Aplicación Práctica de Métodos para Evaluar In-Situ el Rendimiento Instantáneo de Máquinas Frigoríficas de Compresión Mecánica

Libro de actas completo disponible en :http://repositorio.bib.upct.es:8080/dspace/handle/10317/4709Los equipos de aire acondicionado, bombas de calor y refrigeración suponen un elevado consumo de energía eléctrica en los países industrializados. Es frecuente que, en la práctica, estos equipos no estén operando con la eficiencia que debieran. De ahí la importancia de realizar inspecciones periódicas, que incluyan mediciones de los diferentes parámetros de operación de los equipos, destacando por su importancia la medición de su rendimiento (EER/COP). La medición precisa in-situ del EER/COP sobre una instalación frigorífica de compresión mecánica, fuera de un banco de ensayo de laboratorio, ha sido desde siempre una cuestión muy complicada, con muchas dificultades prácticas. Un punto crítico es la medición del caudal de fluido refrigerante. Si no se dispone de un caudalímetro instalado, que es la situación más habitual, hay que recurrir a mediciones indirectas. Hay varios métodos indirectos para estimar el caudal de refrigerante, que se pueden clasificar en los que se basan en: a) el rendimiento volumétrico del compresor, b) el rendimiento global del compresor, c) un balance de energía sobre el condensador y d) un balance de energía sobre el compresor. En este trabajo se ponen en práctica y analizan estos cuatro métodos sobre instalaciones frigoríficas existentes en el laboratorio docente del Departamento de Máquinas y Motores Térmicos de la Universidad de Málaga [1]. Para ello se utiliza un sistema de medición de bajo coste, basado en sensores ONSET [2]. El procesado y análisis de los datos se hace mediante el software Engineering Equation Solver [3]. Se discuten los resultados y dificultades encontradas en la aplicación de los diferentes métodos y se ofrecen recomendaciones a tener en cuenta para abordar instalaciones más complejas.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Autoignition of sustainable fuels under dual operation with H₂-carriers in a constant volume combustion chamber

The expected increase in the use of environmentally friendly liquid fuels in medium and heavy-duty compression ignition engines (for both off-road and transport applications), together with the well-documented benefits of hydrogen-carriers to decrease energy dependence and to achieve a neutral-carbon economy (internal combustion engines highly contributing to the global CO2 emissions), have motivated this work. The autoignition characteristics of different alternative diesel-type fuels (hydrotreated vegetable oil, advanced biodiesel and blends of conventional diesel fuel with polyoxymethylene dimethyl ether and 1-butanol) under dual-fuel operation with H2, NH3, and CH4 were studied in a constant volume combustion chamber at 535 and 600 °C. The high reactivity fuel was replaced by the gaseous fuel up to 40 % by energy. The main ignition delay time was significantly affected not only by the type of low reactivity fuel, with ammonia considerably retarding autoignition, but also by the nature of the liquid fuel, biodiesel being the less sensitive to the presence of the H2-carrier fuel. Results also proved that the higher the reactivity of the diesel-type fuel (quantified through the cetane number), the lower the influence of the gaseous fuel on the autoignition time.El aumento previsto en el uso de combustibles líquidos inocuos para el medio ambiente en motores de encendido por compresión de servicio mediano y pesado (tanto para aplicaciones todoterreno como de transporte), junto con los beneficios bien documentados de los vehículos de hidrógeno para disminuir la dependencia energética y lograr un economía neutral en carbono (motores de combustión interna que contribuyen en gran medida a las emisiones globales de CO 2 ), han motivado este trabajo. Las características de autoignición de diferentes combustibles alternativos de tipo diesel (aceite vegetal hidrotratado, biodiesel avanzado y mezclas de combustible diesel convencional con polioximetilen dimetil éter y 1-butanol) en operación de combustible dual con H 2 , NH 3 y CH 4fueron estudiados en una cámara de combustión de volumen constante a 535 y 600 °C. El combustible de alta reactividad fue reemplazado por el combustible gaseoso hasta en un 40 % por energía. El tiempo de retardo del encendido principal se vio significativamente afectado no solo por el tipo de combustible de baja reactividad, con el amoníaco retardando considerablemente el autoencendido, sino también por la naturaleza del combustible líquido, siendo el biodiesel el menos sensible a la presencia del combustible portador de H 2 . Los resultados también demostraron que cuanto mayor es la reactividad del combustible tipo diésel (cuantificada a través del número de cetano), menor es la influencia del combustible gaseoso en el tiempo de autoignición

Classification of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease with machine-learning techniques using 1H Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy data

[Abstract] Several magnetic resonance techniques have been proposed as non-invasive imaging biomarkers for the evaluation of disease progression and early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). This work is the first application of the Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy 1H-MRS data and machine-learning techniques to the classification of AD. A gender-matched cohort of 260 subjects aged between 57 and 99 years from the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Unit, of the Fundación CIEN-Fundación Reina Sofía has been used. A single-layer perceptron was found for AD prediction with only two spectroscopic voxel volumes (Tvol and CSFvol) in the left hippocampus, with an AUROC value of 0.866 (with TPR 0.812 and FPR 0.204) in a filter feature selection approach. These results suggest that knowing the composition of white and grey matter and cerebrospinal fluid of the spectroscopic voxel is essential in a 1H-MRS study to improve the accuracy of the quantifications and classifications, particularly in those studies involving elder patients and neurodegenerative diseases.Instituto de Salud Carlos III; PI13/0028

Using Rules to Adapt Applications for Business Models with High Evolutionary Rates

Nowadays, business models are in permanent evolution since the requirements belongs to a rapidly evolving world. In a context where communications all around the world travel so fast the business models need to be adapted permanently to the information the managers receive. In such world, traditional software development, needed for adapting software to changes, do not work properly since business changes need to be in exploitation in shorter times. In that situation, it is needed to go quicker from the business idea to the exploitation environment. This issue can be solved accelerating the development speed: from the expert to the customer, with no –or few, technical intervention. This paper proposes an approach to empower domain experts in developing adaptability solutions by using automated sets of production rules in a friendly way. Furthermore, a use case that implements this kind of development was used in a real problem prototype

"Innovatio educativa tertio millennio": 12 years evoluting from learning from learning to teaching in courses on educational innovation and collaboration with the UNESCO chair of mining and industrial heritage

Twelve years ago a group of teachers began to work in educational innovation. In 2002 we received an award for educational innovation, undergoing several stages. Recently, we have decided to focus on being teachers of educational innovation. We create a web scheduled in Joomla offering various services, among which we emphasize teaching courses of educational innovation. The “Instituto de Ciencias de la Educacion” in “Universidad Politécnica de Madrid” has recently incorporated two of these courses, which has been highly praised. These courses will be reissued in new calls, and we are going to offer them to more Universities. We are in contact with several institutions, radio programs, the UNESCO Chair of Mining and Industrial Heritage, and we are working with them in the creation of heritage courses using methods that we have developed

Diel pattern of circadian clock and storage protein gene expression in leaves and during seed filling in cowpea (Vigna unguiculata)

Background Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is an important source of protein supply for animal and human nutrition. The major storage globulins VICILIN and LEGUMIN (LEG) are synthesized from several genes including LEGA, LEGB, LEGJ and CVC (CONVICILIN). The current hypothesis is that the plant circadian core clock genes are conserved in a wide array of species and that primary metabolism is to a large extent controlled by the plant circadian clock. Our aim was to investigate a possible link between gene expression of storage proteins and the circadian clock. Results We identified cowpea orthologues of the core clock genes VunLHY, VunTOC1, VunGI and VunELF3, the protein storage genes VunLEG, VunLEGJ, and VunCVC as well as nine candidate reference genes used in RT-PCR. ELONGATION FACTOR 1-A (ELF1A) resulted the most suitable reference gene. The clock genes VunELF3, VunGI, VunTOC1 and VunLHY showed a rhythmic expression profile in leaves with a typical evening/night and morning/midday phased expression. The diel patterns were not completely robust and only VungGI and VungELF3 retained a rhythmic pattern under free running conditions of darkness. Under field conditions, rhythmicity and phasing apparently faded during early pod and seed development and was regained in ripening pods for VunTOC1 and VunLHY. Mature seeds showed a rhythmic expression of VunGI resembling leaf tissue under controlled growth chamber conditions. Comparing time windows during developmental stages we found that VunCVC and VunLEG were significantly down regulated during the night in mature pods as compared to intermediate ripe pods, while changes in seeds were non-significant due to high variance. The rhythmic expression under field conditions was lost under growth chamber conditions. Conclusions The core clock gene network is conserved in cowpea leaves showing a robust diel expression pattern except VunELF3 under growth chamber conditions. There appears to be a clock transcriptional reprogramming in pods and seeds compared to leaves. Storage protein deposition may be circadian regulated under field conditions but the strong environmental signals are not met under artificial growth conditions. Diel expression pattern in field conditions may result in better usage of energy for protein storage.This work was supported by the 7th Research Framework Programme of the European Union “Eurolegume (Enhancing of Legumes Growing in Europe through Sustainable Cropping for Protein Supply for Food and Feed)” FP7– 613781. The funding body had no role in the experimental design, analysis or results shown in the manuscript

Effects of locally applied Insulin-like Growth Factor-I on osseointegration

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of local application of IGF-I on osseointegration of dental implants placed in osteoporotic bones. 16 rabbits were randomly distributed into two groups: eight animals were ovariectomized and fed a low-calcium diet for six weeks, in order to induce experimental osteoporosis, and the others were sham-operated and fed a standard diet. A titanium implant was inserted into the tibiae in both groups. In half of the rabbits, 4 ?g of IGF-I was applied into the ostectomy, prior to the implant insertion. A total of 32 implants were placed. Animals were sacrificed two weeks after surgery and decalcified samples were processed for Bone-To-Implant Contact (BIC) and Bone Area Density (BAD) measurements. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for statistical evaluation. P<0.05 was considered to be significant. Ovariectomy induced statistically significant lower BAD values (p=0.008) and a tendency towards lower BIC values when compared osteoporotic and healthy groups. The administration of 4 ?g of IGF-I did not produce statistically significant differences neither on BIC nor on BAD values, neither in the osteoporotic animals nor in healthy. Within the limitations of this experimental study, local administration of 4 ?g of IGF-I was not able to induce any changes in the osseointegration process two weeks after surgery, neither in healthy rabbits nor in the osteoporotic group

Educational innovation applied in the UNESCO chair of mining and industrial heritage

The “Innovatio Educativa Tertio Millennio” group has been 10 years developing educational innovation techniques, actually has reached the level of teaching on the technical teachers has developed, and share them with other groups, that can implement them in their teaching activities. UNESCO Chair of Mining and Industrial Heritage has been years working on heritage, and on the one hand teaching in conservation and maintenance of heritage, and on the other doing raise awareness of the meaning of heritage, the social value and as must be managed effectively. Recently these two groups work together, thus is spreading in a much more effective manner the concepts of heritage, its meaning, its value, and how to manage it and provide effective protection. On one hand being a work of dissemination based on internet and on radio broadcasting, and on the other one of teaching based on educational innovation, and courses, conferences, and face-to-face seminars or distance platforms

Using the new technologies in claudication patients: CReTe: Claudication patients and telematic register

Objetivo: Presentamos una aplicación informática para teléfonos móviles ideada para el control de sesiones de ejercicio domiciliario en claudicantes. Exponemos también nuestros resultados preliminares. Material y métodos: La aplicación está dise˜nada para teléfonos móviles con sistema operativo Android, tecnología de geolocalización y conexión de datos. Está conectada a una base de datos codificada que preserva el secreto médico. Los datos que se recogen de las sesiones de ejercicio son la fecha, la hora de inicio y de fin, el tiempo dedicado, el número de las paradas realizadas y la velocidad máxima, la velocidad media global y la velocidad entre paradas. Durante el mes de enero de 2014 se reclutó a aquellos pacientes que aceptaran el estudio, poseyeran y entendieran un dispositivo móvil Android con geolocalización y conexión de datos. Los criterios de exclusión del estudio una vez comenzado fueron progresión hacia isquemia arterial crítica, enfermedad intercurrente grave, fallecimiento y ausencia de comunicación con el paciente. Se recogieron las principales morbilidades y los resultados de los cuestionarios de calidad de vida SF36 y EuroQol 5D. Se midió el tiempo de primera consulta y el tiempo dedicado por semana y paciente durante un seguimiento de 28 días. Se calculó el cumplimiento de las sesiones con respecto a las sesiones pactadas con cada paciente, con un mínimo de 2 semanales. Resultados: Un total de 5 pacientes fueron incluidos, con edad media de 59,3 a˜nos (mediana 52; rango 40-80). De ellos 2 se excluyeron, uno por progresión a isquemia crítica y otro por ausencia de comunicación. El tiempo medio dedicado por consulta nueva fue de 29,1 min (mediana 27,5; rango 45-20). El cumplimiento de las sesiones fue del 100% en 2 pacientes y del 63% en otro. El tiempo dedicado en el seguimiento semanal por paciente fue de 1,68 min. Conclusiones: CReTe es una herramienta aplicable a nuestro medio que precisa de estudios mayores para demostrar su utilidad.Objective: The preliminary results are presented on the use of a new application for mobile phones designed to control home exercise sessions in claudication.Materials and methods: The application is designed for Android systems with geolocation tech-nology and Internet connection. It is connected to a database encoded to ensure medical confidentiality. The data collected from the exercise sessions were the date, start time and end time, the time spent, the number of stops made, and the maximum speed, average speed and overall speed between stops. During the month of January 2014 patients who accepted and understood the study, and possessed an Android mobile device with geolocation and data connection, were enrolled. The exclusion criteria, 11 the study started, were progression to arterial ischemia, severe intercurrent illness, non-communication with the patient, and death. Major morbidities and results of quality of life questionnaires SF36 and EuroQol 5 D were collec-ted. Time of first consultation and time spent per week per patient during a 28-day follow-up was recorded. Compliance as regards the agreed sessions was calculated for each patient, with a minimum of 2 weeks.Results: The study included 5 patients with a mean age 59.3 years (median 52; range 40-80). Of these, 2 were excluded, one for progression to critical ischemia and another for non-communication. The average time spent in a new consultation was 29.1 minutes (median 27.5, range 45-20). The compliance with the sessions was 100% in 2 patients, and 63% in another. Time spent in the weekly monitoring per patient was 1.68 minutes.Conclusions: CReTe is an applicable tool in our environment that requires further study to demonstrate its usefulness

Trophic Niche Breadth of Falconidae Species Predicts Biomic Specialisation but Not Range Size

Trophic niche breadth plays a key role in biogeographic distribution patterns. Theory posits that generalist strategies are favoured in a more heterogeneous set of environments across a spatio-temporal gradient of resources predictability, conferring individuals and species a greater capacity for colonising new habitats and thus expanding their distribution area. Using the family Falconidae (Aves, Falconiformes) as a model study, we tested the prediction that those species with a wider diet spectrum will have larger geographic range sizes and inhabit more biomes. We assessed the relationships between trophic breadth (diet richness and diversity) at different taxonomic resolutions of the prey (class and order), range size and biomic specialisation index (BSI; number of biomes inhabited) for the different species. Despite different diet breadth indexes and taxonomic resolutions defined differently the trophic niche of the clade and species, our findings revealed that trophic breadth was not a good predictor for range size but was for total environmental heterogeneity, with more diet-generalist species occupying a higher number of biomes. Diet breadth at the order taxonomic level showed a higher capacity of predicting BSI than at class level, and can be an important ecological trait explaining biogeographic patterns of the species