6,816 research outputs found
A Model of Control Valve for Wagons Equipped by k-Blocks
Paper illustrates the key features of the control valve model of TrainDy, renewed to be compliant with wagons that equip composite brake blocks type k in their braking systems. TrainDy is an international software owned by UIC (The International Union of Railways) and used by major Railway Undertakings in Europe to perform computations of Longitudinal Train Dynamics. Composite brake blocks type k equips new or revamped freight trains in Europe and are used to reduce train noise caused by particles of friction material between wheel and rail. This topic is particularly relevant since a relevant part of freight traffic in Europe is performed during night and many railway lines are close to highly populated areas. Paper shows the validation of this new model against experimental test campaigns performed at bench and in real field and made available for the revision process of UIC CODE 421 for freight train interoperability
Impact of Sodium Layer variations on the performance of the E-ELT MCAO module
Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics systems based on sodium Laser Guide Stars may
exploit Natural Guide Stars to solve intrinsic limitations of artificial
beacons (tip-tilt indetermination and anisoplanatism) and to mitigate the
impact of the sodium layer structure and variability. The sodium layer may also
have transverse structures leading to differential effects among Laser Guide
Stars. Starting from the analysis of the input perturbations related to the
Sodium Layer variability, modeled directly on measured sodium layer profiles,
we analyze, through a simplified end-to-end simulation code, the impact of the
low/medium orders induced on global performance of the European Extremely Large
Telescope Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics module MAORY.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, SPIE conference Proceedin
Field inoculation by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi with contrasting life-history strategies differently affects tomato nutrient uptake and residue decomposition dynamics
Validation of a new data-analysis software for multiple-peak analysis of γ spectra at ISIS pulsed Neutron and Muon Source
© 2019 Elsevier B.V. In this work, we present a multi-peak fitting code in order to establish a new protocol for the analysis of γ spectra at ISIS pulsed Neutron and Muon Source. The protocol, relying on the ROOT framework developed at CERN, has been tailored for the analysis of two specific gamma emitters – 241Am and 133Ba – and its results have been compared to those generated by Hypermet PC, a dedicated software package specifically devoted to the analysis of neutron induced γ-ray spectra and of widespread use since late 1990s. This new fitting procedure is scheduled for integration into the software for time-resolved prompt-gamma activation analysis, T-PGAA, currently under development at ISIS. T-PGAA allows for the simultaneous acquisition of photon energy and neutron time of flight, respectively, when prompt gamma rays are emitted by a sample after neutron absorption, essentially combining neutron resonance capture analysis (NRCA) and prompt gamma activation analysis (PGAA)
Alignment and preliminary outcomes of an ELT-size instrument to a very large telescope: LINC-NIRVANA at LBT
LINC-NIRVANA (LN) is a high resolution, near infrared imager that uses a
multiple field-of-view, layer-oriented, multi-conjugate AO system, consisting
of four multi-pyramid wavefront sensors (two for each arm of the Large
Binocular Telescope, each conjugated to a different altitude). The system
employs up to 40 star probes, looking at up to 20 natural guide stars
simultaneously. Its final goal is to perform Fizeau interferometric imaging,
thereby achieving ELT-like spatial resolution (22.8 m baseline resolution). For
this reason, LN is also equipped with a fringe tracker, a beam combiner and a
NIR science camera, for a total of more than 250 optical components and an
overall size of approximately 6x4x4.5 meters. This paper describes the
tradeoffs evaluated in order to achieve the alignment of the system to the
telescope. We note that LN is comparable in size to planned ELT
instrumentation. The impact of such alignment strategies will be compared and
the selected procedure, where the LBT telescope is, in fact, aligned to the
instrument, will be described. Furthermore, results coming from early
night-time commissioning of the system will be presented.Comment: 8 pages, 6 pages, AO4ELT5 Proceedings, 201
The absolute age of the globular cluster M15 using near-infrared adaptive optics images from PISCES/LBT
We present deep near-infrared (NIR) J, Ks photometry of the old, metal-poor
Galactic globular cluster M\,15 obtained with images collected with the LUCI1
and PISCES cameras available at the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). We show
how the use of First Light Adaptive Optics system coupled with the (FLAO)
PISCES camera allows us to improve the limiting magnitude by ~2 mag in Ks. By
analyzing archival HST data, we demonstrate that the quality of the LBT/PISCES
color magnitude diagram is fully comparable with analogous space-based data.
The smaller field of view is balanced by the shorter exposure time required to
reach a similar photometric limit. We investigated the absolute age of M\,15 by
means of two methods: i) by determining the age from the position of the main
sequence turn-off; and ii) by the magnitude difference between the MSTO and the
well-defined knee detected along the faint portion of the MS. We derive
consistent values of the absolute age of M15, that is 12.9+-2.6 Gyr and
13.3+-1.1 Gyr, respectively.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, ApJ accepte
MCAO near-IR photometry of the Globular Cluster NGC 6388: MAD observations in crowded fields
Deep photometry of crowded fields, such as Galactic Globular Clusters, is
severely limited by the actual resolution of ground-based telescopes. On the
other hand, the Hubble Space Telescope does not provide the near-infrared (NIR)
filters needed to allow large color baselines. In this work we aim at
demonstrating how ground based observations can reach the required resolution
when using Multi-Conjugated Adaptive Optic (MCAO) devices in the NIR, such as
the experimental infrared camera (MAD) available on the VLT. This is
particularly important since these corrections are planned to be available on
all ground--based telescopes in the near future. We do this by combining the
infrared photometry obtained by MAD/VLT with ACS/HST optical photometry of our
scientific target, the bulge globular cluster NGC 6388, in which we imaged two
fields. In particular, we constructed color-magnitude diagrams with an
extremely wide color baseline in order to investigate the presence of multiple
stellar populations in this cluster. From the analysis of the external field,
observed with better seeing conditions, we derived the deepest optical-NIR CMD
of NGC 6388 to date. The high-precision photometry reveals that two distinct
sub-giant branches are clearly present in this cluster. We also use the CMD
from the central region to estimate the distance ((m-M)=15.33) and the
reddening (E(B-V)=0.38) for this cluster. We estimate the age to be ~11.5+/-
1.5 Gyr. The large relative-age error reflects the bimodal distribution of the
SGB stars. This study clearly demonstrates how MCAO correction in the NIR bands
implemented on ground based telescopes can complement the high-resolution
optical data from HST.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication on A. &
Barley-ß-glucans reduce systemic inflammation, renal injury and aortic calcification through ADAM17 and neutral-sphingomyelinase2 inhibition
In chronic kidney disease (CKD), hyperphosphatemia-induced inflammation aggravates vascular calcification (VC) by increasing vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) osteogenic differentiation, ADAM17-induced renal and vascular injury, and TNFα-induction of neutral-sphingomyelinase2 (nSMase2) to release pro-calcifying exosomes. This study examined anti-inflammatory β-glucans efficacy at attenuating systemic inflammation in health, and renal and vascular injury favoring VC in hyperphosphatemic CKD. In healthy adults, dietary barley β-glucans (Bβglucans) reduced leukocyte superoxide production, inflammatory ADAM17, TNFα, nSMase2, and pro-aging/pro-inflammatory STING (Stimulator of interferon genes) gene expression without decreasing circulating inflammatory cytokines, except for γ-interferon. In hyperphosphatemic rat CKD, dietary Bβglucans reduced renal and aortic ADAM17-driven inflammation attenuating CKD-progression (higher GFR and lower serum creatinine, proteinuria, kidney inflammatory infiltration and nSMase2), and TNFα-driven increases in aortic nSMase2 and calcium deposition without improving mineral homeostasis. In VSMC, Bβglucans prevented LPS- or uremic serum-induced rapid increases in ADAM17, TNFα and nSMase2, and reduced the 13-fold higher calcium deposition induced by prolonged calcifying conditions by inhibiting osteogenic differentiation and increases in nSMase2 through Dectin1-independent actions involving Bβglucans internalization. Thus, dietary Bβglucans inhibit leukocyte superoxide production and leukocyte, renal and aortic ADAM17- and nSMase2 gene expression attenuating systemic inflammation in health, and renal injury and aortic calcification despite hyperphosphatemia in CKD.A grant to A.S.D. and M.J.M. from IRBLleida and Agrotecnio Research collaborative projects from the Consell Social at Lleida University supported initial work, Instituto de Salud Carlos III and co-funded by European Union (ERDF/FEDER) (FIS PI11/00259, PI14/01452, PI17/02181), Plan de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación 2013–2017 y 2018–2022 del Principado de Asturias (GRUPIN14-028, IDI-2018-000152), RedInRen from ISCIII (ISCIII-RETIC REDINREN RD16/0009). Investigator support included: NC-L by GRUPIN14-028 and IDI-2018-000152, LM-A by GRUPIN14-028, SP by FICYT; MVA and PV by Educational Grant 2 A/2015 from ERA-EDTA CKD-MBD Working Group; PV and AC by ERA-EDTA fellowships 2011 and 2012; JR-C by MINECO (“Juan de la Cierva” program, FJCI-2015-23849); A.S.D. by Asociación Investigación de Fisiología Aplicada. A.S.D. and M.J.M. are members of the Campus Iberus (Ebro Valley Campus of International Excellence)
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