No abstract available

[en] Successful technology transfer involves the patient process of prudent investment, complete with appropriate legal protection and suitable market development. This paper explains how AEA Technology has used the principles of technology transfer to make a successful transition from public to private sector, and how its nuclear inheritance has been at the centre of its commercial success. (author)

No abstract available

[en] Purpose: The key aim of this research was to develop an objective, accurate assessment tool with which to provide regular measurement and monitoring of image interpretation performance. The tool was a specially developed software program (RadBench) by which to objectively measure image interpretation performance en masse and identify development needs. Method: Two test banks were generated (Test 1 & Test 2), each containing twenty appendicular musculoskeletal images, half were normal, half contained fractures. All images were double reported by radiologists and anonymised. A study (n = 42) was carried out within one calendar month to test the method and analysis approach. The participants included general radiographers (34), reporting radiographers (3), radiologists (2) (all from one UK NHS Trust) and medical imaging academics (3). Results: The RadBench software generated calculations of sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy in addition to a decision making map for each respondent. Early findings highlighted a 5% mean difference between image banks, confirming that benchmarking must be related to a specific test. The benchmarking option within the software enabled the user to compare their score with the highest, lowest and mean score of others who had taken the same test. Reporting radiographers and radiologists all scored 95% or above accuracy in both tests. The general radiographer population scored between 60 and 95%. Conclusions: The evidence from this research indicates that the Radbench tool is capable of providing benchmark measures of image interpretation accuracy, with the potential for comparison across populations. - Highlights: • RadBench software provides the opportunity to assess image interpretation skills en masse and across different populations. • RadBench provides an independent objective assessment tool. • Identifying image interpretation training needs provides focus and increased return on investment. • RadBench has the potential to help underpin the developing role of Radiographers within healthcare.

[en] Several seismological experiments have been undertaken at Chalk River to define the spatial variations of seismic velocities within crystalline rocks in the frequency range 50 to 250 Hz. Variations in near-surface P and S-wave velocities and amplitudes have been measured along profiles less than 2 km in length. The P and S-wave velocities were generally in the range 2.9 to 3.2 km/s, respectively. These results are consistent with propagation through fractured gneiss and quartz monzonite, which form the bulk of the rock body. The P-wave velocity falls below 5.0 km/s in a region where there is a major fault and in an area of high electrical conductivity; such velocity minima may therefore be associated with fracture systems. For some paths, the P and S-wave velocities were in the ranges 6.2 to 6.6 km/s and 3.7 to 4.1 km/s, respectively possibly indicating the presence of thin sheets of gabbro. Temporal changes in P-travel times of up to 1.4% over a 12-h period were observed where the sediment cover was thickest. The cause may be changes in the water table. The absence of polarized Secondary Horizontal (SH) wave arrivals from specially designed shear-wave sources indicates the inhomogeneity of the test site. A Q value of 243 ± 53 for P waves was derived over one relatively homogeneous profile of about 600 m in length. The P-wave velocity minima measured in a borehole between depths of 25 and 250 m correlate well with the distribution of fractures inferred from optical examination of borehole cores, laboratory measurements of seismic velocities and tube-wave studies. The quantitative interpretation of the results in terms of fracture parameters is hampered by inadequate spatial sampling, the sparseness of the S-wave data and incomplete development of the theory of elastic-wave propagation in fractured rocks

[en] We model the Vela emission in radio, optical and gamma wavelengths. We assume that radio emission occurs near the polar axis deep in the magnetosphere. Optical and gamma radiation arises through ordinary synchrotron mechanisms in a wide hollow cone, near the light cylinder. Fitting of observed frequencies and luminosities in the gamma and optical give reasonable plasma parameters, and indicate that field-plasma pressure balance breaks down before the light cylinder, as required by the picture. Some optical coherence is necessary if we attribute both radio and optical emission to the same species of particles, with γ approx. 100, but it is not required otherwise. Gamma-ray pulses arise from γ approx. 10⁵ electrons. We suggest a single-pole orthogonal rotor picture which might account for the Vela pulse phases. (orig.)

[en] The ability of neutron probes to penetrate substances gives industrial researchers a unique tool to investigate the inside of completed components or a large bulk of material. The quality control of material containing defects can be undertaken with neutron beams using one of the following methods; neutron radiography which reveals structural flaws of millimetre sizes, small angle scattering which picks out fluctuations in density and composition that are in the pico-to-nanometre size range (10^-12 - 10^-9 m), or neutron diffraction which shows up structures on the sub-nanometre scale of atomic spacings. The three techniques are considered and specific examples of their use described. (U.K.)

[en] X-ray photoionization can create zones of highly ionized trace elements in the interstellar gas around a galactic x-ray source. Ultraviolet absorption line due to the resulting ionic column densities may be observable, and may provide information on the environment and age of the X-ray source. The calculated column densities are sensitive to the rates of charge-exchange reactions

[en] Scanning laser microscopes (SLMs) have been used to characterise the magnetic properties of materials for some time (J. Magn. Magn. Mater. 95(1) (1991); IEEE Trans. Magn. 31(6 Pt. 1) (1995)). An SLM has been designed to facilitate a number of operating modes: both for writing and reading magneto-optical data. The current SLM is capable of thermo-magnetically recording bits onto magneto-optical thin films. Unlike previous SLMs, the current instrument has been designed to write bits both statically and dynamically onto stationary media. It will be used to write to magneto-optic (MO) disk material thermo-magnetically prior to imaging. Images may be derived from the longitudinal and polar magneto-optic Kerr effects, which are wavelength dependent, using the appropriate laser wavelength. In this paper the two configurations for dynamic recording are described

[en] Neuromorphic, or brain-inspired, computing applications of phase-change devices have to date concentrated primarily on the implementation of phase-change synapses. However, the so-called accumulation mode of operation inherent in phase-change materials and devices can also be used to mimic the integrative properties of a biological neuron. Here we demonstrate, using physical modelling of nanoscale devices and SPICE modelling of associated circuits, that a single phase-change memory cell integrated into a comparator type circuit can deliver a basic hardware mimic of an integrate-and-fire spiking neuron with self-resetting capabilities. Such phase-change neurons, in combination with phase-change synapses, can potentially open a new route for the realisation of all-phase-change neuromorphic computing. (paper)