1,010 research outputs found

    Wireless battery charger for ev with circular or planar coils: comparison

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    This paper presents the experimental results obtained in the wireless energy transfer system prototype based on circular or planar coils. With these experimental results we can choose the tuning settings to improve the power transmission efficiency in wireless energy transfer systems. In wireless energy transfer for electric vehicle batteries charging, the coil shape and the range between the coils are the most important issues of those systems

    Geometries of Light and Shadows, from Piero della Francesca to James Turrell

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    This chapter addresses the problem of representing light and shadow in the artistic culture, from its uncertain beginnings, related to the studies on conical linear perspective in the Fifteenth Century, to the applications of light projection in the installations of contemporary art. Here are examined in particular two works by two artists, representing two different conceptual approaches to the perception and symbolism of light and shadow. The first is the so-called Brera Madonna by Piero della Francesca, where the image projected from a luminous radiation is employed with a narrative purpose, supporting the apparently hidden script of the painting and according to the artist\u2019s own speculations about perspective as a means to clarify the phenomenal world. The second is one of James Turrell\u2019s Dark Spaces installations, where quantum electrodynamics interpretation of light is taken into account: for Turrell, light is physical and thus can shape spaces where the visitors, or viewers, can \u201csee themselves seeing.\u201d In his body of work, perceptual deceptions are carefullyproduced by the interaction of the senses with his phenomenal staging of light and darkness, but a strong symbolic component is always present, often related to his own speculative interests. In both cases, light and shadow, through their geometries, emphasize both phenomenal and spiritual contents of the work of art, intended as a device to expand the perception and the knowledge of the viewer

    Mid-infrared plasmonic inductors: Enhancing inductance with meandering lines

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    UPNa. Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica y Electrónica. Laboratorio de fotónica TERALABWe present a mid-infrared inductor that when applied to an extraordinary transmission hole array produces a strong redshift of the resonant peak accompanied by an unprecedented enlargement of the operation bandwidth. The importance of the result is twofold: from a fundamental viewpoint, the direct applicability of equivalent circuit concepts borrowed from microwaves is demonstrated, in frequencies as high as 17â€...THz upholding unification of plasmonics and microwave concepts and allowing for a simplification of structure design and analysis; in practical terms, a broadband funnelling ofinfrared radiation with fractional bandwidth and efficiency as high as 97% and 48%, respectively, is achieved through an area less than one hundredth the squared wavelength, which leads to an impressive accessible strong field localization that may be of great interest in sensing applications.Effort sponsored by Spanish Government under contracts Consolider EngineeringMetamaterials CSD2008-00066, TEC2011-28664-C01 and TEC2011-28664-C02. V.T. acknowledges funding from Universidad Pública de Navarra. P.R.-U. is sponsored by the Government of Navarra under funding program Formación de tecnólogos 055/01/11. M.N.-C. is supported by the Imperial College Junior Research Fellowship. M.B. acknowledges funding by the Spanish Government under the research contract program Ramón y Cajal RYC-2011-08221

    Efficacy of exposure versus cognitive therapy in anxiety disorders: systematic review and meta-analysis

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    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There is growing evidence of the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) for a wide range of psychological disorders. There is a continued controversy about whether challenging maladaptive thoughts rather than use of behavioural interventions alone is associated with the greatest efficacy. However little is known about the relative efficacy of various components of CBT. This review aims to compare the relative efficacy of Cognitive Therapy (CT) versus Exposure (E) for a range of anxiety disorders using the most clinically relevant outcome measures and estimating the summary relative efficacy by combining the studies in a meta-analysis.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Psych INFO, MEDLINE and EMBASE were searched from the first available year to May 2010. All randomised controlled studies comparing the efficacy of exposure with cognitive therapy were included. Odds ratios (OR) or standardised means' differences (Hedges' g) for the most clinically relevant primary outcomes were calculated. Outcomes of the studies were grouped according to specific disorders and were combined in meta-analyses exploring short-term and long-term outcomes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>20 Randomised Controlled Trials with (n = 1,308) directly comparing the efficacy of CT and E in anxiety disorders were included in the meta-analysis. No statistically significant difference in the relative efficacy of CT and E was revealed in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and in Panic Disorder (PD). There was a statistically significant difference favouring CT versus E in Social Phobia both in the short-term (Z = 3.72, p = 0.0002) and the long-term (Z = 3.28, p = 0.001) outcomes.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>On the basis of extant literature, there appears to be no evidence of differential efficacy between cognitive therapy and exposure in PD, PTSD and OCD and strong evidence of superior efficacy of cognitive therapy in social phobia</p

    Evidence against PALB2 involvement in Icelandic breast cancer susceptibility

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    Several mutations in the PALB2 gene (partner and localizer of BRCA2) have been associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, including a founder mutation, 1592delT, reported in Finnish breast cancer families. Although most often the risk is moderate, it doesn't exclude families with high-risk mutations to exist and such observations have been reported. To see if high-risk PALB2-mutations may be present in the geographically confined population of Iceland, linkage analysis was done on 111 individuals, thereof 61 breast cancer cases, from 9 high-risk non-BRCA1/BRCA2 breast cancer families, targeting the PALB2 region. Also, screening for the 1592delT founder mutation in the 9 high-risk families and in 638 unselected breast cancer cases was performed. The results indicate no linkage in any of the high-risk families and screening for the 1592delT mutation was negative in all samples. PALB2 appears not to be a significant factor in high-risk breast cancer families in Iceland and the 1592delT mutation is not seen to be associated with breast cancer in Iceland

    Abundance, movements and biodiversity of flying predatory insects in crop and non-crop agroecosystems

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    [EN] Predatory insects are key natural enemies that can highly reduce crops pest damage. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the movements of flying predatory insects in agroecosystems throughout the year. In particular, it is still unclear how these predators move from crop to non-crop habitats, which are the preferred habitats to overwinter and to spread during the spring and if these predators leave or stay after chemical treatments. Here, the Neuroptera, a generalist, highly mobile, flying predator order of insects, was selected as model. We studied the effects of farming management and the efficiency of edge shelterbelts, ground cover vegetation, and fruit trees canopy on holding flying predatory insects in Mediterranean traditional agroecosystems. Seasonal movements and winter effects were also assessed. We evaluated monthly nine fruit agroecosystems, six organic, and three pesticides sprayed, of 0.5-1 ha in eastern Spain during 3 years using two complementary methods, yellow sticky traps and aspirator. Results show surprisingly that the insect abundance was highest in pesticide sprayed systems, with 3.40 insects/sample versus 2.32 insects/sample in organic systems. The biodiversity indices were highest in agroecosystems conducted under organic management, with S of 4.68 and D of 2.34. Shelterbelts showed highest biodiversity indices, S of 3.27 and D of 1.93, among insect habitats. Insect species whose adults were active during the winter preferred fruit trees to spend all year round. However, numerous species moved from fruit trees to shelterbelts to overwinter and dispersed into the orchard during the following spring. The ground cover vegetation showed statistically much lower attractiveness for flying predatory insects than other habitats. Shelterbelts should therefore be the first option in terms of investment in ecological infrastructures enhancing flying predators.Sorribas Mellado, JJ.; González Cavero, S.; Domínguez Gento, A.; Vercher Aznar, R. (2016). Abundance, movements and biodiversity of flying predatory insects in crop and non-crop agroecosystems. Agronomy for Sustainable Development. 36(2). doi:10.1007/s13593-016-0360-3S362Altieri MA, Letourneau DK (1982) Vegetation management and biological control in agroecosystems. Crop Prot 1:405–430. doi: 10.1016/0261-2194(82)90023-0Altieri MA, Schmidt LL (1986) The dynamics of colonizing arthropod communities at the interface of abandoned, organic and commercial apple orchards and adjacent woodland habitats. Agric Ecosyst Environ 16:29–43. doi: 10.1016/0167-8809(86)90073-3Bengtsson J, Ahnström J, Weibull A (2005) The effects of organic agriculture on biodiversity and abundance: a meta-analysis. 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    A chemical survey of exoplanets with ARIEL

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    Thousands of exoplanets have now been discovered with a huge range of masses, sizes and orbits: from rocky Earth-like planets to large gas giants grazing the surface of their host star. However, the essential nature of these exoplanets remains largely mysterious: there is no known, discernible pattern linking the presence, size, or orbital parameters of a planet to the nature of its parent star. We have little idea whether the chemistry of a planet is linked to its formation environment, or whether the type of host star drives the physics and chemistry of the planet’s birth, and evolution. ARIEL was conceived to observe a large number (~1000) of transiting planets for statistical understanding, including gas giants, Neptunes, super-Earths and Earth-size planets around a range of host star types using transit spectroscopy in the 1.25–7.8 μm spectral range and multiple narrow-band photometry in the optical. ARIEL will focus on warm and hot planets to take advantage of their well-mixed atmospheres which should show minimal condensation and sequestration of high-Z materials compared to their colder Solar System siblings. Said warm and hot atmospheres are expected to be more representative of the planetary bulk composition. Observations of these warm/hot exoplanets, and in particular of their elemental composition (especially C, O, N, S, Si), will allow the understanding of the early stages of planetary and atmospheric formation during the nebular phase and the following few million years. ARIEL will thus provide a representative picture of the chemical nature of the exoplanets and relate this directly to the type and chemical environment of the host star. ARIEL is designed as a dedicated survey mission for combined-light spectroscopy, capable of observing a large and well-defined planet sample within its 4-year mission lifetime. Transit, eclipse and phase-curve spectroscopy methods, whereby the signal from the star and planet are differentiated using knowledge of the planetary ephemerides, allow us to measure atmospheric signals from the planet at levels of 10–100 part per million (ppm) relative to the star and, given the bright nature of targets, also allows more sophisticated techniques, such as eclipse mapping, to give a deeper insight into the nature of the atmosphere. These types of observations require a stable payload and satellite platform with broad, instantaneous wavelength coverage to detect many molecular species, probe the thermal structure, identify clouds and monitor the stellar activity. The wavelength range proposed covers all the expected major atmospheric gases from e.g. H2O, CO2, CH4 NH3, HCN, H2S through to the more exotic metallic compounds, such as TiO, VO, and condensed species. Simulations of ARIEL performance in conducting exoplanet surveys have been performed – using conservative estimates of mission performance and a full model of all significant noise sources in the measurement – using a list of potential ARIEL targets that incorporates the latest available exoplanet statistics. The conclusion at the end of the Phase A study, is that ARIEL – in line with the stated mission objectives – will be able to observe about 1000 exoplanets depending on the details of the adopted survey strategy, thus confirming the feasibility of the main science objectives.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

    Jet energy measurement with the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions at root s=7 TeV

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    The jet energy scale and its systematic uncertainty are determined for jets measured with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 7TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 38 pb-1. Jets are reconstructed with the anti-kt algorithm with distance parameters R=0. 4 or R=0. 6. Jet energy and angle corrections are determined from Monte Carlo simulations to calibrate jets with transverse momenta pT≥20 GeV and pseudorapidities {pipe}η{pipe}<4. 5. The jet energy systematic uncertainty is estimated using the single isolated hadron response measured in situ and in test-beams, exploiting the transverse momentum balance between central and forward jets in events with dijet topologies and studying systematic variations in Monte Carlo simulations. The jet energy uncertainty is less than 2. 5 % in the central calorimeter region ({pipe}η{pipe}<0. 8) for jets with 60≤pT<800 GeV, and is maximally 14 % for pT<30 GeV in the most forward region 3. 2≤{pipe}η{pipe}<4. 5. The jet energy is validated for jet transverse momenta up to 1 TeV to the level of a few percent using several in situ techniques by comparing a well-known reference such as the recoiling photon pT, the sum of the transverse momenta of tracks associated to the jet, or a system of low-pT jets recoiling against a high-pT jet. More sophisticated jet calibration schemes are presented based on calorimeter cell energy density weighting or hadronic properties of jets, aiming for an improved jet energy resolution and a reduced flavour dependence of the jet response. The systematic uncertainty of the jet energy determined from a combination of in situ techniques is consistent with the one derived from single hadron response measurements over a wide kinematic range. The nominal corrections and uncertainties are derived for isolated jets in an inclusive sample of high-pT jets. Special cases such as event topologies with close-by jets, or selections of samples with an enhanced content of jets originating from light quarks, heavy quarks or gluons are also discussed and the corresponding uncertainties are determined. © 2013 CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration
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