Calculating the 3D magnetic field of ITER for European TBM studies

The magnetic perturbation due to the ferromagnetic test blanket modules (TBMs) may deteriorate fast ion confinement in ITER. This effect must be quantified by numerical studies in 3D. We have implemented a combined finite element method (FEM) -- Biot-Savart law integrator method (BSLIM) to calculate the ITER 3D magnetic field and vector potential in detail. Unavoidable geometry simplifications changed the mass of the TBMs and ferritic inserts (FIs) up to 26%. This has been compensated for by modifying the nonlinear ferromagnetic material properties accordingly. Despite the simplifications, the computation geometry and the calculated fields are highly detailed. The combination of careful FEM mesh design and using BSLIM enables the use of the fields unsmoothed for particle orbit-following simulations. The magnetic field was found to agree with earlier calculations and revealed finer details. The vector potential is intended to serve as input for plasma shielding calculations.Comment: In proceedings of the 28th Symposium on Fusion Technolog

Statistical Mechanics of Broadcast Channels Using Low Density Parity Check Codes

We investigate the use of Gallager's low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes in a broadcast channel, one of the fundamental models in network information theory. Combining linear codes is a standard technique in practical network communication schemes and is known to provide better performance than simple timesharing methods when algebraic codes are used. The statistical physics based analysis shows that the practical performance of the suggested method, achieved by employing the belief propagation algorithm, is superior to that of LDPC based timesharing codes while the best performance, when received transmissions are optimally decoded, is bounded by the timesharing limit.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

Statistical Mechanics of Broadcast Channels Using Low Density Parity Check Codes

We investigate the use of Gallager's low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes in a broadcast channel, one of the fundamental models in network information theory. Combining linear codes is a standard technique in practical network communication schemes and is known to provide better performance than simple timesharing methods when algebraic codes are used. The statistical physics based analysis shows that the practical performance of the suggested method, achieved by employing the belief propagation algorithm, is superior to that of LDPC based timesharing codes while the best performance, when received transmissions are optimally decoded, is bounded by the timesharing limit.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure

High levels of women's satisfaction and compliance with transdermal contraception: results from a European multinational, 6-month study

Objective. To investigate compliance, satisfaction, and preference in women using a transdermal contraceptive patch. Methods. Women (18–46 years) from eight European countries used contraceptive patches (norelgestromin 6 mg, ethinylestradiol 600 mg) for six, 4-week treatment cycles. Compliance, satisfaction, and preference were assessed after 3 and 6 cycles and study completion using self-report methods. Results. Of the 778 participants, 36.8 % (n 287) used no contraception at baseline. The most common methods were oral contraceptives (67.9%, n 334) and barrier methods (21.5%, n 106). Of oral contraception users, 63.5 % (n 212) were satisfied or very satisfied with their previous method, but compliance was poor with 77.8 % (n 260) reporting missed doses. After 3 and 6 cycles,480 % of all included women were satisfied or very satisfied with the patch. At study completion, most participants (73.7%) reported a preference for the patch compared to their previous method. Of 4107 cycles, 3718 (90.5%) were completed with perfect compliance. Two pregnancies occurred during this study, representing a Pearl Index of 0.63. No new safety issues were identified and the patch was well tolerated. Conclusion. Women were highly satisfied with transdermal contraception and preferred this form of family planning over their previous method. Transdermal contraception represents a valuable addition to contraceptive options with potential t

Biological Subphenotypes of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Show Prognostic Enrichment in Mechanically Ventilated Patients without Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Rationale: Recent studies showed that biological subphenotypes in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) provide prognostic enrichment and show potential for predictive enrichment.Objectives: To determine whether these subphenotypes and their prognostic and potential for predictive enrichment could be extended to other patients in the ICU, irrespective of fulfilling the definition of ARDS.Methods: This is a secondary analysis of a prospective observational study of adult patients admitted to the ICU. We tested the prognostic enrichment of both cluster-derived and latentclass analysis (LCA)-derived biological ARDS subphenotypes by evaluating the association with clinical outcome (ICU-day, 30-day mortality, and ventilator-free days) using logistic regression and Cox regression analysis. We performed a principal component analysis to compare blood leukocyte gene expression profiles between subphenotypes and the presence of ARDS.Measurements and Main Results: We included 2,499 mechanically ventilated patients (674 with and 1,825 without ARDS). The cluster-derived "reactive" subphenotype was, independently of ARDS, significantly associated with a higher probability of ICU mortality, higher 30-day mortality, and a lower probability of successful extubation while alive compared with the "uninflamed" subphenotype. The blood leukocyte gene expression profiles of individual subphenotypes were similar for patients with and without ARDS. LCA-derived subphenotypes also showed similar profiles.Conclusions: The prognostic and potential for predictive enrichment of biological ARDS subphenotypes may be extended to mechanically ventilated critically ill patients without ARDS. Using the concept of biological subphenotypes for splitting cohorts of critically ill patients could add to improving future precision-based trial strategies and lead to identifying treatable traits for all critically ill patients

Review of low-cost sensors for indoor air quality: Features and applications

Humans spend the majority of their time indoors, where they are potentially exposed to hazardous pollutants. Within this context, over the past few years, there has been an upsurge of low-cost sensors (LCS) for the measurement of indoor air pollutants, motivated both by recent technological advances and by increased awareness of indoor air quality (IAQ) and its potential negative health impacts. Although not meeting the performance requirements for reference regulatory-equivalent monitoring indoors, LCS can provide informative measurements, offering an opportunity for high-resolution monitoring, emission source identification, exposure mitigation and managing IAQ and energy efficiency, among others. This article discusses the strengths and limitations that LCS offer for applications in the field of IAQ monitoring; it provides an overview of existing sensor technologies and gives recommendations for different indoor applications, considering their performance in the complex indoor environment and discussing future trends

Aspect-Oriented Programming for Dynamic Web Service Monitoring and Selection

Abstract. In Service-Oriented Application Development, applications are composed by selecting and integrating third-party web services. To avoid hardwiring concrete services in client applications we introduced in previous work the Web Services Management Layer (WSML) and suggested a redirection mechanism based on Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP). Even though this mechanism enables hot swapping between semantically equivalent services based on their availability, this is not enough to create applications that are driven by business requirements. In this paper we introduce a more advanced selection mechanism that allows dynamic switching between services based on business driven requirements that can change over time. Choosing a service may be done based on cost, presence on approved partners list, as well as binding support, quality of service classifications, historical performance and proximity. We introduce a modular monitoring mechanism that is able to observe these criteria and trigger a more advanced service selection procedure. We show how the AOP language JAsCo with its dynamically pluggable aspects is well suited to achieve this. 1

Marburg Virus Infection Detected in a Common African Bat

Marburg and Ebola viruses can cause large hemorrhagic fever (HF) outbreaks with high case fatality (80–90%) in human and great apes. Identification of the natural reservoir of these viruses is one of the most important topics in this field and a fundamental key to understanding their natural history. Despite the discovery of this virus family almost 40 years ago, the search for the natural reservoir of these lethal pathogens remains an enigma despite numerous ecological studies. Here, we report the discovery of Marburg virus in a common species of fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus) in Gabon as shown by finding virus-specific RNA and IgG antibody in individual bats. These Marburg virus positive bats represent the first naturally infected non-primate animals identified. Furthermore, this is the first report of Marburg virus being present in this area of Africa, thus extending the known range of the virus. These data imply that more areas are at risk for MHF outbreaks than previously realized and correspond well with a recently published report in which three species of fruit bats were demonstrated to be likely reservoirs for Ebola virus