2014 JRC Geothermal Energy Status Report

Geothermal energy resources have been used by mankind in some form for thousands of years. Depending on the temperature of the resource, it may be used for power production, supply of heat or a combination of both. This report presents the current status of the major technologies to utilize the full temperature range of geothermal resources ranging from shallow and borehole ground source heat pump systems, direct use facilities to power plants deriving their fluids from volcanic systems. Power production from hydrothermal resources where natural permeability coincides with hot bedrocks is a mature technology. Power and heat production from engineered geothermal systems where permeability has to be artificially created is less mature and needs further development and support for large scale implementation. The market status of geothermal in EU is discussed and geothermal provides 0.2% of EU final energy demand. Although the EU theoretical power production potential with the EGS technology is very high, public support for geothermal is limited compared to other renewable technologies. In order to expand the potential for geothermal power production, focus should be made on facilitating the deployment the EGS technology. The understanding of successful long term EGS reservoir management has to be elevated, cheaper and more reliable drilling technologies should be developed.JRC.F.6-Energy Technology Policy Outloo

Evaluation of in vivo immune complex formation and complement activation in patients receiving intravenous streptokinase

To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links fieldThe usefulness of several different methods for detecting immune complex formation and complement activation in the circulation were applied to samples from patients receiving intravenous Streptokinase therapy for myocardial infarction. Streptokinase is a foreign antigen and can cause immune reactions. We collected samples from 13 patients, before Streptokinase administration (baseline), at the end of infusion (1 h), 12 h later and on day 7. We measured IgG containing immune complexes (IgG-IC), free C3d and antibodies to Streptokinase by ELISA, and CR1, C3d and C4d on erythrocytes by flow cytometric assay. Antibodies to Streptokinase are common, as all but two of the patients had measurable antibody levels. During Streptokinase treatment there was a drop in antibody levels, most prominent in those patients who had high baseline levels. At the same time increased levels of free C3d and erythrocyte-bound C3d were observed. After 12 h free C3d was usually back to baseline level, but C3d on erythrocytes was still raised. These data indicate the formation of Streptokinase immune complexes in patients with high Streptokinase antibody levels, and show that these complexes are cleared rapidly from the circulation, leaving more persistent signs of complement activation. We conclude that free C3d is a good indicator of ongoing complement activation, whereas C3d on erythrocytes indicates that complement activation has recently taken place

This wonderful world of mobile home living

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1997.Includes bibliographical references (p. 47-50).The mobile home, or manufactured home as it is called to day, comprises 25% of all new homes sold today. Although it is such a large portion of the housing market, it is plagued by a social stigma which has undeniably been a part of its history as a building type. Many factors contribute to this problem, including zoning ordinances, federal regulations and financing. All of these issues need to be and are being addressed by the industry, federal and state legislators, and homeowners. The thesis proposes to look at ways of reducing that stigma from yet another perspective, that of design. One challenge is to work within and with current manufacturing processes and legal restriction. This research project begins with a simple question - How might the manufactured home as an existing type be rethought in order to not only better its position as an alternative to the conventional single family home bur also be seen as an alternative for a broader market: in terms of social use: a. redefinition of the family; b. work/living scenarios; c. service/served or work/leisure relationships; in terms of spatial improvements, in terms of land use innovations, If these dwellings were accepted as houses for the middle class and second homes for the upper middle class the result would be a transformation of the genre.by Gerdur Sigfusson.M.Arch

Reactive transport of arsenic through basaltic porous media

A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK.This thesis studied the volcanic and geothermal source of arsenic (As) and its fate in shallow ground waters and upon entering the ocean by means of experimental and field measurements combined with geochemical modeling. Arsenic enters the atmosphere and hydrosphere from degassing magmas and during volcanic eruptions. The November 2004 eruption within the Vatnajökull Glacier, Iceland, provided an opportunity to study elemental fluxes from volcanic eruptions into the environment. According to geochemical modeling, lowering of pH due to magma gases during the eruption led to rapid tephra dissolution with corresponding change in flood water chemistry. Geochemical modeling of floodwater/seawater mixing indicated localised decrease in dissolved arsenic and sulphur due to adsorption on the suspended floodwater materials. As the floodwater was diluted the As desorbed and limited effect of the floodwater was predicted after thousand fold dilution. Laboratory experiments were carried out to generate and validate sorption coefficients for arsenite and arsenate in contact with basaltic glass at pH 3 to 10. The mobility of arsenite decreased with increasing pH. The opposite was true for arsenate, being nearly immobile at pH 3 to being highly mobile at pH 10. A 1D reactive transport model constrained by a long time series of field measurements of chemical composition of geothermal effluent fluids from a power plant was constructed. Thioarsenic species were the dominant form of dissolved As in the waters exiting the power plant but converted to some extent to arsenite and arsenate before feeding into a basaltic lava field. Chloride, moved through the basaltic lava field (4100 m) in less than 10 yrs but arsenate was retarded considerably due to surface reactions and has entered a groundwater well 850 m down the flow path in accordance to prediction by the 1D model, which further predicted a complete breakthrough of arsenate in the year 2100 while arsenite will be retained for about 1000 yrs.This project was funded by the Icelandic Centre of Research, The Icelandic Governmental fund for Graduate Education, Reykjavik Energy and Landsvirkjun

Congenital aortic stenosis due to unicuspid unicommissural aortic valve: a case report

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked FilesBACKGROUND: Unicuspid unicommissural aortic valve is an extremely rare congenital anomaly that usually presents in adulthood but can rarely present in infancy. We report a 17-year-old patient with congenital aortic stenosis secondary to unicuspid unicommissural aortic valve that was successfully treated with aortic valve replacement. CASE PRESENTATION: The patient was diagnosed with aortic stenosis after a murmur was heard in the newborn nursery and subsequently underwent aortic balloon valvuloplasty 6 weeks after birth. He had been regularly followed up since and underwent numerous cardiac catheterizations, including another aortic balloon valvuloplasty at age 13. During follow-up at age 17, the patient presented with symptomatic severe aortic stenosis and mild left ventricular hypertrophy. Aortic valve replacement was planned since the patient was nearly adult-sized and to reduce the risk of cardiac decompensation. During the operation an unicuspid unicommissural aortic valve was revealed. The patient recovered well post-operatively. He was discharged 5 days after the surgery in good condition and was completely symptom-free at follow-up 6 weeks later. CONCLUSIONS: Unicuspid aortic valve is a rare congenital anomaly that can cause congenital aortic stenosis. It is seldom diagnosed pre-operatively but should be suspected in infants presenting with aortic stenosis

Solar Panel Simulation with Xyce

The steady increase in efficiency and potential for significant decrease in manufacturing cost promise to make Thin-film photovoltaics(TFPV) a suitable source of electrical energy for a wide variety of applications. The increase in performance is linked to our ability to design, model, simulate and optimize TFPV technologies. PVpanel Sim is a spice based simulation utility on nanoHUB that has previously been used to explore a broad range of design issues related to thin-film solar panels. A broader adoption of this uniquely useful resource will depend on the ability to scale the simulation to larger arrays as well as simplification of the user interface. In this work we updated its core engine from Berkeley SPICE to Xyce, improved the user interface and added the capability for varying contact sheet resistance. The Workspace utility on nanoHUB was used as a development platform by providing access to Rappture, MATLAB® and Xyce. Existing source code was modified to be compatable with Xyce and input restrictions were established to avoid simulation convergence issues. It\u27s expected that the new version of PVpanel Sim will be installed on nanoHUB, with open access to all nanoHUB members. PVpanel Sim can thus further serve as a useful simulation tool for TFPV researchers. It\u27s hoped that furture versions will include more models for different TFPV technologies

Risk profiles and prognosis of treated and untreated hypertensive men and women in a population-based longitudinal study: the Reykjavik Study

To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links fieldThe aim was to examine the risk profiles and prognosis of treated and untreated hypertensive subjects and examine to what degree confounding by indication was present in a population-based cohort study with up to 30-year follow-up. The study population consisted of 9328 men and 10 062 women, aged 33-87 years at the time of attendance from 1967 to 1996. The main outcome measures were myocardial infarction (MI), cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality and all-cause mortality. Comparing the risk profiles between treated and untreated subjects entering the study showed significantly higher values for some risk factors for treated subjects. During the first 10 years, hypertensive men without treatment, compared with those treated, had a significantly lower risk of suffering MI, CVD and all-cause mortality, hazard ratio (HR) 0.72 (95% CI; 0.57, 0.90), 0.75 (95% CI; 0.59, 0.95) and 0.81 (95% CI; 0.61, 0.98), respectively. No significant differences in outcome were seen during the following 20 years. In identically defined groups of women, no significant differences in mortality were seen between groups. Subgroup analysis, at two stages of the study 5 years apart, revealed that some cardiovascular risk factors had a higher prevalence in hypertensive men who were treated at the later stage, compared with those who remained untreated (P=0.004). In conclusion, hypertensive treated men had a worse prognosis during the first 10 years of follow-up than untreated ones, which is most likely due to worse baseline risk profile. Hypertensive men that were treated at a later stage had a worse risk profile than those not treated at a later stage