Modeling of offshore pile driving noise using a semi-analytical variational formulation

Underwater noise radiated from offshore pile driving got much attention in recent years due to its threat to the marine environment. This study develops a three-dimensional semi-analytical method, in which the pile is modeled as an elastic thin cylindrical shell, to predict vibration and underwater acoustic radiation caused by hammer impact. The cylindrical shell, subject to the Reissner–Naghdi’s thin shell theory, is decomposed uniformly into shell segments whose motion is governed by a variational equation. The sound pressures in both exterior and interior fluid fields are expanded as analytical functions in frequency domain. The soil is modeled as uncoupled springs and dashpots distributed in three directions. The sound propagation characteristics are investigated based on the dispersion curves. The case study of a model subject to a non-axisymmetric force demonstrates that the radiated sound pressure has dependence on circumferential angle. The case study including an anvil shows that the presence of the anvil tends to lower the frequencies and the amplitudes of the peaks of sound pressure spectrum. A comparison to the measured data shows that the model is capable of predicting the pile driving noise quantitatively. This mechanical model can be used to predict underwater noise of piling and explore potential noise reduction measures to protect marine animal

A Mapping Relationship-Based near-Field Acoustic Holography

A mapping relationship-based near-field acoustic holography (MRS-based NAH) is a kind of innovative NAH by exploring the mapping relationship between modes on surfaces of the boundary and hologram. Thus, reconstruction is converted to obtain the coefficients of participant modes on holograms. The MRS-based NAH supplies an analytical method to determine the number of adopted fundamental solution (FS) as well as a technique to approximate a specific degree of mode on patches by a set of locally orthogonal patterns explored for three widely used holograms, such as planar, cylindrical, and spherical holograms. The NAH framework provides a new insight to the reconstruction procedure based on the FS in spherical coordinates. Reconstruction accuracy based on two types of errors, the truncation errors due to the limited number of participant modes and the inevitable measurement errors caused by uncertainties in the experiment, are available in the NAH. An approach is developed to estimate the lower and upper bounds of the relative error. It supplies a tool to predict the error for a reconstruction under the condition that the truncation error ratio and the signal-to-noise ratio are given. The condition number of the inverse operator is investigated to measure the sensitivity of the reconstruction to the input errors

Functional connectivity of the anterior cingulate cortex in depression and in health

The first voxel-level resting-state functional connectivity (FC) neuroimaging analysis of depression of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) showed in 282 patients with major depressive disorder compared with 254 controls, some higher, and some lower FCs. However, in 125 unmedicated patients, primarily increases of FC were found: of the subcallosal anterior cingulate with the lateral orbitofrontal cortex, of the pregenual/supracallosal anterior cingulate with the medial orbitofrontal cortex, and of parts of the anterior cingulate with the inferior frontal gyrus, superior parietal lobule, and with early cortical visual areas. In the 157 medicated patients, these and other FCs were lower than in the unmedicated group. Parcellation was performed based on the FC of individual ACC voxels in healthy controls. A pregenual subdivision had high FC with medial orbitofrontal cortex areas, and a supracallosal subdivision had high FC with lateral orbitofrontal cortex and inferior frontal gyrus. The high FC in depression between the lateral orbitofrontal cortex and the subcallosal parts of the ACC provides a mechanism for more non-reward information transmission to the ACC, contributing to depression. The high FC between the medial orbitofrontal cortex and supracallosal ACC in depression may also contribute to depressive symptoms

Spermidine improves the antioxidant capacity and morphology of intestinal tissues and regulates intestinal microorganisms in Sichuan white geese

IntroductionIntestinal health is very important to the health of livestock and poultry, and is even a major determining factor in the performance of livestock and poultry production. Spermidine is a type of polyamine that is commonly found in a variety of foods, and can resist oxidative stress, promote cell proliferation and regulate intestinal flora.MethodsIn this study, we explored the effects of spermidine on intestinal health under physiological states or oxidative stress conditions by irrigation with spermidine and intraperitoneal injection of 3-Nitropropionic acid (3-NPA) in Sichuan white goose.Results and discussionOur results showed that spermidine could increase the ratio of intestinal villus to crypt and improve intestinal morphology. In addition, spermidine can also reduce malondialdehyde (MDA) accumulation caused by 3-NPA by increasing superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) enzyme activity, thus alleviating intestinal damage. Furthermore, spermidine can regulate intestinal digestive enzyme activities and affect intestinal digestion and absorption ability. Spermidine can also promote an increase in intestinal microbial diversity and abundance and alleviate the change of microflora structure caused by 3-NPA. In conclusion, spermidine promotes the production of beneficial intestinal metabolites such as Wikstromol, Alpha-bisabolol and AS 1–5, thus improving the level of intestinal health. Taken together, these results indicate that spermidine can improve intestinal health by improving intestinal morphology, increasing antioxidant capacity and regulating intestinal flora structure

Rethinking Japan\u27s Teaching Assistant System Post COVID-19

Critical thinking on the hiring of TAs before, during, and after the advent of COVID-19 is shared in this research study. Since 1992, universities have designed, implemented and benefitted from employing a Student Assistant (SA) or a Teaching Assistant (TA) in classrooms. These positions were cut during 2020 as emergency measures took hold. The authors discuss and rethink the TA system based on a questionnaire checked for sampling adequacy, validity and reliability with 157 participating students, TAs, and classroom instructors. Looking forward to a new normal in classrooms from 2021, new job descriptions are suggested for SAS and TAs that combine traditional classroom learning and e-learning into a new hybrid model of education assistance.本調査研究では, COVID-19の出現前,出現中,出現後の,TA採用に関する批判的思考を共有する。1992年以来,本学は授業に学生アシスタント（SA）またはティーチングアシスタント（TA）システムを導入し,雇用し手当を給付してきた。2020年に緊急措置がとられたことにより,これらの職業は打ち切られた。著者らは,適切なサンプリング,妥当性と信頼性を確認したアンケートを,学生, ＴＡ,および授業講師157名に行い,それに基づき,ＴＡシステムについて検討し再考した。従来型対面授業とeラーニングを融合させた,2021年の新標準のハイブリッド型教育授業を楽しみに,新しい教育補助の就労の形をＳＡとＴＡに提案していきたい

Experimental quantum adversarial learning with programmable superconducting qubits

Quantum computing promises to enhance machine learning and artificial intelligence. Different quantum algorithms have been proposed to improve a wide spectrum of machine learning tasks. Yet, recent theoretical works show that, similar to traditional classifiers based on deep classical neural networks, quantum classifiers would suffer from the vulnerability problem: adding tiny carefully-crafted perturbations to the legitimate original data samples would facilitate incorrect predictions at a notably high confidence level. This will pose serious problems for future quantum machine learning applications in safety and security-critical scenarios. Here, we report the first experimental demonstration of quantum adversarial learning with programmable superconducting qubits. We train quantum classifiers, which are built upon variational quantum circuits consisting of ten transmon qubits featuring average lifetimes of 150 $\mu$s, and average fidelities of simultaneous single- and two-qubit gates above 99.94% and 99.4% respectively, with both real-life images (e.g., medical magnetic resonance imaging scans) and quantum data. We demonstrate that these well-trained classifiers (with testing accuracy up to 99%) can be practically deceived by small adversarial perturbations, whereas an adversarial training process would significantly enhance their robustness to such perturbations. Our results reveal experimentally a crucial vulnerability aspect of quantum learning systems under adversarial scenarios and demonstrate an effective defense strategy against adversarial attacks, which provide a valuable guide for quantum artificial intelligence applications with both near-term and future quantum devices.Comment: 26 pages, 17 figures, 8 algorithm

The Rapidly Flaring Afterglow of the Very Bright and Energetic GRB 070125

We report on multi-wavelength observations, ranging from the X-ray to radio wave bands, of the IPN-localized gamma-ray burst GRB 070125. Spectroscopic observations reveal the presence of absorption lines due to O I, Si II, and C IV, implying a likely redshift of z = 1.547. The well-sampled light curves, in particular from 0.5 to 4 days after the burst, suggest a jet break at 3.7 days, corresponding to a jet opening angle of ~7.0 degrees, and implying an intrinsic GRB energy in the 1 - 10,000 keV band of around E = (6.3 - 6.9)x 10^(51) erg (based on the fluences measured by the gamma-ray detectors of the IPN network). GRB 070125 is among the brightest afterglows observed to date. The spectral energy distribution implies a host extinction of Av < 0.9 mag. Two rebrightening episodes are observed, one with excellent time coverage, showing an increase in flux of 56% in ~8000 seconds. The evolution of the afterglow light curve is achromatic at all times. Late-time observations of the afterglow do not show evidence for emission from an underlying host galaxy or supernova. Any host galaxy would be subluminous, consistent with current GRB host-galaxy samples. Evidence for strong Mg II absorption features is not found, which is perhaps surprising in view of the relatively high redshift of this burst and the high likelihood for such features along GRB-selected lines of sight.Comment: 50 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables Accepted to the Astrophysical Journa

An 18.9-minute Blue Large-Amplitude Pulsator Crossing the 'Hertzsprung Gap' of Hot Subdwarfs

Blue large-amplitude pulsators (BLAPs) represent a new and rare class of hot pulsating stars with unusually large amplitudes and short periods. Up to now, only 24 confirmed BLAPs have been identified from more than one billion monitored stars, including a group with pulsation period longer than $\sim 20$ min (classical BLAPs, hereafter) and the other group with pulsation period below $\sim 8$ min. The evolutionary path that could give rise to such kinds of stellar configurations is unclear. Here we report on a comprehensive study of the peculiar BLAP discovered by the Tsinghua University - Ma Huateng Telescopes for Survey (TMTS), TMTS J035143.63+584504.2 (TMTS-BLAP-1). This new BLAP has an 18.9 min pulsation period and is similar to the BLAPs with a low surface gravity and an extended helium-enriched envelope, suggesting that it is a low-gravity BLAP at the shortest-period end. In particular, the long-term monitoring data reveal that this pulsating star has an unusually large rate of period change, P_dot/P=2.2e-6/yr. Such a significant and positive value challenges its origins from both helium-core pre-white-dwarfs and core helium-burning subdwarfs, but is consistent with that derived from shell helium-burning subdwarfs. The particular pulsation period and unusual rate of period change indicate that TMTS-BLAP-1 is at a short-lived (~10^6 yr) phase of shell-helium ignition before the stable shell-helium burning; in other words, TMTS-BLAP-1 is going through a "Hertzsprung gap" of hot subdwarfs.Comment: 26 pages, 12 figures, 4 tables, published on Nature Astronomy, URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-022-01783-

SN2017egm: A Helium-rich Superluminous Supernova with Multiple Bumps in the Light Curves

When discovered, SN~2017egm was the closest (redshift $z=0.03$) hydrogen-poor superluminous supernova (SLSN-I) and a rare case that exploded in a massive and metal-rich galaxy. Thus, it has since been extensively observed and studied. We report spectroscopic data showing strong emission at around He~I $\lambda$10,830 and four He~I absorption lines in the optical. Consequently, we classify SN~2017egm as a member of an emerging population of helium-rich SLSNe-I (i.e., SLSNe-Ib). We also present our late-time photometric observations. By combining them with archival data, we analyze high-cadence ultra-violet, optical, and near-infrared light curves spanning from early pre-peak ($\sim -20\,d$) to late phases ($\sim +300\,d$). We obtain its most complete bolometric light curve, in which multiple bumps are identified. None of the previously proposed models can satisfactorily explain all main light-curve features, while multiple interactions between the ejecta and circumstellar material (CSM) may explain the undulating features. The prominent infrared excess with a blackbody luminosity of $10^7$--$10^8\,L_{sun}$ detected in SN~2017egm could originate from the emission of either an echo of a pre-existing dust shell, or newly-formed dust, offering an additional piece of evidence supporting the ejecta-CSM interaction model. Moreover, our analysis of deep $Chandra$ observations yields the tightest-ever constraint on the X-ray emission of an SLSN-I, amounting to an X-ray-to-optical luminosity ratio $\lesssim 10^{-3}$ at late phases ($\sim100-200\,d$), which could help explore its close environment and central engine.Comment: 25 pages, 14 Figures, 4 Tables; accepted for publication in ApJ (Mar. 2023