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JT-60SA is the superconducting tokamak that will be operated at the Naka Fusion Institute of QST (the National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology) in Japan. The project is being developed under the framework of the Broader Approach Agreement between the EU and Japan (started in 2007) for an early realization of the fusion energy, aimed at conducting supportive and complementary work for the ITER experimental program towards DEMO. The assembly of the tokamak components as well as the related equipment was completed last year and the device is currently undergoing the integrated commissioning phase.Within the European contribution, Spain was one of the stakeholders that committed it, as a Voluntary Contributor, to design and manufacture one of the main components of the device: the cryostat. The cryostat is a large stainless steel vacuum vessel, 14 m diameter, 16 m high, which encloses the tokamak and provides the vacuum boundary (10−3 Pa) necessary to limit the heat loads on the magnets operated at cryogenic temperatures. The component is made up of the Cryostat Base (CB), the Cryostat Vessel Body Cylindrical Section (CVBCS), both designed and fabricated in Spain (through the National Fusion Laboratory at Ciemat), as well as the cryostat top lid (CTL) designed and procured by Japan (through QST).Within the manufacturing phases of the CB and CVBCS an extensive test program was carried out at Ciemat that focussed on the characterization of the welding processes selected for the manufacturing before their final approval. The aim of this paper is to present the results of the mechanical and microstructural tests performed on the welded joints.

This work presents a method to find the optimal configuration of a leg-based stair-climbing wheelchair. This optimization begins with the definition of a high-level control architecture, in which the kinematics restrictions related to the specific obstacles are considered. Then, the reference trajectories for all the actuators are generated as a function of the physical parameters of the mechanism, the dynamic restrictions of the actuators (velocity and acceleration) and the sensor errors. This work illustrates, based on a set of configurations, how the total time to climb up and climb down a defined stair depends on all these parameters, also reporting the best set of parameters that reduces the time and makes the mechanism more stable for a given scenario. The optimization in this work is performed with a brute-force search within a grid of parameters with a resolution of 1 mm. Thus, as the local minima is located, the complexity of the problem is revealed.

An unprecedented global social and economic impact as well as a significant number of fatalities have been brought on by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), produced by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Acute SARS-CoV-2 infection can, in certain situations, cause immunological abnormalities, leading to an anomalous innate and adaptive immune response. While most patients only experience mild symptoms and recover without the need for mechanical ventilation, a substantial percentage of those who are affected develop severe respiratory illness, which can be fatal. The absence of effective therapies when disease progresses to a very severe condition coupled with the incomplete understanding of COVID-19’s pathogenesis triggers the need to develop innovative therapeutic approaches for patients at high risk of mortality. As a result, we investigate the potential contribution of promising combinatorial cell therapy to prevent death in critical patients.

BackgroundAutopsies can shed light on the pathogenesis of new and emerging diseases.AimTo describe needle core necropsy findings of the lung, heart, and liver in decedents with COVID-19.MaterialCross-sectional study of needle core necropsies in patients who died with virologically confirmed COVID-19. Histopathological analyses were performed, and clinical data and patient course evaluated.ResultsChest core necropsies were performed in 71 decedents with a median age of 81 years (range 52–97); 47 (65.3%) were men. The median interval from symptoms onset to death was 17.5 days (range 1–84). Samples of lung (n = 62, 87.3%), heart (n = 48, 67.6%) and liver (n = 39, 54.9%) were obtained. Fifty-one lung samples (82.3%) were abnormal: 19 (30.6%) showed proliferative diffuse alveolar damage (DAD), 12 (19.4%) presented exudative DAD, and 10 (16.1%) exhibited proliferative plus exudative DAD. Of the 46 lung samples tested for SARS-CoV-19 by RT-PCR, 39 (84.8%) were positive. DAD was associated with premortem values of lactate dehydrogenase of 400 U/L or higher [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 21.73; 95% confidence interval (CI) 3.22–146] and treatment with tocilizumab (AOR 6.91; 95% CI 1.14–41.7). Proliferative DAD was associated with an onset-to-death interval of over 15 days (AOR 7.85, 95% CI 1.29–47.80). Twenty-three of the 48 (47.9%) heart samples were abnormal: all showed fiber hypertrophy, while 9 (18.8%) presented fibrosis. Of the liver samples, 29/39 (74.4%) were abnormal, due to steatosis (n = 12, 30.8%), cholestasis (n = 6, 15.4%) and lobular central necrosis (n = 5, 12.8%).ConclusionProliferative DAD was the main finding on lung core needle necropsy in people who died from COVID-19; this finding was related to a longer disease course. Changes in the liver and heart were common.