Test of ID carbon-carbon composite prototype tiles for the SPIDER diagnostic calorimeter

Additional heating will be provided to the thermonuclear fusion experiment ITER by injection of neutral beams from accelerated negative ions. In the SPIDER test facility, under construction at Consorzio RFX in Padova (Italy), the production of negative ions will be studied and optimised. To this purpose the STRIKE (Short-Time Retractable Instrumented Kalorimeter Experiment) diagnostic will be used to characterise the SPIDER beam during short operation (several seconds) and to verify if the beam meets the ITER requirement regarding the maximum allowed beam non-uniformity (below \ub110%). The most important measurements performed by STRIKE are beam uniformity, beamlet divergence and stripping losses. The major components of STRIKE are 16 1D-CFC (Carbon matrix-Carbon Fibre reinforced Composite) tiles, observed at the rear side by a thermal camera. The requirements of the 1D CFC material include a large thermal conductivity along the tile thickness (at least 10 times larger than in the other directions); low specific heat and density; uniform parameters over the tile surface; capability to withstand localised heat loads resulting in steep temperature gradients. So 1D CFC is a very anisotropic and delicate material, not commercially available, and prototypes are being specifically realised. This contribution gives an overview of the tests performed on the CFC prototype tiles, aimed at verifying their thermal behaviour. The spatial uniformity of the parameters and the ratio between the thermal conductivities are assessed by means of a power laser at Consorzio RFX. Dedicated linear and non-linear simulations are carried out to interpret the experiments and to estimate the thermal conductivities; these simulations are described and a comparison of the experimental data with the simulation results is presented

An automated method for detection of layer activation order in information processing pathway of rat barrel cortex under mechanical whisker stimulation

Rodents perform object localization, texture and shape discrimination very precisely through whisking. During whisking, microcircuits in corresponding barrel columns get activated to segregate and integrate tactile information through the information processing pathway. Sensory signals are projected through the brainstem and thalamus to the corresponding ‘barrel columns’ where different cortical layers are activated during signal projection. Therefore, having precise information about the layer activation order is desirable to better understand this signal processing pathway. This work proposes an automated, computationally efficient and easy to implement method to determine the cortical layer activation from intracortically recorded local field potentials (LFPs) and derived current source density (CSD) profiles: 1. Barrel cortex LFPs are represented by a template of four subsequent events: small positive/negative (E1) → large negative (E2) → slow positive (E3)→ slow long negative (E4). The method exploits the layer specific characteristics of LFPs to obtain latencies of the individual events (E1–E4), then taking the latency of E2 for calculating the layer activation order. 2. The corresponding CSD profile is calculated from the LFPs and the first sink’s peak is considered as a reference point to calculate latencies and evaluate the layer activation order. Other reference points require manual calculation. Similar results of layer activation sequence are found using LFPs and CSDs. Extensive tests on LFPs recorded using standard borosilicate micropipettes demonstrated the method’s workability. An interpretation of layer activation order and CSD profiles on the basis of a simplified interacortical barrel column architecture is also provided

Prognostic factors and historical trends in the epidemiology of candidemia in critically ill patients: an analysis of five multicenter studies sequentially conducted over a 9-year period (vol 40, pg 1489, 2014)

Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, São Paulo, BrazilHosp Serv Publ Estadual São Paulo, São Paulo, BrazilIrmandade Santa Casa de Misericordia Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, RS, BrazilUniv Fed Ciencias Saude Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, RS, BrazilUniv Fed Parana, BR-80060000 Curitiba, Parana, BrazilUniv Fed Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Prognostic factors and historical trends in the epidemiology of candidemia in critically ill patients: an analysis of five multicenter studies sequentially conducted over a 9-year period

To describe temporal trends in the epidemiology, clinical management and outcome of candidemia in intensive care unit (ICU) patients.This study was a retrospective analysis of 1,392 episodes of candidemia in 647 adult ICU patients from 22 Brazilian hospitals. the characteristics of candidemia in these ICU patients were compared in two periods (2003-2007, period 1; 2008-2012, period 2), and the predictors of 30-day mortality were assessed.The proportion of patients who developed candidemia while in the ICU increased from 44 % in period 1 to 50.9 % in period 2 (p = 0.01). Prior exposure to fluconazole before candidemia (22.3 vs. 11.6 %, p < 0.001) and fungemia due to Candida glabrata (13.1 vs. 7.8 %, p = 0.03) were more frequent in period 2, as was the proportion of patients receiving an echinocandin as primary therapy (18.0 vs. 5.9 %, p < 0.001). the 30-day mortality rate decreased from 76.4 % in period 1 to 60.8 % in period 2 (p < 0.001). Predictors of 30-day mortality by multivariate analysis were older age, period 1, treatment with corticosteroids and higher APACHE II score, while treatment with an echinocandin were associated with a higher probability of survival.We found a clear change in the epidemiology and clinical management of candidemia in ICU patients over the 9-year period of the study. the use of echinocandins as primary therapy for candidemia appears to be associated with better outcomes.MSDPfizerUnited MedicalUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, São Paulo, BrazilHosp Serv Publ Estadual São Paulo, São Paulo, BrazilIrmandade Santa Casa de Misericordia Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, RS, BrazilUniv Fed Ciencias Sau Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, RS, BrazilUniv Fed Parana, BR-80060000 Curitiba, Parana, BrazilUniv Fed Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Escola Paulista Med, São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Produtividade de clones da variedade vitoria sob sistema de cultivo sequeiro no vale de Jequitinhonha-MG.

A variedade vitória que se caracteriza pela tolerância à seca, alta adaptabilidade e estabilidade de produção, surge como uma alternativa ao cultivo sequeiro na região do Vale do Jequitinhonha-MG. Entretanto, como os clones possuem heterogeneidade genética pode haver variação na sua capacidade de aclimatação. Assim, esse trabalho objetivou avaliar a produtividade inicial de clones da variedade vitória sob cultivo sequeiro no vale do Jequitinhonha. Para tanto, foram implantados 13 clones da variedade Vitória no delineamento foi blocos casualizados, com quatro repetições e parcelas constituídas por seis plantas e espaçamento de 3,0 x 1,0 m. A média de produtividade de todos os clones que compõem a variedade no biênio 2011/2012 foi de 51,53 sc.benef./há, sendo que a segunda colheita apresentou produtividade média 85% maior em relação a primeira. Os clones que mais se destacaram foram os 7V, 9V e 10V, com produtividades médias do primeiro biênio oscilando entre 69,53 a 82,11 sc. benef./ha. Houve variabilidade genética e ambiental entre os clones quanto às características relação coco/beneficiado, percentagem de frutos chochos, percentagem de grãos com peneira média superior a 13 e percentagem de grãos tipo moca, porém a maioria dos clones apresentaram esses parâmetros dentro de limites aceitáveis para a variedade Vitória. De maneira geral, a variedade Vitória possui elevada capacidade produtiva inicial nas condições no Vale do Jequitinhonha

PTX3-based genetic testing for risk of aspergillosis after lung transplant

[Excerpt] We read with interest the article by Wójtowicz et al [1], and would like to comment on it and to share findings from our complementary study. We have recently established genetic variation in the long pentraxin 3 (PTX3) as a major determinant of susceptibility to invasive aspergillosis (IA) after hematopoietic stem cell transplant [2]. Wójtowicz et al are the first to uncover similar findings in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients, highlighting a potential applicability of these markers in predicting infection across patients with intrinsically different predisposing conditions (...).ESCMID -European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases(undefined

Seleção precoce de clones da variedade robustão capixaba irrigada por gotejamento no Norte de Minas Gerais.

O cultivo do café Conilon tem sido considerado uma alternativa para a agricultura da Região Norte de Minas Gerais, que possui disponibilidade de área e altitude favoráveis à sua exploração . Este trabalho objetivou selecionar clones superiores Coffea canephora sob cultivo irrigado, mediante o emprego do método de modelos mistos. O experimento foi instalado sob sistema de cultivo irrigado por gotejamento, sendo implantados dez clones da variedade Robustão Capixaba. Aos sete meses após o plan tio, foram avaliadas sete características de crescimento vegetativo. Foram realizadas três contagens de sobrevivênci a das mudas, aos dois, sete e doze meses. Os clones RC9, RC7, RC2 e RC1 foram os mais promissores e poderão compor populações base para o prog rama de seleção recorrente que potencialmente poderá originar vari edades clonais especificas para a regi ão. As estimativas de coeficiente de herdabilidade média entre clones, de acur ácia, e o coeficiente de variação relativ a no número de nós do primeiro ramo plagiotrópico e número de ramos plagiotrópicos sugerem a maximização dos ganhos genéticos com a seleção e a obtenção de clones superiores na região estudada

New and emerging treatments for fungal infections

Although several new antifungal drugs have been licensed in the last 5 years, some patients remain difficult to treat. The main reasons for this include intrinsic or acquired antifungal resistance, organ dysfunction preventing the use of some agents and drug interactions. In addition, some drugs pene-trate poorly into sanctuary sites including eye and urine, and others are associated with considerable adverse events. Here, we review the preclinical and clinical development progress with four new anti-fungal agents: isavuconazole, ravuconazole, albaconazole and aminocandin. Isavuconazole and ravu-conazole are extremely similar, with a broad spectrum of activity, a very long half-life and large volume of distribution and good in vivo data supporting their efficacy in invasive aspergillosis and candidosis. Both compounds are in early Phase 3 development. Albaconazole has also shown very potent activity against species of Candida, Cryptococcus and Aspergillus. It was well tolerated and effective in women with vaginal candidosis. Aminocandin is an intravenous-only echinocandin with in vivo activity against Candida spp. and Aspergillus spp. Its extended half-life probably permits dosing less fre-quently than once a day. Overall these new antifungal agents in development offer extended half-lives, possibly reduced drug interaction profiles and good tolerance. Their antifungal spectrum is narrower than posaconazole and probably similar to voriconazole (isavuconazole and ravuconazole) and caspo-fungin (aminocandin). Licensure and determination of their place in clinical practice requires random-ized clinical studies, which are or will be underway

Start of SPIDER operation towards ITER neutral beams

Heating Neutral Beam (HNB) Injectors will constitute the main plasma heating and current drive tool both in ITER and JT60-SA, which are the next major experimental steps for demonstrating nuclear fusion as viable energy source. In ITER, in order to achieve the required thermonuclear fusion power gain Q=10 for short pulse operation and Q=5 for long pulse operation (up to 3600s), two HNB injectors will be needed [1], each delivering a total power of about 16.5 MW into the magnetically-confined plasma, by means of neutral hydrogen or deuterium particles having a specific energy of about 1 MeV. Since only negatively charged particles can be efficiently neutralized at such energy, the ITER HNB injectors [2] will be based on negative ions, generated by caesium-catalysed surface conversion of atoms in a radio-frequency driven plasma source. A negative deuterium ion current of more than 40 A will be extracted, accelerated and focused in a multi-aperture, multi-stage electrostatic accelerator, having 1280 apertures (~ 14 mm diam.) and 5 acceleration stages (~200 kV each) [3]. After passing through a narrow gas-cell neutralizer, the residual ions will be deflected and discarded, whereas the neutralized particles will continue their trajectory through a duct into the tokamak vessels to deliver the required heating power to the ITER plasma for a pulse duration of about 3600 s. Although the operating principles and the implementation of the most critical parts of the injector have been tested in different experiments, the ITER NBI requirements have never been simultaneously attained. In order to reduce the risks and to optimize the design and operating procedures of the HNB for ITER, a dedicated Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF) [4] has been promoted by the ITER Organization with the contribution of the European Union\u2019s Joint Undertaking for ITER and of the Italian Government, with the participation of the Japanese and Indian Domestic Agencies (JADA and INDA) and of several European laboratories, such as IPP-Garching, KIT-Karlsruhe, CCFE-Culham, CEA-Cadarache. The NBTF, nicknamed PRIMA, has been set up at Consorzio RFX in Padova, Italy [5]. The planned experiments will verify continuous HNB operation for one hour, under stringent requirements for beam divergence (< 7 mrad) and aiming (within 2 mrad). To study and optimise HNB performances, the NBTF includes two experiments: MITICA, full-scale NBI prototype with 1 MeV particle energy and SPIDER, with 100 keV particle energy and 40 A current, aiming at testing and optimizing the full-scale ion source. SPIDER will focus on source uniformity, negative ion current density and beam optics. In June 2018 the experimental operation of SPIDER has started

A novel task and methods to evaluate inter-individual variation in audio-visual associative learning

learning audio-visual associations is foundational to a number of real-world skills, such as reading acquisition or social communication. characterizing individual differences in such learning has therefore been of interest to researchers in the field. here, we present a novel audio-visual associative learning task designed to efficiently capture inter-individual differences in learning, with the added feature of using non-linguistic stimuli, so as to unconfound language and reading proficiency of the learner from their more domain-general learning capability. by fitting trial-by-trial performance in our novel learning task using simple-to-use statistical tools, we demon- strate the expected inter-individual variability in learning rate as well as high precision in its estimation. we further demonstrate that such measured learning rate is linked to working memory performance in Italian- speaking (N = 58) and french-speaking (N = 51) adults. finally, we investigate the extent to which learning rate in our task, which measures cross-modal audio-visual associations while mitigating familiarity confounds, predicts reading ability across participants with different linguistic backgrounds. the present work thus introduces a novel non-linguistic audio-visual associative learning task that can be used across languages. In doing so, it brings a new tool to researchers in the various domains that rely on multi- sensory integration from reading to social cognition or socio-emotional learning