From a forecasting methodology for the electric energy consumption of mono-towns to its sustainability

The need of Russia for a resource-innovative energy strategy for the period up to 2035 makes it urgent to create a methodology of strategic forecasting for the electric energy consumption of mono-towns, which will result in the efficient development of a power supply system, ensuring territories’ sustainability. For this purpose, it is necessary to consider a mono-town as a complete system, a living organism with a definite life cycle and structure of energy consumers. The authors offer a technocoenosis approach to carry out the ranking and structural analysis of the electric energy consumption of one of the Sverdlovsk region’s mono-towns, taking into account dynamics in population, enterprises, organizations and institutions for the period of 5 years. The provided analysis makes it possible to judge the technocoenosis optimality using characteristic exponent β, depending on the structural features of the territory. The authors developed an algorithm for electric energy consumption forecasting, based on Support Vector Machines (SVM), which takes into account the electric energy of mono-towns’ consumers and the climatic factors. Forecasting accuracy was achieved using cross-validation of the input data in order to optimize the training model. The corresponding changes in electric energy consumption, when a characteristic exponent is optimal, will result in a target forecast that provides the sustainable development of mono-towns. © 2014 WIT Press.International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning;WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environmen

A HYBRID DIFFERENTIAL EVOLUTION FOR NON-SMOOTH OPTIMIZATION PROBLEMS

Solving high dimentional, multimodal, non-smooth global optimization problems faces challenges concerning quality of solution, computational costs or even the impossibility of solving the problem. Evolutionary algorithms, in particular, differential evolution algorithm proved itself as good method of global optimization. On the other side, approach based on subgradient methods are good for optimizing non-smooth functions. Combination of these two approaches enables to improve the quality of the algorithm, using the best features of both methods. In this paper, a new hybrid evolutionary approach based on differential evolution and subgradient algorithm as the local search procedure is proposed. Behavior of the proposed SSGDE algorithm was studied in a numerical experiment on three groups of generated tests. Comparison of the new hybrid algorithm with the pure DE approach showed the advantage of the SSGDE. It has been experimentally established that the proposed method finds the global minimum in the best way for all considered dimensions of the problem with respect to the differential evolution method. The SSGDE algorithm showed the best results with a significant increase in the number of functions

Protonic Transport in Layered Perovskites BaLanInnO3n+1 (n = 1, 2) with Ruddlesden-Popper Structure

The work focused on the layered perovskite-related materials as the potential electrolytic components of such devices as proton conducting solid oxide fuel cells for the area of clean energy. The two-layered perovskite BaLa2 In2O7 with the Ruddlesden–Popper structure was investigated as a protonic conductor for the first time. The role of increasing the amount of perovskite blocks in the layered structure on the ionic transport was investigated. It was shown that layered perovskites BaLanInnO3n+1 (n = 1, 2) demonstrate nearly pure protonic conductivity below 350◦C. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Upper limit on the ultra-high-energy photon flux from AGASA and Yakutsk data

We present the interpretation of the muon and scintillation signals of ultra-high-energy air showers observed by AGASA and Yakutsk extensive air shower array experiments. We consider case-by-case ten highest energy events with known muon content and conclude that at the 95% confidence level (C.L.) none of them was induced by a primary photon. Taking into account statistical fluctuations and differences in the energy estimation of proton and photon primaries, we derive an upper limit of 36% at 95% C.L. on the fraction of primary photons in the cosmic-ray flux above 10^20 eV. This result disfavors the Z-burst and superheavy dark-matter solutions to the GZK-cutoff problem.Comment: revtex, 8 pages, 4 figure

The role of Pnut and its functional domains in Drosophila spermatogenesis

Drosophila Pnut protein belongs to the family of septins, conservative GTPases participating in cytokinesis and many more other fundamental cellular processes. Because of their filamentous appearance, membrane association and functions, septins are considered as the fourth component of the cytoskeleton, along with actin, microtubules and intermediate filaments. However, septins are much less studied than the other cytoskeleton elements. We had previously demonstrated that deletion of the peanut (pnut) gene leads to mitotic abnormalities in somatic cells. The goal of this work was to study the role of pnut in Drosophila spermatogenesis. We designed a construct for pnut RNA interference allowing pnut expression to be suppressed ectopically. We analyzed the effect of pnut RNA interference on Drosophila spermatogenesis. The most sensitive to Pnut depletion were germ line cells at the earliest stages of spermatogenesis: the suppression of pnut expression at these stages leads to male sterility as a result of immotile sperm. Testes of those sterile males did not show any significant meiotic defects; axonemes and mitochondria were normal. We also analyzed the effect of mutations in Pnut conservative domains on Drosophila spermatogenesis. Mutations in the GTPase domain resulted in cyst elongation defects. Deletions of the C-terminal domain led to abnormal testis morphology. Both GTPase domain and C-terminal domain mutant males were sterile and produced immotile sperm. To summarize, we showed that Pnut participates in spermiogenesis, that is, late stages of spermatogenesis, when major morphological changes in spermatocytes occur

Development stage-specific proteomic profiling uncovers small, lineage specific proteins most abundant in the Aspergillus Fumigatus conidial proteome

Background The pathogenic mold Aspergillus fumigatus is the most frequent infectious cause of death in severely immunocompromised individuals such as leukemia and bone marrow transplant patients. Germination of inhaled conidia (asexual spores) in the host is critical for the initiation of infection, but little is known about the underlying mechanisms of this process. Results To gain insights into early germination events and facilitate the identification of potential stage-specific biomarkers and vaccine candidates, we have used quantitative shotgun proteomics to elucidate patterns of protein abundance changes during early fungal development. Four different stages were examined: dormant conidia, isotropically expanding conidia, hyphae in which germ tube emergence has just begun, and pre-septation hyphae. To enrich for glycan-linked cell wall proteins we used an alkaline cell extraction method. Shotgun proteomic resulted in the identification of 375 unique gene products with high confidence, with no evidence for enrichment of cell wall-immobilized and secreted proteins. The most interesting discovery was the identification of 52 proteins enriched in dormant conidia including 28 proteins that have never been detected in the A. fumigatus conidial proteome such as signaling protein Pil1, chaperones BipA and calnexin, and transcription factor HapB. Additionally we found many small, Aspergillus specific proteins of unknown function including 17 hypothetical proteins. Thus, the most abundant protein, Grg1 (AFUA_5G14210), was also one of the smallest proteins detected in this study (M.W. 7,367). Among previously characterized proteins were melanin pigment and pseurotin A biosynthesis enzymes, histones H3 and H4.1, and other proteins involved in conidiation and response to oxidative or hypoxic stress. In contrast, expanding conidia, hyphae with early germ tubes, and pre-septation hyphae samples were enriched for proteins responsible for housekeeping functions, particularly translation, respiratory metabolism, amino acid and carbohydrate biosynthesis, and the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Conclusions The observed temporal expression patterns suggest that the A. fumigatus conidia are dominated by small, lineage-specific proteins. Some of them may play key roles in host-pathogen interactions, signal transduction during conidial germination, or survival in hostile environments

Clinical and psychological correlations with type D personality in patients with chronic coronary syndrome

Recently, it has become common to identify type D personality, which is predisposed to the development of psychological distress. Negative behavioral characteristics of individuals with type D personality contribute not only to the development of cardiovascular diseases, but also to  other comorbid pathologies that can influence the progression and prognosis of coronary heart disease. The aim of the study. To identify clinical and psychological correlations with type D personality in patients with chronic coronary syndrome. Methods. The study included 113 patients (68 men and 45 women; median age – 64 years) admitted for planned percutaneous coronary intervention at the Research Institute for Complex Issues of Cardiovascular Diseases (Kemerovo, Russian Federation). Based on the results of the DS-14 test, patients were divided into two groups: patients with type D personality (n = 40) and patients without this type (n = 73). Results. In patients with chronic coronary syndrome with type D personality, compared with patients without this type, concomitant diabetes mellitus (35 % and 15 %, respectively; p = 0.018), signs of diastolic dysfunction of left (Е/е’ ratio 7.1 [6.48; 8.0] and 5.0 [4.55; 5.74], respectively; p = 0.0038) and right (Et/At ratio – 0.8 [0.66; 1.35] and 1.38 [1.28; 1.63], respectively; p = 0.014) ventricles were more often diagnosed. Correlation analysis revealed associations of diabetes mellitus with type D personality (r = 0.243; p = 0.011), severity of negative excitability (r = 0.253; p = 0.008) and social suppression (r = 0.224; p = 0.020), as well as association of ankle-brachial index (ABI) with the severity of negative excitability (r = 0.393; p = 0.004) and social suppression (r = 0.414; p = 0.002). Conclusion. In patients having chronic coronary syndrome with type D personality, concomitant diabetes mellitus, as well as left and right ventricular filling disorders are  more often detected. Correlation analysis revealed associations of diabetes mellitus with type  D personality and its subscales; the ABI level was associated with subscales of type D personality, but not with the level of anxiety and depression