Monochromatic neutrino signals from dark matter annihilation

Dark matter (DM) annihilations in the Sun to neutrino–antineutrino pairs are known to have potentially observable signatures in neutrino telescopes such as IceCube and KM3. We propose a model independent analysis in which the monochomatic neutrino signal from dark matter (DM) annihilations in the Sun is related to the direct detection spin-independent and spin-dependent cross sections rather than assuming cross sections from a particular model. We propagate the neutrinos from the center of the Sun to the Earth taking into account matter effects on neutrino oscillations. For DM capture in the Sun via a large spin-dependent DM capture cross section the discovery prospects of the IceCube experiment are found to be promising.     

Implementation of ISO 9001 in a medical testing laboratory

 The Department of Clinical Chemistry and Molecular Genetics, within the Institute of Clinical Pathology and Medical Research at Westmead Hospital, is a medical testing laboratory operating within the public sector health system of New South Wales, Australia. It provides acute-care pathology services to Westmead Hospital (a 900-bed tertiary referral university teaching hospital) as well as to three district hospitals and three rural hospitals. In addition to these core clinical chemistry services, it offers approximately 150 specialised biochemistry, pharmacology, toxicology, trace metal and molecular genetics assays as a reference laboratory service. In 1993, the Department became Australia's first medical testing laboratory to be registered to ISO 9001-1987/AS3901-1987. In 1995, this certification was extended to AS/NZS ISO 9001-1994. We are currently preparing for further accreditation to ISO/IEC Guide 25-1990, with additional supplementary requirements for medical testing. This paper describes the Quality System that the Department developed and which has been successfully maintained and extended since original certification. Important features of the Quality System are: 1. Primary design of the Quality System to meet medical and customer needs, with subsequent addition of required ISO elements. 2. Use of national Quality Award criteria to identify key business processes. 3. Development of integrated technical non-conformance, customer complaint, staff suggestion, and quality system corrective action procedures. 4. Implementation without external resources. Our conclusions are that ISO 9000 Quality Systems can be applied to medical testing laboratories, and can be implemented with minimum resource costs. Improvements in technical and service quality and business performance have resulted from this process. However, implementation of ISO 9000 at the level of individual Departments is not ideal. Greater improvements are possible when this process is undertaken at the level of the entire organisation. Received: 9 September 1996 Accepted: 5 October 1996     

Une voie d'acces rapide et pratique au tetrakis(trimethylsilyl)-allene et au bis(trimethylsilyl)-1,3 propyne

Complete silylation of hexachlorobenzene using the Me₃ SiCl/Li/THF reagent at O°C quantitatively affords tetrakis(trimethylsilyl)allene. This last upon a double protodesilylation with F₃CCOOH at O°C, leads to the quantitative formation of 1,3-bis(trimethylsilyl) propyne via the 1,3,3-tris(trimethylsilyl)propyne.     

Polymerization of asymmetric polyfunctional monomers. III. Ionic polymerization of acrylic and methacrylic esters of 2-allylphenol

The polymerization of acrylic and methacrylic esters of 2-allyphenol with different anionic, cationic and coordination catalysts was studied. The polymerization occurs exclusively or predominantly through (meth)acrylic C?C double bonds in all the studied cases. With anionic catalysts the allylic groups are not polymerizable and the polymers have linear structure. Polymerization with catalysts based on dialkylaluminum chloride (alone or associated with some metal salts) yields soluble or partially crosslinked polymers, depending on the reaction conditions. The crosslinking is due to the participation of allylic groups in the polymerization reactions. Copolymers of acrylic and methacrylic esters of 2-allylphenol with styrene, acrylonitrile, methyl methacrylate, N-vinylcarbazole and 1,3-pentadiene were synthesized by copolymerization in the presence of anionic catalysts and of systems based on dialkylaluminum chloride.     

Mixing regular convex polytopes

The mixing operation for abstract polytopes gives a natural way to construct a minimal common cover of two polytopes. In this paper, we apply this construction to the regular convex polytopes, determining when the mix is again a polytope, and completely determining the structure of the mix in each case.     

Chromium Electroplating Solutions as Two-Phase Fluids: The Influence on Solution Conductivity

The contribution of N.T. Kudryavtsev (and later his son V.N. Kudryavtsev) to the development of electrodeposition science and technology, and especially to that of chromium, is inestimable. It is a privilege on this occasion to present some considerations of the two-phase nature of chromium electroplating solutions, caused by the generation of hydrogen gas and the use of vigorous air agitation, and to discuss its influence on fluid conductivity and consequent power consumption during electrodeposition.