Transparency of a geographically distributed test platform for fuel cell electric vehicle powertrain systems based on x-in-the-loop approach

X-in-the-loop is a new vehicle development and validation method for increasingly complex vehicle systems, which integrates the driver and the environment. In view of recent developments in fuel cell electric vehicle powertrain systems, Tongji University and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have jointly developed a set of distributed test platforms based on the X-in-the-loop approach. This platform contains models and test equipment for a fuel cell electric vehicle powertrain system. Due to the involvement of remote connection and the Internet, test with connected test benches will suffer great uncertainty cause of signal transfer delay. To figure out this uncertainty, the concept of transparency is introduced. Four parameters were selected as transparency parameters in this distributed test platform. These include vehicle speed, fuel cell output power, battery output power, and electric motor torque under several different configuration settings. With the help of transparency theory and statistical methodology, especially Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), the transparency of these four parameters was established, vehicle speed, electric motor torque, battery power, and fuel cell power are affected by network state, the degree of influence is enhanced in turn. Using new defined parametric and non-parametric methods, this paper identifies the statistical significance and the transparency limitations caused by Internet under these several configurations. These methods will generate inputs for developer setting the distributed test configuration. These results will contribute to optimize the process of geographically distributed validation and joint development

Wavefront correction for static and dynamic aberrations to within 1 second of the system shot in the NIF Beamlet demonstration facility

The laser wavefront of the NIF Beamlet demonstration system is corrected for static aberrations with a wavefront control system. The system operates closed loop with a probe beam prior to a shot and has a loop bandwidth of about 3 Hz. However, until recently the wavefront control system was disabled several minutes prior to the shot to allow time to manually reconfigure its attenuators and probe beam insertion mechanism to shot mode. Thermally-induced dynamic variations in gas density in the Beamlet main beam line produce significant wavefront error. After about 5-8 seconds, the wavefront error has increased to a new, higher level due to turbulence- induced aberrations no longer being corrected- This implies that there is a turbulence-induced aberration noise bandwidth of less than one Hertz, and that the wavefront controller could correct for the majority of turbulence-induced aberration (about one- third wave) by automating its reconfiguration to occur within one second of the shot, This modification was recently implemented on Beamlet; we call this modification the t{sub 0}-1 system

Risk assessment of lifting operations at the construction site

В статье проводится оценка риска при работе с грузоподъёмными механизмами на строительной площадке. Применение новой методики оценки риска, которая учитывает тяжесть вреда от воздействия опасности, вероятность возникновения, опыт компаний, длительность воздействия и вероятность невыполнения мероприятий позволил провести расчёт величины риска и выявить слабые стороны работы с грузоподъёмными механизмами на строительной площадке. Для выявленных опасностей были рекомендованы мероприятия по повышению безопасности при эксплуатации грузоподъемных механизмов.The article reviews the calculation of the risk during the operation of lifting mechanisms at the construction site. The use of a new risk assessment methodology, which takes into account the severity of harm from the impact of the hazard, the likelihood of occurrence, the experience of companies, the duration of exposure and the likelihood of non-compliance with measures, made it possible to calculate the magnitude of the risk and identify weaknesses in working with lifting mechanisms at the construction site. For the identified hazards, measures were recommended to improve safety during the operation of hoisting mechanisms

VASCUNET, VQI, and the International Consortium of Vascular Registries - Unique Collaborations for Quality Improvement in Vascular Surgery

Non peer reviewe

Modelling Chinese grassland systems to improve herder livelihoods and grassland sustainability

Recent degradation of Chinese grasslands has contributed to declining herder productivity and profitability, increased incidence of dust storms and regionally reduced air quality. Overgrazing due to a doubling of stocking rates since the mid-1980s has been identified as a key contributing factor. Several pathways and strategies exist to improve grassland management; however, there remains uncertainty around the long-term sustainability of alternative systems. Nineteen years of grasslands research in China has produced a suite of models designed to improve understanding of grassland systems and investigate options for change. The StageTHREE Sustainable Grasslands Model was used to evaluate the ability of selected strategies to meet economic, production and environmental objectives. Sets of strategies that focussed on flock size, lambing and selling times, supplementary feeding rules and grazing management were simulated for a typical herder located in the desert steppe of Siziwang Banner, in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. The results from the risk efficiency analysis indicated that no single strategy set clearly dominates across all objectives. Although the current practice of herders was found to be risk-efficient, it did not achieve the highest rate of grassland recovery, minimise soil erosion or minimise the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission intensity for sheepmeat production. Targeting further improvements in these attributes could be at the detriment of herder livelihoods. The analysis indicated that if herders adopted biomass-based grazing management and improved supplementary feeding they would be able to improve grassland resilience and maintain positive long-term economic performance under reduced flock sizes. Individual decision-making units, however, would still need to trade off the importance of different attributes to identify the strategy set, or system, that best meets their objectives and attitude to risk

The Bcl10–Malt1 complex segregates FcɛRI-mediated nuclear factor κB activation and cytokine production from mast cell degranulation

Mast cells are pivotal effector cells in IgE-mediated allergic inflammatory diseases. Central for mast cell activation are signals from the IgE receptor FcɛRI, which induce cell degranulation with the release of preformed mediators and de novo synthesis of proinflammatory leukotrienes and cytokines. How these individual mast cell responses are differentially controlled is still unresolved. We identify B cell lymphoma 10 (Bcl10) and mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue 1 (Malt1) as novel key regulators of mast cell signaling. Mice deficient for either protein display severely impaired IgE-dependent late phase anaphylactic reactions. Mast cells from these animals neither activate nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) nor produce tumor necrosis factor α or interleukin 6 upon FcɛRI ligation even though proximal signaling, degranulation, and leukotriene secretion are normal. Thus, Bcl10 and Malt1 are essential positive mediators of FcɛRI-dependent mast cell activation that selectively uncouple NF-κB–induced proinflammatory cytokine production from degranulation and leukotriene synthesis

Exchange-correlation effects on quantum wires with spin-orbit interactions under the influence of in-plane magnetic fields

12 pages.-- PACS numbers: 73.63.Nm, 71.70.Ej, 71.15.Mb, 71.70.Gm.-- Final full-text version of the paper available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.76.115306.Within the noncollinear local spin-density approximation, we have studied the ground state structure of a parabolically confined quantum wire submitted to an in-plane magnetic field, including both Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interactions. We have explored a wide range of linear electronic densities in the weak (strong) coupling regimes that appear when the ratio of spin-orbit to confining energy is small (large). These results are used to obtain the conductance of the wire. In the strong coupling limit, the interplay between the applied magnetic field irrespective of the in-plane direction, the exchange-correlation energy, and the spin-orbit energy produces anomalous plateaus in the conductance vs linear density plots that are otherwise absent, or washes out plateaus that appear when the exchange-correlation energy is not taken into account.This work has been performed under Grants No. FIS2005-01414 and No. FIS2005-02796 from DGI (Spain), Grant No. 2005SGR00343 from Generalitat de Catalunya, and under Grant No. INFN07-30 from the Italian INFN-Spanish DGI agreement.http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.76.11530

In situ metabolomic- and transcriptomic-profiling of the host-associated cyanobacteria Prochloron and Acaryochloris marina

© 2018 International Society for Microbial Ecology All rights reserved 1751-7362/18. The tropical ascidian Lissoclinum patella hosts two enigmatic cyanobacteria: (1) the photoendosymbiont Prochloron spp., a producer of valuable bioactive compounds and (2) the chlorophyll-d containing Acaryochloris spp., residing in the near-infrared enriched underside of the animal. Despite numerous efforts, Prochloron remains uncultivable, restricting the investigation of its biochemical potential to cultivation-independent techniques. Likewise, in both cyanobacteria, universally important parameters on light-niche adaptation and in situ photosynthetic regulation are unknown. Here we used genome sequencing, transcriptomics and metabolomics to investigate the symbiotic linkage between host and photoendosymbiont and simultaneously probed the transcriptional response of Acaryochloris in situ. During high light, both cyanobacteria downregulate CO 2 fixing pathways, likely a result of O 2 photorespiration on the functioning of RuBisCO, and employ a variety of stress-quenching mechanisms, even under less stressful far-red light (Acaryochloris). Metabolomics reveals a distinct biochemical modulation between Prochloron and L. patella, including noon/midnight-dependent signatures of amino acids, nitrogenous waste products and primary photosynthates. Surprisingly, Prochloron constitutively expressed genes coding for patellamides, that is, cyclic peptides of great pharmaceutical value, with yet unknown ecological significance. Together these findings shed further light on far-red-driven photosynthesis in natural consortia, the interplay of Prochloron and its ascidian partner in a model chordate photosymbiosis and the uncultivability of Prochloron