Anisotropic thermal emission from magnetized neutron stars

The thermal emission from isolated neutron stars is not well understood. The X-ray spectrum is very close to a blackbody but there is a systematic optical excess flux with respect to the extrapolation to low energy of the best blackbody fit. This fact, in combination with the observed pulsations in the X-ray flux, can be explained by anisotropies in the surface temperature distribution.We study the thermal emission from neutron stars with strong magnetic fields in order to explain the origin of the anisotropy. We find (numerically) stationary solutions in axial symmetry of the heat transportequations in the neutron star crust and the condensed envelope. The anisotropy in the conductivity tensor is included consistently. The presence of magnetic fields of the expected strength leads to anisotropy in the surface temperature. Models with toroidal components similar to or larger than the poloidal field reproduce qualitatively the observed spectral properties and variability of isolated neutron stars. Our models also predict spectral features at energies between 0.2 and 0.6 keV.Comment: 18 pages, 19 figures, version accepted for publication in A&

Robotic manipulation for the shoe-packaging process

[EN] This paper presents the integration of a robotic system in a human-centered environment, as it can be found in the shoe manufacturing industry. Fashion footwear is nowadays mainly handcrafted due to the big amount of small production tasks. Therefore, the introduction of intelligent robotic systems in this industry may contribute to automate and improve the manual production steps, such us polishing, cleaning, packaging, and visual inspection. Due to the high complexity of the manual tasks in shoe production, cooperative robotic systems (which can work in collaboration with humans) are required. Thus, the focus of the robot lays on grasping, collision detection, and avoidance, as well as on considering the human intervention to supervise the work being performed. For this research, the robot has been equipped with a Kinect camera and a wrist force/ torque sensor so that it is able to detect human interaction and the dynamic environment in order to modify the robot¿s behavior. To illustrate the applicability of the proposed approach, this work presents the experimental results obtained for two actual platforms, which are located at different research laboratories, that share similarities in their morphology, sensor equipment and actuation system.This work has been partly supported by the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad of the Spanish Government (Key No.: 0201603139 of Invest in Spain program and Grant No. RTC-2016-5408-6) and by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) of the German Government (Projekt-ID 54368155).Gracia Calandin, LI.; Perez-Vidal, C.; Mronga, D.; Paco, JD.; Azorin, J.; Gea, JD. (2017). Robotic manipulation for the shoe-packaging process. The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology. 92(1-4):1053-1067. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-017-0212-6S10531067921-4Pedrocchi N, Villagrossi E, Cenati C, Tosatti LM (2017) Design of fuzzy logic controller of industrial robot for roughing the uppers of fashion shoes. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 77(5):939–953Hinojo-Perez JJ, Davia-Aracil M, Jimeno-Morenilla A, Sanchez-Romero L, Salas F (2016) Automation of the shoe last grading process according to international sizing systems. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 85(1):455–467Dura-Gil JV, Ballester-Fernandez A, Cavallaro M, Chiodi A, Ballarino A, von Arnim V., Brondi C, Stellmach D (2016) New technologies for customizing products for people with special necessities: project fashion-able. Int J Comput Integr Manuf. In Press, doi: 10.1080/0951192X.2016.1145803Jatta F, Zanoni L, Fassi I, Negri S (2004) A roughing/cementing robotic cell for custom made shoe manufacture. Int J Comput Integr Manuf 17(7):645–652Nemec B, Zlajpah L (2008) Robotic cell for custom finishing operations. Int J Comput Integr Manuf 21(1):33–42Molfino R, et al (2004) Modular, reconfigurable prehensor for grasping and handling limp materials in the shoe industry. In: IMS international forum, CernobbioIntelishoe - integration and linking of shoe and auxiliary industries. 5Th FPSpecial shoes movement. 7th FP, NMP-2008-SME-2-R.229261, http://www.sshoes.euVilaca JL, Fonseca J (2007) A new software application for footwear industry. In: IEEE international symposium on intelligent signal processing WISP 2007, pp 1–6Custom, environment and comfort made shoe. 6TH FP [2004-2008]Framework of integrated technologies for user centred products. Grant agreement no.: CP-TP 229336-2. NMP2-SE-2009-229336 FIT4U -7TH FPRobofoot project website. http://www.robofoot.eu/ . Accessed 2016/ 09/16Montiel E (2007) Customization in the footwear industry. In: proceedings of the MIT congress on mass customizationSucan I, Kavraki LE (2012) A sampling-based tree planner for systems with complex dynamics, vol 28Kuffner JJ Jr, LaValle SM (2000) Rrt-connect: an efficient approach to single-query path planning. In: Proceedings of the IEEE international conference on robotics and automation, 2000. ICRA ’00, vol 2, pp 995–1001Ratliff N, Zucker M, Andrew Bagnell J, Srinivasa S (2009) Chomp: gradient optimization techniques for efficient motion planning. In: IEEE international conference on robotics and automation, 2009. ICRA ’09, pp 489–494Brock O, Khatib O (1997) Elastic strips: real-time path modification for mobile manipulationKroger T (2011) Opening the door to new sensor-based robot applications #x2014;the reflexxes motion libraries. In: 2011 IEEE international conference on robotics and automation (ICRA), pp 1–4Berg J, Ferguson D, Kuffner J (2006) Anytime path planning and replanning in dynamic environments. In: Proceedings of the IEEE international conference on robotics and automation (ICRA), pp 2366–2371Berenson D, Abbeel P, Goldberg K (2012) A robot path planning framework that learns from experience. In: IEEE international conference on robotics and automation. IEEE, pp 3671–3678Bischoff R, Kurth J, Schreiber G, Koeppe R, Albu-Schaeffer A, Beyer A, Eiberger O, Haddadin S, Stemmer A, Grunwald G, Hirzinger G (2010) The kuka-dlr lightweight robot arm — a new reference platform for robotics research and manufacturing. In: Robotics (ISR), 2010 41st international symposium on and 2010 6th German conference on robotics (ROBOTIK), pp 1–8Rooks B (2006) The harmonious robot. Industrial Robot-an International Journal 33:125–130Vahrenkamp N, Wieland S, Azad P, Gonzalez D, Asfour T, Dillmann R (2008) Visual servoing for humanoid grasping and manipulation tasks. In: 8th IEEE-RAS international conference on humanoid robots, 2008, Humanoids 2008, pp 406–412Pieters RS, et al. (2012) Direct trajectory generation for vision-based obstacle avoidance. In: Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE/RSJ international conference on intelligent robots and systemsKinect for windows sensor components and specifications, website. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj131033.aspx . Accessed 2016/09/16Jatta F, Zanoni L, Fassi I, Negri S (2004) A roughing cementing robotic cell for custom made shoe manufacture. Int J Comput Integr Manuf 17(7):645–652Maurtua I, Ibarguren A, Tellaeche A (2012) Robotics for the benefit of footwear industry. In: International conference on intelligent robotics and applications. Springer, Berlin, pp 235–244Arkin RC (1998) Behavior-based robotics. MIT PressNilsson NJ (1980) Principles of artificial intelligence. Morgan KaufmannAsada H, Slotine J-JE (1986) Robot analysis and control. WileyROS official web page. http://www.ros.org , (Accessed on 2017/ 02/03)Langmann B, Hartmann K, Loffeld O (2012) Depth camera technology comparison and performance evaluation. In: 1st international conference on pattern recognition applications and methods, pp 438–444The player project. free software tools for robot and sensor applications. http://playerstage.sourceforge.net/ , (Accessed on 2017/ 02/03)Yet another robot platform (YARP). http://www.yarp.it/ , (Accessed on 2017/02/03)The OROCOS project. smarter control in robotics and automation. http://www.orocos.org/ , (Accessed on 2017/02/03)CARMEN: Robot navigation toolkit. http://carmen.sourceforge.net/ , (Accessed on 2017/02/03)ORCA: Components for robotics. http://orca-robotics.sourceforge.net/ , (Accessed on 2017/02/03)MOOS: Mission oriented operating suite. http://www.robots.ox.ac.uk/mobile/MOOS/wiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage , (Accessed on 2017/02/03)Microsoft robotics studio. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29081 , (Accessed on 2017/02/03)Pr2 ros website. http://www.ros.org/wiki/Robots/PR2 . Accessed 2016/09/16Care-o-bot 3 ros website. http://www.ros.org/wiki/Robots/Care-O-bot . Accessed 2016/09/16Aila, mobile dual-arm manipulation, website. http://robotik.dfki-bremen.de/de/forschung/robotersysteme/aila.html . Accessed 2016/09/16Package libpcan documentation, website. http://www.ros.org/wiki/libpcan . Accessed 2016/09/16Pcan driver for linux, user manual. http://www.peak-system.com . Document version 7.1 (2011-03-21)Pcan driver for linux, user manual. http://wiki.ros.org/schunk_powercube_chain . Accessed 2016/09/16Ros nodes documentation, website. http://www.ros.org/wiki/Nodes . Accessed 2016/09/16Ros messages documentation, website. http://www.ros.org/wiki/Messages . Accessed 2016/09/16Ros topics documentation, website. http://www.ros.org/wiki/Topics . Accessed 2016/09/16Ros services documentation, website. http://www.ros.org/wiki/Services . Accessed 2016/09/16Yaml files officials website. http://www.yaml.org/ . Accessed 2016/ 09/16Ros robot model (urdf) documentation website. http://www.ros.org/wiki/urdf . Accessed 2016/09/16Point cloud library (pcl), website. http://www.pointclouds.org/ . Accessed 2016/09/16Arm navigation ros stack, website. http://wiki.ros.org/arm_navigation . Accessed 2016/09/16Hornung A, Wurm KM, Bennewitz M, Stachniss C, Burgard W (2013) Octomap: an efficient probabilistic 3d mapping framework based on octrees Autonomous RobotsOrocos kdl documentation, website. http://www.orocos.org/kdl . Accessed 2016/09/16Ioan A, Şucan MM, Kavraki LE (2012) The open motion planning library, vol 19. http://ompl.kavrakilab.orgWaibel M, Beetz M, Civera J, D’Andrea R, Elfring J, Galvez-Lopez D, Haussermann K, Janssen R, Montiel JMM, Perzylo A, Schiessle B, Tenorth M, Zweigle O, van de Molengraft R (2011) Roboearth. IEEE Robot Autom Mag 18(2):69–82Simox toolbox. http://simox.sourceforge.net/ . Accessed 2016/09/16Moreels P, Perona P (2007) Evaluation of features detectors and descriptors based on 3d objects. Int J Comput Vis 73:263–284Viola P, Jones M (2001) Rapid object detection using a boosted cascade of simple features. In: Proceedings of the IEEE computer society conference on computer vision and pattern recognition, 2001. CVPR 2001, vol 1Teuliere C, Marchand E, Eck L (2010) Using multiple hypothesis in model-based tracking. In: 2010 IEEE international conference on robotics and automation (ICRA), pp 4559–4565Moulianitis VC, Dentsoras AJ, Aspragathos NA (1999) A knowledge-based system for the conceptual design of grippers for handling fabrics. Artif Intell Eng Des Anal Manuf 13(1):13–25Davis S, Tsagarakis NG, Caldwell DG (2008) The initial design and manufacturing process of a low cost hand for the robot icub. In: 8th IEEE-RAS international conference on humanoid robots, pp 40–45Cerruti G, Chablat D, Gouaillier D, Sakka S (2017) Design method for an anthropomorphic hand able to gesture and grasp. In: IEEE international conference on robotics and automation. IEEE, pp 3671–367

Assessment of vapor pressure deficit variability and trends in Spain and possible connections with soil moisture

The Vapor Pressure Deficit (VPD) is one of the most relevant surface meteorological variables; with important implications in ecology, hydrology, and atmosphere. By understanding the processes involved in the variability and trend of the VPD, it is possible to assess the possible impacts and implications related to both physical and human environments, like plant function, water use efficiency, net ecosystem production, atmospheric CO2 growth rate, etc. This study analysed recent temporal variability and trends in VPD in Spain between 1980 and 2020 using a recently developed high-quality dataset. Also, the connection between VPD and soil moisture and other key climate variables (e.g. air temperature, precipitation, and relative humidity) was assessed on different time scales varying from weekly to annual. The objective was to determine if changes in land-atmosphere feedbacks connected with soil moisture and evapotranspiration anomalies have been relevant to assess the interannual variability and trends in VPD. Results demonstrate that VPD exhibited a clear seasonality and dominant positive trends on both the seasonal (mainly spring and summer) and annual scales. Rather, trends were statistically non-significant (p > 0.05) during winter and autumn. Spatially, VPD positive trends were more pronounced in southern and eastern of Spain. Also, results suggest that recent trends of VPD shows low contribution of variables that drive land-atmosphere feedbacks (e.g. evapotranspiration, and soil moisture) in comparison to the role of global warming processes. Notably, the variability of VPD seems to be less coupled with soil moisture variability during summertime, while it is better interrelated during winter, indicating that VPD variability would be mostly related to climate variability mechanisms that control temperature and relative humidity than to land-atmosohere feedbacks. Overall, our findings highlight the importance of assessing driving forces and physical mechanisms that control VPD variability using high-quality climate datasets, especially, in semiarid and sub-humid regions of the world

Characterization of new regulatory elements within the Drosophila bithorax complex

The homeotic Abdominal-B (Abd-B) gene expression depends on a modular cis-regulatory region divided into discrete functional domains (iab) that control the expression of the gene in a particular segment of the fly. These domains contain regulatory elements implicated in both initiation and maintenance of homeotic gene expression and elements that separate the different domains. In this paper we have performed an extensive analysis of the iab-6 regulatory region, which regulates Abd-B expression at abdominal segment A6 (PS11), and we have characterized two new polycomb response elements (PREs) within this domain. We report that PREs at Abd-B cis-regulatory domains present a particular chromatin structure which is nuclease accessible all along Drosophila development and both in active and repressed states. We also show that one of these regions contains a dCTCF and CP190 dependent activity in transgenic enhancer-blocking assays, suggesting that it corresponds to the Fab-6 boundary element of the Drosophila bithorax complex

Mixed Methods Use in Project Management Research

Mixed methods research is increasingly being used in business and management disciplines, in spite of positivist traditions. The aim of the study is twofold: (1) to examine the types of mixed methods approaches being used, and (2) to determine the quality of the reporting of mixed methods studies published in the field of project management. A retrospective content analysis of articles from three ranked project management journals was undertaken for a sample period of 2004 to 2010. Our findings suggest the field of project management is in need of capacity building in relation to the good reporting of mixed methods studies

Wind speed variability over the Canary Islands, 1948-2014: focusing on trend differences at the land-ocean interface and below-above the trade-wind inversion layer

This study simultaneously examines wind speed trends at the land?ocean interface, and below?above the trade-wind inversion layer in the Canary Islands and the surrounding Eastern North Atlantic Ocean: a key region for quantifying the variability of trade-winds and its response to large-scale atmospheric circulation changes. Two homogenized data sources are used: (1) observed wind speed from nine land-based stations (1981?2014), including one mountain weather station (Izaña) located above the trade-wind inversion layer; and (2) simulated wind speed from two atmospheric hindcasts over ocean (i.e., SeaWind I at 30 km for 1948?2014; and SeaWind II at 15 km for 1989?2014). The results revealed a widespread significant negative trend of trade-winds over ocean for 1948?2014, whereas no significant trends were detected for 1989?2014. For this recent period wind speed over land and ocean displayed the same multi-decadal variability and a distinct seasonal trend pattern with a strengthening (late spring and summer; significant in May and August) and weakening (winter?spring?autumn; significant in April and September) of trade-winds. Above the inversion layer at Izaña, we found a predominance of significant positive trends, indicating a decoupled variability and opposite wind speed trends when compared to those reported in boundary layer. The analysis of the Trade Wind Index (TWI), the North Atlantic Oscillation Index (NAOI) and the Eastern Atlantic Index (EAI) demonstrated significant correlations with the wind speed variability, revealing that the correlation patterns of the three indices showed a spatio-temporal complementarity in shaping wind speed trends across the Eastern North Atlantic.C. A. -M. has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 703733 (STILLING project). This research was also supported by the Research Projects: Swedish BECC, MERGE, VR (2014–5320), PCIN-2015-220, CGL2014-52135-C03-01 and Red de variabilidad y cambio climático RECLIM (CGL2014-517221-REDT). M.M is indebted to the Spanish Government for funding through the “Ramón y Cajal” program and supported by Grant PORTIO (BIA2015-70644-R

PSR J1119-6127 and the X-ray Emission from High Magnetic Field Radio Pulsars

The existence of radio pulsars having inferred magnetic elds in the magnetar regime suggests that possible transition objects could be found in the radio pulsar population. The discovery of such an object would contribute greatly to our understanding of neutron star physics. Here we report on unusual X-ray emission detected from the radio pulsar PSR J1119-6127 using XMM-Newton. The pulsar has a characteristic age of 1,700 yrs and inferred surface dipole magnetic eld strength of 4.1x10^13 G. In the 0.5-2.0 keV range, the emission shows a single, narrow pulse with an unusually high pulsed fraction of ~70%. No pulsations are detected in the 2.0-10.0 keV range, where we derive an upper limit at the 99% level for the pulsed fraction of 28%. The pulsed emission is well described by a thermal blackbody model with a high temperature of 2.4x10^6 K. While no unambiguous signature of magnetar-like emission has been found in high-magnetic-eld radio pulsars, the X-ray characteristics of PSR J1119-6127 require alternate models from those of conventional thermal emission from neutron stars. In addition, PSR J1119-6127 is now the radio pulsar with the smallest characteristic age from which thermal X-ray emission has been detected

Use of mixed methods designs in substance research: a methodological necessity in Nigeria

The utility of mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) is becoming increasingly accepted in health sciences, but substance studies are yet to substantially benefit from such utilities. While there is a growing number of mixed methods alcohol articles concerning developed countries, developing nations are yet to embrace this method. In the Nigerian context, the importance of mixed methods research is yet to be acknowledged. This article therefore, draws on alcohol studies to argue that mixed methods designs will better equip scholars to understand, explore, describe and explain why alcohol consumption and its related problems are increasing in Nigeria. It argues that as motives for consuming alcohol in contemporary Nigeria are multiple, complex and evolving, mixed method approaches that provide multiple pathways for proffering solutions to problems should be embraced

dSAP18 and dHDAC1 contribute to the functional regulation of the Drosophila Fab-7 element

It was described earlier that the Drosophila GAGA factor [Trithorax-like (Trl)] interacts with dSAP18, which, in mammals, was reported to be a component of the Sin3–HDAC co-repressor complex. GAGA–dSAP18 interaction was proposed to contribute to the functional regulation of the bithorax complex (BX-C). Here, we show that mutant alleles of Trl, dsap18 and drpd3/hdac1 enhance A6-to-A5 transformation indicating a contribution to the regulation of Abd-B expression at A6. In A6, expression of Abd-B is driven by the iab-6 enhancer, which is insulated from iab-7 by the Fab-7 element. Here, we report that GAGA, dSAP18 and dRPD3/HDAC1 co-localize to ectopic Fab-7 sites in polytene chromosomes and that mutant Trl, dsap18 and drpd3/hdac1 alleles affect Fab-7-dependent silencing. Consistent with these findings, chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis shows that, in Drosophila embryos, the endogenous Fab-7 element is hypoacetylated at histones H3 and H4. These results indicate a contribution of GAGA, dSAP18 and dRPD3/HDAC1 to the regulation of Fab-7 function

Decreased cerebral blood flow in the limbic and prefrontal cortex using SPECT imaging in a cohort of completed suicides

Suicide has a high comorbidity with impulsivity and depression, and finding imaging biomarkers indicative of patients at high risk for suicidal behavior is invaluable to the clinician. Using single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging, we have previously reported regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) decreases in the medial prefrontal cortex, ventral tegmental area and subgenual cingulate cortex (Brodmann area 25 (BA 25)), a region found to be hypoperfused with treatment-resistant depression. From 2007 to 2010, we have extended our analysis to include nine additional completed suicides. In all, 27 healthy, age- and gender-matched subjects from a previously acquired healthy brain study served as controls to our 21 completed suicides. All 21 suicides had been previously diagnosed with depression according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder-IV criterion. Voxel-by-voxel analyses were performed using statistical parametric mapping to compare the differences in technetium-99m hexamethylpropylene amine oxime brain uptake between the groups. Factor analysis of the data identified the top 10 regions of hypoperfusion in the suicidal group, including the bilateral superior frontal lobes, the right precuneus, the rolandic operculum, postcentral gyrus, left caudate and insular cortex. We also demonstrate more focal decreases in rCBF in the subgenual cingulate cortex (BA 25) in 18 subjects, supporting our previous hypothesis that hypoperfusion of BA 25 may be a risk factor for suicide in depressed patients. This work suggests that SPECT might be useful in predicting risk for suicide completion in subjects with depression or treatment-resistant depression. Further investigation of this work is necessary to better understand the predictive value of this finding