The robotic deployment of NDE sensors has great cost-saving potential in cases where the measurement cost is high due to access restrictions or the need to temporarily decommission the test ...structure. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are able to quickly reach inaccessible components
to perform visual inspection and deploy NDE sensors. In this work, a mechanical sensor release mechanism is presented that has enabled electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs) to be deployed onto a ferromagnetic pipe and a plate, after which the component wall thickness measurements can
be transmitted wirelessly to a remote location. The reliability of the method and the most promising areas for future development are discussed.
The paper deals with the peculiarities of the German-language pedagogical discourse, in particular teachers’ oral speech. Pedagogical discourse as a type of institutional discourse is characterised ...by a pronounced cultural component related to the differences in educational systems, traditions and modern practices of communicative interaction between teachers and students. The aim of the study is to analyse teachers’ evaluative and facilitative strategies which are implemented in the speech acts of criticism and praise. The examples under review are borrowed from German-language speech resources that teachers in German schools are recommended to use in class. To thematically differentiate between the objects of praise and criticism of students the article is based on contextual analysis, which helps to describe the speech acts of praise and censure, using the procedure of detecting teachers’ intention. The analysis of the grammatical and syntactic construction of the utterances makes it possible to determine the linguistic means of implementing praise and criticism in the German-language teacher discourse and to identify the corpus of linguistic means whose main function is to increase or decrease the semantic and emotional significance of the utterance components.
The paper describes a method of design of storage tanks volume for an ice resurfacing machine in ice rink by using heat source with small thermal power (idea of downsizing). The main aim is to ...minimize investment costs for boiler room (the heat pump water-water). The achieved results show saving of investment costs about 35%. The request is the minimum water temperature at the value of 45°C before each filling process of resurfacing machine. Therefore it is very important to design the storage tanks volume where the water temperature will not be below the 45°C before the each filling an ice resurfacing machine during the hockey match or training. The required volume of storage tanks was calculated at the value of about 2000 litres if there is used the heat source with thermal power 45 kW. The number of storage tanks is given by boiler room dimensions too. In this case 3 storage tanks were designed.
The paper was aimed on testing the technological properties of product "Zeoslag" which consists of 10% of zeolite and 90% of ground granulated blast furnace slag. Both the Perlite and Zeolite were ...tested for comparison, and also cement as reference material. Mineral additives were tested according to standard for testing the slag - the binder here consists of 50% of additive to be tested and 50% of cement. Normalized sand and water according to standard recipe were used to make a testing mixtures. Following technological parameters of additives were tested: water demand for standard consistency, flexural and compressive strength development (2, 7 and 28 days) and activity index. Parameters are discussed in the terms of chemical character of additives. At the given range of modulus of hydraulicity (0.02 - 2.44), the experiment showed tight nonlinear relationship between it and strength characteristics of additive-based mortars.
The article deals with the impact of samples moisture content on the results of the depth penetration of water under pressure according to EN 12390-8, considering the fact, that technical standard ...does not prescribe definite condition of the samples prior testing. To obtain results of the water penetration depth, samples from eight different batches (strength classes from C 12/15 to C 55/67) were prepared. The experiment simulated two boundary conditions: saturated samples were tested immediately after taking from the water. This procedure of samples treatment was marked as the reference (REF). The second one: oven dried samples were tested after cooling to room temperature. This procedure of samples treatment was marked as the comparative (COMP). The results showed an increased tendency in the penetration depth when the samples were oven dried compared to the reference method. There is also discussed the substance, aim and relevance of the technical standards in connection with practical use.
Abstract
This paper investigates the phenomenon of the size effect of quasi-brittle lime-based material. This research aims to confirm the existence of a size effect on a homogeneous material - test ...specimens of mortar, which are subjected to uniaxial compression and provide additional knowledge to explain the causes of the size effect. This paper deals with the analysis of the results of experimental tests of mortar specimens without inclusion and with one centrally located steel inclusion. Two series of tests with different slenderness and size were prepared. The results of the experiment showed that the compressive strength of the test specimens decreased with increasing specimen size. The larger interface area between the inclusion and the mortar matrix negatively affected the compression strength.
The paper brings an overview of main challenges and design techniques effectively applicable for ultra-low voltage analog integrated circuits in nanoscale technologies. New design challenges linked ...with a low value of the supply voltage and the process fluctuation in nanotechnologies, such as device models, robustness to process variation, device mismatch and others are discussed firstly. Then, design techniques and approaches to analog integrated circuits towards (ultra) low-voltage systems and applications are described. Finally, examples of basic building blocks of ultra-low voltage analog ICs designed in standard CMOS technology using such design techniques are presented. Finally, the developed circuits are compared to the state-of-the-art solutions in terms of the main parameters and features.
Summary
What is known and Objective: Medline search disclosed 10 case reports of interactions between oral anticoagulants and miconazole oral gel, but none so far between nystatin solution and ...anticoagulants. We report on change in anticoagulant activity with use of different topical antifungal drugs, miconazole oral gel and vaginal suppositories, and nystatin solution.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective study that included 43 patients on stable anticoagulation before the introduction of topical antifungal drugs. Miconazole oral gel was prescribed for 32 patients, nystatin solution for eight patients and miconazole vaginal suppositories for three patients.
Results and Discussion: Nineteen (44·2%) of the patients reported bleeding complications and some of these were severe. Fifteen of 32 who used miconazole oral gel and four of 8 of those who used nystatin solution were affected. Before use of the antifungal drugs, the mean weekly warfarin dose in the nystatin group was 14·5 mg, and after antifungal drugs, 9 mg, P = 0·038, while the mean international normalized ratio (INR) before antifungal drugs was 2·5 (range 1·9–3·5) and afterwards it was 10·6 (range 4·5–19·3), P = 0·0001. In the miconazole oral gel group the mean weekly warfarin dose was 15·7 mg, and after 10·8 mg, P = 0·008, while the mean INR before antifungal drugs was 2·44 (range 1·92–3·18) and afterwards it was 8·8 (range 4·9–16·9), P < 0·0001.
What is new and Conclusion: Miconazole oral gel and topically applied nystatin solution have equally strong effects on warfarin activity and can provoke major bleeding. Prospective evaluation of this effect is called for. However, based on our results the warfarin dose adjustment appears necessary when the anticoagulant is used concomitantly with those topical antifungals.
Our aim was to investigate the prognostic and predictive value of the oncogenic MAPKK-like protein T-cell-originated protein kinase (TOPK) stratified by KRAS and BRAF mutations in patients with ...sporadic, hereditary and metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) treated with anti-EGFR therapy.
Immunohistochemistry (IHC) for TOPK was performed on four study groups. Group 1 included two subgroups of 543 and 501 sporadic CRC patients used to test the reliability of TOPK expression by IHC. In Group 2, representing an additional 222 sporadic CRCs, the prognostic effect of TOPK stratified by KRAS and BRAF was assessed. The prognostic effect of TOPK was further analysed in Group 3, representing 71 hereditary Lynch syndrome-associated CRC patients. In Group 4, the predictive and prognostic value of TOPK was analysed on 45 metastatic patients treated with cetuximab or panitumumab stratified by KRAS and BRAF gene status.
In both sporadic CRC subgroups (Group 1), associations of diffuse TOPK expression with clinicopathological features were reproducible. Molecular analysis of sporadic CRCs in Group 2 showed that diffuse TOPK expression was associated with KRAS and BRAF mutations (p<0.001) and with poor outcome in patients with either mutation in univariate and multivariate analysis (P=0.017). In hereditary patients (Group 3), diffuse TOPK was linked to advanced pT stage. In metastatic patients treated with anti-EGFR therapy (Group 4), diffuse TOPK expression was linked to dismal outcome despite objective response to treatment (P=0.01).
TOPK expression is an unfavourable prognostic indicator in sporadic patients with KRAS or BRAF mutations and also in patients with metastatic disease experiencing a response to anti-EGFR therapies. The inhibition of TOPK, which could benefit 30-40% of CRC patients, may represent a new avenue of investigation for targeted therapy.
Spin relaxation was studied in a two-dimensional electron gas confined in a wide GaAs quantum well. Recently, the control of the spin relaxation anisotropy by diffusive motion was first shown in D. ...Iizasa et al., arXiv:2006.08253. Here, we demonstrate electrical control by drift transport in a system with two subbands occupied. The combined effect of in-plane and gate voltages was investigated using time-resolved Kerr rotation. The measured relaxation time presents strong anisotropy with respect to the transport direction. For an in-plane accelerating electric field along 110 , the lifetime was strongly suppressed irrespective of the applied gate voltage. Remarkably, for transport along 110 , the data shows spin lifetime that was gate dependent and longer than in the 110 direction regardless of the in-plane voltage. In agreement, independent results of anisotropic spin precession frequencies are also presented. Nevertheless, the long spin lifetime, strong anisotropy and drift response seen in the data are beyond the existing models for spin drift and diffusion.
PDF
