Measurement with Persons: A European Network

The European ‘Measuring the Impossible’ Network MINET promotes new research activities in measurement dependent on human perception and/or interpretation. This includes the perceived attributes of products and services, such as quality or desirability, and societal parameters such as security and well-being. Work has aimed at consensus about four ‘generic’ metrological issues: (1) Measurement Concepts & Terminology; (2) Measurement Techniques: (3) Measurement Uncertainty; and (4) Decision-making & Impact Assessment, and how these can be applied specificallyto the ‘Measurement of Persons’ in terms of ‘Man as a Measurement Instrument’ and ‘Measuring Man.’ Some of the main achievements of MINET include a research repository with glossary; training course; book; series of workshops;think tanks and study visits, which have brought together a unique constellation of researchers from physics, metrology,physiology, psychophysics, psychology and sociology. Metrology (quality-assured measurement) in this area is relativelyunderdeveloped, despite great potential for innovation, and extends beyond traditional physiological metrology in thatit also deals with measurement with all human senses as well as mental and behavioral processes. This is particularlyrelevant in applications where humans are an important component of critical systems, where for instance health andsafety are at stake

Physical Investigation of the Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (144898) 2004 VD17

In this paper we present the observational campaign carried out at ESO NTT and VLT in April and May 2006 to investigate the nature and the structure of the Near Earth Object (144898) 2004 VD17. In spite of a great quantity of dynamical information, according to which it will have a close approach with the Earth in the next century, the physical properties of this asteroid are largely unknown. We performed visible and near--infrared photometry and spectroscopy, as well as polarimetric observations. Polarimetric and spectroscopic data allowed us to classify 2004 VD17 as an E-type asteroid. A good agreement was also found with the spectrum of the aubrite meteorite Mayo Belwa. On the basis of the polarimetric albedo (p_v=0.45) and of photometric data, we estimated a diameter of about 320 m and a rotational period of about 2 hours. The analysis of the results obtained by our complete survey have shown that (144898) 2004 VD17 is a peculiar NEO, since it is close to the breakup limits for fast rotator asteroids, as defined by Pravec and Harris (2000). These results suggest that a more robust structure must be expected, as a fractured monolith or a rubble pile in a "strength regime" (Holsapple 2002).Comment: 32 pages, 7 figure, paper accepted for publication in Icaru

Multifaceted roles of nitric oxide in tomato fruit ripening: NO-induced metabolic rewiring and consequences for fruit quality traits

Nitric oxide (NO) has been implicated as part of the ripening regulatory network in fleshy fruits. However, very little is known about the simultaneous action of NO on the network of regulatory events and metabolic reactions behind ripening-related changes in fruit color, taste, aroma and nutritional value. Here, we performed an in-depth characterization of the concomitant changes in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) fruit transcriptome and metabolome associated with the delayed-ripening phenotype caused by NO supplementation at the pre-climacteric stage. Approximately one-third of the fruit transcriptome was altered in response to NO, including a multilevel down-regulation of ripening regulatory genes, which in turn restricted the production and tissue sensitivity to ethylene. NO also repressed hydrogen peroxide-scavenging enzymes, intensifying nitro-oxidative stress and S-nitrosation and nitration events throughout ripening. Carotenoid, tocopherol, flavonoid and ascorbate biosynthesis were differentially affected by NO, resulting in overaccumulation of ascorbate (25%) and flavonoids (60%), and impaired lycopene production. In contrast, the biosynthesis of compounds related to tomato taste (sugars, organic acids, amino acids) and aroma (volatiles) was slightly affected by NO. Our findings indicate that NO triggers extensive transcriptional and metabolic rewiring at the early ripening stage, modifying tomato antioxidant composition with minimal impact on fruit taste and aroma.This work was supported by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) (grants 2018/16389-8, 2016/04924-0, 2017/17935-3 and 2016/01128-9), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) (grants 422287/2018-0, 305012/2018-5, 303332/2019-0 and 300986/2018-1), and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior – Brasil (CAPES) – Finance Code 001. The research work of FJC and JMP is supported by a European Regional Development Fund cofinanced grant from the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (AGL2015-65104-P and PID2019-103924GB-I00), Spain

Soil and water bioengineering: practice and research needs for reconciling natural hazard control and ecological restoration

Soil and water bioengineering is a technology that encourages scientists and practitioners to combine their knowledge and skills in the management of ecosystems with a common goal to maximize benefits to both man and the natural environment. It involves techniques that use plants as living building materials, for: (i) natural hazard control (e.g., soil erosion, torrential floods and landslides) and (ii) ecological restoration or nature-based re-introduction of species on degraded lands, river embankments, and disturbed environments. For a bioengineering project to be successful, engineers are required to highlight all the potential benefits and ecosystem services by documenting the technical, ecological, economic and social values. The novel approaches used by bioengineers raise questions for researchers and necessitate innovation from practitioners to design bioengineering concepts and techniques. Our objective in this paper, therefore, is to highlight the practice and research needs in soil and water bioengineering for reconciling natural hazard control and ecological restoration. Firstly, we review the definition and development of bioengineering technology, while stressing issues concerning the design, implementation, and monitoring of bioengineering actions. Secondly, we highlight the need to reconcile natural hazard control and ecological restoration by posing novel practice and research questions

Endoscopic palliation in patients with incurable malignant colorectal obstruction by means of self-expanding metal stent: analysis of results and predictors of outcomes in a large multicenter series

Objectives: To evaluate the short- and long-term efficacy of self-expanding metal stents (SEMSs) in patients with colorectal obstruction and incurable cancer and the related factors that affect outcomes. Design: Retrospective analysis of SEMS placement for incurable colorectal obstruction in a 3-year period. Setting: Five tertiary care endoscopic centers. Patients and Intervention: Consecutive patients (N=201) undergoing stenting for incurable malignant obstruction. Main Outcome Measurements: Clinical and technical success of stenting, complications rate, and factors affecting outcomes. Results: Technical success was achieved in 184 of 201 patients (91.5%) and clinical success occurred in 165 of 184 patients (89.7%; 82.1% of 201 patients). Technicaland clinical failures were more frequent in extrinsic and long colorectal stenoses. Overall, 165 patients had normal bowel movements during follow-up (mean [SD], 115.5 [100.3] days; range, 1-500 days), 15 developed complications, 127 had a functioning SEMS at the time of death, and 23 were alive at completion of the study. Twenty-four (11.9%) major complications occurred: 11 migrations, 12 perforations, and 1 reobstruction. Migration of SEMSs was associated with stent diameter less than 25 mm. Bevacizumab therapy increased the risk of perforation by 19.6-fold. Karnofsky performance status of 50 or less was associated with shorter survival and a 3.7- fold higher risk of death within 6 months after the stent was placed. Conclusions: The use of SEMSs is safe and effective for palliation of incurable malignant colonic obstruction; approximately 75% of patients with SEMSs are able to avoid colostomy

Neutrino Masses, Mixing and New Physics Effects

We introduce a parametrization of the effects of radiative corrections from new physics on the charged lepton and neutrino mass matrices, studying how several relevant quantities describing the pattern of neutrino masses and mixing are affected by these corrections. We find that the ratio omega = sin theta / tan theta_atm is remarkably stable, even when relatively large corrections are added to the original mass matrices. It is also found that if the lightest neutrino has a mass around 0.3 eV, the pattern of masses and mixings is considerably more stable under perturbations than for a lighter or heavier spectrum. We explore the consequences of perturbations on some flavor relations given in the literature. In addition, for a quasi-degenerate neutrino spectrum it is shown that: (i) starting from a bi-maximal mixing scenario, the corrections to the mass matrices keep tan theta_atm very close to unity while they can lower tan theta_sol to its measured value; (ii) beginning from a scenario with a vanishing Dirac phase, corrections can induce a Dirac phase large enough to yield CP violation observable in neutrino oscillations.Comment: 14 pages, 21 figures. Uses RevTeX4. Added several comments and references. Final version to appear in PR

Effectiveness of GNSS disposal strategies

The management of the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and of the Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) region as a whole is a subject that cannot be deferred, due to the growing exploitation and launch rate in that orbital regime. The advent of the European Galileo and the Chinese Beidou constellations significantly added complexity to the system and calls for an adequate global view on the four constellations present in operation. The operation procedures, including maintenance and disposal practices, of the constellations currently deployed were analyzed in order to asses a proper reference simulation scenario. The complex dynamics of the MEO region with all the geopotential and lunisolar resonances was studied to better identify the proper end-of-life orbit for every proposed strategy, taking into account and, whenever possible, exploiting the orbital dynamics in this peculiar region of space. The possibility to exploit low thrust propulsion or non gravitational perturbations with passive de-orbiting devices (and a combination of the two) was analyzed, in view of possible applications in the design of the future generations of the constellations satellites. Several upgrades in the long-term evolution software SDM and DAMAGE were undertaken to properly handle the constellation simulations in every aspect from constellation maintenance to orbital dynamics. A thorough approach considering the fulltime evolving covariance matrix associated with every object was implemented in SDM to compute the collision risk and associated maneuver rate for the constellation satellites. Once the software upgrades will be completed, the effectiveness of the different disposal strategies will be analyzed in terms of residual collision risk and avoidance maneuvers rate

Supersymmetric Seesaw without Singlet Neutrinos: Neutrino Masses and Lepton-Flavour Violation

We consider the supersymmetric seesaw mechanism induced by the exchange of heavy SU(2)_W triplet states, rather than `right-handed' neutrino singlets, to generate neutrino masses. We show that in this scenario the neutrino flavour structure tested at low-energy in the atmospheric and solar neutrino experiments is directly inherited from the neutrino Yukawa couplings to the triplets. This allows us to predict the ratio of the tau --> mu gamma (or tau --> e gamma) and mu --> e gamma decay rates in terms of the low-energy neutrino parameters. Moreover, once the model is embedded in a grand unified model, quark-flavour violation can be linked to lepton-flavour violation.Comment: 26 LaTeX pages, 10 postscript figures, uses epsfig and axodraw. Comments and references adde

Global Search for New Physics with 2.0/fb at CDF

Data collected in Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron are searched for indications of new electroweak-scale physics. Rather than focusing on particular new physics scenarios, CDF data are analyzed for discrepancies with the standard model prediction. A model-independent approach (Vista) considers gross features of the data, and is sensitive to new large cross-section physics. Further sensitivity to new physics is provided by two additional algorithms: a Bump Hunter searches invariant mass distributions for "bumps" that could indicate resonant production of new particles; and the Sleuth procedure scans for data excesses at large summed transverse momentum. This combined global search for new physics in 2.0/fb of ppbar collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV reveals no indication of physics beyond the standard model.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures. Final version which appeared in Physical Review D Rapid Communication