Web based system architecture for long pulse remote experimentation

Remote experimentation (RE) methods will be essential in next generation fusion devices. Requirements for long pulse RE will be: on-line data visualization, on-line data acquisition processes monitoring and on-line data acquisition systems interactions (start, stop or set-up modifications). Note that these methods are not oriented to real-time control of fusion plant devices. INDRA Sistemas S.A., CIEMAT (Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas Medioambientales y Tecnológicas) and UPM (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid) have designed a specific software architecture for these purposes. The architecture can be supported on the BeansNet platform, whose integration with an application server provides an adequate solution to the requirements. BeansNet is a JINI based framework developed by INDRA, which makes easy the implementation of a remote experimentation model based on a Service Oriented Architecture. The new software architecture has been designed on the basis of the experience acquired in the development of an upgrade of the TJ-II remote experimentation system

‘Just can’t hide it’:A behavioral and lesion study on emotional response modulation after right prefrontal damage

Introduction: Historically, emotion regulation problems have been reported as a common consequence of right prefrontal cortex (rPFC) damage. It has been proposed that the rPFC, particularly the rIFG, has a key role inhibiting prepotent reflexive actions, thus contributing to emotion regulation and self-regulation. This study is the first to directly explore this hypothesis, by testing whether damage to the rIFG compromises the voluntary modulation of emotional responses, and whether performance on inhibition tasks is associated with emotion regulation. Method: 10 individuals with unilateral right prefrontal damage and 15 matched healthy controls were compared on a well-known response modulation task. During the task participants had to amplify and suppress their facial emotional expressions, while watching film clips eliciting amusement. Measures of executive control, emotion regulation strategies usage and symptomatology were also collected. Results: As a group, individuals with rPFC damage presented a significantly reduced range of response modulation compared with controls. In addition, performance in the suppression task was associated with measures of cognitive inhibition and suppression usage. Interestingly, these effects were driven primarily by a subgroup of individuals with rPFC damage, all of whom also had damage to the right posterior insula, and who presented a marked impairment in suppressing facial emotional expression

Diseño de una red de sensores inalámbricos para el despliegue óptimo de los nodos sensores en un cultivo de Cacao

In this study, factorial experiments were conducted in two different scenarios to design a Wireless Sensor Network for monitoring a cocoa crop in a rural area in Colombia. Node sensors measured temperature, relative humidity, soil moisture, Ultra-Violet light, and visible light intensity. The factors considered in the experiments were distance between node sensors, height from the ground, and type of antenna; in turn, Received Signal Strength Indicator and data transfer time were the outputs. The wireless sensor network was deployed in the crop, covering approximately 3 % of the area and using 7 different nodes in a cluster tree topology. First, an open field scenario with line of sight was used to determine the appropriate height of the node sensors. Second, a scenario in the actual cocoa crop was utilized to find the appropriate distance between modules and type of antenna. We found, based on our calculations and experimental data, that a height of 1.25 m was required to avoid the Fresnel zone and improve the RSSI of the network. Furthermore, we determined that a distance below 35 m was needed to guarantee signal reception and avoid long data transfer times. The wire antenna exhibited a better performance. Finally, the proposed methodology and monitoring system can be used for agronomic applications in rural areas in Colombia to increase crop yield.En este trabajo se realizaron experimentos factoriales en dos escenarios diferentes, para diseñar una red de sensores inalámbricos, que permita monitorear un cultivo de cacao en una zona rural de Colombia. Los nodos sensores miden la temperatura, la humedad relativa, la humedad del suelo, la luz ultravioleta y la intensidad de la luz visible. Los factores considerados en los experimentos fueron la distancia entre los nodos sensores, la altura con respecto al suelo y el tipo de antena; el indicador de intensidad de señal recibida y el tiempo de transferencia de datos fueron las salidas. La red de sensores inalámbricos se implementó en el cultivo, cubriendo aproximadamente el 3 % del área, utilizando 7 nodos diferentes en una topología de cluster-tree. En primer lugar, se utilizó un escenario de campo abierto con línea de vista para determinar la altura adecuada de los sensores de nodo. Luego, se utilizó un escenario en el cultivo de cacao real para encontrar la distancia adecuada entre los módulos y el tipo de antena. Se obtuvo, por cálculos y datos experimentales, que se requería una altura de 1.25 m para evitar la zona de Fresnel y mejorar el RSSI de la red. Además, se determinó que se necesitaba una distancia inferior a 35 m para garantizar la recepción de la señal y evitar largos tiempos de transferencia de datos. Adicionalmente, la antena tipo Wire exhibió un mayor rendimiento y la metodología propuesta y el sistema de monitoreo se pueden usar para aplicaciones agronómicas en áreas rurales de Colombia, con el fin de aumentar el rendimiento de los cultivos

Long term (5 Year) safety of bronchial thermoplasty: Asthma Intervention Research (AIR) trial

<b>Background:</b> Bronchial thermoplasty (BT) is a bronchoscopic procedure that improves asthma control by reducing excess airway smooth muscle. Treated patients have been followed out to 5 years to evaluate long-term safety of this procedure. <br></br> <br></br> <b>Methods:</b> Patients enrolled in the Asthma Intervention Research Trial were on inhaled corticosteroids ≥200 μg beclomethasone or equivalent + long-acting-beta2-agonists and demonstrated worsening of asthma on long-acting-β2-agonist withdrawal. Following initial evaluation at 1 year, subjects were invited to participate in a 4 year safety study. Adverse events (AEs) and spirometry data were used to assess long-term safety out to 5 years post-BT. <br></br> <br></br> <b>Results:</b> 45 of 52 treated and 24 of 49 control group subjects participated in long-term follow-up of 5 years and 3 years respectively. The rate of respiratory adverse events (AEs/subject) was stable in years 2 to 5 following BT (1.2, 1.3, 1.2, and 1.1, respectively,). There was no increase in hospitalizations or emergency room visits for respiratory symptoms in Years 2, 3, 4, and 5 compared to Year 1. The FVC and FEV1 values showed no deterioration over the 5 year period in the BT group. Similar results were obtained for the Control group. <br></br><br></br> <b>Conclusions:</b> The absence of clinical complications (based on AE reporting) and the maintenance of stable lung function (no deterioration of FVC and FEV1) over a 5-year period post-BT in this group of patients with moderate to severe asthma support the long-term safety of the procedure out to 5 years

The impact of norepinephrine dose reporting heterogeneity on mortality prediction in septic shock patients

Background: Norepinephrine (NE) is a cornerstone drug in the management of septic shock, with its dose being used clinically as a marker of disease severity and as mortality predictor. However, variations in NE dose reporting either as salt formulations or base molecule may lead to misinterpretation of mortality risks and hinder the process of care. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of the MIMIC-IV database to assess the impact of NE dose reporting heterogeneity on mortality prediction in a cohort of septic shock patients. NE doses were converted from the base molecule to equivalent salt doses, and their ability to predict 28-day mortality at common severity dose cut-offs was compared. Results: 4086 eligible patients with septic shock were identified, with a median age of 68 [57–78] years, an admission SOFA score of 7 [6–10], and lactate at diagnosis of 3.2 [2.4–5.1] mmol/L. Median peak NE dose at day 1 was 0.24 [0.12–0.42] μg/kg/min, with a 28-day mortality of 39.3%. The NE dose showed significant heterogeneity in mortality prediction depending on which formulation was reported, with doses reported as bitartrate and tartrate presenting 65 (95% CI 79–43)% and 67 (95% CI 80–47)% lower ORs than base molecule, respectively. This divergence in prediction widened at increasing NE doses. When using a 1 μg/kg/min threshold, predicted mortality was 54 (95% CI 52–56)% and 83 (95% CI 80–87)% for tartrate formulation and base molecule, respectively. Conclusions: Heterogeneous reporting of NE doses significantly affects mortality prediction in septic shock. Standardizing NE dose reporting as base molecule could enhance risk stratification and improve processes of care. These findings underscore the importance of consistent NE dose reporting practices in critical care settings.</p

Large tunable valley splitting in edge-free graphene quantum dots on boron nitride

Coherent manipulation of binary degrees of freedom is at the heart of modern quantum technologies. Graphene offers two binary degrees: the electron spin and the valley. Efficient spin control has been demonstrated in many solid state systems, while exploitation of the valley has only recently been started, yet without control on the single electron level. Here, we show that van-der Waals stacking of graphene onto hexagonal boron nitride offers a natural platform for valley control. We use a graphene quantum dot induced by the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope and demonstrate valley splitting that is tunable from -5 to +10 meV (including valley inversion) by sub-10-nm displacements of the quantum dot position. This boosts the range of controlled valley splitting by about one order of magnitude. The tunable inversion of spin and valley states should enable coherent superposition of these degrees of freedom as a first step towards graphene-based qubits

Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission IX. CoRoT-6b: a transiting `hot Jupiter' planet in an 8.9d orbit around a low-metallicity star

The CoRoT satellite exoplanetary team announces its sixth transiting planet in this paper. We describe and discuss the satellite observations as well as the complementary ground-based observations - photometric and spectroscopic - carried out to assess the planetary nature of the object and determine its specific physical parameters. The discovery reported here is a `hot Jupiter' planet in an 8.9d orbit, 18 stellar radii, or 0.08 AU, away from its primary star, which is a solar-type star (F9V) with an estimated age of 3.0 Gyr. The planet mass is close to 3 times that of Jupiter. The star has a metallicity of 0.2 dex lower than the Sun, and a relatively high $^7$Li abundance. While thelightcurveindicatesamuchhigherlevelof activity than, e.g., the Sun, there is no sign of activity spectroscopically in e.g., the [Ca ] H&K lines

The origin of the early time optical emission of Swift GRB 080310

We present broadband multi-wavelength observations of GRB 080310 at redshift z = 2.43. This burst was bright and long-lived, and unusual in having extensive optical and near IR follow-up during the prompt phase. Using these data we attempt to simultaneously model the gamma-ray, X-ray, optical and IR emission using a series of prompt pulses and an afterglow component. Initial attempts to extrapolate the high energy model directly to lower energies for each pulse reveal that a spectral break is required between the optical regime and 0.3 keV to avoid over predicting the optical flux. We demonstrate that afterglow emission alone is insufficient to describe all morphology seen in the optical and IR data. Allowing the prompt component to dominate the early-time optical and IR and permitting each pulse to have an independent low energy spectral indices we produce an alternative scenario which better describes the optical light curve. This, however, does not describe the spectral shape of GRB 080310 at early times. The fit statistics for the prompt and afterglow dominated models are nearly identical making it difficult to favour either. However one enduring result is that both models require a low energy spectral index consistent with self absorption for at least some of the pulses identified in the high energy emission model.Comment: 24 pages, 12 figures, 12 tables. Accepted to MNRA

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Control adaptativo para optimizar una intersección semafórica basado en un sistema embebido

In order to optimize the traffic flow on a road intersection, an adaptive control algorithm and a data base were designed; both components were hosted on a Raspberry Pi B+ embedded system. The data base helps to debug the performance of the controller. The efficiency of the algorithm was assessed using a virtual instrument, which emulated a traffic light intersection in the city of Cucuta, i. e., the magnetorresistive sensors, the activation process of the traffic lights and the traffic flow. By processing and updating the times assigned to the traffic lights, the traffic flow was increased up to 5.5 % and the maximum time a vehicle has to wait before passing through the traffic light was decreased up to 28 seconds. Aditionally the length of line was diminished up to 18 %. Based on this case study, it can be inferred that is possible to integrate the adaptive control and the embedded systems as software and hardware tools to improve the operation of traffic control systems.Para optimizar el flujo vehicular en una intersección vial se diseñaron un algoritmo de control adaptativo y una base de datos que apoya la depuración del rendimiento del controlador, ambos alojados en el sistema embebido Raspberry Pi B+. El desempeño del algoritmo fue evaluado con un instrumento virtual, que emuló una intersección semafórica de la ciudad de Cúcuta, esto es, los sensores magnetorresistivos, el proceso de encendido en las luces de los semáforos y el flujo vehicular. La manipulación de los tiempos de encendido en las luces de los semáforos, aumentó el flujo vehicular hasta 5.5% y, disminuyó el tiempo máximo de espera del vehículo para avanzar hasta 28 segundos y el largo de fila hasta un 18%. Con base en el caso de estudio, se puede inferir que es posible integrar el control adaptativo y los sistemas embebidos como herramientas de software y hardware para mejorar el funcionamiento en los sistemas de regulación vial