Ezetimibe therapy: mechanism of action and clinical update.

The lowering of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is the primary target of therapy in the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular events. Although statin therapy is the mainstay for LDL-C lowering, a significant percentage of patients prescribed these agents either do not achieve targets with statin therapy alone or have partial or complete intolerance to them. For such patients, the use of adjuvant therapy capable of providing incremental LDL-C reduction is advised. One such agent is ezetimibe, a cholesterol absorption inhibitor that targets uptake at the jejunal enterocyte brush border. Its primary target of action is the cholesterol transport protein Nieman Pick C1 like 1 protein. Ezetimibe is an effective LDL-C lowering agent and is safe and well tolerated. In response to significant controversy surrounding the use and therapeutic effectiveness of this drug, we provide an update on the biochemical mechanism of action for ezetimibe, its safety and efficacy, as well as the results of recent randomized studies that support its use in a variety of clinical scenarios

Optimal connection of wind turbines to distribution grid to minimize power loss

This research aims to connect wind turbines to a distribution grid to minimize the power loss and to satisfy the grid’s normal operating condition. The proposed algorithm will determine optimal positions, optimal operation mode and wind turbine type. We must choose the best operation mode from available modes including the constant power factor mode and the constant voltage mode. According to the optimal operation mode, we decide the optimal setting data of wind turbine. This algorithm is coded in MATLAB software and implemented to IEEE 33-buses distribution grid. Noted that in this research, we tested two cases including the original IEEE 33-buses grid and its modification where the power system connected to this grid at multi-position. Results indicated that the proposed algorithm could determine the number of wind turbines, position, optimal operation mode, wind turbine type and the priority order of wind turbine installation to minimize power loss. Moreover, results were also compared to that of other algorithms

Blaschke, Separation Theorems and some Topological Properties for Orthogonally Convex Sets

In this paper, we deal with analytic and geometric properties of orthogonally convex sets. We establish a Blaschke-type theorem for path-connected and orthogonally convex sets in the plane using orthogonally convex paths. The separation of these sets is established using suitable grids. Consequently, a closed and orthogonally convex set is represented by the intersection of staircase-halfplanes in the plane. Some topological properties of orthogonally convex sets in dimensional spaces are also given.Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, adding more reference

Multiple Shooting Approach for Finding Approximately Shortest Paths for Autonomous Robots in Unknown Environments in 2D

An autonomous robot with a limited vision range finds a path to the goal in an unknown environment in 2D avoiding polygonal obstacles. In the process of discovering the environmental map, the robot has to return to some positions marked previously, the regions where the robot traverses to return are defined as sequences of bundles of line segments. This paper presents a novel algorithm for finding approximately shortest paths along the sequences of bundles of line segments based on the method of multiple shooting. Three factors of the approach including bundle partition, collinear condition, and update of shooting points are presented. We then show that if the collinear condition holds, the exactly shortest paths of the problems are determined, otherwise, the sequence of paths obtained by the update of the method converges to the shortest path. The algorithm is implemented in Python and some numerical examples show that the running time of path-planning for autonomous robots using our method is faster than that using the rubber band technique of Li and Klette in Euclidean Shortest Paths, Springer, 53-89 (2011).Comment: 26 pages, 39 figure

Evaluation of exponential moving average application to smooth the power output of wind turbine with different control modes

This paper focused on evaluating the application of exponential moving average method into wind turbine to smooth its power output without an energy storage system or an anemometer. Wind turbine control modes including active power control mode and rotor speed control mode are considered. For each control mode, two positions of the Exponential Moving Average method in controller were compared to choose the best position. Additionally, the impact of smoothing factor on wind turbine performance was also considered to determine a reasonable value of the smoothing factor for each control mode. Simulation results in MATLAB/Simulink indicated that, for wind turbine using rotor speed control mode, the Exponential Moving Average method should be applied to reduce the variation of actual rotor speed signal while for wind turbine with the power control mode, it should be used to smooth reference power signal. From the performance of wind turbine with different smoothing factor values, we can suggest that the smoothing factor value should be set at 0.5 and 0.4 for the power control mode and the rotor speed control mode, respectively