Making ERP research more transparent: Guidelines for preregistration

A combination of confirmation bias, hindsight bias, and pressure to publish may prompt the (unconscious) exploration of various methodological options and reporting only the ones that lead to a (statistically) significant outcome. This undisclosed analytic flexibility is particularly relevant in EEG research, where a myriad of preprocessing and analysis pipelines can be used to extract information from complex multidimensional data. One solution to limit confirmation and hindsight bias by disclosing analytic choices is preregistration: researchers write a time-stamped, publicly accessible research plan with hypotheses, data collection plan, and the intended preprocessing and statistical analyses before the start of a research project. In this manuscript, we present an overview of the problems associated with undisclosed analytic flexibility, discuss why and how EEG researchers would benefit from adopting preregistration, provide guidelines and examples on how to preregister data preprocessing and analysis steps in typical ERP studies, and conclude by discussing possibilities and limitations of this open science practice

Dynamic reconfiguration of electrical connections for partially shaded PV modules: Technical and economical performances of an Arduino-based prototype

The partial shading phenomenon is a well known problem of photovoltaic plants. Partial shading leads to undesirable effects such the electrical mismatch, the generation of hot spots, and generally the decrease of production of electric energy. To mitigate the last effect, a dynamic reconfiguration of the electrical connections between modules was taken into account. In this paper, starting from an already developed system for a small-scale photovoltaic plant reconfiguration, the study of the economical benefits of the employment of a reconfigurator are traced. Five different incentive policies of diverse Countries have been considered to evaluate the increase of Net Present Value of system with and without a reconfigurator

Piezoelectric Rainfall Energy Harvester Performance by Advanced Arduino based Measuring System

This paper presents the performances of rainfall energy harvesting through the use of a piezoelectric transducer and an Arduino-based measuring system. Different studies agree on the possibility of generating electricity from rainfall, but to date, a study on measuring the quantity of energy produced during rainfall is still missing. The present study begins with results obtained from laboratory researchers using piezoelectric transducers and oscilloscopes, finalized to measure the energy produced from a single raindrop, and concludes with an ad hoc Arduino-based measuring system, aimed to measure the actual amount of electrical energy produced by a piezoelectric transducer that is exposed to rainfall of variable durations

Experimental study on B-spline-based modulation schemes applied in multilevel inverters for electric drive applications

This work presents the design, simulation, and experimental validation of new B-Spline-based modulation techniques applied to a Multilevel Power Inverter (MPI), particularly focusing the attention on the harmonic content of the output voltages of the inverter. Simulation and experimental results are proposed and discussed, mainly describing the potential benefits, such as the increase of the multi-level operation of the converter, and drawbacks (low-order harmonics) related to the adoption of B-Spline functions for multilevel inverters applied in the field of electrical drives

The BepiColombo MORE gravimetry and rotation experiments with the ORBIT14 software

The BepiColombomission to Mercury is an ESA/JAXAcornerstone mission, consisting of two spacecraft in orbit around Mercury addressing several scientific issues. One spacecraft is the Mercury Planetary Orbiter, with full instrumentation to perform radio science experiments. Very precise radio tracking from Earth, on-board accelerometer and optical measurements will provide large data sets. From these it will be possible to study the global gravity field of Mercury and its tidal variations, its rotation state and the orbit of its centre of mass. With the gravity field and rotation state, it is possible to constrain the internal structure of the planet. With the orbit of Mercury, it is possible to constrain relativistic theories of gravitation. In order to assess that all the scientific goals are achievable with the required level of accuracy, full cycle numerical simulations of the radio science experiment have been performed. Simulated tracking, accelerometer and optical camera data have been generated, and a long list of variables including the spacecraft initial conditions, the accelerometer calibrations and the gravity field coefficients have been determined by a least-squares fit. The simulation results are encouraging: The experiments are feasible at the required level of accuracy provided that some critical terms in the accelerometer error are moderated. We will show that BepiColombo will be able to provide at least an order of magnitude improvement in the knowledge of Love number k2, libration amplitudes and obliquity, along with a gravity field determination up to degree 25 with a signal-to-noise ratio of 10

effect of the daily ingestion of a purified anthocyanin extract from grape skin on rat serum antioxidant capacity

The aim of this work was to study the effect of the daily ingestion of a purified anthocyanin extract from red grape skin on rat serum antioxidant capacity (ORAC) and its safety for the intestinal epithelium. The study was carried out in rats orally administered with the extract for 10 days in either normal physiological conditions or exposed to a pro-oxidant chemical (CCl4). The oral administration of the extract significantly (P<0.05) enhanced the ORAC value of the deproteinised serum of about 50 % after 10 days of ingestion. Anthocyanin administration was also able to reverse completely the decrease in the serum ORAC activity induced by the CCl4 treatment. Experiments with Ussing chamber mounted intestine allowed to exclude any toxicity of the extract for the intestinal epithelium. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that the purified anthocyanin extract from red grape skin enhances the total antioxidant capacity of the serum in either normal physiological condition or during oxidative stress induction, revealing a protective role against the decrease in the serum antioxidant capacity induced by a pro-oxidant compound