Planning of carbon capture and storage with pinch analysis techniques

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a means for reducing carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from fossil fuel combustion in power generation and industrial processes. It involves the capture of CO₂ for subsequent storage in various geological formations. The selection and matching of the power plants and storage sites are often an issue of optimisation due to various constraints, i.e., time of availability, injection rate, and storage capacity limits. In this work, a novel graphical targeting tool based on pinch analysis is proposed to address the planning problem of the storage of captured CO₂ from power generating plants into corresponding reservoirs. The main consideration for the problem is the time of availability of the latter, since reservoirs need to be developed prior to CO₂ storage. The time limitation is addressed by the graphical technique where time is taken as the governing element in solving the problem. Hypothetical examples are used to elucidate the proposed approach.     

Midazolam’s Effects on Delayed-Rectifier K+ Current and Intermediate-Conductance Ca2+-Activated K+ Channel in Jurkat T-lymphocytes

Midazolam (MDZ) could affect lymphocyte immune functions. However, the influence of MDZ on cell’s K⁺ currents has never been investigated. Thus, in the present study, the effects of MDZ on Jurkat T lymphocytes were studied using the patch-clamp technique. Results showed that MDZ suppressed the amplitude of delayed-rectifier K⁺ current (I_K(DR)) in concentration-, time-, and state-dependent manners. The IC₅₀ for MDZ-mediated reduction of I_K(DR) density was 5.87 μM. Increasing MDZ concentration raised the rate of current-density inactivation and its inhibitory action on I_K(DR) density was estimated with a dissociation constant of 5.14 μM. In addition, the inactivation curve of I_K(DR) associated with MDZ was shifted to a hyperpolarized potential with no change on the slope factor. MDZ-induced inhibition of I_K(DR) was not reversed by flumazenil. In addition, the activity of intermediate-conductance Ca²⁺-activated K⁺ (IK_Ca) channels was suppressed by MDZ. Furthermore, inhibition by MDZ on both I_K(DR) and IK_Ca-channel activity appeared to be independent from GABAA receptors and affected immune-regulating cytokine expression in LPS/PMA-treated human T lymphocytes. In conclusion, MDZ suppressed current density of I_K(DR) in concentration-, time-, and state-dependent manners in Jurkat T-lymphocytes and affected immune-regulating cytokine expression in LPS/PMA-treated human T lymphocytes.     

Functional stabilization of unstable fixed points: Human pole balancing using time-to-balance information.

Humans are often faced with tasks that require stabilizing inherently unstable situations. The authors explored the dynamics of human functional stabilization by having participants continually balance a pole until a minimum time criterion was reached. Conditions were manipulated with respect to geometry, mass, and characteristic "fall time" of the pole. Distributions of timing between pole and hand velocities showed strong action–perception coupling. When actions demonstrated a potential for catastrophic failure, the period of hand oscillation correlated well with the perceptual quantity "time to balance" (τbal = θ/θ?), but not other quantities such as θ and θ? alone. This suggests that participants were using available τbal information during critical conditions, although they may not have been attending to this type of perceptual information during typical, noncritical motions of successful performance. In a model analysis and simulation, the authors showed how discrete τbal information may be used to adjust the parameters of a controller to perform this task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

WEB INFORMATION MONITORING FOR COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE

The WWW has become one of the most important media for sharing information. Web information provides another emerging and important avenue and source of competitive intelligence (CI) for companies. CI is critical for companies to stay competitive in the marketplace. Apart from business users, there are other types of CI users such as technical users, casual users, news awareness users and others who would like to be kept informed on the latest development of their interested areas over the WWW. To discover web information, CI users need to constantly monitor certain web sites and web pages for related information. However, the dynamic nature of the web has made such monitoring task complicated and time-consuming. This paper proposes a web monitoring system, WebMon, to help users monitor specified web pages for latest changes and updates in information. Four monitoring functions including date monitoring, keywords monitoring, link monitoring and portion monitoring are supported by the system. The performance of these monitoring functions is also evaluated.     

Hybrid Graphene Titanium Nanocomposites and Their Applications in Energy Storage Devices: a Review

Emissions of natural gas and carbon dioxide due to fossil fuels have become a global issue which influences the development of various technologies. Demand for clean renewable power sources is ever increasing. However, renewable sources are intermittent in nature, which poses a challenge in electricity generation and power load stability. Lately, supercapacitors have attracted remarkable interest in the field of electricity storage due to their ability to store large amounts of electric charge, enabling high power output. Reduced graphene oxide incorporated with titanium dioxide (rGO/TiO₂) nanocomposites are well considered as potential supercapattery materials due to their superior mechanical properties, notable strength, and abundance in Nature. rGO carbon material acts as the ion reservoir, facilitating faster electron transfer mobility, whereas mesoporous TiO₂ provides a larger surface area and more active sites, which improve the cycling stability and specific capacitance. Literature reports that supercapacitor performance mainly depends on the choice of the electroactive material, electrolyte, and current collector. This review focuses on recent developments in supercapacitor technology, storage mechanisms of different electrodes, a comprehensive discussion of different challenges related to energy storage devices, as well as the formation mechanism of rGO/TiO₂ hybrid electrodes.

     

Process-to-Policy (P2Pol): using carbon emission pinch analysis (CEPA) tools for policy-making in the energy sector

Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy - Global warming is a major international issue due to rising levels of greenhouse gases such as CO2. Many countries now face the challenge to find...     

Measurement of brain activity with bolus administration of contrast agent and gradient-echo MR imaging

This study was performed to measure changes in cerebral blood volume (CBV) associated with visual activation by use of bolus administration of contrast agent and conventional, clinically configured magnetic resonance (MR) hardware and software. Fast gradient-recalled acquisition in the steady state technique was used to study five healthy subjects during visual activation and a control dark state. MR images were obtained every 2.048 seconds for 2 minutes. A bolus of gadopentetate dimeglumine was injected during visual stimulation and darkness. Cine images produced from the series of rapid images clearly depicted arterial, capillary, and venous phases. Analysis of serial concentration maps derived from the rapid images revealed expected differences between the relative CBV of gray matter and that of white matter, as well as significantly increased relative CBV in calcarine cortex during visual activation versus the control state (mean increase, 15.24%; range, 6.41%-27.78%; P < .05). These results confirm those reported in echo-planar imaging studies and demonstrate that brain function can be assessed with the bolus method by means of MR imaging hardware and software with conventional clinical configurations.     

Strict positive realness of a family of polytopic plants

Some strict positive realness results for a family of polytopic plants are presented. More specifically, it is shown that the strict positive real property of such a family of plants can be ascertained from its vertex plants     

Optimization of gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography using an automated bolus-detection algorithm (MR SmartPrep). Original investigation

Gadolinium (Gd)-enhanced three-dimensional (3D) magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) is a quick method for performing noninvasive diagnostic angiography. A major technical obstacle to the successful implementation of this technique, however, is the proper coordination of the data acquisition with the contrast bolus. In this article, the use of an automated bolus-detection algorithm (MR SmartPrep), which triggers the initiation of data acquisition for Gd-enhanced 3D MRA is reviewed. Potential applications of this evolving technique are illustrated.