Are constant loop widths an artifact of the background and the spatial resolution?

We study the effect of the coronal background in the determination of the diameter of EUV loops, and we analyze the suitability of the procedure followed in a previous paper (L\'opez Fuentes, Klimchuk & D\'emoulin 2006) for characterizing their expansion properties. For the analysis we create different synthetic loops and we place them on real backgrounds from data obtained with the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer (\textit{TRACE}). We apply to these loops the same procedure followed in our previous works, and we compare the results with real loop observations. We demonstrate that the procedure allows us to distinguish constant width loops from loops that expand appreciably with height, as predicted by simple force-free field models. This holds even for loops near the resolution limit. The procedure can easily determine when loops are below resolution limit and therefore not reliably measured. We find that small-scale variations in the measured loop width are likely due to imperfections in the background subtraction. The greatest errors occur in especially narrow loops and in places where the background is especially bright relative to the loop. We stress, however, that these effects do not impact the ability to measure large-scale variations. The result that observed loops do not expand systematically with height is robust.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

Continuous Forest Fire Propagation in a Local Small World Network Model

This paper presents the development of a new continuous forest fire model implemented as a weighted local small-world network approach. This new approach was designed to simulate fire patterns in real, heterogeneous landscapes. The wildland fire spread is simulated on a square lattice in which each cell represents an area of the land's surface. The interaction between burning and non-burning cells, in the present work induced by flame radiation, may be extended well beyond nearest neighbors. It depends on local conditions of topography and vegetation types. An approach based on a solid flame model is used to predict the radiative heat flux from the flame generated by the burning of each site towards its neighbors. The weighting procedure takes into account the self-degradation of the tree and the ignition processes of a combustible cell through time. The model is tested on a field presenting a range of slopes and with data collected from a real wildfire scenario. The critical behavior of the spreading process is investigated

Water calcium concentration modifies whole-body calcium uptake in sea bream larvae during short-term adaptation to altered salinities

Whole-body calcium uptake was studied in gilthead sea bream larvae (9–83·mg) in response to changing environmental salinity and [Ca2+]. Calcium uptake increased with increased fish size and salinity. Fish exposed to calcium-enriched, diluted seawater showed increased calcium uptake compared with fish in diluted seawater alone. Calcium uptake was unchanged in Na+- enriched, diluted seawater. Overall, [Ca2+], and not salinity/osmolarity per se, appears to be the main factor contributing to calcium uptake. By contrast, drinking was reduced by a decrease in salinity/osmolarity but was little affected by external [Ca2+]. Calculations of the maximum contribution from drinking-associated calcium uptake showed that it became almost insignificant (less than 10%) through a strong decrease in drinking rate at low salinities (0–8‰). Diluted seawater enriched in calcium to the concentration present in full-strength seawater (i.e. constant calcium, decreasing salinity) restored intestinal calcium uptake to normal. Extra-intestinal calcium uptake also benefited from calcium addition but to a lesser extent

A Novel Low-Cost Sensor Prototype for Nocturia Monitoring in Older People

Indexación: Scopus.This work was supported in part by CORFO - CENS 16CTTS-66390 through the National Center on Health Information Systems, in part by the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT) through the program STIC-AMSUD 17STIC-03: ‘‘e-MONITOR âĂŞ Chronic Disease: Ambient Assisted Living and vital teleMONOTORing for e-health,’’ FONDEF ID16I10449 ‘‘Sistema inteligente para la gestión y análisis de la dotación de camas en la red asistencial del sector público,’’ and MEC80170097 ‘‘Red de colaboración científica entre universidades nacionales e internacionales para la estructuración del doctorado y magister en informática médica en la Universidad de Valparaíso.’’ The work of V. H. C. de Albuquerque was supported by the Brazilian National Council for Research and Development (CNPq) under Grant #304315/2017-6.Nocturia is frequently defined as the necessity to get out of bed at least one time during the night to urinate, with each of these episodes being preceded and continued by sleep. Several studies suggest that an increase of nocturia is seen with the onset of age, occurring in around 70% of adults over the age of 70. Its appearance is associated with detrimental quality of life for those who present nocturia, since it leads to daytime sleepiness, cognitive dysfunction, among others. Currently, a voiding diary is necessary for nocturia assessment; these are prone to bias due to their inherent subjectivity. In this paper, we present the design of a low-cost device that automatically detects micturition events. The device obtained 73% in sensibility and 81% in specificity; these results show that systems such as the proposed one can be a valuable tool for the medical team when evaluating nocturia. © 2013 IEEE.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/845445

A noninvasive monitoring device for anesthetics in fish

A noninvasive device capable of recording both gill and lateral fin movements was assembled and used to analyze initial and post-treatment activity frequency (Hz) in fish exposed to anesthetics. Exposure of platy fish (Xiphosphorus maculatus) to saponins from quillaja bark (0.185 mM and 0.555 mM) initially caused hyperactivity, but within five minutes all activity ceased and the fish failed to recover. In contrast, clove oil (67 μg/L) added to water at 22oC reduced activity by 22.8% ± 8.9% (P = 0.038) after 125 ± 19 sec, a sedative effect that was totally reversible. Cinnamon oil compared with clove oil had a significantly longer time to sedation (125 ± 19 versus 235 ± 24 sec, P = 0.02), although no significant difference in the decline in activity was noted.DMP acknowledges the support of an STMS exchange grant funded in the context of COST 925 action

A novel monitoring system for fall detection in older people

Indexación: Scopus.This work was supported in part by CORFO - CENS 16CTTS-66390 through the National Center on Health Information Systems, in part by the National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT) through the Program STIC-AMSUD 17STIC-03: ‘‘MONITORing for ehealth," FONDEF ID16I10449 ‘‘Sistema inteligente para la gestión y análisis de la dotación de camas en la red asistencial del sector público’’, and in part by MEC80170097 ‘‘Red de colaboración científica entre universidades nacionales e internacionales para la estructuración del doctorado y magister en informática médica en la Universidad de Valparaíso’’. The work of V. H. C. De Albuquerque was supported by the Brazilian National Council for Research and Development (CNPq), under Grant 304315/2017-6.Each year, more than 30% of people over 65 years-old suffer some fall. Unfortunately, this can generate physical and psychological damage, especially if they live alone and they are unable to get help. In this field, several studies have been performed aiming to alert potential falls of the older people by using different types of sensors and algorithms. In this paper, we present a novel non-invasive monitoring system for fall detection in older people who live alone. Our proposal is using very-low-resolution thermal sensors for classifying a fall and then alerting to the care staff. Also, we analyze the performance of three recurrent neural networks for fall detections: Long short-term memory (LSTM), gated recurrent unit, and Bi-LSTM. As many learning algorithms, we have performed a training phase using different test subjects. After several tests, we can observe that the Bi-LSTM approach overcome the others techniques reaching a 93% of accuracy in fall detection. We believe that the bidirectional way of the Bi-LSTM algorithm gives excellent results because the use of their data is influenced by prior and new information, which compares to LSTM and GRU. Information obtained using this system did not compromise the user's privacy, which constitutes an additional advantage of this alternative. © 2013 IEEE.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=842305

Multiple Object Tracking in Urban Traffic Scenes with a Multiclass Object Detector

Multiple object tracking (MOT) in urban traffic aims to produce the trajectories of the different road users that move across the field of view with different directions and speeds and that can have varying appearances and sizes. Occlusions and interactions among the different objects are expected and common due to the nature of urban road traffic. In this work, a tracking framework employing classification label information from a deep learning detection approach is used for associating the different objects, in addition to object position and appearances. We want to investigate the performance of a modern multiclass object detector for the MOT task in traffic scenes. Results show that the object labels improve tracking performance, but that the output of object detectors are not always reliable.Comment: 13th International Symposium on Visual Computing (ISVC

Dynamical effects induced by long range activation in a nonequilibrium reaction-diffusion system

We both show experimentally and numerically that the time scales separation introduced by long range activation can induce oscillations and excitability in nonequilibrium reaction-diffusion systems that would otherwise only exhibit bistability. Namely, we show that the Chlorite-Tetrathionate reaction, where autocatalytic species diffuses faster than the substrates, the spatial bistability domain in the nonequilibrium phase diagram is extended with oscillatory and excitability domains. A simple model and a more realistic model qualitatively account for the observed behavior. The latter model provides quantitative agreement with the experiments.Comment: 19 pages + 9 figure

Characterisation and Integration of Piezoelectric Trimorph Actuators for Blade Active Surface Control on a Scaled Wind Turbine

The paper investigates the integration of piezoelectric bending actuators on trailing edge flaps (TEF). The characterisation of piezoelectric actuators is of great importance due to differences in performance resulting from sample variability, actuator construction, circuit type and equipment. For the application of trailing edge flaps in scaled turbines, the total deflection these actuators can produce determines the possible flap angles and, consequently, the potential effects on wake evolution downwind of the wind turbine. In this paper, we fully characterise the performance of the piezoelectric bending actuator under a variety of operating conditions. The bridged bi-polar circuit is used to drive the piezoelectric actuators with both a static and a dynamic signal. Deflection results demonstrate that the piezoelectric actuator is capable of achieving flap angles of β ± 3° with a static signal, and β = 2.3° and β = −3.2° angles with a dynamic signal. Experimental force measurements using a dynamic signal result in a force reduction of up to 33% when compared to a static signal. Force values at increasing frequencies do not show a depreciation in force. Additionally, initial aerodynamic loads exerted on TEF are presented based on XFoil simulations to ensure that the piezoelectric actuating force can overcome aerodynamic loads for future experiments. Experimental force measurements from the piezoelectric actuator demonstrate that aerodynamic forces can be overcome. This work serves as the first step towards implementing the TEF technology in lab-scaled wind turbine models

Swine as an experimental model in dentistry: a proposal of surgical approach

Swine is widely used as an experimental model in several areas of medicine based on its anatomical and physiological similarities to humans. In this report, we describe an external surgical approach on the mandible of the swine as a suitable experimental model in dentistry. Several biomaterials were implanted by using this technique in order to evaluate the degree of bone regeneration as well as the suitable sites to accomplish perforation