Carbon dioxide concentration in Mediterranean greenhouses : how much lost production?

In the absence of artificial supply of carbon dioxide in the greenhouse environment, the CO2 absorbed in the process of photosynthesis must ultimately come from the external ambient through the ventilation openings. This requires that the CO2 concentration within the house must be lower than the external concentration, as there would be no flow inwards otherwise. Since potential assimilation (that is, the assimilation level that can be attained when no other factor is limiting) is heavily dependent on carbon dioxide concentration, this implies that assimilation is reduced, whatever the light level or crop status. The ventilation of the greenhouse implies a trade-off between ensuring inflow of carbon dioxide and maintaining an adequate temperature within the house, particularly during sunny, chilly days. We apply a simple model, on which the Dutch ¿philosophy¿ of CO2 fertilisation is based, for estimating the potential production loss, through data measured in commercial greenhouses in Almeria and Sicily. Thereafter we discuss the management options for a grower to limit losses. In particular we analyse costs, potential benefits and consequences of bringing in more carbon dioxide either through increased ventilation, at the cost of lowering temperature, or through artificial supply. We find out that, whereas the reduction in production caused by depletion is comparable to the reduction resulting from the lower temperature caused by ventilation to avoid depletion, compensating the effect of depletion is much cheaper than making up the loss by heating

Bioelectronic technologies and artificial intelligence for medical diagnosis and healthcare

The application of electronic findings to biology and medicine has significantly impacted health and wellbeing. Recent technology advances have allowed the development of new systems that can provide diagnostic information on portable point-of-devices or smartphones. The decreasing size of electronics technologies down to the atomic scale and the advances in system, cell, and molecular biology have the potential to increase the quality and reduce the costs of healthcare. Clinicians have pervasive access to new data from complex sensors; imaging tools; and a multitude of other sources, including personal health e-records and smart environments. Humans are from being able to process this unprecedented volume of available data without advanced tools. Artificial intelligence (AI) can help clinicians to identify patterns from this huge amount of data to inform better choices for patients. In this Special Issue, some original research papers focusing on recent advances have been collected, covering novel theories, innovative methods, and meaningful applications that could potentially lead to significant advances in the field

Classical Effects of Laser Pulse Duration on Strong-field Double Ionization

We use classical electron ensembles and the aligned-electron approximation to examine the effect of laser pulse duration on the dynamics of strong-field double ionization. We cover the range of intensities $10^{14}-10^{16} W/cm^2$ for the laser wavelength 780 nm. The classical scenario suggests that the highest rate of recollision occurs early in the pulse and promotes double ionization production in few-cycle pulses. In addition, the purely classical ensemble calculation predicts an exponentially decreasing recollision rate with each subsequent half cycle. We confirm the exponential behavior by trajectory back-analysis

Semantic segmentation of conjunctiva region for non-invasive anemia detection applications

Technology is changing the future of healthcare, technology-supported non-invasive medical procedures are more preferable in the medical diagnosis. Anemia is one of the widespread diseases affecting the wellbeing of individuals around the world especially childbearing age women and children and addressing this issue with the advanced technology will reduce the prevalence in large numbers. The objective of this work is to perform segmentation of the conjunctiva region for non-invasive anemia detection applications using deep learning. The proposed U-Net Based Conjunctiva Segmentation Model (UNBCSM) uses fine-tuned U-Net architecture for effective semantic segmentation of conjunctiva from the digital eye images captured by consumer-grade cameras in an uncontrolled environment. The ground truth for this supervised learning was given as Pascal masks obtained by manual selection of conjunctiva pixels. Image augmentation and pre-processing was performed to increase the data size and the performance of the model. UNBCSM showed good segmentation results and exhibited a comparable value of Intersection over Union (IoU) score between the ground truth and the segmented mask of 96% and 85.7% for training and validation, respectively

Attosecond pulse shaping around a Cooper minimum

High harmonic generation (HHG) is used to measure the spectral phase of the recombination dipole matrix element (RDM) in argon over a broad frequency range that includes the 3p Cooper minimum (CM). The measured RDM phase agrees well with predictions based on the scattering phases and amplitudes of the interfering s- and d-channel contributions to the complementary photoionization process. The reconstructed attosecond bursts that underlie the HHG process show that the derivative of the RDM spectral phase, the group delay, does not have a straight-forward interpretation as an emission time, in contrast to the usual attochirp group delay. Instead, the rapid RDM phase variation caused by the CM reshapes the attosecond bursts.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Inelastic scattering of broadband electron wave packets driven by an intense mid-infrared laser field

Intense, 100 fs laser pulses at 3.2 and 3.6 um are used to generate, by multi-photon ionization, broadband wave packets with up to 400 eV of kinetic energy and charge states up to Xe+6. The multiple ionization pathways are well described by a white electron wave packet and field-free inelastic cross sections, averaged over the intensity-dependent energy distribution for (e,ne) electron impact ionization. The analysis also suggests a contribution from a 4d core excitation in xenon

Energy Management Strategy for Hybrid Multimode Powertrains: Influence of Inertial Properties and Road Inclination

Multimode hybrid powertrains have captured the attention of automotive OEMs for their flexible nature and ability to provide better and optimized efficiency levels. However, the presence of multiple actuators, with different efficiency and dynamic characteristics, increases the problem complexity for minimizing the overall power losses in each powertrain operating condition. The paper aims at providing a methodology to select the powertrain mode and set the reference torques and angular speeds for each actuator, based on the power-weighted efficiency concept. The power-weighted efficiency is formulated to normalize the efficiency contribution from each power source and to include the inertial properties of the powertrain components as well as the vehicle motion resistance forces. The approach, valid for a wide category of multimode powertrain architectures, is then applied to the specific case of a two-mode hybrid system where the engagement of one of the two clutches enables an Input Split or Compound Split operative mode. The simulation results obtained with the procedure prove to be promising in avoiding excessive accelerations, drift of powertrain components, and in managing the power flow for uphill and downhill vehicle conditions

Attosecond Synchronization of High-Order Harmonics from Midinfrared Drivers

The group delay dispersion, also known as the attochirp, of high-order harmonics generated in gases has been identified as the main intrinsic limitation to the duration of Fourier-synthesized attosecond pulses. Theory implies that the attochirp, which is inversely proportional to the laser wavelength, can be decreased at longer wavelength. Here we report the first measurement of the wavelength dependence of the attochirp using an all-optical, in situ method [N. Dudovich et al., Nature Phys. 2, 781 (2006)]. We show that a 2 μm driving wavelength reduces the attochirp with respect to 0.8 μm at comparable intensities

Kearns-sayre syndrome with reduced plasma and cerebrospinal fluid folate

A young woman with Kearns-Sayre syndrome and progressive central nervous system deterioration over 15 years had decreased plasma and cerebrospinal fluid folate levels while receiving phenytoin for a seizure disorder. A muscle biopsy showed a “ragged red fiber” myopathy with reduced muscle carnitine and mitochondrial enzymes. Computed tomographic brain scans showed cerebral white matter hypodensities and bilateral calcification of the basal ganglia. The mechanism for the folate deficiency and altered ratio of plasma to cerebrospinal fluid folate is unknown, but the deficiency may be responsive to replacement therapy.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/50301/1/410130620_ftp.pd