Chemical and electrical properties of LSM cathodes prepared by mechanosynthesis

Mechanosynthesis of La1-xSrxMnO3 (x = 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 and 1) was carried out at room temperature from stoichiometric mixtures of La2O3, Mn2O3 and SrO, obtaining monophasic powders with the perovskite structure. Physical properties of these materials and their chemical compatibility with the electrolyte yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ), which depend strongly on the La/Sr ratio, were evaluated to corroborate availability to be implemented as cathode material in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). Electrical conductivity values in air ranged between 100 and 400 S cm-1 in the temperature range of 25-850 C. Samples presented low reactivity with YSZ in the working temperature range (600-1000 C) maintaining the grain size small enough to preserve the catalytic activity for oxygen reduction.Gobierno de España MAT2010-1704

Heuristic Techniques for the Design of Steel-Concrete Composite Pedestrian Bridges

[EN] The objective of this work was to apply heuristic optimization techniques to a steel-concrete composite pedestrian bridge, modeled like a beam on two supports. A program has been developed in Fortran programming language, capable of generating pedestrian bridges, checking them, and evaluating their cost. The following algorithms were implemented: descent local search (DLS), a hybrid simulated annealing with a mutation operator (SAMO2), and a glow-worms swarm optimization (GSO) in two variants. The first one only considers the GSO and the second combines GSO and DLS, applying the DSL heuristic to the best solutions obtained by the GSO. The results were compared according to the lowest cost. The GSO and DLS algorithms combined obtained the best results in terms of cost. Furthermore, a comparison between the CO2 emissions associated with the amount of materials obtained by every heuristic technique and the original design solution were studied. Finally, a parametric study was carried out according to the span length of the pedestrian bridge.The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Business, along with FEDER funding (DIMALIFE Project: BIA2017-85098-R).Yepes, V.; Dasí-Gil, M.; Martínez-Muñoz, D.; López Desfilis, VJ.; Martí Albiñana, JV. (2019). Heuristic Techniques for the Design of Steel-Concrete Composite Pedestrian Bridges. Applied Sciences. 9(16):1-18. https://doi.org/10.3390/app9163253S118916Liu, S., Tao, R., & Tam, C. M. (2013). Optimizing cost and CO2 emission for construction projects using particle swarm optimization. Habitat International, 37, 155-162. doi:10.1016/j.habitatint.2011.12.012Sarma, K. C., & Adeli, H. (1998). Cost Optimization of Concrete Structures. Journal of Structural Engineering, 124(5), 570-578. doi:10.1061/(asce)0733-9445(1998)124:5(570)Adeli, H., & Kim, H. (2001). Cost optimization of composite floors using neural dynamics model. Communications in Numerical Methods in Engineering, 17(11), 771-787. doi:10.1002/cnm.448Kravanja, S., & Šilih, S. (2003). Optimization based comparison between composite I beams and composite trusses. Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 59(5), 609-625. doi:10.1016/s0143-974x(02)00045-7Senouci, A. B., & Al-Ansari, M. S. (2009). Cost optimization of composite beams using genetic algorithms. Advances in Engineering Software, 40(11), 1112-1118. doi:10.1016/j.advengsoft.2009.06.001Kaveh, A., & Shakouri Mahmud Abadi, A. (2010). Cost optimization of a composite floor system using an improved harmony search algorithm. Journal of Constructional Steel Research, 66(5), 664-669. doi:10.1016/j.jcsr.2010.01.009Ramires, F. B., Andrade, S. A. L. de, Vellasco, P. C. G. da S., & Lima, L. R. O. de. (2012). Genetic algorithm optimization of composite and steel endplate semi-rigid joints. Engineering Structures, 45, 177-191. doi:10.1016/j.engstruct.2012.05.051Martí, J. V., Gonzalez-Vidosa, F., Yepes, V., & Alcalá, J. (2013). Design of prestressed concrete precast road bridges with hybrid simulated annealing. Engineering Structures, 48, 342-352. doi:10.1016/j.engstruct.2012.09.014García-Segura, T., & Yepes, V. (2016). Multiobjective optimization of post-tensioned concrete box-girder road bridges considering cost, CO2 emissions, and safety. Engineering Structures, 125, 325-336. doi:10.1016/j.engstruct.2016.07.012García-Segura, T., Yepes, V., & Frangopol, D. M. (2017). Multi-objective design of post-tensioned concrete road bridges using artificial neural networks. Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization, 56(1), 139-150. doi:10.1007/s00158-017-1653-0Soke, A., & Bingul, Z. (2006). Hybrid genetic algorithm and simulated annealing for two-dimensional non-guillotine rectangular packing problems. Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 19(5), 557-567. doi:10.1016/j.engappai.2005.12.003Penadés-Plà, V., García-Segura, T., & Yepes, V. (2019). Accelerated optimization method for low-embodied energy concrete box-girder bridge design. Engineering Structures, 179, 556-565. doi:10.1016/j.engstruct.2018.11.015Yepes, V., García-Segura, T., & Moreno-Jiménez, J. M. (2015). A cognitive approach for the multi-objective optimization of RC structural problems. Archives of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, 15(4), 1024-1036. doi:10.1016/j.acme.2015.05.001Martí, J. V., García-Segura, T., & Yepes, V. (2016). Structural design of precast-prestressed concrete U-beam road bridges based on embodied energy. Journal of Cleaner Production, 120, 231-240. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.02.024García-Segura, T., Yepes, V., Frangopol, D. M., & Yang, D. Y. (2017). Lifetime reliability-based optimization of post-tensioned box-girder bridges. Engineering Structures, 145, 381-391. doi:10.1016/j.engstruct.2017.05.013Penadés-Plà, V., García-Segura, T., Martí, J., & Yepes, V. (2016). A Review of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Methods Applied to the Sustainable Bridge Design. Sustainability, 8(12), 1295. doi:10.3390/su8121295BEDEC ITEC Materials Database https://metabase.itec.cat/vide/es/bedecYepes, V., Martí, J. V., & García-Segura, T. (2015). Cost and CO2 emission optimization of precast–prestressed concrete U-beam road bridges by a hybrid glowworm swarm algorithm. Automation in Construction, 49, 123-134. doi:10.1016/j.autcon.2014.10.013Molina-Moreno, F., Martí, J. V., & Yepes, V. (2017). Carbon embodied optimization for buttressed earth-retaining walls: Implications for low-carbon conceptual designs. Journal of Cleaner Production, 164, 872-884. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.06.246Kirkpatrick, S., Gelatt, C. D., & Vecchi, M. P. (1983). Optimization by Simulated Annealing. Science, 220(4598), 671-680. doi:10.1126/science.220.4598.671Medina, J. R. (2001). Estimation of Incident and Reflected Waves Using Simulated Annealing. Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering, 127(4), 213-221. doi:10.1061/(asce)0733-950x(2001)127:4(213)Krishnanand, K. N., & Ghose, D. (2009). Glowworm swarm optimisation: a new method for optimising multi-modal functions. International Journal of Computational Intelligence Studies, 1(1), 93. doi:10.1504/ijcistudies.2009.02534

A multiobjective-based switching topology for hierarchical model predictive control applied to a hydro-power valley

In a Hierarchical Model Predictive Control (H-MPC) framework, this paper explores suitable time-variant structures for the hierarchies of different local MPC controllers. The idea is to adapt to different operational conditions by changing the importance of the local controllers. This is done by defining the level of the hierarchy they belong to, and solving within each level the local MPC problem using the information provided by the higher levels at the current time step and the predicted information from the lower levels obtained in the previous time step. As selecting a hierarchy results in a combinatorial optimization problem, it is explicitly solved for a limited number of relevant topologies only and then the switching between topologies is defined with a multiobjective optimizer, so as to decide the best H-MPC scheme according to the expected performance. A comparison with fixed-topology H-MPC controllers is done, showing the effectiveness of the proposed approach for the power control of a hydro-power valley.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Short-Cut Method to Assess a Gross Available Energy in a Medium-Load Screw Friction Press

The present study proposed a rapid method, based on a previous universal compression tests, to estimate the required load capacity to cold forge different specimen quantity in a screw press. Accordingly, experimental and theoretical approach are performed to check new adjustable drive motor of the modified forging machine to achieve a gross available energy to deform the specimens preventing damage of the forging machine. During the forging experiments, two screw friction presses (as-received and modified) are used to validate the theoretical approach. The modified press exhibits an increase of 51% of gross energy and 11% of maximum load capacity compare to the as-received press. This method is used to improve the effective of the forging process avoiding excessive loads that could promote machine failure. Therefore, a low-cost and easy to implement methodology is proposed to determine the energy and load capacity of a screw friction press to forge different specimen quantities with symmetry pattern configurations.This work is supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain (reference project: FJCI-2016-29297), Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Industrial (INTI) of Argentina and the Aeronautics Advanced Manufacturing Center (CFAA) of Bilbao

KIR+ CD8+ T Lymphocytes in Cancer Immunosurveillance and Patient Survival: Gene Expression Profiling

Killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) are molecules expressed by the most important cells of the immune system for cancer immune vigilance, natural killer (NK) and effector T cells. In this manuscript we study the role that cytotoxic CD8+ T cells expressing KIR receptors could play in cancer immune surveillance. With this objective, frequencies of different KIR+ CD8+ T cell subsets are correlated with the overall survival of patients with melanoma, ovarian and bladder carcinomas. In addition, the gene expression profile of KIR+ CD8+ T cell subsets related to the survival of patients is studied with the aim of discovering new therapeutic targets, so that the outcome of patients with cancer can be improved. Killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) are expressed by natural killer (NK) and effector T cells. Although KIR+ T cells accumulate in oncologic patients, their role in cancer immune response remains elusive. This study explored the role of KIR+CD8+ T cells in cancer immunosurveillance by analyzing their frequency at diagnosis in the blood of 249 patients (80 melanomas, 80 bladder cancers, and 89 ovarian cancers), their relationship with overall survival (OS) of patients, and their gene expression profiles. KIR2DL1+ CD8+ T cells expanded in the presence of HLA-C2-ligands in patients who survived, but it did not in patients who died. In contrast, presence of HLA-C1-ligands was associated with dose-dependent expansions of KIR2DL2/S2+ CD8+ T cells and with shorter OS. KIR interactions with their specific ligands profoundly impacted CD8+ T cell expression profiles, involving multiple signaling pathways, effector functions, the secretome, and consequently, the cellular microenvironment, which could impact their cancer immunosurveillance capacities. KIR2DL1/S1+ CD8+ T cells showed a gene expression signature related to efficient tumor immunosurveillance, whereas KIR2DL2/L3/S2+CD8+ T cells showed transcriptomic profiles related to suppressive anti-tumor responses. These results could be the basis for the discovery of new therapeutic targets so that the outcome of patients with cancer can be improved

Inhomogeneity correction of magnetic resonance images by minimization of intensity overlapping

Proceeding of: IEEE 2003 International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), Barcelona, Spain, 14-17 Sept. 2003This work presents a new algorithm (NIC; Non uniform Intensity Correclion) for the correction of intensity inhomogeneities in magnetic resonance images. The algorithm has been validated by means of realistic phantom images and a set of 24 real images. Evaluation using previously proposed phantom images for inhomogeneity correction algorithms allowed us to obtain results fully comparable to the previous literature on the topic. This new algorithm was also compared, using a real image dataset, to other widely used methods which are freely available in the Internet (N3, SPM'99 and SPM2). Standard quality criteria have been used for determining the goodness of the different methods. The new algorithm showed better results removing the intensity inhomogeneities and did not produce degradation when used on images free from this artifact

Changes in Biomarkers of Redox Status in Saliva of Pigs after an Experimental Sepsis Induction

Saliva from pigs is gaining attention as an easy sample to obtain, being a source of biomarkers that can provide information on animal health and welfare. This study aimed to evaluate the changes that can occur in salivary biomarkers of the redox status of pigs with an experimentally induced sepsis. For that, the cupric reducing antioxidant capacity (CUPRAC), ferric reducing ability of saliva (FRAS), Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC), advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP), ferrous oxidation-xylenol orange (FOX), peroxide activity (POX-Act), and reactive oxygen-derived compounds (d-ROMs) were measured in the saliva of pigs with experimentally induced sepsis by endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS), non-septic inflammation induced by turpentine, and in healthy individuals before and after 3 h, 6 h, 24 h, and 48 h. AOPP, POX-Act, and d-ROMs in the sepsis group were higher than in the control from 3 h to 24 h after the inoculation. CUPRAC, FRAS, and TEAC were higher in sepsis than the control group at 24 h. These changes were of higher magnitude than those that occurred in the turpentine group. In conclusion, our findings reveal that sepsis produces changes in salivary biomarkers of redox status, which opens the possibility of using them as potential biomarkers in this species

Planck intermediate results: XVI. Profile likelihoods for cosmological parameters

We explore the 2013 Planck likelihood function with a high-precision multi-dimensional minimizer (Minuit). This allows a refinement of the CDM best-fit solution with respect to previously-released results, and the construction of frequentist confidence intervals using profile likelihoods. The agreement with the cosmological results from the Bayesian framework is excellent, demonstrating the robustness of the Planck results to the statistical methodology. We investigate the inclusion of neutrino masses, where more significant differences may appear due to the non-Gaussian nature of the posterior mass distribution. By applying the Feldman-Cousins prescription, we again obtain results very similar to those of the Bayesian methodology. However, the profile-likelihood analysis of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) combination (Planck+WP+highL) reveals a minimum well within the unphysical negative-mass region. We show that inclusion of the Planck CMB-lensing information regularizes this issue, and provide a robust frequentist upper limit σmv ≤0:26 eV (95% confidence) from the CMB+lensing+BAO data combination. © ESO 2014.The development of Planck has been supported by: ESA; CNES and CNRS/INSU-IN2P3-INP (France); ASI, CNR, and INAF (Italy); NASA and DoE (USA); STFC and UKSA (UK); CSIC, MICINN and JA (Spain); Tekes, AoF and CSC (Finland); DLR and MPG (Germany); CSA (Canada); DTU Space (Denmark); SER/SSO (Switzerland); RCN (Norway); SFI (Ireland); FCT/MCTES (Portugal); and PRACE (EU).Peer Reviewe

Planck intermediate results: VI. The dynamical structure of PLCKG214.6+37.0, a Planck discovered triple system of galaxy clusters

The survey of galaxy clusters performed by Planck through the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect has already discovered many interesting objects, thanks to its full sky coverage. One of the SZ candidates detected inthe early months of the mission near to the signal-to-noise threshold, PLCKG214.6+37.0, was later revealed by XMM-Newton to be a triple system of galaxy clusters. We present the results from a deep XMM-Newton re-observation of PLCKG214.6+37.0, part of a multi-wavelength programme to investigate Planck discovered superclusters. The characterisation of the physical properties of the three components has allowed us to build a template model to extract the total SZ signal of this system with Planck data. We have partly reconciled the discrepancy between the expected SZ signal derived from X-rays and the observed one, which are now consistent within 1.2σ. We measured the redshift of the three components with the iron lines in the X-ray spectrum, and confirm that the three clumps are likely part of the same supercluster structure. The analysis of the dynamical state of the three components, as well as the absence of detectable excess X-ray emission, suggests that we are witnessing the formation of a massive cluster at an early phase of interaction. © ESO, 2013.The Planck Collaboration acknowledges the support of: ESA; CNES and CNRS/INSU-IN2P3-INP (France); ASI, CNR, and INAF (Italy); NASA and DoE (USA); STFC and UKSA (UK); CSIC, MICINN and JA (Spain); Tekes, AoF and CSC (Finland); DLR and MPG (Germany); CSA (Canada); DTU Space (Denmark); SER/SSO (Switzerland); RCN (Norway); SFI (Ireland); FCT/MCTES (Portugal); and DEISA (EU).Peer Reviewe