ERIGrid Holistic Test Description for Validating Cyber-Physical Energy Systems

Smart energy solutions aim to modify and optimise the operation of existing energy infrastructure. Such cyber-physical technology must be mature before deployment to the actual infrastructure, and competitive solutions will have to be compliant to standards still under development. Achieving this technology readiness and harmonisation requires reproducible experiments and appropriately realistic testing environments. Such testbeds for multi-domain cyber-physical experiments are complex in and of themselves. This work addresses a method for the scoping and design of experiments where both testbed and solution each require detailed expertise. This empirical work first revisited present test description approaches, developed a newdescription method for cyber-physical energy systems testing, and matured it by means of user involvement. The new Holistic Test Description (HTD) method facilitates the conception, deconstruction and reproduction of complex experimental designs in the domains of cyber-physical energy systems. This work develops the background and motivation, offers a guideline and examples to the proposed approach, and summarises experience from three years of its application.This work received funding in the European Community’s Horizon 2020 Program (H2020/2014–2020) under project “ERIGrid” (Grant Agreement No. 654113)

Interferon-α Abrogates Tolerance Induction by Human Tolerogenic Dendritic Cells

BACKGROUND: Administration of interferon-α (IFN-α) represents an approved adjuvant therapy as reported for malignancies like melanoma and several viral infections. In malignant diseases, tolerance processes are critically involved in tumor progression. In this study, the effect of IFN-α on tolerance induction by human tolerogenic dendritic cells (DC) was analyzed. We focussed on tolerogenic IL-10-modulated DC (IL-10 DC) that are known to induce anergic regulatory T cells (iTregs). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: IFN-α promoted an enhanced maturation of IL-10 DC as demonstrated by upregulation of the differentiation marker CD83 as well as costimulatory molecules. IFN-α treatment resulted in an increased capacity of DC to stimulate T cell activation compared to control tolerogenic DC. We observed a strengthened T cell proliferation and increased IFN-γ production of CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells stimulated by IFN-α-DC, demonstrating a restoration of the immunogenic capacity of tolerogenic DC in the presence of IFN-α. Notably, restimulation experiments revealed that IFN-α treatment of tolerogenic DC abolished the induction of T cell anergy and suppressor function of iTregs. In contrast, IFN-α neither affected the priming of iTregs nor converted iTregs into effector T cells. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: IFN-α inhibits the induction of T cell tolerance by reversing the tolerogenic function of human DC

Library Reader Issue 02: Source Of Clarification

Library resource awareness poster covering the difference between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources, along with UNE Library resources which carry each.https://dune.une.edu/libraryreader/1001/thumbnail.jp

Cerebral blood flow and behavioural effects of caffeine in habitual and non-habitual consumers of caffeine: A near infrared spectroscopy study

Caffeine has been shown to modulate cerebral blood flow, with little evidence of tolerance to these effects following habitual use. However, previous studies have focused on caffeine levels much higher than those found in dietary servings and have compared high caffeine consumers with low consumers rather than 'non-consumers'. The current placebo-controlled double-blind, balanced-crossover study employed near infrared spectroscopy to monitor pre-frontal cerebral-haemodynamics at rest and during completion of tasks that activate the pre-frontal cortex. Twenty healthy young habitual and non-habitual consumers of caffeine received 75mg caffeine or placebo. Caffeine significantly decreased cerebral blood flow but this was subject to a significant interaction with consumption status, with no significant effect being shown in habitual consumers and an exaggerated effect in non-habitual consumers. These findings suggest that caffeine, at levels typically found in a single dietary serving, is able to modulate cerebral blood flow but these effects are subject to tolerance

Commissioning of the vacuum system of the KATRIN Main Spectrometer

The KATRIN experiment will probe the neutrino mass by measuring the beta-electron energy spectrum near the endpoint of tritium beta-decay. An integral energy analysis will be performed by an electro-static spectrometer (Main Spectrometer), an ultra-high vacuum vessel with a length of 23.2 m, a volume of 1240 m^3, and a complex inner electrode system with about 120000 individual parts. The strong magnetic field that guides the beta-electrons is provided by super-conducting solenoids at both ends of the spectrometer. Its influence on turbo-molecular pumps and vacuum gauges had to be considered. A system consisting of 6 turbo-molecular pumps and 3 km of non-evaporable getter strips has been deployed and was tested during the commissioning of the spectrometer. In this paper the configuration, the commissioning with bake-out at 300{\deg}C, and the performance of this system are presented in detail. The vacuum system has to maintain a pressure in the 10^{-11} mbar range. It is demonstrated that the performance of the system is already close to these stringent functional requirements for the KATRIN experiment, which will start at the end of 2016.Comment: submitted for publication in JINST, 39 pages, 15 figure

Dendritic cell density and activation status in human breast cancer – CD1a, CMRF-44, CMRF-56 and CD-83 expression

Low CD1a-positive putative dendritic cell numbers in human breast cancer has recently been described and may explain the apparent ‘poor immunogenicity’ previously reported in breast cancer. Little attention has been given to dendritic cell activation within the tumour microenvironment, which is another reason why the in-situ immune response may be severely deficient. We have therefore examined CD1a expression as a marker for dendritic cells, together with CMRF-44 and -56 as markers of dendritic cell activation status, in 40 human breast cancers. The results demonstrate few or no CD1a-positive putative dendritic cells and minimal or no expression of the dendritic cell activation markers. Both dendritic cell number and dendritic cell activation appear substantially deficient in human breast cancers, regardless of tumour histological grade

An integrated pan-European research infrastructure for validating smart grid systems

A driving force for the realization of a sustainable energy supply in Europe is the integration of distributed, renewable energy resources. Due to their dynamic and stochastic generation behaviour, utilities and network operators are confronted with a more complex operation of the underlying distribution grids. Additionally, due to the higher flexibility on the consumer side through partly controllable loads, ongoing changes of regulatory rules, technology developments, and the liberalization of energy markets, the system’s operation needs adaptation. Sophisticated design approaches together with proper operational concepts and intelligent automation provide the basis to turn the existing power system into an intelligent entity, a so-called smart grid. While reaping the benefits that come along with those intelligent behaviours, it is expected that the system-level testing will play a significantly larger role in the development of future solutions and technologies. Proper validation approaches, concepts, and corresponding tools are partly missing until now. This paper addresses these issues by discussing the progress in the integrated Pan-European research infrastructure project ERIGrid where proper validation methods and tools are currently being developed for validating smart grid systems and solutions.This work is supported by the European Community’s Horizon 2020 Program (H2020/2014-2020) under project “ERIGrid” (Grant Agreement No. 654113). Further information is available at the corresponding website www.erigrid.eu