scholarly journals Evaluation of the capacities of a field absolute quantum gravimeter (AQG#B01)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Karin Cooke ◽  
Cédric Champollion ◽  
Nicolas Le Moigne

Abstract. Quantum gravimeters are a promising new development allowing for continuous, high-frequency absolute gravity monitoring while remaining user-friendly and transportable. In this study, we present experiments carried out to assess the capacity of the AQG#B01 in view of future deployment as a field gravimeter for hydro-geophysical applications. The AQG#B01 is the field version follow-up of the AQG#A01 portable absolute quantum gravimeter developed by MuQuans. We assess the instrument's performance in terms of stability (absence of instrumental drift), sensitivity in relation to other gravimeters, and hydrogeological mass changes. We discuss the observations concerning the accuracy of the AQG#B01 in comparison with a state-of-the-art absolute gravimeter (Micro-g-LaCoste, FG5#228). Repeatability is tested by instrument displacement between close-by measurement positions. We report the repeatability to be better than 50 nm s−2. No significant instrumental drift was observed over several weeks of measurement. This study furthermore investigates whether changes of instrument tilt and external temperature and combination of both, which are likely to occur during field campaigns, influence the measurement of gravitational attraction. We repeatedly tested external temperatures between 20 and 30 °C and did not find any significant effect. As an example of a geophysical signal, a 100 nm s−2 gravity change is detected with the AQG#B01 after a rainfall event at the Larzac geodetic observatory (Southern France). The data agreed with the gravity changes measured with a superconducting relative gravimeter (GWR, iGrav#002) and the expected gravity change simulated as an infinite Bouguer slab approximation. We close with operational recommendations for potential users and discuss specific possible future field applications. While not claiming completeness, we nevertheless present the first characterisation of a quantum gravimeter carried out by future users. Crucial criteria for the assessment of its suitability in field applications have been investigated and are complemented with a discussion of further necessary experiments.

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-79
Author(s):  
Anne-Karin Cooke ◽  
Cédric Champollion ◽  
Nicolas Le Moigne

Abstract. Quantum gravimeters are a promising new development allowing for continuous absolute gravity monitoring while remaining user-friendly and transportable. In this study, we present experiments carried out to assess the capacity of the AQG#B01 in view of future deployment as a field gravimeter for hydrogeophysical applications. The AQG#B01 is the field version follow-up of the AQG#A01 portable absolute quantum gravimeter developed by the French quantum sensor company Muquans. We assess the instrument's performance in terms of stability (absence of instrumental drift) and sensitivity in relation to other gravimeters. No significant instrumental drift was observed over several weeks of measurement. We discuss the observations concerning the accuracy of the AQG#B01 in comparison with a state-of-the-art absolute gravimeter (Micro-g-LaCoste, FG5#228). We report the repeatability to be better than 50 nm s−2. This study furthermore investigates whether changes in instrument tilt and external temperature and a combination of both, which are likely to occur during field campaigns, influence the measurement of gravitational attraction. We repeatedly tested external temperatures between 20 and 30 ∘C and did not find any significant effect. As an example of a geophysical signal, a 100 nm s−2 gravity change is detected with the AQG#B01 after a rainfall event at the Larzac geodetic observatory (southern France). The data agreed with the gravity changes measured with a superconducting relative gravimeter (GWR, iGrav#002) and the expected gravity change simulated as an infinite Bouguer slab approximation. We report 2 weeks of stable operation under semi-terrain conditions in a garage without temperature-control. We close with operational recommendations for potential users and discuss specific possible future field applications. While not claiming completeness, we nevertheless present the first characterization of a quantum gravimeter carried out by future users. Selected criteria for the assessment of its suitability in field applications have been investigated and are complemented with a discussion of further necessary experiments.


Author(s):  
Patrick Bonin ◽  
Margaux Gelin ◽  
Betty Laroche ◽  
Alain Méot ◽  
Aurélia Bugaiska

Abstract. Animates are better remembered than inanimates. According to the adaptive view of human memory ( Nairne, 2010 ; Nairne & Pandeirada, 2010a , 2010b ), this observation results from the fact that animates are more important for survival than inanimates. This ultimate explanation of animacy effects has to be complemented by proximate explanations. Moreover, animacy currently represents an uncontrolled word characteristic in most cognitive research ( VanArsdall, Nairne, Pandeirada, & Cogdill, 2015 ). In four studies, we therefore investigated the “how” of animacy effects. Study 1 revealed that words denoting animates were recalled better than those referring to inanimates in an intentional memory task. Study 2 revealed that adding a concurrent memory load when processing words for the animacy dimension did not impede the animacy effect on recall rates. Study 3A was an exact replication of Study 2 and Study 3B used a higher concurrent memory load. In these two follow-up studies, animacy effects on recall performance were again not altered by a concurrent memory load. Finally, Study 4 showed that using interactive imagery to encode animate and inanimate words did not alter the recall rate of animate words but did increase the recall of inanimate words. Taken together, the findings suggest that imagery processes contribute to these effects.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (34) ◽  
pp. 4013-4022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiang Cheng ◽  
Xuan Xiao ◽  
Kuo-Chen Chou

Knowledge of protein subcellular localization is vitally important for both basic research and drug development. With the avalanche of protein sequences emerging in the post-genomic age, it is highly desired to develop computational tools for timely and effectively identifying their subcellular localization based on the sequence information alone. Recently, a predictor called “pLoc-mPlant” was developed for identifying the subcellular localization of plant proteins. Its performance is overwhelmingly better than that of the other predictors for the same purpose, particularly in dealing with multi-label systems in which some proteins, called “multiplex proteins”, may simultaneously occur in two or more subcellular locations. Although it is indeed a very powerful predictor, more efforts are definitely needed to further improve it. This is because pLoc-mPlant was trained by an extremely skewed dataset in which some subsets (i.e., the protein numbers for some subcellular locations) were more than 10 times larger than the others. Accordingly, it cannot avoid the biased consequence caused by such an uneven training dataset. To overcome such biased consequence, we have developed a new and bias-free predictor called pLoc_bal-mPlant by balancing the training dataset. Cross-validation tests on exactly the same experimentconfirmed dataset have indicated that the proposed new predictor is remarkably superior to pLoc-mPlant, the existing state-of-the-art predictor in identifying the subcellular localization of plant proteins. To maximize the convenience for the majority of experimental scientists, a user-friendly web-server for the new predictor has been established at http://www.jci-bioinfo.cn/pLoc_bal-mPlant/, by which users can easily get their desired results without the need to go through the detailed mathematics.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (5) ◽  
pp. 472-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuo-Chen Chou ◽  
Xiang Cheng ◽  
Xuan Xiao

<P>Background/Objective: Information of protein subcellular localization is crucially important for both basic research and drug development. With the explosive growth of protein sequences discovered in the post-genomic age, it is highly demanded to develop powerful bioinformatics tools for timely and effectively identifying their subcellular localization purely based on the sequence information alone. Recently, a predictor called “pLoc-mEuk” was developed for identifying the subcellular localization of eukaryotic proteins. Its performance is overwhelmingly better than that of the other predictors for the same purpose, particularly in dealing with multi-label systems where many proteins, called “multiplex proteins”, may simultaneously occur in two or more subcellular locations. Although it is indeed a very powerful predictor, more efforts are definitely needed to further improve it. This is because pLoc-mEuk was trained by an extremely skewed dataset where some subset was about 200 times the size of the other subsets. Accordingly, it cannot avoid the biased consequence caused by such an uneven training dataset. </P><P> Methods: To alleviate such bias, we have developed a new predictor called pLoc_bal-mEuk by quasi-balancing the training dataset. Cross-validation tests on exactly the same experimentconfirmed dataset have indicated that the proposed new predictor is remarkably superior to pLocmEuk, the existing state-of-the-art predictor in identifying the subcellular localization of eukaryotic proteins. It has not escaped our notice that the quasi-balancing treatment can also be used to deal with many other biological systems. </P><P> Results: To maximize the convenience for most experimental scientists, a user-friendly web-server for the new predictor has been established at http://www.jci-bioinfo.cn/pLoc_bal-mEuk/. </P><P> Conclusion: It is anticipated that the pLoc_bal-Euk predictor holds very high potential to become a useful high throughput tool in identifying the subcellular localization of eukaryotic proteins, particularly for finding multi-target drugs that is currently a very hot trend trend in drug development.</P>


2021 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirjam Bilker-Koivula ◽  
Jaakko Mäkinen ◽  
Hannu Ruotsalainen ◽  
Jyri Näränen ◽  
Timo Saari

AbstractPostglacial rebound in Fennoscandia causes striking trends in gravity measurements of the area. We present time series of absolute gravity data collected between 1976 and 2019 on 12 stations in Finland with different types of instruments. First, we determine the trends at each station and analyse the effect of the instrument types. We estimate, for example, an offset of 6.8 μgal for the JILAg-5 instrument with respect to the FG5-type instruments. Applying the offsets in the trend analysis strengthens the trends being in good agreement with the NKG2016LU_gdot model of gravity change. Trends of seven stations were found robust and were used to analyse the stabilization of the trends in time and to determine the relationship between gravity change rates and land uplift rates as measured with global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) as well as from the NKG2016LU_abs land uplift model. Trends calculated from combined and offset-corrected measurements of JILAg-5- and FG5-type instruments stabilized in 15 to 20 years and at some stations even faster. The trends of FG5-type instrument data alone stabilized generally within 10 years. The ratio between gravity change rates and vertical rates from different data sets yields values between − 0.206 ± 0.017 and − 0.227 ± 0.024 µGal/mm and axis intercept values between 0.248 ± 0.089 and 0.335 ± 0.136 µGal/yr. These values are larger than previous estimates for Fennoscandia.


Author(s):  
Yorick Bernardus Cornelis van de Grift ◽  
Nika Heijmans ◽  
Renée van Amerongen

AbstractAn increasing number of ‘-omics’ datasets, generated by labs all across the world, are becoming available. They contain a wealth of data that are largely unexplored. Not every scientist, however, will have access to the required resources and expertise to analyze such data from scratch. Fortunately, a growing number of investigators is dedicating their time and effort to the development of user friendly, online applications that allow researchers to use and investigate these datasets. Here, we will illustrate the usefulness of such an approach. Using regulation of Wnt7b expression as an example, we will highlight a selection of accessible tools and resources that are available to researchers in the area of mammary gland biology. We show how they can be used for in silico analyses of gene regulatory mechanisms, resulting in new hypotheses and providing leads for experimental follow up. We also call out to the mammary gland community to join forces in a coordinated effort to generate and share additional tissue-specific ‘-omics’ datasets and thereby expand the in silico toolbox.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Eric Järpe ◽  
Mattias Weckstén

A new method for musical steganography for the MIDI format is presented. The MIDI standard is a user-friendly music technology protocol that is frequently deployed by composers of different levels of ambition. There is to the author’s knowledge no fully implemented and rigorously specified, publicly available method for MIDI steganography. The goal of this study, however, is to investigate how a novel MIDI steganography algorithm can be implemented by manipulation of the velocity attribute subject to restrictions of capacity and security. Many of today’s MIDI steganography methods—less rigorously described in the literature—fail to be resilient to steganalysis. Traces (such as artefacts in the MIDI code which would not occur by the mere generation of MIDI music: MIDI file size inflation, radical changes in mean absolute error or peak signal-to-noise ratio of certain kinds of MIDI events or even audible effects in the stego MIDI file) that could catch the eye of a scrutinizing steganalyst are side-effects of many current methods described in the literature. This steganalysis resilience is an imperative property of the steganography method. However, by restricting the carrier MIDI files to classical organ and harpsichord pieces, the problem of velocities following the mood of the music can be avoided. The proposed method, called Velody 2, is found to be on par with or better than the cutting edge alternative methods regarding capacity and inflation while still possessing a better resilience against steganalysis. An audibility test was conducted to check that there are no signs of audible traces in the stego MIDI files.


Neurosurgery ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 66 (5) ◽  
pp. 986-990 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk De Ridder ◽  
Sven Vanneste ◽  
Mark Plazier ◽  
Elsa van der Loo ◽  
Tomas Menovsky

Abstract INTRODUCTION Spinal cord stimulation is commonly used for neuropathic pain modulation. The major side effect is the onset of paresthesia. The authors describe a new stimulation design that suppresses pain as well as, or even better than, the currently used stimulation, but without creating paresthesia. METHODS A spinal cord electrode (Lamitrode) for neuropathic pain was implanted in 12 patients via laminectomy: 4 at the C2 level and 7 at the T8–T9 level for cervicobrachialgia and lumboischialgia, respectively (1 at T11 at another center). During external stimulation, the patients received the classic tonic stimulation (40 or 50 Hz) and the new burst stimulation (40-Hz burst with 5 spikes at 500 Hz per burst). RESULTS Pain scores were measured using a visual analog scale and the McGill Short Form preoperatively and during tonic and burst stimulation. Paresthesia was scored as present or not present. Burst stimulation was significantly better for pain suppression, by both the visual analog scale score and the McGill Short Form score. Paresthesia was present in 92% of patients during tonic stimulation, and in only 17% during burst stimulation. Average follow-up was 20.5 months. CONCLUSION The authors present a new method of spinal cord stimulation using bursts that suppress neuropathic pain without the mandatory paresthesia. Pain suppression seems as good as or potentially better than that achieved with the currently used stimulation. Average follow-up after nearly 2 years (20.5 months) suggests that this stimulation design is stable.


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