The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit: a consolidated design for the system requirement review of the preliminary definition phase

Instrumentatio

Parallel and successive resource allocation for V2V communications in overlapping clusters

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has introduced in Rel. 14 a novel technology referred to as vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) mode-3. Under this scheme, the eNodeB assists in the resource allocation process allotting sidelink subchannels to vehicles. Thereupon, vehicles transmit their signals in a broadcast manner without the intervention of the former one. eNodeBs will thereby play a determinative role in the assignment of sub-channels as they can effectively manage V2V traffic and prevent allocation conflicts. The latter is a crucial aspect to enforce in order for the signals to be received reliably by other vehicles. To this purpose, we propose two resource allocation schemes namely bipartite graph matching-based successive allocation (BGM-SA) and bipartite graph matching-based parallel allocation (BGM-PA) which are suboptimal approaches with lesser complexity than exhaustive search. Both schemes incorporate additional constraints to prevent allocation conflicts from emerging. In this research, we consider overlapping clusters only, which could be formed at intersections or merging highways. We show through simulations that BGM-SA can attain near-optimal performance whereas BGM-PA is subpar but less complex. Additionally, since BGM-PA is based on inter-cluster vehicle pre-grouping, we explore different metrics that could effectively portray the overall channel conditions of pre-grouped vehicles. This is of course not optimal in terms of maximizing the system capacity - since the allocation process would be based on simplified surrogate information - but it reduces the computational complexity

Variability in milk fatty acids: recreating a foraging trip to test dietary predictions in Antarctic fur seals

Using Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella (Peters, 1875)) in a feeding trial, we investigated the use of milk fatty acids to determine diet. In a regime designed to replicate an average foraging trip, six female seals were fed on four successive days meals of krill (Euphausia superba Dana, 1850; day 1), mixed krill and icefish (Champsocephalus gunnari Lönnberg, 1905; day 2), and icefish (days 3 and 4). Four milk samples were collected from each female, one every 12 h from the time of the last feed. Fatty acid profiles of samples were analysed using canonical discriminant analysis and classification trees. Milk fatty acids could be used to distinguish between seals fed the experimental diet, which was high in fish, and those feeding naturally, thought to be consuming mostly krill. However, there was significant variation between individual seals, which may have been the influence of feeding prior to the experiment. Milk fatty acids remained relatively unchanged over time, suggesting that the influence of dietary fatty acids was averaged over the suckling period. We conclude that, whilst this technique has potential in studying the diet of higher predators, further work is needed to test the underlying assumptions and mechanisms involved in the transfer of fatty acids from the diet into milk