Large-scale alternative detection systems for CRNS

Author(s):  
Markus Köhli ◽  
Jannis Weimar ◽  
Ulrich Schmidt

<p>Cosmic-Ray neutron (CRN) sensors are widely used to determine soil moisture on the hectar scale. Precise measurements, especially in the case of mobile application, demand for neutron detectors with high counting rates and high signal-to-noise ratios. For a long time CRNS instruments have relied on helium-3 as an efficient neutron converter. Its ongoing scarcity demands for technological solutions using alternative converters, which are lithium-6 and boron-10. In order to scale up the method and to reduce costs we recently have developed large-scale neutron detectors including readout electronics and data acquisition systems based on Arduino microcontrollers. These boron-lined detectors shall offer an alternative platform to current Helium-3 based systems and allow for modular instrument designs. Individual shieldings of different segments within the detector introduces the capability of gaining spectral information. This opens the possibility for active signal correction during mobile measurements, where the influence of the constantly changing near-field to the overall signal should be corrected. Furthermore, the signal-to-noise ratio could be increased by combining pulse-height and pulse-length spectra to discriminate between neutrons and other environmental radiation. This novel detector therefore combines high-selective counting electronics with large-scale instrumentation technology. The successful implementation of our design allowed also to build the largest up to now existing CRNS detector. </p>

2000 ◽  
Vol 198 ◽  
pp. 389-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Merchant Boesgaard

The abundance of beryllium has been determined in unevolved stars over a range metal abundances in order to enhance our understanding of the chemical evolution of our Galaxy, cosmic-ray theory, and cosmology. Observations of 27 stars have been made with Keck I with HIRES at high spectral resolution (45,000) and high signal-to-noise ratios (60 - 110 typically). We find a remarkably linear relationship between log N(Be/H) and [Fe/H] with a slope of 0.96 (±0.04). Similarly, the relationship between log N(Be/H) and [O/H] is linear with a slope of 1.45 (±0.04). Beryllium increases at the same rate as Fe, but much faster than O. This provides constraints for and insights into models of Galactic chemical evolution. There is some evidence for an intrinsic spread in Be at a given [O/H] or [Fe/H]. There is no evidence of a plateau in Be at the lowest metallicities down to log N(Be/H) = —13.5.


Author(s):  
Simon Thomas

Trends in the technology development of very large scale integrated circuits (VLSI) have been in the direction of higher density of components with smaller dimensions. The scaling down of device dimensions has been not only laterally but also in depth. Such efforts in miniaturization bring with them new developments in materials and processing. Successful implementation of these efforts is, to a large extent, dependent on the proper understanding of the material properties, process technologies and reliability issues, through adequate analytical studies. The analytical instrumentation technology has, fortunately, kept pace with the basic requirements of devices with lateral dimensions in the micron/ submicron range and depths of the order of nonometers. Often, newer analytical techniques have emerged or the more conventional techniques have been adapted to meet the more stringent requirements. As such, a variety of analytical techniques are available today to aid an analyst in the efforts of VLSI process evaluation. Generally such analytical efforts are divided into the characterization of materials, evaluation of processing steps and the analysis of failures.


2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1-4) ◽  
pp. 951-958
Author(s):  
Tianhao Liu ◽  
Yu Jin ◽  
Cuixiang Pei ◽  
Jie Han ◽  
Zhenmao Chen

Small-diameter tubes that are widely used in petroleum industries and power plants experience corrosion during long-term services. In this paper, a compact inserted guided-wave EMAT with a pulsed electromagnet is proposed for small-diameter tube inspection. The proposed transducer is noncontact, compact with high signal-to-noise ratio and unattractive to ferromagnetic tubes. The proposed EMAT is designed with coils-only configuration, which consists of a pulsed electromagnet and a meander pulser/receiver coil. Both the numerical simulation and experimental results validate its feasibility on generating and receiving L(0,2) mode guided wave. The parameters for driving the proposed EMAT are optimized by performance testing. Finally, feasibility on quantification evaluation for corrosion defects was verified by experiments.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rishikesh Kulkarni ◽  
Anneliese Gest ◽  
Chun Kei Lam ◽  
Benjamin Raliski ◽  
Feroz James ◽  
...  

<p>High signal-to-noise optical voltage indicators will enable simultaneous interrogation of membrane potential in large ensembles of neurons. However, design principles for voltage sensors with high sensitivity and brightness remain elusive, limiting the applicability of voltage imaging. In this paper, we use molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and density functional theory (DFT) calculations to guide the design of a bright and sensitive green-fluorescent voltage-sensitive fluorophore, or VoltageFluor (VF dye), that uses photoinduced electron transfer (PeT) as a voltage-sensing mechanism. MD simulations predict an 11% increase in sensitivity due to membrane orientation, while DFT calculations predict an increase in fluorescence quantum yield, but a decrease in sensitivity due to a decrease in rate of PeT. We confirm these predictions by synthesizing a new VF dye and demonstrating that it displays the expected improvements by doubling the brightness and retaining similar sensitivity to prior VF dyes. Combining theoretical predictions and experimental validation has resulted in the synthesis of the highest signal-to-noise green VF dye to date. We use this new voltage indicator to monitor the electrophysiological maturation of human embryonic stem cell-derived medium spiny neurons. </p>


Author(s):  
S. Pragati ◽  
S. Kuldeep ◽  
S. Ashok ◽  
M. Satheesh

One of the situations in the treatment of disease is the delivery of efficacious medication of appropriate concentration to the site of action in a controlled and continual manner. Nanoparticle represents an important particulate carrier system, developed accordingly. Nanoparticles are solid colloidal particles ranging in size from 1 to 1000 nm and composed of macromolecular material. Nanoparticles could be polymeric or lipidic (SLNs). Industry estimates suggest that approximately 40% of lipophilic drug candidates fail due to solubility and formulation stability issues, prompting significant research activity in advanced lipophile delivery technologies. Solid lipid nanoparticle technology represents a promising new approach to lipophile drug delivery. Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) are important advancement in this area. The bioacceptable and biodegradable nature of SLNs makes them less toxic as compared to polymeric nanoparticles. Supplemented with small size which prolongs the circulation time in blood, feasible scale up for large scale production and absence of burst effect makes them interesting candidates for study. In this present review this new approach is discussed in terms of their preparation, advantages, characterization and special features.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niaz Ahmad ◽  
Muhammad Aamer Mehmood ◽  
Sana Malik

: In recent years, microalgae have emerged as an alternative platform for large-scale production of recombinant proteins for different commercial applications. As a production platform, it has several advantages, including rapid growth, easily scale up and ability to grow with or without the external carbon source. Genetic transformation of several species has been established. Of these, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii has become significantly attractive for its potential to express foreign proteins inexpensively. All its three genomes – nuclear, mitochondrial and chloroplastic – have been sequenced. As a result, a wealth of information about its genetic machinery, protein expression mechanism (transcription, translation and post-translational modifications) is available. Over the years, various molecular tools have been developed for the manipulation of all these genomes. Various studies show that the transformation of the chloroplast genome has several advantages over nuclear transformation from the biopharming point of view. According to a recent survey, over 100 recombinant proteins have been expressed in algal chloroplasts. However, the expression levels achieved in the algal chloroplast genome are generally lower compared to the chloroplasts of higher plants. Work is therefore needed to make the algal chloroplast transformation commercially competitive. In this review, we discuss some examples from the algal research, which could play their role in making algal chloroplast commercially successful.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahya Karami Mosammam ◽  
Mohammad Reza Ganjali ◽  
Mona Habibi-Kool-Gheshlaghi ◽  
Farnoush Faridbod

Background: Catecholamine drugs are a family of electroactive pharmaceutics, which are widely analyzed through electrochemical methods. However, for low level online determination and monitoring of these compounds, which is very important for clinical and biological studies, modified electrodes having high signal to noise ratios are needed. Numerous materials including nanomaterials have been widely used as electrode modifies for these families during the years. Among them, graphene and its family, due to their remarkable properties in electrochemistry, were extensively used in modification of electrochemical sensors. Objective: In this review, working electrodes which have been modified with graphene and its derivatives and applied for electroanalyses of some important catecholamine drugs are considered.


2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (8) ◽  
pp. 893-901
Author(s):  
Sinead J. Barton ◽  
Bryan M. Hennelly

Cosmic ray artifacts may be present in all photo-electric readout systems. In spectroscopy, they present as random unidirectional sharp spikes that distort spectra and may have an affect on post-processing, possibly affecting the results of multivariate statistical classification. A number of methods have previously been proposed to remove cosmic ray artifacts from spectra but the goal of removing the artifacts while making no other change to the underlying spectrum is challenging. One of the most successful and commonly applied methods for the removal of comic ray artifacts involves the capture of two sequential spectra that are compared in order to identify spikes. The disadvantage of this approach is that at least two recordings are necessary, which may be problematic for dynamically changing spectra, and which can reduce the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio when compared with a single recording of equivalent duration due to the inclusion of two instances of read noise. In this paper, a cosmic ray artefact removal algorithm is proposed that works in a similar way to the double acquisition method but requires only a single capture, so long as a data set of similar spectra is available. The method employs normalized covariance in order to identify a similar spectrum in the data set, from which a direct comparison reveals the presence of cosmic ray artifacts, which are then replaced with the corresponding values from the matching spectrum. The advantage of the proposed method over the double acquisition method is investigated in the context of the S/N ratio and is applied to various data sets of Raman spectra recorded from biological cells.


2021 ◽  
Vol 102 (8) ◽  
pp. 8-13
Author(s):  
Thomas Hatch

Taking advantage of the possibilities for learning outside of school requires us to build on what we know about why it is so hard to sustain and scale up unconventional educational experiences within conventional schools. To illustrate the opportunities and challenges, Thomas Hatch describes a large-scale approach to project-based learning developed in a camp in New Hampshire and incorporated in a Brooklyn school, a trip-based program in Detroit, and Singapore’s systemic embrace of learning outside school. By understanding the conditions that can sustain alternative instructional practices, educators can find places to challenge the boundaries of schooling and create visions of the possible that exceed current constraints.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (14) ◽  
pp. 4804
Author(s):  
Marcin Piekarczyk ◽  
Olaf Bar ◽  
Łukasz Bibrzycki ◽  
Michał Niedźwiecki ◽  
Krzysztof Rzecki ◽  
...  

Gamification is known to enhance users’ participation in education and research projects that follow the citizen science paradigm. The Cosmic Ray Extremely Distributed Observatory (CREDO) experiment is designed for the large-scale study of various radiation forms that continuously reach the Earth from space, collectively known as cosmic rays. The CREDO Detector app relies on a network of involved users and is now working worldwide across phones and other CMOS sensor-equipped devices. To broaden the user base and activate current users, CREDO extensively uses the gamification solutions like the periodical Particle Hunters Competition. However, the adverse effect of gamification is that the number of artefacts, i.e., signals unrelated to cosmic ray detection or openly related to cheating, substantially increases. To tag the artefacts appearing in the CREDO database we propose the method based on machine learning. The approach involves training the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to recognise the morphological difference between signals and artefacts. As a result we obtain the CNN-based trigger which is able to mimic the signal vs. artefact assignments of human annotators as closely as possible. To enhance the method, the input image signal is adaptively thresholded and then transformed using Daubechies wavelets. In this exploratory study, we use wavelet transforms to amplify distinctive image features. As a result, we obtain a very good recognition ratio of almost 99% for both signal and artefacts. The proposed solution allows eliminating the manual supervision of the competition process.


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