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The integration of intermittent renewable energy sources (RES) represents a great challenge for any energy system. In particular, islanded microgrids with a high penetration of renewables experience a strong need for technologies that allow to match demand and production at any moment. This work aims at proposing an optimised design for the energy system of Faial, an island in the Azores archipelago, featuring the highest possible renewable energy penetration that can be obtained respecting the technological and financial feasibility constraints. To this purpose, a model has been developed, using weather and electric demand measured data to combine and size optimally the components of a hybrid energy system. The model can be varied in its constraints to fit at best the multi-objective nature of the problem, where the conflicting objectives are the Net Present Value, its Renewable Energy Fraction and the Energy Index of Reliability. Once a set of possible optimal design has been determined, a system design featuring 5504 kW of geothermal installed power and 6208 kWh of BESS (Battery Energy Storage System) capacity, together with the already present thermal generators and 4250 kW of wind turbines, has been analysed more in detail. Monte Carlo simulations with synthetic time series have been performed to investigate the impact on the project of the variability in wind speed and in energy demand, highlighting the robustness of the selected design.

Hibernoma is an unusual tumour of brown adipose tissue. Brown adipose tissue is common in mammalian hibernating animals and acts as a thermogenic organ. A first case of hibernoma was reported in 1906 by Merkel. This tumour usually arises in the back, shoulder region, mediastinum, retroperitoneum and in the neck. The neck location of hibernomas is rare and only 18 cases of cervical hibernoma have been reported in the English literature. A 48-year-old male with hoarseness and soft voice, present for 8 months, showed a lesion involving the anterior part of the right vocal fold, with no impaired mobility. This is the first case to be reported of laryngeal hibernoma located in a vocal fold, originating from the white fat tissue of the paraglottic space. Moreover, this report could be evidence of the development of hibernoma from white adipose tissue.

Extramedullary plasmacytoma of the head and neck region is a rare malignant tumour comprising approximately 3% of all plasma cell tumours. Approximately 80-90% of extramedullary plasmacytomas involve the Mucosa-Associated Lymphoid Tissue of the upper airways, 75% of these involve the nasal and paranasal regions. Radiotherapy is considered the treatment of choice, surgery being limited to biopsy and to excision of residual disease. A case of extramedullary plasmacytoma of the nasal cavity and ethmoid sinus is reported, in which surgical excision is followed by complementary radiotherapy on the site of the tumour.