Improved earthquake response via simulation and integrated space- and ground-based technologies: the TREMOR proposal

Earthquakes occurring around the world each year cause thousands ofdeaths, millions of dollars in damage to infrastructure, and incalculablehuman suffering. In recent years, satellite technology has been asignificant boon to response efforts following an earthquake and itsafter-effects by providing mobile communications between response teamsand remote sensing of damaged areas to disaster management organizations.In 2007, an international team of students and professionals assembledduring theInternational Space University’s Summer Session Program in Beijing, Chinato examine how satellite and ground-based technology could be betterintegrated to provide an optimised response in the event of an earthquake.The resulting Technology Resources for Earthquake MOnitoring and Response(TREMOR) proposal describes an integrative prototype response system thatwill implement mobile satellite communication hubs providing telephone anddata links between response teams, onsite telemedicine consultation foremergency first-responders, and satellite navigation systems that willlocate and track emergency vehicles and guide search-and-rescue crews. Aprototype earthquake simulation system is also proposed, integratinghistorical data, earthquake precursor data, and local geomatics andinfrastructure information to predict the damage that could occur in theevent of an earthquake. The backbone of these proposals is a comprehensiveeducation and training program to help individuals, communities andgovernments prepare in advance. The TREMOR team recommends thecoordination of these efforts through a centralised, non-governmentalorganization.

New ideas need new space

We develop a setting with weak intellectual property rights, where firms' boundaries, location and knowledge spillovers are endogenous. We have two main results. The first one is that, if communication costs increase with distance, entrepreneurs concerned about information leakage have a benefit from locating away from the industry center: distance is an obstacle to collusive trades between members andnon-members. The second result is that we identify a trade-off for the entrepreneur between owning a facility (controlling all its characteristics) and sharing a facility with a {\it non-member} (an agent not involved in production), therefore losing control over some of its characteristics. We focus on ``location" as the relevant characteristic of the facility, but location can be used as a spatial metaphor for other relevant characteristics of the facility. For theentrepreneur, sharing the facility with non-members implies that the latter, as co-owners, know the location (even if they do not have access to it). Knowledge of the location for the co-owners facilitates collusion with employees, what increases leakage. The model yields a benefit for new plants from spatial dispersion (locating at the periphery of the industry), particularly so for new plants of new firms.We relate this result with recent empirical findings on the dynamics of industry location.

Socio-economic benefits of using space technologies to monitor and respond to earthquakes

Earthquakes represent a major hazard for populations around the world, causing frequent loss of life,human suffering and enormous damage to homes, other buildings and infrastructure. The Technology Resources forEarthquake Monitoring and Response (TREMOR) Team of 36 space professionals analysed this problem over thecourse of the International Space University Summer Session Program and published their recommendations in the formof a report. The TREMOR Team proposes a series of space- and ground-based systems to provide improved capabilityto manage earthquakes. The first proposed system is a prototype earthquake early-warning system that improves theexisting knowledge of earthquake precursors and addresses the potential of these phenomena. Thus, the system willat first enable the definitive assessment of whether reliable earthquake early warning is possible through precursormonitoring. Should the answer be affirmative, the system itself would then form the basis of an operational earlywarningsystem. To achieve these goals, the authors propose a multi-variable approach in which the system will combine,integrate and process precursor data from space- and ground-based seismic monitoring systems (already existing andnew proposed systems) and data from a variety of related sources (e.g. historical databases, space weather data, faultmaps). The second proposed system, the prototype earthquake simulation and response system, coordinates the maincomponents of the response phase to reduce the time delays of response operations, increase the level of precisionin the data collected, facilitate communication amongst teams, enhance rescue and aid capabilities and so forth. It isbased in part on an earthquake simulator that will provide pre-event (if early warning is proven feasible) and post-eventdamage assessment and detailed data of the affected areas to corresponding disaster management actors by means of ageographic information system (GIS) interface. This is coupled with proposed mobile satellite communication hubs toprovide links between response teams. Business- and policy-based implementation strategies for these proposals, suchas the establishment of a non-governmental organisation to develop and operate the systems, are included.

Aortic vessel wall magnetic resonance imaging at 3.0 Tesla: a reproducibility study of respiratory navigator gated free-breathing 3D black blood magnetic resonance imaging.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a free-breathing three-dimensional (3D) dual inversion-recovery (DIR) segmented k-space gradient-echo (turbo field echo [TFE]) imaging sequence at 3T for the quantification of aortic vessel wall dimensions. The effect of respiratory motion suppression on image quality was tested. Furthermore, the reproducibility of the aortic vessel wall measurements was investigated. Seven healthy subjects underwent 3D DIR TFE imaging of the aortic vessel wall with and without respiratory navigator. Subsequently, this sequence with respiratory navigator was performed twice in 10 healthy subjects to test its reproducibility. The signal-to-noise (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), vessel wall sharpness, and vessel wall volume (VWV) were assessed. Data were compared using the paired t-test, and the reproducibility of VWV measurements was evaluated using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs). SNR, CNR, and vessel wall sharpness were superior in scans performed with respiratory navigator compared to scans performed without. The ICCs concerning intraobserver, interobserver, and interscan reproducibility were excellent (0.99, 0.94, and 0.95, respectively). In conclusion, respiratory motion suppression substantially improves image quality of 3D DIR TFE imaging of the aortic vessel wall at 3T. Furthermore, this optimized technique with respiratory motion suppression enables assessment of aortic vessel wall dimensions with high reproducibility.

Pairing in a two-component ultracold Fermi gas: Phases with broken-space symmetries

We explore the phase diagram of a two-component ultracold atomic Fermi gas interacting with zero-range forces in the limit of weak coupling. We focus on the dependence of the pairing gap and the free energy on the variations in the number densities of the two species while the total density of the system is held fixed. As the density asymmetry is increased, the system exhibits a transition from a homogenous Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) phase to phases with spontaneously broken global space symmetries. One such realization is the deformed Fermi surface superfluidity (DFS) which exploits the possibility of deforming the Fermi surfaces of the species into ellipsoidal form at zero total momentum of Cooper pairs. The critical asymmetries at which the transition from DFS to the unpaired state occurs are larger than those for the BCS phase. In this precritical region the DFS phase lowers the pairing energy of the asymmetric BCS state. We compare quantitatively the DFS phase to another realization of superconducting phases with broken translational symmetry: the single-plane-wave Larkin-Ovchinnikov-Fulde-Ferrell phase, which is characterized by a nonvanishing center-of-mass momentum of the Cooper pairs. The possibility of the detection of the DFS phase in the time-of-flight experiments is discussed and quantified for the case of 6Li atoms trapped in two different hyperfine states.

Involvement of gap junctional intercellular communication in the pathophysiology of inflammation

SUMMARY Inflammation has evolved as a mechanism to defend the body against invading microorganisms and to respond to injury. It requires the coordinated response of a large number of cell types from the whole organism in a time- and space-dependent fashion. This coordination involves several cell-cell communication mechanisms. Exchange of humoral mediators such as cytokines is a major one. Moreover, direct contact between cells happens and plays a primordial role, for example when macrophages present antigens to lymphocytes. Contact between endothelial cells and leucocytes occurs when the latter cross the blood vessel barrier and transmigrate to the inflammatory site. A particular way by which cells communicate with each other in the course of inflammation, which at this time starts to gain attention, is the intercellular communication mediated by gap junctions. Gap junctions are channels providing a direct pathway (i.e. without transit through the extracellular space) for the diffusion of small molecules between adjacent cells. This process is known as gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC). The general aim of this thesis was to study a possible involvement of GJIC in the pathophysiology of inflammation. A first part of the work was dedicated to study the implication of GJIC in the modification of vascular endothelial function by inflammation. In a second part, we were interested in the possible role of GJIC in the transmigration of neutrophil polymorphonuclear leucocytes through the endothelium. The main positive finding of this work is that acute inflammation preferentially modulates the expression of connexin 40 (Cx40), a gap junction protein specifically expressed in vascular endothelium. The modulation could be towards overexpression (aortic endothelium of septic rats) or towards downregulation (acutely inflamed mouse lung). We put a lot of efforts in search of possible functions of these modulations, in two directions: a potential protective role of Cx40 increased expression against sepsis-induced endothelial dysfunction, and a facilitating role of Cx40 decreased expression in neutrophil transmigration. To pursue both directions, it seemed logical to study the impact of Cx40 deletion using knock-out mice. Concerning the potential protective role of Cx40 overexpression we encountered a roadblock as we observed, in the aorta, a Cx40 downregulation in wild type mouse whereas Cx40 was upregulated in the rat. Regarding the second direction and using an in vivo approach, we observed that pulmonary neutrophil transmigration was not affected by the genetic deletion of Cx40. In spite of their negative nature, these results are the very first ones regarding the potential implication of GJIC concerning leucocyte transmigration in vivo. Because this process involves such tight cell-cell physical contacts, the hypothesis for a role of GJIC remains attractive.

Nucleation rates in flat and curved space

Nucleation rates for tunneling processes in Minkowski and de Sitter space are investigated, taking into account one loop prefactors. In particular, we consider the creation of membranes by an antisymmetric tensor field, analogous to Schwinger pair production. This can be viewed as a model for the decay of a false (or true) vacuum at zero temperature in the thin wall limit. Also considered is the spontaneous nucleation of strings, domain walls, and monopoles during inflation. The instantons for these processes are spherical world sheets or world lines embedded in flat or de Sitter backgrounds. We find the contribution of such instantons to the semiclassical partition function, including the one loop corrections due to small fluctuations around the spherical world sheet. We suggest a prescription for obtaining, from the partition function, the distribution of objects nucleated during inflation. This can be seen as an extension of the usual formula, valid in flat space, according to which the nucleation rate is twice the imaginary part of the free energy. For the case of pair production, the results reproduce those that can be obtained using second quantization methods, confirming the validity of instanton techniques in de Sitter space. Throughout the paper, both the gravitational field and the antisymmetric tensor field are assumed external.

Exact solution to the mean exit time problem for free inertial processes driven by Gaussian white noise

We obtain the exact analytical expression, up to a quadrature, for the mean exit time, T(x,v), of a free inertial process driven by Gaussian white noise from a region (0,L) in space. We obtain a completely explicit expression for T(x,0) and discuss the dependence of T(x,v) as a function of the size L of the region. We develop a new method that may be used to solve other exit time problems.

Exact solution to the exit-time problem for an undamped free particle driven by Gaussian white noise

In a recent paper [Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 189 (1995)] we have presented the exact analytical expression for the mean exit time, T(x,v), of a free inertial process driven by Gaussian white noise out of a region (0,L) in space. In this paper we give a detailed account of the method employed and present results on asymptotic properties and averages of T(x,v).

Serum-free aggregate cultures of rat CNS glial cells: biochemical, immunocytochemical and morphological characterization.

Aggregate cultures of mixed glial cells, as well as of enriched astrocytes and oligodendrocytes were prepared, and maintained in serum-free medium for up to 25 days. Biochemical measurements of both neuron-specific and glia-specific enzyme activities showed that these three types of aggregate cultures were virtually devoid of neurons. Astrocyte-enriched cultures were greater than 95% pure, with oligodendrocytes as the only apparent contaminant, whereas oligodendrocyte-enriched cultures still contained a considerable proportion of astrocytes. In all these neuron-free aggregate cultures both astrocytes and oligodendrocytes attained a high degree of maturation. These findings were confirmed by morphological examinations, and by immunofluorescence studies. Furthermore, ultrastructural as well as immunocytochemical investigations using antibodies to myelin basic protein revealed that all three types of glial cell aggregate cultures contained myelin membranes, indicating that the presence of axons is not a prerequisite for the formation of myelin.

Contracting with free software communities

Industry and large Agencies needs ¿agile¿ programming resources, to reinforce their own development staff and take advantage of innovative approaches produced by ¿fresh minds¿ all over the world. At the same time they may be reluctant to engage in classical software development call for tenders and contracts. Such contracts are often ¿trusted¿ by large ICT firms, which will deliver according to their own rigid frameworks (often based on alliances with proprietary software vendors), may propose comfortable quality assurances, but will cover their (real) risks and liability with high contingency costs and will charge for any change request in case the original specifications have not fixed all possible issues. Introducing FLOSS in business implies a new contracting philosophy, based on incentives rather than penalties and liability. Based on 2011 experience with a large Space Agency, Patrice-Emmanuel Schmitz pictures the needed legal instruments for a novel approach.

Enhanced MDIR receiver for space-time dispersive channels

A particular property of the matched desiredimpulse response receiver is introduced in this paper, namely,the fact that full exploitation of the diversity is obtained withmultiple beamformers when the channel is spatially and timelydispersive. This particularity makes the receiver specially suitablefor mobile and underwater communications. The new structureprovides better performance than conventional and weightedVRAKE receivers, and a diversity gain with no needs of additionalradio frequency equipment. The baseband hardware neededfor this new receiver may be obtained through reconfigurabilityof the RAKE architectures available at the base station. Theproposed receiver is tested through simulations assuming UTRAfrequency-division-duplexing mode.

From room for books to room for users: an old infantry barrack as an answer to the lack of space

At the beginning of the 21st century, some Catalan university libraries detected a need stemming from the lack of space and the reconversion of physical libraries within the new European educational panorama. With the same cooperative spirit that characterized previous CBUC (Consortium of Academic Libraries of Catalonia) programs and services, the Consortium set in motion a project to address this need. An initial study was commissioned in 2002, and in 2003 a suitable building (old infantry barracks) was found in Lleida. The official opening took place in 2008. GEPA (Guaranteed Space for the Preservation of Access) facility is a cooperative repository, whose objectives are to store and preserve low use documents, ensuring their future access when needed, to convert room for books into room for library users, and doing it saving both space and money. The paper presents a brief historical introduction about the physical management of collections in libraries, and a short overview about high density library repositories all over the world, as an answer to the pressing problem of lack of spaces. The main goals of the communication are to comment the architectural project and its librarian issues, and to show how the GEPA facility allowed to change the spaces in university libraries in Catalonia. On the one hand, the paper deals with the selection of an old building to be renovated, the determination of the librarian needs, the compact shelving system chosen to store the documents in the building, the relation between physical space and information management, and the logistics involved in the load of low use documents from the libraries into the facility. On the other hand, we will show some examples of physical changes in Catalan libraries after large loads of documents to GEPA.

Simulation of the Interaction Mean Free Path between Neutrons and TRISO Particles

The interaction mean free path between neutrons and TRISO particles is simulated using scripts written in MATLAB to solve the increasing error present with an increase in the packing factor in the reactor physics code Serpent. Their movement is tracked both in an unbounded and in a bounded space. Their track is calculated, depending on the program, linearly directly using the position vectors of the neutrons and the surface equations of all the fuel particles; by dividing the space in multiple subspaces, each of which contain a fraction of the total number of particles, and choosing the particles from those subspaces through which the neutron passes through; or by choosing the particles that lie within an infinite cylinder formed on the movement axis of the neutron. The estimate from the current analytical model, based on an exponential distribution, for the mean free path, utilized by Serpent, is used as a reference result. The results from the implicit model in Serpent imply a too long mean free path with high packing factors. The received results support this observation by producing, with a packing factor of 17 %, approximately 2.46 % shorter mean free path compared to the reference model. This is supported by the packing factor experienced by the neutron, the simulation of which resulted in a 17.29 % packing factor. It was also observed that the neutrons leaving from the surfaces of the fuel particles, in contrast to those starting inside the moderator, do not follow the exponential distribution. The current model, as it is, is thus not valid in the determination of the free path lengths of the neutrons.

Amino acid composition of parturient plasma, the intervillous space of the placenta and the umbilical vein of term newborn infants

The objective of the present study was to determine the levels of amino acids in maternal plasma, placental intervillous space and fetal umbilical vein in order to identify the similarities and differences in amino acid levels in these compartments of 15 term newborns from normal pregnancies and deliveries. All amino acids, except tryptophan, were present in at least 186% higher concentrations in the intervillous space than in maternal venous blood, with the difference being statistically significant. This result contradicted the initial hypothesis of the study that the plasma amino acid levels in the placental intervillous space should be similar to those of maternal plasma. When the maternal venous compartment was compared with the umbilical vein, we observed values 103% higher on the fetal side which is compatible with currently accepted mechanisms of active amino acid transport. Amino acid levels of the placental intervillous space were similar to the values of the umbilical vein except for proline, glycine and aspartic acid, whose levels were significantly higher than fetal umbilical vein levels (average 107% higher). The elevated levels of the intervillous space are compatible with syncytiotrophoblast activity, which maintain high concentrations of free amino acids inside syncytiotrophoblast cells, permitting asymmetric efflux or active transport from the trophoblast cells to the blood in the intervillous space. The plasma amino acid levels in the umbilical vein of term newborns probably may be used as a standard of local normality for clinical studies of amino acid profiles.