Performance Assessment of Low-Temperature A-CAES (Adiabatic Compressed Air Energy Storage) Plants

The widespread diffusion of renewable energy sources calls for the development of high-capacity energy storage systems as the A-CAES (Adiabatic Compressed Air Energy Storage) systems. In this framework, low temperature (100°C–200°C) A-CAES (LT-ACAES) systems can assume a key role, avoiding some critical issues connected to the operation of high temperature ones. In this paper, two different LT-ACAES configurations are proposed. The two configurations are characterized by the same turbomachines and compressed air storage section, while differ in the TES section and its integration with the turbomachinery. In particular, the first configuration includes two separated cycles: the working fluid (air) cycle and the heat transfer fluid (HTF) cycle. Several heat exchangers connect the two cycles allowing to recover thermal energy from the compressors and to heat the compressed air at the turbine inlet. Two different HTFs were considered: air (case A) and thermal oil (case B). The second configuration is composed of only one cycle, where the operating fluid and the HTF are the same (air) and the TES section is composed of three different packed-bed thermal storage tanks (case C). The tanks directly recover the heat from the compressors and heat the air at each turbine inlet, avoiding the use of heat exchangers. The LT-ACAES systems were modelled and simulated using the ASPEN-Plus and the MATLAB-Simulink environments. The main aim of this study was the detailed analysis of the reciprocal influence between the turbomachinery and the TES system; furthermore, the performance evaluation of each plant was carried out assuming both on-design and off-design operating conditions. Finally, the different configurations were compared through the main performance parameters, such as the round-trip efficiency. A total power output of around 10 MW was set, leading to a TES tank volume ranging between 500 and 700 m3. The second configuration with three TES systems appears to be the most promising in terms of round-trip efficiency since the energy produced during the discharging phase is greater. In particular, the round-trip efficiency of the LT-ACAES ranges between 0.566 (case A) to 0.674 (case C). Although the second configuration assures the highest performance, the effect of operating at very high pressures inside the tanks should be carefully evaluated in terms of overall costs

Current preventive policies and practices against Vaccine-Preventable Diseases and tuberculosis targeted for workers from hospitals of the Sardinia Region, Italy

Introduction. Health care Workers are exposed to infectious diseases more than the general population. Many of these infections are preventable by vaccination. The objective in this study is to investigate whether, how, and which vaccination underwent Sardinia Health Care Workers (HCWs) and the variability of policies in different Hospital Health Managements of the whole region. Methods. In March 2013, we enrolled the Hospital Health Management of all the 32 Sardinia hospitals. We investigate on immunity against vaccine-preventable diseases and education campaigns about recommended vaccinations for HCWs. Flu, hepatitis B, measles-mumps-rubella, varicella and tuberculosis were the objects of our research. Results. In most of the hospitals, influenza vaccination coverage among HCWs is less than 6%. Hepatitis B antibody assay was performed in all the respondent hospitals but only 14 had available data as collected electronically. Most of the hospitals did not perform serological tests for the evaluation of antibodies against Varicella, Measles, Mumps and Rubella in their HCWs. In 30 hospitals Mantoux test was replaced or integrated by "in vitro" test for health surveillance protocols. Conclusions. This method produced a large amount of data in small time and at a low cost. Sending back data to respective Hospital Health Management (HHM) we took a step towards greater awareness of the issue of biological risks of HCWs and of vaccine coverage

Quantum skyrmions and the destruction of long-range antiferromagnetic order in the high-Tc superconductors La(2-x)Sr(x)CuO(4) and YBa(2)Cu(3)O(6+x)

We study the destruction of the antiferromagnetic order in the high-Tc superconductors La(2-x)Sr(x)CuO(4) and YBa(2)Cu(3)O(6+x) in the framework of the CP1-nonlinear sigma model formulation of the 2D quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet. The dopants are introduced as independent fermions with appropriate dispersion relations determined by the shape of the Fermi surface. The energy of skyrmion topological defects, which are shown to be introduced by doping, is used as an order parameter for antiferromagnetic order. We obtain analytic expressions for this as a function of doping which allow us to plot the curves T_N(x_c)\times x_c and M(x)\times x, for both YBCO and LSCO, in good quantitative agreement with the experimental data.Comment: 4 pages, revtex, 5 embeeded figure

Evaluation of tissue levels of Toll-like receptors and cytokine mRNAs associated with bovine periodontitis and oral health

Bovine periodontitis is a progressive and purulent infection associated with an anaerobic subgingival biofilm, which induces irreversible damage to the dentition of affected animals. The aetiopathogenesis of the disease is unclear and treatment and control of the disease process in cattle are almost unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the innate immune response by quantifying expression of Toll-like receptor (TLR) and cytokine genes in gingival tissue samples from cattle with and without periodontitis. Postmortem biopsies of gingival tissues were collected from 20 cattle with periodontitis and 20 cattle with no clinical signs of periodontal lesions. Tissue expression of TLR2, TLR4, TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-1β and IL-4 genes were determined using quantitative real-time PCR. Statistically significant increases in mRNA levels encoding TLR2 (p = 0.025), TLR4 (p = 0.037), TNF-α (p = 0.025), IFN-γ (p = 0.014), IL-1β (p < 0.001) and IL-4 (p = 0.014) were observed in animals with periodontitis when compared to periodontally healthy animals. Increased levels of TLRs and inflammatory cytokines in periodontal tissue indicate an induction of the innate immune response of cattle and suggest that a substantial microbial challenge may be involved in the aetiopathogenesis of bovine periodontitis

Microbiomes associated with bovine periodontitis and oral health

Periodontitis is an infectious polymicrobial, immuno-inflammatory disease of multifactorial aetiology that has an impact on the health, production and welfare of ruminants. The objective of the present study was to determine the microbial profiles present in the gingival sulcus of cattle considered periodontally healthy and in the periodontal pocket of animals with periodontitis lesions using high-throughput bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Subgingival biofilm samples were collected from 40 cattle with periodontitis and 38 periodontally healthy animals. In total, 1923 OTUs were identified and classified into 395 genera or higher taxa. Microbial profiles in health differed significantly from periodontitis in their composition (p < 0.0001, F = 5.30; PERMANOVA) but no statistically significant differences were observed in the diversity of healthy and periodontitis microbiomes. The most prevalent taxa in health were Pseudomonas, Burkholderia and Actinobacteria, whereas in disease these were Prevotella, Fusobacterium and Porphyromonas. The most discriminative taxa in health were Gastranaerophilales, Planifilum and Burkholderia, and in disease these were Elusimicrobia, Synergistes and Propionivibrio. In conclusion, statistically significant difference exists between the microbiome in bovine oral health and periodontitis, with populations showing 72.6% dissimilarity. The diversity of the bacteria found in health and periodontitis were similar and bacteria recognised as periodontal pathogens showed increased abundance in disease. In this context, the main components of bacterial homeostasis in the biofilm of healthy sites and of dysbiosis in periodontal lesions provide unprecedented indicators for the evolution of knowledge about bovine periodontitis

Age Reflects on the Occurrence of Bovine Periodontal Lesions

No abstract available

A model to explain angular distributions of J/ψJ/\psi and ψ(2S)\psi(2S) decays into ΛΛ‾\Lambda\overline{\Lambda} and Σ0Σ‾0\Sigma^0\overline{\Sigma}^0

BESIII data show a particular angular distribution for the decay of the $J/\psi$ and $\psi(2S)$ mesons into the hyperons $\Lambda\overline{\Lambda}$ and $\Sigma^0\overline{\Sigma}^0$. More in details the angular distribution of the decay $\psi(2S) \to \Sigma^0\overline{\Sigma}^0$ exhibits an opposite trend with respect to that of the other three channels: $J/\psi \to \Lambda\overline{\Lambda}$, $J/\psi \to \Sigma^0\overline{\Sigma}^0$ and $\psi(2S) \to \Lambda\overline{\Lambda}$. We define a model to explain the origin of this phenomenon.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, to be published in Chinese Physics