Multi-Objective Demand Side Scheduling Considering the Operational Safety of Appliances

The safe operation of appliances is of great concern to users. The safety risk increases when the appliances are in operation during periods when users are not at home or when they are asleep. In this paper, multi-objective demand side scheduling is investigated with consideration to the appliances’ operational safety together with the electricity cost and the operational delay. The formulation of appliances’ operational safety is proposed based on users’ at-home status and awake status. Then the relationships between the operational safety and the other two objectives are investigated through the approach of finding the Pareto-optimal front. Moreover, this approach is compared with the Weigh and Constraint approaches. As the Pareto-optimal front consists of a set of optimal solutions, this paper proposes a method to make the final scheduling decision based on the relationships among the multiple objectives. Simulation results demonstrate that the operational safety is improved with the sacrifice of the electricity cost and the operational delay, and that the approach of finding the Pareto-optimal front is effective in presenting comprehensive optimal solutions of the multi-objective demand side scheduling

Cloning and bioinformatics analysis of an ubiquitin gene of the rice stem borer, Chilo suppressalis Walker (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)

Ubiquitin which has the function of selective protein degradation may play an important role in the regulation of insect growth and development. The coding sequence of an ubiquitin gene from the larvae of the rice stem borer, Chilo suppressalis Walker (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) named CsUB (GenBank Accession No. GU238420) was cloned by RT-PCR and sequenced in this study, with primers according to the sequences of ubiquitin genes  from Homo sapiens, Drosophila melanogaster and Lepidopteran insects. Sequence analysis showed that the length of the coding sequence is 228 bp, encoding 76 amino acids with calculated molecular weight of 8.50 kDa and the theoretical isoeletric point of 5.26. Signal sequence and transmembrane domain had not been found. Multiple sequence alignment indicated that CsUB gene sequence with other known gene sequences of invertebrates and vertebrates had a high degree of homology (more than 72% similarity) and a shorter genetic distance (lower than 0.360). During the genetic diversity analysis, the total of 104 polymorphic sites was detected from 18 ubiquitin gene sequences and 18 haplotypes were sorted. Abundant genetic diversity and strong codon usage bias were found by the haplotype diversity (1.000), average number of nucleotide differences (47.475), nucleotide diversity (0.20866), effective number of codons (44.526), codon bias index (0.559) and scaled Chi-square (0.779). The predicated secondary structure composition of CsUB protein had about 32.89% extended strands, 36.84% random colis, 15.79% alpha helixes and 14.47% beta turns. Subcellular localization analysis showed that CsUB protein of cytoplasm, cell nucleus, mitochondrion, cell skeleton and plasma membrane occupied about 47.80, 26.10, 17.40, 4.30 and 4.30%, respectively. Sequence, homology and structural analysis confirmed that CsUB gene was highly conserved during evolution and belonged to ubiquitin gene family. The results might provide some fundamental data for further studies on expressed characteristics and physiological functions of CsUB gene.Key words: Chilo suppressalis Walker, ubiquitin, gene cloning, bioinformatics

Energy Consumption Scheduling of HVAC Considering Weather Forecast Error Through the Distributionally Robust Approach

In this paper, the distributionally robust optimization approach (DROA) is proposed to schedule the energy consumption of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system with consideration of the weather forecast error. The maximum interval of the outdoor temperature is partitioned into subintervals, and the proposed DROA constructs the ambiguity set of the probability distribution of the outdoor temperature based on the probabilistic information of these subintervals of historical weather data. The actual energy consumption will be adjusted according to the forecast error and the scheduled consumption in real time. The energy consumption scheduling of HVAC through the proposed DROA is formulated as a nonlinear problem with distributionally robust chance constraints. These constraints are reformulated to be linear and then the problem is solved via linear programming. Compared with the method that takes into account the weather forecast error based on the mean and the variance of historical data, simulation results demonstrate that the proposed DROA effectively reduces the electricity cost with less computation time, and the electricity cost is reduced compared with the traditional robust method

Solar wind speed theory and the nonextensivity of solar corona

The solar corona is a complex system, with nonisothermal plasma and being in the self-gravitating field of the Sun. So the corona plasma is not only a nonequilibrium system but also a nonextensive one. We estimate the parameter of describing the degree of nonextensivity of the corona plasma and study the generalization of the solar wind speed theory in the framework of nonextensive statistical mechanics. It is found that, when use Chapman's corona model (1957) as the radial distribution of the temperature in the corona, the nonextensivity reduces the gas pressure outward and thus leads a significant deceleration effect on the radial speed of the solar wind.Comment: 12 pages,1 figure, 1 table, 21 references; UN/ESA/NASA Workshop on Basic Space Science and the International Heliophysical Year 2007, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, 18-22 June, 2007, Tokyo, Japa

L-DOPA Neurotoxicity Is Mediated by Up-Regulation of DMT1−IRE Expression

2008-2009 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalpublished_fina

Controllable Synthesis of Single-Crystalline CdO and Cd(OH)2Nanowires by a Simple Hydrothermal Approach

Single-crystalline Cd(OH)2 or CdO nanowires can be selectively synthesized at 150 °C by a simple hydrothermal method using aqueous Cd(NO3)2 as precursor. The method is biosafe, and compared to the conventional oil-water surfactant approach, more environmental-benign. As revealed by the XRD results, CdO or Cd(OH)2 nanowires can be generated in high purity by varying the time of synthesis. The results of FESEM and HRTEM analysis show that the CdO nanowires are formed in bundles. Over the CdO-nanowire bundles, photoluminescence at ~517 nm attributable to near band-edge emission of CdO was recorded. Based on the experimental results, a possible growth mechanism of the products is proposed

Observation of a ppb mass threshoud enhancement in \psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p}) decay

The decay channel $\psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p})$ is studied using a sample of $1.06\times 10^8$ $\psi^\prime$ events collected by the BESIII experiment at BEPCII. A strong enhancement at threshold is observed in the $p\bar{p}$ invariant mass spectrum. The enhancement can be fit with an $S$-wave Breit-Wigner resonance function with a resulting peak mass of $M=1861^{+6}_{-13} {\rm (stat)}^{+7}_{-26} {\rm (syst)} {\rm MeV/}c^2$ and a narrow width that is $\Gamma<38 {\rm MeV/}c^2$ at the 90% confidence level. These results are consistent with published BESII results. These mass and width values do not match with those of any known meson resonance.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Chinese Physics

Systematic Review of Mucosal Immunity Induced by Oral and Inactivated Poliovirus Vaccines against Virus Shedding following Oral Poliovirus Challenge

Inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV) may be used in mass vaccination campaigns during the final stages of polio eradication. It is also likely to be adopted by many countries following the coordinated global cessation of vaccination with oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) after eradication. The success of IPV in the control of poliomyelitis outbreaks will depend on the degree of nasopharyngeal and intestinal mucosal immunity induced against poliovirus infection. We performed a systematic review of studies published through May 2011 that recorded the prevalence of poliovirus shedding in stool samples or nasopharyngeal secretions collected 5–30 days after a “challenge” dose of OPV. Studies were combined in a meta-analysis of the odds of shedding among children vaccinated according to IPV, OPV, and combination schedules. We identified 31 studies of shedding in stool and four in nasopharyngeal samples that met the inclusion criteria. Individuals vaccinated with OPV were protected against infection and shedding of poliovirus in stool samples collected after challenge compared with unvaccinated individuals (summary odds ratio [OR] for shedding 0.13 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.08–0.24)). In contrast, IPV provided no protection against shedding compared with unvaccinated individuals (summary OR 0.81 [95% CI 0.59–1.11]) or when given in addition to OPV, compared with individuals given OPV alone (summary OR 1.14 [95% CI 0.82–1.58]). There were insufficient studies of nasopharyngeal shedding to draw a conclusion. IPV does not induce sufficient intestinal mucosal immunity to reduce the prevalence of fecal poliovirus shedding after challenge, although there was some evidence that it can reduce the quantity of virus shed. The impact of IPV on poliovirus transmission in countries where fecal-oral spread is common is unknown but is likely to be limited compared with OPV

Therapeutic Effects of Liposome-Enveloped Ligusticum chuanxiong Essential Oil on Hypertrophic Scars in the Rabbit Ear Model

Hypertrophic scarring, a common proliferative disorder of dermal fibroblasts, results from an overproduction of fibroblasts and excessive deposition of collagen. Although treatment with surgical excision or steroid hormones can modify the symptoms, numerous treatment-related complications have been described. In view of this, we investigated the therapeutic effects of essential oil (EO) from rhizomes of Ligusticum chuanxiong Hort. (Umbelliferae) on formed hypertrophic scars in a rabbit ear model. EO was prepared as a liposomal formulation (liposome-enveloped essential oil, LEO) and a rabbit ear model with hypertrophic scars was established. LEO (2.5, 5, and 10%) was applied once daily to the scars for 28 days. On postoperative day 56, the scar tissue was excised for masson's trichrome staining, detection of fibroblast apoptosis, assays of the levels of collagens I and III, and analysis of the mRNA expression of matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MMP-1), caspase-3 and -9, and transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1). In addition, the scar elevation index (SEI) was also determined. As a result, LEO treatment significantly alleviated formed hypertrophic scars on rabbit ears. The levels of TGF-β1, MMP-1, collagen I, and collagen III were evidently decreased, and caspase -3 and -9 levels and apoptosis cells were markedly increased in the scar tissue. SEI was also significantly reduced. Histological findings exhibited significant amelioration of the collagen tissue. These results suggest that LEO possesses the favorable therapeutic effects on formed hypertrophic scars in the rabbit ear model and may be an effective cure for human hypertrophic scars