Optimized Household Demand Management with Local Solar PV Generation

Demand Side Management (DSM) strategies are of-ten associated with the objectives of smoothing the load curve and reducing peak load. Although the future of demand side manage-ment is technically dependent on remote and automatic control of residential loads, the end-users play a significant role by shifting the use of appliances to the off-peak hours when they are exposed to Day-ahead market price. This paper proposes an optimum so-lution to the problem of scheduling of household demand side management in the presence of PV generation under a set of tech-nical constraints such as dynamic electricity pricing and voltage deviation. The proposed solution is implemented based on the Clonal Selection Algorithm (CSA). This solution is evaluated through a set of scenarios and simulation results show that the proposed approach results in the reduction of electricity bills and the import of energy from the grid

Comparison of canal displacement rate of mesiobuccal root of the maxillary first molar after the preparation by two manual and rotating methods using stainless steel hand files

زمینه و هدف: ابزارهای گوناگونی برای کاهش زمان آماده سازی کانال معرفی شده است. یکی از این ابزار هندپیس نوین (TEP-E10R) است که به نام اندوگریپر معروف است. این مطالعه با هدف مقایسه میزان تغییر مرکزیت کانال ریشه مزیوباکال مولر اول فک بالا به دنبال آماده سازی به دو روش دستی و چرخشی با استفاده از فایل های دستی استنلس استیل انجام شده است. روش بررسی: در این مطالعه تجربی آزمایشگاهی 50 دندان کشیده شده مولر اول ماگزیلای انسانی انتخاب و به دو گروه تقسیم شدند. بعد از تهیه حفره دسترسی و قرار دادن فایل اولیه داخل کانال مزیو باکال، رادیو گرافی های دیجیتالی به صورتی که رابطه فیلم و زاویه تابش با نمونه ها ثابت باشند تهیه گردید، سپس آماده سازی کانال ها در گروه اول با فایل های استنس استیل به روش دستی و در گروه دو با فایل های استنس استیل با اندوگریپر انجام شد. تکنیک آماده سازی کانال هادر هر دو گروه passive step back بود. پس از آماده سازی، رادیوگرافی با فایل مستر اپیکال با همان شرایط رادیوگرافی اول انجام گرفت. میزان تغییر مرکزیت کانال رادیو گرافی اولیه و رادیوگرافی با فایل اصلی بر اساس تصاویر انطباقی بر حسب میلی متر توسط نرم افزار فتوشاپ و به کمک رادیولوژیست محاسبه شد. یافته ها: میانگین انحراف از مسیر اصلی کانال در گروه اول (36/1±45/3 میلیمتر) بیشتر از گروه دوم (69/1±75/1 میلیمتر) بود (045/0=P). همچنین میانگین زمان آماده سازی کانال ها در گروه اول (53/1±36/19 دقیقه) بیشتر از گروه دوم (55/1±03/12 دقیقه) بود (0001/0=P). نتیجه گیری: استفاده از فایل های استنلس استیل با هندپیس (رفت و برگشتی) reciprocal نسبت به استفاده از فایل های استنلس استیل به تنهایی مسیر اصلی کانال را بهتر حفظ می کند

Visual servoing with safe interaction using image moments

The problem of image based visual servoing for robots working in a cluttered dynamic environment is addressed in this paper. It is assumed that the environment is observed by depth sensors which allow to measure the distance between any moving obstacle and the robot. Also an eye-in-hand camera is used to extract image features. The main idea is to control suitable image moments and to relax a certain number of robot's degrees of freedom during the interaction phase. If an obstacle approaches the robot, the main visual servoing task is relaxed partially or completely, while the image features are kept in the camera field of view by controlling the image moments. Fuzzy rules are used to set the desired values of the image moments. Beside that, the relaxed redundancy of the robot is exploited to avoid collisions. After removing the risk of collision, the main visual servoing task is resumed. The effectiveness of the algorithm is shown by several case studies on a KUKA LWR 4 robot arm

Novel cilostamide analogs, phosphodiesterase 3 inhibitors, produce positive inotropic but differential lusitropic and chronotropic effects on isolated rat atria

Objective(s): Recently, we showed that some new synthetic compounds structurally related to cilostamide (4-(1,2-dihydro-2-oxoquinolin-6-hydroxy)- N-cyclohexyl-N-methylbutanamide), a selective phosphodiesterase 3 (PDE3) inhibitor, produce inotropic effect comparable to that of IBMX (3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine), a non-selective PDE inhibitor, but with differential chronotropic effect. In this investigation, we compared the pharmacological effects of these compounds as potential cardiotonic agents using the spontaneously beating atria model. Materials and Methods: In each experiment, rats were treated with reserpine.  The atrium was isolated and mounted in an organ bath. We assessed chronotropic and inotropic effects using cumulativelogconcentration-response curves of isoprenaline alone or in combination of each test-compound. Results: Majority of test compounds augment atria contraction force (ACF) significantly but with different potencies on atrium contraction rate. Cilostamide, MCPIP ([4-(4-methyl piperazin-1-yl)-4-oxobutoxy)-4-methylquinolin-2(1H)-one]), methyl carbostyril compounds- (mc1), mc2 and mc5 increased the isoprenaline effect on ACF synergistically. But, mc6 failed to potentiate the effect of isoprenalin; mc3 and mc4 did not increase ACF, which may be because of their higher hydrophilic nature. It was interesting that mc2, alone or in combination with isoprenaline, produced the highest inotropic effect while it did not affect the basal contraction rate and almost blocked the isoprenaline chronotropic effect. Conclusion: Combination of mc2 with isoprenaline had synergistic effect on inotropic effect, but this combination reduced isoprenaline chronotropic effect; therefore, these effects cannot be related to reducing B-adrenergic receptors activity. These compounds showed different effects; probably all of them were not mediated via PDE3 inhibition and other mechanisms are involving