Pumping Rate Research Articles

Investigating the Impact of Seawater Intrusion on the Operation Cost of Groundwater Supply in Island Aquifers

AbstractManaging fragile island freshwater resources requires identifying pumping strategies that trade off the financial cost of groundwater supply against controlling the seawater intrusion (SWI) associated with aquifer pumping. In this work, these tradeoffs are investigated through a sensitivity analysis conducted in the context of an optimization formulation of the groundwater management problem, which aims at minimizing the groundwater supply operation cost associated with groundwater pumping and desalination treatment, subject to constraints on SWI control, as quantified by the water table drawdown over the well (∆s), the reduction in freshwater volume (∆FV) in the aquifer, or the salt mass increase (∆SM) in the aquifer. This study focuses on a simplified two‐dimensional model of the San Salvador Island aquifer (Bahamas). Pumping strategies are characterized by the distance of the pumping system from the shoreline (WL), the abstraction screen depth (D) and overall pumping rate (Q), constituting the decision variables of the optimization problem. We investigate the impacts of pumping strategies on the operation cost, ∆s, ∆FV and ∆SM. Findings indicate increasing D or decreasing WL reduces ∆s, ∆FV and ∆SM, thus preserving the aquifer hydrogeologic stability, but also leads to extracting saltier groundwater, thus increasing the water treatment requirements, which have a strong impact on the overall groundwater supply cost. From a financial perspective, groundwater abstraction near the island center and at shallow depths seems the most convenient strategy. However, the analysis of the optimization constraints reveals that strategies where the pumping system approaches the island center tend to cause more severe SWI, highlighting the need to trade off groundwater supply cost against SWI control.

Analysis of Cavitation Flow Performance in Centrifugal Pump Using OpenFOAM

In order to explore the cavitation mechanism and cavitation cloud development process of centrifugal pump, OpenFOAM7.0 open-source software was used to simulate the unsteady cavitation gas-liquid two-phase flow of IS125 centrifugal pump under different flow conditions. Based on the flow field simulation results, the relationship between the flow rate of the centrifugal pump and the NPSHr was predicted and compared with the experimental data. The comparison showed that it is feasible to use OpenFOAM software to simulate the cavitation flow of centrifugal pump under design condition. Under the design condition, when NPSHa was different, the distribution of cavitation clouds in each blade channel was asymmetric. With the decrease of NPSHa, cavitation clouds continue to develop downstream in the impeller channel and appear on the blade pressure surface. Regardless of whether cavitation occurred in the centrifugal pump, the pressure coefficient showed periodic pulsation, and the pulsation number of the impeller in a rotation cycle was equal to the number of blades of the impeller. The research results can provide an effective open-source software calculation method for centrifugal pump performance prediction.

Analysis of the characteristics of valveless piezoelectric pump with crescent dune bluff body.

To improve the output flow characteristics of the piezoelectric pump in one direction, a new valveless piezoelectric pump with a crescent dune bluff body has been proposed. The pump can achieve low damage to the active substance on the premise that the active cell can guarantee the transport volume. By comparing with the hemispherically deficient and imitated meniscus resistance fluid, the barchan dune resistance fluid which can effectively improve the unidirectional output of the piezoelectric pump is obtained. Combined with the pump theoretical flow calculation formula, these influencing parameters, the degree of inclination, the sand ridge radius and the order of the crescent dune were analyzed. Finally, an experimental prototype of a valveless piezoelectric pump has been fabricated by 3D printing technology, and the pump flow test is being conducted. The relationship between frequency, voltage and output flow has been obtained. The test results show that with a dune inclination of 37.5, a sand ridge radius of 6.75 mm and a dune order of 4, the flow rate of the piezoelectric pump is best at 194.7 mL/min. The experimental results agree with the simulation results, showing the effectiveness of the valveless piezoelectric pump structure.

Offline Deep Reinforcement Learning and Off-Policy Evaluation for Personalized Basal Insulin Control in Type 1 Diabetes.

Recent advancements in hybrid closed-loop systems, also known as the artificial pancreas (AP), have been shown to optimize glucose control and reduce the self-management burdens for people living with type 1 diabetes (T1D). AP systems can adjust the basal infusion rates of insulin pumps, facilitated by real-time communication with continuous glucose monitoring. Deep reinforcement learning (DRL) has introduced new paradigms of basal insulin control algorithms. However, all the existing DRL-based AP controllers require extensive random online interactions between the agent and environment. While this can be validated in T1D simulators, it becomes impractical in real-world clinical settings. To this end, we propose an offline DRL framework that can develop and validate models for basal insulin control entirely offline. It comprises a DRL model based on the twin delayed deep deterministic policy gradient and behavior cloning, as well as off-policy evaluation (OPE) using fitted Q evaluation. We evaluated the proposed framework on an in silico dataset generated by the UVA/Padova T1D simulator, and the OhioT1DM dataset, a real clinical dataset. The performance on the in silico dataset shows that the offline DRL algorithm significantly increased time in range while reducing time below range and time above range for both adult and adolescent groups. Then, we used the OPE to estimate model performance on the clinical dataset, where a notable increase in policy values was observed for each subject. The results demonstrate that the proposed framework is a viable and safe method for improving personalized basal insulin control in T1D.

Impact of connected conduit on pumping-induced seawater intrusion in a coastal karst aquifer

IntroductionCoastal karst aquifers face the risk of seawater intrusion due to groundwater development. Based on the conceptualization of Woodville Karst Plain (WKP), this study investigates the effect of karst conduit and pumping conditions on the aquifer vulnerability and pumping security.MethodsAccording to the purposes of this study, two cases are considered: one with conduit and one without. Salinization levels are compared between two cases, considering pumping rates ranging from 50 to 200 m3/day and various pumping locations throughout the on-shore region.ResultsThe results reveal that the aquifer with conduit is more susceptible to seawater intrusion at low pumping rates, whereas both scenarios experience significant salinization at high pumping rates. Specifically, in the non-conduit case, contamination is most prevalent when wells are located in the middle of the aquifer, while in the conduit case, pumping from inland areas poses high vulnerability. Moreover, conduit case and non-conduit case display different regions for pumping clean water. At low pumping rates, both cases show saline water being pumped from wells near the shore, and clean water is obtained from inland wells. At high pumping rates, the non-conduit case allows for clean water extraction from wells situated further inland, while in the conduit case, no wells within the entire aquifer are deemed safe.DiscussionThe analysis and findings of this study offer valuable insights for the management of groundwater in coastal karst aquifers, encompassing vulnerability assessment, selection of pumping locations, and determination of pumping rates.

Underbalanced Coiled Tubing Drilling: Delivering Well Production Safely in High H2S and Tight Gas Reservoirs, UAE

Summary United Arab Emirates (UAE) is seeking to become self-sufficient in gas supply by 2030. This has led the country to initiate several exploratory and appraisal projects to achieve this goal. This study covers one such pilot project targeting production from tight gas reservoirs in three wells through a coiled-tubing (CT) underbalanced drilling (UBD) project in ADNOC Onshore. CT pressure control equipment (PCE) was rigged up on top of production trees with wells already completed and cemented. A CT tower was used to accommodate the drilling bottomhole assembly (BHA) and eliminate risks related to its deployment. CT strings were designed to reach target intervals with sufficient weight on bit (WOB), suitable for sour environments, and able to withstand high pumping rates with mild circulating pressures. To address the hazards of H2S handling at the surface, a custom-fit closed-loop system was deployed. The recovered water was treated on the surface and reused for drilling to decrease the water consumption throughout the operations. The plan was to drill 3 3/4-in. horizontal laterals in all candidate wells. Each well was completed with a combination of a 4 1/2-in. and a 5 1/2-in. tubing and a 7-in. liner. Five laterals were drilled across the three candidate wells targeting carbonate reservoirs with each lateral having an average length of ~4,000 ft. The achieved rates of penetration varied significantly from 15 ft/min to 30 ft/min while drilling through the various formations. Over the course of the pilot project, several challenges had to be addressed, such as material accretion on the CT string during wiper trips, treatment of return fluids having high H2S content and rock cuttings, and ensuring the integrity of the CT pipe while operating in severe downhole environments. Solutions and lessons learned from each well were implemented subsequently in the campaign, such as the use of increased concentrations of H2S inhibitor to coat the CT string, the use of nitrified fluids based on changing well parameters to maintain underbalance, thorough pipe management through real-time CT inspection, and adding a fixed quantity of fresh water to the drilling system every day to avoid chemical reactions between the drilling fluid additives and hydrocarbons. The wells completed with this method exceeded production expectations by 35–50% across the project while reconfirming the value of the technology. The use of CT for UBD is still considered a challenging intervention worldwide. Such cases in high H2S environments are rare. This study outlines best practices for a CT UBD and a setup that can be replicated in other locations to implement this methodology with high H2S and when rig sourcing is a concern.

D-pinitol ameliorated H2O2-induced oxidative damage in PC12 cells and prolonged the lifespan by IIS pathway in Caenorhabditis elegans

D-pinitol (DP) has been extensively regarded as the main active component of legumes for anti-aging. In this study, we intended to explore the anti-aging mechanism of DP, utilizing computer modeling techniques. The results demonstrated that DP significantly delayed H2O2-induced cellular senescence. Model PC12 cells treated with DP exhibited increased cell viability, increased antioxidant enzyme activity (SOD, CAT), and reduced ROS and MDA levels. Furthermore, DP was discovered to have a positive effect on healthy longevity. In C. elegans, DP treatment enhanced lifespan, stress capacity, antioxidant capacity (T-SOD/CAT/GSH-Px/MDA/ROS), and altered aging-related indicators of lipofuscin accumulation, pharyngeal pump rate, motility, and reproduction. Moreover, DP could reduce the toxicity Aβ in transgenic C. elegans CL4176, CL2355, and CL2331. Further mechanistic studies indicated DP increased transcription factor (daf-16, skn-1, hsf-1) expression of insulin/insulin-like growth factor-1 signaling (IIS) pathway. As expected, DP also extended the downstream target genes of the three transcription factors (sod-3, ctl-1, ctl-2, gst-4, hsp-16.1, and hsp-16.2). Further mutant lifespan experiments, network pharmacology, and molecular docking revealed that DP might be life-extending through the IIS pathway. DP deserves extensive investigation and development as a potential anti-aging drug in the future.

Importance of Aquitard Response Time for Groundwater Management in Multi-Aquifer Systems Subject to Land Subsidence

Groundwater management models have been widely applied to obtain optimal pumping strategies for land subsidence control, but most of them do not explicitly incorporate land subsidence variables (such as cumulative settlement and land subsidence rates) within the model constraints and neglect the transient effect due to aquitard storage. Here, three operating scenarios of a hypothetical multi-aquifer system, which include a highly compressible aquitard, were implemented with the aim of evaluating land subsidence and identifying management schemes with the support of an optimization model for groundwater management. In a 50-year management period, maximizing pumping while restricting drawdown to 10 m after year 25 stabilizes groundwater levels within the aquifer, but land subsidence continues to reach 4.8 m at year 50. The effect of reducing pumping rates and how early in the management period this is implemented is also analyzed. Restricting the pumping rate as early as year 6 leads to reduced land subsidence at year 50 by 17%. If pumping reduction is delayed, larger land subsidence rates occurred in the system (7.9, 8.3 and 9.6 cm/year in the tested cases); however, if the total settlement is evaluated as a proportion of the thickness of the aquitard, values of the order of 10% are presented. Our results highlight the importance of timely decisions for groundwater management based on the response time of the aquitards in multi-aquifer systems.

Field Experiments on 3D Groundwater Flow Patterns in the Deep Excavation of Gravel-Confined Aquifers in Ancient Riverbed Areas

In ancient riverbed areas, the hydro-geological conditions are extremely complex because of the cutting of ancient river channels during the sedimentary process. How to lower groundwater level in water-riched gravel-confined aquifer during deep excavation is vital for underground engineering. Groundwater flow patterns had to be understood during foundation pit dewatering. This paper presents a field case study conducted at the deep foundation pit of the Qianjiang Century City station on Hangzhou Metro Line 6, which is notable for its 52 m deep unclosed waterproof curtain. A total of 34 pumping wells were installed within the pit. During the tests, one well was subjected to a pumping well, while the others served as observation wells. The research included two sets of multi-depth pumping tests, which differed in terms of their filter lengths, aimed at investigating the flow pattern around pump wells and the roots of diaphragm walls. The study found that the use of longer filters, higher pump rates, and filters placed nearer to aquifer roofs enhances dewatering efficiency and minimizes impact on the surrounding geological environment. This paper introduces a novel concept known as the diaphragm wall–pumping well effect, which regulates the water head outside the pit and the subsidence, thereby optimizing the drawdown of the deep foundation pit with an unclosed waterproof curtain. The findings were applied in the foundation pit dewatering of Qianjiang Century City station, and the drawdown in and outside the pit was effectively controlled.

A Perspective on the Prospect of Pickering Emulsion in Reservoir Conformance Control with Insight into the Influential Parameters and Characterization Techniques

In reservoir conformance control, polymer gels and foams are majorly used; however, they have drawbacks such as inducing formation damage, having weaker shear resistance, requiring a higher pumping rate, and limited penetration depth. Emulsions are a potential alternative that can address these issues, but they are not widely used. Current surfactant-based emulsions require high emulsifier concentrations for stability and often rely on multiple additives to address various factors, which makes the surfactant synthesis and utilization of emulsions quite challenging. However, Pickering emulsions, which utilize solid particles for emulsion stabilization, have emerged as a promising solution for reservoir conformance control. Compared to conventional polymer gels and foams, Pickering emulsions offer superior shear resistance, deeper penetration, and reduced formation damage. This review provides an overview of recent developments in the utilization of Pickering emulsions for conformance control, highlighting important parameters and characteristics that must be considered during the design and deployment of a Pickering emulsion for water shut-off operation. This review also sheds light on current challenges and provides recommendations for future development of the particle-stabilized colloid system.

Assessing Artificial Recharge on Groundwater Quantity Using Wells Recharge

In arid and semi-arid countries like Iraq, which suffer from water scarcity due to the effects of climate change and decreased surface water flow, groundwater is considered a vital source of irrigation water. This study is concerned with the influence of artificial recharge on the rehabilitation of the unconfined aquifer called Al-Dibdibba, located between the cities of Najaf and Kerbala in central Iraq around 31°550′ N and 32°450′ N and 43°300′ E and 44°300′ E. Due to excessive groundwater pumping rates for irrigation, this aquifer has suffered from groundwater decline and increased salinization during the previous 20 years. By establishing a conceptual model in the groundwater modeling system software (GMS), a numerical model was made to simulate groundwater flow. Artificial recharge using recycled water (tertiary treatment) from Kerbala's primary WWTP was carried out using 25 injection wells. The model was calibrated against historical and observed water level data for periods from 2016 to 2017. Three scenarios to predict how the aquifer would act with artificial recharge of 5%, 8%, and 10% from the total daily outflow of the WWTP in Kerbala (100000 m3/day) were studied. The calibration model met the observed values of groundwater levels with R2 = 0.989 for steady-state simulations and R2 = 0.987 for transient simulations. In the final analysis of the simulation, the results show that the maximum predicted groundwater level was raised by the injection of treated water through 25 wells by 1.05 m for 5000 m3/day, 2 m for 8000 m3/day, and 3 m for 10,000 m3/day recharge pumping rates. In addition, if water were pumped into the aquifer, it might support the development of agricultural lands covering more than 93 km2. So, artificial recharge can be considered one of the important solutions to adaptation to the effects of climate change and desertification in Iraq. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2023-09-09-010 Full Text: PDF

Focused Reservoir Fluid Sampling Uses Artificial Intelligence Technology

_ This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 210091, “Optimizing Focused Reservoir Fluid Sampling Using a Deterministic Causation Artificial Intelligence Intuition Technology,” by Rabindra Chakraborty, Senslytics; Chengli Dong, Shell; and Hani Elshahawi, SPE, NoviDigiTech, et al. The paper has not been peer reviewed. _ Samples collected using wireline formation testing (WFT) provide vital information throughout the lifetime of a reservoir. Contaminated samples can lead to erroneous fluid analysis results with potentially huge economic consequences. A need exists for an application that can assist engineers in accurately inferring the state of fluid contamination. The complete paper describes the development of a WFT contamination-forewarning application based on a framework that advises real-time decisions regarding the state of fluid contamination and recommending changes that will help optimize the WFT operation. Focused Fluid Sampling During the past decade, focused fluid sampling has emerged as a viable alternative to conventional formation-fluid sampling. The method uses a special probing tool containing two distinct flow areas. The central (sample) inlet is connected to a sample line, often with an associated pump, while the peripheral (guard) ring is also associated with a dedicated pump. Focused sampling usually results in faster cleanup but comes with increased operational complexity. The flow rate of the sample and guard lines must be properly adjusted and synchronized for each case at hand, and the interpretation of downhole measurements on both sides is significantly more complex than for conventional sampling operations. The success of fluid-sampling operations is highly dependent on human interpretations of the real-time downhole sensor data. Focused sampling is carried out by manipulating the differential rates of sample and guard pumps to stimulate and accelerate sample cleanup. Various types of flow regimes observed during focused sampling operations may be classified as follows: - Idle: During such regimes, both sample and guard pumps are turned off. Thus, no cleanup takes place, and fluids in the tool’s sample lines that are detected by the downhole analyzers remain stagnant. - Commingled: During commingling, either the sample pump or the guard pump is running, but flow occurs through both the sample and guard areas combined. - Split flow: In such periods, both sample and guard pumps run simultaneously but at different flow rates, with fluids moving at different speeds through the sample (central) and guard (outer) areas. The physics of fluid flow in near-wellbore porous media are highly complex and challenging to compute analytically and difficult to numerically simulate at a relevant scale, especially in the context of real-time operations. The authors have developed what they term “intuition technology,” an artificial-intelligence paradigm that uses scientific learning as its fabric and mimics the human decision-making process by iterating hypotheses and weighing situational changes surrounding dynamics simultaneously while keeping an eye on possible asymptomatic behavior. The process involves harnessing experts’ subtle knowledge of fluid properties and change behavior as hypotheses and iterating them with the situational and time-series data to generate a scientific fabric that governs the cleanup. A contamination-forewarning application built on this intuition framework was able to interpret the fluid-cleanup state successfully in all examples examined as part of this pilot.

Quantum resonant optical bistability with a narrow atomic transition: bistability phase diagram in the bad cavity regime

We report on the observation of a novel manifestation of saturation-induced optical bistability in a resonantly pumped optical ring cavity interacting strongly with a cloud of atoms via a narrow atomic transition. The bistability emerges, above a critical pump rate, as an additional peak in the cavity’s normal mode spectrum close to atomic resonance. This third transmission peak is usually suppressed due to strong resonant absorption, but in our experiment it is visible because of the linewidth of the atomic transition being much smaller than that of the cavity, which sets the experiment into the bad-cavity regime. Relying on complete saturation of the transition, this bistability has a quantum origin and cannot be mimicked by a classical material presenting a nonlinear refraction index. The appearance of the central peak in addition to the normal modes is predicted by a semi-classical model derived from the Tavis–Cummings Hamiltonian from which we derive a bistability phase diagram that connects our observations with former work on optical bistability in the good cavity regime. The phase diagram reveals several so far unexplored bistable phases.

CYP Gene Expression and In Vivo Biological Effects of Khat Ethanol Extract, Cathinone and Cathine in Caenorhabditis elegans

The significant influence of khat, cathinone, and cathine on appetite suppression, reproduction impairment, and inhibitory effects on CYPs enzyme activity is widely recognised, but much remains unknown about its mode of action. This study demonstrated that exposure to high doses of KEE, cathinone, cathine and sibutramine at 12.5, 1.8, 1.8 and 1.8 mg/ml showed the most visible reduction in pharyngeal pumping rate, respectively. C. elegans showed an anomalous dynamic of reproduction rate upon exposure to these compounds but overall, showed a reduced amount of progeny. KEE, cathinone, and cathine extended the lifespan of C. elegans as compared to sibutramine and control with survival rate increments of 59.5%, 43.3%, and 15%, respectively. Quantitative RT-PCR results were insignificant, but cyp-14A3, cyp-34A9, and cyp-35A2 across all treatments were upregulated, ranging from >1 to 3-fold as compared to control. cyp genes expression could be upregulated to enhance the metabolism of khat extract, cathinone, cathine, and sibutramine in C. elegans.

Estimating the Maximum Safe Pumping Rate in Sloping Unconfined Coastal Aquifers

AbstractUnconfined coastal aquifers with a sloping aquifer bed are ubiquitous. However, most analytical solutions previously developed to estimate pumping‐induced seawater intrusion considered a horizontal aquifer bed. In this study, we first developed a steady‐state analytical solution to quantify the maximum safe pumping rate in sloping unconfined coastal aquifers with a fixed‐flux inland boundary condition, using the single potential approach. The analytical solution corrected by an empirical factor is validated against the numerical simulation, which reproduces the corresponding numerical results well. It is found that coastal aquifers with a higher aquifer bed toward inland (i.e., a positive sloping angle) yield a higher maximum safe pumping rate than that of coastal aquifers with a horizontal aquifer base, since the elevated freshwater head prevents seawater intrusion and enhances groundwater pumping. Specifically, for the aquifer bases with the sloping angle of 0.01 and −0.01, the maximum safe pumping rate is increased by 42.6% and decreased by 48.4%, respectively, in comparison to the case of a horizontal aquifer base, suggesting that neglecting the aquifer base slop can result in a significant error in estimating the maximum safe pumping rate. Moreover, the sensitivity analysis reveals that the maximum safe pumping rate increases with a lower hydraulic conductivity and a larger dispersivity. Our results provide valuable insights into the effect of the aquifer base slope on the maximum safe pumping in coastal aquifers, and analytical solutions developed can serve as a powerful tool for quick assessment of pumping‐induced seawater intrusion in sloping unconfined coastal aquifers.

Optimization of Drying Parameters in the Production of Purple Carrot Puree Powder

Purple carrots are an important source of phenolic compounds and spray drying is the most advantageous method to make purple carrots more stable. Optimization analysis was carried out to determine the effects of inlet temperature, pump rate, and maltodextrin concentration on the process yield, antioxidant activity, total phenolic and anthocyanin content in the purple carrot puree powder. The optimum drying parameters obtained by maximizing the dependent variables (desirability=0.809) were determined as 16.51% (w/v) maltodextrin concentration, 180.16°C inlet temperature, and 30.39% pump rate. Process yield was 83.64%. Under optimum conditions, the dependent variables were 81.20% DPPH scavenging antioxidant activity, 5332.87 ppm total phenolic content as gallic acid equivalent, and 449.71 ppm total anthocyanin content as cyanidin-3-glucoside, and results indicated that they were preserved at 92.66, 90.43 and 83.79%, respectively.

A Sensitivity Study of Key Parameters on the Efficiencies and Energy Losses of Organic Redox Flow Batteries

Organic redox flow batteries (ORFB) are promising cost-competitive technologies for large-scale energy storage. At the unit cell scale, the battery performance is controlled by the combined effects of key parameters of microstructure design, physicochemical properties of organic molecules, mass transport, operating conditions, and membrane properties. However, a comprehensive study of how these parameters could affect the overall performance of ORFB has not been done. To address this gap, this work presents a sensitivity study of 12 key parameters on the battery efficiencies and energy losses of ORFB by using a validated numerical model for the Dihydroxyphenazine (DHP) family. The 12 key parameters include the specific area of microstructure; mass transfer rate; diffusivity, viscosity, reaction transfer coefficient, the reaction rate constant, standard potential, and electronic conductivity of DHP anolyte; operation conditions such as initial concentration of active species, pump rate, and applied current; and membrane electronic conductivity. In total, we generated 15,360 combinations of the 12 key parameters. These data are split into 15 groups with each having a fixed current density and flow rate and 1024 random parameter combinations of the remaining 10 parameters. All these parameters are then sent to the validated ORFB model developed in Comsol to predict the coupled flow, reaction, and transport processes at 38 pre-defined SOC between 0.025 and 0.85. We then output the total potential, equilibrium potential, activation potential, and concentration potential for charge (19 SOC) and discharge (19 SOC) from the model to further calculate the Coulombic Efficiency, Energy Efficiency, Voltage Efficiency, and System Efficiency as well as the energy losses contributed by equilibrium, activation, concentration, and ohmic losses. With these calculated efficiencies and the relative importance of energy losses, we used a deep neural network (DNN) to fit the relationship between the input 12 parameters (15,360 combinations), and the model calculated 4 efficiencies/relative ratios of energy losses. A sensitivity score is then calculated based on the DNN model and key factors controlling the ORFB performance are determined.

Single-molecule mid-infrared spectroscopy and detection through vibrationally assisted luminescence

Room-temperature detection of molecular vibrations in the mid-infrared (MIR, λ = 3–30 µm) has numerous applications, including real-time gas sensing, medical imaging and quantum communication. However, existing technologies rely on cooled semiconductor detectors because of thermal noise limitations. One way to overcome this challenge is to upconvert the low-energy MIR photons into high-energy visible wavelengths (λ = 500–800 nm) where detection of single photons is easily achieved using silicon technologies. This process suffers from weak cross-sections and the MIR-to-visible wavelength mismatch, limiting its efficiency. Here we exploit molecular emitters possessing both MIR and visible transitions from molecular vibrations and electronic states, coupled through Franck–Condon factors. By assembling molecules into a plasmonic nanocavity resonant at both MIR and visible wavelengths, and optically pumping them below the electronic absorption band, we show transduction of MIR light. The upconverted signal is observed as enhanced visible luminescence. Combining Purcell-enhanced visible luminescence with enhanced rates of vibrational pumping gives transduction efficiencies of >10%. MIR frequency-dependent upconversion gives the vibrational signatures of molecules assembled in the nanocavity. Transient picocavity formation further confines MIR light down to the single-molecule level. This allows us to demonstrate single-molecule MIR detection and spectroscopy that is inaccessible to any previous detector.

Arrhythmic Effects Evaluated on Caenorhabditis elegans: The Case of Polypyrrole Nanoparticles.

Experimental studies and clinical trials of nanoparticles for treating diseases are increasing continuously. However, the reach to the market does not correlate with these efforts due to the enormous cost, several years of development, and off-target effects like cardiotoxicity. Multicellular organisms such as the Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) can bridge the gap between in vitro and vertebrate testing as they can provide extensive information on systemic toxicity and specific harmful effects through facile experimentation following 3R EU directives on animal use. Since the nematodes' pharynx shares similarities with the human heart, we assessed the general and pharyngeal effects of drugs and polypyrrole nanoparticles (Ppy NPs) using C. elegans. The evaluation of FDA-approved drugs, such as Propranolol and Racepinephrine reproduced the arrhythmic behavior reported in humans and supported the use of this small animal model. Consequently, Ppy NPs were evaluated due to their research interest in cardiac arrhythmia treatments. The NPs' biocompatibility was confirmed by assessing survival, growth and development, reproduction, and transgenerational toxicity in C. elegans. Interestingly, the NPs increased the pharyngeal pumping rate of C. elegans in two slow-pumping mutant strains, JD21 and DA464. Moreover, the NPs increased the pumping rate over time, which sustained up to a day post-excretion. By measuring pharyngeal calcium levels, we found that the impact of Ppy NPs on the pumping rate could be mediated through calcium signaling. Thus, evaluating arrhythmic effects in C. elegans offers a simple system to test drugs and nanoparticles, as elucidated through Ppy NPs.

Load, Electrification Adoption, and Behind-the-Meter Solar Forecasts for Alaska’s Railbelt Transmission System

Load forecasting is an important component of power system and resource planning for electrical grids. The adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), behind-the-meter (BTM) solar, and heat pumps will significantly change the amount and variability of loads. Electrification adoption and load forecasting in arctic regions and Alaska is limited. This paper provides the first load and electrification adoption forecast for the Alaska Railbelt transmission system, including yearly adoption rates of EVs, BTM solar, and heat pumps and hourly load data for the forecasted year of 2050. The adoption rates were based on the available historical data and compared to other regional and national trends. Two forecasts were created: (1) a moderate adoption forecast based on projections from current adoption rates and comparisons to other regional and national projections and (2) an aggressive forecast, which provides an illustrative comparison of a high adoption rate of 90% for all technologies. The results of these forecasts demonstrate a significant increase in both energy, 80% and 116%, and peak load demand, 113% and 219%, for the moderate and aggressive electrification adoption scenarios, respectively. These findings highlight a need for resource planning and demand management in this region due to the adoption of EVs, BTM solar, and heat pumps.