Structural and electrical properties of indium oxide thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition in oxygen ambient

We report results of structural, optical and electrical transport studies of indium oxide (IO) thin films grown by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) under various oxygen gas pressures and using different substrates at 350° C. We find that the morphology and electrical resistivity of these films which are highly transparent changes drastically as O2pressure increases into mbar range, irrespective of substrate. A systematic increase in resistivity, coming mainly from a drop in the electron concentration, is observed as oxygen pressure varies from 0.0004 to 1 mbar. This could permit modulation of IO thin–films’ electrical parameters by more than three orders of magnitude suggesting that PLD grown films could be an attractive material for optoelectronic applications

Energy optimization of a thermal storage tank for Domestic Hot Water production

[EN] According to the European Commission, the residential sector is responsible at this moment of the 40 % of the energy consumption and 36 % of the associated CO2 emissions in Europe. Regarding the water heating consumption, it is currently responsible for 14.5 % energy consumption of the average European dwelling. This percentage is expected to increase drastically within the concept of Near Zero Energy Building (NZEB) since the associated heating consumption percentage will be decreased largely. In this way, the energy consumption associated for water heating should be reduced, and it only can be done by using highly energy efficient technologies, such as heat pump (HP), and decreasing the energy losses associated to the facilities. In the frame of the European Project NEXTHPG of the 7th framework program, a new prototype of heat pump booster for the production of domestic hot water was developed. The developed prototype uses an innovative subcooling control system, which allows increasing the COP of the system in more than 30% compared to conventional subcritical heat pump systems. Nevertheless, in a real installation apart from the heat pump there are other factors contributing to the final energy consumption of the whole system like system configuration, control algorithm, tank size and the like. Therefore, an estimation of the final energy consumption of the system could be significantly different from the obtained taking into account only the pump performance. The present work is focused on the development of a model in order to optimize the design of the whole system using the prototype of the NEXTHPG project in order to satisfy the domestic hot water demand of a building for 20 people. The integrated system model will include the heat pump, the water tank, a heat exchanger in order to recover part of the waste heat (such as the heat coming from the sewage water in the domestic sector or from condensing loops in tertiary sector) and a random generator of domestic hot water demand profile. From the results of this work, the proper sizing of the heat pump and the water tank, as well as the control algorithm, are obtained and the potential annual energy consumption of this type of system is estimated.Part of the work presented was carried by Estefanía Hervás Blasco with the financial support of a PhD scholarship from the Spanish government SFPI1500 x 074478XV0. The authors would like also to acknowledge the Spanish MINISTERIO DE ECONOMIA Y COMPETITIVIDAD¿, thorugh the project. MAXIMIZACION DE LA EFICIENCIA Y MINIMIZACION DEL IMPACTO AMBIENTAL DE BOMBAS DE CALOR PARA LA DESCARBONIZACION DE LA CALEFACCION/ACS EN LOS EDIFICIOS DE CONSUMO CASI NULO with the reference ENE2017-83665-C2-1-P for the given support and REDUCCIÓN DE LAS EMISIONES DE CO2 EN LA PRODUCCIÓN DE AGUA CALIENTE A ALTA TEMPERATURA A PARTIR DE LA RECUPERACIÓN DE CALOR RESIDUAL MEDIANTE EL USO DE UNA BOMBA DE CALOR with the reference SP20180039.Masip, X.; Álvarez-Piñeiro, L.; Hervas-Blasco, E.; Navarro-Peris, E.; Corberán, JM. (2019). Energy optimization of a thermal storage tank for Domestic Hot Water production. Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha José Antonio Almendros Ibáñez. 167-175. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/180696S16717

Safety and effectiveness of adalimumab in patients with rheumatoid arthritis over 5 years of therapy in a phase 3b and subsequent postmarketing observational study.

INTRODUCTION: Patients with active rheumatoid arthritis who had failed at least one disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug (DMARD) were treated with adalimumab (ADA) in the ReAct study with the option to continue treatment for 5 years in ReAlise. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term safety and effectiveness of ADA as prescribed from the first injection in ReAct to the last observation in ReAlise. METHODS: Patients received ADA alone or in combination with DMARDs according to usual clinical care practices. Adverse events (AEs) were tabulated by five time windows after the first ADA injection. Effectiveness measures included achievement of low disease activity (LDA), defined as Simplified Disease Activity Index (SDAI) ≤11, or remission, (REM), defined as SDAI ≤3.3. RESULTS: Of the 6,610 ReAct patients, 3,435 (52%) continued in ReAlise. At baseline in ReAct, mean age was 54 years, mean DAS28 was 6.0 and mean HAQ DI was 1.64. The mean treatment duration was 1,016 days, representing 18,272 patient-years (PYs) of ADA exposure. Overall incidence rates of serious AEs and serious infections were 13.8 and 2.8 events (E)/100 PYs, respectively. Serious AEs occurred most frequently in the first 6 months and deceased thereafter. Standardised mortality ratio was 0.71 (95% CI 0.57 to 0.87) and standardised incidence ratio for malignancies was 0.64 (95% CI 0.53 to 0.76). LDA was achieved by 50% and REM by 21% of patients at last observation. CONCLUSIONS: Results of this large observational study of ADA in routine clinical practice were consistent with controlled trials, with no new safety concerns during a follow-up of more than 5 years. Effectiveness of ADA was maintained during long-term observation. TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT00448383, NCT0023488

Mejoras para el ajuste de controladores robustos mediante optimización multiobjetivo en procesos con incertidumbre

[ES] Breve descripción de algunas de las ideas sobre las que está trabajando el grupo de investigación CPOH del Instituto de Automática e Informática Industrial (ai2) de la Universitat Politècnica de Valéncia (UPV). En particular, mostramos las ideas básicas correspondientes a una de las líneas de trabajo para el ajuste mediante optimización multiobjetivo de controladores robustos para todo tipo de proceso que presenten incertidumbre paramétrica en su modelo. El objetivo fundamental que se se persigue es conseguir una metodología y algoritmos que permitan el ajuste robusto de controladores con un coste computacional viable. Las ideas que se describen usan soluciones casi-óptimas para mejorar la exploración de soluciones robustas sin sacrificar el coste computacional.[EN] Brief description of some of the ideas on which the CPOH research group of the Instituto de Automática e Informática Industrial (ai2) of the Universitat Politécnica de Valéncia (UPV) is working. In particular, we show the basic ideas corresponding to one of the research lines for the tuning using multiobjective optimization of robust controllers for all types of processes that present parametric uncertainty in their model. The main objective is to achieve a methodology and algorithms that allow the robust tuning of controllers with a viable computational cost. The ideas described use nearly optimal solutions to improve the exploration of robust solutions without sacrificing computational cost

Magnetostructural coupling, magnetic ordering, and cobalt spin reorientation in metallic P r0.5 S r0.5Co O3 cobaltite

In half-doped Pr0.50A0.50CoO3 metallic perovskites, the spin-lattice coupling brings about distinct magnetostructural transitions for A=Ca and A=Sr at temperatures close to ~100 K. However, the ground magnetic properties of Pr0.50Sr0.50CoO3 (PSCO) strongly differ from Pr0.50Ca0.50CoO3 ones, where a partial Pr3+ to Pr4+ valence shift and Co spin transition makes the system insulating below the transition. This paper investigates and describes the relationship between the Imma¿I4/mcm symmetry change [Padilla-Pantoja, García-Muñoz, Bozzo, Jirák, and Herrero-Martín, Inorg. Chem. 53, 12297 (2014)] and the original magnetic behavior of PSCO versus temperature and external magnetic fields. The FM1 and FM2 ferromagnetic phases, above and below the magnetostructural transition (TS1~120K) have been investigated. The FM2 phase of PSCO is composed of [100] FM domains, with magnetic symmetry Im'm'a (mx¿0, mz=0). The magnetic space group of the FM1 phase is Fm'm'm (with mx=my). Neutron data analyses in combination with magnetometry and earlier reports results agrees with a reorientation of the magnetization axis by 45° within the ab plane across the transition, in which the system retains its metallic character. The presence below TS1 of conjugated magnetic domains, both of Fm'm'm symmetry but having perpendicular spin orientations along the diagonals in the xy plane of the tetragonal unit cell, is at the origin of the anomalies observed in the macroscopic magnetization. A relatively small field µ0H[¿z]¿30mT is able to reorient the magnetization within the ab plane, whereas a higher field (µ0H[¿z]¿1.2T at 2 K) is necessary to align the Co moments perpendicular to the ab plane. Such a spin reorientation, in which the orbital and spin components of the Co moment rotate joined by 45°, was not observed previously in analogous cobaltites without praseodymium

THE TRAM-FPV RACING Open Database. Sequences complete indoor flight tests for the study of racing drones

This paper presents the TRAM-FPV Racing open database, generated from a set of indoor flights performed with five racing drones at Cranfield University (UK), specifically at the Flight Arena, one of the largest indoor flight fields in the world for research purposes. The database incorporates the position and orientation information in the space of five racing drone models using an optical measurement system (OMS). It includes readings from accelerometers, gyroscopes, and heading angles recorded by inertial unit (IMU) sensors. These databases are frequently used to develop and adjust the sensor fusion algorithms incorporated in the drones to estimate their current state vector. However, their field of application is vast, being able to be used, for example, for the development of the nonlinear mathematical models of drones or the generation of trajectories

Crossover in the nature of the metallic phases in the perovskite-type RNiO_3

We have measured the photoemission spectra of Nd$_{1-x}$Sm$_{x}$NiO$_{3}$, where the metal-insulator transition and the N\'{e}el ordering occur at the same temperature for $x \lesssim 0.4$ and the metal-insulator transition temperature ($T_{MI}$) is higher than the N\'{e}el temperature for $x \gtrsim 0.4$. For $x \le 0.4$, the spectral intensity at the Fermi level is high in the metallic phase above $T_{MI}$ and gradually decreases with cooling in the insulating phase below $T_{MI}$ while for $x > 0.4$ it shows a pseudogap-like behavior above $T_{MI}$ and further diminishes below $T_{MI}$. The results clearly establish that there is a sharp change in the nature of the electronic correlations in the middle ($x \sim 0.4$) of the metallic phase of the $R$NiO$_3$ system.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure, submitted to Phys. Rev.

A COMPARISON OF METHODS FOR SELECTING PREFERRED SOLUTIONS IN MULTIOBJECTIVE DECISION MAKING

ISBN : 978-94-91216-77-0In multiobjective optimization problems, the identified Pareto Frontiers and Sets often contain too many solutions, which make it difficult for the decision maker to select a preferred alternative. To facilitate the selection task, decision making support tools can be used in different instances of the multiobjective optimization search to introduce preferences on the objectives or to give a condensed representation of the solutions on the Pareto Frontier, so as to offer to the decision maker a manageable picture of the solution alternatives. This paper presents a comparison of some a priori and a posteriori decision making support methods, aimed at aiding the decision maker in the selection of the preferred solutions. The considered methods are compared with respect to their application to a case study concerning the optimization of the test intervals of the components of a safety system of a nuclear power plant. The engine for the multiobjective optimization search is based on genetic algorithms

Optimized sound diffusers based on sonic crystals using a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm

Sonic crystals have been demonstrated to be good candidates to substitute for conventional diffusers in order to overcome the need for extremely thick structures when low frequencies have to be scattered, however, their performance is limited to a narrow band. In this work, multiobjective evolutionary algorithms are used to extend the bandwidth to the whole low frequency range. The results show that diffusion can be significantly increased. Several cost functions are considered in the paper, on the one hand to illustrate the flexibility of the optimization and on the other hand to demonstrate the problems associated with the use of certain cost functions. A study of the robustness of the optimized diffusers is also presented, introducing a parameter that can help to choose among the best candidates. Finally, the advantages of the use of multiobjective optimization in comparison with conventional optimizations are discussed.This work was partially supported by the Spanish "Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad" under the projects TEC2015-68076-R and DPI2015-71443-R.Redondo, J.; Sánchez Pérez, JV.; Blasco, X.; Herrero Durá, JM.; Vorlander, M. (2016). Optimized sound diffusers based on sonic crystals using a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 139(5):2807-2814. doi:10.1121/1.4948580S28072814139