Sustainable development of the Romanian rural areas within the present European context

The present concept of rural sustainable development is based on the European model and implies a multifunctional agriculture. The LEADER programme (a part of NRDP) represents an approach that offers new development opportunities for the rural areas. The rural development objectives can be fulfilled both by the locally available financing, and by accessing national and European non-refundable financing, on the basis of real projects

A dataset of continuous affect annotations and physiological signals for emotion analysis

From a computational viewpoint, emotions continue to be intriguingly hard to understand. In research, direct, real-time inspection in realistic settings is not possible. Discrete, indirect, post-hoc recordings are therefore the norm. As a result, proper emotion assessment remains a problematic issue. The Continuously Annotated Signals of Emotion (CASE) dataset provides a solution as it focusses on real-time continuous annotation of emotions, as experienced by the participants, while watching various videos. For this purpose, a novel, intuitive joystick-based annotation interface was developed, that allowed for simultaneous reporting of valence and arousal, that are instead often annotated independently. In parallel, eight high quality, synchronized physiological recordings (1000 Hz, 16-bit ADC) were made of ECG, BVP, EMG (3x), GSR (or EDA), respiration and skin temperature. The dataset consists of the physiological and annotation data from 30 participants, 15 male and 15 female, who watched several validated video-stimuli. The validity of the emotion induction, as exemplified by the annotation and physiological data, is also presented.Comment: Dataset available at: https://rmc.dlr.de/download/CASE_dataset/CASE_dataset.zi

Quantitative Imaging of Regional Aerosol Deposition, Lung Ventilation and Morphology by Synchrotron Radiation CT

To understand the determinants of inhaled aerosol particle distribution and targeting in the lung, knowledge of regional deposition, lung morphology and regional ventilation, is crucial. No single imaging modality allows the acquisition of all such data together. Here we assessed the feasibility of dual-energy synchrotron radiation imaging to this end in anesthetized rabbits; both in normal lung (n = 6) and following methacholine (MCH)-induced bronchoconstriction (n = 6), a model of asthma. We used K-edge subtraction CT (KES) imaging to quantitatively map the regional deposition of iodine-containing aerosol particles. Morphological and regional ventilation images were obtained, followed by quantitative regional iodine deposition maps, after 5 and 10 minutes of aerosol administration. Iodine deposition was markedly inhomogeneous both in normal lung and after induced bronchoconstrition. Deposition was significantly reduced in the MCH group at both time points, with a strong dependency on inspiratory flow in both conditions (R-2 = 0.71; p <0.0001). We demonstrate for the first time, the feasibility of KES CT for quantitative imaging of lung deposition of aerosol particles, regional ventilation and morphology. Since these are among the main factors determining lung aerosol deposition, we expect this imaging approach to bring new contributions to the understanding of lung aerosol delivery, targeting, and ultimately biological efficacy.Peer reviewe

Evolutionary and variable step size strategies for multichannel filtered-x affine projection algorithms

This study is focused on the necessity to improve the performance of the affine projection (AP) algorithm for active noise control (ANC) applications. The proposed algorithms are evaluated regarding their steady-state behaviour, their convergence speed and their computational complexity. To this end, different strategies recently applied to the AP for channel identification are proposed for multichannel ANC. These strategies are based either on a variable step size, an evolving projection order, or the combination of both strategies. The developed efficient versions of the AP algorithm use the modified filtered-x structure, which exhibits faster convergence than other filtering schemes. Simulation results show that the proposed approaches exhibit better performance than the conventional AP algorithm and represent a meaningful choice for practical multichannel ANC applications.This work was supported by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS-UEFISCDI, project number PN-II-ID-PCE-2011-3-0097, Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion TEC2009-13741 and Generalitat Valenciana PROMETEO 2009/2013.Gonzalez, A.; Albu, F.; Ferrer Contreras, M.; Diego Antón, MD. (2013). Evolutionary and variable step size strategies for multichannel filtered-x affine projection algorithms. IET Signal Processing. 7(6):471-476. https://doi.org/10.1049/iet-spr.2012.0213S47147676Shin, H.-C., Sayed, A. H., & Song, W.-J. (2004). Variable Step-Size NLMS and Affine Projection Algorithms. IEEE Signal Processing Letters, 11(2), 132-135. doi:10.1109/lsp.2003.821722Paleologu, C., Benesty, J., & Ciochina, S. (2008). A Variable Step-Size Affine Projection Algorithm Designed for Acoustic Echo Cancellation. IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech, and Language Processing, 16(8), 1466-1478. doi:10.1109/tasl.2008.2002980Shin, H.-C., & Sayed, A. H. (2004). Mean-Square Performance of a Family of Affine Projection Algorithms. IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, 52(1), 90-102. doi:10.1109/tsp.2003.820077Kong, S.-J., Hwang, K.-Y., & Song, W.-J. (2007). An Affine Projection Algorithm With Dynamic Selection of Input Vectors. IEEE Signal Processing Letters, 14(8), 529-532. doi:10.1109/lsp.2007.891325Seong-Eun Kim, Se-Jin Kong, & Woo-Jin Song. (2009). An Affine Projection Algorithm With Evolving Order. IEEE Signal Processing Letters, 16(11), 937-940. doi:10.1109/lsp.2009.2027638Kim, K.-H., Choi, Y.-S., Kim, S.-E., & Song, W.-J. (2011). An Affine Projection Algorithm With Periodically Evolved Update Interval. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs, 58(11), 763-767. doi:10.1109/tcsii.2011.2168023Bouchard, M. (2003). Multichannel affine and fast affine projection algorithms for active noise control and acoustic equalization systems. IEEE Transactions on Speech and Audio Processing, 11(1), 54-60. doi:10.1109/tsa.2002.805642Kong, N., Shin, J., & Park, P. (2011). A two-stage affine projection algorithm with mean-square-error-matching step-sizes. Signal Processing, 91(11), 2639-2646. doi:10.1016/j.sigpro.2011.06.003MoonSoo Chang, NamWoong Kong, & PooGyeon Park. (2010). An Affine Projection Algorithm Based on Reuse Time of Input Vectors. IEEE Signal Processing Letters, 17(8), 750-753. doi:10.1109/lsp.2010.2053355Arablouei, R., & Doğançay, K. (2012). Affine projection algorithm with selective projections. Signal Processing, 92(9), 2253-2263. doi:10.1016/j.sigpro.2012.02.018Gonzalez, A., Ferrer, M., de Diego, M., & Piñero, G. (2012). An affine projection algorithm with variable step size and projection order. Digital Signal Processing, 22(4), 586-592. doi:10.1016/j.dsp.2012.03.00

A Study on MoS 2 Thin Films Electrochemically Deposited in Ethylene Glycol at 165°C

The electrosynthesis of nanoparticle thin films of MoS 2 from solutions of (NH 4 ) 2 MoS 4 in ethylene glycol at 165°C, is described. The as-deposited MoS 2 thin films (~150 nm thick) were X-ray amorphous and exhibited featureless optical absorption spectra over the 1-3.5 eV spectral range. High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) revealed the presence of single or double (0002) plane-sized 2H-MoS 2 thin nanoplatelets (~2-3 nm) embedded in an amorphous matrix. Annealing the as-deposited samples under Ar for 1 h at 550°C, resolved a broad and weak-intensity peak in the respective X-ray spectra, identified as th

Improving technology transfer through national systems of innovation: climate relevant innovation-system builders (CRIBs)

The Technology Executive Committee (TEC) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) recently convened a workshop seeking to understand how strengthening national systems of innovation (NSIs) might help to foster the transfer of climate technologies to developing countries. This article reviews insights from the literatures on Innovation Studies and Socio-Technical Transitions to demonstrate why this focus on fostering innovation systems has potential to be more transformative as an international policy mechanism for climate technology transfer than anything the UNFCCC has considered to date. Based on insights from empirical research, the article also articulates how the existing architecture of the UNFCCC Technology Mechanism could be usefully extended by supporting the establishment of CRIBs (climate relevant innovation-system builders) in developing countries – key institutions focused on nurturing the climate-relevant innovation systems and building technological capabilities that form the bedrock of transformative, climate-compatible technological change and development

Evidence for variation in the effective population size of animal mitochondrial DNA

Background: It has recently been shown that levels of diversity in mitochondrial DNA are remarkably constant across animals of diverse census population sizes and ecologies, which has led to the suggestion that the effective population of mitochondrial DNA may be relatively constant. Results: Here we present several lines of evidence that suggest, to the contrary, that the effective population size of mtDNA does vary, and that the variation can be substantial. First, we show that levels of mitochondrial and nuclear diversity are correlated within all groups of animals we surveyed. Second, we show that the effectiveness of selection on non-synonymous mutations, as measured by the ratio of the numbers of non-synonymous and synonymous polymorphisms, is negatively correlated to levels of mitochondrial diversity. Finally, we estimate the effective population size of mitochondrial DNA in selected mammalian groups and show that it varies by at least an order of magnitude. Conclusions: We conclude that there is variation in the effective population size of mitochondria. Furthermore we suggest that the relative constancy of DNA diversity may be due to a negative correlation between the effective population size and the mutation rate per generation

Assessment of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) Landraces for Their Agronomic, Biochemical Characteristics and Resistance to Phytophthora infestans

Genetic diversity in crop plants is the conditio sine qua non for sustainable agriculture and long-term food security. Our research carried out the morphological, agronomic, and physicochemical characterization and resistance to late blight of 35 tomato landraces from seven countries. These landraces have been approved and appear in the Official Catalog of Varieties. The International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI) descriptors have been used to describe the tomato’s morphological and agronomic characteristics. For the physico-chemical characteristics, the dry matter, the pH, and the carotenoid content (lycopene, lutein, and β-carotene)) were analyzed. Carotenoids were monitored by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The results showed that the morphological diversity of landraces was very high. Three landraces of remarkable commercial value have shown increased resistance to late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans, one of the most damaging diseases of tomato. Also, six landraces had a lycopene content exceeding 100 μg/g sample. The carotenoid content ranged between 0.769 (Marmande-FR 166) and 140.328 mg kg−1 FW (Răscruci). The landrace with the highest β carotene content was PT 308 with 65.499 mg kg−1 FW, while the lowest values were registered for Marmande-FR 166 with 0.105 mg kg−1 FW. The present study provides essential information on the morphological and agronomic qualities of these tomato landraces and their lycopene and other carotenoid content. The results are discussed in light of the importance of tomato landraces in meeting the preferences of different producers and consumers, the choice of the most suitable landraces for specific pedoclimatic conditions, and the supply of carotenoid pigment sources for the pharmaceutical industry. Our research responds to humanity’s great global challenges: preserving agricultural biodiversity, protecting the environment by identifying pest-resistant varieties, and also protecting consumer health by finding important sources of antioxidants

Line Defects in Molybdenum Disulfide Layers

Layered molecular materials and especially MoS2 are already accepted as promising candidates for nanoelectronics. In contrast to the bulk material, the observed electron mobility in single-layer MoS2 is unexpectedly low. Here we reveal the occurrence of intrinsic defects in MoS2 layers, known as inversion domains, where the layer changes its direction through a line defect. The line defects are observed experimentally by atomic resolution TEM. The structures were modeled and the stability and electronic properties of the defects were calculated using quantum-mechanical calculations based on the Density-Functional Tight-Binding method. The results of these calculations indicate the occurrence of new states within the band gap of the semiconducting MoS2. The most stable non-stoichiometric defect structures are observed experimentally, one of which contains metallic Mo-Mo bonds and another one bridging S atoms