Scanner image methodology (SIM) to measure dimensions of leaves for agronomical applications

A scanner image methodology was used to determine plant dimensions, such as leaf area, length and width. The values obtained using SIM were compared with those recorded by the LI-COR leaf area meter. Bias, linearity, reproducibility and repeatability (R&R) were evaluated for SIM. Different groups of leaves were scanned and measured. R&R studies showed that, the lowest SIM’s resolution was nineteen categories. SIM’s R&R ANOVA showed the method’s measurement error was not significant. In the image processing method, the color image was converted to gray scale over the green band and it was segmented using Otsu methodology. The noise produced was cleaned with a median filter. The leaf image was rotated to align the longest parallel line to y-axis or x-axis using central moments. From the centroid using directional erosions the leaf width and length were obtained and recorded.Key words: Leaf area, width, length, digital image analysis, segmentation

Evidences of the Cerium Oxide-Catalysed DPF Regeneration in a Real Diesel Engine Exhaust

The active phase Ce0.5Pr0.5O2 has been loaded on commercial substrates (SiC DPF and cordierite honeycomb monolith) to perform DPF regeneration experiments in the exhaust of a diesel engine. Also, a powder sample has been prepared to carry out soot combustion experiments at laboratory. Experiments performed in the real diesel exhaust demonstrated the catalytic activity of the Ce–Pr mixed oxide for the combustion of soot, lowering the DPF regeneration temperature with regard to a counterpart catalyst-free DPF. The temperature for active regeneration of the Ce0.5Pr0.5O2-containing DPF when the soot content is low is in the range of 500–550 °C. When the Ce0.5Pr0.5O2-containing DPF is saturated with a high amount of soot, pressure drop and soot load at the filter reach equilibrium at around 360 °C under steady state engine operation due to passive regeneration. The uncoated DPF reached this equilibrium at around 440 °C. Comparing results at real exhaust with those at laboratory allow concluding that the Ce0.5Pr0.5O2-catalysed soot combustion in the real exhaust is not based on the NO2-assisted mechanism but is most likely occurring by the active oxygen-based mechanism.The authors thank the financial support of Generalitat Valenciana (Project Prometeo 2009/047), Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (project CIT-420000-2009-48) and EU (FEDER funding)

On the benefits of tasking with OpenMP

Tasking promises a model to program parallel applications that provides intuitive semantics. In the case of tasks with dependences, it also promises better load balancing by removing global synchronizations (barriers), and potential for improved locality. Still, the adoption of tasking in production HPC codes has been slow. Despite OpenMP supporting tasks, most codes rely on worksharing-loop constructs alongside MPI primitives. This paper provides insights on the benefits of tasking over the worksharing-loop model by reporting on the experience of taskifying an adaptive mesh refinement proxy application: miniAMR. The performance evaluation shows the taskified implementation being 15–30% faster than the loop-parallel one for certain thread counts across four systems, three architectures and four compilers thanks to better load balancing and system utilization. Dynamic scheduling of loops narrows the gap but still falls short of tasking due to serial sections between loops. Locality improvements are incidental due to the lack of locality-aware scheduling. Overall, the introduction of asynchrony with tasking lives up to its promises, provided that programmers parallelize beyond individual loops and across application phases.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Prasugrel Metabolites Inhibit Neutrophil Functions s

ABSTRACT Clopidogrel and prasugrel belong to a thienopyridine class of oral antiplatelet drugs that, after having been metabolized in the liver, can inhibit platelet function by irreversibly antagonizing the P2Y 12 receptor. Furthermore, thienopyridines influence numerous inflammatory conditions, but their effects on neutrophils have not been evaluated, despite the important role of these cells in inflammation. Therefore, we investigated the effect of prasugrel metabolites on neutrophils to further clarify the role of thienopyridines in inflammation. Interestingly, a prasugrel metabolite mixture, produced in vitro using rat liver microsomes, significantly inhibited N-formyl-methionyl-leucylphenylalanine (fMLP)-and platelet-activating factor (PAF)-induced neutrophil activation. More specifically, prasugrel metabolites inhibited neutrophil transmigration, CD16 surface expression, and neutrophil-platelet aggregation. Moreover, prasugrel metabolite pretreatment also significantly decreased fMLP-or PAF-induced extracellular-signal-regulated kinase phosphorylation as well as calcium mobilization. To determine the target of prasugrel in neutrophils, the role of both P2Y 12 and P2Y 13 receptors was studied using specific reversible antagonists, AR-C69931MX and MRS2211, respectively. Neither antagonist had any direct effect on the agonist-induced neutrophil functional responses. Our findings indicate that prasugrel metabolites may directly target neutrophils and inhibit their activation, suggesting a possible explanation for their antiinflammatory effects previously observed. However, these metabolites do not act through either the P2Y 12 or P2Y 13 receptor in neutrophils

Bottom-up construction of highly photoactive dye-sensitized titania using Ru(II) and Ir(III) complexes as building blocks

The one-pot co-condensation of tetrabutyl orthotitanate (TBOT) and the neutral Ru(II) N3 dye or the new cationic Ir(III) complex [Ir(ppy)2(3,3′-H2dcbpy)]PF6 have yielded novel hybrid in-situ titanias, which present an exceptional stability against leaching or photodegradation of the coordination dye. The main advantages of this strategy are: i) high dye incorporation level, ii) narrowing band gap and iii) high stability. These materials exhibit much higher photocatalytic activity, under both UV and visible light, not only than the dye-free titania but also than the related dye-sensitized titania prepared by post-synthetic grafting. This in-situ synthetic approach is a promising alternative route to prepare highly stable dye-sensitized materials with great applicability potential.We thank the Spanish MINECO (Projects CTQ2013-45518-P and CTQ2014-60017-R) for financial support

Payments for ecosystem services in the tropics: a closer look at effectiveness and equity

We undertake a review of academic literature that examines the effectiveness and equity-related performance of PES initiatives targeting biodiversity conservation in tropical and sub-tropical countries. We investigate the key features of such analyses as regards their analytical and methodological approach and we identify emerging lessons from PES practice, leading to a new suggested research agenda. Our results indicate that analyses of PES effectiveness have to date focused on either ecosystem service provision or habitat proxies, with only half of them making explicit assessment of additionality and most describing that payments have been beneficial for land cover and biodiversity. Studies evaluating the impact of PES on livelihoods suggest more negative outcomes, with an uneven treatment of the procedural and distributive considerations of scheme design and payment distribution, and a large heterogeneity of evaluative frameworks. We propose an agenda for future PES research based on the emerging interest in assessing environmental outcomes more rigorously and documenting social impacts in a more comparative and contextually situated form

Glucocerebrosidase expression patterns in the non-human primate brain

Glucocerebrosidase (GCase) is a lysosomal enzyme encoded by the GBA1 gene. Mutations in GBA1 gene lead to Gaucher’s disease, the most prevalent lysosomal storage disorder. GBA1 mutations reduce GCase activity, therefore promoting the aggregation of alphasynuclein, a common neuropathological finding underlying Parkinson’s disease (PD) and dementia with Lewy bodies. However, it is also worth noting that a direct link between GBA1 mutations and alpha-synuclein aggregation indicating cause and effect is still lacking, with limited experimental evidence to date. Bearing in mind that a number of strategies increasing GCase expression for the treatment of PD are currently under development, here we sought to analyze the baseline expression of GCase in the brain of Macaca fascicularis, which has often been considered as the gold-standard animal model of PD. Although as with other lysosomal enzymes, GCase is expected to be ubiquitously expressed, here a number of regional variations have been consistently found, together with several specific neurochemical phenotypes expressing very high levels of GCase. In this regard, the most enriched expression of GCase was constantly found in cholinergic neurons from the nucleus basalis of Meynert, dopaminergic cells in the substantia nigra pars compacta, serotoninergic neurons from the raphe nuclei, as well as in noradrenergic neurons located in the locus ceruleus. Moreover, it is also worth noting that moderate levels of expression were also found in a number of areas within the paleocortex and archicortex, such as the entorhinal cortex and the hippocampal formation, respectively

Rejection of mismatched disturbances for systems with input delay via a predictive extended state observer

[EN] The problem of output stabilization and disturbance rejection for input-delayed systems is tackled in this work. First, a suitable transformation is introduced to translate mismatched disturbances into an equivalent input disturbance. Then, an extended state observer is combined with a predictive observer structure to obtain a future estimation of both the state and the disturbance. A disturbance model is assumed to be known but attenuation of unmodeled components is also considered. The stabilization is proved via Lyapunov-Krasovskii functionals, leading to sufficient conditions in terms of linear matrix inequalities for the closed-loop analysis and parameter tuning. The proposed strategy is illustrated through a numerical example.PROMETEOII/2013/004; Conselleria d'Educacio; Generalitat Valenciana, Grant/Award Number: TIN2014-56158-C4-4-P-AR; Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Grant/Award Number: FPI-UPV 2014; Universitat Politecnica de ValenciaSanz Diaz, R.; García Gil, PJ.; Fridman, E.; Albertos Pérez, P. (2018). Rejection of mismatched disturbances for systems with input delay via a predictive extended state observer. International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control. 28(6):2457-2467. https://doi.org/10.1002/rnc.4027S24572467286Stability and Stabilization of Systems with Time Delay. (2011). IEEE Control Systems, 31(1), 38-65. doi:10.1109/mcs.2010.939135Fridman, E. (2014). Introduction to Time-Delay Systems. Systems & Control: Foundations & Applications. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-09393-2Watanabe, K., & Ito, M. (1981). A process-model control for linear systems with delay. 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IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 24(4), 541-552. doi:10.1109/tac.1979.1102124Artstein, Z. (1982). Linear systems with delayed controls: A reduction. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 27(4), 869-879. doi:10.1109/tac.1982.1103023Krstic, M. (2008). Lyapunov tools for predictor feedbacks for delay systems: Inverse optimality and robustness to delay mismatch. Automatica, 44(11), 2930-2935. doi:10.1016/j.automatica.2008.04.010Léchappé, V., Moulay, E., Plestan, F., Glumineau, A., & Chriette, A. (2015). New predictive scheme for the control of LTI systems with input delay and unknown disturbances. Automatica, 52, 179-184. doi:10.1016/j.automatica.2014.11.003Sanz, R., Garcia, P., & Albertos, P. (2016). Enhanced disturbance rejection for a predictor-based control of LTI systems with input delay. Automatica, 72, 205-208. doi:10.1016/j.automatica.2016.05.019Basturk, H. I., & Krstic, M. (2015). Adaptive sinusoidal disturbance cancellation for unknown LTI systems despite input delay. Automatica, 58, 131-138. doi:10.1016/j.automatica.2015.05.013Basturk, H. I. (2017). Cancellation of unmatched biased sinusoidal disturbances for unknown LTI systems in the presence of state delay. Automatica, 76, 169-176. doi:10.1016/j.automatica.2016.10.006Sanz, R., Garcia, P., Albertos, P., & Zhong, Q.-C. (2016). Robust controller design for input-delayed systems using predictive feedback and an uncertainty estimator. International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control, 27(10), 1826-1840. doi:10.1002/rnc.3639Mondie, S., & Michiels, W. (2003). Finite spectrum assignment of unstable time-delay systems with a safe implementation. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 48(12), 2207-2212. doi:10.1109/tac.2003.820147Zhong, Q.-C. (2004). On Distributed Delay in Linear Control Laws—Part I: Discrete-Delay Implementations. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 49(11), 2074-2080. doi:10.1109/tac.2004.837531Zhou, B., Lin, Z., & Duan, G.-R. (2012). 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Stabilization of strict-feedback nonlinear systems with input delay using closed-loop predictors. International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control, 26(16), 3524-3540. doi:10.1002/rnc.3517Mazenc, F., & Malisoff, M. (2017). Stabilization of Nonlinear Time-Varying Systems Through a New Prediction Based Approach. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 62(6), 2908-2915. doi:10.1109/tac.2016.2600500Guo, L., & Chen, W.-H. (2005). Disturbance attenuation and rejection for systems with nonlinearity via DOBC approach. International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control, 15(3), 109-125. doi:10.1002/rnc.978Fridman, E. (2003). Output regulation of nonlinear systems with delay. Systems & Control Letters, 50(2), 81-93. doi:10.1016/s0167-6911(03)00131-2Isidori, A., & Byrnes, C. I. (1990). Output regulation of nonlinear systems. IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 35(2), 131-140. doi:10.1109/9.45168Ding, Z. (2003). 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One maternal lineage leads the expansion of Thaumastocoris peregrinus (Hemiptera: Thaumastocoridae) in the new and old worlds.

The bronze bug, Thaumastocoris peregrinus, an Australian native insect, has become a nearly worldwide invasive pest in the last 16 years and has been causing signifcant damage to eucalypts (Myrtaceae), including Eucalyptus spp. and Corymbia spp. Its rapid expansion leads to new questions about pathways and routes that T. peregrinus used to invade other continents and countries. We used mtDNA to characterize specimens of T. peregrinus collected from 10 countries where this species has become established, including six recently invaded countries: Chile, Israel, Mexico, Paraguay, Portugal, and the United States of America. We then combined our mtDNA data with previous data available from South Africa, Australia, and Europe to construct a world mtDNA network of haplotypes. Haplotype A was the most common present in all specimens of sites sampled in the New World, Europe, and Israel, however from Australia second more frequently. Haplotype D was the most common one from native populations in Australia. Haplotype A difers from the two major haplotypes found in South Africa (D and G), confrming that at least two independent invasions occurred, one from Australia to South Africa, and the other one from Australia to South America (A). In conclusion, Haplotype A has an invasion success over many countries in the World. Additionally, analyzing data from our work and previous reports, it is possible to suggest some invasive routes of T. peregrinus to predict such events and support preventive control measures

Observation of Pulsed Gamma-rays Above 25 GeV from the Crab Pulsar with MAGIC

One fundamental question about pulsars concerns the mechanism of their pulsed electromagnetic emission. Measuring the high-end region of a pulsar's spectrum would shed light on this question. By developing a new electronic trigger, we lowered the threshold of the Major Atmospheric gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) telescope to 25 GeV. In this configuration, we detected pulsed gamma-rays from the Crab pulsar that were greater than 25 GeV, revealing a relatively high cutoff energy in the phase-averaged spectrum. This indicates that the emission occurs far out in the magnetosphere, hence excluding the polar-cap scenario as a possible explanation of our measurement. The high cutoff energy also challenges the slot-gap scenario.Comment: Slight modification of the analysis: Fitting a more general function to the combined data set of COMPTEL, EGRET and MAGIC. Final result and conclusion is unchange