A Sliding Mode Control Architecture for Human-Manipulator Cooperative Surface Treatment Tasks

© 2018 IEEE. This paper presents a control architecture readily suitable for surface treatment tasks such as polishing, grinding, finishing or deburring as carried out by a human operator, with the added benefit of accuracy, recurrence and physical strength as administered by a robotic manipulator partner. The shared strategy effectively couples the human operator propioceptive abilities and fine skills through his interactions with the autonomous physical agent. The novel proposed control scheme is based on task prioritization and a non-conventional sliding mode control, which is considered to benefit from its inherent robustness and low computational cost. The system relies on two force sensors, one located between the last link of the robot and the surface treatment tool, and the other located in some place of the robot end-effector: the former is used to suitably accomplish the conditioning task, while the latter is used by the operator to manually guide the robotic tool. When the operator chooses to cease guiding the tool, the robot motion safely switches back to an automatic reference tracking. The paper presents the theories for the novel collaborative controller, whilst its effectiveness for robotic surface treatment is substantiated by experimental results using a redundant 7R manipulator and a mock-up conditioning tool

BOCADEVA 0714 Gulf of Cadiz Anchovy Egg Survey and 2014 SSB preliminary estimates

This working document provides a brief description of the survey, laboratory analysis and estimation procedures used to obtain the Gulf of Cadiz anchovy SSB by DEPM for 2014 in the South-Atlantic Iberian Stock. Results are preliminary, because the estimation of the spawning fraction is not available yet

Acoustic assessment and distribution of the main pelagic fish species in ICES Subdivision 9a South during the ECOCADIZ 2020-07 Spanish survey (August 2020)

The present working document summarises the main results obtained from the ECOCADIZ 2020-07 Spanish (pelagic ecosystem-) acoustic-trawl survey conducted by IEO between 01st and 14th August 2020 in the Portuguese and Spanish shelf waters (20-200 m isobaths) off the Gulf of Cadiz (GoC) onboard the R/V Miguel Oliver. The 21 foreseen acoustic transects were sampled. A total of 26 valid fishing hauls were carried out for echo-trace ground-truthing purposes. Four additional night trawls were conducted to collect anchovy hydrated females (DEPM-adult ad hoc sampling). Chub mackerel was the most frequent captured species in the fishing hauls, followed by mackerel, anchovy, horse mackerel, bogue, sardine, blue jack mackerel and Mediterranean horse mackerel. Round sardinella, longspine snipefish, Atlantic pomfret and transparent goby showed a very low occurrence, whereas the occurrence of boarfish and pearlside was incidental. Chub mackerel, anchovy and sardine showed the highest yields in these hauls. The estimate of total NASC allocated to the “pelagic fish species assemblage” has shown a slight decrease in relation to the historical records in 2018 and 2019, mainly caused by the regional decrease in Spanish waters. However, both total and regional estimates are still above their respective historical averages. Such estimates are the result of the relatively high acoustic contributions of anchovy, sardine (both mainly in Spanish waters), and chub mackerel (in Portuguese waters). GoC anchovy was widely distributed in the surveyed area, showing the highest densities between Cape Santa Maria and Bay of Cadiz. Anchovy acoustic estimates in summer 2020 were of 5153 million fish and 44 877 tones, with the bulk of the population occurring in the Spanish waters. The population was composed by fishes not older than 2 years, with age-0 fish contributing 75% of the total population. The largest (and oldest) fish were distributed in the westernmost waters and the smallest (and youngest) ones concentrated in the surroundings of the Guadalquivir river mouth and adjacent shallow waters. The current biomass estimate becomes in the second historical maximum within the time-series. GoC sardine distributed almost all over the surveyed area (avoiding the Spanish easternmost waters), but was mainly concentrated between west Cape Santa Maria and the Bay of Cadiz, especially in the Spanish central waters of the Gulf, where numerous dense mid-water schools were recorded in the coastal fringe (20-40 m depth). The estimates of sardine abundance and biomass in summer 2020 were 1923 million fish and 50 721 t, estimates close to the historical average, but lower than the values estimated last year and the most recent maxima reached in 2018. Although up to 5-year olds were recorded in the population, age-0 juveniles accounted for 71% of the total numbers, mainly occurring in relatively shallow waters along the coastal fringe comprised between Tinto-Odiel river mouth and the Bay of Cadiz. Chub mackerel was widely distributed in the surveyed area, mainly in the central and western shelf waters, although the highest densities occurred in the western Algarve. A total of 32 854 t and 448 million fish were estimated for Chub mackerel, estimates similar to the most recent ones and very close to the time-series average. Age-0 and age-1 groups were the dominant age groups and mainly occurring in the Portuguese waters. The oldest fish (3-5 years) occurred almost exclusively in Spanish water

On the ubiquity of trivial torsion on elliptic curves

The purpose of this paper is to give a "down--to--earth" proof of the well--known fact that a randomly chosen elliptic curve over the rationals is most likely to have trivial torsion

Report of the Workshop on Age estimation of European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus)

Based on the results of a full-scale otolith exchange held in 2014, the Working Group on Biological Parameters (WGBIOP 2015) identified the need for an age reading workshop on European Anchovy otoliths (WKARA2). This workshop (chaired by Andres Uriarte, Spain, Begoña Villamor, Spain and Gualtiero Basilone, Italy), was held in Pasaia, Gui-puzcoa (Spain) from the 28 November to 2 December 2016. Five countries took part in this workshop (Spain, Italy, Croatia, Greece and Tunisia), with a total of 16 participants from 9 laboratories. In total 17 areas/stocks were analysed (4 from the Atlantic area and 13 from Mediterranean Sea) The aim of this workshop was to review the information on age determination, discuss the results of the previous exchange (2014), review the validation methods existing on these species, clarify the interpretation of annual rings and update the age reading pro-tocol and a reference collection of well-defined otoliths. Age validation studies, in the Bay of Biscay and preliminary validation studies in Divi-sion 9a, Alboran Sea and Strait of Sicily areas were presented, including a compilation of age validation studies of this species as well in the literature. There are several ar-eas/stocks in which validations of the anchovy annual age determination have not been done yet. Due to the poor percentage of agreement achieved in the 2014 Exchange (mean agree-ment of 66%; mean CV of 58%), the workshop proceeded with a detailed and joint dis-cussion on the growth patterns shown by otoliths from the different areas to find out the major reasons for discrepancies in age determination among readers. At the same time, the joint discussion allowed a better understanding of the pattern of otolith growth in-crements by areas to improve the guidelines for their interpretation. The discussions on examples among otoliths which generated discrepancies in the age determination led to conclude that there were two major sources of disagreements: a) Divergent otolith inter-pretation: different interpretations of the marks, growth bands and edges in terms of their conformity with the expected growth pattern of the anchovies, seasonal formation of the otolith by ages and most common checks. and b) wrong application of the age allocation Rules: it was evidenced during the workshop that for the birthdate first July (or first June) in some cases the age determination rule was not being correctly applied during the first half of the year (from January to June). Following the workshop discussions there has been a progressive change in the percep-tion of the growth pattern applicable to these anchovy otoliths in many areas which led to some revisions of the otolith interpretation and assigned ages, by which growth at ages 0 and 1 are far prominent than at older ages and the occurrence of checks became more frequently admitted. Furthermore, there have been evidences that the age determination rules have in some instances been inconsistently applied. All these evidences led to con-clude on the need to review past age determinations. Although this task should be de-layed until running an exchange in 2018 to be sure that all the readers apply the protocol and the current criteria of this workshop coherently, since current criteria would change the otoliths interpretation and the age determination in many areas. In addition, for the Mediterranean regions the convenience of midyear birthdates was put in question in comparison with the simplicity of the conventional birthdates at first of January (as these anchovies are in the northern hemisphere). As a corollary of the former statements, intercalibration exercises by areas, for the differ-ent countries taking part in the age reading of the same exploited stock, are still required. Finally, this Workshop adopted a common protocol for all areas in order to standardize the anchovy age assignments and to improve the coherence of the age estimates. An agreed collection of otoliths by areas were produced and upload to the Age Readers Fo-rum

Adubação nitrogenada em milho no Paraná. III. Influência da recuperação do solo com adubação verde de inverno nas respostas à adubação nitrogenada

The influence of winter green manure with lupine (Lupinus albus L.) on the response of four maize (Zea mays L.) cultivars planted at two plant populations to crescent levels of N was studied. The lupine was planted at the fall, by direct drilling over maize residues and was incorporated at flowering period. One month after, the area was disked and the maize sowed. Grain yields were related to others obtained in the same trial, at previous harvest, when the soil was degenerated by intensive use. The winter green manure was a good alternative for soil recuperation and contributed to reduce the nitrogen fertilizer needs. This alternative increased 26% of maize yields. The variety Cateto Prolífico showed a low efficiency of response to nitrogen fertilization, but gave a good response to the green manure practice. The cultivars AG-162, C-501 and Piranão showed high response to nitrogen fertilization, but the green manure practice was sufficient to supply his nitrogen needs.Estudou-se a influência da adubação verde de inverno com tremoço (Lupinus albus L.) nas respostas ao nitrogênio por quatro cultivares de milho (Zea mays L.), semeadas em duas densidades. O tremoço foi semeado no outono, em plantio direto sobre resíduos de milho, sendo roçado e incorporado por ocasião do florescimento. Um mês depois, procedeu-se à gradagem e semeadura do milho. Rendimentos de grãos foram comparados com outros obtidos no mesmo ensaio, em safra anterior, quando o solo estava degradado por uso intensivo. A adubação verde foi boa alternativa para recuperação da capacidade produtiva do solo e contribuiu para reduzir gastos com fertilizante nitrogenado. Tal alternativa aumentou em cerca de 26% os rendimentos de milho. A cultivar Cateto Prolífico não respondeu à adubação nitrogenada, mas reagiu favoravelmente à adubação verde de inverno. As cultivares AG-162, C-501 e Piranão evidenciaram acentuada resposta à adubação nitrogenada, mas a prática de adubação verde de inverno supriu a sua demanda em nitrogênio

Predictive model to identify multiple failure to biological therapy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Despite advances in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and the wide range of therapies available, there is a percentage of patients whose treatment presents a challenge for clinicians due to lack of response to multiple biologic and target-specific disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (b/tsDMARDs).To develop and validate an algorithm to predict multiple failure to biological therapy in patients with RA.Observational retrospective study involving subjects from a cohort of patients with RA receiving b/tsDMARDs.Based on the number of prior failures to b/tsDMARDs, patients were classified as either multi-refractory (MR) or non-refractory (NR). Patient characteristics were considered in the statistical analysis to design the predictive model, selecting those variables with a predictive capability. A decision algorithm known as 'classification and regression tree' (CART) was developed to create a prediction model of multi-drug resistance. Performance of the prediction algorithm was evaluated in an external independent cohort using area under the curve (AUC).A total of 136 patients were included: 51 MR and 85 NR. The CART model was able to predict multiple failures to b/tsDMARDs using disease activity score-28 (DAS-28) values at 6 months after the start time of the initial b/tsDMARD, as well as DAS-28 improvement in the first 6 months and baseline DAS-28. The CART model showed a capability to correctly classify 94.1% NR and 87.5% MR patients with a sensitivity = 0.88, a specificity = 0.94, and an AUC = 0.89 (95% CI: 0.74-1.00). In the external validation cohort, 35 MR and 47 NR patients were included. The AUC value for the CART model in this cohort was 0.82 (95% CI: 0.73-0.9).Our model correctly classified NR and MR patients based on simple measurements available in routine clinical practice, which provides the possibility to characterize and individualize patient treatments during early stages.© The Author(s), 2022