1,476 research outputs found
The Effects of Prehydration on Cement Performance
This study investigated the effects of cement prehydration on cement’s engineering properties. Anhydrous cement was exposed over a saturated KCl solution to maintain 85% RH, for 7 and 28 days. Mortar and cement pastes were tested for strength, workability and setting time, with sample analysis by XRD and DTA. Results showed a decreased reactivity of the prehydrated cements resulting in reduced strength and increased setting times. We propose that this may be due to an upset of the sulphate balance in the cement upon prehydration
Resting-state fMRI activity predicts unsupervised learning and memory in an immersive virtual reality environment
In the real world, learning often proceeds in an unsupervised manner without explicit instructions or feedback. In this study, we employed an experimental paradigm in which subjects explored an immersive virtual reality environment on each of two days. On day 1, subjects implicitly learned the location of 39 objects in an unsupervised fashion. On day 2, the locations of some of the objects were changed, and object location recall performance was assessed and found to vary across subjects. As prior work had shown that functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measures of resting-state brain activity can predict various measures of brain performance across individuals, we examined whether resting-state fMRI measures could be used to predict object location recall performance. We found a significant correlation between performance and the variability of the resting-state fMRI signal in the basal ganglia, hippocampus, amygdala, thalamus, insula, and regions in the frontal and temporal lobes, regions important for spatial exploration, learning, memory, and decision making. In addition, performance was significantly correlated with resting-state fMRI connectivity between the left caudate and the right fusiform gyrus, lateral occipital complex, and superior temporal gyrus. Given the basal ganglia's role in exploration, these findings suggest that tighter integration of the brain systems responsible for exploration and visuospatial processing may be critical for learning in a complex environment
Combined InSAR and Terrestrial Structural Monitoring of Bridges
This paper examines advances in InSAR satellite measurement technologies to understand their relevance, utilisation and limitations for bridge monitoring. Waterloo Bridge is presented as a case study to explore how InSAR data sets can be combined with traditional measurement techniques including sensors installed on the bridge and automated total stations. A novel approach to InSAR bridge monitoring was adopted by the installation of physical reflectors at key points
of structural interest on the bridge, in order to supplement the bridge’s own reflection characteristics and ensure that the InSAR measurements could be directly compared and combined with insitu measurements. The interpretation and integration of InSAR data sets with civil infrastructure data is more than a trivial task, and a discussion of uncertainty of measurement data is presented. Finally, a strategy for combining and interpreting varied data from multiple sources to provide useful insights into each of these methods is presented, outlining the practical applications of this data analysis to support wider monitoring strategies.Author funding under EPSRC (UK) Award 1636878, co-author funding under Research Council of Norway (RCN Grant no. 237906)
First measurement of the Head-Tail directional nuclear recoil signature at energies relevant to WIMP dark matter searches
We present first evidence for the so-called Head-Tail asymmetry signature of
neutron-induced nuclear recoil tracks at energies down to 1.5 keV/amu using the
1m^3 DRIFT-IIc dark matter detector. This regime is appropriate for recoils
induced by Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMPs) but one where the
differential ionization is poorly understood. We show that the distribution of
recoil energies and directions induced here by Cf-252 neutrons matches well
that expected from massive WIMPs. The results open a powerful new means of
searching for a galactic signature from WIMPs.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl
Room temperature high frequency transport of Dirac fermions in epitaxially grown Sb_2Te_3 based topological insulators
We report on the observation of photogalvanic effects in epitaxially grown
Sb_2Te_3 three-dimensional (3D) topological insulators (TI). We show that
asymmetric scattering of Dirac electrons driven back and forth by the terahertz
electric field results in a dc electric current. Due to the "symmetry
filtration" the dc current is generated in the surface electrons only and
provides an opto-electronic access to probe the electric transport in TI,
surface domains orientation and details of electron scattering even in 3D TI at
room temperature where conventional surface electron transport is usually
hindered by the high carrier density in the bulk
Opto-Electronic Characterization of Three Dimensional Topological Insulators
We demonstrate that the terahertz/infrared radiation induced photogalvanic
effect, which is sensitive to the surface symmetry and scattering details, can
be applied to study the high frequency conductivity of the surface states in
(Bi1-xSbx)2Te3 based three dimensional (3D) topological insulators (TI). In
particular, measuring the polarization dependence of the photogalvanic current
and scanning with a micrometre sized beam spot across the sample, provides
access to (i) topographical inhomogeneity's in the electronic properties of the
surface states and (ii) the local domain orientation. An important advantage of
the proposed method is that it can be applied to study TIs at room temperature
and even in materials with a high electron density of bulk carriers.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
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