We recorded the time series of location data from stationary, single-frequency (L1) GPS positioning systems at a variety of geographic locations. The empirical autocorrelation function of these data shows significant temporal correlations. The Gaussian white noise model, widely used in sensor-fusion algorithms, does not account for the observed autocorrelations and has an artificially large variance. Noise-model analysis-using Akaike's Information Criterion-favours alternative models, such as an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck or an autoregressive process. We suggest that incorporating a suitable enhanced noise model into applications (e.g., Kalman Filters) that rely on GPS position estimates will improve performance. This provides an alternative to explicitly modelling possible sources of correlation (e.g., multipath, shadowing, or other second-order physical phenomena).Background In the field of spatial cognition, the study of individual differences represents a typical research topic. Gender and age have been prominently investigated. A promising statistical technique used to identify the different responses to items in relation to different group memberships is the Differential Item Functioning Analysis (DIF). The aim of the present study was to investigate the DIF of the Landmark positioning on a Map (LPM) task, across age groups (young and elderly) and gender, in a sample of 400 healthy human participants. Methods LPM is a hometown map completion test based on well-known and familiar landmarks used to assess allocentric mental representations. DIF was assessed on LPM items two times on categorical (i.e., positions) and coordinate (i.e., distances) scores, separately. Results When positions and distances were difficult to assess with respect to the intended reference point, the probability to endorse the items seemed to get worse for the elderly compared to the younger participants. Instead other features of landmarks (high pleasantness, restorativeness) seemed to improve the elderly performance. A gender-related improvement of probability to endorse distance estimation of some landmarks, favoring women, emerged, probably associated with their repeated experiences with those landmarks. Overall, the complexity of the task seemed to have a differential impact on young and elderly people while gender-oriented activities and places seemed to have a differential impact on men and women. Conclusions For the first time DIF was applied to a spatial mental representation task, based on the schematic sketch maps of the participants. The application of DIF to the study of individual differences in spatial cognition should become a systematic routine to early detect differential items, improving knowledge, as well as experimental control, on individual differences.In this work, a highly sensitive dual-core configured microchannel-based plasmonic refractive index (RI) sensor was investigated, which can be used for low RI detection. Both the sensing layer and the plasmonic material layer were built outside of the fiber design to detect the surrounding medium's RI changes. Additionally, the effects of different plasmonic materials gold (Au), silver (Ag), and copper (Cu) toward sensitivity were investigated for the same structure. An adhesive agent was used in this work, titanium dioxide (TiO2), and was coated on top of the plasmonic material to prevent the oxidation of Ag and Cu. The coupling strength between the fundamental mode and the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) mode was observed to be very strong due to the TiO2 adhesive agent. With a resolution of 7.41 × 10-7 RIU, maximum wavelength sensitivity (WS) of 135,000 nm/RIU and amplitude sensitivity (AS) of 3239 RIU-1 were achieved using the proposed sensor while using Au as a plasmonic material for an analyte RI range of 1.29-1.39. A detailed study of relevant literature revealed that the achieved wavelength sensitivity for plasmonic material gold (Au) is the highest among reported photonic crystal fiber (PCF)-surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors to date.Pediatric hypertension (HTN) represents a challenging disease with a major cardiometabolic risk (CMR) burden from childhood to adulthood. In fact, it has been linked to cardiac and vascular damage even at pediatric age and recognized as an independent risk factor for HTN in adulthood. Therefore, HTN in children has gained remarkable scientific interest during the past decades. However, the availability of different diagnostic classifications complicates HTN definition. The Clinical Practice Guidelines released in 2017 updated the diagnostic criteria, by highlighting some important issues with clinical implications. Lowering the new cut-offs proposed by the CPG, as compared with those proposed by IV Report criteria, will increase the number of young people at risk of hypertension. However, evidence suggests that the CPG cutoff-points in further identifying subjects with an altered CMR profile. Currently, some issues are still debated such as the adoption of a fixed cut-off of BP ≥ 130/80 mmHg for children aged ≥ 13 years, or the adoption of criteria for cardiac damage derived from adults. Given the CMR burden of pediatric HTN, a better and early identification of children at higher HTN risk is strictly recommended in order to improve HTN management to reduce the cardiovascular risk in these youths.In recent years, lanthanide-doped nanothermometers have been mainly used in thin films or dispersed in organic solvents. However, both approaches have disadvantages such as the short interaction lengths of the active material with the pump beam or complicated handling, which can directly affect the achievable temperature resolution.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/purmorphamine.html  We investigated the usability of a polymer fiber doped with upconversion nanocrystals as a thermometer. The fiber was excited with a wavelength stabilized diode laser at a wavelength of 976 nm. Emission spectra were recorded in a temperature range from 10 to 35 ∘C and the thermal emission changes were measured. Additionally, the pump power was varied to study the effect of self-induced heating on the thermometer specifications. Our fiber sensor shows a maximal thermal sensitivity of 1.45%/K and the minimal thermal resolution is below 20 mK. These results demonstrate that polymer fibers doped with nanocrystals constitute an attractive alternative to conventional fluorescence thermometers, as they add a long pump interaction length while also being insensitive to strong electrical fields or inert to bio-chemical environments.