Foreword

This report provides a study and a simulation of a feasible system configuration for the implementation of a Stirling engine for electrification of rural areas in Bolivia. The aim of the review is to determine if a hybrid system combining a biomass-fired Stirling engine and photovoltaic technology may respond to a basic electricity need. An introductory literature study about the Stirling engine technology and the energy resources and characteristics of Bolivia leads to a further proposal of the selected system for rural electrification. The chosen Stirling engine for this study is a 3 kW electric output engine combined with a PV array of 0.9 kW and a battery bank with a capacity of 1200 Ah. The power demand that must be satisfied is based on a rural village in the department of Beni with an amount of 24 households. The simulation is performed in the software Homer Energy where an energy balance between the generated power and the demand can be analysed in order to optimise the power generation strategy. Two scenarios are simulated with monthly demands of 45 and 60 kWh per household. Results from the study indicate that the decision on the size of the Stirling engine must be attached to the demand that is going to satisfy in order to avoid insufficient or excessive power production. In addition, although the PV technology allows an increase on the power demand that the system can handle and makes it more flexible, its contribution is not of the same order of the Stirling engine. The described system configuration is able to attend a demand up to 55 kWh/day and a peak power of 3.8 kW. In conclusion, Stirling engines have the potential to become a good solution for rural electrification, especially when making use of CHP strategies to increase the overall efficiency of the energy generation and fulfil both the electric and thermal demands of rural populations.

Transverse free vibration of rotating non-uniform euler-bernoulli beams using the adomian modified decomposition method

The dynamic behavior of non-uniform rotating beams is of practical interest since it is widely used in many engineering applications such as helicopter rotor blades, spinning space structures and gas turbine blades

Transverse free vibration of rotating non-uniform euler-bernoulli beams using the adomian modified decomposition method

The dynamic behavior of non-uniform rotating beams is of practical interest since it is widely used in many engineering applications such as helicopter rotor blades, spinning space structures and gas turbine blades

Purification and electron cryomicroscopy of coronavirus particles.

Intact, enveloped coronavirus particles vary widely in size and contour, and are thus refractory to study by traditional structural means such as X-ray crystallography. Electron microscopy (EM) overcomes some problems associated with particle variability and has been an important tool for investigating coronavirus ultrastructure. However, EM sample preparation requires that the specimen be dried onto a carbon support film before imaging, collapsing internal particle structure in the case of coronaviruses. Moreover, conventional EM achieves image contrast by immersing the specimen briefly in heavy-metal-containing stain, which reveals some features while obscuring others. Electron cryomicroscopy (cryo-EM) instead employs a porous support film, to which the specimen is adsorbed and flash-frozen. Specimens preserved in vitreous ice over holes in the support film can then be imaged without additional staining. Cryo-EM, coupled with single-particle image analysis techniques, makes it possible to examine the size, structure and arrangement of coronavirus structural components in fully hydrated, native virions. Two virus purification procedures are described

Lords of the square ring: Future capital and career transition issues for elite indigenous Australian boxers

In Australia a serious and widely documented statistical gap exists between the socio-economic circumstances of the countrys Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations. Areas of divergence include life expectancy, health, housing, income, and educational opportunity and employment. This has made career attainment problematic for most Aboriginal people. Among male Indigenous people, professional sport is portrayed as one of the few realms in which they can prosper. This is particularly true in the major football codes Australian Rules and rugby league and a feature of elite-level boxing, where Indigenous fighters are also statistically over-represented. However, while sport has provided opportunities for a small number of talented Indigenous athletes, it has rarely been a pathway to lifelong prosperity. This paper contends that as a result of over-reliance on an abundant bank of physical capital, Indigenous Australian boxers are particularly vulnerable to potential occupational obsolescence should their bodily assets erode more quickly than envisaged. Drawing on an Indigenous concept, Dadirri, to inform a wider interpretive phenomenological approach, the paper examines retirement experiences of fourteen elite male Indigenous Australian boxers; the goal of this research is to understand their post-sport career decision making. In this respect, Pierre Bourdieus concepts of habitus, capital and field are utilised to frame and interpret the capacity of Indigenous boxers to develop sustainable career pathways which we describe as future capital during their time as elite athletes

Pasifika diaspora and the changing face of Australian rugby league

© 2014 by University of Hawai‘i Press. This article investigates the sociocultural motivations of the Pasifika diaspora in Australian sport in the context of rugby league football. In 2011, some 36 percent of National Rugby League (nrl) playing contracts were signed by players of Pasifika descent (Heptonstall 2011). There has been an accompanying rise of Pasifika influence in the game: this is apparent on the field with the high profile of star Pasifika players and off the field with the intensification of welfare and education programs intended to accommodate Pasifika athletes in the National Rugby League. The purpose of this article is to critically analyze kinship networks, religious influences, and the sociocultural expectations placed on Pasifika footballers by various stakeholders and to evaluate how these factors either motivate these athletes to play in the National Rugby League or discourage them from doing so. The article explores what these experiences reveal about the nature of Pasifika communities in an Australian context. The material presented draws on the principal author’s original research on Australian rugby league and the experience of athletes of Pasifika descent, as well as his direct experience as a former sports education administrator and as the inaugural Pacific Islander coaching and development officer for the New South Wales Rugby League

Fifa-isation: Spatial security, sponsor protection and media management at the 2010 World Cup

This paper presents a case-study of spatial brand protection and media management and security strategies at the 2010 Football World Cup (FWC) in South Africa (RSA). This focus stems from the realisation that commercially designated event spaces are very important environments for the interests of FWC sponsors, and that the media has a pivotal role in conveying messages about desirable conduct in such environments. In these respects, stakeholder organisations are concerned about safeguarding core event spaces, and with promoting positive messages about the FWC via the media. The paper therefore investigates the interests of key stakeholders at the 2010 FWC: the event owner Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the FWC sponsors and the host city (Cape Town). It is concerned with identifying various surveillance strategies to manage public spaces at the FWC, albeit with a particular emphasis on protecting the interests of sponsors and their brand integrity. It is also concerned with strategies to manage the media at the FWC, with a particular emphasis on how FIFA stymies dissent and forces compliance among reporters and news outlets that undermine critical surveillance into these practices of spatial management. Taken together, these hyper-protectionist appr oaches demonstrate what we have described as the FIFA-isation of the FWC, where commercial risk is outsourced to the event host, while the commercial benefits flow back to the event owner. Concomitantly, FIFA makes enormous surveillance demands on the event hosts and those residing in the country and city where it is to be held, and upon the media that broadcast and report on the world's biggest sports mega events. © The author(s), 2014