Assessment of the worthwhileness of efficient driving in railway systems with high-receptivity power supplies

Eco-driving is one of the most important strategies for significantly reducing the energy consumption of railways with low investments. It consists of designing a way of driving a train to fulfil a target running time, consuming the minimum amount of energy. Most eco-driving energy savings come from the substitution of some braking periods with coasting periods. Nowadays, modern trains can use regenerative braking to recover the kinetic energy during deceleration phases. Therefore, if the receptivity of the railway system to regenerate energy is high, a question arises: is it worth designing eco-driving speed profiles? This paper assesses the energy benefits that eco-driving can provide in different scenarios to answer this question. Eco-driving is obtained by means of a multi-objective particle swarm optimization algorithm, combined with a detailed train simulator, to obtain realistic results. Eco-driving speed profiles are compared with a standard driving that performs the same running time. Real data from Spanish high-speed lines have been used to analyze the results in two case studies. Stretches fed by 1 × 25 kV and 2 × 25 kV AC power supply systems have been considered, as they present high receptivity to regenerate energy. Furthermore, the variations of the two most important factors that affect the regenerative energy usage have been studied: train motors efficiency ratio and catenary resistance. Results indicate that the greater the catenary resistance, the more advantageous eco-driving is. Similarly, the lower the motor efficiency, the greater the energy savings provided by efficient driving. Despite the differences observed in energy savings, the main conclusion is that eco-driving always provides significant energy savings, even in the case of the most receptive power supply network. Therefore, this paper has demonstrated that efforts in improving regenerated energy usage must not neglect the role of eco-driving in railway efficiency

Simultaneous analysis of elastic scattering and transfer/breakup channels for the 6He+208Pb reaction at energies near the Coulomb barrier

The elastic and alpha-production channels for the 6He+208Pb reaction are investigated at energies around the Coulomb barrier (E_{lab}=14, 16, 18, 22, and 27 MeV). The effect of the two-neutron transfer channels on the elastic scattering has been studied within the Coupled-Reaction-Channels (CRC) method. We find that the explicit inclusion of these channels allows a simultaneous description of the elastic data and the inclusive alpha cross sections at backward angles. Three-body Continuum-Discretized Coupled-Channels (CDCC) calculations are found to reproduce the elastic data, but not the transfer/breakup data. The trivially-equivalent local polarization potential (TELP) derived from the CRC and CDCC calculations are found to explain the features found in previous phenomenological optical model calculations for this system.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures (replaced with updated version

Combining Nearest Neighbor Predictions and Model-Based Predictions of Realized Variance: Does it Pay?

The increasing availability of intraday financial data has led to improvements in daily volatility forecasting through long-memory models of realized volatility. This paper demonstrates the merit of the non-parametric Nearest Neighbor (NN) approach for S&P 100 realized variance forecasting. A priori the NN approach is appealing because it can reproduce complex dynamic dependencies while largely avoiding misspecification and parameter estimation uncertainty, unlike model-based methods. We evaluate the forecasts through straddle trading profitability metrics and using conventional statistical accuracy criteria. The ranking of individual forecasts confirms that statistical accuracy does not have a one-to-one mapping into profitability. In turbulent markets, the NN forecasts lead to higher risk-adjusted profitability even though the model-based forecasts are statistically superior. In both calm and turbulent market conditions, the directional combination of NN and model-based forecasts is more profitable than any of the individual forecasts

Peptide probes for proteases - innovations and applications for monitoring proteolytic activity.

Proteases are excellent biomarkers for a variety of diseases, offer multiple opportunities for diagnostic applications and are valuable targets for therapy. From a chemistry-based perspective this review discusses and critiques the most recent advances in the field of substrate-based probes for the detection and analysis of proteolytic activity both in vitro and in vivo

The largest oxigen bearing organic molecule repository

We present the first detection of complex aldehydes and isomers in three typical molecular clouds located within 200pc of the center of our Galaxy. We find very large abundances of these complex organic molecules (COMs) in the central molecular zone (CMZ), which we attribute to the ejection of COMs from grain mantles by shocks. The relative abundances of the different COMs with respect to that of CH3OH are strikingly similar for the three sources, located in very different environments in the CMZ. The similar relative abundances point toward a unique grain mantle composition in the CMZ. Studying the Galactic center clouds and objects in the Galactic disk having large abundances of COMs, we find that more saturated molecules are more abundant than the non-saturated ones. We also find differences between the relative abundance between COMs in the CMZ and the Galactic disk, suggesting different chemical histories of the grain mantles between the two regions in the Galaxy for the complex aldehydes. Different possibilities for the grain chemistry on the icy mantles in the GC clouds are briefly discussed. Cosmic rays can play an important role in the grain chemistry. With these new detections, the molecular clouds in the Galactic center appear to be one of the best laboratories for studying the formation of COMs in the Galaxy.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, accepted in Ap

TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF POACEAE POLLEN IN AREAS OF SOUTHERN UNITED KINGDOM, SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

Overall, longer Poaceae pollen seasons coincided with earlier pollen season start dates. Winter rainfall noticeably affects the intensity of Poaceae pollen seasons in Mediterranean areas, but this was not as important in Worcester. Weekly data from Worcester followed a similar pattern to that of Badajoz and Évora but at a distance of more than 1500 km and 4-5 weeks later

Moving into the red - a near infra-red optical probe for analysis of human neutrophil elastase in activated neutrophils and neutrophil extracellular traps.

Neutrophils are the first immune cells recruited for defence against invading pathogens; however, their dysregulated activation and subsequent release of the enzyme human neutrophil elastase is associated with several, inflammation-based, diseases. Herein, we describe a FRET-based, tri-branched (one quencher, three fluorophores) near infrared probe that provides an intense OFF/ON amplified fluorescence signal for specific detection of human neutrophil elastase. The probe allowed selective detection of activated neutrophils and labelling of neutrophil extracellular traps