On the role of Prognostics and Health Management in advanced maintenance systems

The advanced use of the Information and Communication Technologies is evolving the way that systems are managed and maintained. A great number of techniques and methods have emerged in the light of these advances allowing to have an accurate and knowledge about the systems’ condition evolution and remaining useful life. The advances are recognized as outcomes of an innovative discipline, nowadays discussed under the term of Prognostics and Health Management (PHM). In order to analyze how maintenance will change by using PHM, a conceptual model is proposed built upon three views. The model highlights: (i) how PHM may impact the definition of maintenance policies; (ii) how PHM fits within the Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) and (iii) how PHM can be integrated into Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) programs. The conceptual model is the research finding of this review note and helps to discuss the role of PHM in advanced maintenance systems.EU Framework Programme Horizon 2020, 645733 - Sustain-Owner - H2020-MSCA-RISE-201

Height and political activism in rural Aragón (Spain) during the 20th century. A new perspective using individual-level data

This article explores the relationship between the political leanings of more than 1000 men born in the 1870–1970 s in 11 rural Aragonese villages and their biological well-being during childhood and adolescence, proxied by height. The aim is to test whether an individual was more likely to be left-wing if his level of biological well-being was lower and, therefore, with more incentives to fight against the social inequality that had negatively affected his family. Our results confirm that, for most of the study period, there was a strong relationship between shorter height and political activism1 in left-wing parties and organizations

Characterization of the catalytic flexible loop in the dihydroorotase domain of the human multi-enzymatic protein CAD

The dihydroorotase (DHOase) domain of the multifunctional protein carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase 2, aspartate transcarbamoylase, and dihydroorotase (CAD) catalyzes the third step in the de novo biosynthesis of pyrimidine nucleotides in animals. The crystal structure of the DHOase domain of human CAD (huDHOase) revealed that, despite evolutionary divergence, its active site components are highly conserved with those in bacterial DHOases, encoded as monofunctional enzymes. An important element for catalysis, conserved from Escherichia coli to humans, is a flexible loop that closes as a lid over the active site. Here, we combined mutagenic, structural, biochemical, and molecular dynamics analyses to characterize the function of the flexible loop in the activity of CAD's DHOase domain. A huDHOase chimera bearing the E. coli DHOase flexible loop was inactive, suggesting the presence of distinctive elements in the flexible loop of huDHOase that cannot be replaced by the bacterial sequence. We pinpointed Phe-1563, a residue absolutely conserved at the tip of the flexible loop in CAD's DHOase domain, as a critical element for the conformational equilibrium between the two catalytic states of the protein. Substitutions of Phe-1563 with Ala, Leu, or Thr prevented the closure of the flexible loop and inactivated the protein, whereas substitution with Tyr enhanced the interactions of the loop in the closed position and reduced fluctuations and the reaction rate. Our results confirm the importance of the flexible loop in CAD's DHOase domain and explain the key role of Phe-1563 in configuring the active site and in promoting substrate strain and catalysi

Networking in microbes: conjugative elements and plasmids in the genus Alteromonas

Abstract Background To develop evolutionary models for the free living bacterium Alteromonas the genome sequences of isolates of the genus have been extensively analyzed. However, the main genetic exchange drivers in these microbes, conjugative elements (CEs), have not been considered in detail thus far. In this work, CEs have been searched in several complete Alteromonas genomes and their sequence studied to understand their role in the evolution of this genus. Six genomes are reported here for the first time. Results We have found nine different plasmids of sizes ranging from 85 to 600 Kb, most of them were found in a single strain. Networks of gene similarity could be established among six of the plasmids that were also connected with another cluster of plasmids found in Shewanella strains. The cargo genes found in these plasmids included cassettes found before in chromosome flexible genomic islands of Alteromonas strains. We describe also the plasmids pAMCP48-600 and pAMCP49-600, the largest found in Alteromonas thus far ( ca . 600 Kb) and containing all the hallmarks to be classified as chromids. We found in them some housekeeping genes and a cluster that code for an exocellular polysaccharide. They could represent the transport vectors for the previously described replacement flexible genomic islands. Integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs) were more common than plasmids and showed similar patterns of variation with cargo genes coding for components of additive flexible genomic islands. A nearly identical ICE was found in A. mediterranea MED64 and Vibrio cholera AHV1003 isolated from a human pathogen, indicating the potential exchange of these genes across phylogenetic distances exceeding the family threshold. Conclusion We have seen evidence of how CEs can be vectors to transfer gene cassettes acquired in the chromosomal flexible genomic islands, both of the additive and replacement kind. These CEs showed evidence of how genetic material is exchanged among members of the same species but also (albeit less frequently) across genus and family barriers. These gradients of exchange frequency are probably one of the main drivers of species origin and maintenance in prokaryotes and also provide these taxa with large genetic diversity

Design of a thermoelectric generator with fast transient respose

Thermoelectric modules are currently used both in Peltier cooling and in Seebeck mode for electricity generation. The developments experienced in both cases depend essentially on two factors: the thermoelectric properties of the materials that form these elements (mainly semiconductors), and the external structure of the semiconductors. Figure of Merit Z is currently the best way of measuring the efficiency of semiconductors, as it relates to the intrinsic parameters of the semiconductor: Seebeck coefficient, thermal resistance, and thermal conductivity. When it comes to evaluating the complete structure, the Coefficient of Performance (COP) is used, relating the electrical power to the thermal power of the module. This paper develops a Thermoelectric Generator (TEG) structure which allows minimising the response time of the thermoelectric device, obtaining short working cycles and, therefore, a higher working frequency.Preprin

Impact on the Hipparcos2-UCAC4 geometric relation from some physical properties of the stars

[EN] The aim of this paper is the study of the impact that the consideration of different physical properties as magnitude and spectral type of stars has on the geometric relations between Hipparcos2 and UCAC4. In this sense, the pairs of residuals ¿¿ ¿ and ¿¿ can be considered as functions of (¿, ¿, r) and for each fixed r, we can fit a vector field on the sphere from which to obtain its components in the VSH basis. The same can be done by grouping the stars considering their magnitudes, spectral types (or mixing them) and then studying the variations in the mentioned geometry. We must not forget that ¿¿ ¿ and ¿¿ are numerical random variables whose regression on the magnitude m, for example, can be estimated. The results will be computed taking into account r as well as the physical mentionThis work was supported by a grant UJI-B2016-18Marco, FJ.; Martínez Uso, MJ.; López, JA. (2018). Impact on the Hipparcos2-UCAC4 geometric relation from some physical properties of the stars. Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union. 12(S330):237-238. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743921317006457S23723812S330Marco F. J. , Martínez M. J. & López J. A. 2017, Astrometry and Astrophysics in the Gaia Sky, In Press

A 3D-Study of the residual vector field

[EN] One of the important challenges that Gaia imposes on the Astrometric Catalogs, is a careful study in everything affected by parallax. A particularly important case is the necessary linkage Gaia - HCRF - ICRF2, which require methods of analysis that are accurate enough so that the provided results are at the same precision level as the work data.This work was supported by a grant UJI-B2016-18Marco, FJ.; Martínez Uso, MJ.; López, JA. (2018). A 3D-Study of the residual vector field. Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union. 12(S330):235-236. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743921317006536S23523612S33

Modelling and simulation of a thermoelectric structure with pellets of non-standard geometry and materials

The aim of this paper is to develop and manufacture a thermoelectric structure operating in Peltier mode with non-standard materials, using a Finite Element Model. Thus, both the reliability of the Finite Element Model and the correct development and design of the new thermoelectric structure are ascertained, achieving a dual goal of our research group. This work provides a very good correlation between simulated and experimental results, and corroborates that the material’s performance has a decisive influence on the thermoelectric properties of the structure in the temperature range of study considered.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Geometrical definition of a continuous family of time transformations generalizing and including the classic anomalies of the elliptic two-body problem

[EN] This paper is aimed to address the study of techniques focused on the use of a family of anomalies based on a family of geometric transformations that includes the true anomaly f, the eccentric anomaly g and the secondary anomaly f' defined as the polar angle with respect to the secondary focus of the ellipse. This family is constructed using a natural generalization of the eccentric anomaly. The use of this family allows closed equations for the classical quantities of the two body problem that extends the classic, which are referred to eccentric, true and secondary anomalies. In this paper we obtain the exact analytical development of the basic quantities of the two body problem in order to be used in the analytical theories of the planetary motion. In addition, this paper includes the study of the minimization of the errors in the numerical integration by an appropriate choice of parameters in our selected family of anomalies for each value of the eccentricity. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This research has been partially supported by Grant P1.1B2012-47 from University Jaume I of Castellón and Grant AICO/2015/037 from Generalitat Valenciana.López Ortí, J.; Marco Castillo, FJ.; Martínez Uso, MJ. (2017). Geometrical definition of a continuous family of time transformations generalizing and including the classic anomalies of the elliptic two-body problem. Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics. 309:482-492. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cam.2016.02.041S48249230