A high dynamic Micro Strips Ionization Chamber featuring Embedded Multi DSP Processing

An X-ray detector will be presented that is the combination of a segmented ionization chamber featuring one-dimensional spatial resolution integrated with an intelligent ADC front-end, multi DSP processing and embedded PC platform. This detector is optimized to fan beam geometry with an active area of 192 mm (horizontal) and a vertical acceptance of 6 mm. Spatial resolution is obtained by subdividing the anode into readout strips, having pitch of 150 micrometers, which are connected to 20 custom made integrating VLSI chips (each capable of 64-channel read-out and multiplexing) and read out by 14 bits 10 MHz ADCs and fast adaptive PGAs into DSP boards. A bandwidth reaching 3.2Gbit/s of raw data, generated from the real time sampling of the 1280 micro strips, is cascaded processed with FPGA and DSP to allow data compression resulting in several days of uninterrupted acquisition capability. Fast acquisition rates reaching 10 kHz are allowed due to the MicroCAT structure utilized not only as a shielding grid in ionization chamber mode but also to provide active electron amplification in the gas.Comment: 5 pages, 7 figures, distilled by AFPL Ghostscript 7.0

Management of exercise-induced glycaemic imbalances in type 1 diabetes

Regular moderate-intensity exercise is strongly recommended for its beneficial effects in all people. In patients with type 1 diabetes, however, the exercise-associated glycemic imbalances remain an unresolved clinical challenge. Current guidelines require an in-depth understanding of the glycemic responses to exercise and each patient has to discover, by trial-and-error, his/her own strategy, several attempts being usually required to gain sufficient experience. Consequently, fear of hypoglycemia remains the strongest barrier to physical activity. This paper explores the potential strategies that may be employed to minimize the risk of exercise related glycemic imbalances. Moreover, a newly developed algorithm (ECRES, Exercise Carbohydrate Requirement Estimating Software) is described, which estimates on a patient-and situation-specific basis the glucose supplement required by the patient to maintain safe blood glucose levels. The algorithm was tested on 27 patients who performed three 1-hr constant intensity walks (each starting at a different time interval following insulin injection). Results showed that in 70.4% of the trials, independent of the time of day, the algorithm provided a satisfactory estimate of the carbohydrates needed by patients to complete the exercise with a glucose level within safe thresholds (i.e. 3.9 - 10 mmol\ub7L -1). Despite the algorithm requires further experimental testing to be applied by the majority of patients, these results indicate its potential usefulness as a tool for preventing immediate exercise-induced glycemic imbalances (i.e. during exercise) in type 1 diabetic patients, in particular for spontaneous activities not planned in advance, thus allowing all insulin-dependent patients to safely enjoy the benefits of exercise

Agde – Belle Île

L’opération de diagnostic conduite sur le site de Belle Ile avait pour objectif de mettre en évidence une occupation antique en bordure du fleuve Hérault. Cette recherche était motivée par la présence de vestiges sur la rive droite du fleuve, sur le site de La Motte II (Tourrette et Moyat 2002). Les structures attestées à ce niveau, à une profondeur comprise entre 3,20 et 5,20 m – empierrement pouvant former une berge, trois quais en bois et abondant mobilier céramique et lithique – pouvaient..

Income Taxation in Washington: In a Class By Itself

The prohibition against state income tax in Washington is the result of a series of Washington Supreme Court decisions severely restricting the legislative authority to define classifications of property for taxation. The purposes of this article are to demonstrate that the Washington Supreme Court interpretations of the relevant constitutional provisions are erroneous, and to present our views of a proper analysis of the legislature\u27s power to classify for purposes of taxation

A 3-year follow-up study on bone structure elastic quality

Osteoporosis is called a silent disease because bone fragility manifests itself to the patient only in an advanced state, through fracture and pain. Medical and industry leaders recognize that the current golden standard diagnostic method, densitometry, or Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA), may not always be sufficient to assess the patient’s real risk of fragility fracture [1]. Indeed, pathological alterations affect not only the mineral content (quantity) of the bone, but also its “quality”, which can be measured from the elastic properties of the bone internal trabecular structure by means of the Bone Elastic Structure Test, BES TEST®. In this study, the incidence of fragility fractures was assessed after a 3-year follow-up period in the women enrolled for a population study in 2015. The BES TEST® resulted an effective estimator of bone health, and can improve the assessment of the patient’s fracture risk map

Income Taxation in Washington: In a Class By Itself

The prohibition against state income tax in Washington is the result of a series of Washington Supreme Court decisions severely restricting the legislative authority to define classifications of property for taxation. The purposes of this article are to demonstrate that the Washington Supreme Court interpretations of the relevant constitutional provisions are erroneous, and to present our views of a proper analysis of the legislature\u27s power to classify for purposes of taxation

Evaluación Financiera de Proyectos : Evaluación financiera para la creación de una nueva empresa de viviero dedicado a la producción de plantas ormanetales en el año 2014

El presente trabajo de seminario de graduación muestra el estudio de evaluación de proyecto para la creación de una nueva empresa de vivero dedicado a la producción y venta de plantas ornamentales de diversas especies ubicado en la ciudad de Managua. Está estructurado primeramente por aspectos teóricos, haciendo referencias a las generalidades de proyecto, destacando la importancia y objetivo de realizar una eficiente evaluación y estudio de proyecto. Posteriormente se ha elaborado el caso práctico en el cual se realizaron los estudios necesarios para evaluar un proyecto; comenzando con el estudio de mercado dentro del cual se determinó la oferta y demanda por medio de investigaciones hechas a cuatro viveros ubicados en el departamento de Managua, esto facilitó realizar un análisis de precios y conocer el comportamiento de compra de los clientes potenciales, la demanda se determinó segmentando el mercado a absorber especificando a las familias de ingresos altos y medios del departamento de Managua. Dentro del estudio técnico se especificó la capacidad y tamaño óptimo del local en base a la demanda, los requerimientos y especificaciones del terreno para lograr producir las plantas ornamentales. Se detalló la infraestructura del local, la construcción de una oficina administrativa, una bodega dedicada a la siembra y germinación, y la construcción de un servicio higiénico. En el estudio de impacto ambiental se identificaron afectaciones en las que incurrirá el proyecto en su ejecución debido a las construcciones a efectuar, así como también se elaboró un plan de mitigación de acciones para reducir aquellos perjuicios al suelo y al ambiente que provocará el proyecto contemplado. Finalmente, dentro del estudio financiero se determinaron los costos y gastos en los que incurrirá el vivero anualmente durante el horizonte a evaluar del proyecto, los ingresos anuales proyectados en base a la demanda proyectada, se determinó el capital de trabajo necesario para operar en el periodo de inicio del proyecto, se calcularon las depreciaciones de la infraestructura y equipo de siembra. Se aplicaron las herramientas financieras VAN, TIR, el periodo de recuperación de la inversión, PRI y se efectuó el análisis de la relación beneficio costo BC, con las cuales se toman las decisiones de viabilidad del proyecto

O Iluminismo e Portugal.

89 Jan.-Dez. 1979, p. 107-124

Does Deep Learning-Based Super-Resolution Help Humans With Face Recognition?

The last decade witnessed a renaissance of machine learning for image processing. Super-resolution (SR) is one of the areas where deep learning techniques have achieved impressive results, with a speci fi c focus on the SR of facial images. Examining and comparing facial images is one of the critical activities in forensic video analysis; a compelling question is thus whether recent SR techniques could help face recognition (FR) made by a human operator, especially in the challenging scenario where very low resolution images are available, which is typical of surveillance recordings. This paper addresses such a question through a simple yet insightful experiment: we used two state- of-the-art deep learning-based SR algorithms to enhance some very low-resolution faces of 30 worldwide celebrities. We then asked a heterogeneous group of more than 130 individuals to recognize them and compared the recognition accuracy against the one achieved by presenting a simple bicubic-interpolated version of the same faces. Results are somehow surprising: despite an undisputed general superiority of SR-enhanced images in terms of visual appearance, SR techniques brought no considerable advantage in overall recognition accuracy