A Greener Malta

The facts are clear: Malta has a challenge. It needs to build up a 10% electricity generation from renewables by 2020. Beyond that, it needs cleaner air, cleverer homes, and a consistent power source for its people and economy. The big question is how can we enjoy Malta’s newly won benefits of the developing world without compromising our environment? This challenge motivates researchers worldwide. Malta is doing its bit in environmental engineering: developing green skies, green energy, green homes, and the opportunity for a green Malta.

Greener Skies

Nearly 100,000 commercial flights take off every day worldwide causing 2% of man-made carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per year. In Malta, over one million tourists visit each year and flights are critical in connecting an island to the outside world. How can we address Malta’s economic needs with a growing public concern on airplane pollution, noise, and contribution towards climate change? A €1.6 billion Clean Sky project funded by the European Commission is trying to make this apparent conflict work. It brings together major European industrial partners, research establishments, and academia to develop breakthrough technologies for the air transport industry. In Malta, the Department of Electronic Systems Engineering is optimising flight paths known as trajectories.

The idea: reduce a plane’s flight path, reduce the time it is airborne, lower CO2 release. Computer algorithms can find a plane’s best trajectory and minimise air pollutants and noise. Malta is handling a part of the software development to optimise flight paths. The purpose of the software platform being developed by the Maltese team is to allow partners to bring together their optimisation models and tools. This will allow the international consortium to solve the complex algorithms that come with flight trajectory problems. 

Another project called Clean Flight is tackling local airplane flight paths. Current flight trajectory calculations are based on lowering costs. This does not necessarily mean that these trajectories provide the least pollution for our skies. Clean Flight’s approach is to lower flight costs by being green. Usually these two qualities match: burn less fuel, spend less, pollute less. Commercial aircrafts should have new flight paths for Malta. 

Harnessing the winds

Every time we switch on an appliance at home or at our workplace we are consuming energy. And energy means money and pollution. Pollution can be nullified by using renewables. Denmark, famous for windmills, has invested heavily in wind energy. By 2011 it generated around 26% of the total electricity demand through wind farms. Denmark also has one of the lowest electricity prices in the EU.

360_windmills_0731
An offshore windmill farm located in the Oeresund, three km from Copenhagen harbour.

Wind energy’s success has come with a backlash. The rapid increase in land use has caused public outcry on despoiling views, animal activists are worried about bird deaths, and increased pressure on limited land availability. In Malta land is of premium value. Green and open spaces are limited. Out at sea these problems could disappear and floating offshore wind structures may provide accessibility to deeper waters. Deeper seas have other plusses. Out there, the wind speeds are higher and more consistent, which makes electricity generation more realistic. The flipside is the expense in sending the precious electrical energy back to shore to power homes.

Floating wind turbines may be the key to fulfil Malta’s renewable energy targets. Malta has agreed to a 10% electricity generation from renewables by 2020 with the EU. If the country fails to meet its target it will be smacked with a huge fine.To give more opportunities for the government to reach this target the Faculty of Engineering is pushing new research into wind energy. There are major differences between floating and fixed offshore structures. Waves cause ever changing stresses on the turbine’s structure and bobbing movement could change the turbine blades’ aerodynamics that reduces power output.

The researchers at the Faculty’s Fluids Lab are testing a model floating wind turbine. Till now, the experiments have examined the change in power experienced by a wind turbine’s rotors when bobbing up and down on waves. The data has been inputted into a computer model to simulate large-scale floating wind farms. By simulating the air flow the drop in generation can be better understood. The simulations are based on the application of free-wake vortex methods. Since the air flow changes with the oscillation of the platform and therefore with time, these methods are capable of capturing the changes in the wake formed by the rotor.

Large wind farms face the problem of having generators and gearboxes mounted on each turbine at great cost. Instead the energy generation could be centralised, with individual turbines pumping seawater towards a central station which makes use of a positive displacement pump. This concept would mean that a centralised hydroelectric power station could be located on our shores.

Replacing every wind turbine’s gearbox and generator with a hydraulic pump offers many advantages. It reduces expense, by minimising the number of moving parts’ maintenance costs, and make a lighter turbine. Wind farms that pump water could also be easier to combine with wave energy, energy storage systems, and reverse osmosis plants that use up a big chunk of Malta’s electricity to make drinking water from the Mediterranean.

“Floating wind turbines may be the key to fulfill Malta’s renewable energy targets”

The only way is up

Normally we think of wind turbines as a tall central structure with a generator on top and propeller-style blades powering everything. But this is not the only possibility. Blades can spin around the turbines’ central structure doing away with expensive maintenance costs and complex gears to turn the blades into the wind. These Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) do not need to be oriented into a specific wind direction. Their problem is a requirement for higher wind speeds before they start to spin.QR5-VAWT

Dr Ing. Pierluigi Mollicone is coordinating a project that is coming up with new design concepts for this type of wind turbine. By working with both local academics and industrial players, a state-of-the-art design has to improve both the starting speed and the capability of controlling the turbine at varying wind speeds. Starting off from a conceptual idea, the design is then detailed and developed in the first step to make a wind turbine. The computer design then needs to be tested for aerodynamics and structural integrity—does it spin well and can it take a beating? The computational model then needs to be translated into a real world structure and tested in a wind tunnel, with further experiments back and forth needed to come up with a new wind turbine.

Malta’s very own windmill: restarted

The Raddiena or Chicago windmill is a well-known sight in rural Malta. These windmills harness the winds to draw water from the water table and irrigate fields. In 2001, 300 windmills were listed across Malta and Gozo. Unfortunately, the introduction of electricity has led farmers to abandon this clean source. Many windmills are gradually deteriorating. Dr Ing. Tonio Sant (Department of Mechanical Engineering) and his team are developing a new wind turbine concept to replace these badly damaged Chicago windmills. Together with the Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs they are upgrading the rotor design structure’s aerodynamics to improve water-pumping efficiency. At the same time, the researchers want to maintain the original visual appeal of a multi-bladed rotor. The turbine will also produce electricity and be grid-connected. It won’t just pump up water but also provide clean energy.

Green Homes

Malta is covered in houses. Covering their roofs with PV (photovoltaic) panels is a way we could all help by making renewable energy. In the past five years, Malta has seen a drastic increase in PV panel use. Electricity generation is shifting from a centralised power station to our homes. Distributed generation is characterised by small-scale electricity generation, deployed near the point of use: our homes.

Currently our national grid cannot handle large PV installations. The stability of the grid may be compromised leading to power outages. And we all know what being in the dark for a few hours means. No Internet, no TV, no cold drinks in summer. The storage of electric energy can be used to balance the generation and consumption demands for a single household or company. Excess energy generated during periods of high generation can be stored. This stored energy can then be used when supply cannot meet demand, perhaps when using several heaters on a cloudy day.

Microgrids can solve these challenges. These grids are low voltage (electrical distribution within a home) or medium voltage (electrical distribution within a neighborhood) electrical distribution networks designed to supply small electrical loads. They are needed to hook up PV panels to a small community like a housing estate, university, schools, shopping mall, or industrial area. They consist of three major components. The homes equipped with PV or wind turbine installations, systems to store the energy generated, and other electricity users connected to the grid.

Microgrids generate energy near where it will be used. This increases reliability and reduces losses due to long transmission lines. Microgrids can also be used to provide electricity in remote locations unconnected to a main grid. Researchers are developing new methods to reliably operate and control microgrids across an island. They want to implement a low voltage microgrid capable of reliable operation that is connected to the national grid.

Many households have PV panels and solar water heaters. Local researchers are combining the two systems. For a sunny country like Malta, such a system makes perfect sense. One major advantage of a combined system is efficient conversion of concentrated solar energy to heat energy. The homeowner can then flip a switch to either generate electricity or heat water.

A parabolic trough, a curved surface, is used to focus the sun’s rays onto a fluid. The heated fluid can reach temperatures of up to 300°C. Hot enough to power a stirling engine used to generate electricity or pump water.

Greener Seas

6059572064_282c5b10dd_z
il-Qala ta’ San Niklaw, Comino

The Mediterranean has over 150 million people living on its coast. A quarter of a million fishermen live off its fish. Even closer to home, the sea around Malta sees one third of the world’s shipping. The only way this sea can survive is by knowing how much we are polluting and exploiting it by monitoring it. Then the effect needs to be evaluated and the situation managed by administrators around the Sea to balance development and environmental health.

A study that will help gather information about maritime traffic across the Straits of Sicily is being carried out by the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the University of Catania. By quantifying the emissions produced, they will find out the consequences of these emissions on the local plant and animal life. The project aims at supporting the monitoring of pollution at sea in the Straits of Sicily and so contributing to future legislation at national and European level.

Engineers designed a towfish that will be used to monitor a number of pollutants in the Mediterranean Sea. A towfish is an underwater platform that is towed behind a surface boat and can reach a depth of 50m. The towfish will be equipped with an HD camera that can take images of zooplankton and phytoplankton in order to study colonies that exist in the Straits of Sicily. Another HD camera will be used to monitor swarms of jellyfish and their location.

A Green Malta

Pollution bothers everyone with dirty atmospheres and smelly odours. Pollution also makes us sick and causes many health problems including birth defects, and burdens health institutes. We all have a role to play to protect and safeguard our environment. Whether it is our skies, seas, or our homes we all have to do our part. A greener Malta means a greener future for all of us.

In 30 years’ time the electric energy we use in our homes and at the workplace will come mainly from renewable energy sources. We will all be driving electric vehicles. The familiar black clouds of smoke from dirty engines will be a thing of the past. But these advances in technology will not be possible without government funding, industrial collaboration, and the sweat of engineers and researchers to find exciting solutions to power nations and our green homes. 

Watch more here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwCNHvD2gqY

Hotline Miami

Game Review_Costantino

Push start. Grab a weapon. Get shot. Repeat… ad infinitum. ‘Punishing’ hardly describes a session of Hotline Miami. Typically, within 10 seconds you could die three or four times. It is just as frustrating as it is challenging. Addictively, you will not give up until you pass that sneaky little passage. 

Hotline Miami is an ultra-violent, psychotic game, where your only aim is to kill all the ‘bad guys’.

Yet, every little move counts, and deciding which weapons to use or which door to open first will reveal the deep strategic possibilities of the game’s intense experience. As you make your way through a pile of corpses, the suspense builds up to unbearable levels as you risk losing all in-game progress for just a little mistake. The massacre is only interrupted by brief moments that reveal details of our mysterious ‘hero’s’ back-story. Keeping true to expectation, even these interludes are awkward if not disturbing, and hardly shed light on our displaced, faceless avatar. 

The excellent game tops it all with an irresistible ‘80s aesthetics and a neurotic electronic soundtrack. You’ll quickly find out why this game has stolen the show winning so many awards, and has hooked fans of Grand Theft Auto and of good old shoot’em up games. Hotline Miami is a joy in repetition, providing that being stuck in a Clockwork Orange–like scenario is your idea of joy. 

Screenshot from Hotline Miami
Screenshot from Hotline Miami

www.hotlinemiami.com 

Mama — Film Review

Film Review_NT

Electricity has killed the ghost story,’ said author Ruth Rendell while commenting on a tale by M. R. James. She has a point. The ectoplasmic posse thrives on darkness, occupying those spaces that elude the intrusive sanctuary of light. Thomas Edison and his light bulb must be the greatest ghostbusters of all time and Andy Muschietti’s film Mama, one of their latest casualties.

Candlelight encourages unnerving narratives: a flickering flame, after all, choreographs crazy cavorting shadows. And gaslight creates pools of light amid pitch blackness, which is why the Golden Age of the ghost story was between the 1830s and World War I, when candles and gas were mostly used.

A trip to the cinema combines all three: the film is essentially a beacon of moving shadows (candlelight) on a screen surrounded by obscurity (gaslight) and a source of electricity (the projector). In a way the cinema offers horror lovers what the ghost writers of old offered to readers: access to the land of the Bogeyman.

The Bogeyman, or Babau, or El Cuco, or whatever you want to call it, is scary as hell because we never get to see him. He is not really underneath the bed, or inside the closet, or waiting by the wayside to snatch those pesky children and put them in a sack. Then again, he might be there, waiting for the right moment to strike. Ghost stories need this kind of tension to instil a sense of dread.

“The latest movie trend is to dispense with tension in favour of a sedated compromise to appease a mainstream audience”

Unfortunately, the latest movie trend is to dispense with tension in favour of a sedated compromise to appease a mainstream audience. Mama falls into this trap. The film revolves around the battle between two mums, one alive and one dead. They are both surrogate mothers as the two girls’ real parent was killed by their very anxious dad. The arising conflict drives the narrative forward but then everything goes belly-up when the ghost, in all its CGI glory, takes centre stage. And, of course, CGI is all electricity.

Once the ghost of Edith Brennan becomes a central figure in the story (visually), the excellent sense of amassed dread all but disappears. Instead, CGI wizardry takes over: magnificent wraithlike tendrils of ghostly garb, creepy head tilted at a slightly awkward angle, a face that might stretch and scream at any moment, giving us the intended scare. We are shown too much. Movies such as Paranormal Activity (2007) and The Innkeepers (2011) take a better approach by creating and sustaining suspense by only showing the bare essentials. They leave you gripping your seat. 

So: is Mama any good? Well, yes, in an average-film kind of way. But there is definitely no need to watch it with your lights on. 

jessica-chastain-isabelle-nelisse-megan-charpentier-mama

Assisted Conception — IVF and other procedures

Mark Brincat

Assisted conception procedures arose as a type of treatment for infertility. They opened a whole new range of possibilities for couples that were unable to have children due to a variety of problems. Initially, the difficulty addressed was of blocked or absent fallopian tubes in women. This prevented the oocyte from making contact with sperm, hence preventing the formation of an embryo. Naturally, this also prevented an embryo from moving into the uterus, implanting itself, and developing into a foetus.

In vitro fertilisation bypasses tubes by obtaining oocytes from the ovaries and fertilising these oocytes outside the body (in vitro — in glass). The procedure became a reality in humans with the pioneering work of Steptoe and Edwards and the delivery of Louise Brown in 1974. She gave birth naturally in 1999.

“In our society, infertility is becoming more common and 8 out of 10 couples can experience problems”

With the further development of ICSI (Intra cytoplasmic Sperm Injection) it was possible to fertilise an oocyte (egg) with an individual sperm. This was a breakthrough therapy for men with low or absent sperm counts. ICSI_4-jpgWhen sperm are lacking in the ejaculate, a doctor can retrieve them directly from the testicles, or the epididymis (a tightly coiled tube from the testes to the rest of the body). The procedure is known as TESA or PESA. In combination with ICSI, these techniques made it possible for these men to father children.

In our society, infertility is becoming more common and 8 out of 10 couples can experience problems. This simple statistic makes these procedures increasingly important. Nowadays, even couples with the most severe problems can become parents.

These procedures have been mixed in controversy from the beginning, with most countries allowing science to proceed within certain safeguards. This restrained approach allows for progress.

Regrettably, infertility still carries a large stigma. The thousands who have benefited from these and other simpler infertility procedures (they precede attempts for assisted conception) do not speak out. Normally they don’t because of how society would perceive them or their children.

IVF is a physically, psychologically, and financially demanding procedure. Couples normally only proceed after having spent a considerable time beforehand seeking help, investigating, and trying alternative simpler treatments. It is usually the final recommended solution to the problem.

IVF essentially means that fertilisation of the oocytes occurs out of the body. The oocytes are then fertilised with sperm and in a percentage of cases this is successful and an embryo starts to develop.

 

This article continues the focus on IVF from last year’s opinion piece by Prof. Pierre Mallia. Other local experts have been contacted and we are open for further opinions and comments from our readers.

Discovering Depression Treatments

Over 100 million people suffer from depression. Prof. Giuseppe Di Giovanni talks about his life’s work on the brain chemical serotonin to find a new treatment for this debilitating disease that touches so many of us

The winter rays of sunlight reflected off the snow upon Mount Maiella and the beautiful Adriatic Sea. They lit up the room where I was sitting with Dr Ennio Esposito (head of the Neurophysiology unit, Mario Negri Sud, Italy). On this cold day in February the light was blinding and it was difficult to make out my long time friend and colleague. Together we had studied the brain chemicals serotonin and dopamine vital for love, pleasure, addiction, and linked to depression — my research subject.

‘Ennio, I am tired and frustrated, I am increasingly convinced that our in vivo (whole organism) experimental approach is not the right one. There is too much variability in the results and if we really want to understand the cause of depression and find a new cure we need to get some reproducible data and change our tactic.’

“We still do not understand how many psychoactive drugs actually work, meaning that more research is needed”

At that time, I was using glass electrodes to study changes in the electrical activity of single neurons in brains. Additionally, I used a technique (microiontophoresis) that registers neuron electrical activity and also applies a very small amount of the drug. In this way, I could see which brain cell was active and how different chemicals might influence it. Surprisingly, though introduced in the 1950s, these techniques are still some of the best ways to study drug effects on a living brain.

Prof. Di Giovanni and Massimo Pierucci at the Neurophysiology Lab, Department of Physiology and Biochemistry
Prof. Di Giovanni and Massimo Pierucci at the Neurophysiology Lab, Department of Physiology and Biochemistry

My research focuses on the role of two brain chemicals, dopamine and serotonin, in mental disorders. When stimulated neurons release chemicals (neurotransmitters). I am interested in dopaminergic neurons which release dopamine and serotonergic neurons that release serotonin. Once released, chemicals can pass through the spaces in between neurons and bind to another neuron stimulating or inhibiting it. They bind on proteins called receptors. When they do, they trigger the cell to fire or shut down. By triggering certain neurons in our brains, they reinforce or change our behaviour.

Dopamine is involved in the pleasure pathway. It switches on for behaviours like emotional responses, locomotion, and reinforcing good feelings. Changes in the level of dopamine effect a person’s reward and curiosity-seeking behaviour, like sex and addictive drugs. On the other hand, serotonin seems to have a more subtle role. One of serotonin’s major roles is to modulate or control the effects of other neurotransmitters, such as dopamine. In the words of Carew, a Yale researcher, ‘Serotonin is only one of the molecules in the orchestra. But rather than being the trumpet or the cello player, it’s the band leader who choreographs the output of the brain.’ The belief that serotonin is the brain’s ‘happy chemical’, that low serotonin levels cause depression and antidepressants work by boosting it is a very simplistic view. In truth, no one knows exactly how dopamine and serotonin levels induce depression.

“I have spent my life trying to figure out the role of dopamine and serotonin in the brain”

A lot of what we do know is because of animal research. The animals used to model this disease are given antidepressants to try and understand how effective they are and how they work. By studying their brains we can start to comprehend what causes depression. Right now we do not understand the whole picture behind the causes of depression and patients end up receiving inadequate treatment. We still do not understand how many psychoactive drugs actually work, meaning that more research is needed.

Most drugs were discovered by chance while being used to treat other disorders. For example, the antidepressant Iproniazid was originally developed to fight tuberculosis.

Information through neurons

After the researchers saw less depression in patients suffering from tuberculosis they started prescribing it to depressed patients. In another example from the 1950s, clinicians discovered the first tricyclic antidepressant while searching for new drugs against other mental diseases.

Today, we fortunately have a battery of drugs that can treat depression. Unfortunately, the best drugs on the market only completely alleviate symptoms in 35 to 40 percent of patients compared to 15 to 20 percent taking a placebo (a sugar pill), a fact not publicised in pharmaceutical ads. Another problem is that when people begin taking antidepressants, mood changes can take four weeks or more to appear. This delay in action is one of the major limitations of these medications since it prolongs the impairments associated with depression, increases the risk of suicide, the probability that a patient stops treatment, and medical costs. To tackle these problems pharmaceutical companies and academic researchers want to find more effective and faster acting antidepressant drugs.

Ennio and I, together with Vincenzo Di Matteo and other researchers at the Mario Negri have tried to resolve the antidepressant lag time enigma by studying rats. We first inhibited the levels of serotonin for 3 weeks using the latest Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) named fluoxetine, sertraline, and citalopram. Then we measured the electrical activity of dopamine and serotonin neurons in rat brains. We discovered that the therapeutic effect of antidepressants is not only due to their capacity to restore a normal level of serotonin activity. It also induces adaptive mechanisms in the dopaminergic system (that releases dopamine) because of repeated treatment.

How do SSRI’s treat depression? At first, these chemicals only slightly stimulate serotonin release. Long-term treatment kicks in an adaptive process. The receptor type located on serotonergic neurons which inhibit serotonin activity become insensitive. Repeated treatment frees serotonin neurons from this ‘brake’. By repeatedly using these drugs (with a lag time of 2–8 weeks), the levels of serotonin being transmitted increase and stay high for a longer time which is responsible for the SSRIs antidepressive effect.

The perfect antidepressant could lie in blocking the activity of these receptors since there would be no major delay in action. This hypothesis was confirmed by Francesc Artigas and his research group (University of Barcelona). They administered pindololo, a drug capable of blocking these serotonin receptors, and observed an increase of the antidepressive effect of the drugs paroxetine and fluvoxamine. They worked by reducing the latency period. Patients on pindololo did noticeably better and the clinical data matched that from laboratory animals. Blocking this type of serotonin receptors can be a promising therapy to reduce the latency period and possibly, increase antidepressant action.

Serotonin synapse

My colleagues and I formed an alternative hypothesis as to why the clinical effects of drugs are delayed for so long focusing our attention on the dopaminergic system. We showed that acute administration of different SSRIs reduces the electrical activity of dopaminergic neurons, which release dopamine. These drugs increase the levels of serotonin, which decrease dopaminergic neuronal activity (which release dopamine) by over stimulating another inhibitory serotonin receptor this time located on dopaminergic cells. The result? The drugs taken to cure depression paradoxically initially induce a reduction of dopamine, which is meant to be the neurotransmitter of well-being and happiness! Indeed, SSRIs can worsen the depression of patients in the first few weeks of treatment.

When the drugs are used over a long period of time (3–4 weeks), the initial reduction of dopamine reverses. The change happens because the repeated treatment reduces the sensitivity of this type of serotonin receptor on dopaminergic cells freeing them from their serotonin ‘brake’.

“All of our work has made it possible to consider new treatments of depression”

We think we have found the reason why SSRI antidepressants take so long to work. Two different serotonin receptors need to become insensitive to the level of serotonin in the brain, one found on serotonergic cells, the other on dopaminergic cells. Their insensitivity allows the activity of dopaminergic neurons to return to normal even though the serotonin activity has been bumped up.

Other labs have confirmed our results, which is vital step for a theory to become fact. Cremer and his team (University of Groningen, Netherlands) have shown that blocking the same type of serotonin receptor on dopaminergic cells in rats can improve the effect of SSRIs antidepressants. Ultimately all of our work has made it possible to consider new treatments of depression, which I am very happy to see.

Many questions remain unanswered about depression. The most urgent task is to find a more effective way to treat it. This is my goal, I have spent my life trying to figure out the role of dopamine and serotonin in the brain — with some notable successes. I hope to see the next generation of antidepressants which would improve the life of 121 million depression sufferers.

Ennio listened to me as I expressed my frustration after once again obtaining conflicting results in the laboratory. ‘Giuseppe’ he said ‘You are right, billions of neurons in our brain behave differently, but as Douglas Adams said, ‘If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, the first thing you have on your hands is a nonworking cat. Life is a level of complexity that almost lies outside our vision’ (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy). If we want to break the code of the brain and hope to treat its diseases we need to take a holistic approach that takes the whole brain into account.

[ct_divider]

Article dedicated to the prominent researcher Dr Ennio Esposito, Prof. Di Giovanni’s (Department of Physiology and Biochemistry, UoM) colleague and friend. In 2011, he died of a heart attack. During his last years, he suffered from a severe refractory bipolar depression. If interested in an M.Sc. or Ph.D. in biological psychiatry please contact Prof. Giuseppe Di Giovanni

Further Reading
Bortolato M., Pivac N., Muck Seler D., Nikolac Perkovic M., Pessia M., Di Giovanni G., (2013) The role of the serotonergic system at the interface of aggression and suicide. Neuroscience, 236:160-185.
Di Giovanni G., Esposito E. Di Matteo V., (2011). 5-HT2C Receptors in the Pathophysiology of CNS Disease. Springer, New York.
Di Giovanni G., Di Matteo V., Esposito E. (2008) Serotonin-Dopamine Interaction: Experimental and Therapeutic Evidence, Progress in Brain Research, 172. Elsevier, Netherlands.
Depression — The Dana Guide
Depression — National Institute of Mental Health, USA

TED talk about targeted psychiatric medications, similarly to Prof. Digiovanni borne on the realisation that current treatments are not good enough for everyone