Production of perovskite-like La1−xCaxMnO3+δ ferromagnetic thin films by electrochemical reduction

Ferromagnetic and perovskite-like thin films (<1m) of La1–xCaxMnO3+ have been routinely prepared by heat treatment of an amorphous La–Ca–Mn precursor. The precursor was electrodeposited cathodically in the absence of oxygen and water onto polished silver substrates from a nonaqueous solution of the components' nitrates. Analysis by X-ray diffraction and SQUID magnetometry shows these materials exhibit the appropriate structural and magnetic phases indicative of colossal magnetoresistance.     

Functional and metabolic evaluation of the hypertrophied heart using MRI and31P-MRS

4. Conclusions Diastolic LV function and myocardial HEP metabolism are impaired only when LVH is caused by permanent pressure or volume overload, and not by a temporary increase in cardiac workload during part of the day as in elite athletes. Therefore, training-induced and pressure/volume-overload-induced LVH seem to represent different phenotypes of LVH, possibly related to genetic reprogramming which only occurs during permanent cardiac overload [17]. Moreover, there is an association between impaired LV diastolic function and altered myocardial HEP metabolism in patients with hypertension and in patients with aortic valve disease. Finally we did not find a correlation between myocardial HEP metabolism and LV mass in any of the groups studied. The latter indicates that LVH should be regarded as an epiphenomenon to cardiac overload, and not as a primary factor causing abnormal HEP metabolism.     

High-performance wobbling subreflector for the Millimetre and Infrared Testa Grigia Observatory 2.6-m telescope

The Millimetre and Infrared Testa Grigia Observatory 2.6-m Cassegrain telescope has been designed to allow high-sensitivity observations in the millimeter spectral range. For this purpose, in order to reduce unwanted contributions from local foregrounds, we adopted a sky-chopping technique, by wobbling the telescope subreflector. We describe the design and performance of the wobbling system, which can endure external forced two and three fields square-wave modulation and includes features such as high frequency, high amplitude, high duty cycle, low microphonics, and high stability.     

A proposal for student modeling based on ontologies and diagnosis rules

The advances in the educational field and the high complexity of student modeling have provoked it to be one of the aspects more investigated in Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs). The Student Models (SMs) should not only represent the student’s knowledge, but rather they should reflect, as faithfully as possible, the student’s reasoning process. To facilitate this goal, in this article a new approach to student modeling is proposed that benefits from the advantages of Ontological Engineering, advancing in the pursue of a more granular and complete knowledge representation. It’s focused, mainly, on the SM cognitive diagnosis process, and we present a method providing a rich diagnosis about the student’s knowledge state – especially, about the state of learning objectives reached or not. The main goal is to achieve SMs with a good adaptability to the student’s features and a high flexibility for its integration in varied ITSs.     

Realistic real-time sound re-synthesis and processing for interactive virtual worlds

We present new GPU-based techniques for implementing linear digital filters for real-time audio processing. Our solution for recursive filters is the first presented in the literature. We demonstrate the relevance of these algorithms to computer graphics by synthesizing realistic sounds of colliding objects made of different materials, such as glass, plastic, and wood, in real time. The synthesized sounds can be parameterized by the object materials, velocities, and collision angles. Despite its flexibility, our approach uses very little memory, since it essentially requires a set of coefficients representing the impulse response of each material sound. Such features make our approach an attractive alternative to traditional CPU-based techniques that use playback of pre-recorded sounds.     

Suppressing intersample behavior in iterative learning control

Iterative Learning Control (ILC) is a control strategy to improve the performance of digital batch repetitive processes. Due to its digital implementation, discrete time ILC approaches do not guarantee good intersample behavior. In fact, common discrete time ILC approaches may deteriorate the intersample behavior, thereby reducing the performance of the sampled-data system. In this paper, a generally applicable multirate ILC approach is presented that enables to balance the at-sample performance and the intersample behavior. Furthermore, key theoretical issues regarding multirate systems are addressed, including the time-varying nature of the multirate ILC setup. The proposed multirate ILC approach is shown to outperform discrete time ILC in realistic simulation examples.     

Thermal and cardiovascular strain imposed by motorcycle protective clothing under Australian summer conditions

Motorcycle protective clothing can be uncomfortably hot during summer, and this experiment was designed to evaluate the physiological significance of that burden. Twelve males participated in four, 90-min trials (cycling 30 W) across three environments (25, 30, 35 °C [all 40% relative humidity]). Clothing was modified between full and minimal injury protection. Both ensembles were tested at 25 °C, with only the more protective ensemble investigated at 30 and 35 °C. At 35 °C, auditory canal temperature rose at 0.02 °C min^?1 (SD 0.005), deviating from all other trials (p < 0.05). The thresholds for moderate (>38.5 °C) and profound hyperthermia (>40.0 °C) were predicted to occur within 105 min (SD 20.6) and 180 min (SD 33.0), respectively. Profound hyperthermia might eventuate in ~10 h at 30 °C, but should not occur at 25 °C. These outcomes demonstrate a need to enhance the heat dissipation capabilities of motorcycle clothing designed for summer use in hot climates, but without compromising impact protection.

Practitioner’s Summary:

Motorcycle protective clothing can be uncomfortably hot during summer. This experiment was designed to evaluate the physiological significance of this burden across climatic states. In the heat, moderate (>38.5 °C) and profound hyperthermia (>40.0 °C) were predicted to occur within 105 and 180 min, respectively.