4,845 results match your criteria: "Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya[Affiliation]"

Livestock slurry has gathered significant interest as a secondary raw material for fertilisers industry due to its content on macronutrients -nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium- and organic carbon. In this study, the performance of an on-site pilot plant composed by microfiltration, membrane-assisted stripping, and reverse osmosis for selective recovery of nitrogen as fertiliser and water reclamation was demonstrated for 2 years in a pig farm, referenced to 8 batches for seasonal assessment. Microfiltration mitigated the seasonal variation in the composition of pig slurry leading to stable process efficiency in the following steps.

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A comprehensive dynamic analysis of the dielectric relaxation-time data across a broad temperature range for both isotropic and nematic phases has been conducted on the CBO3O.Py liquid crystal dimer, the shorter chain-length compound within the highly nonsymmetric pyrene-based series of liquid crystal dimers (CBOnO.Py, with n ranging from 3 to 11).

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Repurposing chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy grading.

Eur J Neurol

December 2024

Unit of Neuro-Oncology, Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge-Institut Català Oncologia, Bellvitge Institute for Biomedical Research, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain.

Background And Purpose: Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) is perceived differently by patients and physicians, complicating its assessment. Current recommendations advocate combining clinical and patient-reported outcomes measures, but this approach can be challenging in patient care. This multicenter European study aims to bridge the gap between patients' perceptions and neurological impairments by aligning both perspectives to improve treatment decision-making.

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Plastic particle pollution has threatened the well-being of seawater ecosystems over the past decades. Therefore, understanding, modeling and (potentially) predicting the dynamics of microplastics and biogenic particles in ocean turbulence is of utmost importance to help develop mitigation strategies and propose technological solutions ultimately aimed at safeguarding global water systems. This is particularly significant for microplastics in the upper-ocean layer.

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Effect of Damping on the Identification of Bridge Properties Using Vehicle Scanning Methods.

Sensors (Basel)

September 2024

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.

Vehicle scanning methods are gaining popularity because of their ability to identify modal properties of several bridges with only one instrumentation setup, and several methods have been proposed in the last decade. In the numerical models used to develop and validate such methods, bridge damping is often overlooked, and its impact on the efficacy of vehicle scanning methods remains unknown. The present article addresses this knowledge gap by systematically investigating the effects of bridge damping on the efficacy of vehicle scanning methods in identifying the modal properties of bridges.

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Energy Performance of LR-FHSS: Analysis and Evaluation.

Sensors (Basel)

September 2024

Department of Network Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, C/Esteve Terradas, 7, 08860 Castelldefels, Spain.

Long-range frequency hopping spread spectrum (LR-FHSS) is a pivotal advancement in the LoRaWAN protocol that is designed to enhance the network's capacity and robustness, particularly in densely populated environments. Although energy consumption is paramount in LoRaWAN-based end devices, this is the first study in the literature, to our knowledge, that models the impact of this novel mechanism on energy consumption. In this article, we provide a comprehensive energy consumption analytical model of LR-FHSS, focusing on three critical metrics: average current consumption, battery lifetime, and energy efficiency of data transmission.

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Hybrid Patterns and Solitonic Frequency Combs in Non-Hermitian Kerr Cavities.

Phys Rev Lett

August 2024

Departament de Física, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Rambla Sant Nebridi 22, 08222, Terrassa, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

We unveil a new scenario for the formation of dissipative localized structures in nonlinear systems. Commonly, the formation of such structures arises from the connection of a homogeneous steady state with either another homogeneous solution or a pattern. Both scenarios, typically found in cavities with normal and anomalous dispersion, respectively, exhibit unique fingerprints and particular features that characterize their behavior.

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Bimetallic FeCu-MOF derivatives as heterogeneous catalysts with enhanced stability for electro-Fenton degradation of lisinopril.

Sci Total Environ

November 2024

Laboratori d'Electroquímica dels Materials i del Medi Ambient, Departament de Ciència de Materials i Química Física, Secció de Química Física, Facultat de Química, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franquès 1-11, 08028 Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address:

A bimetallic FeCu/NC core-shell catalyst, consisting in nanoparticles where zero-valent Fe and Cu atoms, slightly oxidized on their surface, are encapsulated by carbon has been successfully prepared by modifying the synthesis route of MIL(Fe)-88B. FeCu/NC possessed well-balanced textural and electrochemical properties. According to voltammetric responses, in-situ Fe(III) reduction to Fe(II) by low-valent Cu was feasible, whereas the high double-layer capacitance confirmed the presence of a great number of electroactive sites that was essential for continuous HO activation to OH via Fenton's reaction.

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Bioplastic production by harnessing cyanobacteria-rich microbiomes for long-term synthesis.

Sci Total Environ

December 2024

GEMMA-Group of Environmental Engineering and Microbiology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya-BarcelonaTech, c/ Jordi Girona 1-3, Building D1, E-08034 Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address:

Departing from the conventional axenic and heterotrophic cultures, our research ventures into unexplored territory by investigating the potential of photosynthetic microbiomes for polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) synthesis, a biodegradable polyester that presents a sustainable alternative to conventional plastics. Our investigation focused on a cyanobacteria-enriched microbiome, dominated by Synechocystis sp. and Synechococcus sp.

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The existence of viable human pathogens in bioaerosols which can cause infection or affect human health has been the subject of little research. In this study, data provided by 10 tropospheric aircraft surveys over Japan in 2014 confirm the existence of a vast diversity of microbial species up to 3,000 m height, which can be dispersed above the planetary boundary layer over distances of up to 2,000 km, thanks to strong winds from an area covered with massive cereal croplands in Northeast (NE) Asia. Microbes attached to aerosols reveal the presence of diverse bacterial and fungal taxa, including potential human pathogens, originating from sewage, pesticides, or fertilizers.

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Boosting the O-to-HO Selectivity Using Sn-Doped Carbon Electrocatalysts: Towards Highly Efficient Cathodes for Actual Water Decontamination.

ChemSusChem

September 2024

Laboratori d'Electroquímica dels Materials i del Medi Ambient, Departament de Ciència de Materials i Química Física, Secció de Química Física, Facultat de Química, Universitat de Barcelona, Martí i Franquès 1-11, 08028, Barcelona, Spain.

The high cost and often complex synthesis procedure of new highly selective electrocatalysts (particularly those based on noble metals) for HO production are daunting obstacles to penetration of this technology into the wastewater treatment market. In this work, a simple direct thermal method has been employed to synthesize Sn-doped carbon electrocatalysts, which showed an electron transfer number of 2.04 and outstanding two-electron oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) selectivity of up to 98.

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Introduction: Fusional reserves differ with the method of measurement. The goal of this study was to compare the subjective and objective responses during the measurement of positive and negative fusional reserves using both step and ramp methods.

Methods: A haploscopic system was used to measure fusional reserves.

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Introduction: In the modern competitive landscape of football, clubs are increasingly leveraging data-driven decision-making to strengthen their commercial positions, particularly against rival clubs. The strategic allocation of resources to attract and retain profitable fans who exhibit long-term loyalty is crucial for advancing a club's marketing efforts. While the Recency, Frequency, and Monetary (RFM) customer segmentation technique has seen widespread application in various industries for predicting customer behavior, its adoption within the football industry remains underexplored.

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Soil Aquifer Treatment (SAT) is a robust technology to increase groundwater recharge and to improve reclaimed water quality. SAT reduces dissolved organic carbon, contaminants of emerging concern, nutrients, and colloidal matter, including pathogen indicators, but little is known about its ability to reduce loads of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) from reclaimed waters. Here we test six pilot SAT systems to eliminate various biological hazards from the secondary effluents of a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), equipped with reactive barriers (RBs) including different sorptive materials.

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Retigabine increases the conformational stability of the visual photoreceptor rhodopsin.

Int J Biol Macromol

November 2024

Grup de Biotecnologia Molecular i Industrial, Centre de Biotecnologia Molecular, Departament d'Enginyeria Quimica, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya-Barcelona Tech, Edifici Gaia, Rambla de Sant Nebridi 22, 08222 Terrassa, Catalonia, Spain. Electronic address:

Rhodopsin is the key photoreceptor protein that mediates vision in low-light conditions. Mutations in rhodopsin are the cause of retinal degenerative diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa. Some of these mutations cause a decreased stability of the receptor.

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This dataset presents 9596 photos of the East and West façades of a university building in Barcelona (Spain). Images were taken every hour for one year with two identical GoPro Hero 10 cameras. The façades are composed of a grid of 28×7 windows in the East and 28×6 windows in the West.

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Background: To overcome the application limitations of functional electrical stimulation (FES), such as fatigue or nonlinear muscle response, the combination of neuroprosthetic systems with robotic devices has been evaluated, resulting in hybrid systems that have promising potential. However, current technology shows a lack of flexibility to adapt to the needs of any application, context or individual. The main objective of this study is the development of a new modular neuroprosthetic system suitable for hybrid FES-robot applications to meet these needs.

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Molecular solar thermal systems, which absorb light, store it, and release it as heat, have been extensively researched, yet many potential candidates remain unexplored. To expand this range, five specifically designed -dianthrylbenzenes were investigated. Anthracene dimers have been underexplored due to issues like photooxidation and varying photodimerization efficiency.

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Isomer spectroscopy of heavy neutron-rich nuclei beyond the N=126 closed shell has been performed for the first time at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory of the RIKEN Nishina Center. New millisecond isomers have been identified at low excitation energies, 985.3(19) keV in ^{213}Tl and 874(5) keV in ^{215}Tl.

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Polysaccharides are an excellent renewable source for developing food-packing materials. It is expected that these packages can be an efficient barrier against oxygen; can reduce lipid peroxidation, and can retain the natural aroma of a food commodity. Starch has tremendous potential to be explored in the preparation of food packaging; however, due to their high hydrophilic nature, packaging films produced from starch possess poor protective moisture barriers and low mechanical properties.

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Dental implants offer an effective solution for partial and total edentulism, but mechanical and biological complications exist. Furthermore, high occlusal loads challenge implants and lead to potential failures. This review focuses on impact testing in contrast to incremental and static tests, an underexplored aspect of assessing daily loads on implants, bringing to light potential complications.

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Lightweight materials that combine high mechanical strength, insulation, and fire resistance are of great interest to many industries. This work explores the properties of environmentally friendly alginate aerogel composites as potential sustainable alternatives to petroleum-based materials. This study analyzes the effects of two additives (tannic acid and montmorillonite clay), the orientation that results during casting, and the crosslinking of the biopolymer with glutaraldehyde on the properties of the aerogel composites.

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How artificial intelligence is transforming nephrology.

BMC Nephrol

August 2024

Intelligent Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (IDEAI) Research Center, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC BarcelonaTech), C. Jordi Girona, 1-3, 08034, Barcelona, Spain.

Current research in nephrology is increasingly focused on elucidating the complexity inherent in tightly interwoven molecular systems and their correlation with pathology and related therapeutics, including dialysis and renal transplantation. Rapid advances in the omics sciences, medical device sensorization, and networked digital medical devices have made such research increasingly data centered. Data-centric science requires the support of computationally powerful and sophisticated tools able to handle the overflow of novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets.

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Peripartum lithium management: Early maternal and neonatal outcomes.

J Affect Disord

December 2024

Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Hospital Clínic, IDIBAPS, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red en Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Barcelona, Spain; Department of Medicine, Institute of Neuroscience, UB, Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address:

Background: It has been suggested that a 30-50 % lithium dose reduction or lithium discontinuation 24-48 h before delivery could minimize neonatal complications. We investigated the maternal lithemia changes around delivery after a brief discontinuation, the placental transfer of lithium at delivery, and the association between neonatal lithemia at delivery and acute neonatal outcomes.

Methods: A retrospective observational cohort study was conducted in a teaching hospital (November/2006-December/2018).

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The potential of comprehending and managing microscale flows to enhance energy processes, especially in heat transfer and propulsion applications, remains largely untapped particularly for supercritical fluids, which have gained increased interest over the past years due to the higher power and thermodynamic efficiencies they provide. This work, therefore, presents the first comprehensive, open-source dataset carefully curated and structured for studying microconfined high-pressure transcritical fluid channel flows under various regimes. Particularly, the dataset contains 18 direct numerical simulations of carbon dioxide at different bulk pressures and velocities confined between differentially-heated walls.

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