Study of a BGO calorimeter using electron and hadron beams from 1 to 50 GeV

A calorimeter of 25 bismuth germanate (BGO) crystals equipped with silicon photodiode readout has been tested at the CERN SPS in the energy range 1–50 GeV. The response for electrons has been shown to be linear in this energy range and the rms resolution obtained ( ) is approximately 1%, for E > 4 GeV. The electron/pion separation was found to be better than 1:500 in the energy range 1–20 GeV. Data on lateral and longitudinal shower development were compared with the results of a Monte Carlo simulation using the SLAC-EGS program and found to be in good agreement.     

The beneficial effects of storage on the quality of wastewater for irrigation: a case study in Sicily.

Although the main function of reservoirs in agriculture is to allow the storage and temporal shifting of large volumes of waters, further benefits emerge from their application in wastewater reuse systems. In fact, as observed in several other studies carried out on such complex natural systems, the storage period, under proper conditions, can lead to a significant improvement of the water quality for irrigation thanks to concurrent physical, chemical and biological processes. In order to investigate the reservoir dynamics, an experimental research was carried out in a farm reservoir (volume of 11,000 m3, maximum depth of 6.3 m and mean depth of about 5 m), receiving treated wastewater and subject to scheduled highly variable input to volume ratios, in order to observe the broadest range of behaviour responses. Specifically, over a monitoring period lasted 4 months, the reservoir was operated as a standard batch reactor in the first and third phases and as a continuous flow reactor in the second one. Based on correlation analysis between the chemical, physical and biological water parameters and operational ones, a new operative index is proposed which integrates the morphological characteristics of the tank and the management ones, and shows a significant correlation with the qualitative characteristics of the stored water.     

MODELING WATER LOSS DURING FRYING OF POTATO STRIPS: EFFECT OF SOLUTE IMPREGNATION

The effect of solute impregnation on water loss and oil uptake during potato strip frying was studied. Blanched potato strips were impregnated at 25°C by soaking in a solution of sucrose-NaCl-water, 20-5-75% by weight. After rinsing and air drying, strips were deep fried in sunflower oil at 160, 170 and 180°C. A control treatment, consisting of potato strips blanched but not soaked and later air dried was also conducted. Solute impregnation provided a decrease of the oil uptake. Two models, based on Fick's law were used to describe water loss during frying. The first one is the classic model with an effective moisture diffusion coefficient assumed a constant value. The second model considers that diffusion coefficient varies during the frying process. For a given frying temperature, constant diffusion coefficient for control potatoes resulted in lower values than the impregnated ones. The variable diffusivity model showed a two-stage behavior: during the first stage of frying, diffusion coefficient increased with frying temperatures, but from a given time on an inverse behavior began. This last fact was found to be related to an increase of the measured peak force needed to penetrate the potato crust.     

A new method of magnetic resonance image reconstruction with short acquisition time and truncation artifact reduction

A method for the reconstruction of magnetic resonance images that allows for a substantial reduction of the quantity of measured data and, therefore, of the acquisition time is described. The truncation artifact is also reduced, improving the image quality. The method is based on techniques for getting superresolution in spectral analysis such as autoregressive modeling and Prony's method. Moreover, some new ideas about the autoregressive order selection are introduced. The method is compared to the standard one for reconstructing simulated, phantom, and medical magnetic resonance images. The numerical stability and the computational cost issues of the resulting algorithm are also addressed     

High-Fat Diet Leads to Reduced Protein O-GlcNAcylation and Mitochondrial Defects Promoting the Development of Alzheimer’s Disease Signatures

The disturbance of protein O-GlcNAcylation is emerging as a possible link between altered brain metabolism and the progression of neurodegeneration. As observed in brains with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), flaws of the cerebral glucose uptake translate into reduced protein O-GlcNAcylation, which promote the formation of pathological hallmarks. A high-fat diet (HFD) is known to foster metabolic dysregulation and insulin resistance in the brain and such effects have been associated with the reduction of cognitive performances. Remarkably, a significant role in HFD-related cognitive decline might be played by aberrant protein O-GlcNAcylation by triggering the development of AD signature and mitochondrial impairment. Our data support the impairment of total protein O-GlcNAcylation profile both in the brain of mice subjected to a 6-week high-fat-diet (HFD) and in our in vitro transposition on SH-SY5Y cells. The reduction of protein O-GlcNAcylation was associated with the development of insulin resistance, induced by overfeeding (i.e., defective insulin signaling and reduced mitochondrial activity), which promoted the dysregulation of the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway (HBP) flux, through the AMPK-driven reduction of GFAT1 activation. Further, we observed that a HFD induced the selective impairment of O-GlcNAcylated-tau and of O-GlcNAcylated-Complex I subunit NDUFB8, thus resulting in tau toxicity and reduced respiratory chain functionality respectively, highlighting the involvement of this posttranslational modification in the neurodegenerative process.     

A METHOD FOR GENERATING INDEPENDENT REALIZATIONS OF A MULTIVARIATE NORMAL STATIONARY AND INVERTIBLE ARMA(p, q) PROCESS

Abstract. A method for generating finite independent realizations of a normal multivariate stationary ARMA( p, q ) process is proposed. It is based on an AR (1) representation of an ARMA( p, q ) process allowing for an exact generation of the initial values of the simulation algorithm. Input facilities are supplied in order to assure stationarity and invertibility of the considered process.     

Real-time digital control of optical interferometers by the mechanical-modulation technique

We discuss the application of digital systems to the automatic control of dual-wave optical interferometers. We show that, if the mechanical-modulation technique is used for error-signal extraction, digital techniques can be used both for error-signal extraction and for control-signal generation. Therefore, apart from two front/end amplifiers that are necessary to match the dynamics of the detectors and actuators to the dynamics of the analog-to-digital converters and digital-to-analog converters, no other analog devices are required. In particular, the mechanical-modulation technique requires the synchronous demodulation of the photodiode output signal. Hence we need to implement a digital lock-in amplifier whose algorithm is described here. Finally, we describe one of the possible applications of this digital control procedure, such as the control of a classic Mach-Zehnder interferometer in air.     

Sorafenib delivery nanoplatform based on superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles magnetically targets hepatocellular carcinoma

Currently,sorafenib is the only systemic therapy capable of increasing overall survival of hepatocellular carcinoma patients.Unfortunately,its side effects,particularly its overall toxicity,limit the therapeutic response that can be achieved.Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) are very attractive for drug delivery because they can be targeted to specific sites in the body through application of a magnetic field,thus improving intratumoral accumulation and reducing adverse effects.Here,nanoformulations based on polyethylene glycol modified phospholipid micelles,loaded with both SPIONs and sorafenib,were successfully prepared and thoroughly investigated by complementary techniques.This nanovector system provided effective drug delivery,had an average hydrodynamic diameter of about 125 nm,had good stability in aqueous medium,and allowed controlled drug loading.Magnetic analysis allowed accurate determination of the amount of SPIONs embedded in each micelle.An in vitro system was designed to test whether the SPION micelles can be efficiently held using a magnetic field under typical flow conditions found in the human liver.Human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells were selected as an in vitro system to evaluate tumor cell targeting efficacy of the superparamagnetic micelles loaded with sorafenib.These experiments demonstrated that this delivery platform is able to enhance sorafenib's antitumor effectiveness by magnetic targeting.The magnetic nanovectors described here represent promising candidates for targeting specific hepatic tumor sites,where selective release of sorafenib can improve its efficacy and safety profile.     

Synthetic handwritten CAPTCHAs

CAPTCHAs (completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart) are in common use today as a method for performing automated human verification online. The most popular type of CAPTCHA is the text recognition variety. However, many of the existing printed text CAPTCHAs have been broken by web-bots and are hence vulnerable to attack. We present an approach to use human-like handwriting for designing CAPTCHAs. A synthetic handwriting generation method is presented, where the generated textlines need to be as close as possible to human handwriting without being writer-specific. Such handwritten CAPTCHAs exploit the differential in handwriting reading proficiency between humans and machines. Test results show that when the generated textlines are further obfuscated with a set of deformations, machine recognition rates decrease considerably, compared to prior work, while human recognition rates remain the same.