RTL validation methodology on high complexity wireless microcontroller using OVM technique for fast time to market

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad Nurul Zhafirah

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Increased demand in internet of thing (IOT application based has inadvertently forced the move towards higher complexity of integrated circuit supporting SoC. Such spontaneous increased in complexity poses unequivocal complicated validation strategies. Hence, the complexity allows researchers to come out with various exceptional methodologies in order to overcome this problem. This in essence brings about the discovery of dynamic verification, formal verification and hybrid techniques. In reserve, it is very important to discover bugs at infancy of verification process in (SoC in order to reduce time consuming and fast time to market for the system. Ergo, in this paper we are focusing on the methodology of verification that can be done at Register Transfer Level of SoC based on the AMBA bus design. On top of that, the discovery of others verification method called Open Verification Methodology (OVM brings out an easier way in RTL validation methodology neither as the replacement for the traditional method yet as an effort for fast time to market for the system. Thus, the method called OVM is proposed in this paper as the verification method for larger design to avert the disclosure of the bottleneck in validation platform.

Return to learn: Transitioning to school and through ascending levels of academic support for students following a concussion.

Science.gov (United States)

McAvoy, Karen; Eagan-Johnson, Brenda; Halstead, Mark

2018-01-01

The purpose of this article is to familiarize healthcare providers and parents with educational language, laws, and processes as they relate to a comprehensive ascending level of academic supports as it pertains to promoting a smooth and supported transition to school following a concussion. Returning to learn (RTL) following a concussion is of parallel importance to returning to sport (RTS). A successful RTL is a critical part of concussion management. Many RTL articles advise healthcare providers and parents to request formalized educational supports, also known as Tier 2 or Tier 3 services, for children with concussion as they return to school. Premature requests for formal (Tier 2 or 3) educational services, rather than allowing for immediate informal educational supports (known as Tier 1), can actually delay academic supports and have the potential to cause adversarial relationships between parents and schools. Additionally, this practice contradicts current research demonstrating the need for fast, flexible, temporary academic supports within the first month post-injury. Allowing school districts to direct the application of existing ascending levels of educational support for students with concussion as they return to school can promote robust and positive outcomes.

Arabidopsis RNASE THREE LIKE2 Modulates the Expression of Protein-Coding Genes via 24-Nucleotide Small Interfering RNA-Directed DNA Methylation.

Science.gov (United States)

Elvira-Matelot, Emilie; Hachet, Mélanie; Shamandi, Nahid; Comella, Pascale; Sáez-Vásquez, Julio; Zytnicki, Matthias; Vaucheret, Hervé

2016-02-01

RNaseIII enzymes catalyze the cleavage of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) and have diverse functions in RNA maturation. Arabidopsis thaliana RNASE THREE LIKE2 (RTL2), which carries one RNaseIII and two dsRNA binding (DRB) domains, is a unique Arabidopsis RNaseIII enzyme resembling the budding yeast small interfering RNA (siRNA)-producing Dcr1 enzyme. Here, we show that RTL2 modulates the production of a subset of small RNAs and that this activity depends on both its RNaseIII and DRB domains. However, the mode of action of RTL2 differs from that of Dcr1. Whereas Dcr1 directly cleaves dsRNAs into 23-nucleotide siRNAs, RTL2 likely cleaves dsRNAs into longer molecules, which are subsequently processed into small RNAs by the DICER-LIKE enzymes. Depending on the dsRNA considered, RTL2-mediated maturation either improves (RTL2-dependent loci) or reduces (RTL2-sensitive loci) the production of small RNAs. Because the vast majority of RTL2-regulated loci correspond to transposons and intergenic regions producing 24-nucleotide siRNAs that guide DNA methylation, RTL2 depletion modifies DNA methylation in these regions. Nevertheless, 13% of RTL2-regulated loci correspond to protein-coding genes. We show that changes in 24-nucleotide siRNA levels also affect DNA methylation levels at such loci and inversely correlate with mRNA steady state levels, thus implicating RTL2 in the regulation of protein-coding gene expression. © 2016 American Society of Plant Biologists. All rights reserved.

Telomere length in children environmentally exposed to low-to-moderate levels of lead

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pawlas, Natalia; Płachetka, Anna; Kozłowska, Agnieszka; Broberg, Karin; Kasperczyk, Sławomir

2015-01-01

Shorter relative telomere length in peripheral blood is a risk marker for some types of cancers and cardiovascular diseases. Several environmental hazards appear to shorten telomeres, and this shortening may predispose individuals to disease. The aim of the present cross-sectional study was to assess the effect of environmental exposure to lead on relative telomere length (rTL) in children. A cohort of 99 8-year-old children was enrolled from 2007–2010. Blood lead concentrations (B-Pb) were measured by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry, and blood rTL was measured by quantitative PCR. The geometric mean of B-Pb was 3.28 μg/dl (range: 0.90–14.2), and the geometric mean of rTL was 1.08 (range: 0.49–2.09). B-Pb was significantly inversely associated with rTL in the children (r S = − 0.25, p = 0.013; in further analyses both log-transformed-univariate regression analysis β = − 0.13, p = 0.026, and R 2 adj 4%; and β = − 0.12, p = 0.056 when adjusting for mothers' smoking during pregnancy, Apgar score, mother's and father's ages at delivery, sex and mother's education, R 2 adj 12%, p = 0.011). The effect of lead remained significant in children without prenatal tobacco exposure (N = 87, r S = − 0.24, p = 0.024; in further analyses, β = − 0.13, p = 0.029, and R 2 adj 4%). rTL was not affected by sex, the concentrations of other elements in the blood (i.e., cadmium and selenium concentrations), or oxidative injury parameters (total antioxidant status, 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances). Lead exposure in childhood appears to be associated with shorter telomeres, which might contribute to diseases, such as cardiovascular disease. The inverse association between blood lead level and the telomeres in children emphasizes the importance of further reducing lead levels in the environment. - Highlights: • This cross-sectional study analyzes the association between environmental lead exposure

Telomere length in children environmentally exposed to low-to-moderate levels of lead

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pawlas, Natalia, E-mail: n-pawlas@wp.pl [Institute of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, PL 41-200 Sosnowiec (Poland); Płachetka, Anna [Department of Animal Physiology and Ecotoxicology, University of Silesia, Bankowa str. 9, 40-007 Katowice (Poland); Kozłowska, Agnieszka [Institute of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, PL 41-200 Sosnowiec (Poland); Broberg, Karin [Institute of Environmental Medicine, Unit of Metals & Health, Box 210, SE-171 77 Stockholm (Sweden); Kasperczyk, Sławomir [Department of Biochemistry, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, SMDZ in Zabrze, 41-808 Zabrze (Poland)

2015-09-01

Shorter relative telomere length in peripheral blood is a risk marker for some types of cancers and cardiovascular diseases. Several environmental hazards appear to shorten telomeres, and this shortening may predispose individuals to disease. The aim of the present cross-sectional study was to assess the effect of environmental exposure to lead on relative telomere length (rTL) in children. A cohort of 99 8-year-old children was enrolled from 2007–2010. Blood lead concentrations (B-Pb) were measured by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry, and blood rTL was measured by quantitative PCR. The geometric mean of B-Pb was 3.28 μg/dl (range: 0.90–14.2), and the geometric mean of rTL was 1.08 (range: 0.49–2.09). B-Pb was significantly inversely associated with rTL in the children (r{sub S} = − 0.25, p = 0.013; in further analyses both log-transformed-univariate regression analysis β = − 0.13, p = 0.026, and R{sup 2}adj 4%; and β = − 0.12, p = 0.056 when adjusting for mothers' smoking during pregnancy, Apgar score, mother's and father's ages at delivery, sex and mother's education, R{sup 2}adj 12%, p = 0.011). The effect of lead remained significant in children without prenatal tobacco exposure (N = 87, r{sub S} = − 0.24, p = 0.024; in further analyses, β = − 0.13, p = 0.029, and R{sup 2}adj 4%). rTL was not affected by sex, the concentrations of other elements in the blood (i.e., cadmium and selenium concentrations), or oxidative injury parameters (total antioxidant status, 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine and thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances). Lead exposure in childhood appears to be associated with shorter telomeres, which might contribute to diseases, such as cardiovascular disease. The inverse association between blood lead level and the telomeres in children emphasizes the importance of further reducing lead levels in the environment. - Highlights: • This cross-sectional study analyzes the association between

Comparative genotoxicity testing of Rhine river sediment extracts using the comet assay with permanent fish cell lines (RTG-2 and RTL-W1) and the Ames test

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kosmehl, T.; Braunbeck, T.; Hollert, H. [Dept. of Zoology, Aquatic Ecology and Toxicology Section, Univ. of Heidelberg (Germany); Krebs, F.; Manz, W. [German Federal Inst. of Hydrology, Koblenz (Germany); Erdinger, L. [Dept. for Hygiene and Medical Microbiology, Inst. for Hygiene, Univ. of Heidelberg (Germany)

2004-07-01

less biotransformation-competent RTG-2 cells. Exogenous bioactivation by addition of {beta}-naphthoflavone / phenobarbital-induced S9 from rat liver resulted in both reduction or increase of genotoxicity in samples from different sites, however, without consistent reaction patterns. In general, the responses of RTL-W1 cells indicated higher biotransformation capacity than in RTG-2 cells without S9 complementation. In Ames tests using TA98 with S9, 16 out of 18 extracts induced significant mutagenicity with induction factors up to 4. Compared to TA98, the strain TA100 proved less sensitive, with maximum induction factors of 1.3, indicating the potential presence of substances inducing frameshift mutations, which can only be detected in the strain TA98. Chemical analyses revealed particularly high levels of hexachlorbenzene (up to 860 {mu}g/kg) and priority PAHs (up to 4.8 mg/kg); so far, however, no correlation could be found between compounds analyzed and the corresponding biotests. (orig.)

Experimentation of RT-LOTOS for a critical function of a power plant instrumentation and control system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Andriantsiiferana, L.; Courtiat, J.P.; De Oliveira, R.C.

1996-01-01

This document is the final report of the contract between LAAS-CNRS and the EdF Direction of Researches and Studies about the experimentation of RT-LOTOS formal description technique on a critical function of a nuclear power plant instrumentation and control system. This report comprises 4 parts: part 1 describes the RT-LOTOS (Real Time-Language of Temporal Ordering Specifications) tutorial and its RTL tool environment, the different RT-LOTOS operators and semantics, and the RTL tool main functionalities; part 2 deals with the methodology and the global architecture for the specification and validation of the CCT (Central Calculator for Treatment); part 3 gives more details about the different processes identified in the specification architecture and presents the main results obtained for the validation of the nominal functioning; part 4 describes some exceptional situations and shows how some failures and their associated recovery mechanisms can be modelled. (J.S.). 6 refs., 53 figs., 5 tabs., 2 appends

System Level Design of Reconfigurable Server Farms Using Elliptic Curve Cryptography Processor Engines

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sangook Moon

2014-01-01

Full Text Available As today’s hardware architecture becomes more and more complicated, it is getting harder to modify or improve the microarchitecture of a design in register transfer level (RTL. Consequently, traditional methods we have used to develop a design are not capable of coping with complex designs. In this paper, we suggest a way of designing complex digital logic circuits with a soft and advanced type of SystemVerilog at an electronic system level. We apply the concept of design-and-reuse with a high level of abstraction to implement elliptic curve crypto-processor server farms. With the concept of the superior level of abstraction to the RTL used with the traditional HDL design, we successfully achieved the soft implementation of the crypto-processor server farms as well as robust test bench code with trivial effort in the same simulation environment. Otherwise, it could have required error-prone Verilog simulations for the hardware IPs and other time-consuming jobs such as C/SystemC verification for the software, sacrificing more time and effort. In the design of the elliptic curve cryptography processor engine, we propose a 3X faster GF(2m serial multiplication architecture.

Low Power Design with High-Level Power Estimation and Power-Aware Synthesis

CERN Document Server

Ahuja, Sumit; Shukla, Sandeep Kumar

2012-01-01

Low-power ASIC/FPGA based designs are important due to the need for extended battery life, reduced form factor, and lower packaging and cooling costs for electronic devices. These products require fast turnaround time because of the increasing demand for handheld electronic devices such as cell-phones, PDAs and high performance machines for data centers. To achieve short time to market, design flows must facilitate a much shortened time-to-product requirement. High-level modeling, architectural exploration and direct synthesis of design from high level description enable this design process. This book presents novel research techniques, algorithms,methodologies and experimental results for high level power estimation and power aware high-level synthesis. Readers will learn to apply such techniques to enable design flows resulting in shorter time to market and successful low power ASIC/FPGA design. Integrates power estimation and reduction for high level synthesis, with low-power, high-level design; Shows spec...

In vitro cytotoxic and teratogenic potential of sediment extracts from Skadar Lake using fish cell line RTL-W1 and Danio rerio embryos

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Perović Andrej

2013-01-01

Full Text Available As a part of Sediment Quality Triad (SQT, organic extracts of sediment from Skadar Lake (a Mediterranean lake and the largest freshwater reservoir in southeastern Europe were investigated in order to evaluate possible ecotoxicological contamination by organic pollutants and to obtain a comprehensive insight into the ecotoxicological hazard. Sediments were investigated for toxicity by two different bioassays. Acute cytotoxicity was investigated using the fibroblast-like cell line RTL-W1 (Oncorhynchus mykiss in combination with the neutral red retention assay. The embryos of zebrafish (Danio rerio were used to assess the toxic and teratogenic potential of organic extracts of the sediment. Preliminary results point to the presence of a cytotoxic and teratogenic potential in Skadar Lake sediment extracts in certain locations.

Architectural-level power estimation and experimentation

Science.gov (United States)

Ye, Wu

With the emergence of a plethora of embedded and portable applications and ever increasing integration levels, power dissipation of integrated circuits has moved to the forefront as a design constraint. Recent years have also seen a significant trend towards designs starting at the architectural (or RT) level. Those demand accurate yet fast RT level power estimation methodologies and tools. This thesis addresses issues and experiments associate with architectural level power estimation. An execution driven, cycle-accurate RT level power simulator, SimplePower, was developed using transition-sensitive energy models. It is based on the architecture of a five-stage pipelined RISC datapath for both 0.35mum and 0.8mum technology and can execute the integer subset of the instruction set of SimpleScalar . SimplePower measures the energy consumed in the datapath, memory and on-chip buses. During the development of SimplePower , a partitioning power modeling technique was proposed to model the energy consumed in complex functional units. The accuracy of this technique was validated with HSPICE simulation results for a register file and a shifter. A novel, selectively gated pipeline register optimization technique was proposed to reduce the datapath energy consumption. It uses the decoded control signals to selectively gate the data fields of the pipeline registers. Simulation results show that this technique can reduce the datapath energy consumption by 18--36% for a set of benchmarks. A low-level back-end compiler optimization, register relabeling, was applied to reduce the on-chip instruction cache data bus switch activities. Its impact was evaluated by SimplePower. Results show that it can reduce the energy consumed in the instruction data buses by 3.55--16.90%. A quantitative evaluation was conducted for the impact of six state-of-art high-level compilation techniques on both datapath and memory energy consumption. The experimental results provide a valuable insight for

A tool for automatic generation of RTL-level VHDL description of RNS FIR filters

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Re, Andrea Del; Nannarelli, Alberto; Re, Marco

2004-01-01

Although digital filters based on the Residue Number System (RNS) show high performance and low power dissipation, RNS filters are not widely used in DSP systems, because of the complexity of the algorithms involved. We present a tool to design RNS FIR filters which hides the RNS algorithms to th...

Power monitors: A framework for system-level power estimation using heterogeneous power models

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Bansal, N.; Lahiri, K.; Raghunathan, A.; Chakradhar, S.T.

2005-01-01

Paper analysis early in the design cycle is critical for the design of low-power systems. With the move to system-level specifications and design methodologies, there has been significant research interest in system-level power estimation. However, as demonstrated in this paper, the addition of

Experimentation of RT-LOTOS for a critical function of a power plant instrumentation and control system; Experimentation de RT-LOTOS pour une fonction critique d`un systeme de controle-commande en centrale

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Andriantsiiferana, L.; Courtiat, J.P.; De Oliveira, R.C.

1996-01-01

This document is the final report of the contract between LAAS-CNRS and the EdF Direction of Researches and Studies about the experimentation of RT-LOTOS formal description technique on a critical function of a nuclear power plant instrumentation and control system. This report comprises 4 parts: part 1 describes the RT-LOTOS (Real Time-Language of Temporal Ordering Specifications) tutorial and its RTL tool environment, the different RT-LOTOS operators and semantics, and the RTL tool main functionalities; part 2 deals with the methodology and the global architecture for the specification and validation of the CCT (Central Calculator for Treatment); part 3 gives more details about the different processes identified in the specification architecture and presents the main results obtained for the validation of the nominal functioning; part 4 describes some exceptional situations and shows how some failures and their associated recovery mechanisms can be modelled. (J.S.). 6 refs., 53 figs., 5 tabs., 2 appends.

A Prediction Packetizing Scheme for Reducing Channel Traffic in Transaction-Level Hardware/Software Co-Emulation

OpenAIRE

Lee , Jae-Gon; Chung , Moo-Kyoung; Ahn , Ki-Yong; Lee , Sang-Heon; Kyung , Chong-Min

2005-01-01

Submitted on behalf of EDAA (http://www.edaa.com/); International audience; This paper presents a scheme for efficient channel usage between simulator and accelerator where the accelerator models some RTL sub-blocks in the accelerator-based hardware/software co-simulation while the simulator runs transaction-level model of the remaining part of the whole chip being verified. With conventional simulation accelerator, evaluations of simulator and accelerator alternate at every valid simulation ...

High-Level Synthesis: Productivity, Performance, and Software Constraints

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yun Liang

2012-01-01

Full Text Available FPGAs are an attractive platform for applications with high computation demand and low energy consumption requirements. However, design effort for FPGA implementations remains high—often an order of magnitude larger than design effort using high-level languages. Instead of this time-consuming process, high-level synthesis (HLS tools generate hardware implementations from algorithm descriptions in languages such as C/C++ and SystemC. Such tools reduce design effort: high-level descriptions are more compact and less error prone. HLS tools promise hardware development abstracted from software designer knowledge of the implementation platform. In this paper, we present an unbiased study of the performance, usability and productivity of HLS using AutoPilot (a state-of-the-art HLS tool. In particular, we first evaluate AutoPilot using the popular embedded benchmark kernels. Then, to evaluate the suitability of HLS on real-world applications, we perform a case study of stereo matching, an active area of computer vision research that uses techniques also common for image denoising, image retrieval, feature matching, and face recognition. Based on our study, we provide insights on current limitations of mapping general-purpose software to hardware using HLS and some future directions for HLS tool development. We also offer several guidelines for hardware-friendly software design. For popular embedded benchmark kernels, the designs produced by HLS achieve 4X to 126X speedup over the software version. The stereo matching algorithms achieve between 3.5X and 67.9X speedup over software (but still less than manual RTL design with a fivefold reduction in design effort versus manual RTL design.

Nuclear design considerations for Z-IFE chambers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Meier, W.R. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, L-641, Livermore, CA 94551 (United States)]. E-mail: meier5@llnl.gov; Schmitt, R.C. [Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory, Pittsburgh, PA 15203 (United States); Abbott, R.P. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, L-641, Livermore, CA 94551 (United States); Latkowski, J.F. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, L-641, Livermore, CA 94551 (United States); Reyes, S. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, P.O. Box 808, L-641, Livermore, CA 94551 (United States)

2006-02-15

Z-pinch driven IFE (Z-IFE) requires the design of a repetitive target insertion system that allows coupling of the pulsed power to the target with adequate standoff, and a chamber that can withstand blast and radiation effects from large yield targets. The present strategy for Z-IFE is to use high yield targets ({approx}2-3 GJ/shot), low repetition rate per chamber ({approx}0.1 Hz), and 10 chambers per power plant. In this study, we propose an alternative power plant configuration that uses very high yield targets (20 GJ/shot) in a single chamber operating at 0.1 Hz. A thick-liquid-wall chamber is proposed to absorb the target emission (X-rays, debris and neutrons) and mitigate the blast effects on the chamber wall. The target is attached to the end of a conical shaped recyclable transmission line (RTL) made from a solid coolant (e.g., frozen flibe), or a material that is easily separable from the coolant (e.g., steel). The RTL/target assembly is inserted through a single opening at the top of the chamber for each shot. This study looks at the RTL material choice from a safety and environmental point of view. Materials were assessed according to waste disposal rating (WDR) and contact dose rate (CDR). Neutronics calculations, using the TART2002 Monte Carlo code from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), were performed for the RTL and Z-IFE chamber, and key results reported here.

A New RTL Design Approach for a DCT/IDCT-Based Image Compression Architecture using the mCBE Algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rachmad Vidya Wicaksana Putra

2012-09-01

Full Text Available In the literature, several approaches of designing a DCT/IDCT-based image compression system have been proposed. In this paper, we present a new RTL design approach with as main focus developing a DCT/IDCT-based image compression architecture using a self-created algorithm. This algorithm can efficiently minimize the amount of shifter-adders to substitute multipliers. We call this new algorithm the multiplication from Common Binary Expression (mCBE Algorithm. Besides this algorithm, we propose alternative quantization numbers, which can be implemented simply as shifters in digital hardware. Mostly, these numbers can retain a good compressed-image quality compared to JPEG recommendations. These ideas lead to our design being small in circuit area, multiplierless, and low in complexity. The proposed 8-point 1D-DCT design has only six stages, while the 8-point 1D-IDCT design has only seven stages (one stage being defined as equal to the delay of one shifter or 2-input adder. By using the pipelining method, we can achieve a high-speed architecture with latency as a trade-off consideration. The design has been synthesized and can reach a speed of up to 1.41ns critical path delay (709.22MHz.

LPGC, Levelized Steam Electric Power Generator Cost

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Coen, J.J.; Delene, J.G.

1994-01-01

1 - Description of program or function: LPGC is a set of nine microcomputer programs for estimating power generation costs for large steam-electric power plants. These programs permit rapid evaluation using various sets of economic and technical ground rules. The levelized power generation costs calculated may be used to compare the relative economics of nuclear and coal-fired plants based on life-cycle costs. Cost calculations include capital investment cost, operation and maintenance cost, fuel cycle cost, decommissioning cost, and total levelized power generation cost. These programs can be used for quick analyses of power generation costs using alternative economic parameters, such as interest rate, escalation rate, inflation rate, plant lead times, capacity factor, fuel prices, etc. The two major types of electric generating plants considered are pressurized-water reactor (PWR) and pulverized coal-fired plants. Data are also provided for the Large Scale Prototype Breeder (LSPB) type liquid metal reactor. Costs for plant having either one or two units may be obtained. 2 - Method of solution: LPGC consists of nine individual menu-driven programs controlled by a driver program, MAINPWR. The individual programs are PLANTCAP, for calculating capital investment costs; NUCLOM, for determining operation and maintenance (O and M) costs for nuclear plants; COALOM, for computing O and M costs for coal-fired plants; NFUEL, for calculating levelized fuel costs for nuclear plants; COALCOST, for determining levelized fuel costs for coal-fired plants; FCRATE, for computing the fixed charge rate on the capital investment; LEVEL, for calculating levelized power generation costs; CAPITAL, for determining capitalized cost from overnight cost; and MASSGEN, for generating, deleting, or changing fuel cycle mass balance data for use with NFUEL. LPGC has three modes of operation. In the first, each individual code can be executed independently to determine one aspect of the total

Challenges with Tertiary-Level Mechatronic Fluid Power

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Dransfield, Peter; Conrad, Finn

1996-01-01

As authors we take the view that mechatronics, as it relates to fluid power, has three levels which we designate as primary, secondary and tertiary. A brief review of the current status of fluid power, hydraulic and pneumatic, and of electronic control of it is presented and discussed. The focus...... is then on tertiary-level mechatronic fluid power and the challenges to it being applied successfully....

Power Constrained High-Level Synthesis of Battery Powered Digital Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Sune Fallgaard; Madsen, Jan

2003-01-01

We present a high-level synthesis algorithm solving the combined scheduling, allocation and binding problem minimizing area under both latency and maximum power per clock-cycle constraints. Our approach eliminates the large power spikes, resulting in an increased battery lifetime, a property...... of utmost importance for battery powered embedded systems. Our approach extends the partial-clique partitioning algorithm by introducing power awareness through a heuristic algorithm which bounds the design space to those of power feasible schedules. We have applied our algorithm on a set of dataflow graphs...

CAMAC and high-level-languages

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Degenhardt, K.H.

1976-05-01

A proposal for easy programming of CAMAC systems with high-level-languages (FORTRAN, RTL/2, etc.) and interpreters (BASIC, MUMTI, etc.) using a few subroutines and a LAM driver is presented. The subroutines and the LAM driver are implemented for PDP11/RSX-11M and for the CAMAC controllers DEC CA11A (branch controller), BORER type 1533A (single crate controller) and DEC CA11F (single crate controller). Mixed parallel/serial CAMAC systems employing KINETIC SYSTEMS serial driver mod. 3992 and serial crate controllers mod. 3950 are implemented for all mentioned parallel controllers, too. DMA transfers from or to CAMAC modules using non-processor-request controllers (BORER type 1542, DEC CA11FN) are available. (orig.) [de

Reactive Power Impact on Lifetime Prediction of Two-level Wind Power Converter

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhou, Dao; Blaabjerg, Frede; Lau, M.

2013-01-01

The influence of reactive power injection on the dominating two-level wind power converter is investigated and compared in terms of power loss and thermal behavior. Then the lifetime of both the partial-scale and full-scale power converter is estimated based on the widely used Coffin-Manson model...

Varying ultrasound power level to distinguish surgical instruments and tissue.

Science.gov (United States)

Ren, Hongliang; Anuraj, Banani; Dupont, Pierre E

2018-03-01

We investigate a new framework of surgical instrument detection based on power-varying ultrasound images with simple and efficient pixel-wise intensity processing. Without using complicated feature extraction methods, we identified the instrument with an estimated optimal power level and by comparing pixel values of varying transducer power level images. The proposed framework exploits the physics of ultrasound imaging system by varying the transducer power level to effectively distinguish metallic surgical instruments from tissue. This power-varying image-guidance is motivated from our observations that ultrasound imaging at different power levels exhibit different contrast enhancement capabilities between tissue and instruments in ultrasound-guided robotic beating-heart surgery. Using lower transducer power levels (ranging from 40 to 75% of the rated lowest ultrasound power levels of the two tested ultrasound scanners) can effectively suppress the strong imaging artifacts from metallic instruments and thus, can be utilized together with the images from normal transducer power levels to enhance the separability between instrument and tissue, improving intraoperative instrument tracking accuracy from the acquired noisy ultrasound volumetric images. We performed experiments in phantoms and ex vivo hearts in water tank environments. The proposed multi-level power-varying ultrasound imaging approach can identify robotic instruments of high acoustic impedance from low-signal-to-noise-ratio ultrasound images by power adjustments.

Microprocessor-based accelerating power level detector

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nagpal, M.; Zarecki, W.; Albrecht, J.C.

1994-01-01

An accelerating power level detector was built using state-of-the-art microprocessor technology at Powertech Labs Inc. The detector will monitor the real power flowing in two 300 kV transmission lines out of Kemano Hydroelectric Generating Station and will detect any sudden loss of load due to a fault on either line under certain pre-selected power flow conditions. This paper discusses the criteria of operation for the detector and its implementation details, including digital processing, hardware, and software.

Evaluation of the FIR Example using Xilinx Vivado High-Level Synthesis Compiler

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jin, Zheming [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Finkel, Hal [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Yoshii, Kazutomo [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Cappello, Franck [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

2017-07-28

Compared to central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) have major advantages in reconfigurability and performance achieved per watt. This development flow has been augmented with high-level synthesis (HLS) flow that can convert programs written in a high-level programming language to Hardware Description Language (HDL). Using high-level programming languages such as C, C++, and OpenCL for FPGA-based development could allow software developers, who have little FPGA knowledge, to take advantage of the FPGA-based application acceleration. This improves developer productivity and makes the FPGA-based acceleration accessible to hardware and software developers. Xilinx Vivado HLS compiler is a high-level synthesis tool that enables C, C++ and System C specification to be directly targeted into Xilinx FPGAs without the need to create RTL manually. The white paper [1] published recently by Xilinx uses a finite impulse response (FIR) example to demonstrate the variable-precision features in the Vivado HLS compiler and the resource and power benefits of converting floating point to fixed point for a design. To get a better understanding of variable-precision features in terms of resource usage and performance, this report presents the experimental results of evaluating the FIR example using Vivado HLS 2017.1 and a Kintex Ultrascale FPGA. In addition, we evaluated the half-precision floating-point data type against the double-precision and single-precision data type and present the detailed results.

The fine structure of the dynamics of seismicity before earthquakes in the area of Reggio Emilia (Northern Italy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Y. Tyupki

1999-06-01

Full Text Available We present the results of studies of seismicity in the Reggio Emilia area (Northern Italy. The Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica instrumental earthquake catalogue (1975-1996 reported about three moderate-size earthquakes with M ³ 4.5 that occurred in this area (November 1983, May 1987, October 1996. The RTL prognostic parameter proposed by Sobolev and Tyupkin (1996a was used for analysis. This parameter is designed in such a way that a seismic quiescence produces negative anomaly of the RTL parameter in comparison to its perennial background level and an activation of seismicity initiates the growth of its value. The RTL prognostic parameter indicates that all three earthquakes are preceded by activation of the seismicity. The interval between the commencement of the activation identified by RTL parameter and the event itself was about one year for the 1987 and 1996 earthquakes, and about three months for the 1983 earthquake.

Nuclear power: levels of safety

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lidsky, L.M.

1988-01-01

The rise and fall of the nuclear power industry in the United States is a well-documented story with enough socio-technological conflict to fill dozens of scholarly, and not so scholarly, books. Whatever the reasons for the situation we are now in, and no matter how we apportion the blame, the ultimate choice of whether to use nuclear power in this country is made by the utilities and by the public. Their choices are, finally, based on some form of risk-benefit analysis. Such analysis is done in well-documented and apparently logical form by the utilities and in a rather more inchoate but not necessarily less accurate form by the public. Nuclear power has failed in the United States because both the real and perceived risks outweigh the potential benefits. The national decision not to rely upon nuclear power in its present form is not an irrational one. A wide ranging public balancing of risk and benefit requires a classification of risk which is clear and believable for the public to be able to assess the risks associated with given technological structures. The qualitative four-level safety ladder provides such a framework. Nuclear reactors have been designed which fit clearly and demonstrably into each of the possible qualitative safety levels. Surprisingly, it appears that safer may also mean cheaper. The intellectual and technical prerequisites are in hand for an important national decision. Deployment of a qualitatively different second generation of nuclear reactors can have important benefits for the United States. Surprisingly, it may well be the nuclear establishment itself, with enormous investments of money and pride in the existing nuclear systems, that rejects second generation reactors. It may be that we will not have a second generation of reactors until the first generation of nuclear engineers and nuclear power advocates has retired

Development of a red TL detection system for a single grain of quartz

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yawata, T.; Hashimoto, T.

2007-01-01

Red thermoluminescence (RTL) of natural quartz grains offers many desirable properties for quaternary chronology and archaeological dating, although RTL measurements suffer from high thermal background due to black-body radiation on heating. To reduce the thermal background to as low a level as possible, a silver sample disc covered with a biotite plate with a sample hole was used in combination with a light guide, cluster heater, optical filters, and photomultiplier tube cooling to -20 deg. C in the present system. As a result, the thermal background decreased from 2x10 4 to 1000 cps in the temperature range 350-380 deg. C, resulting in a detection limit of approximately 100 cps, corresponding to the RTL signal from a single quartz grain (250-500μm) irradiated with 4.0 Gy. In addition, application of lower heating rates retarded the thermal quenching effect, resulting in high RTL signals, which are preferable for young or insensitive quartz samples. Using RTL measurements with the single quartz grain method under optimal RTL conditions, comparison of equivalent doses from artificially irradiated single quartz grains to the known dose was within the 20% measurement error. Based on equivalent dose determinations for single quartz grains, large irregularities on non-etched quartz surfaces might be very detrimental to the TL detection process. This result confirms that surface etching treatment is required to achieve reliable dating with high counting efficiency

Experimental Study of a Multi Level Overtopping Wave Power Device

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kofoed, Jens Peter; Hald, Tue; Frigaard, Peter Bak

2002-01-01

Results of experimental investigations of a floating wave energy device called Power Pyramid is presented. The Power Pyramid utilizes reservoirs in multiple levels when capturing wave overtopping and converting it into electrical energy. The effect of capturing the overtopping in multiple levels,......, using 5 levels introduces practical problems, and is most probably not economically feasible. It is concluded that it is reasonable to use 2 levels (maybe 3), which can increase the efficiency by 25-40 % compared to using a single level.......Results of experimental investigations of a floating wave energy device called Power Pyramid is presented. The Power Pyramid utilizes reservoirs in multiple levels when capturing wave overtopping and converting it into electrical energy. The effect of capturing the overtopping in multiple levels......, compared to only one level, has been evaluated experimentally. From the experimental results, and the performed optimizations based on these, it has been found that the efficiency of a wave power device of the overtopping type can be increased by as much as 76 % by using 5 levels instead of 1. However...

Macrocell Builder: IP-Block-Based Design Environment for High-Throughput VLSI Dedicated Digital Signal Processing Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Urard Pascal

2006-01-01

Full Text Available We propose an efficient IP-block-based design environment for high-throughput VLSI systems. The flow generates SystemC register-transfer-level (RTL architecture, starting from a Matlab functional model described as a netlist of functional IP. The refinement model inserts automatically control structures to manage delays induced by the use of RTL IPs. It also inserts a control structure to coordinate the execution of parallel clocked IP. The delays may be managed by registers or by counters included in the control structure. The flow has been used successfully in three real-world DSP systems. The experimentations show that the approach can produce efficient RTL architecture and allows to save huge amount of time.

Radio-thermoluminescence of p-InP crystals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aliyev, M.I.; Rashidova, Sh.Sh.; Guseynova, M.A.; Aliyev, I.M.

2004-01-01

Full text: A 3 B 5 compounds, including InP, are called forth the heighten interest in connection with their use in such devices as bipolar and field transistors with hetero junctions, solar cells, light emitting diodes, etc. It is known that under influence of high-level radiation (gamma quanta electron, etc. bombardment ) in semiconductors there are formed either local energetic defect states of torn bonds in the case of the crystal radiation with gamma quanta or local energy level tails of gap states at the expense of the point defect formation and that leads to the change of electrophysical and optical properties of A 3 B 5 compounds. In the paper, it is put forward results of experimental investigations of radio-thermoluminescence (RTL) features of gamma irradiated p-InP crystals in the range of 80 to 400 K. Samples doped with InP were fabricated by the Czochralski method. p-In crystals were irradiated with gamma quanta by the isotopic source, 60 Co, with the dose power of D=1.03 Gy/s at temperature of 77 K. Curves for RTL were obtained by a radio-thermo-luminograph, RTL-69, while the heating rate was 5 K/min. Presents the dependence of RTL versus temperature after each stage of radiation with doses of D=10 kGy and D=35 kGy. It is shown, that with increasing the radiation dose the intensity of luminescence decreases. It is also observed a shift of the maximum peak at 180 K towards lower temperatures by 10 degrees. The peak after irradiation with the large dose (D=35 kGy) is manifested at 170 K. The peak being emerged after irradiation with the dose of D=35 kGy at 300 K correspondents the H 3 (0.51 eV) level, which is the P In 0 hole trap. The decrease of the peak intensity after irradiation with the high dose is apparently connected with radiation anti-structural defects (ASD) of the donor type, In P . Thus, the irradiation by gamma quanta of InP crystals, doped with Zn results in the point defect formation of the structure, i.e. defects of the ASD

POWER LEVEL EFFECT IN A PWR ROD EJECTION ACCIDENT

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Diamond, D.J.; Bromley, B.P.; Aronson, A.L.

2002-01-01

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of the initial power level during a rod ejection accident (REA) on the ejected rod worth and the resulting energy deposition in the fuel. The model used is for the hot zero power (HZP) conditions at the end of a typical fuel cycle for the Three Mile Island Unit 1 pressurized water reactor. PARCS , a transient, three-dimensional, two-group neutron nodal diffusion code, coupled with its own thermal-hydraulics model, is used to perform both steady-state and transient simulations. The worth of an ejected control rod is affected by both power level, and the positions of control banks. As the power level is increased, the worth of a single central control rod tends to drop due to thermal-hydraulic feedback and control bank removal, both of which flatten the radial neutron flux and power distributions. Although the peak fuel pellet enthalpy rise during an REA will be greater for a given ejected rod worth at elevated initial power levels, it is more likely the HZP condition will cause a greater net energy deposition because an ejected rod will have the highest worth at HZP. Thus, the HZP condition can be considered the most conservative in a safety evaluation

Analysis of superconducting microstrip resonator at various microwave power levels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Srivastava, G.P.; Jacob, M.V.; Jayakumar, M.; Bhatnagar, P.K.; Kataria, N.D.

1997-01-01

The real and imaginary parts of the surface impedance of YBCO superconductors have been studied at different microwave power levels. Using the relations for the critical current density and the grain boundary resistance, a relation for calculating the power dependence of the surface resistance has been obtained. Also, a relation to find the resonant frequency of a superconducting microstrip resonator at various input power levels has been derived. Measurements have been carried out on various microstrip resonators to study the variation of surface resistance and resonant frequency at different rf power levels. The experimental results are in good agreement with theoretical results. copyright 1997 American Institute of Physics

University students' understanding level about words related to nuclear power

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Oiso, Shinichi; Watabe, Motoki

2012-01-01

The authors conducted a survey of university students' understanding level about words related to nuclear power before and after Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant accident, and analyzed the difference between before and after the accident. The results show that university students' understanding level improved after the accident, especially in the case of reported words by mass media. Understanding level of some nuclear power security words which were not reported so much by mass media also improved. That may be caused by rising of people's concern about nuclear power generation after the accident, and there is a possibility that the accident motivated people to access such words via internet, journals, etc. (author)

Simulation of decreasing reactor power level with BWR simulator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suwoto; Zuhair; Rivai, Abu Khalid

2002-01-01

Study on characteristic of BWR using Desktop PC Based Simulator Program was analysed. This simulator is more efficient and cheaper for analyzing of characteristic and dynamic respond than full scope simulator for decreasing power level of BW. Dynamic responses of BWR reactor was investigated during the power level reduction from 100% FP (Full Power) which is 3926 MWth to 0% FP with 25% steps and 1 % FP/sec rate. The overall results for core flow rate, reactor steam flow, feed-water flow and turbine-generator power show tendency proportional to reduction of reactor power. This results show that reactor power control in BWR could be done by control of re-circulation flow that alter the density of water used as coolant and moderator. Decreasing the re-circulation flow rate will decrease void density which has negative reactivity and also affect the position of control rods

The simple art of SoC design

CERN Document Server

Keating, Michael

2011-01-01

This book tackles head-on the challenges of digital design in the era of billion-transistor SoCs. It discusses fundamental design concepts in design and coding required to produce robust, functionally correct designs. It also provides specific techniques for measuring and minimizing complexity in RTL code. Finally, it discusses the tradeoff between RTL and high-level (C-based) design and how tools and languages must progress to address the needs of tomorrow's SoC designs.

Z-pinch driven fusion energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Slutz, Stephen A.; Olson, Craig L.; Rochau, Gary E.; Dezon, Mark S.; Peterson, P.F.; Degroot, J.S.; Jensen, N.; Miller, G.

2000-01-01

The Z machine at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) is the most powerful multi-module synchronized pulsed-power accelerator in the world. Rapid development of z-pinch loads on Z has led to outstanding progress in the last few years, resulting in radiative powers of up to 280 TW in 4 ns and a total radiated x-ray energy of 1.8 MJ. The present goal is to demonstrate single-shot, high-yield fusion capsules. Pulsed power is a robust and inexpensive technology, which should be well suited for Inertial Fusion Energy, but a rep-rated capability is needed. Recent developments have led to a viable conceptual approach for a rep-rated z-pinch power plant for IFE. This concept exploits the advantages of going to high yield (a few GJ) at low rep-rate (approximately 0.1 Hz), and using a Recyclable Transmission Line (RTL) to provide the necessary standoff between the fusion target and the power plant chamber. In this approach, a portion of the transmission line near the capsule is replaced after each shot. The RTL should be constructed of materials that can easily be separated from the liquid coolant stream and refabricated for a subsequent shots. One possibility is that most of the RTL is formed by casting FLiBe, a salt composed of fluorine, lithium, and beryllium, which is an attractive choice for the reactor coolant, with chemically compatible lead or tin on the surface to provide conductivity. The authors estimate that fusion yields greater than 1 GJ will be required for efficient generation of electricity. Calculations indicate that the first wall will have an acceptable lifetime with these high yields if blast mitigation techniques are used. Furthermore, yields above 5 GJ may allow the use of a compact blanket direct conversion scheme

Kinetic inductance of HTS resonators at various microwave power levels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Srivastava, G.P.; Jacob, Mohan V.

1997-01-01

Microwave superconducting devices show a drastic deterioration in its performance at high microwave power levels. The flux penetration through the weak links increases the quasiparticle concentration which results in the increase of penetration depth and hence the kinetic inductance. We have modeled an expression to find the kinetic inductance at various RF power levels. The results show that the change in kinetic inductance is proportional to be square of the applied field. This model can explain the reported experimental results at and below the intermediate power levels. (author)

Power Grid Construction Project Portfolio Optimization Based on Bi-level programming model

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Erdong; Li, Shangqi

2017-08-01

As the main body of power grid operation, county-level power supply enterprises undertake an important emission to guarantee the security of power grid operation and safeguard social power using order. The optimization of grid construction projects has been a key issue of power supply capacity and service level of grid enterprises. According to the actual situation of power grid construction project optimization of county-level power enterprises, on the basis of qualitative analysis of the projects, this paper builds a Bi-level programming model based on quantitative analysis. The upper layer of the model is the target restriction of the optimal portfolio; the lower layer of the model is enterprises’ financial restrictions on the size of the enterprise project portfolio. Finally, using a real example to illustrate operation proceeding and the optimization result of the model. Through qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis, the bi-level programming model improves the accuracy and normative standardization of power grid enterprises projects.

A Rotating Speed Controller Design Method for Power Levelling by Means of Inertia Energy in Wind Power Systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Qin, Zian; Blaabjerg, Frede; Loh, Poh Chiang

2015-01-01

Power fluctuation caused by wind speed variations may be harmful for the stability of the power system as well as the reliability of the wind power converter, since it may induce thermal excursions in the solder joints of the power modules. Using the wind turbine rotor inertia energy for power...... in the frequency domain for power leveling. Moreover, the impact of other parameters on power leveling, including the time constant of maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and the rotor inertia, are also studied. With the proposed optimal design, the power fluctuations are mitigated as much as possible, while...

A Systematic Approach to Design Low-Power Video Codec Cores

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Corporaal Henk

2007-01-01

Full Text Available The higher resolutions and new functionality of video applications increase their throughput and processing requirements. In contrast, the energy and heat limitations of mobile devices demand low-power video cores. We propose a memory and communication centric design methodology to reach an energy-efficient dedicated implementation. First, memory optimizations are combined with algorithmic tuning. Then, a partitioning exploration introduces parallelism using a cyclo-static dataflow model that also expresses implementation-specific aspects of communication channels. Towards hardware, these channels are implemented as a restricted set of communication primitives. They enable an automated RTL development strategy for rigorous functional verification. The FPGA/ASIC design of an MPEG-4 Simple Profile video codec demonstrates the methodology. The video pipeline exploits the inherent functional parallelism of the codec and contains a tailored memory hierarchy with burst accesses to external memory. 4CIF encoding at 30 fps, consumes 71 mW in a 180 nm, 1.62 V UMC technology.

A Systematic Approach to Design Low-Power Video Codec Cores

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kristof Denolf

2007-05-01

Full Text Available The higher resolutions and new functionality of video applications increase their throughput and processing requirements. In contrast, the energy and heat limitations of mobile devices demand low-power video cores. We propose a memory and communication centric design methodology to reach an energy-efficient dedicated implementation. First, memory optimizations are combined with algorithmic tuning. Then, a partitioning exploration introduces parallelism using a cyclo-static dataflow model that also expresses implementation-specific aspects of communication channels. Towards hardware, these channels are implemented as a restricted set of communication primitives. They enable an automated RTL development strategy for rigorous functional verification. The FPGA/ASIC design of an MPEG-4 Simple Profile video codec demonstrates the methodology. The video pipeline exploits the inherent functional parallelism of the codec and contains a tailored memory hierarchy with burst accesses to external memory. 4CIF encoding at 30 fps, consumes 71 mW in a 180 nm, 1.62 V UMC technology.

A New RTL Design Approach for a DCT/IDCT-Based Image Compression Architecture using the mCBE Algorithm

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rachmad Vidya Wicaksana Putra

2013-09-01

Full Text Available In  the  literature, several approaches  of  designing  a  DCT/IDCT-based image compression system have been proposed.  In this paper,  we present a new RTL design approach with as main  focus developing a  DCT/IDCT-based image compression  architecture  using  a  self-created  algorithm.  This  algorithm  can efficiently  minimize  the  amount  of  shifter -adders  to  substitute  multiplier s.  We call  this  new  algorithm  the  multiplication  from  Common  Binary  Expression (mCBE  Algorithm. Besides this algorithm, we propose alternative quantization numbers,  which  can  be  implemented  simply  as  shifters  in  digital  hardware. Mostly, these numbers can retain a good compressed-image quality  compared to JPEG  recommendations.  These  ideas  lead  to  our  design  being  small  in  circuit area,  multiplierless,  and  low  in  complexity.  The  proposed  8-point  1D-DCT design  has  only  six  stages,  while  the  8-point  1D-IDCT  design  has  only  seven stages  (one  stage  being  defined as  equal  to  the  delay  of  one  shifter  or  2-input adder. By using the pipelining method, we can achieve a high-speed architecture with latency as    a  trade-off consideration. The  design has been synthesized and can reach a speed of up to 1.41ns critical path delay (709.22MHz. 

Empirical LTE Smartphone Power Model with DRX Operation for System Level Simulations

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lauridsen, Mads; Noël, Laurent; Mogensen, Preben

2013-01-01

An LTE smartphone power model is presented to enable academia and industry to evaluate users’ battery life on system level. The model is based on empirical measurements on a smartphone using a second generation LTE chipset, and the model includes functions of receive and transmit data rates...... and power levels. The first comprehensive Discontinuous Reception (DRX) power consumption measurements are reported together with cell bandwidth, screen and CPU power consumption. The transmit power level and to some extent the receive data rate constitute the overall power consumption, while DRX proves...

Design of megawatt power level heat pipe reactors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mcclure, Patrick Ray [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Poston, David Irvin [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Dasari, Venkateswara Rao [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Reid, Robert Stowers [Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

2015-11-12

An important niche for nuclear energy is the need for power at remote locations removed from a reliable electrical grid. Nuclear energy has potential applications at strategic defense locations, theaters of battle, remote communities, and emergency locations. With proper safeguards, a 1 to 10-MWe (megawatt electric) mobile reactor system could provide robust, self-contained, and long-term power in any environment. Heat pipe-cooled fast-spectrum nuclear reactors have been identified as a candidate for these applications. Heat pipe reactors, using alkali metal heat pipes, are perfectly suited for mobile applications because their nature is inherently simpler, smaller, and more reliable than “traditional” reactors. The goal of this project was to develop a scalable conceptual design for a compact reactor and to identify scaling issues for compact heat pipe cooled reactors in general. Toward this goal two detailed concepts were developed, the first concept with more conventional materials and a power of about 2 MWe and a the second concept with less conventional materials and a power level of about 5 MWe. A series of more qualitative advanced designs were developed (with less detail) that show power levels can be pushed to approximately 30 MWe.

Remote TL and OSL for asteroid and meteorite study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takaki, Shunji; Ikeya, Motoji; Yamanaka, Chihiro

1997-01-01

Thermoluminescence (TL) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) of the Allende meteorite have been studied using infrared CO 2 laser light as a heat source and He-Ne laser light to excite the material, respectively from a long distance. New techniques of remote TL (R-TL) and remote OSL (R-OSL) have been developed for future remote dating from a long distance in a planetary survey. The upper limits of the distance for R-TL and R-OSL were estimated using the laboratory TL signal of the meteorite peaking at 320 o C: about 400 photons s -1 for the R-TL and 60 photons s -1 for R-OSL at a distance of 1 km using a laser beam with the divergence of 0.1 mrad at powers of 100 and 1 W, respectively. An age limit of 10 5 or 10 6 years due to the signal saturation and the objects heterogeneity, as expected from previous studies, may make the asteroid survey difficult but would still help to investigate the surface activities of icy planets and satellites in outer planet worlds. (author)

Bi-Level Decentralized Active Power Control for Large-Scale Wind Farm Cluster

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Huang, Shengli; Wu, Qiuwei; Guo, Yifei

2018-01-01

This paper presents a bi-level decentralized active power control (DAPC) for a large-scale wind farm cluster, consisting of several wind farms for better active power dispatch. In the upper level, a distributed active power control scheme based on the distributed consensus is designed to achieve...... fair active power sharing among multiple wind farms, which generates the power reference for each wind farm. A distributed estimator is used to estimate the total available power of all wind farms. In the lower level, a centralized control scheme based on the Model Predictive Control (MPC) is proposed...... to regulate active power outputs of all wind turbines (WTs) within a wind farm, which reduces the fatigue loads of WTs while tracking the power reference obtained from the upper level control. A wind farm cluster with 8 wind farms and totally 160 WTs, was used to test the control performance of the proposed...

Wafer-level chip-scale packaging analog and power semiconductor applications

CERN Document Server

Qu, Shichun

2015-01-01

This book presents a state-of-art and in-depth overview in analog and power WLCSP design, material characterization, reliability, and modeling. Recent advances in analog and power electronic WLCSP packaging are presented based on the development of analog technology and power device integration. The book covers in detail how advances in semiconductor content, analog and power advanced WLCSP design, assembly, materials, and reliability have co-enabled significant advances in fan-in and fan-out with redistributed layer (RDL) of analog and power device capability during recent years. Along with new analog and power WLCSP development, the role of modeling is a key to assure successful package design. An overview of the analog and power WLCSP modeling and typical thermal, electrical, and stress modeling methodologies is also provided. This book also: ·         Covers the development of wafer-level power discrete packaging with regular wafer-level design concepts and directly bumping technology ·    �...

Flexible data acquisition system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Clout, P N; Ridley, P A [Science Research Council, Daresbury (UK). Daresbury Lab.

1978-06-01

A data acquisition system has been developed which enables several independent experiments to be controlled by a 24 K word PDP-11 computer. Significant features of the system are the use of CAMAC, a high level language (RTL/2) and a general-purpose operating system executive which assist the rapid implementation of new experiments. This system has been used successfully for EXAFS and photo-electron spectroscopy experiments. It is intended to provide powerful concurrent data analysis and feedback facilities to the experimenter by on-line connection to the central IBM 370/165 computer.

Telomere Length in Peripheral Blood Leukocytes Is Associated with Severity of Biliary Atresia.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wanvisa Udomsinprasert

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of telomere length in peripheral blood leukocytes with the severity of biliary atresia (BA.One hundred and fourteen BA patients and 114 age-matched healthy controls were enrolled. Relative telomere length (RTL was assessed using a quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Multivariate regression analysis was used to estimate RTL as an independent risk factor of BA. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to calculate the accuracy of biomarkers in the prediction of liver cirrhosis.BA patients had significantly shorter telomeres than healthy controls (p < 0.0001. The RTL in BA patients with jaundice was considerably lower than that of patients without jaundice (p = 0.005. Moreover, RTL was markedly shorter in patients with cirrhosis (F4, as compared to patients with mild fibrosis (F2 and non-fibrosis (F0-F1, p < 0.0001. Logistic regression analysis indicated that short RTL was associated with a higher risk of liver cirrhosis in BA. Tertile analysis showed a dose-response effect for this association (p trend < 0.0001. Additionally, RTL in BA children revealed a negative correlation with age (r = -0.50, p < 0.001. We noted an association between reduction of RTL and liver stiffness scores, adjusted for age and gender (b = -0.01, p < 0.0001. Short RTL can be employed to distinguish cirrhosis patients from non-cirrhosis patients (AUC = 0.78. Further analysis showed a linear correlation between leukocyte RTL and liver RTL in BA patients (r = 0.83, p < 0.001.The findings of this study provide evidence that telomere shortening is associated with an elevated risk of liver cirrhosis in BA.

Genotoxicity of Heterocyclic PAHs in the Micronucleus Assay with the Fish Liver Cell Line RTL-W1

Science.gov (United States)

Brinkmann, Markus; Blenkle, Henning; Salowsky, Helena; Bluhm, Kerstin; Schiwy, Sabrina; Tiehm, Andreas; Hollert, Henner

2014-01-01

Heterocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are, together with their un-substituted analogues, widely distributed throughout all environmental compartments. While fate and effects of homocyclic PAHs are well-understood, there are still data gaps concerning the ecotoxicology of heterocyclic PAHs: Only few publications are available investigating these substances using in vitro bioassays. Here, we present a study focusing on the identification and quantification of clastogenic and aneugenic effects in the micronucleus assay with the fish liver cell line RTL-W1 that was originally derived from rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Real concentrations of the test items after incubation without cells were determined to assess chemical losses due to, e.g., sorption or volatilization, by means of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. We were able to show genotoxic effects for six compounds that have not been reported in vertebrate systems before. Out of the tested substances, 2,3-dimethylbenzofuran, benzothiophene, quinoline and 6-methylquinoline did not cause substantial induction of micronuclei in the cell line. Acridine caused the highest absolute induction. Carbazole, acridine and dibenzothiophene were the most potent substances compared with 4-nitroquinoline oxide, a well characterized genotoxicant with high potency used as standard. Dibenzofuran was positive in our investigation and tested negative before in a mammalian system. Chemical losses during incubation ranged from 29.3% (acridine) to 91.7% (benzofuran) and may be a confounding factor in studies without chemical analyses, leading to an underestimation of the real potency. The relative potency of the investigated substances was high compared with their un-substituted PAH analogues, only the latter being typically monitored as priority or indicator pollutants. Hetero-PAHs are widely distributed in the environment and even more mobile, e.g. in ground water, than homocyclic PAHs due to the higher water solubility. We

Genotoxicity of heterocyclic PAHs in the micronucleus assay with the fish liver cell line RTL-W1.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Markus Brinkmann

Full Text Available Heterocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are, together with their un-substituted analogues, widely distributed throughout all environmental compartments. While fate and effects of homocyclic PAHs are well-understood, there are still data gaps concerning the ecotoxicology of heterocyclic PAHs: Only few publications are available investigating these substances using in vitro bioassays. Here, we present a study focusing on the identification and quantification of clastogenic and aneugenic effects in the micronucleus assay with the fish liver cell line RTL-W1 that was originally derived from rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss. Real concentrations of the test items after incubation without cells were determined to assess chemical losses due to, e.g., sorption or volatilization, by means of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. We were able to show genotoxic effects for six compounds that have not been reported in vertebrate systems before. Out of the tested substances, 2,3-dimethylbenzofuran, benzothiophene, quinoline and 6-methylquinoline did not cause substantial induction of micronuclei in the cell line. Acridine caused the highest absolute induction. Carbazole, acridine and dibenzothiophene were the most potent substances compared with 4-nitroquinoline oxide, a well characterized genotoxicant with high potency used as standard. Dibenzofuran was positive in our investigation and tested negative before in a mammalian system. Chemical losses during incubation ranged from 29.3% (acridine to 91.7% (benzofuran and may be a confounding factor in studies without chemical analyses, leading to an underestimation of the real potency. The relative potency of the investigated substances was high compared with their un-substituted PAH analogues, only the latter being typically monitored as priority or indicator pollutants. Hetero-PAHs are widely distributed in the environment and even more mobile, e.g. in ground water, than homocyclic PAHs due to the higher water

The advantages and disadvantages of centralized control of air power at operational level

Science.gov (United States)

Arisoy, Uǧur

2014-05-01

People do not want to see and hear a war. In today's world, if war is inevitable, the use of air power is seen as the preferable means of conducting operations instead of financially burdensome land battles which are more likely to cause heavy loss of life. The use of Air Power has gained importance in NATO operations in the Post-Cold War era. For example, air power has undertaken a decisive role from the beginning to the end of the operation in Libya. From this point of view, the most important issue to consider is how to direct air power more effectively at operational level. NATO's Core JFAC (Joint Force Air Command) was established in 2012 to control joint air power at operational level from a single center. US had experienced JFAC aproach in the Operation Desert Storm in 1991. UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain are also directing their air power from their JFAC structures. Joint air power can be directed from a single center at operational level by means of JFAC. JFAC aproach provides complex planning progress of Air Power to be controled faster in a single center. An Air Power with a large number of aircrafts, long range missiles of cutting-edge technology may have difficulties in achieving results unless directed effectively. In this article, directing air power more effectively at operational level has been studied in the framework of directing air power from a single center carried out by SWOT analysis technique. "Directing Air Power at operational level from a single center similar to JFAC-like structure" is compared with "Directing Air Power at operational level from two centers similar to AC (Air Command) + CAOC (Combined Air Operations Center) structure" As a result of this study, it is assessed that directing air power at operational level from a single center would bring effectiveness to the air campaign. The study examines directing air power at operational level. Developments at political, strategic and tactical levels have been ignored.

BEST-4, Fuel Cycle and Cost Optimization for Discrete Power Levels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1973-01-01

1 - Nature of physical problem solved: Determination of optimal power strategy for a fuel cycle, for discrete power levels and n temporal stages, taking into account replacement energy costs and de-rating. 2 - Method of solution: Dynamic programming. 3 - Restrictions on the complexity of the problem: Restrictions may arise from number of power levels and temporal stages, due to machine limitations

Do telomeres have a higher plasticity than thought? Results from the German Chronic Kidney Disease (GCKD) study as a high-risk population.

Science.gov (United States)

Raschenberger, Julia; Kollerits, Barbara; Titze, Stephanie; Köttgen, Anna; Bärthlein, Barbara; Ekici, Arif B; Forer, Lukas; Schönherr, Sebastian; Weissensteiner, Hansi; Haun, Margot; Wanner, Christoph; Eckardt, Kai-Uwe; Kronenberg, Florian

2015-12-01

Telomere length is considered as a biological marker for aging. It is expected that telomeres shorten with age and with conditions associated with oxidative stress and inflammation. Both are present in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) who have a very high cardiovascular risk. We investigated whether CKD duration is associated with relative telomere length (RTL) in 4802 patients from the German Chronic Kidney Disease (GCKD) study. We measured RTL in each sample in quadruplicates using a quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). We observed a U-shaped association of RTL with CKD duration: the longest RTL was found in those 339 patients who reported the shortest disease duration (study these surprising results have to be considered with caution and as hypothesis-generating. Whether the longer RTL in patients with long-lasting disease is caused by an activation of telomerase to counteract the shortening of RTL due to oxidative stress and inflammation or whether they are caused by a survival bias needs to be investigated in longitudinal studies. Our data are in support of a higher plasticity of shortening and elongations of RTL as until recently anticipated. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Dependence of red thermoluminescence on Eu-anomaly in natural quartzes

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hashimoto, T; Yokosaka, K; Notoya, S; Ojima, T; Sakaue, S [Niigata Univ. (Japan). Faculty of Science

1993-04-01

The causes of red colour thermoluminescence (RTL) from natural quartz have been sought in the presence of impurity elements. Some impurities in 31 varieties of natural quartz extracts, determined by a neutron activation analysis, have been examined with respect to a meaningful correlation of the RTL to the total detectable TL strength. Generally, the higher impurity contents were found in quartz of volcanic origin, which always emits purely RTL colour, whereas the lower impurities were usually detected in hydrothermal quartz, which emits purely blue TL (BTL) in all absorbed doses. Among the impurities, the middle REE (rare earth elements), involving Eu and Sm, particularly offered considerable correlation with RTL emission with the exception of pegmatite quartz. It was found from the chondrite-normalized REE patterns that a positive Eu anomaly or flattened Eu distribution gave rise to relatively high RTL proportions, while a negative Eu anomaly always showed extremely weak RTL intensity. Thus, it was concluded that the Eu[sup 3+], formed from the oxidizable surrounding or high oxygen fugacity relative to a Cl chondrite formation, is strongly related to the RTL intensity in natural quartz. (author).

Extended Pulse-Powered Humidity-Freeze Cycling for Testing Module-Level Power Electronics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hacke, Peter L [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Rodriguez, Miguel [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Kempe, Michael D [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Repins, Ingrid L [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2017-11-28

An EMI suppression capacitor (polypropylene film type) failed by 'popcorning' due to vapor outgassing in pulse powered humidity-freeze cycles. No shorts or shunts could be detected despite mildly corroded metallization visible in the failed capacitor. Humidity-freeze cycling is optimized to break into moisture barriers. However, further studies will be required on additional module level power electronic (MLPE) devices to optimize the stress testing for condensation to precipitate any weakness to short circuiting and other humidity/bias failure modes.

Technical impacts of high penetration levels of wind power on power system stability

OpenAIRE

Flynn, Damian; Rather, Z.; Ardal, Atle; Darco, Salvatore; Hansen, Anca Daniela; Cutululis, Nicolaos Antonio; Sørensen, Poul Ejnar; Estanqueiro, Ana; Gomez, Emilio; Menemenlis, Nickie; Smith, Charlie; Wang, Ye

2017-01-01

With increasing penetrations of wind generation, based on power-electronic converters, power systems are transitioning away from well-understood synchronous generator-based systems, with growing implications for their stability. Issues of concern will vary with system size, wind penetration level, geographical distribution and turbine type, network topology, electricity market structure, unit commitment procedures, and other factors. However, variable-speed wind turbines, both onshore and con...

US power plant sites at risk of future sea-level rise

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bierkandt, R; Levermann, A; Auffhammer, M

2015-01-01

Unmitigated greenhouse gas emissions may increase global mean sea-level by about 1 meter during this century. Such elevation of the mean sea-level enhances the risk of flooding of coastal areas. We compute the power capacity that is currently out-of-reach of a 100-year coastal flooding but will be exposed to such a flood by the end of the century for different US states, if no adaptation measures are taken. The additional exposed capacity varies strongly among states. For Delaware it is 80% of the mean generated power load. For New York this number is 63% and for Florida 43%. The capacity that needs additional protection compared to today increases by more than 250% for Texas, 90% for Florida and 70% for New York. Current development in power plant building points towards a reduced future exposure to sea-level rise: proposed and planned power plants are less exposed than those which are currently operating. However, power plants that have been retired or canceled were less exposed than those operating at present. If sea-level rise is properly accounted for in future planning, an adaptation to sea-level rise may be costly but possible. (letter)

Power levels in office equipment: Measurements of new monitors and personal computers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roberson, Judy A.; Brown, Richard E.; Nordman, Bruce; Webber, Carrie A.; Homan, Gregory H.; Mahajan, Akshay; McWhinney, Marla; Koomey, Jonathan G.

2002-01-01

Electronic office equipment has proliferated rapidly over the last twenty years and is projected to continue growing in the future. Efforts to reduce the growth in office equipment energy use have focused on power management to reduce power consumption of electronic devices when not being used for their primary purpose. The EPA ENERGY STAR[registered trademark] program has been instrumental in gaining widespread support for power management in office equipment, and accurate information about the energy used by office equipment in all power levels is important to improving program design and evaluation. This paper presents the results of a field study conducted during 2001 to measure the power levels of new monitors and personal computers. We measured off, on, and low-power levels in about 60 units manufactured since July 2000. The paper summarizes power data collected, explores differences within the sample (e.g., between CRT and LCD monitors), and discusses some issues that arise in m etering office equipment. We also present conclusions to help improve the success of future power management programs.Our findings include a trend among monitor manufacturers to provide a single very low low-power level, and the need to standardize methods for measuring monitor on power, to more accurately estimate the annual energy consumption of office equipment, as well as actual and potential energy savings from power management

A supermolecular building layer approach for gas separation and storage applications: the eea and rtl MOF platforms for CO 2 capture and hydrocarbon separation

KAUST Repository

Chen, Zhijie

2015-02-11

The supermolecular building layer (SBL) approach was employed to deliberately synthesize five novel metal–organic frameworks (1–5) with an exposed array of amide or amine functionalities within their pore system. The ability to decorate the pores with nitrogen donor moieties offers potential to evaluate/elucidate the structure–adsorption property relationship. Two MOF platforms, eea-MOF and rtl-MOF, based on pillaring of kgm-a or sql-a layers with heterofunctional 3-connected organic building blocks were targeted and constructed to purposely introduce and expose the desired amide or amine functionalities. Interestingly, gas adsorption properties of eea-MOF-4 (1) and eea-MOF-5 (2) showed that by simply altering the nitrogen donor position within the ligand, it is possible to relatively reduce the pore size of the related eea-MOF material and subsequently increase the associated CO2 uptake. The slightly confined pore space in 2, relative to 1, has enabled an enhancement of the pore local charge density and thus the observed relative increase in the CO2 and H2 isosteric heat of adsorption (Qst). In addition, light hydrocarbon adsorption studies revealed that 2 is more selective toward C2H6 and C3H8 over CH4 than 1, as exemplified for C2H6 : CH4 (5 : 95) or C3H8 : CH4 (5 : 95) binary gas mixtures.

Battery Recharging Issue for a Two-Power-Level Flywheel System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Janaína Gonçalves de Oliveira

2010-01-01

Full Text Available A novel battery recharging system for an all-electric driveline comprising a flywheel with a permanent magnet double wound synchronous machine (motor/generator is presented. The double winding enables two voltage levels and two different power levels. This topology supersedes other all-electric drivelines. The battery operates in a low-power regime supplying the average power whereas the flywheel delivers and absorbs power peaks, which are up to a higher order of magnitude. The topology presents new challenges for the power conversion system, which is the focus of this investigation. The main challenge is the control of the power flow to the battery when the vehicle is parked despite the decay of the flywheel machine voltage; which is dependent on its charge state, that is, rotational speed. The design and simulation of an unidirectional DC/DC buck/boost converter for a variable rotational speed flywheel is presented. Conventional power electronic converters are used in a new application, which can maintain a constant current or voltage on the battery side. Successful PI current control has been implemented and simulated, together with the complete closed loop system.

A randomized trial of chest irradiation alone versus chest irradiation plus Lentinan in squamous cell lung cancer in limited stage

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kimura, Ikuro; Ohnoshi, Taisuke; Konno, Kiyoshi

1993-01-01

In an attempt to evaluate the effect of Lentinan, polysaccharides from Lentinusedodes, in combination with chest irradiation for limited-stage squamous cell lung cancer, we conducted a randomized trial between January 1987 and July 1989. Patients were randomly allocated to receive either a definitive chest irradiation of 60 Gy alone (RT) or the chest irradiation plus Lentinan (RT+L). Patients allocated to the RT+L group received iv infusion of Lentinan, 1 mg twice a week or 2 mg once a week, as long as possible. Of 201 patients enrolled, 183 (94 for RT, and 89 for RT+L) were eligible for analysis of survival time, and 169 (86 for RT, and 83 for RT+L) were evaluated for tumor response, survival time and quality of life. The response rate to the treatments showed a trend favoring the RT+L group (65% vs. 51%, p=0.142). The median survival time was 455 days for the RT+L group and 371 days for the RT group. The difference was not statistically significant. In the subset of patients with cancer of hilar origin, however, RT+L group patients lived significantly longer than RT group patients: Progression-free interval from symptoms and quality of life were evaluated for the both groups based on manual records of an individual patient. RT+L group patients had a significantly longer progression-free interval from dyspneic feeling than the RT group patients. The RT+L group tended to have a feeling of well-being. We conclude that Lentinan in combination with chest irradiation is useful for patients with limited-stage squamous cell lung cancer in terms of prolongation of life and maintenance of a favorable quality of life as well. (author)

Design of an optimal automatic regulator for regulating the power levels of a nuclear reactor in a wind power range

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Noori Khajavi, M.; Menhaj, M.B.; Ghofrani, M.B.

2000-01-01

Nuclear power reactors are, in nature nonlinear and time varying. These characteristics must be considered, if large power variations occur in their working regime. In this paper a robust optimal self-tuning regulator for regulating the power of a nuclear reactor has been designed and simulated. The proposed controller is capable of regulating power levels in a wide power range (10% to 100% power levels). The controller achieves a fast and good transient response. The simulation results show that the proposed controller outperforms the fixed optimal control recently cited in the literature for nuclear power plants

On-chip power-combining techniques for watt-level linear power amplifiers in 0.18 μm CMOS

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ren Zhixiong; Zhang Kefeng; Liu Lanqi; Li Cong; Chen Xiaofei; Liu Dongsheng; Liu Zhenglin; Zou Xuecheng

2015-01-01

Three linear CMOS power amplifiers (PAs) with high output power (more than watt-level output power) for high data-rate mobile applications are introduced. To realize watt-level output power, there are two 2.4 GHz PAs using an on-chip parallel combining transformer (PCT) and one 1.95 GHz PA using an on-chip series combining transformer (SCT) to combine output signals of multiple power stages. Furthermore, some linearization techniques including adaptive bias, diode linearizer, multi-gated transistors (MGTR) and the second harmonic control are applied in these PAs. Using the proposed power combiner, these three PAs are designed and fabricated in TSMC 0.18 μm RFCMOS process. According to the measurement results, the proposed two linear 2.4 GHz PAs achieve a gain of 33.2 dB and 34.3 dB, a maximum output power of 30.7 dBm and 29.4 dBm, with 29% and 31.3% of peak PAE, respectively. According to the simulation results, the presented linear 1.95 GHz PA achieves a gain of 37.5 dB, a maximum output power of 34.3 dBm with 36.3% of peak PAE. (paper)

A Note on Comparing the Power of Test Statistics at Low Significance Levels.

Science.gov (United States)

Morris, Nathan; Elston, Robert

2011-01-01

It is an obvious fact that the power of a test statistic is dependent upon the significance (alpha) level at which the test is performed. It is perhaps a less obvious fact that the relative performance of two statistics in terms of power is also a function of the alpha level. Through numerous personal discussions, we have noted that even some competent statisticians have the mistaken intuition that relative power comparisons at traditional levels such as α = 0.05 will be roughly similar to relative power comparisons at very low levels, such as the level α = 5 × 10 -8 , which is commonly used in genome-wide association studies. In this brief note, we demonstrate that this notion is in fact quite wrong, especially with respect to comparing tests with differing degrees of freedom. In fact, at very low alpha levels the cost of additional degrees of freedom is often comparatively low. Thus we recommend that statisticians exercise caution when interpreting the results of power comparison studies which use alpha levels that will not be used in practice.

Progress on z-pinch inertial fusion energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Olson, C.; Rochau, G.; Matzen, M.K.

2005-01-01

The goal of z-pinch inertial fusion energy (IFE) is to extend the single-shot z-pinch inertial confinement fusion (ICF) results on Z to a repetitive-shot z-pinch power plant concept for the economical production of electricity. Z produces up to 1.8 MJ of x-rays at powers as high as 230 TW. Recent target experiments on Z have demonstrated capsule implosion convergence ratios of 14-21 with a double-pinch driven target, and DD neutron yields up to 8x10exp10 with a dynamic hohlraum target. For z-pinch IFE, a power plant concept is discussed that uses high-yield IFE targets (3 GJ) with a low rep-rate per chamber (0.1 Hz). The concept includes a repetitive driver at 0.1 Hz, a Recyclable Transmission Line (RTL) to connect the driver to the target, high-yield targets, and a thick-liquid wall chamber. Recent funding by a U.S. Congressional initiative for $4M for FY04 is supporting research on RTLs, repetitive pulsed power drivers, shock mitigation, full RTL cycle planned experiments, high-yield IFE targets, and z-pinch power plant technologies. Recent results of research in all of these areas are discussed, and a Road Map for Z-Pinch IFE is presented. (author)

Evaluation of power commissioning of the Mochovce Unit 1 power level up to 100 % Nnom

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sarvaic, I.; Mickolci, M.

1998-01-01

The document contains an evaluation of the power phase of power commissioning of the Mochovce Unit 1 in the phase up to the power level of 100 % N nom .In the document, the courses and results of tests in this phase of power commissioning are summarized, evaluation of the performance of important systems and equipment of the unit is carried out, and the compliance with Limits and Conditions in the course of the phase is assessed. On this basis, conclusions are drawn and recommendations for the unit to be ready for subsequent phases of the power commissioning. The evaluation was developed by the scientific management of the Mochovce commissioning providing an independent support for the operators for supervising the commissioning tasks from the point of nuclear safety

Three-level grid-connected photovoltaic inverter with maximum power point tracking

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsang, K.M.; Chan, W.L.

2013-01-01

Highlight: ► This paper reports a novel 3-level grid connected photovoltaic inverter. ► The inverter features maximum power point tracking and grid current shaping. ► The inverter can be acted as an active filter and a renewable power source. - Abstract: This paper presents a systematic way of designing control scheme for a grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) inverter featuring maximum power point tracking (MPPT) and grid current shaping. Unlike conventional design, only four power switches are required to achieve three output levels and it is not necessary to use any phase-locked-loop circuitry. For the proposed scheme, a simple integral controller has been designed for the tracking of the maximum power point of a PV array based on an improved extremum seeking control method. For the grid-connected inverter, a current loop controller and a voltage loop controller have been designed. The current loop controller is designed to shape the inverter output current while the voltage loop controller can maintain the capacitor voltage at a certain level and provide a reference inverter output current for the PV inverter without affecting the maximum power point of the PV array. Experimental results are included to demonstrate the effectiveness of the tracking and control scheme.

Partial MHC/neuroantigen peptide constructs: a potential neuroimmune-based treatment for methamphetamine addiction.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jennifer M Loftis

Full Text Available Relapse rates following current methamphetamine abuse treatments are very high (∼40-60%, and the neuropsychiatric impairments (e.g., cognitive deficits, mood disorders that arise and persist during remission from methamphetamine addiction likely contribute to these high relapse rates. Pharmacotherapeutic development of medications to treat addiction has focused on neurotransmitter systems with only limited success, and there are no Food and Drug Administration approved pharmacotherapies for methamphetamine addiction. A growing literature shows that methamphetamine alters peripheral and central immune functions and that immune factors such as cytokines, chemokines, and adhesion molecules play a role in the development and persistence of methamphetamine induced neuronal injury and neuropsychiatric impairments. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a new immunotherapy, partial MHC/neuroantigen peptide construct (RTL551; pI-A(b/mMOG-35-55, in treating learning and memory impairments induced by repeated methamphetamine exposure. C57BL/6J mice were exposed to two different methamphetamine treatment regimens (using repeated doses of 4 mg/kg or 10 mg/kg, s.c.. Cognitive performance was assessed using the Morris water maze and CNS cytokine levels were measured by multiplex assay. Immunotherapy with RTL551 improved the memory impairments induced by repeated methamphetamine exposure in both mouse models of chronic methamphetamine addiction. Treatment with RTL551 also attenuated the methamphetamine induced increases in hypothalamic interleukin-2 (IL-2 levels. Collectively, these initial results indicate that neuroimmune targeted therapies, and specifically RTL551, may have potential as treatments for methamphetamine-induced neuropsychiatric impairments.

Evaluation of BWROG EPG level/power control strategy for Vermont Yankee

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chandola, V.; Robichaud, J.D.

1987-01-01

The current Boiling Water Reactor Owner's Group (BWROG) emergency procedure guidelines (EPGs) direct reactor operators to manually lower the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) water level to the top of active fuel (TAF) during an anticipated transient without scram (ATWS) event. Lowering the water level reduces the core inlet flow, thereby reducing core power. However, reducing water level is contrary to current operator training, which requires that normal RPV water level be maintained to assure core cooling. In addition, the indicated water level near TAF using cold calibrated level instrumentation may not be reliable, which could potentially result in uncovering the core. This paper evaluates the EPGs' level/power control strategy for the Vermont Yankee plant and proposes alternative to the BWROG guidelines as applied to ATWS response

Watt-level wireless power transmission to multiple compact receivers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Garraud, A; Munzer, D J; Althar, M; Garraud, N; Arnold, D P

2015-01-01

This paper reports an electrodynamic wireless power transmission (EWPT) system using a low-frequency (300 Hz) magnetic field to transmit watt-scale power levels to multiple compact receivers. As compared to inductively or resonantly coupled coils, EWPT facilitates transmission to multiple non-interacting receivers with little restriction on their orientation. A single 3.0 cm 3 receiver achieves 1.25 W power transmission with 8% efficiency at a distance of 1 cm (350 mW/cm 3 power density) from the transmitter. The same prototype achieves 9 mW at a distance of 9 cm. Moreover, we demonstrate simultaneous recharge of two wearable devices, using two receivers located in arbitrary positions and orientations. (paper)

HoneyComb: An Application-Driven Online Adaptive Reconfigurable Hardware Architecture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexander Thomas

2012-01-01

Full Text Available Since the introduction of the first reconfigurable devices in 1985 the field of reconfigurable computing developed a broad variety of architectures from fine-grained to coarse-grained types. However, the main disadvantages of the reconfigurable approaches, the costs in area, and power consumption, are still present. This contribution presents a solution for application-driven adaptation of our reconfigurable architecture at register transfer level (RTL to reduce the resource requirements and power consumption while keeping the flexibility and performance for a predefined set of applications. Furthermore, implemented runtime adaptive features like online routing and configuration sequencing will be presented and discussed. A presentation of the prototype chip of this architecture designed in 90 nm standard cell technology manufactured by TSMC will conclude this contribution.

Telomere length shortening is associated with treatment-free remission in chronic myeloid leukemia patients

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giovanni Caocci

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract We studied telomere length in 32 CML patients who discontinued imatinib after achieving complete molecular remission and 32 age-sex-matched controls. The relative telomere length (RTL was determined by q-PCR as the telomere to single copy gene (36B4 ratio normalized to a reference sample (K-562 DNA. Age-corrected RTL (acRTL was also obtained. The 36-month probability of treatment-free remission (TFR was 59.4 %. TFR patients showed shorter acRTL compared to relapsed (mean ± SD = 0.01 ± 0.14 vs 0.20 ± 0.21; p = 0.01. TFR was significantly higher in CML patients with acRTL ≤0.09 (78.9 vs 30.8 %, p = 0.002. CML stem cells harboring longer telomeres possibly maintain a proliferative potential after treatment discontinuation.

Some heterocyclic aromatic compounds are Ah receptor agonists in the DR-CALUX assay and the EROD assay with RTL-W1 cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Hinger, Gunnar; Brinkmann, Markus; Bluhm, Kerstin; Sagner, Anne; Takner, Helena; Eisenträger, Adolf; Braunbeck, Thomas; Engwall, Magnus; Tiehm, Andreas; Hollert, Henner

2011-09-01

Heterocyclic aromatic compounds containing nitrogen, sulfur, or oxygen heteroatoms (NSO-HET) have been detected in air, soil, marine, and freshwater systems. However, only few publications are available investigating NSO-HET using in vitro bioassays. To support better characterization of environmental samples, selected NSO-HET were screened for dioxin-like activity in two bioassays. The present study focuses on the identification and quantification of dioxin-like effects of 12 NSO-HET using the DR-CALUX assay, and the 7-ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) assay with the permanent fish liver cell line RTL-W1. Changes of the total medium compound concentrations during the test procedure due to, e.g., sorption or volatilization were quantified using GC/MS. The NSO-HET benzofuran, 2,3-dimethylbenzofuran, dibenzofuran, dibenzothiophen, acridine, xanthene, and carbazole caused a response in the DR-CALUX assay. Only benzofuran and 2,3-dimethylbenzofuran were also positive in the EROD assay. All other compounds were inactive in the EROD assay. Relative potency (REP) values ranged from (2.80 ± 1.32) · 10(-8) to (3.26 ± 2.03) · 10(-6) in the DR-CALUX and from (3.26 ± 0.91) · 10(-7) to (4.87 ± 1.97) · 10(-7) in the EROD assay. The REP values were comparable to those of larger polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, e.g., fluoranthene and pyrene. Thus, and because of the ubiquitous distribution of heterocyclic aromatic compounds in the environment, the provided data will further facilitate the bioanalytical and analytical characterization of environmental samples towards these toxicants.

Neural Network with Local Memory for Nuclear Reactor Power Level Control

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Uluyol, Oender; Ragheb, Magdi; Tsoukalas, Lefteri

2001-01-01

A methodology is introduced for a neural network with local memory called a multilayered local output gamma feedback (LOGF) neural network within the paradigm of locally-recurrent globally-feedforward neural networks. It appears to be well-suited for the identification, prediction, and control tasks in highly dynamic systems; it allows for the presentation of different timescales through incorporation of a gamma memory. A learning algorithm based on the backpropagation-through-time approach is derived. The spatial and temporal weights of the network are iteratively optimized for a given problem using the derived learning algorithm. As a demonstration of the methodology, it is applied to the task of power level control of a nuclear reactor at different fuel cycle conditions. The results demonstrate that the LOGF neural network controller outperforms the classical as well as the state feedback-assisted classical controllers for reactor power level control by showing a better tracking of the demand power, improving the fuel and exit temperature responses, and by performing robustly in different fuel cycle and power level conditions

System-level Reliability Assessment of Power Stage in Fuel Cell Application

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhou, Dao; Wang, Huai; Blaabjerg, Frede

2016-01-01

reliability. In a case study of a 5 kW fuel cell power stage, the parameter variations of the lifetime model prove that the exponential factor of the junction temperature fluctuation is the most sensitive parameter. Besides, if a 5-out-of-6 redundancy is used, it is concluded both the B10 and the B1 system......High efficient and less pollutant fuel cell stacks are emerging and strong candidates of the power solution used for mobile base stations. In the application of the backup power, the availability and reliability hold the highest priority. This paper considers the reliability metrics from...... the component-level to the system-level for the power stage used in a fuel cell application. It starts with an estimation of the annual accumulated damage for the key power electronic components according to the real mission profile of the fuel cell system. Then, considering the parameter variations in both...

Four-level time decomposition quasi-static power flow and successive disturbances analysis. [Power system disturbances

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jovanovic, S M [Nikola Tesla Inst., Belgrade (YU)

1990-01-01

This paper presents a model and an appropriate numerical procedure for a four-level time decomposition quasi-static power flow and successive disturbances analysis of power systems. The analysis consists of the sequential computation of the zero, primary, secondary and tertiary quasi-static states and of the estimation of successive structural disturbances during the 1200 s dynamics after a structural disturbance. The model is developed by detailed inspection of the time decomposition characteristics of automatic protection and control devices. Adequate speed of the numerical procedure is attained by a specific application of the inversion matrix lemma and the decoupled model constant coefficient matrices. The four-level time decomposition quasi-static method is intended for security and emergency analysis. (author).

Ultrasonic level and temperature sensor for power reactor applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dress, W.B.; Miller, G.N.

1983-01-01

An ultrasonic waveguide employing torsional and extensional acoustic waves has been developed for use as a level and temperature sensor in pressurized and boiling water nuclear power reactors. Features of the device include continuous measurement of level, density, and temperature producing a real-time profile of these parameters along a chosen path through the reactor vessel

Blue and red thermoluminescence of natural quartz in the temperature region from -196 to 400deg. C

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hashimoto, Tetsuo; Yanagawa, Yuji; Yawata, Takashi

2007-01-01

Quartz samples of three different origins were γ-irradiated with 20kGy at room temperature or at the temperature of liquid nitrogen (-196 deg. C), and analyzed by on-line TL-emission spectrometry over two temperature ranges: above 200deg. C (high-temperature region) and -196 to 200deg. C (low-temperature region). The emission spectra in the high-temperature region could be separated into intense blue TL (BTL) or red TL (RTL) properties. All quartz samples displayed more or less both properties of BTL and RTL in the low temperature region, shifting the BTL-emission spectra towards violet. Particularly, volcanically originated quartz (RTL, Medeshima) showed highly complex BTL and RTL peaks in the low-temperature region, and a stronger simple RTL peak in the high temperature. These complex glow-curve peaks are considered to reflect the presence of many crystal defects and much content of impurities in the volcanically formed quartz. In the glow-curve measurements, Brazilian quartz (quartz-vein origin) gave weak RTL and intense BTL in the low-temperature range, followed by faint emission of BTL in the high-temperature side. On the other hand, the radiation-induced colored (CC) part of a Madagascan crystal rock slice (hydrothermal origin) showed intense BTL together with slight RTL in the low temperatures, followed by strong BTL and appreciable strength of RTL in the high temperatures. The BTL-emission pattern (TL-color image) of a Madagascan slice showed a complementary relationship between irradiations at liquid-nitrogen temperature and at room temperature. To explain these radiation-induced phenomena from quartz, hydrogen radicals and Li + ions, derived from radiolysis products of OH-related impurities, could operate to eliminate the BTL centers by recombination below the room temperature

Design of FPGA Based Neural Network Controller for Earth Station Power System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hassen T. Dorrah

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Automation of generating hardware description language code from neural networks models can highly decrease time of implementation those networks into a digital devices, thus significant money savings. To implement the neural network into hardware designer, it is required to translate generated model into device structure. VHDL language is used to describe those networks into hardware. VHDL code has been proposed to implement ANNs as well as to present simulation results with floating point arithmetic of the earth station and the satellite power systems using ModelSim PE 6.6 simulator tool. Integration between MATLAB and VHDL is used to save execution time of computation. The results shows that a good agreement between MATLAB and VHDL and a fast/flexible feed forward NN which is capable of dealing with floating point arithmetic operations; minimum number of CLB slices; and good speed of performance. FPGA synthesis results are obtained with view RTL schematic and technology schematic from Xilinix tool. Minimum number of utilized resources is obtained by using Xilinix VERTIX5.

ACCOUNTING OF REACTIVE POWER COMPENSATION LEVEL AT PAYMENT CALCULATION OF TECHNOLOGICAL CONSUMPTION (LOSSES OF ELECTRIC POWER FOR ITS TRANSMISSION IN POWER NETWORK

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. P. Zabello

2005-01-01

Full Text Available The method is proposed to make a correction in payment for consumption of reactive energy and power which is attributed to deviation of actual activation energy losses for reactive power compensation from their standard value. It is recommended to calculate standard loss values for every voltage level and actual loss values are to be determined with the help of application of remote electronic accounting means in the current mode of power consumption.

Gamma radiation induced sensitization and photo-transfer in Mg2SiO4:Tb TLD phosphor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lakshmanan, A.R.; Vohra, K.G.

1979-01-01

Mg 2 SiO 4 :Tb TLD phosphor was found to show enhanced TL sensitivity to both gamma and UV radiations after high pre-gamma exposures (>100 R) and a post-annealing treatment at 300 0 C for 1 h. Maximum sensitization factors of 2.8 and 55 were obtained at the pre-expsoure levels of 5.2x10 1 C/kg and 1.3x10 3 C/kg for gamma and UV test radiations respectively. The near constancy of the intensity of the residual TL (RTL) peak at 500 0 C for the sensitized sample with increasing test-gamma exposures has ruled out the re-trapping model proposed earlier for the gamma radiation induced sensitization in this phosphor. The Tsub(max) for the sensitized phosphor was found to occur at a higher temperature compared to that for the virgin phosphor. The dependence of sensitization on RTL was explained qualitatively on the basis of competition between sensitization traps (having higher energy than the dosimetry traps) and RTL traps while capturing the charge carriers generated during the test-gamma exposure. The sensitization observed in this phosphor to UV test radiation was found to be a consequence of the photo-transfer of charge carriers from deep (RTL) traps to the shallow (dosimetry) traps. The reduction in RTL peak (500 0 C) intensity of the sensitized sample with increasing test-UV exposure has demonstrated the photo-transfer mechanism in this phosphor. The TL response of the virgin Mg 2 SiO 4 :Tb phosphor was found to be supralinear to both gamma and UV radiations. The TL response of the sensitized phosphor was found to be linear to gamma radiation and sublinear to UV radiation. (Auth.)

A high-level power model for MPSoC on FPGA

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Piscitelli, R.; Pimentel, A.D.

2011-01-01

This paper presents a framework for high-level power estimation of multiprocessor systems-on-chip (MPSoC) architectures on FPGA. The technique is based on abstract execution profiles, called event signatures, and it operates at a higher level of abstraction than, e.g., commonly-used instruction-set

Thermal analysis of multi-MW two-level wind power converter

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhou, Dao; Blaabjerg, Frede; Mogens, Lau

2012-01-01

In this paper, the multi-MW wind turbine of partial-scale and full-scale two-level power converter with DFIG and direct-drive PMSG are designed and compared in terms of their thermal performance. Simulations of different configurations regarding loss distribution and junction temperature...... in the power device in the whole range of wind speed are presented and analyzed. It is concluded that in both partial-scale and full-scale power converter the most thermal stressed power device in the generator-side converter will have higher mean junction temperature and larger junction temperature...... fluctuation compared to grid-side converter at the rated wind speed. Moreover, the thermal performance of the generator-side converter in the partial-scale power converter becomes crucial around the synchronous operating point and should be considered carefully....

Seismic fragility levels of nuclear power plant equipment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bandyopadhyay, K.K.; Hofmayer, C.H.

1987-01-01

Seismic fragility levels of safety-related electrical and mechanical equipment used in nuclear power plants are discussed. The fragility level is defined as the vibration level corresponding to initiation of equipment malfunctions. The test response spectrum is used as a measure of this vibration level. The fragility phenomenon of an equipment is represented by a number of response spectra corresponding to various failure modes. Analysis methods are described for determination of the fragility level by use of existing test data. Useful conversion factors are tabulated to transform test response spectra from one damping value to another. Results are presented for switch-gears and motor control centers. The capacity levels of these equipment assemblies are observed to be limited by malfunctioning of contactors, motor starters, relays and/or switches. The applicability of the fragility levels, determined in terms of test response spectra, to Seismic Margin Studies and Probabilistic Risk Assessments is discussed and specific recommendations are provided

Technical impacts of high penetration levels of wind power on power system stability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Flynn, Damian; Rather, Z.; Ardal, Atle

2017-01-01

With increasing penetrations of wind generation, based on power-electronic converters, power systems are transitioning away from well-understood synchronous generator-based systems, with growing implications for their stability. Issues of concern will vary with system size, wind penetration level......, geographical distribution and turbine type, network topology, electricity market structure, unit commitment procedures, and other factors. However, variable-speed wind turbines, both onshore and connected offshore through DC grids, offer many control opportunities to either replace or enhance existing...... capabilities. Achieving a complete understanding of future stability issues, and ensuring the effectiveness of new measures and policies, is an iterative procedure involving portfolio development and flexibility assessment, generation cost simulations, load flow, and security analysis, in addition...

User instructions for levelized power generation cost codes using an IBM-type PC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Coen, J.J.; Delene, J.G.

1989-01-01

Programs for the calculation of levelized power generation costs using an IBM or compatible PC are described. Cost calculations for nuclear plants and coal-fired plants include capital investment cost, operation and maintenance cost, fuel cycle cost, decommissioning cost, and total levelized power generation cost. 7 refs., 36 figs., 4 tabs

Radio frequency plasma nitriding of aluminium at higher power levels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gredelj, Sabina; Kumar, Sunil; Gerson, Andrea R.; Cavallaro, Giuseppe P.

2006-01-01

Nitriding of aluminium 2011 using a radio frequency plasma at higher power levels (500 and 700 W) and lower substrate temperature (500 deg. C) resulted in higher AlN/Al 2 O 3 ratios than obtained at 100 W and 575 deg. C. AlN/Al 2 O 3 ratios derived from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic analysis (and corroborated by heavy ion elastic recoil time of flight spectrometry) for treatments preformed at 100 (575 deg. C), 500 (500 deg. C) and 700 W (500 deg. C) were 1.0, 1.5 and 3.3, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that plasma nitrided surfaces obtained at higher power levels exhibited much finer nodular morphology than obtained at 100 W

Multiple external hazards compound level 3 PSA methods research of nuclear power plant

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Handing; Liang, Xiaoyu; Zhang, Xiaoming; Yang, Jianfeng; Liu, Weidong; Lei, Dina

2017-01-01

2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant severe accident was caused by both earthquake and tsunami, which results in large amount of radioactive nuclides release. That accident has caused the radioactive contamination on the surrounding environment. Although this accident probability is extremely small, once such an accident happens that is likely to release a lot of radioactive materials into the environment, and cause radiation contamination. Therefore, studying accidents consequences is important and essential to improve nuclear power plant design and management. Level 3 PSA methods of nuclear power plant can be used to analyze radiological consequences, and quantify risk to the public health effects around nuclear power plants. Based on multiple external hazards compound level 3 PSA methods studies of nuclear power plant, and the description of the multiple external hazards compound level 3 PSA technology roadmap and important technical elements, as well as taking a coastal nuclear power plant as the reference site, we analyzed the impact of off-site consequences of nuclear power plant severe accidents caused by multiple external hazards. At last we discussed the impact of off-site consequences probabilistic risk studies and its applications under multiple external hazards compound conditions, and explained feasibility and reasonableness of emergency plans implementation.

A Security Level Classification Method for Power Systems under N-1 Contingency

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhigang Lu

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Security assessment is crucial for the reliable and secure operation of power systems. This paper proposes a security level classification (SLC method to analyze the security level of power systems both qualitatively and quantitatively. In this SLC method, security levels are graded according to a comprehensive safety index (CSI, which is defined by integrating the system margin index (SMI and load entropy. The SMI depends on the operating load and the total supply capacity (TSC under N-1 contingency, and the load entropy reflects the heterogeneity of load distribution calculated from entropy theory. In order to calculate the TSC under N-1 contingency considering both of the computational accuracy and speed, the TSC is converted into an extended conic quadratic programming (ECQP model. In addition, the load boundary vector (LBV model is established to obtain the capacity limit of each load bus, and thus detect potential risks of power systems. Finally, two modified practical power systems and the IEEE 118-bus test system are studied to validate the feasibility of the proposed SLC method.

Relative efficiency of the radiothermoluminescence induced by 238Pu alpha-particles in LiF:Mg, Al2O3 and CaSO4:Dy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vicy, Masok.

1978-01-01

This work represents a comparative study of the radiothermoluminescence (R.T.L.) induced by 60 Co gamma rays and 238 Pu alpha-particles in three R.T.L. materials: lithium fluoride, alumina and dysprosium activated calcium sulphate. The T.L. glow curves induced by the two radiations are very similar. However, for the same absorbed dose, different sensitivity is seen to each form of irradiation. Measurements of the relative R.T.L. efficiency, epsilon, were made in the linear zone (dose [fr

Admissibility of building cost subsidy in the power grid above the low voltage level

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Foerster, Sven

2015-01-01

Electricity networks are essential to the provision of electrical power to businesses and individuals. In particular for manufacturing businesses a connection to the grid above the low-voltage level is often useful. Network operators demand a subsidy for the new connection and for the change to a higher network level under the auspices of construction cost. The power network market above the low-voltage level is a natural monopoly. This leaves consumers looking for a connection to the power grid with no possibility to select among different network operators. Construction cost subsidies are not regulated by law above the low voltage level. The lack of legal regulation and the natural monopoly above the low-voltage level affect the balance of power between network operators and system users. The lawfulness of the construction cost subsidies, the prerequisites for their demand and a review of the calculation models (Leistungspreismodell, 2-Ebenen-Modell) as well as a proposal for a reform of this system form the subject of this work.

Effects of lignocellulosic composition and microwave power level on the gaseous product of microwave pyrolysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huang, Yu-Fong; Chiueh, Pei-Te; Kuan, Wen-Hui; Lo, Shang-Lien

2015-01-01

Agricultural residues are abundant resources to produce renewable energy and valuable chemicals. This study focused on the effects of lignocellulosic composition and microwave power level on the gaseous product of microwave pyrolysis of agricultural residues. When agricultural residues were under microwave radiation within 10 min, the maximum temperatures of approximately 320, 420, and 530 °C were achieved at the microwave power levels of 300, 400, and 500 W, respectively. Gas yield increased with increasing microwave power level, whereas solid and liquid yields decreased. Besides, gaseous products with higher H 2 content and higher calorific values can be obtained at higher microwave power levels. In addition to microwave power level, lignocellulosic composition was also an important factor. H 2 and CO 2 yields increased with increasing hemicellulose content, whereas CH 4 and CO yields increased with increasing cellulose content. Four empirical equations were derived to present the contributions of lignocellulosic materials to the yields of gaseous components. - Highlights: • About 530 °C was reached within 10 min at a microwave power level of 500 W. • Gas yield increased with increasing microwave power level. • A high correlation between hemicellulose content and either H 2 or CO 2 yield. • A high correlation between cellulose content and either CH 4 or CO yield. • Empirical equations depict contribution of lignocellulosic content to gas yield

User's manual for levelized power generation cost using a microcomputer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fuller, L.C.

1984-08-01

Microcomputer programs for the estimation of levelized electrical power generation costs are described. Procedures for light-water reactor plants and coal-fired plants include capital investment cost, operation and maintenance cost, fuel cycle cost, nuclear decommissioning cost, and levelized total generation cost. Programs are written in Pascal and are run on an Apple II Plus microcomputer

Exposure to runoff from coal-tar-sealed pavement induces genotoxicity and impairment of DNA repair capacity in the RTL-W1 fish liver cell line

Science.gov (United States)

Kienzler, Aude; Mahler, Barbara J.; Van Metre, Peter C.; Schweigert, Nathalie; Devaux, Alain; Bony, Sylvie

2015-01-01

Coal-tar-based (CTB) sealcoat, frequently applied to parking lots and driveways in North America, contains elevated concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and related compounds. The RTL-W1 fish liver cell line was used to investigate two endpoints (genotoxicity and DNA-repair-capacity impairment) associated with exposure to runoff from asphalt pavement with CTB sealcoat or with an asphalt-based sealcoat hypothesized to contain about 7% CTB sealcoat (AS-blend). Genotoxic potential was assessed by the Formamido pyrimidine glycosylase (Fpg)-modified comet assay for 1:10 and 1:100 dilutions of runoff samples collected from 5 h to 36 d following sealcoat application. DNA-repair capacity was assessed by the base excision repair comet assay for 1:10 dilution of samples collected 26 h and 36 d following application. Both assays were run with and without co-exposure to ultraviolet-A radiation (UVA). With co-exposure to UVA, genotoxic effects were significant for both dilutions of CTB runoff for three of four sample times, and for some samples of AS-blend runoff. Base excision repair was significantly impaired for CTB runoff both with and without UVA exposure, and for AS-blend runoff only in the absence of UVA. This study is the first to investigate the effects of exposure to the complex mixture of chemicals in coal tar on DNA repair capacity. The results indicate that co-exposure to runoff from CT-sealcoated pavement and UVA as much as a month after sealcoat application has the potential to cause genotoxicity and impair DNA repair capacity.

Steady-State Plant Model to Predict Hydroden Levels in Power Plant Components

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Glatzmaier, Greg C.; Cable, Robert; Newmarker, Marc

2017-06-27

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Acciona Energy North America developed a full-plant steady-state computational model that estimates levels of hydrogen in parabolic trough power plant components. The model estimated dissolved hydrogen concentrations in the circulating heat transfer fluid (HTF), and corresponding partial pressures within each component. Additionally for collector field receivers, the model estimated hydrogen pressure in the receiver annuli. The model was developed to estimate long-term equilibrium hydrogen levels in power plant components, and to predict the benefit of hydrogen mitigation strategies for commercial power plants. Specifically, the model predicted reductions in hydrogen levels within the circulating HTF that result from purging hydrogen from the power plant expansion tanks at a specified target rate. Our model predicted hydrogen partial pressures from 8.3 mbar to 9.6 mbar in the power plant components when no mitigation treatment was employed at the expansion tanks. Hydrogen pressures in the receiver annuli were 8.3 to 8.4 mbar. When hydrogen partial pressure was reduced to 0.001 mbar in the expansion tanks, hydrogen pressures in the receiver annuli fell to a range of 0.001 mbar to 0.02 mbar. When hydrogen partial pressure was reduced to 0.3 mbar in the expansion tanks, hydrogen pressures in the receiver annuli fell to a range of 0.25 mbar to 0.28 mbar. Our results show that controlling hydrogen partial pressure in the expansion tanks allows us to reduce and maintain hydrogen pressures in the receiver annuli to any practical level.

Theoretical parameter histories of dynamic tests during power commissioning of Mochovce units power level up to 100 % Nnom

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jagrik, J.; Mraz, M.; Rapant, M.; Stefanovic, P.; Kotasek, J.; Gieci, A.; Macko, J.; Mosny, J.

1998-01-01

Theoretical histories of selected parameters for dynamic tests carried out in the course of power commissioning of the Mochovce Unit 1 at the power level 100% N nom are shown in the report. The expected histories given were developed based on calculations performed by means of simulator in Nuclear Power Plants Research Institute Trnava, Inc., simulator in EGU Praha and simulator at the Mochovce plant, as well as based on similar tests at both Bohunice and Dukovany plants

Building America Case Study: Photovoltaic Systems with Module-Level Power Electronics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2015-09-01

Direct current (DC) power optimizers and microinverters (together known as module-level power electronics, or MLPE) are one of the fastest growing market segments in the solar industry. According to GTM Research in The Global PV Inverter Landscape 2015, over 55% of all residential photovoltaic (PV) installations in the United States used some form of MLPE in 2014.

Core design experience of WWER-440 reactors when they working on increased power level

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adeev, V.; Panov, A.; Melenchuk, I.

2015-01-01

The Kola NPP continues commercial operation of 2nd generation fuel (FA-2) and trial operation of 3rd generation fuel (FA-3), which has a number of design features providing the best operational characteristics. This report gives the results of VVER-440 core operation with FA-2 and FA-3 with enrichment increased up to 4.87%, and at the power level uprated to 107% of nominal power level. Brief analysis of obtained data is carried out. Peculiarities and techniques of developing loading patterns with new types of nuclear fuel for operation at the uprated power level are reviewed. (authors)

Output feedback dissipation control for the power-level of modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dong, Z.

2011-01-01

Because of its strong inherent safety features and the high outlet temperature, the modular high temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactor (MHTGR) is the chosen technology for a new generation of nuclear power plants. Such power plants are being considered for industrial applications with a wide range of power levels, thus power-level regulation is very important for their efficient and stable operation. Exploiting the large scale asymptotic closed-loop stability provided by nonlinear controllers, a nonlinear power-level regulator is presented in this paper that is based upon both the techniques of feedback dissipation and well-established backstepping. The virtue of this control strategy, i.e., the ability of globally asymptotic stabilization, is that it takes advantage of the inherent zero-state detectability property of the MHTGR dynamics. Moreover, this newly built power-level regulator is also robust towards modeling uncertainty in the control rod dynamics. If modeling uncertainty of the control rod dynamics is small enough to be omitted, then this control law can be simplified to a classical proportional feedback controller. The comparison of the control performance between the newly-built power controller and the simplified controller is also given through numerical study and theoretical analysis. (author)

Deadbeat control of power leveling unit with bidirectional buck/boost DC/DC converter

OpenAIRE

Hamasaki, Shin-ichi; Mukai, Ryosuke; Yano, Yoshihiro; Tsuji, Mineo

2014-01-01

As a distributed generation system increases, a stable power supply becomes difficult. Thus control of power leveling (PL) unit is required to maintain the balance of power flow for irregular power generation. The unit is required to respond to change of voltage and bidirectional power flow. So the bidirectional buck/boost DC/DC converter is applied for the control of PL unit in this research. The PL unit with Electric double-layer capacitor (EDLC) is able to absorb change of power, and it is...

A Transformer-less Partial Power Boost Converter for PV Applications Using a Three-Level Switching Cell

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Agamy, Mohammed; Harfman-Todorovic, Maja; Elasser, Ahmed; Essakiappan, Somasundaram

2013-03-01

Photovoltaic architectures with distributed power electronics provide many advantages in terms of energy yield as well as system level optimization. As the power level of the solar farm increases it becomes more beneficial to increase the dc collection network voltage, which requires the use of power devices with higher voltage ratings, and thus making the design of efficient, low cost, distributed power converters more challenging. In this paper a simple partial power converter topology is proposed. The topology is implemented using a three-level switching cell, which allows the use of semiconductor devices with lower voltage rating; thus improving design and performance and reducing converter cost. This makes the converters suitable for use for medium to high power applications where dc-link voltages of 600V~1kV may be needed without the need for high voltage devices. Converter operation and experimental results are presented for two partial power circuit variants using three-level switching cells.

Energy Use and Power Levels in New Monitors and Personal Computers; TOPICAL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roberson, Judy A.; Homan, Gregory K.; Mahajan, Akshay; Nordman, Bruce; Webber, Carrie A.; Brown, Richard E.; McWhinney, Marla; Koomey, Jonathan G.

2002-01-01

Our research was conducted in support of the EPA ENERGY STAR Office Equipment program, whose goal is to reduce the amount of electricity consumed by office equipment in the U.S. The most energy-efficient models in each office equipment category are eligible for the ENERGY STAR label, which consumers can use to identify and select efficient products. As the efficiency of each category improves over time, the ENERGY STAR criteria need to be revised accordingly. The purpose of this study was to provide reliable data on the energy consumption of the newest personal computers and monitors that the EPA can use to evaluate revisions to current ENERGY STAR criteria as well as to improve the accuracy of ENERGY STAR program savings estimates. We report the results of measuring the power consumption and power management capabilities of a sample of new monitors and computers. These results will be used to improve estimates of program energy savings and carbon emission reductions, and to inform rev isions of the ENERGY STAR criteria for these products. Our sample consists of 35 monitors and 26 computers manufactured between July 2000 and October 2001; it includes cathode ray tube (CRT) and liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors, Macintosh and Intel-architecture computers, desktop and laptop computers, and integrated computer systems, in which power consumption of the computer and monitor cannot be measured separately. For each machine we measured power consumption when off, on, and in each low-power level. We identify trends in and opportunities to reduce power consumption in new personal computers and monitors. Our results include a trend among monitor manufacturers to provide a single very low low-power level, well below the current ENERGY STAR criteria for sleep power consumption. These very low sleep power results mean that energy consumed when monitors are off or in active use has become more important in terms of contribution to the overall unit energy consumption (UEC

Photovoltaic Shading Testbed for Module-Level Power Electronics: 2016 Performance Data Update

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Deline, Chris [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Meydbray, Jenya [PV Evolution Labs (PVEL), Davis, CA (United States); Donovan, Matt [PV Evolution Labs (PVEL), Davis, CA (United States)

2016-09-01

The 2012 NREL report 'Photovoltaic Shading Testbed for Module-Level Power Electronics' provides a standard methodology for estimating the performance benefit of distributed power electronics under partial shading conditions. Since the release of the report, experiments have been conducted for a number of products and for different system configurations. Drawing from these experiences, updates to the test and analysis methods are recommended. Proposed changes in data processing have the benefit of reducing the sensitivity to measurement errors and weather variability, as well as bringing the updated performance score in line with measured and simulated values of the shade recovery benefit of distributed PV power electronics. Also, due to the emergence of new technologies including sub-module embedded power electronics, the shading method has been extended to include power electronics that operate at a finer granularity than the module level. An update to the method is proposed to account for these emerging technologies that respond to shading differently than module-level devices. The partial shading test remains a repeatable test procedure that attempts to simulate shading situations as would be experienced by typical residential or commercial rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems. Performance data for multiple products tested using this method are discussed, based on equipment from Enphase, Solar Edge, Maxim Integrated and SMA. In general, the annual recovery of shading losses from the module-level electronics evaluated is 25-35%, with the major difference between different trials being related to the number of parallel strings in the test installation rather than differences between the equipment tested. Appendix D data has been added in this update.

Disentangling Bargaining Power from Individual and Household Level to Institutions: Evidence on Women’s Position in Ethiopia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

I.P. van Staveren (Irene); R. Mabsout (Ramzi)

2010-01-01

textabstractSUMMARY Women's bargaining power is generally analyzed only with individual level and household level variables. We add a third level, namely institutional bargaining power. We define this as bargaining power which one party freely derives from unequal social norms. In the bargaining

Nonlinear Power-Level Control of the MHTGR Only with the Feedback Loop of Helium Temperature

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhe Dong

2013-02-01

Full Text Available Power-level control is a crucial technique for the safe, stable and efficient operation of modular high temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactors (MHTGRs, which have strong inherent safety features and high outlet temperatures. The current power-level controllers of the MHTGRs need measurements of both the nuclear power and the helium temperature, which cannot provide satisfactory control performance and can even induce large oscillations when the neutron sensors are in error. In order to improve the fault tolerance of the control system, it is important to develop a power-level control strategy that only requires the helium temperature. The basis for developing this kind of control law is to give a state-observer of the MHTGR a relationship that only needs the measurement of helium temperature. With this in mind, a novel nonlinear state observer which only needs the measurement of helium temperature is proposed. This observer is globally convergent if there is no disturbance, and has the L2 disturbance attenuation performance if the disturbance is nonzero. The separation principle of this observer is also proven, which denotes that this observer can recover the performance of both globally asymptotic stabilizers and L2 disturbance attenuators. Then, a new dynamic output feedback power-level control strategy is established, which is composed of this observer and the well-built static state-feedback power-level control based upon iterative dissipation assignment (IDA-PLC. Finally, numerical simulation results show the high performance and feasibility of this newly-built dynamic output feedback power-level controller.

User's manual for levelized power generation cost using an IBM PC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fuller, L.C.

1985-06-01

Programs for the estimation of levelized electric power generation costs using the BASIC interpreter on an IBM PC are described. Procedures for light-water reactor plants and coal-fired plants include capital investment cost, operation and maintenance cost, fuel cycle cost, nuclear decommissioning cost, and levelized total generation cost

Multi-Level Risk Assessment of a Power Plant Gas Turbine Applying ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Multi-Level Risk Assessment of a Power Plant Gas Turbine Applying the Criticality Index Model. ... Journal of the Nigerian Association of Mathematical Physics ... This study has carefully shown and expressed a step by step computation of the severity level of the Turbine component parts, using the Criticality Index model.

A high level implementation and performance evaluation of level-I asynchronous cache on FPGA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mansi Jhamb

2017-07-01

Full Text Available To bridge the ever-increasing performance gap between the processor and the main memory in a cost-effective manner, novel cache designs and implementations are indispensable. Cache is responsible for a major part of energy consumption (approx. 50% of processors. This paper presents a high level implementation of a micropipelined asynchronous architecture of L1 cache. Due to the fact that each cache memory implementation is time consuming and error-prone process, a synthesizable and a configurable model proves out to be of immense help as it aids in generating a range of caches in a reproducible and quick fashion. The micropipelined cache, implemented using C-Elements acts as a distributed message-passing system. The RTL cache model implemented in this paper, comprising of data and instruction caches has a wide array of configurable parameters. In addition to timing robustness our implementation has high average cache throughput and low latency. The implemented architecture comprises of two direct-mapped, write-through caches for data and instruction. The architecture is implemented in a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA chip using Very High Speed Integrated Circuit Hardware Description Language (VHSIC HDL along with advanced synthesis and place-and-route tools.

Fuzzy algorithms to generate level controllers for nuclear power plant steam generators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moon, Byung Soo; Park, Jae Chang; Kim, Dong Hwa; Kim, Byung Koo

1993-01-01

In this paper, we present two sets of fuzzy algorithms for the steam generater level control; one for the high power operations where the flow error is available and the other for the low power operations where the flow error is not available. These are converted to a PID type controller for the high power case and to a quadratic function form of a controller for the low power case. These controllers are implemented on the Compact Nuclear Simulator at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute and tested by a set of four simulation experiments for each. For both cases, the results show that the total variation of the level error and of the flow error are about 50% of those by the PI controllers with about one half of the control action. For the high power case, this is mainly due to the fact that a combination of two PD type controllers in the velocity algorithm form rather than a combination of two PI type controllers in the position algorithm form is used. For the low power case, the controller is essentially a PID type with a very small integral component where the average values for the derivative component input and for the controller output are used. (Author)

Output Feedback Dissipation Control for the Power-Level of Modular High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhe Dong

2011-11-01

Full Text Available Because of its strong inherent safety features and the high outlet temperature, the modular high temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactor (MHTGR is the chosen technology for a new generation of nuclear power plants. Such power plants are being considered for industrial applications with a wide range of power levels, thus power-level regulation is very important for their efficient and stable operation. Exploiting the large scale asymptotic closed-loop stability provided by nonlinear controllers, a nonlinear power-level regulator is presented in this paper that is based upon both the techniques of feedback dissipation and well-established backstepping. The virtue of this control strategy, i.e., the ability of globally asymptotic stabilization, is that it takes advantage of the inherent zero-state detectability property of the MHTGR dynamics. Moreover, this newly built power-level regulator is also robust towards modeling uncertainty in the control rod dynamics. If modeling uncertainty of the control rod dynamics is small enough to be omitted, then this control law can be simplified to a classical proportional feedback controller. The comparison of the control performance between the newly-built power controller and the simplified controller is also given through numerical study and theoretical analysis.

Power level effects on thorium-based fuels in pressure-tube heavy water reactors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Bromley, B.P.; Edwards, G.W.R., E-mail: blair.bromley@cnl.ca [Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, Chalk River, Ontario (Canada); Sambavalingam, P. [Univ. of Ontario Inst. of Technology, Oshawa, Ontario (Canada)

2016-06-15

Lattice and core physics modeling and calculations have been performed to quantify the impact of power/flux levels on the reactivity and achievable burnup for 35-element fuel bundles made with Pu/Th or U-233/Th. The fissile content in these bundles has been adjusted to produce on the order of 20 MWd/kg burnup in homogeneous cores in a 700 MWe-class pressure-tube heavy water reactor, operating on a once-through thorium cycle. Results demonstrate that the impact of the power/flux level is modest for Pu/Th fuels but significant for U-233/Th fuels. In particular, high power/flux reduces the breeding and burnup potential of U-233/Th fuels. Thus, there may be an incentive to operate reactors with U-233/Th fuels at a lower power density or to develop alternative refueling schemes that will lower the time-average specific power, thereby increasing burnup.(author)

Power level effects on thorium-based fuels in pressure-tube heavy water reactors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bromley, B.P.; Edwards, G.W.R.; Sambavalingam, P.

2016-01-01

Lattice and core physics modeling and calculations have been performed to quantify the impact of power/flux levels on the reactivity and achievable burnup for 35-element fuel bundles made with Pu/Th or U-233/Th. The fissile content in these bundles has been adjusted to produce on the order of 20 MWd/kg burnup in homogeneous cores in a 700 MWe-class pressure-tube heavy water reactor, operating on a once-through thorium cycle. Results demonstrate that the impact of the power/flux level is modest for Pu/Th fuels but significant for U-233/Th fuels. In particular, high power/flux reduces the breeding and burnup potential of U-233/Th fuels. Thus, there may be an incentive to operate reactors with U-233/Th fuels at a lower power density or to develop alternative refueling schemes that will lower the time-average specific power, thereby increasing burnup.(author)

Pulsed low-level infrared laser alters mRNA levels from muscle repair genes dependent on power output in Wistar rats

Science.gov (United States)

Trajano, L. A. S. N.; Trajano, E. T. L.; Thomé, A. M. C.; Sergio, L. P. S.; Mencalha, A. L.; Stumbo, A. C.; Fonseca, A. S.

2017-10-01

Satellite cells are present in skeletal muscle functioning in the repair and regeneration of muscle injury. Activation of these cells depends on the expression of myogenic factor 5 (Myf5), myogenic determination factor 1(MyoD), myogenic regulatory factor 4 (MRF4), myogenin (MyoG), paired box transcription factors 3 (Pax3), and 7 (Pax7). Low-level laser irradiation accelerates the repair of muscle injuries. However, data from the expression of myogenic factors have been controversial. Furthermore, the effects of different laser beam powers on the repair of muscle injuries have been not evaluated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of low-level infrared laser at different powers and in pulsed emission mode on the expression of myogenic regulatory factors and on Pax3 and Pax7 in injured skeletal muscle from Wistar rats. Animals that underwent cryoinjury were divided into three groups: injury, injury laser 25 Mw, and injury laser 75 mW. Low-level infrared laser irradiation (904 nm, 3 J cm-2, 5 kHz) was carried out at 25 and 75 mW. After euthanasia, skeletal muscle samples were withdrawn and the total RNA was extracted for the evaluation of mRNA levels from the MyoD, MyoG, MRF4, Myf5, Pax3, and Pax7 gene. Pax 7 mRNA levels did not alter, but Pax3 mRNA levels increased in the injured and laser-irradiated group at 25 mW. MyoD, MyoG, and MYf5 mRNA levels increased in the injured and laser-irradiated animals at both powers, and MRF4 mRNA levels decreased in the injured and laser-irradiated group at 75 mW. In conclusion, exposure to pulsed low-level infrared laser, by power-dependent effect, could accelerate the muscle repair process altering mRNA levels from paired box transcription factors and myogenic regulatory factors.

Leucocyte telomere length and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus: new prospective cohort study and literature-based meta-analysis.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peter Willeit

Full Text Available Short telomeres have been linked to various age-related diseases. We aimed to assess the association of telomere length with incident type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM in prospective cohort studies.Leucocyte relative telomere length (RTL was measured using quantitative polymerase chain reaction in 684 participants of the prospective population-based Bruneck Study (1995 baseline, with repeat RTL measurements performed in 2005 (n = 558 and 2010 (n = 479. Hazard ratios for T2DM were calculated across quartiles of baseline RTL using Cox regression models adjusted for age, sex, body-mass index, smoking, socio-economic status, physical activity, alcohol consumption, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, log high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, and waist-hip ratio. Separate analyses corrected hazard ratios for within-person variability using multivariate regression calibration of repeated measurements. To contextualise findings, we systematically sought PubMed, Web of Science and EMBASE for relevant articles and pooled results using random-effects meta-analysis.Over 15 years of follow-up, 44 out of 606 participants free of diabetes at baseline developed incident T2DM. The adjusted hazard ratio for T2DM comparing the bottom vs. the top quartile of baseline RTL (i.e. shortest vs. longest was 2.00 (95% confidence interval: 0.90 to 4.49; P = 0.091, and 2.31 comparing the bottom quartile vs. the remainder (1.21 to 4.41; P = 0.011. The corresponding hazard ratios corrected for within-person RTL variability were 3.22 (1.27 to 8.14; P = 0.014 and 2.86 (1.45 to 5.65; P = 0.003. In a random-effects meta-analysis of three prospective cohort studies involving 6,991 participants and 2,011 incident T2DM events, the pooled relative risk was 1.31 (1.07 to 1.60; P = 0.010; I2 = 69%.Low RTL is independently associated with the risk of incident T2DM. To avoid regression dilution biases in observed associations of RTL with disease risk, future studies should implement

Thermal analysis of two-level wind power converter under symmetrical grid fault

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhou, Dao; Blaabjerg, Frede

2013-01-01

In this paper, the case of symmetrical grid fault when using the multi-MW wind turbine of partial-scale and full-scale two-level power converter are designed and investigated. Firstly, the different operation behaviors of the relevant power converters under the voltage dip will be described......) condition as well as the junction temperature. For the full-scale wind turbine system, the most thermal stressed power device in the grid-side converter will appear at the grid voltage below 0.5 pu, and for the partial-scale wind turbine system, the most thermal stressed power device in the rotor...

Exposure to runoff from coal-tar-sealed pavement induces genotoxicity and impairment of DNA repair capacity in the RTL-W1 fish liver cell line.

Science.gov (United States)

Kienzler, Aude; Mahler, Barbara J; Van Metre, Peter C; Schweigert, Nathalie; Devaux, Alain; Bony, Sylvie

2015-07-01

Coal-tar-based (CTB) sealcoat, frequently applied to parking lots and driveways in North America, contains elevated concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and related compounds. The RTL-W1 fish liver cell line was used to investigate two endpoints (genotoxicity and DNA-repair-capacity impairment) associated with exposure to runoff from asphalt pavement with CTB sealcoat or with an asphalt-based sealcoat hypothesized to contain about 7% CTB sealcoat (AS-blend). Genotoxic potential was assessed by the Formamido pyrimidine glycosylase (Fpg)-modified comet assay for 1:10 and 1:100 dilutions of runoff samples collected from 5 h to 36 d following sealcoat application. DNA-repair capacity was assessed by the base excision repair comet assay for 1:10 dilution of samples collected 26 h and 36 d following application. Both assays were run with and without co-exposure to ultraviolet-A radiation (UVA). With co-exposure to UVA, genotoxic effects were significant for both dilutions of CTB runoff for three of four sample times, and for some samples of AS-blend runoff. Base excision repair was significantly impaired for CTB runoff both with and without UVA exposure, and for AS-blend runoff only in the absence of UVA. This study is the first to investigate the effects of exposure to the complex mixture of chemicals in coal tar on DNA repair capacity. The results indicate that co-exposure to runoff from CT-sealcoated pavement and UVA as much as a month after sealcoat application has the potential to cause genotoxicity and impair DNA repair capacity. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Computer-based control of nuclear power information systems at international level

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boniface, Ekechukwu; Okonkwo, Obi

2011-01-01

In most highly industrialized countries of the world information plays major role in anti-nuclear campaign. Information and discussions on nuclear power need critical and objective analysis before the structured information presentation to the public to avoid bias anti-nuclear information on one side and neglect of great risk in nuclear power. This research is developing a computer-based information system for the control of nuclear power at international level. The system is to provide easy and fast information highways for the followings: (1) Low Regulatory dose and activity limit as level of high danger for individuals and public. (2) Provision of relevant technical or scientific education among the information carriers in the nuclear power countries. The research is on fact oriented investigation about radioactivity. It also deals with fact oriented education about nuclear accidents and safety. A standard procedure for dissemination of latest findings using technical and scientific experts in nuclear technology is developed. The information highway clearly analyzes the factual information about radiation risk and nuclear energy. Radiation cannot be removed from our environment. The necessity of radiation utilizations defines nuclear energy as two-edge sword. It is therefore, possible to use computer-based information system in projecting and dissemination of expert knowledge about nuclear technology positively and also to use it in directing the public on the safety and control of the nuclear energy. The computer-based information highway for nuclear energy technology is to assist in scientific research and technological development at international level. (author)

Lifetime Estimation of Electrolytic Capacitors in Fuel Cell Power Converter at Various Confidence Levels

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhou, Dao; Wang, Huai; Blaabjerg, Frede

2016-01-01

DC capacitors in power electronic converters are a major constraint on improvement of the power density and the reliability. In this paper, according to the degradation data of tested capacitors, the lifetime model of the component is analyzed at various confidence levels. Then, the mission profile...... based lifetime expectancy of the individual capacitor and the capacitor bank is estimated in a fuel cell backup power converter operating in both standby mode and operation mode. The lifetime prediction of the capacitor banks at different confidence levels is also obtained....

Power estimation on functional level for programmable processors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Schneider

2004-01-01

Full Text Available In diesem Beitrag werden verschiedene Ansätze zur Verlustleistungsschätzung von programmierbaren Prozessoren vorgestellt und bezüglich ihrer Übertragbarkeit auf moderne Prozessor-Architekturen wie beispielsweise Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW-Architekturen bewertet. Besonderes Augenmerk liegt hierbei auf dem Konzept der sogenannten Functional-Level Power Analysis (FLPA. Dieser Ansatz basiert auf der Einteilung der Prozessor-Architektur in funktionale Blöcke wie beispielsweise Processing-Unit, Clock-Netzwerk, interner Speicher und andere. Die Verlustleistungsaufnahme dieser Bl¨ocke wird parameterabhängig durch arithmetische Modellfunktionen beschrieben. Durch automatisierte Analyse von Assemblercodes des zu schätzenden Systems mittels eines Parsers können die Eingangsparameter wie beispielsweise der erzielte Parallelitätsgrad oder die Art des Speicherzugriffs gewonnen werden. Dieser Ansatz wird am Beispiel zweier moderner digitaler Signalprozessoren durch eine Vielzahl von Basis-Algorithmen der digitalen Signalverarbeitung evaluiert. Die ermittelten Schätzwerte für die einzelnen Algorithmen werden dabei mit physikalisch gemessenen Werten verglichen. Es ergibt sich ein sehr kleiner maximaler Schätzfehler von 3%. In this contribution different approaches for power estimation for programmable processors are presented and evaluated concerning their capability to be applied to modern digital signal processor architectures like e.g. Very Long InstructionWord (VLIW -architectures. Special emphasis will be laid on the concept of so-called Functional-Level Power Analysis (FLPA. This approach is based on the separation of the processor architecture into functional blocks like e.g. processing unit, clock network, internal memory and others. The power consumption of these blocks is described by parameter dependent arithmetic model functions. By application of a parser based automized analysis of assembler codes of the systems to be estimated

Power estimation on functional level for programmable processors

Science.gov (United States)

Schneider, M.; Blume, H.; Noll, T. G.

2004-05-01

In diesem Beitrag werden verschiedene Ansätze zur Verlustleistungsschätzung von programmierbaren Prozessoren vorgestellt und bezüglich ihrer Übertragbarkeit auf moderne Prozessor-Architekturen wie beispielsweise Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW)-Architekturen bewertet. Besonderes Augenmerk liegt hierbei auf dem Konzept der sogenannten Functional-Level Power Analysis (FLPA). Dieser Ansatz basiert auf der Einteilung der Prozessor-Architektur in funktionale Blöcke wie beispielsweise Processing-Unit, Clock-Netzwerk, interner Speicher und andere. Die Verlustleistungsaufnahme dieser Bl¨ocke wird parameterabhängig durch arithmetische Modellfunktionen beschrieben. Durch automatisierte Analyse von Assemblercodes des zu schätzenden Systems mittels eines Parsers können die Eingangsparameter wie beispielsweise der erzielte Parallelitätsgrad oder die Art des Speicherzugriffs gewonnen werden. Dieser Ansatz wird am Beispiel zweier moderner digitaler Signalprozessoren durch eine Vielzahl von Basis-Algorithmen der digitalen Signalverarbeitung evaluiert. Die ermittelten Schätzwerte für die einzelnen Algorithmen werden dabei mit physikalisch gemessenen Werten verglichen. Es ergibt sich ein sehr kleiner maximaler Schätzfehler von 3%. In this contribution different approaches for power estimation for programmable processors are presented and evaluated concerning their capability to be applied to modern digital signal processor architectures like e.g. Very Long InstructionWord (VLIW) -architectures. Special emphasis will be laid on the concept of so-called Functional-Level Power Analysis (FLPA). This approach is based on the separation of the processor architecture into functional blocks like e.g. processing unit, clock network, internal memory and others. The power consumption of these blocks is described by parameter dependent arithmetic model functions. By application of a parser based automized analysis of assembler codes of the systems to be estimated the input

Power Flow Control through a Multi-Level H-Bridge-based Power Converter for Universal and Flexible Power Management in Future Electrical Grids

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Iov, Florin; Bifaretti, Steffano; Zanchetta, Pericle

2008-01-01

The paper proposes a novel power conversion system for Universal and Flexible Power Management (UNIFLEX-PM) in Future Electricity Network. The structure is based on three AC-DC converters each one connected to a different grid, (representing the main grid and/or various distributed generation...... systems) on the AC side, and linked together at DC side by suitable DC isolation modules. Each port of the UNIFLEX-PM system employs a conversion structure based on a three-phase 7-level AC-DC cascaded converter. Effective and accurate power flow control is demonstrated through simulation in Matlab...... and Simulink environment on a simplified model based on a two-port structure and using a Stationery Reference Frame based control solution. Control of different Power flow profiles has been successfully tested in numerous network conditions such as voltage unbalance, frequency excursions and harmonic...

Habit, custom, and power: a multi-level theory of population health.

Science.gov (United States)

Zimmerman, Frederick J

2013-03-01

In multi-level theory, individual behavior flows from cognitive habits, either directly through social referencing, rules of thumb, or automatic behaviors; or indirectly through the shaping of rationality itself by framing or heuristics. Although behavior does not arise from individually rational optimization, it generally appears to be rational, because the cognitive habits that guide behavior evolve toward optimality. However, power imbalances shaped by particular social, political, and economic structures can distort this evolution, leading to individual behavior that fails to maximize individual or social well-being. Replacing the dominant rational-choice paradigm with a multi-level theoretical paradigm involving habit, custom, and power will enable public health to engage in rigorous new areas of research. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A high-level power model for MPSoC on FPGA

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Piscitelli, R.; Pimentel, A.D.

2012-01-01

This paper presents a framework for high-level power estimation of multiprocessor systems-on-chip (MPSoC) architectures on FPGA. The technique is based on abstract execution profiles, called event signatures. As a result, it is capable of achieving good evaluation performance, thereby making the

System Level Power Optimization of Digital Audio Back End for Hearing Aids

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pracny, Peter; Jørgensen, Ivan Harald Holger; Bruun, Erik

2017-01-01

This work deals with power optimization of the audio processing back end for hearing aids - the interpolation filter (IF), the sigma-delta (SD modulator and the Class D power amplifier (PA) as a whole. Specifications are derived and insight into the tradeoffs involved is used to optimize...... the interpolation filter and the SD modulator on the system level so that the switching frequency of the Class D PA - the main power consumer in the back end - is minimized. A figure-of-merit (FOM) which allows judging the power consumption of the digital part of the back end early in the design process is used...

Grid Connection of Wave Power Farm Using an N-Level Cascaded H-Bridge Multilevel Inverter

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rickard Ekström

2013-01-01

Full Text Available An N-level cascaded H-bridge multilevel inverter is proposed for grid connection of large wave power farms. The point-absorber wave energy converters are individually rectified and used as isolated DC-sources. The variable power characteristics of the wave energy converters are discussed, and a method of mitigating this issue is demonstrated. The complete power control system is given in detail and has been experimentally verified for a single-phase setup of the 9-level inverter. Theoretical expressions of the power sharing between multilevel cells are derived and show good correspondence with the experimental results.

Behavioral System Level Power Consumption Modeling of Mobile Video Streaming applications

OpenAIRE

Benmoussa , Yahia; Boukhobza , Jalil; Hadjadj-Aoul , Yassine; Lagadec , Loïc; Benazzouz , Djamel

2012-01-01

National audience; Nowadays, the use of mobile applications and terminals faces fundamental challenges related to energy constraint. This is due to the limited battery lifetime as compared to the increasing hardware evolution. Video streaming is one of the most energy consuming applications in a mobile system because of its intensive use of bandwidth, memory and processing power. In this work, we aim to propose a methodology for building and validating a high level global power consumption mo...

Minimizing the Levelized Cost of Energy in Single-Phase Photovoltaic Systems with an Absolute Active Power Control

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yang, Yongheng; Koutroulis, Eftichios; Sangwongwanich, Ariya

2015-01-01

. An increase of the inverter lifetime and a reduction of the energy yield can alter the cost of energy, demanding an optimization of the power limitation. Therefore, aiming at minimizing the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE), the power limit is optimized for the AAPC strategy in this paper. The optimization...... control strategy, the Absolute Active Power Control (AAPC) can effectively solve the overloading issues by limiting the maximum possible PV power to a certain level (i.e., the power limitation), and also benefit the inverter reliability. However, its feasibility is challenged by the energy loss......, compared to the conventional PV inverter operating only in the maximum power point tracking mode. In the presented case study, the minimum of LCOE is achieved for the system when the power limit is optimized to a certain level of the designed maximum feed-in power (i.e., 3 kW). In addition, the proposed...

Quarkonium level fitting with two-power potentials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Joshi, G.C.; Wignall, J.W.G.

1981-01-01

An attempt has been made to fit psi and UPSILON energy levels and leptonic decay width ratios with a non-relativistic potential model using a potential of the form V(r) = Arsup(p) + Brsup(q) + C. It is found that reasonable fits to states below hadronic decay threshold can be obtained for values of the powers p and q anywhere along a family of curves in the (p,q) plane that smoothly join the Martin potential (p = 0, q = 0.1) to the potential forms with p approximately -1 suggested by QCD; for the latter case the best fit is obtained with q approximately 0.4 - 0.5

Application of the region-time-length algorithm to study of earthquake precursors in the Thailand-Laos-Myanmar borders

Science.gov (United States)

Puangjaktha, P.; Pailoplee, S.

2018-04-01

In order to examine the precursory seismic quiescence of upcoming hazardous earthquakes, the seismicity data available in the vicinity of the Thailand-Laos-Myanmar borders was analyzed using the Region-Time-Length (RTL) algorithm based statistical technique. The utilized earthquake data were obtained from the International Seismological Centre. Thereafter, the homogeneity and completeness of the catalogue were improved. After performing iterative tests with different values of the r0 and t0 parameters, those of r0 = 120 km and t0 = 2 yr yielded reasonable estimates of the anomalous RTL scores, in both temporal variation and spatial distribution, of a few years prior to five out of eight strong-to-major recognized earthquakes. Statistical evaluation of both the correlation coefficient and stochastic process for the RTL were checked and revealed that the RTL score obtained here excluded artificial or random phenomena. Therefore, the prospective earthquake sources mentioned here should be recognized and effective mitigation plans should be provided.

A PMSM current controller system on FPGA platform | Ahmadian ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Journal of Fundamental and Applied Sciences ... Proposed system architecture and computational blocks are described and system level and RTL simulation results are presented. Simulation results show that the total computation cycle time of implemented system on Altera Cyclone II FPGA is 456ns. Keywords: PMSM ...

A new high-voltage level-shifting circuit for half-bridge power ICs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kong Moufu; Chen Xingbi

2013-01-01

In order to reduce the chip area and improve the reliability of HVICs, a new high-voltage level-shifting circuit with an integrated low-voltage power supply, two PMOS active resistors and a current mirror is proposed. The integrated low-voltage power supply not only provides energy for the level-shifting circuit and the logic circuit, but also provides voltage signals for the gates and sources of the PMOS active resistors to ensure that they are normally-on. The normally-on PMOS transistors do not, therefore, need to be fabricated in the depletion process. The current mirror ensures that the level-shifting circuit has a constant current, which can reduce the process error of the high-voltage devices of the circuit. Moreover, an improved RS trigger is also proposed to improve the reliability of the circuit. The proposed level-shifting circuit is analyzed and confirmed by simulation with MEDICI, and the simulation results show that the function is achieved well. (semiconductor integrated circuits)

Differentiated influences of benefit and risk perceptions on nuclear power acceptance according to acceptance levels. Evidence from Korea

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Roh, Seungkook; Lee Jinwon

2017-01-01

The perceived benefit and risk of nuclear power generation have received considerable attention as determinants of the public's nuclear power acceptance. However, the contingency of the relative importance of these benefit and risk has been less explored. Using Korea as an example, this study explores the possibility that the relative importance of perceived benefit and risk on nuclear power acceptance depends on acceptance levels. Our results from latent class analysis and multinomial probit show that, in determining whether an individual shows a moderate level of nuclear power acceptance rather than a low level, perceived risk plays a dominant role compared to perceived benefit; however, regarding whether he/she shows a high level of nuclear power acceptance rather than a moderate level, this relative importance is reversed. These results carry practical implications for risk governance of nuclear power, particularly with regard to communication with the public. (author)

Disentangling Bargaining Power from Individual and Household Level to Institutions: Evidence on Women’s Position in Ethiopia

OpenAIRE

Staveren, Irene; Mabsout, Ramzi

2010-01-01

textabstractSUMMARY Women's bargaining power is generally analyzed only with individual level and household level variables. We add a third level, namely institutional bargaining power. We define this as bargaining power which one party freely derives from unequal social norms. In the bargaining literature there is a common paradoxical finding, namely that more access to and control over individual resources sometimes decreases rather than increases women‟s bargaining outcomes. With household...

Integrating High Levels of Variable Renewable Energy into Electric Power Systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kroposki, Benjamin D. [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2017-08-01

As more variable renewable energy is integrated into electric power systems, there are a range of challenges and solutions to accommodating very high penetration levels. This presentation highlights some of the recent research in this area.

Direct Power Control for Three-Phase Two-Level Voltage-Source Rectifiers Based on Extended-State Observation

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Song, Zhanfeng; Tian, Yanjun; Yan, Zhuo

2016-01-01

This paper proposed a direct power control strategy for three-phase two-level voltage-source rectifiers based on extended-state observation. Active and reactive powers are directly regulated in the stationary reference frame. Similar to the family of predictive controllers whose inherent characte......This paper proposed a direct power control strategy for three-phase two-level voltage-source rectifiers based on extended-state observation. Active and reactive powers are directly regulated in the stationary reference frame. Similar to the family of predictive controllers whose inherent...

System-level power optimization for real-time distributed embedded systems

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Jiong

Power optimization is one of the crucial design considerations for modern electronic systems. In this thesis, we present several system-level power optimization techniques for real-time distributed embedded systems, based on dynamic voltage scaling, dynamic power management, and management of peak power and variance of the power profile. Dynamic voltage scaling has been widely acknowledged as an important and powerful technique to trade off dynamic power consumption and delay. Efficient dynamic voltage scaling requires effective variable-voltage scheduling mechanisms that can adjust voltages and clock frequencies adaptively based on workloads and timing constraints. For this purpose, we propose static variable-voltage scheduling algorithms utilizing criticalpath driven timing analysis for the case when tasks are assumed to have uniform switching activities, as well as energy-gradient driven slack allocation for a more general scenario. The proposed techniques can achieve closeto-optimal power savings with very low computational complexity, without violating any real-time constraints. We also present algorithms for power-efficient joint scheduling of multi-rate periodic task graphs along with soft aperiodic tasks. The power issue is addressed through both dynamic voltage scaling and power management. Periodic task graphs are scheduled statically. Flexibility is introduced into the static schedule to allow the on-line scheduler to make local changes to PE schedules through resource reclaiming and slack stealing, without interfering with the validity of the global schedule. We provide a unified framework in which the response times of aperiodic tasks and power consumption are dynamically optimized simultaneously. Interconnection network fabrics point to a new generation of power-efficient and scalable interconnection architectures for distributed embedded systems. As the system bandwidth continues to increase, interconnection networks become power/energy limited as

Float level switch for a nuclear power plant containment vessel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Powell, J.G.

1993-01-01

This invention is a float level switch used to sense rise or drop in water level in a containment vessel of a nuclear power plant during a loss of coolant accident. The essential components of the device are a guide tube, a reed switch inside the guide tube, a float containing a magnetic portion that activates a reed switch, and metal-sheathed, ceramic-insulated conductors connecting the reed switch to a monitoring system outside the containment vessel. Special materials and special sealing techniques prevent failure of components and allow the float level switch to be connected to a monitoring system outside the containment vessel. 1 figures

Float level switch for a nuclear power plant containment vessel

Science.gov (United States)

Powell, James G.

1993-01-01

This invention is a float level switch used to sense rise or drop in water level in a containment vessel of a nuclear power plant during a loss of coolant accident. The essential components of the device are a guide tube, a reed switch inside the guide tube, a float containing a magnetic portion that activates a reed switch, and metal-sheathed, ceramic-insulated conductors connecting the reed switch to a monitoring system outside the containment vessel. Special materials and special sealing techniques prevent failure of components and allow the float level switch to be connected to a monitoring system outside the containment vessel.

Synthesis of Axial Power Distribution Using 5-Level Ex-core Detector in a Core Protection System

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koo, Bon-Seung; Lee, Chung-Chan; Zee, Sung-Quun

2007-01-01

In ABB-CE digital plants, Core Protection Calculator System (CPCS) is used for a core protection based on several online measured system parameters including 3- level safety grade ex-core detector signals. The CPCS provides four independent channels for the departure from a nucleate boiling ratio (DNBR) and local power density (LPD) trip signals to the reactor protection system. Each channel consists of a core protection calculator (CPC) and a control element assembly calculator (CEAC). The cubic spline synthesis technique has been used in online calculations of the core axial power distributions using 3-level ex-core detector signals in CPC. The pre-determined cubic spline function sets are used depending on the characteristics of the ex-core detector responses. But this method shows large power distribution errors for the extremely skewed axial shapes due to restrictive function sets and an incorrect SAM value. Especially thus situation is worse at a higher burnup. To solve these problems, the cubic spline function sets are improved and it is demonstrated that the axial power shapes can be synthesized more accurately with the new function sets than those of a conventional CPC. In this paper, synthesis of an axial power distribution using a 5-level ex-core detector is described and the axial power distributions are compared between 3-level and 5-level ex-core detector systems

Survey of ambient electromagnetic and radio-frequency interference levels in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kercel, S.W.; Moore, M.R.; Blakeman, E.D.; Ewing, P.D.; Wood, R.T.

1996-11-01

This document reports the results of a survey of ambient electromagnetic conditions in representative nuclear power plants. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research engaged the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to perform these measurements to characterize the electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio-frequency interference (RFI) levels that can be expected in nuclear power plant environments. This survey is the first of its kind, being based on long-term unattended observations. The data presented in this report were measured at eight different nuclear units and required 14 months to collect. A representative sampling of power plant conditions (reactor type, operating mode, site location) monitored over extended observation periods (up to 5 weeks) were selected to more completely determine the characteristic electromagnetic environment for nuclear power plants. Radiated electric fields were measured over the frequency range of 5 MHz to 8 GHz. Radiated magnetic fields and conducted EMI events were measured over the frequency range of 305 Hz to 5 MHz. Highest strength observations of the electromagnetic ambient environment across all measurement conditions at each site provide frequency-dependent profiles for EMI/RFI levels in nuclear power plants

The Level of Difficulty and Discrimination Power of the Basic Knowledge and Skills Examination (EXHCOBA.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eduardo Backhoff Escudero

2000-05-01

Full Text Available The Basic Knowledge and Skills Examination (EXHCOBA is one of the few great-scale examinations in Mexico which has been publishing its psychometric parameters.  In this paper we describe the  item analysis results, regarding the exam’s difficulty level and discrimination power.  Results show that most of the items have a medium difficulty and a high discrimination power.  They also reveal that the mathematics items have better discrimination power levels than the ones which belong to social science.

Biographical learning in top-level coaching - personal styles and the power of practical sense

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christensen, Mette Krogh

: Biographical learning in top-level coaching - personal styles and the power of practical sense. There is a growing body of studies in sports coaching cultures, comprising research focusing on the individual learning processes and life histories of top-level coaches. Even if top-level sport has become...... explores the relation between these kinds of learning processes and the coaches’ development of practical sense of talent. I base the paper on a sociological analysis of in-depth interviews with eight Danish top-level football coaches about their pathways to expertise. Results illustrate two interwoven...... in young footballers. The results point to an important challenge in coach education and coach socialization: the construction and power of coaches’ personal “styles”....

System-Level Power Consumption Analysis of the Wearable Asthmatic Wheeze Quantification

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dinko Oletic

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Long-term quantification of asthmatic wheezing envisions an m-Health sensor system consisting of a smartphone and a body-worn wireless acoustic sensor. As both devices are power constrained, the main criterion guiding the system design comes down to minimization of power consumption, while retaining sufficient respiratory sound classification accuracy (i.e., wheeze detection. Crucial for assessment of the system-level power consumption is the understanding of trade-off between power cost of computationally intensive local processing and communication. Therefore, we analyze power requirements of signal acquisition, processing, and communication in three typical operating scenarios: (1 streaming of uncompressed respiratory signal to a smartphone for classification, (2 signal streaming utilizing compressive sensing (CS for reduction of data rate, and (3 respiratory sound classification onboard the wearable sensor. Study shows that the third scenario featuring the lowest communication cost enables the lowest total sensor system power consumption ranging from 328 to 428 μW. In such scenario, 32-bit ARM Cortex M3/M4 cores typically embedded within Bluetooth 4 SoC modules feature the optimal trade-off between onboard classification performance and consumption. On the other hand, study confirms that CS enables the most power-efficient design of the wearable sensor (216 to 357 μW in the compressed signal streaming, the second scenario. In such case, a single low-power ARM Cortex-A53 core is sufficient for simultaneous real-time CS reconstruction and classification on the smartphone, while keeping the total system power within budget for uncompressed streaming.

Impact of coal combustion from thermal power plant: estimates on ambient SO2 levels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Joshi, P.V.

1991-01-01

Using a Gaussian dispersion model, ambient Ground Levels Concentrations (GLC) of SO 2 due to Nashik Thermal Power Plant have been computed. Annual GLC in 16 cardinal sectors and concentration levels in 6 atmospheric stability classes have been estimated as a function of down wind distance. The values are compared with national ambient air quality standard and risk involved due to the release of SO 2 from power plant has been assessed. (author). 8 refs., 2 appendixes

Determination of the lowest critical power levels of the Dalat Nuclear Research Reactor

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huy, Ngo Quang [Centre for Nuclear Technique Application, Ho Chi Minh City (Viet Nam); Thong, Ha Van; Long, Vu Hai; Binh, Do Quang; Nghiem, Huynh Ton; Tuan, Nguyen Minh; Vien, Luong Ba; Vinh, Le Vinh [Nuclear Research Inst., Da Lat (Viet Nam)

1994-10-01

This paper presents the experimental methods for determining critical states of the Dalat Nuclear Research Reactor containing an extraneous neutron source induced by gamma ray reactions on beryllium in the reactor. The lowest critical power levels are measured at various moments after the reactor is shut down following 100 hours of its continuous operation. Th power levels vary from (0.5-1.2) x 10{sup -4} of P{sub n}, i.e. (25-60)W to (1.1-1.6) x 10{sup -5} of P{sub n}, i.e. (5.5-8)W at corresponding times of 4 days to 13 days after the reactor is shut down. However the critical power must be chosen greater than 500 W to sustain the steady criticality of the reactor for a long time. (author). 3 refs. 4 figs. 1 tab.

Attempted development and cross-validation of predictive models of individual-level and organizational-level turnover of nuclear power operators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vasa-Sideris, S.J.

1989-01-01

Nuclear power accounts for 209% of the electric power generated in the U.S. by 107 nuclear plants which employ over 8,700 operators. Operator turnover is significant to utilities from the economic point of view since it costs almost three hundred thousand dollars to train and qualify one operator, and because turnover affects plant operability and therefore plant safety. The study purpose was to develop and cross-validate individual-level and organizational-level models of turnover of nuclear power plant operators. Data were obtained by questionnaires and from published data for 1983 and 1984 on a number of individual, organizational, and environmental predictors. Plants had been in operation for two or more years. Questionnaires were returned by 29 out of 50 plants on over 1600 operators. The objectives were to examine the reliability of the turnover criterion, to determine the classification accuracy of the multivariate predictive models and of categories of predictors (individual, organizational, and environmental) and to determine if a homology existed between the individual-level and organizational-level models. The method was to examine the shrinkage that occurred between foldback design (in which the predictive models were reapplied to the data used to develop them) and cross-validation. Results did not support the hypothesis objectives. Turnover data were accurate but not stable between the two years. No significant differences were detected between the low and high turnover groups at the organization or individual level in cross-validation. Lack of stability in the criterion, restriction of range, and small sample size at the organizational level were serious limitations of this study. The results did support the methods. Considerable shrinkage occurred between foldback and cross-validation of the models

Analysis of Air Force Secondary Power Logistics Solution Contract

Science.gov (United States)

2010-05-21

for the F-1 5 award that thc SPLS contract has 9 option years during which the contracting offi cer mUSI determine whether the price for each option...slaled III part 2. $p..",:lal ..!lOrIS muSI he la ~cn 10 m:lkc ~ure Ihal i lone~’\\\\ e ll 0.11)1.𔄀 nOI "prolif ’ ’’l th ;l t\\ tr ForN’, .:~p.:n6...Iludil r~’I,:Oll1mendfllioll thai prup;:r dtlenlli’lO’ll\\)ll for hundling mUSI ~ obl:ained. NOfl-OOIlcur 11’,lh Ic \\’el 01 dclCnlllnftltOTl rtl

Aerobic Capacity and Anaerobic Power Levels of the University Students

Science.gov (United States)

Taskin, Cengiz

2016-01-01

The aim of study was to analyze aerobic capacity and anaerobic power levels of the university students. Total forty university students who is department physical education and department business (age means; 21.15±1.46 years for male and age means; 20.55±1.79 years for female in department physical education), volunteered to participate in this…

Natural radioactivity level in coal and ash collected from Baoji coal-fired power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jia Xiaodan; Lu Xinwei

2006-01-01

Specific activities of natural radionuclides 226 Ra, 232 Th and 40 K were assessed in coal (3 samples), fly ash (17 samples) and bottom ash (6 samples) collected from Baoji coal-fired power plant. This paper analyzed the characteristics of 226 Ra, 232 Th and 40 K contents in bottom ash and fly ash, and studied the concentration factors of these radionuclides in ash in relation to those in coal. The level of natural radionuclides 226 Ra, 232 Th and 40 K of coal collected from Baoji coal-fired power plant are in the range of radionuclides contents of Chinese coal. The natural radioactivity level of fly ash collected from Baoji coal-fired power plant is close to Beijing and Shanghai coal-fired power plants. The paper farther assessed the possibility of fly ash of Baoji coal-fired power plant used as building materials according to the state standard. The results show that there are 29% samples exceeding the state limit when fly ash used as building materials. So the usage of fly ash in building material should be controlled. (authors)

A novel optimised and validated method for analysis of multi-residues of pesticides in fruits and vegetables by microwave-assisted extraction (MAE)-dispersive solid-phase extraction (d-SPE)-retention time locked (RTL)-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry with Deconvolution reporting software (DRS).

Science.gov (United States)

Satpathy, Gouri; Tyagi, Yogesh Kumar; Gupta, Rajinder Kumar

2011-08-01

A rapid, effective and ecofriendly method for sensitive screening and quantification of 72 pesticides residue in fruits and vegetables, by microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) followed by dispersive solid-phase extraction (d-SPE), retention time locked (RTL) capillary gas-chromatographic separation in trace ion mode mass spectrometric determination has been validated as per ISO/IEC: 17025:2005. Identification and reporting with total and extracted ion chromatograms were facilitated to a great extent by Deconvolution reporting software (DRS). For all compounds LOD were 0.002-0.02mg/kg and LOQ were 0.025-0.100mg/kg. Correlation coefficients of the calibration curves in the range of 0.025-0.50mg/kg were >0.993. To validate matrix effects repeatability, reproducibility, recovery and overall uncertainty were calculated for the 35 matrices at 0.025, 0.050 and 0.100mg/kg. Recovery ranged between 72% and 114% with RSD of <20% for repeatability and intermediate precision. The reproducibility of the method was evaluated by an inter laboratory participation and Z score obtained within ±2. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Soil radioactivity levels and radiation hazard assessment around a Thermal Power Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kumar, Mukesh; Kumar, Pankaj; Sharma, Somdutt; Agrawal, Anshu; Kumar, Rajesh; Prajith, Rama; Sahoo, B.K.

2016-01-01

Coal based thermal power plants further enhance the level of radioactivity in the environment, as burning of coal produces fly ash that can be released into the environment containing traces of 238 U, 232 Th and their decay products. Therefore, coal fired power plants are one of the major contributor towards the Technologically Enhanced Natural Radiation (TENR). Keeping this in view, a study of natural radioactivity in the soil of twenty five villages within 5 km radius around the Harduaganj Thermal Power Plant, Aligarh, UP, India is going on under a BRNS major project, to know the radiological implications on general population living around this plant

Microclimate without shade and silvopastoral system during summer and winter - doi: 10.4025/actascianimsci.v35i1.15155 Microclimate without shade and silvopastoral system during summer and winter - doi: 10.4025/actascianimsci.v35i1.15155

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexandre Krutzman

2013-01-01

Full Text Available This study evaluated the microclimate in a system without shade (WS and in a silvopastoral system (SP with eucalyptus during summer and winter, by measuring the air temperature (Ta, black globe temperature (Tg, relative humidity (RH, wind speed (Ws, every 2 hours for 24 hours between rows, shade (SP and no shade effect (WS. It was employed the randomized blocks design (months, in the plots (systems, subplots (hours and sub-subplots (seasons. Except for Ta and RH, the Tg (24.73, 26.41ºC, Ws (3.16, 4.57 m s-1, Black globe-humidity index (BGHI (71.83, 73.84, Thermal load index (TLI (74.53, 76.11 and Radiant thermal load (RTL (526.46, 595.80 W m-2, respectively for SP and WS, were higher in WS. Ta, RH and Ws had a quadratic effect of hour. There was an effect of season, respectively in summer and winter, on the Ta (27.55, 14.93°C, RH (72.11, 60.68%, Tg (29.80, 21.33°C, BGHI (80.04, 65.63, TLI (81.64, 69.00 and RTL (575.65, 546.61 W m-2. Tg, RH and RTL showed an interaction of season x hour, and a quadratic effect, and the RTL had an interaction of system x season. The Tg was correlated with BGHI (0.962, TLI (0.956 and RTL (0.809. The silvopastoral system decreased the Tg and Ws, and made the environment more harmonious by decreasing the climatic differences between seasons.  This study evaluated the microclimate in a system without shade (WS and in a silvopastoral system (SP with eucalyptus during summer and winter, by measuring the air temperature (Ta, black globe temperature (Tg, relative humidity (RH, wind speed (Ws, every 2 hours for 24 hours between rows, shade (SP and no shade effect (WS. It was employed the randomized blocks design (months, in the plots (systems, subplots (hours and sub-subplots (seasons. Except for Ta and RH, the Tg (24.73, 26.41ºC, Ws (3.16, 4.57 m s-1, Black globe-humidity index (BGHI (71.83, 73.84, Thermal load index (TLI (74.53, 76.11 and Radiant thermal load (RTL (526.46, 595.80 W m-2, respectively for SP and WS

Modular Multi-level converter based HVDC System for Grid Connection of Offshore Wind Power Plant

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gnanarathna, U.N.; Chaudhary, Sanjay Kumar; Gole, A.M.

2010-01-01

This paper explores the application of modular multi-level converters (MMC) as a means for harnessing the power from off-shore wind power plants. The MMC consists of a large number of simple voltage sourced converter (VSC) submodules that can be easily assembled into a converter for high......-voltage and high power. The paper shows that the MMC converter has a fast response and low harmonic content in comparison with a two-level VSC option. The paper discusses the modeling approach used, including a solution to the modeling challenge imposed by the very large number of switching devices in the MMC....

Maize and Arabidopsis ARGOS Proteins Interact with Ethylene Receptor Signaling Complex, Supporting a Regulatory Role for ARGOS in Ethylene Signal Transduction[OPEN

Science.gov (United States)

Shi, Jinrui; Wang, Hongyu; Habben, Jeffrey E.

2016-01-01

The phytohormone ethylene regulates plant growth and development as well as plant response to environmental cues. ARGOS genes reduce plant sensitivity to ethylene when overexpressed in transgenic Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and maize (Zea mays). A previous genetic study suggested that the endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi-localized maize ARGOS1 targets the ethylene signal transduction components at or upstream of CONSTITUTIVE TRIPLE RESPONSE1, but the mechanism of ARGOS modulating ethylene signaling is unknown. Here, we demonstrate in Arabidopsis that ZmARGOS1, as well as the Arabidopsis ARGOS homolog ORGAN SIZE RELATED1, physically interacts with Arabidopsis REVERSION-TO-ETHYLENE SENSITIVITY1 (RTE1), an ethylene receptor interacting protein that regulates the activity of ETHYLENE RESPONSE1. The protein-protein interaction was also detected with the yeast split-ubiquitin two-hybrid system. Using the same yeast assay, we found that maize RTE1 homolog REVERSION-TO-ETHYLENE SENSITIVITY1 LIKE4 (ZmRTL4) and ZmRTL2 also interact with maize and Arabidopsis ARGOS proteins. Like AtRTE1 in Arabidopsis, ZmRTL4 and ZmRTL2 reduce ethylene responses when overexpressed in maize, indicating a similar mechanism for ARGOS regulating ethylene signaling in maize. A polypeptide fragment derived from ZmARGOS8, consisting of a Pro-rich motif flanked by two transmembrane helices that are conserved among members of the ARGOS family, can interact with AtRTE1 and maize RTL proteins in Arabidopsis. The conserved domain is necessary and sufficient to reduce ethylene sensitivity in Arabidopsis and maize. Overall, these results suggest a physical association between ARGOS and the ethylene receptor signaling complex via AtRTE1 and maize RTL proteins, supporting a role for ARGOS in regulating ethylene perception and the early steps of signal transduction in Arabidopsis and maize. PMID:27268962

The Level of Power Quality Measurement and Evaluation in A Stone Crusher Plant

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mustafa ŞEKKELİ

2009-03-01

Full Text Available Both electric utilities and end users of electric power are becoming increasingly concerned about the quality of electric power. Quality of electrical energy in the electrical system that is requested continuous power (uninterrupted power, constant frequency and with constant amplitude can be explained by sinusoidal voltage. Deformation of voltage in the form of sinusoidal waveform is explained as a harmonic. Harmonics are most important factors in decreasing quality of energy in the electrical system. In industrial plants, existence of harmocins and voltage drop, causes serious problems both in plant and network. This problem affects the cost. In this study, a power quality measurements are carried out in stone crusher plant. Harmonics and voltage drop has been measured and evaluated with the power analyzer. In the power quality measurements, harmonic level of the plant is not so bad. However, it is recommended that compensation system with harmonic elimination can be established in plant.

Australian opencast-lignite mine Yallourn; Der australische Braunkohlentagebau Yallourn

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Koscierski, Marcin; Goerlich, Michael [RWTH Aachen (Germany). Inst. fuer Bergbaukunde I

2009-01-15

This article is about the open pit lignite mine Yallourn, located 150 km southeast of Melbourne (Figure 1). It focuses on the history, the geology and the environment. Furthermore, it describes the new mining method using large carry dozers. The open pit and the power plant are owned by TruEnergy (part of the CLP Group) and the mining activities are carried out in an Alliance with Roche Thiess Linfox (RTL). (orig.)

Small range logarithm calculation on Intel Quartus II Verilog

Science.gov (United States)

Mustapha, Muhazam; Mokhtar, Anis Shahida; Ahmad, Azfar Asyrafie

2018-02-01

Logarithm function is the inverse of exponential function. This paper implement power series of natural logarithm function using Verilog HDL in Quartus II. The mode of design used is RTL in order to decrease the number of megafunctions. The simulations were done to determine the precision and number of LEs used so that the output calculated accurately. It is found that the accuracy of the system only valid for the range of 1 to e.

Muscle dysmorphia in elite-level power lifters and bodybuilders: a test of differences within a conceptual model.

Science.gov (United States)

Lantz, Christopher D; Rhea, Deborah J; Cornelius, Allen E

2002-11-01

The purpose of this study was to determine if associated characteristics of muscle dysmorphia (MD) were different between elite-level competitive bodybuilders and power lifters. Elite-level competitive bodybuilders (n = 100) and power lifters (n = 68) completed the muscle dysmorphia inventory (MDI) at the time of or immediately before competition. A 2 x 6 (group x MDI subscales) multivariate analysis of variance indicated that bodybuilders were significantly more likely to report body size-symmetry concerns (F(1, 167) = 10.31, p < 0.001), physique protection (F(1, 167) = 10.27, p < 0.001), dietary behavior (F(1, 167) = 28.38, p < 0.001), and pharmacological use (F(1, 167) = 19.64, p < 0.001) than were power lifters. These results suggest that elite-level bodybuilders are significantly more likely to engage in characteristics associated with MD than are elite-level power lifters.

Application of PSA to Assess the Safety Level of Nuclear Power Plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Berg, H. P.; Goertz, R.

2000-01-01

This paper reviews the application of PSA in German nuclear power plant regulation. From a fundamental point of view, it has to be mentioned that as stipulated in the corresponding requirements, regulatory decision making in Germany is primarily based on deterministic analyses and evaluations. Therefore, PSA is not used as a stand alone but as a supplementary basis. In this context PSA has developed a valuable tool with continuously growing importance. Level 1+ PSAs are now elaborated for all German nuclear power plants in operation, most of them are already reviewed by the competent supervisory authority and its experts. Current research activities on the federal level primarily concentrate on the further development of the methodology in the areas human factor, common cause failures, accident management measures and reduction of uncertainties in methods and data. (author)

Level-one modules library for DSNP: Dynamic Simulator for Nuclear Power-plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Saphier, D.

1978-09-01

The Dynamic Simulator for Nuclear Power-plants (DSNP) is a system of programs and data sets by which a nuclear power plant or part thereof can be simulated at different levels of sophistication. The acronym DSNP is used interchangeably for the DSNP language, for the DSNP precompiler, for the DSNP libraries, and for the DSNP document generator. The DSNP language is a set of simple block oriented statements, which together with the appropriate data, comprise a simulation of a nuclear power plant. The majority of the DSNP statements will result in the inclusion of a simulated physical module into the program. FORTRAN statements can be inserted with no restrictions among DSNP statements

Study and Analysis of a Natural Reference Frame Current Controller for a Multi-Level H-Bridge Power Converter

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ciobotaru, Mihai; Iov, Florin; Zanchetta, P.

2008-01-01

will be needed in order to control the power flow and to ensure proper and secure operation of this future grid with an increased level of renewable power. These power converters must be able to provide intelligent power management as well as ancillary services. This paper presents an analysis of the natural...... reference frame controller, based on proportional-resonant (PR) technique, for a multi-level H-bridge power converter for Universal and Flexible Power Management in Future Electricity Network. The proposed method is tested in terms of harmonic content in the Point of Common Coupling (PCC), voltage...

Analyzing Reliability and Performance Trade-Offs of HLS-Based Designs in SRAM-Based FPGAs Under Soft Errors

Science.gov (United States)

Tambara, Lucas Antunes; Tonfat, Jorge; Santos, André; Kastensmidt, Fernanda Lima; Medina, Nilberto H.; Added, Nemitala; Aguiar, Vitor A. P.; Aguirre, Fernando; Silveira, Marcilei A. G.

2017-02-01

The increasing system complexity of FPGA-based hardware designs and shortening of time-to-market have motivated the adoption of new designing methodologies focused on addressing the current need for high-performance circuits. High-Level Synthesis (HLS) tools can generate Register Transfer Level (RTL) designs from high-level software programming languages. These tools have evolved significantly in recent years, providing optimized RTL designs, which can serve the needs of safety-critical applications that require both high performance and high reliability levels. However, a reliability evaluation of HLS-based designs under soft errors has not yet been presented. In this work, the trade-offs of different HLS-based designs in terms of reliability, resource utilization, and performance are investigated by analyzing their behavior under soft errors and comparing them to a standard processor-based implementation in an SRAM-based FPGA. Results obtained from fault injection campaigns and radiation experiments show that it is possible to increase the performance of a processor-based system up to 5,000 times by changing its architecture with a small impact in the cross section (increasing up to 8 times), and still increasing the Mean Workload Between Failures (MWBF) of the system.

Radioactivity level of soil around Baqiao coal-fired power plant in China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lu, Xinwei; Zhao, Caifeng; Chen, Cancan; Liu, Wen

2012-01-01

Natural radioactivity level of soil around Baqiao coal-fired power plant in China was determined using gamma ray spectrometry. The concentrations of 226 Ra, 232 Th and 40 K in the studied soil samples range from 27.6 to 48.8, 44.4 to 61.4 and 640.2 to 992.2 Bq kg −1 with an average of 36.1, 51.1 and 733.9 Bq kg −1 , respectively, which are slightly higher than the average values of Shaanxi soil. The radium equivalent activity, the air absorbed dose rate and the annual effective dose rate were calculated and compared with the internationally reported or reference values. The radium equivalent activities of the studied samples are below the internationally accepted values. The air absorbed dose rate and the annual effective dose rate received by the local residents due to the natural radionuclides in soil are slightly higher than the mean value of Xi'an and worldwide. - Highlights: ► Natural radioactivity in soil around the coal-fired power plant was determined. ► Radiological parameters were used to assess radiation hazard. ► The coal-fired power plant has affected the local radioactivity level.

Application of Integrated Verification Approach to FPGA-based Safety-Critical I and C System of Nuclear Power Plant

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ahmed, Ibrahim; Heo, Gyunyoung [Kyunghee Univ., Yongin (Korea, Republic of); Jung, Jaecheon [KEPCO, Ulsan (Korea, Republic of)

2016-10-15

Safety-critical instrumentation and control (I and C) system in nuclear power plant (NPP) implemented on programmable logic controllers (PLCs) plays a vital role in safe operation of the plant. The challenges such as fast obsolescence, the vulnerability to cyber-attack, and other related issues of software systems have currently led to the consideration of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) as an alternative to PLCs because of their advantages and hardware related benefits. Generally in FPGA design verification, the designers make use of verification techniques by writing the test benches which involved various stages of verification activities of register-transfer level (RTL), gate-level, and place and route. Writing the test benches is considerably time consuming and require a lot of efforts to achieve a satisfied desire results. Furthermore, performing the verification at each stage is a major bottleneck and demanded much activities and time. In addition, verification is conceivably, the most difficult and complicated aspect of any design. Therefore, in view of these, this work applied an integrated verification approach to the verification of FPGA-based I and C system in NPP that simultaneously verified the whole design modules using MATLAB/Simulink HDL Co-simulation models. Verification is conceivably, the most difficult and complicated aspect of any design, and an FPGA design is not an exception. Therefore, in this work, we introduced and discussed how an application of integrated verification technique to the verification and testing of FPGA-based I and C system design in NPP can facilitate the verification processes, and verify the entire design modules of the system simultaneously using MATLAB/Simulink HDL co-simulation models. In conclusion, the results showed that, the integrated verification approach through MATLAB/Simulink models, if applied to any design to be verified, could speed up the design verification and reduce the V and V tasks.

Application of Integrated Verification Approach to FPGA-based Safety-Critical I and C System of Nuclear Power Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ahmed, Ibrahim; Heo, Gyunyoung; Jung, Jaecheon

2016-01-01

Safety-critical instrumentation and control (I and C) system in nuclear power plant (NPP) implemented on programmable logic controllers (PLCs) plays a vital role in safe operation of the plant. The challenges such as fast obsolescence, the vulnerability to cyber-attack, and other related issues of software systems have currently led to the consideration of field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) as an alternative to PLCs because of their advantages and hardware related benefits. Generally in FPGA design verification, the designers make use of verification techniques by writing the test benches which involved various stages of verification activities of register-transfer level (RTL), gate-level, and place and route. Writing the test benches is considerably time consuming and require a lot of efforts to achieve a satisfied desire results. Furthermore, performing the verification at each stage is a major bottleneck and demanded much activities and time. In addition, verification is conceivably, the most difficult and complicated aspect of any design. Therefore, in view of these, this work applied an integrated verification approach to the verification of FPGA-based I and C system in NPP that simultaneously verified the whole design modules using MATLAB/Simulink HDL Co-simulation models. Verification is conceivably, the most difficult and complicated aspect of any design, and an FPGA design is not an exception. Therefore, in this work, we introduced and discussed how an application of integrated verification technique to the verification and testing of FPGA-based I and C system design in NPP can facilitate the verification processes, and verify the entire design modules of the system simultaneously using MATLAB/Simulink HDL co-simulation models. In conclusion, the results showed that, the integrated verification approach through MATLAB/Simulink models, if applied to any design to be verified, could speed up the design verification and reduce the V and V tasks

Management of the high-level nuclear power facilities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Preda, Marin

2003-05-01

This thesis approaches current issues in the management of the high power nuclear facilities and as such it appears to be important particularly for nuclear power plant operation topics. Of special interest are the failure events entailing possible catastrophic situations. The contents is structured onto ten chapters. The first chapter describes the operation regimes of the nuclear high power facilities. Highlighted here are the thesis scope and the original features of the work. The second chapter deals with operational policies developed in order to ensure the preventive maintenance of the nuclear installations. Also managing structures are described devoted to practical warranting the equipment safety function of non-classical power stations. In the third chapter cases of nuclear accidents are analyzed especially stressing the probabilistic risk and the operation regimes having in view the elimination of catastrophic events. In the fourth and fifth chapters the control of nuclear radiation emission is treated focusing the quality issue of nuclear installations required to avoid hazardous effects at level of nuclear reactor operation stage. At the same time set of operational measures is given here for preventing risks, catastrophes and chaotic situations. The chapter five presents both theoretical and practical approaches of the nuclear reactor core management concerning particularly the fuel testing, the water primary system and the quality of the involved equipment. In the sixth and seventh chapters issues of risk-quality correlations are approached as well as the structure of expert systems for monitoring the operational regimes of nuclear facilities. The efficiency of the power systems with nuclear injection is discussed and some original ideas developed in this work are evidenced in the eighth and ninth chapters. Presented are here both the operational principles and models of raising the efficiency of the interconnected nuclear stations and prices' policy

A novel synthetic test system for thyristor level in the converter valve of HVDC power transmission

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liu Longchen

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The converter valve is the core equipment in the HVDC power transmission system, a+-nd its performance has a direct effect on the reliability, stability and efficiency of the whole power system. As the basic unit of HVDC converter valve, the thyristor level needs to be test routinely in order to grasp the state of the converter valve equipment. Therefore, it is urgent to develop a novel synthetic test system for the thyristor level with thyristor control unit (TCU. However, currently there is no specific test scheme for the thyristor level of HVDC converter valve. In this paper, the synthetic test principle, content and methods for the thyristor level with TCU are presented based on the analysis of the thyristor reverse recovery characteristic and the IEC technology standard. And a transient high-voltage pulse is applied to the thyristor level during its reverse recovery period in order to test the characteristics of thyristor level. Then, the synthetic test system for the thyristor level is applied to the converter valve test of ±800 kV HVDC power transmission project, and the practical test result verifies the reasonability and validity of the proposed synthetic test system.

Saturated Adaptive Output-Feedback Power-Level Control for Modular High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhe Dong

2014-11-01

Full Text Available Small modular reactors (SMRs are those nuclear fission reactors with electrical output powers of less than 300 MWe. Due to its inherent safety features, the modular high temperature gas-cooled reactor (MHTGR has been seen as one of the best candidates for building SMR-based nuclear plants with high safety-level and economical competitive power. Power-level control is crucial in providing grid-appropriation for all types of SMRs. Usually, there exists nonlinearity, parameter uncertainty and control input saturation in the SMR-based plant dynamics. Motivated by this, a novel saturated adaptive output-feedback power-level control of the MHTGR is proposed in this paper. This newly-built control law has the virtues of having relatively neat form, of being strong adaptive to parameter uncertainty and of being able to compensate control input saturation, which are given by constructing Lyapunov functions based upon the shifted-ectropies of neutron kinetics and reactor thermal-hydraulics, giving an online tuning algorithm for the controller parameters and proposing a control input saturation compensator respectively. It is proved theoretically that input-to-state stability (ISS can be guaranteed for the corresponding closed-loop system. In order to verify the theoretical results, this new control strategy is then applied to the large-range power maneuvering control for the MHTGR of the HTR-PM plant. Numerical simulation results show not only the relationship between regulating performance and control input saturation bound but also the feasibility of applying this saturated adaptive control law practically.

Multiple Word-Length High-Level Synthesis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Coussy Philippe

2008-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Digital signal processing (DSP applications are nowadays widely used and their complexity is ever growing. The design of dedicated hardware accelerators is thus still needed in system-on-chip and embedded systems. Realistic hardware implementation requires first to convert the floating-point data of the initial specification into arbitrary length data (finite-precision while keeping an acceptable computation accuracy. Next, an optimized hardware architecture has to be designed. Considering uniform bit-width specification allows to use traditional automated design flow. However, it leads to oversized design. On the other hand, considering non uniform bit-width specification allows to get a smaller circuit but requires complex design tasks. In this paper, we propose an approach that inputs a C/C++ specification. The design flow, based on high-level synthesis (HLS techniques, automatically generates a potentially pipeline RTL architecture described in VHDL. Both bitaccurate integer and fixed-point data types can be used in the input specification. The generated architecture uses components (operator, register, etc. that have different widths. The design constraints are the clock period and the throughput of the application. The proposed approach considers data word-length information in all the synthesis steps by using dedicated algorithms. We show in this paper the effectiveness of the proposed approach through several design experiments in the DSP domain.

Multiple Word-Length High-Level Synthesis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dominique Heller

2008-09-01

Full Text Available Digital signal processing (DSP applications are nowadays widely used and their complexity is ever growing. The design of dedicated hardware accelerators is thus still needed in system-on-chip and embedded systems. Realistic hardware implementation requires first to convert the floating-point data of the initial specification into arbitrary length data (finite-precision while keeping an acceptable computation accuracy. Next, an optimized hardware architecture has to be designed. Considering uniform bit-width specification allows to use traditional automated design flow. However, it leads to oversized design. On the other hand, considering non uniform bit-width specification allows to get a smaller circuit but requires complex design tasks. In this paper, we propose an approach that inputs a C/C++ specification. The design flow, based on high-level synthesis (HLS techniques, automatically generates a potentially pipeline RTL architecture described in VHDL. Both bitaccurate integer and fixed-point data types can be used in the input specification. The generated architecture uses components (operator, register, etc. that have different widths. The design constraints are the clock period and the throughput of the application. The proposed approach considers data word-length information in all the synthesis steps by using dedicated algorithms. We show in this paper the effectiveness of the proposed approach through several design experiments in the DSP domain.

Catalytic properties and radiothermoluminescence of calcium molybdate with MoO3 additives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Popov, B.I.; Shkuratova, L.N.; Maksimov, Yu.V.; Gustov, V.V.

1982-01-01

Radiothermoluminescence (RTL) technique was used to examine the surface properties of calcium-molybdenum catalysts. Excess MoO 3 was added to stoichiometric calcium molybdate via impregnation of the latter by ammonium heptamolybdate and subsequent drying and calcination. Catalytic properties in methanol oxidation were determined by a flow-circulation technique at 623 K in the kinetic region. The samples were irradiated by a 57 Co source (1-2 Mrad) at the temperature of liquid nitrogen. RTL curves were recorded at temperatures varying within 100-260 K. The addition of excess MoO 3 to calcium molybdate leads to significant changes in catalytic properties and RTL, thus indicating either the healing of the surface defects of matrices or the formation of solid solutions. (Sz.J.)

Load leveling efforts of The Hokkaido Electric Power Co. Inc.; Hokkaido Denryoku no fuka heijunka eno torikumi ni tsuite

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1996-04-01

The Hokkaido Electric Power Co., Inc., aiming to enhance power generation efficiency through power load levelling, strives to expand and substantiate its electricity billing menu and to popularize and encourage the use of levelling-oriented apparatuses and systems most of which are designed for utilizing midnight power. The billing menu has in it a snow-melting power which is cut off for load levelling during the peak demand time zone. For domestic use, a time zone-specified lighting system named Dream Eight is created, which is one of the billing systems dependent upon time zone. Introduced therein for industrial use is a demand/supply adjustment contract system. Furthermore, in compliance with the amended Electricity Business Law that came into force in 1995, efforts are under way for revising the period wherein power is to be supplied for melting snow, expanding the scope of application of the power supply system dependent upon time zone, and newly introducing a heat accumulation assisted peak adjustment contract system and an operation adjustment contract system. As for business efforts in relation to load levelling, the company proposes household electrical systems centering about 200V high-efficiency apparatuses, electric water warmer contributing to the enhancement of year-round load levelling, popularization and reinforcement of electric snow melting systems, and power utilizing technologies capable of meeting local demands raised for example by agriculture and fishery.

Prospective Physics Teachers' Level of Understanding Energy, Power and Force Concepts

Science.gov (United States)

Saglam-Arslan, Aysegul; Kurnaz, Mehmet Altan

2009-01-01

The aim of this study is to determine prospective physics teachers' level of understanding of the concepts of energy and the related concepts of force and power. The study was carried out with the participation of 56 physics education department students at a university in Karadeniz region. All participants had previously taken an introductory…

A thermoelectric-conversion power supply system using a strontium heat source of high-level radioactive nuclear waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chikazawa, Yoshitaka

2011-01-01

A thermoelectric-conversion power supply system with radioactive strontium in high-level radioactive waste has been proposed. A combination of Alkali Metal Thermo-Electric Conversion (AMTEC) and a strontium fluoride heat source can provide a compact and long-lived power supply system. A heat source design with strontium fluoride pin bundles with Hastelloy cladding and intermediate copper has been proposed. This design has taken heat transportation into consideration, and, in this regard, the feasibility has been confirmed by a three-dimensional thermal analysis using Star-CD code. This power supply system with an electric output of 1 MW can be arranged in a space of 50 m 2 and approximately 1.1 m height and can be operated for 15 years without refueling. This compact and long-lived power supply is suitable for powering sources for remote places and middle-sized ships. From the viewpoint of geological disposal of high-level waste, the proposed power supply system provides a financial base for strontium-cesium partitioning. That is, a combination of minor-actinide recycling and strontium-cesium partitioning can eliminate a large part of decay heat in high-level waste and thus can save much space for geological disposal. (author)

Determination of allowable ramp power levels to maintain the mechanical integrity for 14x14, 16x16 and 17x17 KOFAs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Chan Bok; Kim, Ki Hang; Kim, Kyu Tae

1991-11-01

Transient behavior of the fuel rods with various rod power histories for 17x17 KOFA fuels has been calculated and evaluated, and sensitivity analyses of the key parameters such as rod power history before ramp, fast neutron flux and cycle length have also been performed. Results show that cladding strain is more limiting in determining the allowable ramp power level than fuel centerline temperature, and neutron flux has greatest influence on fuel transient behavior among rod power history before ramp, fast neutron flux and cycle length. Based upon the above results, allowable ramp power levels versus burnup for 14x14, 16x16 and 17x17 KOFA fuels were determined for the rods with different initial power levels of F xy = 0.6, 0.8, 1.0 and 1.2, which shows that the rod with lower initial power level gives lower allowable ramp power level. It can be said, therefore, that if the ramp power level of the rod at certain initial power level and burnup is less than the corresponding allowable ramp power level, the transient behavior of the rod satisfy the fuel rod design criteria. (Author)

Islanding the power grid on the transmission level: less connections for more security

Science.gov (United States)

Mureddu, Mario; Caldarelli, Guido; Damiano, Alfonso; Scala, Antonio; Meyer-Ortmanns, Hildegard

2016-10-01

Islanding is known as a management procedure of the power system that is implemented at the distribution level to preserve sensible loads from outages and to guarantee the continuity in electricity supply, when a high amount of distributed generation occurs. In this paper we study islanding on the level of the transmission grid and shall show that it is a suitable measure to enhance energy security and grid resilience. We consider the German and Italian transmission grids. We remove links either randomly to mimic random failure events, or according to a topological characteristic, their so-called betweenness centrality, to mimic an intentional attack and test whether the resulting fragments are self-sustainable. We test this option via the tool of optimized DC power flow equations. When transmission lines are removed according to their betweenness centrality, the resulting islands have a higher chance of being dynamically self-sustainable than for a random removal. Less connections may even increase the grid’s stability. These facts should be taken into account in the design of future power grids.

Exposure to runoff from coal-tar-sealed pavement induces genotoxicity and impairment of DNA repair capacity in the RTL-W1 fish liver cell line

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kienzler, Aude; Mahler, Barbara J.; Van Metre, Peter C.; Schweigert, Nathalie; Devaux, Alain; Bony, Sylvie

2015-01-01

Coal-tar-based (CTB) sealcoat, frequently applied to parking lots and driveways in North America, contains elevated concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and related compounds. The RTL-W1 fish liver cell line was used to investigate two endpoints (genotoxicity and DNA-repair-capacity impairment) associated with exposure to runoff from asphalt pavement with CTB sealcoat or with an asphalt-based sealcoat hypothesized to contain about 7% CTB sealcoat (AS-blend). Genotoxic potential was assessed by the Formamido pyrimidine glycosylase (Fpg)-modified comet assay for 1:10 and 1:100 dilutions of runoff samples collected from 5 h to 36 d following sealcoat application. DNA-repair capacity was assessed by the base excision repair comet assay for 1:10 dilution of samples collected 26 h and 36 d following application. Both assays were run with and without co-exposure to ultraviolet-A radiation (UVA). With co-exposure to UVA, genotoxic effects were significant for both dilutions of CTB runoff for three of four sample times, and for some samples of AS-blend runoff. Base excision repair was significantly impaired for CTB runoff both with and without UVA exposure, and for AS-blend runoff only in the absence of UVA. This study is the first to investigate the effects of exposure to the complex mixture of chemicals in coal tar on DNA repair capacity. The results indicate that co-exposure to runoff from CT-sealcoated pavement and UVA as much as a month after sealcoat application has the potential to cause genotoxicity and impair DNA repair capacity. - Highlights: • Co-exposure to runoff from coal-tar-sealcoated pavement and UVA caused DNA damage. • Significant genotoxicity occurred with a 1:100 dilution of runoff. • Runoff collected up to 36 d following coal-tar-sealcoat application was genotoxic. • Exposure to runoff from sealed pavement impaired an important DNA repair pathway. • Repair capacity was impaired with a 1:10 dilution of runoff (1:100 not

Exposure to runoff from coal-tar-sealed pavement induces genotoxicity and impairment of DNA repair capacity in the RTL-W1 fish liver cell line

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kienzler, Aude, E-mail: aude.kienzler@entpe.fr [Université de Lyon, UMR LEHNA 5023, USC INRA, ENTPE, rue Maurice Audin, Vaulx-en-Velin F-69518 (France); Mahler, Barbara J., E-mail: bjmahler@usgs.gov [U.S. Geological Survey, 1505 Ferguson Lane, Austin, TX 78754 (United States); Van Metre, Peter C., E-mail: pcvanmet@usgs.gov [U.S. Geological Survey, 1505 Ferguson Lane, Austin, TX 78754 (United States); Schweigert, Nathalie [Université de Lyon, UMR LEHNA 5023, USC INRA, ENTPE, rue Maurice Audin, Vaulx-en-Velin F-69518 (France); Devaux, Alain, E-mail: alain.devaux@entpe.fr [Université de Lyon, UMR LEHNA 5023, USC INRA, ENTPE, rue Maurice Audin, Vaulx-en-Velin F-69518 (France); Bony, Sylvie, E-mail: bony@entpe.fr [Université de Lyon, UMR LEHNA 5023, USC INRA, ENTPE, rue Maurice Audin, Vaulx-en-Velin F-69518 (France)

2015-07-01

Coal-tar-based (CTB) sealcoat, frequently applied to parking lots and driveways in North America, contains elevated concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and related compounds. The RTL-W1 fish liver cell line was used to investigate two endpoints (genotoxicity and DNA-repair-capacity impairment) associated with exposure to runoff from asphalt pavement with CTB sealcoat or with an asphalt-based sealcoat hypothesized to contain about 7% CTB sealcoat (AS-blend). Genotoxic potential was assessed by the Formamido pyrimidine glycosylase (Fpg)-modified comet assay for 1:10 and 1:100 dilutions of runoff samples collected from 5 h to 36 d following sealcoat application. DNA-repair capacity was assessed by the base excision repair comet assay for 1:10 dilution of samples collected 26 h and 36 d following application. Both assays were run with and without co-exposure to ultraviolet-A radiation (UVA). With co-exposure to UVA, genotoxic effects were significant for both dilutions of CTB runoff for three of four sample times, and for some samples of AS-blend runoff. Base excision repair was significantly impaired for CTB runoff both with and without UVA exposure, and for AS-blend runoff only in the absence of UVA. This study is the first to investigate the effects of exposure to the complex mixture of chemicals in coal tar on DNA repair capacity. The results indicate that co-exposure to runoff from CT-sealcoated pavement and UVA as much as a month after sealcoat application has the potential to cause genotoxicity and impair DNA repair capacity. - Highlights: • Co-exposure to runoff from coal-tar-sealcoated pavement and UVA caused DNA damage. • Significant genotoxicity occurred with a 1:100 dilution of runoff. • Runoff collected up to 36 d following coal-tar-sealcoat application was genotoxic. • Exposure to runoff from sealed pavement impaired an important DNA repair pathway. • Repair capacity was impaired with a 1:10 dilution of runoff (1:100 not

Temporary core liquid level depression during cold-leg small-break LOCA effect of break size and power level

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koizumi, Y.; Kumamaru, H.; Mimura, Y.; Kukita, Y.; Tasaka, K.

1989-01-01

Cold-leg small break LOCA experiments (0.5-10% break) were conducted at the large scale test facility (LSTF), a volumetrically-scaled (1/48) simulator of a PWR, of the ROSA-IV Program. When a break area was less than 2.5% of the scaled cold-leg flow area, the core liquid level was temporarily further depressed to the bottom elevation of the crossover leg during the loop seal clearing early in the transient only by the manometric pressure balance since no coolant remained in the upper portion of the primary system. When the break size was larger than 5%, the core liquid level was temporarily further depressed lower than the bottom elevation of the crossover leg during the loop seal clearing since coolant remained at the upper portion of the primary system; the steam generator (SG) U-tube upflow side and the SG inlet plenum, due to counter current flow limiting by updrafting steam while the coolant drained. The amount of coolant trapped there was dependent on the vapor velocity (core power); the larger the core power, the lower the minimum core liquid level. The RELAP5/MOD2 code reasonable predicted phenomena observed in the experiments. (orig./DG)

An Artificial Neural Network Compensated Output Feedback Power-Level Control for Modular High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhe Dong

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Small modular reactors (SMRs could be beneficial in providing electricity power safely and also be viable for applications such as seawater desalination and heat production. Due to its inherent safety features, the modular high temperature gas-cooled reactor (MHTGR has been seen as one of the best candidates for building SMR-based nuclear power plants. Since the MHTGR dynamics display high nonlinearity and parameter uncertainty, it is necessary to develop a nonlinear adaptive power-level control law which is not only beneficial to the safe, stable, efficient and autonomous operation of the MHTGR, but also easy to implement practically. In this paper, based on the concept of shifted-ectropy and the physically-based control design approach, it is proved theoretically that the simple proportional-differential (PD output-feedback power-level control can provide asymptotic closed-loop stability. Then, based on the strong approximation capability of the multi-layer perceptron (MLP artificial neural network (ANN, a compensator is established to suppress the negative influence caused by system parameter uncertainty. It is also proved that the MLP-compensated PD power-level control law constituted by an experientially-tuned PD regulator and this MLP-based compensator can guarantee bounded closed-loop stability. Numerical simulation results not only verify the theoretical results, but also illustrate the high performance of this MLP-compensated PD power-level controller in suppressing the oscillation of process variables caused by system parameter uncertainty.

Simulations of Bunch Precompression at High Currents in the SLC Damping Rings

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bane, K.L.F.; Minty, M.G.; Chao, A.W.

2011-01-01

In the Stanford Linear Collider (SLC) each beam, after leaving a damping ring, is compressed in the Ring-to-Linac (RTL) transfer line before entering the linear accelerator. At a bunch population of 4.0 x 10 10 particles, due to the limited energy acceptance of the RTL, approximately 15% of the beam has normally been lost. During the 1996 run, however, to eliminate this loss the bunch was partially precompressed in the damping ring, just before extraction; the beam loss in the RTL was reduced to almost zero. The operation and performance of precompression are presented by Minty et al. (1999). Also given is an analysis which, however, does not include the effects of the longitudinal wakefield on the beam dynamics. In this report we extend that analysis to include these effects.

Luminescence property of volcanic quartz and the use of red isothermal TL for dating tephras

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsukamoto, S.; Murray, A.S.; Huot, S.; Watanuki, T.; Denby, P.M.; Botter-Jensen, L.

2007-01-01

An optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) age obtained from a Japanese tephra using quartz phenocrysts severely underestimated the known age. The characteristics of the OSL signals were investigated in order to understand the cause of the underestimation; the main OSL component of volcanic quartz has a thermodynamic lifetime of about 1700 years at room temperature, and it also seems to fade anomalously (i.e. athermally). Measurement of conventional red thermoluminescence (RTL) using a Ga-As photomultiplier tube was difficult due to the presence of a strong thermal background, although RTL gave an age consistent with the independent age. Furthermore, red isothermal TL (RITL) at 380 deg. C allowed the RTL signal to be separated from to the thermal background, and RITL ages of three volcanic quartz samples show good agreement with independent ages

Power infrastructure quality and manufacturing productivity in Africa: A firm level analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moyo, Busani

2013-01-01

This study sought to examine the impact of the quality of power infrastructure on productivity in African manufacturing firms using data from the World Bank enterprise surveys. We measured power infrastructure quality using the number of hours per day without electricity and the percentage of output lost due to outages and found these indicators to be negative and significant determinants of productivity. These variables seem to be significant determinants in Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia as well as in the food and agriculture sector. To improve economic growth and encourage employment creation, governments in Africa have to come up with measures to improve the reliability of electricity infrastructure. - Highlights: • Power infrastructure quality indicators are found to have a negative and significant effect. • The power quality indicators have varied effects both at country and sector level. • Owning a generator minimises the negative impact of outages in Uganda, Tanzania and Mauritius. • Other controls like labour, capital, foreign ownership etc. have a positive and significant effect. • The firm age variable is insignificant suggesting that accumulated knowledge does not matter

Hybrid PV/diesel solar power system design using multi-level factor analysis optimization

Science.gov (United States)

Drake, Joshua P.

Solar power systems represent a large area of interest across a spectrum of organizations at a global level. It was determined that a clear understanding of current state of the art software and design methods, as well as optimization methods, could be used to improve the design methodology. Solar power design literature was researched for an in depth understanding of solar power system design methods and algorithms. Multiple software packages for the design and optimization of solar power systems were analyzed for a critical understanding of their design workflow. In addition, several methods of optimization were studied, including brute force, Pareto analysis, Monte Carlo, linear and nonlinear programming, and multi-way factor analysis. Factor analysis was selected as the most efficient optimization method for engineering design as it applied to solar power system design. The solar power design algorithms, software work flow analysis, and factor analysis optimization were combined to develop a solar power system design optimization software package called FireDrake. This software was used for the design of multiple solar power systems in conjunction with an energy audit case study performed in seven Tibetan refugee camps located in Mainpat, India. A report of solar system designs for the camps, as well as a proposed schedule for future installations was generated. It was determined that there were several improvements that could be made to the state of the art in modern solar power system design, though the complexity of current applications is significant.

`Power storage system` dealing with leveling of electric power use; Denryoku riyo no heijunka ni kotaeru `denryoku chozo system`

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Igarashi, M. [Meidensha Corp., Tokyo (Japan)

1996-06-28

An overview is given on the development situation of a Zn-Br battery as a power storage system. The system is aimed at storing excess power at night and supplying the on-load demand during daytime. The power storage technology requires a large output and capacity of MWh level, long term stability and durability, and cost as low as pumped storage power generation. Four kinds of batteries have been examined to cope with the conditions, in which development of Zn-Br batteries along with Na-S batteries is in progress towards practicability. As a power conversion method for this system, GTO has been employed for a large capacity unit and IGBT for a medium/small capacity unit. The reliability of the Zn-Br batteries against leakage was improved by laminating each cell by hot plate welding. The service life was improved by using a material with a high bromine resistance in place of the conventional electrode constituent material. Although the battery efficiency was influenced by each resistance of electrode, film and electrolytic solution, distance between electrodes, temperature, etc., these correlations were clarified so as to establish the simulation technology. At present, the system realizes 50kW and 40kWh/m{sup 3}. 1 ref., 8 figs.

Telomere length in Chernobyl accident recovery workers in the late period after the disaster

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Reste, Jelena; Zvagule, Tija; Kurjane, Natalja; Eglite, Maija; Zvigule, Gunda; Berzina, Dace; Plonis, Juris; Miklasevics, Edvins; Gabruseva, Natalija

2014-01-01

The outcome of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (CNPP) accident was that a huge number of people were exposed to ionizing radiation. Previous studies of CNPP clean-up workers from Latvia revealed a high occurrence of age-associated degenerative diseases and cancer in young adults, as well as a high mortality as a result of cardiovascular disorders at age 45–54 years. DNA tandem repeats that cap chromosome ends, known as telomeres, are sensitive to oxidative damage and exposure to ionizing radiation. Telomeres are important in aging processes and carcinogenesis. The aim of this study was to investigate the long-term effect of protracted ionizing radiation exposure on telomere length in CNPP clean-up workers. Relative telomere length (RTL) was measured in peripheral blood leukocytes of 595 CNPP clean-up workers and 236 gender- and age-matched controls using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (q-PCR). Close attention was paid to participation year and tasks performed during the worker's stay in Chernobyl, health status, and RTL differences between subgroups. Telomere shortening was not found in CNPP clean-up workers; on the contrary, their RTL was slightly greater than in controls (P = 0.001). Longer telomeres were found in people who worked during 1986, in those undertaking 'dirty' tasks (digging and deactivation), and in people with cancer. Shorter telomeres appeared frequently in those with cataract, osteoporosis, atherosclerosis, or coronary heart disease. We conclude that the longer telomeres revealed in people more heavily exposed to ionizing radiation probably indicate activation of telomerase as a chromosome healing mechanism following damage, and reflect defects in telomerase regulation that could potentiate carcinogenesis. (author)

Technical basis for staffing levels at nuclear power plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shurberg, D.A.; Haber, S.B. [Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (United States); Morisseau, D. [Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States)] [and others

1995-04-01

The objective of this project is to provide a technical basis for the establishment of criteria for minimum staffing levels of licensed and non-licensed NPP shift personnel. Minimum staffing levels for the purpose of this study, are defined as those necessary for successful accomplishment of all safety and additional functions that must be performed in order for the licensee to meet applicable regulatory requirements. This project involves a multi-faceted approach to the investigation of the issue. Relevant NRC documentation was identified and reviewed. Using the information obtained from this documentation review, a test plan was developed to aid in the collection of further information regarding the adequacy of current shift staffing levels. The test plan addresses three different activities to be conducted to provide information to the NRC for use in the assessment of current minimum staffing levels. The first activity is collection of data related to industry shift staffing practices through site visits to seven nuclear power plants. The second activity is a simulator study, which will use licensed operator crews responding to a simulated event, under two different staffing levels. Finally, workload models will be constructed for both licensed and non-licensed personnel, using a priori knowledge of the simulator scenarios with data resulting from one of the staffing levels studied in the simulator, and the data collected from the site visits. The model will then be validated against the data obtained from the second staffing level studied in the simulator. The validated model can then be used to study the impact of changing staffing-related variables on the plant shift crew`s ability to effectively mitigate an event.

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON THE DELEGATION OF POWERS TO NATIONAL AND EUROPEAN UNION LEVEL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Silviu Alexandru Lăzărescu Simion

2012-11-01

Full Text Available In the context of Romania's accession to the European Union, have created the conditions to issue a new category of delegation of powers at the national level, used in the management of EU funds. Thus, delegation under delegation agreements concluded between ministries function with role management authorities and legal entities subordinated, coordination or subordination or coordination outside a hierarchy is a concrete way to exercise the powers conferred by the provisions Romania Community and pursue assimilated by delegating temporary administrative office.

Working together versus working autonomously: a new power-dependence perspective on the individual-level of analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

de Jong, Simon B

2014-01-01

Recent studies have indicated that it is important to investigate the interaction between task interdependence and task autonomy because this interaction can affect team effectiveness. However, only a limited number of studies have been conducted and those studies focused solely on the team level of analysis. Moreover, there has also been a dearth of theoretical development. Therefore, this study develops and tests an alternative theoretical perspective in an attempt to understand if, and if so why, this interaction is important at the individual level of analysis. Based on interdependence theory and power-dependence theory, we expected that highly task-interdependent individuals who reported high task autonomy would be more powerful and better performers. In contrast, we expected that similarly high task-interdependent individuals who reported less task autonomy would be less powerful and would be weaker performers. These expectations were supported by multi-level and bootstrapping analyses performed on a multi-source dataset (self-, peer-, manager-ratings) comprised of 182 employees drawn from 37 teams. More specifically, the interaction between task interdependence and task autonomy was γ =.128, p power and γ =.166, p <.05 for individual performance. The 95% bootstrap interval ranged from .0038 to .0686.

Effect of reactor conditions on MSIV-ATWS power level

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Diamond, D.J.

1987-01-01

In a boiling water reactor (BWR) when there is closure of the main steam isolation valves (MSIVs), the energy generated in the core will be transferred to the pressure suppression pool (PSP) via steam that flows out of the relief valves. The pool has limited capacity as a heat sink and hence, if there is no reactor trip [an anticipated transient without scram (ATWS) event], there is the possibility that the pool temperature may rise beyond acceptable limits. The present study was undertaken to determine how the initial reactor conditions affect the power level during an MSIV-ATWS event. The time of interest is the 20- to 30-min period when it is assumed that the reactor is in a quasi equilibrium condition with the water level and pressure fixed, natural circulation conditions and no control rod movement or significant boron in the core. The initial conditions of interest are the time of the cycle and the operating state

An overview of review guidelines for HDL programmable devices in nuclear safety systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Komanduri, Raghavan; Srivani, L.; Thirugnana Murthy, D.

2013-01-01

HDL programmable devices viz. CPLDs and FPGAs are increasingly being used to implement digital designs in the I and C systems performing safety functions of nuclear power plants. Synthesizable RTL descriptions manually written in HDLs are the first step in developing industry standard large scale digital designs. The reliability of the implementation is determined by the methodologies followed by the designer during development. Very few guidelines on HPD design practices, specific to nuclear industry are available. This paper presents an overview of the existing guidelines such as IEC 62566 and U.S. NRC's 'Review guidelines for FPGAs in nuclear power plant safety systems'. (author)

Design of power converter in DFIG wind turbine with enhanced system-level reliability

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhou, Dao; Zhang, Guanguan; Blaabjerg, Frede

2017-01-01

With the increasing penetration of wind power, reliable and cost-effective wind energy production are of more and more importance. As one of the promising configurations, the doubly-fed induction generator based partial-scale wind power converter is still dominating in the existing wind farms...... margin. It can be seen that the B1 lifetime of the grid-side converter and the rotor-side converter deviates a lot by considering the electrical stresses, while they become more balanced by using an optimized reliable design. The system-level lifetime significantly increases with an appropriate design...

Estimating the vibration level of an L-shaped beam using power flow techniques

Science.gov (United States)

Cuschieri, J. M.; Mccollum, M.; Rassineux, J. L.; Gilbert, T.

1986-01-01

The response of one component of an L-shaped beam, with point force excitation on the other component, is estimated using the power flow method. The transmitted power from the source component to the receiver component is expressed in terms of the transfer and input mobilities at the excitation point and the joint. The response is estimated both in narrow frequency bands, using the exact geometry of the beams, and as a frequency averaged response using infinite beam models. The results using this power flow technique are compared to the results obtained using finite element analysis (FEA) of the L-shaped beam for the low frequency response and to results obtained using statistical energy analysis (SEA) for the high frequencies. The agreement between the FEA results and the power flow method results at low frequencies is very good. SEA results are in terms of frequency averaged levels and these are in perfect agreement with the results obtained using the infinite beam models in the power flow method. The narrow frequency band results from the power flow method also converge to the SEA results at high frequencies. The advantage of the power flow method is that detail of the response can be retained while reducing computation time, which will allow the narrow frequency band analysis of the response to be extended to higher frequencies.

Low-level radioactive waste management in EDF nuclear power plants (FRANCE)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boussard, C.

1991-01-01

This paper shows some recent examples of Low-level radioactive waste management in EDF nuclear power plants: - Radioactive liquid wastes proceeding from steam generators leaching (NOGENT SUR SEINE-1 REACTOR) - Thermal insulation proceeding from heat exchanger and blower (CHINON-2 REACTOR) - Old iron from reactor dismantling (CHINON-3 REACTOR, MARCOULE G1 REACTOR, MARCOULE G2-G3 REACTORS) - fresh air filter and fire detector - CHINON-2 REACTOR breaker chambers

CLAS: A Novel Communications Latency Based Authentication Scheme

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zuochao Dou

2017-01-01

Full Text Available We design and implement a novel communications latency based authentication scheme, dubbed CLAS, that strengthens the security of state-of-the-art web authentication approaches by leveraging the round trip network communications latency (RTL between clients and authenticators. In addition to the traditional credentials, CLAS profiles RTL values of clients and uses them to defend against password compromise. The key challenges are (i to prevent RTL manipulation, (ii to alleviate network instabilities, and (iii to address mobile clients. CLAS addresses the first challenge by introducing a novel network architecture, which makes it extremely difficult for attackers to simulate legitimate RTL values. The second challenge is addressed by outlier removal and multiple temporal profiling, while the last challenge is addressed by augmenting CLAS with out-of-band-channels or other authentication schemes. CLAS restricts login to profiled locations while demanding additional information for nonprofiled ones, which highly reduces the attack surface even when the legitimate credentials are compromised. Additionally, unlike many state-of-the-art authentication mechanisms, CLAS is resilient to phishing, pharming, man-in-the-middle, and social engineering attacks. Furthermore, CLAS is transparent to users and incurs negligible overhead. The experimental results show that CLAS can achieve very low false positive and false negative rates.

Dependence of TL-property changes of natural quartzes on aluminium contents accompanied by thermal annealing treatment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hashimoto, T.; Sakaue, S.; Aoki, H.; Ichino, M.

1994-01-01

The TL properties were investigated using both an IPDA (Intensified Photo-Diode Array) spectrometric system and a TLCI (Thermoluminescence Colour Image) method after thermal annealing treatment at several temperatures. An apparent colour change from original blue- (BTL) to red-TL(RTL) has unexpectedly occurred in a Z-cut slice of Madagascar quartz, after an annealing treatment around 1000 o C. From the TL-colour change studies of the Z-cut slice, it was confirmed that original BTL intensities are inversely proportional to the Al contents; the TLCI-patterns of the original or annealed Z-cut slice gave stripe patterns corresponding to Al impurity contents along the crystal growth direction particularly yielding an intense appearance of RTL on higher Al contents after the annealing treatment. This changeability of TL-colour towards RTL after thermal annealing treatment was found to be intimately correlated with the square of Al concentrations, although BTL clearly changed as linearly proportional to Al impurity contents. Finally, the cleavage of Al-O-Al bonds or some sites in the vicinity of Al-O-Al bonds were plausibly considered to play an important role for the formation of RTL colour centres in natural quartzes as a result of the operation of high temperature effects. (Author)

Silicon compilation: From the circuit to the system

Science.gov (United States)

Obrien, Keven

The methodology used for the compilation of silicon from a behavioral level to a system level is presented. The aim was to link the heretofore unrelated areas of high level synthesis and system level design. This link will play an important role in the development of future design automation tools as it will allow hardware/software co-designs to be synthesized. A design methodology that alllows, through the use of an intermediate representation, SOLAR, a System level Design Language (SDL), to be combined with a Hardware Description Language (VHDL) is presented. Two main steps are required in order to transform this specification into a synthesizable one. Firstly, a system level synthesis step including partitioning and communication synthesis is required in order to split the model into a set of interconnected subsystems, each of which will be processed by a high level synthesis tool. For this latter step AMICAL is used and this allows powerful scheduling techniques to be used, that accept very abstract descriptions of control flow dominated circuits as input, and interconnected RTL blocks that may feed existing logic-level synthesis tools to be generated.

Optimal Level of Woody Biomass Co-Firing with Coal Power Plant Considering Advanced Feedstock Logistics System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sangpil Ko

2018-05-01

Full Text Available Co-firing from woody biomass feedstock is one of the alternatives toward increased use of renewable feedstock in existing coal power plants. However, the economic level of co-firing at a particular power plant depends on several site-specific factors. Torrefaction has been identified recently as a promising biomass pretreatment option to lead to reduction of the feedstock delivered cost, and thus facilitate an increase in the co-firing ratio. In this study, a mixed integer linear program (MILP is developed to integrate supply chain of co-firing and torrefaction process and find the optimal level of biomass co-firing in terms of minimized transportation and logistics costs, with or without tax credits. A case study of 26 existing coal power plants in three Great Lakes States of the US is used to test the model. The results reveal that torrefaction process can lead to higher levels of co-firing, but without the tax credit, the effect is limited to the low capacity of power plants. The sensitivity analysis shows that co-firing ratio has higher sensitivity to variation in capital and operation costs of torrefaction than to the variation in the transportation and feedstock purchase costs.

Nuclear power and low level radiation hazards

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Myers, D.K.; Newcombe, H.B.

1979-03-01

Even in the future, nuclear power is expected to contribute less than 1/10th of the present total population exposure to man-made radiation. By the best estimates available, the current health risks of nuclear power generation appear to be much less than those associated with the major alternative sources of energy, with the exception of natural gas which is about equally safe. Uncertainties concerning the radiation risks from nuclear power, from medical x-rays and from the effects of reduced ventillation to conserve heat appear to be less than those associated with estimates of risks from the use of coal and various other sources of energy. This is in part because of the large amount of effort devoted to studies of radiation effects. The benefits in terms of current life expectancy associated with any of the conventional or unconventional methods of power production appear to greatly outweigh the associated current health hazards. (author)

Operation and thermal loading of three-level Neutral-Point-Clamped wind power converter under various grid faults

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ma, Ke; Blaabjerg, Frede; Liserre, Marco

2012-01-01

In order to fulfill the continuous growing grid-side demands, the full-scale power converters are becoming more and more popular in the wind power application. Nevertheless, the more severe loading of the power semiconductor devices in the full-scale power converters, especially during Low Voltage...... Ride Through (LVRT) operation under grid faults, may compromise the reliability of the system and consequently further increase its cost. In this paper, the impact of various grid faults on a three-level Neutral-Point-Clamped (3L-NPC) grid-converter in terms of thermal loading of power semiconductor...

Self-Powered Implantable Skin-Like Glucometer for Real-Time Detection of Blood Glucose Level In Vivo

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Wanglinhan; Zhang, Linlin; Gao, Huiling; Yang, Wenyan; Wang, Shuai; Xing, Lili; Xue, Xinyu

2018-06-01

Implantable bioelectronics for analyzing physiological biomarkers has recently been recognized as a promising technique in medical treatment or diagnostics. In this study, we developed a self-powered implantable skin-like glucometer for real-time detection of blood glucose level in vivo. Based on the piezo-enzymatic-reaction coupling effect of GOx@ZnO nanowire, the device under an applied deformation can actively output piezoelectric signal containing the glucose-detecting information. No external electricity power source or battery is needed for this device, and the outputting piezoelectric voltage acts as both the biosensing signal and electricity power. A practical application of the skin-like glucometer implanted in mouse body for detecting blood glucose level has been simply demonstrated. These results provide a new technique path for diabetes prophylaxis and treatment.

Power quality enhancement at distribution level utilizing the unified power quality conditioner (UPQC)

Science.gov (United States)

Khadkikar, Vinod

The present doctoral work is based on the philosophy of optimal utilization of the available resources in a most effective and efficient way to improve the product efficiency and to reduce the overall cost. This work proposes a novel control philosophy termed as power angle control (PAC), in which both the series and shunt inverters share the load reactive power in co-ordination with each other without affecting the basic UPQC compensation capabilities. This eventually results in a better utilization of the series inverter, reduction in the shunt inverter rating to some extent and ultimately in the reduction of the overall cost of UPQC. Moreover, in this thesis work several other control approaches are also proposed, such as, unit vector template generation, quadrature voltage injection, generalized single-phase p-q theory and novel current unbalance compensation approach. All the developed concepts are successfully validated through digital simulation as well as extensive experimental investigations. Keywords. power quality, active power filter, unified power quality conditioner, reactive power compensation, harmonics compensation.

The Effects of a Maximal Power Training Cycle on the Strength, Maximum Power, Vertical Jump Height and Acceleration of High-Level 400-Meter Hurdlers

Science.gov (United States)

Balsalobre-Fernández, Carlos; Tejero-González, Carlos Mª; del Campo-Vecino, Juan; Alonso-Curiel, Dionisio

2013-01-01

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of a power training cycle on maximum strength, maximum power, vertical jump height and acceleration in seven high-level 400-meter hurdlers subjected to a specific training program twice a week for 10 weeks. Each training session consisted of five sets of eight jump-squats with the load at which each athlete produced his maximum power. The repetition maximum in the half squat position (RM), maximum power in the jump-squat (W), a squat jump (SJ), countermovement jump (CSJ), and a 30-meter sprint from a standing position were measured before and after the training program using an accelerometer, an infra-red platform and photo-cells. The results indicated the following statistically significant improvements: a 7.9% increase in RM (Z=−2.03, p=0.021, δc=0.39), a 2.3% improvement in SJ (Z=−1.69, p=0.045, δc=0.29), a 1.43% decrease in the 30-meter sprint (Z=−1.70, p=0.044, δc=0.12), and, where maximum power was produced, a change in the RM percentage from 56 to 62% (Z=−1.75, p=0.039, δc=0.54). As such, it can be concluded that strength training with a maximum power load is an effective means of increasing strength and acceleration in high-level hurdlers. PMID:23717361

Comparison of Anthropometry and Lower Limb Power Qualities According to Different Levels and Ranking Position of Competitive Surfers.

Science.gov (United States)

Fernandez-Gamboa, Iosu; Yanci, Javier; Granados, Cristina; Camara, Jesus

2017-08-01

Fernandez-Gamboa, I, Yanci, J, Granados, C, and Camara, J. Comparison of anthropometry and lower limb power qualities according to different levels and ranking position of competitive surfers. J Strength Cond Res 31(8): 2231-2237, 2017-The aim of this study was to compare competitive surfers' lower limb power output depending on their competitive level, and to evaluate the association between competition rankings. Twenty competitive surfers were divided according to the competitive level as follows: international (INT) or national (NAT), and competitive ranking (RANK1-50 or RANK51-100). Vertical jump and maximal peak power of the lower limbs were measured. No differences were found between INT and NAT surfers in the anthropometric variables, in the vertical jump, or in lower extremity power; although the NAT group had higher levels on the elasticity index, squat jumps (SJs), and counter movement jumps (CMJs) compared with the INT group. The RANK1-50 group had a lower biceps skinfold (p RANK1-50 group. Moderate to large significant correlations were obtained between the surfers' ranking position and some skinfolds, the sum of skinfolds, and vertical jump. Results demonstrate that surfers' physical performance seems to be an accurate indicator of ranking positioning, also revealing that vertical jump capacity and anthropometric variables play an important role in their competitive performance, which may be important when considering their power training.

Control structures for high speed processors

Science.gov (United States)

Maki, G. K.; Mankin, R.; Owsley, P. A.; Kim, G. M.

1982-01-01

A special processor was designed to function as a Reed Solomon decoder with throughput data rate in the Mhz range. This data rate is significantly greater than is possible with conventional digital architectures. To achieve this rate, the processor design includes sequential, pipelined, distributed, and parallel processing. The processor was designed using a high level language register transfer language. The RTL can be used to describe how the different processes are implemented by the hardware. One problem of special interest was the development of dependent processes which are analogous to software subroutines. For greater flexibility, the RTL control structure was implemented in ROM. The special purpose hardware required approximately 1000 SSI and MSI components. The data rate throughput is 2.5 megabits/second. This data rate is achieved through the use of pipelined and distributed processing. This data rate can be compared with 800 kilobits/second in a recently proposed very large scale integration design of a Reed Solomon encoder.

System-Level Value of a Gas Engine Power Plant in Electricity and Reserve Production

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Antti Alahäivälä

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Power systems require a certain amount of flexibility to meet varying demand and to be able to cope with unexpected events, and this requirement is expected to increase with the emergence of variable power generation. In this paper, we focus on gas engine power plant technology and the beneficial influence its flexible operation can have on a power system. The study introduces the concept of a combined-cycle gas engine power plant (CCGE, which comprises a combination of several gas-fired combustion engines and a steam turbine. The operation of CCGE is then comprehensively analyzed in electricity and reserve production in the South African power system and compared with combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT technology. Even though CCGE is a form of technology that has already been commercialized, it is rarely considered as a source of flexibility in the academic research. That is the notion providing the motivation for this study. Our core contribution is to show that the flexibility of CCGE can be valuable in power systems. The methodology is based on the unit-level model of the studied system and the solving of a day-ahead unit commitment problem for each day of the simulated 11-year period. The simulation studies reveal how a CCGE is able to offer system flexibility to follow hourly load variations and capacity to provide reserve power effectively.

Use of Three-Level Power Converters in Wind-Driven Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Generators with Unbalanced Loads

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ming-Hung Chen

2015-06-01

Full Text Available This paper describes the design and implementation of three-level power converters for wind-driven permanent-magnet synchronous generators with unbalanced loads. To increase voltage stress and reduce current harmonics in the electrical power generated by a wind generator, a three-phase, three-level rectifier is used. Because a synchronous rotating frame is used on the AC-input side, the use of a neutral-point-clamped controller is proposed to increase the power factor to unity and reduce current harmonics. Furthermore, a novel six-leg inverter is proposed for transferring energy from the DC voltage to a three-phase, four-wire AC source with a constant voltage and a constant frequency. The power converters also contain output transformers and filters for power buffering and filtering, respectively. All three output phase voltages are fed back to control the inverter output during load variations. A digital signal processor is used as the core control device for implementing a 1.5 kV, 75 kW drive system. Experimental data show that the power factor is successfully increased to unity and the total current harmonic distortion is 3.2% on the AC-input side. The entire system can attain an efficiency of 91%, and the voltage error between the upper and lower capacitors is approximately zero. Experimental results that confirm the high performance of the proposed system are presented.

The Evolution of Power System Planning with High Levels of Variable Renewable Generation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Katz, Jessica [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Milligan, Michael [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

2016-09-01

Greening the Grid provides technical assistance to energy system planners, regulators, and grid operators to overcome challenges associated with integrating variable renewable energy into the grid. This document, part of the Greening the Grid introduces the evolution of power system planning with high levels of variable renewable generation.

Comparative study of the base activity levels of the Spanish continental nuclear power stations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gregorides de los Santos y Perez-Minguez, A.M.

1980-01-01

In this work the pre-operational activity levels of the sites of some Spanish nuclear power stations are discussed. These power stations are located near the Tagus and Ebro river basins. A report of the communities investigated is made. The total alpha and beta activity as well as the long half life activity has been researched there. The importance of this question is obvious for it gives a regional average of the base activity in the basins of these two big Spanish rivers [fr

Component resolved bleaching study in natural calcium fluoride using CW-OSL, LM-OSL and residual TL glow curves after bleaching

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Angeli, Vasiliki; Polymeris, George S.; Sfampa, Ioanna K.; Tsirliganis, Nestor C.; Kitis, George

2017-01-01

Natural calcium fluoride has been commonly used as thermoluminescence (TL) dosimeter due to its high luminescence intensity. The aim of this work includes attempting a correlation between specific TL glow curves after bleaching and components of linearly modulated optically stimulated luminescence (LM-OSL) as well as continuous wave OSL (CW-OSL). A component resolved analysis was applied to both integrated intensity of the RTL glow curves and all OSL decay curves, by using a Computerized Glow-Curve De-convolution (CGCD) procedure. All CW-OSL and LM-OSL components are correlated to the decay components of the integrated RTL signal, apart from two RTL components which cannot be directly correlated with either LM-OSL or CW-OSL component. The unique, stringent criterion for this correlation deals with the value of the decay constant λ of each bleaching component. There is only one, unique bleaching component present in all three luminescence entities which were the subject of the present study, indicating that each TL trap yields at least three different bleaching components; different TL traps can indicate bleaching components with similar values. According to the data of the present work each RTL bleaching component receives electrons from at least two peaks. The results of the present study strongly suggest that the traps that contribute to TL and OSL are the same. - Highlights: • A component resolved bleaching study was attempted to CaF_2:N in terms of CW-OSL, LM-OSL and RTL. • Bleaching decay constants originating from different TL peaks yield overlapping values. • Three to five individual components were used in order to describe the bleaching behavior in all luminescence entities. • There is only one, unique bleaching component present in all three luminescence entities.

Reading to Learn: A literature review within a South African context

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tracey Jane Millin

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Academic literacy development within the secondary schooling system in South Africa has reached crisis proportions, with a large number of students exiting the system unable to function adequately within the tertiary sector or labour market. Attempts to remedy this crisis by introducing curriculum reform over the past few years have yielded little success, with universities having to take on the literacy problem by offering a variety of remedial programmes to ensure that students are equipped to access learning and succeed at their studies. Research shows that most literacy intervention programs at universities appear to favour a more traditional approach to English academic language development by focusing on grammatical rules, sentence structure, spelling and punctuation. This bottom-up approach does not necessarily equip students with the skills needed to write coherent and cohesive extended pieces of writing as required by university assessment processes. For this reason, the Reading to Learn (RtL methodology was chosen to be implemented within a writing module at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and within selected Grade 11 classes in the Winelands District in an attempt to find an alternative approach to academic literacy development. The purpose of this article is to offer a comprehensive synthesis of some of the theoretical assumptions of RtL as well as its practical implementation before embarking on an evaluative study of this methodology in future papers. In doing so, this article offers a brief discussion on academic literacy pedagogies and situates RtL within these frameworks. This is followed by a synthesis of the practical implementation of RtL and a discussion of the works of Halliday (1989, 1996, Vygotsky (1978 and Bernstein (1990, 1996 which have had an influence on the development of RtL.

Telomere length in Chernobyl accident recovery workers in the late period after the disaster.

Science.gov (United States)

Reste, Jelena; Zvigule, Gunda; Zvagule, Tija; Kurjane, Natalja; Eglite, Maija; Gabruseva, Natalija; Berzina, Dace; Plonis, Juris; Miklasevics, Edvins

2014-11-01

The outcome of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (CNPP) accident was that a huge number of people were exposed to ionizing radiation. Previous studies of CNPP clean-up workers from Latvia revealed a high occurrence of age-associated degenerative diseases and cancer in young adults, as well as a high mortality as a result of cardiovascular disorders at age 45-54 years. DNA tandem repeats that cap chromosome ends, known as telomeres, are sensitive to oxidative damage and exposure to ionizing radiation. Telomeres are important in aging processes and carcinogenesis. The aim of this study was to investigate the long-term effect of protracted ionizing radiation exposure on telomere length in CNPP clean-up workers. Relative telomere length (RTL) was measured in peripheral blood leukocytes of 595 CNPP clean-up workers and 236 gender- and age-matched controls using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (q-PCR). Close attention was paid to participation year and tasks performed during the worker's stay in Chernobyl, health status, and RTL differences between subgroups. Telomere shortening was not found in CNPP clean-up workers; on the contrary, their RTL was slightly greater than in controls (P = 0.001). Longer telomeres were found in people who worked during 1986, in those undertaking 'dirty' tasks (digging and deactivation), and in people with cancer. Shorter telomeres appeared frequently in those with cataract, osteoporosis, atherosclerosis, or coronary heart disease. We conclude that the longer telomeres revealed in people more heavily exposed to ionizing radiation probably indicate activation of telomerase as a chromosome healing mechanism following damage, and reflect defects in telomerase regulation that could potentiate carcinogenesis. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Japan Radiation Research Society and Japanese Society for Radiation Oncology.

Experimental analysis of flexibility change with different levels of power reduction by demand response activation on thermostat controlled loads

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lakshmanan, Venkatachalam; Marinelli, Mattia; Hu, Junjie

2017-01-01

This paper studies the flexibility available with thermostatically controlled loads (TCLs) to provide power system services by demand response (DR) activation. Although the DR activation on TCLs can provide power system ancillary services, it is important to know how long such services can...... be provided for when different levels of power reduction are imposed. The flexibility change with different levels of power reduction is tested experimentally with domestic fridges used by real customers with unknown user interaction. The investigation quantifies the flexibility of household fridges...... and the impact of DR activation in terms of deviation in the average temperature. The maximum possible power reduction with the cluster of refrigerators is 67% and the available flexibility with the cluster of refrigerators is 10%. The resulting deviation in the average temperature is 14%....

Towards upper power levels: thermonuclear fusion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vedel, Jean

1983-01-01

This paper is a brief introduction to the use of power lasers to achieve controlled thermonuclear fusion. After shortly describing thermonuclear fusion and the conditions of temperature, density and duration required it is showed how the laser enables such conditions to be created. The neodymium-doped glass laser NOVA that is being installed at the Livermore laboratory in the USA is described; at the time of its completion in 1984, this laser will be the most powerful in the world. In comparison, the OCTAL laser in operation at the Limeil establishment ''Centre d'Etudes'' of ''Commissariat Francais a l'Energie Atomique'' (the French atomic energy authority) is more modest; it is presented here [fr

Fine-hyperfine splittings of quarkonium levels in an effective power-law potential

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Barik, N; Jena, S N [Utkal Univ., Bhubaneswar (India). Dept. of Physics

1980-12-01

We have shown that an effective non-coulombic power-law potential generating spin dependence through scalar and vector exchanges in almost equal proportions along with a very small or zero quark anomalous moment can describe very satisfactorily the up-to-date data on the fine-hyperfine levels and the leptonic width ratios of the vector mesons in the cc and bb families in a flavour independent manner.

New reactor safety circuit for low-power-level operation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

McDowell, W.P.; Keefe, D.J.; Rusch, G.K.

1978-01-01

In the operation of nuclear reactors at low-power levels, one of the primary instrumentation problems is that the statistical fluctuations of reactor neutron population are accentuated by conventional log-count-rate and differentiating circuits and can cause frequent spurious scrams unless long time constants are incorporated in the circuit. Excessive time constants may introduce undesirable delay in the circuit response to legitimate scram signals. The paper develops the concept of a count doubling-time monitor which generates a scram signal if the number of counts from a pulse type neutron detector doubles in a given period of time. The paper demonstrates the theoretical relation between count doubling time and asymptomatic periods. A practical circuit to implement the function is described

Effects of prior exposure on music liking and recognition in patients with temporal lobe lesions.

Science.gov (United States)

Samson, Séverine; Peretz, Isabelle

2005-12-01

Prior exposure to music typically increases liking. This manifestation of implicit memory can be dissociated from explicit memory recognition. To examine the contribution of the medial temporal lobe to musical preference and recognition, we tested patients with either left (LTL) or right (RTL) temporal lobe lesions as well as normal control (NC) participants using the procedure of Peretz et al. The results in the affect task showed that NC and LTL participants preferred the studied over nonstudied melodies, thereby demonstrating an implicit exposure effect on liking judgments, whereas RTL patients failed to exhibit this effect. Explicit recognition was impaired in both LTL and RTL patients as compared to NC participants. On the basis of these findings, we suggest that RTL structures play a critical role in the formation of melody representations that support both priming and memory recognition, whereas LTL structures are more involved in the explicit retrieval of melodies. Furthermore, we were able to test an amnesic patient (PC) with bilateral lesions of the temporal lobe. In this case, the exposure effect on liking was also absent. However, repeated exposure to melodies was found to enhance both liking and recognition judgments. This remarkable sparing of memory observed through melody repetition suggests that extensive exposure may assist both implicit and explicit memory in the presence of global amnesia.

Dynamic evaluation of the levelized cost of wind power generation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Díaz, Guzmán; Gómez-Aleixandre, Javier; Coto, José

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Conventional levelized cost of energy is static and does not consider flexibility. • This paper defines a dynamic version by means of stochastic programming. • A penalty for early exercising is proposed to differentiate static and dynamic. • Results show the effects of feed-in tariff support in low wind sites. • Policy implications are derived on the basis of the static and dynamic measures. - Abstract: This paper discusses an alternative computation method of the levelized cost of energy of distributed wind power generators. Unlike in the conventional procedures, it includes time of commencement as an optimization variable. For that purpose, a methodology from Longstaff and Schwartz’s dynamic program for pricing financial American options is derived, which provides the ability to find the optimum time and value while coping with uncertainty revenues from energy sales and variable capital costs. The results obtained from the analysis of wind records of 50 sites entail that the conventional levelized cost of energy can be broken down into an optimum, minimum (time-dependent) value and a penalty for early exercising, which can be employed to define investment strategies and support policies

Design and operation of 140 GHz gyrotron oscillators for power levels up to 1 MW CW

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jory, H.; Bier, R.; Craig, L.J.; Felch, K.; Ives, L.; Lopez, N.; Spang, S.

1986-12-01

Varian has designed and tested 140 GHz gyrotron oscillators that have generated output powers of 100 kW CW and 200 kW for 1 ms pulses. Upcoming tubes will be designed to operate at power levels of 200 kW CW and ultimately up to 1 MW CW. The important design considerations which are addressed in the higher power tubes include the design of the electron gun, interaction circuit, and output window. These issues will be discussed and the results of the earlier 140 GHz gyrotron work at Varian will be summarized.

Design and operation of 140 GHz gyrotron oscillators for power levels up to 1 MW CW

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jory, H.; Bier, R.; Craig, L.J.; Felch, K.; Ives, L.; Lopez, N.; Spang, S.

1986-12-01

Varian has designed and tested 140 GHz gyrotron oscillators that have generated output powers of 100 kW CW and 200 kW for 1 ms pulses. Upcoming tubes will be designed to operate at power levels of 200 kW CW and ultimately up to 1 MW CW. The important design considerations which are addressed in the higher power tubes include the design of the electron gun, interaction circuit, and output window. These issues will be discussed and the results of the earlier 140 GHz gyrotron work at Varian will be summarized

Operating the Irish power system with increased levels of wind power

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tuohy, A.; Denny, E.; Meibom, Peter

2008-01-01

This paper summarises some of the main impacts of large amounts of wind power installed in the island of Ireland. Using results from various studies performed on this system, it is shown that wind power will impact on all time frames, from seconds to daily planning of the system operation. Results...... from studies examining operation of the system with up to approximately 40% of electricity provided by wind show that some of the most important aspects to be considered include the type of wind turbine technology, the provision of reserve to accommodate wind forecasting error and the method used...

Experimental study on an S-band near-field microwave magnetron power transmission system on hundred-watt level

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Biao; Jiang, Wan; Yang, Yang; Yu, Chengyang; Huang, Kama; Liu, Changjun

2015-11-01

A multi-magnetron microwave source, a metamaterial transmitting antenna, and a large power rectenna array are presented to build a near-field 2.45 GHz microwave power transmission system. The square 1 m2 rectenna array consists of sixteen rectennas with 2048 Schottky diodes for large power microwave rectifying. It receives microwave power and converts them into DC power. The design, structure, and measured performance of a unit rectenna as well as the entail rectenna array are presented in detail. The multi-magnetron microwave power source switches between half and full output power levels, i.e. the half-wave and full-wave modes. The transmission antenna is formed by a double-layer metallic hole array, which is applied to combine the output power of each magnetron. The rectenna array DC output power reaches 67.3 W on a 1.2 Ω DC load at a distance of 5.5 m from the transmission antenna. DC output power is affected by the distance, DC load, and the mode of microwave power source. It shows that conventional low power Schottky diodes can be applied to a microwave power transmission system with simple magnetrons to realise large power microwave rectifying.

Fine-hyperfine splittings of quarkonium levels in an effective power-law potential

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Barik, N.; Jena, S.N.

1980-01-01

We have shown that an effective non-coulombic power-law potential generating spin dependence through scalar and vector exchanges in almost equal proportions along with a very small or zero quark anomalous moment can describe very satisfactorily the up-to-date data on the fine-hyperfine levels and the leptonic width ratios of the vector mesons in the cc and bb families in a flavour independent manner. (orig.)

Level 1 shutdown and low power operation of Mochovce NPP, Unit 1, Slovakia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Halada, P.; Cillik, I.; Stojka, T.; Kuzma, M.; Prochaska, J.; Vrtik, L.

2004-01-01

The paper presents general approach, used methods and form of documentation of the results that have been applied within the shutdown and low power PSA (SPSA) study for Mochovce NPP, Unit 1, Slovakia. The SPSA project was realized by VUJE Trnava Inc., Slovakia in 2001-2002 years. The Level 1 SPSA study for Mochovce NPP Unit 1 covers internal events as well as internal (fires, floods and heavy load drop) and external (aircraft crash, extreme meteorological conditions, seismic event and influence of surrounding industry) hazards. Mochovce NPP consists of two operating units equipped with VVER 440/V213 reactors safety upgraded before construction finishing and operation start. 87 safety measures based on VVER 440 operational experience and international mission insights were implemented to enhance its operational and nuclear safety. The SPSA relates to full power PSA (FPSA) as a continuation of the effort to create a harmonized level 1 PSA model for all operational modes of the plant with the goal to use it for further purposes as follows: Real Time Risk Monitor, Maintenance Optimization, Technical Specifications Optimization, Living PSA. (author)

CEA contribution to power plant operation with high burnup level

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1981-03-01

High level burnup in PWR leads to investigate again the choices carried out in the field of fuel management. French CEA has studied the economic importance of reshuffling technique, cycle length, discharge burnup, and non-operation period between two cycles. Power plants operators wish to work with increased length cycles of 18 months instead of 12. That leads to control problems because the core reactivity cannot be controlled with the only soluble boron: moderator temperature coefficient must be negative. With such cycles, it is necessary to use burnable poisons and for economic reasons with a low penalty in end of cycle. CEA has studied the use of Gd 2 O 3 mixed with fuel or with inert element like Al 2 O 3 . Parametric studies of specific weights, efficacities relatively to the fuel burnup and the fuel enrichment have been carried out. Particular studies of 1 month cycles with Gd 2 O 3 have shown the possibility to control power distribution with a very low reactivity penalty in EOC. In the same time, in the 100 MW PWR-CAP, control reactivity has been made with large use of gadolinia in parallel with soluble boron for the two first cycles

Integrated Level 3 risk assessment for the LaSalle Unit 2 nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Payne, A.C. Jr.; Brown, T.D.; Miller, L.A.

1991-01-01

An integrated Level 3 probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) was performed on the LaSalle County Station nuclear power plant using state-of-the-art PRA analysis techniques. The objective of this study was to provide an estimate of the risk to the offsite population during full power operation of the plant and to include a characterization of the uncertainties in the calculated risk values. Uncertainties were included in the accident frequency analysis, accident progression analysis, and the source term analysis. Only weather uncertainties were included in the consequence analysis. In this paper selected results from the accident frequency, accident progression, source term, consequence, and integrated risk analyses are discussed and the methods used to perform a fully integrated Level 3 PRA are examined. LaSalle County Station is a two-unit nuclear power plant located 55 miles southwest of Chicago, Illinois. Each unit utilizes a Mark 2 containment to house a General Electric 3323 MWt BWR-5 reactor. This PRA, which was performed on Unit 2, included internal as well as external events. External events that were propagated through the risk analysis included earthquakes, fires, and floods. The internal event accident scenarios included transients, transient-induced LOCAs (inadvertently stuck open relief valves), anticipated transients without scram, and loss of coolant accidents

Thermal Equilibrium Dynamic Control Based on DPWM Dual-Mode Modulation of High Power NPC Three-Level Inverter

OpenAIRE

Xu, Shi-Zhou; He, Feng-You

2016-01-01

In some special applications of NPC three-level inverters, such as mine hoist, there exist special conditions of overloading during the whole hoisting process and large overload in starting stage, during which the power-loss calculation of power devices and thermal control are important factors affecting the thermal stability of inverters. The principles of SVPWM and DPWM were described in this paper firstly, based on which the dynamic power losses of the two modulations of hoist in single pe...

Natural radionuclides near a coal-fired power station. [/sup 210/Po and /sup 210/Pb levels in cattle livers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smith-Briggs, J L; Crick, M J [National Radiological Protection Board, Harwell (UK)

1982-11-01

Previous measurements have shown enhanced levels of /sup 210/Po and /sup 210/Pb from fly ash deposited in the environment around old coal-fired power stations. Preliminary results are presented for levels of /sup 210/Po and /sup 210/Pb in liver samples from cattle which had grazed for two to three years in a field adjacent to a modern power station. No significant difference in the levels of these natural radionuclides was found compared to liver samples obtained from cattle in a control area.

Near-Field Acoustic Power Level Analysis of F31/A31 Open Rotor Model at Simulated Cruise Conditions, Technical Report II

Science.gov (United States)

Sree, Dave

2015-01-01

Near-field acoustic power level analysis of F31A31 open rotor model has been performed to determine its noise characteristics at simulated cruise flight conditions. The non-proprietary parts of the test data obtained from experiments in the 8x6 supersonic wind tunnel were provided by NASA-Glenn Research Center. The tone and broadband components of total noise have been separated from raw test data by using a new data analysis tool. Results in terms of sound pressure levels, acoustic power levels, and their variations with rotor speed, freestream Mach number, and input shaft power, with different blade-pitch setting angles at simulated cruise flight conditions, are presented and discussed. Empirical equations relating models acoustic power level and input shaft power have been developed. The near-field acoustic efficiency of the model at simulated cruise conditions is also determined. It is hoped that the results presented in this work will serve as a database for comparison and improvement of other open rotor blade designs and also for validating open rotor noise prediction codes.

Design and implementation of embedded un-interruptible power supply system (EUPSS) for web-based mobile application

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, De-gan; Zhang, Xiao-dan

2012-11-01

With the growth of the amount of information manipulated by embedded application systems, which are embedded into devices and offer access to the devices on the internet, the requirements of saving the information systemically is necessary so as to fulfil access from the client and the local processing more efficiently. For supporting mobile applications, a design and implementation solution of embedded un-interruptible power supply (UPS) system (in brief, EUPSS) is brought forward for long-distance monitoring and controlling of UPS based on Web. The implementation of system is based on ATmega161, RTL8019AS and Arm chips with TCP/IP protocol suite for communication. In the embedded UPS system, an embedded file system is designed and implemented which saves the data and index information on a serial EEPROM chip in a structured way and communicates with a microcontroller unit through I2C bus. By embedding the file system into UPS system or other information appliances, users can access and manipulate local data on the web client side. Embedded file system on chips will play a major role in the growth of IP networking. Based on our experiment tests, the mobile users can easily monitor and control UPS in different places of long-distance. The performance of EUPSS has satisfied the requirements of all kinds of Web-based mobile applications.

A low-power and small-area column-level ADC for high frame-rate CMOS pixel sensor

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, L., E-mail: liang.zhang@iphc.cnrs.fr [School of Physics, Key Laboratory of Particle Physics and Particle Irradiation, Shandong University, 250100 Jinan (China); Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, University of Strasbourg, CNRS/IN2P3/UDS, 23 rue du loess, BP 28, 67037 Strasbourg (France); Morel, F.; Hu-Guo, C.; Hu, Y. [Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, University of Strasbourg, CNRS/IN2P3/UDS, 23 rue du loess, BP 28, 67037 Strasbourg (France)

2014-07-01

CMOS pixel sensors (CPS) have demonstrated performances meeting the specifications of the International Linear Collider (ILC) vertex detector (VTX). This paper presents a low-power and small-area 4-bit column-level analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for CMOS pixel sensors. The ADC employs a self-timed trigger and completes the conversion by performing a multi-bit/step approximation. As in the outer layers of the ILC vertex detector hit density is of the order of a few per thousand, in order to reduce power consumption, the ADC is designed to work in two modes: active mode and idle mode. The ADC is fabricated in a 0.35 μm CMOS process with a pixel pitch of 35 μm. It is implemented with 48 columns in a sensor prototype. Each column ADC covers an area of 35 ×545 μm{sup 2}. The measured temporal noise and Fixed Pattern Noise (FPN) are 0.96 mV and 0.40 mV, respectively. The power consumption, for a 3 V supply and 6.25 MS/s sampling rate, is 486 μW during idle time, which is by far the most frequently employed one. This value rises to 714 μW in the case of the active mode. The measured differential nonlinearity (DNL) and integral nonlinearity (INL) are 0.49/−0.28 LSB and 0.29/−0.20 LSB, respectively. - Highlights: • CMOS sensor integrated with column-level ADC is proposed for ILC VTX outer layers. • A low-power and small-area column-level ADC for high frame-rate CPS is presented. • The test results demonstrate the power and area efficiency. • The architecture is suitable for the outer layer CMOS sensors.

A low-power and small-area column-level ADC for high frame-rate CMOS pixel sensor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, L.; Morel, F.; Hu-Guo, C.; Hu, Y.

2014-01-01

CMOS pixel sensors (CPS) have demonstrated performances meeting the specifications of the International Linear Collider (ILC) vertex detector (VTX). This paper presents a low-power and small-area 4-bit column-level analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for CMOS pixel sensors. The ADC employs a self-timed trigger and completes the conversion by performing a multi-bit/step approximation. As in the outer layers of the ILC vertex detector hit density is of the order of a few per thousand, in order to reduce power consumption, the ADC is designed to work in two modes: active mode and idle mode. The ADC is fabricated in a 0.35 μm CMOS process with a pixel pitch of 35 μm. It is implemented with 48 columns in a sensor prototype. Each column ADC covers an area of 35 ×545 μm 2 . The measured temporal noise and Fixed Pattern Noise (FPN) are 0.96 mV and 0.40 mV, respectively. The power consumption, for a 3 V supply and 6.25 MS/s sampling rate, is 486 μW during idle time, which is by far the most frequently employed one. This value rises to 714 μW in the case of the active mode. The measured differential nonlinearity (DNL) and integral nonlinearity (INL) are 0.49/−0.28 LSB and 0.29/−0.20 LSB, respectively. - Highlights: • CMOS sensor integrated with column-level ADC is proposed for ILC VTX outer layers. • A low-power and small-area column-level ADC for high frame-rate CPS is presented. • The test results demonstrate the power and area efficiency. • The architecture is suitable for the outer layer CMOS sensors

System-Level Power Optimization for a ΣΔ D/A Converter for Hearing-Aid Application

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pracný, Peter; Jørgensen, Ivan Harald Holger; Bruun, Erik

2013-01-01

This paper deals with a system-level optimization of a back-end of audio signal processing chain for hearing-aids, including a sigma-delta modulator digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and a Class D power amplifier. Compared to other stateof-the-art designs dealing with sigma-delta modulator design...... hearing-aid audio back-end system resulting in less hardware and power consumption in the interpolation filter, in the sigma-delta modulator and reduced switching rate of the Class D output stage....

Radioactivity level of the ambient environment of Anren bone-coal power station

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ye Jida; Liu Hongshi; Wu Zongmei; Wu Xiaofei

2002-01-01

The radioactivity level of the ambient environment of Anren Bone-coal Power Station (BCPS) was investigated systematically. The γ radiation dose rate level in the environment, the content of 238 U and 226 Ra in the ambient soil and the farmland in the direction of downwind, the concentrations of 238 U, 232 Th, 226 Ra, 40 K and 222 Rn, as well as α potential energy in air, and the concentrations of natural U and Th in effluent are all higher than the corresponding values of the reference site. The additional annual effective dose equivalent to the residents living in the houses made of bone-coal cinder brick is 2.7 mSv

Studies of power exhaust and divertor design for a 1.5 GW-level fusion power DEMO

Science.gov (United States)

Asakura, N.; Hoshino, K.; Suzuki, S.; Tokunaga, S.; Someya, Y.; Utoh, H.; Kudo, H.; Sakamoto, Y.; Hiwatari, R.; Tobita, K.; Shimizu, K.; Ezato, K.; Seki, Y.; Ohno, N.; Ueda, Y.; Joint Special TeamDEMO Design

2017-12-01

Power exhaust to the divertor and the conceptual design have been investigated for a steady-state DEMO in Japan with 1.5 GW-level fusion power and the major radius of 8.5 m, where the plasma parameters were revised appropriate for the impurity seeding scenario. A system code survey for the Ar impurity seeding suggested the volume-averaged density, impurity concentration and exhaust power from the main plasma of {{P}sep ~ }   =  205-285 MW. The divertor plasma simulation (SONIC) was performed in the divertor leg length of 1.6 m with the fixed exhaust power to the edge of {{P}out}   =  250 MW and the total radiation fraction at the edge, SOL and divertor ({{P}rad}/{{P}out}   =  0.8), as a first step to investigate appropriate design of the divertor size and geometry. At the outer target, partial detachment was produced near the strike-point, and the peak heat load ({{q}target} ) at the attached region was reduced to ~5 MW m-2 with appropriate fuel and impurity puff rates. At the inner divertor target, full detachment of ion flux was produced and the peak {{q}target} was less than 10 MW m-2 mostly due to the surface-recombination. These results showed a power exhaust scenario and the divertor design concept. An integrated design of the water-cooling heat sink for the long leg divertor was proposed. Cu-ally (CuCrZr) cooling pipe was applicable as the heat sink to handle the high heat flux near the strike-point, where displacements per atom rate was estimated to be 0.5-1.5 per year by neutronics calculation. An arrangement of the coolant rooting for Cu-alloy and Reduced Activation Ferritic Martensitic (RAFM) steel (F82H) pipes in a divertor cassette was investigated, and the heat transport analysis of the W-monoblock and Cu-alloy pipe under the peak {{q}target} of 10 MWm-2 and nuclear heating was performed. The maximum temperatures on the W-surface and Cu-alloy pipe were 1021 and 331 °C. Heat flux of 16 MW m-2 was distributed in the major part

Why weight? Modelling sample and observational level variability improves power in RNA-seq analyses.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Ruijie; Holik, Aliaksei Z; Su, Shian; Jansz, Natasha; Chen, Kelan; Leong, Huei San; Blewitt, Marnie E; Asselin-Labat, Marie-Liesse; Smyth, Gordon K; Ritchie, Matthew E

2015-09-03

Variations in sample quality are frequently encountered in small RNA-sequencing experiments, and pose a major challenge in a differential expression analysis. Removal of high variation samples reduces noise, but at a cost of reducing power, thus limiting our ability to detect biologically meaningful changes. Similarly, retaining these samples in the analysis may not reveal any statistically significant changes due to the higher noise level. A compromise is to use all available data, but to down-weight the observations from more variable samples. We describe a statistical approach that facilitates this by modelling heterogeneity at both the sample and observational levels as part of the differential expression analysis. At the sample level this is achieved by fitting a log-linear variance model that includes common sample-specific or group-specific parameters that are shared between genes. The estimated sample variance factors are then converted to weights and combined with observational level weights obtained from the mean-variance relationship of the log-counts-per-million using 'voom'. A comprehensive analysis involving both simulations and experimental RNA-sequencing data demonstrates that this strategy leads to a universally more powerful analysis and fewer false discoveries when compared to conventional approaches. This methodology has wide application and is implemented in the open-source 'limma' package. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

Soft errors in modern electronic systems

CERN Document Server

Nicolaidis, Michael

2010-01-01

This book provides a comprehensive presentation of the most advanced research results and technological developments enabling understanding, qualifying and mitigating the soft errors effect in advanced electronics, including the fundamental physical mechanisms of radiation induced soft errors, the various steps that lead to a system failure, the modelling and simulation of soft error at various levels (including physical, electrical, netlist, event driven, RTL, and system level modelling and simulation), hardware fault injection, accelerated radiation testing and natural environment testing, s

Model for the techno-economic analysis of common work of wind power and CCGT power plant to offer constant level of power in the electricity market

Science.gov (United States)

Tomsic, Z.; Rajsl, I.; Filipovic, M.

2017-11-01

Wind power varies over time, mainly under the influence of meteorological fluctuations. The variations occur on all time scales. Understanding these variations and their predictability is of key importance for the integration and optimal utilization of wind in the power system. There are two major attributes of variable generation that notably impact the participation on power exchanges: Variability (the output of variable generation changes and resulting in fluctuations in the plant output on all time scales) and Uncertainty (the magnitude and timing of variable generation output is less predictable, wind power output has low levels of predictability). Because of these variability and uncertainty wind plants cannot participate to electricity market, especially to power exchanges. For this purpose, the paper presents techno-economic analysis of work of wind plants together with combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant as support for offering continues power to electricity market. A model of wind farms and CCGT plant was developed in program PLEXOS based on real hourly input data and all characteristics of CCGT with especial analysis of techno-economic characteristics of different types of starts and stops of the plant. The Model analyzes the followings: costs of different start-stop characteristics (hot, warm, cold start-ups and shutdowns) and part load performance of CCGT. Besides the costs, the technical restrictions were considered such as start-up time depending on outage duration, minimum operation time, and minimum load or peaking capability. For calculation purposes, the following parameters are necessary to know in order to be able to economically evaluate changes in the start-up process: ramp up and down rate, time of start time reduction, fuel mass flow during start, electricity production during start, variable cost of start-up process, cost and charges for life time consumption for each start and start type, remuneration during start up time regarding

A level III PSA for the inherently safe CAREM-25 nuclear power station

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baron, Jorge H.; Nunez McLeod, J.; Rivera, S.S.

2000-01-01

A Level III PSA has been performed for the inherently safe CAREM-25 nuclear power station, as a requirement for licensing according to argentinian regulations. The CAREM-25 project is still at a detailed design state, therefore only internal events have been considered, and a representative site has been assumed for dose estimations. Several conservative hypothesis have been formulated, but even so an overall core melt frequency of 2.3E -5 per reactor year has been obtained. The risk estimations comply with the regulations. The risk values obtained are compared to the 700MW(e) nuclear power plant Atucha II PSA result, showing an effective risk reduction not only in the severe accident probability but alto in the consequence component of the risk estimation. (author)

TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF OPTIMAL VOLTAGE LEVEL FOR THE POWER SUPPLY OF DEEP MINE OPERATING HORIZONS

OpenAIRE

Shkrabets, F. P.; Ostapchuk, O. V.; Kozhevnikov, A. V.; Akulov, A. V.

2015-01-01

The most perspective option for possible deep mine power supply is the one with the deep input of 35 kV voltage by installing of underground 35kV/6 kV substation. This option is caused by the expected level of electrical loads, provided by mine development, the power consumers’ deep layout (considering the distance from the source to the shaft on the surface and from the shaft to the underground substation chamber) and primary and the most responsible power consumers (blind shaft lifting devi...

Experimental study of rectenna coupling at low power level

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Douyère, A; Alicalapa, F; Lan Sun Luk, J-D; Rivière, S

2013-01-01

The experimental results presented in this paper focus on the performance of a rectenna array by studying the effect of mutual coupling between two rectennas. The measurements in several planes of the space are investigated and used to help us to define the minimum distance for future rectenna arrays that can be used at a low power density level. The single element chosen for the array is composed of a rectifier circuit and a CSPA (Circular Slot Patch Antenna). This study shows that at a distance greater than 6cm (λ/2) between two rectennas in reception, we observe that the DC received voltage is constant in the Y plane, while in the X plane, the DC received voltage remains constant whatever the distance. We deduce that these rectennas are uncoupled in this case. We can consider each rectenna like an independent system.

Admissibility of building cost subsidy in the power grid above the low voltage level; Zulaessigkeit von Baukostenzuschuessen im Stromnetz oberhalb der Niederspannungsebene

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Foerster, Sven [Kanzlei Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, Muenchen(Germany)

2015-07-01

Electricity networks are essential to the provision of electrical power to businesses and individuals. In particular for manufacturing businesses a connection to the grid above the low-voltage level is often useful. Network operators demand a subsidy for the new connection and for the change to a higher network level under the auspices of construction cost. The power network market above the low-voltage level is a natural monopoly. This leaves consumers looking for a connection to the power grid with no possibility to select among different network operators. Construction cost subsidies are not regulated by law above the low voltage level. The lack of legal regulation and the natural monopoly above the low-voltage level affect the balance of power between network operators and system users. The lawfulness of the construction cost subsidies, the prerequisites for their demand and a review of the calculation models (Leistungspreismodell, 2-Ebenen-Modell) as well as a proposal for a reform of this system form the subject of this work.

Maximum power point tracking techniques for wind energy systems using three levels boost converter

Science.gov (United States)

Tran, Cuong Hung; Nollet, Frédéric; Essounbouli, Najib; Hamzaoui, Abdelaziz

2018-05-01

This paper presents modeling and simulation of three level Boost DC-DC converter in Wind Energy Conversion System (WECS). Three-level Boost converter has significant advantage compared to conventional Boost. A maximum power point tracking (MPPT) method for a variable speed wind turbine using permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) is also presented. Simulation of three-level Boost converter topology with Perturb and Observe algorithm and Fuzzy Logic Control is implemented in MATLAB/SIMULINK. Results of this simulation show that the system with MPPT using fuzzy logic controller has better performance to the Perturb and Observe algorithm: fast response under changing conditions and small oscillation.

Evaluating the level and nature of sustainable development for a geothermal power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Phillips, Jason

2010-01-01

The paper provides for an evaluation of the potential level and nature of sustainable development of the Sabalan geothermal power plant in NW Iran, to be operational in 2011. The paper achieves this by applying a mathematical model of sustainable development developed by the author (re: Phillips), in respect to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) conducted by Yousefi et al. using the Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix (RIAM) methodology (re: Pastakia; Pastakia and Jensen). Using a model application methodology developed for the RIAM, the results indicated that the nature of sustainable development for Sabalan was considered to be very weak (S = 0.063). This was due to the imbalance between negative environmental impacts and positive socio-economic impacts deriving from the project. Further, when placed into context with a similar set of results obtained from the EIA of the Tuzla geothermal power plant by Baba also using the RIAM methodology, then the similarities between the results obtained raises some legimate questions as to the sustainable development credentials of geothermal power production. (author)

Improving students’ mathematical critical thinking through rigorous teaching and learning model with informal argument

Science.gov (United States)

Hamid, H.

2018-01-01

The purpose of this study is to analyze an improvement of students’ mathematical critical thinking (CT) ability in Real Analysis course by using Rigorous Teaching and Learning (RTL) model with informal argument. In addition, this research also attempted to understand students’ CT on their initial mathematical ability (IMA). This study was conducted at a private university in academic year 2015/2016. The study employed the quasi-experimental method with pretest-posttest control group design. The participants of the study were 83 students in which 43 students were in the experimental group and 40 students were in the control group. The finding of the study showed that students in experimental group outperformed students in control group on mathematical CT ability based on their IMA (high, medium, low) in learning Real Analysis. In addition, based on medium IMA the improvement of mathematical CT ability of students who were exposed to RTL model with informal argument was greater than that of students who were exposed to CI (conventional instruction). There was also no effect of interaction between RTL model and CI model with both (high, medium, and low) IMA increased mathematical CT ability. Finally, based on (high, medium, and low) IMA there was a significant improvement in the achievement of all indicators of mathematical CT ability of students who were exposed to RTL model with informal argument than that of students who were exposed to CI.

Hardware-Enabled Security Through On-Chip Reconfigurable Fabric

Science.gov (United States)

2016-02-05

level language (SystemC) instead of in RTL such as Verilog and VHDL . To evaluate our approach, we implemented a set of monitors including soft...techniques can be implemented after chip fabrication. The study showed that such programmable architectures can indeed support a broad range of run- time...accelerators where security techniques can be implemented after chip fabrication. The study showed that such programmable architectures can indeed support a

Thermal Equilibrium Dynamic Control Based on DPWM Dual-Mode Modulation of High Power NPC Three-Level Inverter

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Shi-Zhou Xu

2016-01-01

Full Text Available In some special applications of NPC three-level inverters, such as mine hoist, there exist special conditions of overloading during the whole hoisting process and large overload in starting stage, during which the power-loss calculation of power devices and thermal control are important factors affecting the thermal stability of inverters. The principles of SVPWM and DPWM were described in this paper firstly, based on which the dynamic power losses of the two modulations of hoist in single period were calculated. Secondly, a thermal equilibrium dynamic control based on DPMW dual-mode modulation was proposed, which can switch the modulation dynamically according to the change of dynamic power loss to realize dynamic control of power loss and thermal equilibrium of inverter. Finally, simulation and experiment prove the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.

Development of a fully-coupled, all atates, all hazards level 2 PSA at leibstadt nuclear power plant

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zvoncek, Pavol; Nusbaumer, Olivier [Safety Compliance and Technical Support Department, Leibstadt Nuclear Power Plant, Leibstadt (Sweden); Torri, Alfred [Risk Management Associates, Inc., Encinitas (United States)

2017-03-15

This paper describes the development process, the innovative techniques used and insights gained from the latest integrated, full scope, multistate Level 2 PSA analysis conducted at the Leibstadt Nuclear Power Plant (KKL), Switzerland. KKL is a modern single-unit General Electric Boiling Water Reactor (BWR/6) with Mark III Containment, and a power output of 3600MWth/1200MWe, the highest among the five operating reactors in Switzerland. A Level 2 Probabilistic Safety Assessment (PSA) analyses accident phenomena in nuclear power plants, identifies ways in which radioactive releases from plants can occur and estimates release pathways, magnitude and frequency. This paper attempts to give an overview of the advanced modeling techniques that have been developed and implemented for the recent KKL Level 2 PSA update, with the aim of systematizing the analysis and modeling processes, as well as complying with the relatively prescriptive Swiss requirements for PSA. The analysis provides significant insights into the absolute and relative importance of risk contributors and accident prevention and mitigation measures. Thanks to several newly developed techniques and an integrated approach, the KKL Level 2 PSA report exhibits a high degree of reviewability and maintainability, and transparently highlights the most important risk contributors to Large Early Release Frequency (LERF) with respect to initiating events, components, operator actions or seismic component failure probabilities (fragilities)

LEVELS OF EXTREMELY LOW-FREQUENCY ELECTRIC AND MAGNETIC FIELDS FROM OVERHEAD POWER LINES IN THE OUTDOOR ENVIRONMENT OF RAMALLAH CITY-PALESTINE.

Science.gov (United States)

Abuasbi, Falastine; Lahham, Adnan; Abdel-Raziq, Issam Rashid

2018-05-01

In this study, levels of extremely low-frequency electric and magnetic fields originated from overhead power lines were investigated in the outdoor environment in Ramallah city, Palestine. Spot measurements were applied to record fields intensities over 6-min period. The Spectrum Analyzer NF-5035 was used to perform measurements at 1 m above ground level and directly underneath 40 randomly selected power lines distributed fairly within the city. Levels of electric fields varied depending on the line's category (power line, transformer or distributor), a minimum mean electric field of 3.9 V/m was found under a distributor line, and a maximum of 769.4 V/m under a high-voltage power line (66 kV). However, results of electric fields showed a log-normal distribution with the geometric mean and the geometric standard deviation of 35.9 and 2.8 V/m, respectively. Magnetic fields measured at power lines, on contrast, were not log-normally distributed; the minimum and maximum mean magnetic fields under power lines were 0.89 and 3.5 μT, respectively. As a result, none of the measured fields exceeded the ICNIRP's guidelines recommended for general public exposures to extremely low-frequency fields.

Advanced I and C system of security level for nuclear power station

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu Yanyang

2001-01-01

Advanced I and C system of security level using for PWR developed by Framatome and Schneider collective, SPINLINE3, are introduced. The technology is used to outside reactor nuclear measurement system in Qinshan II period. It's succeed benefits by Framatome and Schneider's more years development experience in nuclear power station digitallization security level I and C system field, which improve security and reliability of PWR, and, easy operation and maintains. SPINLINE3 based on digitallization and modularization technical proposal, and covered entireness reactor protect system and correlative control system. The paper also introduce CLARISSE (computer aided design aid) and SCADE (embedded software aid) for developing SPINLINE3. SPINLINE3 fills correlative IS and rule, based on software and hardware unit which certificate and launch into operation. After brief review of Framatome and Schneider's experience, the paper are introducing design guideline, application technology and how to fill demand of security level I and C system

High power fast ramping power supplies

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Marneris,I.; Bajon, E.; Bonati, R.; Sandberg, J.; Roser, T.; Tsoupas, N.

2009-05-04

Hundred megawatt level fast ramping power converters to drive proton and heavy ion machines are under research and development at accelerator facilities in the world. This is a leading edge technology. There are several topologies to achieve this power level. Their advantages and related issues will be discussed.

A Polymer Optical Fiber Fuel Level Sensor: Application to Paramotoring and Powered Paragliding

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Sánchez Montero

2012-05-01

Full Text Available A low-cost intensity-based polymer optical fiber (POF sensor for fuel level measurements in paramotoring and powered paragliding is presented, exploiting the advantages of the optical fiber sensing technology. Experimental results demonstrate that the best option can be performed by stripping the fiber at the desired discrete points to measure the fuel level as well as with a gauge-shape fiber bending. The prototype has a good linearity, better than 4% full scale (F.S., and sensitivity around 0.5 V per bend are obtained. Hysteresis due to residual fluid at the sensing points is found to be less than 9% F.S.

Analytical Design of Passive LCL Filter for Three-phase Two-level Power Factor Correction Rectifiers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kouchaki, Alireza; Nymand, Morten

2017-01-01

This paper proposes a comprehensive analytical LCL filter design method for three-phase two-level power factor correction rectifiers (PFCs). The high frequency converter current ripple generates the high frequency current harmonics that need to be attenuated with respect to the grid standards...

Power load leveling and energy saving measures for office buildings. Power load leveling and energy saving technology for the new building of the Kobe branch of the Kansai Electric Power Co., and its effect; Office biru no denryoku fuka heijunka sho energy hosaku. Kobe shiten shinshaoku ni okeru denryoku fuka heijunka sho energy gijutsu to sono koka

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tsuchiyama, M. [Kansai Electric Power Co. Inc., Osaka (Japan)

1999-06-10

This paper presents power load leveling and energy saving measures for heat source, air conditioning and lighting of the new Kobe branch building. The low-temperature hot-air system adopts an ice storage system, and reduces blowing power by 12 degreesC blowing in place of normal 16 degreesC blowing, and an initial cost by duct size reduction. The continuous air conditioning system levels an initial peak load of air conditioning as compared with normal air conditioning only for working hours for buildings with large heat capacity. In addition, as power load leveling measures for the whole building, the complete heat storage system using an underground internal melting type ice storage tank is adopted. Energy saving for lighting is achieved with a dimming lighting controlling its lighting output by inverter. The following effects are expected by these new technologies: Load leveling effect of 30%, energy saving effect of 20.2% and CO{sub 2} reduction effect of 24.1%. (NEDO)

Effect of Low-Level Laser Stimulation on EEG Power in Normal Subjects with Closed Eyes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jih-Huah Wu

2013-01-01

Full Text Available In a previous study, we found that the low-level laser (LLL stimulation at the palm with a frequency of 10 Hz was able to induce significant brain activation in normal subjects with opened eyes. However, the electroencephalography (EEG changes to LLL stimulation in subjects with closed eyes have not been studied. In the present study, the laser array stimulator was applied to deliver insensible laser stimulations to the palm of the tested subjects with closed eyes (the laser group. The EEG activities before, during, and after the laser stimulation were collected. The EEG amplitude powers of each EEG frequency band at 19 locations were calculated. These power data were then analyzed by SPSS software using repeated-measure ANOVAs and appropriate posthoc tests. We found a pronounced decrease in the EEG power in alpha-bandwidth during laser simulation and then less decrease in the EEG power in delta-bandwidth in normal subjects with laser stimulation. The EEG power in beta-bandwidth in the right occipital area also decreased significantly in the laser group. We suggest that LLL stimulation might be conducive to falling into sleep in patients with sleep problems.

Dealing with Law in migration control: The Powers of Street-level bureaucrats at French Consulates

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Alpes, M.J.; Spire, A.

2014-01-01

This article examines how street-level bureaucrats within migration control use their scope for discretionary powers. On the basis of two ethnographic studies of French consulates in Yaoundé and Tunis, we argue that state agents' practices are significantly shaped by organizational constraints such

Simulation of Standby Efficiency Improvement for a Line Level Control Resonant Converter Based on Solar Power Systems

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ming-Tse Kuo

2015-01-01

Full Text Available This paper proposes a new scheme to improve the standby efficiency of the high-power half-bridge line level control (LLC resonant converter. This new circuit is applicable to improving the efficiency of the renewable energy generation system in distributed power systems. The main purpose is to achieve high-efficiency solar and wind power and stable output under different load conditions. In comparison with the traditional one, this novel method can improve standby efficiency at standby. The system characteristics of this proposed method have been analyzed through detailed simulations, which prove its feasibility.

Wireless power charging using point of load controlled high frequency power converters

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, John M.; Campbell, Steven L.; Chambon, Paul H.; Seiber, Larry E.; White, Clifford P.

2015-10-13

An apparatus for wirelessly charging a battery of an electric vehicle is provided with a point of load control. The apparatus includes a base unit for generating a direct current (DC) voltage. The base unit is regulated by a power level controller. One or more point of load converters can be connected to the base unit by a conductor, with each point of load converter comprising a control signal generator that transmits a signal to the power level controller. The output power level of the DC voltage provided by the base unit is controlled by power level controller such that the power level is sufficient to power all active load converters when commanded to do so by any of the active controllers, without generating excessive power that may be otherwise wasted.

Power-level regulation and simulation of nonlinear pressurized water reactor core with xenon oscillation using H-infinity loop shaping control

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li Gang

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This investigation is to solve the power-level control issue of a nonlinear pressurized water reactor core with xenon oscillations. A nonlinear pressurized water reactor core is modeled using the lumped parameter method, and a linear model of the core is then obtained through the small perturbation linearization way. The H∞loop shapingcontrolis utilized to design a robust controller of the linearized core model.The calculated H∞loop shaping controller is applied to the nonlinear core model. The nonlinear core model and the H∞ loop shaping controller build the nonlinear core power-level H∞loop shaping control system.Finally, the nonlinear core power-level H∞loop shaping control system is simulatedconsidering two typical load processes that are a step load maneuver and a ramp load maneuver, and simulation results show that the nonlinear control system is effective.

Personnel dosimetry methods introduced in the Czechoslovak national laboratories

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Trousil, J.; Singer, J.; Kokta, L.; Prouza, Z.

1979-01-01

Personnel dosimetry methods are described that were developed in the Institute for Research, Production and Application of Radioisotopes and that have been or will be introduced in the national personnel dosimetry service. In Czechoslovakia, workers exposed to a radiation risk are divided into two groups, according to the level of the risk. The criterion is the possibility of exceeding one tenth of the MPD. For the higher risk group, a complex dose meter is usually used for dosimetry of photon and beta radiation; it contains a film dose meter and a radiothermoluminescent (RTL) glass dose meter. The RTL glass dose meter also serves as an accident dose meter. For neutron dosimetry, a dose meter comprising a solid-state track detector in combination with fissionable foils has been introduced. For accident dosimetry, a silicon diode of Czechoslovak production is used. For the lower risk group, only the introduction of an RTL dose meter is foreseen. There will be a three month control period; for neutron dosimetry, the track detector in combination with fissionable foils is retained. For measurements of hand doses, a themoluminescent ring dose meter has been introduced. The dose meters are described, giving information on the types of detectors employed, measurement techniques and descriptions of the basic characteristics of the instruments, their basic dosimetric parameters and the dose and energy ranges which can be measured. The results of international comparisons are presented; these have served to confirm the measurement precision. In conclusion, some questions of dose-meter calibration are summarized, and the problems of dose measurement in mixed fields of neutrons and gamma rays are discussed. (author)

Power Ramp Limitation capabilities of Large PV Power Plants with Active Power Reserves

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bogdan, Craciun; Kerekes, Tamas; Sera, Dezso

2017-01-01

Power Ramp Limitation (PRL) is likely to become a requirement for large scale photovoltaic power plants (LPVPPs) in order to allow the increase of PV penetration levels. Especially in islands with reduced inertia capability, this problem is more stringent: high power ramp can be caused by either...... fast irradiance changes or other participant generators for example wind power, or loads. In order to compensate for the power mismatch, LPVPPs must use Active Power Reserve (APR), by either curtailment or auxiliary storage. The paper proposes a PRL control structure for dynamic APR sizing...... and deployment. The selected test case is the power system of Puerto Rico (PREPA), modeled using the modified IEEE 12 bus benchmark system, with different levels of PV penetration. It is shown that LPVPP with PRL can effectively reduce the ramping rate of the participating generators. Considering that the large...

Power level control of the TRIGA Mark-II research reactor using the multifeedback layer neural network and the particle swarm optimization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Coban, Ramazan

2014-01-01

Highlights: • A multifeedback-layer neural network controller is presented for a research reactor. • Off-line learning of the MFLNN is accomplished by the PSO algorithm. • The results revealed that the MFLNN–PSO controller has a remarkable performance. - Abstract: In this paper, an artificial neural network controller is presented using the Multifeedback-Layer Neural Network (MFLNN), which is a recently proposed recurrent neural network, for neutronic power level control of a nuclear research reactor. Off-line learning of the MFLNN is accomplished by the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. The MFLNN-PSO controller design is based on a nonlinear model of the TRIGA Mark-II research reactor. The learning and the test processes are implemented by means of a computer program at different power levels. The simulation results obtained reveal that the MFLNN-PSO controller has a remarkable performance on the neutronic power level control of the reactor for tracking the step reference power trajectories

A methodology for Level 2 PSA evaluation with consideration of specific features for Low Power Shutdown Probabilistic Safety Assessment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Jae Gab; Seok, Ho [KEPCO-ENC, Yongin (Korea, Republic of)

2015-05-15

The primary objective of the Level 2 PSA during Lower Power/Shutdown (LPSD) operation is to provide insights into potential plant vulnerabilities with regard to accident progression. The shutdown risk information can be used to provide the information to develop outage risk management guidelines. The LPSD Level 2 analysis utilizes much of the at-power Level 2 analysis for bounding, conservative treatment of severe accident phenomena. But, for some portions of the analysis including Plant Operational States (POSs), LPSD-specific evaluations such as UPC related to the containment Equipment Hatch (E/H) with 4 bolts, Reactor Coolant System (RCS) Not Intact for severe accident phenomena are desired for realistic evaluation. All POSs are evaluated for their Large Release Frequency (LRF). Some POSs are evaluated conservatively utilizing the at-power models, and other POSs are evaluated in specific analysis. The overall LPSD Level 2 model is evaluated. If the containment E/H and one of the two doors on each of the personal air locks are closed as containment is operable at reduced RCS inventory operation, LRF is expected to be less than 10% of LPSD CDF.

Co-Emulation of Scan-Chain Based Designs Utilizing SCE-MI Infrastructure

OpenAIRE

Tomas, Bill Jason; Jiang, Yingtao; Yang, Mei

2014-01-01

As the complexity of the scan algorithm is dependent on the number of design registers, large SoC scan designs can no longer be verified in RTL simulation unless partitioned into smaller sub - blocks. This paper proposes a meth odology to decrease scan - chain verification time utilizing SCE - MI, a widely used communication protocol for emulation, and an FPGA - based emulation platform. A high - level (SystemC) testbench and FPGA synthesizable har...

A detector for monitoring the onset of cavitation during therapy-level measurements of ultrasonic power

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hodnett, M; Zeqiri, B [National Physical Laboratory, Queens Road, Teddington, Middlesex, TW11 0LW (United Kingdom)

2004-01-01

Acoustic cavitation occurring in the water path between a transducer and the target of a radiation force balance can provide a significant source of error during measurements of ultrasonic power. These problems can be particularly acute at physiotherapy levels (>1 W), and low frequencies ({<=} 1 MHz). The cavitating bubbles can absorb and scatter incident ultrasound, leading to an underestimate in the measured power. For these reasons, International Specification standards demand the use of degassed water. This imposes requirements that may actually be difficult to meet, for example, in the case of hospitals. Also, initially degassed water will rapidly re-gas, increasing the likelihood of cavitation occurring. For these reasons, NPL has developed a device that monitors acoustic emissions generated by bubble activity, for detecting the onset of cavitation during power measurements. A commercially available needle hydrophone is used to detect these emissions. The acoustic signals are then monitored using a Cavitation Detector (CD) unit, comprising an analogue electrical filter that may be tuned to detect frequency components generated by cavitating bubbles, and which provides an indication of when the measured level exceeds a pre-defined threshold. This paper describes studies to establish a suitable detection scheme, the principles of operation of the CD unit, and the performance tests carried out with a range of propagation media.

A detector for monitoring the onset of cavitation during therapy-level measurements of ultrasonic power

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hodnett, M; Zeqiri, B

2004-01-01

Acoustic cavitation occurring in the water path between a transducer and the target of a radiation force balance can provide a significant source of error during measurements of ultrasonic power. These problems can be particularly acute at physiotherapy levels (>1 W), and low frequencies (≤ 1 MHz). The cavitating bubbles can absorb and scatter incident ultrasound, leading to an underestimate in the measured power. For these reasons, International Specification standards demand the use of degassed water. This imposes requirements that may actually be difficult to meet, for example, in the case of hospitals. Also, initially degassed water will rapidly re-gas, increasing the likelihood of cavitation occurring. For these reasons, NPL has developed a device that monitors acoustic emissions generated by bubble activity, for detecting the onset of cavitation during power measurements. A commercially available needle hydrophone is used to detect these emissions. The acoustic signals are then monitored using a Cavitation Detector (CD) unit, comprising an analogue electrical filter that may be tuned to detect frequency components generated by cavitating bubbles, and which provides an indication of when the measured level exceeds a pre-defined threshold. This paper describes studies to establish a suitable detection scheme, the principles of operation of the CD unit, and the performance tests carried out with a range of propagation media

DESIGN OF THE THREE-LEVEL MULTICRITERIAL STRATEGY OF HYBRID MARINE POWER PLANT CONTROL FOR A COMBINED PROPULSION COMPLEX

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V.V. Budashko

2017-04-01

Full Text Available Purpose. Efficiency of hybrid ships power plants (SPP combined propulsion complexes (CPC by various criteria for energy management systems strategies. Methodology. Based on the classification system topologies SPP CPC for mechanical, electrical and hybrid types of motors schematic diagrams of management strategies for the criterion of minimum power consumption are defined. Changing the technical component of the traditional approach to building hybrid ships electric power systems (SEPS SPP CPC the principle of modifying the structure of SEPS is applied with the integration of additional static alternative power source as dynamic reserve, which allowed to meet modern requirements for energy efficiency, levels of vibration, noise and degradation effects produced to SPP CPC, in all areas of the energy for the transfer of power from energy to propellers. Modeling of power transmission of energy to propellers in MatLab/Simulink is conducted, using blocks of optimization library and definition of identity markers. Results. Major advantages and disadvantages SPP CPC depending on the topology of energy distribution systems are determined. According to the chosen structure system electricity characteristics were obtained in the process of power transmission SPP CPC and power systems and their control strategies in terms of increased efficiency and eliminate these drawbacks. And finally, mathematical apparatus for research in terms of the development of methods for designing and managing SPP hybrid CPC to reduced fuel consumption, emissions into the environment and improving maintainability, flexibility and comfort level are improved. Originality. The methodology for improving SPP CPC implementation by developing methods of identification markers mutually influencing processes in SPP CPC and the development of implementing these methods of settlement and information systems. Practical value. The method enables iterative optimization parameters SPP CPC, it

Investigation of load leveling in Hokuriku Electric Power Co., Inc.; Hokuriku denryoku no fuka heijunka eno torikumi

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1996-08-01

Hokuriku Electric Power Co., Inc. aims at an around 2% improvement of the load factor up to 2005, by which the quick and proper service and the proposal of load leveling menu are planned. This paper describes an outline of the investigation of load leveling. Various programs have been proposed so that the customers can further shift the load by their consideration. Proposed systems include the time-of-day electricity rate system, the load regulation contract system for industries, the seasonal time-of-day rate system, the electric power system for snowmelt in which the load is dumped at the peak, and the secondary electric power system for snowmelt. Accompanying with the revision of electric utility law, the enlargement of its available time, the price reduction, and the discount rate system for the ice regenerative air conditioners have been provided. For the business activities, a demonstration model house was exhibited to indicate a proper house with local characteristics in Hokuriku district. Furthermore, the spreading activities of regenerative systems and the consulting activities have been positively promoted. 4 figs., 1 tab.

Implantable Self-Powered Low-Level Laser Cure System for Mouse Embryonic Osteoblasts' Proliferation and Differentiation.

Science.gov (United States)

Tang, Wei; Tian, Jingjing; Zheng, Qiang; Yan, Lin; Wang, Jiangxue; Li, Zhou; Wang, Zhong Lin

2015-08-25

Bone remodeling or orthodontic treatment is usually a long-term process. It is highly desirable to speed up the process for effective medical treatment. In this work, a self-powered low-level laser cure system for osteogenesis is developed using the power generated by the triboelectric nanogenerator. It is found that the system significantly accelerated the mouse embryonic osteoblasts' proliferation and differentiation, which is essential for bone and tooth healing. The system is further demonstrated to be driven by a living creature's motions, such as human walking or a mouse's breathing, suggesting its practical use as a portable or implantable clinical cure for bone remodeling or orthodontic treatment.

Chromatic correction in the SLC bunch length compressors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Adolphsen, C.E.; Emma, P.J.; Fieguth, T.H.; Spence, W.L.

1991-06-01

The SLC Ring to Linac (RTL) transport lines employ intense bending and strong transverse focusing to produce the momentum compaction needed for bunch length compression prior to S-band acceleration. In the presence of the large rf induced energy spread needed for compression the consequent chromatic effects -- viz. the variation with energy of residual output dispersion and of the RTL transfer matrix, threaten to destroy the small emittances produced by the damping rings. We report on the tuning methods that have been developed and used to implement the sextupole based chromatic correction scheme. 6 refs., 4 figs

Mechanism of the Interaction of Cannabinoid System in Central Amygdale with Opioid System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

S Sarahroodi

2012-05-01

Full Text Available

rtl">Background and objectives

rtl">Cannabinoids which are active compounds of marijuana show some pharmacological effects similar to the opioids. There are also functional interactions between both cannabinoid and opioid systems. In this study we investigated the role of cannabinoid receptors in central amygdala and its interaction with opioid system.

rtl">                                                                                                                         

Methods

In the present study, we investigated the effects of intraperitoneal injection of opioid drugs on response-induced by intra-amygdala (intra-Amyg microinjection of cannabinoid agents in rats, using elevated plus-maze test of anxiety.

rtl"> 

Results

Intraperitoneal injection of morphine (3, 6 and 9 mg/kg increased %OAT and %OAE, but not locomotor activity, showing an anxiolytic response. However, some doses of the opioid receptor antagonist, naloxone reduced %OAT and locomotor activity as well. Intra-Amyg administration of CB1 cannabinoid receptor agonist, ACPA (at the dose of 1.25 and 5 ng/rat increased %OAT and %OAE but not locomotor activity, thus showing an anxiolytic response, which was increased by morphine (6 mg/kg, i.p. without any interaction. Naloxone also reduced ACPA effects.  

Intra-Amyg administration of CB1 cannabinoid receptor antagonist, AM251 (2.5, 25 and 100 ng/rat did not alter %OAT and %OAE but higher doses of drug (25 and 100 ng/rat reduced locomotor activity. However, the drug in combination of morphine anxiolytic response and with naloxone decreased anxiety.

Conclusion

rtl">The results may indicate an anxiolytic for CB1 cannabinoid. Our results also showed that opioid

Photovoltaic Shading Testbed for Module-Level Power Electronics

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Deline, C.; Meydbray, J.; Donovan, M.; Forrest, J.

2012-05-01

This document describes a repeatable test procedure that attempts to simulate shading situations, as would be experienced by typical residential rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems. This type of shading test is particularly useful to evaluate the impact of different power conversion setups, including microinverters, DC power optimizers and string inverters, on overall system performance. The performance results are weighted based on annual estimates of shade to predict annual performance improvement. A trial run of the test procedure was conducted with a side by side comparison of a string inverter with a microinverter, both operating on identical 8kW solar arrays. Considering three different shade weighting conditions, the microinverter was found to increase production by 3.7% under light shading, 7.8% under moderate shading, and 12.3% under heavy shading, relative to the reference string inverter case. Detail is provided in this document to allow duplication of the test method at different test installations and for different power electronics devices.

PSCAD modeling of a two-level space vector pulse width modulation algorithm for power electronics education

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ahmet Mete Vural

2016-09-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the design details of a two-level space vector pulse width modulation algorithm in PSCAD that is able to generate pulses for three-phase two-level DC/AC converters with two different switching patterns. The presented FORTRAN code is generic and can be easily modified to meet many other kinds of space vector modulation strategies. The code is also editable for hardware programming. The new component is tested and verified by comparing its output as six gating signals with those of a similar component in MATLAB library. Moreover the component is used to generate digital signals for closed-loop control of STATCOM for reactive power compensation in PSCAD. This add-on can be an effective tool to give students better understanding of the space vector modulation algorithm for different control tasks in power electronics area, and can motivate them for learning.

Evaluation of safety issues on newly regulated nuclear power plant by tsunami-level 1 PRA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tsuji, Yutaro; Miwa, Shuichiro; Mori, Michitsugu

2014-01-01

The tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake triggered severe accidents involving the units 1 to 4 at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station (NPS). In order to re-operate existing nuclear power plants it should be necessary to reduce the core damage frequency on risk by tsunami. In this work, effects of the off-site power supply installation on resuming operation of nuclear power plants were investigated by utilizing the Tsunami-Level 1 Probability Risk Assessment (PRA). Unit 2 of the Onagawa nuclear power station, which resembled units 2 and 3 of Fukushima Dai-ichi, was selected for PRA. First, event-tree was created for the units of the Onagawa nuclear power station with the safety systems such as Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS), investigating the plant situation at the time of the earthquake and tsunami occurrences. It was assumed that the magnitude of the tsunami was equivalent to the Great East Japan Earthquake. The accident-analytical progression-time was 36 hours, determined from the core-damage occurrence of the unit 3 of Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power station. Failure probabilities were calculated by the fault tree, which was created from the elements listed in the event tree. For the calculation, failure rates reported by the NUCIA (NUClear Information Archives) were primarily utilized. Then, obtained failure probabilities were embedded to the event tree. Core damage probabilities were evaluated by calculating success and failure rates for each accidental progression and scenarios. Restoration of the failed equipment and machineries was not considered in the analysis. Installation of the power supply vehicles at the nuclear power plant site reduced the core damage probability from 2.58×10 -6 to 8.56×10 -7 . However, continued addition of the power supply vehicles could not lower the core damage probability further more. In the case of Unit 2 of Onagawa nuclear power station, there could be a limit to lower the core damage

Performance evaluation of power transmission coils for powering endoscopic wireless capsules.

Science.gov (United States)

Basar, Md Rubel; Ahmad, Mohd Yazed; Cho, Jongman; Ibrahim, Fatimah

2015-01-01

This paper presents an analysis of H-field generated by a simple solenoid, pair of solenoids, pair of double-layer solenoids, segmented-solenoid, and Helmholtz power transmission coils (PTCs) to power an endoscopic wireless capsule (WC). The H-fields were computed using finite element analysis based on partial differential equations. Three parameters were considered in the analysis: i) the maximum level of H-field (Hmax) to which the patient's body would be exposed, ii) the minimum level of H-field (Hmin) effective for power transmission, and iii) uniformity of H-field. We validated our analysis by comparing the computed data with data measured from a fabricated Helmholtz PTC. This analysis disclosed that at the same excitation power, all the PTCs are able to transfer same amount of minimum usable power since they generated almost equal value of Hmin. The level of electromagnetic exposure and power transfer stability across all the PTCs would vary significantly which is mainly due to the different level of Hmax and H-field uniformity. The segmented solenoid PTC would cause the lowest exposure and this PTC can transfer the maximum amount of power. The Helmholtz PTC would be able to transfer the most stable power with a moderate level of exposure.

Deconstructing the power resistance relationship for squats: A joint-level analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Farris, D J; Lichtwark, G A; Brown, N A T; Cresswell, A G

2016-07-01

Generating high leg power outputs is important for executing rapid movements. Squats are commonly used to increase leg strength and power. Therefore, it is useful to understand factors affecting power output in squatting. We aimed to deconstruct the mechanisms behind why power is maximized at certain resistances in squatting. Ten male rowers (age = 20 ± 2.2 years; height = 1.82 ± 0.03 m; mass = 86 ± 11 kg) performed maximal power squats with resistances ranging from body weight to 80% of their one repetition maximum (1RM). Three-dimensional kinematics was combined with ground reaction force (GRF) data in an inverse dynamics analysis to calculate leg joint moments and powers. System center of mass (COM) velocity and power were computed from GRF data. COM power was maximized across a range of resistances from 40% to 60% 1RM. This range was identified because a trade-off in hip and knee joint powers existed across this range, with maximal knee joint power occurring at 40% 1RM and maximal hip joint power at 60% 1RM. A non-linear system force-velocity relationship was observed that dictated large reductions in COM power below 20% 1RM and above 60% 1RM. These reductions were due to constraints on the control of the movement. © 2015 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Predictive Current Control of a 7-level AC-DC back-to-back Converter for Universal and Flexible Power Management System

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bifaretti, Steffano; Zanchetta, Pericle; Iov, Florin

2008-01-01

The paper proposes a novel power conversion system for Universal and Flexible Power Management (UNIFLEX-PM) in Future Electricity Network. Its structure is based on a back-to-back three-phase AC-DC 7-level converter; each AC side is connected to a different PCC, representing the main grid and....../or various distributed generation systems. Effective and accurate power flow control is demonstrated through simulation in Matlab- Simulink environment on a model based on a two-port structure and using a Predictive Control technique. Control of different Power flow profiles has been successfully tested...

Effect of focused ultrasound stimulation at different ultrasonic power levels on the local field potential power spectrum

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yuan Yi; Lu Cheng-Biao; Li Xiao-Li

2015-01-01

Local field potential (LFP) signals of the rat hippocampus were recorded under noninvasive focused ultrasound stimulation (FUS) with different ultrasonic powers. The LFP mean absolute power was calculated with the Welch algorithm at the delta, theta, alpha, beta, and gamma frequency bands. The experimental results demonstrate that the LFP mean absolute power at different frequency bands increases as the ultrasound power increases. (paper)

Adaptative control with non-minimum phase system. Application to level control in PWR power plant steam generator

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bihoreau, C.

1981-03-01

This thesis presents the proposal for a water control level method likely to improve performance, especially at low power. Particular problems are analyzed in detail. Finally, computerized simulations are presented; they confirm the algorithm performance [fr

The Influence of RSG-GAS Primary Pump Operation Concerning the Rise Water Level of Reactor Pool in 15 MW Reactor Power

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Djunaidi

2004-01-01

The expansion of air volume in the delay chamber shows in rise water level of reactor pool during the operation. The rises of water level in the reactor pool is not quite from the expansion of air volume in the delay chamber, but some influence the primary pump operation. The purpose evaluated of influence primary pump is to know the influence primary pump power concerning the rise water level during the reactor operation. From the data collection during 15 MW power operation in the last core 42 the influence of primary pump operation concerning the rise water level in the reactor pool is 34.48 % from the total increased after operation during 12 days. (author)

Fungal levels in houses in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant evacuation zone after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Science.gov (United States)

Shinohara, Naohide; Tokumura, Masahiro; Hashimoto, Kazuhiro; Asano, Katsuyoshi; Kawakami, Yuji

2017-10-01

Residences located within 20 km of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant were evacuated shortly after the Great East Japan Earthquake. The levels of airborne and surface fungi were measured in six houses in the evacuation zone in August 2012 and February 2013. Airborne fungal levels in all of the houses in the summer were higher than the environmental standard levels for residential houses published in Architectural Institute of Japan (>1000 colony-forming units [CFU]/m 3 ). In two houses whose residents rarely returned to visit, fungal levels were extremely high (>52,000 CFU/m 3 ). Although fungal levels in the winter were much lower than those in the summer, they were still higher than environmental standard levels in several houses. Indoor fungal levels were significantly inversely related to the frequency with which residents returned, but they were not correlated with the air exchange rates, temperature, humidity, or radiation levels. Cladosporium spp. and Penicillium spp. were detected in every house. Aspergillus section Circumdati (Aspergillus ochraceus group) was also detected in several houses. These fungi produced ochratoxin A and ochratoxin B, which have nephrotoxic and carcinogenic potential. The present study suggests that further monitoring of fungal levels is necessary in houses in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant evacuation zone, and that some houses may require fungal disinfection. The results suggest that residents' health could be at risk owing to the high levels of airborne fungi and toxic fungi Aspergillus section Circumdati. Therefore, monitoring and decontamination/disinfection of fungi are strongly recommended before residents are allowed to return permanently to their homes. In addition, returning to home with a certain frequency and adequate ventilation are necessary during similar situations, e.g., when residents cannot stay in their homes for a long period, because fungal levels in houses in the Fukushima Daiichi

Verification using Satisfiability Checking, Predicate Abstraction, and Craig Interpolation

Science.gov (United States)

2008-09-01

297, 2007. 4.10.1 196 [48] Roberto Bruttomesso, Alessandro Cimatti, Anders Franzen, Alberto Grig- gio, Ziyad Hanna, Alexander Nadel, Amit Palti, and...using SAT based conflict analysis. In Formal Methods in Computer Aided Design, pages 33–51, 2002. 1.1, 7 [54] Alessandro Cimatti, Alberto Griggio, and...and D. Vroon. Automatic memory reductions for RTL-level verification. In ICCAD, 2006. 1.2.4, 6.2, 7 [108] Joao P. Marques-Silva and Karem A. Sakallah

INFLUENCES OF THE PURCHASING POWER CHANGE ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE AGROALIMETARY MARKETS ON EUROPEAN UNION LEVEL

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura Catalina Timiras

2013-12-01

Full Text Available This paper aims to identify the manifested connection between the dynamics of the population purchasing power and the dynamic of agroalimentary markets in general as well as by product types on European Union level. Based on the last data supplied by Eurostat 2013, using the specific methods for studying the correlations, we have detected that increases and decreases of the purchasing power generated similar changes on agroalimentary markets level from the point of view of achieved sales in most of the poorer countries of the European Union, but not in those states which got beyond the average gross domestic product per capita of the European Union. This relationship has been noticed only on the agroalimentary markets as a whole (respectively on the amounts spent by the population for purchasing agroalimentary goods, beverages and tobacco, but not on the level of markets of various types of product (“meat and meat products”, “fruit and vegetables”, “dairy produce, eggs and edible oils and fats”, “beverages”, “sugar and chocolate and sugar confectionery”, “tobacco products”.

Peak power ratio generator

Science.gov (United States)

Moyer, R.D.

A peak power ratio generator is described for measuring, in combination with a conventional power meter, the peak power level of extremely narrow pulses in the gigahertz radio frequency bands. The present invention in a preferred embodiment utilizes a tunnel diode and a back diode combination in a detector circuit as the only high speed elements. The high speed tunnel diode provides a bistable signal and serves as a memory device of the input pulses for the remaining, slower components. A hybrid digital and analog loop maintains the peak power level of a reference channel at a known amount. Thus, by measuring the average power levels of the reference signal and the source signal, the peak power level of the source signal can be determined.

Validation of the Predicted Circumferential and Radial Mode Sound Power Levels in the Inlet and Exhaust Ducts of a Fan Ingesting Distorted Inflow

Science.gov (United States)

Koch, L. Danielle

2012-01-01

Fan inflow distortion tone noise has been studied computationally and experimentally. Data from two experiments in the NASA Glenn Advanced Noise Control Fan rig have been used to validate acoustic predictions. The inflow to the fan was distorted by cylindrical rods inserted radially into the inlet duct one rotor chord length upstream of the fan. The rods were arranged in both symmetric and asymmetric circumferential patterns. In-duct and farfield sound pressure level measurements were recorded. It was discovered that for positive circumferential modes, measured circumferential mode sound power levels in the exhaust duct were greater than those in the inlet duct and for negative circumferential modes, measured total circumferential mode sound power levels in the exhaust were less than those in the inlet. Predicted trends in overall sound power level were proven to be useful in identifying circumferentially asymmetric distortion patterns that reduce overall inlet distortion tone noise, as compared to symmetric arrangements of rods. Detailed comparisons between the measured and predicted radial mode sound power in the inlet and exhaust duct indicate limitations of the theory.

One-carbon metabolites and telomere length in a prospective and randomized study of B- and/or D-vitamin supplementation.

Science.gov (United States)

Pusceddu, Irene; Herrmann, Markus; Kirsch, Susanne H; Werner, Christian; Hübner, Ulrich; Bodis, Marion; Laufs, Ulrich; Widmann, Thomas; Wagenpfeil, Stefan; Geisel, Jürgen; Herrmann, Wolfgang

2017-08-01

Vitamin B deficiency is common in elderly people and has been associated with an increased risk of developing age-related diseases. B-vitamins are essential for the synthesis and stability of DNA. Telomers are the end caps of chromosomes that shorten progressively with age, and short telomers are associated with DNA instability. In the present randomized intervention study, we investigated whether the one-carbon metabolism is related to telomere length, a surrogate marker for cellular aging. Sixty-five subjects (>54 years) were randomly assigned to receive either a daily combination of vitamin D3 (1200 IU), folic acid (0.5 mg), vitamin B 12 (0.5 mg), vitamin B 6 (50 mg) and calcium carbonate (456 mg) (group A) or vitamin D3 and calcium carbonate alone (group B). Blood testing was performed at baseline and after 1 year of supplementation. The concentrations of several metabolites of the one-carbon pathway, as well as relative telomere length (RTL) and 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase C677T genotype, were analyzed. At baseline, age- and gender-adjusted RTL correlated with total folate and 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (5-methylTHF). Subjects with RTL above the median had higher concentrations of total folate and 5-methylTHF compared to subjects below the median. At study end, gender- and age-adjusted RTL correlated in group A with methylmalonic acid (MMA; r = -0.460, p = 0.0012) and choline (r = 0.434, p = 0.0021) and in group B with 5,10-methenyltetrahydrofolate (r = 0.455, p = 0.026) and dimethylglycine (DMG; r = -0.386, p = 0.047). Subjects in the group A with RTL above the median had lower MMA and higher choline compared to subjects below the median. The present pilot study suggests a functional relationship between one-carbon metabolism and telomere length. This conclusion is supported by several correlations that were modified by B-vitamin supplementation. In agreement with our hypothesis, the availability of nucleotides and

Effect of heliostat size on the levelized cost of electricity for power towers

Science.gov (United States)

Pidaparthi, Arvind; Hoffmann, Jaap

2017-06-01

The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of heliostat size on the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for power tower plants. These effects are analyzed in a power tower with a net capacity of 100 MWe, 8 hours of thermal energy storage and a solar multiple of 1.8 in Upington, South Africa. A large, medium and a small size heliostat with a total area of 115.56 m2, 43.3 m2 and 15.67 m2 respectively are considered for comparison. A radial-staggered pattern and an external cylindrical receiver are considered for the heliostat field layouts. The optical performance of the optimized heliostat field layouts has been evaluated by the Hermite (analytical) method using SolarPILOT, a tool used for the generation and optimization of the heliostat field layout. The heliostat cost per unit is calculated separately for the three different heliostat sizes and the effects due to size scaling, learning curve benefits and the price index is included. The annual operation and maintenance (O&M) costs are estimated separately for the three heliostat fields, where the number of personnel required in the field is determined by the number of heliostats in the field. The LCOE values are used as a figure of merit to compare the different heliostat sizes. The results, which include the economic and the optical performance along with the annual O&M costs, indicate that lowest LCOE values are achieved by the medium size heliostat with an area of 43.3 m2 for this configuration. This study will help power tower developers determine the optimal heliostat size for power tower plants currently in the development stage.

The impact of power market reforms on electricity price-cost margins and cross-subsidy levels: A cross country panel data analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Erdogdu, Erkan

2011-01-01

One of the main expectations from power market reform has been a reduction in both price-cost margins and cross-subsidy levels between industrial and residential consumers. This paper focuses on this issue by looking at the impact of the electricity industry reforms on residential and industrial electricity price-cost margins and their effect on cross-subsidy levels between consumer groups. Using panel data for 63 developed and developing countries covering the period 1982-2009, empirical models are developed and analyzed. The research findings suggest that there is no uniform pattern for the impact of reform process as a whole on price-cost margins and cross-subsidy levels. Each individual reform step has different impact on price-cost margins and cross-subsidy levels for each consumer and country group. Our findings imply that reform steps have different impacts in different countries, which supports the idea reform prescription for a specific country cannot easily and successfully be transferred to another one. So, transferring the formal and economic structure of a successful power market in a developed country to developing countries is not a sufficient condition for good economic performance of the electricity industries in developing countries. Furthermore, the study suggests that power consumption, income level and country-specific features constitute other important determinants of electricity price-cost margins and cross-subsidy levels. - Research highlights: → The paper focuses on the impact of power market reforms on price-cost margins and cross-subsidy levels. → Using panel data for 63 countries for the period 1982-2009, empirical models are developed and analyzed. → We found that each individual reform step has different impact for each consumer and country group. → We conclude that reform prescription for a specific country cannot easily be transferred to another one.

Rapid analysis for 567 pesticides and endocrine disrupters by GC/MS using deconvolution reporting software

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wylie, P.; Szelewski, M.; Meng, Chin-Kai [Agilent Technologies, Wilmington, DE (United States)

2004-09-15

More than 700 pesticides are approved for use around the world, many of which are suspected endocrine disrupters. Other pesticides, though no longer used, persist in the environment where they bioaccumulate in the flora and fauna. Analytical methods target only a subset of the possible compounds. The analysis of food and environmental samples for pesticides is usually complicated by the presence of co-extracted natural products. Food or tissue extracts can be exceedingly complex matrices that require several stages of sample cleanup prior to analysis. Even then, it can be difficult to detect trace levels of contaminants in the presence of the remaining matrix. For efficiency, multi-residue methods (MRMs) must be used to analyze for most pesticides. Traditionally, these methods have relied upon gas chromatography (GC) with a constellation of element-selective detectors to locate pesticides in the midst of a variable matrix. GC with mass spectral detection (GC/MS) has been widely used for confirmation of hits. Liquid chromatography (LC) has been used for those compounds that are not amenable to GC. Today, more and more pesticide laboratories are relying upon LC with mass spectral detection (LC/MS) and GC/MS as their primary analytical tools. Still, most MRMs are target compound methods that look for a small subset of the possible pesticides. Any compound not on the target list is likely to be missed by these methods. Using the techniques of retention time locking (RTL) and RTL database searching together with spectral deconvolution, a method has been developed to screen for 567 pesticides and suspected endocrine disrupters in a single GC/MS analysis. Spectral deconvolution helps to identify pesticides even when they co-elute with matrix compounds while RTL helps to eliminate false positives and gives greater confidence in the results.

TERT promoter mutations and long telomere length predict poor survival and radiotherapy resistance in gliomas.

Science.gov (United States)

Gao, Ke; Li, Gang; Qu, Yiping; Wang, Maode; Cui, Bo; Ji, Meiju; Shi, Bingyin; Hou, Peng

2016-02-23

Increasing evidences have implicated somatic gain-of-function mutations at the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) promoter as one of the major mechanisms that promote transcriptional activation of TERT and subsequently maintain telomere length in human cancers including glioma. To investigate the prognostic value of these mutations and telomere length, individually and their coexistence, in gliomas, we analyzed two somatic mutations C228T and C250T in the TERT promoter, relative telomere length (RTL), IDH1 mutation and MGMT methylation in 389 glioma patients, and explored their associations with patient characteristics and clinical outcomes. Our data showed that C228T and C250T mutations were found in 17.0% (66 of 389) and 11.8% (46 of 389) of gliomas, respectively, and these two mutations were mutually exclusive in this cancer. Moreover, they were significantly associated with WHO grade. We also found that the RTL was significant longer in gliomas than in meningiomas and normal brain tissues (Median, 0.89 vs. 0.44 and 0.50; P radiotherapy. Collectively, TERT promoter mutations and long RTL are not only prognostic factors for poor clinical outcomes, but also the predictors of radiotherapy resistance in gliomas.

Effect of variable power levels on the yield of total aerosol mass and formation of aldehydes in e-cigarette aerosols.

Science.gov (United States)

Gillman, I G; Kistler, K A; Stewart, E W; Paolantonio, A R

2016-03-01

The study objective was to determine the effect of variable power applied to the atomizer of refillable tank based e-cigarette (EC) devices. Five different devices were evaluated, each at four power levels. Aerosol yield results are reported for each set of 25 EC puffs, as mass/puff, and normalized for the power applied to the coil, in mass/watt. The range of aerosol produced on a per puff basis ranged from 1.5 to 28 mg, and, normalized for power applied to the coil, ranged from 0.27 to 1.1 mg/watt. Aerosol samples were also analyzed for the production of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and acrolein, as DNPH derivatives, at each power level. When reported on mass basis, three of the devices showed an increase in total aldehyde yield with increasing power applied to the coil, while two of the devices showed the opposite trend. The mass of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and acrolein produced per gram of total aerosol produced ranged from 0.01 to 7.3 mg/g, 0.006 to 5.8 mg/g, and acrolein from EC aerosols from specific devices, and were compared to estimated exposure from consumption of cigarettes, to occupational and workplace limits, and to previously reported results from other researchers. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Teachers’ Opinions in Relation to School Principals’ Organizational Power Sources andAuthentic Leadership Levels

OpenAIRE

NARTGÜN, Şenay Sezgin; NARTGÜN, Zekeriya; ARICI, Uzman Deniz

2016-01-01

The aim of this study is to determine the organizational power sources that used and authentic leadership levels that demonstrated by primary, secondary and high school principals within the framework of teachers‟ opinions. In the study, comparative survey was used. One hundred and twenty teachers of primary, secondary and high schools located at Dörtdivan and Seben provinces of Bolu are consist the working group of this study. The data gathered from the one hundred teachers whom are particip...

Power Talk

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Stefanovic, Cedomir; Popovski, Petar; Angjelichinoski, Marko

2015-01-01

We introduce a novel communication strategy for DC Micro Grids (MGs), termed power talk, in which the devices communicate by modulating the power levels in the DC bus. The information is transmitted by varying the parameters that the MG units use to control the level of the common bus voltage...

POPCYCLE: a computer code for calculating nuclear and fossil plant levelized life-cycle power costs

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hardie, R.W.

1982-02-01

POPCYCLE, a computer code designed to calculate levelized life-cycle power costs for nuclear and fossil electrical generating plants is described. Included are (1) derivations of the equations and a discussion of the methodology used by POPCYCLE, (2) a description of the input required by the code, (3) a listing of the input for a sample case, and (4) the output for a sample case

Power Burst Facility: power oscillation problem

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lussie, W.G.; Wadkins, R.P.; Wells, R.A.

1975-01-01

In late 1973 PBF achieved a power level of 15 MW. During this period of operation fluctuations in reactor power were observed. Many possible causes of these fluctuations were considered and a number of nuclear and non-nuclear tests were conducted. Initial instrumentation installed in the core showed coolant outlet temperature variations of 10 0 F for several fuel cannisters and approximately 10 percent power variations at 15 MW. Power spectral density analysis showed a predominant frequency of 0.05 to 0.06 HZ. The testing program to determine the cause of the power oscillations is described

Serial powering optimization for CMS and ATLAS pixel detectors within RD53 collaboration for HL-LHC: system level simulations and testing

CERN Document Server

Orfanelli, Stella; Hamer, Matthias; Hinterkeuser, F; Karagounis, M; Pradas Luengo, Alvaro; Marconi, Sara; Ruini, Daniele

2017-01-01

Serial powering is the baseline choice for low mass power distribution for the CMS and ATLAS HL-LHC pixel detectors. Two 2.0 A Shunt-LDO regulators are integrated in a prototype pixel chip implemented in 65-nm CMOS technology and used to provide constant supply voltages to its power domains from a constant input current. Performance results from testing prototype Shunt-LDO regulators are shown, including their behaviour after x-ray irradiation. The system level simulation studies, which had been performed with a detailed regulator design in a serially powered topology, have been validated.

An Active Power Filter Based on a Three-Level Inverter and 3D-SVPWM for Selective Harmonic and Reactive Compensation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

José Luis Monroy-Morales

2017-03-01

Full Text Available Active Power Filters (APFs have been used for reducing waveform distortion and improving power quality. However, this function can be improved by means of a selective harmonic compensation. Since an APF has rating restrictions, it is convenient to have the option of selecting an individual or a set of particular harmonics in order to compensate and apply the total APF capabilities to eliminate these harmonics, in particular those with a greater impact on the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD. This paper presents the development of a new APF prototype based on a three-phase three-level Neutral Point Clamped (NPC inverter with selective harmonic compensation capabilities and reactive power compensation. The selective harmonic compensation approach uses several Synchronous Rotating Frames (SRF, to detect and control individual or a set of harmonics using d and q variables. The APF includes a Three-Dimensional Space Vector Modulator (3D-SVPWM in order to generate the compensation currents. Because of its multilevel topology, the proposed active power filter can be used in diverse power quality applications at sub-transmission and distribution voltage levels. Simulation and experimental results are shown to validate the proposed solution and assess the prototype performance in different scenarios.

Mechano-sorptive creep of Portuguese pinewood chemically modified

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Barroso Lopes Duarte

2014-03-01

Full Text Available The effect of chemical modification on mechano-sorptive creep in bending was studied by experimental work. Stakes with 20 × 20 × 400 mm RTL of Portuguese wood species (Pinus pinaster Aiton modified with 1,3-dimethylol-4,5- dihydroxyethyleneurea (DMDHEU, m-methylated melamine resin (MMF, tetraethoxysilane (TEOS and amid wax (WA were measured under asymmetric moistening conditions over a period of 42 days (app. 1000 hours with stress level (SL of 12 MPa, according to ENV 1156.

The level of influence of trust, commitment, cooperation, and power in the interorganizational relationships of Brazilian credit cooperatives

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Denise Maria Martins

Full Text Available Abstract This article aims to analyze the level of influence of trust, commitment, cooperation, and power in the interrelationships of individual credit cooperatives and their central organization in Brazil. The quantitative and descriptive research was developed in unique credit unions linked to the Central Bank of Brazil and the Organization of Brazilian Cooperatives. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling, with the estimation through partial least squares. The results obtained for the coefficients of determination (R2 of the endogenous latent variables confirmed the assumptions found in the theoretical models of Morgan and Hunt (1994 and Coote, Forrest, and Tam (2003. Statistical significance was also found in the relationships between power and trust, commitment and cooperation, trust and commitment, trust and cooperation, and power and commitment. However, in this study the relationship between power and commitment characterized the significance and was positive between the individual credit cooperatives and their central organization. This is in line with the understanding that power is the solution to resolving conflicts. The research identifies how the constructs of trust, commitment, cooperation, and power show relevance to the alignment of relations between individual credit cooperatives and their central organization.

Clearance of very low level radioactive waste in spanish nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alvarez Mir, F.

2001-01-01

According to present Spanish legislation a radioactive waste is defined as any material or waste product, without any possible planned use, that contains or is contaminated with radionuclides in concentrations or activity levels higher than those established by the Regulatory Authorities. Legally, this situation allows to develop a conventional management of very low level radioactive waste, by checking the negligibility of their radiological impact, and thus obtaining the corresponding Authorization to treat them as conventional waste. This presentation describes the clearance project of contaminated oils from spanish nuclear power plants. The on-site management includes: -) preliminary settling, centrifugation and filtration; -) oil purification; and -) radiological characterization. The off-site management includes the following operations: -) transportation to the facility where treatment is developed (dilution); -) temporary storage (decay); -) transportation to the place where final management is carried out; -) oil burning (dilution); and management of ashes and other combustion products. An annual amount of 70 m 3 /year (63 MBq) of very low contaminated oil with a specific concentration of 1 Bq/g could be disposed off. (A.C.)

High system-safety level of nuclear power stations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lutz, H.R.

1976-01-01

A bluntly worded disquisition contrasting the incidence of death and harm to persons in the chemical industry with the low hazards in nuclear power stations. Quotes conclusions from a U.S. accident study that the risk from 100 large power stations is 100 times smaller than from chlorine manufacture and transport. The enclosure of a reactor in a safety container, the well understood effects of radioactivity on man, and the ease of measuring leakage well below safe limits, are safety features which he considers were not matched in the products and plant of the Seveso factory which suffered disaster. Questions the usefulness of warnings about nuclear dangers when chemical dangers are much greater and road dangers very much greater still. (R.W.S.)

Load levelling measures being tackled by shikoku Electric Power Co. Inc.; Shikoku Denryoku Kabushi Kaisha no fuka heijunka eno torikumi

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1996-11-01

For the electric power companies, the activity of pushing forward the load levelling contributes greatly to the curtailment of cost by means of effective formation and utilization of facilities. It is planned to take up more positive activities with a target of 3% improvement in the load factor in ten years. Concrete measures for further promotion of load levelling are the diversity of the rate menu of appraising the load levelling effort of the customers and the promotion of the spread of equipment and systems relating to load levelling such as electric water heating apparatuses and thermal energy storage air conditioning systems. The rate system has been reviewed taking the opportunity of rate revision made in January, 1996. Particularly, further load shift to midnight time zone is expected as a result of better rate incentive for customers which is brought about by large reduction of the rate level due to the cost reduction effect accompanying the improvement in atomic power generation ratio. Outlines are given on the fields relating to general households, business, dwellings, buildings, and industry. 3 figs., 1 tab.

Low power arcjet performance

Science.gov (United States)

Curran, Francis M.; Sarmiento, Charles J.

1990-01-01

An experimental investigation was performed to evaluate arcjet operation at low power. A standard, 1 kW, constricted arcjet was run using nozzles with three different constrictor diameters. Each nozzle was run over a range of current and mass flow rates to explore stability and performance in the low power regime. A standard pulse-width modulated power processor was modified to accommodate the high operating voltages required under certain conditions. Stable, reliable operation at power levels below 0.5 kW was obtained at efficiencies between 30 and 40 percent. The operating range was found to be somewhat dependent on constrictor geometry at low mass flow rates. Quasi-periodic voltage fluctuations were observed at the low power end of the operating envelope. The nozzle insert geometry was found to have little effect on the performance of the device. The observed performance levels show that specific impulse levels above 350 seconds can be obtained at the 0.5 kW power level.

Power distribution, the environment, and public health. A state-level analysis

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boyce, James K.; Klemer, Andrew R.; Templet, Paul H.; Willis, Cleve E.

1999-01-01

This paper examines relationships among power distribution, the environment, and public health by means of a cross-sectional analysis of the 50 US states. A measure of inter-state variations in power distribution is derived from data on voter participation, tax fairness, Medicaid access, and educational attainment. We develop and estimate a recursive model linking the distribution of power to environmental policy, environmental stress, and public health. The results support the hypothesis that greater power inequality leads to weaker environmental policies, which in turn lead to greater environmental degradation and to adverse public health outcomes

Power distribution, the environment, and public health. A state-level analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boyce, James K. [Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 (United States); Klemer, Andrew R. [Department of Biology, University of Minnesota, Duluth, MN (United States); Templet, Paul H. [Institute of Environmental Studies, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA (United States); Willis, Cleve E. [Department of Resource Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 (United States)

1999-04-15

This paper examines relationships among power distribution, the environment, and public health by means of a cross-sectional analysis of the 50 US states. A measure of inter-state variations in power distribution is derived from data on voter participation, tax fairness, Medicaid access, and educational attainment. We develop and estimate a recursive model linking the distribution of power to environmental policy, environmental stress, and public health. The results support the hypothesis that greater power inequality leads to weaker environmental policies, which in turn lead to greater environmental degradation and to adverse public health outcomes.

Power distribution, the environment, and public health. A state-level analysis

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boyce, James K. [Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 (United States); Klemer, Andrew R. [Department of Biology, University of Minnesota, Duluth, MN (United States); Templet, Paul H. [Institute of Environmental Studies, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA (United States); Willis, Cleve E. [Department of Resource Economics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 (United States)

1999-04-15

This paper examines relationships among power distribution, the environment, and public health by means of a cross-sectional analysis of the 50 US states. A measure of inter-state variations in power distribution is derived from data on voter participation, tax fairness, Medicaid access, and educational attainment. We develop and estimate a recursive model linking the distribution of power to environmental policy, environmental stress, and public health. The results support the hypothesis that greater power inequality leads to weaker environmental policies, which in turn lead to greater environmental degradation and to adverse public health outcomes

An approach of raising the low power reactor trip block (P-7) in Maanshan Power Plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, L.C.

1984-01-01

The technical specification for the Maanshan Nuclear Power Station (FSAR Table 16.2.2-3) requires that with an increasing reactor power level above the setpoint of low power reactor trip block (P-7), a turbine trip shall initiate a reactor trip. This anticipatory reactor trip on turbine trip prevents the pressurizer PORV from openning during turbine trip event. In order to reduce unnecessary reactor trip due to turbine trip on low reactor power level during Maanshan start-up stage, Taiwan Power Company performed a transient analysis for turbine trip event by using RETRAN code. The highest reactor power level at which a turbine trip will not open the pressurizer PORV is searched. The results demonstrated that this power level can be increased from the original value-10% of the rated thermal power-to about 48% of the rated thermal power

Health and human rights concerns of drug users in detention in Guangxi Province, China.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

J Elizabeth Cohen

2008-12-01

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Although confinement in drug detoxification ("detox" and re-education through labor (RTL centers is the most common form of treatment for drug dependence in China, little has been published about the experience of drug users in such settings. We conducted an assessment of the impact of detention on drug users' access to HIV prevention and treatment services and consequent threats to fundamental human rights protections. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Chinese government HIV and anti-narcotics legislation and policy documents were reviewed, and in-depth and key informant interviews were conducted with 19 injection drug users (IDUs and 20 government and nongovernmental organization officials in Nanning and Baise, Guangxi Province. Significant contradictions were found in HIV and antinarcotics policies, exemplified by the simultaneous expansion of community-based methadone maintenance therapy and the increasing number of drug users detained in detox and RTL center facilities. IDU study participants reported, on average, having used drugs for 14 y (range 8-23 y and had been confined to detox four times (range one to eight times and to RTL centers once (range zero to three times. IDUs expressed an intense fear of being recognized by the police and being detained, regardless of current drug use. Key informants and IDUs reported that routine HIV testing, without consent and without disclosure of the result, was the standard policy of detox and RTL center facilities, and that HIV-infected detainees were not routinely provided medical or drug dependency treatment, including antiretroviral therapy. IDUs received little or no information or means of HIV prevention, but reported numerous risk behaviors for HIV transmission while detained. CONCLUSIONS: Legal and policy review, and interviews with recently detained IDUs and key informants in Guangxi Province, China, found evidence of anti-narcotics policies and practices that appear to violate human rights

Health and human rights concerns of drug users in detention in Guangxi Province, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Cohen, J Elizabeth; Amon, Joseph J

2008-12-09

Although confinement in drug detoxification ("detox") and re-education through labor (RTL) centers is the most common form of treatment for drug dependence in China, little has been published about the experience of drug users in such settings. We conducted an assessment of the impact of detention on drug users' access to HIV prevention and treatment services and consequent threats to fundamental human rights protections. Chinese government HIV and anti-narcotics legislation and policy documents were reviewed, and in-depth and key informant interviews were conducted with 19 injection drug users (IDUs) and 20 government and nongovernmental organization officials in Nanning and Baise, Guangxi Province. Significant contradictions were found in HIV and antinarcotics policies, exemplified by the simultaneous expansion of community-based methadone maintenance therapy and the increasing number of drug users detained in detox and RTL center facilities. IDU study participants reported, on average, having used drugs for 14 y (range 8-23 y) and had been confined to detox four times (range one to eight times) and to RTL centers once (range zero to three times). IDUs expressed an intense fear of being recognized by the police and being detained, regardless of current drug use. Key informants and IDUs reported that routine HIV testing, without consent and without disclosure of the result, was the standard policy of detox and RTL center facilities, and that HIV-infected detainees were not routinely provided medical or drug dependency treatment, including antiretroviral therapy. IDUs received little or no information or means of HIV prevention, but reported numerous risk behaviors for HIV transmission while detained. Legal and policy review, and interviews with recently detained IDUs and key informants in Guangxi Province, China, found evidence of anti-narcotics policies and practices that appear to violate human rights and imperil drug users' health.

Power Quality Issues on Wind Power Installations in Denmark

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sørensen, Poul Ejnar; Cutululis, Nicolaos Antonio; Lund, Torsten

2007-01-01

offshore wind farms connected at transmission level. In this perspective, the power quality issues are divided into local issues particularly related to the voltage quality in the distribution systems and global issues related to the power system control and stability. Power quality characteristics of wind...

High impact data visualization with Power View, Power Map, and Power BI

CERN Document Server

Aspin, Adam

2014-01-01

High Impact Data Visualization with Power View, Power Map, and Power BI helps you take business intelligence delivery to a new level that is interactive, engaging, even fun, all while driving commercial success through sound decision-making. Learn to harness the power of Microsoft's flagship, self-service business intelligence suite to deliver compelling and interactive insight with remarkable ease. Learn the essential techniques needed to enhance the look and feel of reports and dashboards so that you can seize your audience's attention and provide them with clear and accurate information. Al

Final report on the survey to verify a new method for power load leveling; Fuka heijunka shinshuho jissho chosa saishu hokokusho

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

2000-03-01

The purpose of this verification survey is to verify the effectiveness of a system using capacitor for power load leveling and output leveling in the photovoltaic power generation. For the former, the charge is conducted in the nighttime, and the discharge in load peak time in the daytime. The capacity required is small for the output, and therefore, there is a viability of capacitor. For the latter, abrupt output variations by solar cells are leveled by storage device using capacitor. Since the output variation generated in a short time by solar cells requires responsibility and life in case of abrupt charge/discharge, it is suitable to use capacitor. The demonstration use capacitor is an organic stacking type for the former, and an organic jelly-role type for the latter. As a result of the demonstration, for the former, a power storage system which has 32-module series/parallel connection bank switch type + 2-way ac/dc exchanger was made and operated for verification. The overall efficiency of 85% was obtained. For the latter, a system which has 2,400F x 70 series bank, 6,000F x 70 series bank x 3 parallel bank and 3kW solar cells was operated for verification. Much effect of output leveling was confirmed. (NEDO)

Impact of Different Tidal Volume Levels at Low Mechanical Power on Ventilator-Induced Lung Injury in Rats

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lillian Moraes

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Tidal volume (VT has been considered the main determinant of ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI. Recently, experimental studies have suggested that mechanical power transferred from the ventilator to the lungs is the promoter of VILI. We hypothesized that, as long as mechanical power is kept below a safe threshold, high VT should not be injurious. The present study aimed to investigate the impact of different VT levels and respiratory rates (RR on lung function, diffuse alveolar damage (DAD, alveolar ultrastructure, and expression of genes related to inflammation [interleukin (IL-6], alveolar stretch (amphiregulin, epithelial [club cell secretory protein (CC16] and endothelial [intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM-1] cell injury, and extracellular matrix damage [syndecan-1, decorin, and metalloproteinase (MMP-9] in experimental acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS under low-power mechanical ventilation. Twenty-eight Wistar rats received Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide intratracheally. After 24 h, 21 animals were randomly assigned to ventilation (2 h with low mechanical power at three different VT levels (n = 7/group: (1 VT = 6 mL/kg and RR adjusted to normocapnia; (2 VT = 13 mL/kg; and 3 VT = 22 mL/kg. In the second and third groups, RR was adjusted to yield low mechanical power comparable to that of the first group. Mechanical power was calculated as [(ΔP,L2/Est,L/2]× RR (ΔP,L = transpulmonary driving pressure, Est,L = static lung elastance. Seven rats were not mechanically ventilated (NV and were used for molecular biology analysis. Mechanical power was comparable among groups, while VT gradually increased. ΔP,L and mechanical energy were higher in VT = 22 mL/kg than VT = 6 mL/kg and VT = 13 mL/kg (p < 0.001 for both. Accordingly, DAD score increased in VT = 22 mL/kg compared to VT = 6 mL/kg and VT = 13 mL/kg [23(18.5–24.75 vs. 16(12–17.75 and 16(13.25–18, p < 0.05, respectively]. VT = 22 mL/kg was associated with higher

Ultrasonic scalpel causes greater depth of soft tissue necrosis compared to monopolar electrocautery at standard power level settings in a pig model.

Science.gov (United States)

Homayounfar, Kia; Meis, Johanna; Jung, Klaus; Klosterhalfen, Bernd; Sprenger, Thilo; Conradi, Lena-Christin; Langer, Claus; Becker, Heinz

2012-02-23

Ultrasonic scalpel (UC) and monopolar electrocautery (ME) are common tools for soft tissue dissection. However, morphological data on the related tissue alteration are discordant. We developed an automatic device for standardized sample excision and compared quality and depth of morphological changes caused by UC and ME in a pig model. 100 tissue samples (5 × 3 cm) of the abdominal wall were excised in 16 pigs. Excisions were randomly performed manually or by using the self-constructed automatic device at standard power levels (60 W cutting in ME, level 5 in UC) for abdominal surgery. Quality of tissue alteration and depth of coagulation necrosis were examined histopathologically. Device (UC vs. ME) and mode (manually vs. automatic) effects were studied by two-way analysis of variance at a significance level of 5%. At the investigated power level settings UC and ME induced qualitatively similar coagulation necroses. Mean depth of necrosis was 450.4 ± 457.8 μm for manual UC and 553.5 ± 326.9 μm for automatic UC versus 149.0 ± 74.3 μm for manual ME and 257.6 ± 119.4 μm for automatic ME. Coagulation necrosis was significantly deeper (p power levels.

A study on water level control of PWR steam generator at low power and the self-tuning of its fuzzy controller

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Na, N.; Kwon, K.; Ham, C.; Bien, Z.

1994-01-01

The water level control system of a steam generator in a pressurized water reactor and its control problems during the operation at low power is analysed. In particular, a strategy for a water level control system, which is based on the use of a fuzzy logic controller, is proposed. The control strategy includes dynamic tuning for the large transient. The fuzzy variable of the flow rate during the power operation is obtained from the bypass valve opening and not from the incorrect measured signal at the low flow rate. The practical self-tuning algorithm is based on the optimal control performance

Integrated circuit test-port architecture and method and apparatus of test-port generation

Science.gov (United States)

Teifel, John

2016-04-12

A method and apparatus are provided for generating RTL code for a test-port interface of an integrated circuit. In an embodiment, a test-port table is provided as input data. A computer automatically parses the test-port table into data structures and analyzes it to determine input, output, local, and output-enable port names. The computer generates address-detect and test-enable logic constructed from combinational functions. The computer generates one-hot multiplexer logic for at least some of the output ports. The one-hot multiplexer logic for each port is generated so as to enable the port to toggle between data signals and test signals. The computer then completes the generation of the RTL code.

Rethinking Family Power.

Science.gov (United States)

Kranichfeld, Marion L.

1987-01-01

Men's power is emphasized in the family power literature on marital decision making. Little attention has been paid to women's power, accrued through their deeper embeddedness in intrafamilial roles. Micro-level analysis of family power demonstrates that women's positions in the family power structure rest not on the horizontal marital tie but…

Concentrated solar power plants impact on PV penetration level and grid flexibility under Egyptian climate

Science.gov (United States)

Moukhtar, Ibrahim; Elbaset, Adel A.; El Dein, Adel Z.; Qudaih, Yaser; Mitani, Yasunori

2018-05-01

Photovoltaic (PV) system integration in the electric grid has been increasing over the past decades. However, the impact of PV penetration on the electric grid, especially during the periods of higher and lower generation for the solar system at the middle of the day and during cloudy weather or at night respectively, limit the high penetration of solar PV system. In this research, a Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) with Thermal Energy Storage (TES) has been aggregated with PV system in order to accommodate the required electrical power during the higher and lower solar energy at all timescales. This paper analyzes the impacts of CSP on the grid-connected PV considering high penetration of PV system, particularly when no energy storages in the form of batteries are used. Two cases have been studied, the first when only PV system is integrated into the electric grid and the second when two types of solar energy (PV and CSP) are integrated. The System Advisor Model (SAM) software is used to simulate the output power of renewable energy. Simulation results show that the performance of CSP has a great impact on the penetration level of PV system and on the flexibility of the electric grid. The overall grid flexibility increases due to the ability of CSP to store and dispatch the generated power. In addition, CSP/TES itself has inherent flexibility. Therefore, CSP reduces the minimum generation constraint of the conventional generators that allows more penetration of the PV system.

Web-Based Learning Enhancements: Video Lectures through Voice-Over PowerPoint in a Majors-Level Biology Course

Science.gov (United States)

Lents, Nathan H.; Cifuentes, Oscar E.

2009-01-01

This study is an experimental introduction of web-based lecture delivery into a majors-level introductory biology course. Web-based delivery, achieved through the use of prerecorded Voice-Over PowerPoint video lectures, was introduced on a limited basis to an experimental section while a control group, with the same instructor, received standard…

Power Capability Investigation Based on Electrothermal Models of Press-pack IGBT Three-Level NPC and ANPC VSCs for Multimegawatt Wind Turbines

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Senturk, Osman Selcuk; Helle, Lars; Munk-Nielsen, Stig

2012-01-01

to provide reactive power support as an ancillary service. For multimegawatt full-scale wind turbines, power capability depends on converter topology and semiconductor switch technology. As power capability limiting factors, switch current, semiconductor junction temperature, and converter output voltage...... are addressed in this study for the three-level neutral-point-clamped voltage source converter (3L-NPC-VSC) and 3L Active NPC VSC (3L-ANPC-VSC) with press-pack insulated gate bipolar transistors employed as a grid-side converter. In order to investigate these VSCs' power capabilities under various operating...... conditions with respect to these limiting factors, a power capability generation algorithm based on the converter electrothermal model is developed. Built considering the VSCs' operation principles and physical structure, the model is validated by a 2 MV·A single-phase 3L-ANPC-VSC test setup. The power...

Development and Application of Level 2 Probabilistic Safety Assessment for Nuclear Power Plants. Specific Safety Guide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2010-01-01

The objective of this Safety Guide is to provide recommendations for meeting the IAEA safety requirements in performing or managing a level 2 probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) project for a nuclear power plant; thus it complements the Safety Guide on level 1 PSA. One of the aims of this Safety Guide is to promote a standard framework, standard terms and a standard set of documents for level 2 PSAs to facilitate regulatory and external peer review of their results. It describes all elements of the level 2 PSA that need to be carried out if the starting point is a fully comprehensive level 1 PSA. Contents: 1. Introduction; 2. PSA project management and organization; 3. Identification of design aspects important to severe accidents and acquisition of information; 4. Interface with level 1 PSA: Grouping of sequences; 5. Accident progression and containment analysis; 6. Source terms for severe accidents; 7. Documentation of the analysis: Presentation and interpretation of results; 8. Use and applications of the PSA; Annex I: Example of a typical schedule for a level 2 PSA; Annex II: Computer codes for simulation of severe accidents; Annex III: Sample outline of documentation for a level 2 PSA study.

Association of plant growth-promoting Serratia spp. with the root nodules of chickpea.

Science.gov (United States)

Zaheer, Ahmad; Mirza, Babur S; Mclean, Joan E; Yasmin, Sumera; Shah, Tariq Mahmud; Malik, Kauser A; Mirza, M Sajjad

2016-01-01

Serratia species-affiliated DNA sequences have recently been discovered in the root nodules of two chickpea cultivars; however, little is known about their potential influence on chickpea plant growth. All Serratia-affiliated sequences (1136) could be grouped into two clusters at 98% DNA similarity. The major cluster, represented by 96% of sequences, was closely associated with Serratia marcescens sequences from GenBank. In the current study, we isolated two Serratia strains, 5D and RTL100, from root nodules of a field-grown Desi cultivar from Faisalabad and Thal areas, respectively. In vitro, strain 5D showed significantly higher phosphate (P) solubilization and lactic acid production than RTL100, whereas a comparable concentration of phytohormone was produced by both isolates. The application of Serratia strain 5D as an inoculum resulted in 25.55% and 30.85% increases in the grain yield of crops grown on fertile soil in irrigated areas and nutrient-deficient soil in rainfed areas, respectively, compared to the non-inoculated control. Results of plant inoculations indicated that Serratia sp. 5D and RTL100 can serve as effective microbial inoculants, particularly in nutrient-deficient soils in rainfed areas, where chickpea is the only major crop grown during the entire year. Copyright © 2016 Institut Pasteur. All rights reserved.

Characterization and DNA-binding specificities of Ralstonia TAL-like effectors

KAUST Repository

Li, Lixin

2013-07-01

Transcription activator-like effectors (TALEs) from Xanthomonas sp. have been used as customizable DNA-binding modules for genome-engineering applications. Ralstonia solanacearum TALE-like proteins (RTLs) exhibit similar structural features to TALEs, including a central DNA-binding domain composed of 35 amino acid-long repeats. Here, we characterize the RTLs and show that they localize in the plant cell nucleus, mediate DNA binding, and might function as transcriptional activators. RTLs have a unique DNA-binding architecture and are enriched in repeat variable di-residues (RVDs), which determine repeat DNA-binding specificities. We determined the DNA-binding specificities for the RVD sequences ND, HN, NP, and NT. The RVD ND mediates highly specific interactions with C nucleotide, HN interacts specifically with A and G nucleotides, and NP binds to C, A, and G nucleotides. Moreover, we developed a highly efficient repeat assembly approach for engineering RTL effectors. Taken together, our data demonstrate that RTLs are unique DNA-targeting modules that are excellent alternatives to be tailored to bind to user-selected DNA sequences for targeted genomic and epigenomic modifications. These findings will facilitate research concerning RTL molecular biology and RTL roles in the pathogenicity of Ralstonia spp. © 2013 The Author.

Optimal sampling period of the digital control system for the nuclear power plant steam generator water level control

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hur, Woo Sung; Seong, Poong Hyun

1995-01-01

A great effort has been made to improve the nuclear plant control system by use of digital technologies and a long term schedule for the control system upgrade has been prepared with an aim to implementation in the next generation nuclear plants. In case of digital control system, it is important to decide the sampling period for analysis and design of the system, because the performance and the stability of a digital control system depend on the value of the sampling period of the digital control system. There is, however, currently no systematic method used universally for determining the sampling period of the digital control system. Generally, a traditional way to select the sampling frequency is to use 20 to 30 times the bandwidth of the analog control system which has the same system configuration and parameters as the digital one. In this paper, a new method to select the sampling period is suggested which takes into account of the performance as well as the stability of the digital control system. By use of the Irving's model steam generator, the optimal sampling period of an assumptive digital control system for steam generator level control is estimated and is actually verified in the digital control simulation system for Kori-2 nuclear power plant steam generator level control. Consequently, we conclude the optimal sampling period of the digital control system for Kori-2 nuclear power plant steam generator level control is 1 second for all power ranges. 7 figs., 3 tabs., 8 refs. (Author)

Evaluation of Steam Generator Level behavior for Determination of Turbine Runback rate on COPs trip for Yonggwang 1 and 2 Power Uprating Units

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Kyung Jin; Hwang, Su Hyun; Yoo, Tae Geun; Chung, Soon Il; An, Byung Chang; Park, Jung Gu

2010-01-01

4.5% power uprate project has been progressing for the first time in Yonggwang 1 and 2(YGN1 and 2). Reviews for design change due to the power uprate were accomplished. Steam generator level behavior was one of the most important parameters because it could be cause of reactor trip or turbine trip. As the results of the reviews, YGN1 and 2 had to reassess it for change of turbine runback rate when turbine runback occurs due to the condensate operating pumps (COP) trip. This study has been carried out for evaluating the steam generator level behavior for determination of turbine runback rate on COPs trip for Yonggwang 1 and 2 Power Uprating Units. The steam generator water level evaluation program for YGN1 and 2 (SLEP-Y1) has been developed for it. The program includes models for the steam generator water level response. SLEP-Y1 is programmed with advanced continuous system simulation language (ACSL). The language has been used to simulate physical systems as a commercial tool used to evaluate system designs

Conditional quantum entropy power inequality for d-level quantum systems

Science.gov (United States)

Jeong, Kabgyun; Lee, Soojoon; Jeong, Hyunseok

2018-04-01

We propose an extension of the quantum entropy power inequality for finite dimensional quantum systems, and prove a conditional quantum entropy power inequality by using the majorization relation as well as the concavity of entropic functions also given by Audenaert et al (2016 J. Math. Phys. 57 052202). Here, we make particular use of the fact that a specific local measurement after a partial swap operation (or partial swap quantum channel) acting only on finite dimensional bipartite subsystems does not affect the majorization relation for the conditional output states when a separable ancillary subsystem is involved. We expect our conditional quantum entropy power inequality to be useful, and applicable in bounding and analyzing several capacity problems for quantum channels.

Optimization of E-DCH channel power ratios to maximize link level efficiency

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zarco, Carlos Ruben Delgado; Malone, Jaime Tito; Wigard, Jeroen

2006-01-01

For the WCDMA/HSUPA concept, a key to ensuring high spectral efficiency is to correctly adjust the transmission power ratios among the data and control channels. This paper provides optimal values for the power ratio between the Enhanced-Dedicated Physical Data Channel (E-DPDCH) and the Dedicated...... rate (typical values ranging from 8.1 to 9.9 dB) and the RSN target (maintaining or decreasing their value as the target increases). These results show that it is more link efficient to increase the DPCCH transmission power with the bit rate (and the E-DPDCH's by applying the power ratio) than...... to maintain a constant DPCCH transmission power and just increase the EDPDCH to DPCCH power ratio....

Levelling the playing field? The influence of national wind power planning instruments on conflicts of interests in a Swedish county

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bergek, Anna

2010-01-01

Slow and complicated wind power planning and permitting procedures have been a large obstacle for wind power diffusion in Sweden and other countries. This paper complements previous siting-oriented literature with a planning perspective on these problems. The focus is two national planning instruments implemented in Sweden in the early 2000s: a national planning target and an appointment of areas of national interest for wind power. The paper identifies different types of conflicts of interest related to wind power - in addition to the conflict between wind power as a national public interest and various local private interests - and analyses the impact of the national planning instruments on the handling of these conflicts in the land-use planning process in the County of Ostergoetland. The analysis shows that the planning target actually made local planning officials even more inclined to treat wind power as a private rather than a public interest and that the method used to identify areas of national interest of wind power forced wind power to compete with the combined strengths of all other public interest. The planning instruments thus left wind power to fight an uphill battle rather than to meet other interests face-to-face on a level playing field.

Mean sea level and change in the hydrological regime off Loviisa power plant around the year 2050

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maelkki, P.; Voipio, A.

1985-03-01

On the request of Imatran Voima Oy, the Institute of Marine Research has made an estimate on the future sea level off Loviisa Power Plant. The estimate is based on observationsof mean sea level in the Gulf of Finland. The stations used are Helsinki (observations since 1904) and Hamina (observations since 1928). A litterature review was made in order to estimate impact of climate change on environmental conditions. The results presented are mainly based on various estimates of meterorological Global Circulation Models (GCM). Their usefulness in the connection is briefly discussed

Power purchase prices for wind power IPPs (independent power producers) in Western Europe

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kummert, C.

1995-01-01

In a number of European countries, renewable energy installations, especially wind turbines, are supported by paying high prices for their electricity. A survey of pricing practice should not be limited to an international comparison of price levels, however. The terms under which prices are fixed are important criteria for the assessment of costs and cost effectiveness of wind power projects. The conditions for electricity supply by independent wind power operators in Western Europe are therefore surveyed here. A comparison of the price levels is also shown. (author)

Assessment of levelized cost of electricity for a 10-MW solar chimney power plant in Yinchuan China

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guo, Penghua; Zhai, Yaxin; Xu, Xinhai; Li, Jingyin

2017-01-01

Highlights: • An unsteady model is proposed for annual power generation prediction of SCPPs. • LCOE of a 10-MW SCPP in China is estimated through a cost benefit analysis. • Cost advantage and concessional loan under conditions in China are considered. • SCPP is proven to be economically feasible under favorable conditions in China. - Abstract: Solar chimney power plant (SCPP) is a promising renewable energy technology that needs policy support and market cultivation at the early stage of its development. An accurate prediction of the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) can be used as basis for crafting effective support policies. This study presents an unsteady theoretical model that considers hourly meteorological data and soil heat storage in estimating the annual power generation of an SCPP. A cost benefit model is adopted to calculate the LCOE of a 10-MW SCPP in Yinchuan, a representative geographical location in the Northwestern region of China. By considering the cost advantage of China, the concessional loan, as well as the low operation and maintenance cost, the LCOE of the SCPP is estimated to be 0.4178 Yuan/kWh, which can compete with those of wind power and solar PV in China. This work lays a good foundation for the accurate prediction of power generation and provides a reference for the Chinese government in crafting effective support policies for SCPPs.

Radiochemical methodologies applied to analytical characterization of low and intermediate level wastes from nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Monteiro, Roberto Pellacani G.; Júnior, Aluísio Souza R.; Kastner, Geraldo F.; Temba, Eliane S.C.; Oliveira, Thiago C. de; Amaral, Ângela M.; Franco, Milton B.

2017-01-01

The aim of this work is to present radiochemical methodologies developed at CDTN/CNEN in order to answer a program for isotopic inventory of radioactive wastes from Brazilian Nuclear Power Plants. In this program some radionuclides, 3 H, 14 C, 55 Fe, 59 Ni, 63 Ni, 90 Sr, 93 Zr, 94 Nb, 99 Tc, 129 I, 235 U, 238 U, 238 Pu, 239 + 240 Pu, 241 Pu, 242 Pu, 241 Am, 242 Cm e 243 + 244 Cm, were determined in Low Level Wastes (LLW) and Intermediate Level Wastes (ILW) and a protocol of analytical methodologies based on radiochemical separation steps and spectrometric and nuclear techniques was established. (author)

No change in lower limb extension power during a hospital stay in geriatric patients, despite improved functional level

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Karlsen, Anders; Loeb, Mads Rohde; Turtumoeygaard, Ida Fanny

2017-01-01

The aim of the current study was to evaluate changes in lower limb extension power (LLEP) during hospitalization in older medical patients. LLEP was measured in a PowerRig at admission (day 2 to 4; mean ± SD: day 2.5 ± 0.8) and before discharge (day 5-11; mean ± SD: day 8.4 ± 2.2) in 33 older med...... improvements in older geriatric patients occur in the absence of improvements in LLEP. Individual changes in LLEP were not related to the changes in function or to the daily activity level in the patients....

Some Comparisons of Measured and Predicted Primary Radiation Levels in the Aagesta Power Plant

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Aalto, E; Sandlin, R; Krell, Aa

1968-05-15

Neutron fluxes and gamma exposure rates in the primary shields of the Aagesta nuclear plant have been measured and the results compared with values predicted during shield design, and with values obtained later by the NRN bulk shielding code. The input data for the problems are given. The radial predictions are conservative by a factor of not more than 2 close to the reactor and by an unknown, higher factor further out. The conservatism is explainable by the differences between the true local conditions and core power distributions and those assumed in the predictions. The axial flux levels based on streaming calculations are found to agree quite well with the estimated values. The conservatism here is not so large and it seems to be necessary to be very careful when handling streaming problems. The experience gained shows that a power plant is less suitable for studying the accuracy of the shield design codes as such, but the practical results from the combined application of massive shield codes and void streaming predictions to complicated problems give information about the true degree of conservatism present.

Low Level Event and Near Miss Process for Nuclear Power Plants: Best Practices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2012-01-01

The IAEA programme on the operational safety of nuclear power plants gives priority to the development and promotion of the proper use of IAEA safety standards through the provision of assistance to Member States in the application of safety standards, the performance of safety review missions and the conduct of training activities based on safety standards. A number of IAEA safety standards and nuclear safety publications discuss the processes that need to be put into place for the feedback and analysis of operating experience (OE) at nuclear power plants. These include: Fundamental Safety Principles (IAEA Safety Standards Series No. SF-1), Safety of Nuclear Power Plants: Commissioning and Operation (IAEA Safety Standards Series No. SSR-2/2), Application of the Management System for Facilities and Activities (IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GS-G-3.1) and A System for the Feedback of Experience from Events in Nuclear Installations (IAEA Safety Standards Series No. NS-G-2.11). Additionally, several IAEA TECDOCs cover many aspects of the establishment, conduct and continuous improvement of an OE programme at nuclear power plants, including the consideration of low level events (LLEs) and near misses (NMs). Although these IAEA safety standards and nuclear safety publications have been in existence for several years, 70 per cent of the IAEA Operational Safety Review Team (OSART) missions carried out at nuclear power plants between 2006 and 2010 identified weaknesses in the reporting and analysis process for LLEs and NMs. In fact, this has been one of the recurring issues most often identified in the area of OE during these missions. These weaknesses have been further confirmed by most of the IAEA Peer Review of the Operational Safety Performance Experience (PROSPER) missions that have been conducted to date. Finally, the IAEA International Nuclear Safety Group, in their report entitled Improving the International System for Operating Experience Feedback (INSAG-23

Allowable Residual Contamination Levels in soil for decommissioning the Shippingport Atomic Power Station site

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kennedy, W.E. Jr.; Napier, B.A.; Soldat, J.K.

1983-09-01

As part of decommissioning the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, a fundamental concern is the determination of Allowable Residual Contamination Levels (ARCL) for radionuclides in the soil at the site. The ARCL method described in this report is based on a scenario/exposure-pathway analysis and compliance with an annual dose limit for unrestricted use of the land after decommissioning. In addition to naturally occurring radionuclides and fallout from weapons testing, soil contamination could potentially come from five other sources. These include operation of the Shippingport Station as a pressurized water reactor, operations of the Shippingport Station as a light-water breeder, operation of the nearby Beaver Valley reactors, releases during decommissioning, and operation of other nearby industries, including the Bruce-Mansfield coal-fired power plants. ARCL values are presented for 29 individual radionculides and a worksheet is provided so that ARCL values can be determined for any mixture of the individual radionuclides for any annual dose limit selected. In addition, a worksheet is provided for calculating present time soil concentration value that will decay to the ARCL values after any selected period of time, such as would occur during a period of restricted access. The ARCL results are presented for both unconfined (surface) and confined (subsurface) soil contamination. The ARCL method and results described in this report provide a flexible means of determining unrestricted-use site release conditions after decommissioning the Shippingport Atomic Power Station

Power uprates in nuclear power plants: international experiences and approaches for implementation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kang, Ki Sig

2008-01-01

The greater demand for electricity and the available capacity within safety margins in some operating NPPs are prompting nuclear utilities to request license modification to enable operation at a higher power level, beyond their original license provisions. Such plant modifications require an in-depth safety analysis to evaluate the possible safety impact. The analysis must consider the thermo hydraulic, radiological and structural aspects, and the plant behavior, while taking into account the capability of the structures, systems and components, and the reactor protection and safeguard systems set points. The purpose of this paper is to introduce international experiences and approaches for implementation of power uprates related to the reactor thermal power of nuclear power plants. The paper is intended to give the reader a general overview of the major processes, work products, issues, challenges, events, and experiences in the power uprates program. The process of increasing the licensed power level of a nuclear power plants is called a power uprate. One way of increasing the thermal output from a reactor is to increase the amount of fissile material in use. It is also possible to increase the core power by increasing the performance of the high power bundles. Safety margins can be maintained by either using fuels with a higher performance, or through the use of improved methods of analysis to demonstrate that the required margins are retained even at the higher power levels. The paper will review all types of power uprates, from small to large, and across various reactor types, including light and heavy water, pressurized, and boiling water reactors. Generally, however, the content of the report focuses on power uprates of the stretch and extended type. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is developing a technical guideline on power uprates and side effects of power uprates in nuclear power plants

Far-Field Acoustic Power Level and Performance Analyses of F31/A31 Open Rotor Model at Simulated Scaled Takeoff, Nominal Takeoff, and Approach Conditions: Technical Report I

Science.gov (United States)

Sree, Dave

2015-01-01

Far-field acoustic power level and performance analyses of open rotor model F31/A31 have been performed to determine its noise characteristics at simulated scaled takeoff, nominal takeoff, and approach flight conditions. The nonproprietary parts of the data obtained from experiments in 9- by 15-Foot Low-Speed Wind Tunnel (9?15 LSWT) tests were provided by NASA Glenn Research Center to perform the analyses. The tone and broadband noise components have been separated from raw test data by using a new data analysis tool. Results in terms of sound pressure levels, acoustic power levels, and their variations with rotor speed, angle of attack, thrust, and input shaft power have been presented and discussed. The effect of an upstream pylon on the noise levels of the model has been addressed. Empirical equations relating model's acoustic power level, thrust, and input shaft power have been developed. The far-field acoustic efficiency of the model is also determined for various simulated flight conditions. It is intended that the results presented in this work will serve as a database for comparison and improvement of other open rotor blade designs and also for validating open rotor noise prediction codes.

A cell-level power management IC in BCD-SOI for partial power processing in Concentrating-PV systems

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Zaman, M.S.; Wen, Y.; Fernandes, R.; Buter, B.; Doorn, T.S.; Dijkstra, M.; Bergveld, H.J.; Trescases, O.

2014-01-01

This work presents a power management IC used to mitigate the effects of mismatch in Concentrating-Photovoltaic (CPV) systems. The IC contains a bi-directional dc-dc converter, an auxiliary boost converter to generate the internal 10 V power supply, as well as protection and monitoring circuits. The

A novel power control strategy of Modular Multi-level Converter in HVDC-AC hybrid transmission systems for passive networks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hu, Zhenda; Wu, Rui; Yang, Xiaodong

2014-01-01

With the development of High Voltage DC Transmission (HVDC) technology, there will be more and more HVDC-AC hybrid transmission system in the world. A basic challenge in HVDC-AC hybrid transmission systems is to optimize the power sharing between DC and AC lines, which become more severe when sup...... control strategy of Modular Multi-level Converter in VSC-HVDC, which can optimize converter output power according to passive network loading variation. Proposal method is studied with a case study of a VSC-HVDC AC hybrid project by PSCAD/EMTDC simulations....

Wind Power Forecasting Error Frequency Analyses for Operational Power System Studies: Preprint

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Florita, A.; Hodge, B. M.; Milligan, M.

2012-08-01

The examination of wind power forecasting errors is crucial for optimal unit commitment and economic dispatch of power systems with significant wind power penetrations. This scheduling process includes both renewable and nonrenewable generators, and the incorporation of wind power forecasts will become increasingly important as wind fleets constitute a larger portion of generation portfolios. This research considers the Western Wind and Solar Integration Study database of wind power forecasts and numerical actualizations. This database comprises more than 30,000 locations spread over the western United States, with a total wind power capacity of 960 GW. Error analyses for individual sites and for specific balancing areas are performed using the database, quantifying the fit to theoretical distributions through goodness-of-fit metrics. Insights into wind-power forecasting error distributions are established for various levels of temporal and spatial resolution, contrasts made among the frequency distribution alternatives, and recommendations put forth for harnessing the results. Empirical data are used to produce more realistic site-level forecasts than previously employed, such that higher resolution operational studies are possible. This research feeds into a larger work of renewable integration through the links wind power forecasting has with various operational issues, such as stochastic unit commitment and flexible reserve level determination.

Power-Efficient Design Challenges

Science.gov (United States)

Pangrle, Barry

Design teams find themselves facing decreasing power budgets while simultaneously the products that they design continue to require the integration of increasingly complex levels of functionality. The market place (driven by consumer preferences) and new regulations and guidelines on energy efficiency and environmental impact are the key drivers. This in turn has generated new approaches in all IC and electronic system design domains from the architecture to the physical layout of ICs, to design-for-test, as well as for design verification to insure that the design implementation actually meets the intended requirements and specifications. This chapter covers key aspects of these forces from a technological and market perspective that are driving designers to produce more energy-efficient products. Observations by significant industry leaders from AMD, ARM, IBM, Intel, nVidia and TSMC are cited, and the emerging techniques and technologies used to address these issues now and into the future are explored. Topic areas include: System level: Architectural analysis and transaction-level modeling. How architectural decisions can dramatically reduce the design power and the importance of modeling hardware and software together. IC (Chip) level: The impact of creating on-chip power domains for selectively turning power off and/or multi-voltage operation on: (1) chip verification, (2) multi-corner multi-mode analysis during placement and routing of logic cells and (3) changes to design-for-test, all in order to accommodate for power-gating and multi-voltage control logic, retention registers, isolation cells and level shifters needed to implement these power saving techniques. Process level: The disappearing impact of body-bias techniques on leakage control and why new approaches like High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) technology help but don't eliminate power issues. Power-efficient design is impacting the way chip designers work today, and this chapter focuses on where the most

An Assessment of Hiring Practices for Head Football Coaches at the "Power 5" NCAA Division I FBS Level

Science.gov (United States)

Saunders, Zachery S.

2017-01-01

This study examines the hiring practices for head football coaches at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivison (FBS) "Power 5" level. The research assesses the hiring practices used by athletic departments and evaluates various components of the hiring process that are utilized when hiring a head football coach. Additionally, this…

An radiotoxicity evaluation of high level wastes for a scenery of Brazilian Nuclear Power Plants in accordance with the Energy Expansion Brazilian Plan 2030

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guilhem, Andres C.; Maiorino, Jose R.

2011-01-01

This paper is a part of the author scientific initiation, and makes an evaluation of the radiotoxicity which would be produced by the Brazilian nuclear power plants in a scenery of 7 power plants operating in 2030, in according to the official expansion plans which point out the additional introduction of 4000 MW(e), or 4 ne power plant additionally to the Angra I, II and III. Considering that all reactors would be a PWR reactors. The calculated parameter was the relative toxicity of the low and intermediate level nuclear wastes (LLPP - long lived fission products and HLW - high level waste related to the radiotoxicity of natural uranium versus time. All the calculation used the ORIGEN-S code. (author)

PARAMETERS OF KAMCHATKA SEISMICITY IN 2008

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vadim A. Saltykov

2010-01-01

Full Text Available The paper describes seismicity of Kamchatka for the period of 2008 and presents 2D distribution of background seismicity parameters calculated from data published in the Regional Catalogue of Kamchatka Earthquakes. Parameters under study are total released seismic energy, seismic activity A10, slope of recurrence graph γ, parameters of RTL, ΔS and Z-function methods, and clustering of earthquakes. Estimations of seismicity are obtained for a region bordered by latitude 50.5–56.5N, longitude 156E–167E, with depths to 300 km. Earthquakes of energy classes not less than 8.5 as per the Fedotov’s classification are considered. The total seismic energy released in 2008 is estimated. According to a function of annual seismic energy distribution, an amount of seismic energy released in 2008 was close to the median level (Fig. 1. Over 2/3 of the total amount of seismic energy released in 2008 resulted from three largest earthquakes (МW ≥ 5.9. About 5 percent of the total number of seismic events are comprised of grouped earthquakes, i.e. aftershocks and swarms. A schematic map of the largest earthquakes (МW ≥ 5.9 and grouped seismic events which occurred in 2008 is given in Fig. 2; their parameters are listed in Table 1. Grouped earthquakes are excluded from the catalogue. A map showing epicenters of independent earthquakes is given in Fig. 3. The slope of recurrence graph γ and seismic activity A10 is based on the Gutenberg-Richter law stating the fundamental property of seismic process. The recurrence graph slope is calculated from continuous exponential distribution of earthquakes by energy classes. Using γ is conditioned by observations that in some cases the slope of the recurrence graph decreases prior to a large earthquake. Activity A10 is calculated from the number of earthquakes N and recurrence graph slope γ. Average slopes of recurrence graph γ and seismic activity A10 for the area under study in 2008 are calculated; our

Smart Power Supply for Battery-Powered Systems

Science.gov (United States)

Krasowski, Michael J.; Greer, Lawrence; Prokop, Norman F.; Flatico, Joseph M.

2010-01-01

A power supply for battery-powered systems has been designed with an embedded controller that is capable of monitoring and maintaining batteries, charging hardware, while maintaining output power. The power supply is primarily designed for rovers and other remote science and engineering vehicles, but it can be used in any battery alone, or battery and charging source applications. The supply can function autonomously, or can be connected to a host processor through a serial communications link. It can be programmed a priori or on the fly to return current and voltage readings to a host. It has two output power busses: a constant 24-V direct current nominal bus, and a programmable bus for output from approximately 24 up to approximately 50 V. The programmable bus voltage level, and its output power limit, can be changed on the fly as well. The power supply also offers options to reduce the programmable bus to 24 V when the set power limit is reached, limiting output power in the case of a system fault detected in the system. The smart power supply is based on an embedded 8051-type single-chip microcontroller. This choice was made in that a credible progression to flight (radiation hard, high reliability) can be assumed as many 8051 processors or gate arrays capable of accepting 8051-type core presently exist and will continue to do so for some time. To solve the problem of centralized control, this innovation moves an embedded microcontroller to the power supply and assigns it the task of overseeing the operation and charging of the power supply assets. This embedded processor is connected to the application central processor via a serial data link such that the central processor can request updates of various parameters within the supply, such as battery current, bus voltage, remaining power in battery estimations, etc. This supply has a direct connection to the battery bus for common (quiescent) power application. Because components from multiple vendors may have

N-power

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Anon.

1982-01-01

A recent study by the Markinor market research firm shows the more experience you have with nuclear power stations, the less likely you are to want more. A survey of people's attitudes and levels of awareness of nuclear power was done

Comparison of anthropometry, upper-body strength, and lower-body power characteristics in different levels of Australian football players.

Science.gov (United States)

Bilsborough, Johann C; Greenway, Kate G; Opar, David A; Livingstone, Steuart G; Cordy, Justin T; Bird, Stephen R; Coutts, Aaron J

2015-03-01

The aim of this study was to compare the anthropometry, upper-body strength, and lower-body power characteristics in elite junior, sub-elite senior, and elite senior Australian Football (AF) players. Nineteen experienced elite senior (≥4 years Australian Football League [AFL] experience), 27 inexperienced elite senior (free soft tissue mass [FFSTM], fat mass, and bone mineral content) with dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, upper-body strength (bench press and bench pull), and lower-body power (countermovement jump [CMJ] and squat jump with 20 kg). A 1-way analysis of variance assessed differences between the playing levels in these measures, whereas relationships between anthropometry and performance were assessed with Pearson's correlation. The elite senior and sub-elite senior players were older and heavier than the elite junior players (p ≤ 0.05). Both elite playing groups had greater total FFSTM than both the sub-elite and junior elite players; however, there were only appendicular FFSTM differences between the junior elite and elite senior players (p squat performance measures (r = 0.33-0.55). Australian Football players' FFSTM are different between playing levels, which are likely because of training and partly explain the observed differences in performance between playing levels highlighting the importance of optimizing FFSTM in young players.

Simulation and Modeling of a Five -Level (NPC Inverter Fed by a Photovoltaic Generator and Integrated in a Hybrid Wind-PV Power System

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Rezki,

2017-08-01

Full Text Available A distributed hybrid coordinated wind photovoltaic (PV power system was proposed in this paper. As oil and coal reserves are being depleted whilst at the same time the energy demand is growing, it is important to consider alternative energy generating techniques. Today, the five-level (NPC inverter represents a good alternative for several industrial applications. To take advantage of the five-level inverter topology and the benefits of renewable energy represented by a photovoltaic generator, a new scheme of these controllers is proposed in this work. This paper outlines the design of a hybrid power system consisting of a solar photovoltaic (PV and a wind power system. The system is modeled in Matlab Simulink and tested for various conditions. The model and results are discussed in this paper.

An ultra low-power off-line APDM-based switchmode power supply with very high conversion efficiency

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Nils

2001-01-01

This article describes the results from the research work on design of a ultra low power off-line power supply with very high conversion efficiency. The input voltage is 230 VAC nominal and output voltage is 5 VDC. By ultra low power levels, an output power level in the area ranging from 50 m......W and up to 1000 mW is meant. The small power supply is intended for use as a standby power supply in mains operated equipment, which requires a small amount of power in standby mode....

What day-ahead reserves are needed in electric grids with high levels of wind power?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mauch, Brandon; Apt, Jay; Jaramillo, Paulina; Carvalho, Pedro M S

2013-01-01

Day-ahead load and wind power forecasts provide useful information for operational decision making, but they are imperfect and forecast errors must be offset with operational reserves and balancing of (real time) energy. Procurement of these reserves is of great operational and financial importance in integrating large-scale wind power. We present a probabilistic method to determine net load forecast uncertainty for day-ahead wind and load forecasts. Our analysis uses data from two different electric grids in the US with similar levels of installed wind capacity but with large differences in wind and load forecast accuracy, due to geographic characteristics. We demonstrate that the day-ahead capacity requirements can be computed based on forecasts of wind and load. For 95% day-ahead reliability, this required capacity ranges from 2100 to 5700 MW for ERCOT, and 1900 to 4500 MW for MISO (with 10 GW of installed wind capacity), depending on the wind and load forecast values. We also show that for each MW of additional wind power capacity for ERCOT, 0.16–0.30 MW of dispatchable capacity will be used to compensate for wind uncertainty based on day-ahead forecasts. For MISO (with its more accurate forecasts), the requirement is 0.07–0.13 MW of dispatchable capacity for each MW of additional wind capacity. (letter)

Approach to load leveling in Kansai Electric Power Co. Inc.; Kansai Denryoku no fuka heijunka eno torikumi

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1996-09-01

This paper presents an electric hot-water heater and ice storage air conditioning system as systems to be recommended for load leveling. Electric hot-water heater is featured by safety, cleanliness, silence and convenience because of no use of fire. Its electricity charge is only 7.15 yen/kWh less than 1/3 of that for ordinary homes because of use of midnight power. Mainly used MPU-control type electric hot-water heater is more economical because of a 15% discount system. Ice storage air conditioning system is operated in the daytime using ice made by midnight power. It is featured by reduction of facility and installation costs due to the small capacity of heat source equipment, use of inexpensive midnight power, and reduction of running cost due to small contract demand. However, since an ice storage air conditioning system is in the initial stage of diffusion, its initial cost is expensive as compared with conventional non-heat storage air conditioning systems, remaining the issue of cost reduction. 3 figs., 1 tab.

Power penalties for multi-level PAM modulation formats at arbitrary bit error rates

Science.gov (United States)

Kaliteevskiy, Nikolay A.; Wood, William A.; Downie, John D.; Hurley, Jason; Sterlingov, Petr

2016-03-01

There is considerable interest in combining multi-level pulsed amplitude modulation formats (PAM-L) and forward error correction (FEC) in next-generation, short-range optical communications links for increased capacity. In this paper we derive new formulas for the optical power penalties due to modulation format complexity relative to PAM-2 and due to inter-symbol interference (ISI). We show that these penalties depend on the required system bit-error rate (BER) and that the conventional formulas overestimate link penalties. Our corrections to the standard formulas are very small at conventional BER levels (typically 1×10-12) but become significant at the higher BER levels enabled by FEC technology, especially for signal distortions due to ISI. The standard formula for format complexity, P = 10log(L-1), is shown to overestimate the actual penalty for PAM-4 and PAM-8 by approximately 0.1 and 0.25 dB respectively at 1×10-3 BER. Then we extend the well-known PAM-2 ISI penalty estimation formula from the IEEE 802.3 standard 10G link modeling spreadsheet to the large BER case and generalize it for arbitrary PAM-L formats. To demonstrate and verify the BER dependence of the ISI penalty, a set of PAM-2 experiments and Monte-Carlo modeling simulations are reported. The experimental results and simulations confirm that the conventional formulas can significantly overestimate ISI penalties at relatively high BER levels. In the experiments, overestimates up to 2 dB are observed at 1×10-3 BER.

Culture and concepts of power.

Science.gov (United States)

Torelli, Carlos J; Shavitt, Sharon

2010-10-01

Five studies indicate that conceptualizations of power are important elements of culture and serve culturally relevant goals. These studies provide converging evidence that cultures nurture different views of what is desirable and meaningful to do with power. Vertical individualism is associated with a conceptualization of power in personalized terms (i.e., power is for advancing one's personal status and prestige), whereas horizontal collectivism is associated with a conceptualization of power in socialized terms (i.e., power is for benefiting and helping others). Cultural variables are shown to predict beliefs about appropriate uses of power, episodic memories about power, attitudes in the service of power goals, and the contexts and ways in which power is used and defended. Evidence for the cultural patterning of power concepts is observed at both the individual level and the cultural-group level of analysis.

Semiautomatic methods for segmentation of the proliferative tumour volume on sequential FLT PET/CT images in head and neck carcinomas and their relation to clinical outcome

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Arens, Anne I.J.; Grootjans, Willem; Oyen, Wim J.G.; Visser, Eric P. [Radboud University Medical Center, Department of Nuclear Medicine, P.O. Box 9101, Nijmegen (Netherlands); Troost, Esther G.C. [Radboud University Medical Center, Department of Radiation Oncology, Nijmegen (Netherlands); Maastricht University Medical Centre, MAASTRO clinic, GROW School for Oncology and Developmental Biology, Maastricht (Netherlands); Hoeben, Bianca A.W.; Bussink, Johan; Kaanders, Johannes H.A.M. [Radboud University Medical Center, Department of Radiation Oncology, Nijmegen (Netherlands); Lee, John A.; Gregoire, Vincent [St-Luc University Hospital, Department of Radiation Oncology, Universite Catholique de Louvain, Brussels (Belgium); Hatt, Mathieu; Visvikis, Dimitris [Laboratoire de Traitement de l' Information Medicale (LaTIM), INSERM UMR1101, Brest (France)

2014-05-15

Radiotherapy of head and neck cancer induces changes in tumour cell proliferation during treatment, which can be depicted by the PET tracer {sup 18}F-fluorothymidine (FLT). In this study, three advanced semiautomatic PET segmentation methods for delineation of the proliferative tumour volume (PV) before and during (chemo)radiotherapy were compared and related to clinical outcome. The study group comprised 46 patients with 48 squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck, treated with accelerated (chemo)radiotherapy, who underwent FLT PET/CT prior to treatment and in the 2nd and 4th week of therapy. Primary gross tumour volumes were visually delineated on CT images (GTV{sub CT}). PVs were visually determined on all PET scans (PV{sub VIS}). The following semiautomatic segmentation methods were applied to sequential PET scans: background-subtracted relative-threshold level (PV{sub RTL}), a gradient-based method using the watershed transform algorithm and hierarchical clustering analysis (PV{sub W} and {sub C}), and a fuzzy locally adaptive Bayesian algorithm (PV{sub FLAB}). Pretreatment PV{sub VIS} correlated best with PV{sub FLAB} and GTV{sub CT}. Correlations with PV{sub RTL} and PV{sub W} and {sub C} were weaker although statistically significant. During treatment, the PV{sub VIS}, PV{sub W} and {sub C} and PV{sub FLAB} significant decreased over time with the steepest decline over time for PV{sub FLAB}. Among these advanced segmentation methods, PV{sub FLAB} was the most robust in segmenting volumes in the third scan (67 % of tumours as compared to 40 % for PV{sub W} and {sub C} and 27 % for PV{sub RTL}). A decrease in PV{sub FLAB} above the median between the pretreatment scan and the scan obtained in the 4th week was associated with better disease-free survival (4 years 90 % versus 53 %). In patients with head and neck cancer, FLAB proved to be the best performing method for segmentation of the PV on repeat FLT PET/CT scans during (chemo)radiotherapy. This may

Demand response strategy management with active and reactive power incentive in the smart grid: a two-level optimization approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ryuto Shigenobu

2017-05-01

Full Text Available High penetration of distributed generators (DGs using renewable energy sources (RESs is raising some important issues in the operation of modern po­wer system. The output power of RESs fluctuates very steeply, and that include uncertainty with weather conditions. This situation causes voltage deviation and reverse power flow. Several methods have been proposed for solving these problems. Fundamentally, these methods involve reactive power control for voltage deviation and/or the installation of large battery energy storage system (BESS at the interconnection point for reverse power flow. In order to reduce the installation cost of static var compensator (SVC, Distribution Company (DisCo gives reactive power incentive to the cooperating customers. On the other hand, photovoltaic (PV generator, energy storage and electric vehicle (EV are introduced in customer side with the aim of achieving zero net energy homes (ZEHs. This paper proposes not only reactive power control but also active power flow control using house BESS and EV. Moreover, incentive method is proposed to promote participation of customers in the control operation. Demand response (DR system is verified with several DR menu. To create profit for both side of DisCo and customer, two level optimization approach is executed in this research. Mathematical modeling of price elasticity and detailed simulations are executed by case study. The effectiveness of the proposed incentive menu is demonstrated by using heuristic optimization method.

Early Experiences with Node-Level Power Capping on the Cray XC40 Platform

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pedretti, Kevin; Olivier, Stephen Lecler; Ferreira, Kurt Brian; Shipman, Galen; Shu, Wei

2015-10-01

Power consumption of extreme-scale supercomputers has become a key performance bottleneck. Yet current practices do not leverage power management opportunities, instead running at ''maximum power''. This is not sustainable. Future systems will need to manage power as a critical resource, directing where it has greatest benefit. Power capping is one mechanism for managing power budgets, however its behavior is not well understood. This paper presents an empirical evaluation of several key HPC workloads running under a power cap on a Cray XC40 system, and provides a comparison of this technique with p-state control, demonstrating the performance differences of each. These results show: 1. Maximum performance requires ensuring the cap is not reached; 2. Performance slowdown under a cap can be attributed to cascading delays which result in unsynchronized performance variability across nodes; and, 3. Due to lag in reaction time, considerable time is spent operating above the set cap. This work provides a timely and much needed comparison of HPC application performance under a power cap and attempts to enable users and system administrators to understand how to best optimize application performance on power-constrained HPC systems.

Is power-space a continuum? Distance effect during power judgments.

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Tianjiao; Zhu, Lei

2015-12-01

Despite the increasing evidence suggesting that power processing can activate vertical space schema, it still remains unclear whether this power-space is dichotomic or continuous. Here we tested the nature of the power-space by the distance effect, a continuous property of space cognition. In two experiments, participants were required to judge the power of one single word (Experiment 1) or compare the power of two words presented in pairs (Experiment 2). The power distance was indexed by the absolute difference of power ratings. Results demonstrated that reaction time decreased with the power distance, whereas accuracy increased with the power distance. The findings indicated that different levels of power were presented as different vertical heights, implying that there was a common mechanism underlying space and power cognition. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Procedures for conducting probabilistic safety assessments of nuclear power plants (level 2). Accident progression, containment analysis and estimation of accident source terms

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1995-01-01

The present publication on Level 2 PSA is based on a compilation and review of practices in various Member States. It complements Safety Series No. 50-P-4, issued in 1992, on Procedures for Conducting Probabilistic Safety Assessments of Nuclear Power Plants (Level 1). Refs, figs and tabs

LCL filter design for three-phase two-level power factor correction using line impedance stabilization network

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kouchaki, Alireza; Nymand, Morten

2016-01-01

This paper presents LCL filter design method for three-phase two-level power factor correction (PFC) using line impedance stabilization network (LISN). A straightforward LCL filter design along with variation in grid impedance is not simply achievable and inevitably lead to an iterative solution...... for filter. By introducing of fast power switches for PFC applications such as silicon-carbide, major current harmonics around the switching frequency drops in the region that LISN can actively provide well-defined impedance for measuring the harmonics (i.e. 9 kHz- 30MHz). Therefore, LISN can be replaced...... is derived using the current ripple behavior of converter-side inductor. The grid-side inductor is achieved as a function of LISN impedance to fulfill the grid regulation. To verify the analyses, an LCL filter is designed for a 5 kW SiC-based PFC. The simulation and experimental results support the validity...

Supplying the power requirements to a sensor network using radio frequency power transfer.

Science.gov (United States)

Percy, Steven; Knight, Chris; Cooray, Francis; Smart, Ken

2012-01-01

Wireless power transmission is a method of supplying power to small electronic devices when there is no wired connection. One way to increase the range of these systems is to use a directional transmitting antenna, the problem with this approach is that power can only be transmitted through a narrow beam and directly forward, requiring the transmitter to always be aligned with the sensor node position. The work outlined in this article describes the design and testing of an autonomous radio frequency power transfer system that is capable of rotating the base transmitter to track the position of sensor nodes and transferring power to that sensor node. The system's base station monitors the node's energy levels and forms a charge queue to plan charging order and maintain energy levels of the nodes. Results show a radio frequency harvesting circuit with a measured S11 value of -31.5 dB and a conversion efficiency of 39.1%. Simulation and experimentation verified the level of power transfer and efficiency. The results of this work show a small network of three nodes with different storage types powered by a central base node.

Supplying the Power Requirements to a Sensor Network Using Radio Frequency Power Transfer

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Steven Percy

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Wireless power transmission is a method of supplying power to small electronic devices when there is no wired connection. One way to increase the range of these systems is to use a directional transmitting antenna, the problem with this approach is that power can only be transmitted through a narrow beam and directly forward, requiring the transmitter to always be aligned with the sensor node position. The work outlined in this article describes the design and testing of an autonomous radio frequency power transfer system that is capable of rotating the base transmitter to track the position of sensor nodes and transferring power to that sensor node. The system’s base station monitors the node’s energy levels and forms a charge queue to plan charging order and maintain energy levels of the nodes. Results show a radio frequency harvesting circuit with a measured S11 value of −31.5 dB and a conversion efficiency of 39.1%. Simulation and experimentation verified the level of power transfer and efficiency. The results of this work show a small network of three nodes with different storage types powered by a central base node.

Assessment of the Current Level of Automation in the Manufacture of Fuel Cell Systems for Combined Heat and Power Applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ulsh, M.; Wheeler, D.; Protopappas, P.

2011-08-01

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is interested in supporting manufacturing research and development (R&D) for fuel cell systems in the 10-1,000 kilowatt (kW) power range relevant to stationary and distributed combined heat and power applications, with the intent to reduce manufacturing costs and increase production throughput. To assist in future decision-making, DOE requested that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) provide a baseline understanding of the current levels of adoption of automation in manufacturing processes and flow, as well as of continuous processes. NREL identified and visited or interviewed key manufacturers, universities, and laboratories relevant to the study using a standard questionnaire. The questionnaire covered the current level of vertical integration, the importance of quality control developments for automation, the current level of automation and source of automation design, critical balance of plant issues, potential for continuous cell manufacturing, key manufacturing steps or processes that would benefit from DOE support for manufacturing R&D, the potential for cell or stack design changes to support automation, and the relationship between production volume and decisions on automation.

Low levels of maximal aerobic power impair the profile of mood state in individuals with temporal lobe epilepsy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rodrigo Luiz Vancini

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Objective To investigate the correlation between cardiorespiratory fitness and mood state in individuals with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE. Method Individuals with TLE (n = 20 and healthy control subjects (C, n = 20 were evaluated. Self-rating questionnaires were used to assess mood (POMS and habitual physical activity (BAECKE. Cardiorespiratory fitness was evaluated by a maximal incremental test. Results People with TLE presented lower cardiorespiratory fitness; higher levels of mood disorders; and lower levels of vigor when compared to control health subjects. A significant negative correlation was observed between the levels of tension-anxiety and maximal aerobic power. Conclusion Low levels of cardiorespiratory fitness may modify the health status of individuals with TLE and it may be considered a risk factor for the development of mood disorders.

Microscopic Features of Fractured Fragment of Nickel-Titanium Endodontic Instruments by Two Different Modes of Torsional Loading

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ibrahim H. Abu-Tahun

2018-01-01

Full Text Available This study compared the microscopic features of the fractured endodontic nickel-titanium (NiTi rotary instruments by two different torsional loadings: repetitive torsional loading (RTL and single torsional loading (STL based on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO. ProTaper Next, HyFlex EDM, and V-Taper 2 were compared in this study. In the STL method, the torsional load was applied after fixing the 3 mm tip of the file, by continuous clockwise rotation (2 rpm until fracture. In the RTL method, a preset rotational loading (0.5 N·cm was applied and the clockwise loading to the preset torque and counterclockwise unloading to original position were repeated at 50 rpm until the file fractured. Fractured fragments by two methods were compared under a scanning electron microscope (SEM to examine the topographic features of the fractured surfaces and longitudinal aspects. SEM examinations showed significantly different features according to the loading methods. Specimens from the RTL method showed ruptured aspects on cross sections, with multiple areas of initiated cracks while the STL method showed the typical features of torsional failure, such as circular abrasion marks and fatigue dimples. This study suggested a new repetitive torsional loading method which is much more clinically relevant and may result in a different fracture feature from STL method.

Nuclear power. Volume 2. Nuclear power project management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pedersen, E.S.

1978-01-01

NUCLEAR POWER PLANT DESIGN is intended to be used as a working reference book for management, engineers and designers, and as a graduate-level text for engineering students. The book is designed to combine theory with practical nuclear power engineering and design experience, and to give the reader an up-to-date view of the status of nuclear power and a basic understanding of how nuclear power plants function. Volume 2 contains the following chapters: (1) review of nuclear power plants; (2) licensing procedures; (3) safety analysis; (4) project professional services; (5) quality assurance and project organization; (6) construction, scheduling, and operation; (7) nuclear fuel handling and fuel management; (8) plant cost management; and (9) conclusion

Classification of low-level radioactive wastes from nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stanford, R.E.L.

1984-01-01

The NRC regulation, 10 CFR Part 61, establishes three classes of wastes designated A, B, and C based on listed concentrations of specific nuclides. The NRC Branch Technical Position (BTP) relative to the required compliance program focused on extensive waste stream sampling and analysis as a means of compliance. To meet the above regulatory requirements, an engineering analysis approach for quantifying the concentrations and amounts of radionuclides of classification concern was developed as an alternative to an extensive and difficult waste sampling and analysis program. Essentially this methodology involves a material balance of radionuclides which for the most part originate in the reactor core and are transported to the waste streams by reactor coolants and whose concentration in the coolant is primarily a function of fuel performance. The use of scaling factors between readily measured key radionuclides and others required for classification have been published in Report AIF/NESP-027 entitled, Methodologies for Classification of Low-Level Radioactive Wastes from Nuclear Power Plants. Since then data from about 1000 samples on nuclide concentrations in various reactor waste streams from 65 units at 40 sites was collated, analyzed and evaluated to confirm the calculational methodology in AIF/NESP-027. In summary, the approach and results of the engineering analysis methodology were validated

FACTORS RELATED TO SELF-EDUCATIONAL POWER IN NURSING STUDENTS : With the Focus on the Level of Self-esteem

OpenAIRE

酒井, 明子

2000-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to determine how the level of self-esteem affects the ability to educate oneself. We researched the 89 students in a nursing school. The results were as follows; 1. Self-education IV was significantly related to self-esteem, which was an important concept as the psychological foundation of self-educational power. 2. Students with high levels of self-esteem tended to be highly capable of educating themselves, whereas students with lower of self-esteem tende...

Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis of a Wind Power Generation System at Búrfell in Iceland

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Birgir Freyr Ragnarsson

2015-09-01

Full Text Available Wind energy harnessing is a new energy production alternative in Iceland. Current installed wind power in Iceland sums to 1.8 MW, which in contrast is 0.1% of the country’s total electricity production. This article is dedicated to the exploration of the potential cost of wind energy production at Búrfell in the south of Iceland. A levelized cost of energy (LCOE approach was applied to the estimation of the potential cost. Weibull simulation is used to simulate wind data for calculations. A confirmation of the power law is done by comparing real data to calculated values. A modified Weibull simulation is verified by comparing results with actual on-site test wind turbines. A wind farm of 99MWis suggested for the site. Key results were the capacity factor (CF at Búrfell being 38.15% on average and that the LCOE for wind energy was estimated as 0.087–0.088 USD/kWh (assuming 10% weighted average cost of capital (WACC, which classifies Búrfell among the lowest LCOE sites for wind energy in Europe.

Rest lifetime evaluation and ageing management in NPP 'Kozloduy' unit 1-4

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Erve, M.; Heck, R.; Schmidt, J.; Daum, G.; Bataklieva, L.; Stoev, M.

1999-01-01

In 1992 as a result of an IAEA SRM review the 'WANO 6-month program' has been issued to improve operation, maintenance nad safety culture for the four WWER 440/230 units at the NPP 'Kozloduy' Siemens has awarded 3 contracts related to RTL evaluation of the main equipment, integrity of reactor pressure vessel and to the leak-before-break behaviour of the main piping od unit 2. It is pursuit an overall strategy that allows to: implement on the basis of RTL evaluation a long term ageing management program (AMAP) for Kozloduy's units 1-4 to assure their operation until the end of their design life; identify those components and equipment for which from the safety point of view urgent and immediate actions have to be performed; increase step by step the safety and reliability according to the Western standards and to internationally accepted safety culture; keep open the possibility of life extension as far as this would be technically feasible and acceptable and economically reasonable. Under the technical leadership of Siemens studies have been performed related to the subject of integrity and RTL, such as: reirradiation of RPV samples from Unit 1 and 2; evaluation of PV embrittlement of Unit 1; transfer of the results of LBB assessment of Unit 2 to Units 1, 3 and 4; transfer of results of RTL evaluation of Unit 2 to Units 1, 3 and 4; PTS analysis of RPV of Unit 1, 2,3 and 4. The main remarkable results are: no life-limiting mechanisms detected, requiring immediate actions, except for RPVs; residual lifetime determined for RPVs on reliable basis of advanced modern PTS analysis and sample testing; necessary activities in monitoring of ageing and in-service inspection clearly identified successful proof of lBB for main primary piping after slight modification of supports; international experts agreement reached (e.g. Risk Audit, successful IAEA experts meetings and OSART missions)

Efforts of load leveling in Tohoku Electric Power Co. Inc.; Tohoku denryoku no fuka heijunka eno torikumi ni tsuite

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

NONE

1996-05-01

This paper describes efforts of load leveling in Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc. from the viewpoint of the rate system and business development. For the approach from the rate system, various rate menus for the peak shift have been arranged for domestic and large industry customers. To create the midnight demand, spread and expansion of electric hot water service are promoted. Consequently, the contract of midnight power has reached 914,000 kW at the end of 1995, which was 774,000 kW in 1985. To spread the ice regenerative air conditioning systems, the grant of incentive to the manufacturers and special discount of electricity rate have been conducted. These systems have been introduced in the eight places of Tohoku Electric Power`s business. The spread incident system has been created to introduce the automatic vending machines for beverages with the power peak cut function. Unused energy, such as exhaust heat from the non-treated sewage water and substations has been utilized as a heat supply project for city redevelopment. Multi-functional heat pump with regenerative function has been developed. This system aims at the peak shift by combining multi-functional heat pump and electric hot water service. 2 figs., 2 tabs.

Analog phase lock between two lasers at LISA power levels

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Diekmann, Christian; Steier, Frank; Sheard, Benjamin; Heinzel, Gerhard; Danzmann, Karsten

2009-01-01

This paper presents the implementation of an analog optical phase-locked-loop with an offset frequency of about 20MHz between two lasers, where the detected light powers were of the order of 31 pW and 200 μW. The goal of this setup was the design and characterization of a photodiode transimpedance amplifier for application in LISA. By application of a transimpedance amplifier designed to have low noise and low power consumption, the phase noise between the two lasers was a factor of two above the shot noise limit down to 60mHz. The achievable phase sensitivity depends ultimately on the available power of the highly attenuated master laser and on the input current noise of the transimpedance amplifier of the photodetector. The limiting noise source below 60mHz was the analog phase measurement system that was used in this experiment. A digital phase measurement system that is currently under development at the AEI will be used in the near future. Its application should improve the sensitivity.

Analog phase lock between two lasers at LISA power levels

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Diekmann, Christian; Steier, Frank; Sheard, Benjamin; Heinzel, Gerhard; Danzmann, Karsten, E-mail: Christian.Diekmann@aei.mpg.d [Max-Planck-Institute for Gravitational Physics, Callinstr. 38, D-30167 Hannover (Germany)

2009-03-01

This paper presents the implementation of an analog optical phase-locked-loop with an offset frequency of about 20MHz between two lasers, where the detected light powers were of the order of 31 pW and 200 muW. The goal of this setup was the design and characterization of a photodiode transimpedance amplifier for application in LISA. By application of a transimpedance amplifier designed to have low noise and low power consumption, the phase noise between the two lasers was a factor of two above the shot noise limit down to 60mHz. The achievable phase sensitivity depends ultimately on the available power of the highly attenuated master laser and on the input current noise of the transimpedance amplifier of the photodetector. The limiting noise source below 60mHz was the analog phase measurement system that was used in this experiment. A digital phase measurement system that is currently under development at the AEI will be used in the near future. Its application should improve the sensitivity.

A Study on the Risk Reduction Effect by MLCS (Mid-loop Level Control System) of EUAPR using the Low-Power and Shutdown PSA Result

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Keunsung; Choi, Sunmi; Kim, Eden

2016-01-01

The EU-APR design has been developed in order to expand and diversify the global nuclear power market of APR1400. For the improvement of shutdown risk for the EUAPR, the mid-loop level control system (MLCS) is considered during mid-loop operation for the EU-APR, which is not incorporated into SKN 3 and 4 (APR1400 Type) in Korea. Commonly, the risk associated with the NPP can be identified through the PSA. Thus, this paper discusses the low power and shutdown (LPSD) risk reduction effect by MLCS using the Low-Power and Shutdown PSA Result. LPSD level 1 PSA models for EU-APR have been developed. The risk reduction effect by MLCS is discussed. Because the loss of shutdown cooling function during mid-loop is one of the most vulnerable events, the MLCS have a significant influence on CDF in LPSD PSA. The shutdown risk of domestic power plants would likely be reduced if the MLCS is adopted in all operating NPPs in Korea during the mid-loop operation. It is expected that this work will contribute to reduce shutdown risk of domestic power plants

Energy matching and optimization analysis of waste to energy CCHP (combined cooling, heating and power) system with exergy and energy level

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gao, Penghui; Dai, Yanjun; Tong, YenWah; Dong, Pengwei

2015-01-01

CCHP (combined cooling, heating and power) system as a poly-generation technology has received an increasing attention in field of small scale power systems for applications ranging from residence to utilities. It will also play an important role in waste to energy application for megacities. However, how to evaluate and manage energy utilization of CCHP scientifically remains unclear. In this paper, energy level and exergy analysis are implemented on energy conversion processes to reveal the variation of energy amount and quality in the operation of CCHP system. Moreover, based on the energy level analysis, the methodology of energy matching and optimization for the CCHP system is proposed. By this method, the operational parameters of CCHP system can be deduced to obtain an efficient performance and proper energy utilization. It will be beneficial to understand and operate the CCHP system, and to provide a guiding principle of the energy conversion and management for the CCHP system. - Highlights: • Energy level is implemented to reveal the energy variation of CCHP system. • A mathematical energy level analysis model of CCHP system is proposed. • By energy level analysis between supply and demand, optimal zone is obtained. • This study will be useful for energy matching and optimization of CCHP system

Power optimization in body sensor networks: the case of an autonomous wireless EMG sensor powered by PV-cells.

Science.gov (United States)

Penders, J; Pop, V; Caballero, L; van de Molengraft, J; van Schaijk, R; Vullers, R; Van Hoof, C

2010-01-01

Recent advances in ultra-low-power circuits and energy harvesters are making self-powered body sensor nodes a reality. Power optimization at the system and application level is crucial in achieving ultra-low-power consumption for the entire system. This paper reviews system-level power optimization techniques, and illustrates their impact on the case of autonomous wireless EMG monitoring. The resulting prototype, an Autonomous wireless EMG sensor power by PV-cells, is presented.

Wind power forecast

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pestana, Rui [Rede Electrica Nacional (REN), S.A., Lisboa (Portugal). Dept. Systems and Development System Operator; Trancoso, Ana Rosa; Delgado Domingos, Jose [Univ. Tecnica de Lisboa (Portugal). Seccao de Ambiente e Energia

2012-07-01

Accurate wind power forecast are needed to reduce integration costs in the electric grid caused by wind inherent variability. Currently, Portugal has a significant wind power penetration level and consequently the need to have reliable wind power forecasts at different temporal scales, including localized events such as ramps. This paper provides an overview of the methodologies used by REN to forecast wind power at national level, based on statistical and probabilistic combinations of NWP and measured data with the aim of improving accuracy of pure NWP. Results show that significant improvement can be achieved with statistical combination with persistence in the short-term and with probabilistic combination in the medium-term. NWP are also able to detect ramp events with 3 day notice to the operational planning. (orig.)

A survey of low-level radioactive waste treatment methods and problem areas associated with commercial nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jolley, R.L.; Rodgers, B.R.

1987-01-01

A survey was made (June 1985) of technologies that were currently being used, those that had been discontinued, and those that were under consideration for treatment of low-level radioactive waste from the commercial nuclear power plants in the United States. The survey results included information concerning problems areas, areas needing research and development, and the use of mobile treatment facilities

Military power requirements and backup power considerations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Botts, T.E.

1986-01-01

All US Air Force (USAF) facilities have certain critical power requirements that must be met in order to carry out their mission successfully. Internal USAF studies have shown that the mission can degrade precipitously as the available power decreases below the mission critical level. Now, more than ever before, the military and private industry are finding that certain functions, such as automated data processing and automated process control, respond catastrophically to power reductions. Furthermore, increased reliance on electrical power means, in the case of the Air Force, that critical power requirements are anticipated to increase by half over the next 15 yr. For these reasons and others, the USAF is investigating several means of improving the availability of electric power under adverse conditions above that which can be provided by an off-base supplier. Among the approaches to this problem being pursued at this time are a program to improve all sorts of generator sets on a service-wide basis and the Multimegawatt Terrestrial Power (MTP) Program, which is pursuing the design and testing of a small dedicated nuclear power source to provide critical mission power. The purpose of this paper is to provide some insight into some of the issues associated with USAF power programs

Nuclear power. Volume 1. Nuclear power plant design

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pedersen, E.S.

1978-01-01

NUCLEAR POWER PLANT DESIGN is intended to be used as a working reference book for management, engineers and designers, and as a graduate-level text for engineering students. The book is designed to combine theory with practical nuclear power engineering and design experience, and to give the reader an up-to-date view of the status of nuclear power and a basic understanding of how nuclear power plants function. Volume 1 contains the following chapters; (1) nuclear reactor theory; (2) nuclear reactor design; (3) types of nuclear power plants; (4) licensing requirements; (5) shielding and personnel exposure; (6) containment and structural design; (7) main steam and turbine cycles; (8) plant electrical system; (9) plant instrumentation and control systems; (10) radioactive waste disposal (waste management) and (11) conclusion

Power conditioning unit for photovoltaic power systems

Science.gov (United States)

Beghin, G.; Nguyen Phuoc, V. T.

Operational features and components of a power conditioning unit for interconnecting solar cell module powers with a utility grid are outlined. The two-stage unit first modifies the voltage to desired levels on an internal dc link, then inverts the current in 2 power transformers connected to a vector summation control to neutralize harmonic distortion up to the 11th harmonic. The system operates in parallel with the grid with extra inductors to absorb line-to-line voltage and phase differences, and permits peak power use from the PV array. Reactive power is gained internally, and a power system controller monitors voltages, frequencies, and currents. A booster preregulator adjusts the input voltage from the array to provide voltage regulation for the inverter, and can commutate 450 amps. A total harmonic distortion of less than 5 percent is claimed, with a rating of 5 kVA, 50/60 Hz, 3-phase, and 4-wire.

A research on the environmental impact on nearby waters range at low-level radioactive waste water drain from the Dayawan nuclear power station

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang Chunling; Xu Zitu; Xiao Zhang.

1987-01-01

The possible influence of the low-level radioactive waste water drain from the Dayawan nuclear power station upon nearby waters range is discussed. The contents of the article contains the numerical simulation on tidal currents and pollutant diffusion, the calculation of concentration distribution of radioactive contaminants in the water area and of polluted field, and the criterion on radioactive contaminant influence on nearby residents and aquatic biologicals. The result shows that when the Dayawan nuclear power station is on normal operation and after the low-level radioactive waste water has been drained off into the sea, the radioactive concentration is even lower than the natural background radiation just out-side the area of about 4 km 2 round the water outlet. As a result, it won't cause any danger to the water environment. Due to the fact that the concentration of the low-level radioactive waste water from the nuclear power station fully accords with the national standard GB4792-84 and the sea water quality sandard GBH2, 3-82. It is no harm to either residents and aquatic biologicals or ecological balance

Radiochemical methodologies applied to analytical characterization of low and intermediate level wastes from nuclear power plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Monteiro, Roberto Pellacani G.; Júnior, Aluísio Souza R.; Kastner, Geraldo F.; Temba, Eliane S.C.; Oliveira, Thiago C. de; Amaral, Ângela M.; Franco, Milton B., E-mail: rpgm@cdtn.br, E-mail: reisas@cdtn.br, E-mail: gfk@cdtn.br, E-mail: esct@cdtn.br, E-mail: tco@cdtn.br, E-mail: ama@cdtn.br, E-mail: francom@cdtn.br [Centro de Desenvolvimento da Tecnologia Nuclear (CDTN/CNEN-MG), Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil)

2017-07-01

The aim of this work is to present radiochemical methodologies developed at CDTN/CNEN in order to answer a program for isotopic inventory of radioactive wastes from Brazilian Nuclear Power Plants. In this program some radionuclides, {sup 3}H, {sup 14}C, {sup 55}Fe, {sup 59}Ni, {sup 63}Ni, {sup 90}Sr, {sup 93}Zr, {sup 94}Nb, {sup 99}Tc, {sup 129}I, {sup 235}U, {sup 238}U, {sup 238}Pu, {sup 239}+{sup 240}Pu, {sup 241}Pu, {sup 242}Pu, {sup 241}Am, {sup 242}Cm e {sup 243}+{sup 244}Cm, were determined in Low Level Wastes (LLW) and Intermediate Level Wastes (ILW) and a protocol of analytical methodologies based on radiochemical separation steps and spectrometric and nuclear techniques was established. (author)

The design and development of CO2 medium-level laser power calibration system for industrial and medical applications in Thailand

Science.gov (United States)

Nontapot, Kanokwan

2018-03-01

The carbon dioxide laser (CO2 laser) is one of the most useful and is the highest CW laser at the present. The laser produces infrared light at 10.6 um. Due to its high power, CO2 lasers are usually used in industrial applications such as cutting and welding, or for engraving at less power. CO2 lasers are also used widely in medical applications, such as laser surgery, skin resurfacing, and removing mold, due to water (biological tissue) absorb light at this wavelength very well. CO2 lasers are also used as LIDAR laser source for military range finding applications because of the transparency of the atmosphere to infrared light. Due to the increasing use of CO2 lasers laser in industrial and medical applications in Thailand, the National Institute of Metrology (Thailand) has set up a CO2 laser power calibration system and provide calibration service to customers this year. The service support calibration of medium-level laser power at wavelength of 10.6 um and at power range 100 mW-10W. The design and development of the calibration system will be presented.

Multi-Cluster Network on a Chip Reconfigurable Radiation Hardened Radio, Phase I

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The objective of the Phase-I research is to architect, model and simulate a multi-cluster Network on a Chip (NoC) reconfigurable Radio in SystemC RTL, with...

Status of Wind Power Technologies

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Zhao, Haoran; Wu, Qiuwei

2018-01-01

With the development of wind turbine technology, wind power will become more controllable and grid‐friendly. It is desirable to make wind farms operate as conventional power plants. Wind turbine generators (WTGs) were mainly used in rural and remote areas for wind power generation. WTG‐based wind...... energy conversion systems (WECS) can be divided into the four main types (type 1‐4). Due to the inherent variability and uncertainty of the wind, the integration of wind power into the grid has brought challenges in several different areas, including power quality, system reliability, stability......, and planning. The impact of each is largely dependent on the level of wind power penetration in the grid. In many countries, relatively high levels of wind power penetration have been achieved. This chapter shows the estimated wind power penetration in leading wind markets....

Implementing low power consumption in standby mode in the case of power supplies with power factor correction

OpenAIRE

Martín, Kevin; F., Pablo; G., Diego; Sebastián, Javier; Álvarez, Santiago

2017-01-01

This work analyzes different options to implement low power consumption in Switching Mode Power Supplies (SMPSs) with Power Factor Correction (PFC) when they are in standby mode. The standard SMPSs for power levels higher than 100 W are made up of two stages: a classical PFC stage based on a Boost Converter operating in the Continuous Conduction Mode and a second stage based on any type of isolated DC-DC converter. The value of the resistive sensors needed by the PFC control stage determines ...

Ultrasonic scalpel causes greater depth of soft tissue necrosis compared to monopolar electrocautery at standard power level settings in a pig model

Science.gov (United States)

2012-01-01

Background Ultrasonic scalpel (UC) and monopolar electrocautery (ME) are common tools for soft tissue dissection. However, morphological data on the related tissue alteration are discordant. We developed an automatic device for standardized sample excision and compared quality and depth of morphological changes caused by UC and ME in a pig model. Methods 100 tissue samples (5 × 3 cm) of the abdominal wall were excised in 16 pigs. Excisions were randomly performed manually or by using the self-constructed automatic device at standard power levels (60 W cutting in ME, level 5 in UC) for abdominal surgery. Quality of tissue alteration and depth of coagulation necrosis were examined histopathologically. Device (UC vs. ME) and mode (manually vs. automatic) effects were studied by two-way analysis of variance at a significance level of 5%. Results At the investigated power level settings UC and ME induced qualitatively similar coagulation necroses. Mean depth of necrosis was 450.4 ± 457.8 μm for manual UC and 553.5 ± 326.9 μm for automatic UC versus 149.0 ± 74.3 μm for manual ME and 257.6 ± 119.4 μm for automatic ME. Coagulation necrosis was significantly deeper (p < 0.01) when UC was used compared to ME. The mode of excision (manual versus automatic) did not influence the depth of necrosis (p = 0.85). There was no significant interaction between dissection tool and mode of excision (p = 0.93). Conclusions Thermal injury caused by UC and ME results in qualitatively similar coagulation necrosis. The depth of necrosis is significantly greater in UC compared to ME at investigated standard power levels. PMID:22361346

OpenSoC Fabric

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

2014-08-21

Recent advancements in technology scaling have shown a trend towards greater integration with large-scale chips containing thousands of processors connected to memories and other I/O devices using non-trivial network topologies. Software simulation proves insufficient to study the tradeoffs in such complex systems due to slow execution time, whereas hardware RTL development is too time-consuming. We present OpenSoC Fabric, an on-chip network generation infrastructure which aims to provide a parameterizable and powerful on-chip network generator for evaluating future high performance computing architectures based on SoC technology. OpenSoC Fabric leverages a new hardware DSL, Chisel, which contains powerful abstractions provided by its base language, Scala, and generates both software (C++) and hardware (Verilog) models from a single code base. The OpenSoC Fabric2 infrastructure is modeled after existing state-of-the-art simulators, offers large and powerful collections of configuration options, and follows object-oriented design and functional programming to make functionality extension as easy as possible.

Investigating power control in autonomous power systems with increasing wind power penetration

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Margaris, Ioannis D. [National Technical Univ. of Athens (Greece). Electric Energy Systems Lab.; Hansen, Anca D.; Sorensen, Poul [Risoe National Laboratory, Roskilde (Denmark). Wind Energy Dept.; Hatziargyriou, Nikos D. [National Technical Univ. of Athens (Greece). Electric Energy Systems Lab.; Public Power Corporation S.A., Athens (Greece)

2009-07-01

Increasing levels of wind penetration in autonomous power systems has set intensively high standards with respect to wind turbine technology during the last years. Special features of non-interconnected power systems make security issues rather critical, as the operation of large wind farms like conventional power plants is becoming a necessity. This paper includes the study case of Rhodos island, in Greece, where rapidly increasing wind penetration has started to impose serious security issues for the immediate future. The scenarios studied here correspond to reference year of study 2012 and include wind farms with three different wind turbine technologies - namely Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG), Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator (PMSG) and Active Stall Induction Generator (ASIG) based wind turbines. Aggregated models of the wind farms are being used and results for different load cases are being analyzed and discussed. The ability of wind farms to assist in some of the power system control services traditionally carried out by conventional synchronous generation is being investigated and discussed. The power grid of the island, including speed governors and automatic voltage regulators, is simulated in the dedicated power system simulation program Power Factory from DIgSILENT. (orig.)

Reducing scram frequency by modifying/eliminating steam generator low-low level reactor trip setpoint for Maanshan nuclear power plant

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yuann, R.Y.; Chiang, S.C.; Hsiue, J.K.; Chen, P.C.

1987-01-01

The feasibility of modification/elimination of steam generator low-low level reactor trip setpoint is evaluated by using RETRAN-02 code for the purpose of reducing scram frequency in Maanshan 3-loop pressurized water reactor. The ANS Condition II event loss of normal feedwater and condition IV event feedwater system line break are the basis for steam generator low-low level reactor trip setpoint sensitivity analysis, including various initial reactor power levels, reactivity feedback coefficients, and system functions assumptions etc., have been performed for the two basis events with steam generator low-low level reactor trip setpoint at 0% narrow range and without this trip respectively. The feasibility of modifying/eliminating current steam generator low-low level reactor trip setpoint is then determined based on whether the analysis results meet with the ANS Condition II and IV acceptance criteria or not

THE SECURITY AND CRITICAL LEVELS OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY FOR TRAINED AND UNTRAINED PERSONS IN MUSCLE PERFORMANCE POWER ORIENTATION.

Science.gov (United States)

Chernozub, A A

The paper studied the problem of finding the optimal methodology for determining the safety and critical load conditions for the body trained and untrained people in the process of training the force pool. It was found that for trained individuals who have a sufficient level of adaptation to the power load, the use of “standard” modes of operation in the course of employment by fitness power safely. However, the problematic issue is that to the untrained troops, it is almost impossible to determine the safe load parameters using conventional techniques, which are mainly used in cyclic sports. Thus, the solution to this problem lies in the fact that using the integral method for estimating the value of power loads and a computer program for determining the relative weight of the index weights, safety and critical load parameters were calculated for untrained persons. At the same time, studied the biochemical parameters of blood (testosterone, cortisol, and lactate dehydrogenase activity) fixed after exercise, compared with the state of rest, confirmed our calculations clearly enough.

Assessment of environmental gamma radiation levels in the environs of Narora Atomic Power Station (NAPS)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shetty, P.G.; Takale, R.A.; Swarnkar, M.; Sahu, S.K.; Pandit, G.G.; Puranik, V.D.

2011-01-01

As a part of the assessment of the environmental impact of the Indian nuclear power programme, radiation surveys are being carried out on continuous basis in the environs of all the nuclear facilities in India using Thermoluminescent Dosimeters. This paper discusses the environmental gamma radiation levels based on the analysis of data generated for year 1989-2009 at twenty-eight locations currently being monitored in and around the environs of NAPS using passive dosimeter. Of these, six are within the exclusion zone (1.6 km) while the remaining twenty two locations are spread over an aerial distance of twenty six km from reactor stack. The annual background gamma levels for NAPS site beyond 1.6 km exclusion zone based on twenty-two monitoring locations are evaluated and seen to be 1.20 ± 0.15 mGy/a. This is comparable with earlier reported pre-operational value 1.24 ± 0.26 mGy/a. From this it can be said that the reactor operations have not contributed to any increase in the gamma radiation levels in the environs of the NAPS region. (author)

Loss and thermal redistributed modulation methods for three-level neutral-point-clamped wind power inverter undergoing Low Voltage Ride Through

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ma, Ke; Blaabjerg, Frede

2012-01-01

The three-level neutral-point-clamped (3L-NPC) converter is a promising multilevel topology in the application of mega-watts wind power generation system. However, the growing requirements by grid codes may impose high stress and even give reliability problem to this converter topology. This paper...... modulation methods, the thermal distribution in the 3L-NPC wind power inverter undergoing LVRT becomes more equal, and the junction temperature of the most stressed devices can be also relieved. Also the control ability of DC-bus neutral point potential, which is one of the crucial considerations for the 3L...

Advanced Power Converter for Universal and Flexible Power Management in Future Electricity Network

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Iov, Florin; Blaabjerg, Frede; Bassett, R.

2007-01-01

converters for grid connection of renewable sources will be needed. These power converters must be able to provide intelligent power management as well as ancillary services. This paper presents the overall structure and the control aspects of an advanced power converter for universal and flexible power......More "green" power provided by Distributed Generation will enter into the European electricity network in the near future. In order to control the power flow and to ensure proper and secure operation of this future grid, with an increased level of the renewable power, new power electronic...

Wind power integration into the automatic generation control of power systems with large-scale wind power

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abdul Basit

2014-10-01

Full Text Available Transmission system operators have an increased interest in the active participation of wind power plants (WPP in the power balance control of power systems with large wind power penetration. The emphasis in this study is on the integration of WPPs into the automatic generation control (AGC of the power system. The present paper proposes a coordinated control strategy for the AGC between combined heat and power plants (CHPs and WPPs to enhance the security and the reliability of a power system operation in the case of a large wind power penetration. The proposed strategy, described and exemplified for the future Danish power system, takes the hour-ahead regulating power plan for generation and power exchange with neighbouring power systems into account. The performance of the proposed strategy for coordinated secondary control is assessed and discussed by means of simulations for different possible future scenarios, when wind power production in the power system is high and conventional production from CHPs is at a minimum level. The investigation results of the proposed control strategy have shown that the WPPs can actively help the AGC, and reduce the real-time power imbalance in the power system, by down regulating their production when CHPs are unable to provide the required response.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) serum basal levels is not affected by power training in mobility-limited older adults - A randomized controlled trial

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hvid, Lars G; Nielsen, Martin KF; Simonsen, Casper

2017-01-01

high extent, it may be particularly effective in terms of eliciting increases in systemic BDNF levels. We examined the effects of 12 weeks of power training on mature BDNF (mBDNF) and total BDNF (tBDNF) in mobility-limited older adults from the Healthy Ageing Network of Competence (HANC) study. We......Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a potential important factor involved in neuroplasticity, and may be a mediator for eliciting adaptations in neuromuscular function and physical function in older individuals following physical training. As power training taxes the neural system to a very...... included 47 older men and women: n = 22 in the training group (TG: progressive high intensity power training, 2 sessions per week; age 82.7 ± 5.4 years, 55% women) and n = 25 in the control group (CG: no interventions; age 82.2 ± 4.5 years, 76% women). Following overnight fasting, basal serum levels of m...

Efficiency improvement of transport service by trolley buses based on the levels of their power demand

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

V. V. Aulin

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Purpose. Use efficiency improvement of trolley buses in passenger traffic based on power levels of electric energy input and terms adjustment of their maintenance. Methodology. In order to achieve this goal conformance of electric energy input by trolleybus to the transported amount of passengers taking into account characteristics of the route is offered to establish. The major indicators of the trolleybus operation are: speed of a race on lines, number of tractive motor firing, voltage and amperage in the network that were taken with accountants from a dashboard. Research results were tabulated and recorded with DVR. Along with the study of power consumption of electric energy input by a trolleybus passenger count was carried out too. Findings. The directly proportional dependence between the level of energy consumption by a trolleybus and the number of passengers for constant performance route was determined. Originality. As the criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of the trolleybus operation on the route is proposed to use the ratio between electricity consumption and number of passengers for these characteristics of the route. This is confirmed experimentally. The obtained formulas give the possibility to balance the force work and consequently the volume of energy consumption during the trolleybus movement on the rise and the descent. Practical value. The proposed criterion can be used to adjust the terms of maintenance on the individual program, that means individual maintenance (IM. Type of work performed at the IM should be determined on the basis of diagnostic data of the vehicle (V. The principles of IM were formulated: 1 the primary task is planned and preventative strategy to identify and eliminate troubleshooting and technical actions; 2 operational control of the vehicle (V technical condition on the basis of prediction of its state using the proposed criteria, that takes into account the dependence of power consumption to

The Art of Hardware Architecture Design Methods and Techniques for Digital Circuits

CERN Document Server

Arora, Mohit

2012-01-01

This book highlights the complex issues, tasks and skills that must be mastered by an IP designer, in order to design an optimized and robust digital circuit to solve a problem. The techniques and methodologies described can serve as a bridge between specifications that are known to the designer and RTL code that is final outcome, reducing significantly the time it takes to convert initial ideas and concepts into right-first-time silicon.� Coverage focuses on real problems rather than theoretical concepts, with an emphasis on design techniques across various aspects of chip-design.�� Describes techniques to help IP designers get it right the first time, creating designs optimized in terms of power, area and performance; Focuses on practical aspects of chip design and minimizes theory; Covers chip design in a consistent way, starting with basics and gradually developing advanced concepts, such as electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) design techniques and low-power design techniques such as dynamic voltage...

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) serum basal levels is not affected by power training in mobility-limited older adults - A randomized controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Hvid, L G; Nielsen, M K F; Simonsen, C; Andersen, M; Caserotti, P

2017-07-01

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a potential important factor involved in neuroplasticity, and may be a mediator for eliciting adaptations in neuromuscular function and physical function in older individuals following physical training. As power training taxes the neural system to a very high extent, it may be particularly effective in terms of eliciting increases in systemic BDNF levels. We examined the effects of 12weeks of power training on mature BDNF (mBDNF) and total BDNF (tBDNF) in mobility-limited older adults from the Healthy Ageing Network of Competence (HANC) study. We included 47 older men and women: n=22 in the training group (TG: progressive high intensity power training, 2 sessions per week; age 82.7±5.4years, 55% women) and n=25 in the control group (CG: no interventions; age 82.2±4.5years, 76% women). Following overnight fasting, basal serum levels of mBDNF and tBDNF were assessed (human ELISA kits) at baseline and post-intervention. At baseline, mBDNF and tBDNF levels were comparable in the two groups, TG and CG. Post-intervention, no significant within-group or between-group changes were observed in mBDNF or tBDNF. Moreover, when divided into responder tertiles based upon changes in mBDNF and tBDNF (i.e. decliners, maintainers, improvers), respectively, comparable findings were observed for TG and CG. Altogether, basal systemic levels of serum mBDNF and tBDNF are not affected in mobility-limited older adults following 12-weeks of power training, and do not appear to be a major mechanistic factor mediating neuroplasticity in mobility-limited older adults. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Myostatin-deficiency in mice increases global gene expression at the Dlk1-Dio3 locus in the skeletal muscle.

Science.gov (United States)

Hitachi, Keisuke; Tsuchida, Kunihiro

2017-01-24

Myostatin, a member of the transforming growth factor-beta superfamily, is a negative regulator of skeletal muscle growth and development. Myostatin inhibition leads to increased skeletal muscle mass in mammals; hence, myostatin is considered a potential therapeutic target for skeletal muscle wasting. However, downstream molecules of myostatin in the skeletal muscle have not been fully elucidated. Here, we identified the Dlk1-Dio3 locus at the mouse chromosome 12qF1, also called as the callipyge locus in sheep, as a novel downstream target of myostatin. In skeletal muscle of myostatin knockout mice, the expression of mature miRNAs at the Dlk1-Dio3 locus was significantly increased. The increased miRNA levels are caused by the transcriptional activation of the Dlk1-Dio3 locus, because a significant increase in the primary miRNA transcript was observed in myostatin knockout mice. In addition, we found increased expression of coding and non-coding genes (Dlk1, Gtl2, Rtl1/Rtl1as, and Rian) at the Dlk1-Dio3 locus in myostatin-deficient skeletal muscle. Moreover, epigenetic changes, associated with the regulation of the Dlk1-Dio3 locus, were observed in myostatin knockout mice. Taken together, this is the first report demonstrating the role of myostatin in regulating the Dlk1-Dio3 (the callipyge) locus in the skeletal muscle.

High Efficiency Power Converter for Low Voltage High Power Applications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nymand, Morten

The topic of this thesis is the design of high efficiency power electronic dc-to-dc converters for high-power, low-input-voltage to high-output-voltage applications. These converters are increasingly required for emerging sustainable energy systems such as fuel cell, battery or photo voltaic based......, and remote power generation for light towers, camper vans, boats, beacons, and buoys etc. A review of current state-of-the-art is presented. The best performing converters achieve moderately high peak efficiencies at high input voltage and medium power level. However, system dimensioning and cost are often...

Possible Power Estimation of Down-Regulated Offshore Wind Power Plants

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gögmen, Tuhfe

The penetration of offshore wind power is continuously increasing in the Northern European grids. To assure safety in the operation of the power system, wind power plants are required to provide ancillary services, including reserve power attained through down-regulating the wind farm from its...... power plant. The developed procedure, the PossPOW algorithm, can also be used in the wind farm control as it yields a real-time wind farm power curve. The modern wind turbines have a possible power signal at the turbine level and the current state of the art is to aggregate those signals to achieve...... the wind farm scale production capacity. However the summation of these individual signals is simply an over-estimation for the wind power plant, due to reduced wake losses during curtailment. The determination of the possible power with the PossPOW algorithm works as follows: firstly the second...

A Game Theoretical Approach Based Bidding Strategy Optimization for Power Producers in Power Markets with Renewable Electricity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yi Tang

2017-05-01

Full Text Available In a competitive electricity market with substantial involvement of renewable electricity, maximizing profits by optimizing bidding strategies is crucial to different power producers including conventional power plants and renewable ones. This paper proposes a game-theoretic bidding optimization method based on bi-level programming, where power producers are at the upper level and utility companies are at the lower level. The competition among the multiple power producers is formulated as a non-cooperative game in which bidding curves are their strategies, while uniform clearing pricing is considered for utility companies represented by an independent system operator. Consequently, based on the formulated game model, the bidding strategies for power producers are optimized for the day-ahead market and the intraday market with considering the properties of renewable energy; and the clearing pricing for the utility companies, with respect to the power quantity from different power producers, is optimized simultaneously. Furthermore, a distributed algorithm is provided to search the solution of the generalized Nash equilibrium. Finally, simulation results were performed and discussed to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed non-cooperative game-based bi-level optimization approach.

SSP Power Management and Distribution

Science.gov (United States)

Lynch, Thomas H.; Roth, A. (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

Space Solar Power is a NASA program sponsored by Marshall Space Flight Center. The Paper presented here represents the architectural study of a large power management and distribution (PMAD) system. The PMAD supplies power to a microwave array for power beaming to an earth rectenna (Rectifier Antenna). The power is in the GW level.

Rationalization of the electric power utilization for the ferro-alloy production at the HEK 'Jugohrom' by means of the follow up and restriction of the highest level loading as well as automatic processing system for the involved electric power (Macedonia)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koevski, Doncho

2001-01-01

The relations between the electro energetic system and the energetic generally, as well as the chronic energetic crisis, the electric power price, provoked to analyse the application of the economic use forms of the electric power. This paper presents the way of rationalisation of the electric power utilization for the ferro-alloy production in Jugohrom. This is done by appointing the measuring system, control and limitation of the highest level loading as well as automatic processing system for the involved electric power. (Original)

Rationalization of the electric power utilization for the ferro-alloy production at the HEK 'Jugohrom' by means of the follow up and restriction of the highest level loading as well as automatic processing system for the involved electric power (Macedonia)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Koevski, Doncho

2002-01-01

The relations between the electro energetic system and the energetic generally, as well as the chronic energetic crisis, the electric power price, provoked to analyse the application of the economic use forms of the electric power. This paper presents the way of rationalisation of the electric power utilization for the ferro-alloy production in Jugohrom. This is done by appointing the measuring system, control and limitation of the highest level loading as well as automatic processing system for the involved electric power. (Original)

Power beaming providing a space power infrastructure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bamberger, J.A.; Coomes, E.P.

1992-01-01

This paper, based on two levels of technology maturity, applied the power beaming concept to four panned satellite constellations. The analysis shows that with currently available technology, power beaming can provide mass savings to constellations in orbits ranging from low-Earth orbit to geosynchronous orbit. Two constellations, space surveillance and tracking system and space-based radar, can be supported with current technology. The other two constellations, space-based laser array and boost surveillance and tracking system, will require power and transmission system improvements before their breakeven specific mass is achieved. A doubling of SP-100 conversion efficiency from 10 to 20% would meet or exceed breakeven for these constellations

Decentralized Power System Emergency Control in the Presence of High Wind Power Penetration

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hoseinzadeh, Bakhtyar; Silva, Filipe Miguel Faria da; Bak, Claus Leth

2015-01-01

in the neighborhood of event point. The method efficiency is confirmed by numerical simulations conducted in DigSilent PowerFactory software with cascading events and islanding contingencies with different level of Wind Power (WP) share and active power deficit and compared to the classical UFLS method....

Power conditioner without isolation transformer; Toransuresu power conditioner no shohin kaihatsu

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Okado, C; Itami, T; Kimoto, K [Toshiba Corp., Tokyo (Japan)

1996-10-27

A light-weight downsized and high efficiency transformer-less type 4 kW power conditioner (inverter) has been developed. This power conditioner insures the system interconnection protection by monitoring the voltage of two single-phase three-line circuits. The power conditioner has weight of 17.5 kg and efficiency of 94%. Potential fluctuation of photovoltaic cells due to the switching of power devices at the inverter was reduced. Output capacity was reduced in the low input voltage range. Outflow of DC component was prevented in high accuracy by usually correcting the zero point drift of detector, and by using the current detector with excellent linearity. To detect the DC ground fault, and to trip the output side breaker locating at the ground fault current pass, a zero phase converter detection circuit has been developed, by which the DC component can be detected at the DC input side. As a result of performance verification, the efficiency, power factor, EMI level, protection of outflow of DC component, protection of ground fault, protection of single operation detection, and noise level were satisfied. This system is prospective for the diffusion of photovoltaic power generation in the future. 3 refs., 8 figs., 1 tab.

Direct integration of intensity-level data from Affymetrix and Illumina microarrays improves statistical power for robust reanalysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Turnbull Arran K

2012-08-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Affymetrix GeneChips and Illumina BeadArrays are the most widely used commercial single channel gene expression microarrays. Public data repositories are an extremely valuable resource, providing array-derived gene expression measurements from many thousands of experiments. Unfortunately many of these studies are underpowered and it is desirable to improve power by combining data from more than one study; we sought to determine whether platform-specific bias precludes direct integration of probe intensity signals for combined reanalysis. Results Using Affymetrix and Illumina data from the microarray quality control project, from our own clinical samples, and from additional publicly available datasets we evaluated several approaches to directly integrate intensity level expression data from the two platforms. After mapping probe sequences to Ensembl genes we demonstrate that, ComBat and cross platform normalisation (XPN, significantly outperform mean-centering and distance-weighted discrimination (DWD in terms of minimising inter-platform variance. In particular we observed that DWD, a popular method used in a number of previous studies, removed systematic bias at the expense of genuine biological variability, potentially reducing legitimate biological differences from integrated datasets. Conclusion Normalised and batch-corrected intensity-level data from Affymetrix and Illumina microarrays can be directly combined to generate biologically meaningful results with improved statistical power for robust, integrated reanalysis.

Wind power generation and dispatch in competitive power markets

Science.gov (United States)

Abreu, Lisias

Wind energy is currently the fastest growing type of renewable energy. The main motivation is led by more strict emission constraints and higher fuel prices. In addition, recent developments in wind turbine technology and financial incentives have made wind energy technically and economically viable almost anywhere. In restructured power systems, reliable and economical operation of power systems are the two main objectives for the ISO. The ability to control the output of wind turbines is limited and the capacity of a wind farm changes according to wind speeds. Since this type of generation has no production costs, all production is taken by the system. Although, insufficient operational planning of power systems considering wind generation could result in higher system operation costs and off-peak transmission congestions. In addition, a GENCO can participate in short-term power markets in restructured power systems. The goal of a GENCO is to sell energy in such a way that would maximize its profitability. However, due to market price fluctuations and wind forecasting errors, it is essential for the wind GENCO to keep its financial risk at an acceptable level when constituting market bidding strategies. This dissertation discusses assumptions, functions, and methodologies that optimize short-term operations of power systems considering wind energy, and that optimize bidding strategies for wind producers in short-term markets. This dissertation also discusses uncertainties associated with electricity market environment and wind power forecasting that can expose market participants to a significant risk level when managing the tradeoff between profitability and risk.

De minimis applications for alternative disposal of very low level radioactive waste at Duke Power Company