Self-consumption for energy communities in Spain: a regional analysis under the new legal framework

European climate polices acknowledge the role that energy communities can play in the energy transition. Self-consumption installations shared among those living in the same building are a good example of such energy communities. In this work, we perform a regional analysis of optimal self-consumption installations under the new legal framework recently passed in Spain. Results show that the optimal sizing of the installation leads to economic savings for self-consumers in all the territory, for both options with and without remuneration for energy surplus. A sensitivity analysis on technology costs revealed that batteries still require noticeably cost reductions to be cost-effective in a behind the meter self-consumption environment. In addition, solar compensation mechanisms make batteries less attractive in a scenario of low PV costs, since feeding PV surplus into the grid, yet less efficient, becomes more cost-effective. An improvement for the current energy surplus remuneration policy was proposed and analysed. It consists in the inclusion of the economic value of the avoided power losses in the remuneration.Comment: Submitted version. 23 pages, 8 figure

Non-homogeneous temporal Boolean models to study endocytosis

Many medical and biological problems require the analysis of large sequences of microscope images, these images capture phenomena of interest and it is essential to characterize their spatial and temporal properties. The purpose of this paper is to show a new statistical methodology for estimating these parameters of interest in image sequences obtained in the observation of endocytosis. Endocytosis is a process by which cells traffic molecules from the extracellular space into different intracellular compartments. These images are obtained using a very specialized microscopy technique called Total Internal Reflecting (TIRFM). The Homogeneous Temporal Boolean Model (HTBM) has been recently used to analyze these type of sequences of images. By using a HTBM, spatial homogeneity of events in the cell membrane must be assumed but this is an open question in the biological understanding of the endocytic process. Our aim in this paper is to generalize this methodology to overcome this drawback. In the methodological aspect this work has a threefold aim: to broaden the notion of HTBM by introducing the concept of Non-Homogeneous Temporal Boolean Model; to introduce a hypothesis testing procedure to check the spatial homogeneity assumption; and finally, to reformulate the existing methodology to work with underlying non-homogeneous point processes. We check the goodness of our methodology on a simulated data set and compare our results with those provided by visual inspection and by assuming spatial homogeneity. The accuracy of the results obtained with simulated data ensures the validity of our methodology. Finally we apply it, as an illustration, to three sequences of a particular type of endocytosis images. The spatial homogeneity test confirms that spatial homogeneity cannot be assumed. As a result, our methodology provides more accurate estimations for the duration of the events and, information about areas of the membrane with higher accumulation of the

Parameter estimation in non-homogeneous boolean models: an application to plant defense response

Many medical and biological problems require to extract information from microscopical images. Boolean models have been extensively used to analyze binary images of random clumps in many scientific fields. In this paper, a particular type of Boolean model with an underlying non-stationary point process is considered. The intensity of the underlying point process is formulated as a fixed function of the distance to a region of interest. A method to estimate the parameters of this Boolean model is introduced, and its performance is checked in two different settings. Firstly, a comparative study with other existent methods is done using simulated data. Secondly, the method is applied to analyze the longleaf data set, which is a very popular data set in the context of point processes included in the R package spatstat. Obtained results show that the new method provides as accurate estimates as those obtained with more complex methods developed for the general case. Finally, to illustrate the application of this model and this method, a particular type of phytopathological images are analyzed. These images show callose depositions in leaves of Arabidopsis plants. The analysis of callose depositions, is very popular in the phytopathological literature to quantify activity of plant immunity

Low Levels of Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP) Promote Neurogenesis and Decrease Gliogenesis in Human Neural Stem Cells

Amyloid precursor protein (APP) has been widely studied due to its association with Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the physiological functions of APP are still largely unexplored. APP is a transmembrane glycoprotein whose expression in humans is abundant in the central nervous system. Specifically, several studies have revealed the high expression of APP during brain development. Previous studies in our laboratory revealed that a transient increase in APP expression induces early cell cycle exit of human neural stem cells (hNSCs) and directs their differentiation towards glial cells (gliogenesis) while decreasing their differentiation towards neurons (neurogenesis). In the present study, we have evaluated the intrinsic cellular effects of APP down-expression (using siRNA) on cell death, cell proliferation, and cell fate specification of hNSCs. Our data indicate that APP silencing causes cellular effects opposite to those obtained in previous APP overexpression assays, inducing cell proliferation in hNS1 cells (a model line of hNSCs) and favoring neurogenesis instead of gliogenesis in these cells. In addition, we have analyzed the gene and protein expression levels of β-Catenin as a possible molecule involved in these cellular effects. These data could help to understand the biological role of APP, which is necessary to deepen the knowledge of AD.This research was supported by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RTI2018-101663-B-100) and grant number PID2021-126715OB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe”. R.C. was supported by an FPU predoctoral contract from Universidad de Alcalá (FPU-UAH).S

Estudio del metabolismo peptídico folicular y su relación con la fertilidad

205 p.Actualmente un 15% de parejas precisan ayuda para conseguir gestación. Un porcentajede ellas precisará tratamientos de reproducción asistida, cómo la fecundación in vitro.En esta tesis nos preguntamos si pudiéramos pronosticar el estado fértil de la mujermediante el análisis de la composición bioquímica del Líquido Folicular, y de esta formapodríamos optimizar los actuales tratamientos de reproducción asistida.Hemos descrito actividad enzimática en el líquido folicular de todas las peptidasasestudiadas en nuestra tesis, siendo DPPIV y NEP las de mayor actividad. No existendiferencias apreciables entre las actividades de las diferentes extracciones de la mismapaciente, así como en las que se obtiene ovocito de las que no.Analizando los diferentes grupos de estudio, encontramos diferencias de actividad en PSAen las pacientes añosas. También hemos descrito la actividad de NEP por primera vez enla literatura, observando un descenso del tono opioidérgico en las pacientes mayores de39 años. En las pacientes con endometriosis encontramos alteraciones de prácticamentetodos los metabolismos peptídicos, especialmente el opioidérgico

Glottal-Source Spectral Biometry for Voice Characterization

The biometric signature derived from the estimation of the power spectral density singularities of a speaker’s glottal source is described in the present work. This consists in the collection of peak-trough profiles found in the spectral density, as related to the biomechanics of the vocal folds. Samples of parameter estimations from a set of 100 normophonic (pathology-free) speakers are produced. Mapping the set of speaker’s samples to a manifold defined by Principal Component Analysis and clustering them by k-means in terms of the most relevant principal components shows the separation of speakers by gender. This means that the proposed signature conveys relevant speaker’s metainformation, which may be useful in security and forensic applications for which contextual side information is considered relevant

Saber y evaluación de libros de texto escolar : Una herramienta de reflexión y acción

La formación de los docentes para la evaluación y selección de los libros de texto escolar es un asunto prioritario, necesario e importante, pero lamentablemente, descuidado o inexistente en sus procesos de formación universitaria. Llama la atención que cualquier obrero comienza aprendiendo a servirse de sus herramientas, sin embargo, esto no es tan obvio cuando se trata de formar a los docentes en el uso de la herramienta llamada texto escolar. Choppin (1992:126), expone diversos argumentos a favor de la formación de los docentes en este asunto. Se tiene la ilusión que conocemos los textos escolares porque desde la infancia, no hemos terminado de manipularlos, de hojearlos, de consultarlos. Todo sucede como si en cualquier día y de un momento a otro, se pone a un pasajero en la conducción de la nave con el pretexto de que él ha hecho este viaje con frecuencia y, como cada uno sabe, son los flujos más agitados, es decir las clases más difíciles, las que los jóvenes docentes deben enfrentar. Esta publicación ofrece a todos aquellos que se desempeñan en la escuela primaria o en la secundaria, en el ámbito editorial y de las políticas públicas sobre educación, y que tienen a cargo la concepción o evaluación de los libros de texto escolar, incluso a los padres de familia interesados en la educación de sus hijos, elementos conceptuales y procedimentales para orientar sus acciones y decisiones, en coherencia simultánea con la evolución de la investigación en pedagogía, con la política educativa del país y con indagación científica sobre el libro de texto escolar

Bio-inspired Dynamic Formant Tracking for Phonetic Labelling

It is a known fact that phonetic labeling may be relevant in helping current Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) when combined with classical parsing systems as HMM's by reducing the search space. Through the present paper a method for Phonetic Broad-Class Labeling (PCL) based on speech perception in the high auditory centers is described. The methodology is based in the operation of CF (Characteristic Frequency) and FM (Frequency Modulation) neurons in the cochlear nucleus and cortical complex of the human auditory apparatus in the automatic detection of formants and formant dynamics on speech. Results obtained informant detection and dynamic formant tracking are given and the applicability of the method to Speech Processing is discussed