Preserving High Value Legacy Collections for Future Research – The McNaughton Collection

<p>During his long career in ionprobe geochemistry, Professor Neal McNaughton built up an impressive collection of samples. Professor McNaughton served as SHRIMP geochronologist for the Centre of Global Metallogeny at the University of Western Australia (1994-2005), the Western Australia Centre for Exploration Targeting (2005-2007), and the John de Laeter Centre (JdLC) at Curtin University (2007-2019), and upon his retirement he donated his collection of epoxy mounted samples to the GSWA. This collection of over 1000 mounts containing over 4000 samples is full of irreplaceable samples, representing over 20 years of geochronological research and development on the SHRIMP II in the JdLC. The collection is a highly valuable resource for future geochemical and geochronological research however, the entire collection lacked a digital footprint. When this project started there was a distinct lack of a unified approach for geoscience metadata or a template for preserving such a collection. In a jointly funded effort by AuScope, GSWA and Curtin University a digital sample catalogue of the collection with digitised materials was successfully created. We operated under the FAIR data principals and utilised International Geo Sample Numbers (IGSNs) as persistent identifiers to create the most impactful, accessible and visible product. The final catalogue, associated metadata and digital materials are now publicly available online on a number of digital platforms such as Research Data Australia and GSWA’s GeoVIEW.WA and the mounts are able to be borrowed from GSWA for future analysis. These efforts allowed the preservation of physical materials for future loans and analysis as well as visibility in our digital age. We will outline the template and workflow utilised by this project that can be used to preserve similarly high value collections and by current facilities, universities and researchers in their ongoing research, as well as insights for future efforts.</p>

Detection and removal of pacing artifacts prior to automated analysis of 12-lead ECG

BackgroundPacing artifacts must be excluded from the analysis of paced ECG waveform. This study aimed to develop and validate an algorithm to identify and remove the pacing artifacts on ECG.MethodsWe developed a semi-automatic algorithm that identifies the onset and offset of a pacing artifact based on the ECG signal’ slope steepness and designed a graphical user interface that permits quality control and fine-tuning the constraining threshold values. We used 1,054 ECGs from the retrospective, multicenter cohort study “Global Electrical Heterogeneity and Clinical Outcomes,” including 3,825 atrial and 10,031 ventricular pacing artifacts for the algorithm development and 22 ECGs including 108 atrial and 241 ventricular pacing artifacts for validation. Validation was performed per digital sample. We used the kappa-statistic of interrater agreement between manually labeled sample (ground-truth) and automated detection.ResultsThe constraining parameter values were for onset threshold 13.06±6.21 μV/ms, offset threshold 34.77±17.80 μV/ms, and maximum window size 27.23 ± 3.53 ms. The automated algorithm detected a digital sample belonging to pacing artifact with a sensitivity of 74.5% and specificity of 99.6% and classified correctly 98.8% of digital samples (ROC AUC 0.871; 95%CI 0.853-0.878). The kappa-statistic was 0.785, indicating substantial agreement. The agreement was on 98.81% digital samples, significantly (P<0.00001) larger than the random agreement on 94.43% of digital samples.ConclusionsThe semi-automated algorithm can detect and remove ECG pacing artifacts with high accuracy and provide a user-friendly interface for quality control.HighlightsWe developed and validated a semi-automated algorithm to detect and remove pacing spike artifacts from a digital ECG signal.The semi-automated algorithm can detect and remove pacing spike artifacts with high accuracy and provide a user-friendly interface for quality control.

Experimental Study and Percolation Analysis on Seepage Characteristics of Fractured Coal and Sandstone Based on Real-Time Micro-CT

Sandstone and coal are the two most common types of reservoirs in nature. The permeability of sandstone in oil-bearing formations controls its oil and gas production; the permeability of the coal seam containing gas has a crucial influence on the gas drainage efficiency. One of the main factors affecting rock permeability is the spatial distribution and connectivity of pores and fissures in the rock. In this paper, a small-sized sample with a diameter of 5 mm and a height of 10 mm was used for the test. The rock samples under different stress states were scanned in real-time during the seepage testing. Based on 2D images, a 3D digital sample was reconstructed. We extracted the pores and fissures from the 3D digital sample, studied the size and distribution of the largest cluster in the sample, and revealed the influence of confining pressure and seepage pressure on the percolation probability and permeability of the sample. The research results show that brittle sandstone and plastic coal, two types of rocks with completely different properties of mechanics, have obvious differences in the spatial distribution of the largest clusters. Under the same stress state, in brittle sandstone-like rocks, the connectivity of the fissures is the primary factor affecting permeability, and the pores are the auxiliary factor; for plastic rocks such as coal, the situation is just the opposite, pores are the primary factor affecting permeability, and fissures are the auxiliary factor. The research results answer the question: Hydraulic fracturing technology can increase the oil and gas production of sandstone reservoirs but cannot increase the drainage efficiency of coalbed methane.

Chemometric Methods for Estimating the Strain Hardening Modulus in Polyethylene Resins

The feasibility of using multiway or N-way partial least square (NPLS) methods to estimate physical properties of 1-butene and 1-hexene polyethylene (PE) copolymers directly from multidimensional data obtained from size exclusion chromatography coupled to a Fourier transform infrared detector (SEC FT-IR) was explored. Digital sample sets of horizontal slices (slabs) of two-dimensional data simulating the molecular weight distribution and the corresponding orthogonal FT-IR spectra were correlated to a particular Y-block response using NPLS. The NPLS results were compared to those obtained through separate estimations using various algorithms and exploratory response surface methods. The estimated strain hardening modulus (<Gp>) for bimodal PE-like digital structures could adequately be modeled using both the linear response surface method (RSM) and NPLS. Although different input values were used, the predicted values for <Gp > by NPLS was found to mirror both the analytical results and the expected structural effects obtained using linear RSM models.

High Frequency Induction Tube Furnace for Determination of Ash Melting Temperature

The article describes the designed and manufactured tube furnace intended for, inter alia, determining the melting temperature of ash conforming to the standard of ISO-540:2001. The possibility of digital sample observation and several programs controlling the obtainable temperature enable to determine the test cycle in any case (convenient for the researcher). Reduction of testing time allows for the analysis of the observed phenomena, as well as more detailed research plan of samples, where substantial changes have been demonstrated.

An Image-Based Finite Element Approach for Simulating Viscoelastic Response of Asphalt Mixture

This paper presents an image-based micromechanical modeling approach to predict the viscoelastic behavior of asphalt mixture. An improved image analysis technique based on the OTSU thresholding operation was employed to reduce the beam hardening effect in X-ray CT images. We developed a voxel-based 3D digital reconstruction model of asphalt mixture with the CT images after being processed. In this 3D model, the aggregate phase and air void were considered as elastic materials while the asphalt mastic phase was considered as linear viscoelastic material. The viscoelastic constitutive model of asphalt mastic was implemented in a finite element code using the ABAQUS user material subroutine (UMAT). An experimental procedure for determining the parameters of the viscoelastic constitutive model at a given temperature was proposed. To examine the capability of the model and the accuracy of the parameter, comparisons between the numerical predictions and the observed laboratory results of bending and compression tests were conducted. Finally, the verified digital sample of asphalt mixture was used to predict the asphalt mixture viscoelastic behavior under dynamic loading and creep-recovery loading. Simulation results showed that the presented image-based digital sample may be appropriate for predicting the mechanical behavior of asphalt mixture when all the mechanical properties for different phases became available.

Total Ink Amount Limit of Digital Proofing Based on EFI Colorproof System

Total ink amount were used as study object in digital proofing workflow, total ink amount limit was adjusted according to the basic linearization of digital printing press, relation of color difference and color density and total ink of digital sample were analyzed based on EFI Color proof system, principle of total ink amount limit are obtain to provide theoretical basis for setting total ink amount and software development.

Research on the Flame-Retardant Property of Continuous Basalt Fiber Based on Basic Properties of Advanced Composite Materials

In this paper, Continuous Basalt Fiber (CBF) was used as the raw materials, and then woven by the Digital sample looms. Experimental results show that CBF has a very high limiting oxygen index, even if which more than 69%, was much higher than 27% of the indicators of the non-combustible fiber. In the Vertical Burning Test, there was no burning, smoldering, continued burning phenomenon, which can be clearly seen, and the mechanical properties can remain stability in the before-and-after-test. The CBF, would be bound to play a significant role in future of fire-retardant materials and high-temperature composite materials, exhibited excellent flame resistance and heat resistance.