Rural electrification in central america and east africa, two case studies of sustainable microgrids

This paper deals with the electrification of rural villages in developing countries using Sustainable Energy Systems. The rural electrification feasibility study is done using Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewable PRO (HOMER PRO). The HOMER PRO energy modelling software is an optimization software improved by U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. It helps in designing, comparing and optimizing the design of power generation technologies. In this paper, two rural electrification case studies are modelled and analysed using HOMER PRO. Technical and economic evaluation criteria are applied to study the feasibility of a micro-hydro plant in El Díptamo (Honduras), and a hybrid plant composed of photovoltaic module arrays, Diesel generators, and flow batteries, in a small island on Victoria Lake. For both cases, we show the results of the studies of the daily and yearly loads, of the resources available in the area and the economic evaluation of the chosen plants configuration

The Attentional Boost Effect in Young and Adult Euthymic Bipolar Patients and Healthy Controls

In the Attentional Boost Effect (ABE), stimuli encoded with to-be-responded targets are later recognized more accurately than stimuli encoded with to-be-ignored distractors. While this effect is robust in young adults, evidence regarding healthy older adults and clinical populations is sparse. The present study investigated whether a significant ABE is present in bipolar patients (BP), who, even in the euthymic phase, suffer from attentional deficits, and whether the effect is modulated by age. Young and adult euthymic BP and healthy controls (HC) presented with a sequence of pictures paired with target or distractor squares were asked to pay attention to the pictures and press the spacebar when a target square appeared. After a 15-min interval, their memory of the pictures was tested in a recognition task. The performance in the detection task was lower in BP than in HC, in both age groups. More importantly, neither young nor adult BP exhibited a significant ABE; for HC, a robust ABE was only found in young participants. The results suggest that the increase in the attentional demands of the detection task in BP and in adult HC draws resources away from the encoding of target-associated stimuli, resulting in elimination of the ABE. Clinical implications are discussed

Rural Electrification in Central America and East Africa, two case studies of sustainable microgrids

This paper deals with the electrification of rural villages in developing countries using Sustainable Energy Systems. The rural electrification feasibility study is done using Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewable PRO (HOMER PRO). The HOMER PRO energy modelling software is an optimization software improved by U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. It helps in designing, comparing and optimizing the design of power generation technologies. In this paper, two rural electrification case studies are modelled and analysed using HOMER PRO. Technical and economic evaluation criteria are applied to study the feasibility of a micro-hydro plant in El Díptamo (Honduras), and a hybrid plant composed of photovoltaic module arrays, Diesel generators, and flow batteries, in a small island on Victoria Lake. For both cases, we show the results of the studies of the daily and yearly loads, of the resources available in the area and the economic evaluation of the chosen plants configuration

The cross-talk between myeloid and mesenchymal stem cells of human bone marrow represents a biomarker of aging that regulates immune response and bone reabsorption

One of the mechanisms that characterizes the aging process of different organs is the accumulation of fat. Different authors have demonstrated that adipose tissue replaces the loss of other cell types, deriving from mesenchymal cells. During aging, there is substitution or trans-differentiation of mesenchymal cells with other cells having the same embryological origin. Newly formed adipocytes were also observed in the trabecular matrix of elderly people's bones, associated with myeloid cells. In this study, we have investigated the relationship between immature myeloid-derived suppressor cells (I-MDSCs) and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in bone marrow (BM) samples harvested from 57 patients subjected to different orthopedic surgeries. Patients aged from 18 to 92 years were considered in order to compare the cellular composition of bone marrow of young and elderly people, considered a biomarker of immunity, inflammation, and bone preservation. The I-MDSC percentage was stable during aging, but in elderly people, it was possible to observe a strong basal immunosuppression of autologous and heterologous T cells' proliferation. We hypothesized that this pattern observed in elders depends on the progressive accumulation in the BM of activating stimuli, including cell-cell contact, or the production of different cytokines and proteins that induce the differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells in adipocytes. The collected data provided underline the importance of specific biomarkers of aging that promote a reduction in immune response and incremented inflammatory pathways, leading to bone reabsorption in elderly people

Interrupting the nitrosative stress fuels tumor-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes in pancreatic cancer

BACKGROUND: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the deadliest tumors owing to its robust desmoplasia, low immunogenicity, and recruitment of cancer-conditioned, immunoregulatory myeloid cells. These features strongly limit the success of immunotherapy as a single agent, thereby suggesting the need for the development of a multitargeted approach. The goal is to foster T lymphocyte infiltration within the tumor landscape and neutralize cancer-triggered immune suppression, to enhance the therapeutic effectiveness of immune-based treatments, such as anticancer adoptive cell therapy (ACT). METHODS: We examined the contribution of immunosuppressive myeloid cells expressing arginase 1 and nitric oxide synthase 2 in building up a reactive nitrogen species (RNS)-dependent chemical barrier and shaping the PDAC immune landscape. We examined the impact of pharmacological RNS interference on overcoming the recruitment and immunosuppressive activity of tumor-expanded myeloid cells, which render pancreatic cancers resistant to immunotherapy. RESULTS: PDAC progression is marked by a stepwise infiltration of myeloid cells, which enforces a highly immunosuppressive microenvironment through the uncontrolled metabolism of L-arginine by arginase 1 and inducible nitric oxide synthase activity, resulting in the production of large amounts of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species. The extensive accumulation of myeloid suppressing cells and nitrated tyrosines (nitrotyrosine, N-Ty) establishes an RNS-dependent chemical barrier that impairs tumor infiltration by T lymphocytes and restricts the efficacy of adoptive immunotherapy. A pharmacological treatment with AT38 ([3-(aminocarbonyl)furoxan-4-yl]methyl salicylate) reprograms the tumor microenvironment from protumoral to antitumoral, which supports T lymphocyte entrance within the tumor core and aids the efficacy of ACT with telomerase-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes. CONCLUSIONS: Tumor microenvironment reprogramming by ablating aberrant RNS production bypasses the current limits of immunotherapy in PDAC by overcoming immune resistance

The Role of Terrestrial LiDAR for Mechanical and Safety Evaluation of Historic Timber Floors

The paper describes an activity conducted by a multi-disciplinary research group (architecture, civil engineering, technology, geomatics) for the mechanical evaluation of a timber floor belonging to a historic residential building located in the city center of Torino. The floor was made of beams of solid wood and wooden boards and presented a mid-span deflection. Since the floor structure was hidden by a suspended ceiling, the difficulty was to determine with precision all the geometrical characteristics of the main beam and its creep with the aim of verifying its mechanical resistance and stiffness. Through an accurate application of laser-scanner technique, it was possible to carry out the precise assessment of the structure

Rural Electrification in Central America and East Africa, two case studies of sustainable microgrids

This paper deals with the electrification of rural villages in developing countries using Sustainable Energy Systems. The rural electrification feasibility study is done using Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewable PRO (HOMER PRO). The HOMER PRO energy modelling software is an optimization software improved by U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. It helps in designing, comparing and optimizing the design of power generation technologies. In this paper, two rural electrification case studies are modelled and analysed using HOMER PRO. Technical and economic evaluation criteria are applied to study the feasibility of a micro-hydro plant in El Díptamo (Honduras), and a hybrid plant composed of photovoltaic module arrays, Diesel generators, and flow batteries, in a small island on Victoria Lake. For both cases, we show the results of the studies of the daily and yearly loads, of the resources available in the area and the economic evaluation of the chosen plants configuration.En este documento se trata el tema de la electrificación de aldeas rurales en países en desarrollo donde se utilizan sistemas de energía sostenible. El estudio de factibilidad de electrificación rural se realiza utilizando el Modelo de Optimización Híbrido para Electric Renewable PRO (HOMER PRO). El software de modelado de energía HOMER PRO es de optimización, mejorado por el Laboratorio Nacional de Energía Renovable de Estados Unidos. Ayuda en el diseño, la comparación y la optimización de tecnologías de generación de energía. En este trabajo, se presentan y analizan dos casos de electrificación rural mediante el uso de HOMER PRO. Se aplican criterios de evaluación técnica y económica para estudiar la viabilidad de una microhidroeléctrica en El Díptamo (Honduras), así como de una planta híbrida compuesta de matrices de módulos fotovoltaicos, generadores diésel y baterías de flujo, en una pequeña isla ubicada en el lago Victoria. Para ambos casos, mostramos los resultados de los estudios de las cargas diarias y anuales, de los recursos disponibles en el área y la evaluación económica de la configuración de las plantas elegidas

Collaboration in implicit memory. Evidence from word-fragment completion and category exemplar generation

Recent studies have begun to investigate the effects of collaboration on explicit tests such as free recall, cued recall, and recognition. In contrast, little is known about the impact of this variable on implicit memory. To bridge this gap, the present study compared the performance of nominal and collaborative groups in two implicit memory tasks-word-fragment completion (WFCT) and category exemplar generation (CEGT). Both the disruption-of-individual-retrieval-strategies and the retrieval blocking hypotheses predicted no significant negative effects of collaboration on repetition priming; in contrast, the retrieval inhibition hypothesis predicted lower priming in collaborative than in nominal groups in both tasks. The results supported the former hypotheses, because priming scores in the WFCT and the CEGT did not differ between collaborative and individual groups. Interestingly; however, a significant collaborative inhibition was obtained in the CEGT (but not in the WFCT) when considering the raw proportions of studied and unstudied exemplars generated. The latter finding might indicate that the performance of collaborative groups can be significantly impaired by the disruption of within-category order resulting from the exposure to the exemplars generated by other group members, even when participants do not explicitly attempt to retrieve the stimuli presented at encodin