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The story starts in February 1968 when I joined Fairchild Semiconductor R&D Lab in Palo Alto, CA, USA. At that time, nearly all the integrated circuits (ICs) in production used bipolar technology. Metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) technology was up-and-coming but still had many problems: it was extremely slow and was not yet reliable. I believed that the future of digital electronics belonged to MOS technology because one could integrate in the same silicon area ten times more logic gates with half the number of manufacturing steps required by bipolar technology.

This paper introduces a new partitioned ant lion optimizer (PALO) strategy to improve the solution accuracy and quality of the optimal power flow (OPF) considering multi Static VAR Compensator (SVC) and Thyristor Controlled Series Controller (TCSC)-based FACTS devices. An interactive partitioning structure-based ALO is proposed to improve the solution of OPF by creating an interactive equilibrium between diversification and intensification during the search process. The decision variables such as active power, voltage magnitudes of generating units, tap transformers; reactive power of Static VAR Compensator (SVC), and the reactance of TCSC devices are optimized using a flexible partitioned process. Three objective functions, such as total fuel cost, total power loss, and total voltage deviation have been optimized considering load growth. The robustness of the proposed PALO has been validated on three test systems, the IEEE 30-bus, and two large test systems, the 300-bus and 2736 ps bus of the Polish power system. Results compared to many recent techniques prove the particularity and competitiveness of the proposed optimization strategy-based PALO.

Gonopterodendron sarmientoi es un árbol nativo de los bosques del Gran Chaco Seco de Sudamérica, adaptado a condiciones semiáridas. Hasta el momento no se ha relacionado la estructura forestal de palo santo con características edáficas y climáticas a escala regional. Actualmente, en la Argentina, el estudio del manejo y la conservación forestal de esta especie es escaso y aún depende de la disponibilidad de información básica. Los objetivos del presente trabajo fueron: 1) clasificar estructuras de bosques de palo santo según el índice de valor forestal y la composición de especies, 2) analizar relaciones entre parámetros dasométricos de palo santo con variables edáficas y climáticas a nivel región y tipos de bosques, y 3) comparar la biomasa total aérea entre los tipos de bosques como herramienta para el manejo y la conservación de la especie. Se recopilaron inventarios forestales realizados durante los años 2004-2019 conteniendo datos dasométricos de palo santo para el norte del Chaco Seco argentino. Dentro del área de estudio se extrajeron registros edáficos y climáticos de las unidades de muestreo a partir de bases de datos globales y de mapas nacionales. Se determinaron tres tipos de estructuras de bosques con presencia de palo santo: palosantal, bosque con baja presencia de palo santo y bosque con alta presencia de palo santo. La temperatura, la precipitación, la evapotranspiración y las texturas del suelo tuvieron efectos significativos sobre la estructura forestal del palo santo a nivel de región y sobre los tipos de bosques. La densidad total de individuos de G. sarmientoi tiene diferente efecto sobre la biomasa total según el tipo de bosque, lo que posibilita diferentes prácticas de manejo y conservación. Consolidar un Plan Estratégico Nacional para el Manejo Sustentable del Palo Santo en la República Argentina podría atender más propuestas viables de manejo y conservación de la especie en la región. Gonopterodendron sarmientoi is a threatened native tree of the Dry Chaco region in South America, adapted to semiarid conditions. However, the relationships among climatic and edaphic conditions and its forest structure have not been defined yet. Up to date, in Argentina, the study of palo santo forest management and conservation is scarce and still depends on basic information. The objectives of this study were 1) to classify forest groups based on forest stand atributes and species composition, 2) to analyze relationships between dasometric parameters of palo santo with climatic and edaphic variables at the regional level and forest types, and 3) to compare total aboveground biomass between forest types as a tool for managing and conserving this species. We compiled forest inventories carried out during the years 2004-2019, containing dasometric data of palo santo for the northern part of the Argentine Dry Chaco region. In the study area, we extracted climatic and edaphic conditions from global data base and national maps. We obtained three forest groups: palosantal, forests with low presence of palo santo and forests with high presence of palo santo. Temperature, precipitation, evapotranspiration and soil textures had significant effects on the forest structure of palo santo at the regional level and on forest types. The total density of individuals of G. sarmientoi has a different effect on the total biomass depending on the type of forest, which allows for different management and conservation practices. Consolidating a national forest plan for palo santo could address more viable proposals to manage and conserve the species in the region. EEA Santa Cruz Fil: Loto, Dante. Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero; Argentina. Fil: Loto, Dante. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Fil: Kees, Sebastian Miguel. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Sáenz Peña. Campo Anexo Estación Forestal Plaza; Argentina. Fil: Azcona, Maximiliano. Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable de la Nación. Dirección Nacional de Bosques. Autoridad Científica CITES en especies forestales; Argentina. Fil: De Tellería, Santiago. Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable de la Nación. Dirección Nacional de Bosques. Autoridad Científica CITES en especies forestales; Argentina. Fil: Manghi, Eduardo. Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable de Nación. Dirección de Bosques; Argentina. Fil: Spagarino, Carlos. Administración de Parques Nacionales. Parque Nacional Río Pilcomayo; Argentina. Fil: Gasparri, Ignacio. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional; Argentina. Fil: Gasparri, Ignacio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Fil: Peri, Pablo Luis. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Santa Cruz; Argentina. Fil: Peri, Pablo Luis. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral; Argentina. Fil: Peri, Pablo Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Fil: Gaitan, Juan José. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Centro de Investigación de Recursos Naturales. Instituto de investigación de suelo y agua. Castelar; Argentina.

Water management has become critical for thermoelectric power generation in the US. Increasing demand for scarce water resources for domestic, agricultural, and industrial use affects water availability for power plants. In particular, the population in the Southwestern part of the US is growing and water resources are over-stressed. The engineering and management teams at the Palo Verde Generating Station (PV) in the Sonoran Desert have long understood this problem and began a partnership with Sandia National Laboratories in 2017 to develop a long-term water strategy for PV. As part of this program, Sandia and Palo Verde staff have developed a comprehensive software tool that models all aspects of the PV (plant cooling) water cycle. The software tool — the Palo Verde Water Cycle Model (PVWCM) — tracks water operations from influent to the plant through evaporation in one of the nine cooling towers or one of the eight evaporation ponds. The PVWCM has been developed using a process called System Dynamics. The PVWCM is developed to allow scenario comparison for various plant operating strategies.

Here, we present the genome of Palo, a T7-like podophage of Rhizobium phaseoli. The genome is 46.3 kb and contains 58 predicted protein-coding genes, including a novel signal-anchor-release (SAR) endolysin, a homolog of the T5 A1 protein required for DNA transfer, and a dual-start holin/antiholin pair.

Rakenneputkien välisiä liitoksia käytetään erilaisissa teräsrakenteissa ristikoista ja kehärakenteista mastoihin ja siltoihin. Eurokoodissa ja muissa standardeissa on esitetty selkeä ja yksinkertainen ohjeistus putkiliitosten suunnitteluun ja mitoitukseen. Standardeista puuttuvat kuitenkin vielä kokonaan tulipalotilannetta ja liitosten palomitoitusta koskevat ohjeet. Poikkileikkaukseltaan suorakaiteen muotoisten rakenneputkien välisten liitosten käyttäytymisestä korkeissa lämpötiloissa on hyvin rajoitetusti tietoa ja tieteellistä aineistoa, eikä olemassa ole luotettavia suunnittelu- ja mitoitusmenetelmiä niiden palonkestävyyden arviointiin. Tässä väitöskirjatutkimuksessa selvitetään neliön muotoisten rakenneputkien (SHS) välisten hitsattujen T-liitosten käyttäytymistä korkeassa lämpötilassa tavoitteena tuottaa näiden liitosten palomitoitukseen soveltuva menetelmä. Menetelmä sisältää sekä liitosten mitoituslämpötilan että aksiaalisen kestävyyden mitoitusarvojen määrittämisen. Tutkimuksen toteutus koostui täyden mittakaavan kuormittamattomilla ja kuormitetuilla T-liitoksilla tehdyistä polttokokeista sekä kokeellisia tuloksia laajentaneista numeerisista simulaatioista ja parametrisesta tutkimuksesta. Liitosten komponenttien lämpötiloja sekä lämpötilan jakautumista liitosalueen välittömässä läheisyydessä selvitettiin neljän eri polttokokeen avulla. Kokeellisiin tuloksiin perustuen tuotettiin numeerinen malli, jonka avulla tutkittiin liitosten geometristen parametrien vaikutusta lämpötiloihin ja lämpötilajakaumaan. Viiden kuormitetuilla liitoksilla tehdyn polttokokeen avulla selvitettiin liitosten murtomekanismeja, kriittisiä lämpötiloja sekä lämpötilajakauman vaikutusta liitosten ja niiden osien toimintaan ja kestävyyteen palotilanteessa. Numeeristen simulaatioiden avulla arvioitiin T-liitosten kestävyyttä korkeissa lämpötiloissa sekä selvitettiin kestävyyteen kannalta merkittävimmät suunnitteluparametrit. Tutkimuksen tuloksena saatiin selville neliön muotoisten rakenneputkien välisten liitosten todellinen lämpötilajakauma sekä kehitettyä menetelmä SHS T-liitosten eri komponenttien sekä liitoksen mitoituslämpötilan määrittämiseksi. Esitetyn menetelmän mukaan liitoksen mitoituslämpötila voidaan määrittää paarre- ja uumasauvojen lämpötilojen keskiarvona. Paarre- ja uumasauvojen lämpötilat voidaan määrittää standardin EN 1993-1-2 mukaisesti. Tutkimuksen tuloksena esitetään menetelmä neliön muotoisen paarresauvan ja puristetun uumasauvan välisen hitsatun T-liitoksen aksiaalisen kestävyyden mitoitusarvon määrittämiseksi palotilanteessa. Kokeelliset ja numeeriset tulokset osoittavat, että menetelmä arvioi liitoksen kestävyyttä tarkasti ja tarjoaa hyvän tieteellisen ja teoreettisen lähtökohdan suorakaideputkien liitosten suunnittelun jatkokehitykselle. Hollow section joints are applied in various structures, from trusses and frames to masts and bridges. Currently, Eurocode and other standards provide engineers with clear and simple design rules for the design of tubular joints at the ambient temperature. However, there are no guidelines in the standards to cover the fire situation and the fire design of the joints. There is very limited information or scientific data on the behaviour of rectangular hollow section joints at high temperatures, and there is no fire design method available to estimate the resistance of the joints at elevated temperatures. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the performance of square hollow section (SHS) T-joints at elevated temperatures, taking into account the temperature distribution and resistance of the joint to be able to design and predict the fire resistance of SHS T-joints under fire conditions. The implementation of the study consisted of full-scale experimental tests with unloaded and loaded T-joints, as well as numerical simulations and parametric studies that extended the experimental results. Four experimental tests were carried out to determine the temperature distribution in the connection components and in the vicinity of the SHS joints. The experimental tests were followed by a numerical study to define how the geometrical parameters of joints affect the temperatures and temperature distribution. Five experimental tests were then performed on loaded SHS T-joints with axial brace compression to investigate the failure modes and critical temperatures of the joints. The effects of temperature distribution on the performance and resistance of different connection components were also studied. Numerical simulations were then used to determine the resistance of the SHS T-joints at elevated temperatures and the most crucial geometrical parameters to design the joints under fire conditions. The results of this research identified the exact temperature development pattern of the SHS joints, and the design temperature of different connection components and the joint was verified. The joint design temperature can be determined as the mean of the chord and brace temperatures that can be determined according to EN 1993-1-2 (CEN 2005b). Finally, the thesis proposed a design method for predicting the fire resistance of an SHS T-joints under axial brace compression. The experimental and numerical results showed that the method provides accurate predictions of the joint resistance and good scientific and theoretical basis for the further development of RHS joint design approach.

Energy-saving and faster manufacturing techniques are essential requirements for the ideal production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. The establishment of accurate calculation skills strengthens a quality working environment for improving manufacturing technology. We applied the adaptive finite element method and calculated the time-dependent SST (shear stress transport), k-ω, k-e and LES (large eddy simulation) models to predict the airflow field around the PET bottles in a heating box. The computation of the flow field was performed using software COMSOL 5.5 (COMSOL Inc., Palo Alto, CA). The experimental data are acquired to compare with simulation results in terms of calculation accuracy. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) results showed that error for the velocity and pressure of the flow field at specific positions in the vicinity of the preform was satisfied. The error estimation on the main physical quantity helps calculate other physical quantities. The variation trend of y+ values near the bottle surface had an identical trend alongside the gird concentration trend during the adaptive computation process. This study reveals that the outcome of the adaptive computation method and its underlying theories satisfy the physical requirements in this case.

Los aceites esenciales son fracciones líquidas volátiles, generalmente son mezclas homogéneas de hasta 100 compuestos químicos orgánicos, que se obtienen del material vegetal proveniente de los desechos. El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo extraer aceites esenciales de palo santo y de mandarina mediante el método de extracción por arrastre de vapor, para lo cual, se realizó el diseño, construcción y experimentación de un equipo a escala banco, implementando cálculos y fundamentos ingenieriles obtenidos de diferentes fuentes bibliográficas. Las pruebas que se realizaron en el equipo diseñado para la destilación por arrastre de vapor a escala banco presentaron los siguientes resultados: palo santo con rendimientos del 2,7985% y de 4,3425%, mientras que, la cáscara de mandarina obtuvo un rendimiento de 0,0816%, lo cual indica un resultado muy bajo en comparación al palo santo; sin embargo, comparado con otras investigaciones la extracción de aceite de mandarina obtuvo un mayor rendimiento. Palabras clave: aceite esencial, arrastre de vapor, diseño, extracción, mandarina, palo santo.

In this article I use my ethnographic data on an Afro-Cuban religion called Palo Monte to argue that ontologically discrepant ‘bits’ of the cosmos can become stuck together for particular purposes, at times producing ‘synchronicities’. I argue that the practitioners of this religion, Paleros, can be trained into producing synchronicities in the form of witchcraft. This coheres with a concept of self that can be seen as an assemblage rather than an essence. This article contributes to a person-centered theory of plasticity in relation to discussions on lenience. In Palo, discipline does not lie in molding one’s subjectivity or in searching for a deep self. Lenience is imperative as the principle with which the self articulates with its environment and itself.

With noteworthy outcrops in the Angastaco Basin (Salta Province), the Palo Pintado Formation is perhaps one of the most intensely studied late Miocene stratigraphical unit of northwestern Argentina from geological, paleoecological, and paleobotanical approaches. In contrast, the mammals from this unit are scarcely known, most of them lacking a precise stratigraphical and geochronological adjustment. In this contribution, we report new caviomorph rodents from the Palo Pintado Fm, exposed at Calchaqui Valley (Eastern Cordillera, Angastaco Basin). The stratigraphical and geochronological control of the new specimens indicate a time window ranging from ∼9.3 Ma to ∼6.1 Ma. The first records of brachydont mammals of the Palo Pintado Fm, represented by the caviomorph Erethizontidae (Erethizontidae sp. nov. cf. Microsteiromys sp.) and Echimyidae (cf. “Eumysops” parodii, and cf. Thrichomys sp.), are described. Dinomyidae (cf. Ferigolomys sp.), small Caviidae (gen. and sp. indet. A and B), and the abrocomid Protabrocoma paranensis are also identified. Caviomorphs from the Palo Pintado Fm (containing the oldest and more recent taxa of different Neotropical linages) allow us to suggest Angastaco Basin as “museum” and “cradle” of biodiversity during the Tortonian and Messinian ages. Our analysis indicates that the late Miocene mammals of the Palo Pintado Fm are compatible with the occurrence of forested environments developed under humid and warm conditions, in agreement with independent paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic proxies. A close biogeographic relationship between the area of the Calchaqui Valley, the Brazilian Acre, and the Argentinian Mesopotamia during the late Miocene is also suggested.

In this work, two simple, sensitive and rapid liquid chromatographic (LC) methods were assessed; for the determination of palonosetron hydrochloride and its related impurities. Method A comprised stress study, chiral separation and quantification of palonosetron (PALO) and its six related impurities. The successful separation of PALO and its six related impurities was achieved using Chiralpak AD column (250 mm × 4.6 mm, 10 µm), in a polar organic (PO) mode. PALO was eluted using gradient mode, consisting of the mobile phase A: 0.1% diethylamine in acetonitrile, the mobile phase B: isopropanol. Method B is a green UPLC method to estimate PALO in the presence of three of its related impurities. Effective separation was carried out on Bonus RP column (100 mm × 4.6 mm, 1.8 µm), based on purified water- ethanol- triethylamine (75: 25: 0.1, v/v), pH 4.0 adjusted with 1 M acetic acid as the mobile phase. The validated methods showed excellent linearity (r2˃ 0.999) over the concentration ranges of 5.0–100.0 μg mL−1 and 0.1–10.0 μg mL−1 for method A and B, respectively. The values of the detection limit (LOD) and quantification limit (LOQ) of PALO and its six related impurities were found in the range of 0.014–0.032 μg mL−1 and 0.043–0.097 μg mL−1, respectively for method A, while for method B; they were found to be in the range of 0.08 and 0.1 μg mL−1, respectively. The optimized methods have been validated and found to be appropriate for quality control of PALO in its pharmaceutical dosage form.

To the memory of Prof. Grigori Mints, Stanford UniversityBorn: June 7, 1939, St. Petersburg, RussiaDied: May 29, 2014, Palo Alto, California

We introduce a novel framework to identify perception-action loops (PALOs) directly from data based on the principles of computational mechanics. Our approach is based on the notion of causal blanket, which captures sensory and active variables as dynamical sufficient statistics—i.e. as the “differences that make a difference.” Furthermore, our theory provides a broadly applicable procedure to construct PALOs that requires neither a steady-state nor Markovian dynamics. Using our theory, we show that every bipartite stochastic process has a causal blanket, but the extent to which this leads to an effective PALO formulation varies depending on the integrated information of the bipartition.