Experimental and numerical study of error fields in the CNT stellarator

Sources of error fields were indirectly inferred in a stellarator by reconciling computed and numerical flux surfaces. Sources considered so far include the displacements and tilts (but not the deformations, yet) of the four circular coils featured in the simple CNT stellarator. The flux surfaces were measured by means of an electron beam and phosphor rod, and were computed by means of a Biot-Savart field-line tracing code. If the ideal coil locations and orientations are used in the computation, agreement with measurements is poor. Discrepancies are ascribed to errors in the positioning and orientation of the in-vessel interlocked coils. To that end, an iterative numerical method was developed. A Newton-Raphson algorithm searches for the coils' displacements and tilts that minimize the discrepancy between the measured and computed flux surfaces. This method was verified by misplacing and tilting the coils in a numerical model of CNT, calculating the flux surfaces that they generated, and testing the algorithm's ability to deduce the coils' displacements and tilts. Subsequently, the numerical method was applied to the experimental data, arriving at a set of coil displacements whose resulting field errors exhibited significantly improved quantitative and qualitative agreement with experimental results.Comment: Special Issue on the 20th International Stellarator-Heliotron Worksho

Monitoreo hidrológico en tiempo cuasi real en la vertiente del pacífico empleando el modelo hidrológico SWAT, estudio final

El tener conocimiento de los procesos hidrológicos y tener cuantificado la información de caudales permite que la gestión de recursos hídricos presente el comportamiento hidrológico actual, realice predicción de tendencias, establezca grados de afectación (eventos como inundaciones y sequias) y realice predicciones a corto plazo permitiendo evaluar la toma de decisiones a corto, mediano y largo plazo. De tal modo que el desarrollo de herramientas de monitoreo hidrológico permitan establecer el conocimiento de la información hidrológica muy cercana a la realidad; este estudio se ha centrado en emplear el modelo hidrológico SWAT (“Soil and Water Assessment Tools”) en la vertiente del Pacifico peruano y llevarlo a un sistema operativo de monitoreo hidrológico de tiempo cuasi-continuo; durante su desarrollo el modelo fue calibrado y validado empleando información registrada de caudales del periodo 1981 – 2020, evaluándolo en dos etapas 1. desarrollo y parametrización del modelo hidrológico SWAT, empleando información física y climática 2. Evaluación de la sensibilidad de parámetros del modelo hidrológico, 3. Regionalización hidrológica, y 4. Calibración y validación del modelado hidrológico con el objetivo de determinar parámetros y sus valores óptimos y 2) Realizar la validación del modelado hidrológico, evaluando la capacidad predictiva de los parámetros encontrados en el proceso de calibración; se ha encontrado eficiencias diarias de NSE próximas a 0.5 a 0.75. Posteriormente finalizado los pasos de parametrización, calibración y validación hidrológica, se ha realizado el proceso de operativización del modelo, esto mediante la actualización diaria de los datos climáticos disponibles (precipitaciones y temperaturas) del producto PISCOOPERATIVO, agregándolos al modelamiento de manera automática, seguidamente realizando la ejecución diaria del modelo hidrológico, obteniendo finalmente las salidas de los caudales en toda la vertiente del Pacifico peruano a un nivel discreteado de subcuencas

A Feature-Pooling and Signature-Pooling Method for Feature Selection for Quantitative Image Analysis: Application to a Radiomics Model for Survival in Glioma

We proposed a pooling-based radiomics feature selection method and showed how it would be applied to the clinical question of predicting one-year survival in 130 patients treated for glioma by radiotherapy. The method combines filter, wrapper and embedded selection in a comprehensive process to identify useful features and build them into a potentially predictive signature. The results showed that non-invasive CT radiomics were able to moderately predict overall survival and predict WHO tumour grade. This study reveals an associative inter-relationship between WHO tumour grade, CT-based radiomics and survival, that could be clinically relevant

Ultrasound-mediated gastrointestinal drug delivery

available in PMC 2016 April 08There is a significant clinical need for rapid and efficient delivery of drugs directly to the site of diseased tissues for the treatment of gastrointestinal (GI) pathologies, in particular, Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis. However, complex therapeutic molecules cannot easily be delivered through the GI tract because of physiologic and structural barriers. We report the use of ultrasound as a modality for enhanced drug delivery to the GI tract, with an emphasis on rectal delivery. Ultrasound increased the absorption of model therapeutics inulin, hydrocortisone, and mesalamine two- to tenfold in ex vivo tissue, depending on location in the GI tract. In pigs, ultrasound induced transient cavitation with negligible heating, leading to an order of magnitude enhancement in the delivery of mesalamine, as well as successful systemic delivery of a macromolecule, insulin, with the expected hypoglycemic response. In a rodent model of chemically induced acute colitis, the addition of ultrasound to a daily mesalamine enema (compared to enema alone) resulted in superior clinical and histological scores of disease activity. In both animal models, ultrasound treatment was well tolerated and resulted in minimal tissue disruption, and in mice, there was no significant effect on histology, fecal score, or tissue inflammatory cytokine levels. The use of ultrasound to enhance GI drug delivery is safe in animals and could augment the efficacy of GI therapies and broaden the scope of agents that could be delivered locally and systemically through the GI tract for chronic conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease.United States. National Institutes of Health (EB-00351)United States. National Institutes of Health (EB-000244)United States. National Institutes of Health (CA014051)United States. National Institutes of Health (T32-DK007191-38-S1

Quantum Computing and Quantum Simulation with Group-II Atoms

Recent experimental progress in controlling neutral group-II atoms for optical clocks, and in the production of degenerate gases with group-II atoms has given rise to novel opportunities to address challenges in quantum computing and quantum simulation. In these systems, it is possible to encode qubits in nuclear spin states, which are decoupled from the electronic state in the $^1$S$_0$ ground state and the long-lived $^3$P$_0$ metastable state on the clock transition. This leads to quantum computing scenarios where qubits are stored in long lived nuclear spin states, while electronic states can be accessed independently, for cooling of the atoms, as well as manipulation and readout of the qubits. The high nuclear spin in some fermionic isotopes also offers opportunities for the encoding of multiple qubits on a single atom, as well as providing an opportunity for studying many-body physics in systems with a high spin symmetry. Here we review recent experimental and theoretical progress in these areas, and summarise the advantages and challenges for quantum computing and quantum simulation with group-II atoms.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, review for special issue of "Quantum Information Processing" on "Quantum Information with Neutral Particles

Contribuição das universidades na revisão da Política Nacional de Promoção da Saúde

Resumo Em 2014, a Política Nacional de Promoção da Saúde passou por um processo participativo de revisão, que teve como colaboradores gestores públicos, participantes de movimentos sociais, professores e pesquisadores de universidades. Nesse processo, foi necessário conhecer e analisar como se deram as contribuições dos diferentes atores envolvidos e como elas foram incorporadas à nova versão da Política. O objetivo deste estudo é discutir a contribuição das universidades na revisão da Política Nacional de Promoção da Saúde. Utilizando-se a técnica Delphi, questionários foram enviados, por correio eletrônico, a líderes de grupos de pesquisa das universidades brasileiras; o envio foi organizado em duas rodadas, tendo a última sido realizada somente após a análise dos consensos e dissensos da primeira. A partir da análise dos formulários, concluiu-se que as contribuições das universidades à nova Política Nacional de Promoção da Saúde estão relacionadas à sua estrutura, princípios e valores, objetivos, temas prioritários e eixos operacionais

From START to FINISH : the influence of osmotic stress on the cell cycle

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Magnetism, FeS colloids, and Origins of Life

A number of features of living systems: reversible interactions and weak bonds underlying motor-dynamics; gel-sol transitions; cellular connected fractal organization; asymmetry in interactions and organization; quantum coherent phenomena; to name some, can have a natural accounting via $physical$ interactions, which we therefore seek to incorporate by expanding the horizons of `chemistry-only' approaches to the origins of life. It is suggested that the magnetic 'face' of the minerals from the inorganic world, recognized to have played a pivotal role in initiating Life, may throw light on some of these issues. A magnetic environment in the form of rocks in the Hadean Ocean could have enabled the accretion and therefore an ordered confinement of super-paramagnetic colloids within a structured phase. A moderate H-field can help magnetic nano-particles to not only overcome thermal fluctuations but also harness them. Such controlled dynamics brings in the possibility of accessing quantum effects, which together with frustrations in magnetic ordering and hysteresis (a natural mechanism for a primitive memory) could throw light on the birth of biological information which, as Abel argues, requires a combination of order and complexity. This scenario gains strength from observations of scale-free framboidal forms of the greigite mineral, with a magnetic basis of assembly. And greigite's metabolic potential plays a key role in the mound scenario of Russell and coworkers-an expansion of which is suggested for including magnetism.Comment: 42 pages, 5 figures, to be published in A.R. Memorial volume, Ed Krishnaswami Alladi, Springer 201