Enhancing immunity by engineering DAMPs

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Post-test simulations for the NACIE-UP benchmark by STH codes

This paper illustrates the results obtained in the last phase of the NACIE-UP benchmark activity foreseen inside the EU SESAME Project. The purpose of this research activity, performed by system thermal–hydraulic (STH) codes, is finalized to the improvement, development and validation of existing STH codes for Heavy Liquid Metal (HLM) systems. All the participants improved their modelling of the NACIE-UP facility, respect to the initial blind simulation phase, adopting the actual experimental boundary conditions and reducing as much as possible sources of uncertainty in their numerical model. Four different STH codes were employed by the participants to the benchmark to model the NACIE-UP facility, namely: CATHARE for ENEA, ATHLET for GRS, RELAP5-3D© for the “Sapienza” University of Rome and RELAP5/Mod3.3(modified) for the University of Pisa. Three reference tests foreseen in the NACIE-UP benchmark and carried out at ENEA Brasimone Research Centre were analysed from four participants. The data from the post-test analyses, performed independently by the participant using different STH codes, were compared together and with the available experimental results and critically discussed

Wavelet maxima curves of surface latent heat flux associated with two recent Greek earthquakes

International audienceMulti sensor data available through remote sensing satellites provide information about changes in the state of the oceans, land and atmosphere. Recent studies have shown anomalous changes in oceans, land, atmospheric and ionospheric parameters prior to earthquakes events. This paper introduces an innovative data mining technique to identify precursory signals associated with earthquakes. The proposed methodology is a multi strategy approach which employs one dimensional wavelet transformations to identify singularities in the data, and an analysis of the continuity of the wavelet maxima in time and space to identify the singularities associated with earthquakes. The proposed methodology has been employed using Surface Latent Heat Flux (SLHF) data to study the earthquakes which occurred on 14 August 2003 and on 1 March 2004 in Greece. A single prominent SLHF anomaly has been found about two weeks prior to each of the earthquakes

Cognitive conflicts in major depression : Between desired change and personal coherence

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposesThe notion of intrapsychic conflict has been present in psychopathology for more than a century within different theoretical orientations. However, internal conflicts have not received enough empirical attention, nor has their importance in depression been fully elaborated. This study is based on the notion of cognitive conflict, understood as implicative dilemma (ID), and on a new way of identifying these conflicts by means of the Repertory Grid Technique. Our aim was to explore the relevance of cognitive conflicts among depressive patientsPeer reviewedFinal Published versio

Building a New Infrastructure for Digital Media: Northwestern University Library

The Northwestern University Library has been a pioneer in text and media digitization. From early efforts primarily focused on enhancing access to reserve material to current projects involving vast quantities of streaming media, in great part these projects have been the result of close collaboration between the library and other units on campus, particularly Academic Technologies. As the depth and breadth of digitization efforts have increased, so have the technological and organizational issues. This article examines the history of digitization efforts at Northwestern University as a context for exploring the emerging issues most libraries face as digitization enters a new era

Self-Efficacy and Adult Development

A major theme in the contemporary study of human development across the life span is that people have the capacity for personal agency. Innumerable writers emphasize that individuals can exert intentional influence over their experiences and actions, the circumstances they encounter, the skills they acquire, and thus ultimately the course of their development

Optimal Third-Harmonic Current Injection for an Asymmetrical Nine-phase PMSM with Non-Sinusoidal back-EMF

The paper investigates an optimal strategy to exploit the third harmonic current injection for the torque enhancement in a nine-phase permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM). The machine is with asymmetrical winding configuration and has a single isolated neutral point. The optimization follows the minimization of the average power losses for a given reference torque or, equivalently, the maximization of the developed torque for a given current RMS. It is shown that, in contrast to the situation for a symmetrical configuration, the optimal ratio between the fundamental and the third harmonic components does not correspond to the ratio between the corresponding back-EMF components. It is demonstrated that this is due to the fact that the phase currents have to sum to zero; consequently, the third harmonic current injection in different three-phase sets has to be different with regard to the magnitude and phase shift. The strategy is introduced using an entirely analytical approach and its effectiveness has been successfully validated through numerical simulations

Optimal Third-Harmonic Current Injection for Asymmetrical Multiphase Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines

This article proposes a modeling approach and an optimization strategy to exploit a third-harmonic current injection for the torque enhancement in multiphase isotropic permanent magnet synchronous machines with nonsinusoidal back electromotive forces. The modeling approach is based on a proper vector space decomposition and on the associated rotational transformation, aimed to properly select a set of stator current space vectors to be controlled. It is presented for a generic (i.e., asymmetrical, with an arbitrary angular shift) winding configuration. The injection strategy is related to the choice of a constant synchronous current set aimed at minimizing the average stator winding losses for a given reference torque by using the first and the third spatial harmonics of the air-gap flux density. The optimal solution has been found analytically and has been developed in detail for a selected set of asymmetrical winding configurations. Both the numerical and experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical analysis

EFFICACY OF LAI IN FIRST EPISODE PSYCHOSIS: AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY - CLINICAL REPORTS

The use of antipsychotics, especially second generation antipsychotics, represents the milestone treatment of “first episode of psychosis” (FEP). Although prodromal symptoms of psychosis have long been recognized, the clinical management of psychotic disorders conventionally begins at the first episode of frank psychosis, as it is well acknowledged that “duration of untreated psychosis” (DUP) is one of the main factor that negatively affects prognosis: a longer DUP is highly correlated to reduced response to treatment, poor clinical and social outcomes, and an overall worst prognosis. Long-acting injectable (LAI) formulations of antipsychotics have traditionally been used for those patients with psychosis with the most severe symptoms, poorest compliance, most hospitalizations and poorest outcomes; moreover it seems that psychiatrists tend to prescribe LAI at the latter stages of the disease. We retrospectively collected clinical and sociodemographic data regarding patients consecutively presenting with symptoms of FEP attending the Community Mental Health Service (CMHS) in Foggia from 1st June 2014 to 31st May 2015. We selected patients who attended the CMHS in Foggia with symptoms of FEP. Different scales were administered to assess symptoms severity, quality of life, side effects, adherence, and overall functionality. In our sample LAI treatment was found to be effective in treating symptoms associated to FEP, improved quality of life and it was associated with a clinically irrelevant incidence of extrapyramidal side effect. Considering that achieving a full symptoms remission in people affected by FEP is associated to better outcomes, and that DUP is associated to poor prognosis, LAIs could play an important role in improving overall recovery

Optimal Third-Harmonic Current Injection for Asymmetrical Multiphase PMSMs

The paper proposes a modelling approach and an optimization strategy to exploit a third harmonic current injection for the torque enhancement in multiphase isotropic PMSMs with non-sinusoidal back-EMFs. The modelling approach is based on a proper vector space decomposition and on the associated rotational transformation, aimed to properly select a set of stator current space vectors to be controlled. It is presented for a generic (i.e. asymmetrical, with an arbitrary angular shift) winding configuration. The injection strategy is related to the choice of a constant synchronous current set, aimed at minimizing the average stator winding losses for a given reference torque by using the 1st and the 3rd spatial harmonics of the air-gap flux density. The optimal solution has been found analytically and has been developed in detail for a selected set of asymmetrical winding configurations. Both the numerical and experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical analysis