This work introduces a real-time intention decoding algorithm grounded in muscle synergies (Syn-ID). The algorithm detects the electromyographic (EMG) onset and infers the direction of the movement during reaching tasks to control a powered shoulder–elbow exoskeleton. Features related to muscle synergies are used in a Gaussian Mixture Model and probability accumulation-based logic to infer the user’s movement direction. The performance of the algorithm was verified by a feasibility study including eight healthy participants. The experiments comprised a transparent session, during which the exoskeleton did not provide any assistance, and an assistive session in which the Syn-ID strategy was employed. Participants were asked to reach eight targets equally spaced on a circumference of 25 cm radius (adjusted chance level: 18.1%). The results showed an average accuracy of 48.7% after 0.6 s from the EMG onset. Most of the confusion of the estimate was found along directions adjacent to the actual one (type 1 error: 33.4%). Effects of the assistance were observed in a statistically significant reduction in the activation of Posterior Deltoid and Triceps Brachii. The final positions of the movements during the assistive session were on average 1.42 cm far from the expected ones, both when the directions were estimated correctly and when type 1 errors occurred. Therefore, combining accurate estimates with type 1 errors, we computed a modified accuracy of 82.10±6.34%. Results were benchmarked with respect to a purely kinematics-based approach. The Syn-ID showed better performance in the first portion of the movement (0.14 s after EMG onset).

Resolving trauma may contribute to mental health and parenting in mother with histories of childhood maltreatment. The concept of trauma-specific reflective functioning (T-RF) was developed to assess the complexity of thought processes regarding trauma. The study aimed to validate the T-RF scale applied to the Trauma Meaning-Making Interview by examining its psychometric properties, associations with measures of trauma-processing strategies, maternal reflective functioning and mental health (depression and post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]), as well as evaluating whether T-RF offered a unique contribution to maternal insightfulness. Good construct validity of the T-RF scale was confirmed in a sample of 112 mothers with histories of childhood maltreatment using an independent coding system of trauma-processing. Better mentalization of trauma was prospectively associated with higher parental reflective functioning and mothers with high T-RF were much more likely to be insightful regarding the child’s mental states than non-reflective mothers and mothers with limited T-RF. The association between T-RF and insightfulness was observed even when controlling for maternal reflective functioning, trauma-processing strategies, maternal education and sociodemographic risk. T-RF was associated neither with depression, PTSD nor the characteristics of trauma. Findings suggest that mentalizing trauma would be an important protective factor in the intergenerational trajectories of trauma.

Declining labor force participation of older men throughout the 20th century and recent increases in participation have generated substantial interest in understanding the effect of public pensions on retirement. The National Bureau of Economic Research's International Social Security (ISS) Project, a long-term collaboration among researchers in a dozen developed countries, has explored this and related questions. The project employs a harmonized approach to conduct within-country analyses that are combined for meaningful cross-country comparisons. The key lesson is that the choices of policy makers affect the incentive to work at older ages and these incentives have important effects on retirement behavior.

This work presents a simple analytical model for the streamwise and radial variations of turbulent kinetic energy dissipation in an incompressible round turbulent jet. The key assumptions in the model are: similarity in the axial velocity profile with a Gaussian shape, axisymmetric flow and the dominance of radial derivatives of the mean velocity over axial direction derivatives (similar to boundary layer theory). Initially, a simplified eddy-viscosity relation for turbulent stresses is derived using the algebraic stress model by Gatski & Speziale (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 254, 1993, pp. 59–78). Subsequently, with this eddy-viscosity relation, the relation for variations of turbulent kinetic energy dissipation is formulated using the conservation of turbulent kinetic energy. To extract the necessary constants of the model, experimental velocity statistics for round jets are obtained through particle image velocimetry measurements. The experimental results of the mean entrainment coefficient for turbulent jets are also analysed. When comparing the radial variation of turbulent kinetic energy dissipation from the model with experimental results at Reynolds number $1.4\times 10^5$ and numerical results at Reynolds number $1200$ from the available literature, we observe a maximum error of $10\,\%$ and $15\,\%$, respectively. Finally, using the validated model, we analyse the impact of mean velocity evolution parameters on the behaviour of turbulent kinetic energy dissipation and discuss its potential significance in future studies.

The design of the repository for high-level nuclear waste (HLW) in France consists of a multiple-barrier system including steel canisters in a clay host rock. The system will undergo temperature variations in time and space, the heat source being the HLW within the canisters. The effect of a thermal gradient in space on the Fe-claystone interaction was investigated here by applying a thermal gradient (150–300°C and 80–150°C) to a mix of claystone, Fe, and an aqueous chloride solution over periods of 3 and 6 months. Following the reaction, the starting clay minerals (mostly illite and mixed-layer illite-smectite) evolved toward chlorite, Fe-serpentine, Fe-saponite, mixed-layer chlorite-smectite, or mixed-layer serpentine-smectite as a function of temperature. Iron corrosion made the medium basic and reductive. Magnesium enrichment of clay minerals was observed in the hottest part of the experiment due to Mg migration under the thermal gradient. Reaction progress was enhanced at the lowest temperatures, compared to batch experiments.

In deep geological repositories for high-level nuclear wastes, interactions between steel canisters and clay-rich materials may lead to mineralogical transformations with a loss of the confining properties of the clays. Experiments simulating the conversion of smectite to Fe-rich clay phases in contact with Fe metal have been carried out to evaluate such a possibility by taking into account the effects of a series of critical parameters, including temperature, pH, and Fe/clay (Fe/C) and liquid/clay (L/C) ratios. The mineralogical and chemical transformations observed in these experiments have been compared with data from the literature, and subsequently used to propose a conceptual model for the main mineralogical transformations which can be expected in clay formations surrounding high-level nuclear waste repositories. In the presence of Fe metal and under low oxygen fugacity (<-40) the main mineralogical sequences are as follows:

1. (1) up to 150°C, under neutral pH, and L/C > 5: dioctahedral smectite (di-sm) → 7 Å Fe-rich phase (berthierine, odinite-cronstedtite) for large Fe/C ratios (>0.5), or di-sm → Fe-rich di-sm + Fe-rich trioctahedral smectite (tri-sm) for small Fe/C ratios (0.1)

2. (2) up to 150°C, under alkaline pH (10–12), and L/C > 5: di-sm → Fe di-sm (±palygorskite) for a small Fe/C ratio (0.1)

3. (3) at 300°C, Fe/C = 0.1, and L/C > 5: di-sm → Fe-rich saponite → trioctahedral chlorite + feldspar + zeolite (near-neutral pH); di-sm → Fe-rich vermiculite + mordenite (pH 10–12).

Low temperatures (<150°C) and large L/C and Fe/C ratios seem to favor the crystallization of the serpentine group minerals instead of Fe-rich trioctahedral smectites or chlorites, the latter being favored by higher temperatures. The role of L/C and Fe/C ratios and the competition between them at different temperatures is a crucial point in understanding the transformation of smectite in contact with Fe metal.

Disposal facilities in deep geological formations are considered to be a possible solution for long-term management of high-level nuclear waste (HLW). The design of the repository generally consists of a multiple-barrier system including Fe-based canisters and a clay backfill material. The Fe-clay system will undergo a thermal gradient in time and space, the heat source being the HLW inside the canisters. In the present paper, the effect of a thermal gradient in space on Fe-smectite interactions was investigated. For this purpose, a tube-in-tube experimental device was developed and an 80–300ºC thermal gradient was applied to a mixture of MX80 bentonite, metallic Fe (powder and plate), magnetite, and fluid over periods of 1 to 10 months. Transformed and newly formed clay minerals were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Mössbauer spectroscopy. The main mineralogical transformations were similar to those described for batch experiments: smectite was destabilized into an Fe-enriched trioctahedral smectite and Fe-serpentine or chlorite as a function of the experimental conditions. Newly formed clay was observed all along the walls of the gold tube. Their crystal chemistry was clearly different from the clays observed in the hot and cold part of the tubes. The thermal diffusion of elements was also observed, especially that of Mg, which migrated toward the hottest parts of the tubes. In the end, the thermal gradient affected the redox equilibria; more reduced conditions were observed in the hotter parts of the tubes.