Levelized Cost of Storage for Li-Ion Batteries Used in PV Power Plants for Ramp-Rate Control

Photovoltaic (PV) power production ramp-rate control is getting more and more important in weak electric power systems, in which quick and significant power fluctuations can affect the stability of the system. This can be achieved by means of the integration of batteries into large PV plants but such an operation involves an aggressive environment for the ageing of the batteries. This paper presents an evaluation of this ageing by means of the annual simulations of a large PV power plant using actual irradiance data. This is done for different battery sizes used under various degrees of limitation in the power ramp-rate variation. The levelized cost of storage is calculated for each of the cases considered

On the Use of Graphene to Improve the Performance of Concentrator III-V Multijunction Solar Cells

Graphene has been intensively studied in photovoltaics focusing on emerging solar cells based on thin films, dye-sensitized, quantum dots, nanowires, etc. However, the typical efficiency of these solar cells incorporating graphene are below 16%. Therefore, the photovoltaic potential of graphene has not been already shown. In this work the use of graphene for concentration applications on III-V multijunction solar cells, which indeed are the solar cells with the highest efficiency, is demonstrated. Firstly, a wide optoelectronic characterization of graphene layers is carried out. Then, the graphene layer is incorporated onto triple-junction solar cells, which decreases their series resistance by 35% (relative), leading to an increase in Fill Factor of 4% (absolute) at concentrations of 1,000 suns. Simultaneously, the optical absorption of graphene produces a relative short circuit current density decrease in the range of 0-1.8%. As a result, an absolute efficiency improvement close to 1% at concentrations of 1,000 suns was achieved with respect to triple junction solar cells without graphene. The impact of incorporating one and two graphene monolayers is also evaluated.Comment: 29 pages, 6 figure

Linking functional composition moments of the sub-Mediterranean ecotone with environmental drivers

This article is part of the Research Topic Plant Diversity: The Key to Ecosystem Resilience in a Changing World[EN] Introduction: Functional trait-based approaches are extensively applied to the study of mechanisms governing community assembly along environmental gradients. These approaches have been classically based on studying differences in mean values among species, but there is increasing recognition that alternative metrics of trait distributions should be considered to decipher the mechanisms determining community assembly and species coexistence. Under this framework, the main aim of this study is to unravel the effects of environmental conditions as drivers of plant community assembly in sub- Mediterranean ecotones. Methods: We set 60 plots in six plant communities of a sub-Mediterranean forest in Central Spain, and measured key above- and belowground functional traits in 411 individuals belonging to 19 species, along with abiotic variables. We calculated community-weighted mean (CWM), skewness (CWS) and kurtosis (CWK) of three plant dimensions, and used maximum likelihood techniques to analyze how variation in these functional community traits was driven by abiotic factors. Additionally, we estimated the relative contribution of intraspecific trait variability and species turnover to variation in CWM. Results and discussion: The first three axes of variation of the principal component analyses were related to three main plant ecological dimensions: Leaf Economics Spectrum, Root Economics Spectrum and plant hydraulic architecture, respectively. Type of community was the most important factor determining differences in the functional structure among communities, as compared to the role of abiotic variables. We found strong differences among communities in their CWMs in line with their biogeographic origin (Eurosiberian vs Mediterranean), while differences in CWS and CWK indicate different trends in the functional structure among communities and the coexistence of different functional strategies, respectively. Moreover, changes in functional composition were primarily due to intraspecific variability. Conclusion: We observed a high number of strategies in the forest with the different communities spreading along the acquisitive-conservative axis of resource-use, partly matching their Eurosiberian-Mediterranean nature, respectively. Intraspecific trait variability, rather than species turnover, stood as the most relevant factor when analyzing functional changes and assembly patterns among communities. Altogether, our data support the notion that ecotones are ecosystems where relatively minor environmental shifts may result in changes in plant and functional compositionSIThis work was financially supported by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), being part of the project “the Functional Frontier among Mediterranean and Eurosiberian Plant Communities” (ECOFUMER, 441909701). ER and JG are respectively supported by a Marı́a Zambrano and a Margarita Salas fellowships funded by the Spanish Ministry of Universities and European Union-Next Generation Plan. IP acknowledges funding from a Ramón y Cajal contract (RYC2021-033081-I) funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and co-funded by the European Union-Next Generation Plan funded by European Union-NextGenerationE

Pushing the limits of C3 intrinsic water use efficiency in Mediterranean semiarid steppes: responses of a drought‐avoider perennial grass to climate aridification

[EN] 1. Intrinsic water use efficiency (WUEi) reflects the trade-off between photo- synthetic carbon gain and water loss through stomatal conductance and is key for understanding dryland plant responses to climate change. Stipa tenacissima is a perennial tussock C3 grass with an opportunistic, drought- avoiding water use strategy that dominates arid and semiarid steppes across the western Mediterranean region. However, its ecophysiological responses to aridification and woody shrub encroachment, a major land-use change in drylands worldwide, are not well-understood. 2. We investigated the variations in leaf stable isotopes (δ18 O, δ13 C, δ15 N), nutrient concentrations (N, P, K), and culm water content and isotopic composition (δ18 O,δ2H) of paired pure-grass and shrub-encroached S. tenacissima steppes along a 350 km aridity gradient in Spain (10 sites, 160 individuals). 3. Culm water isotopes revealed that S. tenacissima is a shallow-rooted grass that depends heavily on recent rainwater for water uptake, which may render it vulnerable to increasingly irregular rainfall combined with faster topsoil drying under climate warming and aridification. With increasing aridity, S. tenacissima enhanced leaf-level WUEi through more stringent stomatal regulation of plant water flux and carbon assimilation (higher δ13C and δ18 O), reaching exceptionally high δ13C values (−23‰ to −21‰) at the most arid steppes. Foliar N concentration was remarkably low across sites regardless of woody shrub encroachment, evidencing severe water and N co-limitation of photosynthesis and productivity. Shrub encroachment decreased leaf P and K but did not affect S. tenacissima water status. Perennial grass cover decreased markedly with both declining winter rainfall and shrub encroachment suggesting population-level rather than individual-level responses of S. tenacissima to these changes.4. The fundamental physiological constraints of photosynthetic C3 metabolism com-bined with low foliar N content may hamper the ability of S. tenacissima and other drought-avoider species with shallow roots to achieve further adaptive improve-ments in WUEi under increasing climatic stress. A drought-avoiding water use strategy based on early stomatal closure and photosynthesis suppression during prolonged rainless periods may thus compromise the capacity of semiarid S. tena-cissima steppes to maintain perennial grass cover, sustain productivity and cope with ongoing climate aridification at the drier parts of their current distributionSISpanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, Grant/Award Number: EUR2022-134048, PRX19/00301, PID2019-107382RB-I00, CGL2013- 48753-R, CGL2010-21064, AGL- 2006-11234, PID2020-113021RA-I00, RTI2018- 098895-A-100 and RYC- 2016-20604; Fundación BBVA, Grant/ Award Number: BIOCON06/105; Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Grant/Award Number: URJC-RNT- 063-2; European Research Council, Grant/Award Number: 647038; Generalitat Valenciana, Grant/ Award Number: CIDEGENT/2018/041; National Natural Science Foundation of China, Grant/Award Number: 41801091; China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, Grant/Award Number: 2018M643542 and 2019T120868; Fundación Séneca, Grant/ Award Number: 20654/JLI/

Landslide Susceptibility Analysis on the Vicinity of Bogotá-Villavicencio Road (Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes)

first_pagesettingsOrder Article Reprints Open AccessArticle Landslide Susceptibility Analysis on the Vicinity of Bogotá-Villavicencio Road (Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes) by María Camila Herrera-Coy 1ORCID,Laura Paola Calderón 2,Iván Leonardo Herrera-Pérez 1,3,Paul Esteban Bravo-López 1,4ORCID,Christian Conoscenti 2ORCID,Jorge Delgado 1ORCID,Mario Sánchez-Gómez 5,6ORCID andTomás Fernández 1,6,*ORCID 1 Department of Cartographic, Geodetic and Photogrammetric Engineering, University of Jaén, 23071 Jaén, Spain 2 Department of Earth and Marine Sciences (DiSTeM), University of Palermo, 90123 Palermo, Italy 3 Department of Geographic and Environmental Engineering, University of Applied and Environmental Sciences (U.D.C.A.), Bogotá 111166, Colombia 4 Institute for Studies of Sectional Regime of Ecuador (IERSE), University of Azuay, Cuenca 010107, Ecuador 5 Department of Geology, University of Jaén, 23071 Jaén, Spain 6 Natural Hazards Lab of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Earth Sciences, Energy and Environment (CEACTEMA), University of Jaén, 23071 Jaén, Spain * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Remote Sens. 2023, 15(15), 3870; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15153870 Received: 11 June 2023 / Revised: 24 July 2023 / Accepted: 31 July 2023 / Published: 4 August 2023 (This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing Techniques for Landslides Studies and Their Hazards Assessment) Download Browse Figures Versions Notes Abstract Landslide occurrence in Colombia is very frequent due to its geographical location in the Andean mountain range, with a very pronounced orography, a significant geological complexity and an outstanding climatic variability. More specifically, the study area around the Bogotá-Villavicencio road in the central sector of the Eastern Cordillera is one of the regions with the highest concentration of phenomena, which makes its study a priority. An inventory and detailed analysis of 2506 landslides has been carried out, in which five basic typologies have been differentiated: avalanches, debris flows, slides, earth flows and creeping areas. Debris avalanches and debris flows occur mainly in metamorphic materials (phyllites, schists and quartz-sandstones), areas with sparse vegetation, steep slopes and lower sections of hillslopes; meanwhile, slides, earth flows and creep occur in Cretaceous lutites, crop/grass lands, medium and low slopes and lower-middle sections of the hillslopes. Based on this analysis, landslide susceptibility models have been made for the different typologies and with different methods (matrix, discriminant analysis, random forest and neural networks) and input factors. The results are generally quite good, with average AUC-ROC values above 0.7–0.8, and the machine learning methods are the most appropriate, especially random forest, with a selected number of factors (between 6 and 8). The degree of fit (DF) usually shows relative errors lower than 5% and success higher than 90%. Finally, an integrated landslide susceptibility map (LSM) has been made for shallower and deeper types of movements. All the LSM show a clear zonation as a consequence of the geological control of the susceptibility.Incluye referencias bibliográfica

La Heteroevaluación como Apoyo a la Sostenibilidad en Evaluaciones Complejas de Trabajos Colaborativos en Wikis

El uso docente de wikis para realizar trabajos colaborativos está cada vez más extendido, aportando diversas ventajas sobre los trabajos entregados de manera tradicional (papel o documento digital terminado). Entre ellas destacan la capacidad real de colaboración asíncrona y distribuida y la monitorización por parte del profesor. No obstante, hacer una evaluación minuciosa del trabajo de cada alumno en su grupo resulta difícil dada la gran cantidad de información a procesar. En este artículo presentamos el uso de herramientas informáticas para facilitar la auto‐evaluaciones y evaluaciones por pares de trabajos colaborativos en wikis. En el curso pasado se usaron herramientas cuantitativas que medían automáticamente la aportación de cada alumno en un wiki, pero con el objetivo de dar retroevaluación prospectiva (es decir explicar porqué se tiene una nota concreta) es necesario el uso de técnicas cualitativas que requieren intervención humana. Dado que el número de aportaciones de un alumno a un wiki puede ser grande, es muy conveniente el uso de herramientas informáticas que faciliten significativamente el proceso ayudando a su sostenibilidad. El software resultante se denomina AssessMediaWiki, y está disponible bajo licencia libre.Proyectos de Innovación Docente. UC

Pharmaceutical Curriculum Harmonization in Ibero-America. Working document of the Ibero-American Conference of Faculties of Pharmacy (COIFFA)

La Conferencia Iberoamericana de Facultades de Farmacia (COIFFA) viene desarrollando desde su fundación como Conferencia Hispanoamericana (COHIFFA) en 1992, en la Universidad de los Andes (Mérida, Venezuela) una amplia labor en el ámbito de la formación y educación farmacéutica. Esta labor se ha traducido en declaraciones sucesivas desde la efectuada en Santiago (Chile) hasta la más reciente de Xochimilco (México). El grado de avance que han experimentado las ciencias y la práctica farmacéutica en las últimas décadas ha sido espectacular. Así se refleja en documentos de organismos y foros nacionales e internacionales. A esto se une las facilidades que en el ámbito de la movilidad internacional procuran tanto las Universidades a través de sus convenios bilaterales, como los organismos nacionales e internacionales de América Latina y de la Unión Europea, a través de los proyectos y convocatorias pertinentes. Todo ello hace aconsejable la elaboración por parte de COIFFA de un documento marco de consenso, en donde se recoja la problemática que el trascendental tema de la armonización de los estudios de farmacia conlleva. Los esfuerzos que ha venido realizando COIFFA se han traducido en la elaboración durante el Simposio Biregional Unión Europea-América Latina celebrado en junio de 2018 Xochimilco (México), de un documento de trabajo. Tres mesas de discusión coordinadas han tenido por objeto: I) el análisis y definición de perfil de egreso y de los mínimos curriculares; II) el análisis de los términos utilizados en la denominación de programas académicos títulos universitarios y distintas actividades; y III) el análisis y propuestas de mecanismos de colaboración y cofinanciación interinstitucionales Universidad-GobiernoEmpresa. La revisión y actualización de algunos aspectos contemplados en el citado documento se han llevado a cabo en el seno del First World Congress of Faculties of Pharmacy (IPAP18), celebrado en Salamanca en septiembre de 2018. Este documento es provisional y está sujeto a los elementos de mejora que se irán introduciendo de forma paulatina en las sucesivas reuniones que COIFFA seguirá llevando a cabo.The Ibero-American Conference of Faculties of Pharmacy (COIFFA) has been developing a wide-ranging task in the field of pharmaceutical training and education since its foundation as Hispanic-American Conference (COHIFFA) in 1992, at the Universidad de los Andes (Mérida, Venezuela). This work has been materialized into successive statements from the one made in Santiago (Chile) to the most recent one in Xochimilco (Mexico). The degree of progress that the sciences and pharmaceutical practice have experienced in recent decades has been spectacular. This is reflected in documents from national and international organizations and forums. To this is added the facilities that, in the field of international mobility, universities get through their bilateral agreements, as well as with national and international organizations in Latin America and the European Union, through the relevant projects and calls. All this makes advisable the elaboration on the part of COIFFA of a framework document of consensus, where the problematic that the transcendental subject of the harmonization of the pharmacy studies entails be covered. The efforts that COIFFA has been carrying out have resulted in the elaboration of a working document at the Biregional European Union-Latin America Symposium held in June 2018 in Xochimilco (Mexico). Three coordinated working groups were there devoted to: I) the analysis and definition of the graduate profile, as well as the common minimum topics to be included in the “pensum”; II) the analysis of the terms to be used in the denomination of academic programs, university degrees and various related activities; III) the analysis and proposals for cooperation mechanisms and properly ways of University-Government-Company co-financing. The review and updating of some of the topics approached in the aforementioned document have been carried out by COIFFA within the First World Congress of Faculties of Pharmacy (IPAP 18), held in Salamanca (September, 2018). This document is provisional and subject to the elements of improvement that will be gradually introduced in future COIFFA meetings

Manual de uso de MMAD (Migración de Metadatos y Archivos Digitales)

MMAD (Migración de Metadatos y Archivos Digitales) es un programa desarrollado por la Oficina de Conocimiento Abierto (OCA) y la Prosecretaría de Informática, ambas pertenecientes a la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (UNC). El programa facilita la migración de metadatos y archivos almacenados en el Módulo Memoria SIGEVA -UNC a su Repositorio Digital Universitario (RDU).Fil: Febre, Alexis. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Secretaría de Gestión Institucional. Oficina de Conocimiento Abierto; Argentina.Fil: Cohen Arazi, Tomás. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Prosecretaría de Informática; Argentina.Fil: Nardi, Alejandra M. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Secretaría de Gestión Institucional. Oficina de Conocimiento Abierto; Argentina.Fil: Di Domenico, Emilio Edgardo. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Secretaría de Gestión Institucional. Oficina de Conocimiento Abierto; Argentina.Fil: García, Lucrecia. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Secretaría de Gestión Institucional. Oficina de Conocimiento Abierto; Argentina.Fil: García, Lucrecia. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Secretaría de Gestión Institucional. Oficina de Conocimiento Abierto; Argentina.Fil: Pizzi, Mario. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Secretaría de Gestión Institucional. Oficina de Conocimiento Abierto; Argentina.Fil: Orcellet, Lorena. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Prosecretaría de Informática; Argentina.Fil: Scándolo, Carlos Iván. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Prosecretaría de Informática; Argentina.Fil: Salvai, Nicolás. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Prosecretaría de Informática; Argentina

Armonización Curricular Farmacéutica en Iberoamérica. Documento de trabajo de la Conferencia Iberoamericana de Facultades de Farmacia (COIFFA)

The Ibero-American Conference of Faculties of Pharmacy (COIFFA) has been developing a wide-ranging task in the field of pharmaceutical training and education since its foundation as Hispanic-American Conference (COHIFFA) in 1992, at the Universidad de los Andes (Mérida, Venezuela). This work has been materialized into successive statements from the one made in Santiago (Chile) to the most recent one in Xochimilco (Mexico). The degree of progress that the sciences and pharmaceutical practice have experienced in recent decades has been spectacular. This is reflected in documents from national and international organizations and forums. To this is added the facilities that, in the field of international mobility, universities get through their bilateral agreements, as well as with national and international organizations in Latin America and the European Union, through the relevant projects and calls. All this makes advisable the elaboration on the part of COIFFA of a framework document of consensus, where the problematic that the transcendental subject of the harmonization of the pharmacy studies entails be covered. The efforts that COIFFA has been carrying out have resulted in the elaboration of a working document at the Biregional European Union-Latin America Symposium held in June 2018 in Xochimilco (Mexico). Three coordinated working groups were there devoted to: I) the analysis and definition of the graduate profile, as well as the common minimum topics to be included in the “pensum”; II) the analysis of the terms to be used in the denomination of academic programs, university degrees and various related activities; III) the analysis and proposals for cooperation mechanisms and properly ways of University-Government-Company co-financing. The review and updating of some of the topics approached in the aforementioned document have been carried out by COIFFA within the First World Congress of Faculties of Pharmacy (IPAP 18), held in Salamanca (September, 2018). This document is provisional and subject to the elements of improvement that will be gradually introduced in future COIFFA meetings.La Conferencia Iberoamericana de Facultades de Farmacia (COIFFA) viene desarrollando desde su fundación como Conferencia Hispanoamericana (COHIFFA) en 1992, en la Universidad de los Andes (Mérida, Venezuela) una amplia labor en el ámbito de la formación y educación farmacéutica. Esta labor se ha traducido en declaraciones sucesivas desde la efectuada en Santiago (Chile) hasta la más reciente de Xochimilco (México). El grado de avance que han experimentado las ciencias y la práctica farmacéutica en las últimas décadas ha sido espectacular. Así se refleja en documentos de organismos y foros nacionales e internacionales. A esto se une las facilidades que en el ámbito de la movilidad internacional procuran tanto las Universidades a través de sus convenios bilaterales, como los organismos nacionales e internacionales de América Latina y de la Unión Europea, a través de los proyectos y convocatorias pertinentes. Todo ello hace aconsejable la elaboración por parte de COIFFA de un documento marco de consenso, en donde se recoja la problemática que el trascendental tema de la armonización de los estudios de farmacia conlleva. Los esfuerzos que ha venido realizando COIFFA se han traducido en la elaboración durante el Simposio Biregional Unión Europea-América Latina celebrado en junio de 2018 Xochimilco (México), de un documento de trabajo. Tres mesas de discusión coordinadas han tenido por objeto: I) el análisis y definición de perfil de egreso y de los mínimos curriculares; II) el análisis de los términos utilizados en la denominación de programas académicos títulos universitarios y distintas actividades; y III) el análisis y propuestas de mecanismos de colaboración y cofinanciación interinstitucionales Universidad-Gobierno-Empresa. La revisión y actualización de algunos aspectos contemplados en el citado documento se han llevado a cabo en el seno del First World Congress of Faculties of Pharmacy (IPAP18), celebrado en Salamanca en September de 2018. Este documento es provisional y está sujeto a los elementos de mejora que se irán introduciendo de forma paulatina en las sucesivas reuniones que COHIFFA seguirá llevando a cabo