Fundamental study on the thermodynamic non-equilibrium freezing probability prediction model taking into account the super cooling phenomena in porous material

It is commonly considered that frost damage is caused by sudden freezing of supercooled water, which is a random phenomenon. Therefore, the aims of this study are to establish a prediction model for the probability of freezing until any lowest reached temperature, and to obtain the probability distribution function of the freezing point for the proposed analytical prediction model. First, theoretical prediction model for the probability of the instantaneous increment of ice content when lowest achieving temperature was known was derived based on these assumptions that building structure is an aggregation of small elements. Next, the freezing point measurement was carried out by using saturated mortar samples as the small element. As the results, it could be found that the first freezing due to supercooling occurred from -4 to -11 deg. C and the maximum probability was appeared at -7.5 deg. C. The average increment of ice content at every temperature closed to the 40 % volume of pore water until the thermodynamically-based freezing point. Moreover, the proposed method that can calculate the probability distributions of the instantaneous increment of ice content for any lowest achieving temperature from pore size distribution had good agreements with the measurement results.

Lived Experiences of Siblings of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder in India: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can impact the individual and their families. The impact on siblings is unique because they evolve from being another child in the family to a future adult who can be a potential resource to the family in supporting a member with ASD. Since the quality of care and support can be affected by the lived experiences of the carer and there are not many studies on siblings, this study examined the lived experiences of siblings of individuals with ASD. Methods: Fourteen siblings of individuals with ASD, aged 15–36 years, were recruited from a tertiary hospital, schools, and private institutes. A semistructured interview schedule was used to explore the lived experiences. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to identify the themes. Results: The themes based on IPA indicated that the siblings have very basic concerns like understanding the condition and complex issues such as coping, preparing for current and future roles, personal needs and expectations, need for a support system, and positive aspects of the sibling relationship. Nonetheless, the siblings minimized reporting their difficulties and focused more on the needs of the sibling with ASD. Conclusion: Siblings have diverse lived experiences, with a small element of positive experiences. Appropriate supports are needed to address the complexities of the lived experiences.

Research of the Possibilities of Matching the Multi-element Receiving-Transmitting Irradiator Aperture

Currently, aperture antennas with spatial excitation, such as reflector antennas and phased array antennas, are widely used in radar. The composition of such an antenna includes an irradiator, which can be made in the form of a small-element array of radiators to form a set of necessary radiation patterns. Monopulse irradiators are often used, which form both total and difference directional patterns. When performing an irradiator based on waveguide parts, radiators in the form of horns or open ends of waveguides are installed in its aperture. Waveguide irradiators with four and twelve horns are widely used. One of the main electrical characteristics of such an irradiator when used as part of a receiving-transmitting antenna is the isolation of the transmitting and receiving paths. Matching the aperture of the transmitting and receiving irradiator has a significant effect on the isolation of its waveguide channels. With small transverse dimensions of the radiators in the form of open ends of waveguides, it is not possible to obtain high isolation of waveguide channels without the use of additional matching elements. The task of research the effect of matching the aperture of a waveguide multi-element irradiator on the isolation of its transmitting and receiving channels, as well as the ways of matching its radiators, is set.The article considers a four-horn irradiator, the aperture of which contains radiators in the form of open ends of a square waveguide. Each radiator has the radius rounding required for the manufacture of the product using the available technological processes. To match the emitter, a dielectric plate is installed inside it. During the research the thickness of the plate and its location relative to the aperture plane changed. The characteristics of matching the radiators with a plate made of teflon, polyethylene and ST-4 material based on polymers filled with titanium dioxide are presented.The proposed method of matching the opening of a multi-element irradiator with a transverse emitter size of 0,68λ (λ is the wavelength in free space corresponding to the average frequency of the operating band) makes it possible to improve the isolation of the receiving and transmitting waveguide channels by at least 4 dB in the frequency band of up to 3%.

Birth of a Regulatory Long Non-coding RNA/Gene, linc-UR-UB

The origin of genes has been a major topic of research for many years, albeit in some cases, it has been a difficult process to elucidate. Insightful is a recent publication that experimentally shows how one gene, linc-UR-UB was born. This gene is regulated in a complex manner in male germ cells during spermatogenesis and is believed to participate in the regulation of levels of the ubiquitin specific peptidase 18 (USP18) mRNA. The process of formation of linc-UR-UB appears relatively simple. It involves a transcription read through from an upstream gene to a downstream functional element, the USP18 3' UTR sequence. This small element also shares the same sequence as the 3' ends of the lincRNA FAM247 family genes. In addition to linc-UR-UB, it is possible that other genes formed in a similar fashion that involves a genomic sequence read through to a functional element.

Diversity and Life-Cycle Analysis of Pacific Ocean Zooplankton by Videomicroscopy and Dna Barcoding: Crustacea

Determining the DNA sequencing of a small element in the mitochondrial DNA (DNA barcoding) makes it possible to easily identify individuals of different larval stages of marine crustaceans without the need for laboratory rearing. It can also be used to construct taxonomic trees, although it is not yet clear to what extent this barcode-based taxonomy reflects more traditional morphological or molecular taxonomy. Collections of zooplankton were made using conventional plankton nets in Newport Bay and the Pacific Ocean near Newport Beach, California (Lat. 33.628342, Long. -117.927933) between May 2013 and January 2020, and individual crustacean specimens were documented by videomicroscopy. Adult crustaceans were collected from solid substrates in the same areas. Specimens were preserved in ethanol and sent to the Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada for sequencing of the COI DNA barcode. From 1042 specimens, 544 COI sequences were obtained falling into 199 Barcode Identification Numbers (BINs), of which 76 correspond to recognized species. The results show the utility of DNA barcoding for matching life-cycle stages as well as for documenting the diversity of this group of organisms.

The influence of part-time work on graduates' careers

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore university students' perceptions about career development in relation to their part-time working and to examine whether students maximise opportunities arising in their part-time job in order to enhance their personal profile and career aspirations.Design/methodology/approachSemi-structured interviews were held with 20 degree students at a UK university. The interview was based around 19 questions, split into three sections: general; career and the part-time job.FindingsThe findings indicate that while students are aware that part-time work helps in developing personal skills, there is a lack of awareness on how part-time work can provide differentiation in the graduate jobs market and support long-term graduate careers. The conclusion discusses the implications of the findings suggesting greater awareness among students of how part-time work can drive work readiness and long-term career aspirations. It also recommends greater involvement of career advisors and university teaching colleagues in supporting this endeavour.Originality/valueWhile other papers on student working have included a small element regarding careers, this paper offers originality by focussing solely on the relationship between students' part-time work and career aspirations. Moreover, most works in this area have been quantitative studies, whereas this study is qualitatively-based.

Visual perception of texture regularity: conjoint measurements and a wavelet response-distribution model

Texture regularity, such as the repeating pattern in a carpet, brickwork or tree bark, is a ubiquitous feature of the visual world. The perception of regularity has generally been studied using multi-element textures in which the degree of regularity has been manipulated by adding random jitter to the elements’ positions. Here we used three-factor Maximum Likelihood Conjoint Measurement (MLCM) to investigate the encoding of regularity information under more complex conditions in which element spacing and size, in addition to positional jitter, were manipulated. Human observers were presented with large numbers of pairs of multi-element stimuli with varying levels of the three factors, and indicated on each trial which stimulus appeared more regular. All three factors contributed to regularity perception. Jitter, as expected, strongly affected regularity perception. This effect of jitter on regularity perception is strongest at small element spacing and large texture element size, suggesting that the visual system utilizes the edge-to-edge distance between elements as the basis for regularity judgments. We then examined how the responses of a bank of Gabor wavelet spatial filters might account for our results. Our analysis indicates that SF-peakedness, a previously favored proposal, is insufficient for regularity encoding since it varied more with element spacing and size than with jitter. Instead, our results support the idea that the visual system may extract texture regularity information from the moments of the SF-distribution across orientation. In our best-performing model, the variance of SF-distribution skew across orientations can explain 70% of the variance of estimated texture regularity from our data, suggesting that it could provide a candidate readout for perceived regularity.Author SummaryWe investigated human perception of texture regularity, in which subjects made comparative judgements of regularity in pairs of texture stimuli with differing levels of three parameters of texture construction - spacing and size of texture elements, and their positional jitter. We analyzed the data using a novel approach involving three-factor Maximum Likelihood Conjoint Measurement (MLCM). We utilized a novel analysis-of-variance approach in MLCM to evaluate the effect size and significance of the three factors as well as their interactions. We found that all three factors contributed to perceived regularity, with significant main effects and interactions between factors, in a manner suggesting edge-to-edge distances between elements might contribute importantly to regularity judgments. Using a bank of Gabor wavelet spatial filters to model the response of the human visual system to our textures, we compared four types of ways that the distribution of wavelet responses could account for our measured data on perceived regularity. Our results suggest that the orientation as well as spatial frequency information from the wavelet filters also contributes importantly - in particular, the skew of the variance of the SF-distribution across orientation provides a candidate basis for perceived texture regularity.