Operation of a high purity germanium crystal in liquid argon as a Compton suppressed radiation spectrometer

A high purity germanium crystal was operated in liquid argon as a Compton suppressed radiation spectrometer. Spectroscopic quality resolution of less than 1% of the full-width half maximum of full energy deposition peaks was demonstrated. The construction of the small apparatus used to obtain these results is reported. The design concept is to use the liquid argon bath to both cool the germanium crystal to operating temperatures and act as a scintillating veto. The scintillation light from the liquid argon can veto cosmic-rays, external primordial radiation, and gamma radiation that does not fully deposit within the germanium crystal. This technique was investigated for its potential impact on ultra-low background gamma-ray spectroscopy. This work is based on a concept initially developed for future germanium-based neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments.Comment: Paper presented at the SORMA XI Conference, Ann Arbor, MI, May 200

Employee Wellbeing. Vocational Activation Programme – Case Study of the “Efficient Worker” Project

Creating an inclusive organisational culture in the work environment is an increasingly current and even required process. From the point of view of implementing HR policies in the work environment, a catalogue of “good practices” reflecting the organisation’s social (human-related) goals is required. However, the true indicator of an employee’s wellbeing is his or her both mental and physical condition – mutually affecting each other. Individuals with impaired performance are at risk not only of reduced effectiveness at work, but also of poorer wellbeing. The paper will be based on the documentation of the project entitled “Efficient Worker – Measures for Persons with Musculoskeletal Dysfunctions Making It Difficult to Perform Work” co-financed by the European Union from the resources of the European Social Fund, the beneficiary of which is the Prof. Bogusław Frańczuk Małopolski Szpital Ortopedyczno-Rehabilitacyjny in Kraków. The discussion is accompanied by the objective of the program description as well as a practical objective, which constitutes an attempt to assess the correlation between the achieved wellbeing of the Project Participant (the employee returning to work) and the health effects of rehabilitation

An investigation into the effects of floating objects on the electrical breakdown of air insulation under steady state high voltage direct current conditions

In South Africa, live work is routinely performed on high voltage apparatus at various voltages up to 400 kV ac. With regard to HVDC, there are unqualified parameters relating to the development of the safe live work standards, which are currently based on extrapolation of ac and transient voltage test data. Furthermore, it is generally accepted that the mechanism for air breakdown under dc is different when compared between ac and dc voltage. The air breakdown mechanism under HVDC conditions and the corresponding live work related parameters need to be researched further before live work may be performed. Experimentation using floating objects, has in the past, been used to study parameters related to live working calculations. This research report presents the results of HVDC air breakdown tests using a 300 mm diameter floating metallic sphere with a 30 mm protrusion, in a point-to-plane configuration with a total gap length ranging between 0.75 m and 1.4 m. Both positive and negative polarity cases were tested. The results indicated that the position of the floating sphere does not significantly affect the flashover-voltage magnitude. There is, however, a definite reduction in the strength of the air gap, between 27 % and 29 %, for the cases tested. Further, the static charge on the floating object did not influence the breakdown voltage. There is also linearity in the air breakdown voltages of simple point-to-plane air gaps. Humidity and temperature also contribute to variations in the breakdown voltage. Two international publications have been published based on the research presented in this report. These are listed in Appendix D and E, respectively

Studies on the separation of 99mTc from large excess of molybdenum

BACKGROUND: Due to aging and unexpected prolonged shutdown of nuclear reactors producing 99Mo for 99Mo/ 99mTc generators it was necessary to explore the alternative methods of technetium-99m production. The first choice were the accelerators. Three years ago IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) initiated the Coordinated Research Project “Accelerator-based Alternatives to Non-HEU production of Mo-99 /Tc-99m” aimed at direct production of 99mTc in proton accelerators using the 100Mo(p,2n)99mTc reaction. POLATOM is participating in this enterprise together with the Heavy Ion Laboratory of Warsaw University and the Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 99Mo/99mTc solutions and pure 99mTc used for generators production or milked from ready to use generators were used in experiments. Commercial chromatographic and laboratory-prepared columns were used for separation. The peristaltic pumps were used for solutions delivery onto the columns. Radioactivity of eluted 99Mo and 99mTc was measured using high resolution gamma spectrometry or ionisation chamber in case of high radioactivity. For separation, three different chromatographic methods were used, one based on ion exchange and two on extraction. RESULTS: Synthetic mixtures simulating the real solutions were used. 99mTc is quantitatively bound in the Dowex-1 × 8 column whereas molybdenum is only slightly retained and totally rinsed with 2M NaOH. 99mTc is eluted with TBAB. The elution yield has been reproducible and amounted to 78%. The AnaLig Tc-02 resin column was used for 99mTc retention. Residual Mo was removed by rinsing with 2M NaOH and 99mTc eluted using small volume of water. The recovery was equal to about 85%. Using C-18 column coated with PEG over 80% of 99mTc was recovered in about 50 mL of water. The reduction of volume was necessary. CONCLUSIONS: The recovery of 99mTc was the highest using AnaLig Tc-02 resin. Time of 99mTc separation is the shortest for AnaLig Tc-02 resin and it is not higher than 100 minutes and it can further be shortened

ChatGPT Needs SPADE (Sustainability, PrivAcy, Digital divide, and Ethics) Evaluation: A Review

ChatGPT is another large language model (LLM) vastly available for the consumers on their devices but due to its performance and ability to converse effectively, it has gained a huge popularity amongst research as well as industrial community. Recently, many studies have been published to show the effectiveness, efficiency, integration, and sentiments of chatGPT and other LLMs. In contrast, this study focuses on the important aspects that are mostly overlooked, i.e. sustainability, privacy, digital divide, and ethics and suggests that not only chatGPT but every subsequent entry in the category of conversational bots should undergo Sustainability, PrivAcy, Digital divide, and Ethics (SPADE) evaluation. This paper discusses in detail the issues and concerns raised over chatGPT in line with aforementioned characteristics. We also discuss the recent EU AI Act briefly in accordance with the SPADE evaluation. We support our hypothesis by some preliminary data collection and visualizations along with hypothesized facts. We also suggest mitigations and recommendations for each of the concerns. Furthermore, we also suggest some policies and recommendations for EU AI policy act concerning ethics, digital divide, and sustainability

SPIN: Simulated Poisoning and Inversion Network for Federated Learning-Based 6G Vehicular Networks

The applications concerning vehicular networks benefit from the vision of beyond 5G and 6G technologies such as ultra-dense network topologies, low latency, and high data rates. Vehicular networks have always faced data privacy preservation concerns, which lead to the advent of distributed learning techniques such as federated learning. Although federated learning has solved data privacy preservation issues to some extent, the technique is quite vulnerable to model inversion and model poisoning attacks. We assume that the design of defense mechanism and attacks are two sides of the same coin. Designing a method to reduce vulnerability requires the attack to be effective and challenging with real-world implications. In this work, we propose simulated poisoning and inversion network (SPIN) that leverages the optimization approach for reconstructing data from a differential model trained by a vehicular node and intercepted when transmitted to roadside unit (RSU). We then train a generative adversarial network (GAN) to improve the generation of data with each passing round and global update from the RSU, accordingly. Evaluation results show the qualitative and quantitative effectiveness of the proposed approach. The attack initiated by SPIN can reduce up to 22% accuracy on publicly available datasets while just using a single attacker. We assume that revealing the simulation of such attacks would help us find its defense mechanism in an effective manner.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

PENYULUHAN GIZI SEIMBANG ISI PIRINGKU UNTUK MENCEGAH KURANG ENERGI KRONIK PADA IBU HAMIL DI PUSTU WALI

Fulfillment of balanced nutrition in pregnant women is an effort to improve maternal health during pregnancy. By getting a balanced nutritional intake can reduce health risks to the fetus and mother. Therefore, it is necessary to have sufficient knowledge of nutrition in pregnant women so as to prevent the risk of pregnancy which can lead to illness and death. Balanced nutrition of the contents of my plate for pregnant women is one of the guidelines for healthy food that meets the composition of the contents of my plate so that nutritional needs are fulfilled. The purpose of this service is to increase knowledge about the balanced nutrition of the contents of my plate for pregnant women. The target of this service activity is pregnant women at Pustu Wali, Manggarai Regency, East Nusa Tenggara. The method used is counseling or lectures, discussions and pretest and posttest to find out the description of knowledge from pregnant women. The results of this service indicate that there is a difference in knowledge after counseling, namely an increase in knowledge on the average value of 6.13 to 8.80