GPR practical training at the University of West Lodon, 14 s.

This report presents a description of some of the activities carried out within the Training School on Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) for road-pavement assessment and detection of buried utilities, organized by the COST Action TU1208 and held in London, UK, on October 12-14, 2015. More precisely, this document deals with the second practical lesson on the use of GPR equipment provided by UTSI Electronics and devoted to the detection of buried utilities in an outdoor environment. The processing and interpretation of the collected GPR data through the commercial software REFLEXW is presented, as well

Invitation STSM researcher to take part in project of GPR development, COST Action TU1208

The STSM aims at contributing to the project carried out by COST Action TU1208 devoted to the development of an affordable frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) ground-penetrating radar (GPR). GPR allows obtaining images of objects concealed in dielectrically contrast media and has various technical and scientific applications. Creating a cheap GPR and introducing it into the educational process will promote a more wide use of this effective non-invasive and non-destructive technique. For this purpose, two GPR prototypes have been presented in the framework of COST Action TU1208 : a reconfigurable stepped-frequency and a FMCW radar. The FMCW GPR is being developed at Sapienza University of Rome, it combines cheapness with fine operating characteristics and a possibility of switching toward a large number of modulation patterns. This radar was also complemented by a positioning system combining inertial and GPS data and showing both low cost and adequate precision.In the FMCW GPR prototype frequency bandwidth is provided by means of a Voltage-Controlled Oscillator (VCO). To control the VCO, mbed NXP LPC1768 prototyping board based on ARM Cortex-M microcontroller was chosen. The radar modulation pattern is controlled on PC-side by sending signals through Universal Serial Bus (USB). The STSM focuses on increasing the control functionalities of the developed FMCW GPR, which includes implementing software for interactive choice of such radar functioning parameters as the 2 transmitted signal waveform, frequency boundaries and others. During the STSM it is also planned to develop a hardware program generating higher voltage supply, required by the VCO. The STSM applicant, Margarita Chizh works as junior researcher in the Remote Sensing Laboratory at the Bauman Moscow Technical University. In this Laboratory research in the field of microwave subsurface imaging and continuous-wave radar systems development is carried out. Margarita Chizh participated in a project supported by the Russian Science Foundation and dedicated to the development of a small-sized continuous-wave radar protot

Design and realisation of a cheap GPR for educational purposes

The paper aims at explaining how to design and realize a frequencymodulated continuous-wave (FCMW) GPR, with detailled informa,on for the step by step construc,on phases, schemes, soGware codes, and all the necessary documenta,on to independently build a GPR prototype

Development of embedded and user-side software for interactive setup of a frequency-modulated continuous wave ground penetrating radar dedicated to educational purposes

This paper describes the software and firmware programs for interactive control of a frequency-modulated continuous-wave ground-penetrating radar (GPR). The presented radar system is being developed at Sapienza University of Rome in the framework of the project carried out by European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action TU1208. The research is focused on developing an affordable GPR and introducing it into the educational process. At the current stage of the project a GPR prototype was implemented from off-the-shelf components, it combines cheapness with fine operating characteristics and allows studying different signal modulation patterns. The developed software for the GPR prototype proper functioning was written in Python, it provides graphical user interface allowing simple and convenient user interaction with the system. Moreover, a complementing firmware program was developed to realize control functionalities such as selecting frequency range, period and waveform of the transmitted signal

Non-NMDA glutamate receptors modulate capsaicin induced c-fos expression within trigeminal nucleus caudalis

1. We examined the effects of the α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA)/kainate receptor antagonists 6-cyano-7-nitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione (CNQX) and 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-6-nitro-2,3-dioxo-benzol[f]quinoxaline-7-sulphonamide (NBQX), the kainate receptor antagonists γ-(R-)-glutamylaminomethanesulphonic acid (GAMS) and 6,7,8,9-tetrahydro-5-nitro-1H-benz[g]indole-2,3-dione-3-oxime (NS-102), and the group III metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) agonist 2-amino-4-phosphono-S-butanoic acid (L-AP4) on c-fos-like immunoreactivity (c-fos LI) in trigeminal caudalis (Sp5C), lateral reticular (LRt), medullary reticular (Md) and solitary tract (Sol) nuclei, after intracisternal injection of capsaicin in urethane anaesthetized Sprague-Dawley rats. 2. Few c-fos labelled cells were observed within Sp5C in capsaicin-vehicle treated animals. The number of positive c-fos cells increased by 17 fold after intracisternal capsaicin (5 nmol) administration. 3. Pretreatment with CNQX (0.02, 0.1, 0.6, 3 and 15 mg kg(−1)) or NBQX (0.01, 0.1 and 1 mg kg(−1)), administered intraperitoneally 15 min before capsaicin, significantly reduced labelled cells within Sp5C by a maximum of 45 and 34%, respectively. The number of c-fos LI cells within LRt, Md and Sol was not affected. Pretreatment with  L-AP4 (1, 3 and 10 mg kg(−1)) decreased the number of Sp5C c-fos LI cells by a maximum of 30%, whereas GAMS (1 and 10 mg kg(−1)) and NS-102 (1 and 5 mg kg(−1)) did not show any significant effect. 4. These results suggest that blockade of AMPA receptors, but not kainate receptors, or the activation of group III mGluRs, decrease the response of Sp5C neurons to trigeminovascular activation. Thus, in addition to NMDA receptors, mGluRs and AMPA receptors may modulate cephalic pain and may provide a potential therapeutic target for antimigraine drugs