Laser ablated high T(sub c) superconducting thin YBa2Cu3O(7-x) films on substrates suitable for microwave applications

The development of high temperature superconducting YBa2Cu3O(7-x) thin films on substrates suitable for microwave applications is of great interest for evaluating their applications for space radar, communication, and sensor systems. Thin films of YBa2Cu3O(7-x) were formed on SrTiO3, ZrO2, MgO, and LaAlO3 substrates by laser ablation. The wavelength used was 248 nm from a KrF excimer laser. During deposition the films were heated to 600 C in a flowing oxygen environment, and required no post annealing. The low substrate temperature during deposition with no post annealing gave films which were smooth, which had their c-axis aligned to the substrates, and which had grains ranging from 0.2 to 0.5 microns in size. The films being c-axis aligned gave excellent surface resistance at 35 GHz which was lower than that of copper at 77 K. At present, LaAlO3 substrates with a dielectric constant of 22, appears suitable as a substrate for microwave and electronic applications. The films were characterized by resistance-temperature measurements, scanning electron microscopy, and x ray diffraction. The highest critical transition temperatures (T sub c) are above 89 K for films on SrTiO3 and LaAlO3, above 88 K for ZrO2, and above 86 K for MgO. The critical current density (J sub c) of the films on SrTiO3 is above 2 x 10(exp 6) amperes/sq cm at 77 K. The T(sub c) and J(sub c) are reported as a function of laser power, composition of the substrate, and temperature of the substrate during deposition

Current role of ultrasound in hemodialysis access evaluation

: Physical examination (PE) is considered the backbone before vascular access (VA) placement, during maturation period and for follow-up. However, it may be inadequate in identifying suitable vasculature, mainly in comorbid patients, or in detecting complications. This review highlights the advantages of ultrasound imaging to manage VA before placement, during maturation and follow-up. Furthermore, it analyses the future perspectives in evaluating early and late VA complications thank to the availability of multiparametric platforms, point of care of ultrasound, and portable/wireless systems. Technical improvements and low-cost systems should favor the widespread ultrasound-based VA surveillance programs. This significant turning point needs an adequate training of nephrologists and dialysis nurses and the standardization of exams, parameters, and procedures

Basics for performing a high-quality color Doppler sonography of the vascular access

: In the last years, the systematic use of ultrasound mapping of the upper limb vascular network before the arteriovenous fistula (AVF) implantation, access maturation, and clinical management of late complications is widespread and expanding. Therefore, a good knowledge of theoretical outlines, instrumentation, and operative settings is undoubtedly required for a thorough examination. In this review, the essential Doppler parameters, B-Mode setting, and Doppler applications are considered. Basic concepts on the Doppler shift equation, angle correction, settings on pulse repetition frequency, operative Doppler frequency, gain are reported to ensure adequate and correct sampling of blood flow velocity. A brief analysis of the Doppler inherent artefacts (as random noise, blooming, aliasing, and motion artefacts) and the adjustment setting to minimize or eliminate the confounding artefacts are also considered. Doppler aliasing occurs when the pulse repetition frequency is set too low. This artefact is particularly frequent in vascular access sampling due to the high velocities range registered in the fistula's different segments. Aliasing should be recognized because its correction is crucial to analyse the Doppler signals correctly. Recent advances in instrumentation are also considered about a potential purchase of a portable ultrasound machine or a top-of-line, high-end, or mid-range ultrasound system. Last, the pulse wave Doppler setting for vascular access B-Mode and Doppler assessment is summarized

Frenetic: A High-Level Language for OpenFlow Networks

Network administrators must configure network devices to simultaneously provide several interrelated services such as routing, load balancing, traffic monitoring, and access control. Unfortunately, most interfaces for programming networks are defined at the low level of abstraction supported by the underlying hardware, leading to complicated programs with subtle bugs. We present Frenetic, a high-level language for OpenFlow networks that enables writing programs in a declarative and compositional style, with a simple "program like you see every packet" abstraction. Building on ideas from functional programming, Frenetic offers a rich pattern algebra for classifying packets into traffic streams and a suite of operators for transforming streams. The run-time system efficiently manages the low-level details of (un)installing packet-processing rules in the switches. We describe the design of Frenetic, an implementation on top of OpenFlow, and experiments and example programs that validate our design choices.Office of Naval Research grant N00014-09-1-0770 "Networks Opposing Botnets

Learning Set Representations for LWIR In-Scene Atmospheric Compensation

Atmospheric compensation of long-wave infrared (LWIR) hyperspectral imagery is investigated in this article using set representations learned by a neural network. This approach relies on synthetic at-sensor radiance data derived from collected radiosondes and a diverse database of measured emissivity spectra sampled at a range of surface temperatures. The network loss function relies on LWIR radiative transfer equations to update model parameters. Atmospheric predictions are made on a set of diverse pixels extracted from the scene, without knowledge of blackbody pixels or pixel temperatures. The network architecture utilizes permutation-invariant layers to predict a set representation, similar to the work performed in point cloud classification. When applied to collected hyperspectral image data, this method shows comparable performance to Fast Line-of-Sight Atmospheric Analysis of Hypercubes-Infrared (FLAASH-IR), using an auto- mated pixel selection approach. Additionally, inference time is significantly reduced compared to FLAASH-IR with predictions made on average in 0.24 s on a 128 pixel by 5000 pixel data cube using a mobile graphics card. This computational speed-up on a low-power platform results in an autonomous atmospheric compensation method effective for real-time, onboard use, while only requiring a diversity of materials in the scene

The role of Doppler ultrasonography in vascular access surveillance—controversies continue

: Chronic hemodialysis therapy required regular entry into the patient's blood stream with adequate flow. The use of arteriovenous fistulas and grafts is linked with lower morbidity and mortality than the use of catheters. However, these types of accesses are frequently affected by stenoses, which decrease the flow and lead to both inadequate dialysis and access thrombosis. The idea of duplex Doppler ultrasound surveillance is based on the presumption that in-time diagnosis of an asymptomatic significant stenosis and its treatment prolongs access patency. Details of performed trials are conflicting, and current guidelines do not support ultrasound surveillance. This review article summarizes the trials performed and focuses on the reasons of conflicting results. We stress the need of precise standardized criteria of significant access stenosis and the weakness of the metaanalyses performed

Multimodal Representation Learning and Set Attention for LWIR In-Scene Atmospheric Compensation

A multimodal generative modeling approach combined with permutation-invariant set attention is investigated in this paper to support long-wave infrared (LWIR) in-scene atmospheric compensation. The generative model can produce realistic atmospheric state vectors (T;H2O;O3) and their corresponding transmittance, upwelling radiance, and downwelling radiance (TUD) vectors by sampling a low-dimensional space. Variational loss, LWIR radiative transfer loss and atmospheric state loss constrain the low-dimensional space, resulting in lower reconstruction error compared to standard mean-squared error approaches. A permutation-invariant network predicts the generative model low-dimensional components from in-scene data, allowing for simultaneous estimates of the atmospheric state and TUD vector. Forward modeling the predicted atmospheric state vector results in a second atmospheric compensation estimate. Results are reported for collected LWIR data and compared to Fast Line-of-Sight Atmospheric Analysis of Hypercubes - Infrared (FLAASH-IR), demonstrating commensurate performance when applied to a target detection scenario. Additionally, an approximate 8 times reduction in detection time is realized using this neural network-based algorithm compared to FLAASH-IR. Accelerating the target detection pipeline while providing multiple atmospheric estimates is necessary for many real-world, time sensitive tasks

Solidification to improve the biopharmaceutical performance of SEDDS:Opportunities and challenges

Self-emulsifying drug delivery systems (SEDDS) offer potential for overcoming the inherent slow dissolution and poor oral absorption of hydrophobic drugs by retaining them in a solubilised state during gastrointestinal transit. However, the promising biopharmaceutical benefits of liquid lipid formulations has not translated into widespread commercial success, due to their susceptibility to long term storage and in vivo precipitation issues. One strategy that has emerged to overcome such limitations, is to combine the solubilisation and dissolution enhancing properties of lipids with the stabilising effects of solid carrier materials. The development of intelligent hybrid drug formulations has presented new opportunities to harness the potential of emulsified lipids in optimising oral bioavailability for lipophilic therapeutics. Specific emphasis of this review is placed on the impact of solidification approaches and excipients on the biopharmaceutical performance of self-emulsifying lipids, with findings highlighting the key design considerations that should be implemented when developing hybrid lipid-based formulations

Minimal spontaneously broken hidden sector and its impact on Higgs boson physics at the Large Hadron Collider

We have studied a hidden sector of the SM with spontaneous symmetry breaking that opens many different scenarios for Higgs physics. We have shown that this hidden sector can affect the SM Higgs detection. In some speci c regimes it is still possible to detect the Higgs; in other scenarios the hidden sector would completely eclipse it

High disease impact of myotonic dystrophy type 2 on physical and mental functioning

The aim of the study was to investigate health status in patients with myotonic dystrophy type 2 (DM2) and determine its relationship to pain and fatigue. Data on health status (SF-36), pain (MPQ) and fatigue (CIS-fatigue) were collected for the Dutch DM2 population (n = 32). Results were compared with those of sex- and age-matched adult-onset myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) patients. In addition, we compared the obtained scores on health status of the DM2 group with normative data of the Dutch general population (n = 1742). Compared to DM1, the SF-36 score for bodily pain was significantly (p = 0.04) lower in DM2, indicating more body pain in DM2. DM2 did not differ from DM1 on any other SF-36 scales. In comparison to the Dutch population, DM2 patients reported lower scores (indicating worse clinical condition) on the physical functioning, role functioning-physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, and role functioning-emotional scales (p < 0.01 on all scales). The difference was most profound for the physical functioning scale. In the DM2 group the severity of pain was significantly correlated with SF-36 scores for bodily pain (p = 0.003). Fatigue was significantly correlated with the SF-36 scores for role functioning-physical (p = 0.001), general health (p = 0.02), and vitality (p = 0.02). The impact of DM2 on a patients’ physical, psychological and social functioning is significant and as high as in adult-onset DM1 patients. From the perspective of health-related quality of life, DM2 should not be considered a benign disease. Management of DM2 patients should include screening for pain and fatigue. Symptomatic treatment of pain and fatigue may decrease disease impact and help improve health status in DM2, even if the disease itself cannot be treated