A flexible architecture for plasma magnetic control in tokamak reactors

Plasma magnetic control is one of the core engineering issues to be tackled in a fusion device. Over the last years, model based approaches have been proposed to face this issue, proving their effectiveness and allowing to reduce the time span needed for control testing and validation. The first part of this work is intended to give an overview of the subject, from the historical milestones to the underlying physics; the most common techniques for tokamak plasmas electromagnetic modeling and control are also introduced and discussed. After this introduction, a general architecture for plasma magnetic control in tokamaks is proposed. Finally, the proposed solution is applied to the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) tokamak, where a new plasma magnetic control architecture was developed and implemented during the 2016-2018 experimental campaigns, and to the Japan Torus-60 Super Advanced (JT-60SA) device, which is currently under construction in Japan

In vivo longitudinal study of rodent skeletal muscle atrophy using ultrasonography

Muscle atrophy is a widespread ill condition occurring in many diseases, which can reduce quality of life and increase morbidity and mortality. We developed a new method using non-invasive ultrasonography to measure soleus and gastrocnemius lateralis muscle atrophy in the hindlimb-unloaded rat, a well-Accepted model of muscle disuse. Soleus and gastrocnemius volumes were calculated using the conventional truncated-cone method and a newly-designed sinusoidal method. For Soleus muscle, the ultrasonographic volume determined in vivo with either method was linearly correlated to the volume determined ex-vivo from excised muscles as muscle weight-To-density ratio. For both soleus and gastrocnemius muscles, a strong linear correlation was obtained between the ultrasonographic volume and the muscle fiber cross-sectional area determined ex-vivo on muscle cryosections. Thus ultrasonography allowed the longitudinal in vivo evaluation of muscle atrophy progression during hindlimb unloading. This study validates ultrasonography as a powerful method for the evaluation of rodent muscle atrophy in vivo, which would prove useful in disease models and therapeutic trials

A Holocene tephra layer within coastal aeolian deposits north of Caleta Olivia (Santa Cruz Province, Argentina)

In this paper we illustrate the stratigraphy, geochronology, and geochemistry (major, minor, trace elements and Sr-isotopes) of a Holocene tephra layer found within coastal sedimentary deposits north of Caleta Olivia (Santa Cruz Province, Argentina). The stratigraphic succession comprises beach deposits with basal erosive surface resting on the local substrate (“Formación Patagonia”) followed by a poorly developed paleosoil. The paleosoil is covered by a lenticular fine grained (Mdφ: 5.2, 0.027 mm), well sorted (σφ: 1.2) volcanic ash layer and aeolian sands. The geochemical composition of shard fragments points to an origin from the Hudson volcano, located in the southern Andes, ca. 400 km to the west. The geochemistry, Sr-isotopes and the radiometric constraints (younger than the age of the underlying marine layer dated at ca. 4,100 a cal BP) further allow correlating this tephra with the so-called H2 eruption (ca. 3,900 a cal BP). This finding is of interest owing to the poor preservation potential of tephra within the Late Holocene sedimentary deposits of the Atlantic coast of Patagonia and represents the first finding of H2 eruption in this area, improving our knowledge of the dispersion of the fine-grained distal deposit of the Hudson volcanic explosive activity, thus allowing a better estimate of the eruptive dynamics and the risks associated with the Hudson volcano

Una capa de tefra holocena intercalada en los depósitos eólicos costeros ubicados al norte de Caleta Olivia (Provincia de Santa Cruz, Argentina)

In this paper we illustrate the stratigraphy, geochronology, and geochemistry (major, minor, trace elements and Sr-isotopes) of a Holocene tephra layer found within coastal sedimentary deposits north of Caleta Olivia (Santa Cruz Province, Argentina). The stratigraphic succession comprises beach deposits with basal erosive surface resting on the local substrate (“Formacion Patagonia”) followed by a poorly developed paleosoil. The paleosoil is covered by a lenticular fine-grained (Mdφ: 5.2, 0.027 mm), well sorted (σφ: 1.2) volcanic ash layer and aeolian sands. The geochemical composition of shard fragments points to an origin from the Hudson volcano, located in the southern Andes, ca. 400 km to the west. The geochemistry, Sr-isotopes and the radiometric constraints (younger than the age of the underlying marine layer dated at ca. 4,100 a cal BP) further allow correlating this tephra with the so-called H2 eruption (ca. 3,900 a cal BP). This finding is of interest owing to the poor preservation potential of tephra within the Late Holocene sedimentary deposits of the Atlantic coast of Patagonia and represents the first finding of H2 eruption in this area, improving our knowledge of the dispersion of the fine-grained distal deposit of the Hudson volcanic explosive activity, thus allowing a better estimate of the eruptive dynamics and the risks associated with the Hudson volcano.Este artículo aborda la estratigrafía, geocronología y geoquímica (elementos mayoritarios, minoritarios, trazas e isótopos de Sr) de un nivel de tefra holocena que forma parte de una secuencia de sedimentos costeros ubicados al norte de Caleta Olivia (provincia de Santa Cruz, Argentina). La secuencia comprende depósitos sedimentarios que se disponen sobre una superficie basal erosiva que suprayace al sustrato local (“Formación Patagonia”), y continúa esta secuencia con un paleosuelo de escaso desarrollo. El paleosuelo está cubierto por una capa lenticular de cenizas volcánicas de grano fino (Mdφ: 5,2, 0,027 mm), bien seleccionada (σφ: 1,2) y arenas eólicas. La composición geoquímica de los shards indica que esta tefra se originó en el volcán Hudson, ubicado en los Andes del sur, a aproximadamente 400 km hacia el oeste. La geoquímica, los isótopos de Sr y las restricciones radiométricas (más joven que la edad de la capa marina que la subyace, fechada en aproximadamente 4.100 a cal AP) permiten correlacionar esta tefra con la denominada erupción H2 de dicho volcán (ocurrida aproximadamente 3.900 a cal AP). Este hallazgo es de interés debido al escaso potencial de preservación de los depósitos de tefra dentro de las secuencias sedimentarias costeras del Holoceno Tardío, en la costa atlántica de Patagonia y representa el primer hallazgo del evento eruptivo H2 en esta área, lo cual contribuye a mejorar el conocimiento sobre la dispersión de la tefra generada por la actividad volcánica explosiva del volcán Hudson, lo que permite una mejor estimación de la dinámica eruptiva y los riesgos asociados con este volcán.Centro de Estudios Integrales de la Dinámica Exógen

The Italian Earthquakes and Tsunami Monitoring and Surveillance Systems

The Osservatorio Nazionale Terremoti (ONT) is the Italian seismic operational centre for monitoring earthquake, it is part of Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) the largest Italian research institution, with focus in Earth Sciences. INGV runs the Italian National Seismic Network (network code IV) and other networks at national scale for monitoring earthquakes and tsunami. INGV is a primary node of European Integrated Data Archive (EIDA) for archiving and distributing, continuous, quality checked seismic waveforms (strong motion and weak motion recordings). ONT designed the data acquisition system to accomplish, in near-real-time, automatic earthquake detection, hypocentre and magnitude determination and evaluation of moment tensors, shake maps and other products. Database archiving of all parametric results are closely linked to the existing procedures of the INGV seismic monitoring environment and surveillance procedures. ONT organize the Italian earthquake surveillance service and the tsunami alert service (INGV is Tsunami Service Provider of the ICG/NEAM for the entire Mediterranean basin). We provide information to the Dipartimento di Protezione Civile (DPC) and to several Mediterranean countries. Earthquakes information are revised routinely by the analysts of the Italian Seismic Bulletin. The results are published on the web and are available to the scientific community and the general public.PublishedMontreal1SR TERREMOTI - Sorveglianza Sismica e Allerta Tsunam

EVALITA Evaluation of NLP and Speech Tools for Italian - December 17th, 2020

Welcome to EVALITA 2020! EVALITA is the evaluation campaign of Natural Language Processing and Speech Tools for Italian. EVALITA is an initiative of the Italian Association for Computational Linguistics (AILC, http://www.ai-lc.it) and it is endorsed by the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AIxIA, http://www.aixia.it) and the Italian Association for Speech Sciences (AISV, http://www.aisv.it)

A flexible architecture for plasma magnetic control in tokamak reactors

Plasma magnetic control is one of the core engineering issues to be tackled in a fusion device. Over the last years, model based approaches have been proposed to face this issue, proving their effectiveness and allowing to reduce the time span needed for control testing and validation. The first part of this work is intended to give an overview of the subject, from the historical milestones to the underlying physics; the most common techniques for tokamak plasmas electromagnetic modeling and control are also introduced and discussed. After this introduction, a general architecture for plasma magnetic control in tokamaks is proposed. Finally, the proposed solution is applied to the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) tokamak, where a new plasma magnetic control architecture was developed and implemented during the 2016-2018 experimental campaigns, and to the Japan Torus-60 Super Advanced (JT-60SA) device, which is currently under construction in Japan

Genetic and ultrasound study of abnormalities of the optic nerve head.

he authors, after reviewing the literature, particularly the classification of optic nerve-head abnormalities, describe several clinical cases dealing especially with the notable diagnostic possibilities of ultrasound examination