Development of a custom on-line ultrasonic vapour analyzer/flowmeter for the ATLAS inner detector, with application to gaseous tracking and Cherenkov detectors

Precision sound velocity measurements can simultaneously determine binary gas composition and flow. We have developed an analyzer with custom electronics, currently in use in the ATLAS inner detector, with numerous potential applications. The instrument has demonstrated ~0.3% mixture precision for C3F8/C2F6 mixtures and < 10-4 resolution for N2/C3F8 mixtures. Moderate and high flow versions of the instrument have demonstrated flow resolutions of +/- 2% F.S. for flows up to 250 l.min-1, and +/- 1.9% F.S. for linear flow velocities up to 15 ms-1; the latter flow approaching that expected in the vapour return of the thermosiphon fluorocarbon coolant recirculator being built for the ATLAS silicon tracker.Comment: Paper submitted to TWEPP2012; Topical Workshop on Electronics for Particle Physics, Oxford, UK, September 17-21, 2012. KEYWORDS: Sonar; Saturated fluorocarbons; Flowmetry; Sound velocity, Gas mixture analysis. 8 pages, 7 figure

Analysis of parallel process in HVAC systems using deep autoencoders

P. 15-26Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems are generally built in a modular manner, comprising several identical subsystems in order to achieve their nominal capacity. These parallel subsystems and elements should have the same behavior and, therefore, differences between them can reveal failures and inefficiency in the system. The complexity in HVAC systems comes from the number of variables involved in these processes. For that reason, dimensionality reduction techniques can be a useful approach to reduce the complexity of the HVAC data and study their operation. However, for most of these techniques, it is not possible to project new data without retraining the projection and, as a result, it is not possible to easily compare several projections. In this paper, a method based on deep autoencoders is used to create a reference model with a HVAC system and new data is projected using this model to be able to compare them. The proposed approach is applied to real data from a chiller with 3 identical compressors at the Hospital of LeónS

The people behind the samples : Biographical features of Past Hunter- Gatherers from KwaZulu-Natal who yielded aDNA

Abstract: Purpose: Skeletons sampled for ancient human DNA analysis are sometimes complete enough to provide information about the lives of the people they represent. We focus on three Later Stone Age skeletons, ca. 2000 B.P., from coastal KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, whose ancient genomes have been sequenced (Schlebusch et al., 2017). Methods: Bioarchaeological approaches are integrated with aDNA information. Results: All skeletons are male. Dental development shows that the boy, with prominent cribra orbitalia, died at age 6–7 years. Two men show cranial and spinal trauma, extensive tooth wear, plus mild cribra orbitalia in one. Conclusions: Dental wear and trauma of the adults are consistent with hunter-gatherer lives. Even partial aDNA evidence contributes to sex determination. Parasitic infection such as schistosomiasis is the best-fit cause for the child’s anemia in this case. Contribution to knowledge: The convergence of genomic and bioarchaeological approaches expands our knowledge of the past lives of a boy and two men whose lives as hunter-gatherers included episodes of trauma and disease. Limitations: The skeletons are incomplete, in variable condition, and from poorly characterized local cultural contexts. Suggestions for further research: Thorough osteobiographic analysis should accompany paleogenomic investigations. Such disciplinary collaboration enriches our understanding of the human past

Bridging the gap between energy and comfort: Post-occupancy evaluation of two higher-education buildings in Sheffield

Recent technical guidance has suggested that comfort and energy efficiency should not be seen as mutually exclusive [CIBSE, “TM54: Evaluating operational energy performance of buildings at the design stage”, 2013]. Currently, however, there is a lack of comprehensive understanding of energy use during building operation and how it influences user comfort. Through comparison of the complex relationships between energy, thermal comfort, and environmental strategy in two flexible highereducation buildings in Sheffield, this paper demonstrates how designers can utilise aspects of active and passive design to deliver more comfortable, lower-energy workspaces. Analysis of the authors’ post-occupancy evaluation of each case study examines what lessons might be learnt and applied to other institutional buildings in order to save energy without compromising occupant comfort. The findings illustrate how perceptions of comfort can be improved by increasing the degree of environmental control occupants have without necessarily increasing energy consumption. The paper highlights the significance of occupancy patterns to a complete understanding of energy efficiency and comfort, and speculates that the prediction and assessment of energy per occupant may have an important future role to play in bridging the gap between energy performance and comfort

An Epistemic-Deontic-Axiologic (EDA) agent-based Energy Management System in office buildings

In the UK, buildings contribute about one third of the energy-related greenhouse gas emissions. Space heating and cooling systems are among the biggest energy consumers in buildings. This research aims to develop a novel Building Energy Management System (BEMS) to reduce the energy consumption of the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) system while fulfilling each occupant’ thermal comfort requirement. This paper presents a newly developed novel method, Epistemic-Deontic-Axiologic (EDA) Agent-based solution to support the Energy Management System meeting the dual targets of occupant thermal comfort and energy efficiency. The multi-agent solutions are applied to the BEMS. The problem decomposition method is used to define the architecture of the system. The Epistemic-Deontic-Axiologic (EDA) agent model is applied to develop the rational local and personal agents inside the system. These EDA-based agents select their optimal action plan by considering the occupants’ thermal sensations, their behavioural adaptations and the energy consumption of the HVAC system. The Newly-developed personal thermal sensation models and group-of-people-based thermal sensation models generated by support vector machine (SVM) based algorithms are applied to evaluate the occupants’ thermal sensations. These models are developed from the data collected in a real built environment. Simulation results prove that the newly-developed BEMS can help the HVAC system reduce the energy consumption by up to 10% while fulfilling the occupants’ thermal comfort requirements

FMD vaccine matching: Inter laboratory study for improved understanding of r1 values

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is a highly variable RNA virus existing as seven different serotypes. The antigenic variability between and within serotypes can limit the cross-reactivity and therefore the in vivo cross-protection of vaccines. Selection of appropriate vaccine strains is crucial in the control of FMD. Determination of indirect relationships (r1-value) between potential vaccine strains and field strains based on antibody responses against both are routinely used for vaccine matching purposes. Aiming at the investigation of the repeatability, reproducibility and comparability of r1-value determination within and between laboratories and serological tests, a small scale vaccine matching ring test for FMDV serotype A was organized. Well-characterized serum pools from cattle vaccinated with a monovalent A24/Cruzeiro/Brazil/55 (A24) FMD vaccine with known in vivo protection status (homologous and heterologous) were distributed to four laboratories to determine r1-values for the heterologous FMD strains A81/Argentina/87, A/Argentina/2000 and A/Argentina/2001 using the virus neutralization tests (VNT) and liquid phase blocking ELISA (LPBE). Within laboratories, the repeatability of r1-value determination was high for both antibody assays. VNT resulted in reproducible and comparable r1-values between laboratories, indicative of a lack of antigenic relatedness between the A24 strain and the heterologous strains tested in this work, thus corresponding to some of the in vivo findings with these strains. Using LPBE, similar trends in r1-values were observed in all laboratories, but the overall reproducibility was lower than with VNT. Inconsistencies between laboratories may at least in part be attributed to differences in LPBE protocols as well as the in preexisting information generated in each laboratory (such as antibody titer-protection correlation curves). To gain more insight in the LPBE-derived r1-values standard bovine control sera were included in the antibody assays performed in each laboratory and a standardization exercise was performed.Fil: Willems, Tom. No especifíca;Fil: De Vleeschauwer, Annebel. No especifíca;Fil: Pérez Filgueira, Daniel Mariano. Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigacion En Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronomicas. Instituto de Virologia E Innovaciones Tecnologicas. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Oficina de Coordinacion Administrativa Pque. Centenario. Instituto de Virologia E Innovaciones Tecnologicas.; ArgentinaFil: Li, Yanmin. No especifíca;Fil: Ludi, Anna. No especifíca;Fil: Lefebvre, David. No especifíca;Fil: Wilsden, Ginette. No especifíca;Fil: Statham, Bob. No especifíca;Fil: Haas, Bernd. Federal Research Institute for Animal Health; AlemaniaFil: Mattion, Nora Marta. Ministerio de Produccion y Trabajo. Secretaria de Gobierno de Agroindustria. Servicio Nacional de Sanidad y Calidad Agroalimentaria. Centro de Virologia Animal. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Oficina de Coordinacion Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Centro de Virologia Animal.; ArgentinaFil: Robiolo, Blanca. Ministerio de Produccion y Trabajo. Secretaria de Gobierno de Agroindustria. Servicio Nacional de Sanidad y Calidad Agroalimentaria. Centro de Virologia Animal. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Oficina de Coordinacion Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Centro de Virologia Animal.; ArgentinaFil: Beascoechea Perez, Claudia. Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganadería, Pesca y Alimento. Servicio Nacional de Sanidad y Calidad Agroalimentaria; ArgentinaFil: Maradei, Eduardo. Ministerio de Agricultura, Ganadería, Pesca y Alimento. Servicio Nacional de Sanidad y Calidad Agroalimentaria; ArgentinaFil: Smitsaart, Eliana. Biogénesis Bagó; ArgentinaFil: la Torre, Jose Leonardo. Ministerio de Produccion y Trabajo. Secretaria de Gobierno de Agroindustria. Servicio Nacional de Sanidad y Calidad Agroalimentaria. Centro de Virologia Animal. - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Oficina de Coordinacion Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Centro de Virologia Animal.; ArgentinaFil: De Clercq, Kris. No especifíca

Identification of candidate disease genes by integrating Gene Ontologies and protein-interaction networks: case study of primary immunodeficiencies

Disease gene identification is still a challenge despite modern high-throughput methods. Many diseases are very rare or lethal and thus cannot be investigated with traditional methods. Several in silico methods have been developed but they have some limitations. We introduce a new method that combines information about protein-interaction network properties and Gene Ontology terms. Genes with high-calculated network scores and statistically significant gene ontology terms based on known diseases are prioritized as candidate genes. The method was applied to identify novel primary immunodeficiency-related genes, 26 of which were found. The investigation uses the protein-interaction network for all essential immunome human genes available in the Immunome Knowledge Base and an analysis of their enriched gene ontology annotations. The identified disease gene candidates are mainly involved in cellular signaling including receptors, protein kinases and adaptor and binding proteins as well as enzymes. The method can be generalized for any disease group with sufficient information