SnappySonic: An Ultrasound Acquisition Replay Simulator

SnappySonic provides an ultrasound acquisition replay simulator designed for public engagement and training. It provides a simple interface to allow users to experience ultrasound acquisition without the need for specialist hardware or acoustically compatible phantoms. The software is implemented in Python, built on top of a set of open source Python modules targeted at surgical innovation. The library has high potential for reuse, most obviously for those who want to simulate ultrasound acquisition, but it could also be used as a user interface for displaying high dimensional images or video data

Emerging business models in local energy markets: A systematic review of peer-to-peer, community self-consumption, and transactive energy models

The emergence of peer-to-peer, collective or community self-consumption, and transactive energy concepts gives rise to new configurations of business models for local energy trading among a variety of actors. Much attention has been paid in the academic literature to the transition of the underlying energy system with its macroeconomic market framework. However, fewer contributions focus on the microeconomic aspects of the broad set of involved actors. Even though specific case studies highlight single business models, a comprehensive analysis of emerging business models for the entire set of actors is missing. Following this research gap, this paper conducts a systematic literature review of 135 peer-reviewed journal articles to examine business models of actors operating in local energy markets. From 221 businesses in the reviewed literature, nine macro-actor categories are identified. For each type of market actor, a business model archetype is determined and characterised using the business model canvas. The key elements of each business model archetype are discussed, and areas are highlighted where further research is needed. Finally, this paper outlines the differences of business models for their presence in the three local energy market models. Focusing on the identified customers and partner relationships, this study highlights the key actors per market model and the character of the interactions between market participants

Influenţa condiţiilor de păstrare asupra unor compuşi bioactivi din fructele de pădure şi contribuţia acestora asupra sănătăţii umane

The main criteria underlying this research consist in assessing the influence of the principal storage technologies on the content of some bioactive compounds contained by berry fruits. To balance fluctuations in product supply and market demand, fresh berry fruits often require short-or long-term storage in order to extend the supply of the berry fruits beyond the end ofthe harvest season. Understanding the interaction between the fruits and the environment is crucial for obtaining the most suitable conditions for extending shelf life. Portions of 250 g of strawberries, cranberries, gooseberries, blackberries or raspberries contain considerably more than the minimum daily requirement of vitamin C, while most of the other fruit can provide more than half the daily requirement. In order to freeze the berries fruits, generally no pretreatments are applied and therefore no changes in nutritive values occur during storage if proper packaging is used. During thawing, however, losses may occur. The fruits were monitorized in three fixed time points of refrigerated storage conditions at 20C, and also after different freezing condition (-180C in laboratory freezing condition and from supermarket freezing condition). The biological material studied was represented by 4 types of berries, as follows: Vaccinum myrtillius, Ribes rubrum, Rubus fructicocus and Rubus idaeus which were asseassed in terms of quality in fresh condition (T0 –moment), and after 3, respectively 7 days of refrigerate storage condition as well as after 6 month of freezing (in bulk and packaged in polyethylene bags). The soluble dry matter substances content was noticed to decrease in refrigerated storage condition between T1 and T2 time points (p<0.001). As concerning the differences in vitamin C content between fruits storage in bulk and packaged with polyethylene film were highlight significantly higher values (p<0.001) for all analyzed species that were packaged also in freezing storage conditions. When compared to the other fruits tested, the red gooseberries (43.5 mg/ 100 g), followed by raspberries (35.6 mg/ 100 g) were evidenced by their high vitamin C content. By keeping the fruits refrigerated for 7 days, although the sensory characteristics have undergone major changes, a significant decrease in vitamin C content is noted, however its final values at Tf moment are still remarkable: 27.8 mg/ 100 g for currants and 24.3 mg/ 100 g for raspberries

ruvA Mutants that resolve Holliday junctions but do not reverse replication forks

RuvAB and RuvABC complexes catalyze branch migration and resolution of Holliday junctions (HJs) respectively. In addition to their action in the last steps of homologous recombination, they process HJs made by replication fork reversal, a reaction which occurs at inactivated replication forks by the annealing of blocked leading and lagging strand ends. RuvAB was recently proposed to bind replication forks and directly catalyze their conversion into HJs. We report here the isolation and characterization of two separation-of-function ruvA mutants that resolve HJs, based on their capacity to promote conjugational recombination and recombinational repair of UV and mitomycin C lesions, but have lost the capacity to reverse forks. In vivo and in vitro evidence indicate that the ruvA mutations affect DNA binding and the stimulation of RuvB helicase activity. This work shows that RuvA's actions at forks and at HJs can be genetically separated, and that RuvA mutants compromised for fork reversal remain fully capable of homologous recombination

Efficient methods for approximating the Shapley value for asset sharing in energy communities

With the emergence of energy communities, where a number of prosumers invest in shared renewable generation capacity and battery storage, the issue of fair allocation of benefits and costs has become increasingly important. The Shapley value has attracted increasing interest for redistribution in energy settings - however, computing it exactly is intractable beyond a few dozen prosumers. In this paper, we examine a number of methods for approximating the Shapley value in realistic community energy settings, and propose a new one. To compare the performances of these methods, we also design a novel method to compute the Shapley value exactly, for communities of up to several hundred agents by clustering consumers into a smaller number of demand profiles. We compare the methods in a large-scale case study of a community of up to 200 household consumers in the UK, and show that our method can achieve very close redistribution to the exact Shapley values but at a much lower (and practically feasible) computation cost

Atoh8, a bHLH Transcription Factor, Is Required for the Development of Retina and Skeletal Muscle in Zebrafish

Math6/atoh8, a bHLH transcription factor, is thought to be indispensable for early embryonic development and likely has important roles in vertebrate tissue-specific differentiation. However, the function of Atoh8 during early development is not clear because homozygous knockout causes embryonic lethality in mice. We have examined the effects of the atoh8 gene on the differentiation of retina and skeletal muscle during early development in zebrafish.We isolated a Math6 homologue in zebrafish, designated as zebrafish atoh8. Whole -mount in situ hybridization analysis showed that zebrafish atoh8 is dynamically expressed mainly in developing retina and skeletal muscle. Atoh8-MO knock-down resulted in reduced eye size with disorganization of retinal lamination. The reduction of atoh8 function also affected the arrangement of paraxial cells and differentiated muscle fibers during somite morphogenesis.Our results show that Atoh8 is an important regulator for the development of both the retina and skeletal muscles necessary for neural retinal cell and myogenic differentiation during zebrafish embryogenesis

Corrigendum to “Emerging business models in local energy markets: A systematic review of peer-to-peer, community self-consumption, and transactive energy models” [Renew Sustain Energy Rev 179 (2023) 113273]

Schwidtal, J. M., Piccini, P., Troncia, M., Chitchyan, R., Montakhabi, M., Francis, C., Gorbatcheva, A., Capper, T., Mustafa, M. A., Andoni, M., Robu, V., Bahloul, M., Scott, I. J., Mbavarira, T., España, J. M., & Kiesling, L. (2023). Corrigendum to “Emerging business models in local energy markets: A systematic review of peer-to-peer, community self-consumption, and transactive energy models” [Renew Sustain Energy Rev 179 (2023) 113273](S1364032123001296)(10.1016/j.rser.2023.113273). Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 185(October), [113523]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2023.113523 ---Funding Information: Ian Scott was supported by national funds through FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia), under the project - UIDB/04152/2020 - Centro de Investigação em Gestão de Informação (MagIC)/NOVA IMS. Funding Information: Merlinda Andoni received funding from the EPSRC DecarbonISation PAThways for Cooling and Heating (DISPATCH) project (grant number EP/V042955/1 ) and the InnovateUK Responsive Flexibility (ReFLEX) project [ref: 104780]. Funding Information: Valentin Robu was supported by the project “TESTBED2: Testing and Evaluating Sophisticated information and communication Technologies for enaBling scalablE smart griD Deployment”, funded by the European Union Horizon2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions ( MSCA ) [Grant agreement number: 872172 ].The authors regret that there were developments in affiliations and funding acknowledgements during the time from initial submission to final acceptance which have not been reported correctly. Specifically, the affiliations of the co-authors R. Chitchyan, M. Montakhabi, M. Andoni, and I. Scott were not up to date. The corrected affiliations of all authors are as follows. Concerning funding acknowledgements, the information of M. Andoni, V. Robu, and I.J. Scott were not up to date. In addition to the provided information, the following to fundings should be acknowledged. Merlinda Andoni received funding from the EPSRC DecarbonISation PAThways for Cooling and Heating (DISPATCH) project (grant number EP/V042955/1) and the InnovateUK Responsive Flexibility (ReFLEX) project [ref: 104780]. Valentin Robu was supported by the project “TESTBED2: Testing and Evaluating Sophisticated information and communication Technologies for enaBling scalablE smart griD Deployment”, funded by the European Union Horizon2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions ( MSCA) [Grant agreement number: 872172]. Ian Scott was supported by national funds through FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia), under the project - UIDB/04152/2020 - Centro de Investigação em Gestão de Informação (MagIC)/NOVA IMS. The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.publishersversionpublishe

CSAP localizes to polyglutamylated microtubules and promotes proper cilia function and zebrafish development

The diverse populations of microtubule polymers in cells are functionally distinguished by different posttranslational modifications, including polyglutamylation. Polyglutamylation is enriched on subsets of microtubules including those found in the centrioles, mitotic spindle, and cilia. However, whether this modification alters intrinsic microtubule dynamics or affects extrinsic associations with specific interacting partners remains to be determined. Here we identify the microtubule-binding protein centriole and spindle–associated protein (CSAP), which colocalizes with polyglutamylated tubulin to centrioles, spindle microtubules, and cilia in human tissue culture cells. Reducing tubulin polyglutamylation prevents CSAP localization to both spindle and cilia microtubules. In zebrafish, CSAP is required for normal brain development and proper left–right asymmetry, defects that are qualitatively similar to those reported previously for depletion of polyglutamylation-conjugating enzymes. We also find that CSAP is required for proper cilia beating. Our work supports a model in which polyglutamylation can target selected microtubule-associated proteins, such as CSAP, to microtubule subpopulations, providing specific functional capabilities to these populations.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant no. GM074746)American Cancer Society. Research Scholar Grant (121776)National Institute of General Medical Sciences (U.S.) (GM088313