Energy intake and energy expenditure in elite lightweight female rowers

Purpose: The training program undertaken by many athletes will affect directly the total, habitual energy requirements of that individual. Unless that energy requirement is met via the diet and or supplementation, chronic negative energy balance will ensue, which will have both short-term and long-term effects not only on performance but also on general health. The aim of this research was therefore to determine the energy expenditure (EE) and hence energy requirements of lightweight female rowers and, further, to compare this with their self-reported energy intake (EI). Methods: The El of seven lightweight female rowers was measured using a self-reported 4-d weighed dietary record. EE was determined using the doubly labeled water (DLW) technique over a 14-d period. Results: The mean (+/-SD) age, height, and weight of the subjects was 20 (+/-1.1) yr, 168.8 (+/-4.7) cm, and 60.9 (+/-23) kg, respectively. The rowers self-reported El was 2214 (+/-313) kcal.d(-1) and their total EE was 3957 (+/-1219) kcal.d(-1). After adjusting total EE for changes in body weight (mean (+/-SD) - 1.2 (+/-1.2) kg), the comparison between adjusted El and reported showed a bias to underreporting of 1133 (+/-1539) kcal.d(-1) or 34%. The bias was not consistent across adjusted El, and two of the seven subjects overreported their intake. Conclusions: Due to the underreporting of EI, diet recording may not be an appropriate way of assessing energy requirements in lightweight female rowers. A benefit of accurately determining energy requirements, as with DLW, is that female lightweight rowers will be able to successfully manipulate their EI and achieve the set weight cut-off for participation without compromising their health or performance.

Total Daily Energy Expenditure and Incidence of Upper Respiratory Tract Infection Symptoms in Young Females

A group of 31 young females, tennis players and non-athletes, aged 16 2 years (range: 14 - 21 years), with a wide range of physical activity levels was used to investigate the relationship between total daily energy expenditure and the incidence of upper respiratory tract infection symptoms. Methods: During a 12 week winter period, habitual daily activity (excluding training) was evaluated using a 3-day physical activity record. Tennis training was quantified using a validated method of estimating energy expenditure during play. Total daily energy expenditure was calculated from the sum of daily training plus mean habitual daily activity energy expenditures. The total group of subjects was divided in quartiles for total daily energy expenditure. A validated symptom checklist was used to assess the incidence and severity of upper respiratory tract infections, on a daily basis. Results: The girls in the highest quartile of total daily energy expenditure (greater than or equal to 17322 kJ/day) and in the lowest quartile (less than or equal to 10 047 kJ/day) had the greatest incidence of URTI symptomatology, although the moderately active girls in quartile three (12290-16410 kJ/day) presented the lowest incidence. Significant differences in number of upper respiratory tract infection episodes, sickness days and symptomatology index were found between quartiles three and one (p < 0.05) and quartiles three and four (p < 0.01). Peak severity of symptoms was significantly lower in quartile three compared with all other quartiles (p < 0.05).

A methodology for building energy modelling and calibration in warm climates

In the last 7 years, a method has been developed to analyse building energy performance using computer simulation, in Brazil. The method combines analysis of building design plans and documentation, walk-through visits, electric and thermal measurements and the use of an energy simulation tool (DOE-2.1E code), The method was used to model more than 15 office buildings (more than 200 000 m(2)), located between 12.5degrees and 27.5degrees South latitude. The paper describes the basic methodology, with data for one building and presents additional results for other six cases. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Total energy expenditure and body composition changes following peripheral blood stem cell transplantation and participation in an exercise programme

The purpose of this investigation was to assess changes in total energy expenditure (TEE), body weight (BW) and body composition following a peripheral blood stem cell transplant and following participation in a 3-month duration, moderate-intensity, mixed-type exercise programme. The doubly labelled and singly labelled water methods were used to measure TEE and total body water (TBW). Body weight and TBW were then used to calculate percentage body fat (%BF), and fat and fat-free mass (FFM). TEE and body composition measures were assessed pretransplant (PI), immediately post-transplant (PII) and 3 months post-PII (PIII). Following PII, 12 patients were divided equally into a control group (CG) or exercise intervention group (EG). While there was no change in TEE between pre- and post-transplant, BW (P

Resting energy expenditure and body composition in children with myelomeningocele

Purpose : Myelomeningocele is a complex disease often complicated by obesity for reasons not well understood. The objectives of this study were to determine body composition and energy expenditure of children with MMC. Methods : Resting energy expenditure (REE), body composition and anthropometry were measured in 19 children with MMC (12 M, 7 F). Total energy expenditure (TEE) was estimated using a 3-day activity record. Energy intake (EI) was measured in seven children (5 M, 2 F) with MMC. Data were then compared with predicted values. Results : Mean REE ( n = 19) was 4680 ±1452 kJ/day (96.1 ±18.1% of predicted REE). The range was large (45.8-125.7% of predicted REE). TEE ( n = 7) was 4344 ±2376 kJ/day, hence only 73 34% of predicted TEE. EI ( n = 7) was 6560 ±1329 kJ/day, approximating a normal energy requirement. Overall, BCM was lower than expected values. Conclusions : REE in children with MMC is variable when compared to predicted values. TEE was found to be lower in children with MMC than predicted values and EI was similar to predicted values in this group of seven children. BCM is reduced in children with MMC when compared to expected values.

Intelligent multi-player smart grid management considering distributed energy resources and demand response

The smart grid concept is rapidly evolving in the direction of practical implementations able to bring smart grid advantages into practice. Evolution in legacy equipment and infrastructures is not sufficient to accomplish the smart grid goals as it does not consider the needs of the players operating in a complex environment which is dynamic and competitive in nature. Artificial intelligence based applications can provide solutions to these problems, supporting decentralized intelligence and decision-making. A case study illustrates the importance of Virtual Power Players (VPP) and multi-player negotiation in the context of smart grids. This case study is based on real data and aims at optimizing energy resource management, considering generation, storage and demand response.

Simulation model for driving dynamics, energy use and power supply

Dissertação para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica Ramo de Energia

The daily and hourly energy consumption and load forecasting using artifitial neural network method: a case study using a set of 93 households in Portugal

It is important to understand and forecast a typical or a particularly household daily consumption in order to design and size suitable renewable energy systems and energy storage. In this research for Short Term Load Forecasting (STLF) it has been used Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and, despite the consumption unpredictability, it has been shown the possibility to forecast the electricity consumption of a household with certainty. The ANNs are recognized to be a potential methodology for modeling hourly and daily energy consumption and load forecasting. Input variables such as apartment area, numbers of occupants, electrical appliance consumption and Boolean inputs as hourly meter system were considered. Furthermore, the investigation carried out aims to define an ANN architecture and a training algorithm in order to achieve a robust model to be used in forecasting energy consumption in a typical household. It was observed that a feed-forward ANN and the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm provided a good performance. For this research it was used a database with consumption records, logged in 93 real households, in Lisbon, Portugal, between February 2000 and July 2001, including both weekdays and weekend. The results show that the ANN approach provides a reliable model for forecasting household electric energy consumption and load profile. © 2014 The Author.

Electric vehicles as a mean to reduce, energy, emissions and electricity costs

Electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), which obtain their fuel from the grid by charging a battery, are set to be introduced into the mass market and expected to contribute to oil consumption reduction. This research is concerned with studying the potential impacts on the electric utilities of large-scale adoption of plug-in electric vehicles from the perspective of electricity demand, fossil fuels use, CO2 emissions and energy costs. Simulations were applied to the Portuguese case study in order to analyze what would be the optimal recharge profile and EV penetration in an energy-oriented, an emissions-oriented and a cost-oriented objective. The objectives considered were: The leveling of load profiles, minimization of daily emissions and minimization of daily wholesale costs. Almost all solutions point to an off-peak recharge and a 50% reduction in daily wholesale costs can be verified from a peak recharge scenario to an off-peak recharge for a 2 million EVs in 2020. A 15% improvement in the daily total wholesale costs can be verified in the costs minimization objective when compared with the off-peak scenario result.

Influence of curing conditions in lime-metakaolin blended mortars – A mineralogical and mechanical study

3rd Historic Mortars Conference, 11-14 September 2013, Glasgow, Scotland

Electrodialytic remediation of two types of air pollution control residues and their applicability in construction materials

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia do Ambiente Perfil de Engenharia de Sistemas Ambientais

A DSL for querying building data streams of energy, eeather and occupation data

The superfluous consumption of energy is faced by the modern society as a Socio-Economical and Environmental problem of the present days. This situation is worsening given that it is becoming clear that the tendency is to increase energy price every year. It is also noticeable that people, not necessarily proficient in technology, are not able to know where savings can be achieved, due to the absence of accessible awareness mechanisms. One of the home user concerns is to balance the need of reducing energy consumption, while producing the same activity with all the comfort and work efficiency. The common techniques to reduce the consumption are to use a less wasteful equipment, altering the equipment program to a more economical one or disconnecting appliances that are not necessary at the moment. However, there is no direct feedback from this performed actions, which leads to the situation where the user is not aware of the influence that these techniques have in the electrical bill. With the intension to give some control over the home consumption, Energy Management Systems (EMS) were developed. These systems allow the access to the consumption information and help understanding the energy waste. However, some studies have proven that these systems have a clear mismatch between the information that is presented and the one the user finds useful for his daily life, leading to demotivation of use. In order to create a solution more oriented towards the user’s demands, a specially tailored language (DSL) was implemented. This solution allows the user to acquire the information he considers useful, through the construction of questions about his energy consumption. The development of this language, following the Model Driven Development (MDD) approach, took into consideration the ideas of facility managers and home users in the phases of design and validation. These opinions were gathered through meetings with experts and a survey, which was conducted to the purpose of collecting statistics about what home users want to know.

NHL 3.5 mortars with scrap tire rubber

The use of wastes and industrial by-products as building materials is an important issue in order to decrease costs with waste management and the embodied energy of building products. Scrap tire rubber has been studied as aggregate for cementitious materials. Natural hydraulic limes are natural binders with particular characteristics of both air and hydraulic binders. Their specifications became stricter with the last version of EN 459-1:2010. In this study scrap tire rubber was used as additional aggregate of mortars, based on NHL3.5 and natural sand. Different particle size fractions and proportions of scrap tire rubber were used: a mix obtained almost directly from industry (only after sieving for preparation of particle sizes similar to mortar aggregate) and separated fine, medium and coarse fractions; 0%, 18%, 36% and 54% weight of binder, corresponding to 2.5%, 5% and 7.5% weight of sand. The influence of the rubbers´ additions on the mortars´ fresh state, mechanical and physical performance is presented, namely by flow table consistency, water retention, fresh bulk density, dynamic elasticity modulus, flexural and compressive strength, open porosity and bulk density, capillary absorption, drying and thermal conductivity. The use of the rubber mix coming from the waste tire industry seems advantageous and may open possibilities for use as raw material by the mortars industry.

Natural hydraulic lime (nhl3.5) mortars with scrap tire rubber

The use of wastes and industrial by-products as building materials is an important issue in order to decrease costs with waste management and the embodied energy of building products. In this study scrap tire rubber was used as additional aggregate of mortars based on natural hydraulic lime NHL 3.5 and natural sand. Different particle size fractions and proportions of scrap tire rubber were used: a mix obtained directly from industry and separated fine, medium and coarse fractions; 0 %, 18 %, 36 % and 54 % of the weight of binder, corresponding to 2.5 %, 5 % and 7.5 % of the weight of sand. As mortars based on NHL specifications became stricter with the current version of EN 459–1:2015, the influence of the rubber’s additions on the mortars’ fresh state, mechanical and physical performance is presented in this work: flow table consistency, water retention, dynamic elasticity modulus, flexural and compressive strength, open porosity and bulk density, capillary absorption, drying and thermal conductivity are studied. The use of the rubber mix coming from the waste tire industry seems advantageous and may open possibilities for use as raw material by the mortars industry.