependent transport in disordered absorbing media. The derivation is based on a modal analysis of the time-dependent radiative transfer equation. This approach confirms that the dynamic diffusion coefficient is given by the random-walk result D = cl(*)/3, where l(*) is the transport mean free path and c is the energy velocity, independent of the level of absorption. It also shows that the diffusion coefficient for steady-state transport, often used in biomedical optics, depends on absorption, in agreement with recent theoretical and experimental works. These two results resolve a recurrent controversy in light propagation and imaging in scattering media.

  10. Molecular dynamics simulation of solute diffusion in Lennard-Jones fluids

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Yamaguchi, T.; Kimura, Y.; Hirota, N.

    We performed a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation for a system of 5 solute molecules in 495 solvent molecules interacting through the Lennard-Jones (LJ) 12-6 potential, in order to study solvent density effects on the diffusion coefficients in supercritical fluids. The effects of the size of the solute and the strength of the solute-solvent attractive interaction on the diffusion coefficient of the solute were examined. The diffusion coefficients of the solute molecules were calculated at T = 1.5 (in the LJ reduced unit), slightly above the critical temperature, from rho = 0.1 to rho = 0.95, where rho is the number density in the LJ reduced unit. The memory function in the generalized Langevin equation was calculated, in order to know the molecular origin of the friction on a solute. The memory function is separated into fast and slow components. The former arises from the solute-solvent repulsive interaction, and is interpreted as collisional Enskog-like friction. The interaction strength dependence of the collisional friction is larger in the low- and medium-density regions, which is consistent with the 'clustering' picture, i.e., the local density enhancement due to the solute-solvent attractive interaction. However, the slow component of the memory function suppresses the effect of the local density on the diffusion coefficients, and as a result the effect of the attractive interaction is smaller on the diffusion coefficients than on the local density. Nonetheless, the solvent density dependence of the effect of the attraction on the diffusion coefficient varies with the local density, and it is concluded that the local density is the principal factor that determines the interaction strength dependence of the diffusion coefficient in the low- and medium-density regions (p < 0.6).

  11. DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Sarman, Sten, E-mail: sarman@ownit.nu; Wang, Yong-Lei; Laaksonen, Aatto

    The self-diffusion coefficients of nematic phases of various model systems consisting of regular convex calamitic and discotic ellipsoids and non-convex bodies such as bent-core molecules and soft ellipsoid strings have been obtained as functions of the shear rate in a shear flow. Then the self-diffusion coefficient is a second rank tensor with three different diagonal components and two off-diagonal components. These coefficients were found to be determined by a combination of two mechanisms, which previously have been found to govern the self-diffusion of shearing isotropic liquids, namely, (i) shear alignment enhancing the diffusion in the direction parallel to the streamlinesmore » and hindering the diffusion in the perpendicular directions and (ii) the distortion of the shell structure in the liquid whereby a molecule more readily can escape from a surrounding shell of nearest neighbors, so that the mobility increases in every direction. Thus, the diffusion parallel to the streamlines always increases with the shear rate since these mechanisms cooperate in this direction. In the perpendicular directions, these mechanisms counteract each other so that the behaviour becomes less regular. In the case of the nematic phases of the calamitic and discotic ellipsoids and of the bent core molecules, mechanism (ii) prevails so that the diffusion coefficients increase. However, the diffusion coefficients of the soft ellipsoid strings decrease in the direction of the velocity gradient because the broadsides of these molecules are oriented perpendicularly to this direction due the shear alignment (i). The cross coupling coefficient relating a gradient of tracer particles in the direction of the velocity gradient and their flow in the direction of the streamlines is negative and rather large, whereas the other coupling coefficient relating a gradient in the direction of the streamlines and a flow in the direction of the velocity gradient is very small.« less

  12. [Lateral diffusion of saturated phosphatidylcholines in cholesterol-containing bilayers].

    PubMed

    Filippov, A V; Rudakova, M A; Oradd, G; Lindblom, J

    2007-01-01

    Lateral diffusion in oriented bilayers of saturated cholesterol-containing phosphatidylcholines, dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine and dimyrilstoylphosphatidylcholine upon their limiting hydration has been studied by NMR with impulse gradient of magnetic field. For both systems, similar dependences of the coefficient of lateral diffusion on temperature and cholesterol concentration were observed, which agree with the phase diagram showing the presence of regions of ordered and unordered liquid-crystalline phases and a two-phase region. Under similar conditions, the coefficient of lateral diffusion for dipalmytoylphosphatidylcholine has lower values, which is in qualitative agreement with its greater molecular mass. A comparison of data for dipalmytoylphosphatidylcholine with the results obtained earlier for dipalmytoylsphyngomyelin/cholesterol under the same conditions shows, despite a similarity in phase diagrams, greater (two- to threefold) differences in the values of the coefficient of lateral diffusion and a different mode of dependence of the coefficient on cholesterol concentration. A comparison of data for dimyrilstoylphosphatidylcholine with the results obtained previously shows that the values of the coefficient of lateral diffusion and the mode of its dependence on cholesterol concentration coincide in the region of higher concentrations (more than 15 mole %) and differ in the region of lower concentrations (below 15 mole %). The discrepancies may be explained by different contents of water in the systems during the measurements. At a limiting hydration (more than 35%) of water, the coefficient of lateral diffusion decreases with increasing cholesterol concentration. If the content of water is about 25% (as a result of equilibrium hydration from vapors), the coefficient of lateral diffusion of phosphatidylcholine is probably independent of cholesterol concentration. This results from a denser packing of molecules in the bilayer at a lower water concentration, an effect that competes with the ordering effect of cholesterol.

  13. Regression analysis and categorical agreement of fluconazole disk zone diameters and minimum inhibitory concentration by broth microdilution of clinical isolates of Candida.

    PubMed

    Aggarwal, P; Kashyap, B

    2017-06-01

    Rampant use of fluconazole in Candida infections has led to predominance of less susceptible non-albicans Candida over Candida albicans. The aim of the study was to determine if zone diameters around fluconazole disk can be used to estimate the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for clinical isolates of Candida species and vice versa. Categorical agreement between the Clinical & Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) recommended disk diffusion and CLSI broth microdilution method was sought for. Antifungal susceptibility testing by disk diffusion and Broth microdilution was done as per CLSI document M44-S3 and CLSI document M27-S4 for Candida isolates respectively. Regression analysis correlating zone diameters to MIC value was done. Pearson's correlation coefficient was calculated to determine correlation between disk zone diameters and MICs. Candida albicans (33.3%) was clearly outnumbered by other non-albicans species predominantly Candida tropicalis (42.5%) and Candida glabrata (18.4%). Ten percent of the strains were resistant to fluconazole by disk diffusion and 13% by broth microdilution. MIC range for Candida albicans and Candida tropicalis ranged from≤0.25-64μg/ml while that of Candida glabrata ranged from≤0.25-128μg/ml. Categorical agreement between disk diffusion and broth microdilution was 86.8%. Pearson's coefficient of correlation was -0.5975 indicating moderate negative correlation between the two variables. Zone sizes can be used to estimate the MIC values, although with limited accuracy. There should be a constant effort to upgrade the guidelines in view of new clinical data, and laboratories should make an active effort to incorporate them. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

  14. Rapid Turnover of Stereocilia Membrane Proteins: Evidence from the Trafficking and Mobility of Plasma Membrane Ca2+-ATPase 2

    PubMed Central

    Grati, M'hamed; Schneider, Mark E.; Lipkow, Karen; Strehler, Emanuel E.; Wenthold, Robert J.; Kachar, Bechara

    2007-01-01

    We studied the spatial distribution, mobility, and trafficking of plasma membrane Ca2+ATPase-2 (PMCA2), a protein enriched in the hair cell apical membrane and essential for hair cell function. Using immunofluorescence, we determined that PMCA2 is enriched in the stereocilia and present at a relatively low concentration in the kinocilium and in the remaining apical membrane. Using an antibody to the extracellular domain of PMCA2 as a probe, we observed that PMCA2 diffuses laterally from the stereocilia membrane and is internalized at the apical cell border maintaining an estimated half-life of residency in the stereocilia of ∼5–7 h. A computer simulation of our data indicates that PMCA2 has an estimated global diffusion coefficient of 0.01– 0.005 μm2/s. Using a green fluorescent protein tag, we observed that PMCA2 is rapidly delivered to the apical cell border from where it diffuses to the entire stereocilia surface. Fluorescence recovery after photobleaching experiments show that ∼60% of PMCA2 in the stereocilia exhibit high mobility with a diffusion coefficient of 0.1– 0.2 μm2/s, whereas the remaining pool represents a relatively immobile fraction. These results suggest that PMCA2 molecules maintain transient interactions with other components of the stereocilia, and the mobile pool of PMCA2 mediates the exchange between the stereocilia and the removal and delivery sites at the periphery of the apical cell surface. This rapid turnover of a major stereocilia membrane protein matches the previously described rapid turnover of proteins of the stereocilia actin core, further demonstrating that these organelles undergo rapid continuous renewal. PMID:16763047

  15. A novel multiple headspace extraction gas chromatographic method for measuring the diffusion coefficient of methanol in water and in olive oil.

    PubMed

    Zhang, Chun-Yun; Chai, Xin-Sheng

    2015-03-13

    A novel method for the determination of the diffusion coefficient (D) of methanol in water and olive oil has been developed. Based on multiple headspace extraction gas chromatography (MHE-GC), the methanol released from the liquid sample of interest in a closed sample vial was determined in a stepwise fashion. A theoretical model was derived to establish the relationship between the diffusion coefficient and the GC signals from MHE-GC measurements. The results showed that the present method has an excellent precision (RSD<1%) in the linear fitting procedure and good accuracy for the diffusion coefficients of methanol in both water and olive oil, when compared with data reported in the literature. The present method is simple and practical and can be a valuable tool for the determination of the diffusion coefficient of volatile analyte(s) into food simulants from food and beverage packaging material, both in research studies and in actual applications. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  16. Prediction of stream volatilization coefficients

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Rathbun, Ronald E.

    1990-01-01

    Equations are developed for predicting the liquid-film and gas-film reference-substance parameters for quantifying volatilization of organic solutes from streams. Molecular weight and molecular-diffusion coefficients of the solute are used as correlating parameters. Equations for predicting molecular-diffusion coefficients of organic solutes in water and air are developed, with molecular weight and molal volume as parameters. Mean absolute errors of prediction for diffusion coefficients in water are 9.97% for the molecular-weight equation, 6.45% for the molal-volume equation. The mean absolute error for the diffusion coefficient in air is 5.79% for the molal-volume equation. Molecular weight is not a satisfactory correlating parameter for diffusion in air because two equations are necessary to describe the values in the data set. The best predictive equation for the liquid-film reference-substance parameter has a mean absolute error of 5.74%, with molal volume as the correlating parameter. The best equation for the gas-film parameter has a mean absolute error of 7.80%, with molecular weight as the correlating parameter.

  17. Task-based evaluation of segmentation algorithms for diffusion-weighted MRI without using a gold standard

    PubMed Central

    Jha, Abhinav K.; Kupinski, Matthew A.; Rodríguez, Jeffrey J.; Stephen, Renu M.; Stopeck, Alison T.

    2012-01-01

    In many studies, the estimation of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of lesions in visceral organs in diffusion-weighted (DW) magnetic resonance images requires an accurate lesion-segmentation algorithm. To evaluate these lesion-segmentation algorithms, region-overlap measures are used currently. However, the end task from the DW images is accurate ADC estimation, and the region-overlap measures do not evaluate the segmentation algorithms on this task. Moreover, these measures rely on the existence of gold-standard segmentation of the lesion, which is typically unavailable. In this paper, we study the problem of task-based evaluation of segmentation algorithms in DW imaging in the absence of a gold standard. We first show that using manual segmentations instead of gold-standard segmentations for this task-based evaluation is unreliable. We then propose a method to compare the segmentation algorithms that does not require gold-standard or manual segmentation results. The no-gold-standard method estimates the bias and the variance of the error between the true ADC values and the ADC values estimated using the automated segmentation algorithm. The method can be used to rank the segmentation algorithms on the basis of both accuracy and precision. We also propose consistency checks for this evaluation technique. PMID:22713231

  18. Diffusion modelling of metamorphic layered coronas with stability criterion and consideration of affinity

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Ashworth, J. R.; Sheplev, V. S.

    1997-09-01

    Layered coronas between two reactant minerals can, in many cases, be attributed to diffusion-controlled growth with local equilibrium. This paper clarifies and unifies the previous approaches of various authors to the simplest form of modelling, which uses no assumed values for thermochemical quantities. A realistic overall reaction must be estimated from measured overall proportions of minerals and their major element compositions. Modelling is not restricted to a particular number of components S, relative to the number of phases Φ. IfΦ > S + 1, the overall reaction is a combination of simultaneous reactions. The stepwise method, solving for the local reaction at each boundary in turn, is extended to allow for recurrence of a mineral (its presence in two parts of the layer structure separated by a gap). The equations are also given in matrix form. A thermodynamic stability criterion is derived, determining which layer sequence is truly stable if several are computable from the same inputs. A layer structure satisfying the stability criterion has greater growth rate (and greater rate of entropy production) than the other computable layer sequences. This criterion of greatest entropy production is distinct from Prigogine's theorem of minimum entropy production, which distinguishes the stationary or quasi-stationary state from other states of the same layer sequence. The criterion leads to modification of previous results for coronas comprising hornblende, spinel, and orthopyroxene between olivine (Ol) and plagioclase (Pl). The outcome supports the previous inference that Si, and particularly Al, commonly behave as immobile relative to other cation-forming major elements. The affinity (-ΔG) of a corona-forming reaction is estimated, using previous estimates of diffusion coefficient and the duration t of reaction, together with a new model quantity (-ΔG) *. For an example of the Ol + Pl reaction, a rough calculation gives (-ΔG) > 1.7RT (per mole of P1 consumed, based on a 24-oxygen formula for Pl). At 600-700°C, this represents (-ΔG) > 10kJ mol -1 and departure from equilibrium temperature by at least ˜ 100°C. The lower end of this range is petrologically reasonable and, for t < 100Ma, corresponds to a Fick's-law diffusion coefficient for Al, DAl > 10 -25m 2s -1, larger than expected for lattice diffusion but consistent with fluid-absent grain-boundary diffusion and small concentration gradients.

  19. Dissipative particle dynamics study of velocity autocorrelation function and self-diffusion coefficient in terms of interaction potential strength

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zohravi, Elnaz; Shirani, Ebrahim; Pishevar, Ahmadreza; Karimpour, Hossein

    2018-07-01

    This research focuses on numerically investigating the self-diffusion coefficient and velocity autocorrelation function (VACF) of a dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) fluid as a function of the conservative interaction strength. Analytic solutions to VACF and self-diffusion coefficients in DPD were obtained by many researchers in some restricted cases including ideal gases, without the account of conservative force. As departure from the ideal gas conditions are accentuated with increasing the relative proportion of conservative force, it is anticipated that the VACF should gradually deviate from its normally expected exponentially decay. This trend is confirmed through numerical simulations and an expression in terms of the conservative force parameter, density and temperature is proposed for the self-diffusion coefficient. As it concerned the VACF, the equivalent Langevin equation describing Brownian motion of particles with a harmonic potential is adapted to the problem and reveals an exponentially decaying oscillatory pattern influenced by the conservative force parameter, dissipative parameter and temperature. Although the proposed model for obtaining the self-diffusion coefficient with consideration of the conservative force could not be verified due to computational complexities, nonetheless the Arrhenius dependency of the self-diffusion coefficient to temperature and pressure permits to certify our model over a definite range of DPD parameters.

  20. Interdiffusion and stress development in single-crystalline Pd/Ag bilayers

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Noah, Martin A., E-mail: m.noah@is.mpg.de; Flötotto, David; Wang, Zumin

    Interdiffusion and stress evolution in single-crystalline Pd/single-crystalline Ag thin films were investigated by Auger electron spectroscopy sputter-depth profiling and in-situ X-ray diffraction, respectively. The concentration-dependent chemical diffusion coefficient, as well as the impurity diffusion coefficient of Ag in Pd could be determined in the low temperature range of 356 °C–455 °C. As a consequence of the similarity of the strong concentration-dependences of the intrinsic diffusion coefficients, the chemical diffusion coefficient varies only over three orders of magnitude over the whole composition range, despite the large difference of six orders of magnitude of the self-diffusion coefficients of Ag in Ag and Pd inmore » Pd. It is shown that the Darken-Manning treatment should be adopted for interpretation of the experimental data; the Nernst-Planck treatment yielded physically unreasonable results. Apart from the development of compressive thermal stress, the development of stress in both sublayers separately could be ascribed to compositional stress (tensile in the Ag sublayer and compressive in the Pd sublayer) and dominant relaxation processes, especially in the Ag sublayer. The effect of these internal stresses on the values determined for the diffusion coefficients is shown to be negligible.« less

  1. Characterization of organophosphorus flame retardants' sorption on building materials and consumer products

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Liu, Xiaoyu; Allen, Matthew R.; Roache, Nancy F.

    2016-09-01

    Better understanding the transport mechanisms of organophosphorus flame-retardants (OPFRs) in the residential environment is important to more accurately estimate their indoor exposure and develop risk management strategies that protect human health. This study describes an improved dual small chamber testing method to characterize the sorption of OPFRs on indoor building materials and consumer products. The OPFRs studied were tris(2-chloroethyl) phosphate (TCEP), tris(1-chloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TCIPP), and tris(1,3-dichloro-2-propyl) phosphate (TDCIPP). The test materials and products used as sinks include concrete, ceiling tile, vinyl flooring, carpet, latex painted gypsum wallboard, open cell polyurethane foam, mattress pad and liner, polyester clothing, cotton clothing, and uniform shirt. During the tests, the amount of OPFRs absorbed by the materials at different exposure times was determined simultaneously. OPFRs air concentrations at the inlet and inside the test chamber were monitored. The data were used to rank the sorption strength of the OPFRs on different materials. In general, building materials exhibited relatively stronger sorption strength than clothing textiles. The material-air partition and material phase diffusion coefficients were estimated by fitting a sink model to the sorption concentration data for twelve materials with three OPFRs. They are in the range of 2.72 × 105 to 3.99 × 108 (dimensionless) for the material-air partition coefficients and 1.13 × 10-14 to 5.83 × 10-9 (m2/h) for the material phase diffusion coefficients.

  2. Determination of diffusion coefficients and diffusion characteristics for chlorferon and diethylthiophosphate in Ca-alginate gel beads.

    PubMed

    Ha, Jiyeon; Engler, Cady R; Lee, Seung Jae

    2008-07-01

    Diffusion characteristics of chlorferon and diethylthiophosphate (DETP) in Ca-alginate gel beads were studied to assist in designing and operating bioreactor systems. Diffusion coefficients for chlorferon and DETP in Ca-alginate gel beads determined at conditions suitable for biodegradation studies were 2.70 x 10(-11) m(2)/s and 4.28 x 10(-11) m(2)/s, respectively. Diffusivities of chlorferon and DETP were influenced by several factors, including viscosity of the bulk solution, agitation speed, and the concentrations of diffusing substrate and immobilized cells. Diffusion coefficients increased with increasing agitation speed, probably due to poor mixing at low speed and some attrition of beads at high speeds. Diffusion coefficients also increased with decreasing substrate concentration. Increased cell concentration in the gel beads caused lower diffusivity. Theoretical models to predict diffusivities as a function of cell weight fraction overestimated the effective diffusivities for both chlorferon and DETP, but linear relations between effective diffusivity and cell weight fraction were derived from experimental data. Calcium-alginate gel beads with radii of 1.65-1.70 mm used in this study were not subject to diffusional limitations: external mass transfer resistances were negligible based on Biot number calculations and effectiveness factors indicated that internal mass transfer resistance was negligible. Therefore, the degradation rates of chlorferon and DETP inside Ca-alginate gel beads were reaction-limited. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  3. Diffusion coefficients of water in biobased hydrogel polymer matrices by nuclear magnetic resonance imaging

    USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

    The diffusion coefficient of water in biobased hydrogels were measured utilizing a simple NMR method. This method tracks the migration of deuterium oxide through imaging data that is fit to a diffusion equation. The results show that a 5 wt% soybean oil based hydrogel gives aqueous diffusion of 1.37...

  4. Portable vapor diffusion coefficient meter

    DOEpatents

    Ho, Clifford K [Albuquerque, NM

    2007-06-12

    An apparatus for measuring the effective vapor diffusion coefficient of a test vapor diffusing through a sample of porous media contained within a test chamber. A chemical sensor measures the time-varying concentration of vapor that has diffused a known distance through the porous media. A data processor contained within the apparatus compares the measured sensor data with analytical predictions of the response curve based on the transient diffusion equation using Fick's Law, iterating on the choice of an effective vapor diffusion coefficient until the difference between the predicted and measured curves is minimized. Optionally, a purge fluid can forced through the porous media, permitting the apparatus to also measure a gas-phase permeability. The apparatus can be made lightweight, self-powered, and portable for use in the field.

  5. The physical and biological basis of quantitative parameters derived from diffusion MRI

    PubMed Central

    2012-01-01

    Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging is a quantitative imaging technique that measures the underlying molecular diffusion of protons. Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) quantifies the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) which was first used to detect early ischemic stroke. However this does not take account of the directional dependence of diffusion seen in biological systems (anisotropy). Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) provides a mathematical model of diffusion anisotropy and is widely used. Parameters, including fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), parallel and perpendicular diffusivity can be derived to provide sensitive, but non-specific, measures of altered tissue structure. They are typically assessed in clinical studies by voxel-based or region-of-interest based analyses. The increasing recognition of the limitations of the diffusion tensor model has led to more complex multi-compartment models such as CHARMED, AxCaliber or NODDI being developed to estimate microstructural parameters including axonal diameter, axonal density and fiber orientations. However these are not yet in routine clinical use due to lengthy acquisition times. In this review, I discuss how molecular diffusion may be measured using diffusion MRI, the biological and physical bases for the parameters derived from DWI and DTI, how these are used in clinical studies and the prospect of more complex tissue models providing helpful micro-structural information. PMID:23289085

  6. Self-diffusion of magnesium in spinel and in equilibrium melts - Constraints on flash heating of silicates

    NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

    Sheng, Y. J.; Wasserburg, G. J.; Hutcheon, I. D.

    1992-01-01

    An isotopic tracer is used to measure Mg self-diffusion in spinel and coexisting melt at bulk chemical equilibrium. The diffusion coefficients were calculated from the measured isotope profiles using a model that includes the complementary diffusion of Mg-24, Mg-25, and Mg-26 in both phases with the constraint that the Mg content of each phase is constant. The activation energy and preexponential factor for Mg self-diffusion in spinel are, respectively, 384 +/- 7 kJ and 74.6 +/- 1.1 sq cm/s. These data indicate Mg diffusion in spinel is much slower than previous estimates. The activation energy for Mg self-diffusion in coexisting melt is 343 +/- 25 kJ and the preexponential factor is 7791.9 +/- 1.3 sq cm/s. These results are used to evaluate cooling rates of plagioclase-olivine inclusions (POIs) in the Allende meteorite. Given a maximum melting temperature for POIs of about 1500 C, these results show that a 1-micron radius spinel would equilibrate isotopically with a melt within about 60 min.

  7. Diffusion of neutral and ionic species in charged membranes: boric acid, arsenite, and water.

    PubMed

    Goli, Esmaiel; Hiemstra, Tjisse; Van Riemsdijk, Willem H; Rahnemaie, Rasoul; Malakouti, Mohammad Jafar

    2010-10-15

    Dynamic ion speciation using DMT (Donnan membrane technique) requires insight into the physicochemical characteristics of diffusion in charged membranes (tortuosity, local diffusion coefficients) as well as ion accumulation. The latter can be precluded by studying the diffusion of neutral species, such as boric acid, B(OH)₃⁰(aq), arsenite, As(OH)₃⁰(aq), or water. In this study, the diffusion rate of B(OH)₃⁰ has been evaluated as a function of the concentration, pH, and ionic strength. The rate is linearly dependent on the concentration of solely the neutral species, without a significant contribution of negatively charged species such as B(OH)₄⁻, present at high pH. A striking finding is the very strong effect (factor of ~10) of the type of cation (K(+), Na(+), Ca(2+), Mg(2+), Al(3+), and H(+)) on the diffusion coefficient of B(OH)₃⁰ and also As(OH)₃⁰. The decrease of the diffusion coefficient can be rationalized as an enhancement of the mean viscosity of the confined solution in the membrane. The diffusion coefficients can be described by a semiempirical relationship, linking the mean viscosity of the confined solute of the membrane to the viscosity of the free solution. In proton-saturated membranes, as used in fuel cells, viscosity is relatively more enhanced; i.e., a stronger water network is formed. Extraordinarily, our B(OH)₃-calibrated model (in HNO₃) correctly predicts the reported diffusion coefficient of water (D(H₂O)), measured with ¹H NMR and quasi-elastic neutron scattering in H(+)-Nafion membranes. Upon drying these membranes, the local hydronium, H(H₂O)(n)(+), concentration and corresponding viscosity increase, resulting in a severe reduction of the diffusion coefficient (D(H₂O) ≈ 5-50 times), in agreement with the model. The present study has a second goal, i.e., development of the methodology for measuring the free concentration of neutral species in solution. Our data suggest that the free concentration can be measured with DMT in natural systems if one accounts for the variation in the cation composition of the membrane and corresponding viscosity/diffusion coefficient.

  8. Origin of halides (Cl- and Br-) and of their stable isotopes (d37Cl and d81Br) at the Tournemire URL (France) - Experimental and numerical approach

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Bachir-Bey, Nassim; Matray, Jean-Michel

    2014-05-01

    This work is part of research conducted by the Institute of Radiological and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) on the geological disposal of High-Level and Intermediate-Level Long-Lived (HL-ILLL) radioactive waste in deep clayrocks. In France, the choice of the potential host rock for the geological storage is focused on the Callovian-Oxfordian (COx) of Meuse/Haute-Marne from its low permeability, capacity for self- sealing, high sorption and ability to radionuclide (RN) transport by diffusion. IRSN, which plays an expert role for ASN has its own underground research laboratory in a clayrock which has strong analogies to the COx. This is the Toarcian/Domerian clayrock located at Tournemire in southern Aveyron in France. The purpose of this study was to assess the transfer of RN in the Tournemire clayrock through the study of halides contents and of their stable isotopes (Cl-, Br-, Cl-/Br-, d37Cl, d81Br). The approach used was multiple and consisted for halides to: 1) Assess their stock in different fractions of the rock by applying several techniques including i) alkaline fusion for their total stock, ii) leaching to access their stock in porewater and to mineral phases sensitive to dissolution iii) cubic diffusion for their stock in porewater, 2) Get their diffusive transport parameters of a selection of samples from the upper Toarcian by cubic diffusion experiments modelled using the Hytec transport code developed by Mines ParisTech and 3) Model their transport after palaeohydrogeological known changes of the Tournemire massif. The experimental approach, conducted at the LAME lab, did not lead to an operational protocol for the alkaline fusion due to an incomplete rock dissolution. Leaching was used to characterize the concentrations of halides in the fractions of pore water and of minerals sensitive to dissolution. The results show levels of halides much higher than those of pore water with very low Cl/Br ratios likely resulting from the dissolution of mineral species. The cubic diffusion produced the pore diffusion coefficients for Cl and Br as well as their concentration in the porewater. Cubic diffusion also allowed to estimate a Cl to Br pore diffusion coefficient ratio, necessary to calculate the profiles of Cl/Br. These estimates have required the use of the transport code Hytec i) for dimensioning and implementing the experiment in a time frame compatible with the work period, ii) for analysing the sensitiveness of the model to the accessible porosity and to the diffusion coefficient which act respectively to the steady phase and transient phase of the experiments, and finally, iii ) for adjusting the pore diffusion coefficients of Cl and Br to an accessible porosity of 3-4%. The Hytec code was then used to check the consistency of the current profiles of chlorides, bromides, 35Cl , 37Cl , d37Cl, Cl/Br in 1D, a fake drilling assumed crossing the entire clayrock. The assumption is that halides have undergone a diffusive transport between seawater trapped during sedimentation and meteoric waters infiltrated at different times to domain boundaries. Four scenarios were tested according to the paleohydrogeological history of the massif. All tracers and scenarios are consistent with a unique marine source of halides more or less diluted by meteoric waters. The duration of the diffusive exchange initially suggested 85 ± 10 Ma (Bensenouci, 2010) is never contradicted despite uncertainties related to changes in boundary conditions. This body of evidence would suggest that molecular diffusion is the transport process which has affected and still affect the Tournemire clayrock, outside fault zones. The d37Cl results expected on the surrounding carbonated aquifers, leachates and fracture waters (including d81Br values) should help to refine the models and the results.

  9. Kinetic modeling of ultrasound-assisted extraction of phenolic compounds from grape marc: influence of acoustic energy density and temperature.

    PubMed

    Tao, Yang; Zhang, Zhihang; Sun, Da-Wen

    2014-07-01

    The effects of acoustic energy density (6.8-47.4 W/L) and temperature (20-50 °C) on the extraction yields of total phenolics and tartaric esters during ultrasound-assisted extraction from grape marc were investigated in this study. The ultrasound treatment was performed in a 25-kHz ultrasound bath system and the 50% aqueous ethanol was used as the solvent. The initial extraction rate and final extraction yield increased with the increase of acoustic energy density and temperature. The two site kinetic model was used to simulate the kinetics of extraction process and the diffusion model based on the Fick's second law was employed to determine the effective diffusion coefficient of phenolics in grape marc. Both models gave satisfactory quality of data fit. The diffusion process was divided into one fast stage and one slow stage and the diffusion coefficients in both stages were calculated. Within the current experimental range, the diffusion coefficients of total phenolics and tartaric esters for both diffusion stages increased with acoustic energy density. Meanwhile, the rise of temperature also resulted in the increase of diffusion coefficients of phenolics except the diffusion coefficient of total phenolics in the fast stage, the value of which being the highest at 40 °C. Moreover, an empirical equation was suggested to correlate the effective diffusion coefficient of phenolics in grape marc with acoustic energy density and temperature. In addition, the performance comparison of ultrasound-assisted extraction and convention methods demonstrates that ultrasound is an effective and promising technology to extract bioactive substances from grape marc. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  10. Breast Cancer: Diffusion Kurtosis MR Imaging-Diagnostic Accuracy and Correlation with Clinical-Pathologic Factors.

    PubMed

    Sun, Kun; Chen, Xiaosong; Chai, Weimin; Fei, Xiaochun; Fu, Caixia; Yan, Xu; Zhan, Ying; Chen, Kemin; Shen, Kunwei; Yan, Fuhua

    2015-10-01

    To assess diagnostic accuracy with diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) in patients with breast lesions and to evaluate the potential association between DKI-derived parameters and breast cancer clinical-pathologic factors. Institutional review board approval and written informed consent were obtained. Data from 97 patients (mean age ± standard deviation, 45.7 years ± 13.1; range, 19-70 years) with 98 lesions (57 malignant and 41 benign) who were treated between January 2014 and April 2014 were retrospectively analyzed. DKI (with b values of 0-2800 sec/mm(2)) and conventional diffusion-weighted imaging data were acquired. Kurtosis and diffusion coefficients from DKI and apparent diffusion coefficients from diffusion-weighted imaging were measured by two radiologists. Student t test, Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Jonckheere-Terpstra test, receiver operating characteristic curves, and Spearman correlation were used for statistical analysis. Kurtosis coefficients were significantly higher in the malignant lesions than in the benign lesions (1.05 ± 0.22 vs 0.65 ± 0.11, respectively; P < .0001). Diffusivity and apparent diffusion coefficients in the malignant lesions were significantly lower than those in the benign lesions (1.13 ± 0.27 vs 1.97 ± 0.33 and 1.02 ± 0.18 vs 1.48 ± 0.33, respectively; P < .0001). Significantly higher specificity for differentiation of malignant from benign lesions was shown with the use of kurtosis and diffusivity coefficients than with the use of apparent diffusion coefficients (83% [34 of 41] and 83% [34 of 41] vs 76% [31 of 41], respectively; P < .0001) with equal sensitivity (95% [54 of 57]). In patients with invasive breast cancer, kurtosis was positively correlated with tumor histologic grade (r = 0.75) and expression of the Ki-67 protein (r = 0.55). Diffusivity was negatively correlated with tumor histologic grades (r = -0.44) and Ki-67 expression (r = -0.46). DKI showed higher specificity than did conventional diffusion-weighted imaging for assessment of benign and malignant breast lesions. Patients with grade 3 breast cancer or tumors with high expression of Ki-67 were associated with higher kurtosis and lower diffusivity coefficients; however, this association must be confirmed in prospective studies. (©) RSNA, 2015 Online supplemental material is available for this article.

  11. Effect of confining pressure on diffusion coefficients in clay-rich, low-permeability sedimentary rocks.

    PubMed

    Xiang, Y; Al, T; Mazurek, M

    2016-12-01

    The effect of confining pressure (CP) on the diffusion of tritiated-water (HTO) and iodide (I - ) tracers through Ordovician rocks from the Michigan Basin, southwestern Ontario, Canada, and Opalinus Clay from Schlattingen, Switzerland was investigated in laboratory experiments. Four samples representing different formations and lithologies in the Michigan Basin were studied: Queenston Formation shale, Georgian Bay Formation shale, Cobourg Formation limestone and Cobourg Formation argillaceous limestone. Estimated in situ vertical stresses at the depths from which the samples were retrieved range from 12.0 to 17.4MPa (Michigan Basin) and from 21 to 23MPa (Opalinus Clay). Effective diffusion coefficients (D e ) were determined in through-diffusion experiments. With HTO tracer, applying CP resulted in decreases in D e of 12.5% for the Queenston Formation shale (CP max =12MPa), 30% for the Georgian Bay Formation shale (15MPa), 34% for the Cobourg Formation limestone (17.4MPa), 31% for the Cobourg Formation argillaceous limestone (17.4MPa) and 43-46% for the Opalinus Clay (15MPa). Decreases in D e were larger for the I - tracer: 13.8% for the Queenston shale, 42% for the Georgian Bay shale, 50% for the Cobourg Formation limestone, 55% for the Cobourg Formation argillaceous limestone and 63-68% for the Opalinus Clay. The tracer-specific nature of the response is attributed to an increasing influence of anion exclusion as the pore size decreases at higher CP. Results from the shales (including Opalinus Clay) indicate that the pressure effect on D e can be represented by a linear relationship between D e and ln(CP), which provides valuable predictive capability. The nonlinearity results in a relatively small change in D e at high CP, suggesting that it is not necessary to apply the exact in situ pressure conditions in order to obtain a good estimate of the in situ diffusion coefficient. Most importantly, the CP effect on shale is reversible (±12%) suggesting that, for argillaceous rocks, it is possible to obtain D e values that are representative of the in-situ condition by conducting measurements on re-pressurized samples that were obtained with standard drilling practices. This may not be the case for brittle rock samples as the results from limestone suggest that irreversible damage occurred during the pressure cycling. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  12. Self-diffusion in the non-Newtonian regime of shearing liquid crystal model systems based on the Gay-Berne potential

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Sarman, Sten; Wang, Yong-Lei; Laaksonen, Aatto

    2016-02-01

    The self-diffusion coefficients of nematic phases of various model systems consisting of regular convex calamitic and discotic ellipsoids and non-convex bodies such as bent-core molecules and soft ellipsoid strings have been obtained as functions of the shear rate in a shear flow. Then the self-diffusion coefficient is a second rank tensor with three different diagonal components and two off-diagonal components. These coefficients were found to be determined by a combination of two mechanisms, which previously have been found to govern the self-diffusion of shearing isotropic liquids, namely, (i) shear alignment enhancing the diffusion in the direction parallel to the streamlines and hindering the diffusion in the perpendicular directions and (ii) the distortion of the shell structure in the liquid whereby a molecule more readily can escape from a surrounding shell of nearest neighbors, so that the mobility increases in every direction. Thus, the diffusion parallel to the streamlines always increases with the shear rate since these mechanisms cooperate in this direction. In the perpendicular directions, these mechanisms counteract each other so that the behaviour becomes less regular. In the case of the nematic phases of the calamitic and discotic ellipsoids and of the bent core molecules, mechanism (ii) prevails so that the diffusion coefficients increase. However, the diffusion coefficients of the soft ellipsoid strings decrease in the direction of the velocity gradient because the broadsides of these molecules are oriented perpendicularly to this direction due the shear alignment (i). The cross coupling coefficient relating a gradient of tracer particles in the direction of the velocity gradient and their flow in the direction of the streamlines is negative and rather large, whereas the other coupling coefficient relating a gradient in the direction of the streamlines and a flow in the direction of the velocity gradient is very small.

  13. A method of online quantitative interpretation of diffuse reflection profiles of biological tissues

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Lisenko, S. A.; Kugeiko, M. M.

    2013-02-01

    We have developed a method of combined interpretation of spectral and spatial characteristics of diffuse reflection of biological tissues, which makes it possible to determine biophysical parameters of the tissue with a high accuracy in real time under conditions of their general variability. Using the Monte Carlo method, we have modeled a statistical ensemble of profiles of diffuse reflection coefficients of skin, which corresponds to a wave variation of its biophysical parameters. On its basis, we have estimated the retrieval accuracy of biophysical parameters using the developed method and investigated the stability of the method to errors of optical measurements. We have showed that it is possible to determine online the concentrations of melanin, hemoglobin, bilirubin, oxygen saturation of blood, and structural parameters of skin from measurements of its diffuse reflection in the spectral range 450-800 nm at three distances between the radiation source and detector.

  14. A new ionospheric electron precipitation module coupled with RAM-SCB within the geospace general circulation model

    DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

    Yu, Yiqun; Jordanova, Vania K.; Ridley, Aaron J.

    Electron precipitation down to the atmosphere due to wave-particle scattering in the magnetosphere contributes significantly to the auroral ionospheric conductivity. In order to obtain the auroral conductivity in global MHD models that are incapable of capturing kinetic physics in the magnetosphere, MHD parameters are often used to estimate electron precipitation flux for the conductivity calculation. Such an MHD approach, however, lacks self-consistency in representing the magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling processes. In this study we improve the coupling processes in global models with a more physical method. We calculate the physics-based electron precipitation from the ring current and map it to the ionosphericmore » altitude for solving the ionospheric electrodynamics. In particular, we use the BATS-R-US (Block Adaptive Tree Scheme-Roe type-Upstream) MHD model coupled with the kinetic ring current model RAM-SCB (Ring current-Atmosphere interaction Model with Self-Consistent Magnetic field (B)) that solves pitch angle-dependent electron distribution functions, to study the global circulation dynamics during the 25–26 January 2013 storm event. Since the electron precipitation loss is mostly governed by wave-particle resonant scattering in the magnetosphere, we further investigate two loss methods of specifying electron precipitation loss associated with wave-particle interactions: (1) using pitch angle diffusion coefficients D αα(E,α) determined from the quasi-linear theory, with wave spectral and plasma density obtained from statistical observations (named as “diffusion coefficient method”) and (2) using electron lifetimes τ(E) independent on pitch angles inferred from the above diffusion coefficients (named as “lifetime method”). We found that both loss methods demonstrate similar temporal evolution of the trapped ring current electrons, indicating that the impact of using different kinds of loss rates is small on the trapped electron population. Furthermore, for the precipitated electrons, the lifetime method hardly captures any precipitation in the large L shell (i.e., 4 < L < 6.5) region, while the diffusion coefficient method produces much better agreement with NOAA/POES measurements, including the spatial distribution and temporal evolution of electron precipitation in the region from the premidnight through the dawn to the dayside. Further comparisons of the precipitation energy flux to DMSP observations indicates that the new physics-based precipitation approach using diffusion coefficients for the ring current electron loss can explain the diffuse electron precipitation in the dawn sector, such as the enhanced precipitation flux at auroral latitudes and flux drop near the subauroral latitudes, but the traditional MHD approach largely overestimates the precipitation flux at lower latitudes.« less

  15. A new ionospheric electron precipitation module coupled with RAM-SCB within the geospace general circulation model

    DOE PAGES

    Yu, Yiqun; Jordanova, Vania K.; Ridley, Aaron J.; ...

    2016-09-01

    Electron precipitation down to the atmosphere due to wave-particle scattering in the magnetosphere contributes significantly to the auroral ionospheric conductivity. In order to obtain the auroral conductivity in global MHD models that are incapable of capturing kinetic physics in the magnetosphere, MHD parameters are often used to estimate electron precipitation flux for the conductivity calculation. Such an MHD approach, however, lacks self-consistency in representing the magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling processes. In this study we improve the coupling processes in global models with a more physical method. We calculate the physics-based electron precipitation from the ring current and map it to the ionosphericmore » altitude for solving the ionospheric electrodynamics. In particular, we use the BATS-R-US (Block Adaptive Tree Scheme-Roe type-Upstream) MHD model coupled with the kinetic ring current model RAM-SCB (Ring current-Atmosphere interaction Model with Self-Consistent Magnetic field (B)) that solves pitch angle-dependent electron distribution functions, to study the global circulation dynamics during the 25–26 January 2013 storm event. Since the electron precipitation loss is mostly governed by wave-particle resonant scattering in the magnetosphere, we further investigate two loss methods of specifying electron precipitation loss associated with wave-particle interactions: (1) using pitch angle diffusion coefficients D αα(E,α) determined from the quasi-linear theory, with wave spectral and plasma density obtained from statistical observations (named as “diffusion coefficient method”) and (2) using electron lifetimes τ(E) independent on pitch angles inferred from the above diffusion coefficients (named as “lifetime method”). We found that both loss methods demonstrate similar temporal evolution of the trapped ring current electrons, indicating that the impact of using different kinds of loss rates is small on the trapped electron population. Furthermore, for the precipitated electrons, the lifetime method hardly captures any precipitation in the large L shell (i.e., 4 < L < 6.5) region, while the diffusion coefficient method produces much better agreement with NOAA/POES measurements, including the spatial distribution and temporal evolution of electron precipitation in the region from the premidnight through the dawn to the dayside. Further comparisons of the precipitation energy flux to DMSP observations indicates that the new physics-based precipitation approach using diffusion coefficients for the ring current electron loss can explain the diffuse electron precipitation in the dawn sector, such as the enhanced precipitation flux at auroral latitudes and flux drop near the subauroral latitudes, but the traditional MHD approach largely overestimates the precipitation flux at lower latitudes.« less

  16. Using pulse field gradient NMR diffusion measurements to define molecular size distributions in glycan preparations.

    PubMed

    Miller, Michelle C; Klyosov, Anatole; Platt, David; Mayo, Kevin H

    2009-07-06

    Glycans comprise perhaps the largest biomass in nature, and more and more glycans are used in a number of applications, including those as pharmaceutical agents in the clinic. However, defining glycan molecular weight distributions during and after their preparation is not always straightforward. Here, we use pulse field gradient (PFG) (1)H NMR self-diffusion measurements to assess molecular weight distributions in various glycan preparations. Initially, we derived diffusion coefficients, D, on a series of dextrans with reported weight-average molecular weights from about 5 kDa to 150 kDa. For each dextran sample, we analyzed 15 diffusion decay curves, one from each of the 15 major (1)H resonance envelopes, to provide diffusion coefficients. By measuring D as a function of dextran concentration, we determined D at infinite dilution, D(inf), which allowed estimation of the hydrodynamic radius, R(h), using the Stokes-Einstein relationship. A plot of log D(inf) versus log R(h) was linear and provided a standard calibration curve from which R(h) is estimated for other glycans. We then applied this methodology to investigate two other glycans, an alpha-(1-->2)-L-rhamnosyl-alpha-(1-->4)-D-galacturonosyl with quasi-randomly distributed, mostly terminal beta(1-->4)-linked galactose side-chains (GRG) and an alpha(1-->6)-D-galacto-beta(1-->4)-D-mannan (Davanat), which is presently being tested against cancer in the clinic. Using the dextran-derived calibration curve, we find that average R(h) values for GRG and Davanat are 76+/-6 x 10(-10) m and 56+/-3 x 10(-10) m, with GRG being more polydispersed than Davanat. Results from this study will be useful to investigators requiring knowledge of polysaccharide dispersity, needing to study polysaccharides under various solution conditions, or wanting to follow degradation of polysaccharides during production.

  17. Experimental Determination of Impurity and Interdiffusion Coefficients in Seven Ti and Zr Binary Systems Using Diffusion Multiples

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Zhangqi; Liu, Zi-Kui; Zhao, Ji-Cheng

    2018-05-01

    Diffusion coefficients of seven binary systems (Ti-Mo, Ti-Nb, Ti-Ta, Ti-Zr, Zr-Mo, Zr-Nb, and Zr-Ta) at 1200 °C, 1000 °C, and 800 °C were experimentally determined using three Ti-Mo-Nb-Ta-Zr diffusion multiples. Electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) was performed to collect concentration profiles at the binary diffusion regions. Forward simulation analysis (FSA) was then applied to extract both impurity and interdiffusion coefficients in Ti-rich and Zr-rich part of the bcc phase. Excellent agreements between our results and most of the literature data validate the high-throughput approach combining FSA with diffusion multiples to obtain a large amount of systematic diffusion data, which will help establish the diffusion (mobility) databases for the design and development of biomedical and structural Ti alloys.

  18. Diffusion modulation of DNA by toehold exchange

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rodjanapanyakul, Thanapop; Takabatake, Fumi; Abe, Keita; Kawamata, Ibuki; Nomura, Shinichiro M.; Murata, Satoshi

    2018-05-01

    We propose a method to control the diffusion speed of DNA molecules with a target sequence in a polymer solution. The interaction between solute DNA and diffusion-suppressing DNA that has been anchored to a polymer matrix is modulated by the concentration of the third DNA molecule called the competitor by a mechanism called toehold exchange. Experimental results show that the sequence-specific modulation of the diffusion coefficient is successfully achieved. The diffusion coefficient can be modulated up to sixfold by changing the concentration of the competitor. The specificity of the modulation is also verified under the coexistence of a set of DNA with noninteracting base sequences. With this mechanism, we are able to control the diffusion coefficient of individual DNA species by the concentration of another DNA species. This methodology introduces a programmability to a DNA-based reaction-diffusion system.

  19. Experimental Determination of Impurity and Interdiffusion Coefficients in Seven Ti and Zr Binary Systems Using Diffusion Multiples

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Chen, Zhangqi; Liu, Zi-Kui; Zhao, Ji-Cheng

    2018-07-01

    Diffusion coefficients of seven binary systems (Ti-Mo, Ti-Nb, Ti-Ta, Ti-Zr, Zr-Mo, Zr-Nb, and Zr-Ta) at 1200 °C, 1000 °C, and 800 °C were experimentally determined using three Ti-Mo-Nb-Ta-Zr diffusion multiples. Electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) was performed to collect concentration profiles at the binary diffusion regions. Forward simulation analysis (FSA) was then applied to extract both impurity and interdiffusion coefficients in Ti-rich and Zr-rich part of the bcc phase. Excellent agreements between our results and most of the literature data validate the high-throughput approach combining FSA with diffusion multiples to obtain a large amount of systematic diffusion data, which will help establish the diffusion (mobility) databases for the design and development of biomedical and structural Ti alloys.

  20. Stefan-Maxwell Relations and Heat Flux with Anisotropic Transport Coefficients for Ionized Gases in a Magnetic Field with Application to the Problem of Ambipolar Diffusion

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kolesnichenko, A. V.; Marov, M. Ya.

    2018-01-01

    The defining relations for the thermodynamic diffusion and heat fluxes in a multicomponent, partially ionized gas mixture in an external electromagnetic field have been obtained by the methods of the kinetic theory. Generalized Stefan-Maxwell relations and algebraic equations for anisotropic transport coefficients (the multicomponent diffusion, thermal diffusion, electric and thermoelectric conductivity coefficients as well as the thermal diffusion ratios) associated with diffusion-thermal processes have been derived. The defining second-order equations are derived by the Chapman-Enskog procedure using Sonine polynomial expansions. The modified Stefan-Maxwell relations are used for the description of ambipolar diffusion in the Earth's ionospheric plasma (in the F region) composed of electrons, ions of many species, and neutral particles in a strong electromagnetic field.

  1. Determination of diffusion coefficients of hydrogen and deuterium in Zr-2.5%Nb pressure tube material using hot vacuum extraction-quadrupole mass spectrometry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Shrivastava, Komal Chandra; Kulkarni, A. S.; Ramanjaneyulu, P. S.; Sunil, Saurav; Saxena, M. K.; Singh, R. N.; Tomar, B. S.; Ramakumar, K. L.

    2015-06-01

    The diffusion coefficients of hydrogen and deuterium in Zr-2.5%Nb alloy were measured in the temperature range 523 to 673 K, employing hot vacuum extraction-quadrupole mass spectrometry (HVE-QMS). One end of the Zr-2.5%Nb alloy specimens was charged electrolytically with the desired hydrogen isotope. After annealing at different temperatures for a predetermined time, the specimens were cut into thin slices, which were analyzed for their H2/D2 content using the HVE-QMS technique. The depth profile data were fitted into the equation representing the solution of Fick's second law of diffusion. The activation energy of hydrogen/deuterium diffusion was obtained from the Arrhenius relation between the diffusion coefficient and temperature. The temperature dependent diffusion coefficient can be represented as DH = 1.41 × 10-7 exp(-36,000/RT) and DD = 6.16 × 10-8 exp(-35,262/RT) for hydrogen and deuterium, respectively.

  2. Dynamics of the DNA repair proteins WRN and BLM in the nucleoplasm and nucleoli.

    PubMed

    Bendtsen, Kristian Moss; Jensen, Martin Borch; May, Alfred; Rasmussen, Lene Juel; Trusina, Ala; Bohr, Vilhelm A; Jensen, Mogens H

    2014-11-01

    We have investigated the mobility of two EGFP-tagged DNA repair proteins, WRN and BLM. In particular, we focused on the dynamics in two locations, the nucleoli and the nucleoplasm. We found that both WRN and BLM use a "DNA-scanning" mechanism, with rapid binding-unbinding to DNA resulting in effective diffusion. In the nucleoplasm WRN and BLM have effective diffusion coefficients of 1.62 and 1.34 μm(2)/s, respectively. Likewise, the dynamics in the nucleoli are also best described by effective diffusion, but with diffusion coefficients a factor of ten lower than in the nucleoplasm. From this large reduction in diffusion coefficient we were able to classify WRN and BLM as DNA damage scanners. In addition to WRN and BLM we also classified other DNA damage proteins and found they all fall into one of two categories. Either they are scanners, similar to WRN and BLM, with very low diffusion coefficients, suggesting a scanning mechanism, or they are almost freely diffusing, suggesting that they interact with DNA only after initiation of a DNA damage response.

  3. Connecting the molecular scale to the continuum scale for diffusion processes in smectite-rich porous media.

    PubMed

    Bourg, Ian C; Sposito, Garrison

    2010-03-15

    In this paper, we address the manner in which the continuum-scale diffusive properties of smectite-rich porous media arise from their molecular- and pore-scale features. Our starting point is a successful model of the continuum-scale apparent diffusion coefficient for water tracers and cations, which decomposes it as a sum of pore-scale terms describing diffusion in macropore and interlayer "compartments." We then apply molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to determine molecular-scale diffusion coefficients D(interlayer) of water tracers and representative cations (Na(+), Cs(+), Sr(2+)) in Na-smectite interlayers. We find that a remarkably simple expression relates D(interlayer) to the pore-scale parameter δ(nanopore) ≤ 1, a constrictivity factor that accounts for the lower mobility in interlayers as compared to macropores: δ(nanopore) = D(interlayer)/D(0), where D(0) is the diffusion coefficient in bulk liquid water. Using this scaling expression, we can accurately predict the apparent diffusion coefficients of tracers H(2)0, Na(+), Sr(2+), and Cs(+) in compacted Na-smectite-rich materials.

  4. Prediction and validation of diffusion coefficients in a model drug delivery system using microsecond atomistic molecular dynamics simulation and vapour sorption analysis.

    PubMed

    Forrey, Christopher; Saylor, David M; Silverstein, Joshua S; Douglas, Jack F; Davis, Eric M; Elabd, Yossef A

    2014-10-14

    Diffusion of small to medium sized molecules in polymeric medical device materials underlies a broad range of public health concerns related to unintended leaching from or uptake into implantable medical devices. However, obtaining accurate diffusion coefficients for such systems at physiological temperature represents a formidable challenge, both experimentally and computationally. While molecular dynamics simulation has been used to accurately predict the diffusion coefficients, D, of a handful of gases in various polymers, this success has not been extended to molecules larger than gases, e.g., condensable vapours, liquids, and drugs. We present atomistic molecular dynamics simulation predictions of diffusion in a model drug eluting system that represent a dramatic improvement in accuracy compared to previous simulation predictions for comparable systems. We find that, for simulations of insufficient duration, sub-diffusive dynamics can lead to dramatic over-prediction of D. We present useful metrics for monitoring the extent of sub-diffusive dynamics and explore how these metrics correlate to error in D. We also identify a relationship between diffusion and fast dynamics in our system, which may serve as a means to more rapidly predict diffusion in slowly diffusing systems. Our work provides important precedent and essential insights for utilizing atomistic molecular dynamics simulations to predict diffusion coefficients of small to medium sized molecules in condensed soft matter systems.

  5. Volatilization of benzene and eight alkyl-substituted benzene compounds from water

    USGS Publications Warehouse

    Rathbun, R.E.; Tai, D.Y.

    1988-01-01

    Predicting the fate of organic compounds in streams and rivers often requires knowledge of the volatilization characteristics of the compounds. The reference-substance concept, involving laboratory-determined ratios of the liquid-film coefficients for volatilization of the organic compounds to the liquid-film coefficient for oxygen absorption, is used to predict liquid-film coefficients for streams and rivers. In the absence of experimental data, two procedures have been used for estimating these liquid-film coefficient ratios. These procedures, based on the molecular-diffusion coefficient and on the molecular weight, have been widely used but never extensively evaluated. Liquid-film coefficients for the volatilization of benzene and eight alkyl-substituted benzene compounds (toluene through n-octylbenzene) from water were measured in a constant-temperature, stirred water bath. Liquid-film coefficients for oxygen absorption were measured simultaneously. A range of water mixing conditions was used with a water temperature of 298.2 K. The ratios of the liquid-film coefficients for volatilization to the liquid-film coefficient for oxygen absorption for all of the organic compounds were independent of mixing conditions in the water. Experimental ratios ranged from 0.606 for benzene to 0.357 for n-octylbenzene. The molecular-diffusion-coefficient procedure accurately predicted the ratios for ethylbenzene through n-pentylbenzene with a power dependence of 0.566 on the molecular-diffusion coefficient, in agreement with published values. Predicted ratios for benzene and toluene were slightly larger than the experimental ratios. These differences were attributed to possible interactions between the molecules of these compounds and the water molecules and to benzene-benzene interactions that form dimers. Because these interactions also are likely to occur in natural waters, it was concluded that the experimental ratios are more correct than the predicted ratios for application purposes in the reference-substance concept. Predicted ratios for n-hexylbenzene, n-heptylbenzene, and n-octylbenzene were larger than the experimental ratios. These differences were attributed to a sorption-desorption process between these compounds and the surfaces of the constant-temperature water bath. Other experimental problems associated with preparing water solutions of these slightly soluble compounds also may have contributed to the differences. Because these processes are not part of the true volatilization process, it was concluded that the predicted ratios for these three compounds are probably more correct than the experimental ratios for application purposes in the reference-substance concept. Any model of the fate of these compounds in streams and rivers would have to include terms accounting for sorption processes, however. The molecular-weight procedure accurately predicted the ratios for ethylbenzene through n-pentylbenzene, but only if the power dependence on the molecular weight was decreased from the commonly used -0.500 to -0.427. Deviations for the low- and high-molecular-weight compounds were similar to those observed for the molecular-diffusion-coefficient procedure.

  6. In vivo measurements of optical properties of human muscles with visible and near infrared reflectance spectroscopy

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Wang, Chiao Yi; Yu, Ting Wen; Sung, Kung Bin

    2018-02-01

    Estimating optical properties of tissues is a crucial step to model photon migration in tissue, facilitate the design of the probe geometry, better interpret data measured from tissue and predict photon energy distributions in tissue for various diagnostic and therapeutic applications. Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) using visible and near-infrared light is a well-known method for estimating optical properties of tissues. For estimating optical properties of muscles, most existing researches have used integrating spheres for ex-vivo measurements. However, due to inter-subject variability and sitespecific conditions, an in-vivo approach can provide more accurate estimations of muscle absorption and scattering coefficients, which is important for the tomographic reconstruction of changes in the absorption or fluorescence in tissue. In this study, we used DRS with wavelengths between 600 nm and 800 nm and a fiber bundle with source-to-detector separations in the range of 0.18-0.35 cm to quantify wavelength-dependent scattering and absorption coefficients of human muscles in vivo with an inverse Monte Carlo model. Reflectance spectra were measured on the neck and the upper arm of one volunteer. After calibrating spectra with tissue phantoms made of Intralipid and India ink, we estimated scattering and absorption coefficients of muscles. The results are compared to those measured ex vivo in the literature.

  7. Measurement of the Diffusion Coefficient of Water in RP-3 and RP-5 Jet Fuels Using Digital Holography Interferometry

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Li, Chaoyue; Feng, Shiyu; Shao, Lei; Pan, Jun; Liu, Weihua

    2018-04-01

    The diffusion coefficient of water in jet fuel was measured employing double-exposure digital holographic interferometry to clarify the diffusion process and make the aircraft fuel system safe. The experimental method and apparatus are introduced in detail, and the digital image processing program is coded in MATLAB according to the theory of the Fourier transform. At temperatures ranging from 278.15 K to 333.15 K in intervals of 5 K, the diffusion coefficient of water in RP-3 and RP-5 jet fuels ranges from 2.6967 × 10 -10 m2·s-1 to 8.7332 × 10 -10 m2·s-1 and from 2.3517 × 10 -10 m2·s-1 to 8.0099 × 10-10 m2·s-1, respectively. The relationship between the measured diffusion coefficient and temperature can be well fitted by the Arrhenius law. The diffusion coefficient of water in RP-3 jet fuel is higher than that of water in RP-5 jet fuel at the same temperature. Furthermore, the viscosities of the two jet fuels were measured and found to be expressible in the form of the Arrhenius equation. The relationship among the diffusion coefficient, viscosity and temperature is analyzed according to the classic prediction model, namely the Stokes-Einstein correlation, and this correlation is further revised via experimental data to obtain a more accurate predication result.

  8. Effect of the computational domain size and shape on the self-diffusion coefficient in a Lennard-Jones liquid.

    PubMed

    Kikugawa, Gota; Ando, Shotaro; Suzuki, Jo; Naruke, Yoichi; Nakano, Takeo; Ohara, Taku

    2015-01-14

    In the present study, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations on the monatomic Lennard-Jones liquid in a periodic boundary system were performed in order to elucidate the effect of the computational domain size and shape on the self-diffusion coefficient measured by the system. So far, the system size dependence in cubic computational domains has been intensively investigated and these studies showed that the diffusion coefficient depends linearly on the inverse of the system size, which is theoretically predicted based on the hydrodynamic interaction. We examined the system size effect not only in the cubic cell systems but also in rectangular cell systems which were created by changing one side length of the cubic cell with the system density kept constant. As a result, the diffusion coefficient in the direction perpendicular to the long side of the rectangular cell significantly increases more or less linearly with the side length. On the other hand, the diffusion coefficient in the direction along the long side is almost constant or slightly decreases. Consequently, anisotropy of the diffusion coefficient emerges in a rectangular cell with periodic boundary conditions even in a bulk liquid simulation. This unexpected result is of critical importance because rectangular fluid systems confined in nanospace, which are present in realistic nanoscale technologies, have been widely studied in recent MD simulations. In order to elucidate the underlying mechanism for this serious system shape effect on the diffusion property, the correlation structures of particle velocities were examined.

  9. Phototransformation Rate Constants of PAHs Associated with Soot Particles

    PubMed Central

    Kim, Daekyun; Young, Thomas M.; Anastasio, Cort

    2013-01-01

    Photodegradation is a key process governing the residence time and fate of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in particles, both in the atmosphere and after deposition. We have measured photodegradation rate constants of PAHs in bulk deposits of soot particles illuminated with simulated sunlight. The photodegradation rate constants at the surface (k0p), the effective diffusion coefficients (Deff), and the light penetration depths (z0.5) for PAHs on soot layers of variable thickness were determined by fitting experimental data with a model of coupled photolysis and diffusion. The overall disappearance rates of irradiated low molecular weight PAHs (with 2-3 rings) on soot particles were influenced by fast photodegradation and fast diffusion kinetics, while those of high molecular weight PAHs (with 4 or more rings) were apparently controlled by either the combination of slow photodegradation and slow diffusion kinetics or by very slow diffusion kinetics alone. The value of z0.5 is more sensitive to the soot layer thickness than the k0p value. As the thickness of the soot layer increases, the z0.5 values increase, but the k0p values are almost constant. The effective diffusion coefficients calculated from dark experiments are generally higher than those from the model fitting method for illumination experiments. Due to the correlation between k0p and z0.5 in thinner layers, Deff should be estimated by an independent method for better accuracy. Despite some limitations of the model used in this study, the fitted parameters were useful for describing empirical results of photodegradation of soot-associated PAHs. PMID:23247292

  10. Molecular-dynamics simulation of mutual diffusion in nonideal liquid mixtures

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Rowley, R. L.; Stoker, J. M.; Giles, N. F.

    1991-05-01

    The mutual-diffusion coefficients, D 12, of n-hexane, n-heptane, and n-octane in chloroform were modeled using equilibrium molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations of simple Lennard-Jones (LJ) fluids. Pure-component LJ parameters were obtained by comparison of simulations to experimental self-diffusion coefficients. While values of “effective” LJ parameters are not expected to simulate accurately diverse thermophysical properties over a wide range of conditions, it was recently shown that effective parameters obtained from pure self-diffusion coefficients can accurately model mutual diffusion in ideal, liquid mixtures. In this work, similar simulations are used to model diffusion in nonideal mixtures. The same combining rules used in the previous study for the cross-interaction parameters were found to be adequate to represent the composition dependence of D 12. The effect of alkane chain length on D 12 is also correctly predicted by the simulations. A commonly used assumption in empirical correlations of D 12, that its kinetic portion is a simple, compositional average of the intradiffusion coefficients, is inconsistent with the simulation results. In fact, the value of the kinetic portion of D 12 was often outside the range of values bracketed by the two intradiffusion coefficients for the nonideal system modeled here.

  11. Communication: A method to compute the transport coefficient of pure fluids diffusing through planar interfaces from equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations.

    PubMed

    Vermorel, Romain; Oulebsir, Fouad; Galliero, Guillaume

    2017-09-14

    The computation of diffusion coefficients in molecular systems ranks among the most useful applications of equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. However, when dealing with the problem of fluid diffusion through vanishingly thin interfaces, classical techniques are not applicable. This is because the volume of space in which molecules diffuse is ill-defined. In such conditions, non-equilibrium techniques allow for the computation of transport coefficients per unit interface width, but their weak point lies in their inability to isolate the contribution of the different physical mechanisms prone to impact the flux of permeating molecules. In this work, we propose a simple and accurate method to compute the diffusional transport coefficient of a pure fluid through a planar interface from equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, in the form of a diffusion coefficient per unit interface width. In order to demonstrate its validity and accuracy, we apply our method to the case study of a dilute gas diffusing through a smoothly repulsive single-layer porous solid. We believe this complementary technique can benefit to the interpretation of the results obtained on single-layer membranes by means of complex non-equilibrium methods.

  12. Two-Oxide Disequilibrium: A New Geospeedometer Based on Diffusion in Ilmenite

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Williams, K. B.; Krawczynski, M. J.; Van Orman, J. A.

    2016-12-01

    Diffusion-annealing experiments were conducted in a 0.5" piston cylinder apparatus to investigate diffusivity of Fe2+, Mg2+, and Mn2+ in ilmenite solid solutions between 800ºC and 1000ºC. Polycrystalline ilmenite (FeTiO3) was juxtaposed against either an oriented geikielite (MgTiO3) single crystal or polycrystalline Mn-bearing (5 mol% Mn) ilmenite, in a "diffusion-couple" geometry. Geikielite single crystals were synthesized at Los Alamos National Laboratory, cut into 1 mm edge-length cubes, and polished either perpendicular or parallel to the c-axis. Polycrystalline ilmenite starting materials were synthesized by mixing high purity reagent-grade oxides (FeO, MnO, and TiO2) and sintering in a piston cylinder apparatus, then cut into wafers and polished. Experimental run products were analyzed by electron microprobe at Washington University in St. Louis. Microprobe analyses were obtained perpendicularly across the diffusion interface for each experiment. Experimental diffusion profiles create smooth curves that, when fit with an error function, define Fe-Mg and Fe-Mn interdiffusion coefficients in ilmenite. The diffusion coefficients do not appear compositionally dependent, but do show significant anisotropy. Preliminary results suggest diffusion activation energies are lower in ilmenite than in titanomagnetite [1]. Ilmenite-titanomagnetite equilibria define pre-eruptive temperatures and oxygen fugacities. However, oxides often exist out of equilibrium [2]. We use the cation diffusion data for ilmenite and existing data on titanomagnetite to establish two-oxide disequilibrium as a geospeedometer. Our data constrain oxide-oxide re-equilibration timescales at Mt. Unzen to months, consistent with estimates from zoned, single crystals of magnetite [3,4]. Future experiments will examine the effect of oxygen fugacity on diffusivity in ilmenite solid solutions. References:[1] Van Orman & Crispin (2010) RiMG 72, 757-825.[2] Bacon & Hirschmann (1988) Am. Min. 73, 57-61.[3] Nakamura (1995) Geology 23, 807-810.[4] Venezky & Rutherford (1999) J. Volc. Geo. Res. 89, 213-230.

  13. Transport diffusion in deformed carbon nanotubes

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Feng, Jiamei; Chen, Peirong; Zheng, Dongqin; Zhong, Weirong

    2018-03-01

    Using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo methods, we have studied the transport diffusion of gas in deformed carbon nanotubes. Perfect carbon nanotube and various deformed carbon nanotubes are modeled as transport channels. It is found that the transport diffusion coefficient of gas does not change in twisted carbon nanotubes, but changes in XY-distortion, Z-distortion and local defect carbon nanotubes comparing with that of the perfect carbon nanotube. Furthermore, the change of transport diffusion coefficient is found to be associated with the deformation factor. The relationship between transport diffusion coefficient and temperature is also discussed in this paper. Our results may contribute to understanding the mechanism of molecular transport in nano-channel.

  14. The surface diffusion coefficient for an arbitrarily curved fluid-fluid interface. (I). General expression

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    M. C. Sagis, Leonard

    2001-03-01

    In this paper, we develop a theory for the calculation of the surface diffusion coefficient for an arbitrarily curved fluid-fluid interface. The theory is valid for systems in hydrodynamic equilibrium, with zero mass-averaged velocities in the bulk and interfacial regions. We restrict our attention to systems with isotropic bulk phases, and an interfacial region that is isotropic in the plane parallel to the dividing surface. The dividing surface is assumed to be a simple interface, without memory effects or yield stresses. We derive an expression for the surface diffusion coefficient in terms of two parameters of the interfacial region: the coefficient for plane-parallel diffusion D (AB)aa(ξ) , and the driving force d(B)I||(ξ) . This driving force is the parallel component of the driving force for diffusion in the interfacial region. We derive an expression for this driving force using the entropy balance.

  15. Diffusion of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) through a high density polyethylene (HDPE) geomembrane

    PubMed Central

    Saheli, P. T.; Rowe, R. K.; Petersen, E. J.; O’Carroll, D. M.

    2017-01-01

    The new applications for carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in various fields and consequently their greater production volume have increased their potential release to the environment. Landfills are one of the major locations where carbon nanotubes are expected to be disposed and it is important to ensure that they can limit the release of CNTs. Diffusion of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) dispersed in an aqueous media through a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) geomembrane (as a part of the landfill barrier system) was examined. Based on the laboratory tests, the permeation coefficient was estimated to be less than 5.1×10−15 m2/s. The potential performance of a HDPE geomembrane and geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) as parts of a composite liner in containing MWCNTs was modelled for six different scenarios. The results suggest that the low value of permeation coefficient of an HDPE geomembrane makes it an effective diffusive barrier for MWCNTs and by keeping the geomembrane defects to minimum during the construction (e.g., number of holes and length of wrinkles) a composite liner commonly used in municipal solid waste landfills will effectively contain MWCNTs. PMID:28740357

  16. A review of anisotropic conductivity models of brain white matter based on diffusion tensor imaging.

    PubMed

    Wu, Zhanxiong; Liu, Yang; Hong, Ming; Yu, Xiaohui

    2018-06-01

    The conductivity of brain tissues is not only essential for electromagnetic source estimation (ESI), but also a key reflector of the brain functional changes. Different from the other brain tissues, the conductivity of whiter matter (WM) is highly anisotropic and a tensor is needed to describe it. The traditional electrical property imaging methods, such as electrical impedance tomography (EIT) and magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography (MREIT), usually fail to image the anisotropic conductivity tensor of WM with high spatial resolution. The diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a newly developed technique that can fulfill this purpose. This paper reviews the existing anisotropic conductivity models of WM based on the DTI and discusses their advantages and disadvantages, as well as identifies opportunities for future research on this subject. It is crucial to obtain the linear conversion coefficient between the eigenvalues of anisotropic conductivity tensor and diffusion tensor, since they share the same eigenvectors. We conclude that the electrochemical model is suitable for ESI analysis because the conversion coefficient can be directly obtained from the concentration of ions in extracellular liquid and that the volume fraction model is appropriate to study the influence of WM structural changes on electrical conductivity. Graphical abstract ᅟ.

  17. Limits of applicability of the quasilinear approximation to the electrostatic wave-plasma interaction

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Zacharegkas, Georgios; Isliker, Heinz; Vlahos, Loukas

    2016-11-01

    The limitation of the Quasilinear Theory (QLT) to describe the diffusion of electrons and ions in velocity space when interacting with a spectrum of large amplitude electrostatic Langmuir, Upper and Lower hybrid waves, is analyzed. We analytically and numerically estimate the threshold for the amplitude of the waves above which the QLT breaks down, using a test particle code. The evolution of the velocity distribution, the velocity-space diffusion coefficients, the driven current, and the heating of the particles are investigated, for the interaction with small and large amplitude electrostatic waves, that is, in both regimes, where QLT is valid and where it clearly breaks down.

  18. Rotational Fourier tracking of diffusing polygons.

    PubMed

    Mayoral, Kenny; Kennair, Terry P; Zhu, Xiaoming; Milazzo, James; Ngo, Kathy; Fryd, Michael M; Mason, Thomas G

    2011-11-01

    We use optical microscopy to measure the rotational Brownian motion of polygonal platelets that are dispersed in a liquid and confined by depletion attractions near a wall. The depletion attraction inhibits out-of-plane translational and rotational Brownian fluctuations, thereby facilitating in-plane imaging and video analysis. By taking fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) of the images and analyzing the angular position of rays in the FFTs, we determine an isolated particle's rotational trajectory, independent of its position. The measured in-plane rotational diffusion coefficients are significantly smaller than estimates for the bulk; this difference is likely due to the close proximity of the particles to the wall arising from the depletion attraction.

  19. Indications for a High-Rigidity Break in the Cosmic-Ray Diffusion Coefficient

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Génolini, Yoann; Serpico, Pasquale D.; Boudaud, Mathieu; Caroff, Sami; Poulin, Vivian; Derome, Laurent; Lavalle, Julien; Maurin, David; Poireau, Vincent; Rosier, Sylvie; Salati, Pierre; Vecchi, Manuela

    2017-12-01

    Using cosmic-ray boron to carbon ratio (B/C) data recently released by the Ams-02 experiment, we find indications (decisive evidence, in Bayesian terms) in favor of a diffusive propagation origin for the broken power-law spectra found in protons (p ) and helium nuclei (He). The result is robust with respect to currently estimated uncertainties in the cross sections, and in the presence of a small component of primary boron, expected because of spallation at the acceleration site. Reduced errors at high energy as well as further cosmic ray nuclei data (as absolute spectra of C, N, O, Li, Be) may definitively confirm this scenario.

  20. Hierarchical clustering method for improved prostate cancer imaging in diffuse optical tomography

    NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

    Kavuri, Venkaiah C.; Liu, Hanli

    2013-03-01

    We investigate the feasibility of trans-rectal near infrared (NIR) based diffuse optical tomography (DOT) for early detection of prostate cancer using a transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) compatible imaging probe. For this purpose, we designed a TRUS-compatible, NIR-based image system (780nm), in which the photo diodes were placed on the trans-rectal probe. DC signals were recorded and used for estimating the absorption coefficient. We validated the system using laboratory phantoms. For further improvement, we also developed a hierarchical clustering method (HCM) to improve the accuracy of image reconstruction with limited prior information. We demonstrated the method using computer simulations laboratory phantom experiments.

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