Modeling and sizing of large PV-diesel hybrid systems without energy storage

This paper describes the modelling of components and control strategies for PV-diesel hybrid systems without energy storage, which have been implemented in an online and free-software simulator of PV systems called SISIFO, which is publicly available at www.sisifo.info. Among other features, this software tool allows the prediction of fuel savings for different sizes and types of PV generators, the comparison of selected control strategies and the evaluation of the spinning reserve requirements in systems with multiple diesel generators operating in parallel

Performance evaluation of structures with reinforced concrete columns retrofitted with steel jacketing

Several existing reinforced concrete (RC) buildings fail to conform with current seismic codes, increasing its susceptibility to damage and collapse during earthquakes. A concern for building upgrading and rehabilitation has grown considerably in the last decades. However, there is limited information related to the seismic performance of RC buildings retrofitted with steel jacketing. Retrofitting of RC buildings leads to different techniques that have been developed in the last decades. The selection of adequate techniques commonly depends on desired performance levels, financial criteria, or other non-technical judgment. This paper assesses the seismic performance of a six-story RC building retrofitted with steel jacketing that is located in Cartagena de Indias (Colombia). The building was designed and constructed in 2010 without considering the requirements prescribed by the NSR-10 Colombian code. In 2017, another building collapsed in the same city for several non-compliances with Colombian seismic code. This investigation focuses on the seismic upgrading of the building, studying the influence of different material properties of the existing building and load scenarios on the building behavior. The proposed steel jacketing improves the compressive and flexural capacity of retrofitted columns, along with the ductility of the building

Estudio de la eficacia terapéutica de nuevos derivados de cannabigerol y cannabidiol en esclerosis múltiple

Tesis doctoral inédita, leída en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Facultad de Medicina,Departamento de Anatomía, Histología y Neurociencia. Fecha de lectura: 15 de abril de 2016La esclerosis múltiple, la causa más común de discapacidad neurológica en adultos jóvenes, es una enfermedad autoinmune compleja con componente neuroinflamatorio, caracterizada por la infiltración de leucocitos en el sistema nervioso central, la desmielinización y el daño axonal. A pesar de ser la enfermedad desmielinizante más común del sistema nervioso central, aún no existe una terapia satisfactoria, especialmente en las formas de EM primaria-progresiva y durante la fase secundaria de la enfermedad. Por ello, existe una clara necesidad de investigación para el desarrollo de agentes terapéuticos capaces de disminuir el desarrollo de este trastorno progresivo. Los fitocannabinoides son compuestos químicos presentes en la planta Cannabis sativa. Muchos de ellos no presentan efectos psicotrópicos, y se consideran de especial interés para el tratamiento de enfermedades del SNC. Entre estos fitocannabinoides sin efectos psicoactivos cabe destacar el cannabidiol y cannabigerol, entre otros. Su acción antiinflamatoria está medidada por los receptores CB clásicos, y se ha demostrado que los receptores PPAR también pueden estar involucrados en estos efectos, presentando un potencial terapéutico para el tratamiento de enfermedades con un componente inflamatorio. Se han desarrollado una serie de nuevos derivados de cannabigerol (VCE-003, VCE-003.2 y VCE-006) y de cannabidiol (VCE-004.8), cuyas modificaciones en su estructura química hacen que presenten mayor afinidad que los compuestos de origen por los receptores CB2 y PPARγ, exhibiendo una actividad dual por los mismos. Los resultados obtenidos en esta tesis doctoral muestran que VCE-003 y VCE-004.8 son compuestos que reducen la muerte neuronal y ejercen efectos antiinflamatorios en cultivos celulares. Asimismo, actúan como agentes inmunomoduladores que activan los receptores CB2 y PPARγ en dos modelos de esclerosis múltiple, tanto en la encefalomielitis murina inducida por el virus de Theiler como en la encefalomielitis autoinmune experimental. Además, estos compuestos reducen la infiltración de linfocitos T CD4 y disminuyen la activación microglial en la médula espinal. Ambos compuestos preservan la estructura de las vainas de mielina y contribuyen a la reducción del daño axonal . Su agonismo por los receptores CB2 y PPARγ hace que se postulen como unos prometedores agentes antiinflamatorios y neuroprotectores para el posible tratamiento de la EM.Multiple sclerosis, the most common cause of neurological disability in young adults, is a complex autoimmune disease characterized by neuroinflammation as reflected by the presence of leukocyte infiltrates into the central nervous system, the loss of myelin and the axonal damage in both the brain and the spinal cord. Despite multiple sclerosis prevalence, no satisfactory therapy has been found for MS, particularly for the variants primary-progressive and the secondary phase. There is a clear need for the development of novel agents able to stop the development of this progressive disorder. Non-psychotropic phytocannabinoids are considered of special interest as novel therapeutic agents in CNS diseases. These include cannabidiol and cannabigerol, among others. Besides their effects through the classical CB receptors, PPARγ receptors have been shown to be involved the attenuation neuroinflammation by these compounds, showing a therapeutic potential for the treatment of inflammatory diseases. We have developed a series of new cannabigerol (VCE-003, VCE-003.2 and VCE-006) and cannabidiol derivatives (VCE-004.8) that show CB2 and PPARγ receptors affinity. The findings of this doctoral thesis show that VCE-003 and VCE-004.8 are compounds that reduce neuronal death and exert anti-inflammatory effects in cell cultures. Moreover, these compounds act as immunomodulatory agents targeting CB2 and PPARγ receptors in two models of multiple sclerosis, Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus-induced demyelinating disease and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. Furthermore, these compounds reduce CD4 T cells infiltrates and diminish microglial activation, preserve myelin sheets structure and reduce axonal damage in the spinal cord. Their dual affinity for CB2 and PPARγ receptors is critical for their consideration as a novel anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective compounds for the treatment of several inflammatory diseases, such as multiple sclerosis

Estimating the Cost of the Spanish Sustainable Food Basket through the Reference Budgets Approach

Reference budgets (RB) are illustrative priced baskets containing the minimum goods and services necessary for well-described types of families to have adequate social participation. Cross-country comparable food RB with the minimum cost were previously developed in 26 EU countries. However, sustainability was not considered. The aim of this paper is to present the development of healthy and sustainable food baskets for Spanish adults. This work follows the steps proposed in previous European projects to build RB: (1) revision of guidelines on healthy and sustainable eating and expert consultations, (2) translation into a concrete list of foods, (3) pricing. The results indicate that a sustainable diet can be cheaper than current recommendations when only the dietary content is considered, representing monthly savings of about EUR 7.27. This is mainly explained by the shift towards more plant-based proteins. Adding constraints on origin, packaging and seasonality increases the overall cost of the food basket by EUR 12.22/month compared with current recommendations. The Spanish Sustainable Food Reference Budget illustrates the cost of applying different criteria to improve dietary sustainability in the Spanish context, and can be useful to support the ecological transition, since providing different levels of adherence to a sustainable dietary pattern can ease its access across socioeconomic group

Design of a twin capacitive load and its application to the outdoor rating of photovoltaic modules

This paper describes the design of an original twin capacitive load that is able of tracing simultaneously the I?V characteristics of two photovoltaic modules. Besides, an example of the application of this dual system to the outdoor rating of photovoltaic modules is presented, whose results have shown a good degree of repeatability

The Measurement of Food Insecurity in High-Income Countries: A Scoping Review

The measurement of food insecurity is essential to monitor the prevalence, risk factors, consequences and effects of food insecurity and the interventions and policies implemented to tackle it. Yet, how best to apply it remains an unsettled issue due to the multifaceted and context-dependent nature of food insecurity. We report a scoping review of measures of food insecurity at the individual and household level in high-income countries with the final purpose of facilitating a catalogue of instruments to be used by both researchers and practitioners. The scoping review was conducted following the methodological framework of Arksey and O’Malley and the Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines. We included all types of documents published between 2000–2020 using instruments that estimate food insecurity at both individual and household level in high-income countries, and with respondents including adolescents, adults, and elderly. We identified a total of 23 measurement strategies being used in 33 peer-reviewed publications and 114 documents from the grey literature. Our results show that most measures focus on the access dimension of food insecurity and that further research is required to develop measures that incorporate aspects of quality of dietary intake and relevant individual, household and social conditions related to food insecurity

Use of PV plants monitoring to characterize PV arrays power

PV plants require a monitorization of their electrical parameters to achieve its best performance. Lately, it is more and more common that SCADA systems monitor currents and voltages even of every single string. These measurements which use to be stored instantaneously with a frequency like the one established on inverters and energy meters (usually each 10, 15, 20 or 60 minutes) are useful to detect faults. Unfortunately, it is not taken advantage of them to characterize the PV arrays. A better option would be to exploit this monitoring capability not only to detect operation failures, but also to characterize the PV strings/arrays. In order to implement this characterization it is needed to use the adequate devices to measure voltages and currents and determine which should be the optimal frequency to store data, depending on they are instantaneous or mean values. This paper presents the results of the DC monitoring of a grid-connected PV array of 5.8 kWp, installed on the headquarters of the Instituto de Energía Solar of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (IES-UPM), located in the Campus Sur of Vallecas (Madrid), which allows characterizing the PV arrays power. To study the relation between sampling frequency and its impact in the accuracy of the power averages each 1’, 5’, 10, and 15’ have been calculated from instantaneous measurements, and they have been analysed to evaluate which is the more adequate sampling rate for instantaneous and mean values

The quality of service and its impact on customer satisfaction in a three-star hotel, Lima 2022

El objetivo fue identificar la relación entre la calidad de servicio y la satisfacción del cliente en un hotel de tres estrellas, Lima 2022. La muestra estuvo conformada por 112 clientes, a quienes se les aplicó el cuestionario basado en las escalas de SERVQUAL de Parasuraman et al. (1985), para medir la calidad de servicio y dimensiones. Por otro lado, para medir la satisfacción del cliente aplicaron el cuestionario basado en los elementos de satisfacción de (Kotler y Keller, 2012) En cuanto a los resultados descriptivos, la mayoría de los encuestados que representan el 41,96 % estuvieron de acuerdo con la calidad del servicio que percibieron del hotel, mientras que, en cuanto a la satisfacción, el 48,21 % de las personas ni estuvo de acuerdo ni en desacuerdo. Así mismo, se utilizó el coeficiente de correlación Rho de Spearman indicando una relación moderadamente positiva entre la calidad del servicio y la satisfacción del cliente (r=615, p<0,05). Finalmente, se concluyó que existe una relación directa y significativa entre la calidad del servicio y la satisfacción del cliente. Es decir, cuanto mayor sea la calidad del servicio, mayor será la satisfacción del cliente

Estudio a nivel de perfil del proyecto construcción del sistema de alcantarillado sanitario con tecnología de bajo costo en la localidad de Bello Amanecer, Ciudad Sandino

Se pretende elaborar la construcción del sistema de alcantarillado sanitario condominal, con una tecnología de bajo costo en la localidad de Bello Amanecer, ya que el problema principal son las escorrentías de aguas residuales en las calles