35 research outputs found

    Experimental evidence for fast cluster formation of chain oxygen vacancies in YBa2Cu3O7-d being at the origin of the fishtail anomaly

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    We report on three different and complementary measurements, namely magnetisation measurements, positron annihilation spectroscopy and NMR measurements, which give evidence that the formation of oxygen vacancy clusters is on the origin of the fishtail anomaly in YBa2Cu3O7-d. While in the case of YBa2Cu3O7.0 the anomaly is intrinsically absent, it can be suppressed in the optimally doped state where vacancies are present. We therefore conclude that the single vacancies or point defects can not be responsible for this anomaly but that clusters of oxygen vacancies are on its origin.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR

    In-plane polarized collective modes in detwinned YBa2_{2}Cu3_{3}O6.95_{6.95} observed by spectral ellipsometry

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    The in-plane dielectric response of detwinned YBa2_{2}Cu3_{3}O6.95_{6.95} has been studied by far-infared ellipsometry. A surprisingly lare number of in-plane polarized modes are observed. Some of them correspond to pure phonon modes. Others posses a large electronic contribution which strongly increases in the superconducting state. The free carrier response and the collective modes exhibit a pronounced a-b anisotropy. We discuss our results in terms of a CDW state in the 1-d CuO chains and induced charge density fluctuations within the 2-d CuO2_{2} planes

    Separation of Quasiparticle and Phononic Heat Currents in YBCO

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    Measurements of the transverse (k_{xy}) and longitudinal (k_{xx}) thermal conductivity in high magnetic fields are used to separate the quasiparticle thermal conductivity (k_{xx}^{el}) of the CuO_2-planes from the phononic thermal conductivity in YBa_2Cu_3O_{7-\delta}. k_{xx}^{el} is found to display a pronounced maximum below T_c. Our data analysis reveals distinct transport (\tau) and Hall (\tau_H) relaxation times below T_c: Whereas \tau is strongly enhanced, \tau_H follows the same temperature dependence as above T_c

    Anomalously large oxygen-ordering contribution to the thermal expansion of untwinned YBa2Cu3O6.95 single crystals: a glass-like transition near room temperature

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    We present high-resolution capacitance dilatometry studies from 5 - 500 K of untwinned YBa2Cu3Ox (Y123) single crystals for x ~ 6.95 and x = 7.0. Large contributions to the thermal expansivities due to O-ordering are found for x ~ 6.95, which disappear below a kinetic glass-like transition near room temperature. The kinetics at this glass transition is governed by an energy barrier of 0.98 +- 0.07 eV, in very good agreement with other O-ordering studies. Using thermodynamic arguments, we show that O-ordering in the Y123 system is particularly sensitive to uniaxial pressure (stress) along the chain axis and that the lack of well-ordered chains in Nd123 and La123 is most likely a consequence of a chemical-pressure effect.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to PR

    Efficient Transparency in Meat Supply Chains with IT-Standards: EPCIS based Tracking & Tracing for Business Partners, Consumers and Authorities

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    How can the future agri-food business be made more efficient, transparent and safe? This article on a new MIP meat transparency system describes a future system aiming for an efficient transparency in meat supply chains with ITstandards. The shape of the new system will be highlighted on the background of preliminary ICT solutions and the recent developments in the FIspace project. The core of the supply chain wide transparency is built upon the EPCIS standard from GS1 which enables transparency in the cloud for all stakeholders. Not only the prerequisites but also the benefits from using such a standardized solution are explained for the different user groups. The article closes with an outlook to the further improvements and the expanded usage with new funding by the EU

    Enabling Transparency in Meat Supply Chains: tracking & tracing for supply chain partners, consumers and authorities

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    This paper discusses a new system that enables meat supply chain stakeholders and regulators or authorities to track and trace and – at the same time – allows meat consumers to use their smartphone (or internet) to get immediate and direct access to all information on the specific meat item they see at the butcher or in the supermarket. This meat transparency system follows meat through the supply chain and stores its history. Apps help supply chain partners to upload the data they want or have to share and apps help them, authorities and consumers to get the stored history in a format that fits the intended user. As the system is based on the international EPCIS standard, roll-out of the meat transparency system to other supply chains (other types of meat, other types of food and other countries) is easy and straight forward

    Dynamic Spatio-Temporal Bag of Expressions (D-STBoE) model for human action recognition

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    This article belongs to the Section Intelligent SensorsHuman action recognition (HAR) has emerged as a core research domain for video understanding and analysis, thus attracting many researchers. Although significant results have been achieved in simple scenarios, HAR is still a challenging task due to issues associated with view independence, occlusion and inter-class variation observed in realistic scenarios. In previous research efforts, the classical bag of visual words approach along with its variations has been widely used. In this paper, we propose a Dynamic Spatio-Temporal Bag of Expressions (D-STBoE) model for human action recognition without compromising the strengths of the classical bag of visual words approach. Expressions are formed based on the density of a spatio-temporal cube of a visual word. To handle inter-class variation, we use class-specific visual word representation for visual expression generation. In contrast to the Bag of Expressions (BoE) model, the formation of visual expressions is based on the density of spatio-temporal cubes built around each visual word, as constructing neighborhoods with a fixed number of neighbors could include non-relevant information making a visual expression less discriminative in scenarios with occlusion and changing viewpoints. Thus, the proposed approach makes the model more robust to occlusion and changing viewpoint challenges present in realistic scenarios. Furthermore, we train a multi-class Support Vector Machine (SVM) for classifying bag of expressions into action classes. Comprehensive experiments on four publicly available datasets: KTH, UCF Sports, UCF11 and UCF50 show that the proposed model outperforms existing state-of-the-art human action recognition methods in term of accuracy to 99.21%, 98.60%, 96.94 and 94.10%, respectively.Sergio A. Velastin is grateful for funding received from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement N° 600371, el Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (COFUND2013-51509) el Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (CEI-15-17) and Banco Santander. Muhammad Haroon Yousaf received funding from the Higher Education Commission, Pakistan for Swarm Robotics Lab under the National Centre for Robotics and Automation (NCRA). The authors also acknowledge support from the Directorate of ASR&TD, University of Engineering and Technology Taxila, Pakistan

    Post-vaccination infection rates and modification of COVID-19 symptoms in vaccinated UK school-aged children and adolescents: A prospective longitudinal cohort study

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    Background: We aimed to explore the effectiveness of one-dose BNT162b2 vaccination upon SARS-CoV-2 infection, its effect on COVID-19 presentation, and post-vaccination symptoms in children and adolescents (CA) in the UK during periods of Delta and Omicron variant predominance. / Methods: In this prospective longitudinal cohort study, we analysed data from 115,775 CA aged 12-17 years, proxy-reported through the Covid Symptom Study (CSS) smartphone application. We calculated post-vaccination infection risk after one dose of BNT162b2, and described the illness profile of CA with post-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 infection, compared to unvaccinated CA, and post-vaccination side-effects. / Findings: Between August 5, 2021 and February 14, 2022, 25,971 UK CA aged 12-17 years received one dose of BNT162b2 vaccine. The probability of testing positive for infection diverged soon after vaccination, and was lower in CA with prior SARS-CoV-2 infection. Vaccination reduced proxy-reported infection risk (-80·4% (95% CI -0·82 -0·78) and -53·7% (95% CI -0·62 -0·43) at 14–30 days with Delta and Omicron variants respectively, and -61·5% (95% CI -0·74 -0·44) and -63·7% (95% CI -0·68 -0.59) after 61–90 days). Vaccinated CA who contracted SARS-CoV-2 during the Delta period had milder disease than unvaccinated CA; during the Omicron period this was only evident in children aged 12-15 years. Overall disease profile was similar in both vaccinated and unvaccinated CA. Post-vaccination local side-effects were common, systemic side-effects were uncommon, and both resolved within few days (3 days in most cases). / Interpretation: One dose of BNT162b2 vaccine reduced risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection for at least 90 days in CA aged 12-17 years. Vaccine protection varied for SARS-CoV-2 variant type (lower for Omicron than Delta variant), and was enhanced by pre-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 infection. Severity of COVID-19 presentation after vaccination was generally milder, although unvaccinated CA also had generally mild disease. Overall, vaccination was well-tolerated. / Funding: UK Government Department of Health and Social Care, Chronic Disease Research Foundation, The Wellcome Trust, UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK Research and Innovation London Medical Imaging & Artificial Intelligence Centre for Value Based Healthcare, UK National Institute for Health Research, UK Medical Research Council, British Heart Foundation and Alzheimer's Society, and ZOE Limited
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