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The Sherlock Holmes (SH) Project is a collaborative problem-solving activity in the form of a murder mystery that is a great resource for upper-level undergraduate courses in neurophysiology that emphasize synaptic transmission and neuromuscular communication. This project, originally described by Adler and Schwartz (2006), has become a central focus of the Neurophysiology course at Allegheny College, along with many complementary activities that work to reinforce the neuroscience material and skills such as creative experimental design and analysis. Active Learning research in advanced levels of undergraduate courses is rare in the pedagogy literature, and this paper adds to that body of research. Formal assessment of the course generally and the SH Project specifically support the hypothesis that the active learning pedagogical strategies employed foster a positive and successful learning environment., (Copyright © 2024 Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience.)

Background Histidine is an essential amino acid with health benefits that may warrant histidine supplementation; however, the clinical safety of histidine intake above the average dietary intake (1.52–5.20 g/d) needs to be vetted. Objectives We aimed to determine the tolerance to graded dosages of histidine in a healthy adult population. Methods Healthy adults aged 21–50 y completed graded dosages of histidine supplement (4, 8, and 12 g/d, Study 1) (n  = 20 men and n  = 20 women) and/or a 16-g/d dosage of histidine (Study 2, n  = 21 men and n  = 19 women); 27 participants (n  = 12 men and n  = 15 women) completed both studies. After study enrollment and baseline measures, participants consumed encapsulated histidine for 4 wk followed by a 3-wk recovery period. Primary outcomes included vitals, select biochemical analytes, anthropometry, serum zinc, and body composition (via DXA). Results No changes in vitals or body composition occurred with histidine supplementation in either study. Plasma histidine (measured in subjects who completed all dosages for Studies 1 and 2) was elevated at the 12- and 16-g/d dosages (compared with 0–8 g/d, P  < 0.05) and blood urea nitrogen increased with dosage (P  = 0.013) and time (P  < 0.001) in Study 1 and with time in Study 2 (P  < 0.001). In Study 1, mean ferritin concentrations were lower in 12 g/d (46.0 ng/mL; 95% CI: 34.8, 60.9 ng/mL) than in 4 g/d (51.6 ng/mL; 95% CI: 39.0, 68.4 ng/mL; P  = 0.038). In Study 2, 16 g/d increased mean aspartate aminotransferase from baseline (19 U/L; 95% CI: 17, 22 U/L) to week 4 (24 U/L; 95% CI: 21, 27 U/L; P  < 0.001) and mean serum zinc decreased from baseline (0.75 μg/dL; 95% CI: 0.71, 0.80 μg/dL) to week 4 (0.70 μg/dL; 95% CI: 0.66, 0.74 μg/dL; P  = 0.011). Conclusions Although values remained within the normal reference ranges for all analytes measured, in all dosages tested, the human no-observed adverse effect level was determined to be 8 g/d owing to changes in blood parameters at the 12-g/d dosage. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT04142294. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article sketches the broad outlines of Matthew’s ironic portrayal of children, examining first the ‘lower level’ of the narrative (i.e. the way things appear to be in the everyday world) and then the ‘upper level’ of the narrative (i.e. the way things truly are from the ‘God’s-eye’ perspective). When viewed from the ‘lower level’ of Matthew’s narrative, the everyday circumstances of children reflect the nurture of their parents as well as significant challenges: debilitating physical conditions, serious illnesses, military violence and premature childhood death. In addition, children occupy the lowest rung on the 1st-century Mediterranean social ladder, a status they share with slaves. But on the ‘upper level’ of his narrative, from the ‘God’s-eye’ perspective, Matthew turns everyday reality for children on its head in ironic fashion. Emmanuel, the ‘God who is with us’, appears as a ‘child’ who has just ‘been born’ and who exhibits all the powerlessness and vulnerability of such a ‘child’. In a violent showdown between ‘King Herod’ and the one ‘who has been born king of the Jews’, it is Herod, the powerful ruler, who dies, while the vulnerable ‘child’ ends up safely in Nazareth. Throughout his ministry, Jesus heals children along with adults. To the apparent chagrin of his disciples, Jesus lays hands on children in an act of blessing. He commends the messianic praises of children, in contrast to the outrage of the Jewish leadership. Moreover, Jesus proclaims that it is ‘to such as these [children] that the kingdom of heaven belongs’.

This article sketches the broad outlines of Matthew's ironic portrayal of children, examining first the 'lower level' of the narrative (i.e. the way things appear to be in the everyday world) and then the 'upper level' of the narrative (i.e. the way things truly are from the 'God's-eye' perspective). When viewed from the 'lower level' of Matthew's narrative, the everyday circumstances of children reflect the nurture of their parents as well as significant challenges: debilitating physical conditions, serious illnesses, military violence and premature childhood death. In addition, children occupy the lowest rung on the 1st-century Mediterranean social ladder, a status they share with slaves. But on the 'upper level' of his narrative, from the 'God's-eye' perspective, Matthew turns everyday reality for children on its head in ironic fashion. Emmanuel, the 'God who is with us', appears as a 'child' who has just 'been born' and who exhibits all the powerlessness and vulnerability of such a 'child'. In a violent showdown between 'King Herod' and the one 'who has been born king of the Jews', it is Herod, the powerful ruler, who dies, while the vulnerable 'child' ends up safely in Nazareth. Throughout his ministry, Jesus heals children along with adults. To the apparent chagrin of his disciples, Jesus lays hands on children in an act of blessing. He commends the messianic praises of children, in contrast to the outrage of the Jewish leadership. Moreover, Jesus proclaims that it is 'to such as these [children] that the kingdom of heaven belongs'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a bi‐level optimal sizing approach for hybrid energy storage system (HESS) in distribution network with high share of renewable energy. Differently from the traditional planning methods, the proposed two‐level approach can evaluate the investment risks caused by wind power uncertainty. In particular, the upper level describes the financial composition associated with HESS devices investment cost. The lower level searches optimal operation strategies for the minimal cost of each scenario set. The upper‐level and lower level models are bridged by CVaR, which measures the conditional tail expectation of lower level costs for the entire scenarios and are involved as the additional item of the upper objective. Moreover, to improve solution efficiency, some of the mathematics transformations including second‐order cone programming are adapted to transform the holistic non‐linear model into the more effective pattern that can be computed by the commercially available solver. The proposed method can compute the corresponding energy storage capacity based on the assessment of the risk tolerance of investors. Finally, a test system is used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing utilisation of natural gas and renewable energy resources brings more challenges to generation expansion planning problems. Short‐term operational constraints are equally important for long‐term capacity planning. This work studies the interdependence between electricity and natural gas systems and presents a combined market mechanism that allows two‐stage energy trading and planning based on asynchronous electricity and gas markets. In the first stage, the gas market is cleared with the objective of maximum social welfare (lower level), at the same time obtaining the optimal strategies offered by gas producers and gas‐fired units (upper level). In the second stage, generation companies and consumer companies aim to maximise their corresponding profits in the planning horizon (upper level), and electricity market is cleared on principle of maximum social welfare (lower level). Then, the authors develop a modified alternative direction method of multiplier algorithm to solve the two‐stage nested bilevel model. To improve operational flexibility of expansion plans, uncertainties of renewable energy generation and integrated demand response are also included and analysed in different risk scenarios. Case studies validate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of smart grid and electricity market, schedulable resources of demand-side attract great concern. To implement the balance between power supply and demand by utilising demand-side schedulable resources, a bi-level system is established and a bi-level programming between independent system operator (ISO) and load aggregator (LA) is proposed in this study. LA in the lower level integrates decentralised schedulable resources and makes bidding plans by adopting the improved step-wise bidding method in view of its risk attitudes, realising the unification of low risk and high profit. ISO in the upper level introduces the chance-constrained programming method to make risk–benefit coordinated decisions considering uncertainties on the basic of bidding information and power supply–demand prediction. The simulation analyses show that the proposed bi-level optimised strategy is effective for obtaining satisfactory decision schemes based on decision makers’ risk preferences.

For the purpose of developing smart control with a great degree of flexibility to enhance the stability, security and self‐healing capability of a high‐penetration distribution grid, in this study smart control called a hierarchical hybrid control is proposed based on operational mode conversions of distributed energy resources. Corresponding to the hybrid dynamic behaviours of the system, the hierarchical hybrid control consists of discrete control strategies at the upper level, local continuous controllers at the lower level and their interactions. The upper level discrete control strategies are mainly responsible for switching operational modes so as to enhance security and self‐healing capability during significant disturbances. The lower level continuous control aims to regulate dynamic stability of each controlled unit in order to obtain satisfactory performance. The effectiveness of the proposed hybrid control is demonstrated through simulation examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Available data on metabolic utilization of vitamin D3 indicate a total daily requirement of approximately 4000 international units (iu) (100 microg) or twice the current tolerable upper intake level (UL). In young individuals, most of this comes from the skin. However, cutaneous vitamin D3 synthesis declines with age, creating a need for increasing oral intake to maintain optimal serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations. Estimates of the population distribution of serum 25(OH)D values, coupled with available dose-response data, indicate that it would require input of an additional 2600 iu/d (65 microg/d) of oral vitamin D3 to ensure that 97.5% of older women have 25(OH)D values at or above desirable levels. The age-related decline in cutaneous input, taken together with the UL, creates a substantial barrier to the deployment of public health strategies to optimize vitamin D status in the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]