The European Union, through the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and the Energy Efficiency Directive, has been establishing requirements and expectations regarding energy savings and efficiency in buildings. The objective of this study is to explore energy rehabilitation solutions for educational buildings of the 1980s in cold climate zones of Spain by applying the corresponding adaptation of the European legislation, which is the Basic Document for Energy Saving of the Technical Building Code. The evolution of regulation is studied using three cases, and 12 proposals for achieving nearly zero-energy educational buildings are studied. The analysis of the results obtained shows how changes in energy and environmental policies affect those buildings. Regarding the baseline building, average reductions of more than 66% in non-renewable primary energy consumption and of more than 71% in CO2 emissions were observed. Additional reductions of at least 10% in non-renewable primary energy consumption and 8% in CO2 emissions are achieved with the alternatives proposed to achieve nearly zero-energy educational buildings. The knowledge of the sector is deepened with this study, which allows the design of future energy rehabilitation policies and promotes policy changes.
[EN] Groundwater flow models have been increasingly used to support policy making. A substantial amount of research has been dedicated to improving, validating and calibrating models and including stakeholders in the modelling process. However, little research has been done to analyze how the choices of model makers and steering by policy makers result in models with specific characteristics, which only allow specific modelling outcomes, and how the use of these modelling outcomes leads to specific social, economic and environmental consequences. In this study, we use the social construction of technology framework to explore the development, characteristics and uses of the groundwater model of the Mancha Oriental aquifer in Spain. The specific characteristics and functioning of this model influenced the policy implementation, implying that involving stakeholders in the development and use of models is crucial for improved democratic policy making. ; This work was carried out as part of the collaboration agreement between the University of Castilla–La Mancha and Wageningen University. The research is also part of Femke Rambags' MSc Thesis. David Sanz was supported by the Grants for Stays at Other Universities and Research Centres (UCLM). Special thanks go to the Júcar Water Authority (CHJ) and stakeholders (JCRMO) in the Mancha Oriental System for the necessary information. We would also like to thank Dr A. Sahuquillo of the Universitat Politècnica de València de Valencia and Dr S. Castaño of the University of Castilla–La Mancha for comments and participation in the first stage of modelling. The contents of this paper do not represent the views of CHJ or JCRMO. Finally, we thank the two anonymous reviewers of this article for their valuable comments and suggestions. ; Sanz Martínez, D.; Vos, J.; Rambags, F.; Hoogesteger, J.; Cassiraga, EF.; Gómez-Alday, JJ. (2018). The social construction and consequences of groundwater modelling: insight from the Mancha Oriental aquifer, Spain. International Journal of Water ...
Josmar es una pyme fabricante de medias deportivas, ubicada en la ciudad de Bogotá y con más de 30 años de funcionamiento. Distribuye el producto en ciudades como Manizales, Bogotá, Barrancabermeja, Barranquilla, Santa Marta, Cali y algunos municipios de Antioquia. Debido a la aceptación que han tenido las medias deportivas por parte de los clientes y la expansión en el mercado colombiano, se ha tomado la decisión de estudiar la viabilidad en la exportación de este producto hacia Canadá, un país con un mercado de alto poder adquisitivo, estabilidad económica y fiscal, y por supuesto con un alto potencial importador de prendas deportivas. Se realizó un estudio de este país, revisando diferentes variables consideradas importantes: tales como política, economía, exportaciones de Colombia a Canadá, importaciones de Canadá en el rubro textil. Con toda esta información, se procedió a estudiar más a fondo las condiciones comerciales y de internacionalización que brinda Canadá. Se desarrolló la elaboración de la matriz de las Debilidades, Oportunidades, Fortalezas y Amenazas (DOFA) que nos dio un detallado reflejo de la viabilidad del proyecto exportador, sustentando la hoja de ruta a llevar. Es importante tener en cuenta la calidad y bajo costo que tiene la empresa Josmar en cuanto a la fabricación de medias deportivas, lo cual le permite ser competitivo frente a las empresas canadienses que fabrican este producto, y las ventajas que poseería en el mercado gracias al tratado de libre comercio firmado por Colombia y Canadá. A través de innovación en avances tecnológicos en su maquinaria, estrategias en la logística para la exportación de productos y estrategias de publicidad por medio de una nueva página web, se pretende captar el mercado canadiense, con el ánimo de ganar un espacio importante en el mercado textil del país norteamericano. ; Introducción . 3 1.Resumen . 4 1.2 Palabras claves . 5 2.Planteamiento del problema . 5 2.1 Pregunta del problema . 5 2.2 Objetivo principal . 5 2.3 Objetivos específicos . 5 2.4 Base teórica . 6 2.5 Base metodológica . 7 3.Análisis matriz DOFA . 8 4.Análisis del negocio . 9 5.Análisis de internacionalización . 12 6.Análisis del sector y nicho . 15 7.Análisis económico y financiero . 15 8.Valor agregado del proceso de internacionalización . 19 9.Conclusión . 23 10.Anexo 24 11.Referencias 24 ; Josmar is an SME manufacturer of sports socks, located in the city of Bogotá and with more tan 30 years of operation. It distributes the product in cities such as Manizales,Bogotá,Barrancabermeja, Barranquilla, Santa Marta, Cali and some municipalities in Antioquia. Due to the acceptance that sports socks have had by customers and the expansion in the Colombian market, the decision has been made to study the feasibility of exporting this product to Canada, a country with a high purchasing power market. , economic and fiscal stability, and of course with a high potential importer of sportswear. A study of this country was carried out, reviewing different variables considered important: such as politics, economy, exports from Colombia to Canada, imports from Canada in the textile sector. With all this information, we proceeded to further study the commercial and internationalization conditions offered by Canada. The development of the matrix of Weaknesses, Opportunities, Strengths and Threats (SWOT) was developed, which gave us a detailed reflection of the viability of the export project, supporting the roadmap to be carried out. It is important to take into account the quality and low cost that the Josmar company has in terms of the manufacture of sports socks, which allows it to be competitive compared to the Canadian companies that manufacture this product, and the advantages that it would have in the market thanks to free trade agreement signed by Colombia and Canada. Through innovation in technological advances in its machinery, logistics strategies for the export of products and advertising strategies through a new website, it is intended to capture the Canadian market, with the aim of gaining an important space in the market textile of the North American country.
The present paper explores the utilisation of dopants to increase the critical temperature of Carbon Dioxide (sCO2) as a solution towards maintaining the high thermal efficiencies of sCO2 cycles even when ambient temperatures compromise their feasibility. To this end, the impact of adopting CO2-based mixtures on the performance of power blocks representative of Concentrated Solar Power plants is explored, considering two possible dopants: hexafluorobenzene (C6F6) and titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4). The analysis is applied to a well-known cycle -Recuperated Rankine- and a less common layout -Precompression-. The latter is found capable of fully exploiting the interesting features of these non-conventional working fluids, enabling thermal efficiencies up to 2.3% higher than the simple recuperative configuration. Different scenarios for maximum cycle pressure (250–300 bar), turbine inlet temperature (550–700 °C) and working fluid composition (10–25% molar fraction of dopant) are considered. The results in this work show that CO2-blends with 15–25%(v) of the cited dopants enable efficiencies well in excess of 50% for minimum cycle temperatures as high as 50 °C. To verify this potential gain, the most representative pure sCO2 cycles have been optimised at two minimum cycle temperatures (32 °C and 50°C), proving the superiority of the proposed blended technology in high ambient temperature applications. ; European Union's Horizon 2020 - SCARABEUS project - N 814985 ; University of Seville (Spain) Internal Research Programme (Plan Propio de Investigación) No 2019/00000359
[EN] The influence of fluid dynamic conditions on the oxygen transport through mixed ionic-electronic membranes was studied experimentally and numerically. A set of permeation experiments was performed in a wide range of operating conditions combining temperature, driving force and flow rate of air feed and sweep streams. A computational model was built and enabled to systematically evaluate the effect of the fluid dynamic conditions on O-2 separation process. This model includes the surface resistance (gas exchange kinetics) and bulk oxygen-ion diffusion. The experimental set was used to obtain the model parameters by following a two-step fitting procedure: a first fitting of a simplified one-dimensional model using genetic algorithms and a subsequent refining of the parameters using the complete model implemented in COMSOL Multiphysics. The high-accuracy model allowed characterizing the O-2 transport phenomena and understanding the different factors governing the overall process, e.g. by using different membrane thicknesses, sweep gases or vacuum. Simulations of the fitted model revealed the importance of the sweep effect in the O-2 transport across the membrane and enabled to establish rules for both design of permeation experiments and up-scaling. ; This work was financially supported by Spanish Government (Grants SEV-2016-0683 and RTI2018-102161) and Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEO/2018/006). ; Catalán-Martínez, D.; Santafé Moros, MA.; Gozálvez-Zafrilla, JM.; García-Fayos, J.; Serra Alfaro, JM. (2020). Characterization of oxygen transport phenomena on BSCF membranes assisted by fluid dynamic simulations including surface exchange. Chemical Engineering Journal. 387:1-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2020.124069 ; S ; 1 ; 15 ; 387 ; Habib, M. A., Badr, H. M., Ahmed, S. F., Ben-Mansour, R., Mezghani, K., Imashuku, S., … Ghoneim, A. F. (2010). A review of recent developments in carbon capture utilizing oxy-fuel combustion in conventional and ion transport membrane systems. International Journal of Energy ...
Disponible en: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/12/11/1833 ; In recent years, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)-based Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) systems have been developed due to their advantages for safe and fast detection of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and landmines. The complexity of these systems requires performing extensive measurement campaigns in order to test their performance and detection capabilities. However, UAV flights are limited by weather conditions and battery autonomy. To overcome these problems, this contribution presents a portable and easily-deployable measurement setup which can be used as a testbed for the assessment of the capabilities of the airborne system. In particular, the proposed portable measurement setup replicates fairly well the conditions faced by the airborne system, which can hardly be reproduced in indoor GPR measurement facilities. Three validation examples are presented: the first two analyze the capability of the measurement setup to conduct experiments in different scenarios (loamy and sandy soils). The third example focuses on the problem of antenna phase center displacement with frequency and its impact on GPR imaging, proposing a simple technique to correct it. ; This research was funded by the Ministerio de Educación—Gobierno de España under Grant FPU15/06341 and FPU15/06431; by the Ministerio de Defensa—Gobierno de España and the University of Oviedo under Contract 2019/SP03390102/00000204/CN-19-002 ("SAFEDRONE"); by the Xunta de Galicia – Axencia Galega de Innovación (GAIN) under project 2018-IN855A 2018/10 ("RadioUAV: drones para aplicaciones más allá de lo visible"); by the Government of the Principality of Asturias (PCTI) and European Union (FEDER) under Grant IDI/2018/000191; and by the Instituto Universitario de Tecnología Industrial de Asturias (IUTA) under Project SV-19-GIJON-1-17 ("RadioUAV").
The birth of genes that encode new protein sequences is a major source of evolutionary innovation. However, we still understand relatively little about how these genes come into being and which functions they are selected for. To address these questions, we have obtained a large collection of mammalian-specific gene families that lack homologues in other eukaryotic groups. We have combined gene annotations and de novo transcript assemblies from 30 different mammalian species, obtaining ∼6,000 gene families. In general, the proteins in mammalian-specific gene families tend to be short and depleted in aromatic and negatively charged residues. Proteins which arose early in mammalian evolution include milk and skin polypeptides, immune response components, and proteins involved in reproduction. In contrast, the functions of proteins which have a more recent origin remain largely unknown, despite the fact that these proteins also have extensive proteomics support. We identify several previously described cases of genes originated de novo from noncoding genomic regions, supporting the idea that this mechanism frequently underlies the evolution of new protein-coding genes in mammals. Finally, we show that most young mammalian genes are preferentially expressed in testis, suggesting that sexual selection plays an important role in the emergence of new functional genes. ; The work was funded by grants BFU2012-36820 and BFU2015-65235-P from Ministerio de Economía e Innovación (Spanish Government) and co-funded by FEDER. We also received funding from Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca Generatlitat de Catalunya (AGAUR), grant number 2014SGR1121
Three dendrimeric peptides were synthesized in order to evaluate their immunogenicity and their potential protection against classical swine fever virus (CSFV) in domestic pigs. Construct 1, an optimized version of a previously used dendrimer, had four copies of a B-cell epitope derived from CSFV E2 glycoprotein connected to an also CSFV-derived T-cell epitope through maleimide instead of thioether linkages. Construct 2 was similarly built but included only two copies of the B-cell epitope, and in also bivalent construct 3 the CSFV T-cell epitope was replaced by a previously described one from the 3A protein of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV). Animals were inoculated twice with a 21-day interval and challenged 15days after the second immunization. Clinical signs were recorded daily and ELISA tests were performed to detect antibodies against specific peptide and E2. The neutralising antibody response was assessed 13days after challenge. Despite the change to maleimide connectivity, only partial protection against CSFV was again observed. The best clinical protection was observed in group 3. Animals inoculated with constructs 2 and 3 showed higher anti-peptide humoral response, suggesting that two copies of the B-cell epitope are sufficient or even better than four copies for swine immune recognition. In addition, for construct 3 higher neutralizing antibody titres against CSFV were detected. Our results support the immunogenicity of the CSFV B-cell epitope and the cooperative role of the FMDV 3A T-cell epitope in inducing a neutralising response against CSFV in domestic pigs. This is also the first time that the FMDV T-cell epitope shows effectivity in improving swine immune response against a different virus. Our findings highlight the relevance of dendrimeric peptides as a powerful tool for epitope characterization and antiviral strategies development. ; The research in CReSA was supported by grant AGL2015-66907 from the Spanish government. J.A. B. had a pre-doctoral fellowship FPI-MINECO 2016 from Spanish government. S. M. had a pre-doctoral fellowship FI-DGR 2014 from AGAUR, Generalitat de Catalunya. Work at CBMSO was supported by grants AGL2014-52395-C2-01 (MINECO, Spain) and S2013/ABI-2906-PLATESA (Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid). Work at UPF was funded by AGL2014-52395-C2-02 (MINECO, Spain)
The characterization of biologically active peptides relies heavily on the study of their efficacy, toxicity, mechanism of action, cellular uptake, or intracellular location, using both in vitro and in vivo studies. These studies frequently depend on the use of fluorescence-based techniques. Since most peptides are not intrinsically fluorescent, they are conjugated to a fluorophore. The conjugation may interfere with peptide properties, thus biasing the results. The selection of the most suitable fluorophore is highly relevant. Here, a comprehensive study with blood-brain barrier (BBB) peptide shuttles (PepH3 and PepNeg) and antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) (vCPP2319 and Ctn[15-34]), tested as anticancer peptides (ACPs), having different fluorophores, namely 5(6)-carboxyfluorescein (CF), rhodamine B (RhB), quasar 570 (Q570), or tide fluor 3 (TF3) attached is presented. The goal is the evaluation of the impact of the selected fluorophores on peptide performance, applying routinely used techniques to assess cytotoxicity/toxicity, secondary structure, BBB translocation, and cellular internalization. Our results show that some fluorophores significantly modulate peptide activity when compared with unlabeled peptides, being more noticeable in hydrophobic and charged fluorophores. This study highlights the need for a careful experimental design for fluorescently labeled molecules, such as peptides. ; The authors thank the Portuguese Funding Agency, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, FCT IP, for financial support (grants: PD/BD/128281/2017, PTDC/BBB-NAN/1578/2014); European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No 828774; and "la Caixa" Banking Foundation under the project code HR17-00409. JC and RS gratefully acknowledge the FCT for financial support through projects UID/Multi/04349/2019 and PTDC/QUI-NUC/30147/2017.
[EN] Hydrogen production from water electrolysis is a key enabling energy storage technology for the large-scale deployment of intermittent renewable energy sources. Proton ceramic electrolysers (PCEs) can produce dry pressurized hydrogen directly from steam, avoiding major parts of cost-driving downstream separation and compression. However, the development of PCEs has suffered from limited electrical efficiency due to electronic leakage and poor electrode kinetics. Here, we present the first fully operational BaZrO3-based tubular PCE, with 10 cm(2) active area and a hydrogen production rate above 15 Nml min(-1). The novel steam anode Ba1-xGd0.8La0.2+xCo2O6-delta exhibits mixed p-type electronic and protonic conduction and low activation energy for water splitting, enabling total polarization resistances below 1 Omega cm(2) at 600 degrees C and Faradaic efficiencies close to 100% at high steam pressures. These tubular PCEs are mechanically robust, tolerate high pressures, allow improved process integration and offer scale-up modularity. ; The work leading to these results has received funding from the Research Council of Norway (grant 236828) and from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) for the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Technology Initiative under grant agreement 621244 ('ELECTRA') and Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement 779486 ('GAMER'). This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Hydrogen Europe and Hydrogen Europe research. ; Vøllestad, E.; Strandbakke, R.; Tarach, M.; Catalán-Martínez, D.; Fontaine, M.; Beeaff, D.; Clark, DR. (2019). Mixed proton and electron conducting double perovskite anodes for stable and efficient tubular proton ceramic electrolysers. Nature Materials. 18(7):752-759. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-019-0388-2 ; S ; 752 ; 759 ; 18 ; 7 ; Hauch, A., Ebbesen, S. D., Jensen, S. H. & Mogensen, M. Highly efficient high temperature electrolysis. J. Mater. ...
A series of gramicidin S (GS) analogues have been synthesized where the Phe (i + 1) and Pro (i + 2) residues of the beta-turn have been swapped while the respective chiralities (D-, L-) at each position are preserved, and Phe is replaced by surrogates with aromatic side chains of diverse size, orientation, and flexibility. Although most analogues preserve the beta-sheet structure, as assessed by NMR, their antibiotic activities turn out to be highly dependent on the bulkiness and spatial arrangement of the aromatic side chain. Significant increases in microbicidal potency against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens are observed for several analogues, resulting in improved therapeutic profiles. Data indicate that seemingly minor replacements at the GS beta-turn can have significant impact on antibiotic activity, highlighting this region as a hot spot for modulating GS plasticity and activity. ; This work was supported by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (BIO2008-04487-CO3-02 to D.A., CTQ2008-00080/BQU to M.A.J., CTQ2007-62245 to C.C.), Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (PI061125 and RD06/0021/0006 to L.R.), by the regional governments of Aragón (research group E40), Catalonia (SGR2008-492), and Madrid (COMBACT S-BIO-0260/2006). C.S. and C.M.S. thank Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-European Social Fund for FPU and I3P fellowships, respectively. This project has been funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, under contract number HHSN261200800001E. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the view of the policies of the Department of Health and Human Services, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organization imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. This research was supported (in part) by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, National Cancer Institute, Center for Cancer Research.
Analogues of the cationic antimicrobial peptide gramicidin S (GS), cyclo(Val-Orn-Leu-D-Phe-Pro)2, with d-Phe residues replaced by different (restricted mobility, mostly) surrogates have been synthesized and used in SAR studies against several pathogenic bacteria. While all D-Phe substitutions are shown by NMR to preserve the overall beta-sheet conformation, they entail subtle structural alterations that lead to significant modifications in biological activity. In particular, the analogue incorporating D-Tic (1,2,3,4-tetrahydroisoquinoline-3-carboxylic acid) shows a modest but significant increase in therapeutic index, mostly due to a sharp decrease in hemolytic effect. The fact that NMR data show a shortened distance between the D-Tic aromatic ring and the Orn delta-amino group may help explain the improved antibiotic profile of this analogue. ; This work was supported by Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (BIO2005-07592-CO2-02 to D.A., BFU2005-01855 and CTQ2008-0080 to M.A.J., CTQ2007-62245 to C.C.), Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (PI061125 and RD 06/0021/0006 to L.R., PI040885 to D.A.), by the regional governments of Aragón (research group E40), Catalunya (SGR2005-00494), and Madrid (S-BIO-0260/2006).
Exposure to environmental pollutants, particularly during pregnancy, can have adverse consequences on child development but little is known about the effects of pollutant mixtures on endogenous metabolism in pregnant women. We aimed to identify urinary metabolic signatures associated with low level exposure to multiple environmental pollutants in pregnant women from the INMA (INfancia y Medio Ambiente) birth cohort (Spain, N = 750). 35 chemical exposures were quantified in first trimester blood samples (organochlorine pesticides, PCBs, PFAS), in cord blood (mercury), and twice in urine at 12 and 32 weeks of pregnancy (metals, phthalates, bisphenol A). 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) metabolic profiles of urine were acquired in the same samples as pollutants. We explored associations between exposures and metabolism through an exposome-metabolome wide association scan and multivariate O2PLS modeling. Novel and reproducible associations were found across two periods of pregnancy for three nonpersistent pollutants and across two subcohorts for four of the persistent pollutants. We found novel metabolic signatures associated with arsenic exposure: TMAO and dimethylamine possibly related to gut microbial methylamine metabolism and homarine related to fish intake. Tobacco smoke exposure was related to coffee metabolism and PCBs with 3-hydroxyvaleric acid, usually released under ketoacidosis. These findings will have implications for further understanding of maternal-fetal health, and health across the life-course. ; This work was supported by the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no 308333–the HELIX project, the Medical Research Council Integrative Toxicology Training Partnership (ITTP) through a PhD studentship (recipient LM), an MRC-ITTP career development fellowship (recipient MC), an MRC early career fellowship (recipient OR), and the Medical Research Council–Public Health England (MRC-PHE) Centre for Environment and Health (MR/L01341X/1). The subcohort studies were funded by grants from Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Red INMA G03/176, FIS-PI06/0867, FIS-PS09/00090 and FIS-PI13/02187), Generalitat de Catalunya-CIRIT 1999SGR 00241, Department of Health of the Basque Government (2005111093, 2009111069, and 2013111089), and the Provincial Government of Gipuzkoa (DFG06/004 and DFG08/001). Convenios anuales con los ayuntamientos de la zona del estudio (Zumarraga, Urretxu, Legazpi, Azkoitia y Azpeitia y Beasain). We thank Olivier Cloarec and Ekaterina (Katya) Nevedomskaya for developing the in-house script to perform O2PLS models.
