Nonlinear simulations of Alfvén modes (AMs) driven by energetic particles (EPs) in the presence of turbulence are performed with the gyrokinetic particle-in-cell code ORB5. The AMs carry a heat flux, and consequently they nonlinearly modify the plasma temperature profiles. The isolated effect of this modification on the dynamics of turbulence is studied by means of electrostatic simulations. We find that turbulence is reduced when the profiles relaxed by the AM are used, with respect to the simulation where the unperturbed profiles are used. This is an example of indirect interaction of EPs and turbulence. First, an analytic magnetic equilibrium with circular concentric flux surfaces is considered as a simplified example for this study. Then, an application to an experimentally relevant case of ASDEX Upgrade is discussed.

In the Western Scheldt estuary, like in many estuaries, safe navigation, flood protection, and ecological targets require a balanced and sustainable sediment management. A thorough understanding of the morphodynamic functioning of the estuary and its response to changes in hydrodynamics (natural sediment transport) and large-scale interventions is imperative. This paper presents a detailed overview of over 65 years of morphological changes and a comprehensive sediment budget of the Western Scheldt estuary that is based on analysis of a unique series of frequent bathymetric surveys and historical data on human–sediment interactions of dredging, dredge disposal and sand mining. Solving the sediment budget reveals an annual sediment import of 2.2 million m3. The highest sediment imports occurred between 1980–1994 and 2005–2020 (2.9 and 3.7 million m3/year). A 1.3 million m3/year net export prevailed between 1994 and 2005. Natural variations in the hydrodynamics (e.g., tidal asymmetry and amplification) and sediment transports cannot explain the derived temporal variations in sediment import rates. Anthropogenic activities play a dominant role. Capital dredging of the main navigation channel has led to channel deepening and significantly increased dredge and disposal volumes. Disposal on tidal flats and in the secondary channel leads to a long-term storage of sand and, consequently, a local increase in bed level and a sand deficit in the remainder of the system that results in increased sediment imports. Large-scale disposal in the western part of the estuary can (temporarily) reverse the sediment exchange between the estuary and its mouth area, as observed between 1994 and 2005. Apparently, large-scale anthropogenic reallocation of sediment by dredging and/or disposal as part of navigation channel improvement, sand mining or nourishment essentially influences the morphological development of the Western Scheldt estuary. This reveals responsibilities as well as opportunities of sediment management for the Western Scheldt and similar estuaries worldwide.

It is a simple method to identify the hub dynamic loads of rotor by measuring the vibration responses on helicopter fuselage. However, the identification accuracy of the hub dynamic loads is related to the layout or placement of measuring points on the fuselage. The identification will be inaccurate if the layout of measuring points on the fuselage is unreasonable to result in the “ill-conditioned” frequency response function (FRF) matrix measured on the fuselage. In order to avoid the inaccurate identification due to the “ill-conditioned” measured FRF matrix, an accurate method for identifying the hub dynamic loads of rotor by vibration measurement on helicopter fuselage is proposed in this paper. In the proposed method, the reasonable layout of the measuring points on the fuselage for the “well-conditioned” measured FRF matrix can be obtained according to the condition number of the measured FRF matrix on the fuselage, and then the hub dynamic loads of rotor can be accurately identified. The simulation and experiment of the identification of the hub dynamic loads on a dynamically similar frame structure of a helicopter cockpit floor have verified the effectiveness and accuracy of the proposed method.

The present work discusses the use of a weakly-supervised deep learning algorithm that reduces the cost of labelling pixel-level masks for complex radio galaxies with multiple components. The algorithm is trained on weak class-level labels of radio galaxies to get class activation maps (CAMs). The CAMs are further refined using an inter-pixel relations network (IRNet) to get instance segmentation masks over radio galaxies and the positions of their infrared hosts. We use data from the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope, specifically the Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU) Pilot Survey, which covered a sky area of 270 square degrees with an RMS sensitivity of 25–35 $\mu$Jy beam$^{-1}$. We demonstrate that weakly-supervised deep learning algorithms can achieve high accuracy in predicting pixel-level information, including masks for the extended radio emission encapsulating all galaxy components and the positions of the infrared host galaxies. We evaluate the performance of our method using mean Average Precision (mAP) across multiple classes at a standard intersection over union (IoU) threshold of 0.5. We show that the model achieves a mAP$_{50}$ of 67.5% and 76.8% for radio masks and infrared host positions, respectively. The network architecture can be found at the following link: https://github.com/Nikhel1/Gal-CAM

With the advent of deep, all-sky radio surveys, the need for ancillary data to make the most of the new, high-quality radio data from surveys like the Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU), GaLactic and Extragalactic All-sky Murchison Widefield Array survey eXtended, Very Large Array Sky Survey, and LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey is growing rapidly. Radio surveys produce significant numbers of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) and have a significantly higher average redshift when compared with optical and infrared all-sky surveys. Thus, traditional methods of estimating redshift are challenged, with spectroscopic surveys not reaching the redshift depth of radio surveys, and AGNs making it difficult for template fitting methods to accurately model the source. Machine Learning (ML) methods have been used, but efforts have typically been directed towards optically selected samples, or samples at significantly lower redshift than expected from upcoming radio surveys. This work compiles and homogenises a radio-selected dataset from both the northern hemisphere (making use of Sloan Digital Sky Survey optical photometry) and southern hemisphere (making use of Dark Energy Survey optical photometry). We then test commonly used ML algorithms such as k-Nearest Neighbours (kNN), Random Forest, ANNz, and GPz on this monolithic radio-selected sample. We show that kNN has the lowest percentage of catastrophic outliers, providing the best match for the majority of science cases in the EMU survey. We note that the wider redshift range of the combined dataset used allows for estimation of sources up to $z = 3$ before random scatter begins to dominate. When binning the data into redshift bins and treating the problem as a classification problem, we are able to correctly identify $\approx$76% of the highest redshift sources—sources at redshift $z > 2.51$—as being in either the highest bin ($z > 2.51$) or second highest ($z = 2.25$).

The target backsheath field acceleration mechanism is one of the main mechanisms of laser-driven proton acceleration (LDPA) and strongly depends on the comprehensive performance of the ultrashort ultra-intense lasers used as the driving sources. The successful use of the SG-II Peta-watt (SG-II PW) laser facility for LDPA and its applications in radiographic diagnoses have been manifested by the good performance of the SG-II PW facility. Recently, the SG-II PW laser facility has undergone extensive maintenance and a comprehensive technical upgrade in terms of the seed source, laser contrast and terminal focus. LDPA experiments were performed using the maintained SG-II PW laser beam, and the highest cutoff energy of the proton beam was obviously increased. Accordingly, a double-film target structure was used, and the maximum cutoff energy of the proton beam was up to 70 MeV. These results demonstrate that the comprehensive performance of the SG-II PW laser facility was improved significantly.

Altering the appearance of a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) interface reduces misuse of an HIV diagnostic test by 87%, demonstrating that CPOE design is a key component of diagnostic stewardship. Collaboration between infectious disease providers, clinical laboratorians, and information technology (IT) professionals can result in improved quality and decreased costs.

We investigate the diversity in the sizes and average surface densities of the neutral atomic hydrogen (H i) gas discs in $\sim$280 nearby galaxies detected by the Widefield ASKAP L-band Legacy All-sky Blind Survey (WALLABY). We combine the uniformly observed, interferometric H i data from pilot observations of the Hydra cluster and NGC 4636 group fields with photometry measured from ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared imaging surveys to investigate the interplay between stellar structure, star formation, and H i structural parameters. We quantify the H i structure by the size of the H i relative to the optical disc and the average H i surface density measured using effective and isodensity radii. For galaxies resolved by $>$$1.3$ beams, we find that galaxies with higher stellar masses and stellar surface densities tend to have less extended H i discs and lower H i surface densities: the isodensity H i structural parameters show a weak negative dependence on stellar mass and stellar mass surface density. These trends strengthen when we limit our sample to galaxies resolved by $>$2 beams. We find that galaxies with higher H i surface densities and more extended H i discs tend to be more star forming: the isodensity H i structural parameters have stronger correlations with star formation. Normalising the H i disc size by the optical effective radius (instead of the isophotal radius) produces positive correlations with stellar masses and stellar surface densities and removes the correlations with star formation. This is due to the effective and isodensity H i radii increasing with mass at similar rates while, in the optical, the effective radius increases slower than the isophotal radius. Our results are in qualitative agreement with previous studies and demonstrate that with WALLABY we can begin to bridge the gap between small galaxy samples with high spatial resolution H i data and large, statistical studies using spatially unresolved, single-dish data.

This study analyzes the linewidth narrowing characteristics of free-space-running Brillouin lasers and investigates the approaches to achieve linewidth compression and power enhancement simultaneously. The results show that the Stokes linewidth behavior in a free-space-running Brillouin laser cavity is determined by the phase diffusion of the pump and the technical noise of the system. Experimentally, a Stokes light output with a power of 22.5 W and a linewidth of 3.2 kHz was obtained at a coupling mirror reflectivity of 96%, which is nearly 2.5 times compressed compared with the linewidth of the pump (7.36 kHz). In addition, the theorical analysis shows that at a pump power of 60 W and a coupling mirror reflectivity of 96%, a Stokes output with a linewidth of 1.6 kHz and up to 80% optical conversion efficiency can be achieved by reducing the insertion loss of the intracavity. This study provides a promising technical route to achieve high-power ultra-narrow linewidth special wavelength laser radiations.

Background: Cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) is associated with stroke, cognitive decline, and dementia. In this study, we examined how SVD is longitudinally related to cognitive performance in transient ischemic attack (TIA) patients compared to controls. Methods: We rated CSVD at baseline on MRI in TIA patients (n=197) and controls (n=113) for microbleeds (CMB), lacunes, white matter hyperintensities (WMH), and perivascular spaces (EPVS). Neuropsychological testing was administered across 5 years using the following assessments: BVMT, RAVLT, TMTA, TMTB, WAIS-R. Results: Periventricular WMH≥2 yielded slower performance on TMTB across all timepoints (adjusted difference 20.3 seconds, 95%CI [8.4,32.2]), as did deep WMH≥2 (20.1 sec, 95%CI [7.6,32.6]). Basal ganglia EPVS>20 performed slower on TMTA (10.1 sec, 95%CI [4.7,15.5]) and TMTB (21.2 sec, 95%CI [3.4,39.1]). Centrum semiovale EPVS>20 performed slower on TMTB (27.2 sec, 95%CI [10.6,43.8]) and worse on WAIS-R at 5-years (-18.6, 95%CI [-35.0,-2.2]). Lacunes≥3 performed slower on TMTA across all timepoints (4.0 sec, 95%CI [0.1,7.9]). Total CSVD≥2 performed slower on TMTA (3.7 sec, 95%CI [0.4,7.0]) and TMTB (13.9 sec, 95%CI [2.9,24.9]) across 5 years. When stratifying results, associations were generally found in TIA, not controls. Conclusions: Findings demonstrate that CSVD is associated with poorer cognitive performance longitudinally, and is more pronounced in TIA compared to control.

In this national survey, we found that individual patient assessments by pharmacists were more common at facilities using centralized prescribing for nirmetralvir-ritonavir (Paxlovid) than decentralized prescribing. Provider discomfort was initially less with centralized prescribing, but later, there was no difference in provider discomfort based on prescribing mechanism.

As a typical plasma-based optical element that can sustain ultra-high light intensity, plasma density gratings driven by intense laser pulses have been extensively studied for wide applications. Here, we show that the plasma density grating driven by two intersecting driver laser pulses is not only nonuniform in space but also varies over time. Consequently, the probe laser pulse that passes through such a dynamic plasma density grating will be depolarized, that is, its polarization becomes spatially and temporally variable. More importantly, the laser depolarization may spontaneously take place for crossed laser beams if their polarization angles are arranged properly. The laser depolarization by a dynamic plasma density grating may find application in mitigating parametric instabilities in laser-driven inertial confinement fusion.

An onboard three-dimensional (3D) trajectory generation approach based on the reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm and deep neural network (DNN) is proposed for hypersonic vehicles in glide phase. Multiple trajectory samples are generated offline through the convex optimisation method. The deep learning (DL) is employed to pre-train the DNN for initialising the actor network and accelerating the RL process. Based on the offline deep policy deterministic actor-critic algorithm, a flight target-oriented reward function with path constraints is designed. The actor network is optimised by the end-to-end RL and policy gradients of the critic network until the reward function converges to the maximum. The actor network is considered as the onboard trajectory generator to compute optimal control values online based on the real-time motion states. The simulation results show that the single-step online planning time meets the real-time requirements of onboard trajectory generation. The significant improvement in terminal accuracy of the online trajectory and the better generalisation under biased initial states for hypersonic vehicles in glide phase is observed.

The role played by patterned heating in reducing pressure losses within vertical conduits is investigated. The heating generates flow separation structures which reduce the direct contact between the stream and the sidewalls, thereby limiting the frictional resistance. This also modifies the temperature field thereby inducing a net buoyancy force which may either assist or oppose the pressure gradient required to maintain a fixed flow rate. If the flow Reynolds number is increased sufficiently, the separation structures may be washed away, which means that the pressure-gradient-reducing mechanism is eliminated. The details of the system response are a function of the form of spatial heating distribution, its intensity, the flow Reynolds number and the fluid Prandtl number. Carefully chosen heating of the two walls can induce a pattern interaction effect and a judicious choice of the two patterns can have as much as an order of magnitude effect on the system response.

Meat quality is not only influenced by breed but also rearing environment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of different housing environments on growth performance, carcase traits, meat quality, physiological response pre-slaughter and fatty acid composition in two pig breeds. A total of 120 growing pigs at 60-70 days of age were arranged in a 2 × 2 factorial design with the breeds (Duroc × Landrace × Large White [D × L × LW] and Duroc × Landrace × Min pig [D × L × M]) and environmental enrichment (barren concrete floor or enriched with straw bedding) as factors. Each treatment was performed in triplicate with ten pigs per replicate. The pigs housed in the enriched environment exhibited a higher average daily gain, average daily feed intake, saturated fatty acid percentage and backfat depth than the pigs reared in the barren environment. Plasma cortisol levels were lower and growth hormone higher in enriched compared to barren pens. The D × L × M pigs showed lower cooking loss compared with the D × L × LW pigs. Moreover, the D × L × M pigs exhibited poor growth performance but had a better water-holding capacity. Only carcase traits and meat quality interaction effects were observed. We concluded that an enriched environment can reduce preslaughter stress and improve the growth performance of pigs and modulate the fatty acid composition of pork products.

We present the Widefield ASKAP L-band Legacy All-sky Blind surveY (WALLABY) Pilot Phase I Hi kinematic models. This first data release consists of Hi observations of three fields in the direction of the Hydra and Norma clusters, and the NGC 4636 galaxy group. In this paper, we describe how we generate and publicly release flat-disk tilted-ring kinematic models for 109/592 unique Hi detections in these fields. The modelling method adopted here—which we call the WALLABY Kinematic Analysis Proto-Pipeline (WKAPP) and for which the corresponding scripts are also publicly available—consists of combining results from the homogeneous application of the FAT and 3DBarolo algorithms to the subset of 209 detections with sufficient resolution and $S/N$ in order to generate optimised model parameters and uncertainties. The 109 models presented here tend to be gas rich detections resolved by at least 3–4 synthesised beams across their major axes, but there is no obvious environmental bias in the modelling. The data release described here is the first step towards the derivation of similar products for thousands of spatially resolved WALLABY detections via a dedicated kinematic pipeline. Such a large publicly available and homogeneously analysed dataset will be a powerful legacy product that that will enable a wide range of scientific studies.