First results of systematic studies done with different types of Silicon Photomultipliers

The presented results are obtained during the first steps taken in order to develop a setup and measurement procedures which allow to compare properties of diverse kinds of silicon photomultipliers. The response to low-intensity light was studied for silicon photomultipliers produced by CPTA (Russia), Hamamatsu (Japan), ITC-irst (Italy) and SensL (Ireland).Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, proceedings of the Internationa Linear Collider Workshop LCWS2007, Hamburg, German

Intra- and inter-examiner Reliability of Direct Facial Soft Tissue Measurements Using Digital Calipers

Background: The objective of this study is to determine if facial soft tissue measurements using digital calipers can be reliably taken by the same examiner and by a large group of examiners. Materials and Methods: Ten examiners performed a set of 18 in-clinic measurements on 10 female and 10 male dental students using a digital caliper twice over a 3-week period. The intra-class correlation coefficient and the Shrout-Fleiss method were used for the statistical analysis. Results: Anthropometric intra-examiner reliability was high for all measurements (none fell below R = 0.934). However, inter-examiner reliability exhibited a wide range of values, some reliable (nasal width at widest nostrils [R = 0.922] and subnasale to upper lip [R = 0.926]), and others unreliable [base of nose (R = 0.590), mouth height (R = 0.585), and soft tissue B point to gnathion (R = 0.623)]. Conclusions: Soft tissue measurements of clearly identifiable points measured by the same examiner produced highly consistent, accurate and reliable measurements. Soft tissue points with poor definition resulted in average-to-poor reliabilities measurements

Dimensional Changes of Upper Airway after Rapid Maxillary Expansion: A Prospective Cone-beam Computed Tomography Study

Introduction: The aim of this prospective study was to use cone-beam computed tomography to assess the dimensional changes of the upper airway in orthodontic patients with maxillary constriction treated by rapid maxillary expansion. Methods: Fourteen orthodontic patients (mean age, 12.9 years; range, 9.7-16 years) were recruited. The patients with posterior crossbite and constricted maxilla were treated with rapid maxillary expansion as the initial part of their comprehensive orthodontic treatments. Before and after rapid maxillary expansion conebeam computed tomography scans were taken to measure the retropalatal and retroglossal airway changes in terms of volume, and sagittal and cross-sectional areas. The transverse expansions by rapid maxillary expansion were assessed between the midlingual alveolar bone plates at the maxillary first molar and first premolar levels. The measurements of the before and after rapid maxillary expansion scans were compared by using paired t tests with the Bonferroni adjustment for multiple comparisons. Results: After rapid maxillary expansion, significant and equal amounts of 4.8 mm of expansion were observed at the first molar (P 5 0.0000) and the first premolar (P 5 0.0000) levels. The width increase at the first premolar level (20.0%) was significantly greater than that at the first molar level (15.0%) (P 5 0.035). As the primary outcome variable, the cross-sectional airway measured from the posterior nasal spine to basion level was the only parameter showing a significant increase of 99.4 mm2 (59.6%) after rapid maxillary expansion (P 5 0.0004). Conclusions: These results confirm the findings of previous studies of the effect of rapid maxillary expansion on the maxilla. Additionally, we found that only the cross-sectional area of the upper airway at the posterior nasal spine to basion level significantly gains a moderate increase after rapid maxillary expansion

First results of comparative studies of silicon photomultipliers

The presented results are obtained during the first steps taken in order to develop a set-up and measurement procedures which allow to compare properties of diverse samples of silicon photomultipliers. The response to low-intensity light was studied for silicon photomultipliers produced by CPTA (Russia), Hamamatsu(Japan), ITC-irst (Italy) and SensL (Ireland)

Surface Induced Order in Liquid Metals and Binary Alloys

Measurements of the surface x-ray scattering from several pure liquid metals (Hg, Ga, and In) and from three alloys (Ga-Bi, Bi-In, and K-Na) with different heteroatomic chemical interactions in the bulk phase are reviewed. Surface-induced layering is found for each elemental liquid metal. The surface structure of the K-Na alloy resembles that of an elemental liquid metal. Bi-In displays pair formation at the surface. Surface segregation and a wetting film are found for Ga-Bi.Comment: 10 pages, 3 fig, published in Journal of Physics: Condensed Matte

Thermo-oxidative characterisation of the residues from persimmon harvest for its use in energy recovery processes

[EN] The residues from the harvest of persimmon fruit will be thermally valorised by means of high temperature reactions within a spouted bed reactor. With the aim to obtain valuable information for the design of the device, the thermo-chemical processes were simulated by multi-rate linear non-isothermal Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) using O-2 as carrier gas. In addition, a set of analyses were carried out using Ar as carrier gas in order to evaluate the influence of the atmosphere (oxidative or inert conditions) on the decomposition of the samples evaluating the reactions of pyrolysis. The release of gases was monitored by Evolved Gas Analysis (EGA) with in-line Fourier Transformed Infrared (FT-IR) analysis. The thermochemical reaction was mathematically described through the definition of the main kinetic parameters: activation energy (Ea), pre-exponential factor (In A) and model and order of reaction (n). The so-called kinetic triplet was calculated through the application of a methodology based on complementary isoconversional methods. These results will be the initial parameters that will help design the Spouted Bed Reactor and it is envisaged that they will be used in computer simulation software to achieve a better understanding of the process to obtain the optimum operational parameters. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.Moliner, C.; Aguilar, A.; Bosio, B.; Arato, E.; Ribes-Greus, A. (2016). Thermo-oxidative characterisation of the residues from persimmon harvest for its use in energy recovery processes. Fuel Processing Technology. 152:421-429. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuproc.2016.07.008S42142915

Seasonal changes in physical capacities of basketball players according to competitive levels and individual responses

PURPOSE:The aim of this study was to quantify changes in physical capacities of thirty-eight basketball players selected from different teams, as well as from varying competitive levels (i.e. Division I, Division II and Division III) during the preparation and in-season periods. METHODS:Pre (T1) and post (T2) preparation period and during regular season (T3), the players completed a Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery test-level 1. Following a 3 to 8 days-break, players performed a 6-min continuous running test (Mognoni's test), a counter-movement jump test and a 5-min high-intensity intermittent running test. RESULTS:Blood lactate concentration measured after the Mognoni's test was significantly reduced from T1 to T2, and from T2 to T3 (P<0.001, ƞ2 = 0.424). The distance covered during the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery test was significantly increased only from T1 to T2 in Division II and III (P<0.001, ƞ2 = 0.789). Similarly, the physiological responses to high-intensity intermittent running test were improved only from T1 to T2 (all P<0.001, ƞ2 = 0.495 to 0.652). Despite significant changes observed in running tests from T1 to T2, at individual level 35-55% of players did not show a very likely improvement. Relative peak power produced during vertical jumps at T3 by Division I players was increased compared to T1 (ANOVA interaction, P = 0.037, ƞ2 = 0.134). CONCLUSIONS:The main improvements in physical capacities occurred during the preparation period, when the aerobic fitness and the ability to sustain high-intensity intermittent efforts were moderately-to-largely improved. However, it appears that the preparation period does not consistently impact on vertical jump variables. Aerobic fitness and force/power production during vertical jumps appear to improve across the competitive season (slightly-to-moderately). Physical tests should be used to identify weaknesses in physical performance of players and to monitor their fatigue status, with the aim to develop individualized training programs

A feasibility assessment of a retrofit Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell coal-fired plant for flue gas CO₂ segregation

This work considers the use of a Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell (MCFC) system as a power generation and CO2 concentrator unit downstream of the coal burner of an existing production plant. In this way, the capability of MCFCs for CO2 segregation, which today is studied primarily in reference to large-scale plants, is applied to an intermediate-size plant highlighting the potential for MCFC use as a low energy method of carbon capture. A technical feasibility analysis was performed using an MCFC system-integrated model capable of determining steady-state performance across varying feed composition. The MCFC user model was implemented in Aspen Custom Modeler and integrated into the reference plant in Aspen Plus. The model considers electrochemical, thermal, and mass balance effects to simulate cell electrical and CO2 segregation performance. Results obtained suggest a specific energy requirement of 1.41 MJ kg CO2 121 significantly lower than seen in conventional Monoethanolamine (MEA) capture processes

On the existence of star products on quotient spaces of linear Hamiltonian torus actions

We discuss BFV deformation quantization of singular symplectic quotient spaces in the special case of linear Hamiltonian torus actions. In particular, we show that the Koszul complex on the moment map of an effective linear Hamiltonian torus action is acyclic. We rephrase the nonpositivity condition of Arms, Gotay and Jennings for linear Hamiltonian torus actions. It follows that reduced spaces of such actions admit continuous star products.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, uses psfra

Resilience-Performance Tradeoff Analysis of a Deep Neural Network Accelerator

Nowadays, Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) are one of the most computationally-intensive algorithms because of the (i) huge amount of data to be transferred from/to the memory, and (ii) the huge amount of matrix multiplications to compute. These issues motivate the design of custom DNN hardware accelerators. These accelerators are widely used for low-latency safety-critical applications such as object detection in autonomous cars. Safety-critical applications have to be resilient with respect to hardware faults and Deep Learning (DL) accelerators are subjected to hardware faults that can cause functional failures, potentially leading to catastrophic consequences. Although DNNs possess a certain level of intrinsic resilience, it varies depending on the hardware on which they are run. The intent of the paper is to assess the resilience of a systolic-array-based DNN accelerator in the presence of hardware faults, in order to identify the architectural parameters that may mainly impact the DNN resilience