Sequential heuristic optimisation of a real offshore wind farm site considering turbine placement and cable layout

Competition within the energy generation industry provides an incentive for developers to build offshore wind farms with a low levelised cost of energy. Therefore, there is a need for design optimisation to reduce costs and increase energy capture. A sequential approach to optimise turbine placement and cable layout is presented, using a heuristic k-opt algorithm and mixed-integer linear programming respectively. Energy storage is considered as a means to further improve the cable selection process. A case study is carried out on the Lillgrund offshore wind farm and the resulting layout improves energy capture by 6%. Cable costs are increased but the electrical losses are reduced such that there is an overall saving over the project lifetime of 20%. Energy storage as a means to peak shave the power seen by a cable in order to reduce electrical losses or de-rate a cable section was found to be impractically large and not profitable. Future work will consider secondary revenue streams to remedy this

Development of dependable controllers in the context of machines design

Proceedings of ICMD 2013In the domain of machines' design, one of the most important issues to solve is related with the controller's design, mainly, guaranteeing that the machine will behave as expected. In order to achieve a dependable controller, some steps can be considered, such as the formalization of its specification - before being translated to the program that will be inserted in the controller device - and the respective analysis and verification. Nowadays, some formal analysis techniques, such as formal verification, are used to achieve this purpose. The dependability of a controller, however, is impacted by its execution context. This paper proposes an approach for the formal verification of the specification of mechatronic system's controllers, which considers, on the formal verification tasks, the behavior of the plant and the behavior of the Human Machine Interface of the Mechatronic system. Some conclusions are extrapolated for other systems of the same kind

Behavioral types in programming languages

A recent trend in programming language research is to use behav- ioral type theory to ensure various correctness properties of large- scale, communication-intensive systems. Behavioral types encompass concepts such as interfaces, communication protocols, contracts, and choreography. The successful application of behavioral types requires a solid understanding of several practical aspects, from their represen- tation in a concrete programming language, to their integration with other programming constructs such as methods and functions, to de- sign and monitoring methodologies that take behaviors into account. This survey provides an overview of the state of the art of these aspects, which we summarize as the pragmatics of behavioral types

(20S)-24,25-Dihydr­oxy-20,24-ep­oxy-3,4-secodammar-4(28)-en-3-oic acid from Aglaia smithii

The title compound, C30H50O5, was isolated from the bark of Aglaia smithii. There are two independent mol­ecules in the asymmetric unit that differ in the orientation of the isopropenyl group attached to the cyclo­hexane ring. The cyclo­hexane rings in both mol­ecules adopt chair conformations, whereas the cyclo­pentane and tetra­hydro­furan rings adopt envelope conformations. The independent mol­ecules are linked into a layer parallel to (010) by O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds

How Promising Are "Ultraprocessed" Front-of-Package Labels? A Formative Study with US Adults

High levels of food processing can have detrimental health effects independent of nutrient content. Experts and advocates have proposed adding information about food processing status to front-of-package labeling schemes, which currently exclusively focus on nutrient content. How consumers would perceive "ultraprocessed" labels has not yet been examined. To address this gap, we conducted a within-subjects online experiment with a convenience sample of 600 US adults. Participants viewed a product under three labeling conditions (control, "ultraprocessed" label, and "ultraprocessed" plus "high in sugar" label) in random order for a single product. The "ultraprocessed" label led participants to report thinking more about the risks of eating the product and discouraging them from wanting to buy the product more than the control, despite not grabbing more attention than the control. The "ultraprocessed" plus "high in sugar" labels grabbed more attention, led participants to think more about the risks of eating the product, and discouraged them from wanting to buy the product more than the "ultraprocessed" label alone. "Ultraprocessed" labels may constitute promising messages that could work in tandem with nutrient labels, and further research should examine how they would influence consumers' actual intentions and behaviors

Author Correction: iLoF: An intelligent Lab on Fiber Approach for Human Cancer Single-Cell Type Identification

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.This work was partially funded by the projects NanoSTIMA and NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000029, both supported by the North Portugal Regional Operational Program (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, and through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF); and by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, within the scope of the PhD grant PD/BD/135023/2017 and the projects: PTDC/BBB-EBI/0567/2014 (to CAR) and UID/BIM/04293/2013. It was also funded by FEDER funds through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness Factors-COMPETE (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016585; POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007274; PPBI-POCI-01-0145-FEDER-022122). MB acknowledges the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 748880

Relation of gallbladder function and Helicobacter pylori infection to gastric mucosa inflammation in patients with symptomatic cholecystolithiasis

Background. Inflammatory alterations of the gastric mucosa are commonly caused by Helicobacter pylori (Hp) infection in patients with symptomatic gallstone disease. However, the additional pathogenetic role of an impaired gallbladder function leading to an increased alkaline duodenogastric reflux is controversially discussed. Aim:To investigate the relation of gallbladder function and Hp infection to gastric mucosa inflammation in patients with symptomatic gallstones prior to cholecystectomy. Patients: Seventy-three patients with symptomatic gallstones were studied by endoscopy and Hp testing. Methods: Gastritis classification was performed according to the updated Sydney System and gallbladder function was determined by total lipid concentration of gallbladder bile collected during mainly laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Results: Fifteen patients revealed no, 39 patients mild, and 19 moderate to marked gastritis. No significant differences for bile salts, phospholipids, cholesterol, or total lipids in gallbladder bile were found between these three groups of patients. However, while only 1 out of 54 (< 2%) patients with mild or no gastritis was found histologically positive for Hp, this infection could be detected in 14 (74%) out of 19 patients with moderate to marked gastritis. Conclusion: Moderate to marked gastric mucosa inflammation in gallstone patients is mainly caused by Hp infection, whereas gallbladder function is not related to the degree of gastritis. Thus, an increased alkaline duodenogastric reflux in gallstone patients seems to be of limited pathophysiological relevance. Copyright (c) 2006 S. Karger AG, Basel

Collective renewable energy prosumers and the promises of the energy union: Taking stock

A key strategy in the European Union’s ambition to establish an ‘Energy Union’ that is not just clean, but also fair, consists of empowering citizens to actively interact with the energy market as self-consumers or prosumers. Although renewable energy sources (RES) prosumerism has been growing for at least a decade, two new EU directives are intended to legitimise and facilitate its expansion. However, little is known about the full range of prosumers against which to measure policy effectiveness. We carried out a documentary study and an online survey in nine EU countries to shed light on the demographics, use of technology, organisation, financing, and motivation as well as perceived hindering and facilitating factors for collective prosumers. We identified several internal and external obstacles to the successful mainstreaming of RES prosumerism, among them a mismatch of policies with the needs of different RES prosumer types, potential organisational weaknesses as well as slow progress in essential reforms such as decentralising energy infrastructures. Our baseline results offer recommendations for the transposition of EU directives into national legislations and suggest avenues for future research in the fields of social, governance, policy, technology, and business models