54,696 research outputs found
A review of physical supply and EROI of fossil fuels in China
This paper reviews China’s future fossil fuel supply from the perspectives of physical output and net energy output. Comprehensive analyses of physical output of fossil fuels suggest that China’s total oil production will likely reach its peak, at about 230 Mt/year (or 9.6 EJ/year), in 2018; its total gas production will peak at around 350 Bcm/year (or 13.6 EJ/year) in 2040, while coal production will peak at about 4400 Mt/year (or 91.9 EJ/year) around 2020 or so. In terms of the forecast production of these fuels, there are significant differences among current studies. These differences can be mainly explained by different ultimately recoverable resources assumptions, the nature of the models used, and differences in the historical production data. Due to the future constraints on fossil fuels production, a large gap is projected to grow between domestic supply and demand, which will need to be met by increasing imports. Net energy analyses show that both coal and oil and gas production show a steady declining trend of EROI (energy return on investment) due to the depletion of shallow-buried coal resources and conventional oil and gas resources, which is generally consistent with the approaching peaks of physical production of fossil fuels. The peaks of fossil fuels production, coupled with the decline in EROI ratios, are likely to challenge the sustainable development of Chinese society unless new abundant energy resources with high EROI values can be found
Benefits of current percolation in superconducting coated conductors
The critical currents of MOD/RABiTS and PLD/IBAD coated conductors have been
measured as a function of magnetic field orientation and compared to films
grown on single crystal substrates. By varying the orientation of magnetic
field applied in the plane of the film, we are able to determine the extent to
which current flow in each type of conductor is percolative. Standard
MOD/RABiTS conductors have also been compared to samples whose grain boundaries
have been doped by diffusing Ca from an overlayer. We find that undoped
MOD/RABiTS tapes have a less anisotropic in-plane field dependence than
PLD/IBAD tapes and that the uniformity of critical current as a function of
in-plane field angle is greater for MOD/RABiTS samples doped with Ca.EPSRC
US Department of Energ
Evaluation of the efficacy and safety of high dose short duration enrofloxacin treatment regimen for uncomplicated urinary tract infections in dogs.
BackgroundUncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTI) in dogs usually are treated with antimicrobial drugs for 10-14 days. Shorter duration antimicrobial regimens have been evaluated in human patients.HypothesisA high dose short duration (HDSD) enrofloxacin protocol administered to dogs with uncomplicated UTI will not be inferior to a 14-day treatment regimen with amoxicillin-clavulanic acid.AnimalsClient-owned adult, otherwise healthy dogs with aerobic bacterial urine culture yielding ≥ 10(3) CFU/mL of bacteria after cystocentesis.MethodsProspective, multicenter, controlled, randomized blinded clinical trial. Enrolled dogs were randomized to group 1 (enrofloxacin 18-20 mg/kg PO q24h for 3 days) or group 2 (amoxicillin-clavulanic acid 13.75-25 mg/kg PO q12h for 14 days). Urine cultures were obtained at days 0, 10, and 21. Microbiologic and clinical cure rates were evaluated 7 days after antimicrobial treatment was discontinued. Lower urinary tract signs and adverse events also were recorded.ResultsThere were 35 dogs in group 1 and 33 in group 2. The microbiologic cure rate was 77.1 and 81.2% for groups 1 and 2, respectively. The clinical cure rate was 88.6 and 87.9% for groups 1 and 2, respectively. Cure rates between groups did not differ according to the selected margin of noninferiority.Conclusions and clinical importanceHDSD enrofloxacin treatment was not inferior to a conventional amoxicillin-clavulanic acid protocol for the treatment of uncomplicated bacterial UTI in dogs. Further research is warranted to determine if this protocol will positively impact owner compliance and decrease the emergence of antimicrobial resistance
Bats Use Magnetite to Detect the Earth's Magnetic Field
While the role of magnetic cues for compass orientation has been confirmed in numerous animals, the mechanism of detection is still debated. Two hypotheses have been proposed, one based on a light dependent mechanism, apparently used by birds and another based on a “compass organelle” containing the iron oxide particles magnetite (Fe3O4). Bats have recently been shown to use magnetic cues for compass orientation but the method by which they detect the Earth's magnetic field remains unknown. Here we use the classic “Kalmijn-Blakemore” pulse re-magnetization experiment, whereby the polarity of cellular magnetite is reversed. The results demonstrate that the big brown bat Eptesicus fuscus uses single domain magnetite to detect the Earths magnetic field and the response indicates a polarity based receptor. Polarity detection is a prerequisite for the use of magnetite as a compass and suggests that big brown bats use magnetite to detect the magnetic field as a compass. Our results indicate the possibility that sensory cells in bats contain freely rotating magnetite particles, which appears not to be the case in birds. It is crucial that the ultrastructure of the magnetite containing magnetoreceptors is described for our understanding of magnetoreception in animals
Stable controller design for linear systems
This paper is concerned with the problem of suboptimal stable mixed H2/H∞ control for linear time-invariant systems. The designed controllers are required to satisfy a prescribed H∞ performance bound or a prescribed degree of stability. By reducing the stable controller synthesis problem to a multiobjective state feedback control problem for two different state models, sufficient conditions for the solvability of the considered problem are given in terms of solutions to algebraic Riccati equations and matrix inequalities. LMI-based iterative algorithms are developed to solve the stable controller synthesis problem. All of the proposed algorithms are shown to be convergent. An example is given to illustrate the proposed methods.published_or_final_versio
Dynamic admittance of atomic wires
We have investigated the low-frequency admittance of quantum wires in which a section consists of several Al atoms. The atomic section is connected to two three-dimensional leads that are modeled by the jellium model. The quantum scattering problem is solved by combining the first-principles ab initio method with a transfer-matrix evaluation of the scattering matrix. The ac admittance is then computed by evaluating various partial densities of states. The nature of the ac responses are predicted for these Al atomic wires.published_or_final_versio
Ginzburg-Landau equations for layered p-wave superconductors
Based on Gor'kov's theory of weakly coupled superconductors, the Ginzburg-Landau equations for layered p-wave superconductors are derived, the order parameter of which is assumed to belong to a nontrivial two-dimensional representation. This calculation allows us to microscopically determine the expansion coefficients of the Ginzburg-Landau free-energy functional with respect to the order parameter. The main feature of the vortex solution is briefly discussed. It is found that the extreme condition for the nonaxisymmetric singly quantized vortices is not ensured in the weak-coupling limit. If the discrete crystal symmetry is included, the axisymmetric singly quantized vortex is stable. In addition, the upper critical field is also solely determined within the weak-coupling framework.published_or_final_versio
Is hub-based pricing a better choice than oil indexation for natural gas? Evidence from a multiple bubble test
Oil indexation and hub-based pricing are two competing pricing mechanisms in the international natural gas markets. The debates over whether hub-based pricing is preferable to oil indexation have become intense among academics and practitioners, for example, whether and when East Asia should adopt hub pricing. This paper contributes empirically to the debate using a multiple bubble test. Adopting the generalized sup augmented Dickey-Fuller test proposed by Phillips et al. (2015), we show that more explosive bubbles exist in Japan and European gas prices than in the US prices. The argument is that hub-based pricing mechanism can better reflect fundamental values in the gas markets and thus is less subject to speculations. Given the recent trend of financialization in energy markets, gas prices are more likely to deviate from fundamental values when they are not clear to investors. Although oil indexation is simple and has been an effective tool over the past few decades, our results suggest that hub pricing is associated with less extreme price movements in the market and thus is a better choice for both policy makers and practitioners
Modelling India’s coal production with a negatively skewed curve-fitting model
India’s coal demand is forecast to increase at a rapid pace in the future due to the country’s economic and population growth. Analyzing the scope for future production of India’s domestic coal resources, therefore, plays a vital role in the country’s development of sound energy policies. This paper presents a quantitative scenario analysis of India’s potential future coal production by using a negatively skewed curve-fitting model and a range of estimates of the country’s ultimately recoverable resources (URR) of coal. The results show that the resource base is sufficient for India’s coal production to keep increasing over the next few decades, to reach between 2400 and 3200 Mt/y at 2050, depending on the assumed value of URR. A further analysis shows that the high end of this range, which corresponds to our ‘GSI’ scenario, can be considered as the probable upper-bound to India’s domestic coal production. Comparison of production based on the ‘GSI’ scenario with India’s predicted demand shows that the domestic production of coal will be insufficient to meet the country’s rising coal demand, with the gap between demand and production increasing from its current value of about 268 Mt/y to reach 300 Mt/y in 2035, and 700 Mt/y by 2050. This increasing gap will be challenging for the energy security of India
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