A new look at the long-term performance of general solar thermal systems

This work addresses the problem of evaluating the long-term performance of solar thermal systems, which is quantified through the monthly or seasonal/annual solar fraction. It is shown that for a general solar system it may be expressed as a function of monthly utilizabilities, calculated for two different temperature (radiation) levels, which correspond to minimum and maximum operating temperatures. Both systems without storage and with storage are considered. Examples for solar cooling and solar cogeneration systems are shown.     

A Direct Solver for 2D Non-Stationary Boltzmann-Poisson Systems for Semiconductor Devices: A MESFET Simulation by WENO-Boltzmann Schemes

We present preliminary results of a high order WENO scheme applied to deterministic computations for two dimensional formulation of the transients for the Boltzmann-Poisson system describing electron transport in semiconductor devices. The collisional term models optical-phonon interactions which become dominant under strong energetic conditions corresponding to nanoscale active regions under applied bias. We treat the Boltzmann Transport equation in a spherical coordinate system for the wave-vector space. The problem is three dimensional in the wave-vector space and two dimensional in the physical space, plus the time variable driving to steady states. The new formulation avoids the singularity due to the spherical coordinate system.     

Methodology for third-order astigmatism compensation in off-axis spherical reflective systems

The main constraint of classical off-axis reflecting systems is the primary astigmatism that has long been a research topic of interest. This astigmatism in off-axis spherical reflective imaging systems can be eliminated by using the proper configuration. These configurations could be derived from the marginal ray fans equation, and they are valid for small angles of incidence. The conditions for the astigmatism compensation in configurations with two and three off-axis mirrors have been derived and analyzed, which have not been reported previously. The expression that defines the conditions for primary astigmatism compensation in a four-mirror system is presented. This shows that the marginal ray fan equation can be used to obtain the condition for astigmatism compensation of a reflective system with any number of mirrors. The developed methodology is verified by ray-tracing analysis of some examples.     

Optical spectroscopy of single Cd0.6Zn0.4Te/ZnTe quantum dots on Si substrate

Microphotoluminescence (μ-PL) measurements were carried out to investigate the optical properties of single Cd_0.6Zn_0.4Te/ZnTe quantum dots (QDs) grown on Si (001) substrate by using molecular beam epitaxy. The high quality of single Cd_0.6Zn_0.4Te/ZnTe QDs is witnessed by resolution-limited emission, negligible background and absence of measurable spectral jitter or blinking. Polarization-dependent and power-dependent μ-PL spectroscopy measurements were performed to identify the exciton, the biexciton, and the charged exciton in the emission spectra of single QDs. Furthermore a weak linearly polarized line is observed on the low energy side of the neutral exciton and is ascribed to dark exciton recombination.     

Advanced EPI-X4 Derivatives Covalently Bind Human Serum Albumin Resulting in Prolonged Plasma Stability

Advanced derivatives of the Endogenous Peptide Inhibitor of CXCR4 (EPI-X4) have shown therapeutic efficacy upon topical administration in animal models of asthma and dermatitis. Here, we studied the plasma stability of the EPI-X4 lead compounds WSC02 and JM#21, using mass spectrometry to monitor the chemical integrity of the peptides and a functional fluorescence-based assay to determine peptide function in a CXCR4-antibody competition assay. Although mass spectrometry revealed very rapid disappearance of both peptides in human plasma within seconds, the functional assay revealed a significantly higher half-life of 9 min for EPI-X4 WSC02 and 6 min for EPI-X4 JM#21. Further analyses demonstrated that EPI-X4 WSC02 and EPI-X4 JM#21 interact with low molecular weight plasma components and serum albumin. Albumin binding is mediated by the formation of a disulfide bridge between Cys10 in the EPI-X4 peptides and Cys34 in albumin. These covalently linked albumin–peptide complexes have a higher stability in plasma as compared with the non-bound peptides and retain the ability to bind and antagonize CXCR4. Remarkably, chemically synthesized albumin-EPI-X4 conjugates coupled by non-breakable bonds have a drastically increased plasma stability of over 2 h. Thus, covalent coupling of EPI-X4 to albumin in vitro before administration or in vivo post administration may significantly increase the pharmacokinetic properties of this new class of CXCR4 antagonists.     

Unhealthy Diets Induce Distinct and Regional Effects on Intestinal Inflammatory Signalling Pathways and Long-Lasting Metabolic Dysfunction in Rats

The intestinal epithelium is a principal site for environmental agents’ detection. Several inflammation- and stress-related signalling pathways have been identified as key players in these processes. However, it is still unclear how the chronic intake of inadequate nutrients triggers inflammatory signalling pathways in different intestinal regions. We aimed to evaluate the impact of unhealthy dietary patterns, starting at a younger age, and the association with metabolic dysfunction, intestinal inflammatory response, and obesity in adulthood. A rat model was used to evaluate the effects of the consumption of sugary beverages (HSD) and a Western diet (WD), composed of ultra-processed foods. Both diets showed a positive correlation with adiposity index, but a positive correlation was found between the HSD diet and the levels of blood glucose and triglycerides, whereas the WD diet correlated positively with triglyceride levels. Moreover, a distinct inflammatory response was associated with either the WD or HSD diets. The WD induced an increase in TLR2, TLR4, and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) intestinal gene expression, with higher levels in the colon and overexpression of the inducible nitric oxide synthase. In turn, the HSD diet induced activation of the TLR2-mediated NF-κB signalling pathway in the small intestine. Altogether, these findings support the concept that early intake of unhealthy foods and nutrients are a main exogenous signal for disturbances of intestinal immune mechanisms and in a region-specific manner, ultimately leading to obesity-related disorders in later life.     

Tolerance,Adaptation, and Cell Response Elicited by Micromonospora sp. Facing Tellurite Toxicity: A Biological and Physical-Chemical Characterization

The intense use of tellurium (Te) in industrial applications, along with the improper disposal of Te-derivatives, is causing their accumulation in the environment, where oxyanion tellurite (TeO₃²⁻) is the most soluble, bioavailable, and toxic Te-species. On the other hand, tellurium is a rare metalloid element whose natural supply will end shortly with possible economic and technological effects. Thus, Te-containing waste represents the source from which Te should be recycled and recovered. Among the explored strategies, the microbial TeO₃²⁻ biotransformation into less toxic Te-species is the most appropriate concerning the circular economy. Actinomycetes are ideal candidates in environmental biotechnology. However, their exploration in TeO₃²⁻ biotransformation is scarce due to limited knowledge regarding oxyanion microbial processing. Here, this gap was filled by investigating the cell tolerance, adaptation, and response to TeO₃²⁻ of a Micromonospora strain isolated from a metal(loid)-rich environment. To this aim, an integrated biological, physical-chemical, and statistical approach combining physiological and biochemical assays with confocal or scanning electron (SEM) microscopy and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy in attenuated total reflectance mode (ATR-FTIR) was designed. Micromonospora cells exposed to TeO₃²⁻ under different physiological states revealed a series of striking cell responses, such as cell morphology changes, extracellular polymeric substance production, cell membrane damages and modifications, oxidative stress burst, protein aggregation and phosphorylation, and superoxide dismutase induction. These results highlight this Micromonospora strain as an asset for biotechnological purposes.     

An unsupervised approach for fault diagnosis of power transformers

Electrical utilities apply condition monitoring on power transformers (PTs) to prevent unplanned outages and detect incipient faults. This monitoring is often done using dissolved gas analysis (DGA) coupled with engineering methods to interpret the data, however the obtained results lack accuracy and reproducibility. In order to improve accuracy, various advanced analytical methods have been proposed in the literature. Nonetheless, these methods are often hard to interpret by the decision-maker and require a substantial amount of failure records to be trained. In the context of the PTs, failure data quality is recurrently questionable, and failure records are scarce when compared to nonfailure records. This work tackles these challenges by proposing a novel unsupervised methodology for diagnosing PT condition. Differently from the supervised approaches in the literature, our method does not require the labeling of DGA records and incorporates a visual representation of the results in a 2D scatter plot to assist in interpretation. A modified clustering technique is used to classify the condition of different PTs using historical DGA data. Finally, well-known engineering methods are applied to interpret each of the obtained clusters. The approach was validated using data from two different real-world data sets provided by a generation company and a distribution system operator. The results highlight the advantages of the proposed approach and outperformed engineering methods (from IEC and IEEE standards) and companies legacy method. The approach was also validated on the public IEC TC10 database, showing the capability to achieve comparable accuracy with supervised learning methods from the literature. As a result of the methodology performance, both companies are currently using it in their daily DGA diagnosis.     

Evaluation of a solar thermal system using building louvre shading devices

External louvres are increasingly used to provide solar protection for building glazed surfaces. The integration of collectors into the external louvres of buildings offers a means of reducing system cost as well as providing architects with more freedom to integrate the technology into their designs. This work concerns the modification of existing louvre designs to integrate a solar collector in the shading device. The evaluation of a thermal solar system for water heating is assessed in this paper. A numerical model for the integrated solar collector was developed for different configurations and the collector efficiency is quantified for each configuration. System thermal performance was obtained for the climatic conditions of Lisbon (Portugal) and Tenerife (Spain). Economic and environmental viability of the system is assessed.     

A matrix model for the flow of control in prolog programs with applications to profiling

In Prolog the flow of control is relatively complex; four counts (which we call currents)—call, fail, succeed and redo—and two intrinsic properties—the failure and the ‘alternative’ probabilities—can be associated with every literal in a clause body. In this work we describe a new matrix model where those currents and properties are related at the literal, clause and predicate definition levels. This model is useful for predicate classification, execution profiling and program debugging. The application to profilers is discussed in detail.