The concept of life skills is related to the way of life that emphasises the mutual exchange of knowledge, attitudes, and interpersonal skills in education. Its objective is to develop diverse skills among students and prepare them to face life’s challenges with determination. The World Health Organization has defined life skills as “the positive behaviours and tendencies that enable a person to adapt in day-to-day life.” Life skills are the abilities that enable a person to adapt and exhibit positive behaviour, allowing them to deal effectively with the problems and challenges of daily life. Life is a unique gift. Therefore, by equipping life with various skills, happiness, peace, and prosperity are created. In this research, with the objectives of the study in mind, an analytical examination of life skills among secondary-level students has been conducted. This research study examines the effects of living conditions, gender, and social class on students’ life skills and presents the findings. Future researchers can build upon this, and other factors affecting the research can also be explored.
In the present work, we study nuclear structure properties of the $^{184-194}$Pb isotopes within the framework of the nuclear shell-model. We have performed shell-model calculations using KHH7B and KHHE interactions. We have reported results for energy spectra, electromagnetic properties such as quadrupole moment ($Q$), magnetic moment ($μ$), $B(E2)$, and $B(M1)$ transition strengths, and compared the shell-model results with the available experimental data. The shell-model results for the half-lives and seniority quantum numbers ($v$) are also reported for the isomeric states.
Superallowed $0^+\rightarrow 0^+$ transitions between $T=1$ nuclei have been a perfect avenue avenue for determining the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element $V_{ud}$, which imposes powerful constraints on physics beyond the Standard Model at low energies. For a long time, the precision of $V_{ud}$ has been limited by uncertainties in radiative corrections that arise from non-perturbative strong interaction physics at both the hadronic and nuclear levels. In this talk, I will describe some recent efforts to pin down these corrections by combining dispersive analysis with experimental data, lattice QCD, and nuclear many-body calculations.
Ahemaitijiang Pahading, Remila Anniwaer, Xinwen Yang
Objective: For the diagnosis of patients with gynecological acute abdomen, abdominal ultrasound, and vaginal color ultrasound are used for joint diagnosis to compare the effectiveness of diagnosis. Methods: From July 2019 to May 2023, a total of 100 patients with gynecological acute abdomen who chose to be admitted to the hospital for diagnosis were selected as research subjects. They were divided into two groups by drawing lots, the combined group and the TVUS group, with 50 cases each. The TVUS group was diagnosed by vaginal color ultrasound, and the combined group was based on the TVUS group with the addition of abdominal ultrasound for combined diagnosis. Compare the diagnostic effects and patient satisfaction between the two groups. Results: Compared with the TVUS group, the disease detection rate and compliance of the combined group were higher (96% VS 80%), (94% VS 76%). The diagnostic sensitivity (92.00%), specificity (84.00%), and accuracy (96.00%) of combined ultrasound examination were all higher than those of vaginal ultrasound alone. Patient satisfaction surveys showed that patients in the combined group were more satisfied (94% vs 80%). Conclusion: Abdominal ultrasound combined with vaginal color ultrasound can improve the diagnostic effect of gynecological acute abdomen, clarify the disease type, and provide a reference for disease treatment. It has high patient satisfaction and high effectiveness and can be recommended for clinical use.
Medical physics. Medical radiology. Nuclear medicine, Nuclear engineering. Atomic power
BackgroundIn case of transient changes or minor accidents during reactor operation, the fuel temperature may temporarily exceed the critical threshold, thus forming bubbles on the fuel plate. Bubbling can significantly affect the temperature distribution and mass flow balance in rectangular channel of the fuel plate, which may lead to the rupture of the fuel plate and even the damage of the whole reactor core. The phenomenon of bubbling in plate-type fuel assemblies within nuclear reactors includes fission gas bubbles and solid bubbles.PurposeThis study aims to investigate the effects of air gap on the flow and heat transfer behavior in rectangular channel of fuel plate during bubbling conditions.MethodsFirstly, a fuel plate and two adjacent flow channels were selected as the calculation domain, and Fluent software with dynamic mesh technology was utilized to simulate gas bubbling and solid bubbling phenomena within nuclear reactor fuel plates. Then, the dynamic mesh was employed to accurately adapt to the geometric changes during bubble formation and development, and the Realizable k-ε turbulence model was used to handle complex fluid dynamics, with boundary conditions set as inlet velocity and outlet pressure to reflect real operational environments. Finally, the differences between fission gas bubbling and solid bubbling were compared, and all solid surfaces were designated as no-slip and adiabatic, enhancing the predictions of interactions between heat transfer and fluid flow.ResultsThe findings reveal that gas bubbles cause a local increase in temperature, with the heat flux around the bubbles tripling, though the overall heat flux of the fuel plate remains largely unchanged. The formation of bubbles locally enhances heat transfer capability by approximately 10%, with a 4% increase in heat flux on the bubble side. Under conditions of high flow rates, the presence of bubbles leads to a significant pressure difference across the fuel plate, causing deformation of the fuel plate and potentially leading to the blockage of the flow channel.ConclusionsResults of this study provide significant references for the design and safety assessment of nuclear fuel plates, highlighting the importance of considering the effects of gas bubbling on thermal-hydraulic characteristics in the design and operation of nuclear reactors.
Boundary plasma simulations are essential to estimate expected divertor and first wall (FW) heat and particle loads on ITER during burning plasma operation. A key missing feature of existing SOLPS simulations (Pitts et al., 2019) is the absence of a plasma solution out to the main chamber walls, essential to self-consistently estimate the gross sputtering of wall material. Here, SOLEDGE3X is applied for the first time to obtain up-to-the wall burning plasma solutions of the ITER boundary plasma at the nominal PSOL = 100 MW of the main SOLPS database simulations, including He ash, Ne seeding but without fluid drifts. Compared with the most recent SOLPS-ITER simulations, our simulations show differences in the exact impurity distribution, but the key results for divertor and wall heat flux remain consistent. In the context of the ITER re-baselining exercise (Pitts, 2024), in which the Be FW armour is proposed to be exchanged for tungsten (W), estimates of W wall sources are key to the assessment of likely core contamination and hence impact on fusion gain. We compare the W gross erosion rates due to the different species excluding W self-sputtering. For the cases simulated spanning 0.27%–0.47% separatrix-averaged Ne concentration and 7.5×1022s−1−1.95×1023s−1 D fuelling, Ne8+ remains the largest contributor to the sputtering flux with the largest source being the outer divertor and baffle. The species-wise contribution to W sputtering changes with fuelling with sputtering due to lower Ne charge states being significant at low D fuelling. In general, the gross W sputtering source is found to decrease with increase in D fuelling and increase with increased Ne seeding.
The longer-lived excited nuclear states, referred as nuclear isomers, exist due to the hindered decays owing to their peculiar nucleonic structural surroundings. Some of these conditions, being exceptionally rare and limited to achieve, elevate certain isomers to the status of extreme and unusual isomers among their kin. For example, the $E5$ coupling of single-particle orbitals is rare and so are $E5$ decaying isomers. This review delves into some of such remarkable isomers scattered across the nuclear landscape while highlighting the possibilities to find more of them. Unique properties of some of them, harbor the potential for transformative applications in medicine and energy. An exciting example is that of the lowest energy isomer known so far in $^{229}$Th, which may help realize the dream of an ultra-precise nuclear clock in the coming decade. These isomers also offer an insight into the extremes of nuclear structure associated with them, which leads to their unusual status in energy, half-life, spin etc. The review attempts to highlight isomers with high-multipolarities, high-spins, high-energies, longest half-lives, extremely low energy, etc. A lack of theoretical understanding of the decay rates, half-lives and moments of these isomers is also pointed out.
Roberto Casadei, Gianluca Aguzzi, Giorgio Audrito
et al.
Today's distributed and pervasive computing addresses large-scale cyber-physical ecosystems, characterised by dense and large networks of devices capable of computation, communication and interaction with the environment and people. While most research focusses on treating these systems as "composites" (i.e., heterogeneous functional complexes), recent developments in fields such as self-organising systems and swarm robotics have opened up a complementary perspective: treating systems as "collectives" (i.e., uniform, collaborative, and self-organising groups of entities). This article explores the motivations, state of the art, and implications of this "collective computing paradigm" in software engineering, discusses its peculiar challenges, and outlines a path for future research, touching on aspects such as macroprogramming, collective intelligence, self-adaptive middleware, learning, synthesis, and experimentation of collective behaviour.
New modifications that have been used at the analytical nuclear-physics complex (ANPC) Sokil in recent years are described. They concerned an ion accelerator with an increase in the energy of accelerated ions and the separation of 4He 2+ and H2+ beams. A system for irradiating materials science samples with a beam of gas ions with the possibility of choosing the irradiated target space has been created. The use of electrostatic beam deflection made it possible to increase the service life of the foil for beam release into the atmosphere. The use of a pyrocarbon filter in the analysis of monoelements or objects with a high X-ray output of one or several elements changed the form of the spectrum. These modifications made it possible to improve the operation of the complex and obtain new possibilities in solving problems by analytical nuclear physics methods in the study of materials for nuclear power engineering and ecology.
Corrosion release behavior of Alloy 690 in high-temperature water was investigated under the conditions of injected Zn concentrations of 0 ppb, 10 ppb and 50 ppb. A protective oxide film composed of Zn(FexCr1-x)2O4 and Cr2O3 was formed with Zn injection, resulting in a better corrosion resistance. In comparison with the Zn-free condition, the corrosion release rate under the Zn-injection conditions was smaller. The corrosion release inhibiting factors were 1.7 and 1.9 under the conditions of 10 ppb and 50 ppb Zn-injection respectively. A foreseen application of the corrosion and corrosion release rates has been proposed and discussed.
In order to estimate the fuel loss in ITER and further future fusion devices, the deuterium permeation through different wall and structural materials are studied. In order to determine the effective permeability, gas-driven deuterium permeation measurements are performed on Cu and ITER grade CuCrZr. The obtained permeabilites for Cu and ITER grade CuCrZr are very similar and in agreement to literature values for Cu. For a better estimation for fusion reactor components, combined material samples are studied. Cu layers were applied on steel substrates by magnetron sputter deposition. With these studies, the influence of interfaces and microstructure on the hydrogen permeation is investigated. Our study reveals that in the case of Cu layered steel substrates the influence of the interface on the permeation flux is minor compared to the influence of the microstructure on the permeability. The Cu layer permeability is around one order of magnitude smaller than the Cu bulk permeability in the temperature range between 300∘C and 550∘C.
Because a large amount of beryllium is loaded into fusion reactors as a neutron multiplier, it is important to stably secure the beryllium resource, i.e., beryl ore (Be3Al2Si6O18), in order to realize fusion energy. The conventional method for extracting beryllium from beryl involves high-temperature processing steps, which may increase the cost and environmental risk. In view of this, a new wet process using microwaves at significantly lower temperatures was proposed. This study investigated the factors that enable the new wet process to achieve lower temperatures compared to the conventional method, and confirmed through tests that a chemical reaction occurs between beryl and NaOH at approximately 200 °C during the pretreatment process. It was found that this chemical reaction plays an important role in reducing the temperature of the process. The separation tests were performed to separate Al and Si from beryl minerals using this wet process, and the optimum conditions for each separation process were determined. Beryllium oxide and beryllium hydroxide were successfully recovered from the solution after Al and Si separation.
Ruslan M. Sledkov, Valery Ye. Karnaukhov, Oleg Ye. Stepanov
et al.
The procedures of validation and cross-verification of the newly developed computational code ROK/B are described. The main problem solved using the ROK/B code is the substantiation by calculation of the coolant density in the spent fuel pool (SFP) and the temperature regime of the fuel assemblies during a protracted shutdown of the cooling systems (break in the supply of cooling water). In addition to the above, it is possible to use the ROK/B code to carry out calculation of an accident with the discharge of the coolant from the SFP with simultaneous prolonged shutdown of the cooling systems. The ROK/B code allows carrying out calculations for various types of designs of the fuel assemblies and VVER reactors, in particular, VVER-1000, VVER-1200 and VVER-440 power units with single- and two-tiered fuel assembly arrangement, with clad pipes in racks (for compacted assemblies storage) and pipes without cladding, with cased assemblies and caseless ones. During fuel reloading, a high level of the coolant is maintained, which makes it possible to do “wet” transportation of the assemblies from the reactor to the SFP. The mathematical model for heat and mass transfer calculation, including the boiling coolant model, implemented in the ROK/B code, includes: the motion equation, equations for calculating the enthalpy along the height of the fuel section of a fuel assembly with natural circulation of coolant within the channel containing the fuel assembly (lifting section) and in the inter-channel space (lowering section), the equation of mass balance between the channels of the racks with assemblies and in the inter-assembly space and the amount of evaporated (and outflowed) water, the heat balance equation for a fuel rod in a steam environment. The system of equations is supplemented by closing relations for calculating the thermal physics properties of water and steam, fuel and cladding materials, as well as the coefficients of heat transfer from the wall to the steam, hydraulic resistance and density of the steam-water mixture in the channels, and the heat released in the reaction of steam with zirconium. Validation of the computational code was carried out on the basis of the data of the ALADIN experiment performed by German specialists and the data of JSC OKB Gidropress. Cross-verification of the ROK/B code was carried out in comparison with the results of calculation using the KORSAR/GP and SOKRAT/B1 codes. Based on the results of the validation, it has been concluded that the deviation of the ROK/B results from the experimental data is not more than 2 to 10% (10% for the option with a fuel rod power of 20 W). Based on the results of cross-verification, it has been concluded that the discrepancy between the ROK/B results and the calculation results for the KORSAR/GP and SOKRAT/B1 codes is not more than 0.5% (for SOKRAT/V1) and less than 10% (for KORSAR/GP).
Jeong Won Park, Jong Moon Ha, Hong Min Seung
et al.
To improve the safety and life extension qualities of nuclear fuel rods which is currently made of zirconium (Zr) alloy, research on the application of chromium (Cr) coating was conducted. Cr coating has advantages such as increased corrosion resistance and reduced oxidation rate, but non-destructive thickness evaluation studies are needed to ensure the reliability of the steps taken to provide uniform coating thickness. Eddy current testing (ECT) is a representative non-destructive technique for such as thickness evaluation and surface defect inspection. To inspect changes in thickness at micron scale, the Swept Frequency Eddy Current Testing (SFECT) method was applied to select a frequency range sensitive to changes in thickness. The coating thickness was evaluated using changes in signals, such as that for impedance.In this study, basic research was performed to evaluate the thickness of the Cr coating on a rod using an encircling sensor and the SFECT technique. The sensor design parameters were determined through simulation, after which the new sensor was manufactured. A sensor capable of measuring the thickness of a non-uniformly Cr-coating rod was selected through an experiment evaluating the performance of the manufactured sensor. This was done using the impedance-difference of a Cr-coating rod and a Zr alloy rod. The possibility of evaluation of the Cr coating thickness was confirmed by comparing the experimental results with the selected sensor and the signals of the measured Cr-coating rod. All simulation results were verified experimentally.
Transfer reactions are an important tool in nuclear astrophysics. These reactions allow us to identify states in nuclei and to find the corresponding energies, to determine if these states can contribute to astrophysical nuclear reactions and ultimately to determine the strength of that contribution. In this paper, the basic details of how transfer reactions may be used in nuclear astrophysics are set out along with some common pitfalls to avoid.
The dynamic characterization of a three-story auxiliary building in a nuclear power plant (NPP) constructed with a monolithic reinforced concrete shear wall is investigated in this study. The shear wall is subjected to a joint-research, round-robin analysis organized by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, South Korea, to predict seismic responses of that auxiliary building in NPP through a shake table test. Five different intensity measures of the base excitation are applied to the shaking table test to get the acceleration responses from the different building locations for one horizontal direction (front-back). Simultaneously to understand the global damage scenario of the structure, a frequency search test is conducted after each excitation. The primary motivation of this study is to develop a nonlinear numerical model considering the multi-layered shell element and compare it with the test result to validate through the modal parameter identification and floor responses. In addition, the acceleration amplification factor is evaluated to judge the dynamic behavior of the shear wall with the existing standard, thus providing theoretical support for engineering practice.