Large-scale oxygen-enriched air (OEA) production from polymeric membranes for partial oxycombustion processes

Partial oxycombustion using Oxygen-Enriched Air (OEA), produced by air-gas separation with polymeric membranes, combined synergistically with CO2 capture technologies, reduced the overall energy cost of CO2 capture, and it is an exciting alternative to conventional CO2 capture technologies. An exhaustive review of polymeric membranes for this application is presented, where the best membranes showed permeability values in the range of 500-25,100 barrer and selectivities higher than 3.6. These membranes can produce OEA with oxygen molar concentrations of up to 45% for the retrofitting of large-scale power plants (~500 MWe) with partial oxycombustion. For OEA production, the polymeric membrane system is more efficient than the cryogenic distillation as the specific power consumption of the former is 43.96 kWh/ton OEA, while that of the latter is 49.57 kWh/ton OEA. This work proposes that the OEA produced by membranes feeds a partial oxy-combustion process integrated with calcium looping within a hybrid CO2 capture system. The energy consumption of the hybrid CO2 capture system proposed here is 6% lower than in the case in which OEA is produced from cryogenic distillation, which justifies the potential interest of using polymeric membranes for OEA production.Este ítem es la versión preprint del artículo. Se puede consultar la versión final aquí https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2023.126697Junta de Andaluci

Propiedades psicométricas del Cuestionario de violencia Escolar: revisado (CUVE-R)

Los dos objetivos principales de este trabajo han sido disear una versin revisada y ampliada delCuestionario de Violencia Escolar (CUVE) (lvarez et al., 2006) y contrastar empricamente su validezde constructo. El Cuestionario de Violencia Escolar-Revisado (CUVE-R) fue aplicado a 646 estudiantesde Educacin Secundaria Obligatoria. Mediante anlisis factoriales confirmatorios, se pusierona prueba dos posibles modelos explicativos de la estructura factorial de la prueba. Los resultadosobtenidos sealan que ambos pueden representar aceptablemente bien la estructura del CUVE-R, sibien algo mejor el denominado modelo de ocho factores (Violencia de profesorado hacia alumnado,Violencia fsica directa entre estudiantes, Violencia fsica indirecta por parte del alumnado,Violencia verbal entre estudiantes, Violencia verbal del alumnado hacia el profesorado, Exclusinsocial, Disrupcin en el aula y Violencia a travs de las Nuevas Tecnologas de la Informacin y dela Comunicacin)

Sizing and Management of Energy Storage Systems in Large-Scale Power Plants Using Price Control and Artificial Intelligence

Energy storage systems are expected to play a fundamental part in the integration of increasing renewable energy sources into the electric system. They are already used in power plants for different purposes, such as absorbing the effect of intermittent energy sources or providing ancillary services. For this reason, it is imperative to research managing and sizing methods that make power plants with storage viable and profitable projects. In this paper, a managing method is presented, where particle swarm optimisation is used to reach maximum profits. This method is compared to expert systems, proving that the former achieves better results, while respecting similar rules. The paper further presents a sizing method which uses the previous one to make the power plant as profitable as possible. Finally, both methods are tested through simulations to show their potential.Unión Europea Subvención 771066

First Triassic tetrapod (Sauropterygia, Nothosauridae) from Castilla y León: evidence of an unknown taxon for the Spanish record

Several vertebrae of a sauropterygian specimen have been recovered in Fuencaliente de Medinaceli (Soria Province, Castilla y León, Spain). The remains come from Middle–Upper Triassic Muschelkalk Facies. This finding represents the first documented evidence of a Triassic tetrapod in Castilla y León. The vertebrae belong to Nothosaurus, a sauropterygian genus found in Europe, Middle East, North of Africa and China. This genus is poorly-known in the Iberian record. The new remains constitute the first evidence of the species Nothosaurus giganteus, or a related taxon, in the Iberian Peninsula. This study reveals the occurrence of at least two species of the sauropterygian Nothosaurus in the Spanish record.Varias vértebras de un ejemplar de sauropterigio han sido encontradas en Fuencaliente de Medinaceli (Provincia de Soria, Castilla y León, España). Los restos provienen de niveles del Triásico Medio tardío (Ladiniense superior) de la parte superior de las Facies Muschelkalk. Estos elementos representan la primera evidencia documentada de un tetrápodo triásico en Castila y León. Las vértebras pertenecen a Nothosaurus, un género de sauropterigio encontrado en Europa, Oriente Próximo, el norte de África y China. Este género es mal conocido en el registro ibérico. Los nuevos restos constituyen la primera evidencia de la especie Nothosaurus giganteus, o de un taxón emparentado, en la Península Ibérica, siendo atribuidos a Nothosaurus cf. giganteus. Este estudio revela la presencia de, al menos, dos especies diferentes de Nothosaurus en el registro ibérico

Las zonas arqueológicas como paisajes culturales: el parque arqueológico de Las Médulas(León)

Sin resume

Estudio del nivel de violencia escolar en siete centros asturianos de Educación Secundaria

El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la frecuencia de aparición de diversos tipos de violencia en Educación Secundaria y comparar cuáles son más habituales en cada ciclo educativo (primer y segundo ciclo de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria y Bachillerato) en opinión del alumnado. Para ello, se administró el Cuestionario de Violencia Escolar (CUVE) a una muestra de 1742 estudiantes pertenecientes a siete centros asturianos de Secundaria. Los resultados muestran que, tanto en los dos ciclos de Secundaria como en Bachillerato, el tipo de violencia más habitual es la verbal por parte del alumnado. Los datos obtenidos se comparan con los hallados por los principales informes diagnósticos sobre violencia escolar publicados en Españ

Partial oxycombustion-calcium looping hybridisation for CO2 capture in waste-to-energy power plants

The integration of bioenergy and carbon capture and storage (BECCS) presents a great opportunity for power production with global negative CO2 emissions. This work explores a novel synergetic system that integrates membranes, partial biomass oxycombustion and the calcium looping (CaL) process. Polymeric membranes generate oxygen-enriched air (OEA) with an O2 concentration of 40%v/v, which is used for partial oxycombustion of biomass waste. The CO2-enriched flue gas evolves from the waste-to-energy plant to the CaL unit, where CO2 concentration is increased up to 90-95%v/v, ready for purification and sequestration. Compared to only oxycombustion systems, the proposed concept presents fewer technological challenges in retrofitting boilers to waste-to-energy plants. Moreover, this new approach is highly efficient as integrating membranes to produce OEA instead of cryogenic distillation systems significantly reduces energy consumption. A novel integration concept is modelled to evaluate the whole process efficiency and the effect of key parameters on the system performance, such as the temperature of the reactors, the membrane surface area, and the partial oxy-combustion degree. The results show that the novel system has an energy consumption associated with CO2 capture below 4 MJ/kg CO2 (a 31% lower than that for a conventional CaL process), with a higher CO2 capture efficiency than oxycombustion and the CaL process separately. On the other hand, the economic analysis shows a higher CO2 capture cost for the novel configuration than for the typical CaL configuration due to the additional investment cost of the membrane system. Improvements in membrane performance, mainly by increasing its permeance and diminishing the required surface area, would significantly reduce the economic cost of this novel integration. Using membranes with permeance over 400 GPU would boost the competitiveness of the system.Este ítem es la versión preprint del artículo. Se puede consultar la versión final aquí https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.136776Junta de Andaluci

Violencia a través de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación en estudiantes de secundaria

The aim of this paper was to analyze violence through Informa- tion and Communication Technologies (ICT) in Compulsory Secondary Education students. To achieve this objective, the School Violence Question- naire-Revised was applied to 638 Compulsory Secondary Education stu- dents, from six high schools in Asturias (Spain). Results show that vio- lence through ICT occurs with a remarkable frequency, although less than some kinds of traditional school violence. Statistically significative differ- ences were found among grades of Compulsory Secondary Education and between rural and urban centers. Violence through ICT is more frequent in second grade and in urban high schools. However, statistically significa- tive differences were barely found between genders. Also, a strong correla- tion between violence through ICT and some kinds of traditional school violence was found. These outcomes are compared with the results of the main previous works about this subject. Some educative implications of these results are discussed.El objetivo de este estudio fue analizar la violencia a través de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TIC) en estudiantes de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria. Para ello, se aplicó el Cuestionario de Violencia Escolar-Revisado (CUVE-R) a 638 estudiantes de 1º a 4º de ESO, pertenecientes a seis centros educativos de Asturias (España). Los resultados obtenidos muestran que, a pesar de ser menos habitual que otros tipos más tradicionales de violencia escolar, la violencia a través de las TIC aparece con una frecuencia que la hace digna de atención. Se han encontrado diferencias estadísticamente significativas en función del curso y del entorno -rural o urbano- del centro: la violencia a través de las TIC aparece con mayor frecuencia en 2º de ESO que en los demás niveles educativos, y en los centros urbanos que en los rurales. En cambio, apenas se han encontrado diferencias en función del género. Se ha hallado, asimismo, una fuerte correlación entre la presencia de violencia a través de las TIC y de otros tipos de violencia escolar más tradicionales. Estos resultados se contrastan con los obtenidos por los estudios previos más relevantes sobre esta temática. Se discuten algunas implicaciones educativas de estos resultados

Biodegradable nanofibrous scaffolds as smart delivery vehicles for amino acids

The encapsulation of amino acids (AAs) and their correct preservation before they are ingested are challenging tasks. Nonpolar (l-alanine and l-phenylalanine), polar (l-cysteine hydrochloride and l-asparagine), and charged (l-lysine hydrochloride and l-aspartic acid) AAs were loaded into biodegradable and nontoxic poly(tetramethylene succinate) (PE44) nanofibers (NFs) with electrospinning. The loading of AAs considerably affected the morphology, topography, thermal properties, and wettability of the PE44 NFs. Furthermore, although the AAs crystallized in a phase separated from the polymeric matrix, the distribution of such crystals changed into PE44 NFs and depended on their chemical nature. Release assays in enzyme-free solutions provided evidence that very significant amounts of AAs were retained in the NFs after 7 days, whereas assays in the lipase-containing solution (because lipase performs essential roles in the digestion) showed almost complete release after a few hours. Lipase preferentially attacked the PE44 regions responsible for the retention of AAs in the biphasic system and favored the almost immediate release of the biomolecules. The results displayed in this study, combined with the biocompatibility, biodegradability, and potential use of the PE44 NFs as edible nonnutritional elements, suggest that the loaded PE44–AA NFs could be used to supply essential and conditional AAs.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

JADOPPT: java based AutoDock preparing and processing tool

[EN]Motivation: AutoDock is a very popular software package for docking and virtual screening. However, currently it is hard work to visualize more than one result from the virtual screening at a time. To overcome this limitation we have designed JADOPPT, a tool for automatically preparing and processing multiple ligand-protein docked poses obtained from AutoDock. It allows the simultaneous visual assessment and comparison of multiple poses through clustering methods. Moreover, it permits the representation of reference ligands with known binding modes, binding site residues, highly scoring regions for the ligand, and the calculated binding energy of the best ranked results. Availability and Implementation: JADOPPT, supplementary material (Case Studies 1 and 2) and video tutorials are available at http://visualanalytics.land/cgarcia/JADOPPT.html Contacts: [email protected] or [email protected] Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online