Large-scale unit commitment under uncertainty: an updated literature survey

The Unit Commitment problem in energy management aims at finding the optimal production schedule of a set of generation units, while meeting various system-wide constraints. It has always been a large-scale, non-convex, difficult problem, especially in view of the fact that, due to operational requirements, it has to be solved in an unreasonably small time for its size. Recently, growing renewable energy shares have strongly increased the level of uncertainty in the system, making the (ideal) Unit Commitment model a large-scale, non-convex and uncertain (stochastic, robust, chance-constrained) program. We provide a survey of the literature on methods for the Uncertain Unit Commitment problem, in all its variants. We start with a review of the main contributions on solution methods for the deterministic versions of the problem, focussing on those based on mathematical programming techniques that are more relevant for the uncertain versions of the problem. We then present and categorize the approaches to the latter, while providing entry points to the relevant literature on optimization under uncertainty. This is an updated version of the paper "Large-scale Unit Commitment under uncertainty: a literature survey" that appeared in 4OR 13(2), 115--171 (2015); this version has over 170 more citations, most of which appeared in the last three years, proving how fast the literature on uncertain Unit Commitment evolves, and therefore the interest in this subject

Galactosylated PLGA nanoparticles for the oral delivery of resveratrol: enhanced bioavailability and in vitro anti-inflammatory activity

Frederick YK Siu,1–3 Shaotang Ye,1–3 Hui Lin,1–3 Shoujun Li1–3 1College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Prevention and Control for Severe Clinical Animal Diseases, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 3Guangdong Technological Engineering Research Center for Pet, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China Background: Resveratrol (RES) is a natural anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compound with poor water solubility and oral bioavailability. The present study takes the advantages of nanocarriers combined with a ligand (galactose) anchoring to orally deliver RES in an attempt to improve its bioavailability and pharmacological activity. Methods: RES-loaded galactosylated nanoparticles (RES-GNPs) were prepared by solvent diffusion technique using poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid), synthesized N-oleoyl-d-galactosamine and Tween 80. RES-GNPs were characterized by particle size, morphology, entrapment efficiency (EE) and in vitro release. Oral bioavailability and in vitro anti-inflammatory activity were investigated in rats and lipopolysaccharides-induced RAW 264.7 cells, respectively. Results: The resulting RES-GNPs were 108.4 nm around in particle size with a polydispersity index of 0.217. Furthermore, RES-GNPs possessed a high EE and a slow drug release in water. After oral administration, RES-GNPs significantly enhanced the oral bioavailability of RES, up to 335.7% relative to RES suspensions. In situ single-pass intestinal perfusion and cellular uptake experiments showed that GNPs could improve the intestinal permeability and transcellular transport of RES. Moreover, the anti-inflammatory efficacy of RES-GNPs in RAW 264.7 cells model was superior to free RES and RES-GNPs. Conclusion: The results indicate that RES-GNPs can effectively promote the intestinal absorption of RES and strengthen its bioactivity, which may be a promising system for the treatment of inflammatory diseases. Keywords: resveratrol, polymeric nanoparticles, galactosylation, oral bioavailability, anti-inflammatio