Two-Photon Absorption Laser Induced Fluorescence Measurements of Neutral Density in Helicon Plasma

Neutral particles play a critical role in plasma experiments. They simultaneously act as a source of particles and a sink of momentum and energy. Also, they act as an intermediary between the plasma and surrounding material walls. However, few methods exist to make localized, direct neutral density measurements. A new diagnostic, based on two-photon absorption laser induced fluorescence (TALIF), capable of making direct ground state measurement is developed. A high intensity (5 MW/cm2), narrow bandwidth (0.1 cm -1) laser is used to directly probe the ground state of neutral hydrogen, deuterium and krypton. The diagnostic represents an improvement over traditional laser induced fluorescence in that it can be used to measure the spatial profile from a single porthole, and it can be operated in a Doppler-free configuration. The system is tested and calibrated in a low temperature helicon plasma source. Calculations show the system has sufficient performance to achieve an acceptable signal-to-noise ratio in a high temperature fusion plasma. Development of the diagnostic is presented in this work along with both steady-state and time-resolved TALIF measurements in helicon plasma

Role of longitudinal fluctuations in L10 FePt

L10 FePt is a technologically important material for a range of novel data storage applications. In the ordered FePt structure the normally nonmagnetic Pt ion acquires a magnetic moment, which depends on the local field originating from the neighboring Fe atoms. In this work a model of FePt is constructed in which the induced Pt moment is simulated by using combined longitudinal and rotational spin dynamics. The model is parameterized to include a linear variation of the moment with the exchange field, so that at the Pt site the magnetic moment depends on the Fe ordering. The Curie temperature of FePt is calculated and agrees well with similar models that incorporate the Pt dynamics through an effective Fe-only Hamiltonian. By computing the dynamic correlation function the anisotropy field and the Gilbert damping are extracted over a range of temperatures. The anisotropy exhibits a power-law dependence on the magnetization with exponent n≈2.1. This agrees well with what was observed experimentally, and it is obtained without including a two-ion anisotropy term as in other approaches. Our work shows that incorporating longitudinal fluctuations into spin dynamics calculations is crucial for understanding the properties of materials with induced moments

Electrophoretic Light Modulator (ELM) Dynamic Glass Technology: A Daylight and Energy Performance Study

Mechanical heating and cooling are often required to balance the energy flows in and out of a space to maintain comfortable temperatures. There is significant pressure in many countries to reduce the energy consumption of buildings and one way to achieve this is to reduce the area of glazing. However, this conflicts with providing natural daylight which is critical to the visual comfort, health, and wellbeing of occupants. The typical approach currently used to improve glass performance is to use coatings applied to the build-up; the major limitation with glass coatings affecting most buildings globally relates to the solar and light transmission properties being fixed. This implies that a static glazing solution, is often not working optimally for most of the year. Dynamic glass solutions can be pre-programed, operated according to sensors which respond to the environment, or switched manually by occupants of the building to balance energy and visual comfort demands. This paper aims to present the findings of a study on a specific dynamic glass technology, Electrophoretic Light Modulator (ELM) produced by eLstar Dynamics, showing how this compares from an energy and daylight perspective against a ‘static’ typical glass with high performance coating in the climate of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Using the software package IDA ICE, simulations were performed showing the benefits of adopting the eLstar technology in reducing energy demand while also improving internal daylight conditions

changeRangeR: An R package for reproducible biodiversity change metrics from species distribution estimates

Conservation planning and decision-making rely on evaluations of biodiversity status and threats that are based upon species' distribution estimates. However, gaps exist regarding automated tools to delineate species' current ranges from distribution estimates and use those estimates to calculate both species- and community-level biodiversity metrics. Here, we introduce changeRangeR, an R package that facilitates workflows to reproducibly transform estimates of species' distributions into metrics relevant for conservation. For example, by combining predictions from species distribution models (SDMs) with other maps of environmental data (e.g., suitable forest cover), researchers can characterize the proportion of a species' range that is under protection, metrics used under the IUCN Criteria A and B guidelines (Area of Occupancy and Extent of Occurrence), and other more general metrics such as taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity and endemism. Further, changeRangeR facilitates temporal comparisons among biodiversity metrics to inform efforts toward complementarity and consideration of future scenarios in conservation decisions. changeRangeR also provides tools to determine the effects of modeling decisions through sensitivity tests. Transparent and repeatable workflows for calculating biodiversity change metrics from SDMs such as those provided by changeRangeR are essential to inform conservation decision-making efforts and represent key extensions for SDM methodology and associated metadata documentation.journal articl

wallace 2: a shiny app for modeling species niches and distributions redesigned to facilitate expansion via module contributions

Released 4 years ago, the Wallace EcoMod application (R package wallace) provided an open-source and interactive platform for modeling species niches and distributions that served as a reproducible toolbox and educational resource. wallace harnesses R package tools documented in the literature and makes them available via a graphical user interface that runs analyses and returns code to document and reproduce them. Since its release, feedback from users and partners helped identify key areas for advancement, leading to the development of wallace 2. Following the vision of growth by community expansion, the core development team engaged with collaborators and undertook a major restructuring of the application to enable: simplified addition of custom modules to expand methodological options, analyses for multiple species in the same session, improved metadata features, new database connections, and saving/loading sessions. wallace 2 features nine new modules and added functionalities that facilitate data acquisition from climate-simulation, botanical and paleontological databases; custom data inputs; model metadata tracking; and citations for R packages used (to promote documentation and give credit to developers). Three of these modules compose a new component for environmental space analyses (e.g., niche overlap). This expansion was paired with outreach to the biogeography and biodiversity communities, including international presentations and workshops that take advantage of the software's extensive guidance text. Additionally, the advances extend accessibility with a cloud-computing implementation and include a suite of comprehensive unit tests. The features in wallace 2 greatly improve its expandability, breadth of analyses, and reproducibility options, including the use of emerging metadata standards. The new architecture serves as an example for other modular software, especially those developed using the rapidly proliferating R package shiny, by showcasing straightforward module ingestion and unit testing. Importantly, wallace 2 sets the stage for future expansions, including those enabling biodiversity estimation and threat assessments for conservation.journal articl

A Framework for the Empirical Investigation of Mindfulness Meditative Development

Millions of people globally have learned mindfulness meditation with the goal of improving health and well-being outcomes in both clinical and non-clinical contexts. An estimated half of these practitioners follow mindfulness teachers’ recommendations to continue regular meditation after completion of initial instruction, but it is unclear whether benefits are strengthened by regular practice and whether harm can occur. Increasing evidence shows a wide range of experiences that can arise with regular mindfulness meditation, from profoundly positive to challenging and potentially harmful. Initial research suggests that complex interactions and temporal sequences may explain these experiential phenomena and their relations to health and well-being. We believe further study of the effects of mindfulness meditation is urgently needed to better understand the benefits and challenges of continued practice after initial instructions. Effects may vary systematically over time due to factors such as initial dosage, accumulation of ongoing practice, developing skill of the meditator, and complex interactions with the subjects’ past experiences and present environment. We propose that framing mindfulness meditation experiences and any associated health and well-being benefits within integrated longitudinal models may be more illuminating than treating them as discrete, unrelated events. We call for ontologically agnostic, collaborative, and interdisciplinary research to study the effects of continued mindfulness meditation and their contexts, advancing the view that practical information found within religious and spiritual contemplative traditions can serve to develop initial theories and scientifically falsifiable hypotheses. Such investigation could inform safer and more effective applications of mindfulness meditation training for improving health and well-being

Acute mesenteric ischemia : updated guidelines of the World Society of Emergency Surgery

Acute mesenteric ischemia (AMI) is a group of diseases characterized by an interruption of the blood supply to varying portions of the intestine, leading to ischemia and secondary inflammatory changes. If untreated, this process may progress to life-threatening intestinal necrosis. The incidence is low, estimated at 0.09-0.2% of all acute surgical admissions, but increases with age. Although the entity is an uncommon cause of abdominal pain, diligence is required because if untreated, mortality remains in the range of 50%. Early diagnosis and timely surgical intervention are the cornerstones of modern treatment to reduce the high mortality associated with this entity. The advent of endovascular approaches in parallel with modern imaging techniques is evolving and provides new treatment options. Lastly, a focused multidisciplinary approach based on early diagnosis and individualized treatment is essential. Thus, we believe that updated guidelines from World Society of Emergency Surgery are warranted, in order to provide the most recent and practical recommendations for diagnosis and treatment of AMI.Peer reviewe

Adding 6 months of androgen deprivation therapy to postoperative radiotherapy for prostate cancer: a comparison of short-course versus no androgen deprivation therapy in the RADICALS-HD randomised controlled trial

Background Previous evidence indicates that adjuvant, short-course androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) improves metastasis-free survival when given with primary radiotherapy for intermediate-risk and high-risk localised prostate cancer. However, the value of ADT with postoperative radiotherapy after radical prostatectomy is unclear. Methods RADICALS-HD was an international randomised controlled trial to test the efficacy of ADT used in combination with postoperative radiotherapy for prostate cancer. Key eligibility criteria were indication for radiotherapy after radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer, prostate-specific antigen less than 5 ng/mL, absence of metastatic disease, and written consent. Participants were randomly assigned (1:1) to radiotherapy alone (no ADT) or radiotherapy with 6 months of ADT (short-course ADT), using monthly subcutaneous gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogue injections, daily oral bicalutamide monotherapy 150 mg, or monthly subcutaneous degarelix. Randomisation was done centrally through minimisation with a random element, stratified by Gleason score, positive margins, radiotherapy timing, planned radiotherapy schedule, and planned type of ADT, in a computerised system. The allocated treatment was not masked. The primary outcome measure was metastasis-free survival, defined as distant metastasis arising from prostate cancer or death from any cause. Standard survival analysis methods were used, accounting for randomisation stratification factors. The trial had 80% power with two-sided α of 5% to detect an absolute increase in 10-year metastasis-free survival from 80% to 86% (hazard ratio [HR] 0·67). Analyses followed the intention-to-treat principle. The trial is registered with the ISRCTN registry, ISRCTN40814031, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT00541047. Findings Between Nov 22, 2007, and June 29, 2015, 1480 patients (median age 66 years [IQR 61–69]) were randomly assigned to receive no ADT (n=737) or short-course ADT (n=743) in addition to postoperative radiotherapy at 121 centres in Canada, Denmark, Ireland, and the UK. With a median follow-up of 9·0 years (IQR 7·1–10·1), metastasis-free survival events were reported for 268 participants (142 in the no ADT group and 126 in the short-course ADT group; HR 0·886 [95% CI 0·688–1·140], p=0·35). 10-year metastasis-free survival was 79·2% (95% CI 75·4–82·5) in the no ADT group and 80·4% (76·6–83·6) in the short-course ADT group. Toxicity of grade 3 or higher was reported for 121 (17%) of 737 participants in the no ADT group and 100 (14%) of 743 in the short-course ADT group (p=0·15), with no treatment-related deaths. Interpretation Metastatic disease is uncommon following postoperative bed radiotherapy after radical prostatectomy. Adding 6 months of ADT to this radiotherapy did not improve metastasis-free survival compared with no ADT. These findings do not support the use of short-course ADT with postoperative radiotherapy in this patient population