85 research outputs found

    Parallel computing 2011, ParCo 2011: book of abstracts

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    This book contains the abstracts of the presentations at the conference Parallel Computing 2011, 30 August - 2 September 2011, Ghent, Belgiu

    Whole-Body Regeneration

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    This Open Access volume provides a comprehensive overview of the latest tools available to scientists to study the many facets of whole-body regeneration (WBR). The chapters in this book are organized into six parts. Part One provides a historical overview on the study of the WBR phenomena focusing on the primary challenges of this research. Parts Two and Three explore a series of non-vertebrate zoological contexts that provide experimental models for WBR, showing how they can be approached with cellular tools. Parts Four, Five, and Six discuss the future advancements of WBR, reporting about the cutting-edge techniques in genetics and omics used to dissect the underlying mechanisms of WBR, and systems biology approaches to reach a synthetic view of WBR. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and thorough, Whole-Body Regeneration: Methods and Protocols is a valuable resource for scientists and researchers who want to learn more about this important and developing field

    Whole-Body Regeneration

    Get PDF
    This Open Access volume provides a comprehensive overview of the latest tools available to scientists to study the many facets of whole-body regeneration (WBR). The chapters in this book are organized into six parts. Part One provides a historical overview on the study of the WBR phenomena focusing on the primary challenges of this research. Parts Two and Three explore a series of non-vertebrate zoological contexts that provide experimental models for WBR, showing how they can be approached with cellular tools. Parts Four, Five, and Six discuss the future advancements of WBR, reporting about the cutting-edge techniques in genetics and omics used to dissect the underlying mechanisms of WBR, and systems biology approaches to reach a synthetic view of WBR. Written in the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series format, chapters include introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step, readily reproducible laboratory protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and thorough, Whole-Body Regeneration: Methods and Protocols is a valuable resource for scientists and researchers who want to learn more about this important and developing field

    Species Richness and Ecological Diversity of Myxomycetes and Myxomycete-Like Organisms in the Tropical Forests of Brazil

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    Tropical rain forests cover less than two percent of Earth\u27s surface, yet they sustain the greatest diversity of living organisms on the planet. Tropical rain forests cover nearly 73% of the Brazilian territory and besides harboring some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet, this vast area also houses about 83% of the Brazilian population. Approximately 175 million people live in urban and rural areas with fragments of coverage of these biomes which contributes to the loss of biodiversity that rapidly increases over the years. Furthermore, the majority of the taxonomic and ecological efforts to describe and protect the Brazilian tropical biodiversity are usually focused on macroorganisms while the knowledge regarding the heterogeneity of microorganism species that compose the Brazilian microbiota increases slowly. Therefore, urgent efforts should be directed to the carrying out of inventories and studies on the species that make up the Brazilian microbiota, their biogeographical patterns, and their interactions with the environment in which they occupy. Aiming to contribute to the knowledge of the distribution and diversity of microorganism in the Neotropics, this dissertation includes (1) an overview of the biogeographical patterns of microorganisms; (2) a bibliographic revision of the myxomycetes species found in Brazil distributed among the different vegetation physiognomies throughout the country; (3) species listing and molecular identification of myxobacteria species; (4) the taxonomic and ecological studies of species of ceratiomyxomycetes and myxomycetes; (5) the taxonomic composition of dictyostelid cellular slime molds; and (6) species of protosteloid amoebae and related organisms present in tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests of Brazil

    Distributed Algorithms for Peer-to-Peer Energy Trading

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    A S the proliferation of the ’sharing economy’ increases, its phenomenon is actively extending to the power grid, where energy consumers are motivated to use, produce, trade or share energy with the main grid and themselves. To optimise the potential of this changing era in smart grid, considering the complexity requirements of the individual distributed connected components, a distributed coordination algorithm is required to manage the large influx of energy as well as the altruistic goal of diverse energy producers. Furthermore, a trading platform is actively needed to implement these distributed algorithms to match the prosumers, coordinate their resources and maximise their utilities for increased profits and cost savings. This research investigates distributed algorithms for peer-to-peer energy trading and sharing (P2P-ETS) to facilitate discovery, communication and utility maximisation of peers who are trading energy in a P2P fashion. To begin, a four-layer system architectural model is proposed to categorise the key elements and technologies associated with the P2P-ETS. Then, constrained by as few assumptions as possible, while showing promising performance and key metrics, three distributed algorithms are developed to facilitate discovery, peer’s matching, data routing, energy transfer, and utility maximisation of the trading entities. These algorithms utilise only local information to solve the problem with promising results, complementing their presentation with simulations that demonstrate their effectiveness over imperfect communication links. Finally, based on these distributed algorithms, a software platform is developed to support the pairing of prosumers on the P2P-ETS platform. A case study based on real microgrid data is used to verify the performance of the platform which demonstrate increase in local energy consumption. Simulation results show that the developed platform is able to balance local generation and consumption and increase cost savings of 45% for prosumers that trade energy among themselves compared to trading with the power grid. This savings however varies depending on the participants on the platform

    Performance assessment and optimisation of a novel guideless irregular dew point cooler using artificial intelligence

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    Air Conditioners (ACs) are a vital need in modern buildings to provide comfortable indoor air for the occupants. Several alternatives for the traditional coolers are introduced to improve the cooling efficiency but among them, Evaporative Coolers (ECs) absorbed more attention owing to their intelligible structure and high efficiency. ECs are categorized into two types, i.e., Direct Evaporative Coolers (DECs) and Indirect Evaporative Coolers (IECs). Continuous endeavours in the improvement of the ECs resulted in development of Dew Point Coolers (DPCs) which enable the supply air to reach the dew point temperature. The main innovation of DPCs relies on invention of a M-cycle Heat and Mass Exchanger (HMX) which contributes towards improvement of the ECs’ efficiency by up to 30%. A state-of-the-art counter flow DPC in which the flat plates in traditional HMXs are replaced by the corrugated plates is called Guideless Irregular DPC (GIDPC). This technology has 30-60% more cooling efficiency compared to the flat plate HMX in traditional DPCs.Owing to the empirical success of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) in different fields and enhanced importance of Machine Learning (ML) models, this study pioneers in developing two ML models using Multiple Polynomial Regression (MPR), and Deep Neural Network (DNN) methods, and three Multi Objective Evolutionary Optimisation (MOEO) models using Genetic Algorithms (GA), Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO), and a novel bio-inspired algorithm, i.e., Slime Mould Algorithm (SMA), for the performance prediction and optimisation of the GIDPC in all possible operating climates. Furthermore, this study pioneers in developing an explainable and interpretable DNN model for the GIDPC. To this end, a game theory-based SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) method is used to interpret contribution of the operating conditions on performance parameters.The ML models, take the intake air characteristic as well as main operating and design parameters of the HMX as inputs of the ML models to predict the GIDPC’s performance parameters, e.g., cooling capacity, coefficient of performance (COP), thermal efficiencies. The results revealed that both models have high prediction accuracies where MPR performs with a maximum average error of 1.22%. In addition, the Mean Square Error (MSE) of the selected DNN model is only 0.04. The objectives of the MOEO models are to simultaneously maximise the cooling efficiency and minimise the construction cost of the GIDPC by determining the optimum values of the selected decision variables.The performance of the optimised GIDPCs is compared in a deterministic way in which the comparisons are carried out in diverse climates in 2020 and 2050 in which the hourly future weather data are projected using a high-emission scenario defined by Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). The results revealed that the hourly COP of the optimised systems outperforms the base design. Moreover, although power consumption of all systems increases from 2020 to 2050, owing to more operating hours as a result of global warming, but power savings of up to 72%, 69.49%, 63.24%, and 69.21% in hot summer continental, arid, tropical rainforest and Mediterranean hot summer climates respectively, can be achieved compared to the base system when the systems run optimally
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