Considerations for Photobioreactor Design and Operation for Mass Cultivation of Microalgae

Microalgae have great biotechnological potential for production of substances through photosynthesis. Light capture process and electron transportation imply energy losses due to reflection, fluorescence emission, and energy dissipation as heat, giving a maximum theoretical value of 8‐9% for microalgae energy capture efficiency and conversion to biomass. For development of full potential of microalgae the knowledge of the light capture process is required. High yields can only be obtained linking photobioreactor design with biological process taking place inside. In massive microalgae cultures, light gradients are generated and this depends on the biomass concentration, cellular types, cells sizes, and pigment content, and also on geometry, hydrodynamic, and light conditions inside the photobioreactor. In the present chapter we explain the relationship between light energy capture process and photobioreactor design and operation conditions, like turbulence, gas exchange, and nutrient requirements. Finally, the productivity and costs are discussed, and the parameters that determine the economic viability of any microalgae culture

The use of employee participation in the USA and Spanish companies

This article presents a description of employee participation in Spain. The number of published papers in English about Spain regarding this subject is very low, and even lower by Spanish authors. In short, we can say that there is hardly any knowledge regarding employee participation in Spain in both the European and American settings. This paper summarized the results of a research project we carried out whose objective was to compare employee participation using samples from large American and Spanish companies following the works of Edward E. Lawler and his team. Our aim is to have professionals and researchers throughout the world better understand the actual situation in our country

Concept Drift Detection to Improve Time Series Forecasting of Wind Energy Generation

Most of the current data sources generate large amounts of data over time. Renewable energy generation is one example of such data sources. Machine learning is often applied to forecast time series. Since data flows are usually large, trends in data may change and learned pat terns might not be optimal in the most recent data. In this paper, we analyse wind energy generation data extracted from the Sistema de Infor mación del Operador del Sistema (ESIOS) of the Spanish power grid. We perform a study to evaluate detecting concept drifts to retrain models and thus improve the quality of forecasting. To this end, we compare the performance of a linear regression model when it is retrained randomly and when a concept drift is detected, respectively. Our experiments show that a concept drift approach improves forecasting between a 7.88% and a 33.97% depending on the concept drift technique appliedMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovación PID2020-117954RB-C22Junta de Andalucía US-1263341Junta de Andalucía P18-RT-277

Simplified statistical image reconstruction for X-ray CT with beam-hardening artifact compensation

CT images are often affected by beam-hardening artifacts due to the polychromatic nature of the X-ray spectra. These artifacts appear in the image as cupping in homogeneous areas and as dark bands between dense regions, such as bones. This paper proposes a simplified statistical reconstruction method for X-ray CT based on Poisson statistics that accounts for the non-linearities caused by beam hardening. The main advantages of the proposed method over previous algorithms is that it avoids the preliminary segmentation step, which can be tricky, especially for low-dose scans, and it does not require knowledge of the whole source spectrum, which is often unknown. Each voxel attenuation is modeled as a mixture of bone and soft tissue by defining density-dependent tissue fractions, maintaining one unknown per voxel. We approximate the energy-dependent attenuation corresponding to different combinations of bone and soft tissue, so called beam-hardening function, with the 1D function corresponding to water plus two parameters that can be tuned empirically. Results on both simulated data with Poisson sinogram noise and two rodent studies acquired with the ARGUSCT system showed a beam hardening reduction (both cupping and dark bands) similar to analytical reconstruction followed by post-processing techniques, but with reduced noise and streaks in cases with low number of projections, as expected for statistical image reconstruction.This work was partially funded by NIH grants R01-HL-098686 and U01 EB018753, by Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (projects TEC2013-47270-R and RTC-2014-3028-1) and the Spanish Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad (projects DPI2016-79075-R AEI/FEDER, UE - Agencia Estatal de Investigación and DTS17/00122 Instituto de Salud Carlos III - FIS), and co-financed by ERDF (FEDER) Funds from the European Commission, “A way of making Europe”. The CNIC is supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad and the Pro CNIC Foundation, and is a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (SEV-2015-0505).En prens

(Re) Pensar lo pensado por pensar: reseña del proyecto del libro de cátedra de la sección de Filosofía, Lógica, Psicología y Orientación Escolar, del Liceo “Víctor Mercante”, UNLP

La propuesta de escribir un libro de sección comenzó, como toda propuesta colectiva, sin una fecha precisa ni un momento clave. Se trató más bien de dar respuesta a una necesidad áulica que, de a poco, y tras variadas conversaciones veníamos advirtiendo: entre los materiales de cátedra, los ejercicios, los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje y los textos fuente -siempre se trata de los textos fuente- quedaba una palabra sin aparecer. Una palabra que podríamos llamar “fronteriza” con respecto a las prácticas desarrolladas en el aula, una palabra difícil de incorporar como contenido central de los programas a la par de las fuentes, pero que al mismo tiempo brindaba una posibilidad muy atractiva para continuar con el pensamiento, la problematización y el intercambio de ideas. Cuando las conversaciones con estudiantes y entre docentes nos permitieron ver que la incorporación de algunos de estos temas, problemas y debates en las clases generaba nuevas posibilidades de encuentros significativos con los contenidos de la enseñanza, así como un mayor reconocimiento de la construcción colectiva de saberes y prácticas en el ámbito de una comunidad democrática, el deseo de convertir estas experiencias en un libro surgió también como necesidad.Liceo "Víctor Mercante

Temporal Griffiths Phases

Disorder is an unavoidable ingredient of real systems. Spatial disorder generates Griffiths phases (GPs) which, in analogy to critical points, are characterized by a slow relaxation of the order parameter and divergences of quantities such as the susceptibility. However, these singularities appear in an extended region of the parameter space and not just at a (critical) point, i.e. there is generic scale invariance. Here, we study the effects of temporal disorder, focusing on systems with absorbing states. We show that for dimensions $d \geq 2$ there are Temporal Griffiths phases (TGPs) characterized by generic power-law spatial scaling and generic divergences of the susceptibility. TGPs turn out to be a counterpart of GPs, but with space and time playing reversed roles. TGPs constitute a unifying concept, shedding light on the non-trivial effects of temporal disorder.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; Accepted in PR

Thymidylate synthase expression as a predictive biomarker of pemetrexed sensitivity in advanced non-small cell lung cancer

Background: Although it has been suggested that a high level of thymidylate synthase (TYMS) gene expression in malignant tumors is related to reduced sensitivity to the antifolate drug pemetrexed, no direct evidence for such an association has been demonstrated in routine clinical samples from patients treated with the drug. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively assess the impact of TYMS gene expression in tumor cells as a predictor of the efficacy of pemetrexed therapy in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated at our institution. Methods: Sixty-two NSCLC patients were included in this study: 16 patients received platins-pemetrexed as first-line NSCLC, and 46 pemetrexed in monotherapy as second- or subsequent-line treatment. Total mRNA was isolated and the expression of TYMS was analyzed by RT-qPCR. TYMS levels were calibrated against expression in normal lung tissue. Results: TYMS overexpression was detected in 61 % of patients and low expression in 39 %. The response rate for patients with low TYMS expression was 0.29 compared with 0.03 in patients with overexpression (P = 0.025). A significant benefit was observed in patients with low expression both in time to progression (average TTP = 56 vs. 23 months, P = 0.001) and in overall survival (average OS = 60 vs. 25 months, P = 0.002). Conclusions: TYMS overexpression in tumor cells correlated with a reduced response to pemetrexed-containing chemotherapy and might be used as a predictive biomarker in advanced NSCLC patientsThe present work was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO) (AES Program, grant PI12/01552); the Ministerio de Sanidad (Cancer Network); and the Comunidad de Madrid (S2010/BMD-2344). The Fundacion Jimenez Diaz Biobank is funded by a grant from the MINECO (Instituto de Salud Carlos III, RETICS Red de Biobancos, with FEDER funds, RD09/0076/00101). S.Z. and C.C. are supported by grants from the same Biobanks initiativ

Alternative tools to mass production and human performance indicators in sheltered work centers of Valencian community (Spain)

[EN] Purpose: The most popular alternative systems to mass production at an academic level (lean manufacturing, agile manufacturing, flexible customization, mass customization...) share many characteristics. Our article identifies an extensive set of alternative practices to mass production; analyzes the classification of practices in categories (Flow, TQM, TPM, Customer Relations, Supplier Relations and Human Resources Practices) and analyzes the impact on several human performance indicators such as satisfaction, absenteeism, voluntary turnover, permanent contracts, knowledge, personal & social adjustment activities and integration of workers into ordinary companies. Design/methodology/approach: Survey in sheltered work centers. We use regression analysis in order to prove relations between explicative and criterion variables. Findings: The results of our research allow us to identify that human resource management and customer relationship practices have significant effects on job satisfaction, knowledge, integration into ordinary companies and personal and social adjustment. Research limitations/implications: Data came only from one industry; therefore the results would not be directly generalized to other contexts. Practical implications: Managers in Sheltered work centers can estimate the impact of the deployment of alternative tools to mass production. Originality/value: There are few papers relating lean manufacturing tools and human resources performance indicators. At the same time, there are very few research carried out in sheltered work centers context.This research was supported by the project “Arquitectura de las prácticas de alto rendimiento de gestión de operaciones y gestión de recursos humanos: definición de los constructos, modelo factorial y establecimiento del path dependence” (PAID06-09-2850) from Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. This support is gratefully acknowledged.Marín-García, JA.; Miralles Insa, CJ.; García Sabater, JJ.; Perelló Marín, MR. (2011). Alternative tools to mass production and human performance indicators in sheltered work centers of Valencian community (Spain). Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management. 4(3):467-480. https://doi.org/10.3926/jiem..v4n3.p467-480S4674804

Hemodynamic and ventilatory changes in pediatric patients with special needs : a comparative clinical study

Very limited data are available on the hemodynamic and ventilatory changes during sedation and general anesthesia using bispectral index (BIS) monitoring in intellectually disabled children. The purpose was to determine the hemodynamic and ventilatory ch