Governance implications of nanomaterials companies’ inconsistent risk perceptions and safety practices

Current research on the nanotechnology industry indicates its downstream expansion at a rapid pace, while toxicological research and best practices for environmental health and safety are still being developed. Companies that use and/or produce engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) have enormous potential to influence safe-handling practices for ENMs across the product life cycle. Knowledge of both industry practices and leaders’ perceptions of risk is vital for understanding how companies will act to control potential environmental and health risks. This article reports results from a new international survey of nanomaterials companies in 14 countries. In this survey, company participants reported relatively high levels of uncertainty and/or perceived risk with regard to ENMs. However, these perspectives were not accompanied by expected risk-avoidant practices or preferences for regulatory oversight. A majority of companies indicated “lack of information” as a significant impediment to implementing nano-specific safety practices, but they also reported practices that were inconsistent with widely available guidance. Additionally, in the absence of safe-handling regulations, companies reported nano-specific health and safety programs that were narrow in scope. Taken together, these findings indicate that health and safety guidance is not reaching industry. While industry leaders’ reluctance toward regulation might be expected, their own reported unsafe practices and recognition of possible risks suggest a more top-down approach from regulators is needed to protect workers and the environment.     

Correlation of the R1 and R2 values of gadolinium-based MRI contrast media with the ΔHounsfield unit of CT contrast media of identical concentration

The optimal volume of contrast medium must be injected into the patient who emits the maximum signal intensity in an ROI. This study was investigated four different type MRI and one CT contrast agent in vitro and sought to establish relations between concentration, MRI relaxivity, CT Hounsfield unites selected kVp and different MRI T1 sequences. Using a CT contrast medium and four different MRI T1 contrast media, we developed five different phantom series. The MRI contrast media phantom was imaged on 1.5T and 3T MRI systems and measured the R1 and R2 value. A CT scanner was used to obtain images of the Iopromide 370 phantom with the quality of radiation to obtain images. The Pearson's correlation coefficient analyses were conducted between MRI CM phantom series with Iopromide 370 phantom. The non-parametric statistical analyses were performed for the values of kVp. The ΔHU of the test solution of the CT contrast media was produced in the same amount as the exponentially increased concentration of the MRI contrast media according to the increase in the dilution concentration, and was influenced by the quality of the X-ray. Through the results of this experiment that considered the two aforementioned factors, an image with a high diagnosis value can be acquired from the information on the concentration of the MRI T1 contrast media.     

Design and analysis of the optical transceiver for mobile atmospheric laser communication

The concept of mobile atmospheric laser communication (MALC) is introduced in this paper. Atmospheric attenuation, turbulence-induced scintillation and beam wander cause deep fades in the beam power and degrade the optical channel. The optical transceiver presented in this paper is designed for a MALC test system. Currently achievable hardware performance capabilities for the MALC terminals are used as input parameters to the analysis. A novel optical transceiver structure is designed. Link margin is analyzed using the MALC analysis software, our optical link analysis program. Data rate, bit-error rate, prime transmit     

Hierarchical Structure, Disassortativity and Information Measures of the US Flight Network

We investigate the mixing structure of directed and evolutionary US flight network. It is shown that such a network is a hierarchical network, with average assortativity coefficient-0.37. Application of the informationbased method that can give the same result provides a way to explore the structure of complex networks.     

Acoustic design and research on the auditorium of Shanghai Grand Theatre

1 IntroductionAt present, Shanghai Grand Theatre is the largest modern theatre in China, with hightechnique level and perfect facilities. This theatre has an exciting architectural appearance andfirst class acoustic quality. Perfect acoustics is an important requirement and acoustic designis the key technique in this project. This paper will present the requirements, characteristics,technical measures of acoustic as well as its practical acoustic quality.2 Illtroduction of AuditoriumShangha…     

Influences of tissue composition and structural features of biological media on the ultrasonic nonlinearity parameter

The Acoustic nonlinearity parameter is an important parameter innonlinear acoustics.In this article,the nonlinearity parameter B/A of normaland eight kinds of pathological porcine liver tissues were measured by finiteamplitude insert-substitution method.The mixture law for nonlinearityparameter is used to analyze and predict the volume fractions of the compo-nents in a given tissue.It was found that the nonlinearity parameter is sensitiveto the pathological forms of biological tissues and the values of B/A dependon the tissue composition and structural features.     

Theoretical and experimental research on the pulse duration of excimer laser output

The effects of discharge stability and cavity buid-up time of pulse laser on thepulse duration of excimer laser are investigated theoretically.The characteristics of the ex-cimer laser pulse duration can be explained by these theoretical analysis.     

Landauer’s limit and the physicality of information

Landauer’s lower bound on the dissipative cost of information erasure is revisited within a new physical conception of information. The notion of strong physical information is introduced, and the new conception of physical information – observer-local referential (OLR) information – is defined, shown to be strongly physical, and related to other measures that arise in physical information contexts. A generalization of Landauer’s limit is then obtained for OLR information from quantum dynamics and entropic inequalities alone. Specializations of this bound are compared and contrasted to similar bounds under conditions for which they coincide, and important distinctions between seemingly identical bounds expressed in terms of various information measures are discussed. The controversial distinction between Landauer erasure of known and unknown data – and the alleged difference between their respective erasure costs – is then explored via OLR information. This physically grounds and clarifies distinctions between known and unknown data and between unconditional and conditional erasure operations, enables a straightforward physical accounting of associated lower bounds on erasure costs, and illustrates the advantages of OLR information for resolution of controversies related to the dissipative cost of information erasure. Applications of OLR information to determination of irreversibility induced dissipation bounds in more complex computing scenarios are briefly discussed.     

The research on the quantum tunneling characteristics and the radiation spectrum of the stationary axisymmetric black hole

At the event horizon and the cosmological horizon of the stationary axisymmetric Kerr-Newman black hole in the de Sitter space-time background, the tunneling rate of the charged particles is relevant with Bekenstein-Hawking entropy and the real radiation spectrum is not strictly pure thermal, but consistent with the underlying unitary theory in quantum mechanics. This is a feasible interpretation for the paradox of the black hole information loss. Taking the self-gravitation action, energy conservation, angular momentum conservation and charge conservation into account, the derived radiation spectrum is a correct amendment to the Hawking pure thermal spectrum.     

Cosmic rays and variations of the concentration of active nuclei of condensation and crystallization in the Earth’s atmosphere

A possible mechanism of the influence of cosmic rays on the concentration of neutral active nuclei of condensation and crystallization in the Earth’s atmosphere is considered. The mechanism is based on the variation in the transparency of the atmosphere under cosmic rays. It is shown that the concentration of active nuclei of condensation increase at low and middle altitudes, while the concentration of stable ice nuclei decreases. This effect and the change in the growth rate of drops can lead to correlation between the galactic cosmic rays and cloud cover anomalies at low altitudes and to the absence of correlation at middle altitudes. It is shown that the correlation between galactic cosmic rays and cloud cover anomalies can be absent at high altitudes.     

Review and suggested resolution of the problem of Schrodinger’s cat

This paper reviews and suggests a resolution of the problem of definite outcomes of measurement. This problem, also known as ‘Schrodinger’s cat’, has long posed an apparent paradox because the state resulting from a measurement appears to be a quantum superposition in which the detector is in two macroscopically distinct states (alive and dead in the case of the cat) simultaneously. Many alternative interpretations of the quantum mathematical formalism, and several alternative modifications of the theory, have been proposed to resolve this problem, but no consensus has formed supporting any one of them. Applying standard quantum theory to the measurement state, together with the analysis and results of decades of nonlocality experiments with pairs of entangled systems, this paper shows the entangled measurement state is not a paradoxical macroscopic superposition of states. It is instead a phase-dependent superposition of correlations between states of the subsystems. Thus Schrodinger’s cat is a non-paradoxical ‘macroscopic correlation’ in which one of the two correlated systems happens to be a detector. This insight resolves the problem of definite outcomes but it does not entirely resolve the measurement problem because the entangled state is still reversible.     

Experimental research of laser-induced damage of the monolayer ZrO2 PVD and sol–gel films

Monolayer zirconia physical vapor deposition (PVD) and sol–gel films on K9 glass substrates were prepared by electron beam evaporation and spin coating methods, respectively. The laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) of each film was measured. Properties of the films were analyzed using Stanford photo-thermal solutions (SPTS), ellipsometry, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and optical microscopy to study the damage mechanism of films under laser irradiation. The experimental results showed that, compared with the monolayer zirconia sol–gel film, the monolayer zirconia PVD film had larger absorption and smaller porous ratio, and that it had smaller LIDT. The different damage morphologies of films were influenced by their different absorption and microstructure characteristics. The zirconia sol–gel film is more suitable for applications involving high-power lasers.     

Synchronization of the time—varying parameter chaotic system and its application to secure communication

In this paper we propose and investigate the synchronization of a new chaotic model with time-varying parameters and apply it to improve the security of chaotic communication. In this model, the chaotic system is modulated by both the message and the varying parameters. The varying parameters distort the phase space so heavily that they prevent the carrier from being broken by nonlinear dynamic forecasting method. Theory and simulation experiments with speech signal communication indicate that the receiver can gain a perfect synchronization with the transmitter, and the intruder cannot break down this communication system. We also discuss the robustness of the new communication system.     

Density inhomogeneities of the Earth’s mantle and core

Lateral density variations are determined at depth and are characterized by the anomalies of the seismic waves velocities, which are consistent with both the anomalies of the external gravity field and with the data from the analysis of Earth’s free-oscillation minimizing the deviations of the internal Earth structure from a hydrostatically equilibrated structure. It is shown that the obtained anomalous structures cause anomalies of the gravity field inside the Earth, which may be conducive to convective movements in the mantle and core.     

Degree and connectivity of the Internet’s scale-free topology

This paper theoretically and empirically studies the degree and connectivity of the Internet's scale-free topology at an autonomous system (AS) level. The basic features of scale-free networks influence the normalization constant of degree distribution p(k). It develops a new mathematic model for describing the power-law relationships of Internet topology. From this model we theoretically obtain formulas to calculate the average degree, the ratios of the k_min-degree (minimum degree) nodes and the k_max-degree (maximum degree) nodes, and the fraction of the degrees (or links) in the hands of the richer (top best-connected) nodes. It finds that the average degree is larger for a smaller power-law exponent λ and a larger minimum or maximum degree. The ratio of the k_min-degree nodes is larger for larger λ and smaller k_min or k_max. The ratio of the k_max-degree ones is larger for smaller λ and k_max or larger k_min. The richer nodes hold most of the total degrees of Internet AS-level topology. In addition, it is revealed that the increased rate of the average degree or the ratio of the k_min-degree nodes has power-law decay with the increase of k_min. The ratio of the k_max-degree nodes has a power-law decay with the increase of k_max, and the fraction of the degrees in the hands of the richer 27% nodes is about 73% (the '73/27 rule'). Finally, empirically calculations are made, based on the empirical data extracted from the Border Gateway Protocol, of the average degree, ratio and fraction using this method and other methods, and find that this method is rigorous and effective for Internet AS-level topology.     

Young’s modulus and the Poisson’s ratio of planar and nanotubular supracrystalline structures

A method has been proposed for calculating the two-dimensional Young??s modulus and the Poisson??s ratio for planar and nanotubular structures through the components of the two-dimensional elastic rigidity tensor obtained by numerical methods. The method has been tested for graphene and two-dimensional supracrystalline sheets.