Two-Stage Multi-Objective Meta-Heuristics for Environmental and Cost-Optimal Energy Refurbishment at District Level

Energy efficiency and environmental performance optimization at the district level are following an upward trend mostly triggered by minimizing the Global Warming Potential (GWP) to 20% by 2020 and 40% by 2030 settled by the European Union (EU) compared with 1990 levels. This paper advances over the state of the art by proposing two novel multi-objective algorithms, named Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II) and Multi-Objective Harmony Search (MOHS), aimed at achieving cost-effective energy refurbishment scenarios and allowing at district level the decision-making procedure. This challenge is not trivial since the optimisation process must provide feasible solutions for a simultaneous environmental and economic assessment at district scale taking into consideration highly demanding real-based constraints regarding district and buildings’ specific requirements. Consequently, in this paper, a two-stage optimization methodology is proposed in order to reduce the energy demand and fossil fuel consumption with an affordable investment cost at building level and minimize the total payback time while minimizing the GWP at district level. Aimed at demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed two-stage multi-objective approaches, this work presents simulation results at two real district case studies in Donostia-San Sebastian (Spain) for which up to a 30% of reduction of GWP at district level is obtained for a Payback Time (PT) of 2–3 years.Part of this work has been developed from results obtained during the H2020 “Optimised Energy Efficient Design Platform for Refurbishment at District Level” (OptEEmAL) project, Grant No. 680676

Evaluación de la actividad tóxica de cepas nativas de Bacillus thuringiensis contra trichoplusia ni, Hübner (Lepidoptera: noctuidae) yAedes aegypti, Linnaeus (Díptera: culicidae)

Tesis (Maestría en Ciencias con Especialidad en Microbiología) UANLUANLhttp://www.uanl.mx

Predicting epidemic risk from past temporal contact data

Understanding how epidemics spread in a system is a crucial step to prevent and control outbreaks, with broad implications on the system's functioning, health, and associated costs. This can be achieved by identifying the elements at higher risk of infection and implementing targeted surveillance and control measures. One important ingredient to consider is the pattern of disease-transmission contacts among the elements, however lack of data or delays in providing updated records may hinder its use, especially for time-varying patterns. Here we explore to what extent it is possible to use past temporal data of a system's pattern of contacts to predict the risk of infection of its elements during an emerging outbreak, in absence of updated data. We focus on two real-world temporal systems; a livestock displacements trade network among animal holdings, and a network of sexual encounters in high-end prostitution. We define the node's loyalty as a local measure of its tendency to maintain contacts with the same elements over time, and uncover important non-trivial correlations with the node's epidemic risk. We show that a risk assessment analysis incorporating this knowledge and based on past structural and temporal pattern properties provides accurate predictions for both systems. Its generalizability is tested by introducing a theoretical model for generating synthetic temporal networks. High accuracy of our predictions is recovered across different settings, while the amount of possible predictions is system-specific. The proposed method can provide crucial information for the setup of targeted intervention strategies.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figures + SI (18 pages, 15 figures

Are we prepared to develop palliative actions in a ward? A literature review

Introduction: The World Health Organization (2015) presents as barriers to improving access to palliative care the lack of training and awareness of health professionals. Objectives: Identify the preparation of nurses who provide care, in the acute hospital setting, to develop palliative actions. Methods: Integrative literature review, through the electronic research in the B-ON platform, using the expression: (nursing) AND (palliative care) AND (acute hospital setting) NOT (child* OR infant* OR adolescent*), obtaining six articles of primary studies. Results: Obtained studies are representative of a total of 2220 nurses. The articles showed that nurses from acute hospitals, despite being able to care for patients with palliative care needs, felt that training in this area would be important in order to better understand the needs of these patients. Conclusion: Nurses consider that they have competencies to provide care related to palliative care in acute care, although recognizing that they should be provided with more formation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Diseño estructural del pavimento para mejorar la transitabilidad vehicular para el sector M" IID-20 Alto Nuevo Pacasmayo - distrito de Pacasmayo - La Libertad

En la presente tesis denominada “DISEÑO ESTRUCTURAL DEL PAVIMENTO PARA MEJORAR LA TRANSITABILIDAD VEHICULAR PARA EL SECTOR M” IID-20 ALTO NUEVO PACASMAYO; DISTRITO DE PACASMAYO – LA LIBERTAD”, se desarrolló con la finalidad de diseñar la estructura del pavimento adoquinado por la metodología AASHTO 93 y realizar un seccionamiento de vías para beneficiar a los pobladores de la zona, con el mejoramiento del tránsito vehicular y con el ordenamiento de las viviendas. Para ello, primero se realizó un levantamiento topográfico, estudio de tráfico, también se realizó un estudio de suelos con fines de pavimentación, para las muestras extraídas de las calicatas en los Jr. Chepén, Jr. Cajamarca y Jr. Guadalupe. El cual será útil para poder definir algunas variables de diseño y, determinar los espesores de las capas que conforman el pavimento adoquinado, para posteriormente realizar la elaboración del presupuesto y cronograma de obra. Finalmente, se exponen las conclusiones, recomendaciones a trabajos futuros y las referencias bibliográficas.In this thesis called "STRUCTURAL DESIGN OF PAVEMENT TO IMPROVE VEHICLE TRANSITABILITY FOR SECTOR M" IID-20 ALTO NUEVO PACASMAYO; DISTRICT OF PACASMAYO - LA LIBERTAD ”, was developed with the purpose of designing the pavement structure paved by the AASHTO 93 methodology and performing a sectioning of roads to benefit the inhabitants of the area, with the improvement of vehicular traffic and with the arrangement of the houses. To do this, first a topographic survey was carried out, a traffic study, a soil study was also carried out for paving purposes, for the samples extracted from the calicatas in Jr. Chepén, Jr. Cajamarca and Jr. Guadalupe. Which will be useful to be able to define some design variables and, determine the thicknesses of the layers that make up the cobbled pavement, to later carry out the preparation of the budget and work schedule. Finally, the conclusions, recommendations to future works and bibliographic references are presented.Tesi

Pilot study of a sequencing batch reactor for the treatment of wastewater from an animal food factory

The removal of organic matter and nitrogen in wastewaterfrom an animal food processing company was studied usinga pilot Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR). Trials were carried out with 2 types of waste water; washing water which is characterized by a high content of organic matter and condensed water which has a high concentration of ammoniacal nitrogen. The time of operation of the reactor was 252 days using eight different stages depending on the organic loading rate (OLR) and ammoniacal loading rate (ALR). The highest removal efficiencies were obtained for an OLR of 3.24 g CODF/L.d and an ALR of 1.102 g NH4 +- N/L.d, with a ratio of 9:1 of washing water:condensed water and with the BOD5/ NH4+-N relationship in a range of 2.0 - 4.0

Mexican Women Entrepreneurs & Gender Asymmetries in Houston, Texas

Faced with the need for greater flexibility, and burdened by the wage gap and lack of opportunities in the private sector, women in the region [Latin America] often turn to the informal sector and personal endeavors, becoming entrepreneurs. There are differences in the characteristics of businesses, their creation, and entrepreneurial behavior worldwide, in accordance with the gender of the owner. One such feature that has perhaps attracted the most interest from various researchers in the field of women-owned businesses are the high rates of growth in the number of such enterprises (both in the United States as in other countries) and their increasing participation even in areas or sectors traditionally considered a "male" domain. This paper is a contribution to gender studies concerning the participation of women in business activities or in fields that just a century ago were considered masculine by nature. From what has been called a "silent revolution" of women immigrant entrepreneurs in the last decade has grown the need to present the methods, challenges, characteristics, and needs of businesswomen in a leading role. This study aims to identify key gender differences in terms of educational level, access to financing, and business success among Mexican businessmen and women in the United States

Tendencias y respuestas de la fenología de la superficie terrestre a la variabilidad climática en la Pampa Argentina

Comprender la interacción entre los procesos de la superficie terrestre y la atmósfera es fundamental para predecir los efectos del cambio climático futuro sobre el funcionamiento de los ecosistemas y la dinámica del carbono. Los objetivos de este trabajo fueron analizar las tendencias en métricas de la fenología de la superficie terrestre derivadas de sensores remotos, y revelar su relación con la precipitación y el fenómeno ENSO en la región pampeana de Argentina. A partir de una serie temporal de imágenes del Índice de Vegetación de Diferencia Normalizada (NDVI) de MODIS para el período 2000-2014, se obtuvo para la región pampeana de Argentina el inicio de la estación de crecimiento (SOS), la integral anual del NDVI (i-NDVI, estimador lineal de la productividad anual), el tiempo del máximo anual del NDVI (t-MAX) y el rango relativo anual de NDVI (RREL, estimador de la estacionalidad). Posteriormente, se analizaron las relaciones espaciales y temporales con el Índice Multivariado del ENSO (MEI) y la precipitación. Los resultados mostraron una tendencia negativa en la productividad anual en un 53,6% del área de estudio asociado a zonas de pastizales naturales y semi-naturales, mientras que un 40,3% de la Pampa Argentina mostró una tendencia positiva significativa en la estacionalidad de las ganancias de carbono. Este estudio también revela que la variabilidad climática tiene un impacto significativo en la fenología de la superficie terrestre de la región pampeana, aunque este impacto es heterogéneo. SOS y t-MAX mostraron una correlación negativa significativa con la precipitación, lo que indica una ocurrencia más temprana. El 23,6% y 28,4% del área de estudio mostró una correlación positiva de la productividad anual con el MEI y la precipitación, respectivamente, asociado a pastizales (en el primer caso) y sobre pastizales y áreas agrícolas en el segundo caso. La variabilidad climática no explicó la variabilidad en la estacionalidad de la fenología. Las relaciones encontradas entre las métricas de la fenología de la superficie terrestre y la variabilidad climática podrían ser importantes para la implementación de estrategias para el manejo de los recursos naturales.Understanding the interaction between land surface and atmosphere processes is fundamental for predicting the effects of future climate change on ecosystem functioning and carbon dynamics. The objectives of this work were to analyze the trends in land surface phenology (LSP) metrics from remote sensing data, and to reveal their relationship with precipitation and ENSO phenomenon in the Argentina Pampas. Using a time series of MODIS Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data from 2000 to 2014, the start of the growing season (SOS), the annual integral of NDVI (i-NDVI, linear estimator of annual productivity), the timing of the annual maximum NDVI (t-MAX) and the annual relative range of NDVI (RREL, estimator of seasonality) were obtained for the Argentina Pampas. Then, spatial and temporal relationships with the Multivariate ENSO Index (MEI) and precipitation were analyzed. Results showed a negative trend in annual productivity over a 53.6% of the study area associated to natural and semi-natural grassland under cattle grazing, whereas a 40.3% of Argentina Pampas showed a significant positive trend in seasonality of carbon gains. The study also reveals that climate variability has a significant impact on land surface phenology in Argentina Pampas, although the impact is heterogeneous. SOS and t-MAX showed a significant negative correlation with the precipitation indicating an earlier occurrence. 23.6% and 28.4% of the study area showed a positive correlation of the annual productivity with MEI and precipitation, respectively, associated to rangelands (in the first case) and to both rangeland and croplands, in the second case. Climate variability did not explain the seasonal variability of phenology. The relationships found between LSP metrics and climate variability could be important for implementation of strategies for natural resource management.Fil: Lara, Bruno Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Departamento Ciencias Básicas Agronómicas y Biológicas. Laboratorio de Investigación y Servicios en Teledetección de Azul; ArgentinaFil: Gandini, M.. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Departamento Ciencias Básicas Agronómicas y Biológicas. Laboratorio de Investigación y Servicios en Teledetección de Azul; ArgentinaFil: Gantes, P.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Universidad Nacional de Luján. Instituto de Ecología y Desarrollo Sustentable; ArgentinaFil: Matteucci, Silvia Diana. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo. Grupo de Ecología del Paisaje y Medio Ambiente; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin