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From the beginning, energy has been the driving force of mankind. Without it, the evolution of mankind would have been impossible. Despite the need for access to energy to achieve higher levels of development, in many contexts around the world, situations of energy vulnerability and energy poverty exist. In many international legal instruments, the recognition of the right to energy as a human right has been strengthened. In several national frameworks, there are many trends in the protection of this fundamental right, while in others the right to energy is a forgotten issue. Given the level of development achieved by humankind, it is becoming increasingly necessary to grant greater legal protection to this right, especially with its recognition as a constitutional right. The Constitution as a fundamental norm provides the framework for the development of complementary norms that guarantee effective protection of the right to energy. The object of study of this research is Latin America and the Caribbean legal frameworks. Cuba, as part of the region, does not expressly recognise the right to energy in the Constitution of 2019. This research aims to systematise the good practices associated with the recognition of the right to energy as a constitutional right in Latin America and the Caribbean for its future recognition in Cuba. To accomplish this objective, the following research methods will be used: historical-legal, exegetical-analytical, and legal comparison. As a result, this research presents a systematisation of good practices associated with the recognition of the right to energy as a constitutional right in Latin America.

Latent thermal energy storages (LTESs) in combination with heat pumps and smart control strategies can maximize the utilization of renewable energy sources for heating and cooling. However, smart energy management with model predictive control (MPC) requires monitoring the total energy stored in the LTES, which is determined by the liquid fraction of the phase change material (PCM). Measuring the liquid fraction is challenging and the diverse liquid-fraction sensing approaches pose a trade-off between accuracy and ease of implementation. The present study aims to quantify the effect of the liquid fraction sensing accuracy on the performance of MPC strategies for heating systems with LTES. For this purpose, a residential heating application with an energy management system is analyzed. The heating system consists of a heat pump, an LTES and a photovoltaic array. The heat pump can be driven by the photovoltaic array and the electric grid. The energy management system uses MPC based on Mixed-Integer Linear Programming. Representative seasonal profiles for the heating load and weather conditions are used as forecasts for the MPC. The performance of the energy management system is assessed in terms of total heating cost for different error values in the estimation of the liquid fraction of the PCM in the LTES. The heating cost is found to proportionally increase with the absolute error in liquid fraction due to reduced utilization of the LTES capacity.

Statistical QCD predicts that with increasing density, strongly interacting matter will undergo a transition to a plasma of deconfined quarks and gluons. High energy heavy ion collisions are expected to permit experimental studies of this transition and of the predicted new state of matter. 22 refs., 6 figs.

Urban pollution is a current problem, constituting a serious health risk. Many pollutants are present in the urban atmosphere, they are mainly anthropogenic, resulting from the combustion of coal. Several studies have shown the harmful effects of these pollutants, particularly on the respiratory system. Through a library review, we want to explore the effects on the health of general population and of outdoor workers exposed to the products resulting from the combustion of coal, in order to compare them with the estimated effects of the pollutants from the new generation coal plants, certainly less harmful to the environment. In recent years investments in "clean technologies" have resulted in a rapid and significant reduction of all polluting emissions: sulfur dioxide, dust, oxides of nitrogen, ash and gypsum resulting from the desulfurization process. To conclude in the light of the scientific literature we can say that the activation of coal plants based on technologies for the maximum containment and optimal treatment of the production cycle is essential to defend both the environment and the health of the population. Nevertheless it remains necessary to ensure a systematic monitoring of the environment of sanitation and food processing of the population living in the area, with a long-term follow-up.

Abstract: The increasing CO2 levels and associated climate change are drivers to move towards a circular chemical industry. Therefore, there is besides recyclable carbon an urgent need for means to access renewable carbon. Two main strategies have been put forward: (i) carbon capture and utilization (CCU) and (ii) use of biomass as feedstock. One particularly interesting biorenewable resource is lignin, part of lignocellulose biomass, giving access to phenolics, i.e. guaiacols, syringols, catechols and pyrogallols. These substrates are often referred to as platform molecules with the potential to serve as renewable feedstock for the production of commodity chemicals as an alternative to oil. However, lignin derived aromatics have a high oxygen content, which is in sharp contrast to benzene, toluene, xylene (BTX) obtained from current petroleum refining. Therefore, instead of an oxidative approach to introduce functional groups required for oil, a reductive approach is needed for bioaromatics. One way to allow a controlled decrease in oxygen content of lignin derived aromatics while maintaining aromaticity is chemoselective hydrodeoxygenation. A particular interesting subclass of HDO reactions is selective hydrodehydroxylation allowing removal of hydroxy groups in presence of methoxy groups. However, this transformation requires pre-activation of the hydroxy group by installment of a leaving group. Acetate is introduced as a renewable leaving group for selective hydrodeacetoxylation of aryl acetates using a homogeneous Ni0-NHC catalyst and pinacolborane reductant in green dimethyl carbonate solvent. Proof-of-concept for oil derived substrates was demonstrated using renewable 4-propylguaiacol obtained from pine wood via reductive catalytic fractionation (RCF). Furthermore, overcoming the limitations of air- and water-sensitive Ni0 catalysts, a heterogeneous Ni-catalyzed hydrodeoxygenation method was developed for methyl aryl carbonates and catechol carbonates. This methodology was also shown applicable to renewable 4-propylguaiacol and 4-propylcatechol obtained from RCF of pine wood. Next to aromatic substrates, hydrodeoxygenation of aliphatic hydroxy groups, pre-activated as methyl carbonates, using air-stable Ni0(cod)(dq) as catalyst giving the corresponding alkane products is also described.

Significant research efforts are underway to develop commercially viable, technically feasible, highly efficient, and highly reliable power converters for renewable energy, electric transportation, and various industrial applications. This chapter presents state-of-the-art knowledge and cutting-edge techniques in various stages of research related to impedance source converters/inverters, including the concepts, advantages compared to existing technology, classification, current status, and future trends. Electric power generation comprises traditional power generation, such as hydroelectric, thermal and nuclear power production, and renewable energy sources, which already has a large penetration joined by photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy. In applications that need to boost the voltage, the Z-source converter is a possibility. Power electronics is the enabling technology for the energy processing necessary for electronic and electrical equipment of all types, from renewable energy to power systems, from house appliances to aerospace systems. New power electronic devices, such as the SiC and GaN, will definitely improve the Z-source converters' performance.

We present a measurement of the energy spectrum of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays performed by the Telescope Array experiment using monocular observations from its two new FADC-based fluorescence detectors. After a short description of the experiment, we describe the data analysis and event reconstruction procedures. Since the aperture of the experiment must be calculated by Monte Carlo simulation, we describe this calculation and the comparisons of simulated and real data used to verify the validity of the aperture calculation. Finally, we present the energy spectrum calculated from the merged monocular data sets of the two FADC-based detectors, and also the combination of this merged spectrum with an independent, previously published monocular spectrum measurement performed by Telescope Array's third fluorescence detector [T. Abu-Zayyad et al. The energy spectrum of Telescope Array's middle drum detector and the direct comparison to the high resolution fly's eye experiment, Astroparticle Physics 39 (2012) 109-119, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.astropartphys.2012.05. 012, Available from: ]. This combined spectrum corroborates the recently published Telescope Array surface detector spectrum [T. Abu-Zayyad, et al. The cosmic-ray energy spectrum observed with the surface detector of the Telescope Array experiment, ApJ 768 (2013) L1, http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/768/1/L1, Available from: ] with independent systematic uncertainties. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. ; 0 ; SCOPUS: ar.j ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published