Towards Generic Monitors for Object-Oriented Real-Time Maude Specifications

Non-Functional Properties (NFPs) are crucial in the design of software. Specification of systems is used in the very first phases of the software development process for the stakeholders to make decisions on which architecture or platform to use. These specifications may be an- alyzed using different formalisms and techniques, simulation being one of them. During a simulation, the relevant data involved in the anal- ysis of the NFPs of interest can be measured using monitors. In this work, we show how monitors can be parametrically specified so that the instrumentation of specifications to be monitored can be automatically performed. We prove that the original specification and the automati- cally obtained specification with monitors are bisimilar by construction. This means that the changes made on the original system by adding monitors do not affect its behavior. This approach allows us to have a library of possible monitors that can be safely added to analyze different properties, possibly on different objects of our systems, at will.Universidad de Málaga, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. Spanish MINECO/FEDER project TIN2014-52034-R, NSF Grant CNS 13-19109

Observing classical nucleation theory at work by monitoring phase transitions with molecular precision.

It is widely accepted that many phase transitions do not follow nucleation pathways as envisaged by the classical nucleation theory. Many substances can traverse intermediate states before arriving at the stable phase. The apparent ubiquity of multi-step nucleation has made the inverse question relevant: does multistep nucleation always dominate single-step pathways? Here we provide an explicit example of the classical nucleation mechanism for a system known to exhibit the characteristics of multi-step nucleation. Molecular resolution atomic force microscopy imaging of the two-dimensional nucleation of the protein glucose isomerase demonstrates that the interior of subcritical clusters is in the same state as the crystalline bulk phase. Our data show that despite having all the characteristics typically associated with rich phase behaviour, glucose isomerase 2D crystals are formed classically. These observations illustrate the resurfacing importance of the classical nucleation theory by re-validating some of the key assumptions that have been recently questioned

Kinematic study of planetary nebulae in NGC 6822

By measuring precise radial velocities of planetary nebulae (which belong to the intermediate age population), H II regions, and A-type supergiant stars (which are members of the young population) in NGC 6822, we aim to determine if both types of population share the kinematics of the disk of H I found in this galaxy. Spectroscopic data for four planetary nebulae were obtained with the high spectral resolution spectrograph Magellan Inamori Kyocera Echelle (MIKE) on the Magellan telescope at Las Campanas Observatory. Data for other three PNe and one H II region were obtained from the SPM Catalog of Extragalactic Planetary Nebulae which employed the Manchester Echelle Spectrometer attached to the 2.1m telescope at the Observatorio Astron\'omico Nacional, M\'exico. In the wavelength calibrated spectra, the heliocentric radial velocities were measured with a precision better than 5-6 km s$^{-1}$. Data for three additional H II regions and a couple of A-type supergiant stars were collected from the literature. The heliocentric radial velocities of the different objects were compared to the velocities of the H i disk at the same position. From the analysis of radial velocities it is found that H II regions and A-type supergiants do share the kinematics of the H I disk at the same position, as expected for these young objects. On the contrary, planetary nebula velocities differ significantly from that of the H I at the same position. The kinematics of planetary nebulae is independent from the young population kinematics and it is closer to the behavior shown by carbon stars, which are intermediate-age members of the stellar spheroid existing in this galaxy. Our results are confirming that there are at least two very different kinematical systems in NGC 6822

Estimation of the mechanical properties of the eye through the study of its vibrational modes

Measuring the eye's mechanical properties in vivo and with minimally invasive techniques can be the key for individualized solutions to a number of eye pathologies. The development of such techniques largely relies on a computational modelling of the eyeball and, it optimally requires the synergic interplay between experimentation and numerical simulation. In Astrophysics and Geophysics the remote measurement of structural properties of the systems of their realm is performed on the basis of (helio-)seismic techniques. As a biomechanical system, the eyeball possesses normal vibrational modes encompassing rich information about its structure and mechanical properties. However, the integral analysis of the eyeball vibrational modes has not been performed yet. Here we develop a new finite difference method to compute both the spheroidal and, specially, the toroidal eigenfrequencies of the human eye. Using this numerical model, we show that the vibrational eigenfrequencies of the human eye fall in the interval 100 Hz - 10 MHz. We find that compressible vibrational modes may release a trace on high frequency changes of the intraocular pressure, while incompressible normal modes could be registered analyzing the scattering pattern that the motions of the vitreous humour leave on the retina. Existing contact lenses with embebed devices operating at high sampling frequency could be used to register the microfluctuations of the eyeball shape we obtain. We advance that an inverse problem to obtain the mechanical properties of a given eye (e.g., Young's modulus, Poisson ratio) measuring its normal frequencies is doable. These measurements can be done using non-invasive techniques, opening very interesting perspectives to estimate the mechanical properties of eyes in vivo. Future research might relate various ocular pathologies with anomalies in measured vibrational frequencies of the eye.Comment: Published in PLoS ONE as Open Access Research Article. 17 pages, 5 color figure

Cross Effect Between Temperature and Consolidation on the Flow Behavior of Granular Materials in Thermal Energy Storage Systems

Calcium looping (CaL) process offers a promising option to boost the energy efficiency and dispatchability in concentrated solar power (CSP) plants. Backed by ample experience on lime and cement industry, the CaL integration in CSP plants could be not only a feasible and reliable technology for energy storage but also a low-cost choice based on the abundance and cheap price of limestone (CaCO3). However, to date, there is no deep fundamental understanding about how different conditions through the pipes and in storage silos affect the flowability of the granular medium. This is a critical issue, therefore, concerning the ease with which the granular medium is transported, fluidized, or stored. Our present work challenges the status quo on the granular-based energy storage systems in which many central questions about powder dynamics through the circuit have been dodged. To deeply explore and figure out optimal settings, we have investigated the potential side effects that change in temperature and consolidations can induce in the powder flowability. In so doing, we analyze the variation of the tensile strength of the powder while it is being fluidized in a wide range of temperatures and consolidations. The powder, CaCO3 with a particle size around 50 μm, was chosen to mimic the actual conditions in CaL-CSP pilot plants (currently under development). The results show a severe impact on cohesion when the CaCO3 granular medium is exposed at different temperatures ranging from ambient to 500oC, and consolidation stresses up to 2 kPa. With cohesion increasing up until an order of magnitude in this range of relatively low consolidations, it is a foregone conclusion that those changes uncover a scenario that has not been brought up so far.Es la versión aceptada del artículo. Se puede consultar la versión final en https://doi.org/10.1016/j.powtec.2019.11.125Ministerio de Economía y Empresa (contract No. CTQ2017-83602-C2-2-R, Feder Funds)European Union’s Horizon 2020 (No 727348, project SOCRATCES

Role of Particle Size on the Cohesive Behavior of Limestone Powders at High Temperature

Thermal Energy Storage (TES) using granular solids is gaining momentum in the last years. With no degradation up to very high temperatures and very low price, the use of some granular materials such as sand or SiC would be feasible for storing sensible heat at large scale. A further step beyond TES is thermochemical energy storage (TCES) wherein the granular solids undergo a highly endothermic reaction at high temperature. Energy can be in this way more efficiently stored in the long term and released on demand by means of the reverse exothermic reaction. The Calcium Looping process, based on the calcination/carbonation of CaCO3, is being actively investigated for this purpose. However, a caveat of using granular solids for energy storage is the possible increase of interparticle adhesive forces with temperature which would severely hamper the flowability of the solids in the process. The cohesiveness of granular materials is essentially determined by particle size. In this paper we investigate the dependence of the tensile yield strength and compressibility of CaCO3 powders on temperature and consoli- dation stress using samples of narrow particle size distribution in the relevant range between ∼30 and ∼80 μm particle size and temperatures up to 500◦C. Our experimental results show that powder cohesiveness is greatly increased with temperature especially in the case of the finest powders whose tensile yield strength can be increased by up 2 orders of magnitude. The increase of cohesiveness with temperature is further enhanced with a previously applied consolidation stress, which is particularly relevant for applications wherein large amounts of solids are to be stored at high temperature. Experimental data are consistent with the predictions by a contact mechanics model assuming that the solids deform plastically at interparticle contacts. A main conclusion from our work is that some mechanical properties of the solids, specially the mechanical hardness, and how they change with temperature, play a critical role on the flowability of the solids as affected by an increase of temperature.Versión aceptada del artículo. La versión final puede consultarse en: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2019.123520Ministerio de Economía y Empresa (contract No. CTQ2017-83602-C2-2-R, Feder Funds

Assertion-based Analysis via Slicing with ABETS

[EN] We present ABETS, an assertion-based, dynamic analyzer that helps diagnose errors in Maude programs. ABETS uses slicing to automatically create reduced versions of both a run's execution trace and executed program, reduced versions in which any information that is not relevant to the bug currently being diagnosed is removed. In addition, ABETS employs runtime assertion checking to automate the identification of bugs so that whenever an assertion is violated, the system automatically infers accurate slicing criteria from the failure. We summarize the main services provided by ABETS, which also include a novel assertionbased facility for program repair that generates suitable program fixes when a state invariant is violated. Finally, we provide an experimental evaluation that shows the performance and effectiveness of the system.This work has been partially supported by the EU (FEDER) and Spanish MINECO grant TIN2015-69175-C4-1-R, and by Generalitat Valenciana PROMETEOII/2015/013. J. Sapina was supported by FPI-UPV grant SP2013-0083.Alpuente Frasnedo, M.; Frechina, F.; Sapiña Sanchis, J.; Ballis, D. (2016). Assertion-based Analysis via Slicing with ABETS. Theory and Practice of Logic Programming. 16(5):515-532. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1471068416000375S51553216