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2723937 | Toward new era of quantum electrical measurements through phase slips | We will exploit new macroscopic quantum phenomena realised in superconducting nanowires made from 2D superconductors to trigger a paradigm change in electrical metrology. Our overall objective is to develop a robust and easy-to-use universal electrical quantum standard on a single chip by utilizing the duality of superconductive physics, which will allow direct traceability to the SI with no recourse to long calibration chains. Our main specific objective is to demonstrate a proof-of-concept quantum current standard using coherent quantum phase slips in superconducting nanowires (SNW). This effect is quantum-mechanically dual to the Josephson effect (which can be realised in the same superconductors) but yields quantised current reference rather than voltage. The exact duality suggests that the new current standard can be operated with the same user-friendly infrastructure and reach similar robustness and accuracy as the Josephson voltage standard. Such science-to-technology breakthrough can bring quantum-enabled accuracy directly to the end users. The combination of current and voltage standards - duals of each other - will enable all electrical quantum standards on a single chip.
Previous tentative experiments with SNW electronics encountered two general problems: sensitivity to the electromagnetic (EM) environment and SNW fabrication irreproducibility. We will solve these problems by unprecedented control of SNW. In particular, we will demonstrate gate-tuneable quantum phase slips in SNWs based on 2D superconductors and develop a tuneable EM environment for SNWs by using complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology. These objectives will also lay foundations for future dual superconducting electronics, where SNW becomes a standard circuit element like Josephson junction is in conventional superconducting electronics. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
10.3389/fncel.2014.00287 | A simulation study on the effects of dendritic morphology on layer V prefrontal pyramidal cell firing behavior | Pyramidal cells, the most abundant neurons in neocortex, exhibit significant structural variability across different brain areas and layers in different species. Moreover, in response to a somatic step current, these cells display a range of firing behaviors, the most common being (1) repetitive action potentials (Regular Spiking—RS), and (2) an initial cluster of 2–5 action potentials with short interspike interval (ISIs) followed by single spikes (Intrinsic Bursting—IB). A correlation between firing behavior and dendritic morphology has recently been reported. In this work we use computational modeling to investigate quantitatively the effects of the basal dendritic tree morphology on the firing behavior of 112 three-dimensional reconstructions of layer V PFC rat pyramidal cells. Particularly, we focus on how different morphological (diameter, total length, volume, and branch number) and passive [Mean Electrotonic Path length (MEP)] features of basal dendritic trees shape somatic firing when the spatial distribution of ionic mechanisms in the basal dendritic trees is uniform or non-uniform. Our results suggest that total length, volume and branch number are the best morphological parameters to discriminate the cells as RS or IB, regardless of the distribution of ionic mechanisms in basal trees. The discriminatory power of total length, volume, and branch number remains high in the presence of different apical dendrites. These results suggest that morphological variations in the basal dendritic trees of layer V pyramidal neurons in the PFC influence their firing patterns in a predictive manner and may in turn influence the information processing capabilities of these neurons. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1186/s40323-016-0078-4 | Vademecum-based approach to multi-scale topological material design | The work deals on computational design of structural materials by resorting to computational homogenization and topological optimization techniques. The goal is then to minimize the structural (macro-scale) compliance by appropriately designing the material distribution (microstructure) at a lower scale (micro-scale), which, in turn, rules the mechanical properties of the material. The specific features of the proposed approach are: (1) The cost function to be optimized (structural stiffness) is defined at the macro-scale, whereas the design variables defining the micro-structural topology lie on the low scale. Therefore a coupled, two-scale (macro/micro), optimization problem is solved unlike the classical, single-scale, topological optimization problems. (2) To overcome the exorbitant computational cost stemming from the multiplicative character of the aforementioned multiscale approach, a specific strategy, based on the consultation of a discrete material catalog of micro-scale optimized topologies (Computational Vademecum) is used. The Computational Vademecum is computed in an offline process, which is performed only once for every constitutive-material, and it can be subsequently consulted as many times as desired in the online design process. This results into a large diminution of the resulting computational costs, which make affordable the proposed methodology for multiscale computational material design. Some representative examples assess the performance of the considered approach. | [
"Materials Engineering",
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Condensed Matter Physics"
]
|
849841 | Resource efficient bio-chemical production and waste treatment | The REBOOT project will create a disruptive wet waste valorisation technology where valuable resources are re-used rather than disposed of while tackling two urgent environmental challenges: nutrient circularity and climate change. Wastewater treatment sludge and manure treatment technologies are currently not satisfactory and there is no solution to efficiently re-use the resources it contains: phosphorous and carbon.
The aim of REBOOT is to completely recover phosphorous from wastes while generating carbon neutral transportation fuels and a carbon sink in the form of carbon materials. The project will employ a frontier technology called hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) which uses high temperature and pressure to produce a liquid product similar to petroleum termed bio-crude. This will be used for a range of innovative applications such as renewable aviation fuel, functionalized carbon materials and bio-bitumen.
The possibility of complete phosphorous recovery in HTL is a completely new concept, previously thought impossible as only continuous HTL reactors can theoretically achieve this. The complex hydrothermal chemistry of salts can only be exploited on such advanced reactors that are currently beyond state-of-the-art. The specific objectives of REBOOT are: (1) mechanistic understanding of salt behaviour in multi-phase hydrothermal systems with the aim of full recovery. (2) Develop tailored strategies for in-situ jet fuel synthesis. (3) Establish microbial electrolysis cells for in-situ hydrogen production and nutrient recovery.
REBOOT will be carried out on pilot continuous reactors, where the challenging physical conditions can be explored, exploited and new engineering solutions developed. If REBOOT is successful it will enable society to tackle existing waste problems while recovering nutrients and producing renewable materials, replacing fossil derived ones; representing a revolutionary solution to wet waste management in the emerging circular bio-economy. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
W2559793906 | The Comparative Impact of Pictorial Annotations and Morphological Instruction on Lexical Inferencing of Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners | One of the main ways to acquire unfamiliar words is to make guesses about words meaning. This study investigates the comparative effects of pictorial annotations and morphological instructions on Iranian EFL learners’ lexical inferencing ability. Considering homogeneity issues using PET (Preliminary English Test), the researchers assigned the participants into two experimental and one control groups. All groups took a vocabulary self-report test before the treatment. The treatment contained 6-weeks long reading texts tasks with 40 underlined and boldfaced target words. Groups differed as one experimental group was taught mainly through the annotated pictures technique while the other experimental group through the aid of morphological analysis of unknown words and the control group receiving the traditional root vocabulary learning technique. The results of a one-way analysis of variances (ANOVA) between the self-report vocabulary test and a piloted researcher-made lexical-inferencing post-test revealed no significant difference in performances of morphological instruction group and control group. The results also indicated that the pictorial annotation group significantly outperformed the morphological group on inferring the unfamiliar lexical items. It can be concluded that the outcomes of this study may provide insights to EFL teachers as well as students on how to best approach guessing target words while reading a text. | [
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity",
"The Social World and Its Interactions"
]
|
W2166361031 | Artificial neural network forward modelling and inversion of electrokinetic logging data | An artificial neural network method is proposed as a computationally economic alternative to numerical simulation by the Biot theory for predicting borehole seismoelectric measurements given a set of formation properties. Borehole seismoelectric measurements are simulated using a finite element forward model, which solves the Biot equations together with an equation for the streaming potential. The results show that the neural network method successfully predicts the streaming potentials at each detector, even when the input pressures are contaminated with 10% Gaussian noise. A fast inversion methodology is subsequently developed in order to predict subsurface material properties such as porosity and permeability from streaming potential measurements. The predicted permeability and porosity results indicate that the method predictions are more accurate for the permeability predictions, with the inverted permeabilities being in excellent agreement with the actual permeabilities. This approach was finally verified by using data from a field experiment. The predicted permeability results seem to predict the basic trends in permeabilities from a packer test. As expected from synthetic results, the predicted porosity is less accurate. Investigations are also carried out to predict the zeta potential. The predicted zeta potentials are in agreement with values obtained through experimental self potential measurements. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
10.7554/eLife.29944 | A new genus of horse from pleistocene North America | The extinct ‘New World stilt-legged’, or NWSL, equids constitute a perplexing group of Pleistocene horses endemic to North America. Their slender distal limb bones resemble those of Asiatic asses, such as the Persian onager. Previous palaeogenetic studies, however, have suggested a closer relationship to caballine horses than to Asiatic asses. Here, we report complete mitochondrial and partial nuclear genomes from NWSL equids from across their geographic range. Although multiple NWSL equid species have been named, our palaeogenomic and morphometric analyses support the idea that there was only a single species of middle to late Pleistocene NWSL equid, and demonstrate that it falls outside of crown group Equus. We therefore propose a new genus, Haringtonhippus, for the sole species H. francisci. Our combined genomic and phenomic approach to resolving the systematics of extinct megafauna will allow for an improved understanding of the full extent of the terminal Pleistocene extinction event. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
W1987720974 | Development of microsatellite markers for Peristenus digoneutis (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), a key natural enemy of tarnished plant bugs | The introduced European parasitoid Peristenus digoneutis is a key biocontrol agent of lygus bug pests in agricultural crops in the Northeastern USA. Changes in cultural practices and reduction of alfalfa culture have significantly reduced its abundance in its native range from historic levels. Of 48 microsatellite loci isolated from P. digoneutis genome using 454 pyrosequencing, 24 were retained based upon consistent amplification. Sixteen loci exhibited polymorphism in populations sampled in France and the USA. The number of alleles ranged from 2 to 9. The observed heterozygosity (H o) and the expected heterozygosity (H e) varied from 0.043 to 0.710 and from 0.103 to 0.728, respectively. Most loci conformed to Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium with the exclusion of five loci. These polymorphic loci will be valuable for population genetic studies and genetic conservation for P. digoneutis. | [
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
10.1016/j.jml.2012.02.007 | Cumulative semantic interference is blind to language: Implications for models of bilingual speech production | Several studies have shown that concepts spread activation to words of both of a bilingual's languages. Therefore, a central issue that needs to be clarified is how a bilingual manages to restrict his speech production to a single language. One influential proposal is that when speaking in one language, the other language is inhibited. An alternative hypothesis is that bilinguals focus only on the language that is relevant for communication. Here these proposals were tested in a series of experiments in which Spanish-Catalan bilinguals named pictures. Cumulative semantic interference (CSI) was used as a window into lexical processing and cross-linguistic interactions. Results revealed that CSI is present between languages with the same magnitude as within-languages. This result cannot be accounted for by any of the above-mentioned models without substantial modifications. Instead, they are suggestive of bilingual processing dynamics qualitatively similar to those of monolinguals. | [
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity"
]
|
10.1073/pnas.1200161109 | Moment-based inference predicts bimodality in transient gene expression | Recent computational studies indicate that the molecular noise of a cellular process may be a rich source of information about process dynamics and parameters. However, accessing this source requires stochastic models that are usually difficult to analyze. Therefore, parameter estimation for stochastic systems using distribution measurements, as provided for instance by flow cytometry, currently remains limited to very small and simple systems. Here we propose a new method that makes use of low-order moments of the measured distribution and thereby keeps the essential parts of the provided information, while still staying applicable to systems of realistic size. We demonstrate how cell-to-cell variability can be incorporated into the analysis obviating the need for the ubiquitous assumption that the measurements stem from a homogeneous cell population. We demonstrate the method for a simple example of gene expression using synthetic data generated by stochastic simulation. Subsequently, we use time-lapsed flow cytometry data for the osmo-stress induced transcriptional response in budding yeast to calibrate a stochastic model, which is then used as a basis for predictions. Our results show that measurements of the mean and the variance can be enough to determine the model parameters, even if the measured distributions are not well-characterized by low-order moments only - e. g. , if they are bimodal. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Mathematics",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
interreg_1399 | ManuFactUring educaTion and training governance model for IndUstry 4.0 in the Adriatic-Ionian aREa | The challenges brought about by the fourth industrial revolution are at the very heart of the project FUTURE 4.0. The further developmental stage in the organisation and management of the entire value chain process involved in manufacturing industry is radically changing even the concept of enterprise. EUSAIR area societies and economies are affected as well by this paradigm shift, which has effects on production, intercompany relations, human capital development. To face this, and having as specific focus Blue Economy, the shipyard & nautical logistic supply chain, the project intends to design a shared strategy to innovate companies approach to training through a Smart Learning Model enhancing shipyard competitiveness in Italy (Veneto & Apulia), Croatia, Greece and Albania. The project structure foresees the definition of a Technological Map of the Shipyard & Nautical Logistic supply chain thorough inclusive road mapping and foresight activity on technology and related competences. Results will be the lay for the designing of a knowledge, competence and skills training/learning hub (FUTURE4.0 platform) involving Universities and training orgs., companies and PAs. _x000D_
The platform will be part of the above-mentioned Smart Learning Model and Strategy, implemented and validated through local pilot actions, encompasses effective industrial education and training for innovation, enhancing the University-Industry cooperation. The partnership is multi actor and includes public and private bodies, universities, business supp. orgs., HE institutions active in Industry 4.0 which will cooperate together applying a Triple Helix approach. Accordingly, the project will impact on current situation stimulating a common and participatory rethinking of regional governance systems for training and innovation support towards Industry 4.0, specific for the shipyard & nautical logistic supply chain. Mutually cooperating 4 universities, PAs, business actors (Large Companies, SMEs, KIBs, Business Supp. orgs.) and R&I players will define a sectoral technological roadmap and foresight as basis for the subsequent development of a share Training Model, tested and validated through its application at each local context. FUTURE 4.0 will see the involvement of 105 companies (primary target group and beneficiaries along with PAs) of the Blue Economy in a knowledge and technology transfer tailored process, along with the production of tools and methods to facilitate a smart industrial change. Results are addressed at Adriatic-Ionian companies, human capital developers, public administrations and knowledge providers. Involved regions share the same challenges, as they face the same transformations and their productive systems should be more integrated. That is why the project should be realized transnationally. What is original is the combination of model design, learning actions, local action plans, profiles upskilling, within a topic - Industry 4.0 - which is brand new. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations",
"The Social World and Its Interactions"
]
|
W2433711949 | Satellite-Based Offshore Wind Resource Assessment in the Mediterranean Sea | Identification of prominent sea areas for the efficient exploitation of offshore wind energy potential requires primarily the assessment and modeling of several aspects of the long-term wind climate. In this work, the offshore wind speed and wind direction climate of the Mediterranean Sea is analytically described, the corresponding offshore wind energy potential is estimated on an annual and seasonal basis, and candidate areas for potential offshore wind farm development are identified. The analysis is based on ocean surface wind fields obtained from the Blended Sea Winds product, provided by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), from 1995 to 2014. The satellite data are evaluated with reference to buoy wind measurements in the Spanish and Greek Seas. Wind data analysis reveals areas in the western and eastern Mediterranean Sea with high mean annual wind speed combined with rather low temporal variability. The obtained results suggest that offshore wind power potential in the Mediterranean Sea is fairly exploitable at specific suitable locations, such as the Gulf of Lions (with mean annual wind power density up to $\sim $ 1600 W/m ${}^{2}$ ) and the Aegean Sea (with mean annual wind power density up to $\sim $ 1150 W/m ${}^{2}$ ), that are certainly worth further in-depth assessment for exploiting offshore wind energy. Finally, based on the available offshore wind resource potential and the water depth suitability, three specific sites (in the Gulf of Valencia and the Adriatic and Ionian Seas) are selected and the average wind power output for a specific wind turbine type is estimated. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
10.1145/3025453.3025765 | What Is Interaction | The term interaction is field-defining, yet surprisingly confused. This essay discusses what interaction is. We first argue that only few attempts to directly define interaction exist. Nevertheless, we extract from the literature distinct and highly developed concepts, for instance viewing interaction as dialogue, transmission, optimal behavior, embodiment, and tool use. Importantly, these concepts are associated with different scopes and ways of construing the causal relationships between the human and the computer. This affects their ability to inform empirical studies and design. Based on this discussion, we list desiderata for future work on interaction, emphasizing the need to improve scope and specificity, to better account for the effects and agency that computers have in interaction, and to generate strong propositions about interaction. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity"
]
|
W4281854535 | Parâmetros produtivos e genéticos da produção in vitro de embriões Nelore no Estado do Acre | Objetivou-se avaliar dados retrospectivos da produção in vitro de embriões (PIV) em Nelore, no Estado do Acre, a fim de estabelecer parâmetros não genéticos e genéticos. Para tanto, dados de 1292 sessões de aspirações foliculares guiadas por ultra som realizadas em 571 doadoras Nelore, distribuídas em dez fazendas no Acre, entre os anos de 2015 e 2018, foram coletados e analisados para estimativa de parâmetros produtivos e não genéticos, utilizando-se o Método de Quadrados Mínimos Generalizados através do Software SAS, e efeitos genéticos pelo Método de Máxima Verossimilhança Restrita, utilizando-se o software MTDFREML. Observou-se número médio de 30,05; 9,82 e 3,03 para oócitos, embriões e gestação por aspiração/vaca, respectivamente; e porcentagens médias de 34,19; 38,39 e 10,68% de taxa de conversão de oócito/embrião, de embrião/gestação e de oócito/gestação, respectivamente. Para os efeitos genéticos, observou-se que a herdabilidade apresentou magnitude baixa a média, indicando variabilidade genética para produção de oócitos, embriões e gestação. As correlações fenotípicas e genéticas entre número total de oócitos, embriões e gestação foram positivas e de alta magnitude, indicando que a seleção para aumento na produção de oócitos resulta em aumento na produção de embriões e na taxa de gestação. Conclui-se que os efeitos não genéticos na PIV devem ser considerados nos modelos de avaliação genética para estas características, e as estimativas de herdabilidade encontradas neste estudo, apesar de serem de magnitudes baixas a moderadas, indicam que existe variabilidade genética aditiva para seleção de doadoras com melhor potencial genético para produção de oócitos, embriões e gestações. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
629714 | Magnetic alignment for high precision 3d assembly | In microelectronics, 3D integration and assembly definitely appears as a very efficient option to achieve highly integrated chips. It offers major benefits such as combining heterogeneous technologies, combining high-performance and low-power chips, increasing data transfer bandwidth in memory above logic circuits, etc. 3D assembly is realized by bonding two wafers or chips face to face on a wafer. In this bonding process, the number of interchips interconnects is limited by the accuracy of the alignment process. Presently, alignment methods rely on optical alignment techniques which offer ±0.2m resolution for wafer-to-wafer bonding or only ±1m resolution for die-to-wafer bonding. This is relatively poor and limit the density of interconnects and therefore the bandwidth of interchip communication. In this ERC PoC project, we intend to establish the viability of a novel magnetic alignment approach based on nanomagnetism and spin electronics which could yield unprecedented accuracy in alignment during wafer bonding.
The goals of MAGALIGN are i) to make a proof of concept of this novel alignment method, ii) optimize it and develop the design tools to exploit it, iii) Develop industrialization strategy. | [
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1080/23746149.2019.1622451 | Advanced Bioengineering Technologies For Preclinical Research | Current in vitro practices must overcome important challenges to compare favorably with human studies. The limited applicability of conventional in vitro assays and strategies can be explained by t. . . | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering"
]
|
804098 | Challenges on the road to genome duplication: Single-molecule approaches to study replisome collisions | Faithful duplication and transmission of genetic and epigenetic information is the most vital cellular
function for the preservation and proliferation of life. In cells, this process is conducted by large
macromolecular complexes, known as replisomes, that coordinate the sequence of enzymatic events
during chromosome duplication. While recently developed single-molecule techniques promise
unprecedented access to the complex inner workings of these sophisticated machines, most studies
conducted have focused on individual factors, operating on non-physiological substrates, which has
provided an incomplete molecular picture.
My recent development of a multidimensional, single-molecule imaging approach that allows
for real-time visualisation of coordination during replication represents a significant breakthrough
in our ability to study macromolecular machines in vitro. Building on this success, here I describe
single-molecule imaging approaches to address one of the long-standing questions in chromosome
biology: How do replisomes maintain efficiency and coordination during collisions with obstacles
on the chromosome?
Our objective is to develop a complete molecular understanding of the consequences of
replisome collisions and the underlying mechanisms that allow for bypass or trigger replication fork
collapse. We will begin this long-term research effort by addressing several issues fundamental to
chromosome replication: How does replisome coordination and composition change during
encounters with topological barriers in chromosomes? What are the dynamic events that underlie
nucleosome disassembly by histone chaperones during replication? How does the eukaryotic
replisome collaborate with histone chaperones to ensure faithful inheritance of epigenetic
information encoded on histones?
These studies will provide a framework for understanding the dynamics of replisome collisions
and the molecular origin of chromosome damage underlying many diseases. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases"
]
|
W4220790923 | Shorter Treatment for Nonsevere Tuberculosis in African and Indian Children | Two thirds of children with tuberculosis have nonsevere disease, which may be treatable with a shorter regimen than the current 6-month regimen.We conducted an open-label, treatment-shortening, noninferiority trial involving children with nonsevere, symptomatic, presumably drug-susceptible, smear-negative tuberculosis in Uganda, Zambia, South Africa, and India. Children younger than 16 years of age were randomly assigned to 4 months (16 weeks) or 6 months (24 weeks) of standard first-line antituberculosis treatment with pediatric fixed-dose combinations as recommended by the World Health Organization. The primary efficacy outcome was unfavorable status (composite of treatment failure [extension, change, or restart of treatment or tuberculosis recurrence], loss to follow-up during treatment, or death) by 72 weeks, with the exclusion of participants who did not complete 4 months of treatment (modified intention-to-treat population). A noninferiority margin of 6 percentage points was used. The primary safety outcome was an adverse event of grade 3 or higher during treatment and up to 30 days after treatment.From July 2016 through July 2018, a total of 1204 children underwent randomization (602 in each group). The median age of the participants was 3.5 years (range, 2 months to 15 years), 52% were male, 11% had human immunodeficiency virus infection, and 14% had bacteriologically confirmed tuberculosis. Retention by 72 weeks was 95%, and adherence to the assigned treatment was 94%. A total of 16 participants (3%) in the 4-month group had a primary-outcome event, as compared with 18 (3%) in the 6-month group (adjusted difference, -0.4 percentage points; 95% confidence interval, -2.2 to 1.5). The noninferiority of 4 months of treatment was consistent across the intention-to-treat, per-protocol, and key secondary analyses, including when the analysis was restricted to the 958 participants (80%) independently adjudicated to have tuberculosis at baseline. A total of 95 participants (8%) had an adverse event of grade 3 or higher, including 15 adverse drug reactions (11 hepatic events, all but 2 of which occurred within the first 8 weeks, when the treatments were the same in the two groups).Four months of antituberculosis treatment was noninferior to 6 months of treatment in children with drug-susceptible, nonsevere, smear-negative tuberculosis. (Funded by the U.K. Medical Research Council and others; SHINE ISRCTN number, ISRCTN63579542.). | [
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases",
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy"
]
|
10.1016/j.jbtep.2019.101514 | Combining oxytocin and cognitive bias modification training in a randomized controlled trial: Effects on trust in maternal support | Background and objectives: Research on the social effects of intranasal oxytocin in children is scarce. Oxytocin has been proposed to have clearer beneficial effects when added to social learning paradigms. The current study tested this proposition in middle childhood by assessing effects of cognitive bias modification (CBM) training and oxytocin on trust in maternal support. Methods: Children (N = 100, 8–12 years) were randomly assigned to one of two training conditions: CBM training aimed at increasing trust or neutral placebo training. Within each training condition, half the participants received oxytocin and half a placebo. Main and interaction effects were assessed on measures of trust-related interpretation bias and trust. We explored whether child characteristics moderated intervention effects. Results: Children in the CBM training were faster to interpret maternal behaviour securely versus insecurely. Effects did not generalize to interpretation bias measures or trust. There were no main or interaction effects of oxytocin. Exploratory moderation analyses indicated that combining CBM training with oxytocin had less positive effects on trust for children with more internalizing problems. Limitations: As this was the first study combining CBM and oxytocin, replication of the results is needed. Conclusions: This study combined a social learning paradigm with oxytocin in children. CBM training was effective at an automatic level of processing. Oxytocin did not enhance CBM effects or independently exert effects. Research in larger samples specifying when oxytocin might have beneficial effects is necessary before oxytocin can be used as intervention option in children. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity"
]
|
Q2890868 | Liftech – Stärkung der internationalen Position 2017-2019 | LIFTECH: Internationalisierungsprojekt zur Konsolidierung der internationalen Präsenz und Erschließung neuer Märkte, die als strategisch und anspruchsvoll gelten, die Exportbasis erhöhen und ein ausgeprägtes Image für die Qualität und Entwicklung innovativer Projekte fördern. | [
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations",
"Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems"
]
|
W1991334147 | MT-OMP for hyperspectral imagery denoising with model parameter estimation | It is extensively accepted that much noise is included in hyperspectral imagery (HSI). Noise removal for HSI is an important but challenging task. Most denoising methods have one or more model parameters. For many algorithms, the denoising performance strongly depends on the values of parameters. In many cases, empirically selected parameters are not adaptive to various noise levels. Another challenge is the computational complexity. Since HSI has numerous bands, band by band HSI denoising is relatively time-consuming when compared to RGB or gray image. So a fast algorithm is preferred in practice. In this work, a multi-task orthogonal matching pursuit (MT-OMP) algorithm is proposed for l2,0 non-local sparse denoising. This greedy scheme is a multi-task extension of the famous OMP algorithm. The only parameter of MT-OMP is the sparse reconstruction error, which can be derived via noise variance. Furthermore, it is time-efficient and easy to implement. The experimental results show advantages of the proposed MT-OMP algorithm. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
10.1038/nmat4303 | Extreme mobility enhancement of two-dimensional electron gases at oxide interfaces by charge-transfer-induced modulation doping | Two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) formed at the interface of insulating complex oxides promise the development of all-oxide electronic devices. These 2DEGs involve many-body interactions that give rise to a variety of physical phenomena such as superconductivity, magnetism, tunable metal-insulator transitions and phase separation. Increasing the mobility of the 2DEG, however, remains a major challenge. Here, we show that the electron mobility is enhanced by more than two orders of magnitude by inserting a single-unit-cell insulating layer of polar La 1â'x Sr x MnO 3 (x = 0, 1/8, and 1/3) at the interface between disordered LaAlO 3 and crystalline SrTiO 3 produced at room temperature. Resonant X-ray spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy show that the manganite layer undergoes unambiguous electronic reconstruction, leading to modulation doping of such atomically engineered complex oxide heterointerfaces. At low temperatures, the modulation-doped 2DEG exhibits Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations and fingerprints of the quantum Hall effect, demonstrating unprecedented high mobility and low electron density. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1038/ncomms2683 | VE-PTP regulates VEGFR2 activity in stalk cells to establish endothelial cell polarity and lumen formation | Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) guides the path of new vessel sprouts by inducing VEGF receptor-2 activity in the sprout tip. In the stalk cells of the sprout, VEGF receptor-2 activity is downregulated. Here, we show that VEGF receptor-2 in stalk cells is dephosphorylated by the endothelium-specific vascular endothelial-phosphotyrosine phosphatase (VE-PTP). VE-PTP acts on VEGF receptor-2 located in endothelial junctions indirectly, via the Angiopoietin-1 receptor Tie2. VE-PTP inactivation in mouse embryoid bodies leads to excess VEGF receptor-2 activity in stalk cells, increased tyrosine phosphorylation of VE-cadherin and loss of cell polarity and lumen formation. Vessels in ve-ptp-/- teratomas also show increased VEGF receptor-2 activity and loss of endothelial polarization. Moreover, the zebrafish VE-PTP orthologue ptp-rb is essential for polarization and lumen formation in intersomitic vessels. We conclude that the role of Tie2 in maintenance of vascular quiescence involves VE-PTP-dependent dephosphorylation of VEGF receptor-2, and that VEGF receptor-2 activity regulates VE-cadherin tyrosine phosphorylation, endothelial cell polarity and lumen formation. | [
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
10.1002/2014PA002636 | High Latitude Forcing Of Diatom Productivity In The Southern Agulhas Plateau During The Past 350 Kyr | The hydrography of the Indian-Atlantic Ocean gateway has been connected to high-latitude climate dynamics by oceanic and atmospheric teleconnections on orbital and suborbital timescales. A wealth of sedimentary records aiming at reconstructing the late Pleistocene paleoceanography around the southern African continent has been devoted to understanding these linkages. Most of the records are, however, clustered close to the southern South African tip, with comparatively less attention devoted to areas under the direct influence of frontal zones of the Southern Ocean/South Atlantic. Here we present data of the composition and concentration of the diatom assemblage together with bulk biogenic content and the alkenone-based sea surface temperature (SST) variations for the past 350 kyr in the marine sediment core MD02-2588 (approximately 41°S, 26°E) recovered from the southern Agulhas Plateau. Variations in biosiliceous productivity show a varying degree of coupling with Southern Hemisphere paleoclimate records following a glacial-interglacial cyclicity. Ecologically well-constrained groups of diatoms record the glacial-interglacial changes in water masses dynamics, nutrient availability, and stratification of the upper ocean. The good match between the glacial maxima of total diatoms concentration, Chaetoceros spores abundance, and opal content with the maximum seasonal cover of Antarctic ice and the atmospheric dust records points to a dominant Southern Hemisphere forcing of diatom production. Suborbital variability of SST suggests rapid latitudinal migrations of the Subtropical Front and associated water masses over the southern Agulhas Plateau, following millennial contractions and expansions of the subtropical gyres. Warmings of the upper ocean over site MD02-2588 during terminations IV to I occurred earlier than that in the Antarctic Vostok, which is indicative of a Northern Hemisphere lead. Our multiparameter reconstruction highlights how high-latitude atmospheric and hydrographic processes modulated orbital highs and lows in primary production and SST as triggered by northward transport of Si, eolian dust input, and latitudinal migrations of frontal zones. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution"
]
|
10.1109/IPFA.2013.6599165 | Transverse Domain Wall Formation In A Free Layer A Mechanism For Switching Failure In A Mtj Based Stt Mram | We investigate the switching failure probability in a MTJ-based STT-MRAM as a function of the switching current value and the pulse duration by means of extensive micromagnetic simulations. We analyze a new failure mechanism for switching through the formation and pinning of the transverse domain wall in the free layer of the STT-MRAM cell. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
10.1038/nature14182 | Functional organization of excitatory synaptic strength in primary visual cortex | The strength of synaptic connections fundamentally determines how neurons influence each other's firing. Excitatory connection amplitudes between pairs of cortical neurons vary over two orders of magnitude, comprising only very few strong connections among many weaker ones. Although this highly skewed distribution of connection strengths is observed in diverse cortical areas, its functional significance remains unknown: it is not clear how connection strength relates to neuronal response properties, nor how strong and weak inputs contribute to information processing in local microcircuits. Here we reveal that the strength of connections between layer 2/3 (L2/3) pyramidal neurons in mouse primary visual cortex (V1) obeys a simple rule-the few strong connections occur between neurons with most correlated responses, while only weak connections link neurons with uncorrelated responses. Moreover, we show that strong and reciprocal connections occur between cells with similar spatial receptive field structure. Although weak connections far outnumber strong connections, each neuron receives the majority of its local excitation from a small number of strong inputs provided by the few neurons with similar responses to visual features. By dominating recurrent excitation, these infrequent yet powerful inputs disproportionately contribute to feature preference and selectivity. Therefore, our results show that the apparently complex organization of excitatory connection strength reflects the similarity of neuronal responses, and suggest that rare, strong connections mediate stimulus-specific response amplification in cortical microcircuits. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System"
]
|
10.1017/S0040557417000072 | The Sublime And French Seventeenth Century Theories Of The Spectacle Toward An Aesthetic Approach To Performance | Theatre scholars and historians assume too easily that theoretical reflection on the performative qualities of the theatre began only in the eighteenth century. In mid-eighteenth century France, writers and philosophers such as Denis Diderot, Jean le Rond D'Alembert, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Antoine-Francois Riccoboni, or Jean-Georges Noverre (to name but a few) showed a passionate interest in the aesthetics and the morality of performance practices in dramatic theatre, music theatre, or dance. Compared to this rich diversity of ideas in the eighteenth century, seventeenth-century French writings on theatre and the performing arts seem, at first sight, far less interesting or daring. However, this is merely a modern perception. Our idea of le theâtre classique is still rather reductionist, and often limited to the theatrical canon of Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, and Moliere. It affords a view of the performing arts that is dominated by tragedy and comedy and that, firmly embedded within a neo-Aristotelian poetics, privileges dramatic concerns above performative interests. | [
"The Study of the Human Past",
"Texts and Concepts"
]
|
10.1073/pnas.1412996112 | Strength and duration of perisomatic GABAergic inhibition depend on distance between synaptically connected cells | GABAergic perisoma-inhibiting fast-spiking interneurons (PIIs) effectively control the activity of large neuron populations by their wide axonal arborizations. It is generally assumed that the output of one PII to its target cells is strong and rapid. Here, we show that, unexpectedly, both strength and time course of PII-mediated perisomatic inhibition change with distance between synaptically connected partners in the rodent hippocampus. Synaptic signals become weaker due to lower contact numbers and decay more slowly with distance, very likely resulting from changes in GABAA receptor subunit composition. When distance-dependent synaptic inhibition is introduced to a rhythmically active neuronal network model, randomly driven principal cell assemblies are strongly synchronized by the PIIs, leading to higher precision in principal cell spike times than in a network with uniform synaptic inhibition. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
10.1038/nature17151 | On-surface synthesis of graphene nanoribbons with zigzag edge topology | Graphene-based nanostructures exhibit electronic properties that are not present in extended graphene. For example, quantum confinement in carbon nanotubes and armchair graphene nanoribbons leads to the opening of substantial electronic bandgaps that are directly linked to their structural boundary conditions. Nanostructures with zigzag edges are expected to host spin-polarized electronic edge states and can thus serve as key elements for graphene-based spintronics. The edge states of zigzag graphene nanoribbons (ZGNRs) are predicted to couple ferromagnetically along the edge and antiferromagnetically between the edges, but direct observation of spin-polarized edge states for zigzag edge topologies-including ZGNRs-has not yet been achieved owing to the limited precision of current top-down approaches. Here we describe the bottom-up synthesis of ZGNRs through surface-assisted polymerization and cyclodehydrogenation of specifically designed precursor monomers to yield atomically precise zigzag edges. Using scanning tunnelling spectroscopy we show the existence of edge-localized states with large energy splittings. We expect that the availability of ZGNRs will enable the characterization of their predicted spin-related properties, such as spin confinement and filtering, and will ultimately add the spin degree of freedom to graphene-based circuitry. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials"
]
|
290911 | Variation & the City | VarCity aims to drastically innovate 3D city modeling, moving it away from the traditional, bottom-up Lidar or structure-from-motion pipelines. Not only will large-scale city modeling be automated, but the results will look more realistic, will be more compact and will be semantically structured. Moreover, the dynamics of traffic flows will be added as animations (to safeguard anonymity) and videos of special events and landmarks can be retrieved with the 3D model as geographical context. These videos of flows and events are again automatically analysed and combined. For the combination of multiple event videos, a virtual editor will be implemented, ensuring compilations of high quality and providing an excellent overview whenever possible. The overall result will be an augmented, live Google street.
The modeling is based on three types of input data: 1) dedicated mobile mapping imagery taken from several synchronized cameras mounted on a van, 2) images of landmarks and corresponding Wikipedia pages mined from public Internet repositories, and 3) the large amount of videos people can expect to stream from their mobile phones in the near future (given e.g. the upcoming LTE). With respect to the latter VarCity thus takes a proactive stand, but such data are easy to simulate. The other data types are already available to the project, through spin-off companies.
For the modeling of the architectural structures, procedural methods will be used. Starting from the images, procedural models of the buildings are generated as instantiations of their architectural style, expressed in a style grammar. The key idea underlying much of the work is to let visual object class recognition and detection feed back into what traditionally are considered `low-level’ vision processes. This approach will enhance several aspects of the work, including the inverse procedural modeling, event detection, traffic flow analysis, inpainting, level-of-detail, super-resolution, etc. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
10.1038/NCHEM.2419 | Diversification Of Self Replicating Molecules | How new species emerge in nature is still incompletely understood and difficult to study directly. Self-replicating molecules provide a simple model that allows us to capture the fundamental processes that occur in species formation. We have been able to monitor in real time and at a molecular level the diversification of self-replicating molecules into two distinct sets that compete for two different building blocks ('food') and so capture an important aspect of the process by which species may arise. The results show that the second replicator set is a descendant of the first and that both sets are kinetic products that oppose the thermodynamic preference of the system. The sets occupy related but complementary food niches. As diversification into sets takes place on the timescale of weeks and can be investigated at the molecular level, this work opens up new opportunities for experimentally investigating the process through which species arise both in real time and with enhanced detail. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution"
]
|
10.1088/2041-8205/760/2/L33 | Discovery And Early Multi Wavelength Measurements Of The Energetic Type Ic Supernova Ptf12Gzk A Massive Star Explosion In A Dwarf Host Galaxy | We present the discovery and extensive early-time observations of the Type Ic supernova (SN) PTF12gzk. Our light curves show a rise of 0. 8 mag within 2. 5 hr. Power-law fits (f(t)α(t – t_0)^n ) to these data constrain the explosion date to within one day. We cannot rule out a quadratic fireball model, but higher values of n are possible as well for larger areas in the fit parameter space. Our bolometric light curve and a dense spectral sequence are used to estimate the physical parameters of the exploding star and of the explosion. We show that the photometric evolution of PTF12gzk is slower than that of most SNe Ic. The high ejecta expansion velocities we measure (~30, 000 km s^(–1) derived from line minima four days after explosion) are similar to the observed velocities of broad-lined SNe Ic associated with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) rather than to normal SN Ic velocities. Yet, this SN does not show the persistent broad lines that are typical of broad-lined SNe Ic. The host-galaxy characteristics are also consistent with GRB-SN hosts, and not with normal SN Ic hosts. By comparison with the spectroscopically similar SN 2004aw, we suggest that the observed properties of PTF12gzk indicate an initial progenitor mass of 25-35 M_☉ and a large ((5-10) × 10^(51) erg) kinetic energy, the later being close to the regime of GRB-SN properties. | [
"Universe Sciences"
]
|
10.1007/s10519-012-9581-7 | Genotype by environment interactions in cognitive ability: A survey of 14 studies from four countries covering four age groups | A large part of the variation in cognitive ability is known to be due to genetic factors. Researchers have tried to identify modifiers that influence the heritability of cognitive ability, indicating a genotype by environment interaction (G×E). To date, such modifiers include measured variables like income and socioeconomic status. The present paper focuses on G×E in cognitive ability where the environmental variable is an unmeasured environmental factor that is uncorrelated in family members. We examined this type of G×E in the GHCA-database (Haworth et al. , Behav Genet 39:359-370, 2009), which comprises data of 14 different cognition studies from four different countries including participants of different ages. Results indicate that for younger participants (4-13 years), the strength of E decreases across the additive genetic factor A, but that this effect reverts for older participants (17-34 years). However, a clear and general conclusion about the presence of a genuine G×E is hampered by differences between the individual studies with respect to environmental and genetic influences on cognitive ability. | [
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems",
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity"
]
|
715618 | Computer-Assisted Language Comparison: Reconciling Computational and Classical Approaches in Historical Linguistics | By comparing the languages of the world, we gain invaluable insights into human prehistory, predating the appearance of written records by thousands of years. The traditional methods for language comparison are based on manual data inspection. With more and more data available, they reach their practical limits. Computer applications, however, are not capable of replacing experts' experience and intuition. In a situation where computers cannot replace experts and experts do not have enough time to analyse the massive amounts of data, a new framework, neither completely computer-driven, nor ignorant of the help computers provide, becomes urgent. Such frameworks are well-established in biology and translation, where computational tools cannot provide the accuracy needed to arrive at convincing results, but do assist humans to digest large data sets.
This project establishes a computer-assisted framework for historical linguistics. We pursue an interdisciplinary approach that adapts methods from computer science and bioinformatics for the use in historical linguistics. While purely computational approaches are common today, the project focuses on the communication between classical and computational linguists, developing interfaces that allow historical linguists to produce their data in machine readable formats while at the same time presenting the results of computational analyses in a transparent and human-readable way.
As a litmus test which proves the suitability of the new framework, the project will create an etymological database of Sino-Tibetan languages. The abundance of language contact and the peculiarity of complex processes of language change in which sporadic patterns of morphological change mask regular patterns of sound change make the Sino-Tibetan language family an ideal test case for a new overarching framework that combines the best of two worlds: the experience of experts
and the consistency of computational models. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity",
"The Study of the Human Past"
]
|
215704 | Accelerators validating antimatter physics | Antiprotons, stored and cooled at low energies in a storage ring or at rest in traps, are highly desirable for the investigation of basic questions on fundamental interactions, the static structure of antiprotonic atoms, CPT tests by high-resolution spectroscopy on antihydrogen, as well as gravity experiments. Antimatter experiments are at the cutting edge of science. They are, however, very difficult to realize and have been limited by the performance of the only existing facility in the world, the Antiproton Decelerator (AD) at CERN. The Extra Low Energy Antiproton ring (ELENA) will be a critical upgrade to this unique facility and commissioned from summer 2016. This will significantly enhance the beam quality and enable new experiments.
To fully exploit the discovery potential of this facility and to pave the way for a vibrant long-term physics program with low energy antiprotons, advances are urgently required in numerical tools that can adequately model beam transport, life time and interaction, beam diagnostics tools and detectors that can fully characterize the beam’s properties, as well as in into advanced experimental techniques for improved precision and novel experiments that exploit the enhanced beam quality that ELENA will provide. AVA is a new European training network between universities, research centers and industry that will carry out an interdisciplinary and cross-sector antimatter research and training program for a cohort of 15 Fellows. It targets new scientific and technical developments and aims at boosting the career prospects of all trainees. | [
"Fundamental Constituents of Matter",
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
10.1075/avt.00032.ter | Demonstrative-reinforcer constructions and the syntactic role of deictic features | Abstract
In this paper I take Romance demonstrative-reinforcer constructions as a way to test whether the deictic features
encoded by demonstrative and locative forms are active in the syntax. From a descriptive point of view, I claim that demonstrative
systems can be best accounted for by making reference to two binary deictic person features: [dem
[±Author]]
and [dem
[±Participant]]. Then I show how these features combine in demonstrative-reinforcer constructions,
providing a comprehensive overview of demonstrative-reinforcer constructions in Italo-Romance varieties. Finally, I argue that
deictic person features are inactive in the syntax of demonstrative and locative forms: this is suggested by the shortcomings that
Agree-based accounts face when dealing with demonstrative-reinforcer constructions. Therefore, I contend that the best analysis
for such constructions is a non-core syntactical one, the relevant derivation point being either within the morphological
component or at the interface between syntax and semantics. | [
"Texts and Concepts",
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity"
]
|
W2151317726 | Ancient Mesopotamian Religion: A Profile of the Healing Goddess | In his introduction to Ancient Mesopotamia, A. L. Oppenheim expressed his doubts about the feasibility to write a systematic account of Mesopotamian religion (1977, p. 172; cf. 1950). Indeed, if we understand religion as the sum of individual, conceptual and social concepts and take into account the nature and the state of preservation of the sources, it becomes evident that any description must remain incomplete. This is also the case when portraying the figure of the Ancient Mesopotamian healing goddess or goddesses. As a matter of fact, five deities were associated with the domain of healing and merged together into principally one goddess. Though they are all presented in the following discussion, emphasis is laid on the specific character of the healing goddess. | [
"Texts and Concepts",
"The Study of the Human Past",
"Studies of Cultures and Arts"
]
|
10.1038/s41467-019-12390-4 | Spatiotemporal material functionalization via competitive supramolecular complexation of avidin and biotin analogs | Spatiotemporal control over engineered tissues is highly desirable for various biomedical applications as it emulates the dynamic behavior of natural tissues. Current spatiotemporal biomaterial functionalization approaches are based on cytotoxic, technically challenging, or non-scalable chemistries, which has hampered their widespread usage. Here we report a strategy to spatiotemporally functionalize (bio)materials based on competitive supramolecular complexation of avidin and biotin analogs. Specifically, an injectable hydrogel is orthogonally post-functionalized with desthiobiotinylated moieties using multivalent neutravidin. In situ exchange of desthiobiotin by biotin enables spatiotemporal material functionalization as demonstrated by the formation of long-range, conformal, and contra-directional biochemical gradients within complex-shaped 3D hydrogels. Temporal control over engineered tissue biochemistry is further demonstrated by timed presentation and sequestration of growth factors using desthiobiotinylated antibodies. The method’s universality is confirmed by modifying hydrogels with biotinylated fluorophores, peptides, nanoparticles, enzymes, and antibodies. Overall, this work provides a facile, cytocompatible, and universal strategy to spatiotemporally functionalize materials. | [
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
W3085999726 | Implicaciones al Sistema de Gestión de Calidad por la rotación de personal en las PYME | The staff turnover is described as dropping out of workers from an organization that is caused by different causes and decisions taken either by employees or by the employer, in this article using as a methodology the analysis of different bibliographic sources associated with this topic and arguing a direct relationship between people, skills and the outcome of the processes resulted in the qualification of the negative impact and the consequences that the continuous staff turnover brings to organizations based on an approach to the quality management system, compliance with the requirements established in the ISO 9001 version 2015 and the hidden costs that this entails, through this it was possible to determine the scope, the consequences and the implications that this problem brings that in most cases affects to a greater extent or proportion to small and medium enterprises taking into account that it is considered a low perception of this risk given that their preparation, planning and amortization in terms of financial, process and personal resources for this control of these types of scourges associated with human resources is
not very robust. | [
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations",
"Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems"
]
|
336084 | Urban Waves: evaluating structure vulnerability to tsunami and earthquakes | Exposure to coastal floods across the world is forecast to increase to 150 million people and £20 trillion in assets by 2070 (>9% of projected annual global GDP). In addition to cities, potentially vulnerable assets include key infrastructure such as nuclear power plants and ports: the recent Japan earthquake and tsunami demonstrating this. Urban Waves will fill the gap in the engineering design and assessment of buildings in coastal areas subjected to onshore flow from tsunami preceded (or not) by earthquake ground shaking.
In Aim 1 the unique experimental capability developed by the PI to reproduce flows on shorelines from tsunami will be used to provide information for fundamental research into tsunami flows onshore as well as the forces and pressures they exert on model buildings and coastal protection structures. In Aim 2 the experimentally measured force/pressure time-histories will be used to calibrate advanced finite element models of the structures that will then be used to further investigate the influence of bathymetry, topography, tsunami and structure characteristics on the structure forces/pressures. The study findings will be used to propose simplified relationships for tsunami forces/pressures suitable for inclusion in codes of practice (for buildings and coastal defences). In Aim 3, the FE models built will be used to generate fragility functions for buildings that can be used for the assessment of risk to urban areas. The first analytical tsunami fragility functions to be derived, these will also account for the effect of preceding earthquake ground shaking. These will also be compared to data collected after past tsunami events using advanced statistical methods.
Urban Waves capitalises on the PI's recognised expertise in large-scale experiments, structural dynamics, analytical and empirical fragility function derivation and ability to carry out high quality multi-disciplinary research.. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
10.1002/aelm.201700477 | High-Throughput Multiparametric Screening of Solution Processed Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells | One of the major bottlenecks in the development of organic photovoltaics is the time needed to evaluate each material system. This time ranges from weeks to months if different variables such as blend composition, thickness, annealing, and additives are to be explored. In this study, the use of lateral gradients is proposed in order to evaluate the photovoltaic potential of a material system up to 50 times faster. A platform that combines blade coating using controllable velocity profiles (thickness gradients) with multichannel dispensers (composition gradients) and controlled lateral annealing variations (nanostructure gradients) is introduced. These samples are then analyzed using photocurrent and Raman imaging in order to correlate one to one the device performance, thickness, composition, and annealing temperature. The strength of the developed technology is shown by optimizing three different systems, namely PCDTBT:PC70BM, PTB7-Th:PC70BM, and PffBT4T-2OD:PC70BM, obtaining efficiencies ≈5%, 8%, and 9. 5%, respectively, using less than 10 mg of each polymer in the process. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Materials Engineering",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials"
]
|
10.1103/PhysRevB.89.045422 | Nonlocal spectroscopy of Andreev bound states | We experimentally investigate Andreev bound states (ABSs) in a carbon nanotube quantum dot (QD) connected to a superconducting Nb lead (S). A weakly coupled normal metal contact acts as a tunnel probe that measures the energy dispersion of the ABSs. Moreover, we study the response of the ABS to nonlocal transport processes, namely, Cooper pair splitting and elastic co-tunnelling, which are enabled by a second QD fabricated on the same nanotube on the opposite side of S. We find an appreciable nonlocal conductance with a rich structure, including a sign reversal at the ground-state transition from the ABS singlet to a degenerate magnetic doublet. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Fundamental Constituents of Matter"
]
|
interreg_3106 | Capitalisation of the RES projects in the MED area | ENERGY TRANSITION AS A STARTING POINT FOR A RESILIENT TERRITORIAL DEVELOPMENT IN MED AREAClimate Change is one of the most relevant challenges we face globally and especially in the MED Area. Territories will have to establish mechanisms ensuring a more resilient management of the available resources. Energy transition brings an opportunity to set new types of organisation and planning, putting citizens’ empowerment and local level administrative capacity in the center of the strategy. The Renewable Energy Community sets the basis of its second generation on the capitalisation of the Ecosystemic Transition Units in MED Region, as an alternative solution for energy transition with an ecosystemic approach, with the aim of promoting an effective integration of energy into territorial planning, and bring out new opportunities for local development. Multi-level coordination model is proposed to be developed, enhancing the coordination between all stakeholders. The objective is to ensure transferring of the "ETUs" model into a wide number of territories, spreading and mainstreaming the outcomes acquired into local/regional governance and policies. The aim is to prove integral solutions can be addressed through effective coordination and effective transnational cooperation within our Community and also within the MED Communities. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Human Mobility, Environment, and Space",
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
10.3389/fcell.2020.00069 | Cytoskeleton Force Exertion in Bulk Cytoplasm | The microtubule and actin cytoskeletons generate forces essential to position centrosomes, nuclei, and spindles for division plane specification. While the largest body of work has documented force exertion at, or close to the cell surface, mounting evidence suggests that cytoskeletal polymers can also produce significant forces directly from within the cytoplasm. Molecular motors such as kinesin or dynein may for instance displace cargos and endomembranes in the viscous cytoplasm yielding friction forces that pull or push microtubules. Similarly, the dynamics of bulk actin assembly/disassembly or myosin-dependent contractions produce cytoplasmic forces which influence the spatial organization of cells in a variety of processes. We here review the molecular and physical mechanisms supporting bulk cytoplasmic force generation by the cytoskeleton, their limits and relevance to organelle positioning, with a particular focus on cell division. | [
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
247283 | Flame Aerosol Reactors for Manufacturing of Surface-Functionalized Nanoscale Materials and Devices | Nanotechnology research has been directed mostly to the design and synthesis of (a) materials with passive nanostructures (e.g. coatings, nanoparticles of organics, metals and ceramics) and (b) active devices with nanostructured materials (e.g. transistors, amplifiers, sensors, actuators etc). Little is known, however, about how well the unique properties of nanostructured materials are reproduced during their large scale synthesis, and how such manufacturing can be designed and carried out. A key goal here is to fundamentally understand synthesis of surface-functionalized, nanostructured, multicomponent particles by flame aerosol reactors (a proven scalable technology for simple ceramic oxide nanopowders). That way technology for making such sophisticated materials would be developed systematically for their efficient manufacture so that active devices containing them can be made economically. Our focus is on understanding aerosol formation of layered solid or fractal-like nanostructures by developing quantitative process models and systematic comparison to experimental data. This understanding will be used to guide synthesis of challenging nanoparticle compositions and process scale-up with close attention to safe product handling and health effects. The ultimate goal of this research is to address the next frontier of this field, namely the assembling of high performance active devices made with such functionalized or layered nanoparticles. Here these devices include but not limited to (a) actuators containing layered single superparamagnetic nanoparticles and (b) ultraselective and highly sensitive sensors made with highly conductive but disperse nanoelectrode layers for detection of trace organic vapors in the human breath for early diagnosis of serious illnesses. | [
"Materials Engineering",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials",
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases"
]
|
W647634866 | The Wall Unit | wall unit is the bastard of the furniture family, I read today in a magazine aspiring to be opinion-making in interior design. I flew into a kind of rage. Who would dare to hierarchize the world of home furnishings, thus demoting the wall unit to the ranks of subpar product on a furniture industry scale? The vitriol of the assertion got me thinking. Where had this sudden attack on the wall unit come from--the wall unit, which in fact ought not to inspire any particular reaction at all? I think the problem lies in the status of the wall unit as furnishing but not exactly as something that is and is not, as a kind of hiatus in a world of chairs and tables, sort of neither the apple nor the orange, and yet the functionality of the wall unit is as obvious as a splatter of ink on a white sheet. The wall unit eludes classification, fulfilling two different functions, each to a certain extent. it's a bed, but it isn't that comfortable; it's storage, with drawers, but it doesn't hold that much; it's practical, but ... Well, there you have it. Show me your wall unit, and I'll tell you who you are. My .first wall unit was a humble particleboard thing. had a couple of drawers with brass keys. The bed, which came out of hiding every night like a blushing bride, hesitantly, reluctantly, was hard--quite severe, re-ally--and promoted placid, conventional dreams. Before my dad and brother first brought the wall unit into my room, we spent the entire afternoon debating where to put it so as to reconcile the room to it, so as to keep the peace between the space and the new thing. Yet by the next day our worst fears had been realized: upon being released into the room, the wall unit took over, absorbed it, completely and absolutely dominated it. We tried to move the wall unit around, diminish its power by placing it at a less efficacious angle, in an awkward position, but each attempt ended in defeat. That day we kept going into the room to look at the wall unit, trying to get some distance from it, saying things like, It sure is big, or It's just a piece of furniture, and other seemingly insignificant things that were in fact attempts at assuaging our intense anxiety. stood there like a renegade amidst the older, more established furniture. stood alone, a furnishing unto itself, in need of no complement, unlike the table, or the chair, or the clothes rack. The brutality of the wall unit issued from a kind of particular perversity: it was ordinary, absolutely transparent, banal, to such a degree that it actually derided its ordinariness, as though aping it. Suddenly all the other furniture seemed terribly conservative in comparison, unbearably conservative, and our first impulse was to throw the tables and chests of drawers and chairs out the window, though my mom talked us out of it. Cultivating, embellishing, adorning the wall unit with familiar trinkets, making friends with it by lending it our features, and thus transforming an angular mismatch into a round presence--this was another option. We covered it with crap: a little clay bank, picture frames, fake flowers, a transistor radio, a couple of books. We arranged these things on the wall unit's shelves and populated its drawers sock by sock. For a second it seemed we'd done it: the wall unit beamed at us like a good friend, but after just a second, something creaked, and the fake flowers fell out of their vase--which was a sign that we were not going to get off so easy. I feared night, and I put off the moment when I would have to approach the wall unit, open it up, lie down. … | [
"Texts and Concepts",
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity",
"Studies of Cultures and Arts"
]
|
320774 | Nanosized porous molecular metal oxides with functionalizable cavities and soft matter behaviour allow studies of new phenomena | It is generally accepted that nano materials “will revolutionize our industries and our lives” (Nobel laureate R. Smalley). We wish to extend our work on unique metal-oxide nano materials, which offer signposting routes due to their structures/forms – like our worldwide highlighted and used spherical capsules with 20 gated pores – to study novel phenomena with impact for basic research as well as applications. These nano materials should now be adjusted regarding size, chemical composition, their linking to extended structures, and a variety of new tailored internal functionalities in order to get appropriate properties of interest for different purposes of nano science and technology. Among the examples are: the protection/stabilization of intermediates and transport of the encapsulated materials after pore closing, systematic studies regarding the generation of hydrophobic cavities with and without water (of importance for protein research and even related to drug design), the removal of a variety of hydrophobic (potentially toxic) compounds from water based on molecular recognition (a paradigmatic shift) and finally, stepwise capsule closing and opening related to allosteric effects. The intended work on the capsules should open doors for the understanding of phenomena in small spaces. Also materials based on the related wheel-shaped metal-oxides with unprecedented properties (i.e. soft matter behaviour) will be investigated. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1063/1.4824391 | Enhanced Conformational Sampling Using Enveloping Distribution Sampling | To lessen the problem of insufficient conformational sampling in biomolecular simulations is still a major challenge in computational biochemistry. In this article, an application of the method of enveloping distribution sampling (EDS) is proposed that addresses this challenge and its sampling efficiency is demonstrated in simulations of a hexa-β-peptide whose conformational equilibrium encompasses two different helical folds, i. e. , a right-handed 2. 710/12-helix and a left-handed 314-helix, separated by a high energy barrier. Standard MD simulations of this peptide using the GROMOS 53A6 force field did not reach convergence of the free enthalpy difference between the two helices even after 500 ns of simulation time. The use of soft-core non-bonded interactions in the centre of the peptide did enhance the number of transitions between the helices, but at the same time led to neglect of relevant helical configurations. In the simulations of a two-state EDS reference Hamiltonian that envelops both the physical peptide and the soft-core peptide, sampling of the conformational space of the physical peptide ensures that physically relevant conformations can be visited, and sampling of the conformational space of the soft-core peptide helps to enhance the transitions between the two helices. The EDS simulations sampled many more transitions between the two helices and showed much faster convergence of the relative free enthalpy of the two helices compared with the standard MD simulations with only a slightly larger computational effort to determine optimized EDS parameters. Combined with various methods to smoothen the potential energy surface, the proposed EDS application will be a powerful technique to enhance the sampling efficiency in biomolecular simulations. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
10.1038/s41598-019-38571-1 | Skeletal Anomalies in The Neandertal Family of El Sidrón (Spain) Support A Role of Inbreeding in Neandertal Extinction | Neandertals disappeared from the fossil record around 40,000 bp, after a demographic history of small and isolated groups with high but variable levels of inbreeding, and episodes of interbreeding with other Paleolithic hominins. It is reasonable to expect that high levels of endogamy could be expressed in the skeleton of at least some Neandertal groups. Genetic studies indicate that the 13 individuals from the site of El Sidrón, Spain, dated around 49,000 bp, constituted a closely related kin group, making these Neandertals an appropriate case study for the observation of skeletal signs of inbreeding. We present the complete study of the 1674 identified skeletal specimens from El Sidrón. Altogether, 17 congenital anomalies were observed (narrowing of the internal nasal fossa, retained deciduous canine, clefts of the first cervical vertebra, unilateral hypoplasia of the second cervical vertebra, clefting of the twelfth thoracic vertebra, diminutive thoracic or lumbar rib, os centrale carpi and bipartite scaphoid, tripartite patella, left foot anomaly and cuboid-navicular coalition), with at least four individuals presenting congenital conditions (clefts of the first cervical vertebra). At 49,000 years ago, the Neandertals from El Sidrón, with genetic and skeletal evidence of inbreeding, could be representative of the beginning of the demographic collapse of this hominin phenotype. | [
"The Study of the Human Past",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution"
]
|
10.3847/0004-637X/818/2/175 | Forming The Cold Classical Kuiper Belt In A Light Disk | Large Kuiper Belt Objects are conventionally thought to have formed out of a massive planetesimal belt that is a few thousand times its current mass. Such a picture, however, is incompatible with multiple lines of evidence. Here, we present a new model for the conglomeration of Cold Classical Kuiper belt objects, out of a solid belt only a few times its current mass, or a few percent of the solid density in a Minimum Mass Solar Nebula. This is made possible by depositing most of the primordial mass in grains of size centimetre or smaller. These grains collide frequently and maintain a dynamically cold belt out of which large bodies grow efficiently: an order-unity fraction of the solid mass can be converted into large bodies, in contrast to the ~0. 1% efficiency in conventional models. Such a light belt may represent the true outer edge of the Solar system, and it may have effectively halted the outward migration of Neptune. In addition to the high efficiency, our model can also produce a mass spectrum that peaks at an intermediate size, similar to the observed Cold Classicals, if one includes the effect of cratering collisions. In particular, the observed power-law break observed at ~30 km for Cold Classicals, one that has been interpreted as a result of collisional erosion, may be primordial in origin. | [
"Universe Sciences"
]
|
W2942333823 | Lessons and Evaluation of a Headway Control Experiment in Washington, D.C. | Headway management can potentially reduce passenger waiting time and on-board crowding on high-frequency services. In this study, a headway control experiment was conducted and evaluated for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Agency routes 70 and 79 in Washington, D.C. The field experiment is evaluated by performing a before–after empirical evaluation. The organizational process and challenges involved with the implementation are discussed. Overall, a reduction of 26% in passenger excess waiting time was attained, which implies annual time savings that translate into US$1 million. Even though the field experiment implementation was far from ideal, the benefits obtained so far might pave the road to a long-term commitment to shift into a fully controlled headway-based management. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
W2028881527 | Effect of Post-Harvest Fungicides and Disinfestants on the Suppression of Silver Scurf on Potatoes in Storage | Silver scurf of potato, caused by Helminthosporium solani, can be a serious problem of potato tubers sold for table stock. The fungus originates primarily on seed and infects the periderm of daughter tubers, causing unsightly blemishes that reduce tuber quality. Secondary spread occurs in potato storage facilities when spores produced on infected tubers are moved through the air system. Depending on storage conditions and time, even a low initial disease incidence can result in significant losses through quality reductions. In the past, thiabendazole has been the most effective post harvest treatment in controlling this disease, but the development of fungicide resistance has made this product unreliable. Because of the lack of consistent alternatives, studies were conducted from 2001 to 2003 to examine the efficacy of various products in suppressing silver scurf incidence and severity when applied to tubers following harvest and prior to storage. Daughter tubers from a seed lot with high incidence of silver scurf symptoms were grown and then harvested 1 month after vine kill. After harvest, tubers were treated with a post-harvest application of various products, stored, and then evaluated for disease incidence and severity each year at two locations (Washington or Oregon and Idaho) and at two time periods (2 or 3 months and 6 months following storage). When treated tubers were stored from the fall of 2002 to spring of 2003, potassium sorbate and B. subtilis reduced disease severity after 6 months in storage at location 1, while azoxystrobin reduced incidence after 6 months in location 2. During the 2003–2004 storage season, azoxystrobin reduced silver scurf at both locations after 2 months of storage. Most products currently labeled for post-harvest silver scurf management were ineffective. While not currently registered, azoxystrobin used as a post- harvest, pre- storage treatment may be a significant method for commercial potato growers to suppress silver scurf in potato storage. | [
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Biotechnology and Biosystems Engineering",
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
10.1088/0004-637X/756/2/164 | Candels The Evolution Of Galaxy Rest Frame Ultraviolet Colors From Z 8 To 4 | We study the evolution of galaxy rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) colors in the epoch 4 3. 5, including 113 at z = 7 to 8. We fit the observed spectral energy distribution to a suite of synthetic stellar population models, and measure the value of the UV spectral slope (beta) from the best-fit model spectrum. The median value of beta evolves significantly from -1. 82 (+0. 00,-0. 04) at z = 4, to -2. 37 (+0. 26,-0. 06) at z = 7. Additionally, we find that faint galaxies at z = 7 have beta = -2. 68 (+0. 39,-0. 24) (~ -2. 4 after correcting for observational bias); this is redder than previous claims in the literature, and does not require "exotic" stellar populations to explain their colors. This evolution can be explained by an increase in dust extinction, with the timescale consistent with low-mass AGB stars forming the bulk of the dust. We find no significant ( 7. Thus the stellar-mass - metallicity relation, previously observed up to z ~ 3, may extend out to z = 7 - 8. | [
"Universe Sciences"
]
|
10.1039/c5dt03164h | Tin(ii)-functionalization of the archetypal {P8W48} polyoxotungstate | The synthesis of {SnII8P8W48}, the first example of the archetypal {P8W48}-type polyoxotungstate cluster functionalized with the main group metal ions, elucidates the critical reaction parameters that have to be adjusted to avoid numerous competing side reactions. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials"
]
|
10.1016/j.chembiol.2014.09.010 | Conversion of substrate analogs suggests a michael cyclization in iridoid biosynthesis | The core structure of the iridoid monoterpenes is formed by a unique cyclization reaction. The enzyme that catalyzes this reaction, iridoid synthase, is mechanistically distinct from other terpene cyclases. Here we describe the synthesis of two substrate analogs to probe the mechanism of iridoid synthase. Enzymatic assay of these substrate analogs along with clues from the product profile of the native substrate strongly suggest that iridoid synthase utilizes a Michael reaction to achieve cyclization. This improved mechanistic understanding will facilitate the exploitation of the potential of iridoid synthase to synthesize new cyclic compounds from nonnatural substrates. | [
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
EP 8901515 W | WIND PROTECTION AND/OR SUN PROTECTION DEVICE AND/OR PRIVACY SCREEN | The invention concernes a wind protection, sun protection device and/or privacy screen with a rod structure comprising bars, shaped-section rods or tubes, plus fabric. The rod structure is made up of three main struts (1, 2, 3) which can be secured at an angle to each other and which can be braced with respect to each other by reinforcing struts (4, 5). The main struts (1, 2, 3) and reinforcing struts (4, 5) are enveloped or contacted by the fabric (7). Each reinforcing strut (4, 5), which may optionally be bent, is preferably secured in a plane defined by two of the main struts (1, 2, 3, 2), the two planes thus formed preferably being rotatable relative to each other about the central main strut (2), and each reinforcing strut (4, 5) being optionally articulated at the middle of a lateral main strut (1, 3). When the device is opened out, the joint between the reinforcing struts (4, 5) can be secured approximately in the middle of the central main strut (2) (Fig. 4, 5). | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1016/j.immuni.2015.08.011 | BALB/c and C57BL/6 Mice Differ in Polyreactive IgA Abundance, which Impacts the Generation of Antigen-Specific IgA and Microbiota Diversity | The interrelationship between IgAs and microbiota diversity is still unclear. Here we show that BALB/c mice had higher abundance and diversity of IgAs than C57BL/6 mice and that this correlated with increased microbiota diversity. We show that polyreactive IgAs mediated the entrance of non-invasive bacteria to Peyer's patches, independently of CX3CR1+ phagocytes. This allowed the induction of bacteria-specific IgA and the establishment of a positive feedback loop of IgA production. Cohousing of mice or fecal transplantation had little or no influence on IgA production and had only partial impact on microbiota composition. Germ-free BALB/c, but not C57BL/6, mice already had polyreactive IgAs that influenced microbiota diversity and selection after colonization. Together, these data suggest that genetic predisposition to produce polyreactive IgAs has a strong impact on the generation of antigen-specific IgAs and the selection and maintenance of microbiota diversity. | [
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
175044 | Actafactors: tumor necrosis factor-based immuno-cytokines with superior therapeutic indexes | Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) is a homotrimeric pro-inflammatory cytokine that was originally discovered based on its extraordinary antitumor activity. However, its shock-inducing properties, causing hypotension, leukopenia and multiple organ failure, prevented its systemic use in cancer treatment. With this proof-of-concept study we want to evaluate a novel class of cell-targeted TNFs with strongly reduced systemic toxicities (AcTafactors). In these engineered immuno-cytokines, single-chain TNFs that harbor mutations to reduce the affinity for its receptor(s) are fused to a cell- specific targeting domain. Whilst almost no biological activity is observed on non-targeted cells, thus preventing systemic toxicity, avidity effects at the targeted cell membrane lead to recovery of over 90% of the TNF signaling activity. In this project we propose a lead optimization program to further improve the lead AcTafactors identified in the context of the ERC Advanced Grant project and to evaluate the resulting molecules for their ability to target the tumor (neo)vasculature in clinically relevant murine tumor models. The pre-clinical proof-of-concept we aim for represents a first step towards clinical development and ultimately potential market approval of an effective AcTafactor anti-cancer therapy. | [
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases"
]
|
10.1167/15.14.9 | An Unattended Mask Makes An Attended Target Disappear | In pattern masking, the target and mask are presented at the same location and follow one another very closely in time. When the observer attends to the target, he or she must also attend to the mask, as the switching time for attention is quite slow. In a series of experiments, we present mask-target-mask sequences staggered in time and location (Cavanagh, Holcombe, & Chou, 2008) that allow participants to attentively track the target location without attending to the masks. The results show that the strength of masking is on average unaffected by the removal of attention from the masks. Moreover, after isolating the target location perceptually with moving attention, it is clear that the target, when at threshold, has not been degraded or integrated with a persisting mask but it has vanished. We also show that the strength of masking is unaffected by the lateral spacing between adjacent target and mask sequences until the spacing is so large that the apparent motion driving the attentive tracking breaks down. Finally, we compare the effect of the pre- and postmask and find that the premask is responsible for the larger part of the masking. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity"
]
|
W4281641682 | O ECLÉTICO COMO PATRIMÔNIO: | Pretende-se instigar discussões sobre a relação registrada na história entre o patrimônio nacional, o ecletismo e o modernismo. Partindo de discursos amplamente divulgados, como a crítica do movimento moderno ao ecletismo e as práticas iniciais de preservação oficial do patrimônio, estabelece-se uma relação entre algumas bibliografias correspondentes para entender o tema e compará-lo com o contexto arquitetônico em Bocaina, cidade do interior paulista amplamente marcada pela arquitetura eclética, consideravelmente preservada mesmo sem o respaldo do tombamento. | [
"Texts and Concepts",
"The Study of the Human Past",
"Studies of Cultures and Arts"
]
|
W2208200177 | Visualization of energy and water consumption and GHG emissions: A case study of a Canadian University Campus | Abstract Campuses, communities, and other building clusters are major users of energy and water and thus can have a significant environmental impact. Frequently, their buildings’ resource consumption is metered to various levels of resolution to attempt to track and reduce it. However, the metering and data logging systems are often inconvenient and difficult to access due to use of multiple systems and technologies of varying vintages. This paper proposes several methods to analyze and visualize building-level water, natural gas, and electricity consumption and the upstream environmental impacts: Sankey diagrams and bar charts that normalize metered values by floor area and occupancy. The objective is to improve accessibility of these data to all stakeholders, including building operators, planners, occupants, and utilities. The methods are then applied to a 45-building Canadian university campus and an array of graphical representations of the data is provided. The resulting analysis and visualization reveals significant variation in consumption between buildings regardless of building vintage and function. Furthermore, it is concluded that identifying resource consumption reducing strategies, once inefficient buildings have been identified, would require higher data resolution – both spatial and temporal. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
10.1042/bcj20190500 | The synthesis of branched-chain fatty acids is limited by enzymatic decarboxylation of ethyl- and methylmalonyl-CoA | AbstractMost fatty acids (FAs) are straight chains and are synthesized by fatty acid synthase (FASN) using acetyl-CoA and malonyl-CoA units. Yet, FASN is known to be promiscuous as it may use methylmalonyl-CoA instead of malonyl-CoA and thereby introduce methyl-branches. We have recently found that the cytosolic enzyme ECHDC1 degrades ethylmalonyl-CoA and methylmalonyl-CoA, which presumably result from promiscuous reactions catalyzed by acetyl-CoA carboxylase on butyryl- and propionyl-CoA. Here, we tested the hypothesis that ECHDC1 is a metabolite repair enzyme that serves to prevent the formation of methyl- or ethyl-branched FAs by FASN. Using the purified enzyme, we found that FASN can incorporate not only methylmalonyl-CoA but also ethylmalonyl-CoA, producing methyl- or ethyl-branched FAs. Using a combination of gas-chromatography and liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry, we observed that inactivation of ECHDC1 in adipocytes led to an increase in several methyl-branched FAs (present in different lipid classes), while its overexpression reduced them below wild-type levels. In contrast, the formation of ethyl-branched FAs was observed almost exclusively in ECHDC1 knockout cells, indicating that ECHDC1 and the low activity of FASN toward ethylmalonyl-CoA efficiently prevent their formation. We conclude that ECHDC1 performs a typical metabolite repair function by destroying methyl- and ethylmalonyl-CoA. This reduces the formation of methyl-branched FAs and prevents the formation of ethyl-branched FAs by FASN. The identification of ECHDC1 as a key modulator of the abundance of methyl-branched FAs opens the way to investigate their function. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences"
]
|
interreg_445 | Know about biodiversity and ecosystems to better protect them together | "This project is part of the plan BIODIVALP": This project aims at improving the knowledge on biodiversity and Alpine ecosystems in a cross-border context. The achievement of this goal revolves around the co-construction of a common list of fauna and floristic species and sharing the methods for monitoring, for inventory and evaluation process of the NATURA 2000 sites. This will enable the establishment of common work tools and shared action plans. Furthermore, the cross-border value of the project regarding the PITEM BIODIVALP is undeniable since these tools will be used for the other projects.
The Western Alps Massif is the biogeographic and transboundary link of the ALCOTRA program. It rubs shoulders with both the summits and the Mediterranean basin forming a hotspot of biodiversity. Nevertheless, this exceptional natural heritage is vulnerable to the erosion of biodiversity and to global changes (fragmentation of environments, climate change, etc.). Based on this observation, a consultation process between the 5 Regions and the territorial actors has made it possible to draw up a framework ambition aimed at protecting and enhancing biodiversity and Alpine ecosystems through a partnership and a network of cross-border ecological connectivities. This ambition is articulated in two strategic objectives, contributing to the EUSALP strategy and the Alpine Convention, and aiming to (i) stem the erosion of ecosystems and protected species and (ii) enhance the attractiveness of the cross-border territory. The originality of the activities concerns the cross-border structuring of an integrated governance, the knowledge and the methodologies of management of biodiversity reservoirs, a public policy of ecological connectivities and a strategy of valorization of the biodiversity. In addition, the activities provide for the capitalization of various European projects (see point 5). The French and Italian partners of the plan include protected areas, communities, associations and chambers of commerce. | [
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Human Mobility, Environment, and Space"
]
|
W2115278932 | Usability research of interaction design for e-commerce Website | Interaction design is a new discipline which comes from Human-Computer interaction and includes ergonomics, computer science, engineering, aesthetics, psychology and social sciences. Under the rapid development of computer technology, interaction design for e-commerce website is no longer bound by development of new technology, and focusing more attention on usability research and user experience with the user-centric-oriented aim. This paper depicts the relevant usability research and research process that improved interaction design for the e-commerce website. It leads to the view that interaction design and usability research is complementary to each other, and gives a research about how to be user-centered-oriented throughout the entire process of interaction design and usability research. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"The Social World and Its Interactions"
]
|
EP 2005050509 W | DEVICE FOR ADJUSTMENT IN A VEHICLE AND RELATED METHOD | The invention concerns an adjusting device (10) and a method for adjusting a component (11, 40) in particular in a vehicle. Said device comprises at least one mobile component (11, 40), which moves relative to a retaining element (13) through a driving element (24), which comprises an electroactive polymer (EAP) (25). | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1051/0004-6361/201833725 | A Nearby Super Luminous Supernova With A Long Pre Maximum Plateau And Strong C Ii Features | Context. Super-luminous supernovae (SLSNe) are rare events defined as being significantly more luminous than normal terminal stellar explosions. The source of the additional power needed to achieve such luminosities is still unclear. Discoveries in the local Universe (i. e. z < 0. 1) are scarce, but afford dense multi-wavelength observations. Additional low-redshift objects are therefore extremely valuable. Aims. We present early-time observations of the type I SLSN ASASSN-18km/SN 2018bsz. These data are used to characterise the event and compare to literature SLSNe and spectral models. Host galaxy properties are also analysed. Methods. Optical and near-IR photometry and spectroscopy were analysed. Early-time ATLAS photometry was used to constrain the rising light curve. We identified a number of spectral features in optical-wavelength spectra and track their time evolution. Finally, we used archival host galaxy photometry together with H II region spectra to constrain the host environment. Results. ASASSN-18km/SN 2018bsz is found to be a type I SLSN in a galaxy at a redshift of 0. 0267 (111 Mpc), making it the lowest-redshift event discovered to date. Strong C II lines are identified in the spectra. Spectral models produced by exploding a Wolf-Rayet progenitor and injecting a magnetar power source are shown to be qualitatively similar to ASASSN-18km/SN 2018bsz, contrary to most SLSNe-I that display weak or non-existent C II lines. ASASSN-18km/SN 2018bsz displays a long, slowly rising, red “plateau” of >26 days, before a steeper, faster rise to maximum. The host has an absolute magnitude of –19. 8 mag (r), a mass of M⋆ = 1. 5−0. 33+0. 08 × 109 M⊙, and a star formation rate of = 0. 50−0. 19+2. 22 M⊙ yr −1. A nearby H II region has an oxygen abundance (O3N2) of 8. 31 ± 0. 01 dex. | [
"Universe Sciences"
]
|
10.1016/j.mee.2011.03.102 | Ultra-dense silicon nanowires: A technology, transport and interfaces challenges insight (invited) | We present the integration scheme we have optimized to fabricate very short gate length MOSFETs with 2D and 3D arrays of silicon nanowires (NW) and higk-k/metal gate stacks. Aggressively scaled NWs with sub-5 nm diameters are obtained. In particular, we report a 3D matrices technology with up to 13 levels of stacked single-crystal Si nanowires that can be most interesting for memory applications. In addition, we present a careful study of the electrical properties of such devices. Our electrical measurements reveal that the NWs' size, shape and surface treatment have a significant influence on transport properties. We identify peculiar transport and interface properties and we show that surface effects are significant for diameters equal or lower than 20 nm. The use of nanowires (whatever the process) in standard sub-11 nm CMOS nodes circuits will depend mainly on lithography progress in the coming years, but also on contact and metal interconnects. Ultra dense 3D arrays of Si nano-wires can however be fabricated in R&D facilities for high current, ultra-dense transistors or capacitors, sensors and NAND flash memories purposes. They are also useful for mobility and gate dielectric/nanowire interface characterization. | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Materials Engineering",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials"
]
|
258742 | Eclipsing binary stars as cutting edge laboratories for astrophysics of stellar
structure, stellar evolution and planet formation | Spectroscopic binary stars (SB2s) and in particular spectroscopic eclipsing binaries are one of the most useful objects in astrophysics. Their photometric and spectroscopic observations allow one to determine basic parameters of stars and carry out a wide range of tests of stellar structure, evolution and dynamics. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, they can also contribute to our understanding of the formation and evolution of (extrasolar) planets. We will study eclipsing binary stars by combining the classic - stellar astronomy - and the modern - extrasolar planets - subjects into a cutting edge project.
We propose to search for and subsequently characterize circumbinary planets around ~350 eclipsing SB2s using our own novel cutting edge radial velocity technique for binary stars and a modern version of the photometry based eclipse timing of eclipsing binary stars employing 0.5-m robotic telescopes. We will also derive basic parameters of up to ~700 stars (~350 binaries) with an unprecedented precision. In particular for about 50% of our sample we expect to deliver masses of the components with an accuracy ~10-100 times better than the current state of the art.
Our project will provide unique constraints for the theories of planet formation and evolution and an unprecedented in quality set of the basic parameters of stars to test the theories of the stellar structure and evolution. | [
"Universe Sciences",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences"
]
|
10.1007/978-3-319-59050-9_30 | Extracting The Groupwise Core Structural Connectivity Network Bridging Statistical And Graph Theoretical Approaches | Finding the common structural brain connectivity network for a given population is an open problem, crucial for current neuro-science. Recent evidence suggests there's a tightly connected network shared between humans. Obtaining this network will, among many advantages , allow us to focus cognitive and clinical analyses on common connections, thus increasing their statistical power. In turn, knowledge about the common network will facilitate novel analyses to understand the structure-function relationship in the brain. In this work, we present a new algorithm for computing the core structural connectivity network of a subject sample combining graph theory and statistics. Our algorithm works in accordance with novel evidence on brain topology. We analyze the problem theoretically and prove its complexity. Using 309 subjects, we show its advantages when used as a feature selection for connectivity analysis on populations, outperforming the current approaches. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
W2972028397 | Estimación de la Función de Importaciones de Ecuador en el Periodo 1976-2015 | During the last years, Ecuador has come presenting a deficit in the Trade balance, due to the excess of imports that has presented the country. Down this context raised the present work investigative so called “Estimation of the function of imports of Ecuador, period 1976 – 2015”, with the intention of estimating an imports function for the Ecuador given the theory of the imports. In turn, it was a question of a research work of descriptive character and econometric, in order to explain to the behavior of the imports of the country. The secondary information of the present investigation took of the database of the World Bank and of the Central Bank of the Ecuador (BCE). From the above mentioned function, the results that were obtained of the work investigative indicated that the GDP, it is an excellent indicator of the imports because, on having increased the Internal Product Gross (GDP), the Imports of the Ecuador increase in 0,35 dollars, also this one has a positive relation with the real Exchange rate, because, on having increased the TCRE (effective real Exchange rate), the imports increase in 0,13 %. | [
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations"
]
|
10.1002/adma.201402766 | Self-supported metallic nanopore arrays with highly oriented nanoporous structures as ideally nanostructured electrodes for supercapacitor applications | Self-supported metallic nanopore arrays with highly oriented nanoporous structures are fabricated and applied as ideally nanostructured electrodes for supercapacitor applications. Their large specific surface area can ensure a high capacitance, and their highly oriented and stable nanoporous structure can facilitate ion transport. (Chemical Equation Presented). | [
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Materials Engineering",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials"
]
|
10.1177/0956797612457390 | Fictitious Inhibitory Differences | The stop-signal paradigm is a popular method for examining response inhibition and impulse control in psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and clinical domains because it allows the estimation of the covert latency of the stop process: the stop-signal reaction time (SSRT). In three sets of simulations, we examined to what extent SSRTs that were estimated with the popular mean and integration methods were influenced by the skew of the reaction time distribution and the gradual slowing of the response latencies. We found that the mean method consistently overestimated SSRT. The integration method tended to underestimate SSRT when response latencies gradually increased. This underestimation bias was absent when SSRTs were estimated with the integration method for smaller blocks of trials. Thus, skewing and response slowing can lead to spurious inhibitory differences. We recommend that the mean method of estimating SSRT be abandoned in favor of the integration method. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"The Human Mind and Its Complexity"
]
|
10.5194/acp-20-649-2020 | Experimental investigation into the volatilities of highly oxygenated organic molecules (HOMs) | Abstract. Secondary
organic aerosol (SOA) forms a major part of the tropospheric submicron
aerosol. Still, the exact formation mechanisms of SOA have remained elusive. Recently, a newly discovered group of oxidation products of volatile organic
compounds (VOCs), highly oxygenated organic molecules (HOMs), have been
proposed to be responsible for a large fraction of SOA formation. To assess
the potential of HOMs to form SOA and to even take part in new particle
formation, knowledge of their exact volatilities is essential. However, due
to their exotic, and partially unknown, structures, estimating their
volatility is challenging. In this study, we performed a set of continuous
flow chamber experiments, supported by box modelling, to study the
volatilities of HOMs, along with some less oxygenated compounds, formed in the
ozonolysis of α-pinene, an abundant VOC emitted by boreal forests. Along with gaseous precursors, we periodically injected inorganic seed
aerosol into the chamber to vary the condensation sink (CS) of low-volatility
vapours. We monitored the decrease of oxidation products in the gas phase in
response to increasing CS, and were able to relate the responses to the
volatilities of the compounds. We found that HOM monomers are mainly of low
volatility, with a small fraction being semi-volatile. HOM dimers were all at
least low volatility, but probably extremely low volatility; however, our
method is not directly able to distinguish between the two. We were able to
model the volatility of the oxidation products in terms of their carbon,
hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen numbers. We found that increasing levels of
oxygenation correspond to lower volatilities, as expected, but that the
decrease is less steep than would be expected based on many existing models
for volatility, such as SIMPOL. The hydrogen number of a compound also
predicted its volatility, independently of the carbon number, with higher
hydrogen numbers corresponding to lower volatilities. This can be explained
in terms of the functional groups making up a molecule: high hydrogen numbers
are associated with, e. g. hydroxy groups, which lower volatility more than,
e. g. carbonyls, which are associated with a lower hydrogen number. The method
presented should be applicable to systems other than α-pinene
ozonolysis, and with different organic loadings, in order to study different
volatility ranges. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Earth System Science"
]
|
10.1109/TSP.2016.2646663 | Performance Limits For Noisy Multimeasurement Vector Problems | Compressed sensing (CS) demonstrates that sparse signals can be estimated from underdetermined linear systems. Distributed CS (DCS) further reduces the number of measurements by considering joint sparsity within signal ensembles. DCS with jointly sparse signals has applications in multisensor acoustic sensing, magnetic resonance imaging with multiple coils, remote sensing, and array signal processing. Multimeasurement vector (MMV) problems consider the estimation of jointly sparse signals under the DCS framework. Two related MMV settings are studied. In the first setting, each signal vector is measured by a different independent and identically distributed (i. i. d. ) measurement matrix, while in the second setting, all signal vectors are measured by the same i. i. d. matrix. Replica analysis is performed for these two MMV settings, and the minimum mean squared error (MMSE), which turns out to be identical for both settings, is obtained as a function of the noise variance and number of measurements. To showcase the application of MMV models, the MMSE's of complex CS problems with both real and complex measurement matrices are also analyzed. Multiple performance regions for MMV are identified where the MMSE behaves differently as a function of the noise variance and the number of measurements. Belief propagation (BP) is a CS signal estimation framework that often achieves the MMSE asymptotically. A phase transition for BP is identified. This phase transition, verified by numerical results, separates the regions where BP achieves the MMSE and where it is suboptimal. Numerical results also illustrate that more signal vectors in the jointly sparse signal ensemble lead to a better phase transition. | [
"Mathematics",
"Computer Science and Informatics"
]
|
804051 | Low Carbon Action in Ordinary Cities | The challenge of LO-ACT is to enable low carbon urban development in medium and small cities in rapidly urbanising areas in East, Central and West Africa, South Asia and South East Asia. The majority of emissions in the next century will be emitted by infrastructures that are yet to be built, particularly in rapidly urbanising areas where infrastructure is lacking. Population forecasts suggest that most population growth will take place in small and medium cities. Yet, to date, research on climate action has focused on showcasing strongly branded, successful initiatives in global cities. The low carbon transition depends on myriad of actions in ordinary cities, that is, cities outside global networks of climate innovation and leadership. LO-ACT will address this critical gap by delivering the first multi-dimensional, large scale assessment of low carbon action in ordinary cities. It will contribute a new framework to understand global environmental politics and urban governance.
First, LO-ACT will analyse the imaginaries of local action that have shaped global environmental politics over 30 years (Objective 1). The work programme will also analyse the mobility of low carbon urban policies in transport, energy, and housing across different urban contexts (Objective 2). LO-ACT will deliver a comparative analysis of urban trajectories in 113 ordinary cities, and five in-depth ethnographic case studies (Objective 3). Finally, it will provide a critical assessment of governance theory and a revised framework to acknowledge the messy and ordinary contexts of urban action (Objective 4).
LO-ACT will bring together an interdisciplinary, international team of researchers, an international network of academic advisors, and four regional hubs that will support context-specific data collection and analysis. The research will contribute to the fields of human geography, urban studies, environmental politics, sustainability transitions and science and technology studies. | [
"Human Mobility, Environment, and Space",
"Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems",
"Earth System Science",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution"
]
|
US 0209680 W | METHODS OF DELIVERY OF EXOGENOUS PROTEINS TO THE CYTOSOL AND USES THEREOF | The present invention is directed to a method for delivering exogenous proteins to the cytosol, by binding a target antigen (such as a protein) to a transport factor that contains a fragment of a bipartite protein exotoxin, but not the corresponding protective antigen. Preferably, the target antigen is fused to the transport factor. Preferred transport factors include the protective antigen binding domain of lethal factor (LFn) from B.anthracis, consisting of amino acids 1-255, preferably a fragment of at least 80 amino acids that shows at least 80 % homology to LFn, and a fragment of about 105 amino acids from the carboxy portion that does not bind PA. The target antigen can include any molecule for which it would be desirable to elicit a CMI response, including viral antigens and tumor antigens. | [
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy"
]
|
interreg_1844 | INnovatiVe E-Services for booSting Tourist economy and Multimodal public Transportation | Investment project aims at delivering an e-platform supporting an ecosystem of innovative services, addressing the requirements of citizens, tourists and public transportation service providers, while offering, for the first time, a unified view of the – otherwise – fragmented transportation network between the region of Western Greece and Puglia (Bari, Taranto, Ostuni).
The e-platform is envisaged through data consolidation across all the involved means of transport and will support three core e-services:
a multimodal public transit route planner, computing and visualizing optimal end-to-end routes from any point A to any point B in the programme area (e.g., from Taranto to Olympia) using different modes of transportation (e.g., bus, train, ferry, urban bus, walking).
a multimodal tourist tour planner that will derive personalized daily tourist tours via selected attractions, where each tour comprises an ordered set of attractions that matches user preferences and accessibility requirements, and using public transport services to move from one location to another.
a decision support system identifying bottlenecks across the public transport network to assist public transport operators, planners and policy makers in performing selective improvements upon the network (e.g., timetable updates or establishment of new services/routes).
Investment approach goes far beyond the existing practice in the regions of Western Greece and Puglia by homogenizing the so far incompatible transport network data so as to support added-value transport-related services for citizens, tourists, transport operators. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Human Mobility, Environment, and Space"
]
|
10.1016/j.sbi.2015.12.001 | Limited cooperativity in protein folding | Theory and simulations predict that the structural concert of protein folding reactions is relatively low. Experimentally, folding cooperativity has been difficult to study, but in recent years we have witnessed major advances. New analytical procedures in terms of conformational ensembles rather than discrete states, experimental techniques with improved time, structural, or single-molecule resolution, and combined thermodynamic and kinetic analysis of fast folding have contributed to demonstrate a general scenario of limited cooperativity in folding. Gradual structural disorder is already apparent on the unfolded and native states of slow, two-state folding proteins, and it greatly increases in magnitude for fast folding domains. These results demonstrate a direct link between how fast a single-domain protein folds and unfolds, and how cooperative (or structurally diverse) is its equilibrium unfolding process. Reducing cooperativity also destabilizes the native structure because it affects unfolding more than folding. We can thus define a continuous cooperativity scale that goes from the 'pliable' two-state character of slow folders to the gradual unfolding of one-state downhill, and eventually to intrinsically disordered proteins. The connection between gradual unfolding and intrinsic disorder is appealing because it suggests a conformational rheostat mechanism to explain the allosteric effects of folding coupled to binding. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
10.4319/lom.2013.11.28 | Development and deployment of a point-source digital inline holographic microscope for the study of plankton and particles to a depth of 6000 m | A point-source digital inline holographic microscope (DIHM) was designed for the imaging of particles from 50 μm to several millimeters in size. The DIHM operates autonomously without connection to external recording devices or power sources and delivers 4. 2 megapixel images at a rate of approximately 7 images s-1, each image representing a snapshot of 1. 8 mL seawater. Reliance on largely off-the-shelf components, and simplification in its construction makes this camera system adaptable to various particle size ranges and environments, and easy-to-operate for nonexpert users. The DIHM produced sharp images of protists with skeletal structures (e. g. , acantharians, tintinnids, dinoflagellates), mesoplankton (e. g. , copepods, appendicularians, medusae), Trichodesmium colonies and marine snow particles while descending in the water column at 1 m s-1, a typical velocity for deployments of tethered instruments and samplers from oceanographic vessels. To validate the usefulness of the new instrument in an oceanographic context, data are presented of the surface distribution of Trichodesmium spp. , and of the vertical frequency distribution of fecal pellets and other particles in the deep sea. The point-source DIHM has the potential to become a standard instrument on the CTD rosette (i. e. , on the basic oceanographic instrument and sampling frame) in the future providing a permanent archival record of the water column that can be mined for specific target particles in the future. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution"
]
|
259064 | Catalysis at the Nanoscale | Is it possible to really 'see' individual molecules in action as they are involved in a chemical reaction at a surface? And can we, in this way, get a complete understanding of reaction mechanisms, at the resolution of atoms? The importance of studying chemical reactions at surfaces has recently been highlighted by Gerhard Ertl being awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2007, for elucidating mechanisms of chemical processes on heterogeneous catalysts at the single molecule level with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM). Although ground-breaking, these studies were carried out in ultra-high vacuum, which is, however, an unrealistic condition for conventional chemical or biological reactions which usually occur in a liquid medium. The aim of this ERC proposal is to establish a research area at the interface of chemistry and physics which has so far been nearly completely unexplored: the investigation of chemical reactions at solid-liquid interfaces at the highest detail possible, by visualizing molecules with STM while they are involved in a reaction. By doing so, unique information about reaction mechanisms can be obtained by looking at individual molecules, instead of ensembles where the behaviour of many molecules is averaged.
Towards this goal I propose to use a newly developed catalysis-STM setup, which is equipped with a liquid-cell and a bell-jar, and in which the conditions that are commonly applied in chemical laboratory processes (e.g. addition and withdrawal of chemicals, working under different atmospheres) can be closely resembled. In this setup I intend to carry out chemical reactions at a surface and monitor the behaviour of individual adsorbed catalysts, while they are in action. More specifically, it is my aim to investigate in detail the relation between structure and reactivity at the nanoscale | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Condensed Matter Physics"
]
|
10.1144/SP411.13 | Geology And Archaeology Submerged Landscapes Of The Continental Shelf An Introduction | Sea-level change has influenced human populations globally since prehistoric times. Even in early phases of cultural development, human populations were faced with marine regression and transgression associated with the glacial–interglacial climatic cycle, amplified by glacio-isostatic adjustments in some regions. Global marine regression during the last glaciation changed the palaeogeography of the continental shelf, converting former marine environments to attractive terrestrial habitats for prehistoric human occupation, and adding an extensive new increment of land, in the case of Europe amounting to an additional 40% of the existing land area, and on a global scale to some 20 million km of additional territory that is now submerged. These areas of the shelf were used as hunting and gathering areas, and as pathways of dispersal between regions and between continents, until they were resubmerged by the post-glacial marine transgression. They also most probably witnessed the earliest developments in seafaring, marine exploitation and permanent settlements. Based on modern marine research technologies and the integration of large databases, proxy data are now becoming available for the reconstruction of these submerged Quaternary landscapes. Concerted efforts are also now being devoted to the search for prehistoric archaeological sites and artefacts on the seabed, often in collaboration with marine scientists. This search has been stimulated by the increasing amount of material that has demonstrably survived inundation, often with excellent preservation of organic remains, by closer collaboration with offshore industry, and by the growing realization of the importance of these submerged data for understanding human prehistoric developments during periods of rapidly changing climate and environment. Moreover, these new research trends are not simply being driven by an archaeological need for scientific and technological input from other disciplines, but by collaborations involving genuine mutual benefit, in which all partners have something to gain. Archaeological problems often pose new questions about geological change, stimulating new techniques of observation, new technologies and new investigations, which in their turn can offer new data, often at higher resolution and with better dates, in relation to geological and environmental issues such as sea-level change and palaeoclimatic variability on the continental shelf. The expansion of early human populations to occupy new territory and new continents is one of the great narratives of human evolution. It is currently a theme of wide interest and topicality, and has received significant impetus and publicity from the new science of palaeogenetics. Together with ongoing discoveries of new fossil and archaeological material, and new studies of palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironment, the field itself is rapidly expanding, leading to new discoveries and new controversies (Grine et al. 2009; Gamble 2013; Smith & Ahern 2013). All the current indications are that the human species originated in Africa, with at least two major episodes of dispersal. The earliest, some time after about 2 myr ago, led to the expansion of Homo ergaster/erectus populations across southern Europe and Asia, extending from Britain in the west to China and Indonesia in the east and south. The second involved our own species, Homo sapiens (Anatomically Modern Humans or AMH), and took place some time after about 200 ka. This resulted in the replacement of earlier hominin populations in Europe and Asia, and expansion further afield: into New Guinea and Australia, certainly involving sea crossings over distances of at least 50 km, by about 50 ka; to the higher latitudes of northern Eurasia, with entry into the Americas by at least 15 ka; and into new territory exposed by the melting of the northern hemisphere ice sheets less than 10 kyr ago. Anthropological and archaeological investigations of these processes are directly connected | [
"The Study of the Human Past",
"Earth System Science"
]
|
10.1039/d0ob00407c | Biochemical characterisation of an α1,4 galactosyltransferase from Neisseria weaveri for the synthesis of α1,4-linked galactosides | A new α1,4 galactosyltransferase has been characterised and used for the synthesis of natural and non-natural cell surface trisaccharide antigens. | [
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
2726755 | The translational cancer faster forward postdoctoral programme – canfaster-er | CanFaster is a joint venture among industry, health care and academia to enhance and accelerate innovations and clinical implementation within oncology. The mission of CanFaster is to prolong and save lives of cancer patients through integrated development and commercialization/implementation of diagnostic/treatment alternatives, thus reaching the market and patient more rapidly. CanFaster will save lives of cancer patients, not for future generations, but for today´s. The CanFaster programme is enabled by an intimate collaboration between industry, health care system and academia, and will contribute to the Europe 2020 strategy, where one million new research jobs are needed to reach the Innovation Union flagship initiative. The aim of the present proposal for funding is to accelerate this process further by recruiting ERs to synergize with the already ongoing CanFaster doctoral programme. The collected track record of all partners demonstrates an impressive history of entrepreneurial spirit, state-of the art medical care but also truly world-class scientific excellence within translational cancer research. The proposed programme recruting 15 ERs, will be hosted within CREATE Health, a translational cancer research programme with broad international collaboration partners and excellent out-put for the last 12 years. Main objectives of CanFaster are (i) Increased transnational and intersectorial mobility (ii) Intersectorial improvements through intensified collaboration within oncology between academia, industry and hospital/regional health care organisations. (iii) Acceleration of innovation, attracting international investors leading to increased number of SMEs in the region and (iv) Education of a new generation of excellent multidisciplinary, entrepreneurial scientists. This is achieved through the attraction of the MSCA program for industrial partners to add-on to the EU and public national funding of the programme with financial and in-kind contribution. | [
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems",
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations"
]
|
W412084290 | The effects of joint flight attendant and flight crew CRM training programmes on intergroup teamwork and communication | The aim of this research is to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of Crew Resource Management (CRM) training programmes for enhancing teamwork and cooperation between flight attendants and pilots. CRM programmes have been defined as the use of all available resources to achieve a safe flight (Helmreich, Merritt & Wilhelm, 1999). CRM programmes were developed for pilots following a series of accidents in the United States in the 1970s which were attributed to ineffective (or non-existent) communication within the flight decks. CRM programmes were extended to flight attendants in the 1990s after accident investigations had determined that some crashes could have been averted if flight attendants had passed on safety critical information to the pilots (e.g., the 1989 British Midlands crash at Kegworth). Human error is attributed to 60-80% of air accidents (Shappell and Wiegmann, 2004; von Thaden, 2008). Studies 1 and 2 involved a 36-item questionnaire for flight attendants which was administered before and after the introduction of the new CRM training programme for flight attendants at a South Pacific airline. The participating airline is a major air carrier so it was possible to obtain large samples (500+) for each of these quantitative studies. The results showed that there had been a significant attitude change in the positive direction. Multivariate analyses also revealed that there were significant differences between fleet type flown, crew position flown and length of service (seniority). As predicted crews with a greater length of service displayed safer attitudes as measured by the FSAQ (Flight Attendants) Crews on the narrowbodied A320 and B737 showed safer attitudes than their colleagues on the wide-bodied long-haul aircraft. Flight attendants in senior positions (ISD, ISC, and Purser) also displayed safer attitudes. Study 3 followed up on the significant positive attitude changes through a series of seventeen focus groups which involved 100 flight attendants. The purpose was to obtain high quality qualitative data on perceived barriers (and solutions) to communication between pilots and flight attendants. The major barrier identified was the locked flight deck door which meant that flight attendants could not see periods of high workload on the flight deck and there was difficulty in communicating safety critical information over the interphone due to noise and the lack of face-to face contact. Flight attendants suggested that one possible solution would be to install CCVT cameras so that the pilots could see that it was safe to unlock the door | [
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"The Social World and Its Interactions"
]
|
3736752 | Advanced machine learning for innovative drug discovery | The dramatic increase in using of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning methods in different fields of science becomes an essential asset in the development of the chemical industry, including pharmaceutical, agro biotech, and other chemical companies. However, the application of AI in these fields is not straightforward and requires excellent knowledge of chemistry. Thus, there is a strong need to train and prepare a new generation of scientists who have skills both in machine learning and in chemistry and can advance medicinal chemistry, which is the prime goal of the AIDD proposal. Research WPs include sixteen topics selected to cover the key innovative directions in machine learning in chemistry. Fellows employed will be supervised by academics who have excellent complementary expertise and contributed some of the fundamental AI algorithms which are used billions of times per day in the world, and leading EU Pharma companies who are in charge of new medicine and public health. All developed methods can be used individually but will also contribute to an integrated ""One Chemistry"" model that can predict outcomes ranging from different properties to molecule generation and synthesis. Training on various modalities allows the model to understand how to intertwine chemistry and biology to develop a new drug making its design robust and explainable. All partners agreed to make their software open source. It will boost the field and will provide the broadest possible dissemination of the results both to the academy and industry, including SMEs. The network will offer comprehensive, structured training through a well-elaborated Curriculum, online courses, and six Schools. The IP policy and commercial exploitation of the project results have the highest priority supported by intellectual property asset management organizations. Comprehensive public engagement activities will complement the dissemination of results to the scientific community. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases"
]
|
W2059887932 | Data Mining for Cyber Security | Cyber security is concerned with protecting computer and network system from corruption due to malicious software including Trojan horses and virus. Security of our network system is becoming imperative as massive sensitive information is transmitted across the network. In this research paper, data mining application for cyber security is highly explored. We discussed various cyber-terrorism or attack committed across the network such as malicious intrusion, credit card fraud, identity thefts, and infrastructure attack. Data mining techniques such as classification, anomaly, link analysis and so on are being applied to detect or prevent the aforementioned cyber-terrorism or attack. Recommendations were made and suggestion for further study was indicated. | [
"Computer Science and Informatics",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
3734473 | Quantifying and deploying responsible negative emissions in climate resilient pathways | The quantitative potential, effectiveness and impacts of negative emission technologies and practices (NETPs), particularly taking into account relevant disciplines such as sustainability, socio-political and socio-economic sciences, are not so well understood. Based on a multi-discipline approach, with world-leading experts that can show proven track records in technological, economic and socio-political disciplines, NEGEM will go beyond the perspectives of climate physics and climate economics currently providing the basis for climate scenario modelling. The novel approach of NEGEM is the focus on a real-world perspective, where the theoretical potential of NETPs will be filtered through a range of key performance indicators relevant to biogeochemical cycles, ecosystems and planetary boundaries, resource economies, societal dimensions, social acceptability, technological opportunities and constraints, multi-level governance, and the sustainability transition. Through this, NEGEM will address to what extent NETPs are required to achieve climate neutrality and how their associated technical, economic and socio-political impacts potentially limit their contribution. The result is a comprehensive analysis of the realistic, sustainably deployable potential of NETPs supporting EU’s endeavours to implement the Paris Agreement within the frames of relevant UN Sustainable Development Goals. The NEGEM analysis will feed into a comprehensive framework with guidance on how to create, select, analyse and disseminate pathways with NETPs. This framework will be used to identify a set of pathways to achieve climate neutrality, which helps lay the basis for the medium-to-long term vision needed to support EU’s endeavours to implement the PA within the context of relevant SDGs. NEGEM will dedicate specific efforts to reaching out to key stakeholders, in particular to policymakers at national and EU levels, but also to key international stakeholders, including developing countries. | [
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution",
"Individuals, Markets and Organisations",
"Earth System Science"
]
|
10.1007/s10886-014-0539-5 | Stereoisomeric Analysis of 6,10,14-Trimethylpentadecan-2-ol and the Corresponding Ketone in Wing Extracts from African Bicyclus Butterfly Species | Gas chromatography (GC) and mass spectrometry (MS) were used to determine the stereoisomeric compositions of 6,10,14-trimethylpentadecan-2-ol and 6,10,14-trimethylpentadecan-2-one in wing extracts from 17 Bicyclus butterfly species from different regions of Africa. All samples were purified using solid phase extraction (SPE). Since some species contained both alcohol and ketone, these were separated and the ketone was reduced to the alcohol before analysis as either (R)-trans-chrysanthemoyl or (S)-2-acetoxypropionyl esters. A novel asymmetric synthesis was developed for a reference mixture of (2R/S,6S,10R)-6,10,14-trimethylpentadecan-2-ol with known composition of the eight stereoisomers. The mixture then was used as the (R)-trans-chrysanthemoyl esters to correlate each of the eight gas chromatographic peaks to a specific stereoisomer of the extracted wing compounds. Seven butterfly species showed (2R,6R,10R)-configuration of the alcohol, four species contained minute amounts of alcohol too small to determine the stereochemistry, nine species showed (6R,10R)-configuration of the ketone, and one species contained minute amounts of ketone too small to determine the stereochemistry. No other stereoisomers of alcohol or ketone could be detected in the extracts, and the quantities of the compounds in the wing extracts varied from 5 to 900 ng per sample for each species. | [
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials",
"Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolution"
]
|
US 9006432 W | INSULATED BUILDING BLOCK | An insulated, substantially rectangular building block (10) is disclosed. The block (10) contains two spaced, outer supportive parts (12, 14) which are interlockably connected with each other and which extend along the length of the block; and a curvilinear inner insulating material (16) is present in the space between the supportive parts (12, 14). Each of the outer supportive parts (12, 14) has a configuration which differs from that of the other such part. The insulating material (16) is wedge-shaped, and it fits into a space between said supportive parts (12, 14) which is defined by walls which extend inwardly from the top (30) of the building block (10) to its bottom (32). | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
883817 | Innovative nanostructured pla polymer to expand suitable uses of biodegradable packaging | Bioplastics are an essential part of our efforts to reduce pollution and increase sustainability. Of these, the most ecoefficient bioplastic is PLA as it is biodegradable, requires 50% less energy and produces 10 times less emissions in comparison to standard thermoplastics like PET and PP. Furthermore, as it does not need to be recycled, it not only saves the energy and cost involved, but also the fact that only a fraction of the plastic produced reaches the recycling plant, the rest ending up in landfill or the sea.
However, biodegradable plastics only make up approximately 0.2% of plastics produced in 2014. This is because conventional PLA has certain technical limitations which reduce the number of marketable applications where it can be used. For example, it cannot compete with standard thermoplastic grades used in packaging applications (such as PET and PE), in terms of oxygen and water vapour barrier and thermal properties, which are the most demanded properties for packaging requirements.
Advanced & Functional Technologies for Biocomposites S.L (ADBIOCOMPOSITES) has developed an innovative, biodegradable PLA grade named BlockPLA which has enhanced technical properties: oxygen and water vapour barrier, thermal stability, transparency and flexibility. BlockPLA solves the drawbacks that PLA currently shows for packaging applications. In addition, BlockPLA has food contact approval and requires less energy to be produced. Production costs are slightly lower than conventional PLA. Therefore, BlockPLA is a real biodegradable alternative to PET, PP and PLA for packaging applications in the food and beverage industry, pharmaceutical and biomedical industry, home care packaging, cosmetics industry and others.
ADBIOCOMPOSITES aims to use the SME instrument to scale up the production of BlockPLA and bring it to the packaging market, generating 37 new jobs and above €10 million revenues. | [
"Materials Engineering",
"Synthetic Chemistry and Materials",
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
219044 | Implementation of the discoveries centre for regenerative and precision medicine, a new centre of excellence in portugal | This proposal is an initiative from 5 top-ranked Portuguese universities including the University of Minho (UMINHO), the University of Porto (UPORTO), the University of Aveiro (UAVR), the University of Lisbon (ULISBOA), the New University of Lisbon (UNL), and a university of research and innovation excellence from the United Kingdom, the University College of London (UCL). These institutions will be the founders of the future independent multi-campi research centre, The Discoveries Centre for Regenerative and Precision Medicine. This partnership is coordinated by the Portuguese Foundation for Science & Technology (FCT). The Discoveries Centre to be created during the proposed project will perform world-leading research, by anchoring research activities of the best research groups in Portugal, promoting excellence, advanced training, translational research outputs and commercialisation strategies. In the long-run, these are expected to generate an important economic impact, as well as a positive social effect by contributing to the increase of the quality of life of an ageing European population affected by neurodegenerative, cardiovascular and musculoskeletal diseases.
It is anticipated that The Discoveries Centre will be able to foster a knowledge-based economy aligned with national and regional strategic priority areas and European societal challenges, thus reinforcing Portugal’s scientific capabilities, create also critical mass of science in this field of research, as well as social and economic development. It will also contribute to a global recognition of the national scientific production, having a structuring effect in the Portuguese science, generating high value-added products, attracting top-level international scientists, as well as enhancing the capacity to retain the best Portuguese researchers. This proposal has the strongest possible support (financial) from the Portuguese National Government and the Regional Authorities. | [
"Cell Biology, Development, Stem Cells and Regeneration",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases",
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing"
]
|
10.1016/j.molonc.2014.05.009 | Brain metastasis: New opportunities to tackle therapeutic resistance | Brain metastasis is a devastating complication of cancer with unmet therapeutic needs. The incidence of brain metastasis has been rising in cancer patients and its response to treatment is limited due to the singular characteristics of brain metastasis (i. e. , blood-brain-barrier, immune system, stroma). Despite improvements in the treatment and control of extracranial disease, the outcomes of patients with brain metastasis remain dismal. The mechanisms that allow tumor cells to promulgate metastases to the brain remain poorly understood. Further work is required to identify the molecular alterations inherent to brain metastasis in order to identify novel therapeutic targets and explicate the mechanisms of resistance to systemic therapeutics. In this article, we review current knowledge of the unique characteristics of brain metastasis, implications in therapeutic resistance, and the possibility of developing biomarkers to rationally guide the use of targeted agents. | [
"Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System",
"Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions",
"Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy"
]
|
10.1093/mnras/stz1953 | Simulating radial velocity observations of trappist-1 with SPIRou | ABSTRACT We simulate a radial velocity (RV) follow-up of the TRAPPIST-1 system, a faithful representative of M dwarfs hosting transiting Earth-sized exoplanets to be observed with SPIRou in the months to come. We generate an RV curve containing the signature of the seven transiting TRAPPIST-1 planets and a realistic stellar activity curve statistically compatible with the light curve obtained with the K2 mission. We find a ±5 m s−1 stellar activity signal comparable in amplitude with the planet signal. Using various sampling schemes and white noise levels, we create time-series from which we estimate the masses of the seven planets. We find that the precision on the mass estimates is dominated by (i) the white noise level for planets c, f, and e and (ii) the stellar activity signal for planets b, d, and h. In particular, the activity signal completely outshines the RV signatures of planets d and h that remain undetected regardless of the RV curve sampling and level of white noise in the data set. We find that an RV follow-up of TRAPPIST-1 using SPIRou alone would likely result in an insufficient coverage of the rapidly evolving activity signal of the star, especially with bright-time observations only, making statistical methods such as Gaussian Process Regression hardly capable of firmly detecting planet f and accurately recovering the mass of planet g. In contrast, we show that using bi-site observations with good longitudinal complementary would allow for a more accurate filtering of the stellar activity RV signal. | [
"Universe Sciences",
"Systems and Communication Engineering"
]
|
10.1109/TIA.2016.2581154 | Harmonic instability analysis of a single-phase grid-connected converter using a harmonic state-space modeling method | The increasing number of renewable energy sources in the distribution grid is becoming a major issue for utility companies since grid-connected converters are operating at different operating points due to the probabilistic characteristics of the renewable energy. Usually, the harmonics and impedance from other renewable energy sources are not taken carefully into account in the installation and design of the systems. It can bring an unknown harmonic instability into a multiple power-sourced system and makes the analysis difficult due to the complexity of the grid network. This paper proposes a new model of a single-phase grid-connected renewable energy source by using the harmonic state-space modeling approach, which can identify such problems. The model can be extended to a multiple connected converter analysis. The modeling results show the harmonic impedance matrixes, which represent the harmonic coupling characteristic, as well as different dynamic characteristics. The theoretical modeling and analysis are verified by simulations, as well as experimental results. | [
"Systems and Communication Engineering",
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
101002868 | TRansport in the InterioR of the Earth from Modelling and Experiments | Project TRIREME will explore the transport of energy through minerals and melts at the high pressure and temperature conditions of the Earth’s interior, and the consequences for Earth’s evolution and its present dynamics, from the core to the biosphere. Deep transport determines the age and growth behaviour of the inner core, the thermal history of the mantle, and the longevity of Earth’s life- and civilization-sustaining magnetic field. This project will determine the transport behaviour in deep Earth materials via cutting edge experiments at extreme conditions, constraining heat transport, electrical conduction, and fluid flow in Earth’s core and lower mantle. Accurate numerical modelling of the complex experiments will robustly establish underlying transport properties and their uncertainties. Applying these methods in geophysically-relevant minerals and melts, including iron alloys and mantle minerals, at the true conditions of Earth’s interior, our results will constrain the dynamics of deep Earth systems, to better understand and predict their evolution and effect on the surface environment. We will examine in particular the current and historic conditions of Earth’s core and dynamo-driven magnetic field in the context of geodynamic and geomagnetic constraints on deep dynamics. Project TRIREME (Latin: ""three rows of oars"") will thus comprise three lines of investigation: 1) the laboratory study of transport in Earth's interior using novel and cutting-edge experimental techniques at high pressure and temperature; 2) the numerical modelling of experiments in unprecedented detail to accurately characterise observed transport phenomena at extremes; and 3) consideration of the geodynamic phenomena emerging from the underlying transport behaviour. In breaking through longstanding challenges in the measurement of transport at extreme conditions, this work will set course to make a historic impact in the study of Earth systems’ dynamics. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Condensed Matter Physics",
"Physical and Analytical Chemical Sciences"
]
|
interreg_1889 | IT.inerari E R.ete del R.omanico in CO.rsica S.ardegna T.oscana | The theme of the project ITERR-COST - The Romanesque Routes and network in Corsica, Sardinia, Tuscany, on the promotion, enhancement and management of the assets of the Romanesque Upper Tyrrhenian Sea. The Romanesque is one of the roots of European civilization. Between the eleventh and the thirteenth century, presents itself as a cultural and technical language is characterized by unitary elements, but who knows many local variations. One of the most important Tuscan Romanesque architecture is formed, which developed in various cities (Pisa, Lucca, Pistoia, Arezzo, Florence) and in many rural towns. The architecture of the eleventh-thirteenth century, Corsica has significant similarities with that of Sardinia, and both are derived largely from the activity of workers "Pisan". The trade routes convey not only goods but also men and promote the arts and technology transfer in Corsica and Sardinia to the mainland by the Ligurian-Tuscan craftsmen. The Romanesque churches are integrated in the urban and rural areas coming to connote significant way the landscape itself.
The reference area: the Upper Corsica, Sardinia and the provinces of Pisa and Lucca.
The overall objective: is to improve the value of the assets of the Romanesque in the high Tyrrhenian sea.
The target: No 50 common sites of monuments, the reference population, young graduates; tourists.
The main activities: 1. The design and coordination. 2. Activities coordinated management of sites. 3. Activities for the development of techniques for cross-border management of tourism. 4. Communication and dissemination activities.
| [
"The Study of the Human Past",
"Studies of Cultures and Arts"
]
|
10.5194/gmd-11-1321-2018 | The regional climate model REMO (v2015) coupled with the 1-D freshwater lake model FLake (v1): Fenno-Scandinavian climate and lakes | . The regional climate model REMO was coupled with the FLake lake model to include an interactive treatment of lakes. Using this new version, the Fenno-Scandinavian climate and lake characteristics were studied in a set of 35-year hindcast simulations. Additionally, sensitivity tests related to the parameterization of snow albedo were conducted. Our results show that overall the new model version improves the representation of the Fenno-Scandinavian climate in terms of 2 m temperature and precipitation, but the downside is that an existing wintertime cold bias in the model is enhanced. The lake surface water temperature, ice depth and ice season length were analyzed in detail for 10 Finnish, 4 Swedish and 2 Russian lakes and 1 Estonian lake. The results show that the model can reproduce these characteristics with reasonably high accuracy. The cold bias during winter causes overestimation of ice layer thickness, for example, at several of the studied lakes, but overall the values from the model are realistic and represent the lake physics well in a long-term simulation. We also analyzed the snow depth on ice from 10 Finnish lakes and vertical temperature profiles from 5 Finnish lakes and the model results are realistic. | [
"Earth System Science",
"Products and Processes Engineering"
]
|
10.1136/bmjopen-2015-008808 | Heavier smoking may lead to a relative increase in waist circumference: Evidence for a causal relationship from a Mendelian randomisation meta-analysis. The CARTA consortium | Objectives: To investigate, using a Mendelian randomisation approach, whether heavier smoking is associated with a range of regional adiposity phenotypes, in particular those related to abdominal adiposity. Design: Mendelian randomisation meta-analyses using a genetic variant (rs16969968/rs1051730 in the CHRNA5-CHRNA3-CHRNB4 gene region) as a proxy for smoking heaviness, of the associations of smoking heaviness with a range of adiposity phenotypes. Participants:148 731 current, former and neversmokers of European ancestry aged. 16 years from 29 studies in the consortium for Causal Analysis Research in Tobacco and Alcohol (CARTA). Primary outcome measures: Waist and hip circumferences, and waist-hip ratio. Results: The data included up to 66 809 never-smokers, 43 009 former smokers and 38 913 current daily cigarette smokers. Among current smokers, for each extra minor allele, the geometric mean was lower for waist circumference by -0. 40% (95% CI -0. 57% to -0. 22%), with effects on hip circumference, waist-hip ratio and body mass index (BMI) being -0. 31% (95% CI -0. 42% to -0. 19), -0. 08% (-0. 19% to 0. 03%) and -0. 74% (-0. 96% to -0. 51%), respectively. In contrast, among never-smokers, these effects were higher by 0. 23% (0. 09% to 0. 36%), 0. 17% (0. 08% to 0. 26%), 0. 07% (-0. 01% to 0. 15%) and 0. 35% (0. 18% to 0. 52%), respectively. When adjusting the three central adiposity measures for BMI, the effects among current smokers changed direction and were higher by 0. 14% (0. 05% to 0. 22%) for waist circumference, 0. 02% (-0. 05% to 0. 08%) for hip circumference and 0. 10% (0. 02% to 0. 19%) for waist-hip ratio, for each extra minor allele. Conclusions: For a given BMI, a gene variant associated with increased cigarette consumption was associated with increased waist circumference. Smoking in an effort to control weight may lead to accumulation of central adiposity. | [
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing",
"Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems"
]
|
EP 2009050654 W | BAG INCLUDING CLOSING PROFILES ACTUATED BY SLIDER | The invention relates to a bag (1) that comprises two substantially parallel sheets (12, 13) defining the main walls thereof, complementary closing profiles (2, 3) respectively attached to said sheets (12, 13), and a slider (5) for actuating the profiles (2, 3) upon opening or closing. The bag is characterised in that at least one of said sheets (12, 13) includes, on the outer face thereof, in the vicinity of the gripping area of the slider (5) and parallel to the movement direction of the latter, a strip-shaped bead defining a build-up having a thickness and a width sufficient for locally modifying the deformability thereof. | [
"Products and Processes Engineering",
"Materials Engineering"
]
|
10.1186/s12915-019-0672-2 | Metabolic vulnerabilities of metastasizing cancer cells | Most cancer patients die due to metastasis formation. Therefore, understanding, preventing, and treating metastatic cancers is an unmet need. Recent research indicates that cancer cells that undergo metastasis formation have a distinct metabolism that can be targeted. Here, I would like to discuss potential opportunities in exploiting the metabolic vulnerabilities of metastasizing cancer cells. | [
"Physiology in Health, Disease and Ageing",
"Molecules of Life: Biological Mechanisms, Structures and Functions"
]
|
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