Observation of a tricritical wedge filling transition in the 3D Ising model

In this Letter we present evidences of the occurrence of a tricritical filling transition for an Ising model in a linear wedge. We perform Monte Carlo simulations in a double wedge where antisymmetric fields act at the top and bottom wedges, decorated with specific field acting only along the wegde axes. A finite-size scaling analysis of these simulations shows a novel critical phenomenon, which is distinct from the critical filling. We adapt to tricritical filling the phenomenological theory which successfully was applied to the finite-size analysis of the critical filling in this geometry, observing good agreement between the simulations and the theoretical predictions for tricritical filling.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

High Rate Report Synchrophasor Technique during Dynamic Conditions

139–143Current industrial applications of synchrophasors in intelligent grids depend to a great extent on highly trustable measurements, mainly during dynamic conditions of a power system, like a power swing which exhibits simultaneous variations of amplitude and phase in both voltage and current. This work presents the assessment of the performance of a novel synchrophasor technique following tests of the dynamic section of the IEEE Std. C37.118.1-2011, which requests testing the simultaneous variations of amplitude and phase

Wire Harness Assembly Process Supported by a Collaborative Robot: A Case Study Focus on Ergonomics

Products and assets are becoming increasingly “smart”, e.g., mechatronic, electronic, or cyber-physical. In the lack of fully reliable wireless solutions, extensive wiring and wire bundling into wire harnesses are needed. This has manufacturing implications, leading to increasingly complex wire harness assembly processes, where numerous components, connectors, and cables are assembled, connecting critical and non-critical electric and electronic systems in smart products and assets. Thus, wire harnesses demand is rapidly rising in most industries, requiring human or robotic work. Often, required work tasks are repetitive and physically demanding, while still needing people for quality reasons. An attractive solution would therefore be humans collaborating with robots. Unfortunately, there are very few scientific studies on automation solutions using collaborative robots (cobots) for wire harness assembly process tasks to increase process productivity and improve work ergonomics. Furthermore, wire harness assembly process tasks are presently carried out 90% manually in this industry, causing serious ergonomic problems for assembly workers who perform such tasks daily. The challenge is reducing the ergonomic risks currently present in many established wire harness assembly processes while improving production time and quality. This paper presents an early prototype and simulation to integrate a cobot into a wire harness assembly process, primarily for work ergonomic improvements. The use of a cobot is specifically proposed to reduce ergonomic risks for wire harness assembly workers. Two methodologies: RULA and JSI were used to evaluate the ergonomics of the task of cable tie collocation. The real-world case study results illustrate the validation of a cobot which significantly reduced non-ergonomic postures in the task of placing cable ties in the wire harnesses assembly process studied. An ergonomic analysis without the cobot (the actual process) was conducted, based on RULA and JSI methodologies, presenting the highest possible scores in both evaluations, which calls for urgent changes in the current wire harness assembly process task studied. Then, the same analysis was performed with the cobot, obtaining significant reductions in the ergonomic risks of the task at hand to acceptable values

A GEANT4 Study of a Gamma-ray Collimation Array

Proton beam therapy uses high-energy protons to destroy cancer cells which are still uncertain about where in the body they hit. A possible way to answer this question is to detect the gamma rays produced during the irradiation and determine where in the body they are produced. This work investigates the use of collimators to determine where the proton interactions occur. GEANT4 is used to simulate the gamma production of a source interacting with a collimator. Each event simulates a number of gammas obtained as a function of the position along the detector. Repeating for different collimator configurations can thus help determine the best characteristics of a detector device

EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF THE PULMONARY EDEMA INDUCED BY THE VENOM OF THE SCORPION TITYUS ASTHENES IN RATS

The species Tityus asthenes has been responsible for scorpion sting deaths in Panama. Pulmonary edema is one of the main causes of death registered by scorpionism. In the present work, we determined the capacity of the venom of the scorpion Tityus asthenes to induce pulmonary edema in rats. The ability of T. asthenes venom to induce acute pulmonary edema in rats was determined using four approaches: (1) the difference in wet weight using the lung index between treated and untreated lungs; (2) histological analysis; (3) changes in pulmonary vascular permeability; and (4) total leukocyte count obtained from bronchoalveolar lavage. We found that histological sections of venom-treated lungs showed moderate pulmonary edema, and an increase in total leukocyte count compared to control samples. However, the pulmonary index and the vascular permeability of venom-treated lungs were similar to those of control samples. We conclude that the venom of T. asthenes scorpions can induce moderate pulmonary edema in rats. The experimental model was validated for future studies on the pathophysiology of pulmonary edema caused by the venom of scorpions of the genus Tityus in Panama

Quantum polarization spectroscopy of correlations in attractive fermionic gases

We show how spin-spin correlations, detected in a non-destructive way via spatially resolved quantum polarization spectroscopy, strongly characterize various phases realized in trapped ultracold fermionic atoms. Polarization degrees of freedom of the light couple to spatially resolved components of the atomic spin. In this way quantum fluctuations of matter are faithfully mapped onto those of light. In particular we demonstrate that quantum spin polarization spectroscopy provides a direct method to detect the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov phase realized in a one-dimensional imbalanced Fermi system.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figure