Consideration of uranium silicide compounds as candidate nuclear reactor fuels requires the accurate knowledge of their thermophysical properties as a function of temperature. Stoichiometric USi has ...received little attention in the literature with regard to property characterization. This absence of data prevents modeling and simulation communities from predicting performance of uranium silicide fuels that are either nominally USi itself, or are designed with other uranium silicide phases but may include appreciable fractions of USi introduced as a result of the fuel synthesis or fabrication process. This study was undertaken to quantify the thermal expansion coefficient, specific heat capacity, thermal diffusivity, and thermal conductivity of USi from ambient conditions to just below the peritectic decomposition of the compound. Stoichiometric samples that were prepared by arc melting and powder metallurgical routes for thermophysical property measurements exhibited 94% USi phase, with the balance being U3Si5 phase that likely formed during the solidification process. An energetic phase transformation was observed at 723 K, which is attributed to the inclusion of the secondary U3Si5 phase.
Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography (MSOT) uniquely enables spatial mapping in high resolution of oxygen saturation (SO 2 ), with potential applications in studying pathological complications and ...therapy efficacy. MSOT offers seamless integration with ultrasonography, by using a common ultrasound detector array. However, MSOT relies on multiple successive acquisitions of optoacoustic (OA) images at different optical wavelengths and the low frame rate of OA imaging makes the MSOT acquisition sensitive to body/respiratory motion. Moreover, estimation of SO 2 is highly sensitive to noise, and artefacts related to the respiratory motion of the animal were identified as the primary source of noise in MSOT. In this work, we propose a two-step image processing method for SO 2 estimation in deep tissues. First, to mitigate motion artefacts, we propose a method of selection of OA images acquired only during the respiratory pause of the animal, using ultrafast ultrasound images (USIs) acquired immediately after each OA acquisition (USI acquisition duration of 1.4 ms and a total delay of 7 ms). We show that gating is more effective using USIs than OA images at different optical wavelengths. Secondly, we propose a novel method which can estimate directly the SO 2 value of a pixel and at the same time evaluate the amount of noise present in that pixel. Hence, the method can efficiently eliminate the pixels dominated by noise from the final SO 2 map. Our post-processing method is shown to outperform conventional methods for SO 2 estimation, and the method was validated by in vivo oxygen challenge experiments.
This is the first general monograph on ancient Greek dress in English to be published in more than a century. By applying modern dress theory to the ancient evidence, this book reconstructs the ...social meanings attached to the dressed body in ancient Greece. Whereas many scholars have focused on individual aspects of ancient Greek dress, from the perspectives of literary, visual, and archaeological sources, this volume synthesizes the diverse evidence and offers fresh insights into this essential aspect of ancient society. Intended to be accessible to nonspecialists as well as classicists, students as well as academic professionals, this book will find a wide audience.
Detailed first-principles calculations under the projector augmented wave (PAW) framework are reported so as to determine the structural, elastic, crystal lattice-dynamical and thermodynamic ...properties of the binary α-USi2 alloy (Space Group: I41/amd-D4h19; Pearson: tI12) with ThSi2-type. The calculated lattice constants a and c, and inner coordinate z, equilibrium volume V0, bulk modulus B0 and its pressure derivative B′ for USi2 are compared with the available experimental and other theoretical works, and the agreements between them are quite well. In particular, for the first time, the phonon band dispersion relations and the phonon densities of states are investigated by employing the linear-response method of the density functional perturbation theory (DFPT) under non-spin polarized and spin polarized frames. The characteristics of the phonon dynamics at the center Γ point of Brillouin zone have also been assigned systematically. The present calculated results reveal that USi2 alloy with ThSi2-type is dynamically stable at ambient conditions, and the spin polarization plays a certain role to its dynamical behavior to some extent. To gain comprehensive insight for the lattice vibration behavior of USi2, the thermodynamic properties have been calculated based on the calculated phonon densities of state (PDOS) further, however, it is found that the spin polarized effect is negligible on its thermodynamic properties. The investigations of USi2 alloy in this paper could provide essential reference data for future explorations on actinide disilicides.
•The phonon properties of USi2 are investigated using DFPT method.•USi2 alloy with ThSi2-type is dynamically stable at ambient conditions.•The characteristics of the phonon dynamics at Γ point of Brillouin zone are assigned.•The thermodynamic properties of USi2 are obtained based on the calculated phonon densities of state.
Manually labelling datasets for training violence detection systems is time-consuming, expensive, and labor-intensive. Mind wandering, boredom, and short attention span can also cause labelling ...errors. Moreover, collecting and distributing sensitive images containing violence has ethical implications. Automation is the future for labelling sensitive image datasets. Deep labeller is a two-stage Deep Learning (DL) method that uses pre-trained DL object detection methods on MS-COCO for automatic labelling. The Deep Labeller method labels violent and nonviolent images in WVD and USI. In stage 1, WVD generates weak labels using synthetic images. In stage 2, the Deep labeller method is retrained on weak labels. USI dataset is used to test our method on real-world violence. Deep labeller generated weak and strong labels with an IoU of 0.80036 in stage 1 and 0.95 in stage 2 on the WVD. Automatically generated labels. To test our method’s generalisation power, violent and nonviolent image labels on USI dataset had a mean IoU of 0.7450.
Partendo dall’osservazione dei due segni principali, il punto e la virgola, misurati su due particolari forme di testualità molto diverse tra loro, il contributo si propone di mostrare come la ...punteggiatura − dominio da molti considerato come poco codificato e poco codificabile − risponda in effetti nell’italiano contemporaneo a precise regolarità di tipo comunicativo-testuale, che ne dirigono gli impieghi e che permettono di fissare il discrimine fra usi accettabili e usi inaccettabili dei segni.
Abstract Background One of the most effective and popular current procedures for the surgical treatment of stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is tension-free midurethral slings. Objective To evaluate ...the outcomes of women with retropubic tension-free vaginal tape (TVT) for urodynamic stress incontinence (USI) after 10-yr follow-up. Design, setting, and participants This was a prospective observational study. Consecutive women with proven USI were treated with TVT. Patients with mixed incontinence and/or anatomic evidence of pelvic organ prolapse were excluded. Intervention Standard retropubic TVT. Measurements Patients underwent preoperative clinical and urodynamic evaluations. During follow-up examinations, women were assessed for subjective satisfaction and objective cure rates. Multivariable analyses were performed to investigate outcomes. Results and limitations A total of 63 women were included. After 10 yr, 5 patients (8%) were lost or no longer evaluable. The 10-yr subjective, objective, and urodynamic cure rates were 89.7%, 93.1%, and 91.4%, respectively. These rates were stable across the whole study period ( p > 0.99). De novo overactive bladder was reported by 30.1% and 18.9% of patients at 3-mo and 10-yr follow-up, respectively ( p for trend = 0.19). A total of 84.2% of women with detrusor overactivity received antimuscarinic drugs, but 43.8% were nonresponders 12 wk later. At multivariable analysis, maximum detrusor pressure during the filling phase >9 cm H2 O (hazard ratio HR: 16.2; p = 0.01) and maximum detrusor pressure during the voiding phase ≤29 cm H2 O (HR: 8.0; p = 0.01) were independent predictors for the recurrence of SUI, as well as obesity was for the recurrence of objective SUI (HR: 17.1; p = 0.01) and of USI (HR: 8.9; p = 0.02), respectively. Intraoperatively, bladder perforation occurred in two cases; no severe bleeding or other complications occurred. Conclusions The 10-yr results of this study seem to demonstrate that TVT is a highly effective option for the treatment of female SUI, recording a very high cure rate with low complications after a 10-yr follow-up.
This paper examines how race, class, and gender intersect to shape professional Latinos' entrepreneurial incorporation, as observed by the conditions that prompt professional Latinos to start a ...business, including access to capital and experiences with discrimination. In-depth interviews with professional Latino business owners in Los Angeles reveal that individual human capital - via resources and wealth accrued through corporate careers - facilitates entrepreneurial activity. Race, ethnicity, and gender, as intersectional social group identities, combine with class to shape variegated impacts on access to capital and business experiences by gender and target market. Ethnicity is a resource for those serving the coethnic community and is more significant in shaping business ownership experiences for men who target a racially/ethnically diverse clientele, whereas gender and race are more salient for women outside the coethnic community. This study contributes to the ethnic enterprise literature by going beyond ethnicity to demonstrate that multiple dimensions of identity shape professional Latino/as' entrepreneurial incorporation.
Urbanization brings new selection pressures to wildlife living in cities, and changes in the life-history traits of urban species can reflect their responses to such pressures. To date, most of the ...studies investigating the impacts of urbanization on avian life-history traits are conducted in Europe and North America, while such studies are often lacking in quickly developing countries in Asia (e.g., China). In this study, we examined the variations in reproductive life-history traits of Chinese Bulbuls (Pycnonotus sinensis) along the urbanization gradient in Hangzhou, China. We detected 234 natural nests of Chinese Bulbuls and continuously monitored them in two continuous breeding seasons from 2012 to 2013. We collected data on seven life-history traits (laying date, incubation period, nestling period, clutch size, egg volume, hatching success rate, and fledging success rate). We used infrared cameras to record the number of feedings per hour as the measure of food resources for the nestlings. We measured nest predation pressure by monitoring 148 natural breeding nests during breeding seasons and 54 artificial nests immediately after breeding seasons. We then calculated the urbanization synthetic index (USI) as a measure of the level of urbanization and examined its relationship with the seven life-history traits. We found that Chinese Bulbuls laid eggs significantly earlier with increasing USI. However, the other six life-history traits did not vary significantly with the USI. Moreover, the feeding frequency of chicks increased significantly with the USI, but the nest predation pressure of Chinese Bulbuls decreased significantly with the USI. Increased food resources and reduced nest predation pressure in cities may lead to earlier laying date of Chinese Bulbuls. Further study should test whether the earlier laying date of Chinese Bulbuls is the result of phenotypic plasticity or genetic change.
A universal salt iodization (USI) was introduced in Sarawak, Malaysia in 2008 to control the iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) among its population. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the ...impact of the USI among school children in Sarawak after 10 years of implementation. The data were extracted from 2008 and 2018 Sarawak state-wide IDD surveys. Briefly, both surveys were cross-sectional surveys covering information on the socio-demographic, status of goitre, urinary iodine, and the amount of iodine in the salt samples. A total of 1104 and 988 between the ages of 8 and 10 were involved in the 2008 and 2018 surveys, respectively. The overall prevalence of goitre among the school children in Sarawak was significantly lower in 2018 (0.1%) compared to 2008 (2.9%). The median urinary iodine concentration (UIC) in urine samples had risen significantly from 102.1 µg/L in 2008 to 126.0 µg/L in 2018. In terms of iodine content in salt samples, the median concentration improved significantly in 2018 (35.5 µg/L) compared to 2008 (14.7 µg/L). After 10 years of USI implementation in Sarawak, the results from both surveys confirmed the effectiveness of mandatory USI in increasing the nutritional iodine status of school children in Sarawak.
PDF
