Exploratory analysis of high-resolution power interruption data reveals spatial and temporal heterogeneity in electric grid reliability

Modern grid monitoring equipment enables utilities to collect detailed records of power interruptions. These data are aggregated to compute publicly reported metrics describing high-level characteristics of grid performance. The current work explores the depth of insights that can be gained from public data, and the implications of losing visibility into heterogeneity in grid performance through aggregation. We present an exploratory analysis examining three years of high-resolution power interruption data collected by archiving information posted in real-time on the public-facing website of a utility in the Western United States. We report on the size, frequency and duration of individual power interruptions, and on spatio-temporal variability in aggregate reliability metrics. Our results show that metrics of grid performance can vary spatially and temporally by orders of magnitude, revealing heterogeneity that is not evidenced in publicly reported metrics. We show that limited access to granular information presents a substantive barrier to conducting detailed policy analysis, and discuss how more widespread data access could help to answer questions that remain unanswered in the literature to date. Given open questions about whether grid performance is adequate to support societal needs, we recommend establishing pathways to make high-resolution power interruption data available to support policy research.Comment: Journal submission (in review), 22 pages, 8 figures, 1 tabl

Low temperature terahertz spectroscopy of n-InSb through a magnetic field driven metal-insulator transition

We use fiber-coupled photoconductive emitters and detectors to perform terahertz (THz) spectroscopy of lightly-doped n-InSb directly in the cryogenic (1.5 K) bore of a high-field superconducting magnet. We measure transmission spectra from 0.1-1.1 THz as the sample is driven through a metal-insulator transition (MIT) by applied magnetic field. In the low-field metallic state, the data directly reveal the plasma edge and magneto-plasmon modes. With increasing field, a surprisingly broad band (0.3-0.8 THz) of low transmission appears at the onset of the MIT. This band subsequently collapses and evolves into the sharp 1s -> 2p- transition of electrons `frozen' onto isolated donors in the insulating state.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Promotion of human mesenchymal stem cell osteogenesis by PI3-kinase/Akt signaling, and the influence of caveolin-1/cholesterol homeostasis

Introduction: Stem cells are considered an important resource for tissue repair and regeneration. Their utilization in regenerative medicine will be aided by mechanistic insight into their responsiveness to external stimuli. It is likely that, similar to all other cells, an initial determinant of stem cell responsiveness to external stimuli is the organization of signaling molecules in cell membrane rafts. The clustering of signaling molecules in these cholesterol-rich membrane microdomains can affect the activity, specificity, cross-talk and amplification of cell signaling. Membrane rafts fall into two broad categories, non-caveolar and caveolar, based on the absence or presence, respectively, of caveolin scaffolding proteins. We have recently demonstrated that caveolin-1 (Cav-1) expression increases during, and knockdown of Cav-1 expression enhances, osteogenic differentiation of human bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). The increase in Cav-1 expression observed during osteogenesis is likely a negative feedback mechanism. We hypothesize that focal adhesion signaling pathways such as PI3K/Akt signaling may be negatively regulated by Cav-1 during human MSC osteogenesis. Methods: Human bone marrow MSCs were isolated from femoral heads obtained after total hip arthroplasty. MSCs were incubated in standard growth medium alone or induced to osteogenically differentiate by the addition of supplements (β-glycerophosphate, ascorbic acid, dexamethasone, and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3). The activation of and requirement for PI3K/Akt signaling in MSC osteogenesis were assessed by immunoblotting for phosphorylated Akt, and treatment with the PI3K inhibitor LY294002 and Akt siRNA, respectively. The influences of Cav-1 and cholesterol membrane rafts on PI3K/Akt signaling were investigated by treatment with Cav-1 siRNA, methyl-β-cyclodextrin, or cholesterol oxidase, followed by cellular sub-fractionation and/or immunoblotting for phosphorylated Akt. Results: LY294002 and Akt siRNA inhibited MSC osteogenesis. Methyl-β-cyclodextrin, which disrupts all membrane rafts, inhibited osteogenesis. Conversely, Cav-1 siRNA and cholesterol oxidase, which displaces Cav-1 from caveolae, enhanced Akt signaling induced by osteogenic supplements. In control cells, phosphorylated Akt began to accumulate in caveolae after 10 days of osteogenic differentiation. Conclusions: PI3K/Akt signaling is a key pathway required for human MSC osteogenesis, and it is likely that localization of active Akt in non-caveolar and caveolar membrane rafts positively and negatively contributes to osteogenesis, respectively

Spectral analysis of vertical temperature profile time-series data in Yellowstone Lake sediments

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2021. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Water Resources Research 57(4), (2021): e2020WR028430, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020WR028430.We use yearlong vertical temperature profile time-series (seven thermistors at evenly spaced depth intervals from 10 to 70 cm) from five sites in and around the Deep Hole thermal area, southeast of Stevenson Island, Yellowstone Lake, to investigate heat and mass fluxes across the lake floor. The records demonstrate that thermal gradients in surficial sediments are modulated by a rich spectrum of bottom water temperature variations generated by hydrodynamic processes, and that sites inside the thermal area also respond to hydrothermal variations. We develop and implement a new method for estimating the sediment effective thermal diffusivity and pore fluid vertical flow rate that exploits the full spectrum of observed temperature variations to generate the parameter estimates, uncertainties, and metrics to assess statistical significance. Sediments at sites outside thermal areas have gradients of ∼7.5°C/m, in situ thermal diffusivities of ∼1.6 × 10−7 m2/s consistent with highly porous (80–90%) siliceous sediments, and experience hypolentic flow in the upper ∼20 cm. Sites inside the Deep Hole thermal area exhibit considerable spatial and temporal variability, with gradients of 1–32°C/m, and higher thermal diffusivities of ∼2–12 × 10−7 m2/s, consistent with hydrothermal alteration of biogenic silica to clays, quartz, and pyrite. Upward pore fluid flow at these sites is observed across multiple depth intervals, with maximum values of ∼3 cm/day. The observed spatial and temporal variability within the thermal area is consistent with upward finger flow combined with short wavelength convection within the porous sediments above a steam reservoir.This research was supported by the National Science Foundation Grants EAR-1516361 to Robert A. Sohn and EAR-1515283 to Robert N. Harris, and by the Independent Research and Development Program at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (Robert A. Sohn). All work in Yellowstone National Park was completed under an authorized Yellowstone research permit (YELL-2018-SCI-7018)

SimOn: A Simple Framework for Online Temporal Action Localization

Online Temporal Action Localization (On-TAL) aims to immediately provide action instances from untrimmed streaming videos. The model is not allowed to utilize future frames and any processing techniques to modify past predictions, making On-TAL much more challenging. In this paper, we propose a simple yet effective framework, termed SimOn, that learns to predict action instances using the popular Transformer architecture in an end-to-end manner. Specifically, the model takes the current frame feature as a query and a set of past context information as keys and values of the Transformer. Different from the prior work that uses a set of outputs of the model as past contexts, we leverage the past visual context and the learnable context embedding for the current query. Experimental results on the THUMOS14 and ActivityNet1.3 datasets show that our model remarkably outperforms the previous methods, achieving a new state-of-the-art On-TAL performance. In addition, the evaluation for Online Detection of Action Start (ODAS) demonstrates the effectiveness and robustness of our method in the online setting. The code is available at https://github.com/TuanTNG/SimO

Redox-dependent gating of VDAC by mitoNEET.

MitoNEET is an outer mitochondrial membrane protein essential for sensing and regulation of iron and reactive oxygen species (ROS) homeostasis. It is a key player in multiple human maladies including diabetes, cancer, neurodegeneration, and Parkinson's diseases. In healthy cells, mitoNEET receives its clusters from the mitochondrion and transfers them to acceptor proteins in a process that could be altered by drugs or during illness. Here, we report that mitoNEET regulates the outer-mitochondrial membrane (OMM) protein voltage-dependent anion channel 1 (VDAC1). VDAC1 is a crucial player in the cross talk between the mitochondria and the cytosol. VDAC proteins function to regulate metabolites, ions, ROS, and fatty acid transport, as well as function as a "governator" sentry for the transport of metabolites and ions between the cytosol and the mitochondria. We find that the redox-sensitive [2Fe-2S] cluster protein mitoNEET gates VDAC1 when mitoNEET is oxidized. Addition of the VDAC inhibitor 4,4'-diisothiocyanatostilbene-2,2'-disulfonate (DIDS) prevents both mitoNEET binding in vitro and mitoNEET-dependent mitochondrial iron accumulation in situ. We find that the DIDS inhibitor does not alter the redox state of MitoNEET. Taken together, our data indicate that mitoNEET regulates VDAC in a redox-dependent manner in cells, closing the pore and likely disrupting VDAC's flow of metabolites

Evidence for an Intermediate-mass Milky Way from Gaia DR2 Halo Globular Cluster Motions

We estimate the mass of the Milky Way (MW) within 21.1 kpc using the kinematics of halo globular clusters (GCs) determined by Gaia. The second Gaia data release (DR2) contained a catalogue of absolute proper motions (PMs) for a set of Galactic GCs and satellite galaxies measured using Gaia DR2 data. We select from the catalogue only halo GCs, identifying a total of 34 GCs spanning $2.0 < r < 21.1$ kpc, and use their 3D kinematics to estimate the anisotropy over this range to be $\beta = 0.46^{+0.15}_{-0.19}$, in good agreement, though slightly lower than, a recent estimate for a sample of halo GCs using HST PM measurements further out in the halo. We then use the Gaia kinematics to estimate the mass of the MW inside the outermost GC to be $M(< 21.1 \mathrm{kpc}) = 0.21^{+0.04}_{-0.03} 10^{12} \mathrm{M_\odot}$, which corresponds to a circular velocity of $v_\mathrm{circ}(21.1 \mathrm{kpc}) = 206^{+19}_{-16}$ km/s. The implied virial mass is $M_\mathrm{virial} = 1.28^{+0.97}_{-0.48} 10^{12} \mathrm{M_\odot}$. The error bars encompass the uncertainties on the anisotropy and on the density profile of the MW dark halo, and the scatter inherent in the mass estimator we use. We get improved estimates when we combine the Gaia and HST samples to provide kinematics for 46 GCs out to 39.5 kpc: $\beta = 0.52^{+0.11}_{-0.14}$, $M(< 39.5 \mathrm{kpc}) = 0.42^{+0.07}_{-0.06} 10^{12} \mathrm{M_\odot}$, and $M_\mathrm{virial} = 1.54^{+0.75}_{-0.44} 10^{12} \mathrm{M_\odot}$. We show that these results are robust to potential substructure in the halo GC distribution. While a wide range of MW virial masses have been advocated in the literature, from below $10^{12} \mathrm{M_\odot}$ to above $2 \times 10^{12}\mathrm{M_\odot}$, these new data imply that an intermediate mass is most likely