A wind resource assessment around large mountain masses: The speed-up effect

The wind potential around an intensely mountainous area has been studied and an experimental analysis is presented the output of which could be used in the wind farm planning procedure aiming at maximization of the wind power production output of an area. The wind speed of a chosen site of Central Greece was studied based on field measurements around a large mountainous area of Central Greece. Understanding flow in the foothills and the wider area of the mountains is of great importance for estimating wind resource in rough terrain. In this article, special focus was given to the speed-up effect and forced air flow around mountainous masses.     

A stochastic approach for the operation of a wind and pumped storage plant under a deregulated environment

To improve the competiveness in the energy market, it is necessary that the wind power plants provide guaranteed power generation, although, it is not possible to forecast power availability from wind power plant accurately. This paper presents a stochastic model and solution technique for the combined operation of wind and pumped storage power plants to improve the power availability and increasing the profit considering uncertainties of wind power generation. In this model, uncertainties in wind data have been forecasted for grid connected day-ahead market using Weibull distribution model. The imbalances in the forecasted wind data and the market demand have been reduced by operating the pumped storage power plant. In this stochastic mixed integer problem, pumped storage plant can take the supply either from the grid or from the wind power plant for the pumping operation to store the energy in order to utilize this energy during peak hours for increasing the overall revenue. The reliability of the pumped storage is improved by replacing the conventional unit with the adjustable speed type pumped storage unit. In order to prove the optimality of the solution, two case studies were considered. In case study–I, scheduling is provided by operating the conventional pumped storage unit, whereas in case study–II, adjustable speed pumped storage unit has been used. It has been found that the adjustable speed pumped storage unit has further reduced the imbalance between generated power and demand. The complete approach has been formulated and implemented using AMPL software.     

家居环境PM_(2.5)控制用空气滤料

针对目前家居环境净化PM2.5的要求,在现有空气过滤材料的基础上,探讨一种适合于家居环境移动式空气净化装置用低阻、高效和长寿命的过滤材料。采用实验研究的方法对常用玻纤滤纸以及驻极体空气过滤材料进行了过滤特性、电镜、孔径测试的对比实验研究。结果表明,当过滤风速为5 cm/s时,3种驻极体滤料对粒径≤4.5μm的颗粒物的分级过滤效率要高于玻纤滤纸且都在90%以上,其过滤阻力在4.9~6.4 Pa之间,而高效滤纸的过滤阻力在57.8~78.6 Pa之间;在实验风速条件下,驻极体滤料对PM2.5的过滤效率和过滤阻力分别高于和低于高效玻纤滤纸;对驻极体滤料进行蒸馏水洗涤后,其对颗粒物的过滤效率下降,驻极体滤料静电效应具有不稳定特性;电镜测试发现,玻纤滤纸纤维层排布致密,纤维存在断裂现象,而驻极体滤料较为蓬松,无纤维断裂现象;孔径实验表明,驻极体滤料的平均孔径为玻纤滤纸的11.9~14.7倍,驻极体滤料具有良好的透气和容尘特性。     

Antimicrobial resistance in Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. isolates from fresh produce and the impact to food safety

Foodborne diseases associated with fresh produce consumption have escalated worldwide, causing microbial safety of produce of critical importance. Bacteria that have increasingly been detected in fresh produce are Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp., both of which have been shown to progressively display antimicrobial resistance. The study focused on the assessment of antimicrobial resistance of these enteric bacteria from different kinds of fresh produce from various open air markets and supermarkets in the Philippines. Using the disk diffusion assay on a total of 50 bacterial isolates obtained from 410 fresh produce surveyed, monoresistance to tetracycline was observed to be the most prevalent (38%), followed by multidrug resistance to tetracycline, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, and nalidixic acid (4%), and lastly by dual resistance to tetracycline and chloramphenicol (2%). Using multiplex and simplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays, tetA (75%) and tetB (9%) were found in tetracycline resistant isolates, whereas catI (67%) and catIII (33%) were detected in chloramphenicol resistant isolates. Sequence analysis of gyr and par genes from the ciprofloxacin and nalidixic acid resistant isolates revealed different mutations. Based on the results, fresh produce act as a reservoir of these antibiotic resistant bacteria which may pose health threat to consumers.     

“It's easy to throw rocks at a corporation”: wind energy development and distributive justice in Canada

In places like Canada, fast-paced wind turbine development combined with policy that limits local decision-making power has resulted in strong opposition to specific projects. Some studies suggest that anti-wind sentiment is tied to inadequate financial benefits – especially sharing at the local level. Thus, ideas of distributive economic justice have received traction, particularly in the form of praise for community-based development models. This paper reports on the findings from a mixed-methods study concerning preferred distributive justice elements in rural communities in Ontario (technocratic-based model) and Nova Scotia (community-based model) living with turbines. Residents’ perceptions of economic benefits are nuanced, but unlike other studies, this empirical work shows that both the fair distribution and the amount of local benefits are important predictors of project support. Yet, concerns around the fair distribution of benefits dominate in a regression on the adequacy of those benefits. A variety of interview and survey findings further point to the strength of traditional, profit-sharing community-based models for distributing benefits, but also more novel ideas including lowered electricity bills and tax rebates in areas home to turbines.     

Wind energy potential analysis for Thailand: Uncertainty from wind maps and sensitivity to turbine technology

Rapid development of wind energy has been witnessed in Thailand. However, different wind resource maps (over land) have brought great uncertainty to wind energy planning. Here, four important mesoscale wind maps were considered: DEDP (2001), World Bank (2001), Manomaiphiboon et al. (2010) of JGSEE, and DEDE (2010). The wind maps were first harmonized to a common grid at 100 m and then compared. The earlier wind maps (DEDP and World Bank) are shown to represent the lower and upper limits of predicted speed, respectively, while JGSEE and DEDE tend to be more moderate with predictions statistically closer to observations. A consolidated wind map was constructed based on their median and shown to have the best prediction performance. It was then used for the technical potential analysis, in which three large (2-MW) turbine models (two conventional and one designed for low wind speed) were considered. By GIS techniques, any land areas not feasible for large wind turbines were excluded, and the corresponding overall onshore technical potential ranges between 50 and 250 GW, depending on map and turbine model. Considering only economically feasible turbines (with capacity factors of 20%) and the median-based map, the final technical potential equals 17 GW when using the low-wind-speed model but is reduced to 5 GW with the conventional models, adequately meeting the national wind energy target of 3 GW by the year 2036. The results suggest a strong sensitivity of estimated technical potential to turbine technology and a suitability of low-wind-speed turbines for wind conditions in Thailand.     

Wind energy and natural ventilation potential of a wind catcher in Yazd – Iran (a long-term measurement)

When designing energy efficient buildings it is useful to study existing climate—responsive building typologies. The wind towers or wind-catchers of Yazd city in Iran are typical examples of such a typology. Although many previous studies have investigated the performance of various types of wind catcher systems, studies based on a long-term real-life measurement can be rarely found. In this study a long-term whole year monitoring campaign on an existing full scale four sided wind catcher in Yazd was carried out in 2014–2015. Three prevailing wind directions were identified and the measured on-site wind speeds were used to estimate the wind induced natural ventilation potential of the tower. A shaft/tower airflow performance index was developed. The monitoring results were compared to the ASHRAE Standard 62:2001 ventilation rate requirement. Results show that the total ventilation rate of the wind tower surpasses the ASHRAE Standard requirements. Furthermore it shows that the shafts are exposed to the prevailing wind directions perform better. For more effective natural ventilation a wind tower with adaptable openings/shafts are proposed.     

Starting improvement of micro-wind turbines operating in low wind speed regions

The study deals with the design and optimization of external and internal geometry of micro-wind turbines blades. A specified objective function which consists of the power coefficient and the starting time was defined and the genetic algorithm optimization technique in conjunction with the blade-element momentum theory was adopted to find the geometry of the blades including the distributions of the chord, the twist angle and also the shell thickness. Moreover, the allowable stress of the blades was considered as a constraint to the objective function. Results show that a reasonable compromise is achievable such that the starting time of the blades reduces noticeably in return for a small drop in the power coefficient. The significant improvement of the hollow blades over the solid ones indicates that the power coefficient and the starting performance could be improved through the appropriate distributions of the considered decision variables, i.e. the chord, the twist angle and also the shell thickness.     

Whose Discourse Is It Anyway? Understanding Resistance through the Rise of “Barstool Biology” in Nature Conservation

This study examines what happens when contentious lay citizens harness the technical-ecological repertoire of experts as means of challenging nature conservation policy. The causes, manifestations, and implications of this phenomenon are elucidated through a critical discourse analysis. The case study is based on the wolf reintroduction project in Europe, with particular focus on Sweden, using illegal hunting discussions as a point of entry within the hunting community. It reveals the deployment of three topoi, which are defined as stock arguments situated within a discourse. Analysis shows how while some topoi often incur short-term gains in the debate because of their scientific guise, they are fundamentally relegated as folk science (or “barstool biology”) by government experts and, in some cases, contribute to the further marginalization of other knowledges. Acquiescence to this discourse is shown to greatly impede the debate. Finally, the study shows how lack of trust in the public dialog, which hunters openly recognize to be colonized by ecological expertise, results in increasingly noncommunicative forms of resistance toward policy.     

快速评估近岸海洋水体与沉积物中E.coli与S.aureus抗生素抗性水平的新方法

随着抗生素抗性污染日益严重,快速评估环境中典型病原菌与条件性致病菌的抗生素抗性水平,对掌握区域环境抗生素抗性污染状况、揭示抗性污染传播规律至关重要。通过以最低抑菌浓度浸入抗生素改进MI、VJ培养基,并结合滤膜法,建立了针对近岸海洋环境中指示性病原微生物大肠杆菌(Escherichia coli,E.coli)与金黄色葡萄球菌(Staphylococcus aureus,S.aureus)的抗生素抗性监测方法。水体和沉积物样品抗生素抗性水平评估实验结果显示,该方法具有较好重现性(水体和沉积物中E.coli和S.aureus抗生素抗性水平的相对标准偏差分别为11%、8%)与准确度(水体和沉积物中E.coli和S.aureus的平均回收率分别为83.5%、68.4%;相对于CLSI药敏试验的偏离度为±0.1)。且与CLSI药敏实验相比,该方法过程简便、耗时短(36 h/84 h),能最大限度节约经济和人员成本提高抗性评价效率。应用该方法评估辽河口与莱州湾环境中2种病原微生物磺胺类抗生素抗性水平,结果显示辽河口水体中E.coli和S.aureus磺胺二甲嘧啶的平均抗性率分别为27.0%、28.4%,沉积物中分别为35.5%、34.6%;莱州湾水体中E.coli和S.aureus磺胺二甲嘧啶的平均抗性率分别为26.0%、14.5%,沉积物中分别为12.0%、32.9%。该方法适用于河口、近岸海洋及入海排污口水体与沉积物样品中E.coli与S.aureus的快速分析及抗生素抗性水平评估。