THE VARIATION OF TRIIODOTHYRONINE (T 3) LEVEL IN MILKING COWS EXPOSED TO DIRECT SOLAR RADIATION

Very hot summers, during the last years, with intense solar radiation, determined us to study the effect of this radiation on milking cows. In the paper we have determined the level of triiodothyronine (T3), thyroid hormone, which varies in the case of cow’s organism exposure to heat stress. The determinations were made on two groups of ten milking cows per each, one group maintained in the stable for all the period and another on the pasture during the days with intense solar radiation. The determinations were made using RIA method, in Endocrinology Clinic in Cluj-Npoca, using the serum obtained from the blood drawn in the morning and evening. The results show a significant decrease of the triiodothyronine level in cow’s expose to direct solar radiation. These results are concordant with those in the literature

Romanian Tritium for Nuclear Fusion

The demand for tritium is expected to increase when ITER (the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) begins operation in the mid-2020s. Romania is expected to detritiate its CANDU (Canada Deuterium Uranium) units at Cernavoda starting 2024, with the goal of improving radiological safety and reactor performance. Detritiation will result in a significant quantity of tritium being produced and thus Romania has an opportunity to supply tritium for fusion. In this assessment, ITER has been used as a reference device requiring tritium, as the projected tritium extraction schedule from Cernavoda aligns favourably with ITER operation. The findings suggest that Romania is capable of providing a total of 6.2 kg of tritium to ITER over its 20 year operation, generating a potential revenue of $186 M (USD). Opportunities associated with the supply of Romanian helium-3 are also considered as a hedging option, which has the potential to generate$120 M (USD) in the case of zero tritium sales. Greater involvement in future fission-fusion tritium-related activities through experience in tritium technologies is also discussed as a unique opportunity for Romania

A version of Zhong's coercivity result for a general class of nonsmooth functionals

A version of Zhong's coercivity result (1997) is established for nonsmooth functionals expressed as a sum Φ+Ψ, where Φ is locally Lipschitz and Ψ is convex, lower semicontinuous, and proper. This is obtained as a consequence of a general result describing the asymptotic behavior of the functions verifying the above structure hypothesis. Our approach relies on a version of Ekeland's variational principle. In proving our coercivity result we make use of a new general Palais-Smale condition. The relationship with other results is discussed