Converging Underwater and FSO Ground Communication Links

We propose a new combined underwater-atmospheric optical communication link for providing a high speed optical connectivity between onshore and sumerge systems. New average BER expressions are derived when assuming amplify-and-forward (AF) relay.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Post-production protein stability: trouble beyond the cell factory

Being protein function a conformation-dependent issue, avoiding aggregation during production is a major challenge in biotechnological processes, what is often successfully addressed by convenient upstream, midstream or downstream approaches. Even when obtained in soluble forms, proteins tend to aggregate, especially if stored and manipulated at high concentrations, as is the case of protein drugs for human therapy. Post-production protein aggregation is then a major concern in the pharmaceutical industry, as protein stability, pharmacokinetics, bioavailability, immunogenicity and side effects are largely dependent on the extent of aggregates formation. Apart from acting at the formulation level, the recombinant nature of protein drugs allows intervening at upstream stages through protein engineering, to produce analogue protein versions with higher stability and enhanced therapeutic values

Introducing Programmable Logic to Undergraduate Engineering Students in a Digital Electronics Course

Due to significant technological advances andindustry requirements, many universities have introduced programmable logic and hardware description languages into undergraduate engineering curricula. This has led to a number of logistical and didactical challenges, in particular for computer science students. In this paper, the integration of some programmable logic concepts into an introductory digital electronics course is presented. The proposed optional lab develops a printed circuit board that implements a programmable logic block. Another contribution is the collaborative problem-solving methodology used to achieve this goal. Surveys completed by the students, and their final grades, show that the lab has improved the quality of their education and has contributed to a successful integration of programmable logic concepts in an introductory digital electronics course. Because of its demands on students? time and effort, the lab favors the most motivated students. This suggests future research on a proposal for a lab that would be feasible within the time constraints for even the least motivated students.Fil: Todorovich, Elías. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Tecnología Informática Avanzada; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil; ArgentinaFil: Marone, José Antonio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Tecnología Informática Avanzada; ArgentinaFil: Vazquez, Martin Osvaldo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tandil; Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Tecnología Informática Avanzada; Argentin

Estudio de la capacidad del canal en enlaces ópticos atmosféricos modelados con distribución M

En esta comunicación, ser realiza un estudio de parámetros importantes en la caracterización del comportamiento de enlaces de comunicaciones ópticas atmosféricas. En este sentido, se han derivado expresiones matemáticas cerradas para la capacidad ergódica y la probabilidad de bloqueo para un enlace de comunicaciones ópticas que hace uso de la clásica modulación de intensidad con detección directa (IM/DD), suponiendo propagación sin restricciones del frente de onda de la señal óptica y asumiendo que el fenómeno de escintilación óptica es modelada con la recién definida distribución de turbulencia M o también denominada Málaga, origen del equipo de investigadores que lo ha propuesto. El comportamiento de dichos parámetros de calidad se analizará en función de los parámetros característicos de esta novedosa distribución estadística.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, proyecto TEC2012-36737

Valorisation of pork by-products to obtain antioxidant and antihypertensive peptides

The porcine liver could be used for the extraction of zinc-protoporphyrin (ZnPP) as a natural red meat pigment. During the autolysis process, porcine liver homogenates was incubated at pH 4.8 and 45 °C under anaerobic conditions to obtain insoluble ZnPP. After incubation, the homogenates were readjusted at pH 4.8, and at pH 7.5 before being centrifuged at 5500 × g for 20 min at 4 °C and the resulting supernatant were compared with the obtained at pH 4.8 at the beginning of the incubation. The molecular weight distributions of the porcine liver fractions at both pHs were very similar, however, eight essential amino acids were more abundant in fractions obtained at pH 4.8. Regarding the ORAC assay, porcine liver protein fraction at pH 4.8 showed the highest antioxidant capacity but antihypertensive inhibition was similar for both pHs. Peptides with strong bioactivity potential from aldehyde dehydrogenase, lactoylglutathione lyase, SEC14-like protein 3 and others were identified. The findings have demonstrated the potential of the porcine liver to extract natural pigments and bioactive peptides.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fade statistics of M-turbulent optical links

A new and generalized statistical model, called Málaga or simply ℳ distribution, has been derived recently to characterize the irradiance fluctuations of an unbounded optical wavefront propagating through a turbulent medium under all irradiance fluctuation conditions. The aforementioned model extends and unifies in a simple analytical closed-form expression most of the proposed statistical models for free-space optical (FSO) communications widely employed until now in the scientific literature. Based on that ℳ model, we have studied some important features associated to its fade statistics and expressed in terms of the expected number of fades per second. The derived expressions become relevant for many aspects in a FSO system, especially those ones related to determine the optimum threshold in a receiver based on a direct detection scheme employing a fixed detection threshold

What Characteristics Do the Firms have That Go Beyond Compliance with Regulation in Environmental Protection? A Multiple Discriminant Analysis

This paper is focused on analyzing the characteristics of firms that have environmental performance beyond the requirements of regulation in environmental protection. To identify such characteristics, we propose a value and context model building on environmental paradigms as conceptualized by Dryzek’s environmental discourse theory. Using multiple discriminant analysis (MDA) to analyze data collected from a multi-respondent survey of Argentinean polluting firms, we identify distinctive characteristics of firms going beyond regulation and firms that do not comply with regulation. In particular, comparing with other five environmental discourses, endorsement of green growth is evaluated in its connection with compliance patterns. We find that supporting green growth discourse (also known as ecological modernization) is one of the characteristics of those firms that go beyond compliance in their environmental performance

Green Growth Policy, De-Growth, and Sustainability: The Alternative Solution for Achieving the Balance between Both the Natural and the Economic System

“We are ethically obliged and incited to think beyond what are treated as the realistic limits of the possible” [...

Diques verticales con láminas pendulares para amortiguación del oleaje incidente y extracción de energía, DILAPE. Revisión del Estado del Arte y Modelado Físico

Análisis de los criterios de Osanai y Watabe para la obtención de energía en diques verticales, siguiendo criterios de péndulo simple, tanto directo como indirecto en mares sin marea y reduciendo la cota de coronació

Estimation of the transverse sway motion of a biped robot during the march

Debido al balanceo generado por la dinámica natural y perturbaciones durante la marcha de un robot humanoide, es difícil predecir su postura en determinado instante a lo largo de la misma, complicando así el desarrollo de tareas de manipulación, cooperación, evasión de obstáculos, retroalimentación servo-visual, entre otras. En este documento se describe una metodología para predecir el movimiento de balanceo en el plano transversal del robot, a partir de la trayectoria de un punto fijo en su estructura mecánica. Se considera el estudio de dos modelos matemáticos para aproximar el movimiento de balanceo del humanoide: aproximación mediante una función sinusoidal y aproximación por series de Fourier. En ambos casos, es necesario el conocimiento de los parámetros involucrados del modelo, por lo que se implementan tres técnicas de aproximación paramétrica: mínimos cuadrados e identificación algebraica para el caso de la aproximación sinusoidal, y el cálculo de coeficientes para el caso de las series de Fourier. Para validar la metodología, se lleva a cabo el seguimiento del robot en tiempo real puesto que la trayectoria del punto de interés es afectada por diversos factores como la fricción, inclinación e imperfecciones de la superficie, el estado de conservación del robot, entre otros. A partir de diversos experimentos, se desarrolla una comparación cuantitativa entre las diferentes aproximaciones para verificar aquel que mejor reproduce a la dinámica del balanceo del robot.Peer Reviewe