Design And Realization Of An Automated Test-Stand For Variable Capacity Household Compressors

In Switzerland the efficiency of household refrigerators has to be proved by the manufacturer to get the energy label for the devices. The efficiency is tested in the beginning of the lifetime of the fridge and each component, respectively. Especially the compressor might assumedly reach its best performance not before some hours of operation. The exact knowledge about this characteristic is quite important for the manufacturer to optimize the products. Therefore, an automated compressor test stand was designed and built to test variable speed compressors on their evolution of isentropic and volumetric efficiencies. The test stand features three electronic expansion valves to control high and low pressure, and the suction gas temperature of the compressor, automatically. If necessary, an additional heater compensates for the non-isenthalpic pressure drop through the mass flow meter at the discharge of the compressor to enable high suction gas temperatures. Also, the ambient temperature of the device under test is controlled in its separate compartment. The power consumption of the compressor is detected with and without the controller to get additional information. The testing range is 20…200 W cooling capacity with pressures of the refrigerant R600a down to the corresponding evaporation temperature of -35°C and condensing temperatures up to 55°C. The test-stand is equipped with high precision sensors to ensure measurement uncertainties of volumetric and isentropic efficiencies smaller than 5% over the whole range. This paper reports the design of the test stand as well as the control of the system

Logarithmic transformation technique for exact signal recovery in frequency-domain optical-coherence tomography

AN APPEAL FROM A JUDGMENT AND DECREE OF DIVORCE OF THE THIRD JUDICIAL DISTRICT, SALT LAKE COUNTY, UTAH THE HONORABLE JOHN A. ROKICH JUDGE PRESIDING

Continuous wavelet transform ridge extraction for spectral interferometry imaging

The combination of wavelength multiplexing and spectral interferometry allows for the encoding of multidimensional information and its transmission over a mono-dimensional channel; for example, measurements of a surface's topography acquired through a monomode fiber in a small endoscope. The local depth of the imaged object is encoded in the local spatial frequency of the signal measured at the output of the fiber-decoder system. We propose a procedure to retrieve the depth-map by determining the signal's instantaneous frequency. First, we compute its continuous, complex-valued, wavelet transform (CWT). The frequency signature at every position is contained in the resulting scalogram. We then extract the ridge of maximal response by use of a dynamic programming algorithm thus directly recovering the object's topography. We present results that validate this procedure based on both simulated and experimental data

Urinary T Cells Identify Renal Antineutrophil Cytoplasmic Antibody-Associated Vasculitis and Predict Prognosis: A Proof of Concept Study

INTRODUCTION: Necrotizing crescentic glomerulonephritis is a major contributor to morbidity and mortality in Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV). Because therapy relies on immunosuppressive agents with potentially severe adverse effects, a reliable noninvasive biomarker of disease activity is needed to guide treatment. METHODS: We used flow cytometry to quantify T cell subsets in blood and urine samples from 95 patients with AAV and 8 controls to evaluate their biomarker characteristics. These were compared to soluble markers, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), soluble CD163 (sCD163), soluble CD25 (sCD25), and complement C5a (C5a), measured using multiplex analysis. Available kidney biopsies (n = 21) were classified according to Berden. RESULTS: Patients with active renal AAV (rAAV) showed significantly higher urinary cell counts than those in remission, or those with extrarenal manifestation, or healthy controls. Urinary T cells showed robust discrimination of disease activity with superior performance compared to MCP-1 and sCD163. Patients whose kidney biopsies had been classified as “crescentic” according to Berden classification showed higher urinary T cell counts. Discordant regulatory T cells (Treg) proportions and CD4+/CD8+ ratio in blood and urine suggested that urinary cells reflect tissue migration rather than mere micro-bleeding. Furthermore, urinary Treg and T helper cells (TH17) patterns were associated with clinical response and risk of renal relapse. CONCLUSION: Urinary T cells reflect the renal inflammatory milieu in AAV and provide further insights into the pathogenesis of this chronic condition. Their promising potential as noninvasive diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers deserves further exploitation

Continuous wavelet transform ridge extraction for spectral interferometry imaging

The combination of wavelength multiplexing and spectral interferometry allows for the encoding of multidimensional information and its transmission over a mono-dimensional channel; for example, measurements of a surface's topography acquired through a monomode fiber in a small endoscope. The local depth of the imaged object is encoded in the local spatial frequency of the signal measured at the output of the fiber-decoder system. We propose a procedure to retrieve the depth-map by determining the signal's instantaneous frequency. First, we compute its continuous, complex-valued, wavelet transform (CWT). The frequency signature at every position is contained in the resulting scalogram. We then extract the ridge of maximal response by use of a dynamic programming algorithm thus directly recovering the object's topography. We present results that validate this procedure based on both simulated and experimental data

Lessons Learned from PARADeS Project for Flood Disaster Risk Planning and Management in Ghana

The PARADeS project focused on Ghana’s national flood disaster risk reduction and management strategy by investigating existing flood risk and mechanisms for disaster management, governance-policy, human-water interaction, and development of possible future scenarios and feasible and sustainable measures. Three case study areas with different types of flooding were identified and chosen in a participatory flood risk-based process. These are including the catchments Odaw in Accra (pluvial, fluvial and coastal floods), Aboabo in Kumasi (pluvial and fluvial floods), and the White Volta (fluvial floods). The project used innovative socio-technical and participatory approaches and tools that combines research, development, and institutional strengthening activities. It integrated diverse information, local knowledge and data sources and was developed collaboratively with stakeholder scenarios and socio-technical tools in order to support coherent decision-making processes. A key aspect was analysing different scenarios of flood hazards, investigating and modelling cascading risk effects regarding critical infrastructure, and an assessment tool to identify flood risk at a household level, the FLOODLABEL Ghana. All processes and working steps are realized using interdisciplinary and participatory approaches together with Ghanaian stakeholders. The end products are strengthening institutional and citizens’ capacity through a series of activities on societal awareness and training of specialists, decision, and policymakers. Technologically, the project has produced a set of decision support tools (Flood Information Systems, FLOODLABEL Ghana, etc.) to effectively disseminate vital information to citizens, researchers, and decision makers to respond and mitigate the impact of flooding. In pursuit of sustainable development in FDRM measures, we disseminated the outcomes and products, including technical tools, through reports and scientific publications. Additionally, we developed training materials tailored for students, experts, and decision-makers

Rapid Effector Function in CD8+ Memory T Cells

The nature of the CD8+ T cells that underlie antiviral protective immunological memory in vivo is unclear. We have characterized peptide-specific CD8+ T lymphocytes directly ex vivo from peripheral blood in humans with past exposure to influenza virus, using single cell interferon γ (IFN-γ) release as a measure of effector function. In individuals in the memory state with respect to influenza virus infection, unrestimulated antigen-specific CD8+ T cells displayed IFN-γ release within 6 h of antigen contact, identifying a population of memory CD8+ T cells that exhibit effector function without needing to divide and differentiate over several days. We have quantified circulating CD8+ effector T cells specific for six different MHC class I–restricted influenza virus epitopes. Enumeration of these CD8+ T cells gives frequencies of peptide-specific T cells that correlate with, but are in general severalfold higher than, CTL precursor frequencies derived from limiting dilution analysis, indicating that this novel population of memory CD8+ T cells has hitherto been undetected by standard means. The phenotype of these cells, which persist at a low frequency long after recovery from an acute viral infection, suggests that they play a role in protective immunological memory

The OpenModelica integrated environment for modeling, simulation, and model-based development

OpenModelica is a unique large-scale integrated open-source Modelica- and FMI-based modeling, simulation, optimization, model-based analysis and development environment. Moreover, the OpenModelica environment provides a number of facilities such as debugging; optimization; visualization and 3D animation; web-based model editing and simulation; scripting from Modelica, Python, Julia, and Matlab; efficient simulation and co-simulation of FMI-based models; compilation for embedded systems; Modelica- UML integration; requirement verification; and generation of parallel code for multi-core architectures. The environment is based on the equation-based object-oriented Modelica language and currently uses the MetaModelica extended version of Modelica for its model compiler implementation. This overview paper gives an up-to-date description of the capabilities of the system, short overviews of used open source symbolic and numeric algorithms with pointers to published literature, tool integration aspects, some lessons learned, and the main vision behind its development.Fil: Fritzson, Peter. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Pop, Adrian. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Abdelhak, Karim. Fachhochschule Bielefeld; AlemaniaFil: Asghar, Adeel. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Bachmann, Bernhard. Fachhochschule Bielefeld; AlemaniaFil: Braun, Willi. Fachhochschule Bielefeld; AlemaniaFil: Bouskela, Daniel. Electricité de France; FranciaFil: Braun, Robert. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Buffoni, Lena. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Casella, Francesco. Politecnico di Milano; ItaliaFil: Castro, Rodrigo Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias de la Computación. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias de la Computación; ArgentinaFil: Franke, Rüdiger. Abb Group; AlemaniaFil: Fritzson, Dag. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Gebremedhin, Mahder. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Heuermann, Andreas. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Lie, Bernt. University of South-Eastern Norway; NoruegaFil: Mengist, Alachew. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Mikelsons, Lars. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Moudgalya, Kannan. Indian Institute Of Technology Bombay; IndiaFil: Ochel, Lennart. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Palanisamy, Arunkumar. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Ruge, Vitalij. Fachhochschule Bielefeld; AlemaniaFil: Schamai, Wladimir. Danfoss Power Solutions GmbH & Co; AlemaniaFil: Sjolund, Martin. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Thiele, Bernhard. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Tinnerholm, John. Linköping University; SueciaFil: Ostlund, Per. Linköping University; Sueci

Medical student ultrasound education, a WFUMB position paper, Part II. A consensus statement by ultrasound societies

Publisher Copyright: © 2020 Societatea Romana de Ultrasonografie in Medicina si Biologie. All rights reserved. Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Ultrasound is becoming a fundamental first-line diagnostic tool for most medical specialties and an innovative tool to teach anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology to undergraduate and graduate students. However, availability of structured training programs during medical school is lagging behind and many physicians still acquire all their ultrasound skills during postgraduate training. There is wide variation in medical student ultrasound education worldwide. Sharing successful educational strategies from early adopter medical schools and learning from leading education programs should advance the integration of ultrasound into the university medical school curricula. In this overview, we present current approaches and suggestions by ultrasound societies concerning medical student education throughout the world. Based on these examples, we formulate a consensus statement with suggestions on how to integrate ultrasound teaching into the preclinical and clinical medical curricula.publishersversionPeer reviewe