Nonlinear resonances of an idealized saccular aneurysm

This paper investigates the occurrence of dynamic instabilities in idealized intracranial saccular aneurysms subjected to pulsatile blood flow and surrounded by cerebral spinal fluid. The problem has been approached extending the original 2D model of Shah and Humphrey (1999) to a 3D framework. The justification for using a 3D formulation arises from the works of Suzuki and Ohara (1978), MacDonald et al. (2000) and Costalat et al. (2011) who showed experimental evidences of intracranial aneurysms with a ratio between wall thickness and inner radius larger that 0.1. Two different material models have been used to describe the mechanical behaviour of the aneurysmal wall: Neo-Hookean and Mooney-Rivlin. To the authors' knowledge, for the first time in literature, the dynamic response of the aneurysm has been analysed using complete nonlinear resonance diagrams that have been obtained from a numerical procedure specifically designed for that purpose. Our numerical results show that, for a wide range of wall thicknesses and both constitutive models considered, the saccular aneurysms are dynamically stable within the range of frequencies associated to the normal heart rates, which confirms previous results of Shah and Humphrey (1999). On the other hand, our results also show that the geometric and material nonlinearities of the problem could bring closer than expected the resonance frequencies of the aneurysm to the frequencies of the pulsatile blood flow.The authors are indebted to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Project EUIN2015-62556) for the financial support received which allowed conducting part of this work

Minimization of measuring points for the electric field exposure map generation in indoor environments by means of Kriging interpolation and selective sampling

In a world with increasing systems accessing to radio spectrum, the concern for exposure to electromagnetic fields is growing and therefore it is necessary to check limits in those areas where electromagnetic sources are working. Therefore, radio and exposure maps are continuously being generated, mainly in outdoor areas, by using many interpolation techniques. In this work, Surfer software and Kriging interpolation have been used for the first time to generate an indoor exposure map. A regular measuring mesh has been generated. Elimination of Less Significant Points (ELSP) and Geometrical Elimination of Neighbors (GEN) strategies to reduce the measuring points have been presented and evaluated. Both strategies have been compared to the map generated with all the measurements by calculating the root mean square and mean absolute errors. Results indicate that ELSP method can reduce up to 70% of the mesh measuring points while producing similar exposure maps to the one generated with all the measuring points. GEN, however, produces distorted maps and much higher error indicators even for 50% of eliminated measuring points. As a conclusion, a procedure for reducing the measuring points to generate radio and exposure maps is proposed based on the ELSP method and the Kriging interpolation.This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors

Smart farming IoT platform based on edge and cloud computing

Precision Agriculture (PA), as the integration of information, communication and control technologies in agriculture, is growing day by day. The Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing paradigms offer advances to enhance PA connectivity. Nevertheless, their usage in this field is usually limited to specific scenarios of high cost, and they are not adapted to semi-arid conditions, or do not cover all PA management in an efficient way. For this reason, we propose a flexible platform able to cope with soilless culture needs in full recirculation greenhouses using moderately saline water. It is based on exchangeable low-cost hardware and supported by a three-tier open source software platform at local, edge and cloud planes. At the local plane, Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) interact with crop devices to gather data and perform real-time atomic control actions. The edge plane of the platform is in charge of monitoring and managing main PA tasks near the access network to increase system reliability against network access failures. Finally, the cloud platform collects current and past records and hosts data analytics modules in a FIWARE deployment. IoT protocols like Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT) or Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) are used to communicate with CPS, while Next Generation Service Interface (NGSI) is employed for southbound and northbound access to the cloud. The system has been completely instantiated in a real prototype in frames of the EU DrainUse project, allowing the control of a real hydroponic closed system through managing software for final farmers connected to the platform.This work has been sponsored by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, through the HIDROLEAF project (ref. RTC-2016-4827-2) and the Torres Quevedo program (grant TQ-15-08073), and the European Commission, through the DrainUse (ref. LIFE14 ENV/ES/000538) and ANASTACIA (contract 731558) projects. The authors would also like to thank the colleagues from OdinS company for their support in the prototype deployment

Relationship between erythemal UV and broadband solar irradiation at high altitude in Northwestern Argentina

An analysis of the broadband solar irradiation, IT, and the erythemal UV irradiation, IUVER, has been performed using the measurements made from 2013 to 2015 at three sites located at altitudes over 1000 m a.s.l. In Northwestern Argentina (Salta, El Rosal, and Tolar Grande). The main objective of this paper is to determine a relationship between IT and IUVER, which would allow to estimate IUVER from IT in places with few IUVER measurements available, and especially in those where is important to establish adequate photoprotection measures given their dense population and location at high altitude. The relationship between the daily values of IUVER and IT has been fitted to a linear regression (IUVER = m IT + n), showing good correlation in the three measurement sites (R2 ≥ 0.77). Besides, the IUVER/IT ratio shows an increase with altitude of 0.32 ± 0.03 units per km, indicating a more significant influence of altitude on IUVER than on IT. Total ozone column also attenuates more IUVER than IT. In order to reduce the local nature of the relationship between IUVER and IT, the clearness indices kT and kTUVER have been used to obtain a multivariable linear regression of kTUVER as a function of the solar zenith angle, θz, and kT, which shows good correlation (R2 ≥ 0.89) for the three measurement sites

Design of a sun tracker for the automatic measurement of spectral irradiance and construction of an irradiance database in the 330-1100 nm range

An automatic global and direct solar spectral irradiance system has been designed based on two LICOR spectroradiometers equipped with fibre optics and remote cosine sensors. To measure direct irradiance a sun tracker based on step motors has been developed. The whole system is autonomous and works continuously. From the measurements provided by this system a spectral irradiance database in the 330-1100 nm range has been created. This database contains normal direct and global horizontal irradiances as well as diffuse irradiance on a horizontal plane, together with total atmospheric optical thickness and aerosol optical depth

Identifying Clinical and MRI Characteristics Associated with Quality of Life in Patients with Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury:Prognostic Factors for Long-Term

Background: Associated lesions in the diagnostic MRI may be related to worse long-term subjective outcomes. There is a lack of conclusive information about the long-term outcomes of associated injuries in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears. The purpose of this study is to assess the long-term effects of associated injuries in ACL tears measured by means of a quality of life (QOL) assessment. Methods: A retrospective cohort study of 225 consecutive patients admitted for physical therapy with ACL injury (42 ± 12 years, 28.2% female) were conducted. All demographic and clinical variables were used to measure a QOL. Univariate and multivariable analyses were completed. Results: The mean follow-up period was 8.4 ± 2.6 years. In univariate analysis, male gender, and sports as the cause of the ACL lesion were factors significantly associated with improved International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) scores at the end of follow-up (all p < 0.002). In multivariable analysis, the occurrence of bone contusion was positively associated with injury (OR = 2.12) and negatively associated with sports injury (OR = 0.44) and medial collateral ligament (MCL) injury (OR = 0.48). Conclusions: After ACL injury, male gender and sports injury were associated with better clinical outcomes

A comparison of Microtops II and satellite ozone measurements in the period 2001-2011

Daily average total ozone Microtops measurements obtained during several campaigns conducted from 2001 to 2011 at latitudes from 31 to 68°N and in different seasons are compared with satellite observations. The Microtops ozone is derived using different wavelength combinations (Channel I, 305.5/312.5 nm; Channel II, 312.5/320 nm; and Channel III, 305.5/312.5/320 nm). Satellite data from TOMS, OMI, GOME, and GOME-2 are used in the comparison. The three Microtops channels show a high correlation with the satellite retrievals. Channel I shows the best results and produces a mean bias deviation (MBD) less than 2.14% with respect to TOMS, OMI and GOME. The MBD increases to 3% in the comparison against GOME-2, due to the small number of available data. In addition, the total ozone content provided by Channel I displays the more stable behavior during the ten-year period. The Channel III total ozone shows MBD values smaller than those observed for Channel I. However the Channels II and III present a larger variability and show a larger spread of the data. Consequently, Channel I appears as the best option for long term measurements with Microtops

SuperB: A High-Luminosity Heavy Flavour Factory. Conceptual Design Report.

479 páginas.-- INFN/AE - 07/2, SLAC-R-856, LAL 07-15.-- et al.Work supported in part by US department of Energy contract DE-AC02-7 6SF00515. SuperB project.Peer reviewe

Operational considerations to improve total ozone measurements with a Microtops II ozone monitor

A Microtops II 'ozone monitor' with UV channels centered at 305.5, 312.5, and 320 nm has been used routinely in six experimental campaigns carried out in several geographic locations and seasons, covering latitudes from 35 to 68° N during the last ten years (2001-2011). The total ozone content is retrieved by Microtops II by using different combinations (Channel I, 305.5/312.5 nm; Channel II, 312.5/320 nm; and Channel III, 305.5/312.5/320 nm) of the signals at the three ultraviolet wavelengths. The long-term performance of the total ozone content determination has been studied taking into account the sensitivities to the calibration, airmass, temperature and aerosols. When a calibration was used and the airmass limit was fixed to 3, the root mean square deviations of the relative differences produced by Microtops II with respect to several Brewers are 0.9, 2, and 2% respectively for the Channel I, Channel II, and Channel III retrieval. The performance of the Microtops retrieval has been stable during the last ten years. Channel I represents the best option to determine the instantaneous total ozone content. Channels II and III values appear weakly sensitive to temperature, ozone content, and aerosols. Channel II is more stable than Channel I for airmasses larger than 2.6. The conclusions do not show any dependence on latitude and season

Prospective associations between a priori dietary patterns adherence and kidney function in an elderly Mediterranean population at high cardiovascular risk

Purpose To assess the association between three diferent a priori dietary patterns adherence (17-item energy reduced Mediterranean Diet (MedDiet), Trichopoulou-MedDiet and Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension (DASH)), as well as the Protein Diet Score and kidney function decline after one year of follow-up in elderly individuals with overweight/obesity and metabolic syndrome (MetS). Methods We prospectively analyzed 5675 participants (55–75 years) from the PREDIMED-Plus study. At baseline and at one year, we evaluated the creatinine-based estimated glomerular fltration rate (eGFR) and food-frequency questionnaires derived dietary scores. Associations between four categories (decrease/maintenance and tertiles of increase) of each dietary pattern and changes in eGFR (ml/min/1.73m2 ) or≥10% eGFR decline were assessed by ftting multivariable linear or logistic regression models, as appropriate. Results Participants in the highest tertile of increase in 17-item erMedDiet Score showed higher upward changes in eGFR (β: 1.87 ml/min/1.73m2 ; 95% CI: 1.00–2.73) and had lower odds of≥10% eGFR decline (OR: 0.62; 95% CI: 0.47–0.82) compared to individuals in the decrease/maintenance category, while Trichopoulou-MedDiet and DASH Scores were not associated with any renal outcomes. Those in the highest tertile of increase in Protein Diet Score had greater downward changes in eGFR (β: − 0.87 ml/min/1.73m2 ; 95% CI: − 1.73 to − 0.01) and 32% higher odds of eGFR decline (OR: 1.32; 95% CI: 1.00–1.75). Conclusions Among elderly individuals with overweight/obesity and MetS, only higher upward change in the 17-item erMedDiet score adherence was associated with better kidney function after one year. However, increasing Protein Diet Score appeared to have an adverse impact on kidney health. Trial Registration Number: ISRCTN89898870 (Data of registration: 2014)