This work presents a multi-channel TDC designed on a KINTEX-7 FPGA and which is used during the development phase of a new RICH photodetection system in view of a future LHCb upgrade. This ...TDC-in-FPGA core achieves a 150 ps bin width while keeping a low resource usage. It is capable of measuring time-over-threshold (ToT) and time-of-arrival (ToA) at a rate above 50 MHz. This core was embedded in a larger readout system and it was used during beam tests and in the laboratory to demonstrate the capabilities of a time-resolved readout system for compact RICH detectors.
The landscapes and, implicitly, the surfaces of secondary grasslands in the mountain areas have been intensively modified and transformed by humans. In this context, this paper analyses the spatial ...and temporal changes of grassland surfaces following the impact of human population reduction. Thus, the study proposes the implementation of the Grassland Anthropic Impact Index (GAII) as a “measurement tool” to functionally link the two components, grassland surface and human population. The spatiotemporal analyses are based on Corine Land Cover data and demographic data, processed via Geographic Information Systems (GIS) methods and the Land Change Modeler (LCM) tool. The research shows that over a period of 28 years, the population, which was continuously decreasing, caused a series of transformations to the grasslands over an area of 33343 ha. The influence of the reduction in the number of inhabitants was also demonstrated by the direction of the changes produced in the grassland surfaces: in the better populated areas, the grasslands expanded over lands with other uses, and in the sparsely populated areas, they were abandoned. GAII values generally increase with the decrease of the population in the target area, meaning that for an inhabitant (potential user) a greater grassland surface is reported, resulting in a greater responsibility for the management of this resource on a space and time scale. Following the evaluation of the trend of the last 28 years, it was observed that the depopulation of mountain areas can be seen as a threat to grassland ecosystems, either through the transition to other categories of use, or through abandonment. The implications of these phenomena are much broader: they produce chain reactions and affect other components of the regional geosystem.
Important land surfaces from hill and mountain areas from the northern hemisphere formerly used for cropping were abandoned. Often, the abandoned land evolved by natural succession to grassland, ...shrubland or even to forest. The main goal of this paper is to bring new datasets necessary for the understanding of the evolution of ex-arable grassland vegetation from the forest steppe area into relationship with climate. The researches were performed in the locality of Grădinari (Caraş-Severin County, Western Romania) on an ex-arable plot abandoned since 1995. The vegetation data were collected for 19 years (time interval 2003-2021). The analyzed vegetation features were floristic composition, biodiversity and pastoral value. The climate data considered were air temperature and rainfall amount. The vegetation and climate data were correlated statistically, with a view to highlighting the potential impact of the temperature and rainfalls during the evolution of succession process on the grassland's floristic composition, biodiversity and pastoral value. The pressure of the increased temperatures on the natural restoration process of the biodiversity and pastoral value of ex-arable forest steppe grassland could, at least partially, be mitigated by random grazing and mulching works.
Measurements of radiation effects in an antifuse FPGA Placinta, V.M.; Cojocariu, L.N.; Maciuc, F. ...
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
October 2023, 2023-10-00, Letnik:
1055
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
This paper presents the irradiation and the measurement analysis for a commercial antifuse Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) from Microsemi’s Axcelerator family, part number AX250. Following ...proton and X-ray beam irradiation, at very high dose rate above 1krad/s, the total ionizing dose (TID) first effects were visible around 260 krad (SiO 2), and this threshold value increases at lower radiation dose rates. We expect for most space and accelerator applications that this value will be at least several Mrads, or even that the FPGA might never reach this threshold. At very high radiation dose rates, TID-induced leakage currents were observed in the device. FPGA data were recorded continuously for more than 100 h after each irradiation with a fully operating FPGA. Quantitatively, the room-temperature annealing of the radiation-induced defects leads to a fast decrease of the device leakage current by a factor of 7 in the first 100 h after irradiation. The last measurements done after three months place the currents to within 30% to 70 % relative to the before-irradiation values in case of two tested FPGA. Several firmware configurations were used to test different logic resources and to measure single event upsets (SEUs). An upper limit of SEU logic cross-section was found to be (2.56 ± 0.51) ⋅ 10−13 cm 2/FPGA for dose rates around 1krad/s. SEU cross-section values for RAM blocks have on average a value of (3.72 ± 0.8) ⋅ 10−14 cm 2/bit. The complete list of results is given and the effects are extrapolated to a high-energy physics experiment environment — LHCb RICH at CERN.
Abstract
Funding Acknowledgements
Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – EU funding. Main funding source(s): The IntelFat project - "Epicardic adipose tissue, local inflammation and the ...vulnerability of atherosclerotic plaques - computational imaging study based on artificial intelligence" financed by UEFISCDI 689/02.03.2021 (Contract number 206/2021).
Background
The modified Duke derived from coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) was designed to predict cardiovascular outcomes based on the severity of coronary stenosis. However, it does not take into consideration the presence or severity of peri-coronary inflammation. The peri-coronary fat attenuation index (FAI) is a novel imaging marker determined by CCTA which reflects the degree of inflammation in the coronary tree in patients with coronary artery disease.
Purpose
To assess the association between the modified Duke score assessed by CCTA, cardiovascular risk factors and peri-coronary FAI in the coronary arteries.
Methods
One hundred sixty-nine patients who underwent CCTA for typical angina were assigned into two groups based on the modified Duke score: group 1 – patients with low score ≤ 3 (n=105) and group 2 – patients with high score > 3 (n=64). Demographic data, cardiovascular risk factors (hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes and smoking), and the FAI-score for all three coronary arteries were collected for all patients.
Results
Patients with increased values of the modified Duke score were significantly older compared to those with a low score (64.5 ± 8.75 vs. 61.0 ± 10.12; p = 0.001). No differences were found between the two groups in terms of gender distribution, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia or smoking history (all p > 0.5). Compared to patients in group 1, those in group 2 presented more frequently type 2 diabetes, (54.35% vs. 45.65%; p = 0.008). FAI score was significantly higher in patients from group 2, who presented a significantly higher score of inflammation compared to the patients in group 1, especially at the level of the right coronary artery (FAI score 16.45 ± 15.83 vs. 10.6 ± 14.09; p = 0.02 for the right coronary artery, 12.72 ± 8.05 vs. 9.6 ± 6.56; p = 0.01 for the circumflex artery, and 10.35 ±10.18 vs. 8.7 ± 8.89; p = 0.18 for the left anterior descending artery).
Conclusion(s)
CT-derived modified Duke score is increased in patients with DM and correlates well with local perilesional inflammation, as assessed by the FAI score at different levels of the coronary circulation.
PDF
