Synergy in Efficacy of Fungal Entomopathogens and Permethrin against West African Insecticide-Resistant Anopheles gambiae Mosquitoes

Background Increasing incidences of insecticide resistance in malaria vectors are threatening the sustainable use of contemporary chemical vector control measures. Fungal entomopathogens provide a possible additional tool for the control of insecticide-resistant malaria mosquitoes. This study investigated the compatibility of the pyrethroid insecticide permethrin and two mosquito-pathogenic fungi, Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae, against a laboratory colony and field population of West African insecticide-resistant Anopheles gambiae s.s. mosquitoes. Methodology/Findings A range of fungus-insecticide combinations was used to test effects of timing and sequence of exposure. Both the laboratory-reared and field-collected mosquitoes were highly resistant to permethrin but susceptible to B. bassiana and M. anisopliae infection, inducing 100% mortality within nine days. Combinations of insecticide and fungus showed synergistic effects on mosquito survival. Fungal infection increased permethrin-induced mortality rates in wild An. gambiae s.s. mosquitoes and reciprocally, exposure to permethrin increased subsequent fungal-induced mortality rates in both colonies. Simultaneous co-exposure induced the highest mortality; up to 70.3±2% for a combined Beauveria and permethrin exposure within a time range of one gonotrophic cycle (4 days). Conclusions/Significance Combining fungi and permethrin induced a higher impact on mosquito survival than the use of these control agents alone. The observed synergism in efficacy shows the potential for integrated fungus-insecticide control measures to dramatically reduce malaria transmission and enable control at more moderate levels of coverage even in areas where insecticide resistance has rendered pyrethroids essentially ineffective

Large-scale unit commitment under uncertainty: an updated literature survey

The Unit Commitment problem in energy management aims at finding the optimal production schedule of a set of generation units, while meeting various system-wide constraints. It has always been a large-scale, non-convex, difficult problem, especially in view of the fact that, due to operational requirements, it has to be solved in an unreasonably small time for its size. Recently, growing renewable energy shares have strongly increased the level of uncertainty in the system, making the (ideal) Unit Commitment model a large-scale, non-convex and uncertain (stochastic, robust, chance-constrained) program. We provide a survey of the literature on methods for the Uncertain Unit Commitment problem, in all its variants. We start with a review of the main contributions on solution methods for the deterministic versions of the problem, focussing on those based on mathematical programming techniques that are more relevant for the uncertain versions of the problem. We then present and categorize the approaches to the latter, while providing entry points to the relevant literature on optimization under uncertainty. This is an updated version of the paper "Large-scale Unit Commitment under uncertainty: a literature survey" that appeared in 4OR 13(2), 115--171 (2015); this version has over 170 more citations, most of which appeared in the last three years, proving how fast the literature on uncertain Unit Commitment evolves, and therefore the interest in this subject

Modelo disjuntivo de expansão ótima de redes de transmissão em sistemas hidrotérmicos

Apresenta-se um modelo de otimização inteira mista para expansão da rede de transmissão de um sistema hidrotérmico, no qual se representam as metas de geração hidro no ano de estudo para diversas condições hidrológicas, e também as condições de atendimento das demandas, representadas de forma discretizada em patamares. A formulação disjuntiva do problema aqui adotada evita a não linearidade usual na segunda lei de Kirchoff envolvendo produtos entre variáveis de investimento e de ângulos nodais. A representação detalhada das condições operativas ao longo do ano garante um correto dimensionamento dos reforços de transmissão de sistemas hidrotérmicos. As condições operativas e o despacho são afetadas pelos intercâmbios entre regiões, que podem variar sazonalmente com a condição hidrológica e também com a condição de carga. Um exemplo real ilustra a aplicação do modelo.<br>We present a mixed integer optimization model for expansion planning of the transmission network of a hydrothermal system, where hydro generation targets along the planning year are enforced, as well as supplying the load for different load levels. The disjunctive formulation adopted here avoids the non-linear relation that appears in second Kirchoff’s law involving the product of discrete investment variables and continuous nodal angle variables. The detailed representation of operating conditions and generation dispatch along the study year allows a correct design of network reinforcements of a hydrothermal system. The operating conditions and the dispatch are affected by interchanges among regions, which can vary seasonally due to hydrological conditions and also along the load duration curve. A real world example illustrates the model

Optimizing over Semimetric Polytopes

A new combinatorial structure, the semicut in a graph, is defined as a generalization of a cut. Extreme semicuts are shown to be associated with the vertices of the rooted semimetric polytope. Such a polytope provides a linear relaxation of the cut polytope whose integer points correspond to all the cuts of a graph. Thus, optimizing over the set of all semicuts yields an upper bound for the maximum weight cut problem. An efficient combinatorial algorithm that finds an optimal semicut is described. Such an algorithm is based on the computation of a fractional bidirected flow

Utilização do planejamento experimental em rede simplex no estudo de resíduo de rocha ornamental como filler para obtenção de máxima compacidade Use of simplex lattice experimental design in the study of ornamental rock waste as filler to obtain maximum compaction

A utilização de agregados industrializados vem crescendo ao longo dos anos para atender a grande demanda da construção civil devido ao crescimento econômico do país. O objetivo deste trabalho foi utilizar o planejamento experimental em Rede Simplex para avaliar o efeito da adição do resíduo de rocha ornamental como filler na composição de misturas ternárias (brita 0, pó de pedra e resíduo), que levem a máxima compacidade (densidade seca aparente máxima). Foram tomados dezesseis pontos experimentais, cujos teores dos materiais utilizados variaram de 0 a 100%. O modelo em rede simplex cúbico completo apresentou melhor ajuste aos resultados experimentais, o qual resulta em respostas estatisticamente mais adequadas para as composições estudadas. A superfície de resposta gerada indicou que a densidade seca aparente máxima de 2,0 g/cm³ foi obtida para a composição ternária: 63% de brita 0/17% de pó de pedra/20% de resíduo de rocha ornamental. Portanto, o uso de resíduo de rocha ornamental como filler em agregados para a construção civil pode ser uma alternativa viável para deposição final deste abundante resíduo de forma ambientalmente correta.<br>The use of industrial aggregates has grown over the years to meet the great demand of the civil construction due to the country's economical growth. The aim of this work was to use the experimental design in Simplex Lattice to evaluate the effect of the addition of ornamental rock waste as filler in the composition of ternary mixtures (crushed rock 0, stone powder, rock waste), leading to maximum compaction (maximum apparent dry density). Sixteen experimental points were taken, whose contents of the used materials ranged from 0 to 100%. The complete cubic simplex model showed to best fit to the experimental results, which results in more statistically appropriated responses to the studied compositions. The response surface generated indicated that the maximum apparent dry density (2.0 g/cm³) was obtained for the ternary composition: 63% crushed rock 0/ 17% stone powder/ 20% ornamental rock waste. Therefore, the use of ornamental rock waste as filler in aggregates for civil construction can be a viable alternative for final deposition in an environmental correct way