Energy efficiency, carbon emissions and economic development in Venezuela

Venezuela's vast natural resource base has largely shaped the nation's economic and energy-use patterns. Major opportunities exist for improving the efficiency of energy use in Venezuela and, consequently, restraining the growth of energy-related carbon emissions. This paper presents a detailed report of one potential development path for Venezuela and estimates the ensuing levels of energy demand and CO₂ emissions associated with pursuing this path through the year 2025. The results indicate that by adopting a development strategy that incorporates structural changes in the economy, fuel-switching measures and improved end-use efficiencies, Venezuela can introduce energy efficiency and carbon restraints as part of its economic development process.     

Experiments of Fast Learning with High Order Boltzmann Machines

This work reports the results obtained with the application of High Order Boltzmann Machines without hidden units to construct classifiers for some problems that represent different learning paradigms. The Boltzmann Machine weight updating algorithm remains the same even when some of the units can take values in a discrete set or in a continuous interval. The absence of hidden units and the restriction to classification problems allows for the estimation of the connection statistics, without the computational cost involved in the application of simulated annealing. In this setting, the learning process can be sped up several orders of magnitude with no appreciable loss of quality of the results obtained.     

Multi-level simulation of metal-forming processes

The IBF has for some years made use of finite element programmes to solve metal-forming problems. In the course of this investigation, it has become evident that a problem-oriented adaptation of FEM simulation to the problem in hand is beneficial in terms of computation effort. The computation time for the process parameters is optimised in a multi-level simulation. At level 1 (global analysis) integral parameters such as the required force and required work are computed using a coarse FEM mesh. At level 2 (local analysis) an optimised number of elements is used to determine continuum mechanics parameters like stress, strain and temperature. Microscopic phenomena are simulated at level 3 (microscopic analysis), using special micro-material elements and thermodynamic models.     

Transient operation of a catalytic liquid-liquid plug flow reactor for kinetics measurements

A centrifugal partition chromatograph (CPC) was used as a liquid-liquid catalytic reactor for the isomerisation of hexen-3-ol into ethylpropylketone with a water soluble rhodium catalyst. Global mass transfer coefficients were measured and shown to depend on both the nature of the solute and the flow rate. Liquid-liquid partition isotherms were also determined with the CPC using elution chromatography. Finally, a reactor model was derived to account for the experimental results obtained both under stationary and transient (pulse) conditions. A parameter sensitivity evaluation is also presented.     

Fatty diet and multiple sclerosis]

INTRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT: Multiple sclerosis (ME) is an inflammatory disease of the myelin of the central nervous system, the origin of which is still unknown. Genetic, infectious, immunological and environmental factors have all been blamed, but none of these factors on their own can explain the whole spectrum of this disease. Of the environmental factors, fat in the diet has given rise to most discussion. At the present time, it is known that polyunsaturated essential fatty acids form a part of biological membranes. A relationship has been found between the dietary fat consumed and the plasma levels and cell membrane content. CONCLUSIONS: The possible immuno-modulation function of these fatty acids justify rigorous evaluation of this hypothesis.     

Synthesis and release of ATP by soluble mitochondrial F1 in complex with its inhibitor protein during dimethylsulfoxide-water transitions

Soluble mitochondrial F1 and F1 in complex with the natural ATPase inhibitor protein (F1-IP) catalyze the spontaneous synthesis of [gamma-32P]ATP from medium [32P]phosphate and enzyme-bound ADP when incubated in media with dimethylsulfoxide (Me2SO); under these conditions, the synthesized [gamma-32P]ATP is not released into the media, it remains tightly bound to the enzymes [Gómez-Puyou, A., Tuena de Gómez-Puyou, M. & de Meis, L. (1986) Eur. J. Biochem. 159, 133-140]. Some of the characteristics of the synthesized [gamma-32P]ATP were studied in F1 and F1-IP (ATPase activities of 70 and 1-3 micromol x min(-1) x mg(-1), respectively). In Me2SO media, gamma-phosphate of synthesized ATP in F1 or F1-IP exchanges with medium phosphate. From the rates of the exchange reaction, the half-times for hydrolysis of the synthesized ATP in F1 and F1-IP were calculated: 45 min and 58 min for F1 and F1-IP, respectively. The course that synthesized [gamma-32P]ATP follows after dilution of the Me2SO synthetic mixture with aqueous buffer was determined. After dilution, the half-life of synthesized ATP in F1 was less than 1 min. In F1-IP, ATP was also hydrolyzed, but at significantly lower rates. In F1-IP, dilution also produced release of the synthesized [gamma-32P]ATP. This was assayed by the accessibility of [gamma-32P]ATP to hexokinase. About 25% of [gamma-32P]ATP synthesized in F1-IP, but not in F1, was released into the media after dilution with aqueous buffer that contained 20 mM phosphate. Release of tightly bound ATP required the binding energy of phosphate and solvation of F1-IP, however, the particular kinetics of F1-IP were also central for medium ATP synthesis in the absence of electrochemical H+ gradients.     

A wind park reduced-order model using singular perturbations theory

Due to the increasing penetration of wind energy, it is necessary to possess design tools that are able to simulate the impact of these installations on electric utility grids. In order to provide a net contribution to this issue, a detailed wind park model has been developed and is briefly presented. However, the computational costs associated with the performance of such a detailed model in describing the behavior of a wind park composed by a considerable number of units may render its practical application very difficult. To overcome this problem, singular perturbations theory has been applied to reduce the order of the detailed wind park model, and therefore create the conditions for the development of a dynamic equivalent which is able to retain the relevant dynamics with respect to the existing AC power system. Validation results proving the ability of singular perturbations reduced order model to match the results provided by the detailed model are shown and commented upon     

Health and education: alternative courses for the development of nursing personnel

The disposition behavior of trientine, a selective copper-chelating drug for Wilson's disease, and its metabolites in normal patients with Wilson's disease and rats were studied. A high concentration of metabolites appeared in blood samples of patients and rats in the early stage after administration of trientine. Furthermore, large amount of trientine metabolites were excreted into the urine of patients. These results suggest that trientine is remarkably subjected to a first-pass effect. The drug concentration area under the curve (AUC) of the unchanged form and the metabolites of trientine in patients was not dependent on the administered dosage. It seems that the absorption process is an important factor for the disposition behavior of trientine, we have also investigated the uptake characteristics of trientine by rat intestinal brush-border membrane vesicles. The uptake characteristics of trientine were similar to the physiological polyamines, spermine and spermidine. The uptake rate of trientine was dose-dependently inhibited by spermine and spermidine. Moreover, spermine competitively inhibited the uptake of trientine with a Ki value of 18.6 muM. This value is very close to the Km value for spermine (30.4 muM). These data suggested that the uptake mechanism of trientine in rat small intestinal brush-border membrane vesicles was almost identical to that of spermine and spermidine, and that the physiological polyamines seem to have the ability to inhibit the absorption of trientine from the gastrointestinal tract.