Running Expenses Research Articles

Li-Ion Battery Temperature Forecasting Method: Case-Study

Monitoring and managing battery health is crucial for enhancing performance and lowering running expenses for electronic devices. This paper covers the Deep-learning-enabled temperature forecasting for Li- ion batteries, where they are tested independently. This research presents time series forecasting approaches to predict the temperature of the battery packs. In the proposed model, a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) for predicting the battery temperature and beware of probable future temperatures beforehand to minimize the chances of overcharging and prevent the battery from crossing the threshold value above which battery's health characteristics might get hampered. The growing popularity of data-driven battery prognostics methods shows that ARIMA and LSTM are even when there aren't many prior details available about the batteries. Have a unique dataset of 34 lithium-ion battery packs for this challenge. In one way, the results imply that the existing ARIMA techniques offer interpreting data at various batteries. Having said that, LSTM model outcome recommend that the developed Univariate and Multivariate LSTM model provides finer prediction accuracy in the existence of greater diversification in data for one battery. Thus, try to generalize one forecasting model for each battery type depending on the model's performance.

Future of Electric and Hydrogen Cars and Trucks: An Overview

The negative consequences of toxic emissions from internal combustion engines, energy security, climate change, and energy costs have led to a growing demand for clean power sources in the automotive industry. The development of eco-friendly vehicle technologies, such as electric and hydrogen vehicles, has increased. This article investigates whether hydrogen vehicles will replace electric vehicles in the future. The results showed that fuel-cell cars are unlikely to compete with electric cars. This is due to the advancements in electric vehicles and charging infrastructure, which are becoming more cost-effective and efficient. Additionally, the technical progress in battery electric vehicles (BEVs) is expected to reduce the market share of fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) in passenger vehicles. However, significant investments have been made in hydrogen cars. Many ongoing investments seem to follow the sunk cost fallacy, where decision-makers continue to invest in an unprofitable project due to their already invested resources. Furthermore, even with megawatt charging, fuel-cell trucks cost more than battery-powered electric trucks. The use cases for fuel-cell electric trucks are also much more limited, as their running expenses are higher compared to electric cars. Hydrogen vehicles may be beneficial for heavy transport in remote areas. However, it remains to be seen if niche markets are large enough to support fuel-cell electric truck commercialization and economies of scale. In summary, we believe that hydrogen vehicles will not replace electric cars and trucks, at least before 2050.

Cost consequences of task-shifting intravitreal injections from physicians to nurses in a tertiary hospital in Norway

BackgroundAnti-vascular endothelial growth factor is a medicine administered intravitreally by an injection to maintain visual acuity in patients with a variety of retinal diseases. The demand for this treatment has grown considerably in the westernized world the last two decades and will continue to increase due to an aging population. Because of the high volume, injections seize enormous resources and represent high costs for both hospitals and society. Task-shifting of injections from physicians to nurses may be a means to reduce such costs, however the magnitude of possible savings has been poorly investigated. To this end we investigated changes in the hospital costs per injection, six-year cost projections of physician- versus nurse-administered injections for a Norwegian tertiary hospital and we compared the societal costs per patient per year.MethodsPatients (n = 318) were randomized to either physician- or nurse administered injections, and data were prospectively collected. Hospital costs per injection were calculated as the sum of training costs, personnel time and running expenses. The number of injections for the years 2014 – 21 from a Norwegian tertiary hospital was combined with age group specific injection prevalence and population projections to calculate cost projections for 2022 – 27. Societal costs per patient were calculated as the sum of hospital costs, transport costs for patients, caregivers’ use of time, costs of ophthalmology consultations and community-based homecare.ResultsThe hospital costs per injection were 5.5 € higher for physicians compared to nurses (281.6 € versus 276.1 €). Cost projections estimated an annual hospital saving of task-shifting of 48 921 € for 2022 – 27. Societal costs per patient did not differ significantly between the two groups (mean 4988 € vs 5418 €, p = 0.398).ConclusionTask-shifting of injections from physicians to nurses can reduce hospital costs and increase the flexibility of physician resources. The annual savings are modest, but increased demand for injections might increase future cost savings. To achieve future savings for society, organizing ophthalmology consultations and injections on the same day to reduce the number of visits might be a solution.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT02359149 (09/02/2015).

Operational Characteristics of Women Street Food Vendors in Rural South Africa.

ObjectiveTo characterize the operations of the street food enterprise in the Vhembe district, focusing on business profile, sold foods, inputs, pricing, record-keeping practices and total running cost.MethodsA descriptive cross-sectional face-to-face study of 511 vendors was done using a structured researcher-administered questionnaire comprising demographic and operational characteristics. Convenience sampling was used to choose the vending sites. Chi-square tests were conducted between four categorical variables (gender, age, marital status and citizenship) and operational characteristics. P-values were considered significant at p < 0.05. However, a Bonferroni adjustment decreased the significant value to p < 0.013.ResultsThe findings highlight the dominance of single middle-aged (35–44) women (63.1%) with some high school education. About 14% migrated from Zimbabwe. Most vendors were owners (86.1%), with 70.0% in business for at least 1–10 years. Food sold included mielie pap (stiff porridge) served with beef or chicken, sometimes with vegetables. Plate prices were R40.00 (2.6 USD) for a full plate and R30.00 (2 USD) for half a plate. The typical street food consumers were government officials, middlemen, and schoolchildren. Social media such as Whatsapp were used to communicate between the street food vendors and customers. The results highlight poor managerial skills as only 15.5% kept records, most of which were sales records (59.5%). On average, street vendors made a monthly profit of R3200.00 (213 USD) while spending R1800.00 (120 USD) on daily running expenses. There were statistically significant variations in some operational characteristics of vendor variables and gender, age, marital status, and citizenship.ConclusionsThere is a need for capital and management for small businesses and food training for rural street food vendors. Therefore, government officials, policymakers, and NGOs could target street vendors to offer training and microfinance to improve their business skills while promoting food safety and consumption of nutritious foods.

(Digital Presentation) Water Treatment through the Arc and Pulsed Spark Discharge

Water deterioration and depletion are accompanied by population growth and fast urbanization, posing major environmental problems. The prevalence of water-borne infections remains high, making it critical to discover effective ways of disinfecting water thoroughly. The main methods for inactivating a wide spectrum of harmful bacteria are chemical, physical, electrochemical, and radical. Conventional decontamination methods not only fail to completely disinfect water but also have several drawbacks, including the generation of disinfection byproducts; the complexity of disinfection reactor design; high energy consumption; and high running expenses. As a result, a versatile approach should be developed to overcome the limitations of current decontamination methods while also being efficient against a variety of diseases. Plasma-based water treatment has recently emerged as a possible alternative to traditional approaches. Plasma has proven to be more effective than conventional oxidants and disinfectants, both directly and indirectly. Plasma-related effects vary depending on the type of discharge, device settings, and process parameters. Electrical discharges are one of the most effective water treatment treatments. To this end, two plasma discharges, i.e., arc and pulsed spark discharge, are used for the treatment of synthetic contaminated water with microorganisms, which can be used for naturally contaminated surface water. Our results revealed that in comparison to arc discharge, pulse spark discharge produces more extreme acidic conditions by lowering the pH of water samples as well as a more reactive environment, which results in greater antibacterial efficacy. Furthermore, water samples treated with arc discharge had greater temperatures than water samples treated with pulse spark discharge, indicating that temperature was not a critical effector in the plasma-based sterilizing process.

P-533 Single-cell long-read nanopore sequencing as a fast and cost-efficient method for aneuploidy detection and potentially PGT-A, a pre-clinical study

Abstract Study question Is long-read nanopore sequencing feasible and reproducible as routine technique for aneuploidy detection, potentially allowing fresh embryo transfer PGT-A cycles? Summary answer Pre-clinical analysis of euploid and aneuploid DNA and single cells using long-read nanopore sequencing resulted in high concordance and reproducible results for aneuploidy detection. What is known already PGT-A is mostly performed using short-read next-generation sequencing, which requires high initial investment costs and high running expenses. Third-generation sequencing is a novel sequencing technology with the potential of fast, easy, and cost-effective sequencing analysis, possible even for small and less well-financed clinics. Long-read nanopore sequencing for PGT was mainly shown for structural variants and monogenetic disease, which comes with high costs and is far from clinical routine. PGT-A from trophectoderm biopsy samples using nanopore sequencing was so far demonstrated in a small pilot study and further pre-clinical and clinical studies are needed to transfer the technology into clinical routine. Study design, size, duration In this pre-clinical study, euploid and aneuploid DNA and single cells, as well as three to 20 cells were analyzed for aneuploidy using two different whole genome amplification (WGA) kits and long-read nanopore sequencing. In total, 44 different samples were analyzed after multiple displacement amplification (MDA) using REPLIg WGA kit (QIAGEN) and so far, 15 samples were analyzed using PicoPlex WGA kit (Takara) from April 2021. To confirm reproducibility, certain WGA samples were sequenced repetitively. Participants/materials, setting, methods Different euploid and aneuploid gDNA samples were diluted to 4.5 pg DNA per sample. Four different human fibroblast cell lines were diluted to approx. 20 cells, or single cells/three cells were picked using micromanipulation technique. DNA and cells were amplified, prepared for sequencing, and sequenced on MinION sequencer from Oxford Nanopore Technology. Data were analyzed using a custom pipeline consisting of pre-processing, alignment and copy-number calling. QC values and whole chromosome aneuploidies were determined automatically. Main results and the role of chance From 44 different single cells (n = 14), few cells (n = 9) or diluted gDNA (n = 21) samples amplified using MDA, 42 samples showed good quality sequencing results. Two samples result in QC failure, yielding a sample-success-rate (SSR) of 95.5%. Overall, sample sensitivity was 100%, specificity 95.2% with positive predictive value (PPV) of 95.5% and negative predictive value (NPV) of 100%. Per chromosome sensitivity was 100%, specificity 99.8% with PPV of 93.3% and NPV of 100%. Using PicoPlex WGA, 15 samples were analyzed so far: 7 gDNA and 8 single cell samples. The study is ongoing. All samples analyzed resulted in high quality sequencing data with the correct karyotype, leading to 100% SSR, 100% sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV per samples as well as per chromosome. Repetitive sequencing (n = 3) of four MDA amplified single cells showed identical sequencing results, indicating high reproducibility of library preparation, and sequencing. A 5p deletion in one cell line was correctly identified in all single cell analyses from either MDA or PicoPlex amplification, indicating sufficient resolution even for segmental aneuploidies. The whole workflow is feasible in under 24 hours. These results indicate high accuracy and high reproducibility of nanopore sequencing technology for single cell aneuploidy detection, possibly transferable for PGT-A. Limitations, reasons for caution The results of this pre-clinical study look very promising and workflow for sample preparation, sequencing and data analysis is fast, cost-efficient, and feasible for PGT-A applications. Nevertheless, no polar body, blastomere or trophectoderm biopsy sample was used and a clinical trial using real clinical samples is needed to confirm applicability. Wider implications of the findings Implementing novel technologies into clinical routine requires extensive systematic pre-clinical and clinical testing. To our knowledge, this is the first study that systematically analyzes sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV for aneuploidy detection using long-read sequencing technology. The fast workflow principally allows day 3/5 fresh embryo transfer after polar body biopsy. Trial registration number Not applicable

Tax Farming As Panacea For Increased Revenue Generation In Nigeria

This study examines tax farming as panacea for increased revenue generation in Nigeria. Ineffective tax administration appears to be an unending setback in Nigeria as a result of myriad of challenges resulting in poor tax revenue generation. The study reviewed many previous studies on tax farming. The reviews revealed that tax farming leads to excessive exploitation of taxpayers in their bid to overzealously recover the advance payment to the government and running expense and then make profit. It was uncovered that the unpredictability and volatility of tenure of tax farmers results in lack of investment in the system because tax-farmers investments were not secured as their contract could be terminated by the state at any time thereby discouraging investment in the long-run. However, the advantages far outweigh the demerits. The study revealed that tax farming is in line with privatization, the current economic drive where the management of hitherto public enterprises has been transferred to competent private individuals to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of such organizations. Again, it ensured a highly coherent and efficient system of resource allocation. The system similarly provided guidance for resource allocation not only to the tax-farmers but also to the state. The tax-farming system was a very efficient revenue collection tactic for the state. It played a substantial role behind the decision of the state to invest directly in the various industries where it generated enormous tax revenue. The tax-farming system contributed significantly to the increase in capital in the private sector both by the massive profits it helped create and by compelling the entrepreneurs to form partnerships. Based on the findings via review of relevant literatures, the study recommends that tax farming should be introduced by the government and given legal backing in Nigeria as a veritable strategy for taxes and levies collection. Government should concentrate on tax administration which involves interpretation of the law and issuing guidelines, assessment, and auditing to ensure fairness and the rule of law which will entrench significant degree of monitoring of the government's agents while tax collection should be contracted out to tax farmers in the collection of determined tax arrears in order to stop over-collection. They should be engaged verification of value of goods declared by importers at customs to ensure that it corresponds to international price data. This would guarantee efficient revenue collection and accountability since the amount to be collected is already determined. The bidding and auctioning off process of tax farming to determine the right of private sector collectors to collect certain taxes and levies should be competitive and transparent to ensure that maximum revenue is derived from the system and to avoid corrupt leaders ceding the right to collect taxes and levies to their cronies, a practice which negates the primary objectives of tax farming. The bidding process should be done at arm’s length.

Unified AHP-TOPSIS and DEA technique for the adoption and performance evaluation of green transportation alternatives in India

The use of electric vehicles can shift India towards sustainable transportation or eco-friendly transportation. EVs are different as compared to petrol vehicles on distinct properties. Electric vehicles have zero tail-pipe outflows, noise, and low running expense contrasted with the internal ignition engines. This paper adds to the existing information by undertaking a multi-criteria analysis for electric vehicles' ranking and performance measures based on the rating by two stakeholder groups, "electric vehicle dealers" and "electric vehicle users". In this paper, the criteria for selecting electric vehicles are identified from the literature and personal interview. This paper utilises the combination of analytical hierarchical processes, technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution, and data envelopment analysis techniques to rank the various types of electric vehicles and measuring the performance of 16 electric and hybrid electric cars that exist in India.

Evaluating an economic application of renewable generated hydrogen: A way forward for green economic performance and policy measures.

Energy security and environmental measurements are incomplete without renewable energy; therefore, there is a dire need to explore new energy sources. Hence, this study aimed to measure the wind power potential to generate renewable hydrogen (H2), including its production and supply cost. This study used first-order engineering model and net present value to measure the levelized cost of wind-generated renewable hydrogen by using the data source of the Pakistan Meteorological Department and State Bank of Pakistan. Results showed that the use of surplus wind and renewable hydrogen energy for green economic production is suggested as an innovative project option for large-scale hydrogen use. The key annual running expenses for hydrogen are electricity and storage costs, which have a significant impact on the costs of renewable hydrogen. The results also indicated that the project can potentially cut carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution by 139 million metric tons and raise revenue for wind power plants by US$2998.52 million. The renewable electrolyzer plants avoided CO2 at a rate of US$24.9-36.9/ton under baseload service, relative to US$44.3/ton for the benchmark. However, in the more practical mid-load situation, these plants have significant benefits. Further, the wind-generated renewable hydrogen delivers 6-11% larger annual rate of return than the standard CO2 catch plant due to their capacity to remain running and supply hydrogen to the consumer through periods of plentiful wind and heat. Also, the measured levelized output cost of hydrogen (LCOH) was US$6.22/kgH2, and for the PEC system, it was US$8.43/kgH2. Finally, it is a mutually agreed consensus among environmental scientists that the integration of renewable energy is the way forward to increase energy security and environmental performance by ensuring uninterrupted clean and green energy. This application has the potential to address Pakistan's urgent issues of large-scale surplus wind- and solar-generated energy, as well as rising energy demand.

Running costs indices for commercial buildings using the hedonic price imputation approach: a case of Sri Lanka

Running expenses of a building consume a substantial share of its total life cycle cost and range between 70 and 80% in commercial buildings. Despite this, investment decisions are primarily based on construction costs due to the absence of a reliable estimate or forecast of costs in-use. In such a context, having running cost indices that incorporate building characteristics would enable investors to predict the running costs of a building at the early phase. This study is aimed at developing running cost indices for commercial buildings by taking Sri Lanka as a case. The running costs and building characteristics data were collected from a sample of 46 commercial buildings and analyzed using the hedonic price imputation approach, which enables the prediction of costs in absence of cost/quantity data. The hedonic indices developed in the study shows an increasing trend of running costs with varying degree of 0.37, 0.30, and 0.28% quarterly for offices, banks, and all commercial buildings, respectively. This prediction of trend would assist commercial developers to capture the movement of the running costs of commercial buildings and thereby optimize the running costs in the early design stage. This study further highlights the hedonic price imputation approach as a promising method for constructing index values where there is no adequate and reliable historical cost data.

Exploring travel patterns and trip purposes of dockless bike-sharing by analyzing massive bike-sharing data in Shanghai, China

In recent years, dockless bike-sharing has rapidly emerged in many cities all over the world, which provides a flexible tool for short-distance trips and interchange between different modes of transport. However, new problems have arisen with the fast and extensive development of the dockless bike-sharing system, such as high running expenses, ineffective bike repositioning, parking problems and so on. To improve the operations of the dockless bike-sharing system, this study aims to investigate the travel pattern and trip purpose of the bike-sharing users by combining bike-sharing data and points of interest (POIs). A massive amount of bike-sharing trips was obtained from the Mobike company, which is a bike-sharing operator in China. The POIs surrounding each trip origin and destination were derived from the Gaode Map application programming interface. K-means++ clustering was adopted to investigate dockless bike-sharing travel patterns and trip purpose based on trip records and their surrounding POIs. The clustering results show that on weekdays, bike-sharing trip origin and destination can be divided into five typical groups, i.e., dining, transportation, shopping, work and residential places. Dining is the most popular trip purpose by bike-sharing, followed by the transferring to other transportation modes and shopping. In addition, through understanding the spatial distribution of the bike-sharing usage patterns of five typical activities, strategies for improving the operation of the dockless bike-sharing system are provided.

Optimization of High-Speed Railway Line Planning Considering Extra-Long Distance Transportation

Network line planning optimal considering extra-long distance transportation can adapt to high-speed railway (HSR) network operation environment and meet the demand of extra-long distance travel. First, the distance of 1500 km or more is defined as extra-long transportation distance based on market competitiveness. The difficulties of direct or transfer transportation for extra-long distance transportation are analyzed. Direct method of extra-long distance is determined according to direct passenger volume and the number of important nodes while transfer method is represented considering transfer times, organization forms, varieties of schemes, and comfort. Then, ideas of optimizing line plan based on riding scheme is put forward. Network optimizing line plan model with riding scheme is developed considering extra-long distance transportation. The model which minimizes traveling cost and train running expense optimizes train frequency and train stop plan with riding scheme. Last, the method and optimizing model is verified by the network which took Baoji–Lanzhou HSR as the core. The optimal result is a benefit to improve operation efficiency and market competitiveness of HSR.

Simulation of the dynamic behavior of a rectangular single-phase natural circulation vertical loop with asymmetric heater

The critical capability of Natural circulation flow for the removing heat has been demonstrated and are widely used in the industry particularly received notable attention to improve passive safety and decrease running expenses in the latest version of nuclear reactors. Among the different type of natural circulation systems, the distinctive characteristics of single-phase natural circulation loops (NCLs), those involved even in very simplified models, are identified to be characterized by a deep complexity of chaotic behavior. In this investigation the experimental data gathered in the AKIAU-R-1P loop, a rectangular single-phase NCL through a test operation, are compared with the results of simulations obtained by one-dimensional RELAP5/Mod3.2 code and three-dimensional ANSYS FLUENT 17.1 computational fluid dynamic (CFD) code. The experimental data, including time histories of the temperature difference over the heater, was almost similar to the predicted simulation results of RELAP5 and ANSYS FLUENT. The RELAP5 code has the capability of prediction the status at low power levels (stable mode) with adequate correctness rather than CFD code whereas when the system is unstable at higher power, CFD indicates further oscillatory behavior in comparison with RELAP5 code and experimental data. The CFD code was functional in presenting the diffusive phenomena which could not be estimated by the RELAP5 one-dimensional model.

Lo sfarzo abituale di una nobile famiglia milanese. Gli eredi Mellerio 1783-1792

Drawing upon the private papers of the Mellerio family, one of the richest in late eighteenth century Milan, the author examines their impressive running expenses during the late eighteenth century. The Mellerio had moved from the Val Vigezzo to Milan in the first half of the century and were ennobled thanks to their share in the Ferma Generale established in 1751 and the huge profits it yielded in twenty years. The splendor of their lifestyle is especially apparent in the high level of expenses on food, salaries and clothing for the servants, horses and carriages etc, all meticulously recorded in their accounting books. The total yearly outlay averages over 500,000 Milanese lire.

(Invited) Thin Film Transistor Technologies: Implementing Research Results in Higher Education to Prepare the Emerging Multidisciplinary Connected Objects

Thin film technologies, particularly thin-film transistors, have been the backbone of large-area electronics for decades, primarily for display applications such as flat panel displays. These devices were mainly manufactured on glass substrate. The processes have therefore been considered as a low temperature technology compared to bulk silicon CMOS technology processes. However, due to the huge development of integrated electronics in parallel driven by a steady size reduction to cope with Moore’s law, the CMOS thermal budget has been drastically lowered, which in-fine brought both technologies to comparable processing temperatures. Today, flexible plastics is used as a substrate. In addition, as the physical limitation of dimensions becomes close to the size of one monolayer, integration has shifted to the third dimension by stacking circuit substrates and other physical or electrical functions (more than Moore). As a result, electrical circuits become three-dimensional and increasingly involve thin-film technologies in new systems-on-a-chip (SOC) or systems-in-package (SiP). This trend allows creating new objects that are gathering several functions with communication capabilities, i.e. connected smart objects. The connected objects can contain sensors, actuators, signal processing circuits but also displays, energy harvesting device. In other words, they combine large area electronics and CMOS ones. The main advantage of the thin film technologies is also offering the possibilities to process multidisciplinary objects such as MEMS (micro-electrical-mechanical systems), BioMEMS for biological application, Optoelectronic systems, for example. The spectrum of combination is increasingly wider and hence addresses a large field of applications to many societal issues such as health, environment, security, transport, energy, communications, etc. The research activities for the development of thin film transistors technologies is mature even if progress still remain to reduce the power consumption and/or to improve the electrical characteristics, the sensitivity and the reliability. Important research efforts were devoted to improve the quality of the semiconductor materials, to adapt the thin layer deposition techniques to the nature of the substrate, to improve the interfaces at the border of the active zones, to minimize the density of defects despite a low temperature budget by involving several techniques of crystallization and/or depositions, by and also changing the architecture of the elementary device, and the design of the circuits, …. A large variety of skills has to be made available in order to keep the pace of this technology development. This means the training of skilled technicians, engineers, and researchers bearing PhD degrees. In a context of digital society, developing the skills of the graduate students is strongly linked to the knowledge and the associated know-how. The initial education of engineers and researchers must contain several practical training based on the outcome of research activity allowing an awareness of the students to the new challenge. Practical training to develop advanced know-how skills might be hindered by the cost of the equipment and the associated running expenses. To meet this challenge, the French CNFM (National coordination for Education in Microelectronics and Nanotechnologies) network strategy is sharing the fabrication facilities such as the cleanroom and the design tools. In this strategy, twelve microelectronics centers were created in the early 80’s, seven of them having cleanrooms opened to initial education, and lifelong learning. Today, these centers are organized in a network, recognized by the Ministry of Higher Education that financially supports at least partially, the common activities. In this network two important industrial partners are members of the CNFM BoD. Several CNFM centers have activities in the thin film technologies, mainly Rennes, Grenoble, Lille and Bordeaux centers. They have developed practicals for students that include amorphous and polycrystalline silicon thin film transistors technologies, and more recently organic semiconductors for photovoltaic and optoelectronics applications, graphene thin film devices, or insulator ultrathin films for memories (such as Metal-Insulator-Metal or MIM), but also sensors and actuators involving suspended gate thin film transistors, suspended membranes, nanowires or cantilevers, piezoelectric films, etc. After a presentation of the evolution of the thin film technologies thanks to the research activities, and of the societal issues for applications that include the development of connected objects, the presentation highlights the set-up of training covering the different aspects of the thin film technologies in order to train the graduate students for the future digital and connected society. This transfer from the research activities towards the Higher Education is the main mission of the University world.

Impact of different South African demand sectors on grid-connected PV systems’ optimal energy dispatch under time of use tariff

For the past few years, the South African government has been promoting the use of solar energy system which can be of benefit to the development of small power producers dispersed throughout the local grid. This support from the government usually comes with an obligation for the main electricity supplier to purchase the excessive power produced by small independent generators. In this paper the impact brought by different demand sector profiles on the daily operational cost and optimal scheduling of grid connected photovoltaic systems with bidirectional power flow is analysed for the specific case of Bloemfontein in South Africa. For this purpose, residential, commercial and industrial daily load curves are used to estimate daily load demands. For comparison purposes, three load profiles representing the demands from the residential, commercial and industrial sectors, have been used and normalized to display the same daily energy consumption level with different demand patterns. The results of the simulations, obtained using Matlab 2016, have revealed that for the same energy consumption and renewable resources, the running expenses of any proposed scheme are mainly dependent on the demand sector. Consequently, it can be recommended that in Bloemfontein and South Africa in general more focus should be on implementing grid-connected renewable technologies with storage systems on the commercial and industrial sector instead of on the residential sector.

Вибір критерію оптимізації подрібнювачів-змішувачів біогазових установок

Intensifying of ecological problems by organic wastes of stock-raising industry, and also a growing deficit of power resources is main reasons of intensification of developments in industry of production and effective use of biogas. The production of biogas that is the product of anaerobic fermentation of pus and other organic wastes gives not only refurbishable energy, but is the effective way of fight against contamination of environment. If by the primary purpose of application of biogas options to count their ecological - protective functions, then got biogas will be an additional and cheap energy source. Under metanogenesis understand an anaerobic microbiological process a biogas appears as a result of that. Fermentation comes true in the special impermeable capacities - methane-tanks, where all necessary terms of metanogenesis are created. Speed of curriculum of organic substances depends on the processes of vital functions of bacteria, on that external terms influence in turn. Part of these terms is permanent, humidity and absence are light for example, and other must be supported at certain level is an optimal temperature, supply of nutritives with corresponding correlation nitrogen is a carbon, and alkalinity of environment. Exactly main, that the set equipment maximally satisfied to the terms of vital functions of bacteria. Most researches are sanctified to the design of work of methane-tanks of biogas options depending on the modes of consumption of biogas and productivity of products of metanogenesis. But small the worked out questions of optimization of parameters of equipment that forms the technological system of production of biogas. A research aim is development of methodology of choice of criterion of optimization of technical and economic indicators indexes of grinding-mixers of biogas options. As an objective function an index, that functionally depends on quality of products on the exit of mixer, his sizes, power expenses on unit of products and cost of unit of volume of setting, is used. By the basic element of technological equipment, that provides quantitative and quality composition of nutritives in bunkers stores of biogas options there are the drum grinding down - mixers. Therefore, at planning it is necessary to decide the complex of the tasks, related to development of ideology of the system, her elements, work out normatively are methodical materials on the choice of optimal parameters equipments of the system, that will provide his production and exploitation with the minimum expenses of money and time. At the choice of construction of grinding down - mixer of the biogas setting pay attention to quality of products on an exit from an aggregate, overall sizes, power expenses on unit of products and cost of unit of volume of setting. At planning it is desirable to have such function concerning continuous-action grinding down - mixer, for the construction of that there are characteristic single capital costs, permanent running expenses and identical tenures of employment. If to consider, that expenses on preparation of components of mixture of products of fermentation are permanent and at all compared variants of mixer options the set productivity of the prepared products is provided and her homogeneity is needed, then as an objective function it is possible to use the index of economic efficiency. For simplification of calculations at planning of grinding-mixers of biogas options will apply the intermediate criterion of the technical and economic characteristics of grinding-mixers of Н. A certain size it comfortably to apply as technical and economic characteristics of mixers. The use of Н for the analysis of variants envisages a presence even one value of criterion the subsequent change of Р can be found on varying of Н. An analysis showed that a few variants of increase of criterion of optimization of continuous-action tumbler-blender are, it first of all: - increase of the by volume productivity of Q and intensities of Z of process of mixing; - reduction to the cost of В n of unit of volume of grinding-mixer, or powers of N, necessary for the rotation of working organs of setting. After the well-known values of parameters, that characterize kinetics of mixing and coefficient of heterogeneity the criterion of optimization of Р, and then got values of Н, was expected. As an objective function of optimization of tumblers-blenders of biogas options the index of economic efficiency, the variable quantities of that are specific capital investments in the mixer setting and specific running expenses, is offered. Taking into account the terms of extreme analytical expression of objective function of dependence of economic efficiency of grinding-mixers is got from their technological and technical indexes. It is set that for set coefficient of heterogeneity of the prepared mixture and productivity it is possible to define the most economic volume of the mixer setting, the index of that the maximal value of the technical and economic characteristics of Н.

Effect of light on quality of milk

Light-exposure is a very much chronicled issue in the investigation of the nature of milk. Milk subjected to light amid transport, handling, and storage can create undesirable off-flavors and fragrances, because of riboflavin prompted breakdown of proteins and lipids. In spite of much review into these marvels, most work to date has been completed with incandescent or fluorescent light sources. The present day production network and retail condition is advancing, and right now the dairy business is seeing numerous providers embracing LED lighting in show cases, basically as a cost sparing and maintainability measure, because of lower running expenses. LED lighting produces a highly modified range of light than the fluorescent frameworks at present supported. The nearness of milk fat seems to ensure against vitamin A debasement in liquid items, however unfavorably influences the flavor nature of milk after presentation to light.

Economic Analysis of The Investing and Running Expenses for Thi-qar Governorate for The Period ( 2006 – 2014 )

Economic Analysis of The Investing and Running Expenses for Thi-qar Governorate for The Period ( 2006 – 2014 )

Cultivation of Lettuce and Considerations of Suitable Item in Plant Factory Adopted Automatic Transportation System

Abstract In a R&D Center for Plant Factory Building B in Osaka Prefecture University was constructed as a project sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, developing technology and verifying practicality for production of low cost and high quality lettuce are aimed using automatic transportation system. Although almost type of plant can be cultivated in fully controlled plant production systems, however, economic performance of these are not high, because of high running and facility expenses. Most of plant factory system related companies focus on developing fully controlled plant production system where most plant can be cultivated such as outdoor or greenhouse culture. These types of plant production system are very expensive and unfit for commercial system, although most plant can be cultivated in the system. However, a study focused on developing plant and cultivating technique suited to existing plant production systems will help to decrease facility and running expenses. Therefore, in this study, 11 kinds of lettuces were cultivated to considerate suitable item in fully controlled plant cultivation system adopted automatic transportation system. In the result of this study, frilly type lettuce was observed as suitable item for automatic transportation system. Leafy type was observed higher growing rate and heavier fresh weight, but it caused malfunction. Tipburn was a major problem in semi heading type.