Energy Infrastructure of the Factory as a Virtual Power Plant: Smart Energy Management

Smart energy factories are crucial for the development of upcoming energy markets in which emissions, energy use and network congestions are to be decreased. The virtual power plant (VPP) can be implemented in an industrial site with the aim of minimizing costs, emissions and total energy usage. A VPP considers the future situation forecasting and the situation of all energy assets, including renewable energy generation units and energy storage systems, to optimize the total cost of the plant, considering the possibility to trade with the energy market. For a VPP to be constructed, a proper communication system is essential. The energy management system (EMS) enables the monitoring, management and control of the different energy devices and permits the transference of the decisions made by the VPP to the different energy assets. VPP concept is explained together with the methods used for forecasting the future situation and the energy flow inside the facility. To reach its benefits, the optimization of the VPP is assessed. After that, the communication technologies that enable the VPP implementation are also introduced, and the advantages/disadvantages regarding their deployment are stated. With the tools introduced, the VPP can face the challenges of energy markets efficiently

A facility and community-based assessment of scabies in rural Malawi.

Background Scabies is a neglected tropical disease of the skin, causing severe itching, stigmatizing skin lesions and systemic complications. Since 2015, the DerMalawi project provide an integrated skin diseases clinics and Tele-dermatology care in Malawi. Clinic based data suggested a progressive increase in scabies cases observed. To better identify and treat individuals with scabies in the region, we shifted from a clinic-based model to a community based outreach programme. Methodology/principal findings From May 2015, DerMalawi project provide integrated skin diseases and Tele-dermatological care in the Nkhotakota and Salima health districts in Malawi. Demographic and clinical data of all patients personally attended are recorded. Due to a progressive increase in the number of cases of scabies the project shifted to a community-based outreach programme. For the community outreach activities, we conducted three visits between 2018 to 2019 and undertook screening in schools and villages of Alinafe Hospital catchment area. Treatment was offered for all the cases and school or household contacts. Scabies increased from 2.9% to 39.2% of all cases seen by the DerMalawi project at clinics between 2015 to 2018. During the community-based activities approximately 50% of the population was assessed in each of three visits. The prevalence of scabies was similar in the first two rounds, 15.4% (2392) at the first visit and 17.2% at the second visit. The prevalence of scabies appeared to be lower (2.4%) at the third visit. The prevalence of impetigo appeared unchanged and was 6.7% at the first visit and 5.2% at the final visit. Conclusions/significance Prevalence of scabies in our setting was very high suggesting that scabies is a major public health problem in parts of Malawi. Further work is required to more accurately assess the burden of disease and develop appropriate public health strategies for its control

Ahora / Ara

La cinquena edició del microrelatari per l’eradicació de la violència contra les dones de l’Institut Universitari d’Estudis Feministes i de Gènere «Purificación Escribano» de la Universitat Jaume I vol ser una declaració d’esperança. Aquest és el moment en el qual les dones (i els homes) hem de fer un pas endavant i eliminar la violència sistèmica contra les dones. Ara és el moment de denunciar el masclisme i els micromasclismes començant a construir una societat més igualitària. Cadascun dels relats del llibre és una denúncia i una declaració que ens encamina cap a un món millor

Energy-Investment Decision-Making for Industry: Quantitative and Qualitative Risks Integrated Analysis

Industrial SMEs may take the decision to invest in energy efficient equipment to reduce energy costs by replacing or upgrading their obsolete equipment or due to external socio-political and legislative pressures. When upgrading their energy equipment, it may be beneficial to consider the adoption of new energy strategies rising from the ongoing energy transition to support green transformation and decarbonisation. To face this energy-investment decision-making problem, a set of different economic and environmental criteria have to be evaluated together with their associated risks. Although energy-investment problems have been treated in the literature, the incorporation of both quantitative and qualitative risks for decision-making in SMEs has not been studied yet. In this paper, this research gap is addressed, creating a framework that considers non-risk criteria and quantitative and qualitative risks into energy-investment decision-making problems. Both types of risks are evaluated according to their probability and impact on the company’s objectives and, additionally for qualitative risks, a fuzzy inference system is employed to account for judgmental subjectivity. All the criteria are incorporated into a single cost–benefit analysis function, which is optimised along the energy assets’ lifetime to reach the best long-term energy investment decisions. The proposed methodology is applied to a specific industrial SME as a case study, showing the benefits of considering these risks in the decision-making problem. Nonetheless, the methodology is expandable with minor changes to other entities facing the challenge to invest in energy equipment or, as well, other tangible assets

Nitrogen-rich cobalt (II) MOFs as efficient bifunctional catalysts for single or tandem oxidation and CO2conversion reactions

The development of efficient catalysts that include the advantages of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts is a challenge that can be achieved with metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) since they can incorporate different functionalities in their structure that make them promising catalysts for different processes. Herein, two new isoreticular nitrogen-rich naphthalene cobalt-MOFs, Co-NDTz and Co-NDPhTz, were successfully prepared under solvothermal conditions from the corresponding linkers (H2NDTz=2,6-naphthaleneditetrazole and H2NDPhTz=2,6-bis(4-(1H-tetrazol-5-yl)phenyl)naphthalene). These Co-tetrazole-based MOFs combine Lewis acid and redox functionalities and good CO2 adsorption and after being thermally activated resulted to be excellent efficient catalysts for the epoxidation of alkenes and CO2 cycloaddition to epoxides yielding cyclic carbonates, reaching turnover numbers up to 2500. Furthermore, these two reactions take place following a highly desired one-pot tandem process and a cyclic carbonate was obtained from styrene and CO2 under solvent-free conditions. In addition, the heterogeneous catalysts are easily recycled without noticeable loss of catalytic activity and without important structural deterioration.Authors acknowledge to Grants PID2020-112590GB-C22 and PID2020-112590GB-C21 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. A.V.G. thanks for FPU17/03463

Phenyl Extended Naphthalene-Based Covalent Triazine Frameworks as Versatile Metal-Free Heterogeneous Photocatalysts

Two new covalent triazines frameworks (CTFs) containing phenyl extended naphthalene units (with and without methoxy groups in the naphthalene core) are prepared by thermal and microwave activation. Both procedures yield similar chemical structures combining triazine acceptor units with donor aromatic groups, but they generate some differences in the morphology, structural organization, CO adsorption capacity, and thermal and optical properties. Besides, the methoxy groups of the naphthalene core have also influence in some of these properties. The resulting phenyl extended naphthalene CTFs are efficiently utilized as metal-free heterogeneous photocatalyst for the selective aerobic oxidation of sulfides and the dehydrogenative cross-coupling reactions under visible-light irradiation, showing a high chemical stability.The authors acknowledge grants MAT2017-82288-C2-2-P and PID2020-112590GB-C22 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by“ERDF A way of making Europe”. A.V.G. thanks Ministerio de Universidades for FPU17/0346

How donor selection criteria can be evaluated with limited scientific evidence:lessons learned from the TRANSPOSE project

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Donor selection criteria (DSC) are a vital link in the chain of supply of Substances of Human Origin (SoHO) but are also subject to controversy and differences of opinion. Traditionally, DSC have been based on application of the precautionary principle. MATERIALS AND METHODS: From 2017 to 2020, TRANSPOSE (TRANSfusion and transplantation PrOtection and SElection of donors), a European research project, aimed to identify discrepancies between current DSC by proposing a standardized risk assessment method for all SoHO (solid organs excluded) and all levels of evidence. RESULTS: The current DSC were assessed using a modified risk assessment method based on the Alliance of Blood Operators' Risk-based decision-making framework for blood safety. It was found that with limited or diverging scientific evidence, it was difficult to reach consensus and an international standardized method for decision-making was lacking. Furthermore, participants found it hard to disregard their local guidelines when providing expert opinion, which resulted in substantial influence on the consensus-based decision-making process. CONCLUSIONS: While the field of donation-safety research is expanding rapidly, there is an urgent need to formalize the decision-making process regarding DSC. This includes the need for standardized methods to increase transparency in the international decision-making process and to ensure that this is performed consistently. Our framework provides an easy-to-implement approach for standardizing risk assessments, especially in the context of limited scientific evidence

Putting the spotlight on donation-related risks and donor safety - are we succeeding in protecting donors?

The European consortium project TRANSPOSE (TRANSfusion and transplantation: PrOtection and SElection of donors) aimed to assess and evaluate the risks to donors of Substances of Human Origin (SoHO), and to identify gaps between current donor vigilance systems and perceived risks. National and local data from participating organizations on serious and non-serious adverse reactions in donors were collected from 2014 to 2017. Following this, a survey was performed among participants to identify risks not included in the data sets. Finally, participants rated the risks according to severity, level of evidence and prevalence. Significant discrepancies between anticipated donor risks and the collected data were found. Furthermore, many participants reported that national data on adverse reactions in donors of stem cells, gametes, embryos and tissues were not routinely collected and/or available. These findings indicate that there is a need to further develop and standardize donor vigilance in Europe and to include long-term risks to donors, which are currently underreported, ensuring donor health and securing the future supply of SoHO