Effect of crowding on the electron transfer process from plastocyanin and cytochrome c6 to photosystem I: a comparative study from cyanobacteria to green algae

Plastocyanin and cytochrome c 6, the alternate donor proteins to photosystem I, can be acidic, neutral or basic; the role of electrostatics in their interaction with photosystem I vary accordingly for cyanobacteria, algae and plants. The effect of different crowding agents on the kinetics of the reaction between plastocyanin or cytochrome c 6 and photosystem I from three different cyanobacteria, Synechocystis PCC 6803, Nostoc PCC 7119 and Arthrospira maxima, and a green alga, Monoraphidium braunii, has been investigated by laser flash photolysis, in order to elucidate how molecular crowding affects the interaction between the two donor proteins and photosystem I. The negative effect of viscosity on the interaction of the two donors with photosystem I for the three cyanobacterial systems is very similar, as studied by increasing sucrose concentration. Bovine serum albumin seems to alter the different systems in a specific way, probably by means of electrostatic interactions with the donor proteins. Ficoll and dextran behave in a parallel manner, favouring the interaction by an average factor of 2, although this effect is somewhat less pronounced in Nostoc. With regards to the eukaryotic system, a strong negative effect of viscosity is able to overcome the favourable effect of any crowding agent, maybe due to stronger donor/photosystem I electrostatic interactions or the structural nature of the eukaryotic photosystem I-enriched membrane particles.Spanish Ministry of Innovation and Science BFU2006-01361Andalusian Government PAI BIO-02

Independent AND-parallel implementation of narrowing

We present a parallel graph narrowing machine, which is used to implement a functional logic language on a shared memory multiprocessor. It is an extensión of an abstract machine for a purely functional language. The result is a programmed graph reduction machine which integrates the mechanisms of unification, backtracking, and independent and-parallelism. In the machine, the subexpressions of an expression can run in parallel. In the case of backtracking, the structure of an expression is used to avoid the reevaluation of subexpressions as far as possible. Deterministic computations are detected. Their results are maintained and need not be reevaluated after backtracking

Impacto de la Ley de la Dependencia en los Servicios Sociales Generales

Todas las personas en situación de dependencia son usuarias de los servicios sociales, pero no todos los usuarios/as de los servicios sociales son personas en situación de dependencia. Para avanzar en la consolidación del cuarto Pilar del Estado de Bienestar Social es preciso la aplicación de la Ley de promoción de la autonomía personal y atención a las personas en situación de dependencia a la vez de elaborar nuevas Leyes de servicios sociales que formulen nuevos derechos subjetivos 'que puedan ser reclamados administrativa y jurídicamente' y ordenen racionalmente el sector, definiendo un sistema integrado. Detrás de todas las cifras hay PERSONAS con derecho a una mayor autonomía y atención. Miles de historias particulares que exigen de los Poderes Públicos una respuesta INTELIGENTE, VALIENTE y con ALMA.Everyone in a dependency situation is a user of social services, but not all users of social services are people in a dependency situation. Moving forward in the consolidation of the fourth Pillar of the Social Welfare Society requires application of the Law on promotion of personal self-sufficiency and care for people in a state of dependency. At the same time new Social Service Laws need to be drawn up formulating new subjective rights, which can be administratively and legally claimed, with rational planning of the sector, defining an integrated system. Behind all the figures involved there are PEOPLE with the right to greater self-sufficiency and care: thousands of specific stories which require an INTELLIGENT, BRAVE, AND CARING response from public authorities

Contact problem modelling using the Cartesian grid Finite Element Method

Tesis por compendio[ES] La interacción de contacto entre sólidos deformables es uno de los fenómenos más complejos en el ámbito de la mecánica computacional. La resolución de este problema requiere de algoritmos robustos para el tratamiento de no linealidades geométricas. El Método de Elementos Finitos (MEF) es uno de los más utilizados para el diseño de componentes mecánicos, incluyendo la solución de problemas de contacto. En este método el coste asociado al proceso de discretización (generación de malla) está directamente vinculado a la definición del contorno a modelar, lo cual dificulta la introducción en la simulación de superficies complejas, como las superficies NURBS, cada vez más utilizadas en el diseño de componentes. Esta tesis está basada en el "Cartesian grid Finite Element Method" (cgFEM). En esta metodología, encuadrada en la categoría de métodos "Immersed Boundary", se extiende el problema a un dominio de aproximación (cuyo mallado es sencillo de generar) que contiene al dominio de análisis completamente en su interior. Al desvincular la discretización de la definición del contorno del problema se reduce drásticamente el coste de generación de malla. Es por ello que el método cgFEM es una herramienta adecuada para la resolución de problemas en los que es necesario modificar la geometría múltiples veces, como el problema de optimización de forma o la simulación de desgaste. El método cgFEM permite también crear de manera automática y eficiente modelos de Elementos Finitos a partir de imágenes médicas. La introducción de restricciones de contacto habilitaría la posibilidad de considerar los diferentes estados de integración implante-tejido en procesos de optimización personalizada de implantes. Así, en esta tesis se desarrolla una formulación para resolver problemas de contacto 3D con el método cgFEM, considerando tanto modelos de contacto sin fricción como problemas con rozamiento de Coulomb. La ausencia de nodos en el contorno en cgFEM impide la aplicación de métodos tradicionales para imponer las restricciones de contacto, por lo que se ha desarrollado una formulación estabilizada que hace uso de un campo de tensiones recuperado para asegurar la estabilidad del método. Para una mayor precisión de la solución, se ha introducido la definición analítica de las superficies en contacto en la formulación propuesta. Además, se propone la mejora de la robustez de la metodología cgFEM en dos aspectos: el control del mal condicionamiento del problema numérico mediante un método estabilizado, y la mejora del campo de tensiones recuperado, utilizado en el proceso de estimación de error. La metodología propuesta se ha validado a través de diversos ejemplos numéricos presentados en la tesis, mostrando el gran potencial de cgFEM en este tipo de problemas.[CA] La interacció de contacte entre sòlids deformables és un dels fenòmens més complexos en l'àmbit de la mecànica computacional. La resolució d'este problema requerix d'algoritmes robustos per al tractament de no linealitats geomètriques. El Mètode dels Elements Finits (MEF) és un dels més utilitzats per al disseny de components mecànics, incloent la solució de problemes de contacte. En este mètode el cost associat al procés de discretització (generació de malla) està directament vinculat a la definició del contorn a modelar, la qual cosa dificulta la introducció en la simulació de superfícies complexes, com les superfícies NURBS, cada vegada més utilitzades en el disseny de components. Esta tesi està basada en el "Cartesian grid Finite Element Method" (cgFEM). En esta metodologia, enquadrada en la categoria de mètodes "Immersed Boundary", s'estén el problema a un domini d'aproximació (el mallat del qual és senzill de generar) que conté al domini d'anàlisi completament en el seu interior. Al desvincular la discretització de la definició del contorn del problema es reduïx dràsticament el cost de generació de malla. És per això que el mètode cgFEM és una ferramenta adequada per a la resolució de problemes en què és necessari modificar la geometria múltiples vegades, com el problema d'optimització de forma o la simulació de desgast. El mètode cgFEM permet també crear de manera automàtica i eficient models d'Elements Finits a partir d'imatges mèdiques. La introducció de restriccions de contacte habilitaria la possibilitat de considerar els diferents estats d'integració implant-teixit en processos d'optimització personalitzada d'implants. Així, en esta tesi es desenvolupa una formulació per a resoldre problemes de contacte 3D amb el mètode cgFEM, considerant tant models de contacte sense fricció com a problemes amb fregament de Coulomb. L'absència de nodes en el contorn en cgFEM impedix l'aplicació de mètodes tradicionals per a imposar les restriccions de contacte, per la qual cosa s'ha desenvolupat una formulació estabilitzada que fa ús d'un camp de tensions recuperat per a assegurar l'estabilitat del mètode. Per a una millor precisió de la solució, s'ha introduït la definició analítica de les superfícies en contacte en la formulació proposada. A més, es proposa la millora de la robustesa de la metodologia cgFEM en dos aspectes: el control del mal condicionament del problema numèric per mitjà d'un mètode estabilitzat, i la millora del camp de tensions recuperat, utilitzat en el procés d'estimació d'error. La metodologia proposada s'ha validat a través de diversos exemples numèrics presentats en la tesi, mostrant el gran potencial de cgFEM en este tipus de problemes.[EN] The contact interaction between elastic solids is one of the most complex phenomena in the computational mechanics research field. The solution of such problem requires robust algorithms to treat the geometrical non-linearities characteristic of the contact constrains. The Finite Element Method (FE) has become one of the most popular options for the mechanical components design, including the solution of contact problems. In this method the computational cost of the generation of the discretization (mesh generation) is directly related to the complexity of the analysis domain, namely its boundary. This complicates the introduction in the numerical simulations of complex surfaces (for example NURBS), which are being increasingly used in the CAD industry. This thesis is grounded on the Cartesian grid Finite Element Method (cgFEM). In this methodology, which belongs to the family of Immersed Boundary methods, the problem at hand is extended to an approximation domain which completely embeds the analysis domain, and its meshing is straightforward. The decoupling of the boundary definition and the discretization mesh results in a great reduction of the mesh generation's computational cost. Is for this reason that the cgFEM is a suitable tool for the solution of problems that require multiple geometry modifications, such as shape optimization problems or wear simulations. The cgFEM is also capable of automatically generating FE models from medical images without the intermediate step of generating CAD entities. The introduction of the contact interaction would open the possibility to consider different states of the union between implant and living tissue for the design of optimized implants, even in a patient-specific process. Hence, in this thesis a formulation for solving 3D contact problems with the cgFEM is presented, considering both frictionless and Coulomb's friction problems. The absence of nodes along the boundary in cgFEM prevents the enforcement of the contact constrains using the standard procedures. Thus, we develop a stabilized formulation that makes use of a recovered stress field, which ensures the stability of the method. The analytical definition of the contact surfaces (by means of NURBS) has been included in the proposed formulation in order to increase the accuracy of the solution. In addition, the robustness of the cgFEM methodology is increased in this thesis in two different aspects: the control of the numerical problem's ill-conditioning by means of a stabilized method, and the enhancement of the stress recovered field, which is used in the error estimation procedure. The proposed methodology has been validated through several numerical examples, showing the great potential of the cgFEM in these type of problems.Navarro Jiménez, JM. (2019). Contact problem modelling using the Cartesian grid Finite Element Method [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/124348TESISCompendi

Auto-feedback to improve academic performance

[EN] This study was carried out on first-year engineering students in the subject of technical drawing, an eminently practical subject that requires the continuous development of spatial vision and also that students should devote time and effort to it from the very beginning. For the study we designed an auto-feedback activity to be applied to the students in the experimental group. The aim was to determine whether the students improved by this means their capacity for self-regulation and ultimately their academic performance. The students included in the experimental group obtained higher scores in the end-of-year self-regulation questionnaire (78.5) than those in the control group (66.47). There was a highly significant correlation (r=0.60; p<0.05) between the final grade and the class attendance rate. Although the auto-feedback treatment did not directly influence the final grades in the analysis of overall variance, it did have an indirect effect through the attendance variable; the students in the experimental group attended significantly more classes than those in the control group (82.2% vs. 68.6%; p<0.05). In fact, a comparison of the average final grades showed that the experimental group obtained significantly higher marks (6.97/10) than the control group (3.8/10).Navarro Jover, JM. (2021). Auto-feedback to improve academic performance. Journal of Technology and Science Education (Online). 11(1):180-193. https://doi.org/10.3926/jotse.1120S18019311

Preliminary study of the impact of Guadalhorce river mouth channeling (Málaga, Spain) on groundwater and related wetlands

Se trata de resultados preliminares que se están obteniendo en el Bajo Guadalhorce, en el marco de la tesis doctoral del primer firmanteIn riverine areas, many anthropogenic actions (modification of natural water courses, burying or channeling works, etc.) have been commonly applied worldwide to prevent floods in rivers, having negative environmental impacts on their dependent ecosystems. In the Guadalhorce River mouth (Málaga, Southern Spain), channeling works -including the splitting of the main channel into two branches before arriving to the sea- were conducted to reduce the flood risk in the surrounding urbanized areas near to the Mediterranean coast. In the framework of the monitoring program of the Guadalhorce Delta Wetlands, located between the branches of the ending river stretch, measurements of electrical conductivity in wetland water and groundwater table were performed, as well as the sampling of both water types. The results show a progressive increasing in the mineralization of wetland water, reaching values 50 times higher than the original ones. In the underlying aquifers, the mineralization of groundwater is generally less variable and lower than the recorded in the eighties and nineties, when a salt intrusion episode occurred. Before the river channel modification, the water flow from the aquifer to the wetlands and toward the river in its mouth was deduced. Today, the wetlands recharge locally the Quaternary aquifer and, consequently, induce the groundwater flow towards the both branches of the river and Mediterranean Sea. The variation of the morphodynamics in the Guadalhorce River mouth and the associated changes in land use have caused significant impacts on ground and surface water and their dependent wetlands.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Superconvergent patch recovery with constraints for three-dimensional contact problems within the Cartesian grid Finite Element Method

"This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Navarro-Jiménez, José M., Héctor Navarro-García, Manuel Tur, and Juan J. Ródenas. 2019. Superconvergent Patch Recovery with Constraints for Three-dimensional Contact Problems within the Cartesian Grid Finite Element Method. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering 121 (6). Wiley: 1297 1313. doi:10.1002/nme.6266, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/nme.6266. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving."[EN] The superconvergent patch recovery technique with constraints (SPR-C) consists in improving the accuracy of the recovered stresses obtained with the original SPR technique by considering known information about the exact solution, like the internal equilibrium equation, the compatibility equation or the Neumann boundary conditions, during the recovery process. In this paper the SPR-C is extended to consider the equilibrium around the contact area when solving contact problems with the Cartesian grid Finite Element Method. In the proposed method, the Finite Element stress fields of both bodies in contact are considered during the recovery process and the equilibrium is enforced by means of the continuity of tractions along the contact surface.The authors would like to thank Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEO/2016/007), the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (DPI2017-89816-R), the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (FPU17/03993), and Universitat Politècnica de València (FPI2015) for the financial support to this work.Navarro-Jiménez, J.; Navarro-García, H.; Tur Valiente, M.; Ródenas, JJ. (2020). Superconvergent patch recovery with constraints for three-dimensional contact problems within the Cartesian grid Finite Element Method. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering. 121(6):1297-1313. https://doi.org/10.1002/nme.6266S129713131216Wriggers, P. (2006). Computational Contact Mechanics. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-32609-0Marco, O., Sevilla, R., Zhang, Y., Ródenas, J. J., & Tur, M. (2015). Exact 3D boundary representation in finite element analysis based on Cartesian grids independent of the geometry. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 103(6), 445-468. doi:10.1002/nme.4914Navarro-Jiménez, J. M., Tur, M., Albelda, J., & Ródenas, J. J. (2018). Large deformation frictional contact analysis with immersed boundary method. Computational Mechanics, 62(4), 853-870. doi:10.1007/s00466-017-1533-xMarco, O., Ródenas, J. J., Navarro-Jiménez, J. M., & Tur, M. (2017). Robust h-adaptive meshing strategy considering exact arbitrary CAD geometries in a Cartesian grid framework. Computers & Structures, 193, 87-109. doi:10.1016/j.compstruc.2017.08.004Ródenas, J. J., Tur, M., Fuenmayor, F. J., & Vercher, A. (2007). Improvement of the superconvergent patch recovery technique by the use of constraint equations: the SPR-C technique. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 70(6), 705-727. doi:10.1002/nme.1903Zienkiewicz, O. C., & Zhu, J. Z. (1992). The superconvergent patch recovery (SPR) and adaptive finite element refinement. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 101(1-3), 207-224. doi:10.1016/0045-7825(92)90023-dRódenas, J. J., González-Estrada, O. A., Díez, P., & Fuenmayor, F. J. (2010). Accurate recovery-based upper error bounds for the extended finite element framework. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 199(37-40), 2607-2621. doi:10.1016/j.cma.2010.04.010Blacker, T., & Belytschko, T. (1994). Superconvergent patch recovery with equilibrium and conjoint interpolant enhancements. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 37(3), 517-536. doi:10.1002/nme.1620370309Díez, P., José Ródenas, J., & Zienkiewicz, O. C. (2007). Equilibrated patch recovery error estimates: simple and accurate upper bounds of the error. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 69(10), 2075-2098. doi:10.1002/nme.1837Nadal, E., Díez, P., Ródenas, J. J., Tur, M., & Fuenmayor, F. J. (2015). A recovery-explicit error estimator in energy norm for linear elasticity. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 287, 172-190. doi:10.1016/j.cma.2015.01.013Badia, S., Verdugo, F., & Martín, A. F. (2018). The aggregated unfitted finite element method for elliptic problems. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 336, 533-553. doi:10.1016/j.cma.2018.03.022Zienkiewicz, O. C., Zhu, J. Z., & Wu, J. (1993). Superconvergent patch recovery techniques - some further tests. Communications in Numerical Methods in Engineering, 9(3), 251-258. doi:10.1002/cnm.1640090309FUENMAYOR, F. J., & OLIVER, J. L. (1996). CRITERIA TO ACHIEVE NEARLY OPTIMAL MESHES IN THEh-ADAPTIVE FINITE ELEMENT METHOD. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering, 39(23), 4039-4061. doi:10.1002/(sici)1097-0207(19961215)39:233.0.co;2-cBabuška, I., Strouboulis, T., & Upadhyay, C. . (1994). A model study of the quality of a posteriori error estimators for linear elliptic problems. Error estimation in the interior of patchwise uniform grids of triangles. Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 114(3-4), 307-378. doi:10.1016/0045-7825(94)90177-

Pulsed light inactivation of mushroom polyphenol oxidase: a fluorometric and spectrophotometric study

Polyphenol oxidase (PPO) is one of the most important food enzymes, it is responsible for the browning of many foods. Pulsed light (PL) is a non-thermal method of food preservation that is able to inactivate PPO. The aim of this work was to gain insight into the mechanism of PPO inactivation by PL. To this, the kinetics of PPO inactivation by PL was measured, together with associated changes in tryptophan fluorescence, KI fluorescence quenching and turbidity; and results were analysed by parameter A and phase diagram methods. Enzyme inactivation followed the Weibull model. Tryptophan fluorescence decreased during PL treatment, as well as the parameter A, while Stern-Volmer constants increased and turbidity was constant. The phase diagram showed only two populated states. There was a high correlation between the loss of activity and parameter A. Results indicate that under the experimental conditions, the inactivation of PPO by PL is an all-or-none process where the enzyme progressively unfolds with no evidence of aggregation.Fundación Universitaria San Antonio de CartagenaCiencias de la Alimentació

Automatic OSPF Topology map generation using information of the OSPF database

Nowadays, different technologies provide support to different areas of our diverse lifestyles around the world. Highly reputable companies are doing important research on the connectivity of multiple devices to the different types of network. The open Short Path First Protocol (OSPF) is one of the most widespread routing protocols in communications. Through experience, it has been demonstrated that this protocol usually has flaws, either by causes outside the protocol or by configuration, so network administrators should monitor and revise the operation of that protocol. Generally, when you start tracking a network already deployed that uses the OSPF routing protocol, there is very little documented information or even, none of the existing topology, not only because of the dynamism of this connectivity protocol, but also because of the lack of documentation of the installation itself. This project proposes the development of a tool for the generation of a map of the topology of a simple area of the OSPF routing protocol, which will facilitate the establishment of an OSPF area's topology documentation.Keywords: Network logical topology, OSPF, network modelling and mapping

Assesing the hydrogeological functioning of an evaporite karst system coupling tritium and physicochemical data

Discharge rate, electrical conductivity and water temperature have been continuously recorded in an evaporite karst spring located in S Spain and 3H determinations of spring water were performed. Results evidence a complex hydrogeological functioning, including rapid conduit flows (unsaturated zone), and diffuse flow (saturated zone) with diverse residence time within the systemUniversidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA