Publicacions de projectes de recerca del Plan Nacional

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Publicacions resultants de projectes de recerca del Plan Nacional.

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    Open Access
    Privacy-Preserving Electricity Trading for Connected Microgrids
    (MDPI, 2024) Alàs Cercós, Oriol; Sebé Feixas, Francesc
    The electricity market is evolving from the traditional unidirectional model into a bidirectional one in which households also generate and sell energy. This new scenario requires technology able to manage the available energy and guarantee that all the participants pay or are paid appropriately. Unfortunately, fine-grained monitoring of energy production and consumption makes it possible to infer sensitive information about confidential aspects of people’s private life. In this paper, we propose a system designed for privacy-preserving electricity trading in a connected microgrid. The system guarantees that at the end of a billing period, the distribution system operator can compute the quantity to be charged or paid to each household while being unable to trace its consumption details.
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    Open Access
    Video-Based Fruit Detection and Tracking for Apple Counting and Mapping
    (IEEE, 2023) Gené Mola, Jordi; Felip Pomés, Marc; Net-Barnés, Francesc; Morros Rubió, Josep Ramon; Miranda, Juan Carlos; Arnó Satorra, Jaume; Asin Jones, Luis; Lordan Sanahuja, Jaume; Ruiz-Hidalgo, Javier; Gregorio López, Eduard
    Automatic fruit counting systems have garnered interest from farmers and agronomists to monitor fruit production, predict yields in advance, and identify production variability across orchards. However, accurately counting fruits poses challenges, particularly due to occlusions. This study proposes a multi-view sensing approach using continuous motion videos captured by a camera moved along the row of trees, followed by fruit detection in all video frames and application of Multi-Object Tracking (MOT) algorithms to prevent double-counting. Three tracking methods, namely SORT, DeepSORT, and ByteTrack, are compared for fruit counting using the YOLOv5x object detector. The methodology is applied to map fruit production in an experimental apple orchard at two different dates: four weeks and one week before harvest. The results demonstrate that ByteTrack (MOTA=0.682; IDF1=0.837; HOTA=0.689) outperforms SORT and DeepSORT, indicating its superior tracking performance. Computational efficiency analysis reveals similar processing times between SORT and ByteTrack (about 15 ms), while DeepSORT requires significantly more processing time per image (128 ms). Fruit counting evaluation shows reasonably accurate yield predictions on both dates, with reduced errors and improved performance closer to the harvest date (MAPE=7.47 %; R2=0.70). The system proves effective in estimating orchard fruit production using computer vision technology, offering valuable insights for yield forecasting. These findings contribute to optimizing fruit production and supporting precision agriculture practices. The code and the dataset have been made publicly available and a video visualization of results is accessible at http://www.grap.udl.cat/en/publications/video_fruit_counting.
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    Open Access
    The contribution of whole-genome sequence data to genome-wide association studies in livestock: outcomes and perspectives
    (Elsevier, 2024) Ros Freixedes, Roger
    Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in livestock are a powerful method for pursuing deeper insights into the biological mechanisms that control complex traits, often with sights set on the improvement of productive efficiency. There has been a wide uptake of whole-genome sequence (WGS) data for GWAS across the main livestock species. In this review, we aim to provide a critical survey of the contribution of WGS-based GWAS in livestock, by spotlighting the outcomes of some of the most representative efforts. First, we review the empirical results on the efficacy of WGS data for GWAS compared to marker arrays, and what strategies are currently being applied to increase the detection power of WGS-based GWAS. Then, we review the contribution of WGS-based GWAS to our understanding of the genetic architecture of complex traits, and how data structure but also our own practices hinder the fine-mapping of causal variants. We also provide a perspective on our own biases in identifying candidate genes and variants, the practical relevance of GWAS results, and data sharing. There is a need to apply better GWAS practices as the availability of WGS data continues to grow in the future.
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    Open Access
    Evaluation of 2D hydrodynamic-based rainfall/runoff modelling for soil erosion assessment at a seasonal scale
    (Elsevier, 2024) Costabile, Pierfranco; Cea, Luis; Barbaro, Gabriele; Costanzo, Carmelina; Llena, Manel; Vericat Querol, Damià
    Badlands are often the source of a significant fraction of the sediment reaching the river network due to the exposure of the bare soil to the impact of rain drops and to the bed shear stress generated by the surface runoff. Hence, a correct understanding of the soil erosion and sediment transport processes inside badlands can help to a better characterisation of the suspended sediment production at the catchment scale. In this work we study the suitability of a two-dimensional (2D) physically-based event-scale erosion model as a tool to represent soil erosion and sediment transport in badlands at a seasonal scale. The model solves the 2D shallow water equations, including infiltration and rainfall, in order to compute the generation and routing of surface runoff within the badland. Coupled to the hydrodynamic equations, the model solves a 2D suspended sediment transport equation with source terms that account for rainfall- and runoff-driven erosion and sediment deposition. Based on this model, an overall procedure was developed and tested considering, as case study, a badland located in El Soto catchment (central Pyrenees, Iberian Peninsula). For the analysed badland, several high-resolution topography surveys were available, which allowed for the estimation of the soil loss and the spatial distribution of erosion patterns for periods of 3–4 months over two years. These data sets were used to calibrate and validate the proposed modelling approach, and to analyse its capabilities and limitations for the assessment of soil erosion at the seasonal scale.
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    Open Access
    Use of molten salts tanks for seasonal thermal energy storage for high penetration of renewable energies in the grid
    (Elsevier, 2024) Prieto, Cristina; Tagle-Salazar, Pablo D.; Patiño-Rodríguez, David; Schallenberg-Rodriguez, Julieta; Lyons, Padraig; Cabeza, Luisa F.
    Energy storage is acknowledged a key technology to meet the challenges posed by the energy transition. Shortterm grid-connected storage, based on Li-Ion batteries, is becoming commonplace but seasonal energy storage at grid-scale will be needed for deep decarbonisation of the electrical power system. Pumped hydropower is considered to be the only mature technology for such applications, but this paper demonstrates that two-tanks molten salts systems, that are used today in commercial concentrating solar power (CSP) plants, can also be considered a mature technology that can be used at large scale for seasonal energy storage. This was established by evaluating the annual heat losses of molten salts tanks using validated models of these systems. The results show that the heat losses in a very well insulated molten salts tanks are around 1 K/day, which would result in good economic performance of the power block even if storage was required for up to months.