Generation of Curved High-order Meshes with Optimal Quality and Geometric Accuracy

We present a novel methodology to generate curved high-order meshes featuring optimal mesh quality and geometric accuracy. The proposed technique combines a distortion measure and a geometric Full-size image (<1 K)-disparity measure into a single objective function. While the element distortion term takes into account the mesh quality, the Full-size image (<1 K)-disparity term takes into account the geometric error introduced by the mesh approximation to the target geometry. The proposed technique has several advantages. First, we are not restricted to interpolative meshes and therefore, the resulting mesh approximates the target domain in a non-interpolative way, further increasing the geometric accuracy. Second, we are able to generate a series of meshes that converge to the actual geometry with expected rate while obtaining high-quality elements. Third, we show that the proposed technique is robust enough to handle real-case geometries that contain gaps between adjacent entities.This research was partially supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad under grand contract CTM2014-55014-C3-3-R, and by the Government of Catalonia under grand contract 2014-SGR-1471. The work of the last author was supported by the European Commission through the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (HiPerMeGaFlows project).Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Aportación al estudio de las recientes soluciones técnicas aplicadas a las nuevas instalaciones fotovoltaicas en España

Para llevar a cabo este trabajo se partirá de las subastas realizadas en España bajo el Real Decreto 413/2014 y Real Decreto 960/2020. Estas subastas se regían por marcos regulatorios en los cuales se primaban diferentes aspectos. Esto genera el interés de analizar el comportamiento de los promotores en cada una de ellas. Para poder llevar a cabo el análisis se realizará un exhaustivo trabajo de investigación de las empresas que han sido adjudicatarias de las subastas para extraer información sobre las plantas asociadas, estas y las características que permitan dicho análisis. Se extraerán datos de todo tipo: tanto de ubicación como de inversión, datos técnicos, etc. Posteriormente, se realizará un trabajo físico de modelización determinista que permita extraer datos de plantas solares de las que se disponga de datos técnicos suficientes para llevar a cabo el análisis. Posteriormente, se realizará otro trabajo de modelización estocástico que permita observar el comportamiento energético de las centrales solares fotovoltaicas (CSF). Una vez realizado el análisis de las subastas, se puede concluir que a grandes rasgos no hay cambios significativos en el diseño de estas, salvo alguna excepción. Se ha podido comprobar que la gran mayoría de las plantas solares de 2017 eran diseñadas con seguimiento solar a un eje orientado N-S y seguimiento E-O a excepción del 7%, que son de estructura fija, y un 5% de seguimiento a dos ejes. Mientras que las licitadas en 2021, aunque no se disponga que gran información por su reciente subasta, están diseñadas con seguimiento a un eje, excepto una unidad en la que la potencia de la instalación es inferior a la de preasignación, lo que podría ser el incentivo para instalar seguimiento a dos ejes con el fin de aumentar la producción energética. Cabe destacar que en el Real Decreto 960/2020 se establece un tope de horas de inyección que provoca que las instalaciones se paralicen al superarlo, ya que dejan de percibir ese importe de venta establecido en la energía, lo cual podría ser el motivo de que se haya abandonado el seguimiento a doble eje, pero no se dispone de la información necesaria para confirmarlo. También se ha observado la evolución de la potencia de los paneles solares y su potencia pico.Per fer el treball es partirà per un primer anàlisi dels marcs reguladors que promocionen la generació de les energies renovables, d'aquesta anàlisi s'extreu que existeixen dos marcs reguladors. El Reial Decret 413/1014 i el Reial Decret 960/2020. Els quals tenien licitació al respecte, Reial Decret 413/2014 i Reial Decret 960/2020. Una vegada analitzats els marcs reguladors. Es fa una anàlisi dels resultats de la licitació on es contemplen les empreses adjudicatàries. Posteriorment, es realitzen bases de dades (BBDD) amb la informació recollida d'una recerca exhaustiva de cara a analitzar els projectes de cara a extreure les instal·lacions tipus i obtenir les primeres conclusions. A continuació amb les plantes tipus és fer un model determinista per aconseguir resultats físics i aconseguir el comportament de potència i generació on posteriorment es farà una model estocàstica de cara a extreure les conclusions definitives. Una vegada fet l'anàlisi es pot concloure a grans trets que no hi ha canvis significatius en el disseny. S'ha pogut comprovar que la majoria de plantes solars de 2017 eren dissenyades amb seguiment solar a un eix amb orientació N-S i seguiment E-O. Amb la modalització s'ha pogut observar les variacions de generació energètica que representa el seguiment solar i com influeixen els paràmetres de les plantes com la irradiació i la temperatura.This project is based on the public bids held in Spain under Real Decreto 413/2014 and Real Decreto 960/2020. These bids were subject to regulatory frameworks in which different aspects were valued. This creates an interest in analyzing the behavior of the promoters of each one of these bids. In order to carry out this analysis I will conduct a thorough work of investigation of the companies that won the bids to extract information about their energy plants and the features that allow the analysis. I will extract all kind of data: location, investment, technical data, etc. Later I will perform a physical deterministic modeling work which will allow me to extract data of solar plants of which I have enough technical data to carry out the analysis. After that, I will undertake another stochastic modeling work that allows me to monitor the energetic behavior of the photovoltaic solar power plants. Once the analysis of the bids is complete, we can broadly conclude that there are no significant changes in the design, but for a few exceptions. I was able to verify that the great majority of solar power plants in 2017 were designed with single axis sun tracking oriented N-S and E-W tracking, except for the 7%, that have a fixed structure, and a 5% that have two-axis tracking. Whereas the ones tendered in 2021, even though not all the information is available because of its recent bidding, are designed with single axis tracking except for one unit in which the installation power is lower than that of the preassignment, which could be an incentive to install two-axis tracking in order to increase the energetic production. It is worth noting that the Real Decreto 960/2020 sets a maximum number of hours of injection, which makes the installations to stop working when they reach the limit, because they stop receiving the sales amount established in energy; this could be the reason for not using the two-axis tracking, but we don’t have enough information to confirm that. It is also relevant to note the evolution of the solar panel power and its peak power

Revealing patterns of local species richness along environmental gradients with a novel network tool

How species richness relates to environmental gradients at large extents is commonly investigatedaggregating local site data to coarser grains. However, such relationships often change with the grainof analysis, potentially hiding the local signal. Here we show that a novel network technique, the"method of reflections", could unveil the relationships between species richness and climate withoutsuch drawbacks. We introduced a new index related to potential species richness, which revealedlarge scale patterns by including at the local community level information about species distributionthroughout the dataset (i.e., the network). The method effectively removed noise, identifying howfar site richness was from potential. When applying it to study woody species richness patterns inSpain, we observed that annual precipitation and mean annual temperature explained large parts ofthe variance of the newly defined species richness, highlighting that, at the local scale, communitiesin drier and warmer areas were potentially the species richest. Our method went far beyond whatgeographical upscaling of the data could unfold, and the insights obtained strongly suggested that itis a powerful instrument to detect key factors underlying species richness patterns, and that it couldhave numerous applications in ecology and other fields.Comunidad de MadridMinisterio de Economía y Competitivida

Expression profiles of genes involved in TLRs and NLRs signaling pathways of water buffaloes infected with Fasciola gigantica

Infection of ruminants and humans with Fasciola gigantica is attracting increasing attention due to its economic impact and public health significance. However, little is known of innate immune responses during F. gigantica infection. Here, we investigated the expression profiles of genes involved in Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and NOD-like receptors (NLRs) signaling pathways in buffaloes infected with 500 F. gigantica metacercariae. Serum, liver and peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) samples were collected from infected and control buffaloes at 3, 10, 28, and 70 days post infection (dpi). Then, the levels of 12 cytokines in serum samples were evaluated by ELISA. Also, the levels of expression of 42 genes, related to TLRs and NLRs signaling, in liver and PBMCs were determined using custom RT2 Profiler PCR Arrays. At 3 dpi, modest activation of TLR4 and TLR8 and the adaptor protein (TICAM1) was detected. At 10 dpi, NF-κB1 and Interferon Regulatory Factor signaling pathways were upregulated along with activation of TLR1, TLR2, TLR6, TLR10, TRAF6, IRF3, TBK1, CASP1, CD80, and IFNA1 in the liver, and inflammatory response with activated TLR4, TLR9, TICAM1, NF- κB1, NLRP3, CD86, IL-1B, IL-6, and IL-8 in PBMCs. At 28 dpi, there was increase in the levels of cytokines along with induction of NLRP1 and NLRP3 inflammasomes-dependent immune responses in the liver and PBMCs. At 70 dpi, F. gigantica activated TLRs and NLRs, and their downstream interacting molecules. The activation of TLR7/9 signaling (perhaps due to increased B-cell maturation and activation) and upregulation of NLRP3 gene were also detected. These findings indicate that F. gigantica alters the expression of TLRs and NLRs genes to evade host immune defenses. Elucidation of the roles of the downstream effectors interacting with these genes may aid in the development of new interventions to control disease caused by F. gigantica infection

Generation of Curved High-order Meshes with Optimal Quality and Geometric Accuracy

We present a novel methodology to generate curved high-order meshes featuring optimal mesh quality and geometric accuracy. The proposed technique combines a distortion measure and a geometric Full-size image (<1 K)-disparity measure into a single objective function. While the element distortion term takes into account the mesh quality, the Full-size image (<1 K)-disparity term takes into account the geometric error introduced by the mesh approximation to the target geometry. The proposed technique has several advantages. First, we are not restricted to interpolative meshes and therefore, the resulting mesh approximates the target domain in a non-interpolative way, further increasing the geometric accuracy. Second, we are able to generate a series of meshes that converge to the actual geometry with expected rate while obtaining high-quality elements. Third, we show that the proposed technique is robust enough to handle real-case geometries that contain gaps between adjacent entities.This research was partially supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad under grand contract CTM2014-55014-C3-3-R, and by the Government of Catalonia under grand contract 2014-SGR-1471. The work of the last author was supported by the European Commission through the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (HiPerMeGaFlows project).Peer Reviewe

Banana Passion Fruit (Passiflora mollissima (Kunth) L.H. Bailey): Microencapsulation, Phytochemical Composition and Antioxidant Capacity

Passiflora mollissima (Kunth) L.H. Bailey is an exotic fruit native to South America, known as taxo in Ecuador. This paper characterizes its flavonoid and carotenoid composition and antioxidant capacity and evaluates the effect of the spray-drying process on its phytochemical composition and antioxidant capacity. A total of 18 flavonoid compounds, nine proanthocyanidins and nine flavan-3-ol monomers, were identified and quantified. Glycosides of (epi)-afzelechin stood out as the most abundant flavonoid. Three carotenoids were identified, with β-carotene having the highest concentration. The DPPH· and ORAC assay methods indicated a high antioxidant capacity. Furthermore, the bioactive content showed a positive and direct correlation with antioxidant capacity. On the other hand, the spray-drying process produced a stable phytochemical composition and antioxidant activity of taxo. These results demonstrate the potential applicability of microencapsulated taxo as a functional ingredient in the food industry.We acknowledge support by the CSIC Open Access Publication Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI).: Quality technical work from Ana Benítez González (Universidad de Sevilla) is acknowledged. María Torres reviewed the English edition of this study. The authors would like to thank the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and CSIC-VITRI with the Project I-COOP+2014 (Ref. COOPB20125) for funding this project. This study was financed by PIS 12-21 and PIMI 14-14 sponsored by Escuela Politécnica Nacional. Part of this work was carried out in international research collaboration within the CYTED Program (Refs. 112RT0460-CORNUCOPIA and 112RT0445-IBERCAROT, Thematic Networks). AGR also thanks the Ecuadorian Secretary of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation for the Prometeo Postdoctoral Grant