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The presented study concerns with the corrosion kinetics of two zirconium alloys: Zr-Nb-Sn-Fe and Zr-Nb-Fe. Alloy samples were pre-exposed at 360 °C in a LiOH solution containing 70 mg/l of lithium ions. Ex-situ electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) performed in 0.5 M potassium sulphate solution at 25 °C was used to study the properties of the oxide and kinetic transient effect. Evaluation of the impedance spectroscopy data was based on application of a simple equivalent circuit. The setup of the equivalent circuit conformed to Jonscher´s universal law of dielectric response. The analysis of the impedance data was aimed at estimation of non-dispersive capacitance of the oxide formed during the pre-exposure. Effective values of dielectric constant were calculated using the non-dispersive capacitance and the oxide thickness values, calculated from weight gains. For the pre-transient samples relatively higher values of dielectric constants were obtained. Typical pre-transient dielectric constants for Zr-Nb-Sn-Fe alloy ranged between 20–21, while slightly lower values were obtained for Zr-Nb-Fe alloy. In both alloys steep and significant decrease in effective dielectric constant (e_ef = 9–13) was found for the transient samples. The decrease correlated very well with the drop in percentage of tetragonal oxide determined by Raman spectroscopy and corresponded to the increase of the weight gains of the transient samples. Literature data indicate values of dielectric constants for tetragonal zirconium oxide between 38–46, while those for monoclinic oxide are usually presented between 12–22. The evidenced changes in dielectric constants are therefore in agreement with the expected decrease of tetragonal phase fraction in the oxide layer during the transient. In the Zr-Nb-Sn-Fe post-transient samples values of dielectric constant increased again to 18–20, therefore almost to the pre-transient level. This increase was not evidenced with Raman spectroscopy data, which show constant low content of the tetragonal fraction. Possible explanation of this disagreement is the location of the newly formed post-transient tetragonal oxide presumably at the metal/oxide interface. Oxide thickness of the post-transi-ent samples is 4–7 m and the oxide/metal interface is beyond access of the laser beam of Raman spectrometer. We can conclude that using ex-situ EIS, the transient was observable in both alloys; the change in the ratio of monoclinic and tetragonal phase can be evaluated based on the difference of effective dielectric constant of the two phases. The Zr-Nb-Sn-Fe alloy showed the onset of the transient after the 105th day of pre-exposure, but the change in the ratio of the monoclinic and tetragonal phases was less significant than in the Zr-Nb-Fe alloy, in which, however, the transient could be observed only after 147 days of pre-exposure. The resulting values of the effective dielectric constant of oxides correlated well with the percentage of tetragonal oxide determined by Raman spectroscopy and with the results of the weight gain method.

OBJECTIVE: To assess perinatal outcomes for pregnancies affected by suspected or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. METHODS: Prospective, web-based registry. Pregnant women were invited to participate if they had suspected or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection between 1st January 2020 and 31st March 2021 to assess the impact of infection on maternal and perinatal outcomes including miscarriage, stillbirth, fetal growth restriction, pre-term birth and transmission to the infant. RESULTS: Between April 2020 and March 2021, the study recruited 8239 participants who had suspected or confirmed SARs-CoV-2 infection episodes in pregnancy between January 2020 and March 2021. Maternal death affected 14/8197 (0.2%) participants, 176/8187 (2.2%) of participants required ventilatory support. Pre-eclampsia affected 389/8189 (4.8%) participants, eclampsia was reported in 40/ 8024 (0.5%) of all participants. Stillbirth affected 35/8187 (0.4 %) participants. In participants delivering within 2 weeks of delivery 21/2686 (0.8 %) were affected by stillbirth compared with 8/4596 (0.2 %) delivering ≥ 2 weeks after infection (95 % CI 0.3-1.0). SGA affected 744/7696 (9.3 %) of livebirths, FGR affected 360/8175 (4.4 %) of all pregnancies. Pre-term birth occurred in 922/8066 (11.5%), the majority of these were indicated pre-term births, 220/7987 (2.8%) participants experienced spontaneous pre-term births. Early neonatal deaths affected 11/8050 livebirths. Of all neonates, 80/7993 (1.0%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. CONCLUSIONS: Infection was associated with indicated pre-term birth, most commonly for fetal compromise. The overall proportions of women affected by SGA and FGR were not higher than expected, however there was the proportion affected by stillbirth in participants delivering within 2 weeks of infection was significantly higher than those delivering ≥ 2 weeks after infection. We suggest that clinicians' threshold for delivery should be low if there are concerns with fetal movements or fetal heart rate monitoring in the time around infection. The proportion affected by pre-eclampsia amongst participants was not higher than would be expected, although we report a higher than expected proportion affected by eclampsia. There appears to be no effect on birthweight or congenital malformations in women affected by SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy and neonatal infection is uncommon. This study reflects a population with a range of infection severity for SARS-COV-2 in pregnancy, generalisable to whole obstetric populations.

Title: Customer satisfaction with services of Avalon fitness center Objectives: The main goal of this diploma thesis is to determine customer satisfaction with the services provided by Avalon fitness center through the SERVPERF questionnaire. Based on the results, make changes and propose recommendations that should lead to improved quality of services in the Avalon fitness center. Methods: A modified SERVPERF questionnaire method was used to determine customer satisfaction with the services in the Avalon fitness center. This questionnaire measures the actual perception of the quality of services provided. In addition to the questionnaire survey, semi-structured interviews were conducted to deepen the issue with management, trainers and selected customers of the fitness center. Results: The results of the questionnaire survey are shown using graphs and tables. It is clear from the results that the customers of the Avalon fitness center are very satisfied with the services provided. Customers are most satisfied with the opening hours, equipment, provision of services at the agreed time and coaches. On the contrary, they negatively perceive the cleanliness of the background, the behavior of the receptionists, lockers in the locker rooms and updating the schedule. Keywords: customer satisfaction,...

This thesis deals with the development of artificial intelligence for a simplified version of turn- based strategy game Advance Wars. Our focus is on comparing traditional ''ad-hoc'' game AI methods with methods that minimize the dependance on domain knowledge of the game. First part of the thesis contains analysis of the game, survey of selected game AI techniques and an overview of the implemented agents using decision trees, utility-based methods and neural networks. We present the results of our experiments with learning agent parameters and neural network weights using genetic algorithms and evolutionary strategies. We expe- rimented with training agents against fixed opponents and with competitive coevolution. In the second part we present the created software in detail. An efficient game simulator and a set of utility tools were implemented to support the AI development. A full-fledged graphical client that allows for both human and AI gameplay was also created.