Insecticidal Activity of Sage (Salvia Officinalis) Essential Oil to Varroa Destructor (Acari: Varroidae) and Apis Mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

The need to find alternative systems of the fight against Varroa mite without application of chemicals and provide healthy bee products resulted in investigation of application of different plant essences to arthropod control. In order to perceive the sage essential oil (Salvia officinalis) bioactivity, contact residual toxicity of mites and bees was examined in the laboratory conditions. The chemical composition of essential oil was determined by standard GC and GC/MS methods. Different doses of the sage essential oil dissolved in acetone (0.1–10 μl/Petri dish) were applied in Petri dishes and left to dry for 20 minute at a room temperature. Following this period of time, ten honey bees and five adult female mites were added in each Petri dish and they were all maintained in controlled conditions (T = 30°C, Relative humidity = 60%). Survival of examined honey bees and Varroa mites was recorded two times, after 24 h and 48 h. The most prominent toxic effect on the examined Varroa mites was observed after 24 h and 48 h, with application of 10 μl of sage oil (the average values for dead mite individuals were 3.25 and 3.50, respectively). Recorded biological activities of the oil tested in different doses on both honey bee and Varroa mite revealed opportunity to proceed with further investigation by selecting the most appropriate variants and combinations of the most prominent individual components of the examined sage oil

Virtual Induction Machine Strategy for Converters in Power Systems with Low Rotational Inertia

This paper presents a novel comprehensive control strategy for grid-connected Voltage Source Converters (VSCs) in power systems with low rotational inertia. The proposed model is based on emulating the physical properties of an Induction Machine (IM) and taking advantage of its inherent grid-friendly properties, i.e. self-synchronization, virtual inertia, power and frequency oscillation damping. For that purpose, a detailed mathematical model of the IMs working principles is derived, which includes the possibility of obtaining the unknown grid frequency without a dedicated synchronization unit, but rather via processing the voltage and current magnitude measurements at the converter output. This eliminates the need for an inherently nonlinear phase-locked loop, characteristic for virtual synchronous machines, while simultaneously preserving the synchronization and damping properties of a conventional electrical machine. Several case studies are presented that validate the mathematical principles of the proposed model and conclusions on VSC performance are drawn

Stability Performance of Power Electronic Deviceswith Time Delays

This paper deals with the impact of time delays on small-signal stability of power systems with an all converter-interfaced generation. For this purpose, a delay differential algebraic equation model of the voltage source converter and its control scheme is developed. The regulation is based on replicating the dynamical properties of a synchronous machine through appropriate controller configuration. Therefore, a virtual inertia emulation is included in the active power control loop. A transcedental nature of the characteristic equation is resolved by implementing the Chebyshev's discretization method and observing a finite number of critical, low-frequency eigenvalues. Based on the proposed approach, a critical measurement delay is evaluated. Furthermore, a bifurcation analysis of the droop gains and inertia constant is conducted. Stability regions and optimal parametrization of the voltage source converter controls are evaluated and discussed

Heart rate and lactate responses to taekwondo fight in elite women performers

The purpose of this study was to examine heart rate (HR) and blood lactate (LA) concentration before, during and after a competitive Tae kwon do (TKD) fight performed by elite women performers. Specifically, we were interested to see weather HR and LA responses to competitive fight were greater than to TKD or karate exercises published in scientific literature. Seven international-standard women TKD fighters participated in the study. HR was recorded continuously throughout the fight using Polar Vantage telemetric HR monitors. LA samples were taken before and 3 min after the fight and analysed using an Accusport portable lactate analyzer. At the beginning of the fight, HR significantly increased (p<0.01) from pre-fight values of 91.6±9.9 beats min-1 to 144.1±13.6 beats min-1. During the whole fight the HRmean was 186.6±2.5 beats min-1 and remained significantly elevated (p<0.01) at 3 min into recovery. HR values expressed as a percentage of HRmax averaged during the whole fight at 91.7±2.6% respectively. LA concentration significantly increased (p<0.01) 3 min after the fight and averaged 82% of LApeak values measured after the VO2max test. Results of the present study indicate that physiological demands of competitive TKD fight in women, measured by HR and LA responses, are considerably higher than the physiological demands of TKD or karate training exercises. The observed HR and LA responses suggest to us that conditioning for TKD should generally emphasise high-intensity anaerobic exercise

Imaging the charge transport in arrays of CdSe nanocrystals

A novel method to image charge is used to measure the diffusion coefficient of electrons in films of CdSe nanocrystals at room temperature. This method makes possible the study of charge transport in films exhibiting high resistances or very small diffusion coefficients.Comment: 4 pages, 4 jpg figure

Vortices and the mixed state of ultrathin Bi films

Current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of quench condensed, superconducting, ultrathin Bi films in a magnetic field are reported. These show hysteresis for all films, grown both with and without thin Ge underlayers. Films on Ge underlayers, close to superconductor-insulator transition, show a peak in the critical current, indicating a structural transformation of the vortex solid. These underlayers, used to make the films more homogeneous, are found to be more effective in pinning the vortices. The upper critical fields ($B_{c2}$) of these films are determined from the resistive transitions in perpendicular magnetic field. The temperature dependence of the upper critical field is found to differ significantly from Ginzburg-Landau theory, after modifications for disorder.Comment: Submitted to LT23 Proceeding

Droop vs. virtual inertia: Comparison from the perspective of converter operation mode

Virtual Inertia Emulation (VIE) and traditional Active Power Droop Control (APDC) are among the most common approaches for regulating the active power output of inverter-based generators. Furthermore, it has been shown that, under certain conditions, these two methods can be equivalent. However, neither those studies, nor the analyses comparing the two control schemes with respect to their dynamical properties, have investigated the impact of the converter operation mode. This paper explores the subject by investigating the two control approaches under such conditions, and determining when this assumption does not hold. Using time-domain simulations with a detailed Voltage Source Converter model, we compare VIE and APDC qualitatively and reformulate the respective conditions for equivalence

Fast Frequency Control Scheme through Adaptive Virtual Inertia Emulation

This paper presents a novel virtual inertia controller for converters in power systems with high share of renewable resources. By combining the analytical study of system dynamics and a Linear-Quadratic Regulator (LQR)-based optimization technique, the optimal state feedback gain is determined, adapting the emulated inertia constant according to the frequency disturbance in the system. The optimality is achieved through trade-off between the critical frequency limits and the required control effort, i.e. utilization of the internal energy storage. The proposed controller is integrated into a state-of-the-art converter control scheme and verified through EMT simulations. The results show a significant improvement in the frequency response compared to an open-loop system, while also preserving drastically more DC-side energy than a non-adaptive controller

Stability Analysis of Converter Control Modes in Low-Inertia Power Systems

This paper deals with the small-signal stability analysis of converter control modes in low-inertia power systems. For this purpose, a detailed differential-algebraic equation model of the voltage source converter and its control scheme is developed. Both grid-forming and grid-feeding concepts have been considered, as well as different active power controllers based on traditional droop and virtual inertia emulation. An eigenvalue analysis of the linearized state-space system is conducted and the performance of different control configurations is compared. Furthermore, various bifurcation studies have been completed and conclusions on stability margins have been drawn with respect to control sensitivity and robustness