Theoretical advances on Economic Model Predictive Control with time-varying costs

© 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Federation of Automatic Control.Economic Model Predictive Control is a technique for optimization of economic revenues arising from controlled dynamical processes that has established itself as a variant of standard Tracking Model Predictive Control. It departs from the latter in that arbitrary cost functions are allowed in the formulation of the stage cost. This paper takes a further step in expanding the applicability of Economic Model Predictive Control by illustrating how the paradigm can be adapted in order to accommodate time-varying or parameter-varying costs

METRO - The role and future perspectives of Cohesion Policy in the planning of Metropolitan Areas and Cities. Annex III: Metropolitan City of Turin case study

The Metropolitan City of Turin, which is one of the case studies of the ESPON METRO project, is a wide area, second level local authority which replaced the former Province of Turin from January 1st, 2015. The metropolitan institution brings together 312 municipalities, covering a very large and heterogeneous territory, from dense urban areas to small towns and villages, much larger than the functional urban area of Turin. It is the largest metropolitan city in Italy, fourth in population size (2.2Mln inhabitants) and seventh in population density (330 inh/km2). Metropolitan Cities are administrative units formally established in Italy by the reform of local authorities (National Law 56/2014), replacing the respective Province authorities. The Italian Metropolitan cities still perform all the functions of the previous Province authorities, and have additional functions, such as strategic, spatial and mobility planning, organization of coordinated systems for the management of public services, mobility and transport, promotion and coordination of digitalization and economic and social development. Despite the high level of institutionalization and competences of the Metropolitan City of Turin, which is formally acknowledged as an entity also enjoying a supranational relevance when it comes to access EU funds, the institution does not have relevant role and competences in the elaboration of key policy and programming documents of the EU cohesion policy and in their management and implementation, while the Region and the national level are the main actors. In this case study report, the potential and actual role of the Metropolitan City of Turin in the implementation of the cohesion policy, and the impact of the cohesion policy on metropolitan development and governance are analysed. After a territorial and socio-economic contextualization of the area, the metropolitan governance and cooperation activities are presented. Then, the cohesion policy institutional architecture and policy instruments are presented, and the role of the metropolitan actors in the planning and implementation of the cohesion policy is examined, as well as its coordination with metropolitan governance. The cohesion policy impact on metropolitan development and governance is then presented, analyzing the coherence and synergies of its instruments and goals with metropolitan ones, the funding magnitude and the related impact. Issues related to the response to the COVID-19 emergency are presented in each of the three core sections of the report. Finally, the last section of the report summarizes the main challenges and recommendations

DIC analysis of mechanical response of tooth aligners under simulated swallowing acts

In this work, the mechanical and deformation behavior of clear Polyethylene Terephthalate-glycol (PET-g) aligners, under cyclic loading was investigated using a full-field optical technique: the Digital Image Correlation. In particular, the PET-g aligners thermoformed from 0.88 mm thick discs, were subjected to cyclic compression tests for 13000 load cycles from 0 to 50 N in the atmospheric environment (~25°C). This number of cycles was chosen because it simulates, on average, the intraoral load associated with the swallowing acts that an aligner is subjected to during the time of use of 1 week. At the same time, the results from the analysis of hysteresis loops obtained by the DIC technique were compared with those obtained by the testing machine. The mechanical response of clear aligners was evaluated in terms of maximum displacement, energy loss and relative stiffness along the load direction to seven different stages of the 13000 load cycles. A comparable trend was found between the measurements obtained by Digital Image Correlation analysis and the analysis of the hysteresis loops obtained from the cyclic compression tests. Furthermore, the morphological features of the PET-g aligner at the end of the tests were analyzed by optical microscopy (OM). The OM analyses showed that thesurface of PET-g aligner was affected by morphological variations such as high depressions and cracks

METRO - The role and future perspectives of Cohesion Policy in the planning of Metropolitan Areas and Cities. Annex II: The role of Metropolitan areas within the EU cohesion policy

This Annex to the final Report presents and discusses in a comparative manner the evidence collected in the nine case studies that have been explored in the framework of the ESPON Targeted Analysis METRO – The role and future perspectives of cohesion policy in the planning of Metropolitan Areas and Cities (Annexes III to XI). More in detail, the document synthesizes and compares the information collected by the various research teams through the application of the project’s analytical protocol and as a consequence of their continuous interaction with the respective stakeholders. The report is organised following the three main policy questions that have been driving the analysis: PQ1 | What role do metropolitan areas and cities play in the development, management and implementation of the European Union (EU) cohesion policy? PQ2 | What is the added value of the EU cohesion policy in the planning and implementation of metropolitan policies? PQ3 | What role does the EU cohesion policy play in consolidating metropolitan governance and cooperation? These questions are answered through the comparative analysis and assessment of the territorial and institutional contexts in which the nine stakeholders involved in the projects are active: Metropolitan City of Turin (CMTo), Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB), Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA), Brno Metropolitan Area (BMA), Metropolitan Area of Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot (MAG), Metropolitan City of Florence (CMFi), Métropole de Lyon (MdL), Brussels-Capital Region (BCR), Riga Metropolitan Area (RMA)

Chiral recognition between 1-(4-fluorophenyl)ethanol and 2-butanol: higher binding energy of homochiral complexes in the gas phase

Diastereomeric adducts between (S)-1-(4-fluorophenyl)-ethanol and R and S 2-butanol, formed by supersonic expansion, were studied by a combination of mass selected resonant two-photon ionization-spectroscopy and IR depletion spectroscopy. Chiral recognition is evidenced by the specific spectroscopic signatures of the S1 S0 electronic transition as well as different frequencies and intensities of the OH stretch vibrational mode in the ground state. D-DFT calcns. were performed to assist in the anal. of the spectra and the detn. of the structures. The homochiral and heterochiral complexes show slight structural differences, in particular in the interaction of the alkyl groups of 2-butanol with the arom. ring. The homochiral [FESBS] complex is more stable than the heterochiral [FESBR] diastereomer in both the ground and excited states. The binding energy difference was evaluated to be >0.60 kcal mol-1

Hematopoietic Stem/Progenitor Cells Express Functional Mitochondrial Energy-Dependent Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator

Bone marrow-derived hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) encompass a wide array of cell subsets with different capacities of engraftment and injured tissue-regenerating potential. The characterization/isolation of the stem cell subpopulations represents a major challenge to improve the efficacy of transplantation protocols used in regenerative medicine. Cystic fibrosis (CF) is one of the diseases whose hope of cure relies on the successful application of cell-based gene therapy. This study was aimed at characterizing murine HSPCs on the basis of their bioenergetic competence and CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) expression. Positively immunoselected Sca-1(+) HSPCs encompassed 2 populations distinguished by their different size, Sca-1 expression and mitochondrial content. The smaller were the cells, the higher was Sca-1 expression and the lower was the intracellular density of functional mitochondria. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and western blotting revealed that HSPCs expressed CFTR mRNA and protein, which was also functional, as assessed by spectrofluorimetric and patch-clamp techniques. Inhibition of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation by oligomycin resulted in a 70% decrease of both the intracelluar adenosine triphosphate content and CFTR-mediated channel activity. Finally, HSPCs with lower Sca-1 expression and higher mitochondrial content displayed higher CFTR levels. Our findings identify 2 subpopulations in HSPCs and unveil a so-far unappreciated relationship between bioenergetic metabolism and CFTR in HSPC biology

The electronic structure, surface properties, and in situ N2O decomposition of mechanochemically synthesised LaMnO3

The use of mechanochemistry to prepare catalytic materials is of significant interest; it offers an environmentally beneficial, solvent-free, route and produces highly complex structures of mixed amorphous and crystalline phases. This study reports on the effect of milling atmosphere, either air or argon, on mechanochemically prepared LaMnO3 and the catalytic performance towards N2O decomposition (deN2O). In this work, high energy resolution fluorescence detection (HERFD), X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES), X-ray emission, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) have been used to probe the electronic structural properties of the mechanochemically prepared materials. Moreover, in situ studies using near ambient pressure (NAP)-XPS, to follow the materials during catalysis, and high pressure energy dispersive EXAFS studies, to mimic the preparation conditions, have also been performed. The studies show that there are clear differences between the air and argon milled samples, with the most pronounced changes observed using NAP-XPS. The XPS results find increased levels of active adsorbed oxygen species, linked to the presence of surface oxide vacancies, for the sample prepared in argon. Furthermore, the argon milled LaMnO3 shows improved catalytic activity towards deN2O at lower temperatures compared to the air milled and sol-gel synthesised LaMnO3. Assessing this improved catalytic behaviour during deN2O of argon milled LaMnO3 by in situ NAP-XPS suggests increased interaction of N2O at room temperature within the O 1s region. This study further demonstrates the complexity of mechanochemically prepared materials and through careful choice of characterisation methods how their properties can be understood

3D characterization of CdSe nanoparticles attached to carbon nanotubes

The crystallographic structure of CdSe nanoparticles attached to carbon nanotubes has been elucidated by means of high resolution transmission electron microscopy and high angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy tomography. CdSe rod-like nanoparticles, grown in solution together with carbon nanotubes, undergo a morphological transformation and become attached to the carbon surface. Electron tomography reveals that the nanoparticles are hexagonal-based with the (001) planes epitaxially matched to the outer graphene layer.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure

Electron and ion spectroscopy of azobenzene in the valence and core shells

Azobenzene is a prototype and a building block of a class of molecules of extreme technological interest as molecular photo-switches. We present a joint experimental and theoretical study of its response to irradiation with light across the UV to x-ray spectrum. The study of valence and inner shell photo-ionization and excitation processes combined with measurement of valence photoelectron-photoion coincidence and mass spectra across the core thresholds provides a detailed insight into the site- and state-selected photo-induced processes. Photo-ionization and excitation measurements are interpreted via the multi-configurational restricted active space self-consistent field method corrected by second order perturbation theory. Using static modeling, we demonstrate that the carbon and nitrogen K edges of azobenzene are suitable candidates for exploring its photoinduced dynamics thanks to the transient signals appearing in background-free regions of the NEXAFS and XPS