Design and development of complex phase steels with improved combination of strength and stretch-flangeability

This study presents the design and development of a hot-rolled bainitic steel, presenting a good combination of strength and stretch-flangeability, for automotive applications. Ti, Nb, and Mo were added in the steel composition in order to control austenite grain sizes, enhance precipitation hardening, and promote the formation of bainite. This study focuses on the effect of process parameters on final microstructures and mechanical properties. These parameters are the finishing rolling temperature, which conditions the austenite microstructure before its decomposition, and the coiling temperature, which conditions the nature and morphology of the ferritic phases transformed. A preliminary study allowed to determine the austenite grain growth behavior during reheating, the recrystallization kinetics, and the continuous cooling transformation curves of the studied steel. Then, a first set of parameters was tested at a semi-industrial scale, which confirmed that the best elongation properties were obtained for homogeneous bainitic lath/granular microstructures, that can be produced by choosing a coiling temperature of 500 °C . When choosing those parameters for the final industrial trial, the microstructure obtained consisted of a homogeneous lath/granular bainite mixture that presented a Ultimate Tensile Strength of 830 MPa and a Hole Expansion Ratio exceeding 70%.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Mental Workload in the Explanation of Automation Effects on ATC Performance

Automation has been introduced more and more into the role of air traffic control (ATC). As with many other areas of human activity, automation has the objective of reducing the complexity of the task so that performance is optimised and safer. However, automation can also have negative effects on cognitive processing and the performance of the controllers. In this paper, we present the progress made at AUTOPACE, a European project in which research is carried out to discover what these negative effects are and to propose measures to mitigate them. The fundamental proposal of the project is to analyse, predict, and mitigate these negative effects by assessing the complexity of ATC in relation to the mental workload experienced by the controller. Hence, a highly complex situation will be one with a high mental workload and a low complex situation will be one in which the mental workload is low

Airport apron capacity: estimation, representation, and flexibility

SUMMARY This paper addresses some important issues related to airport apron capacity planning and management. An overview of existing apron models for supporting planning studies and for optimizing available resources utilization is given, with an emphasis on analytical models for apron capacity estimation. Constraints on apron usage, physical and operational with respect to different users, are discussed in detail, together with their impact on apron capacity. Simple extension of existing apron capacity estimation models is suggested accounting for constraints both on aircraft types and dominant users. Further on, instead of expressing apron capacity through a single number, an apron capacity envelope is used to illustrate capacity changes, that is, an apron's ability to accept various mixes of dominant users in demand. The apron capacity envelope provides information on capacity for one apron configuration (with respect to stand size and policy of usage) and a given fleet mix, for different shares of dominant users in demand. Finally, apron capacity flexibility is discussed with respect to its role in apron capacity planning and management. It is suggested how to express and interpret apron capacity flexibility. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Target Speaker Detection with Concealed EEG around the Ear

Target speaker identification is essential for speech enhancement algorithms in assistive devices aimed towards helping the hearing impaired. Several recent studies have reported that target speaker identification is possible through electroencephalography (EEG) recordings. If the EEG system could be reduced to acceptable size while retaining the signal quality, hearing aids could benefit from the integration with concealed EEG. To compare the performance of a multichannel around-the-ear EEG system with high-density cap EEG recordings an envelope tracking algorithm was applied in a competitive speaker paradigm. The data from 20 normal hearing listeners were concurrently collected from the traditional state-of-the-art laboratory wired EEG system and a wireless mobile EEG system with two bilaterally-placed around-the-ear electrode arrays (cEEGrids). The results show that the cEEGrid ear-EEG technology captured neural signals that allowed the identification of the attended speaker above chance-level, with 69.3% accuracy, while cap-EEG signals resulted in the accuracy of 84.8%. Further analyses investigated the influence of ear-EEG signal quality and revealed that the envelope tracking procedure was unaffected by variability in channel impedances. We conclude that the quality of concealed ear-EEG recordings as acquired with the cEEGrid array has potential to be used in the brain-computer interface steering of hearing aids

Target speaker detection with concealed EEG around the ear

Target speaker identification is essential for speech enhancement algorithms in assistive devices aimed toward helping the hearing impaired. Several recent studies have reported that target speaker identification is possible through electroencephalography (EEG) recordings. If the EEG system could be reduced to acceptable size while retaining the signal quality, hearing aids could benefit from the integration with concealed EEG. To compare the performance of a multichannel around-the-ear EEG system with high-density cap EEG recordings an envelope tracking algorithm was applied in a competitive speaker paradigm. The data from 20 normal hearing listeners were concurrently collected from the traditional state-of-the-art laboratory wired EEG system and a wireless mobile EEG system with two bilaterally-placed around-the-ear electrode arrays (cEEGrids). The results show that the cEEGrid ear-EEG technology captured neural signals that allowed the identification of the attended speaker above chance-level, with 69.3% accuracy, while cap-EEG signals resulted in the accuracy of 84.8%. Further analyses investigated the influence of ear-EEG signal quality and revealed that the envelope tracking procedure was unaffected by variability in channel impedances. We conclude that the quality of concealed ear-EEG recordings as acquired with the cEEGrid array has potential to be used in the brain-computer interface steering of hearing aids

The right temporoparietal junction supports speech tracking during selective listening: Evidence from concurrent EEG-fMRI

Listening selectively to one out of several competing speakers in a “cocktail party” situation is a highly demanding task. It relies on a widespread cortical network, including auditory sensory, but also frontal and parietal brain regions involved in controlling auditory attention. Previous work has shown that, during selective listening, ongoing neural activity in auditory sensory areas is dominated by the attended speech stream, whereas competing input is suppressed. The relationship between these attentional modulations in the sensory tracking of the attended speech stream and frontoparietal activity during selective listening is, however, not understood. We studied this question in young, healthy human participants (both sexes) using concurrent EEG-fMRI and a sustained selective listening task, in which one out of two competing speech streams had to be attended selectively. An EEG-based speech envelope reconstruction method was applied to assess the strength of the cortical tracking of the to-be-attended and the to-be-ignored stream during selective listening. Our results show that individual speech envelope reconstruction accuracies obtained for the to-be-attended speech stream were positively correlated with the amplitude of sustained BOLD responses in the right temporoparietal junction, a core region of the ventral attention network. This brain region further showed task-related functional connectivity to secondary auditory cortex and regions of the frontoparietal attention network, including the intraparietal sulcus and the inferior frontal gyrus. This suggests that the right temporoparietal junction is involved in controlling attention during selective listening, allowing for a better cortical tracking of the attended speech stream.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Listening selectively to one out of several simultaneously talking speakers in a “cocktail party” situation is a highly demanding task. It activates a widespread network of auditory sensory and hierarchically higher frontoparietal brain regions. However, how these different processing levels interact during selective listening is not understood. Here, we investigated this question using fMRI and concurrently acquired scalp EEG. We found that activation levels in the right temporoparietal junction correlate with the sensory representation of a selectively attended speech stream. In addition, this region showed significant functional connectivity to both auditory sensory and other frontoparietal brain areas during selective listening. This suggests that the right temporoparietal junction contributes to controlling selective auditory attention in “cocktail party” situations

Quantification of viable spray-dried potential probiotic lactobacilli using real-time PCR

The basic requirement for probiotic bacteria to be able to perform expected positive effects is to be alive. Therefore, appropriate quantification methods are crucial. Bacterial quantification based on nucleic acid detection is increasingly used. Spray-drying (SD) is one of the possibilities to improve the survival of probiotic bacteria against negative environmental effects. The aim of this study was to investigate the survival of spray-dried Lactobacillus plantarum 564 and Lactobacillus paracasei Z-8, and to investigate the impact on some probiotic properties caused by SD of both tested strains. Besides the plate count technique, the aim was to examine the possibility of using propidium monoazide (PMA) in combination with real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for determining spray-dried tested strains. The number of intact cells, Lb. plantarum 564 and Lb. paracasei Z-8, was determined by real-time PCR with PMA, and it was similar to the number of investigated strains obtained by the plate count method. Spray-dried Lb. plantarum 564 and Lb. paracasei Z-8 demonstrated very good probiotic ability. It may be concluded that the PMA real-time PCR determination of the viability of probiotic bacteria could complement the plate count method and SD may be a cost-effective way to produce large quantities of some probiotic cultures

Differential role of cathepsins B and L in autophagy-associated cell death induced by arsenic trioxide in U87 human glioblastoma cells

Arsenic trioxide (arsenite) was the first chemotherapeutic drug to be described and is now being rediscovered in cancer treatment, including glioblastoma multiforme. Arsenite toxicity triggers autophagy in cancer cells, although final stages of the process involve executive caspases, suggesting an interplay between autophagic and apoptotic pathways that awaits to be explained at a molecular level. We evaluated the contribution of the lysosomal cathepsins (Cat) L and B, which are upregulated in glioblastomas, in the mechanism of arsenite toxicity in human glioblastoma cells. Arsenite treatment induced autophagosome formation and permeabilization of mitochondria, followed by caspase 3/7-mediated apoptosis. The autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine protected from arsenite toxicity, whereas bafilomycin A1 did not. Furthermore, arsenite significantly decreased CatB levels and selectively inhibited its cellular and recombinant protein activity, while not affecting CatL. However, downregulation of CatL greatly enhanced apoptosis by arsenite. Our results show that arsenite toxicity involves a complex interplay between autophagy and apoptosis in human glioblastoma cells and is associated with inhibition of CatB, and that this toxicity is highly exacerbated by simultaneous CatL inhibition. The latter points to a synergy that could be used in clinical treatment to lower the therapeutic dose, thus avoiding the toxic side effects of arsenite in glioblastoma management

APACHE - Functional requirements and specifications for the ATM performance assessment framework

The APACHE project proposes a new framework to assess European ATM (air traffic management) performance based on simulation, optimization and performance assessment tools that will be able to capture the complex interdependencies between KPAs at different modelling scales. This document presents the software requirements for the APACHE System. The APACHE System is the platform, build up with different software components (existing and to be developed) implementing a wide set of performance indicators across several key performance areas (KPA). Moreover, the APACHE System can be configured to synthetize aircraft trajectories and airspace sectorisation for future scenarios, in line with the SESAR 2020 scope, where input data is not available (and also for hypothetical scenarios based in the current concept of operations). The software requirements presented in the current document are classified as functional requirements, non-functional requirements and domain requirements. These requirements relate to the first phase of the software development cycle, depicted as Requirements Analysis. This is the base for the following phases: Design, Development, Testing and Implementation.Peer ReviewedPostprint (updated version

Aspergillus-Associated Airway Disease, Inflammation, and the Innate Immune Response

Aspergillus moulds exist ubiquitously as spores that are inhaled in large numbers daily. Whilst most are removed by anatomical barriers, disease may occur in certain circumstances. Depending on the underlying state of the human immune system, clinical consequences can ensue ranging from an excessive immune response during allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis to the formation of an aspergilloma in the immunocompetent state. The severest infections occur in those who are immunocompromised where invasive pulmonary aspergillosis results in high mortality rates. The diagnosis of Aspergillus-associated pulmonary disease is based on clinical, radiological, and immunological testing. An understanding of the innate and inflammatory consequences of exposure to Aspergillus species is critical in accounting for disease manifestations and preventing sequelae. The major components of the innate immune system involved in recognition and removal of the fungus include phagocytosis, antimicrobial peptide production, and recognition by pattern recognition receptors. The cytokine response is also critical facilitating cell-to-cell communication and promoting the initiation, maintenance, and resolution of the host response. In the following review, we discuss the above areas with a focus on the innate and inflammatory response to airway Aspergillus exposure and how these responses may be modulated for therapeutic benefit