Boosting the Usage of Green Energy for EV Charging in Smart Buildings Managed by an Aggregator Through a Novel Renewable Usage Index

The growing trend of electric vehicles (EVs) and building integrated photovoltaics (BIPVs) is a promising means to reduce related climate change issues. EV loads can be managed via an aggregator to maximize the usage of green energy produced by photovoltaic units (PV) through smart charging strategies that exploit controllable EV demand connected to BIPV. Previous works have focused on the EV charging coordination in a smart BIPV, although without an optimization that encourages EV charging with the energy produced by the PV units. This paper proposes an aggregation strategy that maximizes a green energy index (GEI) for the smart charging coordination of EVs, which takes advantage of periods with high PV availability to charge the EV batteries; moreover, a post-processing stage for the GEI provides EV owners with information about the percentage of charged energy, period by period, that comes from PV generation. The results for a case study with 510 EVs integrated with 17 smart BIPVs show that the strategy effectively optimizes the usage of the energy produced by the PV units to charge the EVs, contributes to reduce non-renewable energy consumption of the building sector, and satisfies the EV owners’ energy requirements for transportation.This work was supported in part by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES); in part by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) under Grant 305318/2016-0; in part by the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) under Grant 2018/08008-4, Grant 2017/02831-8, and Grant 2018/23617-7; and in part by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), under Project PTDC/EEI-EEE/28983/2017 [Coordinated ENErgy Resource manaGEment under uncerTainty considering electrIc vehiCles and demand flexibility in distribution networks (CENERGETIC)], Project CEECIND/02814/2017, and Project UIDB/000760/2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Reefs at Risk: A Map-Based Indicator of Threats to the Worlds Coral Reefs

This report presents the first-ever detailed, map-based assessment of potential threats to coral reef ecosystems around the world. "Reefs at Risk" draws on 14 data sets (including maps of land cover, ports, settle-ments, and shipping lanes), information on 800 sites known to be degraded by people, and scientific expertise to model areas where reef degradation is predicted to occur, given existing human pressures on these areas. Results are an indicator of potential threat (risk), not a measure of actual condition. In some places, particularly where good management is practiced, reefs may be at risk but remain relatively healthy. In others, this indicator underestimates the degree to which reefs are threatened and degraded.Our results indicate that:Fifty-eight percent of the world's reefs are poten-tially threatened by human activity -- ranging from coastal development and destructive fishing practices to overexploitation of resources, marine pollution, and runoff from inland deforestation and farming.Coral reefs of Asia (Southeastern); the most species-rich on earth, are the most threatened of any region. More than 80 percent are at risk (undermedium and high potential threat), and over half are at high risk, primarily from coastal development and fishing-related pressures.Overexploitation and coastal development pose the greatest potential threat of the four risk categories considered in this study. Each, individually, affects a third of all reefs.The Pacific, which houses more reef area than any other region, is also the least threatened. About 60 percent of reefs here are at low risk.Outside of the Pacific, 70 percent of all reefs are at risk.At least 11 percent of the world's coral reefs contain high levels of reef fish biodiversity and are under high threat from human activities. These "hot spot" areas include almost all Philippine reefs, and coral communities off the coasts of Asia, the Comoros, and the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean.Almost half a billion people -- 8 percent of the total global population -- live within 100 kilometers of a coral reef.Globally, more than 400 marine parks, sanctuaries, and reserves (marine protected areas) contain coral reefs. Most of these sites are very small -- more than 150 are under one square kilometer in size. At least 40 countries lack any marine protected areas for conserving their coral reef systems

Sobrevivencia de pacientes con Enfermedad Renal Crónica Tradicional y no Tradicional en clínicas de hemodiálisis del Instituto Guatemalteco de Seguridad Social de Escuintla, Suchitepéquez y Retalhuleu, Guatemala

A nivel mundial, la enfermedad renal crónica (ERC), representa un problema de salud ingente, con un incremento de 82.3 % de muertes en las últimas dos décadas, ya sea por la ERC secundaria a diabetes o hipertensión arterial entre otras, o la enfermedadrenal crónica de causa no tradicional (ERCnT), relacionada con las condiciones extremas de trabajo agrícola en Mesoamérica, la inadecuada rehidratación y al estrés por calor. Debido a la falta de datos sobre las características epidemiológicas de estasenfermedades, se realizó un estudio sobre la sobrevivencia de 55 pacientes con ERC y ERCnT, en tres departamentos de la costa sur de Guatemala, por medio de un estudio transversal retrospectivo en pacientes en estadio V con tratamiento de hemodiálisisen el Instituto Guatemalteco de Seguridad Social (IGSS). Se aplicó el análisis estadístico de Kaplan-Meier para calcular las tasas de sobrevivencia a 5 años. Se determinó que la ERCnT tiene una mayor sobrevivencia (69.6 %) con respecto a ERC (38.9 %) yuna mayor tasa de sobrevivencia en mujeres (58.8 %) que en hombres (47.4 %). Al comparar las vías de acceso vascular en la hemodiálisis, los pacientes con fístula tienen menor tasa de mortalidad (22.9) que los que utilizaban catéter (39.0). La tasa de incidencia de mortalidad general en pacientes con ERC y ERCnT durante el período de enero de 2013 a agosto 2019 fue de 29.1 por 100 años/personas. La mayor tasa de mortalidad en estos pacientes estuvo asociada a eventos cardiovasculares (36.4 %)

Sobrevivencia de pacientes con Enfermedad Renal Crónica Tradicional y no Tradicional en clínicas de hemodiálisis del Instituto Guatemalteco de Seguridad Social de Escuintla, Suchitepéquez y Retalhuleu, Guatemala

A nivel mundial, la enfermedad renal crónica (ERC), representa un problema de salud ingente, con un incremento de 82.3 % de muertes en las últimas dos décadas, ya sea por la ERC secundaria a diabetes o hipertensión arterial entre otras, o la enfermedadrenal crónica de causa no tradicional (ERCnT), relacionada con las condiciones extremas de trabajo agrícola en Mesoamérica, la inadecuada rehidratación y al estrés por calor. Debido a la falta de datos sobre las características epidemiológicas de estasenfermedades, se realizó un estudio sobre la sobrevivencia de 55 pacientes con ERC y ERCnT, en tres departamentos de la costa sur de Guatemala, por medio de un estudio transversal retrospectivo en pacientes en estadio V con tratamiento de hemodiálisisen el Instituto Guatemalteco de Seguridad Social (IGSS). Se aplicó el análisis estadístico de Kaplan-Meier para calcular las tasas de sobrevivencia a 5 años. Se determinó que la ERCnT tiene una mayor sobrevivencia (69.6 %) con respecto a ERC (38.9 %) yuna mayor tasa de sobrevivencia en mujeres (58.8 %) que en hombres (47.4 %). Al comparar las vías de acceso vascular en la hemodiálisis, los pacientes con fístula tienen menor tasa de mortalidad (22.9) que los que utilizaban catéter (39.0). La tasa de incidencia de mortalidad general en pacientes con ERC y ERCnT durante el período de enero de 2013 a agosto 2019 fue de 29.1 por 100 años/personas. La mayor tasa de mortalidad en estos pacientes estuvo asociada a eventos cardiovasculares (36.4 %)

Direct observation of the dead-cone effect in quantum chromodynamics

The direct measurement of the QCD dead cone in charm quark fragmentation is reported, using iterative declustering of jets tagged with a fully reconstructed charmed hadron

Direct observation of the dead-cone effect in quantum chromodynamics

At particle collider experiments, elementary particle interactions with large momentum transfer produce quarks and gluons (known as partons) whose evolution is governed by the strong force, as described by the theory of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) [1]. The vacuum is not transparent to the partons and induces gluon radiation and quark pair production in a process that can be described as a parton shower [2]. Studying the pattern of the parton shower is one of the key experimental tools in understanding the properties of QCD. This pattern is expected to depend on the mass of the initiating parton, through a phenomenon known as the dead-cone effect, which predicts a suppression of the gluon spectrum emitted by a heavy quark of mass m and energy E, within a cone of angular size m/E around the emitter [3]. A direct observation of the dead-cone effect in QCD has not been possible until now, due to the challenge of reconstructing the cascading quarks and gluons from the experimentally accessible bound hadronic states. Here we show the first direct observation of the QCD dead-cone by using new iterative declustering techniques [4, 5] to reconstruct the parton shower of charm quarks. This result confirms a fundamental feature of QCD, which is derived more generally from its origin as a gauge quantum field theory. Furthermore, the measurement of a dead-cone angle constitutes the first direct experimental observation of the non-zero mass of the charm quark, which is a fundamental constant in the standard model of particle physics.The direct measurement of the QCD dead cone in charm quark fragmentation is reported, using iterative declustering of jets tagged with a fully reconstructed charmed hadron.In particle collider experiments, elementary particle interactions with large momentum transfer produce quarks and gluons (known as partons) whose evolution is governed by the strong force, as described by the theory of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). These partons subsequently emit further partons in a process that can be described as a parton shower which culminates in the formation of detectable hadrons. Studying the pattern of the parton shower is one of the key experimental tools for testing QCD. This pattern is expected to depend on the mass of the initiating parton, through a phenomenon known as the dead-cone effect, which predicts a suppression of the gluon spectrum emitted by a heavy quark of mass $m_{\rm{Q}}$ and energy $E$, within a cone of angular size $m_{\rm{Q}}$/$E$ around the emitter. Previously, a direct observation of the dead-cone effect in QCD had not been possible, owing to the challenge of reconstructing the cascading quarks and gluons from the experimentally accessible hadrons. We report the direct observation of the QCD dead cone by using new iterative declustering techniques to reconstruct the parton shower of charm quarks. This result confirms a fundamental feature of QCD. Furthermore, the measurement of a dead-cone angle constitutes a direct experimental observation of the non-zero mass of the charm quark, which is a fundamental constant in the standard model of particle physics