124 research outputs found

    Lattice preamorphization by ion irradiation: Fluence dependence of the electronic stopping power threshold for amorphization

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    A thermal-spike model has been applied to characterize the damage structure of the latent tracks generated by high-energy ion irradiations on LiNb O3 through electron excitation mechanisms. It applies to ions having electronic stopping powers both below and above the threshold value for lattice amorphization. The model allows to estimate the defect concentrations in the heavily damaged (preamorphized) regions that have not reached the threshold for amorphization. They include the halo and tail surrounding the core of a latent track. The existence of the preamorphized regions accounts for a synergy between successive irradiations and predicts a dependence of the amorphization threshold on previous irradiation fluence. The predicted dependence is in accordance with irradiation experiments using N (4.53 MeV), O (5.00 MeV), F (5.13 MeV), and Si (5 and 7.5 MeV). For electronic stopping powers above the threshold value the model describes the generation of homogeneous amorphous layers and predicts the propagation of the amorphization front with fluence. A theoretical expression, describing this propagation, has been obtained that is in reasonable agreement with silicon irradiation experiments at 5 and 7.5 MeV. The accordance is improved by including in a simple phenomenological way the velocity effect on the threshold. At the highest fluences (or depths) a significant discrepancy appears that may be attributed to the contribution of the nuclear collision damage. © 2005 American Institute of Physics.Peer Reviewe

    Optical determination of three-dimensional nanotrack profiles generated by single swift-heavy ion impacts in lithium niobate

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    Three-dimensional (3D) profiles of single nanotracks generated by a low impact density of Cl ions at 46 MeV have been determined by optical methods, using an effective-medium approach. The buried location of the maximum stopping power induces a surface optical waveguiding layer even at ultralow fluences (1011-1013 at./cm2) that allows to obtain the effective refractive index profiles (from dark-mode measurements). Combining the optical information with Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy/channeling experiments, the existence of a surrounding defective halo around the amorphous track core has been ascertained. The 3D profile of the halo has also been determined. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.Peer Reviewe

    Optical determination of three-dimensional nanotrack profiles generated by single swift-heavy ion impacts in lithium niobate

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    Three-dimensional (3D) profiles of single nanotracks generated by a low impact density of Cl ions at 46 MeV have been determined by optical methods, using an effective-medium approach. The buried location of the maximum stopping power induces a surface optical waveguiding layer even at ultralow fluences (1011-1013 at./cm2) that allows to obtain the effective refractive index profiles (from dark-mode measurements). Combining the optical information with Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy/channeling experiments, the existence of a surrounding defective halo around the amorphous track core has been ascertained. The 3D profile of the halo has also been determined. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.Peer Reviewe

    A hierarchical strategy for real-time tracking on-board UAVs

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    In this paper, we present a real-time tracking strategy based on direct methods for tracking tasks on-board UAVs, that is able to overcome problems posed by the challenging conditions of the task: e.g. constant vibrations, fast 3D changes, and limited capacity on-board. The vast majority of approaches make use of feature-based methods to track objects. Nonetheless, in this paper we show that although some of these feature-based solutions are faster, direct methods can be more robust under fast 3D motions (fast changes in position), some changes in appearance, constant vibrations (without requiring any specific hardware or software for video stabilization), and situations where part of the object to track is out the field of view of the camera. The performance of the proposed strategy is evaluated with images from real-flight tests using different evaluation mechanisms (e.g. accurate position estimation using a Vicon sytem). Results show that our tracking strategy performs better than well known feature-based algorithms and well known configurations of direct methods, and that the recovered data is robust enough for vision-in-the-loop tasks

    The effect of asking for intermediate quantities when solving multi-step word problems

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    Work supported under projects PGC2018-096463-B-I00, AICO/2021/019, SBPLY/19/180501/000278, FPU20/02375 and FPU19/03857, and FEDER

    Effects of xylanase supplementation on feed intake, digestibility and ruminal fermentation in Rambouillet sheep

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    8 páginas, 3 tablas.The present study aimed to investigate the effects of adding xylanase enzyme (XY) to a basal diet containing 300 g maize stover and 700 g concentrate/kg dry matter (DM) on feed intake, ruminal fermentation, total tract and ruminal digestibility, as well as some blood parameters. Four male Rambouillet sheep (39 ± 1·8 kg body weight), with permanent rumen and duodenum cannulae were used in a 4 × 4 Latin square design. Sheep were fed a basal diet without xylanase addition (control, XY0), or with the addition of xylanase at 1 (XY1), 3 (XY3) or 6 (XY6) ¿l/g of diet DM for 84 days, with four 21-day experimental periods. Feed intake, digestibility and rumen fermentation parameters were determined on days 16¿21 in each experimental period, and the apparent ruminal neutral detergent fibre (NDF) digestibility was determined on days 16 and 17. Treatments XY1 and XY3 increased feed intake, whereas digestibility was increased with XY6. Ruminal NDF digestibility increased when sheep were fed diets treated with xylanase. Ruminal pH, ammonia-N and acetic acid increased with xylanase treated diets. Propionic acid concentration increased with diet XY1 at 3 h post-feeding, but after 9 h post-feeding its concentration decreased in the rumen of sheep fed xylanase treated diets. Xylanase had no effect on blood urea, phosphorus and triglycerides. Addition of xylanase at 6 µl/g DM in a diet containing 300 g maize stover and 700 g concentrate/kg DM and fed to Rambouillet sheep improved feed digestibility and ruminal fermentation without affecting blood parameters.The authors acknowledge the financial support from the IAEA (Vienna, Austria) Research Contract number MEX16307 within the D3·10·27 Coordinated Research Project.Peer Reviewe

    Visual 3-D SLAM from UAVs

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    The aim of the paper is to present, test and discuss the implementation of Visual SLAM techniques to images taken from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) outdoors, in partially structured environments. Every issue of the whole process is discussed in order to obtain more accurate localization and mapping from UAVs flights. Firstly, the issues related to the visual features of objects in the scene, their distance to the UAV, and the related image acquisition system and their calibration are evaluated for improving the whole process. Other important, considered issues are related to the image processing techniques, such as interest point detection, the matching procedure and the scaling factor. The whole system has been tested using the COLIBRI mini UAV in partially structured environments. The results that have been obtained for localization, tested against the GPS information of the flights, show that Visual SLAM delivers reliable localization and mapping that makes it suitable for some outdoors applications when flying UAVs

    Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

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    A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

    Alcohol use and burden for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2016 : a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016

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    Background Alcohol use is a leading risk factor for death and disability, but its overall association with health remains complex given the possible protective effects of moderate alcohol consumption on some conditions. With our comprehensive approach to health accounting within the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2016, we generated improved estimates of alcohol use and alcohol-attributable deaths and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) for 195 locations from 1990 to 2016, for both sexes and for 5-year age groups between the ages of 15 years and 95 years and older. Methods Using 694 data sources of individual and population-level alcohol consumption, along with 592 prospective and retrospective studies on the risk of alcohol use, we produced estimates of the prevalence of current drinking, abstention, the distribution of alcohol consumption among current drinkers in standard drinks daily (defined as 10 g of pure ethyl alcohol), and alcohol-attributable deaths and DALYs. We made several methodological improvements compared with previous estimates: first, we adjusted alcohol sales estimates to take into account tourist and unrecorded consumption; second, we did a new meta-analysis of relative risks for 23 health outcomes associated with alcohol use; and third, we developed a new method to quantify the level of alcohol consumption that minimises the overall risk to individual health. Findings Globally, alcohol use was the seventh leading risk factor for both deaths and DALYs in 2016, accounting for 2.2% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 1.5-3.0) of age-standardised female deaths and 6.8% (5.8-8.0) of age-standardised male deaths. Among the population aged 15-49 years, alcohol use was the leading risk factor globally in 2016, with 3.8% (95% UI 3.2-4-3) of female deaths and 12.2% (10.8-13-6) of male deaths attributable to alcohol use. For the population aged 15-49 years, female attributable DALYs were 2.3% (95% UI 2.0-2.6) and male attributable DALYs were 8.9% (7.8-9.9). The three leading causes of attributable deaths in this age group were tuberculosis (1.4% [95% UI 1. 0-1. 7] of total deaths), road injuries (1.2% [0.7-1.9]), and self-harm (1.1% [0.6-1.5]). For populations aged 50 years and older, cancers accounted for a large proportion of total alcohol-attributable deaths in 2016, constituting 27.1% (95% UI 21.2-33.3) of total alcohol-attributable female deaths and 18.9% (15.3-22.6) of male deaths. The level of alcohol consumption that minimised harm across health outcomes was zero (95% UI 0.0-0.8) standard drinks per week. Interpretation Alcohol use is a leading risk factor for global disease burden and causes substantial health loss. We found that the risk of all-cause mortality, and of cancers specifically, rises with increasing levels of consumption, and the level of consumption that minimises health loss is zero. These results suggest that alcohol control policies might need to be revised worldwide, refocusing on efforts to lower overall population-level consumption.Peer reviewe
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