n/a

Gas Turbines (GTs) are used extensively in pipelines to compress gas at suitable points. The primary objective of this study is to look at CO2 return pipelines and the close coupling of the compression system with advanced prime mover cycles. Adopting a techno-economic and environmental risk analysis (TERA) frame work, this study conducts the modelling and evaluation of CO2 compression power requirements for gas turbine driven equipment (pump and compressor). The author developed and validated subroutines to implement variable stators in an in-house GT simulation code known as Variflow in order to enhance the off-design performance simulation of the code. This modification was achieved by altering the existing compressor maps and main program algorithm of the code. Economic model based on the net present value (NPV) method, CO2 compressibility factor model based on the Peng-Robinson equation of state and pipeline hydraulic analysis model based on fundamental gas flow equation were also developed to facilitate the TERA of selected GT mechanical drives in two case scenarios. These case scenarios were specifically built around Turbomatch simulated GT design and off-design performance which ensure that the CO2 is introduced into the pipeline at the supercritical pressure as well as sustain the CO2 pressure above a minimum designated pressure during transmission along an adapted real life pipeline profile. The required compression duty for the maximum and minimum CO2 throughput as well as the operation site ambient condition, guided the selection of two GTs of 33.9 MW and 9.4 MW capacities. At the site ambient condition, the off design simulations of these GTs give an output of 25.9 MW and 7.6 MW respectively. Given the assumed economic parameters over a plant life of 25 years, the NPV for deploying the 33.9 MW GT is about £13.9M while that of the 9.4 MW GT is about £1.2M. The corresponding payback periods (PBPs) were 3 and 7 years respectively. Thus, a good return on investment is achieved within reasonable risk. The sensitivity analysis results show a NPV of about £19.1M - £24.3M and about £3.1M - £4.9M for the 33.9 MW and 9.4 MW GTs respectively over a 25 - 50% fuel cost reduction. Their PBPs were 3 - 2 years and 5 - 4 years respectively. In addition, as the CO2 throughput drops, the risk becomes higher with less return on investment. In fact, when the CO2 throughput drops to a certain level, the investment becomes highly unattractive and unable to payback itself within the assumed 25 years plant life. The hydraulic analysis results for three different pipe sizes of 24, 14 and 12¾ inch diameters show an increase in pressure drop with increase in CO2 throughput and a decrease in pressure drop with increase in pipe size for a given throughput. Owing to the effect of elevation difference, the 511 km long pipeline profile gives rise to an equivalent length of 511.52 km. Similarly, given the pipeline inlet pressure of 15 MPa and other assumed pipeline data, the 3.70 MTPY (0.27 mmscfd) maximum average CO2 throughput considered in the 12¾ inch diameter pipeline results in a delivery pressure of about 15.06 MPa. Under this condition, points of pressure spikes above the pipeline maximum operating allowable pressure (15.3 MPa) were obtained along the profile. Lowering the pipeline operating pressure to 10.5 MPa gives a delivery pressure of about 10.45 MPa within safe pressure limits. At this 10.5 MPa, over a flat pipeline profile of same length, the delivery pressure is about 10.4 MPa. Thus, given the operating conditions for the dense phase CO2 pipeline transmission and the limit of this study, it is very unlikely that a booster station will be required. So also, compressing the CO2 to 15 MPa may no longer be necessary; which eliminates the need of combining a compressor and pump for the initial pressure boost in order to save power. This is because, irrespective of the saving in energy, the increase in capital cost associated with obtaining a pump and suitable driver far outweighs the extra expense incurred in acquiring a rated GT mechanical drive to meet the compression duty.

Haemoglobin A1c is besides glucose the most requested analysis for diagnosing diabetes due to its ability to predict diseases that occur due a high blood sugar. The analysis has some limitations when a haemoglobin variant is present as they may cause falsely low or high results. In this study, we used whole blood from routine requested haemoglobin A1c samples for screening for haemoglobin variants with Capillarys 3 TERA. The samples with haemoglobin variants was then analysed with Cobas c501, Roche and Afinion, Alere for comparison of the methods. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of haemoglobin variants in the county of Uppsala by screening over 3000 haemoglobin A1c samples. Samples with known haemoglobin variant was analysed as above to compare the results with those found in our county to study the possibility to identify the haemoglobin variants with Capillarys 3 TERA. The presence of haemoglobin variants in the county of Uppsala was approximately 0.5%. Correlation between Cobas c501 and Capillarys 3 TERA was strong for samples with haemoglobin F (r = 0.988) and for the samples with haemoglobin variants the correlations coefficient was 0.94. Correlation coefficients between Afinion and Capillarys 3 TERA for samples with haemoglobin F was 0.987 and for the haemoglobin variant 0.937. The presence of haemoglobin variants in the county of Uppsala is still low. Capillarys 3 TERA is capable to separate the most common variants and despite the good correlation every haemoglobin variant needs to be handled separately and the results should be answered with a comment that there is a possibility that the haemoglobin variant is giving an incorrect result.

Syfte är att bidra med kunskap kring inverkan av det digitalt hjälpmedel TERA på livskvalité hos användaren. Studiens huvudfrågor är hur upplever den enskilda individen produktens inverkan på dess liv. Samt kan användning av TERA- AI skrivtolken minska den totala kostanden för skrivtolkningstjänster? Den empiriska studien visar en tydlig koppling mellan ökad livskvalité och användning av digitala AI tjänsten TERA. Granskning av kostnader för skrivtolkningstjänster och dess relation till digital transformation leder till slutsatsen att det finns stora potential för samhällsekonomisk besparing genom digitalisering av skrivtolkings tjänsten.

Au Niger, la maîtrise des ressources en eau demeure toujours un défi majeur après plus de 50 ans de politique hydraulique. Les investissements réalisés durant la Décennie Internationale de l’Eau Potable et de l’Assainissement (1981-1990) et les Objectifs du Millénaire pour le Développement (2000-2015) n’ont pas pu couvrir les besoins énormes en eau. Le déficit en infrastructures se pose au niveau de toutes les composantes du secteur de l’hydraulique. Les besoins en eau de plus en plus croissants et l’insuffisance des investissements publics pour y faire face expliquent ce sous-équipement en infrastructures hydrauliques. Au niveau de la commune urbaine de Téra, au-delà de la forte croissance démographique et de l’insuffisance des investissements dans le secteur de l’eau, il faut ajouter les contraintes climatiques et hydrogéologiques dans l’analyse de la situation hydraulique. Dans la ville de Téra, la précarité hydrique est due à un déficit considérable de production d’eau et à un réseau de distribution d’eau inadapté au site de la ville. Ainsi, de décembre à août, les trois quarts de la ville, principalement les quartiers Carré, Résidence, Douane, TP et Guenobon restent sans être desservis en eau. En milieu rural, l’insuffisance des points d’eau, leur localisation par rapport aux villages et le temps de rétention assez court (3 à 4 mois) des plans d’eau entraînent une situation d’extrême précarité hydrique qui bouleverse la vie socio-économique. En ville comme en campagne, en dépit des différences territoriales et des modalités d’accès à l’eau, les populations vivent le même niveau de précarité hydrique et y apportent les mêmes types de solutions. Elles recourent ainsi aux points d’eau traditionnels et développent une solidarité hydraulique à travers la mutualisation des points d’eau entre quartiers, entre villages et entre ville-villages. Mais, avec cette situation hydraulique particulièrement précaire réduisant systématiquement la pratique des activités économiques et la satisfaction des besoins humains fondamentaux, les défis de développement local deviennent de plus en plus lourds pour la commune urbaine de Téra. / In Niger, water resource management remains a major challenge after more than 50 years of water policy. Thus, the investments carried out during the International Decade of Driking Water and Sanitation (1981-1990) and the Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) could not meet the enormous needs of water. The infrastructure deficit is being faced by all components of the hydraulic sector. The growing demand for water and insufficient public investment to meet it explain this under-equipment in water infrastructure. At the level of the urban district of Tera, in addition to the strong demographic growth and insufficient investments in the water sector, climatic and hydrogeological constraints must be added to the analysis of the hydraulic situation. In the city of Tera, the hydrous precariousness is due to a considerable lack of water production and an inadequate water distribution network at the city site. Thus, from december to august, three-quarters of the city, mainly the Carré, Résidence, Douane, TP and Guenobon neighbourhoods remain underserved. In rural areas, the insufficiency of water supply points, their location in relation to villages to the villages and the rather short time of retention (3 à 4 months) of lakes defines a situation of extreme hydrous precariousness which affects the socio-economic life. In town as in the countryside, despite the territorial differences and water access methods, the populations face the same level of hydrous precariousness and adopt the same types of solutions. Thus, they resort to the traditional water supply points and develop a hydraulic solidarity through the mutualisation of water supply points between districts, villages, villages and city. However, with this particularly precarious hydraulic situation systematically reducing the practice of economic activities and the satisfaction of the fundamental human needs, the challenges of local development become increasingly heavy for the urban district of Tera.

Although there have been two-dimensional electrophoretic studies on fetal brain tissue (for instance, Yoshida and Takahashi, 1980), the emphasis in most of this work has been on developmental changes in protein expression, and not on the effects that drugs have on fetal brain protein complement. Klose and co-workers (1977) did an early study using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis to determine the effects of various teratogens on whole embryos. No protein changes were found and that line of research was not continued. In this study two-dimensional gel electrophoresis is extensively used, in the belief that the usefulness of this technique to experimental teratology has not been fully evaluated. It is reasonable to suppose that a central nervous system teratogen administered during critical periods of susceptibility will led to perturbations of orderly brain development, and that these perturbations will be reflected as changes to the protein complement. The total brain protein complement of mice that have been exposed to drugs in utero will therefore be analysed, in the hope that any inductions or deletions of proteins as a result of drug exposure may provide a clue to the molecular events underlying drug injury to the fetus.