232 research outputs found
Optimal Fully Electric Vehicle load balancing with an ADMM algorithm in Smartgrids
In this paper we present a system architecture and a suitable control
methodology for the load balancing of Fully Electric Vehicles at Charging
Station (CS). Within the proposed architecture, control methodologies allow to
adapt Distributed Energy Resources (DER) generation profiles and active loads
to ensure economic benefits to each actor. The key aspect is the organization
in two levels of control: at local level a Load Area Controller (LAC) optimally
calculates the FEVs charging sessions, while at higher level a Macro Load Area
Aggregator (MLAA) provides DER with energy production profiles, and LACs with
energy withdrawal profiles. Proposed control methodologies involve the solution
of a Walrasian market equilibrium and the design of a distributed algorithm.Comment: This paper has been accepted for the 21st Mediterranean Conference on
Control and Automation, therefore it is subjected to IEEE Copyrights. See
IEEE copyright notice at http://www.ieee.org/documents/ieeecopyrightform.pd
Evolution of the expression and regulation of the nuclear hormone receptor ERR gene family in the chordate lineage
The Estrogen Related Receptor (ERR) nuclear hormone receptor genes have a wide diversity of roles in vertebrate development. In embryos, ERR genes are expressed in several tissues, including the central and peripheral nervous systems. Here we seek to establish the evolutionary history of chordate ERR genes, their expression and their regulation. We examine ERR expression in mollusc, amphioxus and sea squirt embryos, finding the single ERR orthologue is expressed in the nervous system in all three, with muscle expression also found in the two chordates. We show that most jawed vertebrates and lampreys have four ERR paralogues, and that vertebrate ERR genes were ancestrally linked to Estrogen Receptor genes. One of the lamprey paralogues shares conserved expression domains with jawed vertebrate ERRÎł in the embryonic vestibuloacoustic ganglion, eye, brain and spinal cord. Hypothesising that conserved expression derives from conserved regulation, we identify a suite of pan-vertebrate conserved non-coding sequences in ERR introns. We use transgenesis in lamprey and chicken embryos to show that these sequences are regulatory and drive reporter gene expression in the nervous system. Our data suggest an ancient association between ERR and the nervous system, including expression in cells associated with photosensation and mechanosensation. This includes the origin in the vertebrate common ancestor of a suite of regulatory elements in the 3' introns that drove nervous system expression and have been conserved from this point onwards
Insulin-Like Growth Factor 2 mRNA-Binding Protein 3 Modulates Aggressiveness of Ewing Sarcoma by Regulating the CD164-CXCR4 Axis
Ewing sarcoma (EWS) is the second most common bone and soft tissue-associated malignancy in children and young adults. It is driven by the fusion oncogene EWS/FLI1 and characterized by rapid growth and early metastasis. We have previously discovered that the mRNA binding protein IGF2BP3 constitutes an important biomarker for EWS as high expression of IGF2BP3 in primary tumors predicts poor prognosis of EWS patients. We additionally demonstrated that IGF2BP3 enhances anchorage-independent growth and migration of EWS cells suggesting that IGF2BP3 might work as molecular driver and predictor of EWS progression. The aim of this study was to further define the role of IGF2BP3 in EWS progression. We demonstrated that high IGF2BP3 mRNA expression levels correlated with EWS metastasis and disease progression in well-characterized EWS tumor specimens. EWS tumors with high IGF2BP3 levels were characterized by a specific gene signature enriched in chemokine-mediated signaling pathways. We also discovered that IGF2BP3 regulated the expression of CXCR4 through CD164. Significantly, CD164 and CXCR4 colocalized at the plasma membrane of EWS cells upon CXCL12 stimulation. We further demonstrated that IGF2BP3, CD164, and CXCR4 expression levels correlated in clinical samples and the IGF2BP3/CD164/CXCR4 signaling pathway promoted motility of EWS cells in response to CXCL12 and under hypoxia conditions. The data presented identified CD164 and CXCR4 as novel IGF2BP3 downstream functional effectors indicating that the IGF2BP3/CD164/CXCR4 oncogenic axis may work as critical modulator of EWS aggressiveness. In addition, IGF2BP3, CD164, and CXCR4 expression levels may constitute a novel biomarker panel predictive of EWS progression
Service Orientation and the Smart Grid state and trends
The energy market is undergoing major changes, the most notable of which is the transition from a hierarchical closed system toward a more open one highly based on a âsmartâ information-rich infrastructure. This transition calls for new information and communication technologies infrastructures and standards to support it. In this paper, we review the current state of affairs and the actual technologies with respect to such transition. Additionally, we highlight the contact points between the needs of the future grid and the advantages brought by service-oriented architectures.
CLASH: Weak-Lensing Shear-and-Magnification Analysis of 20 Galaxy Clusters
We present a joint shear-and-magnification weak-lensing analysis of a sample
of 16 X-ray-regular and 4 high-magnification galaxy clusters at 0.19<z<0.69
selected from the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH). Our
analysis uses wide-field multi-color imaging, taken primarily with Suprime-Cam
on the Subaru Telescope. From a stacked shear-only analysis of the
X-ray-selected subsample, we detect the ensemble-averaged lensing signal with a
total signal-to-noise ratio of ~25 in the radial range of 200 to 3500kpc/h. The
stacked tangential-shear signal is well described by a family of standard
density profiles predicted for dark-matter-dominated halos in gravitational
equilibrium, namely the Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW), truncated variants of NFW,
and Einasto models. For the NFW model, we measure a mean concentration of
at . We show this is in excellent agreement with Lambda
cold-dark-matter (LCDM) predictions when the CLASH X-ray selection function and
projection effects are taken into account. The best-fit Einasto shape parameter
is , which is consistent with the
NFW-equivalent Einasto parameter of . We reconstruct projected mass
density profiles of all CLASH clusters from a joint likelihood analysis of
shear-and-magnification data, and measure cluster masses at several
characteristic radii. We also derive an ensemble-averaged total projected mass
profile of the X-ray-selected subsample by stacking their individual mass
profiles. The stacked total mass profile, constrained by the
shear+magnification data, is shown to be consistent with our shear-based
halo-model predictions including the effects of surrounding large-scale
structure as a two-halo term, establishing further consistency in the context
of the LCDM model.Comment: Accepted by ApJ on 11 August 2014. Textual changes to improve clarity
(e.g., Sec.3.2.2 "Number-count Depletion", Sec.4.3 "Shape Measurement",
Sec.4.4 "Background Galaxy Selection"). Results and conclusions remain
unchanged. For the public release of Subaru data, see
http://archive.stsci.edu/prepds/clash
Hubble Space Telescope Combined Strong and Weak Lensing Analysis of the CLASH Sample: Mass and Magnification Models and Systematic Uncertainties
We present results from a comprehensive lensing analysis in HST data, of the
complete CLASH cluster sample. We identify new multiple-images previously
undiscovered allowing improved or first constraints on the cluster inner mass
distributions and profiles. We combine these strong-lensing constraints with
weak-lensing shape measurements within the HST FOV to jointly constrain the
mass distributions. The analysis is performed in two different common
parameterizations (one adopts light-traces-mass for both galaxies and dark
matter while the other adopts an analytical, elliptical NFW form for the dark
matter), to provide a better assessment of the underlying systematics - which
is most important for deep, cluster-lensing surveys, especially when studying
magnified high-redshift objects. We find that the typical (median), relative
systematic differences throughout the central FOV are in the
(dimensionless) mass density, , and in the magnification,
. We show maps of these differences for each cluster, as well as the mass
distributions, critical curves, and 2D integrated mass profiles. For the
Einstein radii () we find that all typically agree within
between the two models, and Einstein masses agree, typically, within
. At larger radii, the total projected, 2D integrated mass profiles
of the two models, within r\sim2\arcmin, differ by . Stacking the
surface-density profiles of the sample from the two methods together, we obtain
an average slope of , in the radial
range [5,350] kpc. Lastly, we also characterize the behavior of the average
magnification, surface density, and shear differences between the two models,
as a function of both the radius from the center, and the best-fit values of
these quantities.Comment: 35 pages (20 main text pages, plus 15 pages for additional figures
and tables); 2 Tables, 17 Figures. V3: accepted version; some minor
corrections and additions made. V4: corrected several entries in Table 2. All
mass models and magnification maps are made publicly available for the
communit
Phthalimide Derivative Shows Anti-angiogenic Activity in a 3D Microfluidic Model and No Teratogenicity in Zebrafish Embryos
Angiogenesis is a crucial event for tumor progression and metastasis. It is the process through which new blood vessels are formed and has become a therapeutic target in many cancer therapies. However, current anti-angiogenic drugs such as Thalidomide still have detrimental teratogenic effects. This property could be caused by the presence of chiral carbons, intrinsic to such compounds. We synthesized four different phthalimide derivatives that lack chiral carbons in their chemical structure. We hypothesized that these achiral carbon compounds would retain similar levels of anti-angiogenic activity whilst reducing teratogenic effects. We tested for their anti-angiogenic functions using an in vitro 3D microfluidic assay with human endothelial cells. All four compounds caused a drastic inhibition of angiogenesis at lower effective concentrations compared to Thalidomide. Quantification of the blood vessel sprouting in each condition allowed us to classify compounds depending on their anti-angiogenic capabilities. The most effective identified compound (C4), was tested in vivo on a zebrafish embryo model. Blood vessel development was measured using number and lengths of the stalks visible in the fli1a:EGFP transgenic line. Potential teratogenic effects of C4 were monitored over zebrafish embryonic development. The in vivo results confirmed the increased potency of C4 compared to Thalidomide demonstrated by results in embryos exposed to concentrations as low as 0.02 ÎŒM. The teratogenic analysis further validated the advantages of using C4 over Thalidomide in zebrafish embryos. This study highlights how the use of in vitro 3D model can allow rapid screening and selection of new and safer drugs
The Contribution of Halos with Different Mass Ratios to the Overall Growth of Cluster-Sized Halos
We provide a new observational test for a key prediction of the \Lambda CDM
cosmological model: the contributions of mergers with different
halo-to-main-cluster mass ratios to cluster-sized halo growth. We perform this
test by dynamically analyzing seven galaxy clusters, spanning the redshift
range and caustic mass range M, with an average of 293 spectroscopically-confirmed
bound galaxies to each cluster. The large radial coverage (a few virial radii),
which covers the whole infall region, with a high number of spectroscopically
identified galaxies enables this new study. For each cluster, we identify bound
galaxies. Out of these galaxies, we identify infalling and accreted halos and
estimate their masses and their dynamical states. Using the estimated masses,
we derive the contribution of different mass ratios to cluster-sized halo
growth. For mass ratios between ~0.2 and ~0.7, we find a ~1 agreement
with \Lambda CDM expectations based on the Millennium simulations I and II. At
low mass ratios, , our derived contribution is underestimated
since the detection efficiency decreases at low masses,
M. At large mass ratios, , we do not
detect halos probably because our sample, which was chosen to be quite X-ray
relaxed, is biased against large mass ratios. Therefore, at large mass ratios,
the derived contribution is also underestimated.Comment: 25 pages, 16 figures, 6 tables, 2 machine readable tables, accepted
for publication in ApJ, updated acknowledgements and data table format
modifications mad
Agreement on classification of clinical photographs of pigmentary lesions: exercise after a training course with young dermatologists.
Smartphone apps may help promoting the early diagnosis of melanoma. The reliability of specialist judgment on lesions should be assessed. Hereby, we evaluated the agreement of 6 young dermatologists, after a specific training. Clinical judgment was evaluated during 2 online sessions, 1 month apart, on a series of 45 pigmentary lesions. Lesions were classified as highly suspicious, suspicious, non-suspicious or not assessable. Cohen's and Fleiss' kappa were used to calculate intra- and inter-rater agreement. The overall intra-rater agreement was 0.42 (95% confidence interval - CI: 0.33-0.50), varying between 0.12-0.59 on single raters. The inter-rater agreement during the first phase was 0.29 (95% CI: 0.24-0.34). When considering the agreement for each category of judgment, kappa varied from 0.19 for not assessable to 0.48 for highly suspicious lesions. Similar results were obtained in the second exercise. The study showed a less than satisfactory agreement among young dermatologists. Our data point to the need for improving the reliability of the clinical diagnoses of melanoma especially when assessing small lesions and when dealing with thin melanomas at a population level
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