Optimizing a Simple Natural Dye Production Method for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: Examples for Betalain (Bougainvillea and Beetroot Extracts) and Anthocyanin Dyes

We present a study about the sensitizers extracted from natural resources. This paper focuses on how to select, extract and characterize natural dyes, giving some guides to establish a protocol for the whole process of fabricating and using these dyes. The influence of the extraction solvent and method, and of parameters such as pH are analyzed. Also, dye precursor and dye extract stability have been studied, as well as how the dye adsorbs onto substrates and the effect of mixing or concentrating the extracts. Results concerning betalain pigments present in bougainvillea and beetroot extracts, and anthocyanins in eggplant extracts, analyzed by using UV-Vis spectrometry, are included. As an example of application, we report procedures intended to test and enhance the dye potential as a main component of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). DSSCs mimic nature’s photosynthesis and have some advantages like an easy and low-cost fabrication procedure. Their efficiency depends on its design and fabrication process and also on the different components involved. Hence, optimizing each component is essential to achieve the best performance, and thus the dye used as a sensitizer is crucial. We fabricate cells by using a simple procedure: As the interest is focused on the sensitizer, the same consecutive steps are followed, varying only the dye extract. Among all the natural-dyes tested, beetroot extract reaches up to 0.47% cell efficiency, which is near the highest values found in literature for this pigment

Sliding mode predictive control for chemical proces with time delay

16th IFAC World Congress Praga (República Checa), 03/07/2005A design of a novel model predictive controller is presented. The proposed Sliding Mode Predictive Control (SMPC) algorithm combines the design technique of Sliding-Mode Control (SMC) with Model based Predictive Control (MPC). The SMPC showed a considerable robustness improvement with respect to MPC in the presence of time delay, and showed an enhanced ability to handle set point changes in a nonlinear process. Its robustness was evaluated using a robustness plot, its performance was judged using a single input single output nonlinear mixing tank process with variable time delay

Heterobranch sea slugs (Mollusca: Gastropoda) from Ascension Island, South Atlantic Ocean

The small volcanic island of Ascension is situated in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean, more than 1500 km from the coast of Africa, its nearest continental area. To date, eight 'opisthobranch' species were reported from the island. As a result of a recent survey, 10 species were found. Seven species are new records from Ascension: Platydoris angustipes (Morch, 1863), Diaulula sp., Dolabrifera dolabrifera (Rang, 1828), Aplysia parvula Guilding in Morch, 1863 and Caliphylla mediterranea A. Costa, 1867, and two new species: Phidiana mimica sp. nov.; and Felimida atlantica sp. nov. Half of the species found have a wide geographical distribution, being not restricted to the Atlantic Ocean. However, traditional taxonomy based on few characters is probably masking complexes of species.Darwin Initiative (EIDCF012); CNPq-Brazil; DAAD-Germany; DFG [SCHR667/9,13]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Tqa of different translations of el monte de las ánimas

Even though Bécquer’s El monte de las ánimas is one of his best known legends, there are no previous studies that deal with the accuracy and adequacy of its translations into English. This dissertation aims to analyze these aspects throughout translation quality assessment, analyzing and classifying the errors in three translations, from a quantitative approach and combining criteria from its most representative models. We will analyze and classify the translation strategies according to two different methodologies, LISA (Localization Industry Standards Association) and SICAL (Système canadien d'appréciation de la qualité linguistique). This will help us to conclude which translation maintains the function and spelling of the source text as well as to prove that it is possible to create a combined model to compare the level of accuracy of a translation with its source text.A pesar de que El monte de las ánimas de Bécquer es una de sus leyendas más conocidas, no existen estudios previos que aborden la precisión y adecuación de sus traducciones al inglés. Este trabajo pretende analizar estos aspectos a través de la evaluación de la calidad de la traducción, analizando y clasificando los errores en tres traducciones, desde un enfoque cuantitativo y combinando criterios de sus modelos más representativos. Analizaremos y clasificaremos las estrategias de traducción según dos metodologías diferentes, LISA (Localization Industry Standards Association) y SICAL (Système canadien d'appréciation de la qualité linguistique). Esto nos ayudará a concluir qué traducción mantiene la función y la ortografía del texto de origen, así como a demostrar que es posible crear un modelo combinado para comparar el nivel de precisión de una traducción con su texto de origen.Departamento de Filología InglesaGrado en Estudios Inglese

Cosas de niños: La webserie

Universidad de Sevilla. Grado en Comunicación Audiovisua

Adaptive control of a solar furnace for material testing

IFAC Adaptive Systems in Control and Signal Processing. Glasgow. Scotland. UK. 26/08/1998This paper presents an adaptive control system for controlling the temperature of a solar furnace, which is a high solar concentrating facility made up of heliostats tracking the sun and reflecting solar radiation onto a static parabolic concentrating system at the focal spot of which a high percentage of the solar energy collected by the collector system is concentrated in a small area. A large attenuator (shutter) placed between the collector system and the concentrator serves to control the amount of solar energy used for heating the samples placed at the focal spot. The paper shows the results obtained in the application of adaptive PI controllers to a solar furnace, incorporating feedforward action, anti-windup and slew rate constraint handling mechanisms

Photon-mediated qubit interactions in one-dimensional discrete and continuous models

In this work we study numerically and analytically the interaction of two qubits in a one-dimensionalwaveguide, as mediated by the photons that propagate through the guide. We develop strategies to assert the Markovianity of the problem, the effective qubit-qubit interactions, and their individual and collective spontaneous emission. We prove the existence of collective Lamb shifts that affect the qubit-qubit interactions and the dependency of coherent and incoherent interactions on the qubit separation. We also develop the scattering theory associated with these models and prove single-photon spectroscopy does probe the renormalized resonances of the singleand multiqubit models, in sharp contrast to earlier toy models in which individual and collective Lamb shifts cancel

A New Multi-Objective Approach for Molecular Docking Based on RMSD and Binding Energy

Ligand-protein docking is an optimization problem based on predicting the position of a ligand with the lowest binding energy in the active site of the receptor. Molecular docking problems are traditionally tackled with single-objective, as well as with multi-objective approaches, to minimize the binding energy. In this paper, we propose a novel multi-objective formulation that considers: the Root Mean Square Deviation (RMSD) difference in the coordinates of ligands and the binding (intermolecular) energy, as two objectives to evaluate the quality of the ligand-protein interactions. To determine the kind of Pareto front approximations that can be obtained, we have selected a set of representative multi-objective algorithms such as NSGA-II, SMPSO, GDE3, and MOEA/D. Their performances have been assessed by applying two main quality indicators intended to measure convergence and diversity of the fronts. In addition, a comparison with LGA, a reference single-objective evolutionary algorithm for molecular docking (AutoDock) is carried out. In general, SMPSO shows the best overall results in terms of energy and RMSD (value lower than 2A for successful docking results). This new multi-objective approach shows an improvement over the ligand-protein docking predictions that could be promising in in silico docking studies to select new anticancer compounds for therapeutic targets that are multidrug resistant.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Influence of Lane Width on Semi-Autonomous Vehicle Performance

[EN] In the medium-term, the number of semi-autonomous vehicles is expected to rise significantly. These changes in vehicle capabilities make it necessary to analyze their interaction with road infrastructure, which has been developed for human-driven vehicles. Current systems use artificial vision, recording the oncoming road and using the center and edgeline road markings to automatically facilitate keeping the vehicle within the lane. In addition to alignment and road markings, lane width has emerged as one of the geometric parameters that might cause disengagement and therefore must be assessed. The objective of this research was to study the impact of lane width on semi-autonomous vehicle performance. The automatic lateral control of this type of vehicle was tested along 81 lanes of an urban arterial comprising diverse widths. Results showed that the semi-autonomous system tended to fail on narrow lanes. There was a maximum width below which human control was always required-referred to as the human lane width-measuring 2.5 m. A minimum width above which automatic control was always possible-the automatic lane width-was established to be 2.75 m. Finally, a lane width of 2.72 m was found to have the same probability of automatic and human lateral control, namely the critical lane width. Following a similar methodology, these parameters could be determined for other vehicles, enhancing the interaction between autonomous vehicles and road infrastructure and thus supporting rapid deployment of autonomous technology without compromising safety.García García, A.; Camacho-Torregrosa, FJ. (2020). Influence of Lane Width on Semi-Autonomous Vehicle Performance. Transportation Research Record. 2674(9):279-286. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361198120928351S27928626749Lu, Z., Zhang, B., Feldhütter, A., Happee, R., Martens, M., & De Winter, J. C. F. (2019). Beyond mere take-over requests: The effects of monitoring requests on driver attention, take-over performance, and acceptance. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 63, 22-37. doi:10.1016/j.trf.2019.03.018Dogan, E., Rahal, M.-C., Deborne, R., Delhomme, P., Kemeny, A., & Perrin, J. (2017). Transition of control in a partially automated vehicle: Effects of anticipation and non-driving-related task involvement. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 46, 205-215. doi:10.1016/j.trf.2017.01.012Shen, S., & Neyens, D. M. (2017). Assessing drivers’ response during automated driver support system failures with non-driving tasks. Journal of Safety Research, 61, 149-155. doi:10.1016/j.jsr.2017.02.009Du, X., & Tan, K. K. (2016). Comprehensive and Practical Vision System for Self-Driving Vehicle Lane-Level Localization. IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, 25(5), 2075-2088. doi:10.1109/tip.2016.2539683Du, X., & Tan, K. K. (2015). Vision-based approach towards lane line detection and vehicle localization. Machine Vision and Applications, 27(2), 175-191. doi:10.1007/s00138-015-0735-5Favarò, F., Eurich, S., & Nader, N. (2018). Autonomous vehicles’ disengagements: Trends, triggers, and regulatory limitations. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 110, 136-148. doi:10.1016/j.aap.2017.11.00

Durability Studies of Solar Reflectors Used in Concentrating Solar Thermal Technologies under Corrosive Sulfurous Atmospheres

Concentrating solar thermal (CST) technologies are a feasible and promising option to tackle worldwide energy problems. These solar facilities are sometimes located near industrial sites, where their main components—including concentrating solar reflectors—are prone to significant degradation caused by corrosive agents, especially in the presence of sulfurous atmospheres such as H2S and SO2. This paper focuses on analyzing the influence of sulfurous atmospheres on the durability of reflector materials used in CST technologies. To this end, accelerated aging tests were performed on the most commonly used materials found in solar reflectors (i.e., thick silvered glass and aluminum-based reflectors) by applying the same concentrations of H2S and SO2 under the same conditions of temperature and relative humidity. The results showed that the solar reflectors based on a silver reflective layer are significantly corroded by H2S atmospheres—several corrosion defects were found in the samples tested. However, those based on aluminum were barely affected by sulfurous environments in the conditions tested. Nonetheless, the study suggests that both reflector types are suitable candidates, depending on the purpose of the CST technology in question and the specific environmental conditions