Day-ahead and Intraday Dispatch of an Integrated Biomass-Concentrated Solar System: A Multi-Objective Risk-Controlling Approach

© 2020 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works

Convergence from clusters to the bulk solid: an ab initio investigation of clusters NanCln (n=2-40)

The electronic structures of a series of sodium chloride clusters (NaCl)(n) (n = 2-40) cut out from the NaCl solid have been investigated by means of ab initio calculations. The calculation results demonstrated a good correlation of the topologic parameters N-d (the total amount of dangling bonds of a cut-out cluster) and beta (the average dangling bonds on each in-cluster atom) with the stability of clusters as well as an evident convergence from clusters to the bulk solid. Particularly, we found that the effective charges on the Cl anions are more site dependent than size dependent

Genetic and biochemical analyses of chromosome and plasmid gene homologues encoding ICL and ArCP domains in Vibrioanguillarum strain 775

Anguibactin, the siderophore produced by Vibrio anguillarum 775 is synthesized from 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid (DHBA), cysteine and hydroxyhistamine via a nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) mechanism. Most of the genes encoding anguibactin biosynthetic proteins are harbored by the pJM1 plasmid. In this work we report the identification of a homologue of the plasmid-encoded angB on the chromosome of strain 775. The product of both genes harbor an isochorismate lyase (ICL) domain that converts isochorismic acid to 2,3-dihydro-2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid, one of the steps of DHBA synthesis. We show in this work that both ICL domains are functional in the production of DHBA in V. anguillarum as well as in E. coli. Substitution by alanine of the aspartic acid residue in the active site of both ICL domains completely abolishes their isochorismate lyase activity in vivo. The two proteins also carry an aryl carrier protein (ArCP) domain. In contrast with the ICL domains only the plasmid encoded ArCP can participate in anguibactin production as determined by complementation analyses and site-directed mutagenesis in the active site of the plasmid encoded protein, S248A. The site-directed mutants, D37A in the ICL domain and S248A in the ArCP domain of the plasmid encoded AngB were also tested in vitro and clearly show the importance of each residue for the domain function and that each domain operates independently.

Novel insertions in the mitochondrial maxicircle of Trypanosoma musculi, a mouse trypanosome

Trypanosoma musculi is a, globally distributed, mouse-specific haemoflagellate, of the family Trypanosomatidae, which shares similar characteristics in morphology with Trypanosoma lewisi. The kinetoplast (mitochondrial) DNA of Trypanosomatidae flagellates is comprised of catenated maxicircles and minicircles. However, genetic information on the T. musculi kinetoplast remains largely unknown. In this study, the T. musculi maxicircle genome was completely assembled, with PacBio and Illumina sequencing, and the size was confirmed at 34 606 bp. It consisted of 2 distinct parts: the coding region and the divergent regions (DRs, DRI and II). In comparison with other trypanosome maxicircles (Trypanosoma brucei, Trypanosoma cruzi and T. lewisi), the T. musculi maxicircle has a syntenic distribution of genes and shares 73.9, 78.0 and 92.7% sequence identity, respectively, over the whole coding region. Moreover, novel insertions in MURF2 (630 bp) and in ND5 (1278 bp) were found, respectively, which are homologous to minicircles. These findings support an evolutionary scenario similar to the one proposed for insertions in Trypanosoma cruzi, the pathogen of American trypanosomiasis. These novel insertions, together with a deletion (281 bp) in ND4, question the role of Complex I in T. musculi. A detailed analysis of DRII indicated that it contains numerous repeat motifs and palindromes, the latter of which are highly conservative and contain A5C elements. The comprehensively annotated kinetoplast maxicircle of T. musculi reveals a high degree of similarity between this parasite and the maxicircle of T. lewisi and suggests that the DRII could be a valuable marker for distinguishing these evolutionarily related species

Stellar Coronal and Wind Models: Impact on Exoplanets

Surface magnetism is believed to be the main driver of coronal heating and stellar wind acceleration. Coronae are believed to be formed by plasma confined in closed magnetic coronal loops of the stars, with winds mainly originating in open magnetic field line regions. In this Chapter, we review some basic properties of stellar coronae and winds and present some existing models. In the last part of this Chapter, we discuss the effects of coronal winds on exoplanets.Comment: Chapter published in the "Handbook of Exoplanets", Editors in Chief: Juan Antonio Belmonte and Hans Deeg, Section Editor: Nuccio Lanza. Springer Reference Work

On the evolutionary origin of aging

It is generally believed that the first organisms did not age, and that aging thus evolved at some point in the history of life. When and why this transition occurred is a fundamental question in evolutionary biology. Recent reports of aging in bacteria suggest that aging predates the emergence of eukaryotes and originated in simple unicellular organisms. Here we use simple models to study why such organisms would evolve aging. These models show that the differentiation between an aging parent and a rejuvenated offspring readily evolves as a strategy to cope with damage that accumulates due to vital activities. We use measurements of the age-specific performance of individual bacteria to test the assumptions of the model, and find evidence that they are fulfilled. The mechanism that leads to aging is expected to operate in a wide range of organisms, suggesting that aging evolved early and repeatedly in the history of life. Aging might thus be a more fundamental aspect of cellular organisms than assumed so far

Theory of disk accretion onto supermassive black holes

Accretion onto supermassive black holes produces both the dramatic phenomena associated with active galactic nuclei and the underwhelming displays seen in the Galactic Center and most other nearby galaxies. I review selected aspects of the current theoretical understanding of black hole accretion, emphasizing the role of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence and gravitational instabilities in driving the actual accretion and the importance of the efficacy of cooling in determining the structure and observational appearance of the accretion flow. Ongoing investigations into the dynamics of the plunging region, the origin of variability in the accretion process, and the evolution of warped, twisted, or eccentric disks are summarized.Comment: Mostly introductory review, to appear in "Supermassive black holes in the distant Universe", ed. A.J. Barger, Kluwer Academic Publishers, in pres

Intracochlear schwannoma presenting as diffuse cochlear enhancement: diagnostic challenges of a rare cause of deafness

Intracochlear schwannoma is a rare, treatable, cause of unilateral hearing loss. Due to the small size, position, and variable clinical and imaging features, diagnosis presents a significant challenge and is often delayed. We present a case of a patient with an intracochlear schwannoma presenting as a diffuse enhancement of the cochlea, mimicking an infectious or inflammatory process. The absence of focal nodularity in this lesion on multiple high-resolution MRI examinations led to a delay of over 3 years from the patient’s initial presentation to surgical diagnosis. Clinical history and examination, imaging features, pathologic findings, and surgical management options are described

A practical and open source implementation of IEC 61850-7-2 for IED monitoring applications

A new open source mapping of IEC 61850-7-2 to web services has been defined and implemented. This work is useful for rapidly implementing user interfaces—particularly web-based interfaces—for monitoring and controlling Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) from multiple vendors. The web service mapping has been implemented using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), with a message format in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). This approach requires a simple and ubiquitous software stack for its implementation, which is a significant advantage over existing client-server communications mappings. The use of an open source paradigm allows for the rapid iteration and refinement of the design, implementation, and testing of the internal details of the proposed protocol stack, in a collaborative manner. These developments are of immediate interest to users of IEC 61850 and are particularly relevant to the IEC 61850 standardization process