Working Paper 09-11 - Impact of the EU Climate-Energy Package on the Belgian energy system and economy - Update 2010 Study commissioned by the Belgian federal authority

By the end of 2008, the Federal Planning Bureau published the Working Paper 21-08. This Working Paper described and analysed the impact of the EU Climate-Energy Package on the Belgian energy system and economy. Since then, however, a lot has changed: the macroeconomic projections altered radically further to the financial and economic crisis, recent developments in the field of oil and gas supply and demand made fossil fuel price projections to be revised upwards and a number of energy efficiency measures were agreed upon and put into law in the course of 2008 and 2009. All this made the 2008 study less relevant whilst only 2 years old. This study report then updates the analysis reported in the Working Paper 21-08 and dedicates special attention to the stepping up to -30% for the EU greenhouse gas reduction target. It is based on the new economic and policy context and benefits from recent analyses of the European Commission conducted at EU level.Climate policy, Economic efficiency, Energy policy, Greenhouse gas emissions, Long-term energy projections, Macroeconomic impact

Efficient Solar Powered Smartphone for Nigeria’s Telecom Advancement

This study is aimed at producing an efficient model design of a solar-powered Smartphone that can be used continuously without the need to recharge their batteries from electrical outlets. There has been recent significant advancements in the research aimed at developing solar powered Smartphones as against the Smartphones we have today that requires frequent recharge of their batteries from electrical outlets. But these advancements have only produced solar Smartphone with efficiency of less than 19%. This study is theoretical due to lack of fund to produce the empirical design of the efficient solar powered Smartphone. However, it is intended to provide a new direction for Researchers in solar powered Smartphone Design to enable them produce efficient models that can continuously work for years without recharging their batteries. Keywords: Smartphone, Graphene, Photovoltaic, Supertransformer, Electrically-Doped Semiconductor, Sola

Temperature and duration of heating of sunflower oil affect ruminal biohydrogenation of linoleic acid in vitro

Sunflower oil heated at 110 or 150°C for 1, 3, or 6 h was incubated with ruminal content in order to investigate the effects of temperature and duration of heating of oil on the ruminal biohydrogenation of linoleic acid in vitro. When increased, these 2 parameters acted together to decrease the disappearance of linoleic acid in the media by inhibiting the isomerization of linoleic acid, which led to a decrease in conjugated linoleic acids and trans-C18:1 production. Nevertheless, trans-10 isomer production increased with heating temperature, suggesting an activation of Δ9-isomerization, whereas trans-11 isomer production decreased, traducing an inhibition of Δ12-isomerization. The amount of peroxides generated during heating was correlated with the proportions of biohydrogenation intermediates so that they might explain, at least in part, the observed effects. The effects of heating temperature and duration on ruminal bacteria community was assessed using capillary electrophoresis single-strand conformation polymorphism. Ruminal bacterial population significantly differed according to heating temperature, but was not affected by heating duration. Heating of fat affected ruminal biohydrogenation, at least in part because of oxidative products generated during heating, by altering enzymatic reactions and bacterial population

La "bosse" de Labatut (Ariège)

National audienceEtude de la coupe stratigraphique d'une motte décaissée sur toute sa hauteur et à moitié par des travaux. Située à Labatut au nord de Saverdun dans la vallée de l'Ariège

Gestion énergétique optimale au service de la conception de chaînes de traction hybrides

Les préoccupations environnementales croissantes liées aux émissions de gaz à effet de serre et la raréfaction des énergies fossiles >amènent les constructeurs automobiles à proposer des véhicules de plus en plus >efficients. La présente étude compare objectivement les performances en émissions de CO2 de différentes architectures de chaînes de traction hybrides électriques (série, parallèle et combinée) pour identifier les spécifications d'une architecture optimale. Elle est construite à partir du calcul de la consommation minimale atteignable par chaque chaîne de traction sur différents cycles (homologation et cycles représentatifs d'usages clients). A cet effet, une stratégie de commande optimale reposant sur un algorithme de programmation dynamique a été mise en œuvre. A chaque instant des cycles suivis, les sollicitations des différents organes sont déterminées et analysées afin de spécifier leur dimensionnement optimal. Cette approche permet d'identifier les axes d'améliorations tant sur le plan de l'architecture de la chaîne de traction que sur la conception des organes

TRIZ methodology adapted to hybrid powertrains

On-going oil stock depletion and growing environmental concerns lead automakers to develop more efficient powertrains. Today the most promising way forward consists in research on hybrid systems. The present study uses TRIZ methodology to help identify the best hybridization architecture and powertrain design, in order to reduce CO2 emissions. This optimization problem is constrained with cost, mass and complexity targets. It is applied to B segment hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) with no connection to the grid to recharge the battery. A specific procedure based on TRIZ principles has been established and rolled out after a first mathematical analysis of different current hybridization architectures (series, parallel and combined). The adapted TRIZ methodology is mainly built on the principles of Ideal Final Result and on networks of contradictions. It is used to compare the performances of the different architectures, identify the main technological barriers for more CO2 savings, and propose a roadmap to overcome them

A New Bit-Plane Extraction Approach for Fingerprint Recognition Using Phase-Only Correlation Function

Fingerprint patterns are virtually unique and make human identifiable. Based on this fact, many researches have been conducted on fingerprint to create new or improved recognition systems. Due to the rapid growth of human population, larger capacity of databases are needed for the storage of fingerprints. With larger sizes of fingerprint images, bigger memory storage is needed and the cost for such memory is also higher. The focus of this thesis is on bit-plane extraction of a fingerprint image, which could reduce the file size of a grayscale image. Literature studies reveal that this method is commonly used in image compression and retrieval with limited research in fingerprint recognition. Combination of this method with Phase-Only Correlation (POC) function reduces computation time for a fingerprint recognition while improve the recognition rate. POC based recognition method is adopted because of its simplicity and ability to achieve high accuracy compared to other recognition algorithms, especially for low quality fingerprint image. There are two fingerprint databases used for evaluations, which are FingerDOS and a benchmark database, FVC2002-Db1a. A number of analyses are conducted to examine factors that might reduce the performance of the recognition system. Different rotation angles and cropping dimension are applied on the fingerprint to investigate the effects of misaligned fingerprints. The best bit-plane is selected based on the highest recognition rate produced by the system. From the experiment results, bit-plane 7 has the highest performance compared to other bit-planes. Since fingerprint recognition by using bit-plane image could perform as good as grayscale image, this system has the potential to reduce the storage requirement for fingerprint database

USE OF MULTIMEDIA TECHNOLOGY AMONG THE LECTURER AND STUDENTS OF OSUN STATE UNIVERSITY

The aim of this study is to investigate the use of multimedia technology by lecturers and undergraduate students in Osun State University. The study was guided by four research questions. The study adopted descriptive survey design sample was selected using stratified random sampling method, to select 192 lecturers, and 377 undergraduate students. Data collected were analyzed using frequency counts and percentages, and T-test to test the only null hypothesis of the study. The study found out that there was an existence of multimedia technologies (MMT) in the institution. Furthermore, the result showed that both lecturers and students hold positive perception about the use of MMT. The result also revealed that do not use all the available MMT in their institution except internet facilities, computer and media players. Furthermore, the study showed that insufficient technical support; integrating MMT into the curriculum is cumbersome; insufficient internet bandwidth and obsolete MMT hinders them from using it for the pedagogic purpose; and they need to travel between walls in other to make use of MMT are some of the challenges they encountered while using MMT. The result also revealed that there is significant difference in the perception of lecturers and students about the use of MMT. Based on the findings, the study recommends that adequate multimedia facilities should be made available in centralized sections or units of the university so as to enhance effective and easy pedagogic service delivery; workshops training and retraining; conferences and symposium should be organized for lecturers, students and administrators to enlighten them on the need for MMT education

USE OF MULTIMEDIA TECHNOLOGY AMONG THE LECTURER AND STUDENTS OF OSUN STATE UNIVERSITY

The aim of this study is to investigate the use of multimedia technology by lecturers and undergraduate students in Osun State University. The study was guided by four research questions. The study adopted descriptive survey design sample was selected using stratified random sampling method, to select 192 lecturers, and 377 undergraduate students. Data collected were analyzed using frequency counts and percentages, and T-test to test the only null hypothesis of the study. The study found out that there was an existence of multimedia technologies (MMT) in the institution. Furthermore, the result showed that both lecturers and students hold positive perception about the use of MMT. The result also revealed that do not use all the available MMT in their institution except internet facilities, computer and media players. Furthermore, the study showed that insufficient technical support; integrating MMT into the curriculum is cumbersome; insufficient internet bandwidth and obsolete MMT hinders them from using it for the pedagogic purpose; and they need to travel between walls in other to make use of MMT are some of the challenges they encountered while using MMT. The result also revealed that there is significant difference in the perception of lecturers and students about the use of MMT. Based on the findings, the study recommends that adequate multimedia facilities should be made available in centralized sections or units of the university so as to enhance effective and easy pedagogic service delivery; workshops training and retraining; conferences and symposium should be organized for lecturers, students and administrators to enlighten them on the need for MMT education