Demand-side management via optimal production scheduling in power-intensive industries: The case of metal casting process

The increasing challenges to the grid stability posed by the penetration of renewable energy resources urge a more active role for demand response programs as viable alternatives to a further expansion of peak power generators. This work presents a methodology to exploit the demand flexibility of energy-intensive industries under Demand-Side Management programs in the energy and reserve markets. To this end, we propose a novel scheduling model for a multi-stage multi-line process, which incorporates both the critical manufacturing constraints and the technical requirements imposed by the market. Using mixed integer programming approach, two optimization problems are formulated to sequentially minimize the cost in a day-ahead energy market and maximize the reserve provision when participating in the ancillary market. The effectiveness of day-ahead scheduling model has been verified for the case of a real metal casting plant in the Nordic market, where a significant reduction of energy cost is obtained. Furthermore, the reserve provision is shown to be a potential tool for capitalizing on the reserve market as a secondary revenue stream

Bilateral Keratoconus in a Patient with Isolated Foveal Hypoplasia

This is a Photo Essay and does not have an abstract

Pharmacological effects of Safranal: An updated review

Safranal (a monoterpene aldehyde) is the major volatile component of saffron which is responsible for the saffron unique odor. Several studies have shown the pharmacological activities of safranal including anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, cardioprotective, neuroprotective, nephroprotective, gastrointestinal protective, etc.  This study was designed to review the pharmacological and medical effects of safranal and up-to-date previous knowledge. Moreover, some patents related to the pharmacological effects of safranal were gathered. Therefore, electronic databases including Web of Sciences, Scopus, and Pubmed for pharmacological effects and US patent, Patentscope, and Google Patent for patents were comprehensively searched by related English keywords from 2010 to June 2022. According to our review, most of the studies are related to the safranal effects on CNS such as antianxiety, analgesic, anticonvulsant, antiischemic, anti-tremor, memory enhancement and its protective effects on neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson and Huntington diseases. Other effects of safranal are antiasthmatic, antihypertensive, antiaging, anticataract, etc. Moreover, the protective effects of this agent on metabolic syndrome and diabetic nephropathy have been shown. Different mechanisms including anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, muscle relaxation, antiapoptotic, and regulatory effects on the genes and proteins expression related to signaling pathways of oxidative stress, inflammation, apoptosis, proliferation, etc. are involved in safranal pharmacological effects. Some patents for the prevention and/or treatment of different diseases such as liver cancer, sleep disorder, depression,  cognitive disorder, obesity and PMS were also included. Based on the documents, safranal is considered a promising therapeutic agent although more clinical studies are needed to verify the beneficial effects of safranal in humans

A case report of prostate cancer with leptomeningeal metastasis

BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer is the most prevalent cancer in men. However, leptomeningeal involvement by prostate carcinoma is a rare event. CASE: Here, we report a 69‐year‐old patient with castration‐resistant metastatic prostate cancer who presented with headache and ataxia. Brain MRI revealed a huge invasive interaxial mass at right occipital lobe with diffuse thickening and enhancement of meninges, the arachnoid, and the pia mater, and he was diagnosed with leptomeningeal carcinomatosis. The patient received whole brain radiotherapy. CONCLUSION: Despite the fact that brain and leptomeningeal metastases are not very common in patients with prostate cancer, signs and symptoms of nervous system disorders should be assessed carefully, and consideration of such unusual metastases must be considered

Synthesis and Characterization of Photo-Cross-Linkable Keratin Hydrogels for Stem Cell Encapsulation

The objective of this work was to synthesize an injectable and photopolymerizable hydrogel based on keratin extracted from poultry feather for encapsulation and delivery of stem cells in tissue regeneration. Since feather keratin is rich in cysteine residue, allylation of sulfhydryl groups was used for functionalization of keratin. Keratin was extracted from feather barbs by reducing the disulfide bonds in cysteine residues to sulfhydryl groups (−SH). Next, the free thiol groups were converted to dehydroalanine (Dha) by oxidative elimination using O-(2,4,6-trimethylbenzenesulfonyl) hydroxylamine. Then, the Dha moieties were converted to s-allyl cysteine by reaction with allyl mercaptan to produce keratin allyl thioether (KeratATE) biopolymer. Human mesenchymal stem cell (hMSCs) were suspended in the aqueous solution of KeratATE, injected into a mold, and photopolymerized to generate a KeratATE hydrogel encapsulating hMSCs. The freeze-dried photo-cross-linked KeratATE hydrogels had a porous, interconnected, honeycomb microstructure with pore sizes in the 20–60 μm range. The compressive modulus of the hydrogels ranged from 1 to 8 kPa depending on KeratATE concentration. KeratATE hydrogels had <5% mass loss in collagenase solution after 21 days of incubation, whereas the mass loss was 15% in trypsin solution. Degradation of KeratATE hydrogel was strongly dependent on trypsin concentration but independent of collagenase. hMSCs proliferated and adopted an elongated spindle-shape morphology after seeding on KeratATE hydrogel. KeratATE hydrogel supported differentiation of the encapsulated hMSCs to the osteogenic and chondrogenic lineages to the same extent as those hMSCs encapsulated in gelatin methacryloyl hydrogel. The results suggest that keratin allyl thioether hydrogel with controllable degradation is a viable matrix for encapsulation and delivery of stem cells in tissue regeneration