Efficient POMDP Forward Search by Predicting the Posterior Belief Distribution

Online, forward-search techniques have demonstrated promising results for solving problems in partially observable environments. These techniques depend on the ability to efficiently search and evaluate the set of beliefs reachable from the current belief. However, enumerating or sampling action-observation sequences to compute the reachable beliefs is computationally demanding; coupled with the need to satisfy real-time constraints, existing online solvers can only search to a limited depth. In this paper, we propose that policies can be generated directly from the distribution of the agent's posterior belief. When the underlying state distribution is Gaussian, and the observation function is an exponential family distribution, we can calculate this distribution of beliefs without enumerating the possible observations. This property not only enables us to plan in problems with large observation spaces, but also allows us to search deeper by considering policies composed of multi-step action sequences. We present the Posterior Belief Distribution (PBD) algorithm, an efficient forward-search POMDP planner for continuous domains, demonstrating that better policies are generated when we can perform deeper forward search

Cost Minimization of Battery-Supercapacitor Hybrid Energy Storage for Hourly Dispatching Wind-Solar Hybrid Power System

This study demonstrates a dispatching scheme of wind-solar hybrid power system (WSHPS) for a one-hour dispatching period for an entire day utilizing battery and supercapacitor hybrid energy storage subsystem (HESS). A frequency management approach is deployed to extend the longevity of the batteries through extensively utilizing the high energy density property of batteries and the high power density property of supercapacitors in the HESS framework. A low-pass filter (LPF) is employed to decouple the power between a battery and a supercapacitor (SC). The cost optimization of the HESS is computed based on the time constant of the LPF through extensive simulations in MATLAB/SIMULINK platform. The curve fitting and Particle Swarm Optimization approaches are applied to seek the optimum value of the LPF time constant. Several control algorithms as a function of the battery state of charge are developed to achieve accurate estimation of the grid reference power for each one-hour dispatching period. This estimation helps to minimize the energy storage cost, in addition to ensuring that the HESS has sufficient capacity for next-day operation. The optimum value of depth of discharge for HESS considering both cycling and calendar expenses has also been investigated for the best competitive energy storage cost for hourly dispatching the power of the WSHPS. This research also presents an economic comparison to investigate the significance of using different types of energy storage for hourly dispatching the WSHPS. The simulation results show that the presented HESS is superior to battery or SC-only operation

Accelerated Carrier Recombination by Grain Boundary/Edge Defects in MBE Grown Transition Metal Dichalcogenides

Defect-carrier interaction in transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) play important roles in carrier relaxation dynamics and carrier transport, which determines the performance of electronic devices. With femtosecond laser time-resolved spectroscopy, we investigated the effect of grain boundary/edge defects on the ultrafast dynamics of photoexcited carrier in MBE grown MoTe2 and MoSe2. We found that, comparing with exfoliated samples, carrier recombination rate in MBE grown samples accelerates by about 50 times. We attribute this striking difference to the existence of abundant grain boundary/edge defects in MBE grown samples, which can serve as effective recombination centers for the photoexcited carriers. We also observed coherent acoustic phonons in both exfoliated and MBE grown MoTe2, indicating strong electron-phonon coupling in this materials. Our measured sound velocity agrees well with previously reported result of theoretical calculation. Our findings provide useful reference for the fundamental parameters: carrier lifetime and sound velocity, reveal the undiscovered carrier recombination effect of grain boundary/edge defects, both of which will facilitate the defect engineering in TMD materials for high speed opto-electronics

Bow-tie architecture of gene regulatory networks in species of varying complexity

The gene regulatory network (GRN) architecture plays a key role in explaining the biological differences between species. We aim to understand species differences in terms of some universally present dynamical properties of their gene regulatory systems. A network architectural feature associated with controlling system-level dynamical properties is the bow-tie, identified by a strongly connected subnetwork, the core layer, between two sets of nodes, the in and the out layers. Though a bow-tie architecture has been observed in many networks, its existence has not been extensively investigated in GRNs of species of widely varying biological complexity. We analyse publicly available GRNs of several well-studied species from prokaryotes to unicellular eukaryotes to multicellular organisms. In their GRNs, we find the existence of a bow-tie architecture with a distinct largest strongly connected core layer. We show that the bow-tie architecture is a characteristic feature of GRNs. We observe an increasing trend in the relative core size with species complexity. Using studied relationships of the core size with dynamical properties like robustness and fragility, flexibility, criticality, controllability and evolvability, we hypothesize how these regulatory system properties have emerged differently with biological complexity, based on the observed differences of the GRN bow-tie architectures

Recent Advances of Wind-Solar Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems for Power Generation: A Review

A hybrid renewable energy source (HRES) consists of two or more renewable energy sources, such as wind turbines and photovoltaic systems, utilized together to provide increased system efficiency and improved stability in energy supply to a certain degree. The objective of this study is to present a comprehensive review of wind-solar HRES from the perspectives of power architectures, mathematical modeling, power electronic converter topologies, and design optimization algorithms. Since the uncertainty of HRES can be reduced further by including an energy storage system, this paper presents several hybrid energy storage system coupling technologies, highlighting their major advantages and disadvantages. Various HRES power converters and control strategies from the state-of-the-art have been discussed. Different types of energy source combinations, modeling, power converter architectures, sizing, and optimization techniques used in the existing HRES are reviewed in this work, which intends to serve as a comprehensive reference for researchers, engineers, and policymakers in this field. This article also discusses the technical challenges associated with HRES as well as the scope of future advances and research on HRES

Poly(A)-Binding Protein Regulates the Efficiency of Translation Termination

Multiple factors influence translation termination efficiency, including nonsense codon identity and immediate context. To determine whether the relative position of a nonsense codon within an open reading frame (ORF) influences termination efficiency, we quantitate the production of prematurely terminated and/or readthrough polypeptides from 26 nonsense alleles of 3 genes expressed in yeast. The accumulation of premature termination products and the extent of readthrough for the respective premature termination codons (PTCs) manifest a marked dependence on PTC proximity to the mRNA 3\u27 end. Premature termination products increase in relative abundance, whereas readthrough efficiencies decrease progressively across different ORFs, and readthrough efficiencies for a PTC increase in response to 3\u27 UTR lengthening. These effects are eliminated and overall translation termination efficiency decreases considerably in cells harboring pab1 mutations. Our results support a critical role for poly(A)-binding protein in the regulation of translation termination and also suggest that inefficient termination is a trigger for nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD)

2-{[4-(Dimethyl­amino)­benzyl­idene]amino}­phenyl disulfide

In the title mol­ecule, C30H30N4S2, the two benzene rings connected through the disulfide chain form a dihedral angle of 88.7 (1)°, and the two benzene rings in the benzyl­ideneaniline fragments form dihedral angles of 34.0 (1) and 35.4 (1)°. The crystal packing exhibits no significantly short inter­molecular contacts