COMPRESSIBILITY AND NORMALIZED UNDRAINED SHEAR BEHAVIOR OF SOFT COASTAL FINE-GRAINED SOILS

This thesis investigates empirical correlations between consolidation design parameters and index properties of soft fine-grained soils from coastal Louisiana region, normalized undrained shear behavior of high liquid limit organic fine-grained coastal soils, and consolidation behavior of fine-grained soils. The first phase of this research consisted of studying a database of site investigation data from 15 marsh creation projects across the coastal Louisiana region. The database includes a wide variety of fine-grained soils ranging from low-plasticity inorganic clays and silts to high-plasticity organic clays and silts with a large range of water content and liquid limit. Most of the empirical correlations in the literature do not cover the soils in this data set. Correlations between consolidation parameters (compressibility, preconsolidation stress, and coefficient of consolidation) determined from 1-D incremental loading consolidation tests and index properties (water content, void ratio, Atterberg Limits, and dry unit weight) were developed. The degree of correlation between the index parameters and different consolidation design parameters varied significantly. In many cases, considering inorganic and organic soil separately improved the correlations. The second phase of this research investigated the undrained shear behavior of high liquid limit, organic soils from coastal Louisiana region over the consolidation effective stress range of 50 to 1600 kPa. Undrained direct simple shear (DSS) behavior of 6 resedimented natural organic soils with liquid limit ranging from 81 to 215% and two natural inorganic soils with liquid limit equal to 45% and 46% was studied. CK0UDSS tests were performed on normally consolidated samples. Normalized undrained shear strength and normalized undrained Young’s modulus decreased with increasing consolidation stress level. The organic soils had significantly higher normalized undrained shear strengths than the inorganic soils especially at lower stresses with the difference became smaller at higher stresses. The rate of decrease in normalized undrained shear strength was found to correlate well with liquid limit or organic matter and new correlations were developed to relate undrained shear strength and consolidation stress level as a function of liquid limit. Such correlations were not observed for normalized undrained modulus and liquid limit or organic matter. Thus, a collection of plots of undrained modulus normalized by undrained shear strength versus applied stress ratio for the organic soils tested are provided. The third phase of this research involved a suite of CRS consolidation tests to investigate different methods of determining the recompression ratio (RR). Tests were performed on a variety of natural clays and silts from different quality samples (intact, highly disturbed, and resedimented) by conducting unload-reload loops at different stress levels and different unloading ratios. Seven different methods were used to determine recompression ratio from each loop resulting, on average, in over 240% difference in RR estimates from the different methods on a loop. The results showed that RR from all the methods increased with increasing stress level and unloading ratio with higher influence for higher OCR soils and sensitive clays. Recommendations for practice are provided for conduct of CRS tests and how to interpret the test results to best estimate RR

Effet de la stimulation ß-adrénergique sur le couplage excitation-contraction dans le muscle squelettique

Le but de ce travail a été d’étudier l’effet de la stimulation ß-adrénergique (ßADR) (en utilisant l’isoprotérenol (ISO), l’agoniste ß-adrénergique) sur l’entrée de Ca dans le myoplasme du muscle squelettique à contraction rapide de grenouille suite à des stimulations électriques. Dans ce travail, en nous servant de la méthode d’EGTA/rouge de phénol (Pape et al., 1995) associée aux techniques de courant imposé et de voltage imposé, nous avons étudié l’effet de la stimulation ßADR en mesurant les paramètres intracellulaires pouvant affecter l’entrée de Ca dans le myoplasme tels le pH intracellulaire, le contenu total en Ca du réticulum sarcoplasmique, la vitesse de l’entrée de Ca dans le myoplasme, la quantité de Ca extracellulaire entré dans le myoplasme et le mouvement de charge intra membranaire suite à des stimulations électriques. Nous avons observé une augmentation de l’entrée de Ca dans le myoplasme sous l'effet d'ISO (chez les fibres exposées à 10 μM d’ISO pendant 8 minutes) et ce, en réponse à des potentiels d’actions obtenus à l'aide de la technique de courant imposé. Comme cet effet a été en relation directe avec le Ca extracellulaire, nous avons utilisé d'autres stratégies pour élucider davantage l'effet ß-adrénergique sur une possible augmentation importante de l’entrée de Ca extracellulaire dans le myoplasme. En premier lieu, les expériences en courant imposé avec les fibres vidangées de leur Ca sarcoplasmique ont permis de mesurer la quantité excédentaire de Ca extracellulaire entré dans le myoplasme suite à des stimulations électriques chez les fibres exposées à ISO (10 μM, 8 minutes). Toutefois, la quantité mesurée de Ca d'origine extracellulaire entré dans le myoplasme ne correspond pas à la totalité de l'augmentation de l'entrée de Ca dans le myoplasme en réponse à un train de potentiels d’action (PA) mesurée dans nos expériences en courant imposé. En deuxième lieu, les expériences avec la technique de voltage imposé n’ont pas démontré qu’ISO augmente de manière significative le pic d’amplitude de courant entrant de Ca tel que proposé par Arreola et al. (J. Physiol (Lond) 1987; 393:307-330). Cependant, ISO a diminué le temps au mi pic du courant entrant de Ca indiquant ainsi que l’activation du courant entrant calcique se fait plus rapidement sous l’effet d’ISO. En nous servant des protocoles de pulses de dépolarisation multiples pour mimer une stimulation tétanique dans des conditions plus physiologiques telles qu’utilisées dans la technique de courant imposé, et en présence de 50 mM de sodium extracellulaire, nous n’avons pas obtenu une entrée plus importante de Ca extracellulaire dans le myoplasme sous l’effet d’ISO. Les études sur la vitesse de libération de Ca dans le myoplasme ont indiqué une augmentation de ce paramètre par ISO. D’autre part, nos résultats indiquent aussi que l’effet d'ISO ne passe pas par une modification des propriétés d’activation des récepteurs à la dihydropyridine puisqu’aucune variation du mouvement de charges intra- membranaire n’a été observée. Ces résultats (dans les conditions où on considère que l’augmentation de l’entrée Ca dans le myoplasme aurait lieu pendant les stimulations électriques de la fibre exposée pendant 8 minutes avec 10 μM d’ISO), suggèrent que les propriétés de l’activation des canaux de libération de Ca du réticulum sarcoplasmique sont affectés sous l’effet d’ISO

Stochastic Planning of the Hybrid System with Wind Turbine and Biomass Energy Unit System besides Battery and Electric Vehicles Parking Lot Considering Storage Degradation

This paper presents the planning of a hybrid system with wind turbines and biomass energy sources, and batteries and electric vehicles parking lot. The proposed scheme minimizes the total costs of construction and maintenance for sources and storage and the degradation cost of storage. It is subject to the operating model of sources, storage, and power electronic converters. To provide clean energy, the priority of supplying the energy demand is given to renewable sources, and then the storages cover the distance between the load profile and the generation power of the sources. Furthermore, the proposed scheme has uncertainties regarding the load, renewable power, and energy consumption of mobile storage devices. In this paper, scenario-based stochastic planning is adopted to model the mentioned parameters. The combined algorithm of Ant lion optimization and Krill Herd optimization extracts a reliable optimal solution with low dispersion in the final response. Finally, the obtained numerical results demonstrate the capability of the proposed scheme in deriving economic planning for the proposed hybrid system, in which the presence of renewable resources leads to the extraction of an environmentally-friendly hybrid system, and the energy management of mobile storage devices reduces the planning cost of the hybrid system by 1.9% compared with a case with their absence

Exploring potential storage-based flexibility gains of electric vehicles in smart distribution grids

Flexibility is one of the most important solutions for facilitating the variability of renewable energy sources (RESs) in a distribution network. It is predicted that electric vehicles (EVs) can play an effective role in improving it in the distribution networks. So, this paper presents multiobjective scheduling of batteries of EVs in parking lots (EVPLs) to improve the storage-based flexibility of smart distribution networks (SDNs). The proposed formulation minimizes the energy cost and the voltage deviation function and maximizes the system flexibility (SF) as multiobjective functions that will be optimized subject to the AC load flow, RES and EV constraints, and the allowable limits of the flexibility and operation indices. The resulting model is in the form of a nonlinear programming (NLP) model. Therefore, an equivalent linear programming (LP) formulation is obtained for the original problem to achieve the global optimum result. The stochastic programming approach is used to model uncertainties of the load, active power generation of RESs, price of energy, and EV parameters. The flexible power management is formulated as one of the objective functions of the proposed multiobjective framework, which is solved by using the ε-constraint method, reaching the best possible compromise solution by a fuzzy decision-maker. The proposed framework is tested by using a 33-bus radial test distribution network in the GAMS software environment to evaluate the EVs capability in improving the flexibility indices. Based on the numerical results, it is observed that the proposed scheme with optimal energy management of EVs is able to obtain a high flexibility for SDN. It can also reduce energy losses in terms of network operation and provide a rather smooth voltage profile

A robust optimization approach for active and reactive power management in smart distribution networks using electric vehicles

YesThis paper presents a robust framework for active and reactive power management in distribution networks using electric vehicles (EVs). The method simultaneously minimizes the energy cost and the voltage deviation subject to network and EVs constraints. The uncertainties related to active and reactive loads, required energy to charge EV batteries, charge rate of batteries and charger capacity of EVs are modeled using deterministic uncertainty sets. Firstly, based on duality theory, the max min form of the model is converted to a max form. Secondly, Benders decomposition is employed to solve the problem. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated with a 33-bus distribution network

Coordinated flexible energy and self-healing management according to the multi-agent system-based restoration scheme in active distribution network

This study presents the optimal model of the coordinated flexible energy and self-healing management (C-FE&SH-M) in the active distribution network (ADN) including renewable energy sources (RESs), electric vehicles (EVs) and demand response program (DRP).The flexible energy management (FEM) is extracted using coordination between the RESs, EVs and DRP. The self-healing method (SHM) is related to multi-agent system-based restoration process (MAS-based RP) that finds the optimal restoration pattern at the fault condition according to the different zone agents (ZAs) distributing along with the network. This method minimizes the difference between energy cost and flexibility benefit related to the FEM part and difference between the number of switching operation and priority loads restored based on the SHM part. Also, this problem subjects to power flow equations, RESs and active loads constraints, restoration process formulation and system operation limits. Stochastic programming is used to model the uncertainty of loads, energy prices, RESs and EVs. Hereupon, the suggested strategy is implemented on the 33-bus radial distribution network and it is solved by the crow search algorithm (CSA). Ultimately, the obtained results imply the high flexibility and security of the operation, incorporating the proposed strategy, and delineate the optimal restoration scheme for the ADN.© 2021 The Authors. IET Renewable Power Generation published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Institution of Engineering and Technology. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.M. Shafie-khah acknowledges FLEXIMAR-project (Novel marketplace for energy flexibility), which has received funding from Business Finland Smart Energy Program, 2017-2021. J.P.S. Catalão acknowledges the support by FEDER through COMPETE 2020 and by FCT, under POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029803 (02/SAICT/2017).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Pulmonary Nocardiosis in Suspected Tuberculosis Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Cross-Sectional Studies

Background: nocardiosis is an opportunistic infectious disease in immunocompromised patients. The most common form of nocardiosis infection in humans is pulmonary nocrdiosis caused by inhaling Nocardia species from the environment. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the pulmonary nocardiosis in patients with suspected tuberculosis using systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods: We conducted a systematic search for cross-sectional studies focused on the pulmonary nocardiosis among patients with pulmonary tuberculosis based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) published from January 2001 to October 2019. The search was conducted in MEDLINE/PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, Science Direct databases, and Iranian databases. Medical subject headings (MeSH) and text words were searched: "pulmonary nocardiosis", "nocardiosis", OR "nocardial infection", "pulmonary nocardial infections/agents", AND "pulmonary tuberculosis", OR "pulmonary TB", AND "Iran". Two of the reviewers enrolled independently articles published in English and Persian languages according to the inclusion and the exclusion criteria. Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software (Version 3.3.070) was used for meta-analysis. Results: Only 4 studies met the eligibility criteria. The pulmonary nocardiosis prevalence varied from 1.7 to 6.7. The combined prevalence of nocardiosis among patients with suspected pulmonary tuberculosis in Iran was 4.8 (95 CI: 3-7.3, Q=5.8, Z=12.7). No heterogeneity was observed between studies because I2 was 48.3. N. cyriacigeorgica and N. asteroides were reported as the prevalent isolates, respectively. Conclusions: This review showed in patients suspected TB when they were negative in all diagnosis laboratory tests, nocardiosis cases which be considered. © 2020 Susan MM., et al

Hybrid stochastic/robust flexible and reliable scheduling of secure networked microgrids with electric springs and electric vehicles

Electric spring (ES) as a novel concept in power electronics has been developed for the purpose of dealing with demand-side management. In this paper, to conquer the challenges imposed by intermittent nature of renewable energy sources (RESs) and other uncertainties for constructing a secure modern microgrid (MG), the hybrid distributed operation of ESs and electric vehicles (EVs) parking lot is suggested. The proposed approach is implemented in the context of a hybrid stochastic/robust optimization (HSRO) problem, where the stochastic programming based on unscented transformation (UT) method models the uncertainties associated with load, energy price, RESs, and availability of MG equipment. Also, the bounded uncertainty-based robust optimization (BURO) is employed to model the uncertain parameters of EVs parking lot to achieve the robust potentials of EVs in improving MG indices. In the subsequent stage, the proposed non-linear problem model is converted to linear approximated counterpart to obtain an optimal solution with low calculation time and error. Finally, the proposed power management strategy is analyzed on 32-bus test MG to investigate the hybrid cooperation of ESs and EVs parking lot capabilities in different cases. The numerical results corroborate the efficiency and feasibility of the proposed solution in modifying MG indices.© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Flood risk assessment and zoning using multi-criteria Aras technique and single hydrograph (Case Study: Upstream Basin of Soltan Meshkinshahr Bridge Hydrometric Station)

Floods are one of the largest and most common forms of natural hazards, and identifying areas prone to floods is one of the basic measures in natural resource management and development planning. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to zoning the basin upstream of the Soltan Meshkinshahr Bridge Hydrometric Station in terms of flood potential. To achieve this goal by field studies and resource review, first 11 effective factors of flood occurrence in the region including slope, dem, lithology, distance from the fault, precipitation, land use, distance from the river, flow velocity, flow time and soil, were identified and extracted in GIS environment. The standardization of the maps was done using the fuzzy method and then in order to weight the proposed criteria, the CRITIC method was used and the final analysis and modeling was performed using the Aras model. The results showed that the factors of slope, lithology, land use and dem were by weight values, respectively; 0.164, 0.156, 0.118 and 0.116 have the greatest impact on flooding in the study area. Also, according to the results, 20.46 and 32.02 square kilometers of the area, respectively, are in a very high-risk and high-risk category, which indicates the high potential of this basin for floods. The results also showed that the time required for water to flow to the outlet varies from 0 seconds (rain falling on the outlet itself) to 68,000 seconds (over 17 hours). In this case, smooth areas near the basin with the highest time and lowest speed and also in the pastures on the northeast side with the lowest time and highest speed reach the watershed exit point. Therefore, flood risk zoning can be effective in carrying out conservation, watershed management and management measures in this basin