Determination of the influence of specific building regulations in smart buildings

The automation of domestic services began to be implemented in buildings since the late nineteenth century, and today we are used to terms like ‘intelligent buildings’, ‘digital home’ or ‘domotic buildings’. These concepts tell us about constructions which integrate new technologies in order to improve comfort, optimize energy consumption or enhance the security of users. In conjunction, building regulations have been updated to suit the needs of society and to regulate these new facilities in such structures. However, we are not always sure about how far, from the quantitative or qualitative point of view, legislation should regulate certain aspects of the building activity. Consequently, content analysis is adopted in this research to determine the influence of building regulations in the implementation of new technologies in the construction process. This study includes the analysis of different European regulations, the collection and documentation of such guidelines that have been established and a study of the impact that all of these have had in the way we start thinking an architectural project. The achievements of the research could be explained in terms of the regulatory requirements that must be taken into account in order to achieve a successful implementation of a home automation system, and the key finding has been the confirmation of how the design of smart buildings may be promoted through specific regulatory requirements while other factors, such as the global economic situation, do not seem to affect directly the rate of penetration of home automation in construction

Probabilistic prediction of raw and BMA calibrated AEMET-SREPS: the 24 of January 2009 extreme wind event in Catalunya

At 00:00 UTC of 24 January 2009 (24Jan09) an explosive cyclogenesis placed at the Gulf of Vizcaya, reached its maximum intensity with observed surface pressures below 970 hPa on its center. During its path through the south of France there were strong westerly and north-westerly winds over Iberian Peninsula (above 150 km/h). These extreme winds leaved 8 casualties in Catalunya, the north-east region of Spain. <br><br> The aim of this work is validating the skill of the Spanish Meteorological Agency (AEMET) Short Range Ensemble Prediction System (SREPS) in forecasting this event. Two probabilistic forecasts of wind are compared, a non-calibrated (or raw) and a calibrated one using the Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA). <br><br> AEMET runs a daily experimental SREPS twice a day (00:00 and 12:00 UTC). This system consists on 25 members that are constructed by integrating five different Limited Area Models (LAMs) at 0.25 degrees of horizontal resolution. Each model uses five different initial and boundary conditions from five Global Models (GMs). Thus it is obtained a probabilistic forecast that takes into account initial, contour and model uncertainties. <br><br> BMA is a statistical tool for combining predictive Probability Distribution Functions (PDFs) from different sources. BMA predictive PDF is a weighted average of PDFs centered on the individual bias-corrected forecasts. Each weight is a measure of the corresponding forecast skill. Here BMA is applied to calibrate probabilistic forecasts of wind speed. <br><br> In this work two time forecast ranges (H+60 and H+36) of 10-m wind speed over Catalonia are verified subjectively at 12:00 UTC of 24Jan09 valid time. We focus on the location and intensity of 10-m wind speed maximum values. Observations at 29 automatic ground stations of AEMET are used for the verification. <br><br> On one hand results indicate that raw AEMET-SREPS is able to forecast 60 h ahead mean winds higher than 36 and 54 km/h and that it correctly locates them in three different areas. On the other hand, predicted probability loses its skill after BMA calibration of the ensemble. This is due to the fact that BMA bias correction underestimates the intensity of wind

Climatic vulnerabilities and ecological preferences of soil invertebrates across biomes.

Unlike plants and vertebrates, the ecological preferences, and potential vulnerabilities of soil invertebrates to environmental change, remain poorly understood in terrestrial ecosystems globally. We conducted a cross-biome survey including 83 locations across six continents to advance our understanding of the ecological preferences and vulnerabilities of the diversity of dominant and functionally important soil invertebrate taxa, including nematodes, arachnids and rotifers. The diversity of invertebrates was analyzed through amplicon sequencing. Vegetation and climate drove the diversity and dominant taxa of soil invertebrates. Our results suggest that declines in forest cover and plant diversity, and reductions in plant production associated with increases in aridity, can result in reductions of the diversity of soil invertebrates in a drier and more managed world. We further developed global atlases of the diversity of these important soil invertebrates, which were cross-validated using an independent database. Our study advances the current knowledge of the ecological preferences and vulnerabilities of the diversity and presence of functionally important soil invertebrates in soils from across the globe. This information is fundamental for improving and prioritizing conservation efforts of soil genetic resources and management policies

Influence of the formulation on double emulsions containing ecological ingredients prepared by a microfluidic technique

Multiple emulsions have significant potential in myriad applications, including foods, cosmetics, drop networks, controlled microreactors, synthesis of microcapsules and drug delivery systems. Great control of multiple-emulsion drops production can be achieved using microfluidic devices. The field of emulsification through microfluidic devices has in recent years become a popular topic of research. In this work, we used a practical approach to make monodisperse double-emulsions drops with an ultrathin middle layer using a single step emulsification in a capillary microfluidic device. The goal of this study was to investigate the influence of different surfactants and additives on stability and droplet size of W/O/W eco-friendly emulsions formulated with a green solvent (D-Limonene). The incorporation of Pluronic F108 destabilised the double emulsions due to a process of precipitation, forming microcapsules. By contrast, there was a necessity to include Span 80 in the formulation in order to achieve stable double emulsions. The addition of rosin gum or silicone oil did not show any improvement in the stability of these complex emulsions. Finally, the formulation used in ultrathin shell microfluidic device did not produce stable double emulsions in the traditional microfluidic device.Las emulsiones múltiples tienen multitud de aplicaciones en la industria alimentaria, cosméticos, microreactores controlados, síntesis de microcápsulas y sistemas de liberación controlada. Se puede conseguir un gran control de la producción de gotas en emulsiones dobles usando técnicas microfluídicas. En este trabajo se desarrollaron emulsiones dobles formuladas con D-Limoneno usando un dispositivo de microfluídica en un solo paso. El D-Limoneno, el componente principal del aceite esencial de naranja, es un monoterpeno natural que tiene propiedades antioxidantes, bactericida, quimiopreventivas y terapéuticas. El objetivo del presente estudio fue investigar la influencia de diferentes tipos de tensioactivos y aditivos en la formulación de emulsiones dobles ecológicas tipo corteza-ultrafina-núcleo sobre la estabilidad física. Las emulsiones dobles tipo corteza ultra fina y núcleo preparadas con Pluronic P108 sufrieron un fenómeno de desestabilización debido a la precipitación de este tensioactivo polimérico creando microcápsulas. Las emulsiones dobles necesitaron un tensioactivo hidrófobo (Span 80) en la fase media para estabilizarlas. Se consiguieron emulsiones dobles estables utilizando Span 80 como tensioactivo en la fase oleosa y PVA en la fase exterior para la configuración tipo corteza ultrafina-núcleo. Estas condiciones no son extrapolables al tradicional dispositivo de microfluídica.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad del Gobierno de España-CTQ2015-70700-PComisión Europea (Programa FEDER)-CTQ2015-70700-

Injectable hydrogels based on pluronic/water systems filled with alginate microparticles: Rheological characterization

In this paper the rheological characterization of Pluronic/water systems filled with alginate microparticles is presented. The rheological characterization of the Pluronic/water systems allowed for the choice of the best Pluronic concentration taking into account its applications as injectable hydrogels for tissue repair. The effect on the rheological behavior of the addition of alginate microparticles, to be loaded with the drug, was analyzed and the maximum concentration of microparticles determined.Spanish Ministerio de Economia y CompetitividadV Plan Propio Universidad de SevillaEuropean Union (EU)Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology 288 UID/CTM/50025/201

Tunneling mechanism of light transmission through metallic films

A mechanism of light transmission through metallic films is proposed, assisted by tunnelling between resonating buried dielectric inclusions. This is illustrated by arrays of Si spheres embedded in Ag. Strong transmission peaks are observed near the Mie resonances of the spheres. The interaction among various planes of spheres and interference effects between these resonances and the surface plasmons of Ag lead to mixing and splitting of the resonances. Transmission is proved to be limited only by absorption. For small spheres, the effective dielectric constant can be tuned to values close to unity and a method is proposed to turn the resulting materials invisible.Comment: 4 papges, 5 figure

Utility of periodontal exploration in patients with fibromyalgia

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.[Objetive]: Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain syndrome with unknown etiology, which affects predominantly women. Mitochondrial alteration could have a role in the pathophysilogical mechanisms of inflammatory conditions as FM and periodontitis. The aim of the present study was assay the relationship between both diseases and mitochondrial dysfunction. [Patients and methods]: We study the presence of periodontitis in twelve patients diagnosed of FM and mitochondrial dysfunction described. The diagnosis of FM was established according to ACR criteria and clinical symptoms were evaluated using the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). [Results]: Only one patients of twelve included and agreed to participate in the study were diagnosed with periodontitis. [Conclusions]: Pending studies with larger numbers of patients, we can conclude that mitochondrial dysfunction in FM is a itself event not related with periodontitis. Periodontitis could be considered a exclusion criterion in all studies about mitochondrial dysfunction in patients.Peer Reviewe

"Supersolid" self-bound Bose condensates via laser-induced interatomic forces

We show that the dipole-dipole interatomic forces induced by a single off-resonant running laser beam can lead to a self-bound pencil-shaped Bose condensate, even if the laser beam is a plane-wave. For an appropriate laser intensity the ground state has a quasi-one dimensional density modulation --- a Bose "supersolid".Comment: 4 pages, 3 eps figure

Remote mining: from clustering to DTM

LIDAR data acquisition is becoming an indispensable task for terrain characterization in large surfaces. In Mediterranean woods this job results hard due to the great variety of heights and forms, as well as sparse vegetation that they present. A new data mining-based approach is proposed with the aim of classifying LIDAR data clouds as a first step in DTM generation. The developed methodology consists in a multi-step iterative process that splits the data into different classes (ground and low/med/high vegetation) by means of a clustering algorithm. This method has been tested on three different areas of the southern Spain with successful results, verging on 80% hitsMinisterio de Ciencia y Tecnología TIN2007-6808