Walsh functions: analysis of their properties under Fresnel diffraction

The free-propagation properties of the light field diffracted by an aperture, have been investigated by employing a formalism based on the orthogonal and complete set of Walsh functions. We found an interesting link with the well-known self-imaging phenomenon, which can be used to explain the spatial filtering properties of many optical devices. An experimental result is given in order to illustrate this approach

Direct and indirect costs in the conservative management of undisplaced scaphoid fractures

The scaphoid is the most commonly fractured carpal bone, and preferable treatment of undisplaced fractures is controversial. In order to assess the socio-economic impact of treatment modalities, we analysed the cost of conservative management of 54 undisplaced scaphoid fractures. Global costs amounted to 14.077 Swiss francs (9385 euros) per patient. Direct costs represent only 10% of global costs. No significant correlation was found between costs and timing of diagnosis, hand dominance or complications. Thirty-four percent of patients were able to resume their job with the wrist immobilised without complication, but at an obvious impact on indirect and global costs. If early resumption of professional activities during conservative treatment of undisplaced scaphoid fractures does not impair successful fracture healing, patients should be encouraged to return to work as early as possible, as is routinely done after percutaneous fracture fixation. This will contribute to massively reducing the cost of conservative treatmen

Explorar y medir en tierras de caudillos : Amadeo Jacques en Santiago del Estero, 1856-1858

Nuestro interés en este trabajo es comenzar a estudiar la conformación del estado provincial santiagueño a través del estudio de las exploraciones que se lucieron en los territorios del río Salado del Norte, la ocupación de estas tierras de frontera y los procedimientos para la medición y entrega en propiedad a mediados del siglo XIX. Los iniciadores de este proceso fueron los Taboada quienes nombraron a Amadeo Jacques como primer agrimensor provincial el que realizará, en nombre del gobierno, las primeras entregas importantes en un tiempo relativamente breve de estadía en Santiago del Estero. Consideramos que la figura de Amadeo Jacques es paradigmática por su especial relación con la familia Taboada. la que imprimió una nueva dinámica al gobierno de la provincia, en consonancia con los representantes del liberalismo en la esfera nacional. Como resultado de esta relación y de las prácticas de gobierno de la familia en el poder, buena parte de las tierras de la frontera quedaron en sus manos, las de sus familiares más directos, los integrantes de su entorno más imnediato y de la propia familia de Amadeo Jacques. Todo esto ocurría al mismo tiempo que comenzaban a delinearse los trazos iniciales de la burocracia provincial con las primeras leyes sobre entrega de tierras en espacios de frontera indígena y la creación de las instituciones catastrales de historia tan zigzagueante como el río que pretendían ocupar.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Explorar y medir en tierras de caudillos : Amadeo Jacques en Santiago del Estero, 1856-1858

Nuestro interés en este trabajo es comenzar a estudiar la conformación del estado provincial santiagueño a través del estudio de las exploraciones que se lucieron en los territorios del río Salado del Norte, la ocupación de estas tierras de frontera y los procedimientos para la medición y entrega en propiedad a mediados del siglo XIX. Los iniciadores de este proceso fueron los Taboada quienes nombraron a Amadeo Jacques como primer agrimensor provincial el que realizará, en nombre del gobierno, las primeras entregas importantes en un tiempo relativamente breve de estadía en Santiago del Estero. Consideramos que la figura de Amadeo Jacques es paradigmática por su especial relación con la familia Taboada. la que imprimió una nueva dinámica al gobierno de la provincia, en consonancia con los representantes del liberalismo en la esfera nacional. Como resultado de esta relación y de las prácticas de gobierno de la familia en el poder, buena parte de las tierras de la frontera quedaron en sus manos, las de sus familiares más directos, los integrantes de su entorno más imnediato y de la propia familia de Amadeo Jacques. Todo esto ocurría al mismo tiempo que comenzaban a delinearse los trazos iniciales de la burocracia provincial con las primeras leyes sobre entrega de tierras en espacios de frontera indígena y la creación de las instituciones catastrales de historia tan zigzagueante como el río que pretendían ocupar.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Explorar y medir en tierras de caudillos : Amadeo Jacques en Santiago del Estero, 1856-1858

Nuestro interés en este trabajo es comenzar a estudiar la conformación del estado provincial santiagueño a través del estudio de las exploraciones que se lucieron en los territorios del río Salado del Norte, la ocupación de estas tierras de frontera y los procedimientos para la medición y entrega en propiedad a mediados del siglo XIX. Los iniciadores de este proceso fueron los Taboada quienes nombraron a Amadeo Jacques como primer agrimensor provincial el que realizará, en nombre del gobierno, las primeras entregas importantes en un tiempo relativamente breve de estadía en Santiago del Estero. Consideramos que la figura de Amadeo Jacques es paradigmática por su especial relación con la familia Taboada. la que imprimió una nueva dinámica al gobierno de la provincia, en consonancia con los representantes del liberalismo en la esfera nacional. Como resultado de esta relación y de las prácticas de gobierno de la familia en el poder, buena parte de las tierras de la frontera quedaron en sus manos, las de sus familiares más directos, los integrantes de su entorno más imnediato y de la propia familia de Amadeo Jacques. Todo esto ocurría al mismo tiempo que comenzaban a delinearse los trazos iniciales de la burocracia provincial con las primeras leyes sobre entrega de tierras en espacios de frontera indígena y la creación de las instituciones catastrales de historia tan zigzagueante como el río que pretendían ocupar.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

The Planck-LFI flight model composite waveguides

The Low Frequency Instrument on board the PLANCK satellite is designed to give the most accurate map ever of the CMB anisotropy of the whole sky over a broad frequency band spanning 27 to 77 GHz. It is made of an array of 22 pseudo-correlation radiometers, composed of 11 actively cooled (20 K) Front End Modules (FEMs), and 11 Back End Modules (BEMs) at 300K. The connection between the two parts is made with rectangular Wave Guides. Considerations of different nature (thermal, electromagnetic and mechanical), imposed stringent requirements on the WGs characteristics and drove their design. From the thermal point of view, the WG should guarantee good insulation between the FEM and the BEM sections to avoid overloading the cryocooler. On the other hand it is essential that the signals do not undergo excessive attenuation through the WG. Finally, given the different positions of the FEM modules behind the focal surface and the mechanical constraints given by the surrounding structures, different mechanical designs were necessary. A composite configuration of Stainless Steel and Copper was selected to satisfy all the requirements. Given the complex shape and the considerable length (about 1.5-2 m), manufacturing and testing the WGs was a challenge. This work deals with the development of the LFI WGs, including the choice of the final configuration and of the fabrication process. It also describes the testing procedure adopted to fully characterize these components from the electromagnetic point of view and the space qualification process they underwent. Results obtained during the test campaign are reported and compared with the stringent requirements. The performance of the LFI WGs is in line with requirements, and the WGs were successfully space qualified.Comment: this paper is part of the Prelaunch status LFI papers published on JINST: http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/-page=extra.proc5/jins

Proteomic Analysis of Grape Berry Cell Cultures Reveals that Developmentally Regulated Ripening Related Processes Can Be Studied Using Cultured Cells

The original publication is available at http:/www.plosone.orgBackground: This work describes a proteomics profiling method, optimized and applied to berry cell suspensions to evaluate organ-specific cultures as a platform to study grape berry ripening. Variations in berry ripening within a cluster(s) on a vine and in a vineyard are a major impediment towards complete understanding of the functional processes that control ripening, specifically when a characterized and homogenous sample is required. Berry cell suspensions could overcome some of these problems, but their suitability as a model system for berry development and ripening needs to be established first. Methodology/Principal Findings: In this study we report on the proteomic evaluation of the cytosolic proteins obtained from synchronized cell suspension cultures that were established from callus lines originating from green, véraison and ripe Vitis vinifera berry explants. The proteins were separated using liquid phase IEF in a Microrotofor cell and SDS PAGE. This method proved superior to gel-based 2DE. Principal component analysis confirmed that biological and technical repeats grouped tightly and importantly, showed that the proteomes of berry cultures originating from the different growth/ripening stages were distinct. A total of twenty six common bands were selected after band matching between different growth stages and twenty two of these bands were positively identified. Thirty two % of the identified proteins are currently annotated as hypothetical. The differential expression profile of the identified proteins, when compared with published literature on grape berry ripening, suggested common trends in terms of relative abundance in the different developmental stages between real berries and cell suspensions. Conclusions: The advantages of having suspension cultures that accurately mimic specific developmental stages are profound and could significantly contribute to the study of the intricate regulatory and signaling networks responsible for berry development and ripening. © 2011 Sharathchandra et al.Publishers' Versio

Integration concept of an Electron Cyclotron System in DEMO

The pre-conceptual layout for an electron cyclotron system (ECS) in DEMO is described. The present DEMO ECS considers only equatorial ports for both plasma heating and neoclassical tearing mode (NTM) control. This differs from ITER, where four launchers in upper oblique ports are dedicated to NTM control and one equatorial EC port for heating and current drive (H&CD) purposes as basic configuration. Rather than upper oblique ports, DEMO has upper vertical ports to allow the vertical removal of the large breeding blanket segments. While ITER is using front steering antennas for NTM control, in DEMO the antennas are recessed behind the breeding blanket and called mid-steering antennas, referred to the radially recessed position to the breeding blanket. In the DEMO pre-conceptual design phase two variants are studied to integrate the ECS in equatorial ports. The first option integrates waveguide bundles at four vertical levels inside EC port plugs with antennas with fixed and movable mid-steering mirrors that are powered by gyrotrons, operating at minimum two different multiples of the fundamental resonance frequency of the microwave output window. Alternatively, the second option integrates fixed antenna launchers connected to frequency step-tunable gyrotrons. The first variant is described in this paper, introducing the design and functional requirements, presenting the equatorial port allocation, the port plug design including its maintenance concept, the basic port cell layout, the transmission line system with diamond windows from the tokamak up to the RF building and the gyrotron sources. The ECS design studies are supported by neutronic and tokamak integration studies, quasi-optical and plasma physics studies, which will be summarized. Physics and technological gaps will be discussed and an outlook to future work will be given

Integration Concept of an Electron Cyclotron System in DEMO

The pre-conceptual layout for an electron cyclotron system (ECS) in DEMO is described. The present DEMO ECS considers only equatorial ports for both plasma heating and neoclassical tearing mode (NTM) control. This differs from ITER, where four launchers in upper oblique ports are dedicated to NTM control and one equatorial EC port for heating and current drive (H&CD) purposes as basic configuration. Rather than upper oblique ports, DEMO has upper vertical ports to allow the vertical removal of the large breeding blanket segments. While ITER is using front steering antennas for NTM control, in DEMO the antennas are recessed behind the breeding blanket and called mid-steering antennas, referred to the radially recessed position to the breeding blanket.In the DEMO pre-conceptual design phase two variants are studied to integrate the ECS in equatorial ports. The first option integrates waveguide bundles at four vertical levels inside EC port plugs with antennas with fixed and movable mid-steering mirrors that are powered by gyrotrons, operating at minimum two different multiples of the fundamental resonance frequency of the microwave output window. Alternatively, the second option integrates fixed antenna launchers connected to frequency step-tunable gyrotrons. The first variant is described in this paper, introducing the design and functional requirements, presenting the equatorial port allocation, the port plug design including its maintenance concept, the basic port cell layout, the transmission line system with diamond windows from the tokamak up to the RF building and the gyrotron sources.The ECS design studies are supported by neutronic and tokamak integration studies, quasi-optical and plasma physics studies, which will be summarized. Physics and technological gaps will be discussed and an outlook to future work will be given