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Abstract In recent years living walls have increasingly spread, thus becoming a diffuse architectural envelope cladding technology. Consequently, a more precise understanding of their thermal behavior and impact on the building energy balance are needed. One of the most important effects provided by the use of living walls is the shading of the building envelope, with clear benefits during the cooling period. Furthermore, many features characterize the thermal behavior of living walls, namely plant species, leaf area index (LAI), evapotranspiration, emissivity and air cavity type. All these particular characteristics have been accounted in the mathematical model developed in the frame of the presented research, whose aim is to provide a tool for the prediction of the thermal behavior of living walls. Two kinds of living walls, one with grass and closed air cavity and the other one with vertical garden and open air cavity were considered. The results achieved by means of the developed model show a good agreement with the measurements also supported by model efficiency indexes such as Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency index (NSEC). Values of around 0.7 were obtained for the NSEC index for both the investigated living walls.

AbstractThe brief exposure of recently ovulated mouse oocytes to a dilute solution of ethanol in vitro for 1, 3, or 5 min induced a uniform high incidence of parthenogenetic activation. The majority of parthenogenones developed a single haploid pronucleus after the extrusion of a second polar body. The proportionate incidence of this parthenogenetic class was significantly reduced as the duration of ethanol exposure increased from 1 min to 5 min. There was a concomitant increase in the incidence of parthenogenones that developed two haploid pronuclei following failure of extrusion of the second polar body. Cytogenetic analysis of the ethanol‐induced single‐pronuclear haploid parthenogenones at metaphase of the first cleavage division clearly demonstrated that a significant proportion were aneuploid. The incidence of aneuploidy observed was directly related to the duration of ethanol exposure. G‐band analysis of the aneuploid metaphases revealed that the chromosomes were not randomly involved in the malsegregation events. This observation may be a reflection of the relationship of particular chromosomes to the meiotic spindle apparatus rather than on any specific property of the agent to which they were exposed. It is believed that ethanol disrupts the organisation of cytoskeletal elements and, in particular, interferes with the processes of chromosome segregation at the second meiotic division.

Interconnectivity and interoperability are very important features in the development of integrated energy management systems for industrial facilities. A simple and common strategy for exchanging energy-related information among the entities in a facility is currently lacking. To this end, the purpose of this study is to present an IoT-based communication framework with a common information model to facilitate the development of a demand response (DR) energy management system for industrial customers. Additionally, we developed and implemented an IoT-based energy-management platform based on a common information model and open communication protocols, which takes advantage of integrated energy supply networks to deploy DR energy management in an industrial facility. The experimental results of this study demonstrate that the proposed platform can not only improve the interconnectivity of the entities in industrial energy management systems but also reduce the energy costs of industrial facilities.

Abstract Conventional spouted beds have been extensively used in many real-life applications but are not suited for all types of materials, especially fine particles, which require internal devices to improve their motion in the spouted bed. However, unlike conventional spouted beds, there are almost no mechanistic or empirical models available for the design of spouted beds with internals. Given the availability of an extensive but not experimentally designed database, the main purpose of this study is to present an analysis of neural networks and empirical models in terms of their suitability to fit and predict average cycle times in conical spouted beds with and without draft tubes. The parameters investigated are particle size, density, contactor angle, gas inlet diameter, static bed height, and draft tube features. Although the amount of information is always a key factor when fitting models, the size of the database used in this study strongly affects the fitting performance of empirical models, whereas artificial neural networks are more influenced by how the data are scaled. Results of model verification show that both techniques are suitable for predicting average cycle times for data outside the range covered by the database.

Cu2CdSn(S,Se)(4) is an important candidate material for thin film solar cell absorber layers. In this work, low-cost Cu2CdSnS4 nanocrytal thin film with a stannite structure has been successfully fabricated by a butyldithiocarbamate-based ethanol solution approach. The selenized Cu2CdSn(S,Se)(4) thin film shows large densely packed grains and has a suitable band gap value of 1.01 eV. The Cu2CdSn(S,Se)(4) thin film solar cell with a proof-of-concept power conversion efficiency of 3.1% was fabricated. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract The rapid increase in energy demand and the limited resources of fossil fuel as well as the environmentally damaging effects, drive the world to find new options for sustainable electricity generation, which is represented by renewable energies. Concentrating solar power (CSP) is one of the most promising technologies in the field of electricity generation to tackle this issue with a competitive cost in the future. This paper presents an investigation of the potential of implementation of CSP plants in Libya. The socio-economic context, current energy situation of the country and different types of CSP plants are discussed. Moreover, an assessment of site parameters required for CSP plants including solar resources, land use and topography, water resources and grid connections are investigated in detail. In addition, thermo-economic simulation of a 50 MW parabolic trough power plant is performed. The simulation is conducted based on meteorological data measured by the weather station installed at the Centre for Solar Energy Research and Studies (CSERS) in Tajoura city. The performance results are compared with the reference plant Andasol-1 in Spain. Even though the proposed plant is located on the North coast where solar resources are at their minimum compared with other regions of the country, the outcome of the study proves that Libya is not only suitable but it can be economically competitive in the implementation of CSP technology.