As the decommissioning of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (NPP) progresses, the issue of how to deal with tritiated water has been attracting attention, both domestically and internationally. ...This article summarises the live discussion at the International Symposium on Tritiated Water, which was held by the Japan Health Physics Society (JHPS) in June 2020. Two issues – the scientific safety of tritiated water and social consensus building – were covered in the live discussion. The importance of further disclosure and dissemination of information based on steady monitoring was highlighted. It was also pointed out that scientific knowledge and scientific research data are merely the bottom line to achieve social consensus. Through the discussions, it was recognised that the role of JHPS is not only to look at the technical issues of safety, but also to look at social issues from the point of view of radiation protection, and to support the solution of these issues.
Large-scale integrated quantum photonic technologies will require on-chip integration of identical photon sources with reconfigurable waveguide circuits. Relatively complex quantum circuits have been ...demonstrated already, but few studies acknowledge the pressing need to integrate photon sources and waveguide circuits together on-chip. A key step towards such large-scale quantum technologies is the integration of just two individual photon sources within a waveguide circuit, and the demonstration of high-visibility quantum interference between them. Here, we report a silicon-on-insulator device that combines two four-wave mixing sources in an interferometer with a reconfigurable phase shifter. We configured the device to create and manipulate two-colour (non-degenerate) or same-colour (degenerate) path-entangled or path-unentangled photon pairs. We observed up to 100.0 ± 0.4% visibility quantum interference on-chip, and up to 95 ± 4% off-chip. Our device removes the need for external photon sources, provides a path to increasing the complexity of quantum photonic circuits and is a first step towards fully integrated quantum technologies.
Topological defects in liquid crystals not only affect the optical and rheological properties of the host, but can also act as scaffolds in which to trap nano or micro-sized colloidal objects. The ...creation of complex defect shapes, however, often involves confining the liquid crystals in curved geometries or adds complex-shaped colloidal objects, which are unsuitable for device applications. Using topologically patterned substrates, here we demonstrate the controlled generation of three-dimensional defect lines with non-trivial shapes and even chirality, in a flat slab of nematic liquid crystal. By using the defect lines as templates and the electric response of the liquid crystals, colloidal superstructures are constructed, which can be reversibly reconfigured at a voltage as low as 1.3 V. Three-dimensional engineering of the defect shapes in liquid crystals is potentially useful in the fabrication of self-healing composites and in stabilizing artificial frustrated phases.
The microstructure and the strength of the lath martensite in Fe–0.2C and Fe–0.2C–2Mn alloys were analyzed as a function of the prior austenite grain size. The size of martensite packets formed ...within individual austenite grains was controlled by the austenite grain size but not affected by the Mn addition. However, the further subdivision of packets into blocks differed significantly in the two alloys, and at a given austenite grain size a smaller block size was observed in the Mn containing alloy. The yield strength of the two alloys was related to the packet size and the block size, respectively, and the results suggested that the block size is the key structural parameter when analyzing the strength–structure relationship of lath martensite in low carbon steels.
This paper presents a sum of squares (SOS) approach for modeling and control of nonlinear dynamical systems using polynomial fuzzy systems. The proposed SOS-based framework provides a number of ...innovations and improvements over the existing linear matrix inequality (LMI)-based approaches to Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy modeling and control. First, we propose a polynomial fuzzy modeling and control framework that is more general and effective than the well-known T--S fuzzy modeling and control. Secondly, we obtain stability and stabilizability conditions of the polynomial fuzzy systems based on polynomial Lyapunov functions that contain quadratic Lyapunov functions as a special case. Hence, the stability and stabilizability conditions presented in this paper are more general and relaxed than those of the existing LMI-based approaches to T-S fuzzy modeling and control. Moreover, the derived stability and stabilizability conditions are represented in terms of SOS and can be numerically (partially symbolically) solved via the recently developed SOSTOOLS. To illustrate the validity and applicability of the proposed approach, a number of analysis and design examples are provided. The first example shows that the SOS approach renders more relaxed stability results than those of both the LMI-based approaches and a polynomial system approach. The second example presents an extensive application of the SOS approach in comparison with a piecewise Lyapunov function approach. The last example is a design exercise that demonstrates the viability of the SOS-based approach to synthesizing a stabilizing controller.
The aim of this study was to compare the safety of tooth extraction in patients receiving direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) or warfarin without cessation of their antithrombotic treatment. This ...prospective observational study included 367 patients undergoing tooth extraction (119 receiving DOACs and 248 receiving warfarin). All extractions in DOAC patients were performed 6–7h after taking DOACs in consideration of the half-life in blood under continued antithrombotic treatment. To examine the potential postoperative bleeding risk related to the time of extraction and the drug concentration of blood, activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) in dabigatran and prothrombin time (PT) in rivaroxaban were measured three times after administration. A total of 390 tooth extractions were performed: 128 in the DOAC patients and 262 in warfarin patients. Postoperative bleeding occurred in four extractions (3.1%) in the DOAC group and in 23 (8.8%) in the warfarin group. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups (odds ratio: 2.362, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.819–6.815, p=0.112). APTT and PT prolongation in almost all cases decreased with time after taking the medicine. Our findings suggest that interruption of DOAC therapy is not necessary for tooth extraction if the procedure is performed at least 6h after the last dose.
Power generation performance and long‐term durability of ammonia‐fueled solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) systems are investigated with SOFC stacks consisting of 30 planar anode‐supported cells. SOFC ...systems with three different operation modes are employed: direct ammonia, external decomposition and autothermal decomposition. A novel BaO/Ni/Sm2O3/MgO catalyst is newly developed for the external ammonia cracker, whereas a Co‐Ce‐Zr composite oxide catalyst is used for the autothermal ammonia cracker. Initial performance measurement and 1,000 h long‐term durability test of the stacks are conducted. The stack fueled with direct ammonia achieves 1 kW power output with 52% direct current (DC) electrical efficiency; a slight decrease in its performance compared with the stack with the mixture fuel of hydrogen and nitrogen is attributed to the decrease in the stack temperature caused by the endothermic ammonia decomposition reaction. The external ammonia cracker helps to maintain the stack temperature, improving the initial performance of the stack. The stack performance with the autothermal ammonia cracker is also comparable to those with the other operation modes. It is also demonstrated that the stacks fueled with ammonia have excellent stability during the long‐term tests and 57% energy conversion efficiency at ca. 700 W electrical output is achieved with the external ammonia cracker.
We report single-crystal V51 NMR studies on volborthite Cu3V2O7(OH)2·2H2O, which is regarded as a quasi-two-dimensional frustrated magnet with competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic ...interactions. In the 1/3 magnetization plateau above 28 T, the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate 1/T1 indicates an excitation gap with a large effective g factor in the range of 4.6–5.9, pointing to magnon bound states. Below 26 T where the gap has closed, the NMR spectra indicate small internal fields with a Gaussian-like distribution, whereas 1/T1 shows a power-law-like temperature dependence in the paramagnetic state, which resembles a slowing down of spin fluctuations associated with magnetic order. We discuss the possibility of an exotic spin state caused by the condensation of magnon bound states below the magnetization plateau.
A variety of terminal alkynes are facilely convertible into cis-boryl(stannyl)alkenes with inverse regioselectivity to those of the previous borylstannylation by the copper-catalyzed three-component ...reaction using a masked diboron. The synthetic utility of the resulting boryl(stannyl)alkenes has been demonstrated by chemoselective coupling reactions.
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