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

Endothelium-derived endothelin-1

One year after the revelation by Dr. Furchgott in 1980 that the endothelium was obligatory for acetylcholine to relax isolated arteries, it was clearly shown that the endothelium could also promote contraction. In 1988, Dr. Yanagisawa’s group identified endothelin-1 (ET-1) as the first endothelium-derived contracting factor. The circulating levels of this short (21-amino acid) peptide were quickly determined in humans, and it was reported that, in most cardiovascular diseases, circulating levels of ET-1 were increased, and ET-1 was then tagged as “a bad guy.” The discovery of two receptor subtypes in 1990, ET(A) and ET(B), permitted optimization of the first dual ET-1 receptor antagonist in 1993 by Dr. Clozel’s team, who entered clinical development with bosentan, which was offered to patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension in 2001. The revelation of Dr. Furchgott opened a Pandora’s box with ET-1 as one of the actors. In this brief review, we will discuss the physiological and pathophysiological role of endothelium-derived ET-1 focusing on the regulation of the vascular tone, and as much as possible in humans. The coronary bed will be used as a running example in this review because it is the most susceptible to endothelial dysfunction, but references to the cerebral and renal circulation will also be made. Many of the cardiovascular complications associated with aging and cardiovascular risk factors are initially attributable, at least in part, to endothelial dysfunction, particularly dysregulation of the vascular function associated with an imbalance in the close interdependence of nitric oxide and ET-1

Enthalpy and Mechanical Relaxation of Glassy Gelatin Films

Glassy materials are not thermodynamically stable and during storage below the glass transition temperature (Tg), they are subjected to the time dependent changes towards the equilibrium. These changes are known as physical ageing, which is the basic feature of glassy materials below Tg. During ageing process, physical properties such as enthalpy and volume decrease and these changes are accompanied by important changes in mechanical properties such as change to modulus, compliance and mechanical relaxation, which are of great technological importance. The aim of this study is to investigate the occurrence of the mechanical relaxation in the glassy gelatin and compare it to the enthalpy relaxation phenomenon and try to correlate the rate of mechanical relaxation to the rate of enthalpy relaxation, which is the more reliable and frequent way for studying physical ageing. The extent of enthalpy relaxation of gelatin films with different water contents of 8%, 12 and 17%, measured by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), was found to increase with increasing the ageing time. The mechanical behaviour of the gelatin films was measured, using dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA). The mechanical behaviour of gelatin showed time and frequency-dependent changes. Storage modulus increased during isothermal ageing and gelatin became harder and stiffer at higher frequency than that at low frequency. In order to assess the rate of mechanical relaxation, the classical time-ageing time superposition was applied to the results. The rate and extent of mechanical ageing were increased at higher water contents. A good agreement was found between the rate of the enthalpy relaxation and the changes to the mechanical properties at different water contents, suggesting that DSC measurements of enthalpy relaxation, which can be more easily implemented, can be used as indicator of mechanical changes

Psychological interventions prior to cancer surgery: A review of reviews

The majority of women requiring chemotherapy for gestational trophoblastic disease (GTN) are cured with their initial chemotherapy treatment. However, a small percentage either become refractory to treatment, or relapse after the completion of treatment. This study investigates the characteristics and outcome of these patients. Patients were identified from the Charing Cross Hospital GTD database. The outcome of these patients with relapsed disease was compared to those with refractory disease. Between 1980 and 2004, 1708 patients were treated with chemotherapy for GTN. Sixty (3.5%) patents relapsed following completion of initial therapy. The overall 5-year survival for patients with relapsed GTN was 93% (95% CI 86–100%). The overall survival for patients with low-risk and high-risk disease at presentation, who subsequently relapsed was 100% (n=35), and 84% (n=25) (95% CI: 66–96%: P<0.05), respectively. Eleven patients were identified who failed to enter remission and had refractory disease. These patients had a worse outcome compared to patients with relapsed disease (5-year survival 43% (95% CI:12–73% P<0.01)). The outcome of patients with relapsed GTN is good. However, patients with primary chemo-refractory disease do poorly and novel therapies are required for this group of patients