Enabling Connectivity of Cyber-physical Production Systems: A Conceptual Framework

Abstract Inside smart factories, Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) have to be synchronized one with another and with the external world to share information and trigger actions. In this work, the conceptual development of such a network to implement a Smart Factory at the Mini-Factory Laboratory of the Free University of Bolzano is presented. The objective is to set up a framework for an Industrial Internet System (IIS), first by homogenizing and integrating the communication systems of the end-nodes of the laboratory, i.e., sensors, robots, etc., through the necessary hardware and middleware, and second, by constructing a centralized backbone network where all valuable information is collected for further big data analysis

MicroRNA Profiling and Bioinformatics Target Analysis in Dorsal Hippocampus of Chronically Stressed Rats: Relevance to Depression Pathophysiology

Indexación: Scopus.1Laboratory of Neuroplasticity and Neurogenetics, Faculty of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile, 2National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Durham, NC, United States, 3Centro de Genómica y Bioinformática, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Mayor, Santiago, Chile, 4Millennium Institute for Integrative Biology (iBio), FONDAP Center for Genome Regulation, Departamento de Genética Molecular y Microbiología, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile, 5Department of Kinesiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universidad Católica del Maule, Talca, Chile, 6Escuela de Química y Farmacia, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Andres Bello, Santiago, Chile.This study was supported by the following grants: FONDECYT 1120528 (JLF), Fondo Central de Investigación, Universidad de Chile ENL025/16 (JLF), ES090079 (JAC). Research in RG and EV laboratories is funded by Instituto Milenio iBio – Iniciativa Científica Milenio MINECON.Studies conducted in rodents subjected to chronic stress and some observations in humans after psychosocial stress, have allowed to establish a link between stress and the susceptibility to many complex diseases, including mood disorders. The studies in rodents have revealed that chronic exposure to stress negatively affects synaptic plasticity by triggering changes in the production of trophic factors, subunit levels of glutamate ionotropic receptors, neuron morphology, and neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus. These modifications may account for the impairment in learning and memory processes observed in chronically stressed animals. It is plausible then, that stress modifies the interplay between signal transduction cascades and gene expression regulation in the hippocampus, therefore leading to altered neuroplasticity and functioning of neural circuits. Considering that miRNAs play an important role in post-transcriptional-regulation of gene expression and participate in several hippocampus-dependent functions; we evaluated the consequences of chronic stress on the expression of miRNAs in dorsal (anterior) portion of the hippocampus, which participates in memory formation in rodents. Here, we show that male rats exposed to daily restraint stress (2.5 h/day) during 7 and 14 days display a differential profile of miRNA levels in dorsal hippocampus and remarkably, we found that some of these miRNAs belong to the miR-379-410 cluster. We confirmed a rise in miR-92a and miR-485 levels after 14 days of stress by qPCR, an effect that was not mimicked by chronic administration of corticosterone (14 days). Our in silico study identified the top-10 biological functions influenced by miR-92a, nine of which were shared with miR-485: Nervous system development and function, Tissue development, Behavior, Embryonic development, Organ development, Organismal development, Organismal survival, Tissue morphology, and Organ morphology. Furthermore, our in silico study provided a landscape of potential miRNA-92a and miR-485 targets, along with relevant canonical pathways related to axonal guidance signaling and cAMP signaling, which may influence the functioning of several neuroplastic substrates in dorsal hippocampus. Additionally, the combined effect of miR-92a and miR-485 on transcription factors, along with histone-modifying enzymes, may have a functional relevance by producing changes in gene regulatory networks that modify the neuroplastic capacity of the adult dorsal hippocampus under stress. © 2018 Muñoz-Llanos, García-Pérez, Xu, Tejos-Bravo, Vidal, Moyano, Gutiérrez, Aguayo, Pacheco, García-Rojo, Aliaga, Rojas, Cidlowski and Fiedler.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnmol.2018.00251/ful

The thiazide sensitive sodium chloride co-transporter NCC is modulated by site-specific ubiquitylation.

The renal sodium chloride cotransporter, NCC, in the distal convoluted tubule is important for maintaining body Na(+) and K(+) homeostasis. Endogenous NCC is highly ubiquitylated, but the role of individual ubiquitylation sites is not established. Here, we assessed the role of 10 ubiquitylation sites for NCC function. Transient transfections of HEK293 cells with human wildtype (WT) NCC or various K to R mutants identified greater membrane abundance for K706R, K828R and K909R mutants. Relative to WT-NCC, stable tetracycline inducible MDCKI cell lines expressing K706R, K828R and K909R mutants had significantly higher total and phosphorylated NCC levels at the apical plasma membrane under basal conditions. Low chloride stimulation increased membrane abundance of all mutants to similar or greater levels than WT-NCC. Under basal conditions K828R and K909R mutants had less ubiquitylated NCC in the plasma membrane, and all mutants displayed reduced NCC ubiquitylation following low chloride stimulation. Thiazide-sensitive sodium-22 uptakes were elevated in the mutants and internalization from the plasma membrane was significantly less than WT-NCC. K909R had increased half-life, whereas chloroquine or MG132 treatment indicated that K706 and K909 play roles in lysosomal and proteasomal NCC degradation, respectively. In conclusion, site-specific ubiquitylation of NCC plays alternative roles for NCC function

Classification of irreps and invariants of the N-extended Supersymmetric Quantum Mechanics

We present an algorithmic classification of the irreps of the $N$-extended one-dimensional supersymmetry algebra linearly realized on a finite number of fields. Our work is based on the 1-to-1 \cite{pt} correspondence between Weyl-type Clifford algebras (whose irreps are fully classified) and classes of irreps of the $N$-extended 1D supersymmetry. The complete classification of irreps is presented up to $N\leq 10$. The fields of an irrep are accommodated in $l$ different spin states. N=10 is the minimal value admitting length $l>4$ irreps. The classification of length-4 irreps of the N=12 and {\em real} N=11 extended supersymmetries is also explicitly presented.\par Tensoring irreps allows us to systematically construct manifestly ($N$-extended) supersymmetric multi-linear invariants {\em without} introducing a superspace formalism. Multi-linear invariants can be constructed both for {\em unconstrained} and {\em multi-linearly constrained} fields. A whole class of off-shell invariant actions are produced in association with each irreducible representation. The explicit example of the N=8 off-shell action of the $(1,8,7)$ multiplet is presented.\par Tensoring zero-energy irreps leads us to the notion of the {\em fusion algebra} of the 1D $N$-extended supersymmetric vacua.Comment: Final version to appear in JHEP. 52 pages. The part with the complete classification of irreps (and the explicit presentation of length-4 irreps of N=9,10,11,12 and N=10 length-5 irreps) is unchanged. An extra section has been added with an entire class of off-shell invariant actions for arbitrary values N of the 1D extended supersymmetry. A non-trivial N=8 off-shell action for the (1,8,7) multiplet has been constructed as an example. It is obtained in terms of the octonionic structure constant

Comparative study of the structural and optical properties of epitaxial CuFeO2 and CuFe1 - xGaxO2 delafossite thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition methods

Three samples of epitaxial delafossite CuFeO2 and CuFe1 − xGaxO2 films were grown using Pulsed Laser Deposition techniques in high vacuum. The sample thicknesses were estimated to be 21 nm, 75 nm for the CuFeO2 films and ~ 37 nm for the composite sample containing gallium. The estimated gallium fraction of substituted ferric atoms was x = 0.25 for the composite sample. We present the study of the fundamental band gap(s) for each sample via observation of their respective optical absorption properties in the NIR-VIS region using transmittance and diffuse reflection spectroscopy. Predominant absorption edges measured at 1.1 eV and 2.1 eV from transmittance spectra were observed for the CuFeO2 samples. The sample of CuFe1 − xGaxO2 showed a measurable shift to 1.5 eV of the lower band-gap and a strong absorption edge located at 2.3 eV attributed to direct band to band transitions. This study also found evidence of changes between apparent absorption edges between transmittance and diffuse reflectance spectroscopies of each sample and it may be resultant from absorption channels via surface states

Photoluminescence and charge transfer in the prototypical 2D/3D semiconductor heterostructure MoS₂/GaAs

The new generation of two-dimensional (2D) materials has shown a broad range of applications for optical and electronic devices. Understanding the properties of these materials when integrated with the more traditional three-dimensional (3D) semiconductors is an important challenge for the implementation of ultra-thin electronic devices. Recent observations have shown that by combining MoS$_2$ with GaAs it is possible to develop high quality photodetectors and solar cells. Here, we present a study of the effects of intrinsic GaAs, p-doped GaAs, and n-doped GaAs substrates on the photoluminescence of monolayer MoS$_2$. We observe a decrease of an order of magnitude in the emission intensity of MoS$_2$ in all MoS$_2$/GaAs heterojunctions, when compared to a control sample consisting of a MoS$_2$ monolayer isolated from GaAs by a few layers of hexagonal boron nitride. We also see a dependence of the trion to A-exciton emission ratio in the photoluminescence spectra on the type of substrate, a dependence that we relate to the static charge exchange between MoS$_2$ and the substrates when the junction is formed. Scanning Kelvin probe microscopy measurements of the heterojunctions suggest type-I band alignments, so that excitons generated on the MoS$_2$ monolayer will be transferred to the GaAs substrate. Our results shed light on the charge exchange leading to band offsets in 2D/3D heterojunctions which play a central role in the understanding and further improvement of electronic devices.Comment: Accepted in Applied Physics Letter

Water quality index determination in rivers of Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas, Ecuador

[EN] A selection of the most suitable Water Quality Index was performed in this work, according to the Ecuadorian technical regulations for the rivers of the province of Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas, Ecuador. Nine rivers from the territory were selected (Pove, Otongo, Mapali, Cucaracha, Chila, Damas, Camal, Bolo and the Kasama Stream) covering 26 sampling points during the years 2015-2017. A comparative analysis was carried out among the Water Quality Indices: NSF, CCME, ICG, ICAUCA and León. The adjustment of these to the Ecuadorian regulations was conducted by means of statistical tests according to the following criteria: the straight line with the steepest slope, lower confidence interval of the slope, and the least amount of parameters that each WQI evaluates. As a main result, WQI-NSF was discovered to be most adequate, since it describes rivers’ water quality better, using fewer parameters.[ES] En este trabajo se realizó una selección del Índice de Calidad del Agua (ICA) más idóneo que se ajusta a la normativa técnica para los ríos de la provincia de Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Ecuador. Fueron seleccionados 9 ríos del territorio (Pove, Otongo, Mapali, Cucaracha, Chila, Damas, Camal, Bolo y el Estero Kasama) abarcando 26 puntos de muestreos durante los años 2015-2017. El análisis comparativo se realizó entre los Índices de Calidad del Agua: NSF, CCME, ICG, ICAUCA, y de León. El ajuste a la normativa ecuatoriana se realizó mediante pruebas estadísticas bajo los siguientes criterios: la recta con mayor pendiente, menor intervalo de confianza de la pendiente, y menor cantidad de parámetros que evalúa cada ICA. Se obtuvo como principal resultado que el ICA-NSF describe mejor la calidad del agua de los ríos, utilizando menos parámetros.Se agradece a los estudiantes de pregrado de la carrera de Ingeniería Ambiental de los años evaluados así como al laboratorio de química de la Universidad Tecnológica Equinoccial por el aporte de los datos y financiamiento para la realización de este estudio.García-González, J.; Osorio-Ortega, M.; Saquicela-Rojas, R.; Cadme, M. (2021). Determinación del índice de calidad del agua en ríos de Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas, Ecuador. Ingeniería del agua. 25(2):115-126. https://doi.org/10.4995/ia.2021.13921OJS115126252Altamirano Mateus, M.G. 2013. Estudio hidroquímico y de calidad del agua superficial en la cuenca del río Mira. Tesis de Grado. Universidad Central de Ecuador. Quito. Consultado en http://www.dspace.uce.edu.ec/handle/25000/1711Baque-Mite, R., Simba-Ochoa, L., González-Ozorio, B., Suatunce, P., Diaz-Ocampo, E., &Cadme-Arevalo, L. 2016. Calidad del agua destinada al consumo humano en un cantón de Ecuador. Revista Ciencia UNEMI, 9(20), 109-117. https://doi.org/10.29076/issn.2528-7737vol9iss20.2016pp109-117pBeamonte, E., Casino, A., Veres, E.J. 2012. Análisis de la calidad general del agua superficial en la cuenca hidrográfica del Júcar: periodo 2000-2009. Revista Electrónica de Medio Ambiente, 12, 18-32.Behar, R., Zuñiga, M., Rojas, O. 1997. Análisis y Valoración del Índice de Calidad de Agua (ICA) de la NSF: Casos Ríos Cali y Meléndez. Ingeniería y Competitividad, 1, 17-27. https://doi.org/10.25100/iyc.v1i1.2361Brown, R.M., McLelland, N.J., Deininger, RA., Tozer, R.G. 1970. A Water Quality Index Do We Dare? Water & Sewage Works 117(10), 339-343Caho, C., López, E. 2017. Determinación del Índice de Calidad de Agua para el sector occidental del humedal Torca-Guaymaral empleando las metodologías UWQI y CWQI. Producción + Limpia, 12(2), 35-49. https://doi.org/10.22507/pml.v12n2a3Calvo, G., Mora, J. 2012. Análisis de la calidad de varios cuerpos de agua superficiales en el GAM y la Península de Osa utilizando el Índice Holandés. Tecnología en Marcha, 25(5), 37-44. https://doi.org/10.18845/tm.v25i5.471Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment. 2001. Canadian environmental quality guidelines. Canadian water quality guidelines for the protection of aquatic life: CCME. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.CETESB. 2006. Relatório de qualidade das águas interiores no estado de São Paulo, Anexo V, Companhia de Tecnologia de Saneamento Ambiental, São Paulo.CVC, Universidad del Valle. 2004. Estudio de la calidad del agua del río Cauca y sus principales tributarios mediante la aplicación de Índices de Calidad y Contaminación. Proyecto Modelación del Río Cauca (PMC), Fase II, Cali, Valle., Vol. X., Colombia.Dinius, S. 1987. Design of an Index Of Water Quality. Water Res. Bull, 23(5), 833-843. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-1688.1987.tb02959.xFernández, N., Solano, F. 2005. Índices de Calidad y Contaminación del Agua. Universidad de Pamplona. Pamplona.González, V., Caicedo, O., Aguirre, N. 2013. Aplicación de los índices de calidad de agua NSF, Dinius y BMWP en La Quebrada La Ayurá, Antoquia, Colombia. Revista Gestión y Ambiente, 16(1), 97-108. Medellin ISSN 0124.177X.León, L. 1998. Índices de Calidad del Agua (ICA), Formas de estimarlos y Aplicación en la Cuenca Lerma-Chapala. Instituto Mexicano de Tecnología del Agua. Morelos, Mexico. Obtenido de https://www.dspace.espol.edu.ec/bitstream/123456789/6147/1/ICA%20Forma%20de%20estimarlos.pdfNasiri, F., Maqsood, I., Huang G., Fuller, N. 2007. Water Quality Index: A Fuzzy River-Pollution Decision Support Expert System. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 133, 95-105. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9496(2007)133:2(95)NTE INEN 2176:98 Agua. Calidad del Agua. Muestreo. Técnicas de muestreo. Primera edición, Quito, Ecuador. Consultado en: https://law.resource.org/pub/ec/ibr/ec.nte.2176.1998.pdfNTE INEN 2226:98 Agua. Calidad del Agua. Muestreo. Diseño de los programas de muestreo. Primera edición, Quito, Ecuador. Consultado en: https://law.resource.org/pub/ec/ibr/ec.nte.2226.1998.pdfOtt, W. 1978a. Water quality index: a survey of indexes used in the United States, Michigan, Estados Unidos: Environmental Monitoring Series.Ott, W. R. 1978b. Environmental quality indices: Theory and practice, Ann Arbor: Ann Arbor Science.Patiño, P., Holguín, J., Barba-Ho, L., Cruz, C., Ramírez, C., Duque, A., Baena, L. 2004. Metodología para la adaptación de un Índice de Calidad del Agua a las condiciones medioambientales del Rio Cauca en el tramo Sarvajina-Virginia. Seminario Internacional: Visión integral en el mejoramiento de la calidad del agua. Universidad del Valle, Instituto Cinara.Pauta-Calle, G., Chang-Gómez, J. 2014. Índices de calidad del agua de fuentes superficiales y aspectos toxicológicos, evaluación del Río Burgay. MASKANA,I+D+ingeniería, 165-176.Pérez, J., Nardini, A., y Galindo, A. 2018. Análisis Comparativo de Índices de Calidad del Agua Aplicados al Río Ranchería, La Guajira-Colombia. Información Tecnológica, 29(3), 47-58. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-07642018000300047Quiroz, L., Izquierdo, E., Menéndez, C. 2017. Aplicación del índice de calidad de agua en el río Portoviejo, Ecuador. Ingeniería Hidráulica y Ambiental, 38, 41-51.Registro Oficial. 2015. Edición Especial No. 387. pp. 7-13. República del Ecuador. Obtenido de https://www.gob.ec/sites/default/files/regulations/2018-09/Documento_Registro-Oficial-No-387-04-noviembre-2015_0.pdfSacha, A., Espinoza, C. 2001. Determinación de Contenido Natural e Índices de Calidad: ¿Presente y Futuro de Calidad de Aguas? XIV Congreso Chileno de Ingeniería Sanitaria y Ambiental AIDIS, Chile.SENAGUA. 2012. Estudio Técnico: DNCA-DHN-12-01; Análisis de la calidad del agua de la subcuenca del Río Coca. Secretaría Nacional de Agua.Standard Methods for Examination of Water and Wastewater. 2005. 21st Edition. APHA AWWA WEF.Standard Methods for Examination of water and wastewater. 2012. 22th Edition, corresponde Standard Methods ONLINE.Torres, P., Cruz, C.H., Patiño, P., Escobar, J.C., Pérez, A. 2010. Aplicación de índices de calidad de agua - ICA orientados al uso de la fuente para consumo humano. Ingeniería e Investigación, 30(3), 86-95.Valdes, J., Samboni, N.E., Carvajal, Y. 2011. Desarrollo de un indicador de la calidad del agua usando estadística aplicada, caso de estudio: subcuenca Zanjón Oscuro. Revista Tecnológicas, 26, 165-180. https://doi.org/10.22430/22565337.60Zar, J. 2014. Biostatistical Analysis. FithEdition. Pearson Education Limited. ISBN 10:1-292-02404-6. United States of America. pp. 372-375

Scalable and accurate causality tracking for eventually consistent stores

Lecture Notes in Computer Science 8460, 2014In cloud computing environments, data storage systems often rely on optimistic replication to provide good performance and availability even in the presence of failures or network partitions. In this scenario, it is important to be able to accurately and efficiently identify updates executed concurrently. Current approaches to causality tracking in optimistic replication have problems with concurrent updates: they either (1) do not scale, as they require replicas to maintain information that grows linearly with the number of writes or unique clients; (2) lose information about causality, either by removing entries from client-id based version vectors or using server-id based version vectors, which cause false conflicts. We propose a new logical clock mechanism and a logical clock framework that together support a traditional key-value store API, while capturing causality in an accurate and scalable way, avoiding false conflicts. It maintains concise information per data replica, only linear on the number of replica servers, and allows data replicas to be compared and merged linear with the number of replica servers and versions.(undefined

Dynamical Scaling: the Two-Dimensional XY Model Following a Quench

To sensitively test scaling in the 2D XY model quenched from high-temperatures into the ordered phase, we study the difference between measured correlations and the (scaling) results of a Gaussian-closure approximation. We also directly compare various length-scales. All of our results are consistent with dynamical scaling and an asymptotic growth law $L \sim (t/\ln[t/t_0])^{1/2}$, though with a time-scale $t_0$ that depends on the length-scale in question. We then reconstruct correlations from the minimal-energy configuration consistent with the vortex positions, and find them significantly different from the ``natural'' correlations --- though both scale with $L$. This indicates that both topological (vortex) and non-topological (``spin-wave'') contributions to correlations are relevant arbitrarily late after the quench. We also present a consistent definition of dynamical scaling applicable more generally, and emphasize how to generalize our approach to other quenched systems where dynamical scaling is in question. Our approach directly applies to planar liquid-crystal systems.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure