An intelligent control of NH3 injection for optimizing the NOx/NH3 ratio in SCR system

The distribution of nitrogen oxides (NOx) flux within the cross-section area in front of ammonia injection grid (AIG) under different operating conditions was obtained by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. Weight of NOx flux in the sub-zone corresponding to each of the ammonia (NH3) injection branch-pipes of AIG system was analyzed and the sensitivity of which against the plant power load was figured out. A number of “critical” ammonia injection branch-pipes were determined with regard to the weight sensitivity analysis. The selected “critical” branch-pipes were changed to be controlled by the automatic valves, and an intelligent tuning strategy was proposed. The NOx/NH3 mixing stoichiometry over the cross-section area in front of AIG system was significantly modified for the high utilization ratio of ammonia. A case work was launched on the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system of a 660 MW plant. As a result, the ammonia consumption rate (ACR) was found to be reduced by 6.44% compared to that under previous control system, and was 9.31% lower than that of the unapplied system. The methodology for determining the “critical” branch-pipes and intelligent tuning strategy of ammonia injection notably saved the ammonia consumption of SCR system, and the formation of ammonium bisulfate (ABS) were greatly confined

Water and energy systems in sustainable city development: a case of Sub-saharan Africa

Current urban water and energy systems are expanding while increasing attention is paid to their social, economic and environmental impacts. As a research contribution that can support real-world decision making and transitions to sustainable cities and communities, we have built a model-based and data-driven platform combining comprehensive database, agent-based simulation and resource technology network optimization for system level water and energy planning. Several use cases are demonstrated based on the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) city-region in Ghana, as part of the Future Cities Africa (FCA) project. The outputs depict an overall resource landscape of the studied urban area, but also provide the energy, water, and other resource balance of supply and demand from both macro and micro perspectives, which is used to propose environmental friendly and cost effective sustainable city development strategies. This work is to become a core component of the resilience.io platform as an open-source integrated systematic tool gathering social, environmental and economic data to inform urban planning, investment and policy-making for city-regions globally

Energy harvesting with piezoelectric drum transducer

Author name used in this publication: Kwok Ho LamAuthor name used in this publication: Cheng Liang SunAuthor name used in this publication: Kin Wing KwokAuthor name used in this publication: Helen Lai Wa ChanAuthor name used in this publication: Ming Sen GuoAuthor name used in this publication: Xing-Zhong Zhao2006-2007 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Combustion pattern, characteristics, and kinetics of biomass and chars from segmented heating carbonization

The combustion patterns, characteristics, and kinetics were investigated by thermogravimetric analysis for raw maize straw, cotton stalk, and chars obtained from segmented heating carbonization at 300–800 °C. With increasing carbonization temperature, combustion patterns of biomass chars transform from the sequential reaction steps corresponding to pyrolysis and heterogeneous oxidation of volatiles and char to the in situ heterogeneous oxidation of fixed carbon and volatiles, the ignition temperature of biomass chars gradually increases, the ignition index does not monotonically increase, and the burnout index and combustion characteristic index decrease to different degrees. Judging from the combustion characteristic index, chars obtained from 300 to 500 °C of carbonization show better combustibility. The kinetic parameters of raw and carbonized biomass were determined by Coats–Redfern method. Different reaction mechanisms exist in oxidation processes of different chars, which attribute to the synergistic effects of homogenous oxidation of volatiles and heterogeneous oxidation of char. The kinetic parameters obtained from the variation of species and model functions exhibit kinetic compensation effect

Lead-free multilayer piezoelectric transformer

Author name used in this publication: K. H. LamAuthor name used in this publication: S. WangAuthor name used in this publication: C. L. SunAuthor name used in this publication: X. Z. Zhao2006-2007 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Crystal structure of the N‐terminal region of human Ash2L shows a winged‐helix motif involved in DNA binding

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/102216/1/embr2011101-sup-0001.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/102216/2/embr2011101.reviewer_comments.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/102216/3/embr2011101.pd

Suppression of type I and type III interferon signalling by NSs protein of severe fever-with-thrombocytopenia syndrome virus through inhibition of STAT1 phosphorylation and activation

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) is an emerging tick-borne pathogen causing significant morbidity and mortality in Asia. NSs protein of SFTSV is known to perturb type I IFN induction and signalling, but the mechanism remains to be fully understood. Here, we showed the suppression of both type I and type III IFN signalling by SFTSV NSs protein is mediated through inhibition of STAT1 phosphorylation and activation. Infection with live SFTSV or expression of NSs potently suppressed IFN-stimulated genes but not NFκB activation. NSs was capable of counteracting the activity of IFN-α1, IFN-β, IFN-λ1 and IFN-λ2. Mechanistically, NSs associated with STAT1 and STAT2, mitigated IFN-β-induced phosphorylation of STAT1 at S727, and reduced the expression and activity of STAT1 protein in IFN-β-treated cells, resulting in the inhibition of STAT1 and STAT2 recruitment to IFN-stimulated promoters. Taken together, SFTSV NSs protein is an IFN antagonist that suppresses phosphorylation and activation of STAT1.postprin

Quantitative model for inferring dynamic regulation of the tumour suppressor gene p53

Background: The availability of various "omics" datasets creates a prospect of performing the study of genome-wide genetic regulatory networks. However, one of the major challenges of using mathematical models to infer genetic regulation from microarray datasets is the lack of information for protein concentrations and activities. Most of the previous researches were based on an assumption that the mRNA levels of a gene are consistent with its protein activities, though it is not always the case. Therefore, a more sophisticated modelling framework together with the corresponding inference methods is needed to accurately estimate genetic regulation from "omics" datasets. Results: This work developed a novel approach, which is based on a nonlinear mathematical model, to infer genetic regulation from microarray gene expression data. By using the p53 network as a test system, we used the nonlinear model to estimate the activities of transcription factor (TF) p53 from the expression levels of its target genes, and to identify the activation/inhibition status of p53 to its target genes. The predicted top 317 putative p53 target genes were supported by DNA sequence analysis. A comparison between our prediction and the other published predictions of p53 targets suggests that most of putative p53 targets may share a common depleted or enriched sequence signal on their upstream non-coding region. Conclusions: The proposed quantitative model can not only be used to infer the regulatory relationship between TF and its down-stream genes, but also be applied to estimate the protein activities of TF from the expression levels of its target genes

Path and Ridge Regression Analysis of Seed Yield and Seed Yield Components of Russian Wildrye (Psathyrostachys juncea Nevski) under Field Conditions

The correlations among seed yield components, and their direct and indirect effects on the seed yield (Z) of Russina wildrye (Psathyrostachys juncea Nevski) were investigated. The seed yield components: fertile tillers m-2 (Y1), spikelets per fertile tillers (Y2), florets per spikelet- (Y3), seed numbers per spikelet (Y4) and seed weight (Y5) were counted and the Z were determined in field experiments from 2003 to 2006 via big sample size. Y1 was the most important seed yield component describing the Z and Y2 was the least. The total direct effects of the Y1, Y3 and Y5 to the Z were positive while Y4 and Y2 were weakly negative. The total effects (directs plus indirects) of the components were positively contributed to the Z by path analyses. The seed yield components Y1, Y2, Y4 and Y5 were significantly (P<0.001) correlated with the Z for 4 years totally, while in the individual years, Y2 were not significant correlated with Y3, Y4 and Y5 by Peason correlation analyses in the five components in the plant seed production. Therefore, selection for high seed yield through direct selection for large Y1, Y2 and Y3 would be effective for breeding programs in grasses. Furthermore, it is the most important that, via ridge regression, a steady algorithm model between Z and the five yield components was founded, which can be closely estimated the seed yield via the components