There are currently around 78 Nuclear Power Plants (NPP) in the world based on Boiling Water Reactors (BWR). The current parameter to assess BWR instability issues is the linear Decay Ratio (DR). However, it is well known that BWRs are complex non-linear dynamical systems that may even exhibit chaotic dynamics that normally preclude the use of the DR when the BWR is working at a specific operating point during instability. In this work a novel methodology based on an adaptive Shannon Entropy estimator and on Noise Assisted Empirical Mode Decomposition variants is presented. This methodology was developed for real-time implementation of a stability monitor. This methodology was applied to a set of signals stemming from several NPPs reactors (Ringhals-Sweden, Forsmark-Sweden and Laguna Verde-Mexico) under commercial operating conditions, that experienced instabilities events, each one of a different nature

In this paper, we analyze the measurements of the normalized radar cross-section(NRCS) in Wave Mode for Chinese C-band Gaofen-3(GF-3) synthetic aperture radar (SAR). Based on 2779 images from GF-3 quad-polarization SAR in Wave Mode and collocated wind vectors from ERA-Interim, we verify the feasibility of using ocean surface wind fields and VV-polarized NRCS to perform normalized calibration. The method uses well-validated empirical C-band geophysical model function (CMOD4) to estimate the calibration constant for each beam. The Amazon rainforest experiment results show that the accuracy of obtained calibration constant meets the requirements. In addition, the relationship between cross-pol NRCS and wind vectors is discussed. The cross-pol NRCS increases linearly with wind speed and it has an approximate cosine modulation with the wind direction when the wind speed is greater than 8m/s. The cross-polarized system noise floor is low enough to ignore it in wind retrieval. Furthermore, we also investigate the properties of the polarization ratio, denoted PR, and show that it is dependent on incidence angle and azimuth angle. Two empirical models of the PR are fitted, one as a function of incidence angle only, the other with additional dependence on azimuth angle. Assessments show that the σ_VV^0 retrieved from new PR models as well as σ_HH^0 is in good agreement with σ_VV^0 extracted from SAR images directly. And it is also shown that considering the azimuth angle can improve polarization conversion accuracy.

Usually, in ground-penetrating radar (GPR) datasets the user defines the limits between the useful signal and the noise through standard filtering to isolate the effective signal as much as possible. However, there are true reflections that mask the coherent reflectors that can be considered noise. In archaeological sites these clutter reflections are caused by scattering with origin in subsurface elements (e.g., isolated masonry, ceramic objects and archaeological collapses). Its elimination is difficult because the wavelet parameters similar to coherent reflections and there is a risk of creating artifacts. In this study a procedure to filtering the clutter reflection noise (CRN) from GPR datasets is presented. The CRN filter is a singular value decomposition-based method (SVD), applied in the 2D spectral domain. This CRN filtering was tested in a dataset obtained from a controlled laboratory environment, to establish a mathematical control of this algorithm. Also, it has been applied in a 3D-GPR dataset acquired in the Roman villa of Horta da Torre (Fronteira, Portugal), which is an uncontrolled environment. The results show an increase in the quality of archaeological-GPR planimetry that were verified via archaeological excavation.

To implement renewable energy resources, microgrid systems have been adopted and developed into the technology of choice to assure mass electrification in the next decade. Microgrid systems have a number of advantages over the conventional utility grid systems, however, it faces severe instability issues due to continually increasing constant power loads. To improve the stability of the entire system, load side compensation technique is chosen because of its robustness and cost effectiveness. In this particular occasion, a sliding mode controller is developed for microgrid system in the presence of CPL to assure certain control objective of keeping the output voltage constant at 480V. After that, the robustness analysis of the sliding mode controller against parametric uncertainties is presented. The sliding mode controller robustness against parametric uncertainties, frequency variations, and additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) are illustrated in this paper. Later, the performance of the PID and sliding Mode controller is compared in case of nonlinearity, parameter uncertainties, and noise rejection to justify the selection of Sliding Mode controller over PID controller. All the necessary calculations are reckoned mathematically and results are verified in the virtual platform such as MATLAB/Simulink with the appreciable outcome.

Computer and Smart Device-assisted Learning (CSDL) has gained increasing attention from educational researchers and practitioners in recent years. However, it remains controversial whether student can benefit from CSDL and what moderator could affect the impact of CSDL. Within the specific context of Korea, where the interest in digital education is steadily increasing, the number of empirical studies exploring the causal effect of CSDL remains relatively scarce. The primary objective of this empirical study was to investigate the impact of CSDL on students' academic achievement in Korea. To achieve this objective, a two-way fixed effect model was employed, utilizing a panel dataset spanning three years derived from the 'Korean Education Longitudinal Study 2013'. The findings revealed a significant positive impact of CSDL on students’ Mathematics achievement. Notably, higher income levels, increased availability of computer resources provided by schools, and the implementation of more individualized education were identified as factors that moderate the effect of CSDL on students' achievement levels in Korean and English subjects. These findings underscore the need for an approach that optimizes the educational benefits of CSDL by considering subject-specific characteristics. Furthermore, this study highlights the importance of allocating educational resources, such as computers and smart devices, and integrating individualized educational activities within the classroom environment.

The objective of this paper is to research the impact of electrical and physical parameters that characterize the complementary MOSFET transistors (NMOS and PMOS transistors) in the CMOS inverter for static mode of operation. In addition to this, the paper also aims at exploring the directives that are to be followed during the design phase of the CMOS inverters that enable designers to design the CMOS inverters with the best possible performance, depending on operation conditions. The CMOS inverter designed with the best possible features also enables the designing of the CMOS logic circuits with the best possible performance, according to the operation conditions and designers’ requirements.

Metamaterials, man-made composites scaled smaller than the wavelength, have demonstrated a huge potential in their applications in acoustics, opening up for sub--wavelength acoustic absorbers, acoustic invisibility, perfect acoustic mirrors and acoustic lenses for hyper focusing, acoustic illusions and enabling new degrees of freedom in the control of the acoustic field. The zero, or even negative, refractive sound index of metamaterials offers possibilities in control of the acoustic pattern and sound at sub--wavelength scales. Despite the tremendous growth of the research on acoustic metamaterials during the last decade, the potential of metamaterial-based technologies in aeronautics is still not fully explored and its utilization is still in its infancy. Thus the principal concepts mentioned above could very well provide means to develop devices that would allow the mitigation of the impact of the civil aviation noise on the community. This paper gives a review of the state of the art of the most relevant works on acoustic metamaterials, analyzing them against their potential applicability in aeronautics, and in this process identifying possible implementation areas and interesting metabehaviors. It also identifies some technical challenges and possible future directions for research with the goal of unveiling the potential of metamaterials technologies in aeronautics.

It is unclear which noise exposure time window and noise characteristics during nighttime are most detrimental for sleep quality in real life settings. We have conducted a field study with 105 volunteers wearing a wrist actimeter to record their sleep during seven days, together with concurrent outdoor noise measurements at their bedroom window. Actimetry recorded sleep latency increased by 5.6 minutes (95% confidence interval: 1.6 to 9.6 minutes) per 10 dB(A) increase in noise exposure during the first hour after bedtime. Actimetry assessed sleep efficiency was significantly reduced by 2-3 percent per 10 dB(A) increase in measured outdoor noise (Leq, 1h) for the last three hours of sleep. For subjectively reported sleepiness, noise exposure during the last hour prior to wake up was most crucial with an increase in the sleepiness score of 0.31 units (95% CI: 0.08 to 0.54) per 10 dB(A) Leq,1h. Associations for estimated indoor noise were not more pronounced than for outdoor noise. Considering noise events in addition to equivalent sound pressure levels (Leq) only marginally improved the statistical models. Our study provides evidence that matching the nighttime noise exposure time window to the individual’s diurnal sleep-wake pattern results in a better estimate of detrimental nighttime noise effects on sleep. We found that noise exposure at the beginning and the end of the sleep is most crucial for sleep quality.

Wind energy in Europe is aimed to grow at a steady, high pace, but opposition from residents to local wind farm plans is one of the obstacles to further growth. A large body of evidence shows that local populations want to be involved and respected for their concerns, but in practice this is a complex process that cannot be solved with simple measures such as financial compensation. The visual presence and the acoustic impact of a wind farm is an important concern for residents. Generally environmental noise management aims to reduce the exposure of the population, usually based on acoustics and restricted to a limited number of sources (such as transportation or industry) and sound descriptors (such as Lden). Individual perceptions are taken into account only at an aggregate, statistical level (such as percentage of exposed, annoyed or sleep-disturbed persons in the population). Individual perceptions and reactions to sound vary in intensity and over different dimensions (such as pleasure/fear or distraction). Sound level is in fact a weak predictor of the perceived health effects of sound. The positive or negative perception of and attitude to the source of the sound is a better predictor of its effects. This article aims to show how the two perspectives (based on acoustics and on perception) can lead to a combined approach in the management of a wind farm aimed to reduce annoyance, not primarily of sound level. An important aspect in this approach is what the sound means to people: is it associated with the experience of having no say in plans, does it lead to anxiety or worry, is it appropriate? The available knowledge will be applied to wind farm management: planning as well as operation.

Low-frequency audible noise generated by the magnetostriction effect inherent to the operation of power transformers has become a major drawback, especially in cases where the electrical substation is located in urban areas subject to strict environmental regulations that imposes sound pressure limits, differing for day and night periods. Such regulations apply a +5 dB penalty if a tonal component of noise is present, which is clearly the case of magnetostriction noise, typically concentrated at twice the industrial frequency (50 Hz or 60 Hz, depending on the country). The strategy used to eliminate the tonal characteristics, therefore contributing to establish compliance with the applicable regulation and to alleviate the discomfort it causes to the human ear, consisted in superimposing to the substation noise a masking sound synthesized from “sounds of nature” with suitable intensities, to flatten the noise spectrum while enhancing the soundscape. The masking system (heavy-duty speakers powered by a microprocessor platform) was validated at an already judicialized urban scenario. Measurement results confirmed that the masking solution was capable of flattening the tonal frequencies, whose beneficial effect yielded the cancellation of the public civil action filed by the neighbors. The proposed solution is ready to be replicated to other scenarios.

This study was undertaken to investigate and analyze noise pollution in a large Chinese governmental hospital’s medical intensive care unit and compare to the WHO guidelines.This cross-sectional study was conducted in a MICU at a public governmental teaching hospital in Fujian province between July and August of 2017. A WENSN® WS1361 Integrated Sound Level Meter (China) was used for continuous every five seconds one week noise levels recording. After this measurement, the decibel meter was used for recording different location of isolation rooms and open bays, including occupied and unoccupied patient, and recording sound events occurs in the ICU to identify sources of noise. Peak and average noise levels were obtained from the meter, and data were downloaded from the WS1361 into a laptop computer. The measured mean equivalent sound pressure levels (L) and standard Aeq deviation over one week period were 66.64±7.57 dB(A), with acute spikes reaching 119.7 dB(A), the average sound level for a 24 hour period in a work day was 68.03±5.07 dB(A). These are higher than the current daytime environmental noise limit of 40-45 decibels in China and WHO. Mean work day noise was significantly louder than weekend time, there was a significant difference in work days and weekend (t=16.85;P=0.000).There was a statistical difference between the day time and night time shifts (t=34.67;P=0.000). The isolation rooms were significantly quieter than the open-bay rooms(t=46.15; p=0.00), sound levels in the occupied and unoccupied rooms also had significant difference(t=17.26; P=0.000).Two types of noise resources, including twenty kinds sources were identified and measured, mean noise levels ranged from of 61.33 to 79.21 dB(A). This study shows noise levels in intensive care units were exceeded the recommended. The study of the influence of noise on patient and staff is needed, and noise reduction strategies must be conduct in ICU.

This study measures the noise levels in a baseball stadium and analyzes baseball fans’ attitude of effect of recreational noise exposure on their hearing. In the baseball stadium, noise levels were measured in four seating sections using a sound level meter during the games. The LAeq average of the 16 measures produced 91.7 dBA, showing a significantly high noise level in the red and navy sections. As a function of frequency by LZeq analysis, the noise levels were significantly higher in low frequencies than other frequencies. For the survey sample, 688 randomly selected participants completed a 16-question survey on their noise exposure during the game and on the potential risk of hearing loss. Despite the very high noise levels, 70% of the respondents preferred sitting in either the red or the navy section to be closer to the cheerleaders and to obtain a good view. Most respondents reported that they did not consider wearing earplugs, and one-third experienced hearing muffled speech after the game. We conclude that the noise levels in baseball stadiums are high enough to cause hearing damage and/or tinnitus later, but expect these results to improve public education regarding safe noise exposure during popular sports activities.

Currently, narrowband Power line communication (PLC) is considered as an attractive communication system in smart grid environments for applications such as advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). In this paper, we will present a comprehensive comparison and analysis in time and frequency domain of noise measured in China and Italy. In addition, impulsive noise in these two countries are mainly analyzed and modeled using two probability based models, Middleton Class A (MCA) model and \(\alpha\) stable distribution model. The results prove that noise measured in China is rich in impulsive noise, and can be modeled well by \(\alpha\) stable distribution model, while noise measured in Italy has less impulsive noise, and can be better modeled by MCA model.

The railway industry focus in the past years was to research, find and develop methods to mitigate noise and vibration resulted from wheel/rail contact along track infrastructure. This resulted in a wide range of abatement measures that are available for the professionals of the industry today. However, although there are many options in the market, their practical implementations depend upon general constraints that affect most technological application in the engineering world. The progression of these technologies have facilitated the selection of more adequate methods for each best case scenario, but further studies are ought to be made to proper assess if each one is fit for their purpose. Every method implementation must be analyzed through budget and timeframe limitations, which includes building, maintenance and inspection costs and time allocation, while also aiming to meet different benefits, such as environmental impact control and wear of the whole infrastructure. There are several situations and facilities in a railway project design that need noise and vibration mitigation methods and each design allocates different priorities for each one of them. Traditionally the disturbance caused by railways to the community are generated by wheel/rail contact sound radiation that expresses in different ways, depending on the movement of the rolling stock and track alignment, such as rolling noise, impact noise and curve noise. More specifically, in special trackworks such as turnouts, the main area of this study, there are two noises types that must be evaluated: impact noise and screeching noise. With respect to the second, it is similar to curve squeals and, being such, its mitigation methods are to be assigned as if it was to abate curve squeal in turnouts and crossings. The impact noise on the other hand, emerges from the sound made by the rolling stock moving through joints and discontinuities (i.e. gaps) that composes these special components of a railway track. A life cycle analysis is therefore substantial for this reality and in this case will be applied to Squeal and Impact Noise on Special Trackwork. The evaluation is based on a valid literature review and the total costs were assumed by industry reports to maintain coherency. The period for a life cycle analysis is usually of 50 years, hence it was the value assumed. As for the general parameters, an area with high density of people was considered to estimate the values for a community with very strict limits for noise and vibration.

We derive the thermal noise spectrum of the Fourier transform of the electric field operator of a given wave vector starting from the quantum-statistical definitions and relate it to the complex frequency and wave vector dependent complex conductivity in a homogeneous, isotropic system of electromagnetic interacting electrons. We analyze separately the longitudinal and transverse case with their peculiarities. The Nyquist formula for vanishing frequency and wave vector, as well as its modification for non-vanishing frequencies and wave vectors follow immediately. Furthermore we discuss also the noise of the photon occupation numbers. It is important to stress that no additional assumptions at all were used in this straightforward proof.

In developing countries, noise exposure and its negative health effects have been little explored. The present study aimed to assess the noise exposure situation in adults living in informal settings in the Western Cape Province, South Africa. We conducted continuous one-week outdoor noise measurements at 134 homes in four different areas. These data were used to develop a land use regression (LUR) model to predict A-weighted day-evening-night equivalent sound level (Lden) from geographic information system (GIS) variables. Mean noise exposure during day (6:00-18:00) was 60.0 A-weighted decibels (dB(A)) (interquartile range 56.9-62.9 dB(A)), during night (22:00-6:00) 52.9 dB(A) (49.3-55.8 dB(A)) and average Lden was 63.0 dB(A) (60.1-66.5 dB(A)). Main predictors of the LUR model were related to road traffic and household density. Model performance was low (adjusted R²=0.130) suggesting that other influences than represented in the geographic predictors are relevant for noise exposure. This is one of the few studies on the noise exposure situation in low- and middle-income countries. It demonstrates that noise exposure levels are high in these settings.

Animal-assisted interventions (AAI) use human-animal interactions to positive effect in various contexts including cancer care. This systematic literature review is the first part of a two-part paper series focusing on the research methods and quantitative results of AAI studies in oncology. We find methodological consistency in the use of canines as therapy animals, in the types of high-risk patients excluded from studies, and in the infection precautions taken with therapy animals throughout cancer wards. The investigated patient endpoints are not significantly affected by AAI, with the exceptions of improvements in oxygen consumption, quality of life, depression, mood, and satisfaction with therapy. The AAI field in oncology has progressed significantly since its inception and has great potential to positively impact future patient outcomes. To advance the field, AAI research in oncology should consistently improve the methodological design of studies, report data more completely, and focus on the therapy animal’s well-being.

The concept of using special electrical circuit design realize a "cold resistors", that is, an active resistor circuitry with lowered effective noise temperature, was first introduced about 80 years ago. Later on, various kinds of artificial resistors were applied in different research areas, such as gravitational wave detection, photo-amplifiers and quartz oscillators. Their proofs of concepts were experimentally proved. Unfortunately, the complete theory was not found even though several attempts had been published, sometimes with errors. In this paper, we describe a correct and complete circuit theoretical model of a cold resistor system. The results are confirmed by computer simulations. A design tools for this circuit is also shown.

In the last decade, the drone market has grown rapidly for both civil and military purposes. Due to their versatility, drones demand is constantly increasing, with several industrial players joining the venture to transfer urban mobility to the air. This has exacerbated the problem of noise pollution, mainly due to the relatively lower altitude of these vehicles and to the proximity of their routes to extremely densely populated areas. In particular, both the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic optimization of the propulsive system and of its interaction with the airframe are key aspects of the design of aerial vehicles for the success or the failure of their mission. The industrial challenge involves finding the best performance in terms of loading, efficiency and weight, and, at the same time, the most silent configuration. For this reason, research has focused on an initial localization of the noise sources and, on further analysis, of the noise generation mechanism, focusing particularly on directivity and scattering. The aim of the present study is to review the noise source mechanisms and the state-of-the-art technologies available in literature for its suppression, focusing especially on the fluid-dynamic aspects of low Reynolds numbers of the propulsive system and on the interaction of the propulsive-system flow with the airframe.

People working in the field of Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAI) often state that they perceive animal welfare as a matter of paramount importance, nevertheless most of scientific literature focuses on the effectiveness of interventions from the user's perspective. Before focusing on animals’ management and welfare during the interaction with users, it would be important to ensure animal welfare during their “ordinary lives”. This article reports information and considerations about the management of donkeys involved in AAI in Northern Italy. Six facilities with several years of experience in Donkey-Assisted Interventions were visited for the purpose of an initial data collection regarding the management of donkeys involved in AAI. A general lack of knowledge regarding the nutritional needs of the donkey and a heterogeneity of practices in the field of its preventive medicine have been identified; the study also highlighted a need for efforts to create a more stimulating and enriched environment for animals involved in AAI. Some possible areas for improvement in the management of donkeys involved in AAI have been highlighted. Further studies are necessary to provide a more comprehensive picture of the welfare of donkeys involved in this context.

Animal-assisted interventions (AAI) are a unique class of complementary medical treatments that can improve a patient’s quality of life, both physically and psychologically. Part I of this two-paper systematic literature review series focused on the study methods and quantitative results of researchers in this field. We continue this in-depth review here in Part II by discussing the common theories associated with AAI in the context of cancer. Of all the factors at work in human-animal interactions, researchers explicitly cite compatible animal personality, physical touch, physical movement, distraction/entertainment, and increased human interaction as the mechanisms responsible for the positive clinical outcomes observed in AAI. In various combinations, these mechanisms group under broader theoretical frameworks that attempt to fully explain the AAI context as it relates to cancer care. The social support hypothesis and the conception of a human-animal bond are the most referenced overarching frameworks. The cognitive activation theory of stress, the science of unitary human beings, and the self-object hypothesis are also referenced. We briefly consider other relevant theories commonly noted in the human-animal interactions literature that have the potential to clarify aspects of cancer-related AAI. We also discuss the neurobiological transduction mechanisms needed to connect theoretical frameworks and their mechanisms directly to the observed clinical outcomes. To advance the field, researchers should consider overarching theories with testable hypotheses when designing studies, and use consistent terminology when reporting results. This review lays a foundation for progress towards a unified theoretical framework and for effective treatment of the whole cancer patient.

This study aims to tackle the challenge of high noise levels on balconies while preserving natural ventilation. Eight innovative balcony designs, incorporating elements like diffuser edges, undulating ceilings, Helmholtz resonators, grooves, or sound traps, were evaluated via finite element (FE) modeling. The extensive FE studies involved about 10 million elements per analysis case. Results showed that a standard balcony with a front parapet wall could achieve a noise reduction of around 10 dBA, with the jagged ledge design providing an additional 2 dBA improvement. Adding protruded ledge designs led to higher insertion loss (IL) by up to 9.4 dBA, especially at higher stories. Having wall-embedded Helmholtz resonators improved IL by up to 1.5 dBA. The jagged ledge design consistently exhibited positive IL across a broad frequency range from 200 Hz to 2 kHz. Combining beneficial balcony ceilings and wall ledges significantly reduced noise across lower and higher frequency ranges. Front jagged and full wavy ceilings offered positive IL throughout different storeys, proving their effectiveness against human vocal range. This study found that jagged ledge and front jagged ceiling designs, effective across various balcony heights, are viable options for improving balcony noise mitigation, providing valuable insights for architects and designers seeking practical solutions for outdoor noise reduction.

Speckle noise is one of the most difficult noises to remove especially in medical applications. It is a nuisance in ultrasound imaging systems which is used in about half of all medical screening systems. Thus, noise removal is an important step in these systems, thereby creating reliable, automated, and potentially low cost systems. Herein, a generalized approach MFNR (Multi-Frame Noise Removal) is used, which is a complete Noise Removal system using KDE (Kernal Density Estimation). Any given type of noise can be removed if its probability density function (PDF) is known. Herein, we extracted the PDF parameters using KDE. Noise removal and detail preservation are not contrary to each other as the case in single-frame noise removal methods. Our results showed practically complete noise removal using MFNR algorithm compared to standard noise removal tools. The Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) performance was used as a comparison metric. This paper is an extension to our previous paper where MFNR Algorithm was showed as a general purpose complete noise removal tool for all types of noises

There are numerous hazards found on the farms. Most of them are ignored, which might cause the farmer to pay later in terms of his ill health, potential injuries or death. The current article discusses some of the common issues such as dust and air quality concerns; environmental (weather) stressors and psychological stressors; noise and hearing protection; and tractor safety and seatbelt use. And finally, the recommendations to overcome the hazards are discussed.

This article investigates the source of booming noise emanating from the tailgates of electric vehicles, along with proposed strategies to mitigate it. This study involved the measurement of booming noises during on-road vehicle tests to pinpoint their origins. Additionally, operational deflection shapes (ODS) were extracted from the tailgate vibration signals to gain insight into its dynamic behavior. Modal tests were conducted on the tailgate to determine its dynamic characteristics and compared with driving test results to reveal the mechanism responsible for tailgate-induced booming noise. It was established that such noise is primarily due to the tailgate modes resulting from a combination of rigid body motion in the fore-aft direction and deformation in the central section of the panel. An analytical model of the tailgate was developed using commercial finite element analysis software to propose measures for reducing booming noise. Experimental findings validated the model accuracy. Structural enhancements were implemented to enhance the panel stiffness and improve the connection between the vehicle and tailgate via bushings to dampen the booming noise resulting from tailgate motion. Under random force inputs, analytical results demonstrated a 13.8% reduction in maximum deformation in the tailgate model in the improved structural configuration with increased panel stiffness.

This article describes an algorithm for estimation the variance of Gaussian noise. The data is smoothed using the Savitsky-Golay polynomial filter. Absolute differences between original and smoothed data are sorted in ascending order. The initial part of this sequence is selected for analysis. The result of calculation mean value of differences can be used to estimate the variance of the noise. By selecting points for analysis, the impact of cosmic ray noise and other artifacts can be reduced. The use of the proposed method for artificial and real spectra shows the ability to effectively estimate the noise variance. The algorithm contains no user-defined parameters.

In underwater optical wireless communications (UOWC), scattering of the propagating light beam results in both intensity and phase variations, which limit the transmission link range and channel bandwidth, respectively. Scattering of photons while propagating through the channel is a random process, which results in the channel-dependent scattering noise. In this work, we introduce for the first time an analytical model for this noise and investigate its effect on the bit error rate performance of the UOWC system for three types of waters and a range of transmission link spans. We show that, for a short range of un-clear water or a longer range of clear water, the number of photons experiencing scattering is high, thus leading to the increased scattering noise.

Audio recording in classrooms is a common practice in educational research, with applications ranging from detecting classroom activities to analysing student behaviour. Previous research has employed neural networks for classroom activity detection and speaker role identification. However, these recordings are often affected by background noise that can hinder further analysis, and the literature has only sought to identify noise with general filters and not specifically designed for classrooms. Although the use of high-end microphones and environmental monitoring can mitigate this problem, these solutions can be costly and potentially disruptive to the natural classroom environment. In this context, we propose the development of a neural network model that can specifically detect and filter out background noise in classroom recordings. This model would allow the use of lower quality recordings without compromising analysis capability, thus facilitating data collection in natural educational environments and reducing the costs associated with high-end recording equipment.

Purpose: The study is aimed to quantify the effects of social noise (personal music players (PMP), high-intensity noise exposure events) and road traffic noise exposures in the sample of Slovak university students living and studying in Bratislava. Methods: There were 1,003 university students (306 males and 697 females, average age 23.13±2) enrolled in the study; 347 lived in the student housing facility exposed to road traffic noise (LAeq =67.6 dB) and 656 in the control one (LAeq =53.4 dB). Respondents completed a validated ICBEN 5-grade scale “Noise annoyance questionnaire”. The exposure to PMP was objectified by the conversion of the subjective evaluation of the volume setting and duration. With the cooperation of the ENT specialist, we arranged audiometric examinations on the pilot sample of 41 volunteers. Results: From the total sample of 1,003 students, 794 (79.16 %) of them reported the use of PMP in the course of the last week; average time of 285 minutes. There was a significant difference in PMP use between the exposed (85.59 %) and the control group (75.76 %) (p=0.01). Among PMP users 30.7 % exceeded the LAV (lower action value for industry LAeq,8h = 80 dB). On a pilot sample of volunteers (n=41) audiometry testing was performed indicating a hearing threshold shift at higher frequencies in 22% of subjects. Conclusions: The results of the study on a sample of young healthy individuals showed the importance of exposure to environmental noise from different sources (transportation, neighborhood, construction, entertainment facilities, etc.) as well as social noise and the need for prevention and intervention.

Wireless sensor networks can provide a cheap and flexible infrastructure to support the measurement of noise pollution. However, the processing of the gathered data is challenging to implement on resource-constrained nodes, because each node has its own limited power supply, low-performance and low-power micro-controller unit and other limited processing resources, as well as limited amount of memory. We propose a sensor node for monitoring of indoor ambient noise. The sensor node is based on a hardware platform with limited computational resources and utilizes a number of simplifications to approximate more complex and costly signal processing stage. Furthermore, to reduce the communication between the sensor node and a sink node, as well as the power consumed by the IEEE 802.15.4 (ZigBee) transceiver, we perform digital A-weighting filtering and non-calibrated calculation of the sound pressure level on the node. According to experimental results, the proposed sound level meter can accurately measure the noise levels of up to 100~dB, with the mean difference of less than 2~dB compared to Class 1 sound level meter. The proposed device can continuously monitor indoor noise for several days. Despite the limitations of the used hardware platform, the presented node is a promising low-cost and low-power solution for indoor ambient noise monitoring.

Noise reduction in medical images is a perplexing undertaking for the researchers in digital image processing. Noise generates maximum critical disturbances as well as touches the medical images quality, ultrasound images in the field of biomedical imaging. The image is normally considered as gathering of data and existence of noises degradation the image quality. It ought to be vital to reestablish the original image noises for accomplishing maximum data from images. Medical images are debased through noise through its transmission and procurement. Image with noise reduce the image contrast and resolution, thereby decreasing the diagnostic values of the medical image. This paper mainly focuses on Gaussian noise, Pepper noise, Uniform noise, Salt and Speckle noise. Different filtering techniques can be adapted for noise declining to improve the visual quality as well as reorganization of images. Here four types of noises have been undertaken and applied on medical images. Besides numerous filtering methods like Gaussian, median, mean and Weiner applied for noise reduction as well as estimate the performance of filter through the parameters like mean square error (MSE), peak signal to noise ratio (PSNR), Average difference value (AD) and Maximum difference value (MD) to diminish the noises without corrupting the medical image data.

German noise action plans aim to reduce negative health outcomes from noise exposure and identify quiet areas free of noise pollution. Quiet area identification in German noise action plans is based primarily on noise mapping and spatial analysis and not empirical or qualitative data about acoustic environments, thus leaving a gap in the understanding of the quality of formally recognized quiet areas in noise action plans. This work presents a comparative empirical case study in Dortmund, Germany, with the aim to describe the diurnal dB(A) and biophonic properties of quiet areas versus noise 'hot spots'. Sound observations were collected (n=282,764) in five different natural or recreational land use patch types larger than four acres within 33 proposed quiet areas in Dortmund (n=70) and 23 noise hot spots between April 27^th, 2022 and March 2^nd, 2023. We find that quiet areas are on average more than 20 dB(A) quieter than noise hot spots almost every hour of the day. Forests, managed tree stands, cemeteries, and agriculture diel patterns are dominated by dawn dusk chorus in spring and summer, whereas sport and recreation as well as noise hot spots are dominated by traffic and human noise. A novel composite biophony mapping procedure is presented that finds distinct temporal distribution of biophony in forested and agriculture peri-urban locations positively associated with patch size, distance away from LDEN > 55, proximity to water, and the number of vegetation layers in the plant community. Anthrophony distribution dominates urban land uses in all hours of the day, but expands during day and evening and contracts at night and in dusk hours. The procedures presented here illustrate how qualitative information regarding quiet areas can be integrated into German noise action planning.

Dog Assisted Therapy is hypothesized to lower stress in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and children with Down Syndrome (DS), which may be visible on a physiological level. In this study, we measured Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and salivary cortisol of 20 children with DS or ASD at the beginning and end of 6 weekly sessions of Dog-Assisted Therapy. We found a decrease of cortisol levels during single sessions, but no overall effect after 6 sessions (6 weeks). The effect of Dog Assisted Therapy on the increase of HRV could not be confirmed. This study is one of the first to use physiological measurements to test the effects of DAT.

Not a lot is known about either death or the dying process. Politicians and many in the medical profession in the UK tend to shy away from interfering with it by not allowing euthanasia as an end of life option for the patient. This is the first paper in a series of two, comparing the situation in human medicine and veterinary medicine, in which euthanasia is well practiced for relieving suffering at the end of an animal’s life. This first part takes the form of a literature review including best practice around end of life care, its deficiencies and the need for assisted dying. Veterinary surgeons are well trained in the ethics of euthanasia and put it to good use in the best interest of their animal patients. In countries which have legalized physician assisted suicide for the terminally ill reporting indicates that it works well, without increases in involuntary euthanasia and most importantly without intimidation of the vulnerable. However, there is still an ever increasing tendency to overuse sedation and opioids at the end of life, which merits further investigation. With advances in medical science able to significantly prolong the dying process, patient autonomy demands a review of the law in the UK.

This study aims to assess using a smartphone app (DecibelX), as a noise measuring alternative to the more costly traditional use of measuring noise levels with a Sound Level Meter (SLM). The study compares the accuracy of the app to readings taken with a SLM and dosimeter, and also evaluates the app’s performance for pure tone and narrow band noise. And a usability study identifies strengths and weaknesses related to usability of the app.

Optical motion capture systems are state-of-the-art in motion acquisition, however as any measurement systems they are not error free -- noise is their intrinsic feature. The works so far mostly employ simple noise model, expressing the uncertainty as a simple variance. In the work we prove the existence of several types of noise and demonstrate how to quantify them using Allan variance. For the automated readout of the noise coefficients we solve the multidimensional regression problem using sophisticated metaheuristics in exploration-exploitation scheme. Besides classic types of noise we identified the presence of the correlated noises and periodic distortion in our facility. We had also opportunity to observe the influence of camera failure to the overall performance.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical and radiographic outcomes of the All-on-4 technique in fully edentulous maxilla using R2GATE software for flapless, computer-guided surgery and immediate loading. Ten adult patients with fully edentulous maxilla, aged between 35 and 60 years, were included in the study between April 2021 and April 2022. The surgical procedure was performed under local anesthesia and followed the All-on-4 approach with immediate loading of implants using a screw-retained provisional acrylic resin prosthesis on the same day. Final prosthesis was delivered four months after the surgery. Clinical and radiographic outcomes were evaluated at four- and twelve-months post-operation. The study reported a 95% implant survival rate using the All-on-4 technique. The mean marginal bone level was recorded at 0.35 mm and 0.66 mm during the 4 and 12-month follow-up periods, respectively. Fixed provisional prosthesis fracture, abutment, and prosthesis screw loosening were the most frequent mechanical complications reported. Within the limitations of this study, the use of computer-guided surgery in the All-on-4 technique seemed to be a promising treatment option with high implant survival rates that may help reduce post-surgical discomfort and mechanical complications in the rehabilitation of the edentulous maxilla.

: The effect that the microstructure exerts on the TRIP phenomenon and on the mechanical properties in a multiphase steel was studied. Samples of an initially cold-rolled ferrite-pearlite steel underwent different intercritical annealing treatments at 750 °C until an equal fractions of austenite/ferrite was reached; the intercritical treatment was followed by isothermal bainitic treatments before cooling the samples to room temperature. Samples in the first treatment were heated directly to the intercritical temperature, whereas other samples were heated to either 900 or 1100 °C to obtain a fully homogenized, single phase austenitic microstructure prior to the conducting the intercritical treatment. The high temperature homogenization of austenite resulted in the decrease in its stability, so a considerable austenite fraction transformed into martensite by cooling to room temperature after the bainitic heat treatment. Most of the retained austenite transformed during the tensile tests, and as a consequence, the previously homogenized steels showed the highest UTS. In turn, the steel with a ferritic-pearlitic initial microstructure, exhibited higher ductility than the other steels and texture components that favor forming processes.

Electroless etching of semiconductors was elevated to an advanced micromachining process by the addition of a structured metal catalyst. Patterning of the catalyst by lithographic techniques facilitates the patterning of crystalline and polycrystalline wafer substrates. Galvanic deposition of metals on semiconductors has a natural tendency to produce nanoparticles rather than flat uniform films. This characteristic makes possible the etching of not only wafers but also particles with arbitrary shape. While it has been widely recognized that spontaneous deposition of metal nanoparticles can be used in connection with etching to porosify wafers, it is also possible to produced nanostructured powders. MACE can be controlled to produce (1) etch track pores with shapes and sizes closely related to the shape and size of the metal nanoparticle, (2) hierarchically porosified substrates exhibiting combinations of large etch track pores and mesopores, and (3) nanowires with either solid or mesoporous cores. This review discussed the mechanisms of porosification, processing advances and the properties of the etch product with special emphasis on the etching of silicon powders.

This is the second of a series of two papers comparing the end of life issues in human and veterinary medicine. We outline the main differences between human and animal patients such as patient communication, finance and ‘conflicts of interest’ between animal, owner and veterinarian. We discuss striking similarities between human and veterinary issues such as assessing quality of life and the primary role of the attending veterinarian or doctor being the welfare and care of the patient. This paper takes the form of an ethical argument in favour of allowing euthanasia in human medicine, by providing insights into end of life issues for humans from an independent veterinary perspective. Veterinary surgeons are well trained in the ethics of euthanasia and put it to good use in the best interest of their animal patients. Doctors in the UK are limited and unwilling to put forward a case for the option of euthanasia for those patients who face a slow and agonizing death. With advances in medical science being able to significantly prolong the dying process, autonomy for the patient demands a review of the law regarding patient choice in the UK.

Identifying groups that share common features among datasets through clustering analysis is a typical problem in many fields of science, particularly in post-omics and systems biology research. In respect of this, quantifying how a measure can cluster or organize intrinsic groups is important since currently there is no statistical evaluation of how ordered is, or how much noise is embedded in the resulting clustered vector. Many of the literature focuses on how well the clustering algorithm orders the data, with several measures regarding external and internal statistical measures; but none measure has been developed to statistically quantify the noise in an arranged vector posterior a clustering algorithm, i.e., how much of the clustering is due to randomness. Here, we present a quantitative methodology, based on autocorrelation, to assess this problem.

Expensive cameras meant for research applications are usually characterized by the manufacturers and detailed specifications [1] are available for them. Suppliers of inexpensive cameras usually do not provide such detailed information about their cameras. This data set provides the acquisition speed and noise characteristics acquired from a monochrome 1.2 megapixel CMOS camera, the QHY5L-II M [2]. The source code provided along with this data set [3] can also be used to acquire similar data for other QHY cameras. This enables the use of such cost-effective cameras for other scientific applications in other fields, beyond the designed use in Astronomy.

A novel characterization method for discrete saw filters vibrational sensitivity is presented. The proposed approach allows the characterization of filters under vibrations and the extraction of a behavioural model. Filters are assumed to be transducers so that external induced vibrational energy is partially transformed in a undesired simultaneous amplitude and phase modulation of the input RF signal. When the filter is mechanically excited with vibrations, it introduces spurious amplitude and phase modulation to the input signal that can potentially affect the link quality.

Background: We assess locoregional drug targeting effectiveness of intraoperative (IO) cryoprobe-assisted injection of blue dye (BD) and cytotoxic-tracer mixture (TTM), in VX2 tumor model, and its translational value to cryo-assisted breast tumor surgery with BD alone. Methods: Under computed tomography (CT) guidance, we injected two ml TTM in five aliquots in the margin of 16 frozen or normothermic VX2 tumors. We evaluated the IO and post-operative drug targeting and therapeutic efficacy in tumor-host interface (T-HI) by CT, gross examination, and histopathology. In twenty-six T1 to T4 primary breast cancer (BRCA) we performed ultrasound-guided (US) cryoprobe-assisted tumor freezing, BD guided lymphatic mapping, and surgery. We evaluated, IO and in freshly resected specimen, BD distribution pattern in T-HI, lymph node(s), breast parenchyma, and resection cavity. Results: Fluids-impervious frozen VX2 or breast tumor transported drug(s) an arc-like pattern at T-HI regardless of freeze dose, number of freeze-thaw cycles, drug dose fractionation, tumor characteristics or dimensions. During melting, TTM spread within fifty percent VX2 tumor mirrored that of T-HI; it was massive in normothermia. In VX2 twenty percent focal margin necrosis at pathology coincided with CT gap; in both studies, BD dose-staining spread in T-HI and tumor was linear. Eighty-four patients had one to twelve stained axillary lymph nodes; sixty-nine percent and all respectively, had another quadrant and resection cavity stained. Conclusion: Intraoperative freezing-assisted drug delivery and targeting techniques during cryoablation of VX2 tumor translate successfully to locoregional BD targeting, lymphatic mapping during cryo-assisted surgery of breast cancer.

Aiming at the problem that the performance of Adaptive Kalman filter estimation will be affected when the statistical characteristics of the process and measurement noise matrix are inaccurate and time-varying in the linear Gaussian state-space model, an algorithm of Multi-fading factor and update monitoring strategy adaptive Kalman filter based variational Bayesian is proposed. Inverse Wishart distribution is selected as the measurement noise model, the system state vector and measurement noise covariance matrix are estimated with the variational Bayesian method. The process noise covariance matrix is estimated by the maximum a posteriori principle, and the update monitoring strategy with adjustment factors is used to maintain the positive semi-definite of the updated matrix. The above optimal estimation results are introduced as time-varying parameters into the multiple fading factors to improve the estimation accuracy of the one-step state predicted covariance matrix. The application of the proposed algorithm in target tracking is simulated. The results show that compared with the current filters, the proposed filtering algorithm has better accuracy and convergence performance, and realizes the simultaneous estimation of inaccurate time-varying process and measurement noise covariance matrices.

Recent technological advances, including capsule endoscopy (CE) and balloon-assisted endoscopy (BAE), have revealed that small intestinal disease is more common than previously thought. CE has advantages including, high diagnostic yield, discom-fort-free, outpatient basis, and physiological images. BAE enabled endoscopic diagnosis and treatment in the deep small bowel. Computed tomography (CT) enterography with negative oral contrast can evaluate masses, wall thickening, and narrowing of the small intestine. In addition, Enhanced CT can detect abnormalities outside the gastrointestinal tract that endoscopy cannot evalu-ate. Each modality has its advantages and disadvantages, and a good combination of multiple modalities leads to an accurate diagnosis. As a first-line modality, three-phase enhanced CT is preferred. If CT shows a mass, stenosis, or wall thickening, a BAE should be selected. If there are no abnormal findings on CT and no obstructive symptoms, CE should be selected. If there are sig-nificant findings in the CE, determine the indication for BAE and its insertion route based on these findings. Early diagnosis of small intestinal tumors is essential for favorable outcomes. For early diagnosis, the possibility of small bowel lesions should be considered in patients with unexplained symptoms and signs after examination of the upper and lower gastro-intestinal tract.

Objectives: Chylothorax is a relatively rare condition of lymphatic fluid accumulation in the thoracic cavity due to a leakage from the thoracic duct or its tributaries. Patients present with dyspnea, malnutrition, and immunosuppression. Treatment can be conservative or surgical, depending on etiology and clinical course. The optimal management algorithm for chylothorax is still controversial. Methods: This is a retrospective study of all patients with chylothorax treated at our Department of Thoracic Surgery during the 10-year period. Results: A total of 14 patients were identified for the study. Nine patients had chylothorax after lung or esophageal cancer surgery. Four patients had chylothorax in advanced lymphoma. One patient had chylothorax after blunt chest trauma. A conservative approach was initiated in most patients (92%), including pleural drainage, nil per mouth, total parenteral nutrition, and somatostatin 0.1 mg bid subcutaneously. Surgical treatment was indicated in patients with thoracic drain production >800 mL per day beyond the fifth day of treatment and those with blunt thoracic trauma. Two patients had thoracic duct ligation via right-sided thoracotomy, and five patients had video-assisted thoracoscopic thoracic duct ligation with the immediate arrest of chylous leakage. Conclusion: Chylothorax should be treated conservatively initially. Surgical treatment should not be delayed in case of failure beyond the fifth day. In our series of patients, a video-assisted thoracoscopic approach for thoracic duct ligation proved to be minimally invasive, highly efficient, and well tolerated by patients and, therefore, should be the preferable route of surgical treatment.

Silicon-based thin-films and nanostructures are of paramount importance in a wide range of applications, including microelectronics, photovoltaics, large area sensors, as well as biomedicine. The wide accessibility of silicon and its relatively low cost have driven a continuous improvement of the technology based on this element. Plasma technology has been widely used for the synthesis of coatings and nanostructures based on silicon. Moreover, it has given a fundamental contribution for continuously improving the control of the physicochemical properties of silicon-based materials, and for allowing the synthesis of nanometric structures with well-defined shape and morphology. In this work, we have reviewed the most interesting developments of plasma-assisted processed for the synthesis of Si-based materials, both inorganic and organic, in the last five years. A special attention has been given to the new techniques, or modifications of already existing ones, that open new possibilities for the synthesis of materials with new properties, as well as nanostructures with novel characteristics.

Conventional phenotyping breeding approaches for vegetable crops like Solanaceae, Bulb, Root crops, have made a significant contribution by developing many varieties. Despite this, conventional phenotyping approaches are not sufficient due to the longer time taken to develop a variety, low genetic gain, environmental factors and some other externalities that affect the phenotype-based selection. To address the challenges of conventional phenotype, a new recent method of high throughput phenotyping (HTP) is considered a promising tool. The development of high-throughput phenotyping technology began in the preceding decade as advancements in sensor, computer vision, automation, and advanced machine learning technologies. HTP platforms are being utilized to undertake non-destructive assessments of the complete plant system in a range of crops. HTP provides the precise measurements and suggests the collection of high-quality and accurate data which is necessary for standardizing phenotyping for the collection of genetic dissection and genomic assisted breeding such as genome-wide association studies (GWAS), linkage mapping, marker-assisted selection (MAS), genomic selection (GS). The remainder of this chapter discusses how high-throughput phenotyping technologies can be used in genomic-assisted breeding for vegetable crops

Objective: The study aimed to explore the experiences of women undergoing Assisted Reproductive Technologies namely; Invitro Fertilization and Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection at the Finney Hospital and Fertility Centre, New Bortianor, Ghana. Method: A qualitative research design was employed to analyse and describe the experiences of the women seeking Assisted Reproductive Technologies. Fifteen women were invited and interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. The responses were transcribed verbatim and analysed using content analysis. Results: Three themes emerged from the study: the women’s experiences, challenges and the roles and contributions of significant others. The women were anxious, stressed-up, exhausted and financially burdened. Spouses and health professionals played significant roles by providing social, emotional and financial support for these women. Significant others such as spouses and close relatives were supportive and provided encouragement to the women. Conclusion: The experiences of women undergoing Assisted Reproductive Technologies are multi-dimensional. Thus psychosocial intervention as part of ART services with health insurance cover may be client-centered and more appropriate for these group of women.

Aim: To develop an index for quantitative assessment of the upper limb motor function in children with cerebral palsy before and after robot-assisted therapy. Method: An upper limb motor function index was developed using kinematic, surface electromyography and three-axis inertial measurements unit data collected from 15 children with cerebral palsy (CP) and 15 typically developed children. Children with CP underwent 18 robot-assisted therapy sessions with the REAplan device. All children were evaluated, using kinematic data from the REAplan, electromyography and three-axis inertial measurements unit readings from its accelerometer. A principal component analysis was conducted to produce an evaluation index, which is able to detect the deviation from the upper limb motor function of typically developing children group. Children with CP were evaluated twice before and after the intervention with Box and Blocks test and Finger-To-Nose test. The discriminative and concurrent validity of the upper limb motor function index were investigated. Results: The upper limb motor function index was higher in children with CP post therapy (p<0.001). Finger-To-Nose test values improved after robot-assisted therapy (p<0.03). A weak but positive correlation was observed between upper limb motor function index and clinical tests (r=0.012, p=0.95 and r=0.13, p= 0.54 for Box and Blocks test and Finger-To-Nose test respectively). Interpretation: The upper limb motor function index successfully differentiated between the typically developing children and children with CP and was effective in assessing the improvement of the upper limb motor function after robot-assisted therapy. The upper limb motor function index could be extended to assess and monitor rehabilitation therapies of other populations, such as those with stroke and Parkinson’s disease.

The limits for recording weak signals for electrochemical seismic sensors are determined by their self-noise. At the same time, the noise nature is complex and not fully understood. In this work, for the first time, in addition to the frequency dependences of the noise amplitude, the difference in the phases of the noise currents of the cathodes of an electrochemical sensor has been studied. It has been established that at low frequencies the cathode currents change in an-tiphase. As the frequency increases, the phase difference becomes random. At the same time, the frequency at which the phase difference changes depend on the interelectrode distance; the clos-er the electrodes are located to each other, the greater it is. Physically, this effect is explained by the transition from noise caused by the integral flow of the working fluid to noise associated with vortex flows, the size of which depends on frequency. Thus, a new way of studying noise makes it possible to identify its physical nature and develop new methods of reduction.

The present paper is aimed at presenting an updated review of prediction methods for the aerodynamic noise of ducted rotor-stator stages. Indeed, ducted rotating-blade technologies are in continuous evolution and increasingly used, for both aeronautical propulsion units, power generation and air conditioning systems. Different needs are faced, from the early design stage to the final definition of a machine. Fast-running, approximate analytical approaches and high-fidelity numerical simulations are considered as the best suited tools for each, respectively. Recent advances are discussed, with emphasis on their pros and cons.

How people recognize linguistic and emotional prosody in different listening conditions is essential for understanding the complex interplay between social context, cognition, and communication. The perception of both lexical tones and emotional prosody depends on prosodic features including pitch, intensity, duration, and voice quality. However, it is unclear which aspect of prosody is perceptually more salient and resistant to noise. This study aimed to investigate the relative perceptual robustness of emotional prosody and lexical tone recognition in quiet and in the presence of multi-talker babble noise. Forty young adults with normal hearing listened to monosyllables either with or without background babble noise and completed two identification tasks, one for emotion recognition and the other for lexical tone recognition. Compared with emotional prosody, lexical tones were more perceptually salient in multi-talker babble noise. Native Mandarin Chinese participants identified lexical tones more accurately and quickly than vocal emotions at the same signal-to-noise ratio. Lexical tone perception is also more robust against babble speech noise degradation than emotional prosody perception for native Mandarin Chinese listeners. Acoustic and cognitive dissimilarities between linguistic prosody and emotional prosody may have led to the phenomenon, which calls for further explorations into the underlying psychobiological and neurophysiological mechanisms.

The cartographic cum site-effectuated view of Shillong region of northeast India is presented here. Starting from the existing tectonics, the prevalent geological settings of the study area is comprehensively delineated. The seismic prone area is further overviewed in the context of site effects with accompaniment of available borehole information. The resonance frequency estimates form ambient noise survey along with receiver functions are outlined which implicates a heterogeneous subsurface. This further helps in segregating the region into two compelling profiles, thereby enabling us to get a deeper insight in the probable subsurface as well as heterogeneity. Eventually, the influence of topography over strata was also highlighted and interpreted as well.

Impulsive noise is the main limiting factor for transmission over channels affected by electromagnetic interference. We study the estimation of (correlated) Gaussian signals in an impulsive noise scenarios. In this work, we analyze some of the existing as well as some novel estimation algorithms. Their performance is compared, for the first time, for different channel conditions, including the Markov-Middleton scenario, where the impulsive noise switches between different noise states. Following a modern approach in digital communications, the receiver design is based on a factor graph model and implements a message passing algorithm. The correlation among signal samples as well as among noise states brings about a loopy factor graph, where an iterative message passing scheme should be employed. As it is well known, approximate variational inference techniques are necessary in these cases. We propose and analyze different algorithms and provide a complete performance comparison among them, showing that both Expectation Propagation, Transparent Propagation, and the Parallel Iterative Schedule approaches reach a performance close to the optimal, at different channel conditions.

Most popular statistical models in epidemic evolution focus on the dynamics of average relevant quantities and overlooks the role of small fluctuations on the model parameters. Models for Covid-19 are no exception. In this paper we show that the role of time-correlated fluctuations, far from being negligible, can in fact determine the spreading of an epidemic and, most importantly, the resurgence of the exponential diffusion in the presence of time-limited episodes in promiscuity behaviours.

High level of noise is a disturbance to the human environment. Noise in industries is also an occupational hazard because of its attendant effects on workers’ health. Noise presents health and social problems in industrial operations, and the source is related to the machineries used in the industries. One of the unique features of the noise associated with wood machinery is the level of exposure and duration. Equipment used in a factory can be extremely loud. They can produce noise at decibels high enough to cause environmental health and safety concerns. The mechanically driven transport and handling equipment, cutting, milling, shaping and dust extractor installations in the wood industry generate noise. The sources of noise pollution have increased due to non-compliance with basic safety practices. The increased use of locally fabricated machine in the industry has increased the level of noise and vibration. The effects of industrial noise pollution as discussed include: increase in blood pressure; increased stress; fatigue; vertigo; headaches; sleep disturbance; annoyance; speech problems; dysgraphia, which means reading/learning impairment; aggression; anxiety and withdrawal. As presented in this paper, noise control techniques include; sound insulation, sound absorption, vibration damping and Vibration isolation.

Breast cancer is a leading cause of death among women. Conventional screening methods, such as mammography, and ultrasound diagnosis are expensive and have significant limitations. Digital Image Elasto Tomography (DIET) is a new noninvasive breast cancer screening system that has a potential to be a low cost and reliable breast cancer screening tool. It is based on modal analysis of the breast mass, and stereographic 3D image analysis to detect the stiffer abnormal tissues. However, camera sensor noise, especially Gaussian noise is a major source of Optical Flow (OF) error in this approach to tumor detection. This work studies the performance of different conventional filters, including the standard Gaussian filter tool to remove this noise and produce more robust screening results. A radical approach, Multiple Frame Noise Removal (MFNR) is proposed, for use in this type of medical image processing instead of a Gaussian filter or other typical image noise removal tools. Its a multiple frame noise removal method where Probability Density Function (PDF) of noise is extracted from the multiple images by characterizing the same pixel positions in multiple images. The noise becomes deterministic, and hence easily removed. The proposed algorithm was applied to a data set from 10 phantom breast tests with a prototype DIET system, and 10 in-vivo samples from healthy women. Comparisons were made to an optimal Gaussian filter form that is commonly used. Reductions in OF error using these digitally imaged data sets was used to compare performance. Refinement of the images for medical applications requires higher PSNR, which was successfully achieved by using MFNR algorithm. In this study, the algorithm was used to improve the imaging results of a DIET system. The conventional wisdom that states that noise removal and detail preservation are contrasting effects is

An ultra-low power (ULP), power gated static random access memory (SRAM) is presented for Internet of Things (IoT) applications, which operates in sub-threshold voltage ranges from 300mV to 500mV. The proposed SRAM has tendency to operate in low supply voltages with high static and dynamic noise margins. The IoT application involves battery enabled low leakage memory architecture in subthreshold regime which has low power consumption. Therefore, to improve power consumption along with better cell stability, a power gated 10T SRAM is presented. The proposed cell uses a power gated p-MOS transistor to reduce the leakage power or static power in standby mode. Moreover, due to the schmitt triggering and read decoupling of 10T SRAM the static and dynamic behavior in read, write and standby mode has shown enhanced tolerance at different process, voltage and temperature (PVT) conditions. The proposed SRAM shows better results in terms of leakage power, read static noise margin (RSNM), write static noise margin (WSNM), write-ability or write trip point (WTP), read-write energy and dynamic read margin (DRM). Further, these parameters are observed at 8-Kilo bit (Kb) and compared with already existing SRAM architectures. It is observed that the leakage power is reduced by 1/81×, 1/75× of the conventional 6T (C6T) SRAM and read decoupled 8T (RD8T) SRAM, respectively at 300mV VDD. On the contrary, RSNM, WSNM, WTP and DRM values are improved by 3×, 2×, 11.11% and 31.8% as compared to C6T SRAM, respectively. Similarly, proposed 10T has 1.48×, 25% and 9.75% better RSNM, WSNM and WTP values as compared to RD8T SRAM, respectively at 300mV VDD.

Primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) is a pleural disease that abruptly affects healthy adolescents and young adults, representing a common thoracic disorder in this age group. This study aimed to investigate the necessity of preoperative chest tube insertion in patients with PSP and to re-evaluate current clinical treatment approaches. A retrospective review of medical records was conducted for children and young adults aged 14–30 years, diagnosed with PSP and who underwent Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) between January 2016 and December 2022 at Wonju Severance Christian Hospital. Patients were retrospectively divided into two groups based on their initial treatment: chest tube insertion and non-chest tube insertion. Clinical data including demographics, treatment details, and outcomes were collected and compared. Total 128 cases of PSP were included in the study. The total length of hospital stay was significantly shorter in the non-chest tube group (p=0.000), which was attributed to the omission of pre-operative chest tube insertions. No significant differences were observed between the two groups in terms of postoperative complications or recurrence rates. In cases of young patients with PSP, omitting pre-operative chest tube insertion may be a viable option if the patient is scheduled for VATS.

(1) Background: the popularity of rabbits has increased during the last decades and became the third common companion animals in EU. Their participation in animal assisted interventions (AAI) is growing. It is highly important to ensure the well-being of the animals in AAI. Whereas the needs and the advantages of people involved in AAI are becoming more and more evident, the needs of animals are not clearly determined, it is required not to affect the animals negatively. Those animals who are used for AAI purpose need toneed to be transported regulrarly; (2) Methods: the rabbits stress – caused by transportation – were measured by non-invasive faecaesl cortisol metabolite (FCM) analysis. 18 animals were involved in the study and experienced a 30 minutes transportation every second day duringfor two weeks (total 6 times) while 128 samples were collected; (3) Results: rabbits –could handle the transportation procedure by the first and second time but subsequently the stress hormone metabolites in faeces samples increased significantly regardless of the offered treatments (hay, carrot and apple) during the carriage. (4) Conclusions: those owners who use rabbits for Animal Assisted Intervention purpose need to take into account that transportation itself is a stressful experience for the animals.

Deep sky observation is a fascinating activity, but it requires favourable conditions in order to be fully appreciated. Complex equipment, light pollution around urban areas, lack of contextual information often prevents newcomers from making the most of their observations, restricting the field to a niche expert audience. In this paper, we show how combining the usage of smart telescopes with eXplainable Artificial Intelligence makes the practice of astronomy even more accessible and educative, and how it has been applied during outreach sessions In Luxembourg Greater Region.

Excitation of the acoustic field leading to the Blaha effect affects the plasticity of the material significantly in ultrasonic vibration-assisted forming. In a micro-forming field, the effects are more significant in the deformation in surface of materials [1]-[3], in which reduction of the surface roughness based on the increasing of plastic deformation of surface asperity was effective [4]. On the other hand, the effect on deformation behavior of the bulk region indicted reduction in the yield stress of materials, and not only acoustic effect [5], but also impact effect is found to generate a large amount of dislocation and produce plastic deformation [6][7]. However, the effect on the bulk is more significant as that on the surface. Differences in the effect on the surface and the bulk are not clarified. In this study, the mechanism of the deformation in the surface of the material with ultrasonic vibration assistance is investigated and compared with that in the bulk. Forging tests using a newly developed ultrasonic vibrator were carried out on pure Cu foils with various process conditions. The longitudinal vibration frequency of the ultrasonic transducer is 60∓2kHz, and the vibration amplitude is in an adjustable range of 0~10μm. Forging test was carried out at different initial stress, specimen size and amplitude. The difference in acoustic softening and impact effects on the surface and the bulk was discussed.

The preparation of new materials based on starch for the development of biodegradable packaging is increasing, however, the poor properties of this biopolymer for this application causes an area of opportunities for the improvement of water vapour permeability (WVP), mechanical properties, thermal properties, hydrophilicity, water absorption, among others. Hence, starch has been combined with other polymers such as polyvinyl alcohol, which has shown an improvement in the mechanical properties of starch, also, the use of clays suggests that the properties of response to water can be improved. Therefore, in this work, the preparation and characterization of starch-PVA-nanoclay films prepared by solvent casting is reported. The results obtained suggest that the sonication of nanoclay is necessary to reach a good dispersion, which promotes a strong interaction among starch-PVA-nanoclay. In addition, the properties of WVP and mechanical properties of films improved with incorporation of nanoclay, the concentration of 0.5% w/v of nanoclay showed to be the best concentration due to concentrations of 1.0 and 1.5% w/v were poorer than 0.5% w/v. Accordingly, the successful incorporation of nanoclays into the matrix starch-PVA suggests that this material is a good candidate for use as packaging.

Cannabis is a flowering plant that has long been used for medicinal, therapeutic, and recreational purposes. Cannabis contains more than 500 different compounds, including a unique class of terpeno-phenolic compounds known as cannabinoids; Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) are the most prevalent cannabinoids and have been associated with the therapeutic and medicinal properties of the cannabis plant. In this paper, continuous flow microwave assisted extraction (MAE) is presented and compared with other methods for commercial cannabis extraction. The practical issues of each extraction method are discussed. The main advantages of MAE are: continuous-flow method which allows for higher volumes of biomass to be processed in less time than existing extraction methods, improved extraction efficiency leading to increased final product yields, improved extract consistency and quality because the process does not require stopping and restarting material flows, and ease of scale-up to industrial scale without the use of pressurised batch vessels. Moreover, due to the flexibility of changing the operation conditions, MAE eliminates additional steps required in most extraction methods, such as biomass decarboxylation, winterisation, which typically adds at least a half day to the extraction process. Another factor that sets MAE apart is the ability to achieve high extraction efficiency even at the industrial scale. Whereas the typical recovery of active compounds using supercritical CO¬2 remains around 70-80%, via MAE up to 95% of the active compounds from cannabis biomass can be recovered at the industrial scale.

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) supplies nourishment to about half of the population of the world's inhabitants. Of them, more than 2 billion people suffer from "hidden hunger" in which they are unable to meet the recommended nutrients or micronutrients from their daily dietary intake. Bio-fortification refers to developing micronutrient-rich diet foods using traditional breeding methods and modern biotechnology, a promising approach to nutrition enrichment as part of an integrated strategy for food systems. To improve the profile of rice grain for the biofortification related traits, understanding the genetics of important biofortification traits is required. Moreover, these attributes are quantitative in nature and are influenced by several genes and environmental variables. In the course of past decades, several endeavours such, as finding the important quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for improving the nutrient profile of rice seeds were successfully undertaken. In this review, we have presented the information regarding the QTLs identified for the biofortification traits in the rice.

This research was presented the special designed microfluidic device generated for sperm separation based on assumption of different surface electrical charged of sperms X and Y. However, to avoid ethical problem, the microfluidic chip has been tested with the mimic electrical charged particles, TiO₂-coated Polystyrene beads, (TiO₂-coated Ps-beads), instead of spermatozoa. The work has been separated into three main parts. Firstly, the simply but efficient fabrication of negatively charged TiO₂-coated Ps-beads has been presented. In addition, various characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Tungsten Scanning Electron Microscopy (W-SEM) with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) mode, and X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS), have been reported in this work to elucidate the reasons behind the persistence of negatively charged on the surface of TiO₂-coated Ps-beads. Results show that the fabricated TiO₂-coated Ps-beads was partly coated in the mixed forms of amorphous Ti⁴⁺ and had caused a negatively charge to appear on the surface after fabrication and had sustained its electrical charged for long. Secondly, process of simulation and fabrication of microfluidic device was presented. Finally the negatively charged TiO₂-coated Ps-beads were tested in this microfluidic devices. For design of microfluidic devices integrated with a couple of microelectrodes, the simulated structures were fabricated by photolithographic technique and tested with the Ps-beads. Percentage of validation for Ps-beads separation indicated that the 100 mm-distance-between-electrodes microfluidic device exhibits to be the highest performance prototype at 86.96%. For further confirmation, another model so called the single path prototype has been established. It is confirmed by 92.59% of validation for the utilization of the device. The successfully designed microfluidic devices can be examined with actual spermatozoa later. Furthermore, process to fabricate the negatively charged TiO₂-coated Ps-beads can be established as testified samples for development of other microfluidic devices.

Highly-doped graphene samples show the conductance reduced and the shot-noise power enhanced compared to standard ballistic systems in two-dimensional electron gas. These features can be understood within a model assuming incoherent scattering of Dirac electrons between two interfaces separating the sample and the leads. Here we find, by adopting the above-mentioned model for the edge-free (Corbino) geometry and by means of the computer simulation of quantum transport, that another graphene-specific feature should be observable when the current flow through a doped disk is blocked by high magnetic field. In case the conductance drops to zero, the Fano factor approaches the value of $F\approx{}0.56$, with a very weak dependence on the disk radii ratio. The role of finite source-drain voltages and the system behavior upon tuning the electrostatic potential barrier from a rectangular to parabolic shape are also discussed.

Text-based CAPTCHA remains the most widely adopted security scheme, which is the first barrier to securing websites. Deep learning methods, especially Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are the mainstream approach for text-CAPTCHA recognition, which are widely used in CAPTCHA vulnerability assessment and data collection. However, verification code recognizers are mostly deployed on the CPU platform as part of a web crawler and security assessment, they are required to have both low complexity and high recognition accuracy. Due to the specifically designed anti-attack mechanisms like noise, interference, geometric deformation, twisting, rotation, and character adhesion in text CAPTCHAs, some characters are difficult to efficiently identify with high accuracy in these complex CAPTCHA images. This paper proposed a recognition model named Adaptive-CAPTCHA with a CRNN module and trainable and configurable filtering networks, which effectively handle the interference and learn the correlation between characters in CAPTCHAs to enhance recognition accuracy. Experimental results on two datasets of different complexity show that compared with the baseline model Deep-CAPTCHA, the number of parameters of our proposed model is reduced by about 70% and the recognition accuracy is improved by more than 10 percentage points in the two datasets. In addition, the proposed model has a faster training convergence speed.

Time evolution of the quantum correlation of the hybrid qubit-qutrit system in multilocal and global dephasing under the effect of a classical noises environment is presented. We considered the qutrit in z direction and the qubit x direction. In addition, our system presents two configurations: the different and the common environment and our discussion involves three types of noises: A Static Noise (SN), Random Telegraph Noise (RTN) and Ornstein- Uhlenbeck noise (OU). By using the density matrix approach to determine the evolution of the state of the system, the found that the static noise is fatal for the quantum entanglement, the quantum correlation and for RTN and OU noises the quantum entanglement, the quantum correlation decreases monotonically with a sufficiently long time. Therefore, we can say that, entanglement and the quantum correlation are more robust to the noise precisely those Random telegraph noise and Ornstein-Uhlenbeck noise.

This study proposes a customized industrial nozzle for generating impulsive air jets. It is installed on an automatic machine where wine caps are stacked and shot consecutively into a rotating cylinder by an air jet. This process is very noisy; hence, this study aimed to investigate possible geometric variations of the nozzle that can reduce the emitted noise. First, the nozzle was tested in a laboratory to measure the air consumption at different supply pressures. Subsequently, 3D models of the nozzle and its variations were created and used for computational fluid dynamics simulations. Different boundary conditions were set, first to validate the model and compare it with the experimental test results, and then to simulate the real working conditions and determine the geometry that is less noisy while maintaining the velocity peak. Among the various possibilities, shortening the final ducts of the nozzle appears to be the most promising solution. These modified nozzles could be easily added to current machines to provide immediate benefits, and this study represents a promising start for action on other machines where this type of device is present.

Wolfenden and his coworkers observed the astronomical numbers for the catalytic proficiency of some enzymes. We connected that pinnacle of biological evolution to the universal thermodynamic evolution. We added or multiplied a random noise with chosen rate constants to explore the correlation between dissipation and enzyme efficiency for ten enzymes: beta-galactosidase, glucose isomerase, β-lactamases from three bacterial strains, ketosteroid isomerase, triosephosphate isomerase, and carbonic anhydrase I, II, and T200H. The turnover number kcat and catalytic efficiency kcat/KM are proportional to the overall entropy production – the main parameter from irreversible thermodynamics. For most enzymes with the Michaelis-Menten type cycle kinetics, the best increase in the forward kcat/KM follows after increasing the equilibrium constant of substrate-enzyme association. The Discussion section emphasizes the role of biological evolution in harvesting order (high enzyme efficiency) from disorder (high noise and dissipation). It also connects the applications of the maximum partial entropy production theorem in optimizing enzyme kinetics (D. Juretić "Bioenergetics - A Bridge across Life and Universe") with the present total entropy production role analysis. De novo enzyme design and various attempts to speed up the rate-limiting catalytic steps may profit from our theoretical insights.

This paper presents an approach to enhancing the clarity and intelligibility of speech in digital communications compromised by various background noises. Utilizing deep learning techniques, specifically a Variational Autoencoder (VAE) with 2D convolutional filters, we aim to suppress background noise in audio signals. Our method focuses on four simulated environmental noise scenarios: storms, wind, traffic, and aircraft. Training dataset has been obtained from public sources (TED-LIUM 3 dataset, which includes audio recordings from the popular TED-TALK series) combining with these background noises. The audio signals were transformed into 2D power spectrograms, upon which our VAE model was trained to filter out the noise and reconstruct clean audio. Our results demonstrate that the model outperforms existing state-of-the-art solutions in noise sup-pression. Although differences in noise types were observed, it was challenging to definitively conclude which background noise most adversely affects speech quality. Results have been assessed with objective methods (mathematical metrics) and subjective (listening to a set of audios by humans). Notably, wind noise showed the smallest deviation between the noisy and cleaned audio, perceived subjectively as the most improved scenario. Future work involves refining the phase calculation of the cleaned audio and creating a more balanced dataset to minimize differences in audio quality across scenarios. Additionally, practical ap-plications of the model in real-time streaming audio are envisaged. This research contributes significantly to the field of audio signal processing by offering a deep learning solution tailored to various noise conditions, enhancing digital communication quality.

This paper exposes the initial part of a larger research on the impact of the automotive on human health and the quality of life and environment. After a brief introduction on the need for responsible and sustainable approaches and few questions on the subject, some considerations and statistical data are presented, based on a study of the literature on the impact of road traffic and vehicles noise and vibration on people's comfort and health and their quality of life. The research results show, based on official statistics, the significant harmful impact of noise and vibration from motor vehicles and road transport on people's health and quality of life, especially in urban areas during the day. Also, the significant increase in the number of electric and hybrid vehicles from one year to another, a reality and a necessity nowadays, and the awareness that electric vehicles are not perfectly quiet and comfortable, open new research opportunities and require the development of new standards, materials, tools, equipment and test methods in the field of NVH, in a sustained synergistic approach from all stakeholders, to meet the needs and demands of today's consumers, and to comply with existing regulations and standards on environmental protection and sustainable development.

This study deals with two different aspects of the high-strength low-alloyed 1100 MC steel. The first is associated with the remarkable heterogeneity in the surface state produced during sheet rolling with respect to the sheet width. The variable-thickness surface layer exhibits a microstructure different from that of the deeper bulk. Variation of the thickness of the thermally softened near-surface region strongly affects Barkhausen noise, as well. This technique can be considered a reliable tool for monitoring the aforementioned heterogeneity. It can also be reported that the opposite sides of the sheet are different with respect to the surface state, heterogeneity distribution, and corresponding Barkhausen noise. These aspects indicate the different conditions during hot rolling followed by rapid quenching on the upper and lower rollers. The second aspect is related to the remarkable asymmetry of Barkhausen noise emission with respect to two consecutive bursts. This asymmetry is due to the presence of remnant magnetisation in the sheet produced during manufacturing. The remnant magnetisation is coupled to the magnetic field produced by the excitation coil of the Barkhausen noise sensor and strongly contributes to the aforementioned asymmetry. As soon as sufficient removal of this remnant magnetisation is carried out in the vanishing magnetic field (demagnetisation), the aforementioned remarkable asymmetry is fully lost.

Most existing data synthesis methods are designed to tackle problems such as dataset imbalance, data anonymization and insufficient sample size. There is a lack of effective synthesis methods for the limited number of datasets which contain a large of features and unknown noise to expand the size of the dataset. We propose a data synthesis method, named Adaptive Subspace Interpolation for Sample Optimization (ASISO). The idea is to divide the original feature space into several subspaces with an equal number of samples, and then perform interpolation for the samples in the adjacent subspaces. This method can adaptively adjust the size of the dataset containing unknown noise, and the expanded data typically contain minimal error with actual. Moreover, it adjusts the structure of the samples, which can significantly reduce the proportion of samples with large errors. In addition, the hyperparameters of this method have an intuitive explanation and usually require little calibration. Experimental results on artificial data and benchmark data sets demonstrate that ASISO is a robust and stable method to optimize samples.

Analyzing the records of Advanced LIGO and Virgo gravitational observatories, we found a specific time-domain asymmetry, inherent only to the signals of their gravitational detectors. Experiments with different periodic signals, Gaussian and non-Gaussian noises made it possible to conclude that the noise of gravitational detectors is an unusual mixture of signals. The gravitational-wave signals have been detected and recognized using a specialized Pearson correlation analyzer. It turned out that the detector signals include a significant (– 6 dB) component, which has the properties of records of reliably recognized gravitational waves. This allows one to argue that the gravitational noise is largely due to the processes of merging astronomical objects. Since the specific signal is registered by the detectors continuously, the field of gravitational oscillations of the sub-kilohertz band can be considered as detected. A method of analysis has also been developed to estimate the contribution of the gravitational noise component to the total signal energy. With its help it will be possible not only to pass to the radio-frequency estimation of the magnitude of gravitational disturbances but also, possibly, to construct a map of the gravitational noise of the sky.

In research applications across several areas, noise removal is indispensable for accuracy of final results. Noise is caused due to physical principals, such as background electronic noise, quantum effect, and wave rebound effect to name a few. Noise removal can help improve results in medical, astronomy, defense, and numerous other fields. Addressing this limitation would result in potentially low cost, automatic, and reliable systems. In this paper, a generalized new approach i.e. Multi-Frame Noise Removal (MFNR) is proposed for noise removal. Given any type of data, the probability density function (PDF) of the noise can be determined. Herein, we extracted the noise PDF parameters using KDE (Kernel Density Estimation). Because the data is corrupted by “deterministic” noise, hence can be cleaned. This could be used as a general purpose noise removal tool. The data point with same position in multiple frames helps us determine the noise PDF characteristics and hence making it possible to remove noise. The conventional wisdom which states that noise removal and detail preservation are contrary to each other is not true for MFNR. Experimental results validate our proposed method which showed practically complete noise reduction based on number of frames used, as compared to existing benchmark methods.

Population concentration in cities brings new risks as an increase in pollution, which causes urban health problems. In order to address this problem, traffic reduction measures are being implemented, as pedestrianization areas and the definition of Low Emissions Zones (LEZ). When the effectiveness of these types of measures is in doubt, smart city tools provide data that can be used to scientifically asses their impact. This article analyzes the situation of Madrid Central (Spain), a LEZ subject to controversy. We apply statistical and regression analyses to evaluate the effectiveness of this measure to reduce air pollution and outdoor noise. According to the results, this LEZ was able to significantly reduce NO$_2$, PM$_{2.5}$, and PM$_{10}$ concentration locally, having the same positive impact in the rest of the city. In terms of noise, this measure is able to mitigate background noise levels generated by the road traffic.

We discuss some of the fundamental practical limitations of the Fluctuation-Enhanced Sensing of odors and gases. We address resolution, measurement speed, reproducibility, memory and other problems such as humidity. Various techniques and ideas are presented to overcome these problems. Circuit solutions are also discussed.

The new WHO Environmental Noise Guidelines for the European Region have recommendations for limiting noise exposure associated with adverse health effects. The limits are said to be based on a systematic review of existing evidence. This paper gives a systematic assessment of the presented evidence with respect to aircraft noise annoyance and demonstrates that the new guidelines are based on an arbitrary selection of existing studies comprising an imperfect and faulty set of data not representative for the general airport population.

Sperm capacitation involves biochemical and physiological changes that enable sperm to fertilize the oocyte. It can be induced in vitro under controlled conditions that simulate the environment of the oviduct. While extensively studied in mammals, its approach in lizards remains absent. Understanding the mechanisms that facilitate reproduction is essential for advancing the implementation of assisted reproductive technologies in this group. Fifteen males of Sceloporus torquatus were collected during the early stage of the reproductive season. The sperm were isolated from the seminal plasma and then diluted up to a volume of 150 μl using BWW medium to incubate with 5% CO2 at 30 °C for a maximum duration of 3 hours. A fraction was retrieved hourly for ongoing sperm assessment. We found that total motility is maintained up to 2 hours post-incubation, after which it decreased. However, sperm viability remained constant. From that moment on, we observed a transition to a deeper and less symmetrical flagellar bending in many spermatozoa. The chlortetracycline assay indicated a reduction in the percentage of sperm showing the F pattern and an increase in those exhibiting the capacitated (B) and reactive (RA) patterns, accompanied by an elevation in the percentage of damaged acrosomes as revealed by the lectin binding assay. In mammals, these changes are often associated with sperm capacitation. These observations support the notion that this process may also occur in saurian.

Chemical process control relies on a tightly controlled, narrow range of margins for critical variables, ensuring process stability and safeguarding equipment from potential accidents. The availability of historical process data is limited to a specific setpoint of operation. This challenge raises issues for process monitoring in predicting and adjusting to deviations outside of the range of operational parameters. Therefore, this paper proposes simulation-assisted deep transfer learning for predicting and optimizing the final purity and production capacity of the glycerin purification process. The proposed network is trained by the simulation domain to generate a base feature extractor, which is then fine-tuned using few-shot learning techniques on the target learner to extend the working domain of the model beyond the historical practice. The result shows that the proposed model improved prediction performance by 99% in predicting water content and 79.72% in glycerin prediction over the conventional deep learning model. Additionally, the implementation of the proposed model identified the production and product quality improvement for enhancing the glycerin purification process.

Alginate, a biopolymer promising in food, biomedical, pharmaceutical, and electronic materials industries, is characterized by its biodegradability, biocompatibility, low toxicity, and gel-forming properties. It is most abundantly found in brown algae. However, conventional dilute acid and alkali extraction methods face limitations in commercialization due to their long processing time, low throughput, and high solvent requirements. In this study, a microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) process for sodium alginate was designed to improve extraction efficiency. Solid/liquid ratio, extraction temperature, and extraction solvent concentration were major variables affecting sodium alginate extraction from Undaria pinnatifida(sea mustard). They were then statistically optimized using response surface methodology. Under optimal conditions (13.27 g/L, 91.86 ℃, 2.51 %(w/v), and 15 min), the yield was 38.41 %, which was 93.43 % of the theoretical content of sodium alginate in Undaria pinnatifida. Our work has confirmed the productivity and industrial feasibility of efficient extraction of sodium alginate from marine biomass, and we hope that it will serve as an encouraging case for the application of biopolymers as one of the desirable options for alternative petrochemicals to construct a sustainable society.

Catheter-based revascularization procedures developed as an alternative of systemic thrombolysis for patients at intermediate-high and high-risk pulmonary embolism. USAT IH-PE is a retrospective and prospective multicenter registry of such patients treated with ultrasound-facilitated, catheter-directed thrombolysis, whose preliminary results are presented in this study. The primary endpoint was the incidence of pulmonary hypertension (PH) at follow up. Secondary endpoints were short- and mid-term changes in echocardiographic parameters of right ventricle (RV) function, in-hospital and all-cause mortality, and procedure-related bleeding events. Between March 2018 and July 2023, 102 patients were included. The majority were at intermediate-high risk PE (86%), mostly female (57%), median age 66.5 years (IQR 56-74), and 28.4% had active cancer. Echocardiographic follow-up was available for 70 patients, and in only one the diagnosis of PH was confirmed by right heart catheterization, resulting in an incidence of 1.43% (CI 95%, 0.036-7.7). RV echocardiographic parameters improved both at 24 hours and at follow up. In-hospital mortality was 3.9% (CI 95%, 1.08-9.74) while all-cause mortality was 11% (CI 95%, 5.4-19.2). Only 12% had bleeding complications, oh whom 4.9% were BARC 3. Preliminary results from USAT IH-PE registry showed low incidence of PH, improvement in RV function and a safe profile.

Ureteral stricture (US) following ureteroscopic lithotripsy (URSL) has emerged as a serious issue due to the widespread use of laser technology. The management of complex US is challenging. This prospective study evaluated the efficacy of robot-assisted uretero-ureterostomy (RAUU) in addressing US following URSL, and analyzed the pathology of transected ureteral tissues to identify the risk factors for US during URSL. Fourteen patients, with a mean age of 49.8 years, were included in this study. The mean stricture length on radiography was 22.66 ± 7.38 mm. Nine (64.2%) patients had experienced failure with previous interventions, including eight patients who underwent endoscopic incision plus balloon dilation. At an average follow-up of 12.8 months, the overall success rates were 92.9% both clinically and radiographically, without major complications. Pathological findings revealed microcalcifications in 57.1% patients and loss of ureteral mucosa in 28.6% patients. In conclusion, this technique of RAUU via end-to-end anastomosis exhibits promise as a viable option for US following URSL in appropriately selected patients, despite serious pathological changes of the ureter. Migration to the site of ureteral perforation may be the most serious factor contributing to the development of US.

Ion beam-assisted deposition (IBAD) has been proposed as a promising texturing technology that uses film epitaxy method to obtain biaxial texture on a non-textured metal or compound substrate. Magnesium oxide (MgO) is the most well explored texturing material. In order to obtain the optimal biaxial texture, the actual thickness of the IBAD-MgO film must be controlled within 12 nm. Due to the bombardment of ion beams, IBAD-MgO has large lattice deformation, poor texture and many defects in the films. In this work, an additional homogeneous epitaxy MgO (epi-MgO) layer has been deposited on the IBAD-MgO layer by electron-beam evaporation. The biaxial texture can be optimized by the deposition of additional epi-MgO layer. The effects of growth temperature, film thickness, deposition rate and oxygen flux on the texture and morphology of the epi-MgO film were systematically studied. After the research of epi-MgO process, the best full width at half maximum (FWHM) values were 2.2 for the out-of-plane texture and 4.8° for the in-plane texture, respectively. Subsequently, the LaMnO3 cap layer and YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO) functional layer was deposited on the epi-MgO layer to test the quality of MgO layer. Finally, the critical current density of YBCO films is 6MA/cm2 (77K, 500nm, self-field), indicating that this research provides a high-quality MgO substrate for the YBCO layer.

Is there any possible synergic effect of fertility outcome between spindle view-assisted intracyto-plasmic sperm injection (SV-ICSI) with or without assisted oocyte activation (AOA) for patients with low fertilization rate history? To explore the answer, a retrospective study was held in our fertility center by reviewing patients receiving SV-ICSI during 2019/03 to 2023/06. Total 47 pa-tients were included, the fertility outcomes of intervention group (AOA-SV-ICSI, 14 patients) and control group (SV-ICSI, 33 patients), such as fertilization rate, blastocyst formation rate and clin-ical pregnancy rate, were analyzed. The blastocyst formation rate between groups was signifi-cantly higher in AOA-SV-ICSI group (p=0.020), but the fertilization rate and clinical pregnancy rate did not reach any statistical significance. This discovery of increased blastocyst formation rate in low fertilization rate patients could possibly help them in getting more usable embryos in fertility treatment.

Longer operating time in radical prostatectomy may escalate the risk of perioperative complications. Various factors like cancer extent, procedure’s level of difficulty, habitus and previous surgeries may lengthen robotic assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) and therefor compromise outcomes. Objective: this study investigates the influence of operating time on outcomes after RARP in real life settings in a monocentric single surgeon study. Methods: 500 consecutive patients who underwent RARP between April 2019 and August 2022 were included. Patients were divided in three groups. Short (n=157; 31.4%) under or equal to 120 minutes, average (n=255; 51%) between 121 and 180 minutes, long (n=88; 17,6%) above 180 minutes console-time. Demographic, baseline and perioperative data were analyzed and compared between groups. Univariate logistic regression was completed to investigate the association between console-time and outcomes and to predict factors which may prolong surgery. Results: hospital stay and catheter days were significantly longer in group 3 with medians 6 and 7 days (p<0.001 and <0.001, respectively). Those findings were confirmed in univariate analysis, p=0.012 for Catheter days and p<0.001 for Hospital stay. Moreover, major complications were higher in patients with longer procedures p=0.008. Prostate volume was the only predictor for prolonged console time (p=0.005). Conclusion: RARP is a safe procedure and most patients will be discharged uneventfully. Yet longer console-time is associated with longer hospital stay, catheter days and major complications. Caution has to be taken in large prostate to avoid longer procedures, which may prevent postoperative advert events.

Advancement in biotechnology and genomics research have promoted access to DNA markers and their use in breeding programs. Genome-wide association study (GWAS), Genomic selection (GS) and Marker-Assisted Selection (MAS) are some of the applications of DNA markers in plant breeding. Researchers have suggested combining these individual applications for better selection accuracies. This study examines the potential advantages of incorporating GWAS-results into MAS and GS as well as the validity of the different methods for combining these approaches. From this study, it was concluded that number of QTNs have greater effects on prediction accuracies compared to heritability estimates. Also, the increase in prediction accuracy from the invalid method of incorporating GWAS results into GS and MAS model is similar to results recorded with using the valid approach. However, greater difference may be observed in another scenario which can lead to spurious results when used to make breeding decisions.

Background: Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the leading malignancy diseases worldwide, especially in Asian. CAST is a potential oncogene in GC carcinogenesis process. The character of macrophage infiltration in GC microenvironment was also unaddressed. Methods: We first applied machine searching in gene candidate evaluation of GC. CAST expression was analyzed via the Human Protein Atlas (HPA) and Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis 2 (GEPIA2) database. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was downloaded from STRING. We investigated the impact of CAST on clinical prognosis using Kaplan-Meier plotter. The correlations between CAST and Lgr5 and macrophage infiltration in GC was surveyed via TIMER 2.0. Finally, GeneMANIA was also used to evaluate the possible functional linkage between genes. Results: After machine-assisted searching, CAST expression was found signicant difference in the overall survival of GC patients. STRING revealed CAST related proteomics and transcriptomics associations, mainly about CAPN family. Moreover, CAST significantly impacts the prognosis of GC from other datasets validation. Notably, high CAST expression was correlated with worse overall survival in GC patients (hazard ratio = 1.59; logrank P = 9.4 x 10-8). CAST and Lgr5 expressions were both positively correlated with WNT 2 and WNT 2B. Among GC patients in several datasets, CAST and macrophage infiltration evaluated together showed no obvious trend toward poor clinical overall survival. Conclusion: CAST plays an important role in GC clinical prognosis and is associated with WNT 2/WNT 2B/Lgr5. Our study denmostrated that CAST in GC overall survival is regulated by macrophage infiltration.

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is a perennial, outcrossing legume crop predominantly grown for hay, silage, or pasture. Intensive selection has resulted in dramatic improvement in fitness traits, including winter survival and disease resistance. However, there has been minimal improvement in other economically important traits, such as hay yield, which is still comparable to 30 years ago. Intensive phenotyping costs on this type of trait hinder high selection pressure to identify superior outcross individuals. Severe inbreeding depression inhibits the development of inbred lines with accumulated favorable alleles that exhibit heterosis. This review highlights the outcomes of inbreeding depression as well as the causes, including unmasking deleterious alleles and triggering self-incompatibility. We tracked the research efforts that unveil the genetic bases underlying deleterious alleles and self-incompatibility. The magnitudes of inbreeding depression were compared with the rate of heterozygous halved time in diploid and tetraploid organisms. To fill in the gaps between the controversy and existing hypotheses, we theorized a dosage dominant model of inheritance. The dosage dominant model is similar to the Mendelian dominance model, in which a genotype exhibits a dominant phenotype if there is a dominant allele (alphabet dominant). The difference is that in the dosage dominant model, a genotype will result in a dominant phenotype if the number of dominant alleles is equal to or greater than the number of recessive alleles. This review also includes a discussion on the development of pseudo inbreds and a hypothesis to identify deleterious alleles using bulked segregant analysis and consequently to purge deleterious alleles using marker-assisted selection, to progress toward the successful development of pure inbred lines in alfalfa.

Sustainable agricultural production is endangered by several ecological factors such as drought, extreme temperatures, excessive salts, parasitic ailments, and insect pest infestation. These challenging environmental factors may have adverse effects on future agriculture production in many countries. In modern agriculture, conventional crop breeding techniques alone are inadequate for achieving the increasing population’s food demand on a sustainable basis. The advancement of molecular genetics and related technologies are promising tools for the selection of new crop species. Gene pyramiding through marker assisted selection (MAS) and other techniques have accelerated the development of durable resistant/tolerant lines with high accuracy in the shortest possible period of time for agricultural sustainability. Gene stacking has not been fully utilized for biotic stress resistance development and quality improvement in most of the major cultivated crops. This review emphasizes on gene pyramiding techniques that are being successfully deployed in modern agriculture for improving crop tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses for sustainable crop improvement.

The acoustic environment in learning spaces significantly influences learning effectiveness and occupant well-being. Recent studies have shown that a series of architectural factors within physical learning environments can impact students' educational experiences. This research delves into the relationship between architectural characteristics and the perceived acoustic environment among 467 primary students in 19 learning spaces across 9 schools in Chile. The survey comprises a student questionnaire, a checklist evaluating space characteristics, and acoustic measurements of indoor noise levels during occupied conditions. Examined topics include Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) comfort perception, noise annoyance, hearing ability, and acoustic preference. Architectural characteristics considered encompass flexible and acoustic space design parameters. The results indicated that noise discomfort was a common issue, especially in traditional learning spaces without acoustic treatment. The type of learning space (traditional or flexible settings) has a greater impact on acoustic perception particularly concerning noise discomfort and acoustic preference. However, poorly acoustic spaces lacking absorbing materials or exhibiting lower spatial density (m2 per student) contribute to increased indoor noise levels affecting noise annoyance caused by children's talking inside. The study emphasizes the importance of considering both architectural design and acoustic conditioning for optimizing the acoustic experience in educational spaces.

The abilities of quantitative description of noise are restricted due to its origin and only the statistical and spectral analysis methods can be applied while an exact time evolution cannot be defined or predicted. It emphasizes the challenges faced in many applications including communication systems where noise can play, on one hand, a vital role impacting signal-to-noise ratio but possessing, on the other hand, unique properties such as infinite entropy (infinite information capacity), exponentially decaying correlation function and so on. Despite the deterministic nature of chaotic systems, the predictability of chaotic signals is limited for a short time window putting them close to random noise. In this article, we propose and experimentally verify an approach to achieve Gaussian-distributed chaotic signals by processing the outputs of chaotic systems. The mathematical criteria, on which the main idea of the study is based on, is the Central Limit Theorem which states that the sum of a large number of independent random variables with similar variances approaches a Gaussian distribution. The study involves more than 40 mostly three-dimensional continuous-time chaotic systems (Chua’s, Lorenz’s, Sprott’s, memristor-based, etc.) whose output signals are analyzed according to criteria that encompass the probability density functions of a chaotic signal itself and its envelope and phase, statistical and entropy-based metrics such as skewness, kurtosis, and entropy power. We found that two chaotic signals of Chua’s and Lorenz’s systems exhibited superior performance across the chosen metrics. Furthermore, our focus extended to determining the minimum number of independent chaotic signals necessary to yield a Gaussian-distributed combined signal. The analytic and experimental results indicate that the sum of at least three non-Gaussian chaotic signals closely approximates Gaussian distribution. It allows generation of reproducible Gaussian-distributed deterministic chaos by modeling simple chaotic systems.

We propose a method that enables precise determination of the number of atoms in a Dick-noise-free optical lattice clock, by effectively addressing quantum projection noise. Our approach relies on conducting stability measurements at three distinct parameter sets, allowing us to differentiate between quantum projection noise, photon shot noise, and technical noise. Importantly, our method enables accurate extraction of the atom number, even in the presence of photon shot noise and technical noise. To validate the effectiveness of our approach, we employ numerical simulations and optimize the modulation parameters to achieve the smallest uncertainty possible. The numerical simulations show the validity of our method and demonstrate a measurement uncertainty in the atom number that is below 4% across a wide range of atom numbers, provided that the standard deviation of atom number fluctuation is kept below 0.23 times the average atom number.

Discretization in time and in the state space of the system leads to the necessity to solve the parameter identification problems for dynamic systems in a limited time (at a finite time interval) using observations obtained under the influence of unknown-but-bounded noise. Finding the solution in this case is more difficult compared to traditional identification problem setting which considers random independent zero-mean noise. For system parameter identification problem under unknown-but-bounded noise, a randomized stochastic optimization algorithm is given in the paper, estimates for the mean square values of the residuals for a finite observation interval are obtained. An example of application of the given method to the problem of tuning the parameters of a multi-mirror telescope is considered.

In forensic acoustics, a possible area of analysis is represented by unwanted sound that 1 is perceived as a source of intrusion or disturbance within a certain auditory context. This context 2 is defined as the "auditory scene" and refers to the set of sounds present in a specific environment. 3 The presence of unwanted sounds in the auditory scene can cause a wide range of negative effects, 4 including disturbance, discomfort, moral or immoral harm, and other types of negative impact on the 5 health and well-being of individuals exposed to noise. In 2022, the technical specification UNI/TS 6 11844:2022 dedicated to the measurement and analysis of intrusive noise was published. The standard 7 introduces the concept of intrusive noise and defines its calculation methods based on environmental 8 measurements. The purposes of this technical specification is to provide an objective support to 9 methods already in used in acoustic disputes, where the assessment of the annoyance of a noise is 10 often a subjective evaluation of the technician. This work delves into the application to some real 11 cases, identifying the potentiality and the limits of the standardized method.

These years, disease-causing and disabling diseases have caused great concern. Neurological, musculoskeletal disorders are diverse and affect people of a wide range of ages. And the lack of comprehensive diagnostic methods places a huge burden on healthcare systems and social economies. In this paper, the current status of clinical research on neuromuscular diseases is introduced, and the advantages of magnetic field measurement compared with clinical diagnostic methods are illustrated. The paper makes a comprehensive description about the related technology of superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs), magnetic field detection noise suppression scheme, the development trend of sensor detection system, and the application and model establishment of neuromuscular magnetic field. The current researches and developments in the worldwide are compared simultaneously in this paper and finally the conclusions and outlook are put forward. This review will be very interesting and helpful to the scientific community.