TileCal is the central hadronic calorimeter of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It is a sampling detector where scintillating tiles are embedded in steel absorber plates. The ...tiles are grouped to form cells, which are read-out on both sides using wavelength-shifting fibers by two photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). The PMT digital samples are transmitted to the read-out drivers (RODs) located in the back-end system for the events accepted by the Level 1 trigger system. The ROD is the core element of the back-end electronics, and it represents the interface between the front-end electronics and the ATLAS overall data acquisition (DAQ) system. The commissioning of the RODs was completed in 2008 before the first LHC collisions. Since then, several hardware and firmware updates have been implemented to accommodate the RODs to the evolving ATLAS Trigger and DAQ conditions adjusted to follow the LHC performance. The initial ROD system, the different updates implemented, and the operational experience during the LHC Run 1 and Run 2 are presented.
Fungi of the genus Botrytis (presently containing ~ 35 species) are able to infect more than 1400 different plant species and cause losses in a wide range of crops of economic importance. The best ...studied species is B. cinerea, which has a broad host range and is one of the best studied necrotrophic plant pathogenic fungi. Most other Botrytis spp. have a narrow host range and have been studied in less detail. To characterize genomic variation among different representatives of Botrytis spp., we sequenced and annotated the draft genomes of nine Botrytis species: B. calthae, B. convoluta, B. elliptica, B. galanthina, B. hyacinthi, B. narcissicola, B. paeoniae, B. porri and B. tulipae.
Bioinformatics and comparative genomics tools were applied to determine a core of 7668 shared protein families in all Botrytis species, which grouped them in two distinct phylogenetic clades. The secretome of all nine Botrytis spp. was similar in number (ranging from 716 to 784 predicted proteins). A detailed analysis of the molecular functions of the secretome revealed that shared activities were highly similar. Orthologs to effectors functionally studied in B. cinerea were also present in the other Botrytis species. A complex pattern of presence/absence of secondary metabolite biosynthetic key enzymes was observed.
Comparative genomics of Botrytis show that overall, species share the main signatures and protein families in the secreted proteins, and of known effectors. Our study provides leads to study host range determinants in the genus Botrytis and provides a stepping stone to elucidate the roles of effector candidates in the infection process of these species.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) ranks among the leading causes of decrements in disability-adjusted life-years. Long-term exposure to alcohol leads to an imbalance of activity between frontal cortical ...systems and the striatum, thereby enhancing impulsive behaviours and weakening inhibitory control. Alternative therapeutic approaches such as non-invasive and invasive brain stimulation have gained some momentum in the field of addictology by capitalizing on their ability to target specific anatomical structures and correct abnormalities in dysfunctional brain circuits.
The current review, covers original peer-reviewed published research on the use of brain stimulation methods for the rehabilitation of AUD. A broad and systematic search was carried out on four electronic databases: NCBI PubMed, Web of Science, Handbooks and the Cochrane Library. Any original article in English or French language, without restrictions of patient age or gender, article type and publication outlet, were included in the final pool of selected studies.
The outcomes of this systematic review suggest that the dorsolateral prefrontral cortex (DLPFC) is a promising target for treating AUD with high frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation. Such effect would reduce feelings of craving by enhancing cognitive control and modulating striatal function. Existing literature also supports the notion that changes of DLPFC activity driven by transcranial direct current stimulation, could decrease alcohol craving and consumption. However, to date, no major differences have been found between the efficacy of these two non-invasive brain-stimulation approaches, which require further confirmation. In contrast, beneficial stronger evidence supports an impact of deep brain stimulation reducing craving and improving quality of life in AUD, effects that would be mediated by an impact on the nucleus accumbens, a central structure of the brain's reward circuitry. Overall, neurostimulation shows promise contributing to the treatment of AUD. Nonetheless, progress has been limited by a number of factors such as the low number of controlled randomized trials, small sample sizes, variety of stimulation parameters precluding comparability and incomplete or questionable sham-conditions. Additionally, a lack of data concerning clinical impact on the severity of AUD or craving and the short follow up periods precluding and accurate estimation of effect duration after discontinuing the treatment, has also limited the clinical relevance of final outcomes.
Brain stimulation remains a promising approach to contribute to AUD therapy, co-adjuvant of more conventional procedures. However, a stronger therapeutic rational based on solid physio-pathological evidence and accurate estimates of efficacy, are still required to achieve further therapeutic success and expand clinical use.
•Long term exposure to alcohol leads to an imbalance of activity between frontal cortical systems and the striatum.•Brain dysfunction secondary to alcohol enhance impulsive behaviours and weaken inhibitory control.•Brain stimulation techniques have gained momentum by capitalizing on their ability to target specific anatomical structures.•Progress in neurostimulation has been limited by the diversity of stimulation parameters and questionable sham-conditions.
Before the 1990s, human fascioliasis diagnosis focused on individual patients in hospitals or health centres. Case reports were mainly from developed countries and usually concerned isolated human ...infection in animal endemic areas. From the mid-1990s onwards, due to the progressive description of human endemic areas and human infection reports in developing countries, but also new knowledge on clinical manifestations and pathology, new situations, hitherto neglected, entered in the global scenario. Human fascioliasis has proved to be pronouncedly more heterogeneous than previously thought, including different transmission patterns and epidemiological situations. Stool and blood techniques, the main tools for diagnosis in humans, have been improved for both patient and survey diagnosis. Present availabilities for human diagnosis are reviewed focusing on advantages and weaknesses, sample management, egg differentiation, qualitative and quantitative diagnosis, antibody and antigen detection, post-treatment monitoring and post-control surveillance. Main conclusions refer to the pronounced difficulties of diagnosing fascioliasis in humans given the different infection phases and parasite migration capacities, clinical heterogeneity, immunological complexity, different epidemiological situations and transmission patterns, the lack of a diagnostic technique covering all needs and situations, and the advisability for a combined use of different techniques, at least including a stool technique and a blood technique.
Deception Island (South Shetland Islands) is one of the most active volcanoes in Antarctica, with more than 20 explosive eruptive events registered over the past two centuries. Recent eruptions ...(1967, 1969, and 1970) and the volcanic unrest episodes that happened in 1992, 1999, and 2014-2015 demonstrate that the occurrence of future volcanic activity is a valid and pressing concern for scientists, technical and logistic personnel, and tourists, that are visiting or working on or near the island. We present a unifying evolutionary model of the magmatic system beneath Deception Island by integrating new petrologic and geochemical results with an exhaustive database of previous studies in the region. Our results reveal the existence of a complex plumbing system composed of several shallow magma chambers (≤10 km depth) fed by magmas raised directly from the mantle, or from a magma accumulation zone located at the crust-mantle boundary (15-20 km depth). Understanding the current state of the island's magmatic system, and its potential evolution in the future, is fundamental to increase the effectiveness of interpreting monitoring data during volcanic unrest periods and hence, for future eruption forecasting.
This study presents a new dynamical downscaling strategy for extreme events. It is based on a combination of statistical downscaling of coarsely resolved global model simulations and dynamical ...downscaling of specific extreme events constrained by the statistical downscaling part. The method is applied to precipitation extremes over the upper Aare catchment, an area in Switzerland which is characterized by complex terrain. The statistical downscaling part consists of an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) framework trained in a reference period. Thereby, dynamically downscaled precipitation over the target area serve as predictands and large-scale variables, received from the global model simulation, as predictors. Applying the ANN to long term global simulations produces a precipitation series that acts as a surrogate of the dynamically downscaled precipitation for a longer climate period, and therefore are used in the selection of events. These events are then dynamically downscaled with a regional climate model to 2 km. The results show that this strategy is suitable to constraint extreme precipitation events, although some limitations remain, e.g., the method has lower efficiency in identifying extreme events in summer and the sensitivity of extreme events to climate change is underestimated.
This paper explains some capabilities and drawbacks of the emerging field of exergy accounting. Among other applications, exergy accounting is successfully used for diagnosing energy systems and for ...the accounting of Earth's exergy resources. Both applications rely on the concept of exergetic cost. This concept tries to measure the amount of exergy resources to produce any good. The process of cost formation becomes essential to understand and evaluate the exergy costs and the degradation process of resources feeding a system. Cost, irreversibility and causation become deeply interrelated and an Aristotelic analogy between cause and thermoeconomic concepts is highlighted. However, the search for causality of losses is not equivalent to the search for localization of these losses, and additional studies become needed. Average exergy cost has no information about future unexpected impacts and no general theory of values can be postulated around these concepts.
•Rigorous evaluation of the circularity, impacts and limits of circular economy systems.•Simulation-based assessment of the copper section of the Metal Wheel.•Circular economy limitations ...demonstrated with a complete flow sheet from ore to metal.•Simulation-based exergy, thermoeconomics and LCA evaluation performed with HSC Sim.•Material recovery, residues generated and losses predicted through the simulation.
The transition from a Linear to Circular Economy has become a societal challenge to be tackled. However, the increasing complexity of materials and products increases also the sophistication of the circular economy systems required to deal with them. These systems are very resource consuming, therefore, a rigorous evaluation of the impact of every “actor” in circular economy must be done at design and operation stages to ensure the sustainability of the metal-production value chain.
A circular economy system implies, among others, low consumption of energy and material resources and low production of wastes or pollutant emissions. Its sustainability cannot therefore be evaluated just with one indicator. In this paper, we integrate indicators such as recovery rates, environmental impact indicators, as well as the quantities and qualities of the flows, losses and emissions, quantified through exergy. These must all be considered and evaluated simultaneously to perform a rigorous sustainability analysis.
The challenges of achieving a circular processing system and society are illustrated using a unique copper flowsheet that covers the complete processing chain from ore to refined metal including among others minor elements refining, scrap recycling, residue processing, steam utilization, sulphur capture and power generation in 129 unit operations linked by 289 streams and all the compositional and thermochemical detail. Using a simulation-based approach, two scenarios have been studied and compared: (i) a representative primary copper flowsheet and (ii) excluding all waste treatment processes. This unique simulated flowsheet permits a complete evaluation of various scenarios of all copper related processing options (while any additional unit operations can also be added) and also rigorously permits an allocation of impacts of all flows, products, residues etc. as a function of the complete mineral composition.
This approach to evaluating systems shows how to estimate the true losses from a system and will be a key approach to evaluate the true circularity of the circular economy system.
This paper makes an assessment of the exergy loss of the main minerals produced in the world throughout the 21st century, namely coal, oil, natural gas, iron, aluminium and copper. The reason for ...using the exergy analysis as an assessment tool is because it takes into account the main physical features that make a natural resource valuable: concentration, composition and quantity. Furthermore, using the same unit of measurement (energy) means all minerals considered can be compared and added. The future depletion degree of mineral reserves has been predicted with the help of five different scenarios. The first scenario assumes that production of all commodities will follow the well-known Hubbert's bell-shaped curve. The other four models are based on the (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Special Report on Emissions Scenarios) for fossil fuel consumption and the Hubbert peak model for non-fuel minerals. The results of this study indicate that there might not be enough available resources to satisfy the predicted future mineral demand.
The Tile Calorimeter (TileCal) is one detector of the ATLAS experiment at the large hadron collider (LHC). TileCal is a sampling calorimeter made of steel plates and plastic scintillators which are ...readout using approximately 10 000 photomultipliers tubes. In 2024, the LHC will undergo a series of upgrades toward a high luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) to deliver up to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">7.5\times </tex-math></inline-formula> the current nominal instantaneous luminosity. The ATLAS Tile Phase II Upgrade will accommodate detector and data Acquisition (DAQ) system to the HL-LHC requirements. The detector electronics will be redesigned using a new clock distribution and readout architecture with a full-digital trigger system. After the Long Shutdown 3 (2024-2026), the on-detector electronics will transfer digitized hadron calorimeter data for every bunch crossing (~25 ns) to the Tile PreProcessors (TilePPr) in the counting rooms with a total data bandwidth of 40 Tb/s. The TilePPrs will store the detector data in pipeline memories to cope with the new ATLAS DAQ architecture requirements and will interface with the front-end link exchange system and the first trigger level. The TilePPr boards will distribute the sampling clock to the on-detector electronics for synchronization with the LHC clock using high-speed links configured for fixed and deterministic latency. The upgraded readout and clock distribution strategy were fully validated in a demonstrator system using prototypes of the upgraded electronics in several test beam campaigns between 2015 and 2018.
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