Quantifying the Economic Value of Vehicle-Grid Integration: A Case Study of Dynamic Pricing in the Sacramento Municipal Utility District

This study develops a stochastic-systems approach in modeling vehicle-grid integration (VGI), where load management strategies can be compared in terms of their economic value to plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) consumers and their local utility companies. The proposed methodology is demonstrated in an assessment of VGI for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) in California. Monte-Carlo simulations have been performed to randomly assign PEV charging characteristics of the households based on given statistical distributions. Consumer adoption of time-of-use (TOU) rates is modeled as an optimization problem where consumers seek the earliest PEV charge start time among the charge schedules resulting lowest cost and satisfying their transportation needs. The preliminary results show that, considering today’s grid system, the deployment of 60,000 PEVs in Sacramento Region will have significant but manageable impacts. These impacts included increasing annual peak demand by 86MWs (5%), and overloading up to 101 neighborhood transformers in the distribution system. On the other hand, adopting proper TOU rates presents a high potential for minimizing these negative impacts of widespread PEV deployment on the grid. The proposed methodology provided several improvements to the VGI modeling literature. These improvements included combining assessments for generation and distribution systems in the same model, and advancing uncertainty analysis for the PEV consumer behavior with considering real world data sets

Gristhorpe Man: an Early Bronze Age log-coffin burial scientifically defined

A log-coffin excavated in the early nineteenth century proved to be well enough preserved in the early twenty-first century for the full armoury of modern scientific investigation to give its occupants and contents new identity, new origins and a new date. In many ways the interpretation is much the same as before: a local big man buried looking out to sea. Modern analytical techniques can create a person more real, more human and more securely anchored in history. This research team shows how

Crustal seismic structure of the eastern Mediterranean: evidence from broadband seismology

Understanding the crustal structure of the Anatolian Plate has important implications for its formation and evolution, including the extent to which its high elevation is maintained isostatically. However, previous receiver function studies of Anatolian Moho depths return results differing by <21km. H-K stacking is used routinely to infer crustal thickness and Vp/Vs ratio from teleseismic receiver functions, assuming the largest amplitude P-to-S conversions beneath the seismograph station are generated by a sharp velocity contrast at the Moho. However, synthetic seismogram analysis demonstrates that H-K results are strongly dependent on the choice of stacking input parameters. To address this issue of parameter sensitivity, an H-K approach is developed in which cluster analysis selects a final solution from 1000 results, each calculated using randomly selected input parameters via bootstrapping. When the Moho is sharp, H-K results cluster tightly and the method is reliable; in areas of more complex crustal structure, H-K analysis is often unreliable. The new crustal model for the Eastern Mediterranean (ANATOLIA-HK21) provides fresh insight into Anatolian crustal structure and topography. While the crust thins from ~45km below the uplifted Eastern Anatolian Plateau to ~25km below lower-lying western Anatolia, Moho depth is generally correlated poorly with elevation. Residual topography calculations confirm the requirement for a mantle contribution to Anatolian Plateau uplift, with localised asthenospheric upwellings in response to slab break-off and/or lithospheric dripping/delamination example candidate driving mechanisms. In the absence of good-quality H-K results on Cyprus, Rayleigh wave group velocity inversions place new constraints on the island's crustal structure. Resulting tomographic images reveal high velocities at short periods directly beneath the surface expression of the Troodos Ophiolite; anomaly amplitudes decrease at longer periods (from +30% at 8s to +5% at 14s) and shift northeastward, corroborating studies that consider the ophiolite a mid-to-upper crustal feature.Open Acces

Body of evidence: forensic use of baseline health assessments to convict wildlife poachers

CONTEXT. Given the immense impact of wildlife trade, disease and repatriations on populations, health assessments can" "provide powerful forensic material to help convict wildlife poachers and minimise risks of releasing unhealthy wildlife." AIMS. We aimed to use reference ranges to assess the health of confiscated tortoises, to illustrate forensic application of these ranges, and to advance analyses for future applications." METHODS. We used analyses of variance (ANOVA) and covariance (ANCOVA), and composite indices, to compare wild and confiscate tortoise body condition, haematocrit and haemoglobin concentration of males and females of three tortoise species. Subsequently, we used multivariate statistics (e.g. discriminant analyses) to evaluate the relative importance of species, sex and group (wild or confiscate) on tortoise condition and haematology." KEY RESULTS. Our initial statistical tests demonstrated, at P < 0.05 to P < 0.0005, that confiscate body condition and haematology were compromised compared with that of wild tortoises. Subsequently, discriminant analyses strongly discriminated between most wild and confiscate groups (P < 0.0001), correctly classified individual health as wild or confiscate 80–90% of the time, indicated that species and sex effects were stronger than was the wild-confiscate category, and provided discriminant functions for use on other taxa and studies." CONCLUSIONS. The health assessments discriminated well between wild and confiscate tortoises. The results had considerable forensic value, being relevant, quickly generated using portable field equipment, reliable, accurate, easy to explain and convey in terms of likelihood in a court of law, synergistically consistent among variables and groups, a strong rebuttal to the poachers’ specific statements, and consistent with other types of evidence. Multivariate analyses were consistent with, and more prudent and powerful than, the original statistical analyses. Discriminant functions can be applied in future studies and on other chelonian species, and should be developed for other wildlife species." IMPLICATIONS. Reference ranges provide considerable value for forensics, diagnostics and treatment. Given the disease risks resulting from the massive scale of wildlife trade and release, reference ranges should be developed for more species."Web of Scienc

Process evaluation for complex interventions in primary care: understanding trials using the normalization process model

Background: the Normalization Process Model is a conceptual tool intended to assist in understanding the factors that affect implementation processes in clinical trials and other evaluations of complex interventions. It focuses on the ways that the implementation of complex interventions is shaped by problems of workability and integration.Method: in this paper the model is applied to two different complex trials: (i) the delivery of problem solving therapies for psychosocial distress, and (ii) the delivery of nurse-led clinics for heart failure treatment in primary care.Results: application of the model shows how process evaluations need to focus on more than the immediate contexts in which trial outcomes are generated. Problems relating to intervention workability and integration also need to be understood. The model may be used effectively to explain the implementation process in trials of complex interventions.Conclusion: the model invites evaluators to attend equally to considering how a complex intervention interacts with existing patterns of service organization, professional practice, and professional-patient interaction. The justification for this may be found in the abundance of reports of clinical effectiveness for interventions that have little hope of being implemented in real healthcare setting

Gristhorpe Man: an Early Bronze Age log-coffin burial scientifically defined

© 2010 Antiquity PublicationsA log-coffin excavated in the early nineteenth century proved to be well enough preserved in the early twenty-first century for the fill armoury of modern scientific investigation to give its occupants and contents new identity, new origins and a new date. In many ways the interpretation is much the same as before: a local big man buried looking out to sea. Modern analytical techniques can create a person more real, more human and more securely anchored in history. This research team shows how.The project has been funded by grants from the British Academy, British Association for the Advancement of Science, Natural Environment Research Council, Royal Archaeological Institute and Scarborough Museums Trust. CJK’s participation in this project was funded by a Leverhulme Research Fellowship (RF/6/RFG/2008/0253)

Trees Grow on Money: Urban Tree Canopy Cover and Environmental Justice

This study examines the distributional equity of urban tree canopy (UTC) cover for Baltimore, MD, Los Angeles, CA, New York, NY, Philadelphia, PA, Raleigh, NC, Sacramento, CA, and Washington, D.C. using high spatial resolution land cover data and census data. Data are analyzed at the Census Block Group levels using Spearman\u27s correlation, ordinary least squares regression (OLS), and a spatial autoregressive model (SAR). Across all cities there is a strong positive correlation between UTC cover and median household income. Negative correlations between race and UTC cover exist in bivariate models for some cities, but they are generally not observed using multivariate regressions that include additional variables on income, education, and housing age. SAR models result in higher r-square values compared to the OLS models across all cities, suggesting that spatial autocorrelation is an important feature of our data. Similarities among cities can be found based on shared characteristics of climate, race/ethnicity, and size. Our findings suggest that a suite of variables, including income, contribute to the distribution of UTC cover. These findings can help target simultaneous strategies for UTC goals and environmental justice concerns

Continental-scale homogenization of residential lawn plant communities

© The Author(s), 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Landscape and Urban Planning 165 (2017): 54-63, doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2017.05.004.Residential lawns are highly managed ecosystems that occur in urbanized landscapes across the United States. Because they are ubiquitous, lawns are good systems in which to study the potential homogenizing effects of urban land use and management together with the continental-scale effects of climate on ecosystem structure and functioning. We hypothesized that similar homeowner preferences and management in residential areas across the United States would lead to low plant species diversity in lawns and relatively homogeneous vegetation across broad geographical regions. We also hypothesized that lawn plant species richness would increase with regional temperature and precipitation due to the presence of spontaneous, weedy vegetation, but would decrease with household income and fertilizer use. To test these predictions, we compared plant species composition and richness in residential lawns in seven U.S. metropolitan regions. We also compared species composition in lawns with understory vegetation in minimally-managed reference areas in each city. As expected, the composition of cultivated turfgrasses was more similar among lawns than among reference areas, but this pattern also held among spontaneous species. Plant species richness and diversity varied more among lawns than among reference areas, and more diverse lawns occurred in metropolitan areas with higher precipitation. Native forb diversity increased with precipitation and decreased with income, driving overall lawn diversity trends with these predictors as well. Our results showed that both management and regional climate shaped lawn species composition, but the overall homogeneity of species regardless of regional context strongly suggested that management was a more important driver.This research was supported by the Macrosystems Biology Program in the Emerging Frontiers Division of the Biological Sciences Directorate at the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grants EF-1065548, 1065737, 1065740, 1065741, 1065772, 1065785, 1065831, and 121238320

A review of tazarotene in the treatment of photodamaged skin

Chronic sun exposure leads to photodamage, which is characterized clinically by fine and coarse wrinkles, dyspigmentation, telangiectasia, laxity, roughness and a sallow appearance. Many treatments claim to reduce the signs of photodamage, however evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCT) to support these claims is limited. The use of topical retinoids, particularly tretinoin, isotretinoin and tazarotene, has been shown to significantly reduce signs of photodamage both clinically and histologically. Over recent years a number of RCTs, have affirmed that topical tazarotene is an effective and safe treatment for photodamaged skin

Performance Evaluation of Different Rasberry PI Models as MQTT Servers and Clients

Performance analysis for devices in Internet of Things (IoT) environments is an important consideration, especially with their increasing integration in technological solutions, worldwide. The Single Board Computers (SBCs) of the Raspberry Pi Foundation have been widely accepted by the community, and hence, they have been incorporated in numerous IoT projects. To ease their integration, it is essential to assess their network performance. In this paper, we made an empirical performance evaluation of one of the most popular network protocols for IoT environments, named the Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol, on Raspberry Pi. To do so, we set up two different testbeds scenarios and assessed the performance with benchmarks. At the software level, we focused on Mosquitto, a popular open-source MQTT broker implementation and client library. Our principal metric is the transmission time, but we also investigated the throughput. In our experiments, we varied several parameters, such as the size of the payload of the published messages, the WiFi bandwidth, the QoS level, the security level (MQTT vs. MQTT with TLS), and the hardware for the clients and broker. We focus mainly on packet sizes ranging from 100 to 25,000 bytes. We also investigate how these low-cost devices handle a TCP SYN flood attack. In the research work presented within this paper, we aim to guide developers, researchers, network administrators, and hobbyists who plan to use these low-cost devices in an MQTT or IoT network by showing the performance that they should expect according to different Raspberry Pi options