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This study is concerned with Mozambique’s energy diplomacy. Its objectives are twofold: to advance and apply relevant theoretical concepts, while providing empirical insights into the drivers of risk propensity in energy diplomacy. Despite the increasing relevance of Africa as an alternative source of energy, and mounting empirical evidence of local strategies of regime security based on energy resources, scholarship on the interplay between energy and foreign policy as a strategy for regime security of energy-producing states in Africa remains scarce. Prospect theory postulates that decision makers engage in risky diplomatic behaviour when facing losses but, will be risk-averse when facing gains. The case of Mozambique is intriguing, however, as risk propensity in the energy sector sometimes appears to follow a logic contrary to prospect theory’s predictions, and to respond to objectives beyond the energy sector itself. The emerging question is: What determines risk propensity in Mozambique’s energy diplomacy? To answer this question, this thesis focuses on the case of hydroelectricity, specifically the 1984 Cape Town Tripartite Agreement on the Cahora Bassa hydroelectric dam and the 2007 Cahora Bassa reversion to Mozambique. I apply a qualitative research methodology and expand prospect theory by adding regime security as a condition variable, which allows for the examination of how situations and context relative to regime security affect Mozambique’s risk propensity in energy diplomacy. The main argument is that, although actual risk propensity emerges from within the energy sector, risk propensity in Mozambique’s energy diplomacy is driven by aversion to perceived losses relating to regime security. The study concludes that it is the quest for regime security, and the concomitant economic benefits for elites, that drives risk propensity in the energy sector, rather than the prospects of losses and/or gains relative to energy security.

AbstractGreenhouse gas emissions from fertiliser production are set to increase before stabilising due to the increasing demand to secure sustainable food supplies for a growing global population. However, avoiding the impacts of climate change requires all sectors to decarbonise by a very high level within several decades. Economically viable carbon reductions of substituting natural gas reforming with biomass gasification for ammonia production are assessed using techno-economic and life cycle assessment. Greenhouse gas savings of 65% are achieved for the biomass gasification system and the internal rate of return is 9.8% at base-line biomass feedstock and ammonia prices. Uncertainties in the assumptions have been tested by performing sensitivity analysis, which show, for example with a ±50% change in feedstock price, the rate of return ranges between −0.1% and 18%. It would achieve its target rate of return of 20% at a carbon price of £32/t CO2, making it cost competitive compared to using biomass for heat or electricity. However, the ability to remain competitive to investors will depend on the volatility of ammonia prices, whereby a significant decrease would require high carbon prices to compensate. Moreover, since no such project has been constructed previously, there is high technology risk associated with capital investment. With limited incentives for industrial intensive energy users to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, a sensible policy mechanism could target the support of commercial demonstration plants to help ensure this risk barrier is resolved.

As renewable energy (RE) penetration has a continuously increasing trend, the protection of RE integrated power systems is a critical issue. Recently, power networks developed for grid integration of solar energy (SE) have been designed with the help of multi-tapped lines to integrate small- and medium-sized SE plants and simultaneously supplying power to the loads. These tapped lines create protection challenges. This paper introduces an algorithm for the recognition of faults in the grid to which a solar photovoltaic (PV) system is integrated. A fault index (FI) was introduced to identify faults. This FI was calculated by multiplying the Wigner distribution (WD) index and Alienation (ALN) index. The WD-index was based on the energy density of the current signal evaluated using Wigner distribution function. The ALN-index was evaluated using sample-based alienation coefficients of the current signal. The performance of the algorithm was validated for various scenarios with different fault types at various locations, different fault incident angles, fault impedances, sampling frequencies, hybrid line consisting of overhead (OH) line and underground (UG) cable sections, different types of transformer windings and the presence of noise. Two phase faults with and without the involvement of ground were differentiated using the ground fault index based on the zero sequence current. This study was performed on the IEEE-13 nodes test network to which a solar PV plant with a capacity of 1 MW was integrated. The performance of the algorithm was also tested on the western part of utility grid in the Rajasthan State in India where solar PV energy integration is high. The performance of the algorithm was effectively established by comparing it with the discrete Wavelet transform (DWT), Wavelet packet transform (WPT) and Stockwell transform-based methods.

The primary challenge of agriculture and livestock production is to face the growing competition between food, feed, fibre, and fuel, converting them from resource-intensive to resource-efficient. A circular economy approach, using agricultural by-products/co-products, in the livestock production system would allow to reduce, reuse, and redistribute the resources. Former food products (FFPs), also named ex-foods, could represent a valid option in strengthening resilience in animal nutrition. FFPs have a promising potential to be included regularly in animal diets due to their nutritive value, although their potential in animal nutrition remains understudied. A thorough investigation of the compositional and dietary features, thus, is essential to provide new and fundamental insights to effectively reuse FFPs as upgraded products for swine nutrition. Safety aspects, such as the microbial load or the presence of packaging remnants, should be considered with caution. Here, with a holistic approach, we review several aspects of FFPs and their use as feed ingredients: the nutritional and functional evaluation, the impact of the inclusion of FFPs in pigs' diet on growth performance and welfare, and further aspects related to safety and sustainability of FFPs.

Objectives Never-smoking women in Xuanwei (XW), China, have some of the highest lung cancer rates in the country. This has been attributed to the combustion of smoky coal used for indoor cooking and heating. The aim of this study was to evaluate the spectrum of cause-specific mortality in this unique population, including among those who use smokeless coal, considered ‘cleaner’ coal in XW, as this has not been well-characterised. Design Cohort study. Setting XW, a rural region of China where residents routinely burn coal for indoor cooking and heating. Participants Age-adjusted, cause-specific mortality rates between 1976 and 2011 were calculated and compared among lifetime smoky and smokeless coal users in a cohort of 42 420 men and women from XW. Mortality rates for XW women were compared with those for a cohort of predominately never-smoking women in Shanghai. Results Mortality in smoky coal users was driven by cancer (41%), with lung cancer accounting for 88% of cancer deaths. In contrast, cardiovascular disease (CVD) accounted for 32% of deaths among smokeless coal users, with 7% of deaths from cancer. Total cancer mortality was four times higher among smoky coal users relative to smokeless coal users, particularly for lung cancer (standardised rate ratio (SRR)=17.6). Smokeless coal users had higher mortality rates of CVD (SRR=2.9) and pneumonia (SRR=2.5) compared with smoky coal users. These patterns were similar in men and women, even though XW women rarely smoked cigarettes. Women in XW, regardless of coal type used, had over a threefold higher rate of overall mortality, and most cause-specific outcomes were elevated compared with women in Shanghai. Conclusions Cause-specific mortality burden differs in XW based on the lifetime use of different coal types. These observations provide evidence that eliminating all coal use for indoor cooking and heating is an important next step in improving public health particularly in developing countries.

The natatorium’s ventilation problem receives much concern because of its large wet load. The outdoor humidity ratio in transition season is the basic design parameter of the ventilation calculation, directly affecting the rationality of architectural design. At present, the ventilation-curve (V-C) method is the most widely used method to determine the outdoor humidity ratio in the transition season in China. However, due to failing to reflect non-guaranteed hours, the rationality of this value is difficult to assess by employing this approach. This paper presents a new method, the typical transition season method (TTS), for determining the outdoor humidity ratio in the transition season of a natatorium. The TTS method selects the transition season based on the typical meteorological year (TMY) data and calculates the outdoor humidity ratio with multiple non-guaranteed hours. This can well-represent the local perennial climate characteristics and clearly reflect the non-guaranteed hours. In this study, through selecting six typical representative cities in China, the evaluation of the outdoor humidity ratio is achieved through calculating ventilation volume and air change rate, verifying the rationality of this method. The results show that the humidity ratio obtained by the V-C method is lower than that obtained by the TTS method at about 2 g/kg without guarantee of 200 h humidity ratio, and even that the maximum difference is 6.64 g/kg. Meanwhile, the validation results of the ventilation calculation show that the humidity ratio determined by the V-C method cannot meet the minimum design requirements in five cities, while the humidity ratio obtained by the TTS method cannot meet the requirements in only one city.

It has been established in numerous cases that proteins which are exported from Escherichia coli are synthesized on membrane-bound polysomes in precursor forms which are proteolytically cleaved to generate the mature species. Here we present evidence that at least one step in the export of proteins requires energy. Energy requirements for processing of the precursors of both the M13 coat protein [Date, T., Zwizinski, C., Ludmerer, S., and Wickner, W. (1980) Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA, 77, 827-831; Date, T., Goodman, J. M., and Wickner, W. T. (1980) Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA, 77, 4669-4673] and the B subunit of heat-labile enterotoxin [Palva, T., Hirst, T. R., Hardy, S. J. S., Holmgren, J., and Randall, L. L. (1981) J. Bacteriol. in the press] have been demonstrated previously. An energy requirement for the proteolytic processing of an additional five exported proteins is reported here. Studies utilizing an uncA mutant suggest that the form of energy required is proton-motive force. Thus an energized membrane is probably essential for export of most periplasmic and outer membrane proteins.