Excitation force estimation and forecasting for wave energy applications

The implementation of the majority of energy maximising control strategies requires the knowledge of the wave excitation force experienced by the wave energy converter (WEC). In addition, many optimal numerical control strategies also require future knowledge, or a forecast, of future values of the excitation force. This paper examines both the excitation force estimation and forecasting problem for a heaving buoy wave energy device. In particular, a Kalman filter is used to estimate excitation force, where the wave force model is comprised of a set of oscillators at discrete frequencies. The forecasting algorithm consists of an autoregressive model, where the value of prefiltering, in terms of forecasting performance, is evaluated. The paper provides a level of sensitivity analysis of the estimation and forecasting performance to variations in sampling period, sea spectral shape factor and prediction horizon. Results demonstrate that the achievable performance of the estimator/forecaster is consistent with the broad requirements of numerical optimal WEC control strategies (Fusco and Ringwood (2012)), which depends on the characteristics of the radiation impulse response

Experiències senzilles d’electromagnetisme: Atracció i repulsió per forces magnètiques. Caiguda d’imant a càmera lenta

La realització d’experiments científics és una activitat pedagògica que afavoreix l’aprenentatge significatiu dels alumnes, la seua motivació per la matèria i estimula l’interès per ampliar coneixements. En aquest treball presentem dues experiències senzilles de fenòmens d’inducció electromagnètica, amb el propòsit que els estudiants comprenguen els principals conceptes involucrats i l’estreta relació entre l’electricitat i el magnetisme. El nivell d’aquests experiments és adequat per a segon curs de batxillerat, per a qualsevol curs introductori de Física en els Graus de Ciències i per a l’alumnat del Màster d’Educació Secundària

CMS physics technical design report : Addendum on high density QCD with heavy ions

Peer reviewe

Diminishing benefits of urban living for children and adolescents’ growth and development

Optimal growth and development in childhood and adolescence is crucial for lifelong health and well-being1–6. Here we used data from 2,325 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight from 71 million participants, to report the height and body-mass index (BMI) of children and adolescents aged 5–19 years on the basis of rural and urban place of residence in 200 countries and territories from 1990 to 2020. In 1990, children and adolescents residing in cities were taller than their rural counterparts in all but a few high-income countries. By 2020, the urban height advantage became smaller in most countries, and in many high-income western countries it reversed into a small urban-based disadvantage. The exception was for boys in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in some countries in Oceania, south Asia and the region of central Asia, Middle East and north Africa. In these countries, successive cohorts of boys from rural places either did not gain height or possibly became shorter, and hence fell further behind their urban peers. The difference between the age-standardized mean BMI of children in urban and rural areas was <1.1 kg m–2 in the vast majority of countries. Within this small range, BMI increased slightly more in cities than in rural areas, except in south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and some countries in central and eastern Europe. Our results show that in much of the world, the growth and developmental advantages of living in cities have diminished in the twenty-first century, whereas in much of sub-Saharan Africa they have amplified

Gaia Early Data Release 3: Structure and properties of the Magellanic Clouds

We compare the Gaia DR2 and Gaia EDR3 performances in the study of the Magellanic Clouds and show the clear improvements in precision and accuracy in the new release. We also show that the systematics still present in the data make the determination of the 3D geometry of the LMC a difficult endeavour; this is at the very limit of the usefulness of the Gaia EDR3 astrometry, but it may become feasible with the use of additional external data. We derive radial and tangential velocity maps and global profiles for the LMC for the several subsamples we defined. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the two planar components of the ordered and random motions are derived for multiple stellar evolutionary phases in a galactic disc outside the Milky Way, showing the differences between younger and older phases. We also analyse the spatial structure and motions in the central region, the bar, and the disc, providing new insights into features and kinematics. Finally, we show that the Gaia EDR3 data allows clearly resolving the Magellanic Bridge, and we trace the density and velocity flow of the stars from the SMC towards the LMC not only globally, but also separately for young and evolved populations. This allows us to confirm an evolved population in the Bridge that is slightly shift from the younger population. Additionally, we were able to study the outskirts of both Magellanic Clouds, in which we detected some well-known features and indications of new ones

The Gaia mission

Gaia is a cornerstone mission in the science programme of the EuropeanSpace Agency (ESA). The spacecraft construction was approved in 2006, following a study in which the original interferometric concept was changed to a direct-imaging approach. Both the spacecraft and the payload were built by European industry. The involvement of the scientific community focusses on data processing for which the international Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) was selected in 2007. Gaia was launched on 19 December 2013 and arrived at its operating point, the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth-Moon system, a few weeks later. The commissioning of the spacecraft and payload was completed on 19 July 2014. The nominal five-year mission started with four weeks of special, ecliptic-pole scanning and subsequently transferred into full-sky scanning mode. We recall the scientific goals of Gaia and give a description of the as-built spacecraft that is currently (mid-2016) being operated to achieve these goals. We pay special attention to the payload module, the performance of which is closely related to the scientific performance of the mission. We provide a summary of the commissioning activities and findings, followed by a description of the routine operational mode. We summarise scientific performance estimates on the basis of in-orbit operations. Several intermediate Gaia data releases are planned and the data can be retrieved from the Gaia Archive, which is available through the Gaia home page. http://www.cosmos.esa.int/gai

Diminishing benefits of urban living for children and adolescents’ growth and development

AbstractOptimal growth and development in childhood and adolescence is crucial for lifelong health and well-being1–6. Here we used data from 2,325 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight from 71 million participants, to report the height and body-mass index (BMI) of children and adolescents aged 5–19 years on the basis of rural and urban place of residence in 200 countries and territories from 1990 to 2020. In 1990, children and adolescents residing in cities were taller than their rural counterparts in all but a few high-income countries. By 2020, the urban height advantage became smaller in most countries, and in many high-income western countries it reversed into a small urban-based disadvantage. The exception was for boys in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa and in some countries in Oceania, south Asia and the region of central Asia, Middle East and north Africa. In these countries, successive cohorts of boys from rural places either did not gain height or possibly became shorter, and hence fell further behind their urban peers. The difference between the age-standardized mean BMI of children in urban and rural areas was &lt;1.1 kg m–2 in the vast majority of countries. Within this small range, BMI increased slightly more in cities than in rural areas, except in south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and some countries in central and eastern Europe. Our results show that in much of the world, the growth and developmental advantages of living in cities have diminished in the twenty-first century, whereas in much of sub-Saharan Africa they have amplified.</jats:p

Worldwide trends in underweight and obesity from 1990 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 3663 population-representative studies with 222 million children, adolescents, and adults

Background Underweight and obesity are associated with adverse health outcomes throughout the life course. We estimated the individual and combined prevalence of underweight or thinness and obesity, and their changes, from 1990 to 2022 for adults and school-aged children and adolescents in 200 countries and territories. Methods We used data from 3663 population-based studies with 222 million participants that measured height and weight in representative samples of the general population. We used a Bayesian hierarchical model to estimate trends in the prevalence of different BMI categories, separately for adults (age ≥20 years) and school-aged children and adolescents (age 5–19 years), from 1990 to 2022 for 200 countries and territories. For adults, we report the individual and combined prevalence of underweight (BMI 2 SD above the median). Findings From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity in adults decreased in 11 countries (6%) for women and 17 (9%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 that the observed changes were true decreases. The combined prevalence increased in 162 countries (81%) for women and 140 countries (70%) for men with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. In 2022, the combined prevalence of underweight and obesity was highest in island nations in the Caribbean and Polynesia and Micronesia, and countries in the Middle East and north Africa. Obesity prevalence was higher than underweight with posterior probability of at least 0·80 in 177 countries (89%) for women and 145 (73%) for men in 2022, whereas the converse was true in 16 countries (8%) for women, and 39 (20%) for men. From 1990 to 2022, the combined prevalence of thinness and obesity decreased among girls in five countries (3%) and among boys in 15 countries (8%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80, and increased among girls in 140 countries (70%) and boys in 137 countries (69%) with a posterior probability of at least 0·80. The countries with highest combined prevalence of thinness and obesity in school-aged children and adolescents in 2022 were in Polynesia and Micronesia and the Caribbean for both sexes, and Chile and Qatar for boys. Combined prevalence was also high in some countries in south Asia, such as India and Pakistan, where thinness remained prevalent despite having declined. In 2022, obesity in school-aged children and adolescents was more prevalent than thinness with a posterior probability of at least 0·80 among girls in 133 countries (67%) and boys in 125 countries (63%), whereas the converse was true in 35 countries (18%) and 42 countries (21%), respectively. In almost all countries for both adults and school-aged children and adolescents, the increases in double burden were driven by increases in obesity, and decreases in double burden by declining https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/images/research_banner_face_lab_290.jpgunderweight or thinness. Interpretation The combined burden of underweight and obesity has increased in most countries, driven by an increase in obesity, while underweight and thinness remain prevalent in south Asia and parts of Africa. A healthy nutrition transition that enhances access to nutritious foods is needed to address the remaining burden of underweight while curbing and reversing the increase in obesity

Supercritical CO2 deodorization of dried pork liver

[EN] Pork liver has excellent nutritional properties but is a highly perishable product often rejected by consumers due to its strong unpleasant flavour. The objective of this study was to analyze the feasibility of the deodorization , defatting of dried pork liver by means of supercritical CO2 (SC-CO2) and conventional vacuum steam distillation (VSD).The results showed that both deodorization techniques were effective at reducing volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Through VSD, the VOC content was reduced by 67.6% UA, while an 81.3% UA reduction was achieved by SC-CO2, with respect to dried pork liver. In addition, 3 characteristic compounds of raw pork liver were completely eliminated by applying SC-CO2, which could potentially reduce the characteristic mushroom (1-octen-3-ol), fatty and green (1-nonanol) , fishy ((E,E)- 2,4-heptadienal) off-flavours. Therefore, SC-CO2 could be considered a promising technique for the elimination of VOCs, and furthermore it leads to a reduction in the fat content (24.9%).The authors acknowledge the financial support from the "Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO) and Instituto Nacional de Investigacion y Tecnologia Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA)" in Spain (Project RTA2017-00024-C04-03). The authors acknowledge the contribution of the slaughterhouse "Carnes de Teruel S.A.", (D.O. Jamon de Teruel, Spain) for the supply of pork livers.Abril-Gisbert, B.; Lorenzo, J.; Garcia-Perez, J.; Contreras-Ruiz, M.; Benedito Fort, JJ. (2023). Supercritical CO2 deodorization of dried pork liver. Journal of CO2 Utilization. 70:1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcou.2023.1024551107

Estimation and Forecasting of Excitation Force for Arrays of Wave Energy Devices

To maximise energy conversion, real-time control of a Wave Energy Converter (WEC) requires knowledge of the present and future excitation force (Fex) acting on the device, which is a non-measurable quantity. The problem of estimation and forecasting of Fex becomes more challenging when arrays of WECs are considered, due to the hydrodynamic interactions in the array. In this paper, a global Fex estimator for a complete WEC array is developed and compared to a set of independent estimators which utilise information local only to each device. A significant question is whether the array of measurements is sufficient to compensate for the greater complexity of the wave field, compared to the isolated body case. The paper shows that the global estimator is always more accurate than the independent estimator, improving up to 45% the estimation accuracy of the independent estimator. Regarding prediction, two different Fex forecasters for a WEC array are compared: a global forecaster, utilising Fex estimates from the full set of array devices, and an independent forecaster, utilising only a local Fex estimate. We demonstrate that the global forecaster achieves more accurate results, not only compared to the independent forecaster, but also compared to the isolated body case