Long time series of rainfall at different levels of aggregation (daily or hourly in most cases) constitute the basic input for hydrological, hydraulic and climate studies. However, oftentimes the ...length, completeness, time resolution or spatial coverage of the available records falls short of the minimum requirements to build robust estimations. Here, we introduce NEOPRENE, a Python library to generate synthetic time series of rainfall. NEOPRENE simulates multi-site synthetic rainfall that reproduces observed statistics at different time aggregations. Three case studies exemplify the use of the library, focusing on extreme rainfall, as well as on disaggregating daily rainfall observations into hourly rainfall records. NEOPRENE is distributed from GitHub with an open license (GPLv3), free for research and commercial purposes alike. We also provide Jupyter notebooks with the example use cases to promote its adoption by researchers and practitioners involved in vulnerability, impact and adaptation studies.
Letter of intent for KM3NeT 2.0 Adrián-Martínez, S; Aharonian, F; Aiello, S ...
Journal of physics. G, Nuclear and particle physics,
08/2016, Letnik:
43, Številka:
8
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The main objectives of the KM3NeT Collaboration are (i) the discovery and subsequent observation of high-energy neutrino sources in the Universe and (ii) the determination of the mass hierarchy of ...neutrinos. These objectives are strongly motivated by two recent important discoveries, namely: (1) the high-energy astrophysical neutrino signal reported by IceCube and (2) the sizable contribution of electron neutrinos to the third neutrino mass eigenstate as reported by Daya Bay, Reno and others. To meet these objectives, the KM3NeT Collaboration plans to build a new Research Infrastructure consisting of a network of deep-sea neutrino telescopes in the Mediterranean Sea. A phased and distributed implementation is pursued which maximises the access to regional funds, the availability of human resources and the synergistic opportunities for the Earth and sea sciences community. Three suitable deep-sea sites are selected, namely off-shore Toulon (France), Capo Passero (Sicily, Italy) and Pylos (Peloponnese, Greece). The infrastructure will consist of three so-called building blocks. A building block comprises 115 strings, each string comprises 18 optical modules and each optical module comprises 31 photo-multiplier tubes. Each building block thus constitutes a three-dimensional array of photo sensors that can be used to detect the Cherenkov light produced by relativistic particles emerging from neutrino interactions. Two building blocks will be sparsely configured to fully explore the IceCube signal with similar instrumented volume, different methodology, improved resolution and complementary field of view, including the galactic plane. One building block will be densely configured to precisely measure atmospheric neutrino oscillations.
Abstract
We report the discovery of four Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) in the ongoing SUrvey for Pulsars and Extragalactic Radio Bursts at the Parkes Radio Telescope: FRBs 150610, 151206, 151230 and ...160102. Our real-time discoveries have enabled us to conduct extensive, rapid multimessenger follow-up at 12 major facilities sensitive to radio, optical, X-ray, gamma-ray photons and neutrinos on time-scales ranging from an hour to a few months post-burst. No counterparts to the FRBs were found and we provide upper limits on afterglow luminosities. None of the FRBs were seen to repeat. Formal fits to all FRBs show hints of scattering while their intrinsic widths are unresolved in time. FRB 151206 is at low Galactic latitude, FRB 151230 shows a sharp spectral cut-off, and FRB 160102 has the highest dispersion measure (DM = 2596.1 ± 0.3 pc cm−3) detected to date. Three of the FRBs have high dispersion measures (DM > 1500 pc cm−3), favouring a scenario where the DM is dominated by contributions from the intergalactic medium. The slope of the Parkes FRB source counts distribution with fluences >2 Jy ms is $\alpha =-2.2^{+0.6}_{-1.2}$ and still consistent with a Euclidean distribution (α = −3/2). We also find that the all-sky rate is $1.7^{+1.5}_{-0.9}\times 10^3$FRBs/(4π sr)/day above ${\sim }2{\rm \, }\rm {Jy}{\rm \, }\rm {ms}$ and there is currently no strong evidence for a latitude-dependent FRB sky rate.
Planning and visual-servoing for robotic manipulators in ROS Maldonado-Valencia, R. I.; Rodriguez-Garavito, C. H.; Cruz-Perez, C. A. ...
International journal of intelligent robotics and applications Online,
12/2022, Letnik:
6, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Odprti dostop
This article presents a probabilistic road map (PRM) and visual servo control (visual-servoing) based path planning strategy that allows a Motoman HP20D industrial robot to move from an initial ...positional to a random final position in the presence of fixed obstacles. The process begins with an application of the PRM algorithm to take the robot from an initial position to a point in space where it has a free line of sight to the target, to then apply visual servoing and end up, finally, at the desired position, where an image captured by a camera located at the robot’s end effector matches a reference image, located on the upper surface of a rectangular prismatic object. Algorithms and experiments were developed in simulation, specifically, the visual servo control that includes the dynamic model of the robot and the image sensor subject to realistic lighting were developed in robot operating system (ROS) environment.
Los arrecifes coralinos mesofóticos hacen parte del objeto de conservación del Parque Nacional Natural Corales de Profundidad (PNNCPR). Un paso fundamental para el manejo de un área protegida es la ...caracterización de su riqueza específica, y uno de los grupos taxonómicos importantes en ambientes arrecifales son los foraminíferos bentónicos. Debido a que no existen investigaciones de este tipo para el PNNCPR, se consideró estudiar los géneros de foraminíferos bentónicos de las zonas mesofótica superior y media, y explorar una posible relación de dicha composición con sus ámbitos geográficos y batimétricos, así como con cambios ambientales. Los resultados permitieron concluir que una submuestra de 50 individuos con conchillas en buen estado, tomadas de diez muestras de 10 g, fue suficiente para estimar la composición de géneros presentes en la zona. La riqueza de géneros encontrada fue de 53, siendo Amphistegina, Quinqueloculina y Triloculina los que presentaron mayor frecuencia de aparición. No se encontraron diferencias significativas entre el conjunto de géneros de foraminíferos bentónicos de los estratos de profundidad superior (34-60 m) y medio (61-90 m). El conjunto de foraminíferos bentónicos del sector Bajo Calamarí difiere significativamente del encontrado en la localidad de Bajo Frijol. El análisis conjunto de la similaridad de muestras mediante clasificación y ordenación permitió identificar tres grupos congruentes con el sitio de muestreo, la época del año y el año de recolecta. El grupo de foraminíferos heterótrofos (Quinqueloculina, Triloculina, Cibicides, Discorbis, Rosalina, Poroeponides y Textularia) fue el más frecuente, seguido por el de los foraminíferos simbiontes (Amphistegina) y oportunistas (Elphidium). Los resultados obtenidos permiten sugerir que los foraminíferos bentónicos mesofóticos tienen potencial de ser bioindicadores para el programa de monitoreo del PNNCPR.
Introduction
Dopamine (DA) is a neurotransmitter that regulates the rewarding and motivational processes underlying food intake and eating behaviors. This study hypothesized associations of DNA ...methylation signatures at genes modulating DA signaling with obesity features, metabolic profiles, and dietary intake.
Methods
An adult population within the Methyl Epigenome Network Association project was included (n = 473). DNA methylation levels in white blood cells were measured by microarray (450K). Differentially methylated genes were mapped within the dopaminergic synapse pathway using the KEGG reference database (map04728). Subsequently, network enrichment analyses were run in the pathDIP portal. Associations of methylation patterns with anthropometric markers of general (BMI) and abdominal obesity (waist circumference), the blood metabolic profile, and daily dietary intakes were screened.
Results
After applying a correction for multiple comparisons, 12 CpG sites were strongly associated (p < 0.0001) with BMI: cg03489495 (ITPR3), cg22851378 (PPP2R2D), cg04021127 (PPP2R2D), cg22441882 (SLC18A1), cg03045635 (DRD5), cg23341970 (ITPR2), cg13051970 (DDC), cg08943004 (SLC6A3), cg20557710 (CACNA1C), cg24085522 (GNAL), cg16846691 (ITPR2), and cg09691393 (SLC6A3). Moreover, average methylation levels of these genes differed according to the presence or absence of abdominal obesity. Pathway analyses revealed a statistically significant contribution of the aforementioned genes to dopaminergic synapse transmission (p = 4.78E−08). Furthermore, SLC18A1 and SLC6A3 gene methylation signatures correlated with total energy (p < 0.001) and carbohydrate (p < 0.001) intakes.
Conclusions
The results of this investigation reveal that methylation status on DA signaling genes may underlie epigenetic mechanisms contributing to carbohydrate and calorie consumption and fat deposition.
This study hypothesized associations of DNA methylation signatures at genes modulating DA signaling with obesity features, metabolic profiles, and dietary intake. The results of this investigation reveal that methylation status on DA signaling genes may underlie epigenetic mechanisms contributing to carbohydrate and calorie consumption and fat deposition.
Context: Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) are known as oligofructanes, oligosaccharides or oligofructose, which fall within the concept of prebiotics. One of the methods most commonly used in the ...industry for quantification and quality control nutraceutical substances classification is the method of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Aims: To develop a procedure for the determination of FOS by HPLC in raw materials and a prebiotic ice cream. Methods: For the chromatographic separation, an HPLC was used with a refractive index detector (IR). The separation was performed using two columns coupled Sugar-pak I™ using an isocratic procedure with water type 1 at 0.35 mL/min. Kestose (GF2), nistose (GF3) and fructofuranosylnystose (GF4) were used as standards. Robustness was assessed by applying the Youden and Steiner test. Results: Good linear correlations were obtained (y = 14191.4470 x + 285684.2, r2 = 0.9904) within the concentration range of 8.0-12.0 mg/mL. The FOS recoveries were 99.5% with the intra-day and inter-day relative standard deviation (RSD) less than 0.8%. The robustness test showed that the temperature parameters of the column and flow velocity are critical factors in the method. Conclusions: This reliable, simple and cost-effective method could be applied to the routine monitoring of FOS (GF2, GF3, and GF4) in raw materials and prebiotic ice creams.
The aim of this study was to investigate the potential benefits of an extract obtained from seeds/fruits of an Oleaceae (Fraxinus excelsior L.) on glucose homeostasis and associated metabolic markers ...in non-diabetic overweight/obese subjects.
This study was performed in 22 participants (50–80 years-old; BMI 31.0kg/m2). The design was a longitudinal, randomized, crossover, double-blind, placebo-controlled 7-week nutritional intervention. The participants received daily 3 capsules each containing either 333mg of an extract from Fraxinus excelsior L. seeds (Glucevia®) or placebo capsules (control) in a random order for 3 weeks with 1 week of washout between treatments. Moreover, they followed a balanced covert energy-restricted diet (−15% energy). All variables were measured at the beginning and at the end of each period.
Compared to baseline, the administration of 1g of Glucevia® for 3 weeks resulted in significantly lower incremental glucose area under the curve (−28.2%; p<0.01), and significantly lower 2h blood glucose values (−14%; p<0.01) following an oral glucose tolerance test. No significant changes were found in the control group (−7.9% AUC, −1.6% 2h blood glucose). Furthermore, significant differences were found between responses in the control and Glucevia® groups with respect to serum fructosamine and plasma glucagon levels (p<0.01 and p<0.05, respectively). Interestingly, administration of Glucevia® significantly increased the adiponectin:leptin ratio (p<0.05) and decreased fat mass (p<0.01) compared to control (p<0.05).
The administration of an extract from Fraxinus excelsior L. seeds/fruits in combination with a moderate hypocaloric diet may be beneficial in metabolic disturbances linked to impaired glucose tolerance, obesity, insulin resistance and inflammatory status, specifically in older adults.
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