Solar power generation intermittency and aggregation.

The inherent intermittency of solar power due to diurnal and seasonal cycles has usually resulted in the need for alternative generation sources thereby increasing system operation costs. However, when solar power is spread over a large geographical area with significant time differences, the intermittency can be significantly reduced and also the electricity market balancing cost. The aim of this article is to address the fundamental scientific question on how the intermittency of solar power generation is affected by aggregation, which is of great interest in the wider power and energy community and would have profound impacts on the solar energy integration into the energy supply and Net-Zero Implementation.

A Guide to Performance Evaluation for the Intensivist: Ongoing Professional Practice Evaluation and Focused Professional Practice Evaluation in the ICU.

Objectives: In 2008, The Joint Commission implemented a new standard mandating a detailed evaluation of a provider's performance. The Ongoing Professional Practice Evaluation was designed to provide ongoing performance evaluation as opposed to periodic evaluation. The Focused Professional Practice Evaluation was designed to evaluate the performance of providers new to the medical staff or providers who are requesting new privileges.

Using briefing, simulation and debriefing to improve human and system performance.

Safety, effectiveness and efficiency are keys to performance in all high-risk industries; healthcare is no exception, and neonatal-perinatal medicine is one of the highest risk subspecialties within healthcare. Briefing, simulation and debriefing are methods used by professionals in high-risk industries to reduce the overall risk to life and enhance the safety of the human beings involved in receiving and delivering the services provided by those industries. Although relatively new to neonatal-perinatal medicine, briefing, simulation and debriefing are being practiced with increasing frequency and have become embedded in training exercises such as the Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

Using Incentives to Improve Resource Utilization: A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of an ICU Quality Improvement Program.

Objectives: Healthcare systems strive to provide quality care at lower cost. Arterial blood gas testing, chest radiographs, and RBC transfusions provide an important example of opportunities to reduce excess resource utilization within the ICU. We describe the effect of a multifaceted quality improvement program designed to decrease the avoidable arterial blood gases, chest radiographs, and RBC utilization on utilization of these resources and patient outcomes.

Structure and properties of neutral and cationic gold(III) complexes from substituted 2-(2'-pyridyl)quinoline ligands.

A one-step catalytic synthesis of 6-substituted 4-phenyl-2-(2'-pyridyl)quinolines provides electronically differentiated ligands without solvent, inert atmosphere, metal contamination, or chromatography. Gold(III) complexes formed from these bidentate PyQuin ligands were characterized and studied by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The cationic gold(III) chloride synthesized from 6-methoxy-4-phenyl-2-(2'-pyridyl)quinoline has a distorted square-planar ligand environment.

Application of fractal flocculation and vertical transport model to aquatic sol-sediment systems.

In estuarine and coastal environments, flocculation occurs between particles of different fractal dimensions and of different densities. Questions remain concerning the level of detail required to model particle flocculation and settling in these heterogeneous systems. This paper compares the goodness of fit between two flocculation models, using measured time series particle size distribution data collected from clay, colloidal silica, emulsified crude oil, clay-crude oil, and silica-crude oil systems.

Modeling crude oil droplet-sediment aggregation in nearshore waters.

This paper describes a modeling approach that simulates changes in particle size distribution and density due to aggregation by extending the Smoluchowski aggregation kinetic model to particles of different density. Batch flocculation studies were conducted for clay, colloidal silica, crude oil, clay-crude oil, and silica-crude oil systems. A parameter estimation algorithm was used to estimate homogeneous collision efficiencies (alphaHOMO) for single-particle-type systems and heterogeneous collision efficiencies (alphaHET) for two-particle-type systems.

Bullying in college by students and teachers.

This study explored bullying in college by students and teachers. The reports of a sample of 1,025 undergraduates indicated that 24.7% had seen students bully other students occasionally and 2.

Chemical dispersant effectiveness testing: influence of droplet coalescence.

Thermodynamic and kinetic investigations were performed to determine the influence of coalescence of chemically dispersed crude oil droplets in saline waters. For the range of pH (4-10) and salinity (10 per thousand, 30 per thousand, 50 per thousand ) values studied, zeta-potential values ranged from -3 to -10 mV. As the interaction potential values calculated using Derjaguin-Landau-Verway-Overbeek (DLVO) theory were negative, the electrostatic barrier did not produce significant resistance to droplet coalescence.

Characterizing aquatic sediment-oil aggregates using in situ instruments.

The effects of emulsified crude oil and salinity (15, 30 per thousand ) on the steady state aggregate volume distributions and fractal dimensions were determined for a range of mean velocity gradients, (G(m) =5-50 s(-1)). Aggregation was performed in a 40-L cylindrical tank with a 4-blade paddle mixer. Three-dimensional fractal dimensions (D3) and volume distributions were determined using a procedure integrating data from an electrozone and an in situ light scattering instrument.

Partitioning of crude oil polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in aquatic systems.

This paper investigates the hypothesis that observed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) concentrations in an aqueous system are equal to the sum of the organic phase and soluble phase molar concentrations. While the organic phase concentrations are proportional to the PAH mole fraction in the oil, the soluble phase molar concentrations are estimated using Raoult's law. A batch laboratory mixing vessel with a scalable mixing energy was loaded initially at various oil layer thicknesses (0.