Classification and Recovery of Radio Signals from Cosmic Ray Induced Air Showers with Deep Learning

Radio emission from air showers enables measurements of cosmic particle kinematics and identity. The radio signals are detected in broadband Megahertz antennas among continuous background noise. We present two deep learning concepts and their performance when applied to simulated data. The first network classifies time traces as signal or background. We achieve a true positive rate of about 90% for signal-to-noise ratios larger than three with a false positive rate below 0.2%. The other network is used to clean the time trace from background and to recover the radio time trace originating from an air shower. Here we achieve a resolution in the energy contained in the trace of about 20% without a bias for $80\%$ of the traces with a signal. The obtained frequency spectrum is cleaned from signals of radio frequency interference and shows the expected shape.Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures, resubmitted to JINS

Organic Farming Research Support and Research Priorities in the European Union

Support for Organic Farming focused research has increased significantly in successive EU research funding frameworks. This is in line with constantly increasing consumer demand for organic foods over the last 20 years, which has accelerated again over the last 2 years in many European countries, including new member states. Under the 7th Framework Programme (FP7), the expected new increase of funds for organic farming could significantly decrease, even below the levels made available under the 5th Framework Programme (FP5). Most of the project topics listed focus on the development of methods for economic analyses of Organic Farming and/or follow a very “reductionist” one problem - one potential solution approach. On the other side, as there is no clear instruments to establish priorities in research programmes at European level. The IFOAM EU Group has developed a consultation process to set organic farming sector priorities, which could be used as a model to set research priorities in the future. This paper also presents a first assessment of the EU support to organic farming research, reviewing main achievements in organic food production systems research and proposing some changes in the current 7th Framework Programme

Building an Agent-Based Model for exploring how informal rules impact the functioning of newly-established Water User Associations in Central Asia

International audienceIn transition countries informal institutions play a major role and often interfere with new formal institutions leading to large discrepancies between rules on paper and rules in use. We develop an agent-based model to explore the interaction between formal and informal rules and its effect on the performance of the formal institutions, based on the example of water user associations (WUA) in Uzbekistan. The model is based on field experience such as community-based work and role playing games, complemented by available literature. In this paper we present the conceptualization of the model, its empirical foundation and a first baseline scenario. We model a water user association where rules based on formal and informal institutions can be used. The baseline scenario represents the results of a totally formal WUA. In a next step we will introduce informal rules and explore how they can coexist with formal ones. Further work will bring us to question rules' implementation and roles and relationships evolution through selective rules adoption. The model will allow exploring under which conditions the institution WUA can function well and what might be mechanisms for the selection and adoption of rules by individual members

Localization versus function of Rab3 proteins - Evidence for a common regulatory role in controlling fusion

Rab3A, Rab3B, Rab3C, and Rab3D constitute a family of GTP- binding proteins that are implicated in regulated exocytosis. Various localizations and distinct functions have been proposed for different and occasionally even for the same Rab3 protein. This is exemplified by studies demonstrating that deletion of Rab3A in knock-out mice results in dysregulation of the final stages of exocytosis, whereas overexpression of Rab3A in neuroendocrine cells causes nearly complete inhibition of Ca2+- triggered exocytosis. We have now examined the properties of all Rab3 proteins in the same assays, with the long-term goal of identifying a common conceptual framework for their functions. Using quantitative immunoblotting, we found that all four Rab3 proteins were expressed in brain and endocrine tissues, although at widely different levels. Rab3A, Rab3B, and Rab3C co-localized to synaptic and secretory vesicles consistent with potential redundancy, whereas Rab3D was expressed at high levels only in the endocrine pituitary (where it was more abundant than Rab3A, Rab3B, and Rab3C combined), in exocrine glands, and in adipose tissue. In transfected PC12 cells, all four Rab3 proteins strongly inhibited Ca2+-triggered exocytosis. Except for a mutation that fixes Rab3 into a permanently GDP-bound state, all Rab3 mutations tested had no effect on this inhibition, including a mutation in the calmodulin-binding site that was described as inactivating (Coppola, T., Perret-Menoud, V., Luthi, S., Farnsworth, C. C., Glomset, J. A., and Regazzi, R. (1999) EMBO J. 18, 5885- 5891).:Unexpectedly, overexpression of wild type Rab3A and permanently GTP-bound mutant Rab3A in PC12 cells caused a loss of secretory vesicles and an increase in constitutive, Ca2+- independent exocytosis that correlated with the inhibition of regulated Ca2+-triggered exocytosis. Our data indicate that overexpression of Rab3 in PC12 cells impairs the normal control of the final step in exocytosis, thereby converting the regulated secretory pathway into a constitutive pathway. These results offer an hypothesis that reconciles Rab3 transfection and knockout studies by suggesting that Rab3 functions as a gatekeeper of a late stage in exocytosis