Predicting the effects of sand erosion on collector surfaces in CSP plants

This paper presents a methodology to predict the optical performance and physical topography of the glass collector surfaces of any given CSP plant in the presence of sand and dust storms, providing that local climate conditions are known and representative sand and dust particles samples are available. Using existing meteorological data for a defined CSP plant in Egypt, plus sand and dust samples from two desert locations in Libya, we describe how to derive air speed, duration, and sand concentrations to use within the Global CSP Laboratory sand erosion simulation rig at Cranfield University. This then allows us to predict the optical performance of parabolic trough collector glass after an extended period by the use of accelerated ageing. However the behavior of particles in sandstorms is complex and has prompted a theoretical analysis of sand particle dynamics which is also described in this paper

Concentrating Solar Power: Focusing the Sun's Energy with Mirrors to Produce Electricity

Key facts: - Concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies use mirrors to focus the sun's heat. This heat is used to boil water, and the resulting steam turns a turbine to generate electricity. - Concentrating solar power plants provide the lowest cost power of any solar technology. They can produce electricity for $0.09 to$0.12 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), which can be competitive with peak power prices. - About 500 megawatts (MW) of concentrating solar power capacity will be installed worldwide by the end of 2005, according to the US Department of Energy. The world's largest solar facility, a 345 MW CSP trough system, has been operating in the Mojave Desert in California since 1984. The United States has enormous solar energy potential. For example, a 100 mile by 100 mile plot of land in Nevada, fitted with CSP trough systems, could provide enough electricity for the entire United States, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Towards the development of the supply chain of concentrated solar power

This work focuses on the investigation into the planning of renewable energy power plants in Brazil using the Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technology. The main aim of the paper is to present an analysis of the planning process that can be used as a basis of the development of a method to assess the Brazilian’s local manufacturing and supply chain capabilities in supporting the deployment of the CSP technology. The paper identifies areas in which the concerted efforts should be emphasized. For this, the paper will first discuss the key components of the chosen CSP technology (in this case the parabolic through). The manufacturing processes of these components will subsequently be analyzed and the key enabling technologies will be determined. The demands of electricity will be estimated using the System Advisory Model®, a modelling tool developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). An assessment method will finally be proposed to identify the potentials of the local Brazilian supply chain, through the readiness evaluation of the key enabling technologies and manufacturing processes

Implementation of a dual platelet inventory in a tertiary hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic enabling cold-stored apheresis platelets for treatment of actively bleeding patients

Background: To increase preparedness and mitigate the risk of platelet shortage without increasing the number of collections, we introduced a dual platelet inventory with cold-stored platelets (CSP) with 14-days shelf life for actively bleeding patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study design and methods: We collected apheresis platelet concentrates with blood type O or A. All patients receiving CSP units were included in a quality registry. Efficacy was evaluated by total blood usage and laboratory analysis of platelet count, hemoglobin, and TEG 6s global hemostasis assay. Feasibility was evaluated by monitoring inventory and a survey among laboratory staff. Results: From 17 March, 2020, to 31 December, 2021, we produced 276 CSP units and transfused 186 units to 92 patients. Main indication for transfusion was surgical bleeding (88%). No transfusion reactions were reported. 24-h post-transfusion patient survival was 96%. Total outdate in the study period was 33%. The majority (75%) of survey respondents answered that they had received sufficient information and training before CSP was implemented. Lack of information about bleeding status while issuing platelets, high workload, and separate storage location was described as main reasons for outdates. Discussion: CSP with 14-days shelf life is a feasible alternative for the treatment of patients with bleeding. Implementation of a dual platelet inventory requires thorough planning, including information and training of clinical and laboratory staff, continuous follow-up of practice and patients, and an easy-to-follow algorithm for use of CSP units. A dual platelet inventory may mitigate the risk of platelet shortage during a pandemic situation.publishedVersio

Safe and Verifiable Design of Concurrent Java Programs

The design of concurrent programs has a reputation for being difficult, and thus potentially dangerous in safetycritical real-time and embedded systems. The recent appearance of Java, whilst cleaning up many insecure aspects of OO programming endemic in C++, suffers from a deceptively simple threads model that is an insecure variant of ideas that are over 25 years old [1]. Consequently, we cannot directly exploit a range of new CASE tools -- based upon modern developments in parallel computing theory -- that can verify and check the design of concurrent systems for a variety of dangers\ud such as deadlock and livelock that otherwise plague us during testing and maintenance and, more seriously, cause catastrophic failure in service. \ud Our approach uses recently developed Java class\ud libraries based on Hoare's Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP); the use of CSP greatly simplifies the design of concurrent systems and, in many cases, a parallel approach often significantly simplifies systems originally approached sequentially. New CSP CASE tools permit designs to be verified against formal specifications\ud and checked for deadlock and livelock. Below we introduce CSP and its implementation in Java and develop a small concurrent application. The formal CSP description of the application is provided, as well as that of an equivalent sequential version. FDR is used to verify the correctness of both implementations, their\ud equivalence, and their freedom from deadlock and livelock

PfHPRT: a new biomarker candidate of acute Plasmodium falciparum infection.

Plasmodium falciparum is a protozoan parasite that causes human malaria. This parasitic infection accounts for approximately 655,000 deaths each year worldwide. Most deaths could be prevented by diagnosing and treating malaria promptly. To date, few parasite proteins have been developed into rapid diagnostic tools. We have combined a shotgun and a targeted proteomic strategy to characterize the plasma proteome of Gambian children with severe malaria (SM), mild malaria, and convalescent controls in search of new candidate biomarkers. Here we report four P. falciparum proteins with a high level of confidence in SM patients, namely, PF10_0121 (hypoxanthine phosphoribosyltransferase, pHPRT), PF11_0208 (phosphoglycerate mutase, pPGM), PF13_0141 (lactate dehydrogenase, pLDH), and PF14_0425 (fructose bisphosphate aldolase, pFBPA). We have optimized selected reaction monitoring (SRM) assays to quantify these proteins in individual patients. All P. falciparum proteins were higher in SM compared with mild cases or control subjects. SRM-based measurements correlated markedly with clinical anemia (low blood hemoglobin concentration), and pLDH and pFBPA were significantly correlated with higher P. falciparum parasitemia. These findings suggest that pHPRT is a promising biomarker to diagnose P. falciparum malaria infection. The diagnostic performance of this marker should be validated prospectively

Evaluating the robustness of an active network management function in an operational environment

This paper presents the integration process of a distribution network Active Network Management (ANM) function within an operational environment in the form of a Micro-Grid Laboratory. This enables emulation of a real power network and enables investigation into the effects of data uncertainty on an online and automatic ANM algorithm's control decisions. The algorithm implemented within the operational environment is a Power Flow Management (PFM) approach based around the Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP). This paper show the impact of increasing uncertainty, in the input data available for an ANM scheme in terms of the variation in control actions. The inclusion of a State Estimator (SE), with known tolerances is shown to improve the ANM performance