Measurements and tests on FBK silicon sensors with an optimized electronic design for a CTA camera

In October 2013, the Italian Ministry approved the funding of a Research & Development (R&D) study, within the "Progetto Premiale TElescopi CHErenkov made in Italy (TECHE)", devoted to the development of a demonstrator for a camera for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) consortium. The demonstrator consists of a sensor plane based on the Silicon Photomultiplier (SiPM) technology and on an electronics designed for signal sampling. Preliminary tests on a matrix of sensors produced by the Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK-Trento, Italy) and on electronic prototypes produced by SITAEL S.p.A. will be presented. In particular, we used different designs of the electronics in order to optimize the output signals in terms of tail cancellation. This is crucial for applications where a high background is expected, as for the CTA experiment.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures; Proceedings of the 10th Workshop on Science with the New Generation of High-Energy Gamma-ray experiments (SciNeGHE) - PoS(Scineghe2014)00

Remote health monitoring system for the elderly based on mobile computing and IoT

Due to the increasing technological innovation over the last decades, the average life expectancy of a human being has been increasing exponentially. Although this is an excellent step forward for humanity, it has led older population to being more prone to illness, making them more vulnerable to accidents such as falls. In this article a study is made on the existing literature in non-intrusive remote health monitoring systems, towards the design and implementation of an IoT system capable of identifying fall situations and monitor cardiac data. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) method was considered in this work, focused on reviewing the existing literature on remote health monitoring systems, having fall detection algorithms, based in IoT. The Design Science Research (DSR) methodology was used to seek to enhance technology and science knowledge about this paper's topic, through the creation of an innovative artifact.The system includes a smart watch (Lily-Go T-Watch-2020 V2), programmable in C under Arduino IDE to detect falls and a photoplethysmography monitoring unit (PPG) based on a Onyx 9560 Bluetooth oximeter, capable of measuring the user's blood oxygen percentage (SpO2) and heart rate, in real time. It also provides remote monitoring through a user-friendly website to visualize live data about the status of the user. The system was tested in volunteers to show the effectiveness of remote health monitoring systems for the elderly population.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

A multi-sensing physical therapy assessment for children with cerebral palsy

This work presents the development of a multi-sensing interface called Palsy Thera Sense, to provide information data obtained during physical therapy of the children with cerebral palsy. It allows the monitoring the children's motor skills, and provide metrics that can be later used for proper and effective training. This interface is based on distributed force measurement system characterized by two different load cells. The signals from signals from the load cells distributed on the level of a force platform and at the level of child's body support ropes that are tied on the cerebral palsy spider cage are acquired and wireless transmitted to a client computation platform. Thus different tests can be carried out including, center of forces measurements and gait simulations. These tests can be study of children balance during different activities such as serious game playing for upper limb rehabilitation. The interface shown to be an important tool that provide support to cerebral palsy rehabilitation process, and for objective evaluation of the patients during the rehabilitation period. Several experimental results are included in the paper highlighting the capabilities of the designed and implemented multi-sensing system.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

A Study of Cosmic Ray Secondaries Induced by the Mir Space Station Using AMS-01

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) is a high energy particle physics experiment that will study cosmic rays in the $\sim 100 \mathrm{MeV}$ to $1 \mathrm{TeV}$ range and will be installed on the International Space Station (ISS) for at least 3 years. A first version of AMS-02, AMS-01, flew aboard the space shuttle \emph{Discovery} from June 2 to June 12, 1998, and collected $10^8$ cosmic ray triggers. Part of the \emph{Mir} space station was within the AMS-01 field of view during the four day \emph{Mir} docking phase of this flight. We have reconstructed an image of this part of the \emph{Mir} space station using secondary $\pi^-$ and $\mu^-$ emissions from primary cosmic rays interacting with \emph{Mir}. This is the first time this reconstruction was performed in AMS-01, and it is important for understanding potential backgrounds during the 3 year AMS-02 mission.Comment: To be submitted to NIM B Added material requested by referee. Minor stylistic and grammer change

Protons in near earth orbit

The proton spectrum in the kinetic energy range 0.1 to 200 GeV was measured by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) during space shuttle flight STS-91 at an altitude of 380 km. Above the geomagnetic cutoff the observed spectrum is parameterized by a power law. Below the geomagnetic cutoff a substantial second spectrum was observed concentrated at equatorial latitudes with a flux ~ 70 m^-2 sec^-1 sr^-1. Most of these second spectrum protons follow a complicated trajectory and originate from a restricted geographic region.Comment: 19 pages, Latex, 7 .eps figure

Performance of the CMS Cathode Strip Chambers with Cosmic Rays

The Cathode Strip Chambers (CSCs) constitute the primary muon tracking device in the CMS endcaps. Their performance has been evaluated using data taken during a cosmic ray run in fall 2008. Measured noise levels are low, with the number of noisy channels well below 1%. Coordinate resolution was measured for all types of chambers, and fall in the range 47 microns to 243 microns. The efficiencies for local charged track triggers, for hit and for segments reconstruction were measured, and are above 99%. The timing resolution per layer is approximately 5 ns

Increasing the Productive Potential of Permanent Grasslands From the Forest Steppe Area of Romania

In Romania permanent grasslands represent 32 % of the total agricultural area, stretching over 4,872 million hectares, out of which 340,000 ha are located in the forest steppe area, on less productive soils, which explains their inadequate botanical composition and low quality and yields (Vintu, 2003). One of the main measures taken to increase the productivity of grasslands is through fertilisation (Birch, 1999). This paper presents the results obtained during 2000-2004 on the effect of organic fertiliser on degraded grasslands made up of Festuca valesiaca L

The Influence of Harvest Period and Fertilisation on the Yield of Some Mixed Grass and Leguminous Species Under the Forest Steppe Conditions of North-East Romania

In the forest steppe area of North-east Romania, temporary grasslands represent an important source of high quality fodder but they have a short period of exploitation, associated with some changes in the floristic composition (Vintu, 2003). Fertiliser application and harvest period have an important role in maintaining high productivity (Hopkins, 1991). The aim of this paper is to determine the influence of harvest period and fertilization on the yield of some grass and leguminous species in the forest steppe conditions of North-east Romania

Linking in vitro lipolysis and microsomal metabolism for the quantitative prediction of oral bioavailability of BCS II drugs administered in lipidic formulations

Lipidic formulations (LFs) are increasingly utilized for the delivery of drugs that belong to class II of the Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS). The current work proposes, for the first time, the combination of in vitro lipolysis and microsomal metabolism studies for the quantitative prediction of human oral bioavailability of BCS II drugs administered in LFs. Marinol® and Neoral® were selected as model LFs and their observed oral bioavailabilities (Fobserved) obtained from published clinical studies in humans. Two separate lipolysis buffers, differing in the level of surfactant concentrations, were used for digestion of the LFs. The predicted fraction absorbed (Fabs) was calculated by measuring the drug concentration in the micellar phase after completion of the lipolysis process. To determine first-pass metabolism (Fg∙Fh), drug depletion studies with human microsomes were performed. Clearance values were determined by applying the “in vitro half-life approach”. The estimated Fabs and Fg∙Fh values were combined for the calculation of the predicted oral bioavailability (Fpredicted). Results showed that there was a strong correlation between Fobserved and Fpredicted values only when Fabs was calculated using a buffer with surfactant concentrations closer to physiological conditions. The general accuracy of the predicted values suggests that the novel in vitro lipolysis/metabolism approach could quantitatively predict the oral bioavailability of lipophilic drugs administered in LFs