Demand Response Implementation in an Optimization Based SCADA Model Under Real-Time Pricing Schemes

Advancement of renewable energy resources, development of smart grids, and the effectiveness of demand response programs, can be considered as solutions to deal with the rising of energy consumption. However, there is no benefit if the consumers do not have enough automation infrastructure to use the facilities. Since the entire kinds of buildings have a massive portion in electricity usage, equipping them with optimization-based systems can be very effective. For this purpose, this paper proposes an optimization-based model implemented in a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, and Multi Agent System. This optimization model is based on power reduction of air conditioners and lighting systems of an office building with respect to the price-based demand response programs, such as real-time pricing. The proposed system utilizes several agents associated with the different distributed based controller devices in order to perform decision making locally and communicate with other agents to fulfill the overall system’s goal. In the case study of the paper, the proposed system is used in order to show the cost reduction in the energy bill of the building, while it respects the user preferences and comfort level.The present work was done and funded in the scope of the following projects: H2020 DREAM-GO Project (Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 641794); Project GREEDI (ANI|P2020 17822); and UID/EEA/00760/2013 funded by FEDER Funds through COMPETE program and by National Funds through FCT.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Multiplex staining depicts the immune infiltrate in colitis-induced colon cancer model

Assessment of the host immune response pattern is of increasing importance as highly prognostic and diagnostic, in immune-related diseases and in some types of cancer. Chronic inflammation is a major hallmark in colon cancer formation, but, despite the extent of local inflammatory infiltrate has been demonstrated to be extremely informative, its evaluation is not routinely assessed due to the complexity and limitations of classical immunohistochemistry (IHC). In the last years, technological advance helped in bypassing technical limits, setting up multiplex IHC (mIHC) based on tyramide signal amplification (TSA) method and designing software suited to aid pathologists in cell scoring analysis. Several studies verified the efficacy of this method, but they were restricted to the analysis of human samples. In the era of translational medicine the use of animal models to depict human pathologies, in a more complete and complex approach, is really crucial. Nevertheless, the optimization and validation of this method to species other than human is still poor. We took advantage of Multispectral Imaging System to identify the immunoprofile of Dextran Sulphate Sodium (DSS)-treated mouse colon. We optimized a protocol to sequentially stain formalin fixed paraffin embedded murine colon samples for CD3, CD8a, CD4, and CD4R5B0 antigens. With this approach we obtained a detailed lymphocyte profile, while preserving the morphological tissue context, generally lost with techniques like gene expression profiling or flow cytometry. This study, comparing the results obtained by mIHC with immunophenotyping performed with cytofluorimetric and standard IHC methods validates the potentiality and the applicability of this innovative approach

Q-Strategy: A Bidding Strategy for Market-Based Allocation of Grid Services

The application of autonomous agents by the provisioning and usage of computational services is an attractive research field. Various methods and technologies in the area of artificial intelligence, statistics and economics are playing together to achieve i) autonomic service provisioning and usage of Grid services, to invent ii) competitive bidding strategies for widely used market mechanisms and to iii) incentivize consumers and providers to use such market-based systems. The contributions of the paper are threefold. First, we present a bidding agent framework for implementing artificial bidding agents, supporting consumers and providers in technical and economic preference elicitation as well as automated bid generation by the requesting and provisioning of Grid services. Secondly, we introduce a novel consumer-side bidding strategy, which enables a goal-oriented and strategic behavior by the generation and submission of consumer service requests and selection of provider offers. Thirdly, we evaluate and compare the Q-strategy, implemented within the presented framework, against the Truth-Telling bidding strategy in three mechanisms – a centralized CDA, a decentralized on-line machine scheduling and a FIFO-scheduling mechanisms

Business and Information Technology Alignment Measurement -- a recent Literature Review

Since technology has been involved in the business context, Business and Information Technology Alignment (BITA) has been one of the main concerns of IT and Business executives and directors due to its importance to overall company performance, especially today in the age of digital transformation. Several models and frameworks have been developed for BITA implementation and for measuring their level of success, each one with a different approach to this desired state. The BITA measurement is one of the main decision-making tools in the strategic domain of companies. In general, the classical-internal alignment is the most measured domain and the external environment evolution alignment is the least measured. This literature review aims to characterize and analyze current research on BITA measurement with a comprehensive view of the works published over the last 15 years to identify potential gaps and future areas of research in the field.Comment: 12 pages, Preprint version, BIS 2018 International Workshops, Berlin, Germany, July 18 to 20, 2018, Revised Paper

Inter-observer agreement in the assessment of endoscopic findings in ulcerative colitis

BACKGROUND: Endoscopic findings are essential in evaluating the disease activity in ulcerative colitis. The aim of this study was to evaluate how endoscopists assess individual endoscopic features of mucosal inflammation in ulcerative colitis, the inter-observer agreement, and the importance of the observers' experience. METHODS: Five video clips of ulcerative colitis were shown to a group of experienced and a group of inexperienced endoscopists. Both groups were asked to assess eight endoscopic features and the overall mucosal inflammation on a visual analogue scale. The following statistical analyses were used; Contingency tables analysis, kappa analysis, analysis of variance, Pearson linear correlation analysis, general linear models, and agreement analysis. All tests were carried out two-tailed, with a significance level of 5%. RESULTS: The inter-observer agreement ranged from very good to moderate in the experienced group and from very good to fair in the inexperienced group. There was a significantly better inter-observer agreement in the experienced group in the rating of 6 out of 9 features (p < 0.05). The experienced and inexperienced endoscopists scored the "ulcerations" significantly different. (p = 0.05). The inter-observer variation of the mean score of "erosions", "ulcerations" and endoscopic activity index in mild disease, and the scoring of "erythema" and "oedema" in moderate-severe disease was significantly higher in the inexperienced group. A correlation was seen between all the observed endoscopic features in both groups of endoscopists. Among experienced endoscopists, a set of four endoscopic variables ("Vascular pattern", "Erosions", "Ulcerations" and Friability") explained 92% of the variation in EAI. By including "Granularity" in these set 91% of the variation in EAI was explained in the group of inexperienced endoscopists. CONCLUSION: The inter-observer agreement in the rating of endoscopic features characterising ulcerative colitis is satisfactory in both groups of endoscopists but significantly higher in the experienced group. The difference in the mean score between the two groups is only significant for "ulcerations". The endoscopic variables "Vascular pattern", "Erosions", "Ulcerations" and Friability" explained the overall endoscopic activity index. Even though the present result is quite satisfactory, there is a potential of improvement. Improved grading systems might contribute to improve the consistency of endoscopic descriptions

Large potential for crop production adaptation depends on available future varieties

Climate change affects global agricultural production and threatens food security. Faster phenological development of crops due to climate warming is one of the main drivers for potential future yield reductions. To counter the effect of faster maturity, adapted varieties would require more heat units to regain the previous growing period length. In this study, we investigate the effects of variety adaptation on global caloric production under four different future climate change scenarios for maize, rice, soybean, and wheat. Thereby, we empirically identify areas that could require new varieties and areas where variety adaptation could be achieved by shifting existing varieties into new regions. The study uses an ensemble of seven global gridded crop models and five CMIP6 climate models. We found that 39% (SSP5-8.5) of global cropland could require new crop varieties to avoid yield loss from climate change by the end of the century. At low levels of warming (SSP1-2.6), 85% of currently cultivated land can draw from existing varieties to shift within an agro-ecological zone for adaptation. The assumptions on available varieties for adaptation have major impacts on the effectiveness of variety adaptation, which could more than half in SSP5-8.5. The results highlight that region-specific breeding efforts are required to allow for a successful adaptation to climate change

Il trattamento con topiramato protegge i topi APOE-KO dall&#8217;insorgenza di danno renale senza modificare i livelli dei lipidi plasmatici

Il topiramato e\u300 un farmaco impiegato nel trattamento dell\u2019epilessia e prescritto anche nella profilassi dell\u2019emicrania che si caratterizza per i molteplici meccanismi d\u2019azione. Diversi studi indicano che il trattamento con topiramato promuove la riduzione del peso corporeo e riduce moderatamente i livelli dei lipidi plasmatici e la glicemia. In considerazione di questi effetti metabolici positivi si e\u300 deciso di valutare se il trattamento con topiramato potesse modulare lo sviluppo di aterosclerosi e al tempo stesso avere effetti protettivi sugli organi bersaglio di condizioni dismetaboliche. Trenta topi apoE-KO sono stati distribuiti in tre gruppi sperimentali e alimentati per 12 settimane con una dieta ad elevato contenuto lipidico (controllo), oppure con la stessa dieta addizionata con topiramato allo 0.125% o allo 0.25%. Il peso corporeo e il consumo di cibo e acqua sono stati monitorati durante tutto lo studio. E\u300 stata inoltre misurata la concentrazione dei lipidi plasmatici e la glicemia, ed e\u300 stato effettuato un test di tolleranza al glucosio. Lo sviluppo di aterosclerosi e\u300 stato valutato nell\u2019intera aorta e nel seno aortico. Sono state inoltre condotte indagini istologiche su fegato, rene e tessuto adiposo. Il trattamento con topiramato non ha influenzato l\u2019aumento di peso corporeo o il consumo di cibo. La tolleranza al glucosio e la concentrazione lipidica plasmatica sono risultati comparabili tra i gruppi, cosi\u300 come lo sviluppo di aterosclerosi. Il trattamento non ha inoltre alterato l\u2019istologia del fegato e del tessuto adiposo. A livello renale, il trattamento con topiramato ha invece ridotto l\u2019insorgenza di lipidosi glomerulare in modo dose-dipendente, riducendo l\u2019accumulo di cellule schiumose e l\u2019espressione di marcatori di infiammazione. Inoltre, anche i livelli plasmatici di urea sono risultati ridotti in seguito al trattamento. In conclusione, i risultati ottenuti indicano che il trattamento con topiramato non influenza lo sviluppo di aterosclerosi, ma preserva struttura e funzionalita\u300 renale. Il topiramato potrebbe pertanto essere preso in considerazione in studi di riposizionamento farmacologico per il trattamento della lipidosi glomerulare

Mitigation of NH3 emissions due to cattle slurry fertilisation.

Agriculture is known as the major source of atmospheric ammonia (NH3). The strategies to reduce the emissions of this gas have become an important focus in many countries to prevent environmental issues and to reduce the loss of nutrients and energy from cropping systems. Appropriate slurry application techniques are fundamental strategies to reduce nitrogen losses. This study presents an evaluation of the best agronomical practices for reducing NH3 emissions from cattle slurry spreading on arable lands. Two different application techniques with two incorporation procedures were assessed in four different field trials in the Po Valley. The NH3 concentration measurements were performed using passive samplers, while a dispersion model has been used for estimating NH3 fluxes at field scale. The best abatement strategy from slurry application has proved to be the direct injection into the soil, with a reduction of about 95% with respect to the surface spreading, while a contextual incorporation was able to reduce the emission of more than 85%