Performance and economic assessment of a grid-connected photovoltaic power plant with a storage system. A comparison between the north and the south of Italy

Grid-connected low voltage photovoltaic power plants cover most of the power capacity installed in Italy. They offer an important contribution to the power demand of the utilities connected but, due to the nature of the solar resource, the night-time consumption can be satisfied only withdrawing the energy by the national grid, at the price of the energy distributor. Thanks to the improvement of storage technologies, the installation of a system of battery looks like a promising solution by giving the possibility to increase auto-consumption dramatically. In this paper, a model-based approach to analyze and discuss the performance and the economic feasibility of grid-connected domestic photovoltaic power plants with a storage system is presented. Using as input to the model the historical series (2008-2017) of the main ambient variables, the proposed model, based on Stochastic Hybrid Fault Tree Automaton, allowed us to simulate and compare two alternative technical solutions characterized by different environmental conditions, in the north and in the south of Italy. The performances of these systems were compared and an economic analysis, addressing the convenience of the storage systems was carried out, considering the characteristic useful-life time, 20 years, of a photovoltaic power plant. To this end the Net Present Value and the payback time were evaluated, considering the main characteristics of the Italian market scenario

Assessment of Natural Resources Use for Sustainable Development - DPSIR Framework for Case Studies in Portsmouth and Thames Gateway, U.K.

This chapter reports on the uses of the DPSIR framework to assess the sustainability of the intertidal environments within the two UK case study areas, Portsmouth and Thames Gateway. It focuses on statutory conservation areas dominated by intertidal habitats. Two are located in Portsmouth (Portsmouth and Langstone Harbours) and four in the Thames Gateway (Benfleet Marshes, South Thames Estuary, Medway Estuary and the Swale in the Thames Gateway). Based on the reduction of a number of pressures and impacts observed in recent decades and the improvement of overall environmental quality, all six SSSIs are considered to be sustainable in the short and medium term. In the future, it is possible that the impacts of climate change, especially sea-level rise, might result in further reduction in the area and/or quality of intertidal habitats. Further integration between conservation and planning objectives (both for urban development and management of flood risk) at local level is needed to support the long-term sustainability of intertidal habitats

Estudio del compartimento safeno como estructura de fijación, conexión y protección del sistema venoso superficial de miembros inferiores

El objetivo del siguiente trabajo fue estudiar en forma dinámica, mediante estudios de diagnósticos por imágenes, la existencia individual de los compartimentos safenos, separándolos del tejido celular subcutáneo que lo rodea y asignándoles una entidad anatómica y funcional.Facultad de Ciencias Médica

Estudio del compartimento safeno como estructura de fijación, conexión y protección del sistema venoso superficial de miembros inferiores

El objetivo del siguiente trabajo fue estudiar en forma dinámica, mediante estudios de diagnósticos por imágenes, la existencia individual de los compartimentos safenos, separándolos del tejido celular subcutáneo que lo rodea y asignándoles una entidad anatómica y funcional.Facultad de Ciencias Médica

Estudio del compartimento safeno como estructura de fijación, conexión y protección del sistema venoso superficial de miembros inferiores

El objetivo del siguiente trabajo fue estudiar en forma dinámica, mediante estudios de diagnósticos por imágenes, la existencia individual de los compartimentos safenos, separándolos del tejido celular subcutáneo que lo rodea y asignándoles una entidad anatómica y funcional.Facultad de Ciencias Médica

Combined X-ray microfluorescence and atomic force microscopy studies of Mg distribution in whole cells

We present in this paper a novel methodology that combines scanning x\u2010ray fluorescencee microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The combination of these two techniques allows the determination of a concentration map of Mg in whole (not sectioned) cells

Diffraction techniques and vibrational spectroscopy opportunities to characterise bones

From a histological point of view, bones that allow body mobility and protection of internal organs consist not only of different organic and inorganic tissues but include vascular and nervous elements as well. Moreover, due to its ability to host different ions and cations, its mineral part represents an important reservoir, playing a key role in the metabolic activity of the organism. From a structural point of view, bones can be considered as a composite material displaying a hierarchical structure at different scales. At the nanometre scale, an organic part, i.e. collagen fibrils and an inorganic part, i.e. calcium phosphate nanocrystals are intimately mixed to assure particular mechanical properties

Combining metal nanoparticles and nanobodies to boost the biomedical imaging in neurodegenerative diseases

Introduction: In the study of neurodegenerative diseases, the possibility to follow the fate of specific cells or molecules within the whole body would be a milestone to better understand the complex evolution of disease mechanisms and to monitor the effects of therapies. The techniques available today do not allow the visualization of disease-relevant cells within the whole tridimensional biological context at high spatial resolution.Methods: Here we show the results from the first validation steps of a novel approach: by combining the conjugate nanobodies anti-glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and metal-nanoparticles (i.e. 2 nm gold NP) with X-ray phase contrast tomography (XPCT) we would be able to obtain a tridimensional visualization and identification of cells of interest together with the surrounding tissue and the vascular and neuronal networks.Results: By exploiting the X-ray attenuation properties of metal nanoparticles and the specific targeting capabilities of nanobodies, we could give XPCT the specificity it presently lacks, making it no longer a pure morphological but a molecular and targeted imaging technique. In our case, we synthesized and characterized Gold-NP/GFAP nanobody to target the astrocytes of mouse brain.Discussion: The results of the first tests presented in this paper have provided us with information on the feasibility of the approach, encouraging us to carry out further experiments in order to achieve the ultimate goal of setting up this new imaging technique