Solar and wind resources available for power generation are subject to variability due to meteorological factors. Here, we use a new global climate reanalysis product, Version 2 of the NASA Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA-2), to quantify interannual variability of monthly-mean solar and wind resource from 1980 to 2016 at a resolution of about 0.5 degrees. We find an average coefficient of variation (CV) of 11% for monthly-mean solar radiation and 8% for windspeed. Mean CVs were about 25% greater over ocean than over land, and, for land areas, were greatest at high latitude. The correlation between solar and wind anomalies was near zero in the global mean, but markedly positive or negative in some regions. Both wind and solar variability were correlated with values of climate modes such as the Southern Oscillation Index and Arctic Oscillation, with correlations in the Northern Hemisphere generally stronger during winter. We conclude that reanalysis solar and wind fields could be helpful in assessing variability in power generation due to interannual fluctuations in the wind and solar resource. Skillful prediction of these fluctuations seems to be possible, particularly for certain regions and seasons, given persistence or predictability of climate modes with which these fluctuations are associated.

This case report describes evidence of intratubular biomineralization in root canal filled with calcium enriched material after 8 years of clinical maintenance. The schematic findings of dentinal tubules were investigated with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The root canal obturation material was closely adapted to root dentin surface, suggesting the possibility of chemical bonding between the two interfaces. SEM and EDS observation of dentinal tubules showed intratubular biomineralized crystal structures with Ca/P ratio in a range of 1.30–2.12, suggesting bioactive capacity of calcium enriched cement.

Global waste generation keeps increasing over the year and requires innovative solutions to minimize their impacts on environmental quality and public health. Predicted 2.2 billion tonnes per year of global municipal waste generation in the year 2025 which 1.6 fold is higher than in 2012. Hence, a strategic plan must be ascertained to overcome the future challenges of MSW locally and globally. Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) coined an initiative to demonstrate a showcase pilot plant for green energy production from MSW. Therefore, the data was obtained from the survey and actual sampling within the UPM compound to estimate the MSW generated and it's potentially used for green energy production. It is estimated that 5.0 – 7.0 tonne per day of MSW generated which about 30 - 35% is an organic fraction. Upon separation, the organic fractions were digested into biogas through anaerobic. At the maximum conversion of organic fraction, about 775 kWh of electricity may able to generate from the waste. In this study, the complete biorefinery setup and utilize organic components from the MSW generated in UPM was proposed that the biogas subsequently will be used to produce green energy in the form of electricity or cooking fuel.

Italian Directives recommends the good quality of natural mineral waters but literature data assert a potential risk from several microorganisms colonizing wellsprings and mineral water bottling plants. Aim of study is the identification of microorganisms from spring waters (SW) and bottled mineral waters (BMW) samples. Methods: Routine microbiological indicators, Legionella spp., Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), protozoa (FLA) and physical-chemical parameters were assessed in 24 SW and 10 BMW samples performing culture methods and molecular tests as PCR and qPCR. Results: In 33 out of 34 samples no cultivable bacteria were isolated with the exception of 83 CFU/L of Mycobacterium gilvum, detected in one warm rich-mineralized SW. qPCR showed the presence of Legionella genomic units in 24% of samples (mean 2,9x10²±1,7x10² GU/L) and NTM genomic units in 18% of samples (mean 5,7x10^3±4,1x10³ GU/L). Vermamoeba vermiformis and Acanthamoeba polyphaga were recovered respectively in 70% of BMW samples (counts from 1,3x10³ to 1,2x10⁵) and 42% of SW samples (counts from 1,1x10³ to 1,3x10⁴). Vahlkampfia spp. was detected in 42% of SW and 70% of BMW samples (mean 1,3x10⁴ ±2,9x10³ GU/L). Conclusion: The study highlights a low rate of microbial risk and the importance of risk assessment in natural mineral waters.

In this paper, we study the fractional pseudo-parabolic equations u_t + (−△)^s u + (−△)^s u_t = u log |u|. Firstly, we recall the relationship between the fractional Laplace operator (−△)^s and the fractional Sobolev space H^s and discuss the invariant sets and the vacuum isolating behavior of solutions with the help of a family of potential wells. Then, we derive a threshold result of existence of global weak solution: for the low initial energy J(u₀) < d, the solution is global in time with I(u₀) > 0 or ∥u₀∥X_0(Ω) = 0 and blows up +∞ with I(u₀) < 0; for the critical initial energy J(u₀) = d, the solution is global in time with I(u₀) ≥ 0 and blows up at +∞ with I(u₀) < 0. The decay estimate of the energy functional for the global solution is also given.

Diamidophosphate has been identified as a possible prebiotic compound used in the precursor membranes of the first ‘life’. Compounds such as these will be helpful in developing novel biomimetic approaches in synthetic chemistry. Thermochemical data for this type of compounds are not available. Hess’ law and estimates from calorimetric measurements used by Wakefield in the 1970s for other amido phosphates have been used to estimate the thermochemical values for the diamido and monoamido-phosphoric acid. Enthalpy of formation at 298.15 ^oC is calculated as – 821.9 kJ/mol and the free energy of formation calculated as -813.5 kJ/mol for the diamidophosphoric acid. The calculated enthalpy of formation of monoamidic phosphoric acid is -1117.1 kJ/mol and its free energy of formation is - -1105 kJ/mol.

Satellite derived bathymetry methods over coastal areas were born to deliver basic and useful information like bathymetry. However, the process is not straightforward, the main limitation being the need of field data. The Self-calibrated Spectral Supervised Shallow-water Modeler (4SM) method was tested to obtain coastal bathymetry without the use of any field data. Using LANDSAT-8 multispectral images from 2013 to 2016, a bathymetric time series was produced. Groundtruthed depths and an alternative method, Stumpf’s Band Ratio Algorithm, were used to verify the results. Retrieved (4SM) vs groundtruthed depths scored an average r2 (0.90), and a low error (RMSE = 1.47 m). Also 4SM showed, over the whole time series, the same average accuracy of the control method (40%). Advantages, limitations and operability under complex atmosphere and water column conditions, and high and low-albedo bottom processing capabilities of 4SM are discussed. In conclusion, the findings suggest that 4SM is equally accurate as the commonly used Stumpf’s method, the only difference being the independence of 4SM to previous field data, and the potential to deliver bottom spectral characteristics for further modelling. 4SM represents a significative advance in coastal remote sensing potential to obtain bathymetry and optical properties of the marine bottom.

Background/Goals: The gut hormone PYY secreted from intestinal L-cells has been implicated in the mechanisms of satiation via Y2-receptor (Y2R) signaling in the brain and periphery and is a major candidate for mediating the beneficial effects of bariatric surgery on appetite and body weight. Methods: Here we assessed the role of Y2R signaling in the response to low- and high-fat diets and its role in the effects of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery on body weight, body composition, food intake, energy expenditure and glucose handling, in global Y2R-deficient (Y2RKO) and wildtype mice made obese on high-fat diet. Results: Both male and female Y2RKO mice responded normally to low- and high-fat diet in terms of body weight, body composition, fasting levels of glucose and insulin, as well as glucose and insulin tolerance for up to 30 weeks of age. Contrary to expectations, obese Y2RKO mice also responded similarly to RYGB compared to WT mice for up to 20 weeks after surgery, with initial hypophagia, sustained body weight loss, and significant improvements in fasting insulin, glucose tolerance, HOMA-IR, and liver weight compared to sham-operated mice. Furthermore, non-surgical Y2RKO mice weight-matched to RYGB showed the same improvements in glycemic control as Y2RKO mice with RYGB that were similar to WT mice. Conclusions: PYY signaling through Y2R is not required for the normal appetite-suppressing and body weight-lowering effects of RYGB in this global knockout mouse model. Potential compensatory adaptations of PYY signaling through other receptor subtypes or other gut satiety hormones such as GLP-1 remain to be investigated.

The global energy crisis has lead researchers explore other sources of energy like wind, resulting in a wide acceptance of wind turbines. Vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT) more suitable for small scale application in urban conditions than their horizontal-axis counterparts. A Helical bladed VAWT would reduce the ripple effect when compared to Straight bladed VAWT. The effect of the blade helix angle on the aerodynamic performance of VAWT using 3D numerical simulations is studied. Turbulence modelled using 4-Equation transition SST k-w model. Three different helix angles of 60, 90 and 120 of a 3 bladed VAWT operating across different tip speed ratios were studied. The 60 helical bladed VAWT was found to perform better than all other helical bladed and straight bladed VAWT. Standard deviation of the moment coefficient generated by a blade plotted against 360 of azimuth rotation revealed that the ripple effect on the shaft produced by cyclic loading of the straight blade is considerably reduced upon introduction of helix angle, with 120 helical blade giving lowest standard deviation. The analysis has been done for the percentage of power generated by each quartile of flow and the contribution of each section of the blade. A comparative study was also conducted between different helical bladed VAWT and straight bladed VAWT. Flow feature analysis also revealed the reasons behind secondary peaks and the performance improvement when tip speed ratio increases. Wake structure analysis and flow contours were also studied for a better understanding of the flow field.

The global climate change mitigation efforts have increased the efforts of national government to incentivize local households in adopting individual renewable energy as a mean to help reduce the usage of electricity generated using fossil fuels and to gain independence from the grid. Since the majority of residential generation is made by PV panels that generate electricity at off-peak hours, the optimal management of such installations often considers local storage that can defer the use of locally generated electricity at later times. On the other hand, the presence of distributed generation can affect negatively the operating conditions of low-voltage distribution networks. The energy stored in batteries located in optimal places in the network can be used by the utility to improve the operation of the network. This paper proposes a metaheuristic approach based on a Genetic Algorithm that considers three different scenarios of using energy storage for reducing the losses in the network. Prosumer and network operator priorities can be considered in different scenarios inside the same algorithm, to provide a comparative study of different priorities in storage placement. A case study performed on a real distribution network provides insightful results.

Malaysia generates significant quantities of Oil Palm Wastes (OPW) which can be potentially valorised into sustainable bioenergy as envisaged by the National Biomass Strategy (NBS-2020). Despite significant investments, policy directives and government support, the valorisation of OPW into bioenergy has remained low exacerbating waste management challenges. Therefore, the strategies and impediments to the rapid bioenergy development and bioelectricity generation from OPW require practical assessment. Therefore, this paper examines the level of development and diffusion of the biomass innovation system in Malaysia based on the Functions of Innovations Systems (FIS) approach developed by Dutch and Swedish researchers. Furthermore, the key factors hindering biomass energy technologies implementation in Malaysia and potential solutions were identified, highlighted and examined. Based on the FIS analysis the functions; entrepreneurial activities, knowledge development, and resources mobilization functions are well established in the Malaysian biomass innovation system (BIS). However, the functions of guidance of search; creation of legitimacy; knowledge diffusion and market formation are underdeveloped resulting in the low penetration of bioenergy in Malaysia. Other factors include; fossil fuel subsidies, numerous or conflicting energy policies and weak collaboration between academia and the industry. The outlined challenges can be addressed by revising fuel subsidies, Feed-in tariffs, RETs implementation, roles of supervisory agencies, and bureaucratic procedures for access to funds for research and development of bioenergy in Malaysia.

This study aimed to focus on how to design a low-cost greenhouse for the cultivation of crops, to propose the cost-effectiveness analysis of small agribusiness, and to promote sustainable agricultural production during and after the COVID-19 crisis for helping grassroots and anyone who lost their job. This article is qualitative engineering research, studying of literature reviews of greenhouse farming concept and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, then, designing low-cost greenhouse model which was preliminarily adapted for hot climate countries. Three plants that were selected as representative plants of this model include sunflower, water spinach, and wheat. The greenhouse model, measuring 5 x 7 x 4 m (W x L x H), was designed for this mission. The total cost of one building is approximately 97,994 THB. For the worthiness of the investment, farmers should build at least three greenhouse buildings, which will return total income to farmers approximately 34,666.09 THB per month. The suggestion includes further knowledge and financial supports from the government sectors among farmers, then, boost them up using high-level technology and also planting high-price agribusiness production to promote the local economy to be strong and sustainable.

In general, a superconductor has zero resistance, although it requires significant refrigeration or high pressures with high manufacturing costs, which prevents it into practical applications. In other words, solving these issues implies main superconducting researches. To solve these problems, this paper describes a new type of superconductivity, which is independent for temperatures and which operates without pressures. The principles of the presented system are as follows:First a voltage source, a current source and a load are connected in series. Then, the voltage of the voltage source is adjusted to balance the voltage of the load. Under this condition, the balance of the two voltages provides a zero voltage between the taps of the current source and the generated current from the voltage source becomes zero because of the internal infinite resistance of the current source. As a result, the electric powers generated by the two sources are zero, and therefore, the load cannot generate Joule heating because of energy conservation. However, the current from the current source (not the voltage source) is not zero; therefore, we can predict that the resistance of the load must be zero. As a theory, we derived a new electric field and transient attractive force, which result in a very short coherence of an electron pair because there is not the Coulomb repulsive force due to the existence of the above transient attractive force. Note that both the forces are derived by the Poisson equation, which implies that they cannot be compatible. Therefore, the pair combination energy from spins becomes extremely strong, which is not destroyed by the normal heat energy. Moreover, every center-of-mass motion of electron pair results in the Bose-Einstein condensation and the macroscopic wave function, which produces the London equation (i.e., the Meissner effect). Moreover, by introducing the equivalent circuit, this paper conducted numerical calculations. As a result, we could derive numerically zero resistance and responses for additional static magnetic fields as a discharged current, which implies the Meissner effect. Note that this paper has prepared Appendix section, which provides a guide to reproduce actual experiments and preliminary experimental results. These results in the Appendix indicate the zero resistances and Meissner effects.

Lack of water resources in Iran, especially in recent years, has faced the agricultural sector as the most important consumer of water resources, with serious challenges. In Iran, the agricultural sector accounted for more than 90% of water consumption. However, the focus on domestic production and self-sufficiency policy in staples (wheat, barley, maize and rice) has been emphasized in general agriculture's policy. This study was conducted to estimate the imported virtual water from the imports of basic products in Iran using defined indicators during 1961-2013. Also this study investigated the possibility of achieving self-sufficiency due to the limited water resources in Iran. The results of this study showed with the increase in cereal imports, virtual water imports from 0.28 billion cubic meters in 1961 increased to 17.6 billion cubic meters in 2013 and on average about 60% of virtual water imports in strategic products is related to wheat imports during the past 53 years. Other products in cereal (barley, maize and rice) are also indicative of the general trend of increasing imports of virtual water in development plans. The estimated long-run elasticity of virtual water imports in the cereal group compared with the country's water resources also showed that with a one percent reduction in renewable water resources of the country, the virtual water import in the main cereal group will increase equivalent to 2.89 percent and the determination coefficient more than 90 percent also confirms this negative relationship. According to this result and the emphasis on the fact that renewable water resources per capita in the country is falling increasingly, it cannot be expected that domestic production could compensate for the imports of the cereal group and virtual water imports with current technology, without increasing the water productivity and without additional harm to water resources.

The Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) was used to evaluate the impact of urbanization, climate change, and implementation of Low Impact Developments (LIDs) at the Mahabad Dam watershed, Iran. Several scenarios of urbanization, with and without climate change impacts, in different locations were defined, including near outlet, middle, far end, and whole watershed. Climate change was considered to change the intensity of rainfall and increase evaporation. Vegetative swales were implemented as LIDs to evaluate their applicability to reduce pollutant loads. Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the area was input into ArcGIS, and the watershed was delineated using the ArcSWAT extension to identify topographic features. Water quality properties were defined in the software, and each scenario was run for a twelve-hour simulation. The results indicated that urbanization affects the imperviousness of sub-catchments, and location of urbanization affects the amount and timing of runoff and pollutant yields. Fifty-percent urbanization near the watershed outlet resulted in 23.1% and 27.4% increases in runoff and pollutant loads, respectively. Fifty-percent urbanization in the middle resulted in 28.8% and 35.4% increases in runoff and pollutant loads; and, at the far end, 23.1% and 3.9% increases in runoff and pollutant loads were the result; Fifty-percent urbanizing the whole watershed gave 58.6% and 66.3% increases in runoff and pollutant loads, respectively; Under climate change scenarios (higher intensity, shorter duration rainfall) peaks occurred earlier. Moreover, results showed LIDs decreased pollution loads up to 25%.

Assuming a two component, positive and negative mass, superfluid/supersolid for space (the Winterberg model), we model the Higgs field as a condensate made up of a positive and a negative mass, planckion pair. The connection is shown to be consistent (compatible) with the underlying field equations for each field, and the continuity equation is satisfied for both species of planckions, as well as for the Higgs field. An inherent length scale for space (the vacuum) emerges, which we estimate from previous work to be of the order of,

In the past 50 years, calorimeters have become the most important detectors in many particle physics experiments, especially experiments in colliding-beam accelerators at the energy frontier. In this paper, we describe and discuss a number of common misconceptions about these detectors, as well as the consequences of these misconceptions. We hope that it may serve as a useful source of information for young colleagues who want to familiarize themselves with these tricky instruments.

With forty years of developments, bio-macromolecule cryo-electron microscopy has met its revolution of resolution and is playing a very important role in structural biology study. According to different specimen states, cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) involves three specific techniques, single particle analysis (SPA), electron tomography and sub-tomogram averaging, and electron diffraction. All these three techniques have not realized their full potentials of solving structures of bio-macromolecules and therefore need to be developed in the future. In this review, the current existing bottlenecks of cryo-EM SPA are discussed with theoretical analysis, which includes air-water interface during specimen cryo-vitrification, bio-macromolecular conformational heterogeneity, focus gradient within thick specimen, and electron radiation damage. Besides, potential solutions of these bottlenecks are proposed and discussed, which are worthy of further investigations in the future.

As the energy efficiency demands for future buildings become increasingly stringent, preliminary assessments of energy consumption are mandatory. These are possible only through numerical simulations, whose reliability crucially depends on boundary conditions. We therefore investigate their role in numerical estimates for the usage of geothermal energy, performing annual simulations of transient heat transfer for a building employing a geothermal heat pump plant and energy piles. Starting from actual measurements, we solve the heat equations in 2D and 3D using COMSOL Multiphysics and IDA-ICE, and discover a negligible impact of the multiregional ground surface boundary conditions. Moreover, we verify that the thermal mass of the soil medium induces a small vertical temperature gradient on the piles surface. We also find a roughly constant temperature on each horizontal cross-section, with nearly identical values if the average temperature is integrated over the full plane or evaluated at one single point. Calculating the yearly heating need for an entire building we then show that the chosen upper boundary condition affects the energy balance dramatically. Using directly the pipes’ outlet temperature induces a 54% overestimation of the heat flux, while the exact ground surface temperature above the piles reduces the error to 0.03%.

The energy transition towards renewable and more decentral power production triggers the need for grid and storage expansion on all voltage levels. Today's power system planning focuses on certain voltage levels or spatial resolutions. In this work we present an open source software tool eGo which is able to optimize grid and storage expansion throughout all voltage levels in a developed top-down approach. System costs are minimized by applying a linear optimal power flow considering the grid infrastructure of the extra-high and high-voltage (380 to 110 kV) level. Hence, the common differentiation of transmission and distribution grid is partly dissolved, integrating the high-voltage level into the optimization problem. Consecutively, optimized curtailment and storage units are allocated in the medium voltage grid in order to lower medium and low voltage grid expansion needs, that are consequently determined. Here, heuristic optimization methods using the non-linear power flow were developed. Applying the tool on future scenarios we derived cost-efficient grid and storage expansion for all voltage levels in Germany. Due to the integrated approach storage expansion and curtailment can significantly lower grid expansion costs in medium and low voltage grids and at the same time serve the optimal functioning of the overall system. Nevertheless, the cost-reducing effect for the whole of Germany was marginal. Instead, the consideration of realistic, spatially differentiated time series lead to substantial overall savings.

We introduce two symmetric concepts to physics: “distance” (space and time in one) and “wavematter” (electromagnetic wave packet and matter in one). We claim that physics has chosen the wrong concept of time: It is not aware that the time of a moving object flows in a direction other than my time. We provide 15 proofs for our claim by solving 15 mysteries of physics graphically! For example, we prove that length contraction and time dilation are actually geometrical effects in a 4D manifold that we call “Euclidean spacetime” (ES). We prove that the discrepancy in calculating the Hubble constant stems from a systematic error in the redshift measurement. We prove that what I deem wave, deems itself matter, which solves wave–particle duality. We even untangle quantum entanglement without the issue of non-locality. We finally understand why alternative theories of Euclidean relativity have failed: They are all based on four dimensions of space rather than distance. A huge amount of energy was injected into ES at a point that we take as origin. Ever since has this energy been moving radially away at the speed of light. We live in the 3D hypersurface of an expanding 4D hypersphere. Hyperspherical coordinates have the great advantage that they reduce all that is ever happening to just one formula. So, it is the Theory of Everything in these coordinates: “Energy is covering radial distance which, divided by Euclidean time, is equal to the speed of light.” Acceleration and force like gravitation emerge from a rotation of objects in ES and a subsequent projection to 3D space. Matching the symmetry simplifies physics.

Agriculture and farming worldwide are responsible for numerous environmental threats, including degradation of land and water resources depletion. Underlining the dynamic interaction between bio-physical and socio-economic drivers is the key towards a more sustainable land and water management. With regard to a highly developed agricultural area in southern Italy, multi-regression models were developed to interpret the observed inter-annual variability of cropped land. Main drivers related to Common Agricultural Policy support, product market prices, crop yield and irrigation water availability were investigated. The adopted models revealed the different weighs of each driver. The findings reported the role that direct payments played in supporting the extension of irrigated crops, such as processing tomato. Likewise, the models pointed to decoupled payment scheme as the most important driver of change in the crop pattern over the last years.

In this work, an energy-saving smart light controlling system has been proposed that can main-tain the desired intensity of light in a room automatically. Unlike the conventional light control system, the proposed system splits a large room into several zones and analyzes the light inten-sity of each zone; hence, the controlling unit adjusts the light intensity to the desired level. The main controlling unit consists of a light sensor, a motion sensor, a relay with a driver unit, an LCD display, etc. for controlling light efficiently to reduce the power waste. The sensors meas-ure the intensity of light, based on the standard light intensity data chart the controller units make a decision how many light bulbs are needed to be switched ON/OFF in a particular zone. Moreover, the system automatically switched-OFF all light bulbs when there is nobody in the room. Proteus design suite 8.0 is used to design and simulation of the proposed system. Moreo-ver, the PCB layout is designed using ExpressPCB version 7.5.0. The proposed system is capable of minimizing the power loss by up to 44% in comparison to the conventional light manage-ment system.

Most of the structures in flowing water are a challenge to their stability and sustainable with different flow conditions. Recent, renewable energy research and development covers ocean and river energy platform in which flow of water drag considered in various conversion devices towards the offshore and onshore establishment. Various energy platforms have been suggested for offshore development. However, the stability of these platforms in water is a serious concern. To study the water interaction over circular and square cross-section cascade system under the water has been carried out. Water flow around the pillars or column of the energy platform are analyzed through simulation software. Very low velocity 0.5 m/s has been considered to analyze the system. Total fifteen numbers of cascade pillars having circular and square cross-section area were considered. K-ε turbulence model is adopted to calculate the flow interaction to the column. A velocity, pressure, and energy fields are found around the column.

This paper reviews the design and component of two types of RWHS, namely roof harvesting system (RHS) and pond harvesting system (PHS). The performance in terms of quantity and quality of collected rainwater and energy consumption for RWHS with different capacities were evaluated, as well as the benefits and challenges particularly in environmental, economic and social aspects. Presently, RHS is more commonly applied but its effectiveness is limited by its small scale. The PHS is of larger scale and has greater potentials and effectiveness as an alternative water supply system. Results also indicate the many advantages of PHS especially in terms of economics, environmental aspects and volume of water harvested. While RHS may be suited to individual or existing buildings, PHS has greater potentials and should be applied in newly developed urban areas with wet equatorial climate.

It is proven that the Clapeyron-Mendeleev equation, originally discovered for gases with large entropy, describes the state of dark matter and energy due to enormous self-gravitation. It is shown that the dark matter exists as compact cold neutrino stars at positive temperature with size twice the Schwarzschild radius. In contrast, the dark energy is dark matter at temperature below the absolute zero, which is locked entirely in black holes, where the pressure is negative as required for the Universe intrinsic expansion. The derived dark phase diagram predicts negative critical temperatures for the Big Bang and the Big Rip of black holes.

Energy dissipation is one of the most important factors in choosing stepped spillways. However, few studies are about energy dissipation with different horizontal face angles. In this paper, the realizable k-ε turbulence model was used to study the flow field and energy dissipation rates of different stepped spillways with five horizontal face angles in the skimming flow regions. It shows that the free water surfaces and energy dissipation rates change with horizontal face angles and the energy dissipation rates initially decrease and then increase as the horizontal face angle increases. And the horizontal face angles cause the great changes of flow field.

Biomimicry in additive manufacturing often refers to topology optimization and the use of lattice structures, due to the organic shape of the topology-optimized designs, and the lattices often looking similar to many light-weight structures found in nature such as trabecular bone, wood, sponges, coral, to name a few. Real biomimetic design however involves the use of design principles taken in some way from natural systems. In this work we use a methodology whereby high resolution 3D analysis of a natural material with desirable properties is “reverse-engineered” and the design tested for the purpose. This allows more accurate replication of the desired properties, and adaption of the design parameters to the material used for production (which usually differs from the biological material). One such example is the impact-protective natural design of the glyptodont body armour. In this paper we report on the production of body armour models in metal (Ti4Al4V) and analyze the resulting mechanical properties, assessing their potential for impact protective applications. This is the first biomimetic study using metal additive manufacturing to date.

As on 31.03.2020, 55.4 % (205135 MW) of total installed capacity (370106 MW) in India is through coal and lignite based power plants. These plants, set up by central, state and private utilities with substantial capital investment are facing consistently reducing Plant Utilization Factor (known as Plant Load Factor, PLF, in India). In the year 2019-20 the national average thermal power PLF stood at 55.4%, down from 78.6 % in 2007-08. On the other hand, the electricity demand is consistently rising in the country and there exists a peak and energy shortage at national level. In 2019-20 energy shortage was 0.7 % and peak shortage was 0.5 %. A disturbing paradox therefore exists here. On one hand, the country is power deficit, and on the other hand, a large amount of coal based affordable power, ready to be generated by thermal power generators, remains grossly unused. Looking into the fact that considerable investment has gone into developing these thermal power generation assets in the country, the falling PLF is a matter of concern for all the key stakeholders including the power producers, lenders, regulators and consumers. This paper identifies seven major factors that are affecting PLF of thermal power plants and then makes an attempt to project future scenario of PLF so that critical stakeholders can intervene through appropriate actions. Primary research with responses from power professionals has been used to find out the major factors. Future projection of PLF has been done using Partial Least Square (PLS) regression. Projection shows that in the Business As Usual case (Factors increasing at the current CAGR rate), the thermal power plants will face very low level of PLF (14.76 %) by 2024-25. This will mean that many plants will be shut down and many will run for only few hours in a day that too at very low loads. If the future generation mix is kept as indicated by Central Electricity Authority (CEA), a Govt. of India in its report (Draft report on optimal generation capacity mix for 2029-30- CEA- Govt of India) then the thermal power plant average PLF can sustain above 68 % until 2024-25. If followed, this path can be a breather for the thermal power plants.

Compound parabolic concentrators are relevant systems used in solar thermal technology. With adequate tailoring, they can be used as an efficient and low-cost alternative in residential water applications. This work presents a simulation study using a ray tracing methodology. With this technique we simulate the interaction between solar rays and solar concentrator to quantify the amount of energy that impinges on the receiver at a particular time. Energy availability is evaluated in a comparison of two configurations: stationary at 21° throughout the year and multi position setup; tilted with respect to the horizontal depending on three seasonal positions: 0° for summer, 16° for spring / autumn and 32° for winter, with the objective of increasing the amount of available energy in each season. The fact that a tracking system can be dispensed with also represents an economical option for the proposed application. The results showed that at 21°, the proposed system works satisfactorily; however, by carrying out the selected angular adjustments, the overall energy availability increased by 22%, resulting in a more efficient option. The methodology developed herein proved to be a valuable tool for prototype design and performance evaluation.

According to the current understanding, the recently observed accelerated expansion of the universe is caused by the dark or the vacuum energy. Attempts to calculate the magnitude of this energy using the standard model of particle physics led to values which are 59 – 120 orders of magnitude larger than the experimentally estimated one. Even though the expanding space has positive internal energy, in a flat universe it is completely balanced by the negative energy of gravitational field making the net energy equal to zero. However, the current physical theories may breakdown for times less than or on the order of Planck time and one cannot assume that the above assertion concerning the balance of two energies is valid also in this time scale. In this note it is assumed that this balance of the two energies during the creation of new space as the universe expands takes place only for times larger than the Planck time. If this assumption is correct, the net energy of the newly created space remains positive for times on the order of Planck time and the positive vacuum energy has to be burrowed from empty space before it is being balanced by gravity. This can happen only within the restrictions of the time-energy uncertainty principle. In this note it is shown that such considerations lead to a vacuum energy density of about 0.3 Nanojoules per cubic meter which has to be compared with the measured value of 0.6 Nanojoules per cubic meter.

Device-to-device (D2D) communication is an essential part of the future fifth generation (5G) system that can be seen as “network of networks”, consisting of multiple seamlessly integrated radio access technologies (RATs). Public safety communications, autonomous driving, social-aware networking, and infotainment services are example use cases of D2D technology. High data rate communications and use of several active air interfaces in the described network create energy consumption challenges for both base stations and the end user devices. In this paper, we review the status of 3GPP standardization and define a set of application scenarios. We use the recent models of 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) and WiFi interfaces in analyzing the power consumption both from the infrastructure and user device perspectives. The results indicate that the number of active interfaces should be minimized.

Integration of battery energy storage in photovoltaic (PV) systems can reduce the electricity costs and provide desirable flexibility and reliability to these systems decreasing renewable energy fluctuations. This paper presents a review of the PV-battery application in Brazil, highlighting the challenges and prospects based on the state-of-art. A PV-battery systems description is presented in this work, as well as the most applied battery technology and its comparison. The paper also describes the set of applications such as voltage and frequency regulation, renewable energy integration, power quality, etc. In the Brazilian scenario, there are applications of PV-battery systems, most of them part of research and development projects (R&amp;D’s), and some real cases are shown, including its goals, applied equipment, operation modes, strategies, and perspectives. Additionally, this work evaluates the Brazilian scenario regarding the energy storage systems implementation challenges, such as regulatory barriers, business models, and opportunities for R&amp;D in the energy market. In conclusion, it is need develop proper regulatory models to expand PV-battery systems and make them visible to the agents in the electricity sector.

Understanding of the decisive role of the interaction mechanism and kinetics in the combustion processes is highly relevant for the elaboration of optimal conditions for obtaining Mo-Cu composite powders. From this perspective, the efficient delivery of the reduction mechanism of copper and molybdenum oxides with combined Mg + C reducing agents at high heating rates is crucial to develop a valuable approach for the combustion synthesis of Mo-Cu composite powders. Herein, we shed light on the mechanism of the reactions in all the studied binary, ternary and quaternary systems contemporaneously demonstrating the effect of the heating rate on the conversion degree. The combination of two highly exothermic and speedy reactions (MoO3+3Mg and CuO+Mg vs MoO3+CuO+4Mg) led to a slow interaction with weak self-heating (dysynergistic effect) due to a change in the reaction mechanism. On the other hand, it has been shown that during the simultaneous utilization of the Mg and C reducing agents, the process begins exclusively with carbothermic reduction, and at relatively high temperatures it continues with magnesiothermic one. The effective activation energy values of the magnesiothermic stages of the studied reactions were determined by Kissinger isoconversional method.

Most of the phase change materials (PCMs) have been limited to use as functional additions or sealed in containers, and extra auxiliary equipment or supporting matrix is needed. The emergence of 3D printing technique has dramatically advanced the developments of materials and simplified production processes. This study focuses on a novel strategy to model thermal energy storage crystalline gels with three-dimensional architecture directly from liquid resin without supporting materials through light-induced polymerization 3D printing technique. A mask-projection stereolithography printer was used to measure the 3D printing test, and the printable characters of crystalline thermal energy storage P(SA-DMAA) gels with different molar ratios were evaluated. For the P(SA-DMMA) gels with small fraction of SA, the 3D fabrication was realized with higher printing precision both on mili- and micro-meter scales. As a comparison of 3D printed samples, P(SA-DMAA) gels made by other two methods, post-UV curing treatment after 3D printing and UV curing using conventional mold, were prepared. The 3D printed P(SA-DMAA) gels shown high crystallinity. Post–UV curing treatment was beneficial to full curing of 3D printed gels, but did not lead to the further improvement of crystal structure to get higher crystallinity. The P(SA-DMAA) crystalline gel having the highest energy storage enthalpy that reached 69.6 J·g⁻¹ was developed. Its good thermoregulation property in the temperature range from 25 to 40 °C was proved. The P(SA-DMAA) gels are feasible for practical applications as one kind of 3D printing material with thermal energy storage and thermoregulation functionality.

The General equilibrium theory tries to show how and why all free markets tend toward equilibrium in the long run. However, what is meant by equilibrium in this paper is more from a thermodynamical point of view. In order to understand the actual situation, it is necessary to study open systems which are complex. In physics, such a behavior in a complex system can be explain by using Non Equilibrium Thermodynamics. A system is able to self-organize and sustain itself away from equilibrium. Economic systems may fluctuate around a particular point. To sustain it far from the equilibrium state, it needs to degrade more energy and materials. In this study, the energy consumption patterns of Sri Lanka and USA are discussed. The pattern concerning Sri Lanka is close to the model proposed here, whereas the energy consumption pattern of USA is more complicated due to external factors.

An empirical model is presented for estimating discharge on the Ubombo Sugar Limited (USL) main gravity canal to enhance bulk water management and water use efficiency. It uses stage readings obtained from measuring flumes A, B, C, and UPS to simulate discharge. The rationale for the development of the mathematical flow simulation model is the significance of the UPS flume as it measures readings that influence the daily operations of the farm, and the experiences with the ultrasonic flow meter installed in the flume. The model also provides a first for the simulation of accurate flow rates for flumes A, B, and C. A spreadsheet program that enables express prediction of canal flow rates was developed to influence timely implementation of these water management decisions. Calibrations demonstrated that the model is capable of predicting discharge at high accuracy (p>95%), and can be reliably used as a decision support tool for bulk water management. It can also be expanded to include other water measuring structures along Canal 1 and Canal 2, as well as the development of a stand-alone water management application for desktop and mobile computers.

Based on stochastic frontier analysis and translog input distance function, this paper examines the total factor energy efficiency of China’s industry using input-output data of 30 sub-industries from 2002 to 2014, and decomposes the changes in estimated total factor energy efficiency into the effects of technical change, technical efficiency change, scale efficiency change and input-mix effect. The results show that during this period the total factor energy efficiency in China’s industry grows annually at a rate of 3.63%, technical change, technical efficiency change and input-mix effect contribute positively to the change in total factor energy efficiency, while scale efficiency change contributes negatively to it.

This study examines whether gas is emitted from the materials used in the fabrication of metal vacuum panels or not and if emitted, their degree as time goes by. As experimental materials, metal sheets, foamed concrete as a core material, and polymer materials as a sealing material between metal sheets were selected. Experiments on the type and the degree of bending of metal materials showed that aluminum’s vacuum reaching time of 0.001 torr was at least 40 sec to 90 sec in its flat plate, but its vacuum reaching time increased from 3 times to 4.5 times in case of 90 ° and 135 ° bending state. For this reason, it is judged that stainless steel or steel material is suitable because aluminum is inadequate in terms of processability at the time of fabricating the metal vacuum panel. Also, vacuum arrival times and weight changes with increasing foam content of inorganic foamed concrete increased from 22,000 sec to 42,000 sec with increasing foaming rate and also, the weight change increased from 1.7% to 8%. Also, the experimental results on the type of honeycomb materials, the PE (polyethylene) with a vacuum reaching time of 30,000 sec and with a weight change of 0.5% and the PTFE (Poly-tetrafluoro ethylene) with a vacuum reaching time of 29,000 sec and with a weight change of 2.2% showed the optimum value.

Almost all single-family detached house in Canada consume huge electricity for space heating and domestic hot water (DHW) purposes. There are many possibilities to design an energy-efficient house. A solar water heating system can be used for domestic water and space heating. Water temperature can be kept constant always by connecting a heat pump or oil burner because solar energy is intermittent. Proper and optimized solar photovoltaic and collector design, tank design, heat pump selection, house insulation, total demand calculation in each section are essential. Energy-Efficient house design has been proposed with water heating and space heating system and compared with the existing system, solar PV based systems, and solar collector based system. The tracking and non-tracking based solar thermal collector based and the solar photovoltaic based system has been compared in this paper and investigate the suitable one for practically applicable and acceptable by the people. Simulation has been done by using the PolySun software. It found that by implementing the proposed PV based system with tracking is highly suitable considering lower cost, high output power, flexibility, easy installation.

The increasing popularity of porphyrins and hydroporphyrins for application in a variety of biomedical (photodynamic therapy, fluorescence tagging and imaging, photoacoustic imaging) and technical (chemosensing, catalysis, light harvesting) applications is also associated with the growing number of methodologies that enable their solubilization in aqueous media. Natively, the vast majority of synthetic porphyrinic compounds are not water-soluble. Moreover, any water-solubility imposes several restrictions on the synthetic chemist on when to install solubilizing groups in the synthetic sequence, and how to isolate and purify these compounds. This review summarizes the chemical modifications to render synthetic porphyrins water-soluble, with a focus on the work since 2000. Where available, practical data such as solubility, indicators for the degree of aggregation, and special notes for the practicioner are listed. We hope that this review will guide synthetic chemists through the many strategies known to make porphyrins and hydroporphyrins water soluble.

We have studied the relative positions of the frontier levels determine the main electronic properties and reaction ability, there is important necessity to compare the MO of the purine and рyrimidine bases: adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C), thymine (T) and uracil (U). The donor and acceptor properties are the fundamental characteristic of the conjugated molecules and can be quantitatively estimated by relative positions of the frontier molecular orbitals. The MO’s energies can be estimated experimentally or quantum-chemically. Analysis of the relative position of the frontier levels (calibrated by the energy gap) enables the investigation of the donor/acceptor properties of the RNA/DNA bases more detailed. The index φ0 is proposed for the quantitative quantum-chemical estimation of the donor ability of the conjugated molecules: it points on the shifting of the energy gap relative to the reference electron balanced system. The RNA/DNA bases divided strictly by two groups: predominantly donors (φ0 > 0.5) and predominantly acceptors (φ0 > 0.5). Each representative base of the first group forms the stable base pair the representative base of the second group the difference of indices Δφ0 should be optimal to enables the DNA replication.

Physics behind collimated highly directional nature of lasers, and factors that keep the seven coloured waves that form white light together during their journey from Sun to Earth, in the face of the natural disruptive forces, is not fully understood. Energy levels were measured, in terms of alterations in induced current and voltage, in beams from a red laser, white LED light and the Sunlight before and during their disruption by diffusers (frosted glass for the lasers) and diffractors (diffraction grating for the white light) using a photovoltaic solar cell panel attached to a digital multimeter. Results show that disruption of the beams results in release of extra energy named as ‘Latent Light Binding’ Energy’. It is hypothesized that the ‘binding’ energy keeps laser waves firmly bound together both end-on and side-on enabling laser beams to travel long distances in collimated manner. Likewise, the 7 coloured waves that constitute white light are kept together, probably side-on, in their journey from the Sun to the Earth. The observation that diffraction of sunbeam is associated with increased power generation provides a new lead to improve harnessing of solar energy, where, currently, the focus is mainly on improving efficiency of photovoltaic cell.

Microplastics (MPs) are small pieces of plastics. They are ubiquitous in the environment and can enter the freshwater environment from surface run-off and wastewater effluent (treated and untreated), industrial effluent, degraded plastic waste, and atmospheric deposition. They are not usually destroyed but convert into one phase to another. They are a source of air pollution, occurring in dust and airborne fibrous particles. Mostly MPs are non-biodegradable while some MPs are biodegradable, which can be decomposed in the presence of ultraviolet (UV) light or by the action of microorganisms. Popular methods: chemical, spectroscopic, and thermo-analytical are available for the determination of the chemical composition and size of plastic particles. This chapter discusses the uses, health hazards, sources, and transport of MPs particles.

In atomic GdFe$_2$ films capped by 4$d$ and 5$d$ transition metals, we show that skyrmions with diameters smaller than 12 nm can emerge. The Dzyaloshinskii--Moriya interaction (DMI), exchange energy, and the magnetocrystalline anisotropy (MCA) energy were investigated based on density functional theory. Since DMI and MCA are caused by spin--orbit coupling (SOC), they are increased with 5$d$ capping layers which exhibit strong SOC strength. We discover a skyrmion phase by using atomistic spin dynamic simulations at small magnetic fields of $\sim$1 T. In addition, a ground state that a spin spiral phase is remained even at zero magnetic field for both films with 4$d$ and 5$d$ capping layers.

1) Background: The environmental, financial and social questions in Africa remain unanswered up-to-date, with the rapid increase in human population and the demand for fuel energy, trigger the need to generate data on the socio-economic factors influencing the knowledge of use and adoption of family-sized bio-digesters. The increasing prices of fossil fuels and taxes on energy sources require finding the alternative, clean and economical sources of energy for households in developing countries. Moreover, in Africa, the consumption of firewood and charcoal continues to increase, with wood fuel consumption predicted to increase by 2030 to over 140%. The study objectives were 1) to determine the socio-economic characteristics of the people in Ngoma district, 2) to assess socio-economic factors influencing people to use and adopt family-sized bio-digesters. 2) Methods: Quantitative data collected with semi-structured questionnaires and interviews were analyzed using descriptive statistics. 3) Results: The results show that many households had not realized the potential benefits of biogas use and adoption in Rwanda. The study further found that a number of factors such as household income levels, socio-economic, technological, and institutional influence the household use and adoption of biogas energy. 4) Conclusions: At the end, the study suggests the need for all players such as Government, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) and local communities to work together to provide incentives and favorable environment that can attract individual households to invest in biogas energy production and utilization.

Energy storage has become a fundamental component in renewable energy systems, especially those including batteries. However, during the charging and the discharging process, there are some parameters that are not controlled by the user. That uncontrolled working leads to aging of the batteries and a reduction of their life cycle. Therefore, it causes an early replacement. Different control methods have been developed with the goal of protecting the battery and extending its life expectancy, being the most used the constant current-constant voltage. However, several studies show that charging time can be reduced by using Fuzzy Logic Control or Model Predictive Control. Other benefits are; temperature control and an extension of life expectancy. For all these reasons, FLC and MPC have proven to be more efficient than traditional charge control methods.

Smart grid software interconnects multiple Engineering disciplines (power systems, communication, software and hardware technology, instrumentation, big data, etc.). The software architecture is an evolving concept in smart grid systems in which systematic architecture development is a challenging process. The architecture has to realize the complex legacy power grid systems and cope up with current Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The distributed generation in smart grid environment expects the software architecture to be distributed and to enable local control. Smart grid architecture should also be modular, flexible and adaptable to technology upgrades. In this paper, the authors have made a comprehensive review on architecture for smart grids. An in depth analysis of layered and agent based architectures is presented and compared under various domains.

Investments in wind and solar power are driven by the aim to maximize the utilization of renewable energy (RE). This results in an increased concentration of wind farms at locations with higher average wind speeds and of solar panel installations at sites with higher average solar insolation. This is unfavourable for energy suppliers and for the overall economy when large power output fluctuations occur. Thus, when evaluating investment options for spatially distributed RE systems, it is necessary to model resource fluctuations and power output correlations between locations. In this paper, we propose a methodology for analyzing the spatial dependence, accurate modeling, and forecasting of wind power systems with special consideration to spatial dispersion of installation sites. We combine vine-copulas with the Kumaraswamy distribution to improve accuracy in forecasting wind power from spatially dispersed wind turbines and to model solar power generated at each location. We then integrate these methods to formulate an optimization model for allocating wind turbines and solar panels spatially, with an end goal of maximizing overall power generation while minimizing the variability in power output. A case study of wind and solar power systems in Central Ontario, Canada is also presented.

We present a model of space that considers it to be a quantized dynamical entity which is a component of the universe along with matter and radiation. The theory is used together with thermodynamic data to provide a new view of cosmic evolution and an insight into the nature of dark energy and dark matter. Space is made up of energy quanta. The universe started from an atomic size volume at very high temperature and pressure near the Planck epoch. Upon expansion and cooling, phase transitions occurred resulting in the formation of radiation, fundamental particles, and matter. These nucleate and grow into stars, galaxies, and clusters. From a phase diagram of cosmic composition, we obtained a correlation between dark energy and the energy of space. Using the Friedmann equations, data from WMAP studies of the composition of the universe at 3.0 x 10⁵ (a=5.25 x 10^-2) years and at present (a=1), are well fitted by our model with an equation of state parameter, w= -0.7. The accelerated expansion of the universe, starting at about 7 billion years, determined by BOSS measurements, also correlates well with the dominance of dark energy at 7.25 x 10⁹ years ( a= 0.65). The expansion can be attributed to Quintessence with a space force arising from a quantum space field. From our phase diagram, we also find a correlation suggesting that dark matter is a plasma form of matter similar to that which existed during the photon epoch immediately prior to recombination. Our Quantum Space Model leads to a universe which is homogeneous and isotropic without the need for inflation. The thermodynamics of expansion is consistent with BOSS data that show the process to be adiabatic and the rate of expansion decelerating during the first 6 billion years after the Big Bang. However, it became non-adiabatic and accelerating thereafter. This implies an influx of energy from a source outside the universe; it warrants consideration as a possible factor in the accelerated expansion of the universe.

The Betz limit sets a theoretical upper limit for the power production by turbines expressed as a maximum power coefficient of 16/27. Betz’s theory is accurate and it is based on the calculation of kinetic energy.

We are encouraged to look beyond ɅCDM as there are no satisfactory explanations for either dark energy or dark matter. A data centred phenomenological approach supports an explanation where dark energy is Holographic Dark Information Energy, HDIE. HDIE explains many effects attributed separately to Ʌ and CDM. HDIE mimics Ʌ with sufficient energy and an equation of state parameter, w= -1.03±0.05 at redshifts z<1.35 to account for accelerating expansion. HDIE is clumped around galaxies at densities that distort space-time, explaining many CDM attributed effects. The present ratio of HDIE/baryons ~2.15, required for the observed expansion history, is equivalent to a dark matter fraction ~68%, consistent with many galaxies. The HDIE/baryon model is based largely on proven physics, provides a common explanation for dark energy and dark matter, and solves the cosmological coincidence problem. At earlier times, z > ~1.35, HDIE was phantom, w = -1.82±0.08, enabling the model to be falsified. HDIE fits Planck dark energy wo-wa plots at least as well as Ʌ, and is consistent with other results that suggest dark energy was phantom at earlier times. A new w-parameterisation is proposed, as the usual CPL parameterisation is biased and unsuitable for distinguishing between HDIE/baryon and ɅCDM models.

This paper is about energy as viewed through an integrated model that links energy with environment, technology and urbanisation as related areas. Our goal is to empirically investigate the (in)efficient energy use across 30 developed OECD member states during the period from 2001 to 2018. For that purpose, we set up an output-oriented BCC data envelopment analysis that employs a set of input variables with non-negative values to calculate the efficiency scores on minimising energy use and losses as well as environmental emissions. We develop a couple of baseline models for primary energy and secondary energy (electricity) in which we find that countries have mean inefficiency margins of 16.1 per cent for primary energy and from 10.8 to 13.5 per cent for electricity. Then, we extend the baseline models by adding environment as an important closely related concept and confirm the consistency of the baseline findings. In the context of this analysis, however, the inefficiency scores, on the one hand, point out to a mismatch in the utilisation of the inputs to produce efficiency but, on the other hand, they uncover a hidden potential to increasy efficiency through re-allocation under constant inputs.

The shallow water equations are widely applied for the simulation of flow routing in rivers and floodplains, as well as for flood inundation mapping. From a mathematical point of view, they are a hyperbolic system of nonlinear partial differential equations, whose numerical integration is sometimes computationally burdensome. For this reason, the interest of many researchers has been focused on the study of simplified forms of the original set of equations, which requires less computational effort. One of the most commonly applied simplifications consists in neglecting the inertial terms, which changes the hyperbolic model to a parabolic one. The effects of such a choice on the outputs of the simulations of flooding events are controversial and an important topic of debate. In the present paper, two numerical models, recently proposed for the solution of the complete and zero-inertia forms of the shallow waters equations, are applied to several unsteady flow routing scenarios. We simulate synthetic and laboratory studies, starting from very simple geometries and moving towards complex topographies. Analyzing the role of the terms in the momentum equations, we try to understand the effect, on the computed results, of neglecting the inertial terms in the zero-inertia formulation. We analyze the computational costs.

Our matter universe is made up of four components of dark energy (DE), dark matters (DMs), leptons and quarks which are created from the decay of the primary black hole through the inflation after big bang. In the three-dimensional quantized space model, the sum (DER) of the dark energy (DE) and radiations (R) is the flat photon space and there are 39 particles of 3 dark matters, 9 leptons and 27 quarks. Generally speaking, the mass ratio of the quarks with the 27 particles is smallest and the mass ratio of the DER photon space with the 1 massless photon is largest. Therefore, the mass ratios of DER, DMs, leptons and quarks are inversely proportional to the particle numbers of DER, DMs, leptons and quarks as the first assumption. This simple rule is called as the universe mass ratio golden rule in Fig. 12. This simple rule is successfully applied to the observed mass ratios of the Planck and WMAP missions. The best particle number combination (1, 3, 9, 27) of the four components (DER, DMs, Leptons, Quarks) to explain the Planck 2018 and WMAP results is the same as the particle number combination (1, 3, 9, 27) of the 3-dimensional quantized space model. The calculated mass ratios of DER, DMs, leptons and quarks are 67.5 %, 22.5 %, 7.5 % and 2.5 %, respectively. And the calculated mass ratios of neutrinos and ordinary matters are 5.0 % and 5.0 %, respectively. The mass ratios of the dark energy (68.47(23) %) and matters (31.53(23) %) obtained from the Planck 2018 results are consistent with the calculated mass ratios of the DER (67.5 %) and matters (32.5 %). The mass ratio of the dark energy (72.1(15) %) obtained from the WMAP 9 year results is explained as the summed mass ratio (72.5 %) of DER (67.5 %) and neutrinos (5.0 %). The universe evolution including the super-massive black holes (SMBHs) is shown in Fig. 4. The accelerated space expansion of our universe requires the addition of the new dark energy. If this new dark energy is added, the mass ratio of the dark energy is a little bit increased. The difference (0.97 %) between the observed value (68.47(23) %) and calculated value (67.5 %) is explained by adding the new dark energy in Figs. 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11. The corrected mass ratios of DER, DMs, leptons and quarks are 68.47 %, 21.8286 %, 7.2762 % and 2.4254 %, respectively. The corrected mass ratios of the neutrinos (called as cosmic background neutrinos) and ordinary matters (OMs) are 4.8508 % and 4.8508 %, respectively. These corrected mass ratios can explain the mass ratios obtained from the WMAP and Planck missions. In other words, the mass ratios calculated from the best particle number combination support the elementary particles, dark matters and dark energy (photon space) proposed by the three-dimensional quantized space model based on the 10-D Euclidean space.

This study reports multivariate statistical techniques applied including cluster analysis to evaluate and classify the river pollution level in Taiwan, and principal component analysis-multiple linear regression (PCA-MLR) to identify the possible pollution source. Water quality and heavy metal monitoring data from Taiwan Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) was evaluated for 14 rivers in the four regions of Taiwan. The Erren River was classified as the most polluted River in Taiwan. Biochemical oxygen demand, ammonia, and total phosphate concentration in this river were the highest of the 14 rivers evaluated. In addition, heavy metal levels of the following rivers exceeded the Taiwan EPA standard limit: lead - in the Dongshan, Jhuoshuei, and Xinhuwei Rivers; copper - in the Dahan, Laojie, and Erren Rivers; and manganese - in all rivers. Water pollution in the Erren River was estimated to originate 72% from industrial sources, 16% from domestic black water, and 12% from natural sources and runoff from other tributaries. Our research showed that PCA-MLR and the cluster analysis model accomplished our study objectives and will be helpful tools to evaluate water quality in rivers and we suggest that the continuous monitoring should be conducted to monitor water pollution from anthropogenic activities.

The Arctic freshwater budget is critical for understanding the climate in the northern regions. However, the hydrology of the Arctic circumpolar tundra region (ACTR) and the largest pan-Arctic rivers are still not well understood. In the present paper, we analyze the spatiotemporal variations in terrestrial water storage (TWS) of the ACTR, including three of its largest pan-Arctic river basins (Lena, Mackenzie, Yukon), using monthly Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data from 2002 to 2016. Together with global land reanalysis, river runoff, and inundation extent area (IEA) data, we identify declining TWS trends throughout the ACTR that we attribute largely to increasing evapotranspiration driven by increasing summer air temperatures. In terms of regional changes, large and significant negative trends in TWS are observed mainly over the North American continent. At basin scale, we show that, in the Lena River basin, the autumnal TWS signal persists until the winter of the following year, while in the Mackenzie River basin, the TWS levels in the autumn and winter has no significant impact on the following year. As global warming is expected to be particularly significant in the northern regions, our results are important for understanding future TWS trends, with possible further decline.

The principle of the constancy of the velocity of light, which stated that the light velocity is invariant to the motion of the emitter, was well established and directly proven by experiments. Interestingly, the further assumption that the light velocity is independent of the motion of the observer was, arguably, never directly proven by any experiment for a century. This paper proposed the design of two experiments to directly test this assumption, which tried to address some perceived technical difficulty in such experiments. One is to directly measure the light speed as to moving sensors. The experiment setup is designed in such a way that the concerns of time synchronization and dilation can be avoided. Another experiment is to test the isotropy of the light speed to a moving particle in the electromagnetic accelerator by measuring the momentum to acceleration ratio. The experiment result, if positive, will provide direct and solid proof of the assumption. Otherwise, it may imply a need for further investigation. Since the light speed invariance to moving observers is a key assumption of some fundamental physical theory, either way, the experiments will have significant meanings.

Many studies discuss carbon-based materials because of the versatility of its element. They include different opinions for scientific problems and discuss fairly at convincing and compelling levels within the scope and application. A gas-state carbon atom converts into various states depending on its conditions of processing. The electron transfer mechanism in the gas-state carbon atom is responsible to convert it into various states, namely, graphite, nanotube, fullerene, diamond, lonsdaleite and graphene. The shape of ‘energy trajectory’ enables transferring electrons from the left- and right-sides of an atom is like a parabola. That ‘energy trajectory’ is linked to states (filled state and suitable nearby unfilled state) where force-exertion along the poles of transferring electrons is remained balance. So, the mechanism of originating different states of a gas-state carbon atom is under the involvement of energy first. This is not the case for atoms executing confined inter-state electron-dynamics as the force is involved first. Graphite-, nanotube- and fullerene-state atoms ‘partially evolve partially develop’ (form) their structures. These possess one-dimensional, two-dimensional and four-dimensional ordering of atoms, respectively. Their structural formation also comprises ‘energy curve’ having a shape-like parabola. Transferring suitable filled state electron to suitable nearby unfilled state is under a balance force exerting along the poles. The graphite structure under only attained-dynamics of atoms can also be formed but in two-dimension. Here, binding energy between graphite-state carbon atoms is for a small difference of exerting forces along their opposite poles. Structural formation in diamond, lonsdaleite and graphene atoms involve energy to gain required infinitesimal displacements of electrons through which they maintain orientationally-controlled exerting forces along dedicated poles. In this study, the growth of diamond is found to be south to east-west (ground) where atoms bound ground to south. Thus, diamond atoms merge for a tetra-electron ground to south topological structure. Lonsdaleite atoms merge for a bi-electron ground to just-south topological structure. The growth of graphene is found to be north to ground where atoms bound ground to north. Thus, graphene atoms merge for a tetra-electron ground to north topological structure. Glassy carbon exhibits layered-topological structure where, tri-layers of gas-, graphite- and lonsdaleite-state atoms successively bind in repetitive order. Nanoscale hardness is also sketched based on different force-energy behaviors of different state carbon atoms. Here, structure evolution in each carbon state atom explores its own science.

Structural information of biological macromolecules is crucial and necessary to deliver predictions about the effects of mutations—whether polymorphic or deleterious (i.e., disease causing), wherein, thermodynamic parameters, namely, folding and binding free energies potentially serve as effective biomarkers. It may be emphasized that the effect of a mutation depends on various factors, including the type of protein (globular, membrane or intrinsically disordered protein) and the structural context to which it occurs. Such information may positively aid drug-design. Furthermore, due to the intrinsic plasticity of proteins, even mutations involving radical change of the structural and physico-chemical properties of the amino acids (native vs. mutant) can still have minimal effects of protein thermodynamics. However, if a mutation causes significant perturbation of either folding or binding free energies, it is quite likely to be deleterious. Mitigating such effects is a promising alternative to the traditional approaches of designing inhibitors. This can be done by structure-based in silico screening of small molecules for which binding to the dysfunctional protein restores its wild type thermodynamics. In this review we emphasize on the effects of mutations on two important biophysical characteristics, stability and binding affinity, and how structures can be used for structure-based drug design to mitigate the effects of disease-causing variants on the above biophysical characteristics.

Owing to the large ratio of consumption in the building sector, energy saving strategies are required. Energy feedback is an energy-saving strategy that consumers to change their energy-consumption behaviors. The strategy has been principally focused on providing energy-consumption information. However, realization of energy savings using only consumption information remains limited. In this paper, a building-energy three-dimensional (3D) visualization solution is thus proposed. This solution includes the process of diagnosing a building and providing prediction of energy requirements if a building improvement is undertaken. Accurate diagnostic information is provided by real-time measurement data from sensors and building models using a close-range photogrammetry (CRP) method without depending on blueprints. The information is provided by employing visualization effects to increase the energy-feedback efficiency. The proposed strategy is implemented on two testbeds, and building diagnostics are performed accordingly. For the first testbed, the predicted energy improvement amount resulting from the facility upgrade is provided. The second testbed is provided with a 3D visualization of the energy information. The aim is to determine if the building manager will replace the facility after our recommendation is given to improve the building energy efficiency driven from the energy information. Unlike existing systems, which provide only ambiguous data that lack quantitative information, this study is meaningful because it provides energy information with the aid of visualization effects before and after building improvements.

The relationship of the animal with its environment has been of longstanding interest in philosophy and science. Here I provide a brief introduction to concepts that place an emphasis on mutualism as the basis of organism - environment interaction, in contrast to the long standing view that the environment exerts an instrumental role in shaping the organism. Two influential theories have been von Uexküll’s theory of umwelt and Gibson’s theory of affordances. The former envisioned the animal as immersed in its surroundings (umwelt) to form a functional unit. In a similar manner, the latter theory describes a unity between 1) environmental information that provides the animal with opportunities for action (affordances) and 2) the ability of the animal to perceive and engage with those affordances. These views have influenced more recent ecological models of the organism as the functional unit of biology and have also influenced models of immune function. In ecological models, agency is seen as the ability of the organism to predict and control its engagement with the environment in order to maintain its integrity. The predominant contemporary model of neural function in which perception and action are understood to operate through Bayes-like active inference complements the concept of agency as proposed by the mutualism models. However, it is suggested that rather than a constant mutualism, encounters between organism and environment range over a dynamic spectrum from dualism to mutualism. It is also suggested that along this spectrum, agency emerges when the balance of instrumentality shifts from the environment to the organism, and that the balance of this relationship can further progress towards a felicitous mutualism. Meaning emerges between environmental information and an agent as opportunity for action. Implications for opportunities to foster agency in animals within our care is noted.

Since the most important constituent of the cost of cryptocurrency production is energy bills, use of illegal electricity in cryptocurrency mining farms is very common. For this reason, many countries prohibit cryptocurrency production or restrict it with some legal regulations. This situation raises the problem of how to detect illicit cryptocurrency mining. Therefore, innovative approaches are needed to detect illicit cryptocurrency mining farms. In this study, it has been shown that unique noise and/or harmonic characteristics of machines producing cryptocurrency can be used to detect illicit cryptocurrency mining farms. The unique harmonic characteristics formed by data centers on neutral line have been detected by field measurements performed. Electricity distribution companies can make risk assessments with this approach by monitoring energy quality data. As a result, the necessary legal permissions can be obtained to investigate suspicious high-risk consumers. Illicit cryptocurrency mining farms can be detected by investigating at high-risk consumer facilities.

Battery electric vehicles provide an opportunity to balance supply and demand in future power systems with high shares of fluctuating renewable energy. Compared to other storage systems such as pumped-storage hydroelectricity, electric vehicle energy demand is highly dependent on charging and connection choices of vehicle users. We present a model framework of a utility-based stock and flow model, a utility-based microsimulation of charging decisions, and an energy system model including respective interfaces to assess how the representation of battery electric vehicle charging affects energy system optimization results. We then apply the framework to a scenario study for controlled charging of nine million electric vehicles in Germany in 2030. Assuming a respective fleet power demand of 27 TWh, we analyze the difference between power-system-based and vehicle user-based charging decisions in two respective scenarios. Our results show that taking into account vehicle users’ charging and connection decisions significantly decreases the load shifting potential of controlled charging. The analysis of marginal values of equations and variables of the optimization problem yields valuable insights on the importance of specific constraints and optimization variables. In particular, state-of-charge assumptions and representing fast charging drive curtailment of renewable energy feed-in and required gas power plant flexibility. A detailed representation of fleet charge connection is less important. Peak load can be significantly reduced by 5% and 3% in both scenarios, respectively. Shifted load is very robust across sensitivity analyses while other model results such as curtailment are more sensitive to factors such as underlying data years. Analyzing the importance of increased BEV fleet battery availability for power systems with different weather and electricity demand characteristics should be further scrutinized.

This study was carried out at Kita-mura near Bibai located in central Hokkaido, Japan, with the intention of investigating the effects of different agronomical managements on CH4 emissions from paddy fields on mineral soil over peat under farmers’ actual management conditions in the snowy temperate region. Four fields were studied, including two fields with twice drainage (D1-M and D2-M) and also a single-drainage field (D3-S) under single-cropping yr-1 and a paddy-fallow-paddy crop rotation as their systems. The other field was under single cropping yr-1 with continuous flooding (CF-R) in the pattern of soybean (upland crop)-fallow-paddy. The mineral-soil thickness of these soil-dressed peatland fields varied from 20 to 47 cm. The amount of crop residues leftover in the fields ranged from 277 to 751 g dry matter m−2. Total CH4 emissions ranged from 25.3 to 116 g CH4-C m−2 per growing season. There was a significant relationship between crop-residue carbon (C) and total CH4 emissions during the rice-growing season. This study, therefore, CH4 fluxes from paddy soils in that there was a strong interaction between readily available C source for methanogens and anaerobic conditions created by water management. Despite the differences in water regime and soil type, the average values of straw’s efficiency on CH4 production in this study were significantly higher than those of southern Japan and statistically identical with central Hokkaido. Our results suggest that the environmental conditions of central Hokkaido in association with crop-residue management had a significant influence on CH4 emission from paddy fields on mineral soil over peat. Rotation soybean (upland)-to-paddy followed by drainage twice practices also largely reduces CH4 emission. However, mineral-soil dressing on peat could have a significant impact to suppress CH4 emission from beneath the peat reservoir.

A simple, efficient and stand-alone method for purification of river water using moringa seed powder and copper is discussed. Coagulant property of the seed powder clears turbid raw water and the oligodynamic activity of copper completely destroys E.coli bacteria. Both raw and treated water samples were tested for contaminants to verify the efficacy of the system. Treated water has turbidity in the range 3 NTU - 5 NTU and non-detected (< 1 MPN/100 mL) E.coli count making it suitable for drinking. The technique is very cost effective and can be practiced anywhere using locally available materials. It does not require a power source or any technical assistance. Being a stand-alone system the technique exceptionally useful in providing drinking water as an immediate solution in disaster areas affected by cyclone or floods.

A new method, the sessile drop accelerometry (SDACC) for the study and measurement of the interfacial energies of solid-liquid-gas systems, is tested and discussed in this study. The laboratory instrument and technique –a combination of a drop shape analyzer with high-speed camera and a laboratory drop tower- and the evaluation algorithms, were designed to calculate the interfacial energies as a function of the geometrical changes of a sessile droplet shape due to the effect of “switching off” gravity during the experiment. The method bases on the thermodynamic equilibrium of the system interfaces and not on the balance of bi-dimensional tensions on the solid-liquid-gas contour line. A comparison of the mathematical model that supports the method with the widely accepted Young`s equation is discussed in this study.

Rural electrification in remote areas of developing countries has several challenges which hinders energy access to the population. For instance the extension of the national grid to provide electricity in these areas is largely not viable. The Kenyan government has put a target to achieve universal energy access by the year 2020. In order to realize this objective, focus is being shifted to establishing off-grid power stations in rural areas.Among rural areas to be electrified, Habaswein is a settlement in Kenya's North Eastern region without connection to the National Power Grid where Kenya Power installed a stand alone hybrid mini-grid.Based on field observations, power generation data analysis, evaluation of the potential energy resource and simulations, this research intends to evaluate the performance of the Habaswein mini-grid and optimize the existing hybrid generation system to enhance its reliability and reduce the operation costs.The result will be a suggestion of how Kenyan rural areas could be sustainably electrified by using renewable energy based off-grid power stations. It will contribute to bridge the research gap currently existing on that area, and it will be a vital tool to researchers, implementers and the policy makers in energy sector.

The level of technological development of any civilization can be gaged in large part by the amount of energy they produce for their use, but also encompasses that civilization’s stewardship of their home world. Following the Kardashev definition, a Type I civilization is able to store and use all the energy available on its planet. In this study, we develop a model based on Carl Sagan’s K formula and use this model to analyze the consumption and energy supply of the three most important energy sources: fossil fuels (e.g., coal, oil, natural gas, crude, NGL and feedstocks), nuclear energy and renewable energy. We also consider environmental limitations suggested by United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the International Energy Agency, and those specific to our calculations to predict when humanity will reach the level of a Kardashev scale Type I civilization.

Abstract: The human race has always innovated, and in a relatively short time went from building fires and making stone-tipped arrows to creating smartphone apps and autonomous robots. Today, technological progress will undoubtedly continue to change the way we work, live, and survive in the coming decades. Since the beginning of the new millennium, the world has witnessed the emergence of social media, smartphones, self-driving cars, and autonomous flying vehicles. There have also been huge leaps in energy storage, artificial intelligence, and medical science. We are facing immense challenges in global warming and food security, among many other issues. While human innovation has contributed to many of the problems we are facing, it is also human innovation and ingenuity that can help humanity deal with these issues “New directions in science are launched by new tools much more often than by new concepts. The effect of a concept-driven revolution is to explain old things in new ways. The effect of a tool-driven revolution is to discover new things that have to be explained”. (F. Dyson, 1997 In this article, we review the impact of technology as evolving at beginning of 21st Century on future prospect of Energy demand either renewable or non-renewable form, Economy, to Ecommerce, Education and any other E-related of Modern Technology.

This paper attempts to alter a prevailing assumption that buildings use energy to an understanding that in fact, people use energy. Therefore, to successfully accelerate the transition to a low-carbon society and economy more emphasis should be on motivating people and increasing their awareness by making them energy conscious building users and therefore active players in the energy transition process. In this context, this paper provides insights from the Horizon 2020 MOBISTYLE project. It demonstrates research and development approaches, highlights the main project objectives, and presents findings of an ethnographic (qualitative) study of users’ habits, practices, and needs. The aim of the project is to motivate behavioural change by raising consumer awareness through the provision of attractive personalized information on user’s energy use, indoor environment and health, all enabled by an integrated information and communication technology (ICT) service. In this context, the anthropological people-centred approach is integrated into the MOBISTYLE approach putting users at the centre of the ICT tools development process. The main quantitative objective of the project is a reduction of energy use for at least 16 % prompted by the provision of combined information and feedback systems on energy, indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and health. The most relevant motivational factors and key performance indicators (KPIs) for encouraging a more energy conscious and healthy lifestyle were defined by means of a people-centred approach, adopting anthropological inquiries in different settings. Information about users’ lifestyles and their needs was collected in focus groups with potential users in five case studies, located in different European Union (EU) countries. Behaviour change is achieved through awareness campaigns, which encourage users to be pro-active about their energy consumption and to simultaneously improve health and well-being.

A simple approach to enable water-management agencies employing free data to achieve the goal of using a single set of predictive equations for water-quality retrievals with satisfactory accuracy is proposed. Multiple regression-derived equations based on surface reflectance, band ratios, and environmental factors as predictor variables for concentrations of Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Total Nitrogen (TN), and Total Phosphorus (TP) were derived using a hybrid forward-selection method that considers Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) in the forward-selection process. Landsat TM, ETM+, and OLI/TIRS images were jointly utilized with environmental factors, such as wind speed and water surface temperature, to derive the single set of equations. The coefficients of determination of the best-fitting resultant equations varied from 0.62 to 0.79. Among all chosen predictor variables, ratio of reflectance of visible red (Band 3 for Landsat TM and ETM+, or Band 4 for Landsat OLI/TIRS) to visible blue (Band 1 for Landsat TM and ETM+, or Band 2 for Landsat OLI/TIRS) has a strong influence on the predictive power for TSS retrieval. Environmental factors including wind speed, remote sensing-derived water surface temperature, solar altitude, and time difference (in days) between the image acquisition and water sampling were found important in water-quality parameter estimation.

The key goal of the current study was to determine suitable areas of water pumping for drinking and agricultural harvest in Tabriz aquifer, located in East Azerbaijan province, northwest Iran. In the study area, groundwater is the key foundation of water for drinking and farming requirements. Groundwater compatibility study was conducted by analyzing Electrical conductivity (EC), Total dissolved solids (TDS), Chloride (Cl), Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Sodium (Na), Potassium (K), Sulfate (SO4), Total hardness (TH), Bicarbonate (HCO3), pH, carbonate (CO3) and Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR) obtained from 39 wells in the period of 2003 to 2014. For this purpose, the Water Quality Index (WQI) and irrigation water quality (IWQ) index were utilized. The WQI index zoning exposed that the groundwater of the study area for drinking purposes is categorized as excellent, good and poor water. Most drinking water harvested for urban and rural areas are in the class of 'excellent water'. The results revealed that about 37 percent (296 km2) of groundwater has high compatibility, and 63 percent of the study area (495 km2) has average compatibility for agricultural purposes. The trend of IWQ and WQI indexes demonstrates that the groundwater is getting worse over the time.

Fish currently provide 6.7% of all protein consumed by humans globally, nevertheless, aquaculture system has been linked to fish and environmental contamination and disease outbreak. This study aims to isolate, identify, and characterise, bacteria in fish and pond water as well as the antibiotic profile of detected Coliforms. The susceptibility of the isolates was tested using the Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method on Mueller Hinton agar. A total of forty (40) isolates were isolated from the water samples of which (5) species were Gram Positive bacteria and 35 species of Gram Negative bacteria. The temperature for all ponds ranged from 25°C to 28°C. The mean bacteria count for pond C1 to T2 were 4.9 × 102, 4.9 × 102, 5.4 × 102, 2.5 × 102, 2.2 × 102, and 1.9 × 102 CFU/ml respectively. All isolates were 100% resistant to ceftazidime, cefuroxime and augmentin. More resistance to cefixime (80%) and gentamicin (73.3%) and nitrofurantoin (66.7%) was recorded. However, only 16.6% and 8.3% of the isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin respectively. The multiple antimicrobial resistance index (MARI) ranged from 0.5 to 0.9. The water quality parameters (temperature and pH) and the type of bacteria detected in all pond type did not differ significantly. The Multi-drug resistance bacteria detected could be pathogenic to fish and consumers.

The free energy principle states that self-organization occurs through minimization of free energy, which is a measure of potential thermodynamic work. By minimizing free energy, the organism happens to also minimize surprise over its boundary, promoting chances of survival. We discuss the ethical implications of the cognitive goal in detail from an empirical point of view, highlighting the principle of least action as a physical basis of Occam's razor, the universality of the free energy principle, and its explanation of natural selection. We explain that the free energy principle extends to groups of organisms and helps us understand group-scale adaptations and selection in biology. The free energy principle applies to all scales of organization in the organism from single cells to the entire nervous system. When this principle is taken to its logical extremes of modeling groups, populations and ecosystems, we uncover a new, evolutionarily sensible path at explaining puzzling aspects of human motivation and judgement, including ethical decisions. To minimize free energy, populations have to act to maximize gathering of information, while building effective models at mitigating changes to its dynamic structure. The free energy principle thus provides a naturalistic explanation of some of our deepest ethical intuitions, and valuable principles of social behavior. We interpret the cognitive goal that corresponds to the principle as seeking a dynamic, fruitful, yet peaceful activity that sustains the organism. This state of mind is interestingly similar to the Buddhist intuition of mental equanimity; the organism's final goal is to be at peace and harmony with the environment. Another immediately relevant aspect is that assemblies must form to promote symbiotic, synergistic, positive feedback loops, which coincides with the findings of ecologists. Therefore, ethics naturally emerges in self-organizing systems. Assemblies of organisms must ultimately unite in macro-minds to achieve the greatest reduction in free energy, as well as building technological extensions of themselves to improve their capacity to do such, therefore the principle also predicts a post-singularity world-mind composed mostly of artificial intelligence.

Space exploration is demanding longer lasting human missions and water resupply from Earth will become increasingly unrealistic. In a near future, the spacecraft water monitoring systems will require technological advances to promptly identify and counteract contingent events of waterborne microbial contamination, posing health risks to astronauts with lowered immune responsiveness. The search for bio-analytical approaches, alternative to those applied on Earth by cultivation-dependent methods, is pushed by the compelling need to limit waste disposal and avoid microbial regrowth from analytical carryovers. Prospective technologies will be selected only if first validated in a flight-like environment, by following basic principles, advantages, and limitations beyond their current applications on Earth. Starting from the water monitoring activities applied on the International Space Station, we provide a critical overview of the nucleic acid amplification-based approaches (i.e., loop-mediated isothermal amplification, quantitative PCR, and high-throughput sequencing) and early-warning methods for total microbial load assessments (i.e., ATP-metry, flow cytometry), already used at a high readiness level aboard crewed space vehicles. Our findings suggest that the forthcoming space applications of mature technologies will be necessarily bounded by a compromise between analytical performances (e.g., speed to results, identification depth, reproducibility, multiparametricity) and detrimental technical requirements (e.g., reagent usage, waste production, operator skills, crew time). As space exploration progresses toward extended missions to Moon and Mars, miniaturized systems that also minimize crew involvement in their end-to-end operation are likely applicable on the long-term and suitable for the in-flight water and microbiological research.

We suggest that momentum should be redened in order to help make physics more consistent and more logical. In this paper, we propose that there is a rest-mass momentum, a kinetic momentum, and a total momentum. This leads directly to a simpler relativistic energy momentum relation. As we point out, it is the Compton wavelength that is the true wavelength for matter; the de Broglie wavelength is mostly a mathematical artifact. This observation also leads us to a new relativistic wave equation and a new and likely better QM. Better in terms of being much more consistent and simpler to understand from a logical perspective.

Cold-water coral reefs are rich, yet fragile ecosystems found in colder oceanic waters. Knowledge of their spatial distribution on continental shelves, slopes, seamounts and ridge systems is vital for marine spatial planning and conservation. Cold-water corals frequently form conspicuous carbonate mounds of varying sizes, which are identifiable from multibeam echosounder bathymetry and derived geomorphometric attributes. However, the often large number of mounds makes manual interpretation and mapping a tedious process. We present a methodology that combines image segmentation and random forest spatial prediction with the aim to derive maps of carbonate mounds and an associated measure of confidence. We demonstrate our method based on multibeam echosounder data from Iverryggen on the mid-Norwegian shelf. We identified the image-object mean planar curvature as the most important predictor. The presence and absence of carbonate mounds is mapped with high accuracy (overall accuracy = 84.4%, sensitivity = 0.827 and specificity = 0.866). Spatially-explicit confidence in the predictions is derived from the predicted probability and whether the predictions are within or outside the modelled range of values and is generally high. We plan to apply the showcased method to other areas of the Norwegian continental shelf and slope where MBES data have been collected with the aim to provide crucial information for marine spatial planning.

Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) has a stator winding directly coupled with grid. Whereas, rotor winding is connected via a fault-prone back to back power converters. DFIG is known to be vulnerable to the grid faults. In early times, when a fault occurred, these generators were required to disconnect from the grid to secure the generator and power converters. However, due to the increased penetration of wind turbines into the power system, grid operators demanded that the wind turbines remain connected to the grid, as disconnecting them would further disrupt the grid. When a fault at the grid terminal occur, a high stator current is induced which further result in high rotor current. This current will trigger the DC-link voltage to rise. This high currents and DC-link voltage will cause harm to the converters. Thus, in this paper work, the crowbar protection system is employed for protecting the converters against excess energy. Furthermore, the analysis of DFIG is rendered by integrating the crowbar protection with the Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) for a much effective outcome in enhancing machine to drive the fault. MATLAB-Simulink software is used for modeling and simulation. All system parameters are obtained from ADAMA-II Wind Farm.

A recently developed thermodynamic theory for the determination of the driving force of crystallization and the crystal–melt surface tension is applied to the ice–water system employing the new Thermodynamic Equation of Seawater TEOS-10. The deviations of approximative formulations of the driving force and the surface tension from the exact reference properties are quantified, showing that the proposed simplifications are applicable for low to moderate undercooling and pressure differences to the respective equilibrium state of water. The TEOS-10 based predictions of the ice crystallization rate revealed pressure-induced deceleration of ice nucleation with an increasing pressure, and acceleration of ice nucleation by pressure decrease. This result is in, at least, qualitative agreement with laboratory experiments and computer simulations. Both the temperature and pressure dependencies of the ice–water surface tension were found to be in line with the le Chatelier–Braun principle, in that the surface tension decreases upon increasing degree of metastability of water (by decreasing temperature and pressure), which favors nucleation to move the system back to a stable state. The reason for this behavior is discussed. Finally, the Kauzmann temperature of the ice–water system was found to amount TK=116K, which is far below the temperature of homogeneous freezing. The Kauzmann pressure was found to amount pK=-212MPa, suggesting favor of homogeneous freezing upon exerting a negative pressure on the liquid. In terms of thermodynamic properties entering the theory, the reason for the negative Kauzmann pressure is the higher mass density of water in comparison to ice at the melting point.

Increasing salt intake has substantial negative impacts on health and well-being. This review article focusses on the effect of salinity intrusion (SI) on the water quality and community health of coastal Bangladesh and to find out the effectiveness of interventions for reducing the negative effects of salinity. Saline water is a noteworthy reason for hypertension or high blood pressure in the coastal areas. Health status of women especially the pregnant women are vulnerable because of drinking water sodium (DWS) prompting to pre-eclampsia, high blood pressure and hypertension as well as infant mortality. Several interventions such as rainwater harvesting and Pond sand filter (PSF) system as well as managed aquifer recharge (MAR) usage and the integration of mixed sources were reviewed on the content of drinking water sodium (DWS). Although rainwater has the positive impact of low or no sodium intake on human health, it still possesses negative impacts from not having vital minerals. Despite what might be expected, in MAR a steady increment in sodium concentration through the span of the dry season was observed. It is, subsequently, important to increase awareness about drinking water sodium (DWS) intake by providing and adopting correct technological interventions.

All empirical water column correction methods have consistently been reported to require existing depth sounding data for the purpose of calibrating a simple depth retrieval model; they yield poor results over very bright or very dark bottoms. In contrast, we set out to (i) use only the relative radiance data in the image along with published data, and several new assumptions, (ii) in order to specify and operate the simplified radiative transfer equation (RTE), (iii) for the purpose of retrieving both the satellite derived bathymetry (SDB) and the water column corrected spectral reflectance over shallow seabeds. Sea truth regressions show that SDB depths retrieved by the method only need tide correction. Therefore it shall be demonstrated that, under such new assumptions, there is no need (i) for formal atmospheric correction, (ii) nor for conversion of relative radiance into calibrated reflectance , (iii) nor for existing depth sounding data, to specify the simplified RTE and produce both SDB and spectral water column corrected radiance ready for bottom typing. Moreover, the use of the panchromatic band for that purpose is introduced. Altogether, we named this process the Self-Calibrated Supervised Spectral Shallow-sea Modeler (4SM). This approach requires a trained practitioner, though, to produce its results within hours of downloading the raw image. The ideal raw image should be a “near-nadir” view, exhibit homogeneous atmosphere and water column, include some coverage of optically deep waters and bare land, and lend itself to quality removal of haze, atmospheric adjacency effect, and sun/sky glint.

This compendium presents new mathematical techniques for modeling Point Absorbers. A combined frequency-time domain framework is developed. It is used to simulate the energy generated by the wave farms. With Matlab and Fortran as a base, this leads to obtain physical variables of primary importance, namely position, velocity and power to energy net balance relationships of absorption. Integration of different degrees of freedom with heave as main executable leads in turn to a single buoy motion focus. Acquisition of the needed hydrodynamic coefficients is provided through application of potential field solvers with Boundary Element Methodology background. Initially, this Wave-to-motion model is validated by comparison with previous experimental results for a floating cone cylinder shape (Buldra-FO3). A single, generic, vertical floating cylinder is contemplated then, that responds to the action of the passing regular waves excitation. Later, two equally sized vertical floating cylinders aligned with the incident wave direction are modeled for a variable distance between the bodies. For both unidirectional regular and irregular waves as an input in deep water, we approximate the convolutive radiation force function term through the Prony method. By changing the spatial disposition of the axisymmetric buoys, using for instance triangular or rectangular shaped arrays of three and four bodies respectively, the study delves into motion characteristics for regular waves. The results highlight efficient layouts for maximizing the energy production whilst providing important insights into their performance, revealing displacement amplification- and capture width-ratios, while deriving in possible interpretations of scenarios related to the known park effect. These terms are encompassed by the novelty of a new conceptual Post-Processing methodology in the field, which leads to obtain an optimal distance for the separated bodies with effective energy absorption in a regular wave regime. The main objective is to generate a tendency within the hydrodynamic field of study, which is the Wave to motion perspective. More generally, this computational excursion envisions and depicts potential fields of study, which will surely enhance new connections and link this renewable energy form. Therefore, this research delves first into the historical and technical background on Ocean Wave Energy. Next, it is in the section regarding Materials and Methods, where boundaries and related equations are introduced step by step, together with latter mentioned case scenarios, and their corresponding configuration parameters. A separate section frames then the scope of results, while finally, there is an ensuing discussion and conclusions for evaluation assessment.

Based on K-ε Standard Wall turbulence model (2-Equation) and Navier-Stokes (N-S) equations defined for incompressible fluids, fluid flow behaviour around hyperloop pods in an evacuated tube was simulated using ANSYS fluent solver assuming steady state and two dimensional conditions. In this research, to develop the case studies, using combination of different head and tail shape profile, four kind of hyperloop pods were developed with the aid of SolidWorks. These four pods have been investigated for their aerodynamic behaviour as four different case scenarios. The results of simulation depicts that an atmospheric pressure of 100 Pa with blockage ratio of 0.36 in tube provides the best possible aerodynamic behaviour for the designed hyperloop pod models. This research finds that overall aerodynamic behaviour of hyperloop pods can be varied by changing the head and tail shape profile of pods and a particular combination of head and tail shape profile can provide optimally best aerodynamic capabilities. Thus, this research paper provides a novel method of obtaining best aerodynamic capabilities in hyperloop pods by designing head profile optimally in combination with tail profile. This outcome will provide major contribution towards the development of hyperloop pods in future with better aerodynamic behaviour resulting in lesser electrical energy required to propel the hyperloop pods in evacuated tube.

We do this research to investigate the relationship between renewable energy, public health expenditure, logistics performance indices, and economic and environmental sustainability in the ASEAN member states, through the analysis of a panel data from 2007 to 2017. The study used secondary data, which is downloaded from the World Bank Website and employs SEM (Structural Equation Modelling) model for testing hypothesis. The results show that the usage of renewable energy in logistical operations would enhance the environmental and economic performance in terms of mitigating carbon emissions and greenhouse gas emissions. While, public health expenditure and environmental performance is negatively correlated, which confirms that greater environmental sustainability with lower carbon emissions and greenhouse gases will improve human health and economic growth. Moreover, greater public health expenditure and poor environmental performance has negative effect on economic growth, inefficiency and low productivity of labor slowdown to the economic activities. For another side, the usage of renewable energy and the adoption of green practices in international logistics will develop the environmental sustainability, establish better image of a country and attract foreign direct investment inflows, and also minimize carbon emissions and public health expenditure, spurring sustainable economic growth with better export opportunities in pro-environmental countries.

As the increase threat of flood risk and environmental safety due to the urbanization, Sponge city research has been attracting extensive attention both in practical and theoretical research field. To date, there are only scattered studies about Sponge city. Moreover, vary names of Sponge city prevalent in different countries, which leads to disconnection of literature in the same field of Sponge city. In this paper, a thorough systematic literature mining of Sponge city is presented. A literature analysis system is created, which includes literature export from Web of Sciences and systematic analysis via NoteExpress and CiteSpace. Some literature statistical results are derived. Challenges and opportunities for future research are anticipated. Our goals are to promote this promising thought, summarize past research, and identify issues for future research to create impacts on the practice of Sponge city.

The Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996 require community water systems in the United States to send consumers Consumer Confidence Reports (CCRs). CCRs contain information on detected contaminants and required educational information about drinking water. The authors of this study developed a survey to evaluate how utilities track consumer feedback, understanding, and the role of the CCR in shaping consumer perceptions about water quality. Responses from this survey indicate it is common for utilities to indirectly track the effectiveness of their CCRs, but few utilities indicated directly evaluating consumer understanding or the effect of CCRs on consumer perceptions.

Phenomenon of vacuum fluctuations of virtual particles in high energy physics has been mathematically modeled by a third order differential equation. Aim of present theory is to unravel underlying mathematical equation capable of explaining microscopic phenomenon of vacuum fluctuations. Solution of such a differential equation after applying appropriate boundary conditions gives an acceptable wave function i.e. . Operation of energy and time operator on this wave function proves that these operators do not hold commutative property. Time energy uncertainty principle has been derived by calculating variance of energy and time for the same wave function.

For more than one hundred years, scientists dispute the correct interpretation of Lorentz transformations within the framework of the special theory of relativity of Albert Einstein. On the one hand, the changes in length, time and mass with increasing velocity are interpreted as apparent due to the observer dependence within special relativity. On the other hand, real changes are described corresponding to the experimental evidence of mass increase in particle accelerators or of clock delay. This ambiguity is accompanied by an ongoing controversy about valid Lorentz-transformed thermodynamic quantities such as entropy, pressure and temperature. In this paper is shown that the interpretation problem of the Lorentz transformations is genuinely anchored within the postulates of special relativity and can be solved on the basis of the thermodynamic approach of matter-energy equivalence, i.e. an energetic distinction between matter and mass. It is suggested that the velocity-dependent changes in state quantities are real in each case, in full agreement with the experimental evidence.

The water-rich liquid layer immobilized on the surface of the polar stationary phases is critical to the retention of polar compounds in hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC). Although the presence of the adsorbed water layer has been investigated and confirmed by multiple techniques, there is a lack of quantitative measure that can be easily determined and linked to chromatographic parameters. This study proposes a simple measure termed volume ratio (the ratio of the adsorbed water layer volume and the mobile phase volume) that provides a relative, but quantitative information on the adsorbed water layer and may be linked to the phase ratio. The volume ratio can be easily determined using toluene elution volume. The volume ratio values are measured in 25 polar stationary phases in various mobile phase conditions. In addition to the acetonitrile content in the mobile phase, ammonium acetate concentration in the mobile phase and column temperature also have significant influences on the volume ratio and the adsorbed water layer.

The exposure of people to opportunistic premise plumbing pathogens (OPPPs) such as Legionella, Mycobacterium and Pseudomonas in aerosolised water has been linked to opportunistic infections. Water mist systems (WMS) that are used to cool public places by flash evaporation of tiny water aerosols are gaining prominence in hot climatic regions of Australia. Their potential to be colonised by OPPPs has not been adequately studied. The public health impact of OPPPs is significant, as Legionella caused 63% of waterborne disease case hospitalisations in the United States associated with drinking water systems during 2013–2014, and the incidence of Mycobacterium avium over the same period was 647 cases per 100,000. As WMS are part of premise plumbing, they have structural characteristics that can promote biofilm formation, as well as the presence of free-living amoebae (FLA), low residual disinfection levels, elevated water temperatures and oligotrophic conditions, all of which can promote OPPP inhabitancy. This review highlights the potential public health risks of using WMS as a cooling intervention in public places and advocates for their regulation in places of public assembly and entertainment.

This study purposes the use of plug-in electric vehicles for demand side management (DSM) considering uncertainties in demand as well as uncertainties due to mobility of PEV to mitigate peak demand. The solution also seeks to reduce electric cost in addition to reducing the effects of greenhouse gases. In recent years DSM using distributed storage system such as battery energy management system (BESS) and plugged-in electric vehicles (PEV) have become very prevalent with most implementations resorting to deterministic load forecast. These methods do not consider the potential growth in demand making their solutions less robust. In this study we propose a real-time density demand forecast and stochastic optimization for robust operation of PEV for a building. This method accounts for demand uncertainties in addition to uncertainties in mobile energy storage as found in PEV, making the resulting solution robust as compared to the deterministic case. A case study on a real site in South Korea is used for verification and testing. The proposed study is verified and tested against existing algorithms. The result verifies the effectiveness of the proposed approach

Natural gas combined cycle power plants (CCPPs) are widely used to meet peak loads in electric energy production. Continuous monitoring of the output electrical power of CCPPs is a requirement for power performance. In this study, the role of ambient temperature change having the greatest effect on electric production is investigated for a natural gas CCPP. The plant has generated electricity for fourteen years and setup at 240 MW in Aliağa, İzmir, Turkey. Depending on the seasonal temperature changes, the study data were obtained from each gas turbine (GT), steam turbine (ST) and combined cycle blocks (CCBs) in the ambient temperature range of 8-23°C. It has been found that decreases of the electric energy in the GTs because of the temperature increase and indirectly diminishes of the electricity production in the STs. As a result, the efficiency of each GT, ST and CCB reduced, although the quantity of fuel consumed by the controllers in the plant was decreased. As a result of this data, it has been recommended and applied that additional precautions have been taken for the power plant to bring the air entering the combustion chamber to ideal conditions and necessary air cooling systems have been installed.

Landslides are serious geological hazards that become a disaster worldwide, causing a large number of casualties and economic losses every year. There are many factors affecting landslide susceptibility, such as rainfall, soil and slope. Each of them has an important role in the process of slope losing stability. In this paper, the effects of rainfall intensity, rainfall pattern, slope gradient and soil type on landslide susceptibility are studied. In the process of rainfall-induced landslide, the relevant physical quantities of soil changes continuously. Their values and processes are closely related to the time of landslide occurrence. Hence, the variation of soil volumetric water content, matrix suction, pore water pressure and total stress throughout the rainfall are measured. As the results, soil type, slope gradient and rainfall intensity have a large influence on landslide susceptibility. The occurrence of landslides has a prerequisite that the slope is greater than or equal to 15°. The rainfall intensity needs to be not less than 80 mm/h. The difference of rainfall pattern also affects the landslide susceptibility. The rainfall pattern with rainfall intensity peak at the later stage is more likely to induce landslide. Coarser soils with gravels are prone to landslides when other conditions are the same. Steeper slopes, stronger rainfall, and coarser soils can all increase the amount of sediment yield.

In the case of vascular plants the process of water loss by leafs and water absorption by the root is well known. There is agreement on the passive nature of long-distance moisture movement in the dead cells of the xylem; however, controversy exists focusing on the long-distance water transport principle. Hales (1726) founded a view of bulk flow based on water suction after experiments with cut twigs. The previous doctrine of long-distance water transport within vessel elements and tracheid of the xylem of intact plants – the relevant cohesion theory in text books – was developed mainly by Boehm (1893), Renner (1911) and Dixon (1914) with plant artefacts. Water movement according to this theory is based on an assumed hydrodynamic bulk fluid flow in xylem in continuous water columns (free of water vapour space), under tension, according to the law of Poiseuille (see e.g. Dixon 1914). Physically hydrodynamics is part of fluid mechanics, as a result Poiseuille’s law is usually valid only for hydrodynamic bulk flow in ideal capillaries (Sutera & Skalak, 1993). Besides the basic requirement for transport, according to cohesion theory, the existence of ideal capillaries is not compatible with either: “Because vessel elements and tracheid do not stand as ideal capillaries. …” (Bresinsky et al. 2008, translated from German). Unlike ideal capillaries, the walls of vessel elements and tracheid interact with the transported water. These walls are able to function as a source or as a sink for the transported water because of interaction with the cell walls. With the interaction, vessel elements and tracheid, part of the xylem, can shrink and swell, unlike ideal capillaries. Because the xylem (in woody plants part of the wood) is inconsistent with the basic law of fluid flow, the equation of mass balance (Zimmermann et al. 2004) and cohesion theory are not strictly followed.Many plant physiologists view the cohesion theory as appropriate, however, this theory remains controver­sial, i.e. by Eisenhut (1988), Laschimke (1990) and Hahn (1993). Nultsch (1996) gives doubts referring to the present doctrine of plant water transport. Zimmermann et al. (2004) reject the cohesion theory and conclude: “... that the arguments of the proponents of the Cohesion Theory are completely misleading” (Zimmermann et al. 2004). Hence cohesion theory can be treated as inapplicable and the question arises: how does water transport in fact function? In the following, it is gone into in more detail. A sorption hypothesis of actual water transport, based on empirical fact, shall be addressed in this paper.

Pb found in rain water is not only caused by tin roof on houses but also caused by the pollution of industrial activities, vehicles and land clearing activity by fire. Pb pollutant dissolves and enters into rain water storages and it’s consumed as drinking. Pb can cause bad impact to human, for example disruption of enzyme, anemia and low intelligence. The purposes of this research are (1) to evaluate Pb, pH and turbidity level in rain water, (2) to analyze the effectiveness of mollusk sand filtration and the absorption of activity carbon to decrease Pb, turbidity and pH, and (3) to analyze the correlation of Pb, length of stay and smoking habit on public health. This research is an experimental by using pre and post test designs with control and observational by using cross sectional design. The research was conducted in urban and rural areas of Pontianak and Kubu Raya regency. The sampling was done in determining the number of samples of Pb, pH and turbidity in rain water. The analyzing the data by using computer program. The results show that: (1) the average of Pb, pH and turbidity level before treatment is considered high at 131.7 µg/L on Pb, turbidity at 20 NTU and low pH at 5.2. After the treatment was the Pb has decreased to 0.71 µg/L and turbidity has to 5.66 NTU, pH to 6.9 and (2) Rain water treatment is very effective to decrease Pb for 99.4% and turbidity for 72%, and (3) there is a correlation among Pb found in rain water, length of stay and smoking activity to public health. Recommends that: the residents of Pontianak and Kubu Raya to process rain water before consuming. The rain water treatment can be done by applying mollusk sand filtration and absorption of active carbon.

At present European buildings typically consume two to five times more energy than predicted at the design stage. An important cause of this performance gap is the discrepancies between the design specification and the As-Built condition. Such discrepancies are mainly due to the gaps in knowhow between design, production and construction professionals. Design is more and more contained into a virtual environment and loses touch with the physical production and construction sites. As the construction sector enters the Industry 4.0 era, Building Information Modelling (BIM) based Mixed Reality can intertwine virtual and real worlds to bridge the knowhow gaps.

Water supply is a mandatory service for Tanzanians from respective legal public water utilities, and their sustainability reflects implementations of best management strategies at a local level. The objective of this study was to assess current approaches used in water quality and quantity management in Tanzania. This was achieved through secondary water data tends, on-site water quality assessments, visits of respective water supply and sanitation authorities, and assessment of their performances. It was observed that water supplied in rural-based authorities was quite different from that supplied in an urban setting as far as quality and quantity is concerned, urban-based supplies being of assistance to users over rural ones. A new strategy on water management is presented for sustainable water supply in Tanzania; it is based on controlling groundwater abstractions and preference of surface water in public water supplies. Rural water supply management must learn several practices realized at urban supplies for the betterment of respective majority water users.

Climate change such as sea level rise, change in temperature, precipitation, and storminess are expected to impact significantly coastal lagoons. The nature and magnitude of these impacts are uncertain. The objective of the research is to determine the climate change impacts on mixing and circulation at Songkhla lagoon, Thailand. Songkhla lagoon is the largest lagoonal water resource in Thailand and Southeast Asia. The lagoon is a combined freshwater and estuarine complex of high productivity which represents an extraordinary combination of environmental resources believed to be unique in the region. This work is part of a Climate Change impact assessment framework. It is the validation phase (step 5) of the framework applying a case study. Delft 3D was used to simulate CC scenarios in the climate downscaling models, part of the previous framework steps. These results were compared to the current conditions to determine the main changes in mixing and circulation in the coastal lagoon. Three indicators were applied to quantify the impacts: flushing time, salinity intrusion and stratification. The results suggest an increase in water velocities at the inlet in future scenarios and a decrease of flushing time. Salinity and stratification showed more complex changes in futures scenarios.

The mutual information between the state of a neural network and the state of the external world represents the amount of information stored in the neural network that is associated with the external world. In contrast, the surprise of the sensory input indicates the unpredictability of the current input. In other words, this is a measure of inference ability, and an upper bound of the surprise is known as the variational free energy. According to the free-energy principle (FEP), a neural network continuously minimizes the free energy to perceive the external world. For the survival of animals, inference ability is considered to be more important than simply memorized information. In this study, the free energy is shown to represent the gap between the amount of information stored in the neural network and that available for inference. This concept involves both the FEP and the infomax principle, and will be a useful measure for quantifying the amount of information available for inference.