Plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) are emerging as an efficient and sustainable alternative for private and public road transportation. From the point of view of electric grids, PEVs are currently ...considered as simple loads due to their low market penetration. However, as the PEV fleet grows, implementation of an intelligent management system will be necessary in order to avoid large capital expenditures in network reinforcements and negative effects on electric distribution networks, such as: voltage deviations, transformers and lines saturations, increase of electrical losses, etc. These issues may jeopardize the safety and reliability of the grid. As a consequence, this topic has been researched in many papers where a wide range of solutions have been proposed. This paper presents a review of different strategies, algorithms and methods to implement a smart charging control system. Also significant projects around the world about PEVs integration are presented. Finally, on the basis of this review, main findings and some recommendations are presented.
ABSTRACT We present the first results of the High Cadence Transient Survey (HiTS), a survey for which the objective is to detect and follow-up optical transients with characteristic timescales from ...hours to days, especially the earliest hours of supernova (SN) explosions. HiTS uses the Dark Energy Camera and a custom pipeline for image subtraction, candidate filtering and candidate visualization, which runs in real-time to be able to react rapidly to the new transients. We discuss the survey design, the technical challenges associated with the real-time analysis of these large volumes of data and our first results. In our 2013, 2014, and 2015 campaigns, we detected more than 120 young SN candidates, but we did not find a clear signature from the short-lived SN shock breakouts (SBOs) originating after the core collapse of red supergiant stars, which was the initial science aim of this survey. Using the empirical distribution of limiting magnitudes from our observational campaigns, we measured the expected recovery fraction of randomly injected SN light curves, which included SBO optical peaks produced with models from Tominaga et al. (2011) and Nakar & Sari (2010). From this analysis, we cannot rule out the models from Tominaga et al. (2011) under any reasonable distributions of progenitor masses, but we can marginally rule out the brighter and longer-lived SBO models from Nakar & Sari (2010) under our best-guess distribution of progenitor masses. Finally, we highlight the implications of this work for future massive data sets produced by astronomical observatories, such as LSST.
The notion that plasma cells (PCs) are terminally differentiated has prevented intensive research in multiple myeloma (MM) about their phenotypic plasticity and differentiation. Here, we demonstrated ...in healthy individuals (n=20) that the CD19-CD81 expression axis identifies three bone marrow (BM)PC subsets with distinct age-prevalence, proliferation, replication-history, immunoglobulin-production, and phenotype, consistent with progressively increased differentiation from CD19+CD81+ into CD19-CD81+ and CD19-CD81- BMPCs. Afterwards, we demonstrated in 225 newly diagnosed MM patients that, comparing to normal BMPC counterparts, 59% had fully differentiated (CD19-CD81-) clones, 38% intermediate-differentiated (CD19-CD81+) and 3% less-differentiated (CD19+CD81+) clones. The latter patients had dismal outcome, and PC differentiation emerged as an independent prognostic marker for progression-free (HR: 1.7; P=0.005) and overall survival (HR: 2.1; P=0.006). Longitudinal comparison of diagnostic vs minimal-residual-disease samples (n=40) unraveled that in 20% of patients, less-differentiated PCs subclones become enriched after therapy-induced pressure. We also revealed that CD81 expression is epigenetically regulated, that less-differentiated clonal PCs retain high expression of genes related to preceding B-cell stages (for example: PAX5), and show distinct mutation profile vs fully differentiated PC clones within individual patients. Together, we shed new light into PC plasticity and demonstrated that MM patients harbouring less-differentiated PCs have dismal survival, which might be related to higher chemoresistant potential plus different molecular and genomic profiles.
The mechanisms involved in the progression from monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) and smoldering myeloma (SMM) to malignant multiple myeloma (MM) and plasma cell leukemia ...(PCL) are poorly understood but believed to involve the sequential acquisition of genetic hits. We performed exome and whole-genome sequencing on a series of MGUS (n=4), high-risk (HR)SMM (n=4), MM (n=26) and PCL (n=2) samples, including four cases who transformed from HR-SMM to MM, to determine the genetic factors that drive progression of disease. The pattern and number of non-synonymous mutations show that the MGUS disease stage is less genetically complex than MM, and HR-SMM is similar to presenting MM. Intraclonal heterogeneity is present at all stages and using cases of HR-SMM, which transformed to MM, we show that intraclonal heterogeneity is a typical feature of the disease. At the HR-SMM stage of disease, the majority of the genetic changes necessary to give rise to MM are already present. These data suggest that clonal progression is the key feature of transformation of HR-SMM to MM and as such the invasive clinically predominant clone typical of MM is already present at the SMM stage and would be amenable to therapeutic intervention at that stage.
Specific microRNA (miRNA) signatures have been associated with different cytogenetic subtypes in acute leukemias. This finding prompted us to investigate potential associations between genetic ...abnormalities in multiple myeloma (MM) and singular miRNA expression profiles. Moreover, global gene expression profiling was also analyzed to find correlated miRNA gene expression and select miRNA target genes that show such correlation. For this purpose, we analyzed the expression level of 365 miRNAs and the gene expression profiling in 60 newly diagnosed MM patients, selected to represent the most relevant recurrent genetic abnormalities. Supervised analysis showed significantly deregulated miRNAs in the different cytogenetic subtypes as compared with normal PC. It is interesting to note that miR-1 and miR-133a clustered on the same chromosomal loci, were specifically overexpressed in the cases with t(14;16). The analysis of the relationship between miRNA expression and their respective target genes showed a conserved inverse correlation between several miRNAs deregulated in MM cells and CCND2 expression level. These results illustrate, for the first time, that miRNA expression pattern in MM is associated with genetic abnormalities, and that the correlation of the expression profile of miRNA and their putative mRNA targets is useful to find statistically significant protein-coding genes in MM pathogenesis associated with changes in specific miRNAs.
Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) is a suitable technology for managing wastes with a high moisture content, providing a carbon-rich and high energy density material called hydrochar and a process ...water (PW) with significant organic matter content. The aim of this work was to develop a new approach to sewage sludge management involving anaerobic digestion (AD) of the PW of dewatered waste activated sludge (DWAS) with primary sewage sludge (PSS). The process was optimized by performing semi-continuous experiments with different feed mixture compositions (10% PW/90% PSS and 5% PW/95% PSS, on a COD basis), organic loading rates (OLR; 1.5 and 2.5 g COD L−1 d−1), and temperature regimes (mesophilic and thermophilic). The combination of mesophilic conditions, a 10% PW/90% PSS feed mixture and OLR of 1.5 g COD L−1 d−1 provided concentrations of volatile fatty acids <400 mg COD L−1 in addition to a methane yield (172 ± 11 mL CH4 g−1 CODadded), 1.15 times the value for the control test (100% PSS). Therefore, the energy content of hydrochar from HTC of DWAS followed by AD of the process water with primary sewage sludge enhances the valorization of this renewable residue.
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•Co-digestion of PW of DWAS + PSS is a new approach for sewage sludge management•At 1.5 g COD L−1 d−1, 35 °C and 10% PW/90% PSS the CH4 yield is 15% over the control•Increasing OLR from 1.5 to 2.5 g COD L−1 d−1 raised methane yield for 5% PW/95% PSS•HTC of DWAS + AD of PW/PSS increased 4.4 times the energy of AD of mixed sludge
The ranges of many species are shifting poleward as global warming intensifies, but this process might be less intense in philopatric species, i.e. those with the tendency to reproduce at their natal ...sites. Marine turtles are highly philopatric and their vulnerability to global warming is exacerbated by a life history combining delayed sexual maturity, temperature‐dependent sex determination and low embryo survival at high incubation temperature. Detection of nesting events of loggerhead turtles in the Western Mediterranean Sea has increased largely during the first two decades of the 21st century, which could be a response to global warming or the result of increased sampling effort. The deployment of temperature data loggers at 52 beaches scattered along the Mediterranean coast of Spain demonstrated that sand temperature is currently high enough to allow the incubation of loggerhead turtles clutches in most Spanish beaches. However, the reconstruction of sand temperature from 1950 to 2019 revealed that thermal conditions suitable for the regular nesting of loggerhead turtles have existed in Spanish beaches only since 2010, although sporadic nesting was possible previously in exceptionally warm years. The future establishment of a self‐sustained population would probably require further increases in temperature, to ensure a female‐biased offspring production, but the process might be jeopardized by increased erosion and beach flooding resulting from sea level rise.
Resumen
Muchas especies están desplazando su rango de distribución geográfica hacia los polos a medida que el calentamiento global se intensifica, pero este proceso podría ser menos intenso en las especies filopátricas, es decir, aquellas con tendencia a reproducirse allí donde nacieron. Las tortugas marinas son muy filopátricas y su vulnerabilidad al calentamiento global se ve incrementada por una historia de vida en la que se combinan una madurez sexual tardía, la determinación del sexo por la temperatura de incubación y una baja supervivencia embrionaria a temperaturas elevadas. La detección de eventos de nidificación de tortuga boba en el Mediterráneo Occidental se ha incrementado notablemente durante las dos primeras décadas del siglo XXI, lo que podría deberse el calentamiento global o a un mayor esfuerzo de muestreo. La colocación de registradores de temperatura en 52 playas repartidas por las costas mediterráneas de España demuestra que la temperatura de la arena es actualmente lo suficientemente elevada como para permitir la incubación de puestas de tortuga boba en la mayoría de las playas del mediterráneo español. Sin embargo, la reconstrucción de la temperatura de la arena entre 1950 y 2019 ha revelado que las condiciones térmicas adecuadas para la puesta regular de esta especie en España se han registrado únicamente desde 2010, si bien las puestas esporádicas eran posibles previamente en años excepcionalmente cálidos. El establecimiento de una población autosuficiente de la tortuga boba en España requeriría un incremento aun mayor de la temperatura, para asegurar la producción de hembras, pero el proceso se vería comprometido por la erosión de las playas resultante del incremento del nivel del mar.
Average summer sand temperature (July 20th–August 10th) at 40 cm deep in Spanish Mediterranean beaches, as reconstructed from air temperature at El Prat beach, has increased from 1950 to 2019 (top figure). As a result, the duration of the viable nesting window for loggerhead turtles (bottom figure) has also increased and the thermal environment has become suitable for the development of their clutches since 2010. Arrows denote years when at least one hatchling emerged from one loggerhead turtle clutch laid less than 200 km from El Prat beach.
This paper focuses on the modelling of the performance of a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC)-based cogeneration system to integrate it in hybrid and/or connected to grid systems and ...enable the optimization of the techno-economic efficiency of the system in which it is integrated. To this end, experimental tests on a PEMFC-based cogeneration system of 600 W of electrical power have been performed to train an Artificial Neural Network (ANN). Once the learning of the ANN, it has been able to emulate real operating conditions, such as the cooling water out temperature and the hydrogen consumption of the PEMFC depending on several variables, such as the electric power demanded, temperature of the inlet water flow to the cooling circuit, cooling water flow and the heat demanded to the CHP system. After analysing the results, it is concluded that the presented model reproduces with enough accuracy and precision the performance of the experimented PEMFC, thus enabling the use of the model and the ANN learning methodology to model other PEMFC-based cogeneration systems and integrate them in techno-economic efficiency optimization control systems.
•The effect of the energy demand variation on the PEMFC's efficiency is predicted.•The model relies on experimental data obtained from a 600 W PEMFC.•It provides the temperature and the hydrogen consumption with good accuracy.•The range in which the global energy efficiency could be improved is provided.
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