Annual and seasonal variations of indoor radon concentration in Skopje (Republic of Macedonia)

This paper presents the results of a survey of indoor radon concentrations in the dwellings of 10 Municipalities in the Skopje: the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Macedonia (600 000 habitants). The indoor radon concentrations were measured during the four successive seasons from December 2008 to December 2009 using integrating passive alpha track-etch detectors with an exposure period of three months. The annual mean indoor radon concentration in each measuring site was estimated as an arithmetic mean from the four individual measurements. The measurements were completed for 124 dwellings, of which 112 dwellings revealed indoor radon concentrations lower than 200 Bq m−3, and 3 showed radon concentrations in excess of 400 Bq m−3. The annual mean indoor radon concentrations were found to be log-normally distributed, ranging from 18 to 502 Bq m−3. The geometric mean value of the indoor radon concentration in Skopje region was estimated to be 83*/1.94 Bq m−3. The results of analysis of variance showed statistically significant differences among annual mean values of the indoor radon concentrations of among the different municipalities (p=0.021). The influence of the factors linked to building characteristics in relation to the annual mean of indoor radon concentration was also a subject to examination. The factors which allow differentiation into subgroups (significance level p<0.05) were: the floor level (p<0.0001), presence of basement (p<0.0001), and type of heating (p=0.004). Seasonal dependence of indoor radon concentration was observed. The minimum indoor radon concentrations were found in the summer season whereas maximum levels were observed in the winter season (p< 0.0001)

Ambient temperature impact on hepatocellular liver damage in rats following intake of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine

Bacground/Aim. 3,4-methylendioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, Ecstasy) is a psycho-stimulating agent. It is usualy taken orally in the form of tablets. It is absorbed throught the gastrointestinal mucous membrane. Hyperthermia is the most prominent clinical sign of MDMA intake. The most prominent forensic finding of lethal MDMA poisoning is myocardial infarction and cerebrovascular bleeding. However, liver and kidney damage: have also been described. The aim of this research was to determine if ambient temperatures affect liver damage in the experimental rats. Methods. The experiment was conducted for 8 h and 24 h, at temperatures of 12°C, 22°C and 32°C. Both biochemical parameters (ALT, AST, AP, gamma GT and LDH) and pathohistological changes of the liver were monitored. Results. Our reserch demonstrated that the most serious lever damage occurred at 32°C. Liver damage was manifested as portal inflammation, periportal necrosis, lobular necrosis, stasis, intralobular hemorrhage and incerease of liver enzymes serum activity. Conclusion. Liver damage after MDMA intake rises with the increase of ambient temperature, and it is most pronounced at the temperature of 32°C

Automatic rigging and animation of 3D characters

Animating an articulated 3D character currently requires manual rigging to specify its internal skeletal structure and to define how the input motion deforms its surface. We present a method for animating characters automatically. Given a static character mesh and a generic skeleton, our method adapts the skeleton to the character and attaches it to the surface, allowing skeletal motion data to animate the character. Because a single skeleton can be used with a wide range of characters, our method, in conjunction with a library of motions for a few skeletons, enables a user-friendly animation system for novices and children. Our prototype implementation, called Pinocchio, typically takes under a minute to rig a character on a modern midrange PC.Solidworks CorporationNational Science Foundation (U.S.). Graduate Research Fellowshi

Measurement of 60CO gamma radiation induced attenuation in multimode step-index POF at 530 nm

As optical fibres are used ever more extensively in space applications, nuclear industry, medicine and high-energy physics experiments, it has become essential to investigate the influence of ionizing radiation on their characteristics. In this work, the radiation-induced attenuation at 530 nm is investigated experimentally in step-index multimode polymethyl-methacrylate plastic optical fibres exposed to low dose-rate gamma radiation. Cumulative doses ranged from 50 Gy to 500 Gy. The radiation induced attenuation has been empirically found to obey the power law RIA= aDb, where D is the total radiation dose and a and b are the constants determined by fitting

Discovery of uranium mineralizations in the rhyolite-granite complex in the Jabal Eghei area of southern Libya

During investigation of the Jabal Eghei area in southern Libya and the production of geological maps at a scale of 1:250 000 (Tibesti sector, sheet Wadi Eghei NF 34-1 and NF 34-2), regional prospecting for mineral raw materials was performed. Radiometric survey of observed targets at the sites indicated two significant uranium mineralizations in rhyolites, and some smaller ones in granites that are in close contact with rhyolites. Rhyolites are located in the central part of the investigated region. They cut through granite rocks. The first mineralization is in the central part of the rhyolite region, which is mostly composed of silificated rhyolites. The second one was discovered near the granite-rhyolite contact zone, characterized by the presence of silicified breccia rocks. These findings were confirmed by laboratory measurements of more than seventy samples collected in the area, using high resolution gamma-ray spectrometry. The concentrations of uranium in these mineralizations were found to range from approx. 50 mg kg-1 to more than 600 mg kg-1. The latter value is about 240 times above the Earth’s average. Besides uranium, these measurements have also given concentrations of thorium and potassium. Additional geochemical analysis was performed on samples taken from locations where uranium anomalies were discovered using ICP-MS technique, in which concentrations of more than forty elements were determined. Uranium mineralizations are accompained by increased contents of silver (up to 17 times), arsenic (up to 8 times), molybdenum (up to 50 times), mercury (up to 9 times), and lead (up to 14 times), in regard to the Clark’s values. These results warrant a continued investigation of this region because of potential interest in the discovery of nuclear mineral raw materials

Colloidal-chemistry based synthesis of quantized CuInS2/Se2 nanoparticles

Ternary chalcogenide nanoparticles, CuInS2 and CuInSe2, were synthesized in high- temperature boiling organic non-polar solvent. The X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that both materials have tetragonal (chalcopyrite) crystal structure. Morphology of the obtained materials was revealed by using transmission electron microscopy. Agglomerated spherical CuInS2 nanoparticles with broad size distribution in the range from 2 to 20 nm were obtained. In the case of CuInSe2, isolated particles with spherical or prismatic shape in the size range from 10 to 25 nm were obtained, as well as agglomerates consisting of much smaller particles with diameter of about 2-5 nm. The particles with the smallest diameters of both materials exhibit quantum size effect

Adaptive Temporal Planning for Multi-Robot Systems in Operations and Maintenance of Offshore Wind Farms

With the fast development of offshore wind farms as renewable energy sources, maintaining them efficiently and safely becomes necessary. The high costs of operation and maintenance (O&amp;M) are due to the length of turbine downtime and the logistics for human technician transfer. To reduce such costs, we propose a comprehensive multi-robot system that includes unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), autonomous surface vessels (ASV), and inspection-and-repair robots (IRR). Our system, which is capable of co-managing the farms with human operators located onshore, brings down costs and significantly reduces the Health and Safety (H&amp;S) risks of O&amp;M by assisting human operators in performing dangerous tasks. In this paper, we focus on using AI temporal planning to coordinate the actions of the different autonomous robots that form the multi-robot system. We devise a new, adaptive planning approach that reduces failures and replanning by performing data-driven goal and domain refinement. Our experiments in both simulated and real-world scenarios prove the effectiveness and robustness of our technique. The success of our system marks the first-step towards a large-scale, multi-robot solution for wind farm O&amp;M

Linear Bellman combination for control of character animation

Controllers are necessary for physically-based synthesis of character animation. However, creating controllers requires either manual tuning or expensive computer optimization. We introduce linear Bellman combination as a method for reusing existing controllers. Given a set of controllers for related tasks, this combination creates a controller that performs a new task. It naturally weights the contribution of each component controller by its relevance to the current state and goal of the system. We demonstrate that linear Bellman combination outperforms naive combination often succeeding where naive combination fails. Furthermore, this combination is provably optimal for a new task if the component controllers are also optimal for related tasks. We demonstrate the applicability of linear Bellman combination to interactive character control of stepping motions and acrobatic maneuvers.Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game LabNational Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant 2007043041)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant CCF-0810888)Adobe SystemsPixar (Firm

HAK-HAK TERSANGKA DALAM PROSES PENYIDIKAN TINDAK PIDANA

Tujuan dilakukannya penelitian adalah untuk mengetahui bagaimanakah perlindungan hak-hak tersangka dalam proses penyidikan pidana menurut kitab undang-undang hukum pidana dan bagaimana penerapan sistem peradilan pidana di Indonesia, yang dengan menggunakabn metode penelitian hukum normatif disimpulkan bahwa: 1.   Proses hukum yang adil pada hakikatnya merupakan roh dari sistem peradilan pidana itu sendiri yang di tandai dengan adanya perlindungan terhadap hak-hak tersangka dan terdakwa. Walaupun sudah ada jaminan dan perlindungan terhadap hak-hak manusia yang dalam bentuk perlindungan hukum terhadap hak-hak tersangka. Perlindungan terhadap hak-hak tersangka dalam proses penyidikan tindak pidana dimulai dari pemeriksaan. Pemeriksaan yang dilakukan oleh penyidik difokuskan sepanjang hal yang meyangkut persoalan hukum. 2.   Sistem Peradilan Pidana di Indonesia merupakan suatu susunan atau tatanan yang teratur, suatu keseluruhan yang terdiri atas bagian yang berkaitan suatu sama lain, tersusun menurut rencana atau pola, hasil dari suatu pemikiran untuk mencapai tujuan. Kata kunci: tersangka, penyidika