Beaming into the News: A System for and Case Study of Tele-Immersive Journalism

We show how a combination of virtual reality and robotics can be used to beam a physical representation of a person to a distant location, and describe an application of this system in the context of journalism. Full body motion capture data of a person is streamed and mapped in real time, onto the limbs of a humanoid robot present at the remote location. A pair of cameras in the robot's 'eyes' stream stereoscopic video back to the HMD worn by the visitor, and a two-way audio connection allows the visitor to talk to people in the remote destination. By fusing the multisensory data of the visitor with the robot, the visitor's 'consciousness' is transformed to the robot's body. This system was used by a journalist to interview a neuroscientist and a chef 900 miles distant, about food for the brain, resulting in an article published in the popular press

Brownian Entanglement

We show that for two classical brownian particles there exists an analog of continuous-variable quantum entanglement: The common probability distribution of the two coordinates and the corresponding coarse-grained velocities cannot be prepared via mixing of any factorized distributions referring to the two particles in separate. This is possible for particles which interacted in the past, but do not interact in the present. Three factors are crucial for the effect: 1) separation of time-scales of coordinate and momentum which motivates the definition of coarse-grained velocities; 2) the resulting uncertainty relations between the coordinate of the brownian particle and the change of its coarse-grained velocity; 3) the fact that the coarse-grained velocity, though pertaining to a single brownian particle, is defined on a common context of two particles. The brownian entanglement is a consequence of a coarse-grained description and disappears for a finer resolution of the brownian motion. We discuss possibilities of its experimental realizations in examples of macroscopic brownian motion.Comment: 18 pages, no figure

Age evolution of lipid accretion rate in boars selected for lean meat and duroc barrows

Fatty acid (FA) deposition in growing-fattening pigs is mainly based on endogenous lipid synthesis, but also direct FA incorporation from the diet. To evaluate the direct fat incorporation rates and the endogenous desaturation action of the stearoyl‐CoA desaturase (SCD) enzyme, a deu‐ terium (D)‐labeled saturated FA (d 35‐C18:0) was added to the diet. Sixteen three‐way (3W) crossbred boars, and thirty‐two purebred Duroc barrows homozygous for the SCD single nucleotide poly‐ morphism rs80912566 (16 CC/16 TT), were used. Half of the animals of each genotype belonged to the growing and fattening phases. The fractional incorporation rate (FIR) of dietary fat in growing pigs was generally higher in adipose tissues, whereas in fattening pigs it was higher in the liver. Duroc pigs exhibited lower FIRs than 3W pigs, suggesting lower rates of endogenous synthesis by 3W pigs. Real fractional unsaturation rates (FURs) increased with age by the higher FIRs in 3W pigs and the de novo synthesis pathway in Duroc genotypes. Moreover, pigs carrying the SCD_T allele showed more enhanced oleic acid biosynthesis than Duroc CC pigs. In conclusion, suitable feeding protocols should be designed for each pig type to optimize production traits, considering that the metabolic pathway of FA for its deposition may differ.This study was a part of the Feed-a-Gene project and received funding from the EuropeanUnion’s H2020 program under National Institutes of Health (grant number 633531), as well as SpanishNational funding by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (AGL2017-89289-R). L. Sarri isthe recipient of a research training grant from the Generalitat de Catalunya-European Social Funds(2019 FI_B 0041

MPC for Tracking Periodic References

In this technical note, a new model predictive controller for tracking arbitrary periodic references is presented. The proposed controller is based on a single layer that unites dynamic trajectory planning and control. A design procedure to guarantee that the closed loop system converges asymptotically to the optimal admissible periodic trajectory while guaranteeing constraint satisfaction is provided. In addition, the constraints of the optimization problem solved by the controller do not depend on the reference, allowing for sudden changes in the reference without loosing feasibility. The properties of the proposed controller are demonstrated with a simulation example of a ball and plate system

Eastern Mediterranean water outflow during the Younger Dryas was twice that of the present day

Eastern Mediterranean deep-intermediate convection was highly sensitive to varying inputs of fresh water fluxes associated with increased rainfall during the African Humid period (15-6 kyr Before Present). Here we investigate changes in the water-outflow from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea since the last deglaciation using neodymium isotope ratios. Our results indicate enhanced outflow during the Younger Dryas, two times higher than present-day outflow and about three times higher than during the last Sapropel. We propose that the increased outflow into the western Mediterranean over the Younger Dryas was the result of the combined effect of 1) enhanced climate-driven convection in the Aegean Sea and 2) reduced convection of western deep water during this period. Our results provide solid evidence for an enhanced Younger Dryas westward flow of Eastern Mediterranean sourced waters in consonance with an intensification of Mediterranean water-outflow during a weakened state of the Atlantic circulatio

Correlation between Fischer-Tropsch catalytic activity and composition of catalysts

This paper presents the synthesis and characterization of monometallic and bimetallic cobalt and iron nanoparticles supported on alumina. The catalysts were prepared by a wet impregnation method. Samples were characterized using temperature-programmed reduction (TPR), temperature-programmed oxidation (TPO), CO-chemisorption, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM-EDX) and N2-adsorption analysis. Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) was carried out in a fixed-bed microreactor at 543 K and 1 atm, with H2/CO = 2 v/v and space velocity, SV = 12L/g.h. The physicochemical properties and the FTS activity of the bimetallic catalysts were analyzed and compared with those of monometallic cobalt and iron catalysts at similar operating conditions

Deglacial-Holocene Pulses of Old Carbon-Enriched Mediterranean Water Masses: Implications for Aragonite Mounds Growth and Global Carbon Cycle

Major changes in the Mediterranean Thermohaline Circulation (MedTHC) related to deglaciation and monsoon dynamics have been documented, while in turn, Mediterranean waters have been proposed to play a role back in global climate variability, ocean circulation and carbon cycle budgets, for instance via changes in water mass residence times. The 14C offset between coeval planktonic and benthic foraminifera over time is a very useful tool to infer variations in the water column ventilation (with no biological interference) that becomes more accurate when combined with local paired 14C-U/Th analyses in cold-water corals (CWC). Here, we present a multi-proxy-archive study (i.e., estimates of reservoir ages, εNd, [CO3 2-], O2 and current speed) carried out on the on-mound sediment core MD13-3452 (305 m, West Melilla, Alboran Sea, Western Mediterranean), which investigates potential deglacial changes and triggers in deep reservoir ages, as well as possible impacts on CWC aragonite mound growth and on global carbon cycle.Our combined foraminifera-CWC radioactive isotopes results show: 1) the arrival of two pulses of aged waters at intermediate depth corresponding to the Younger Dryas (YD) and to the end of the last sapropel (S1), when low CWC mound growth rates dominated, and 2) a very well-ventilated water mass between those two events, parallel to a CWC mound flourishing stage. In combination with the other proxies, poorer ventilated water pulses seem to have had a different origin, but common higher content in respired carbon. Our results allow, for the first time, changes in ventilation rates to be shown, quantified, and timed in association with a periodical MedTHC weakening, as well as suggesting significant aragonite dissolution as a cause of decreased mound growth rate when higher CO2 episodes. Our findings may have implications for past hydrographic interconnexions between Mediterranean basins and for global marine carbon storage and alkalinity budget in particular

Deglacial and Holocene changes in Mediterranean Thermohaline Circulation: A joint perspective from Eastern and Western basins

The dominant arid climate conditions over the Mediterranean (Med) control water properties and the formation processes of intermediate and deep water masses. Deep convection cells occur in both the E- and W-Med basins and there are interconnected through the intermediate waters mostly formed in the easternmost area of the Med. Model projections anticipate that the current situation of climate change will led to an overall weakening of this circulation system during the current century. But the natural range of variability in the intensity of individual cells, the drivers and the inter-connection patterns between the cells is not well stablished. During the recent past (las deglaciation and current Holocene) both E- and W-Med had experienced periods of major disruptions in convection. The last organic layer (ORL1) formed in the W-Med during the deglacial period and later the last sapropel (S1) in the E-Med. Both enhanced productivity and weakening in convection are regarded as the causes in the two events but due to different drivers, the deglacial freshening in the case of the ORL1 and the African monsoon flooding for the S1. Here we present U/Mn ratios measured in the foraminifera diagenetic coatings from sediment cores from both E- and W-Med. The nature of this proxy, that provides information of the oxygen water content, allows its application in a wide range of oceanographical/oxygen conditions, a situation that limits other proxies whose carrier is very sensitive to oxygen content. This approach allows us, by the first time, to compare the oxygen evolution of individual basins and at different water depths by means of the same tool. The comparison with other available proxies let us to interpret the drivers of the changes and analyze the evolution of Med deep and intermediate convection along the ORL1 and S1. This new view advocates for a very close link between these two events but with very distinctive response of the individual cells to the dominant forcings

Experimental tests of hidden variable theories from dBB to Stochastic Electrodynamics

In this paper we present some of our experimental results on testing hidden variable theories, which range from Bell inequalities measurements to a conclusive test of stochastic electrodynamics