Competition effects of simultaneous application of flexibility options within an energy community

As part of an increased diffusion of decentralized renewable energy technologies, an additional need for flexibility arises. Studies indicate that operating battery storage systems for multiple uses as community electricity storage system (CES) promises superior benefits. This seems decisive, since cheaper flexibility options such as demand response (DR) are more applicable and might further reduce the market size for storage facilities. This research paper aims to analyze the competition effects of CES with simultaneous application of DR. The optimization results of the synthetic case studies provide insights in the profitability level, the service provision and the flexibility potential. While even under requested legal circumstances a CES is only partially profitable, the economic situation improves in terms of an optimal storage utilization. This, however, is reduced through competition effects with DR

A construction of Frobenius manifolds with logarithmic poles and applications

A construction theorem for Frobenius manifolds with logarithmic poles is established. This is a generalization of a theorem of Hertling and Manin. As an application we prove a generalization of the reconstruction theorem of Kontsevich and Manin for projective smooth varieties with convergent Gromov-Witten potential. A second application is a construction of Frobenius manifolds out of a variation of polarized Hodge structures which degenerates along a normal crossing divisor when certain generation conditions are fulfilled.Comment: 46 page

BMPix and PEAK tools: New methods for automated laminae recognition and counting — Application to glacial varves from Antarctic marine sediment

We present tools for rapid and quantitative detection of sediment lamination. The BMPix tool extracts color and gray-scale curves from images at pixel resolution. The PEAK tool uses the gray-scale curve and performs, for the first time, fully automated counting of laminae based on three methods. The maximum count algorithm counts every bright peak of a couplet of two laminae (annual resolution) in a smoothed curve. The zero-crossing algorithm counts every positive and negative halfway-passage of the curve through a wide moving average, separating the record into bright and dark intervals (seasonal resolution). The same is true for the frequency truncation method, which uses Fourier transformation to decompose the curve into its frequency components before counting positive and negative passages. We applied the new methods successfully to tree rings, to well-dated and already manually counted marine varves from Saanich Inlet, and to marine laminae from the Antarctic continental margin. In combination with AMS14C dating, we found convincing evidence that laminations in Weddell Sea sites represent varves, deposited continuously over several millennia during the last glacial maximum. The new tools offer several advantages over previous methods. The counting procedures are based on a moving average generated from gray-scale curves instead of manual counting. Hence, results are highly objective and rely on reproducible mathematical criteria. Also, the PEAK tool measures the thickness of each year or season. Since all information required is displayed graphically, interactive optimization of the counting algorithms can be achieved quickly and conveniently

Rhizobia contribute to salinity tolerance in common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)

Rhizobia are soil bacteria that induce nodule formation on leguminous plants. In the nodules, they reduce dinitrogen to ammonium that can be utilized by plants. Besides nitrogen fixation, rhizobia have other symbiotic functions in plants including phosphorus and iron mobilization and protection of the plants against various abiotic stresses including salinity. Worldwide, about 20% of cultivable and 33% of irrigation land is saline, and it is estimated that around 50% of the arable land will be saline by 2050. Salinity inhibits plant growth and development, results in senescence, and ultimately plant death. The purpose of this study was to investigate how rhizobia, isolated from Kenyan soils, relieve common beans from salinity stress. The yield loss of common bean plants, which were either not inoculated or inoculated with the commercial R. tropici rhizobia CIAT899 was reduced by 73% when the plants were exposed to 300 mM NaCl, while only 60% yield loss was observed after inoculation with a novel indigenous isolate from Kenyan soil, named S3. Expression profiles showed that genes involved in the transport of mineral ions (such as K+, Ca2+, Fe3+, PO43−, and NO3−) to the host plant, and for the synthesis and transport of osmotolerance molecules (soluble carbohydrates, amino acids, and nucleotides) are highly expressed in S3 bacteroids during salt stress than in the controls. Furthermore, genes for the synthesis and transport of glutathione and γ-aminobutyric acid were upregulated in salt-stressed and S3-inocculated common bean plants. We conclude that microbial osmolytes, mineral ions, and antioxidant molecules from rhizobia enhance salt tolerance in common beans

Optimized culture conditions for tissue explants of uterine leiomyoma

Background: Uterine leiomyomas are the most common benign tumours in women, which arise from smooth muscle cells of the uterine myometrium and usually are multicentric. In spite of their frequency pathogenesis is widely unknown, mainly due to the absence of a suitable model system. We describe the systematic optimization of culturing leiomyoma tissue explants in an economical and effective ex vivo system. Methods: Different concentrations of oxygen, different media, sera, hormones, and growth factor supplements were tested. Immunohistochemical stainings with antibodies against hormone receptors as well as specifying proliferation and apoptotic indices and real-time PCR were performed. Results: Main parameters for culturing myoma tissue explants were tested for finding an optimal protocol. Standard medium D-MEM-F12 in combination with the use of horse serum in a reduced concentration of 1% turned out to be optimal for these tissue cultures as well as the addition of estradiol and epidermal growth factor EGF to media. Reduced oxygen content in the incubator air showed no positive effect. Conclusions: For culturing tissue explants of uterine leiomyoma several conditions were optimized. The established tissue culture model allows examining the effects of known and potential therapeutic substances and the influence of immune competent cells in the process of tumour formation to find new targets for medical treatmen

Transactivation of the epidermal growth factor receptor in responses to myocardial stress and cardioprotection

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) family comprises the ErbB1 (EGFR) and ErbB4 receptors as well as the ‘co-receptors’ ErbB2 (which does not bind EGF ligands) and ErbB3 (which lack tyrosine kinase activity). This family of receptors is essential for cardiac development, myocardial, renal and vascular function, and cardiac responses to physiological and pathological perturbations. The EGFR appears critical in protecting cardiac cells from injury, while considerable attention has focussed on neuregulin/ErbB4 signalling in potentially ameliorating cardiomyopathy/heart failure. Indeed, the EGFRs provide a signalling nexus, upon which multiple cardioprotective stimuli appear to converge, including ischaemic preconditioning and various G protein-coupled receptors (opioid, muscarinic, adenosine, adrenergic, bradykinin, sphingosine 1-phosphate). These stimuli engage the EGFR axis (in a process referred to as transactivation) in differing ways, involving both G protein-dependent and -independent mechanisms, to promote myocardial cell survival during and following ischaemia/infarction. Elucidating the molecular processes that underpin EGFR transactivation and mediate cardiac protection will advance our understanding of the intrinsic capacity of the heart to withstand pathological insult. It should also reveal new approaches to facilitate cardioprotective therapy to limit damage during and following myocardial ischaemia/infarction, which despite intense investigation remains an unrealised, yet highly desirable, clinical goal. This review focuses on the cardiovascular functions of the EGFR, its role in cardioprotection, and the potential influences of common disease states on this signalling

Waves Generated by Recreational Traffic on the Upper Mississippi River System

Movement of recreational boats in a waterway such as the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS) generates waves that can impact the river biota and the stability of the shorelines. This report presents the results of a research project undertaken to determine the characteristics of waves generated by recreational craft within the UMRS. To meet the goals of the project, 246 controlled runs were made with 12 different boats at two sites, one on the Illinois River and the other on the Mississippi River. Data from the controlled runs indicated that recreational boats can generate from 4 to 40 waves per event, with a mean of about 10 to 20 waves. These waves can last from 6 to 40 seconds or more. Average wave heights for these controlled events varied from 0.01 to 0.25 meter, with a median of about 0.06 to 0.12 meter. The maximum wave height was as much as 0.6 meter. The wave data from the controlled runs were used to develop a regression equation for estimating maximum wave heights on the basis of the speed, draft, and length of the boats, and their distance from the measuring point. This relationship is now recommended for use in determining wave heights generated by recreational boats. Data from uncontrolled boating events on the Mississippi River indicated that as many as 704 boats passed a highly used area of the UMRS in a single day on a busy weekend. Up to 120 boats passed the site in a single hour. Sustained movement of recreational boats can generate essentially continuous waves, giving the appearance of random waves at or near the shoreline. During the day of heaviest boating activity at the Mississippi River site, the maximum wave height measured was 0.52 meter, and the average for the whole day was 0.065 meter. Analyses were also performed by partitioning the wave heights on an hourly basis. These analyses indicated that significant wave height can reach a magnitude of 0.4 meter or higher, and maximum wave height can reach 0.5 meter or higher. Calculations were also performed to show that for waves of 0.4 meter in height to develop at the Mississippi River site from wind alone, the wind would have to be blowing at a speed of about 26 meters per second (58 mph) across the measuring point. Wave energies were computed by partitioning the waves into five-minute intervals. These analyses showed that the shorelines are subjected to wave activity of fairly high intensity. No analyses were performed to determine the bank erosion potential or sediment resuspension characteristics of the waves generated by recreational boats. However, existing mathematical formulations can be used to analyze the stability of banks composed of noncohesive bank materials. Additional research should be initiated to determine the effects of recreational boats on the stability of cohesive and noncohesive banks, and the way in which wave activity resuspends bed materials.Ope

Logarithmic corrections and soft photon phenomenology in the multipole model of the nucleon form factors

We analyzed the presently available experimental data on nucleon electromagnetic form factors within a multipole model based on dispersion relations. A good fit of the data is achieved by considering the coefficients of the multipole expansions as logarithmic functions of the momentum transfer squared. The superconvergence relations, applied to this coefficients, makes the model agree with unitary constraints and pQCD asymptotics for the Dirac and Pauli form factors. The soft photon emission is proposed as a mechanism responsible for the difference between the Rosenbluth, polarization and beam--target--asymmetry data. It is shown, that the experimentally measured cross sections depend not only on the Dirac and Pauli form factors, but also on the average number of the photons emitted. For proton this number is shown to be different for different types of experimental measurements and then estimated phenomenologically. For neutron the same mechanism predicts, that the data form different types of experiments must coincide with high accuracy. A joint fit of all the experimental data reproduce the $Q^2-$dependence with the accuracy $\chi^2/dof=0.86$. Predictions of the model, that 1) the ratios of the proton form factors $G_E/G_M$ are different for Rosenbluth, polarization and beam--target--asymmetry experiments and 2) similar ratios are nearly the same for neutron, can be used for experimental verification of the model.Comment: 14 pages in 2-column format, 4 figures, references added, typos corrected, minor changes in the text, accepted in Eur. Phys. Journal