Design of a New System of High-power Efficiency Conditioning Cogeneration Energy for a Building of the University of Cagliari with Fossil Fuel Plants

Abstract An analysis of Italy's National Energy Budget of in the last decades shows the important role of the civil sector and the impact of fossil fuels in air conditioning systems. The high consumption of fossil fuel is Likely due to the predominance of plants with conventional boilers in buildings. Based on the analysis of the Exergy flow this paper proposes the Cogeneration technology for Air conditioning systems with heat pumps to implement the Rational Use of Energy. The feasibility of a retrofit intervention on existing systems of a large size is shown, by the projection of a cogeneration plant for the buildings of the University of Cagliari currently equipped with fossil fuel plants

An Energy Autonomous House Equipped with a Solar PV Hydrogen Conversion System

The use of RES in buildings is difficult for their random nature; therefore the plants using photovoltaic solar collectors must be connected to a power supply or interconnected with Energy accumulators if the building is isolated. The conversion of electricity into hydrogen technology is best suited to solve the problem and allows you to transfer the solar energy captured from day to night, from summer to winter. This paper presents the feasibility study for a house powered by PV cogeneration solar collectors that reverse the electricity on the control unit that you command by a PC to power the household, using a heat pump, an electrolytic cell for the production of hydrogen to accumulate; control units sorting to the utilities the electricity produced by the fuel cell. The following are presented: The Energy analysis of the building, the plant design, economic analysi

Solar Energy System in A Small Town Constituted of A Network of Photovoltaic Collectors to Produce Electricity for Homes and Hydrogen for Transport Services of Municipality

The supply of Energy resources to the villages located in inland and hilly regions, is disadvantageous both for the domestic and transport purposes. Because these conditions may produce the depopulation of the inland zone, a smart way to ease this inconvenience is to produce in situ electrical Energy for houses and fuel for cars, getting them from an available Energy source in the village, as the solar Energy. The only technology to produce hydrogen ecologically and to minimize CO2 emission, is through RES (Renewable Energy Sources). The solar energy plants must use the surfaces of buildings instead of occupying other green areas useful for agricultural activities. On this basis, we propose in this paper a demonstrative project for a village in Sardinia, consisting of photovoltaic collectors connected in a network, to provide electricity to homes and hydrogen for transport purposes

A Mathematical Model of a Solar Collector Augmented by a Flat Plate above Reflector: Optimum Inclination of Collector and Reflector

In this study a theoretical analysis of a collector augmented by a bottom booster reflector is presented. An analytical model has been developed and used to estimate the solar irradiation passing through the transparent cover of a flat collector, both with and without a bottom reflector. The analytical model is based on the anisotropic sky model and takes into account a finite length system with different angular configurations and reciprocal shading and reflections between reflector and collector. Computer simulations have been carried out in order to find the optimum angles of the reflector with respect to the plane of the collector. Optimal inclinations of the collector and reflector for each month at 39° N latitude have been identified

Cooling Methods for Standard and Floating PV Panels

Energy and water poverty are two main challenges of the modern world. Most developing and underdeveloped countries need more efficient electricity-producing sources to overcome the problem of potable water evaporation. At the same time, the traditional way to produce energy/electricity is also responsible for polluting the environment and damaging the ecosystem. Notably, many techniques have been used around the globe, such as a photovoltaic (PV) cooling (active, passive, and combined) process to reduce the working temperature of the PV panels (up to 60 degrees C) to improve the system efficiency. For floating photovoltaic (FPV), water cooling is mainly responsible for reducing the panel temperature to enhance the production capacity of the PV panels, while the system efficiency can increase up to around 30%. At the same time, due to the water surface covering, the water loss due to evaporation is also minimized, and the water evaporation could be minimized by up to 60% depending on the total area covered by the water surfaces. Therefore, it could be the right choice for generating clean and green energy, with dual positive effects. The first is to improve the efficiency of the PV panels to harness more energy and minimize water evaporation. This review article focuses mainly on various PV and FPV cooling methods and the use and advantages of FPV plants, particularly covering efficiency augmentation and reduction of water evaporation due to the installation of PV systems on the water bodies

Suicide among Italian adolescents: 1970–2002

The purpose of the present study was to analyze sex and regional differences in the suicide rate of adolescents and the methods they used for suicide in Italy during the period 1970–2002. Temporal trends and regional variations in suicide for Italian adolescents were retrieved from the Italian database on mortality for the period 1970–2002, collected by the Italian Census Bureau and processed by the Italian National Institute of Health-Statistics Unit. In the period 1970–2002, 3,069 adolescent suicides were monitored in Italy. Analyses of these suicides identified significant differences by region of residence and sex. Males were 2.1 times more likely than females to kill themselves. Male and female suicides had inverse trends in the years analyzed, so that the sex difference at the present time is the result of a continuous increase in male suicides and a decrease in female suicides since 1970. The dramatic peaks observed over the time period studied cannot be attributed to a single cause, indicating that further studies are needed to better understand the phenomenon

Antidepressants and Suicide Risk: A Comprehensive Overview

The annual worldwide suicide rate currently averages approximately 13 per 100,000 individuals per year (0.013% per year), with higher average rates for men than for women in all but a few countries, very low rates in children, and relatively high rates in elderly men. Suicide rates vary markedly between countries, reflecting in part differences in case-identification and reporting procedures. Rates of attempted suicide in the general population average 20–30 times higher than rates of completed suicide, but are probably under-reported. Research on the relationship between pharmacotherapy and suicidal behavior was rare until a decade ago. Most ecological studies and large clinical studies have found that a general reduction in suicide rates is significantly correlated with higher rates of prescribing modern antidepressants. However, ecological, cohort and case-control studies and data from brief, randomized, controlled trials in patients with acute affective disorders have found increases, particularly in young patients and particularly for the risk of suicide attempts, as well as increases in suicidal ideation in young patients. whether antidepressants are associated with specific aspects of suicidality (e.g., higher rates of completed suicide, attempted suicide and suicidal ideation) in younger patients with major affective disorders remains a highly controversial question. In light of this gap this paper analyzes research on the relationship between suicidality and antidepressant treatment

The role of asenapine in the treatment of manic or mixed states associated with bipolar I disorder

Maurizio Pompili1,2, Paola Venturini1, Marco Innamorati1, Gianluca Serafini1, Ludovica Telesforo1, David Lester3, Roberto Tatarelli1, Paolo Girardi11Department of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Sensory Functions, Suicide Prevention Center, Sant'Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy; 2McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; 3The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, Pomona, NJ, USABackground: Bipolar disorders (BD) are of particular public health significance as they are prevalent, severe and disabling, and often associated with elevated risks of premature mortality. The aim of this concise overview is to investigate the role of asenapine in the treatment of manic and mixed states associated with BD type 1 disorder.Method: MedLine, Excerpta Medica and PsycINFO searches were performed to identify papers in English published over the past 7 years. Search terms were "asenapine", "manic" OR "mixed states", "bipolar I disorder". Subjects included in this study suffered from BD type 1 disorder.Results: To date, only four studies of asenapine for the treatment of manic or mixed episodes associated with BD type 1 have been published.Conclusion: Research indicates that asenapine is generally well-tolerated, and that asenapine is efficacious and not inferior to olanzapine in the treatment of mixed or manic episodes associated with BD type 1 in the short-term and long-term.Keywords: asenapine, bipolar disorder, side effect

Application of a Novel Method for a Simulation of Conductivity of a Building Material in a Climatic Chamber

This work proposes the application of a new simulation method based on fractal geometry for the calculation of the thermal conductivity for building materials. The results obtained are compared with the measurement, in a climatic chamber, of the heat flow through a material chosen as the sample. The test sample is made with “pietracantone”, a stone widely used as a building material and as an ornamental stone in the areas of Cagliari and Sassari in Sardinia. This material is characterized by a limestone matrix and a porosity which significantly influences the value of thermal conductivity. It is not known to the authors that this material had already been studied for its thermal propertie

Methylation Dynamics of RASSF1A and Its Impact on Cancer

5-methyl cytosine (5mC) is a key epigenetic mark entwined with gene expression and the specification of cellular phenotypes. Its distribution around gene promoters sets a barrier for transcriptional enhancers or inhibitor proteins binding to their target sequences. As a result, an additional level of regulation is added to the signals that organize the access to the chromatin and its structural components. The tumor suppressor gene RASSF1A is a microtubule-associated and multitasking scaffold protein communicating with the RAS pathway, estrogen receptor signaling, and Hippo pathway. RASSF1A action stimulates mitotic arrest, DNA repair and apoptosis, and controls the cell cycle and cell migration. De novo methylation of the RASSF1A promoter has received much attention due to its increased frequency in most cancer types. RASSF1A methylation is preceded by histones modifications and could represent an early molecular event in cell transformation. Accordingly, RASSF1A methylation is proposed as an epigenetic candidate marker in many cancer types, even though an inverse correlation of methylation and expression remains to be fully ascertained. Some findings indicate that the epigenetic abrogation of RASSF1A can promote the alternative expression of the putative oncogenic isoform RASSF1C. Understanding the complexity and significance of RASSF1A methylation is instrumental for a more accurate determination of its biological and clinical role. The review covers the molecular events implicated in RASSF1A methylation and gene silencing and provides a deeper view into the significance of the RASSF1A methylation patterns in a number of gastrointestinal cancer types