Meeting, Incentive travel, Convention, Exhibition (MICE) industries recently introduced new information systems, such as the exhibition guide system (EGS), to keep pace with Smart MICE and maximize ...the effect of exhibition performance. We investigate how persuasive EGS can affect the EGS acceptance of attendees via cognitive and affective response. We analyzed data from 442 EGS users at an exhibition. We found that information accuracy, information relevance, and source credibility were predictors of cognitive response. Source credibility had a significant effect on affective response. Furthermore, cognitive response was found to be a positive predictor of affective response and EGS acceptance. We also found affective response is a predictor of EGS acceptance. The theoretical and practical implications of the study were presented based on the results.
The European EGS project of Soultz-sous-Forets (France) which was first investigated in 1987 is aimed at producing power by the extraction of the heat stored in deep, fractured crystalline rocks. ...Extensive research and development contributed to get a better understanding of the geothermal reservoir: large-scale hydrothermal circulation occurs within a network of large permeable faults developed within a Tertiary graben. 3 deep wells have been drilled down to 5 km depth, where a rock temperature of 200degC was reached. At the bottom depth, the horizontal distance between the producing wells is over 1.3 km length, knowing that the injection well is located in the middle. Several hydraulic and chemical stimulations were performed and combined in order to reactivate the system of fractures, which are often sealed by natural hydrothermal deposits. This led to improvement of injectivity and productivity of the wells. After a successful 5-months circulation test done in 2005, we are now building a pilot power plant. Two types of production pumps will be tested for this purpose and a first ORC conversion module of 1.5 MWe will be installed and tested in the beginning of 2008. If the results are promising, a second module should be later installed.
The first circulation test of an Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) in Australia was conducted from December 2008 to February 2009 at Cooper Basin, South Australia by Geodynamics Limited. The ...circulation test involved circulating fluid (~14 kg s-1) between an injection well, Habanero #1, and a production well, Habanero #3, for about 66.5 days through a closed-loop system in order to characterize the connection between the wells. During the circulation test, the production fluids for tracer test and geochemical analysis were collected at a sampling panel after a cooling tower near the re-injection well Habanero #1. The tracer ‘breakthrough’ occurred after 4 days and the volume at peak was about 9,000 m3. The tracer-swept pore volume was calculated to be 18,500 m3 and the fraction of tracer returned was 0.78. From the results of fluid geochemistry during the circulation test, the average concentration of Na, K and Cl was 5,107 mg/l, 694 mg/l, and 8,885 mg/l, respectively. These values were slightly higher than those of the production well Habanero #3 of the previous open-flow production test. This is considered to be due to the dissolution of feldspars in the granite at reservoir depth.
A report of communications of the 10th Meeting of SIOG (International Society for Geriatric Oncology) Berlin, Germany, October 15–17, 2009, focusing on specific issues in evaluation, treatment and ...toxicities for elderly patients in the areas of colorectal, breast, lung and ovarian cancer.
Résumé: Cet article est un compte rendu des communications du 10e Congrès de la Société internationale d’oncologie gériatrique (SIOG), Berlin, Allemagne, 15–17 octobre 2009, portant sur les enjeux spécifiques de l’évaluation, du traitement, des toxicités des traitements chez les patients âgés dans les domaines du cancer colorectal, du cancer du sein, du cancer du poumon et du cancer de l’ovaire.
The market for environmental goods and services in Mexico almost doubled in size between 1995 and 2005, amounting to $4.7 billion in 2005. But just how large a role did the North American Free Trade ...Agreement (NAFTA) play directly in this cycle? According to environmental industry participants in Mexico, while not meaningless, the NAFTA law and its implementation were not a major factor in directly driving environmental market growth. First, the environmental market grew only marginally higher than the gross domestic product (GDP) during 1995-2005. Second, it was largely two factors that paced the environmental market growth: an increase in certain domestic environmental programs that largely separate from NAFTA and an influx of foreign manufacturers into Mexico, some of which brought a higher standard of environmental operations with them. Drivers of environmental markets are both economic and regulatory, and in both instances, they are multifaceted, so that no one policy instrument or economic trend is solely responsible for major trends within the environmental industry. However, it is apparent that NAFTA has had some role in accelerating the evolution of environmental markets in Mexico, but arguably a lesser influence than it could have been. Notably, NAFTA had little impact on stimulating growth on the domestic environmental industry in Mexico as trade deficits increased during 1995-2005. The lesson for policymakers may be that trade agreements need some more active entity in assuring not just some uniformity in environmental standards and in the compliance with same, but also in the environmental industry capacity to meet those compliance objectives.
It has already been proved by many studies that surgical revascularization definitely helps in curing the symptoms of moyamoya vasculopathy. In this regard, we present a case of moyamoya disease ...which was cured by concurrent multiple anastomotic procedures, namely superficial temporal artery (STA), middle cerebral artery (MCA) anastomosis, encephalomyosynangiosis (EMS) and encephalogaleosynangiosis (EGS). A 24-year-old woman presented with symptoms of cerebral ischemia. Thorough investigation with MRA and MRI revealed moyamoya vasculopathy and was confirmed by cerebral angiogram. Multiple concurrent combined anastomotic procedures on both sides relieved the symptoms, which was also confirmed angiographically. A Combination of multiple direct and indirect procedures covers the whole ischemic cortical area and provides effective neovascularization.
Evolutionary multiobjective optimization with decomposition, in which the algorithm is not required to differentiate between the dominated and nondominated solutions, is one of the promising ...approaches in dealing with multiple conflicting objectives. In this paper, the estimation of distribution algorithm (EDA) is integrated into the decomposition framework. The search behavior of the algorithm is further enhanced by hybridizing local search metaheuristic approaches with the decomposition EDA. Three local search techniques, including hill climbing, simulated annealing, and evolutionary gradient search, are considered. A novel multiobjective formulation of the multiple traveling salesman problem is proposed. The hybrid algorithms are used to solve the formulated problem with different number of objective functions, salesmen, and problem sizes. The effectiveness and efficiency of the algorithms are tested and benchmarked against several state-of-the-art multiobjective evolutionary paradigms.
Substation auxiliary loads such as lighting, battery charging and heating need a low voltage (LV) supply. If there is a loss of LV supply to the auxiliary loads the substation is shut down. Over 90% ...of Eskom Main Transmission Substations use 315 kVA tertiary windings of large power transformers to supply the substation auxiliary loads. In a switching substation there are no large power transformers. The current options to supply the substation auxiliary loads are either too costly or unreliable. This paper describes the configuration of a Transmission Switching Substation (TSS) auxiliary system as an islanded and optimized microgrid. The hybrid of solar PV and battery with a back-up diesel generator was optimized using the HOMER Pro software.
