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The recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence have paved the way for remarkable achievements in tasks that have traditionally posed challenges even for humans [...]

Supplementing the diet of ruminants with agro-industrial by-products is a common practice. In this study, we applied an untargeted lipidomics approach to study the changes in the milk lipid metabolite profiles linked to the addition of different doses of spent coffee grounds (SCG) to the diet of lactating goats. The carryover of caffeine from feed to milk was also studied. Compared to controls, the milk of goats on the SCG diet showed higher levels of cholesteryl esters, sphingomyelins, and phospholipids, while nonesterified fatty acids were downregulated. After 12 h from the last SCG dose, the carry-over of caffeine was, on average, 3%. Collectively, our results establish that SCG supplementation induces changes in the milk levels of complex lipid molecules and causes the transfer of caffeine and caffeine metabolites from feed to milk.

Over recent years, the number of signals of a different type that can be acquired from the human body has increased extraordinarily [...]

Gas bearings are widely employed in high-precision devices and in high-speed applications, such as in micro turbomachinery and micro machining tools [...]

The aim of this work is to design a power split transmission for an urban street sweeper in order to reduce fuel consumption. The design process starts with the comparison between a hydrostatic and a hydromechanical power split transmission. Both transmissions have been tested through an acceleration test considering 30, 50, 70 and 100 percent of the rated engine power. The results of both models developed in the Simcenter AmesimTM environment show that the power split transmission presents a higher efficiency, which justifies the adoption of this type of transmission with respect to the hydrostatic system. Then, a pure mechanical gear is added to the base concept of the power split transmission. The mechanical gear is managed by a lockup clutch, which can be engaged during the working phase of the street sweeper, similar to an adaptive cruise control. In this case, both transmissions are tested through a regulated cycle, UNI-EN 151429-2, highlighting the advantage of using a pure mechanical branch. At the end, both transmissions are tested with a driving cycle acquired through an experimental setup consisting of a control unit, a GPS and a tablet for the monitoring of the speed profile. The results show that the adoption of a lockup clutch allows an increase in the system efficiency during the working phase, hence reducing the average fuel consumption during the mission test.

Wind energy is gaining special interest worldwide due to the necessity of reducing pollutant emissions and employ renewable resources. Traditionally, horizontal axis wind turbines have been employed but certain situations require vertical axis wind turbines. With a view to improve the efficiency of a vertical axis wind turbine Savonius type, the present work proposes a bioinspired design blade profile relying on the Fibonacci spiral. This shape is repeatedly presented in nature and thus it leads to a bio-inspired blade profile. A numerical model was carried out and it was found that the Fibonacci shape improves the performance of the original Savonius shape, based on semicircular blade profiles. Particularly, the Fibonacci blade profile increases around 14% the power in comparison with the Savonius blade profile. Besides this comparison between Savonius and Fibonacci, a research study was carried out to improve the efficiency of the Fibonacci turbine. To this end, the effect of several parameters was analyzed: number of blades, aspect ratio, overlap, separation gap, and twist angle. Improvements on the average power greater than 30% were obtained.

With its high water potential, the Ziz basin is one of the most important basins in Morocco. This paper aims to develop a methodology for spatiotemporal monitoring of the water quality of the Hassan Addakhil dam using remote sensing techniques combined with a modeling approach. Firstly, several models were established for the different water quality parameters (nitrate, dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll a) by combining field and satellite data. In a second step, the calibration and validation of the selected models were performed based on the following statistical parameters: compliance index R2, the root mean square error and p-value. Finally, the satellite data were used to carry out spatiotemporal monitoring of the water quality. The field results show excellent quality for most of the samples. In terms of the modeling approach, the selected models for the three parameters (nitrate, dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll a) have shown a good correlation between the measured and estimated values with compliance index values of 0.62, 0.56 and 0.58 and root mean square error values of 0.16 mg/L, 0.65 mg/L and 0.07 µg/L for nitrate, dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll a, respectively. After the calibration, the validation and the selection of the models, the spatiotemporal variation of water quality was determined thanks to the multitemporal satellite data. The results show that this approach is an effective and valid methodology for the modeling and spatiotemporal mapping of water quality in the reservoir of the Hassan Addakhil dam. It can also provide valuable support for decision-makers in water quality monitoring as it can be applied to other regions with similar conditions.

Satisfactory acoustics is crucial for the ability of spaces such as auditoriums and lecture rooms to perform their primary function [...]