Damage Evaluation of Core Concrete by AE

For a detailed inspection of a concrete structure, core samples are usually drilled out and then their physical properties are measured.  In this study, damage evaluationmethod for concrete materials is studied,applying acoustic emission (AE) method and computerized tomography (CT) scanning procedure.   We have proposed a quantitative damage evaluation of concrete, based on AE measurement anddamage mechanics in the compression test.  The procedure is named DeCAT (Damage Estimation of Concrete by Acoustic Emission Technique), which is based on estimating an intact modulus of elasticity in concrete.  Concrete-core samples were taken from reinforced concrete walls in a canal.  These samples are strongly damaged by a freezing and thawing process.  Crack distributions in the samples were inspected with helical CT scans, which were undertaken at one-millimetre interval.  After the helical CT scan, damage of freeze-thawed samples was evaluated by applying the DeCAT analysis. These results demonstrate that the decrease in physical properties could be evaluated by comparing the averaged CT number with the durability index by AE.The both values clearly reflect amount of internal cracks in core samples

USCID fourth international conference

Presented at the Role of irrigation and drainage in a sustainable future: USCID fourth international conference on irrigation and drainage on October 3-6, 2007 in Sacramento, California.Includes bibliographical references.Deterioration of water-flow function in a pipeline system has resulted from water-leak accidents due to damage accumulation in pipe materials. The repaired pipeline system cannot be evaluated of water-leak phenomena under the inner water pressure condition. Non destructive evaluation of water-flow function in pipeline system is currently in urgent demand. In this study, acoustic emission (AE) method is applied to the evaluation of water-flow function in an existing agricultural pipeline, which was inspected and then repaired after water-leak accidents. At three conditions, experiments were conducted. First, a water leak phenomenon which the pipeline filled full with water was investigated. Secondly, an evaluation process of water-drained from full to empty condition was made in the pipeline. Thirdly, experiments were carried out condition of the pipeline was filled with water after repairing the water-leak section. AE method was applied to detecting signals of water-leak and flow under these conditions. The results show that water-leak in the pipeline system could be quantitatively evaluated by using such AE parameters, such as generation behavior and AE energy. In the third condition, AE generation behavior was varied with the situation of the pipeline until the pipeline was filled with water. AE energy showed the same tendency as AE generation behavior. When an AE sensor was installed on an air valve, AE energy dropped temporarily as the pipeline was being filled with water. However, when water was filled up to the air valve, the increase in AE energy was confirmed. Thus, it becomes clear that when a pipeline is being filled with water after the repair, the situation of water in the pipeline can be clearly identified through AE monitoring. Discharge evaluation of a damaged pipeline system can be conducted in a short time through AE monitoring

Gauge invariance of color confinement due to the dual Meissner effect caused by Abelian monopoles

The mechanism of non-Abelian color confinement is studied in SU(2) lattice gauge theory in terms of the Abelian fields and monopoles extracted from non-Abelian link variables without adopting gauge fixing. Firstly, the static quark-antiquark potential and force are computed with the Abelian and monopole Polyakov loop correlators, and the resulting string tensions are found to be identical to the non-Abelian string tension. These potentials also show the scaling behavior with respect to the change of lattice spacing. Secondly, the profile of the color-electric field between a quark and an antiquark is investigated with the Abelian and monopole Wilson loops. The color-electric field is squeezed into a flux tube due to monopole supercurrent with the same Abelian color direction. The parameters corresponding to the penetration and coherence lengths show the scaling behavior, and the ratio of these lengths, i.e, the Ginzburg-Landau parameter, indicates that the vacuum type is near the border of the type1 and type2 (dual) superconductor. These results are summarized that the Abelian fundamental charge defined in an arbitrary color direction is confined inside a hadronic state by the dual Meissner effect. As the color-neutral state in any Abelian color direction corresponds to the physical color-singlet state, this effect explains non-Abelian color confinement and supports the existence of a gauge-invariant mechanism of color confinement due to the dual Meissner effect caused by Abelian monopoles.Comment: 11 pages, 14 figure

Multiple Representation Transfer from Large Language Models to End-to-End ASR Systems

Transferring the knowledge of large language models (LLMs) is a promising technique to incorporate linguistic knowledge into end-to-end automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems. However, existing works only transfer a single representation of LLM (e.g. the last layer of pretrained BERT), while the representation of a text is inherently non-unique and can be obtained variously from different layers, contexts and models. In this work, we explore a wide range of techniques to obtain and transfer multiple representations of LLMs into a transducer-based ASR system. While being conceptually simple, we show that transferring multiple representations of LLMs can be an effective alternative to transferring only a single representation.Comment: Submitted to ICASSP 202

Bidirectional Longitudinal Association between Back Pain and Loneliness in Later Life: Evidence from English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

Background This study examined the bidirectional and temporal-ordinal relationship between loneliness and back pain. Methods Data from 7,730 participants in waves 6 (2012–2013), 7 (2014–2015), and 8 (2016–2017) of the national English Longitudinal Study of Ageing were analyzed. Back pain was graded on a scale of 0–10 (0, no discomfort; 10, unbearable pain). Loneliness was measured using the Revised University of California Los Angeles Loneliness Scale. A targeted minimum loss-based estimator was used to examine the bidirectional longitudinal associations between back pain and loneliness. Results No loneliness in waves 6 and 7 (relative risk [RR]=0.76; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.61–0.94), no loneliness in wave 6 but loneliness in wave 7 (RR=0.58; 95% CI, 0.50–0.68), and loneliness in wave 6 but not in wave 7 (RR=0.69; 95% CI, 0.57–0.86) were associated with significant risk reductions of back pain in wave 8 compared with the scenario of loneliness in waves 6 and 7. Mild back pain in wave 6 but moderate back pain (RR=0.55; 95% CI, 0.35–0.86) or severe back pain in wave 7 (RR=0.49; 95% CI, 0.34–0.72) showed a significant risk reduction of loneliness in wave 8 compared with severe back pain in waves 6 and 7. Conclusion Loneliness may be a risk factor for back pain, and back pain may be a risk factor for loneliness. The results of this study will inform the development of more effective interventions for loneliness and back pain

On-line assessment of regional ventricular wall motion by transesophageal echocardiography with color kinesis during minimally invasive coronary artery bypass grafting

AbstractObjective: Our objective was to determine the changes in regional ventricular wall motion during minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass grafting by color kinesis using transesophageal echocardiography. Methods: Minimally invasive coronary artery bypass grafting was performed in 34 patients, during which transesophageal echocardiography was used. Thirteen patients had isolated disease of the left anterior descending artery. Regional ventricular wall motion was analyzed by color kinesis with the SONOS 2500 transesophageal echocardiograph (Hewlett-Packard Co, Andover, Mass). On-line assessment of regional wall motion was continued during the operation. Results: Wall motion abnormalities during ischemia were present in 4 cases, left ventricular mid-anterior hypokinesis in 3 cases, and left ventricular apical-lateral hypokinesis in 1 case. In all cases, wall motion was maintained after bypass. In patients with total coronary occlusion, changes in wall motion did not occur during anastomosis. Conclusions: Color kinesis allowed us to evaluate the change in regional ventricular wall motion induced by myocardial ischemia during minimally invasive coronary artery bypass grafting both objectively and quantitatively. (J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1999;117:912-7

Electrochemical Response of Platinum Ultrathin Layer Formed by Pulsed Laser Deposition

Ultrathin layer of platinum (ULPt) was deposited on glassy carbon (GC) substrate by using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method, and electrochemical properties of the ULPt were discussed. The deposition was simply performed at room temperature with short deposition time. Atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy images showed the flat surface of the ULPt. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) characterized the ULPt in the Pt(0) state, and biding energy of ULPt was positively shifted. These results indicated that nanostructure of Pt thin layer was formed. The electrochemical activity of the prepared ULPt on GC substrate was superior to a bulk Pt electrode regarding the potential and the magnitude of current on oxidizing hydrogen peroxide. This fast and easily prepared low-cost electrode had the potential to replace a conventional bulk metal electrode

Superovulacijski odgovor poludivljeg Dulong goveda (Bos frontalis) i bređost nakon prijenosa njihova embrija u druge vrste.

This study was conducted to examine the superovulatory response in semi-wild Dulong cows (Bos frontalis) and to evaluate whether their embryos can be maintained in pregnancy after interspecies transfer to cross-bred recipients (Bos taurus). Embryos were recovered from five Dulong and nine Red Angus (control) donors after superovulatory treatment. The average numbers of corpora lutea, collected ova and transferable embryos in Dulong donors were similar to those in Red Angus donors. The embryos from Dulong donors were transferred to three cross-bred recipients, two of which became pregnant. However, one embryo was lost between the 40th and 60th day of gestation. The second was lost between the 60th and 90th day of gestation. In Red Angus cows, 44.4% (4/9) of the recipients which received embryos became pregnant, and three delivered calves. We confirmed that Dulong cows respond to superovulatory treatment. Interspecies transfer of Dulong embryos into cross-bred recipients produced pregnancies, but not live offspring.Istraživanje je provedeno da bi se utvrdio superovulacijski odgovor krava poludivljeg Dulong goveda (Bos frontalis) i da bi se procijenilo da li embriji tih krava opstaju tijekom bređosti nakon što su preneseni u primateljice druge vrste (Bos taurus). Embriji su dobiveni nakon superovulacije izazvane kod pet Dulong krava i devet krava pasmine crveni angus (kontrolna skupina). Prosječni broj žutih tijela, jajašaca i prenosivih embrija kod Dulong krava davateljica bio je sličan kao kod davateljica crvene angus pasmine. Embriji Dulong davateljica preneseni su u tri primateljice - križanke od kojih su dvije ostale bređe, no jedan je embrij izgubljen između 40. i 60. dana bređosti. Drugi embrij izgubljen je između 60. i 90. dana bređosti. U slučaju krava pasmine crveni angus, 44,4% (4/9) primateljica ostalo je bređe, od kojih su se otelile njih tri. Može se ustvrditi da Dulong krave reagiraju na postupak superovulacije. Prijenos embrija Dulong krava u primateljice - križanke rezultirao je gravidnošću, ali ne i živooteljenom teladi