Characterisation of industrial thermal plumes discharged into coastal waters using remote sensing and simulation techniques

Coastal power stations use sea water as a coolant. The cooling waters discharges released by nuclear power stations, referred to in this thesis as thermal plumes, result in locally raised temperatures of the surrounding environments in the coastal regions. Since raised temperatures can impact aquatic flora and fauna, there are environmental permits and policies describing the limits for the allowed maximum temperatures of the discharged thermal plumes. It is therefore of paramount importance that we can characterise the industrial thermal plumes to a sufficient extent. Achieving this using traditional methods has been challenging due to high cost of the field campaigns, high dependence on weather and no repetition of the measuring campaigns. Access to freely available high-resolution satellite imagery has opened up a potentially viable way of characterising surface thermal plumes through satellite remote sensing. Such observations present an opportunity to study sea surface temperature (SST) distributions in the vicinity of the power stations at spatial resolution of 30 m - 100 m and temporal resolution of up to 16 days. To evaluate the potential of high resolution remote sensing, a methodology for thermal plume detection is developed. Thermal plumes observed by the satellite imagery show high dependence on the tidal conditions for the majority of the investigated sites. The plumes have been found to be embedded within the tidal stream and their direction of dispersion followed the direction of the tidal currents. The observed surface thermal gains were highest in the summer months and lowest in the winter months. In order to gain understanding of plume dispersion subsurface, high resolution three dimensional (3-D) simulations coupled with satellite observations were used. Plume dispersion was modelled for an inter-tidal area during the ebb and the flood tide using FLOW-3D software. The simulated plume was found to raise to the surface and spread depending on the strength and direction of the tidal currents, with limited area of raised temperatures at the seabed concentrated close to the discharge pipes. Available satellite data was used to compare with the simulation outputs and gain validation of the high resolution 3-D model of the plume. Despite the potential of high resolution satellite data sets and 3-D simulations in understanding industrial thermal plumes, a thorough evaluation of their capabilities, limitations and a consideration of routine use of such techniques and scientific advances compared to traditional methods have not been fully explored in previous studies. This work provides a detailed comparison of thermal plume characterisation methods, their limitations and recommendations for future set-up

Coastal tidal effects on industrial thermal plumes in satellite imagery

Coastal tidal effects on thermal plumes are investigated exploiting remote sensing of two major coastal industrial installations. The installations use sea water as a coolant, which is then released back into coastal environments at a higher-than-ambient temperature, allowing the plume to be delineated from the ambient waters. Satellite-based thermal sensors observing the Earth at a spatial resolution of 90 and 100 m are used. It is possible to identify coastal features and thermal spatial distributions. This paper presents coastal tidal effects on detected plumes for two case studies: an intertidal embayment and open water exposure, both on the coast of the UK. We correlated the behaviours of thermal plumes using remotely sensed high resolution thermal imagery with tidal phases derived from tide gauges. The results show very distinct behaviours for the flood and ebb tides. The detected surface plume location was dependent on flow switching direction for the different types of tide. The detected surface area was dependent on the strength of the currents, with the largest area observed during the strongest currents. Understanding the dispersion of the plume is essential to influence understanding of any potential ecological impacts

Optimasi Portofolio Resiko Menggunakan Model Markowitz MVO Dikaitkan dengan Keterbatasan Manusia dalam Memprediksi Masa Depan dalam Perspektif Al-Qur`an

Risk portfolio on modern finance has become increasingly technical, requiring the use of sophisticated mathematical tools in both research and practice. Since companies cannot insure themselves completely against risk, as human incompetence in predicting the future precisely that written in Al-Quran surah Luqman verse 34, they have to manage it to yield an optimal portfolio. The objective here is to minimize the variance among all portfolios, or alternatively, to maximize expected return among all portfolios that has at least a certain expected return. Furthermore, this study focuses on optimizing risk portfolio so called Markowitz MVO (Mean-Variance Optimization). Some theoretical frameworks for analysis are arithmetic mean, geometric mean, variance, covariance, linear programming, and quadratic programming. Moreover, finding a minimum variance portfolio produces a convex quadratic programming, that is minimizing the objective function ðð¥with constraintsð ð 𥠥 ðandð´ð¥ = ð. The outcome of this research is the solution of optimal risk portofolio in some investments that could be finished smoothly using MATLAB R2007b software together with its graphic analysis

Search for heavy resonances decaying to two Higgs bosons in final states containing four b quarks

A search is presented for narrow heavy resonances X decaying into pairs of Higgs bosons (H) in proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC at root s = 8 TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb(-1). The search considers HH resonances with masses between 1 and 3 TeV, having final states of two b quark pairs. Each Higgs boson is produced with large momentum, and the hadronization products of the pair of b quarks can usually be reconstructed as single large jets. The background from multijet and t (t) over bar events is significantly reduced by applying requirements related to the flavor of the jet, its mass, and its substructure. The signal would be identified as a peak on top of the dijet invariant mass spectrum of the remaining background events. No evidence is observed for such a signal. Upper limits obtained at 95 confidence level for the product of the production cross section and branching fraction sigma(gg -> X) B(X -> HH -> b (b) over barb (b) over bar) range from 10 to 1.5 fb for the mass of X from 1.15 to 2.0 TeV, significantly extending previous searches. For a warped extra dimension theory with amass scale Lambda(R) = 1 TeV, the data exclude radion scalar masses between 1.15 and 1.55 TeV

Search for supersymmetry in events with one lepton and multiple jets in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

Peer reviewe

Measurement of the top quark mass using charged particles in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV

Peer reviewe

Search for anomalous couplings in boosted WW/WZ -> l nu q(q)over-bar production in proton-proton collisions at root s=8TeV

Peer reviewe

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Search for electroweak production of charginos and neutralinos in multilepton final states in proton-proton collisions at root s=13 TeV

Results are presented from a search for the direct electroweak production of charginos and neutralinos in signatures with either two or more leptons (electrons or muons) of the same electric charge, or with three or more leptons, which can include up to two hadronically decaying tau leptons. The results are based on a sample of protonproton collision data collected at p s = 13TeV, recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb1. The observed event yields are consistent with the expectations based on the standard model. The results are interpreted in simpli ed models of supersymmetry describing various scenarios for the production and decay of charginos and neutralinos. Depending on the model parameters chosen, mass values between 180GeV and 1150 GeV are excluded at 95% CL. These results signi cantly extend the parameter space probed for these particles in searches at the LHC. In addition, results are presented in a form suitable for alternative theoretical interpretations.Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physic

Heart Failure Care: Testing Dyadic Dynamics Using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM)—A Scoping Review

Self-care behaviors are essential for the effective treatment of heart failure (HF), and poor self-care may lead to adverse clinical events in patients with HF. A growing body of literature addresses the need to analyze the characteristics of both patient and caregiver since they are in mutual, long-term interaction, and their reactions to events are dependent on each other. One of the most common approaches for analyzing data on HF self-care dyads is the Actor–Partner Interdependence Model (APIM). The purpose of this study was to conduct a scoping review to answer the following question: what did we learn from HF dyadic studies based on the APIM approach? Medline, Academic Search Ultimate, and CINAHL Complete databases were searched, using the terms “dyad,” “dyadic,” and “heart failure,” for studies published between 2009 and April 2021. Fifteen studies were reviewed from a pool of 106 papers. Studies using the APIM approach revealed interrelated patient and caregiver characteristics that influence self-care and explain many complex dyadic behaviors. Our analysis provided evidence that (1) APIM is a useful analytical approach; (2) a family-oriented approach can improve the functioning of a patient with HF; and (3) social support from caregivers significantly enhances patients’ adaptation to illness