14,359 research outputs found
Impacts of projected maximum temperature extremes for C21 by an ensemble of regional climate models on cereal cropping systems in the Iberian Peninsula
Crops growing in the Iberian Peninsula may be subjected to damagingly high temperatures during the sensitive development periods of flowering and grain filling. Such episodes are considered important hazards and farmers may take insurance to offset their impact. Increases in value and frequency of maximum temperature have been observed in the Iberian Peninsula during the 20th century, and studies on climate change indicate the possibility of further increase by the end of the 21st century. Here, impacts of current and future high temperatures on cereal cropping systems of the Iberian Peninsula are evaluated, focusing on vulnerable development periods of winter and summer crops. Climate change scenarios obtained from an ensemble of ten Regional Climate Models (multimodel ensemble) combined with crop simulation models were used for this purpose and related uncertainty was estimated. Results reveal that higher extremes of maximum temperature represent a threat to summer-grown but not to winter-grown crops in the Iberian Peninsula. The study highlights the different vulnerability of crops in the two growing seasons and the need to account for changes in extreme temperatures in developing adaptations in cereal cropping systems. Finally, this work contributes to clarifying the causes of high-uncertainty impact projections from previous studies
Sensitivity analysis of Component's Tolerance in Inductively Coupled Power Transfer System
ICPT systems help drivers to recharge their electrical vehicles via wireless. The core of the system is a pair of coils and two reactive structures. In order to predict the performance of a practical implementation, it is necessary to study the impact of using real components which suffer from variations in their nominal values. Basing on the performed study, we conclude that the components on the side where the inductance is in series with the capacitance should be carefully selected as variations in their values greatly affect the system performance. A 50 kW system has been evaluated in terms of efficiency and load voltage.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech
Observational constraints to boxy/peanut bulge formation time
Boxy/peanut bulges are considered to be part of the same stellar structure as
bars and both could be linked through the buckling instability. The Milky Way
is our closest example. The goal of this letter is determining if the mass
assembly of the different components leaves an imprint in their stellar
populations allowing to estimate the time of bar formation and its evolution.
To this aim we use integral field spectroscopy to derive the stellar age
distributions, SADs, along the bar and disc of NGC 6032. The analysis shows
clearly different SADs for the different bar areas. There is an underlying old
(>=12 Gyr) stellar population for the whole galaxy. The bulge shows star
formation happening at all times. The inner bar structure shows stars of ages
older than 6 Gyrs with a deficit of younger populations. The outer bar region
presents a SAD similar to that of the disc. To interpret our results, we use a
generic numerical simulation of a barred galaxy. Thus, we constrain, for the
first time, the epoch of bar formation, the buckling instability period and the
posterior growth from disc material. We establish that the bar of NGC 6032 is
old, formed around 10 Gyr ago while the buckling phase possibly happened around
8 Gyr ago. All these results point towards bars being long-lasting even in the
presence of gas.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter
Performance Analysis of ML-based MTC Traffic Pattern Predictors
Prolonging the lifetime of massive machine-type communication (MTC) networks
is key to realizing a sustainable digitized society. Great energy savings can
be achieved by accurately predicting MTC traffic followed by properly designed
resource allocation mechanisms. However, selecting the proper MTC traffic
predictor is not straightforward and depends on accuracy/complexity trade-offs
and the specific MTC applications and network characteristics. Remarkably, the
related state-of-the-art literature still lacks such debates. Herein, we assess
the performance of several machine learning (ML) methods to predict Poisson and
quasi-periodic MTC traffic in terms of accuracy and computational cost. Results
show that the temporal convolutional network (TCN) outperforms the long-short
term memory (LSTM), the gated recurrent units (GRU), and the recurrent neural
network (RNN), in that order. For Poisson traffic, the accuracy gap between the
predictors is larger than under quasi-periodic traffic. Finally, we show that
running a TCN predictor is around three times more costly than other methods,
while the training/inference time is the greatest/least.Comment: IEEE Wireless Communications Letters Print ISSN: 2162-2337 Online
ISSN: 2162-234
Fluxtube model atmospheres and Stokes V zero-crossing wavelengths
First results of the inversion of Stokes I and V profiles from plage regions
near disk center are presented. Both low and high spatial resolution spectra of
FeI 6301.5 and FeI 6302.5 A obtained with the Advanced Stokes Polarimeter (ASP)
have been considered for analysis. The thin flux tube approximation,
implemented in an LTE inversion code based on response functions, is used to
describe unresolved magnetic elements. The code allows the simultaneous and
consistent inference of all atmospheric quantities determining the radiative
transfer with the sole assumption of hydrostatic equilibrium. By considering
velocity gradients within the tubes we are able to match the full ASP Stokes
profiles. The magnetic atmospheres derived from the inversion are characterized
by the absence of significant motions in high layers and strong velocity
gradients in deeper layers. These are essential to reproduce the asymmetries of
the observed profiles. Our scenario predicts a shift of the Stokes V
zero-crossing wavelengths which is indeed present in observations made with the
Fourier Transform Spectrometer.Comment: To appear in ApJ Letters (1997) (in press
Model analysis of the world data on the pion transition form factor
We discuss the impact of recent Belle data on our description of the pion
transition form factor based on the assumption that a perturbative formalism
and a nonperturbative one can be matched in a physically acceptable manner at a
certain hadronic scale . We discuss the implications of the different
parameters of the model in comparing with world data and conclude that within
experimental errors our description remains valid. Thus we can assert that the
low nonperturbative description together with an additional term
at the matching scale have a strong influence on the behavior up to very
high values of .Comment: 6 pages and 3 figures. Contains a comparison with other models and
additional reference
Woolliness assessment in peaches (Cv. Springcrest) by sensory and instrumental means.
Mealiness is a negative attribute of sensory texture, characterised by the lack of juiciness without variation of total water content in the tissues. In peaches, mealiness is also known as "woolliness" and "leatheriness". This internal disorder is characterised by the lack of juiciness and flavour. In peaches, it is associated with interna browning near the stone and the incapacity of ripening although there is externa ripe appearance. Woolliness is associated with inadequate cold storage and is considered as a physiological disorder that appears in stone fruits when an unbalanced pectolitic enzyme activity during storage occurs (Kailasapathy and Melton, 1992). Many attempts have been carried out to identify and measure mealiness and woolliness in fruits. The texture of a food product is composed by a wide spectrum of sensory attributes. Consumer defines the texture integrating simultaneously all the sensory attributes. However, an instrument assesses one or several parameters related to a fraction of the texture spectrum (Kramer, 1973). The complexity of sensory analysis by means of trained panels to assess the quality of some producing processes, supports the attempt to estimate texture characteristics by instrumental means. Some studies have been carried out comparing sensory and instrumental methods to assess mealiness and woolliness. The current study is centered on analysis and evaluation of woolliness in peaches and is part of the European project FAIR CT95 0302 "Mealiness in fruits: consumer perception and means for detection". The main objective of this study was to develop procedures to detect woolly peaches by sensory and by instrumental means, as well as to compare both measuring procedures
Treatment for T1DM patients by a neuro-fuzzy inverse optimal controller including multi-step prediction
Diabetes Mellitus is a serious metabolic condition for global health associations. Recently, the number of adults, adolescents and children who have developed Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) has increased as well as the mortality statistics related to this disease. For this reason, the scientific community has directed research in developing technologies to reduce T1DM complications. This contribution is related to a feedback control strategy for blood glucose management in population samples of ten virtual adult subjects, adolescents and children. This scheme focuses on the development of an inverse optimal control (IOC) proposal which is integrated by neural identification, a multi-step prediction (MSP) strategy, and Takagi–Sugeno (T–S) fuzzy inference to shape the convenient insulin infusion in the treatment of T1DM patients. The MSP makes it possible to estimate the glucose dynamics 15 min in advance; therefore, this estimation allows the Neuro-Fuzzy-IOC (NF-IOC) controller to react in advance to prevent hypoglycemic and hyperglycemic events. The T–S fuzzy membership functions are defined in such a way that the respective inferences change basal infusion rates for each patient's condition. The results achieved for scenarios simulated in Uva/Padova virtual software illustrate that this proposal is suitable to maintain blood glucose levels within normoglycemic values (70–115 mg/dL); furthermore, this level remains less than 250 mg/dL during the postprandial event. A comparison between a simple neural IOC (NIOC) and the proposed NF-IOC is carried out using the analysis for control variability named CVGA chart included in the Uva/Padova software. This analysis highlights the improvement of the NF-IOC treatment, proposed in this article, on the NIOC approach because each subject is located inside safe zones for the entire duration of the simulatio
Early Science with the Large Millimetre Telescope: Molecules in the Extreme Outflow of a proto-Planetary Nebula
Extremely high velocity emission likely related to jets is known to occur in
some proto-Planetary Nebulae. However, the molecular complexity of this
kinematic component is largely unknown. We observed the known extreme outflow
from the proto-Planetary Nebula IRAS 16342-3814, a prototype water fountain, in
the full frequency range from 73 to 111 GHz with the RSR receiver on the Large
Millimetre Telescope. We detected the molecules SiO, HCN, SO, and CO.
All molecular transitions, with the exception of the latter are detected for
the first time in this source, and all present emission with velocities up to a
few hundred km s. IRAS 16342-3814 is therefore the only source of this
kind presenting extreme outflow activity simultaneously in all these molecules,
with SO and SiO emission showing the highest velocities found of these species
in proto-Planetary Nebulae. To be confirmed is a tentative weak SO component
with a FWHM 700 km s. The extreme outflow gas consists of dense
gas (n 10--10 cm), with a mass larger than
0.02--0.15 M. The relatively high abundances of SiO and SO may
be an indication of an oxygen-rich extreme high velocity gas.Comment: Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical
Society Letter
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