The Virtual Forest: Robotics And Simulation Technology As The Basis For New Approaches To The Biological And The Technical Production In The Forest

In order to support competitiveness on the worldwide market - but also to overcome efficiency problems related to the forest owner structure in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Germany - the "Virtual Forest" is being developed as an intelligent planning and decision support tool for forest growth as well as for wood mobilization. In practice, the heart of the Virtual Forest consists of a database of approx. 240 million single trees in NRW, its major wood resource. In order to identify the trees, latest aerial survey and satellite technology is used and combined with virtual reality and robotics know how in order to efficiently gather and visualize the data. Thus, the Virtual Forest will serve as a reliable and very up-to-date base and framework for new efficient forest planning, wood mobilization and machine logistics methods

TGF-β1 and Smad4 overexpression induce a less invasive phenotype in highly invasive spindle carcinoma cells

We have examined the effect of transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) and overexpression of the Smad4 gene on the phenotype of Car C, a ras mutated highly malignant spindle carcinoma cell line. TGF-β1-treated Car C cells overexpressing Smad4 spread with a flattened morphology with membrane ruffles abundant in vinculin and show a reduction in their invasive abilities. TGF-β1 treatment and overexpression of Smad4 also enhanced the production of PAI-1 measured by the activation of the p3TP-lux reporter gene containing a PAI-1-related promoter. This activation was abolished with a dominant-negative Smad4 construct. These results lead us to conclude that both TGF-β1 and Smad4 overexpression reduce the invasive potential of Car C cells, probably via the Smad pathway.This work was supported by Fondecyt 3000045 and post-graduate fellowship of Fundación Andes (to J.F.S.),1010703 (to J.M.) and by the Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología and Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid of Spain (Grants SAF98-0085-CO3-02 and 8.1/22/97,to M.Q.).Peer Reviewe

Revisiting Challenges in Using Discrete Event Simulation in Early Stages of Production System Design

Part 8: Knowledge Based EngineeringInternational audienceThis paper presents challenges of using discrete event simulation when supporting decision in early stages of production system design, when significant changes are introduced. It was based on three real-time case studies performed at one manufacturing company during 2014–2016. Challenges in the cases were mapped to previous literature, pointing out discrepancies and highlighting three additional challenges, specifically related to issues in the early stages of the production system design process. The significant change introduced to the assembly system, and the early phases of evaluation put significant challenges to the use of discrete event simulation and the study points out further efforts needed to support manufacturing companies under change, with an established industrial structure and legacy systems to consider

AMS-100: The next generation magnetic spectrometer in space - An international science platform for physics and astrophysics at Lagrange point 2

The next generation magnetic spectrometer in space, AMS-100, is designed to have a geometrical acceptance of 100 m(2) sr and to be operated for at least ten years at the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 2. Compared to existing experiments, it will improve the sensitivity for the observation of new phenomena in cosmic rays, and in particular in cosmic antimatter, by at least a factor of 1000. The magnet design is based on high temperature superconductor tapes, which allow the construction of a thin solenoid with a homogeneous magnetic field of 1 Tesla inside. The inner volume is instrumented with a silicon tracker reaching a maximum detectable rigidity of 100 TV and a calorimeter system that is 70 radiation lengths deep, equivalent to four nuclear interaction lengths, which extends the energy reach for cosmic-ray nuclei up to the PeV scale, i.e. beyond the cosmic-ray knee. Covering most of the sky continuously, AMS-100 will detect high-energy gamma-rays in the calorimeter system and by pair conversion in the thin solenoid, reconstructed with excellent angular resolution in the silicon tracker