Trace elements and C and N isotope composition in two mushroom species from a mine-spill contaminated site

Fungi play a key role in the functioning of soil in terrestrial ecosystems, and in particular in the remediation of degraded soils. The contribution of fungi to carbon and nutrient cycles, along with their capability to mobilise soil trace elements, is well-known. However, the importance of life history strategy for these functions has not yet been thoroughly studied. This study explored the soil-fungi relationship of two wild edible fungi, the ectomycorrhizal Laccaria laccata and the saprotroph Volvopluteus gloiocephalus. Fruiting bodies and surrounding soils in a mine-spill contaminated area were analysed. Isotope analyses revealed Laccaria laccata fruiting bodies were 15N-enriched when compared to Volvopluteus gloiocephalus, likely due to the transfer of 15N-depleted compounds to their host plant. Moreover, Laccaria laccata fruiting bodies δ13C values were closer to host plant values than surrounding soil, while Volvopluteus gloiocephalus matched the δ13C composition to that of the soil. Fungal species presented high bioaccumulation and concentrations of Cd and Cu in their fruiting bodies. Human consumption of these fruiting bodies may represent a toxicological risk due to their elevated Cd concentrations

Contribution of New Digital Technologies to the Digital Building Logbook

According to the European Commission, the Digital Building Logbook (DBL) is a repository of all of the relevant data of a building. It was first introduced at the European scale in the Renovation Wave strategy and was first defined in the proposal for the recast of the energy performance of buildings Directive in December 2021. The European DBL has not been implemented yet, since a common model does not yet exist. Even though great efforts are being made to establish it, some relevant issues need to be addressed first. One of them is the identification of data sources that will feed the DBL. Existing digital data sources have already been explored in some countries and they have been found to be insufficient. In this paper, new digital data sources suitable for the logbook are identified, and their contribution in terms of indicators and interoperability is analysed. The analysis shows that these sources have great potential to contribute to the DBL, because they bring the possibility to collect a great amount of real data on buildings. However, the main barrier for these tools to be incorporated into the DBL is that their linkage still requires further research

A new functionality for the digital building logbook: Assessing the progress of decarbonisation of national building sectors

The EU has set itself demanding objectives to achieve complete decarbonisation by 2050. The building sector plays an important role for this purpose, hence monitoring its progress towards decarbonisation is essential to identify measures that work and to readjust policies when necessary. However, collecting information to monitor the building sector is a complex task due to the scarcity and low quality of available data. The European digital building logbook (DBL) has great potential in this regard because it allows the collection of data at the building scale, which could be combined at a national level. Thus, this paper proposes a new functionality for the DBL -as an enabler for the collection of data for the assessment of the progress of the main EU policy objectives related to the building sector decarbonisation-, and it evaluates the potential of the DBL for it. To do so, the main policy objectives were associated to a set of progress indicators –mandatory and optional- and matched to DBL indicators. Mandatory indicators are for all Member States and they have been included in the 2023 amended version of the proposal for the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive recast. Optional indicators are considered country-specific in this paper and are sourced from various literature references. Here we have studied the optional progress indicators for the case of Spain. Results show that the DBL has great potential to contribute to the collection of more than half of the mandatory indicators and a very high share of the optional ones for Spain

Modeling tunable band-pass filters based on RF-MEMS metamaterials

This work describes progress toward designing and modeling reconfigurable band-pass filters based on RF microelectromechanical systems (RF-MEMS) metamaterials. A device consisting of a coplanar waveguide structure that combines complementary split ring resonators (CSRRs) and RF-MEMS varactor bridges, operating at K and Ka-band, is proposed. Several layouts have been designed and electromagnetically (EM) simulated. A full equivalent-circuit model for the description of the proposed structure, including transmission lines, RF-MEMS, subwavelength resonators and coupling parameters, is provided. A high degree of accuracy between EM simulations behavior and electrical model has been obtained.Postprint (published version

Parametric design of stop band pass filter based on RF metamaterials in LTCC technology

This paper presents a novel approach to design a parametric RF stop band pass ¯lter based on Low Temperature Co-¯red Ceramic (LTCC) Technology. The LTCC technology enables to miniaturize and development compact structures using not only the standard xy-planar circuit dimensions but also the z-height dimension. The proposed ¯lters topologies are based on a stripline loaded with one or several complementary rings resonator (CSRRs). Speci¯cally, a parametric study z-location of the stripline respect to the CSRRs is carried out in order to determine the optimum con¯gurations operating in the Ku-band.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Access to Spiropyrazolone-butenolides through NHC-Catalyzed [3 + 2]-Asymmetric Annulation of 3-Bromoenals and 1H-Pyrazol-4,5-diones

Producción CientíficaThe stereoselective synthesis of spirocyclic pyrazo- lin-5-ones by N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) organocatalysis has been less studied so far. For this reason and considering the interest of this class of compounds, here, we present the NHC-catalyzed [3 + 2]-asymmetric annulation of β-bromoenals and 1H-pyrazol-4,5- diones that achieves to produce chiral spiropyrazolone-butenolides. The synthesis is general for aryl and heteroaryl β-bromo-α,β- unsaturated aldehydes and 1,3-disubstituted pyrazolones. The spirobutenolides have been obtained in good yields (up to 88%) and enantioselectivities (up to 97:3 er). This constitutes the first described example using pyrazoldiones as the starting materials for this class of spiro compounds.Junta de Castilla y León predoctoral fellowship (EDU/556/2019

The digital building logbook as a gateway linked to existing national data sources: The cases of Spain and Italy

The Digital Building Logbook (DBL) was first introduced together with the Renovation Wave initiative, promoted by the European Commission and then defined in the proposal for a recast of the energy performance of buildings Directive, in December 2021, as a repository of relevant data on a building that aims to alleviate the current lack of information of the European building stock. Several data sources on buildings already exist at different levels in Europe, and their interlinkage is crucial for a proper data population of the future Building Logbook. However, these data sources are scattered and heterogeneous, thus, they need to be evaluated to determine their suitability for the DBL. This paper analyses the sources that currently exist in Spain and Italy, focusing respectively on Aragon and Lombardy region, and addressing their interoperability possibilities and the indicators collected. The results show that the available data are not fully aligned with the relevant indicators from the existing proposals for a European DBL, and that few data sources are currently suitable for the DBL, since most of them are not interoperable. Considering the features and limitations of the data sources, a dataflow general scheme based on the definition of the DBL is defined for each case study, and guidelines are presented on data collection and interoperability in order to make its implementation feasible at the European scale

Ring oscillator switching noise under NBTI wearout

In this paper the switching noise of a CMOS ring oscillator has been analysed when their pFETs are subjected to negative bias temperature instability (NBTI). The impact of pFET under NBTI has been experimentally quantified whereas CMOS ring oscillator frequency and the switching noise has been analysed by means of electrical full-model simulation. The results show that the impact on the electromagnetic compatibility behaviour increases with NBTI wearout.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Family firm heterogeneity on CSR approach: A socio-emotional (SEW) perspective.

Cómo las empresas familiares adoptan un enfoque específico de responsabilidad social corporativa (RSC) sigue siendo un tema relativamente poco explorado en la investigación sobre empresas familiares y ética empresarial. Por lo tanto, estudiamos cómo y por qué el enfoque de RSC (amplio vs. estrecho; beneficios vs. costos) difiere dentro de las empresas familiares, abordando la influencia de las dimensiones de riqueza socioemocional (SEW), ya sea individualmente o combinadas. Utilizamos evidencia empírica recopilada a través de 13 estudios de casos de empresas de la región de Andalucía y empleamos el enfoque interpretativo de la teoría fundamentada basado en datos de estudios de caso. Los resultados de nuestros análisis llevan a proponer que las empresas familiares con una identificación más fuerte y una valencia más positiva que negativa con respecto a las dimensiones de apego emocional y enriquecimiento familiar tendrán más probabilidades de adoptar un enfoque amplio de RSC. Asimismo, aquellas empresas familiares que adoptan acciones de RSC con stakeholders debido al uso instrumental de la dimensión de imagen y reputación probablemente mostrarán un enfoque de beneficiosThe author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial sup port for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Authors want to acknowledge the funding received by the Firm Feasability Chair at the University of Malaga, in the form of research fund for hiring Marta Campos-Valenzuela for several months, to develop Chair actions, and thereby, this paper

Electromagnetic compatibility of CMOS circuits along the lifetime

The continuous scaling of CMOS circuits has set the MOSFET transistor in the nanoelectronic era. In this context, the functionality and complexity of integrated circuits (ICs) are growing up. However, the operation voltage has been continuously reduced. The higher complexity of ICs has allowed including electronic systems in a lot of safety critical applications (i.e., automotive, aeronautics and/or medical applications). Therefore, the functionality of these electronic equipments must be assured and the risk of electromagnetic interference (EMI) must be reduced during their lifetime. Nowadays, circuits’ robustness to electromagnetic interference is checked in a burn-in component, without taking into account the impact of the natural devices’ aging. However, shrunk dimensions imply the appearance of several wear out mechanisms, which can limit the functionality of the circuits and modify their electromagnetic performance. Therefore, the time dependence of electromagnetic behaviour, which is known as Electromagnetic Robustness or Electromagnetic Reliability (EMR), should be evaluated. The switching noise is probably one of the main EMC emission problems in CMOS circuits. It is know that wear out mechanism affects the switching behaviour of CMOS circuits. Therefore, some effects on EMC performance of these circuits should be expected. In this work, the switching noise behaviour or CMOS circuits under one of the most important reliability problems are analysed by means of electrical simulation. In order to do that, a characterization of wear out mechanism on single MOSFET is presented and modelled. The results show a reduction on the frequency switching noise emission in circuits subjected to wear out, due to the reduction of the drain current of MOSFET.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version