Optimizing production scheduling of steel plate hot rolling for economic load dispatch under time-of-use electricity pricing

Time-of-Use (TOU) electricity pricing provides an opportunity for industrial users to cut electricity costs. Although many methods for Economic Load Dispatch (ELD) under TOU pricing in continuous industrial processing have been proposed, there are still difficulties in batch-type processing since power load units are not directly adjustable and nonlinearly depend on production planning and scheduling. In this paper, for hot rolling, a typical batch-type and energy intensive process in steel industry, a production scheduling optimization model for ELD is proposed under TOU pricing, in which the objective is to minimize electricity costs while considering penalties caused by jumps between adjacent slabs. A NSGA-II based multi-objective production scheduling algorithm is developed to obtain Pareto-optimal solutions, and then TOPSIS based multi-criteria decision-making is performed to recommend an optimal solution to facilitate filed operation. Experimental results and analyses show that the proposed method cuts electricity costs in production, especially in case of allowance for penalty score increase in a certain range. Further analyses show that the proposed method has effect on peak load regulation of power grid.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, 4 table

Determination of cyclovirobuxine D in human plasma by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry and application in a pharmacokinetic study

AbstractA sensitive and reliable method based on liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) for the quantitation of cyclovirobuxine D in human plasma has been developed and validated. Sample preparation by solid phase extraction was followed by separation on a CN column with a mobile phase of methanol–water (95:5, v/v) containing 0.2% formic acid. Mass spectrometric detection in the positive ion mode was carried out by selected reaction monitoring (SRM) of the transitions at m/z 403.0→372.0 for cyclovirobuxine D and m/z 325.0→234.0 for citalopram (internal standard). The method was linear in the range 10–200ng/L with LLOQ of 10ng/L, recovery >85%, and no significant matrix effects. Intra- and inter-day precisions were all <9% with accuracies of 94.0–104.8%. The method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study involving a single oral administration of a 2mg cyclovirobuxine D tablet to twenty-two healthy Chinese volunteers

Effect of BFRP Grid on Crack Propagation of Reinforced Concrete Beam with Thick-Cover Concrete

For the purpose of solving the problem of large crack width in concrete beam with thick cover, BFRP grid is added to the concrete cover to control the crack development and to improve the distribution status of cracks. In this paper, the bending tests under four-point loading are adopted to investigate cracking properties of reinforced concrete beams with thick cover, in which BFRP grid is added. During test cracking load, crack width and the number of crack were recorded, which will be analysed later. Test results show that crack development of reinforced concrete beam with thick cover can be effectively controlled, and the number of cracks was increased appearing tiny and dense cracks in structure, meanwhile maximum crack width was decreased, which can meet the requirements of engineering for crack control. In addition, BFRP grid has no effect on the cracking load of the structure and can slightly increase the ultimate bearing capacity

Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy of nanoscale twisted bilayer graphene

Nanoscale twisted bilayer graphene (TBG) is quite instable and will change its structure to Bernal (or AB-stacking) bilayer with a much lower energy. Therefore, the lack of nanoscale TBG makes its electronic properties not accessible in experiment up to now. In this work, a special confined TBG is obtained in the overlaid area of two continuous misoriented graphene sheets. The width of the confined region of the TBG changes gradually from about 22 nm to 0 nm. By using scanning tunnelling microscopy, we studied carefully the structure and the electronic properties of the nanoscale TBG. Our results indicate that the low-energy electronic properties, including twist-induced van Hove singularities (VHSs) and spatial modulation of local density-of-state, are strongly affected by the translational symmetry breaking of the nanoscale TBG. Whereas, the electronic properties above the energy of the VHSs are almost not influenced by the quantum confinement even when the width of the TBG is reduced to only a single moire spot.Comment: 4 Figure

Metarhizium anisopliae infection alters feeding and trophallactic behavior in the ant Solenopsis invicta

In social insects, social behavior may be changed in a way that preventing the spread of pathogens. We infected workers of the ant Solenopsis invicta with an entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae and then videotaped and/or measured worker feeding and trophallactic behavior. Results showed that fungal infected S. invicta enhanced their preference for bitter alkaloid chemical quinine on 3 days after inoculation, which might be self-medication of S. invicta by ingesting more alkaloid substances in response to pathogenic infection. Furthermore, infected ants devoted more time to trophallactic behavior with their nestmates on 3 days post inoculation, in return receiving more food. Increased interactions between exposed ants and their naive nestmates suggest the existence of social immunity in S. invicta. Overall, our study indicates that S. invicta may use behavioral defenses such as self-medication and social immunity in response to a M. anisopliae infection. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Inc

Combined use of AFP, CEA, CA125 and CAl9-9 improves the sensitivity for the diagnosis of gastric cancer

BACKGROUND: The detection of serum tumor marker becomes a common method for screening tumors. However, this method has not been widely used for routine gastric cancer screening. In this study we aimed to determine whether the combined use of tumor markers may increase the sensitivity for the diagnosis of gastric cancer. METHODS: Serum AFP, CEA, CA125 and CA19-9 levels were measured in 149 patients with gastric cancer, 111 patients with benign gastric diseases and 124 healthy people, who visited the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University from May 2011 to May 2012. Statistical analysis including receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, the area under the curve (AUC), and logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the diagnostic value of these markers on gastric cancer. RESULTS: Serum levels of CEA, CA125, and CA19-9 in gastric cancer group were higher than that in the benign gastric disease group and the healthy control group (P <0.005). The sensitivity of AFP, CEA, CA125 and CA19-9 in the diagnosis of gastric cancer was 4.7-20.8% individually, and increased to 40.3% in combination. By using optimal cut-off value, the sensitivity of CEA, CA125, and CA19-9 for the diagnosis of gastric cancer was improved. Especially, the sensitivity of CEA increased to 58.4% and the sensitivity of combined use of four markers increased to 69.1%. The age and gender had no effects on the diagnostic value of these markers. CONCLUSIONS: The determination and application of optimal cut-off values based on ROC curve and logistic regression analysis could improve the diagnosis of gastric cancer based on common tumor markers