Production of metakaolin from industrial cellulose waste

Research focused on the transformation and utilization of industrial wastes into products of commercial interest plays an increasingly important role. Residual pulp can become useful in the manufacture of different materials, providing high value to this waste and reducing its environmental impact when disposed of improperly in the environment. The main constituents of this waste are kaolin and calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). Starting from kaolin, metakaolin can be produced by calcination of the residue at 630?°C for 2?h in a rotary reactor with air flow, followed by solubilization with hydrochloric acid to remove the CaCO₃. The development of technological alternatives aimed at the reuse of certain wastes can result in applications of real economic interest to the chemical industry and ceramics and glass, which is the case in this study. The raw material and metakaolin obtained were analyzed by thermogravimetric analysis and derivative thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy with promising results. This is because metakaolin was obtained free of contamination by other materials.     

High precision analysis of finlines on semiconductor substrate

In this study, the effect of the metallization thickness in finlines on semiconcuctor substrate is researched. The propagation parameters are computed to measure the inluence of the metallization. The theory and numerical results are presented to the propagation constant and characteristic impedance of the bilateral and unilateral finlines. The full wave analysis of the transverse transmission line — TTL method is used to determine the electromagnetic fields of the structure in Fourier transform domain — FTD. Applying the suitable boundary conditions, the moment method and expanding the fields in a set of suitable bases functions, a homogeneous matrix system is obtained and the propagation constant is computed. The characteristic impedance is obtained using the relation of the voltage in the slot and the transmitted power by the structure.Computational programs are developed to obtain numerical results to the propagation parameters composed by the propagation constant and characteristic impedance.This work received financial support by CAPES and CNPq.     

A study of the Immune Epitope Database for some fungi species using network topological indices

In the last years, the encryption of system structure information with different network topological indices has been a very active field of research. In the present study, we assembled for the first time a complex network using data obtained from the Immune Epitope Database for fungi species, and we then considered the general topology, the node degree distribution, and the local structure of this network. We also calculated eight node centrality measures for the observed network and compared it with three theoretical models. In view of the results obtained, we may expect that the present approach can become a valuable tool to explore the complexity of this database, as well as for the storage, manipulation, comparison, and retrieval of information contained therein.     

Analysis of Antennas with PBG Substrate

The use of photonic materials has been used in the theory of optical waves. The PBG (Photonic Band Gap) theory and material, was developed recently for optical frequencies and can be easily applied to millimeter waves, microwaves and planar antenna frequencies. The presence of photonic materials as substrate in antennas has some good characteristics such as, supression of light spontaneous emission and suppression of surface waves, allowing the application in planar antenna array. In this work an elaborate analysis using the full wave Transverse Transmission Line - TTL method, that provides efficient and concise results is applied to the planar antennas array with PBG substrate.     

Dynamics of vector solitons and vortices in two-dimensional photonic lattices

We study discrete vector solitons and vortices in two-dimensional photonic lattices with Kerr nonlinearity and demonstrate novel types of stable, incoherently coupled dipoles and vortex-soliton complexes that can be excited by Gaussian beams. We also discuss what we believe to be novel scenarios of the charge-flipping instability of incoherently coupled discrete vortices.     

Stabilized two-dimensional vector solitons

In this Letter, we introduce the concept of stabilized vector solitons as nonlinear waves constructed by the addition of mutually incoherent fractions of Townes solitons that are stabilized under the effect of a periodic modulation of the nonlinearity. We analyze the stability of these new kinds of structures and describe their behavior and formation in Manakov-like interactions. Potential applications of our results in Bose-Einstein condensation and nonlinear optics are also discussed.     

Mineralogical analysis of auriferous ores from the El Diamante mine, Colombia

X-ray diffraction (XRD), Mössbauer spectrometry (MS), secondary ions mass spectroscopy (SIMS) and laser-ablation microprobe–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LAM–ICP–MS) were used to study mineral samples of Colombian auriferous ores collected from the “El Diamante” mine, located in the municipality of Guachavez-Nariño, in Colombia. The samples were prepared as polished thin sections and polished sections. From XRD data, quartz, sphalerite and pyrite were detected and their respective cell parameters were estimated. From MS analyses, pyrite, arsenopyrite and chalcopyrite were identified; their respective hyperfine parameters and respective texture were deduced. Multiple regions of approximately 200 × 200 μm in each sample were analyzed with SIMS; the occurrence of “invisible gold” associated mainly with pyrite and secondarily with arsenopyrite could thus be assigned. It was also found that pyrite is of the arsenious type. Spots from 30 to 40 μm in diameter were analyzed with LAM–ICP–MS for pyrite, arsenopyrite and sphalerite; Au is “homogeneously” distributed inside the structure of the arsenious pyrite and the arsenopyrite (not as inclusions); the chemical composition indicates similarities of this “invisible gold”, forming a solid solution with arsenious pyrite and arsenopyrite. One hundred nineteen and 62 ppm of ‘invisible gold’ was quantified in 21 spots analyzed on pyrite and in 14 spots on arsenopyrite, respectively.     

Effects of temperature on the relaxation to equilibrium and stationary nonequilibrium states of some Langevin systems

We investigate the effects of temperature on the properties of the time relaxation to equilibrium and nonequilibrium steady states of correlation functions of some Langevin harmonic systems. We consider commonly used dissipative and conservative Langevin dynamics, and show that the time relaxation rate depends on the temperature in the case of thermal reservoirs at different temperatures connected to the system, but it does not happen in the case of relaxation to equilibrium, i.e., if all the heat bath are at the same temperature. Our formalism maps the initial stochastic problem on a noncanonical quantum field theory, and the calculations of the relaxation rates are based on a perturbative analysis. We argue to show the reliability of the perturbative computation.