The information from Real Twins are increasingly used to construct Digital Twins. Acquisition of information from the Real Twin or in other words performing measurements on the Real Twin may lead to effects in the working of Real Twin. For instance, the introduction of sensors may impair certain functions of a Real Twin. Therefore, it is important to analyse the effect of any change that is performed on the Real Twin for achieving the Digital Twin. In this paper, a method for Digital Twin solution is presented that address these aspects as well as its use is demonstrated by a case example.

In recent years, evidence has started piling up that some high-energy cosmic neutrinos can be associated with blazars in flaring states. On 2022 February 26, a new blazar-neutrino coincidence was reported: the track-like neutrino event IC220225A detected by IceCube is spatially coincident with the flat-spectrum radio quasar PKS 0215+015. Like previous associations, this source was found to be in a high optical and γ-ray state. Moreover, the source showed a bright radio outburst, which substantially increases the probability of a true physical association. We have performed six observations with the VLBA shortly after the neutrino event with a monthly cadence and are monitoring the source with the Effelsberg 100m-Telescope, and with the Australia Compact Telescope Array. Here, we present first results on the contemporary parsec-scale jet structure of PKS 0215+015 in total intensity and polarization to constrain possible physical processes leading to neutrino emission in blazars.

Poly-victims are described as subjects who experience extremely high levels of victimization. This condition is regularly associated with wide psychopathological distress. Children and adolescents are special risk collective for this type of victimization.

Welfare concerns for intensive beef production have often been raised, but on-farm welfare assessment studies are rare. The aim of this study was to apply the Welfare Quality® (WQ) welfare assessment system for fattening cattle on beef bull farms to evaluate the state of welfare at the level of WQ measures and of aggregated scores, as well as overall classification. In addition, the purpose was to evaluate two ways of providing feedback information to the farmers with regard to possible welfare improvements on the farms. The study was conducted in Austria, Germany and Italy on a total of 63 beef bull farms with deep litter or cubicle-housing systems. Assessments were carried out 3 times (1 month and 7 months apart from the initial visit). In every country, farmers were assigned to two treatment groups (feedback from initial visit as written report, F, written feedback plus oral advice, FA) and a control group (C), which did not receive any feedback. At the criterion level, the highest average welfare scores were obtained from ‘Absence of prolonged hunger’ (94/100 points) followed by ‘Absence of pain induced by management procedures’ (88/100) and ‘Comfort around resting’ (77/100). Most welfare concerns related to the criteria ‘Absence of disease’ (40/100), ‘Expression of social behaviour’ (44/100) and ‘Positive emotional state’ (48/100), thus indicating room for improvements. Two-thirds of the farms achieved the ‘Enhanced’ level, about one-third was judged ‘Acceptable’ and only one farm ‘Excellent’. After 6 months of monitoring period, there was no significant welfare improvement in both the treatment groups as compared with the control group. Reasons for the lack of effect may mainly be seen in the short monitoring period and a lack of external incentives. In conclusion, the WQ assessment system revealed areas for improvement, but longer term studies and investigations on alternative ways of transferring outcomes from on-farm welfare assessments to farmers should be carried out in future.

Consistency over time of (on-farm) animal welfare assessment systems forms part of reliability, meaning that results of the assessment should be representative of the longer-term welfare state of the farm as long as the housing and management conditions have not changed considerably. This is especially important if assessments are to be used for certification purposes. It was the aim of the present study to investigate consistency over time of the Welfare Quality® (WQ®) assessment system for fattening cattle at single measure level, aggregated criterion and principle scores, and overall classification across short-term (1 month) and longer-term periods (6 months). We hypothesized that consistency over time of aggregated criterion and principle scores is higher than that of single measures. Consistency was also expected to be lower with longer intervals between assessments. Data were obtained using the WQ® protocol for fattening cattle during three visits (months 0, 1 and 7) on 63 beef farms in Austria, Germany and Italy. Only data from farms where no major changes in housing and management had taken place were considered for analysis. At the single measure level, Spearman rank correlations between visits were >0.7 and variance was lower within farms than between farms for six and two of 19 measures after 1 month and 6 months, respectively. After aggregation of single measures into criterion and principle scores, five and two of 10 criteria and three and one of four principles were found reliable after 1 and 6 months, respectively. At the WQ® principle level, this was the case for three and one of four principles. Seventy-nine per cent and 75% of the farms were allocated to the same overall welfare category after 1 month and 6 months. Possible reasons for a lack of consistency are seasonal effects or short-term fluctuations that occur under normal farm conditions, low prevalence of clinical measures and probably insufficient sample size, whereas poor inter-observer agreement leading to inflation of correlation can be ruled out. At the criterion and principle level, aggregation of information into scores appears to partly smoothen undirected variation at the single measure level without losing sensitivity in terms of welfare evaluation. Reliable on-farm animal welfare assessments should therefore be based on repeated assessments. Further long-term studies are recommended to better understand the factors influencing consistency over time.

We investigated a cluster of shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O104:H4 infections after a family party during a large STEC O104:H4 outbreak in Germany. To identify the vehicle we conducted a retrospective cohort study. Stool samples of party guests, and food and environmental samples from the catering company were tested for STEC. We defined cases as party guests with gastrointestinal symptoms and laboratory-confirmed STEC infection. We found 23 cases among 71 guests. By multivariable analysis consumption of salmon [odds ratio (OR) 15, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2·3–97], herb cream (OR 6·5, 95% CI 1·3–33) and bean salad (OR 6·1, 95% CI 1·4–26) were associated with STEC infection. STEC O104:H4 was detected in samples of bell pepper and salmon. The food handler developed STEC infection. Our results point towards transmission via several food items contaminated by a food handler. We recommend regular education of food handlers emphasizing their role in transmitting infectious diseases.

In this study it is shown how the behaviour of radionuclides in agricultural soils can be quantitatively estimated. The sorption of those nuclides onto soil particle surfaces is a key process which every predictive model has to take into account. This has been accomplished by implementing a component additivity (CA-) model into the well known geochemical code PHREEQC that includes the most important sorbents clay, amorphous iron oxide and organic matter. For uranium and cesium it is shown that model calculations are in excellent agreement with experimental data.

Three handbooks have been developed, in conjunction with a wide range of stakeholders to assist in the management of contaminated food production systems, inhabited areas and drinking water following a radiological incident. The handbooks are aimed at national and local authorities, central government departments and agencies, emergency services, radiation protection experts, the agriculture and food production sectors, industry and others who may be affected. The handbooks include management options for application in the different phases of an incident. Sources of contamination considered in the handbooks include nuclear accidents and radiological dispersion devices; the most relevant radionuclides are included. The handbooks are divided into several sections which provide supporting scientific and technical information; an analysis of the factors influencing recovery; compendia of comprehensive, state-of-the-art datasheets for around 100 management options and guidance on planning in advance. A decision-aiding framework comprising colour coded selection tables, look-up tables and decision trees and several worked examples are also included. The handbooks can be used as a preparatory tool, under non-crisis conditions, to engage stakeholders and to develop local and regional plans. The handbooks can also be applied as part of the decision-aiding process to develop a recovery strategy following an incident. In addition, the handbooks are useful for training purposes and during emergency exercises. To realise their full potential, the handbooks should be customised at national, regional and local levels.

Generic guidance on the withdrawal of sheltering, withdrawal of evacuation and evacuation of sheltered populations (displacement) has been developed based on previously unpublished work in the UK and France and on input from stakeholder panels in Germany, Belgium, France and the UK. The guidance is a living document that can be developed further in the future, both in its generic form and also as customised versions in some Member States. The guidance outlines the many factors which influence the withdrawal of emergency countermeasures: official confirmation that any release has stopped; adequacy of monitoring data; radiological criteria; radiological protection advice; availability of resources; social and psychological needs; stakeholder dialogue; and communication strategy. The relative importance placed by decision makers on each of these criteria would vary according to the nature and scale of the accident and also on socio-political, economic and cultural perspectives. In the event of a radiological incident, decision makers will need to be in a position to construct a strategy for managing the withdrawal of emergency countermeasures. For larger scale, longer duration releases involving several nuclides, a management strategy is likely to be complex. The guidance therefore includes a series of checklists which have been developed in conjunction with stakeholders to take into account the main criteria and factors which should be considered.

The influence of metallization and processing on Schottky barrier formation provides the basis for one of several fruitful approaches for controlling junction electronic properties. Interface cathodo-and photoluminescence measurements reveal that electrically-active deep levels form on GaAs(100) surfaces and metal interfaces which depend on thermally-driven surface stoichiometry and reconstruction, chemical interaction, as well as surface misorientation and bulk crystal quality. These interface states are discrete and occur at multiple gap energies which can account for observed band bending. Characteristic trends in such deep level emission with interface processing provide guides for optimizing interface electronic behavior. Correspondingly, photoemission and internal photoemission spectroscopy measurements indicate self-consistent changes in barrier heights which may be heterogeneous and attributable to interface chemical reactions observed on a monolayer scale. These results highlight the multiple roles of atomic-scale structure in forming macroscopic electronic properties of compound semiconductor-metal junctions.

Since its initial report by the IBM/Purdue University group in 1990, GaAs with As precipitates (GaAs:As) has been shown by this group to exhibit unusual and useful electrical and optical properties. In this paper we review our progress in understanding the fundamental properties of this material. We have shown that both the electrical and optical properties of GaAs:As arc explained by assuming that the GaAs is of good crystalline quality and that the As precipitates act as buried Schottky barriers. This model accounts for its semi-insulating stability against both n- and p-type doping, its high-speed photoconductive behavior, and its ability to detect 1.3 micron light when it forms the “I” layer of a PIN photodiode via the internal photoemission process. Using modulation spectroscopy we clarify the fundamental differences between GaAs:As and unannealed GaAs grown at 200 C. We also show that GaAs:As used as a 1.3 micron detector in the metal-semiconductor-metal device structure format, has a photoconductive bandwidth in excess of 50 GHz.

Recent studies of interface states and band bending at metal / III-V compound semiconductor interfaces reveal that these junctions are much more controllable and predictable than commonly believed. Soft x-ray photoemission spectroscopy studies demonstrate a wide range of band bending for metals on many III-V compounds, including GaAs. Cathodoluminescence spectroscopy measurements show that discrete states form at the microscopic junction which can have a dominant effect on the band bending properties. Internal photoemission measurements confirm the bulk barrier heights inferred by photoemission methods. After separating out surface chemical and bulk crystal quality effects, one finds simple, predictive barrier height variations which follow classical Schottky behavior.

We find that epitaxial Fe films sandwiched between epitaxial Ag films grown on GaAs (001) substrates possess residual coherency strain at a thickness of 2000Å. The [001] directions of the Fe and Ag films are tilted with respect to the GaAs [001] axis. The tilts are coplanar with the tilt of the substrate surface normal to the [001] axis of GaAs and are qualitatively consistent with a recently proposed modol for tilted epitaxy.

.We report the growth and magnetic properties of epitaxial Fe films, prepared by MBE on films of GaAs and In0.2Ga0.8As, on GaAs (100) substrates. We find that the magnetic properties of the Fe films, which are in the thickness range 300-900Å have virtually no dependence on the nature of the buffer film between the GaAs substrate and the Fe film. In terms of FMR linewidth, 4πMs and anisotropy, the Fe films are of the highest quality yet reported. Values of exchange constant and surface anisotropies were derived from an analysis of spinwaves observed in the thickest films.

The defect structure of lattice-mismatched one micron In0.12 Ga0.88As epilayers on (001) GaAs was studied with scanning cathodoluminescence (CL) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). CL examination of the GaAs buffer layer revealed the formation of a segmented network of defects below the interface. Cross-sectional TEM analysis shows that these defects are dislocation half-loops extending from the interface, and the vast majority of these loops lie on the GaAs side of the interface. The dislocations in the GaAs buffer layer were determined to be edge dislocations. Thus, CL images show that edge dislocations in this system are centers for non-radiative recombination. We propose that two 60° dislocations with opposite screw and interface tilt components can glide into the buffer layer to form edge dislocations. Potential energy plots for 60° dislocations near the interface and interacting with interface dislocations supports this model.