On the astronomical origin of the Hallstatt oscillation found in radiocarbon and climate records throughout the Holocene

An oscillation with a period of about 2100-2500 years, the Hallstatt cycle, is found in cosmogenic radioisotopes (C-14 and Be-10) and in paleoclimate records throughout the Holocene. Herein we demonstrate the astronomical origin of this cycle. Namely, this oscillation is coherent to the major stable resonance involving the four Jovian planets - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - whose period is p=2318 yr. The Hallstatt cycle could derive from the rhythmic variation of the circularity of the solar system disk assuming that this dynamics could eventually modulate the solar wind and, consequently, the incoming cosmic ray flux and/or the interplanetary/cosmic dust concentration around the Earth-Moon system. The orbit of the planetary mass center (PMC) relative to the Sun is used as a proxy. We analyzed how the instantaneous eccentricity vector of this virtual orbit varies from 13,000 B. C. to 17,000 A. D.. We found that it undergoes kind of pulsations as it clearly presents rhythmic contraction and expansion patterns with a 2318 yr period together with a number of already known faster oscillations associated to the planetary orbital stable resonances. We found that a fast expansion of the Sun-PMC orbit followed by a slow contraction appears to prevent cosmic rays to enter within the system inner region while a slow expansion followed by a fast contraction favors it. Similarly, the same dynamics could modulate the amount of interplanetary/cosmic dust falling on Earth. These would then cause both the radionucleotide production and climate change by means of a cloud/albedo modulation. Other stable orbital resonance frequencies (e.g. at periods of 20 yr, 45 yr, 60 yr, 85 yr, 159-171-185 yr, etc.) are found in radionucleotide, solar, aurora and climate records, as determined in the scientific literature. Thus, the result supports a planetary theory of solar and/or climate variation.Comment: 36 pages, 14 figures, 1 tabl

Infrared spectroscopic analysis of water incorporated in the structure of industrial soda-lime-silica glasses

The paper illustrates a method for the determination of the water content of glasses by infrared transmittance spectroscopy from the exdnctions of the bands due to free and hydrogen-bonded hydroxyl groups dissolved in the glass. The procedure is discussed in detail, highlighting the sources of random and systematic errors and what can be done to improve the interlaboratory reproducibihty. The ratio of the intensities of the two bands at 2.8 and 3.6 µm is investigated accurately for a range of industrial soda-lime-silica glasses. In the case of containers and float glass it is nearly constant, but it varies widely for other products, such as household appliances, car headlamps and hand worked arücles, probably due to differences in the glass formulation. Accordingly, caution should be exerted in using the simplified method based on the measurement of the first band only, implying a constant rado. Finally, evidence of molecular water in the dealkalized surface layers of commercial articles is obtained using infrared reflectance spectroscopy

Study of the high-temperature spectral behavior of container glass

The spectral absorption coefficients of container glasses in the wavelength region from 0.4 to 4.5 µm and in the temperature range from room temperature to 1400 °C were measured by a single-beam spectrophotometer by means of the transmission method. From the measured absorption coefficients radiative thermal conductivities in the temperature ränge from 600 to 1400 °C were calculated by means of Rosseland's diffusion approximation. The intensity of the band at 2.8 µm due to dissolved hydroxyl groups in glass was also calculated. While most previous measurements were performed on model glasses with a very simple basic composition, molten in laboratory furnaces from pure raw materials, the glasses investigated in this paper are the most frequently used types of container glasses with a complex composition and different chromophores. The influence of different coloring agents and dissolved water on the spectral behavior and radiative thermal conductivity of glass were studied, checking how the spectra change from room temperature to high temperature

Recommended procedure for the IR spectroscopic determination of water in soda-lime-silica glass : Report of the International Commission on Glass (ICG) Technical Committee 14 "Gases in Glass"

The paper illustrates a procedure recommended by Technical Committee 14 (TC14 "Gases in Glass") of the International Commission on Glass (ICG) for the determination of the water content of soda-lime-silica glass by infrared transmittance spectroscopy, based on the two bands at 2.8 and 3.6 μm using as extincdon coefficients 70 and 150 l/(mol · cm), respectively As shown by the result of two intercomparisons, the agreement on the determined water concentration values can be quite satisfactory, within ±20 ppm, provided the procedure to evaluate the spectral curves is closely specified. The selected extinction coefficients are in reasonable agreement with recent evidence obtained using Nuclear Reaction Analysis

A multi-stage GAN for multi-organ chest X-ray image generation and segmentation

Multi-organ segmentation of X-ray images is of fundamental importance for computer aided diagnosis systems. However, the most advanced semantic segmentation methods rely on deep learning and require a huge amount of labeled images, which are rarely available due to both the high cost of human resources and the time required for labeling. In this paper, we present a novel multi-stage generation algorithm based on Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) that can produce synthetic images along with their semantic labels and can be used for data augmentation. The main feature of the method is that, unlike other approaches, generation occurs in several stages, which simplifies the procedure and allows it to be used on very small datasets. The method has been evaluated on the segmentation of chest radiographic images, showing promising results. The multistage approach achieves state-of-the-art and, when very few images are used to train the GANs, outperforms the corresponding single-stage approach

Angular emissivity at room temperature and spectral reflectance at near normal incidence of float glass, borosilicate glass and glass-ceramics

An accurate investigation of the emissivity of uncoated flat glass (necessary to calculate the solar factor and the U value of glazing according to standardized procedures) was performed in agreement with Groupement Europeen des Producteurs de Verre Fiat, in support of CEN and ISO standardization activities. The total angular emissivity of a range of uncoated float glass samples was determined between 10 and 80 °C with an uncertainty of 0.5%. Both the normal and the hemispherical emissivity were nearly identical for all the samples investigated. No significant differences between the top and the bottom side were observed. Measurements were also extended to borosilicate glass and glass-ceramic plates used for fire-resistant glazing, determining their thermal conductivity and angular emissivity behaviour. In order to obtain addidonal information, also the spectral reflectance curves at near normal incidence between 2000 and 200 c m ⁻¹ were obtained using a spectroradiometer. The fact that almost identical curves were obtained for a wide range of float glasses (both sides) as well as for the fire-resistant materials confirms the correctness of the close emissivity values found. On the basis of the resuhs obtained, a Standard value of εn = 0.900 and a εh/εn ratio = 0.936 is suggested for both float glass and for the two other materials

Influence of alumina content and modifiers on phase separation in soda-lime-silica glass

The phase Separation behaviour of industrial soda-lime-silica glass is studied by visible light scattering. The main aspects which differentiate industrial glass from the ternary glass (composition in wt%): 76 SiO₂, 13 Na₂O, 11 CaO are considered. The obtained results show that the simple ternary glass easily develops phase Separation upon annealing at suitable temperature levels. Conversely, Container glass is stabilized against demixtion by the presence of a significant AI₂O₃ concentration, a significantly lower SiO₂ content and a more complex chemical formulation (partial Substitution of SiO₂, Na₂O and CaO with AI₂O₃, K₂O and MgO, respectively, as well as minor ingredients)