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Relation extraction is a critical step in knowledge recommendation for big data, but long-tailed distribution in real-world relations presents a significant challenge. Most relations fail to gather enough training instances, which forms a long tail in data distribution and leads to poor performance on these relations. Previous studies have made efforts to improve models for long-tailed relations by sharing knowledge from head classes to the long-tail. Despite proven effectiveness on long tail relations, this line of work lacks control over the knowledge transfer process, which can harm performance on head classes. To address this issue, we propose an approach that enhances the label hierarchical dependencies of a classifier through label-to-sentence attention with multi-granular constraints across different levels of relation. Moreover, We introduce an ensemble mechanism that uses a router module to balance performance between head and tail classes, thereby fixing the long-tail problem on relation extraction data set. Our approach achieves excellent performance on long-tail and all relations on the large-scale benchmark data set New York Times, without sacrificing performance on head relations. The experiment results demonstrate that our approach effectively alleviates long-tail problems and boosts performance on long-tail classes in relation extraction without harming the performance on head classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Angelica sinensis Radix (ASR) is mainly produced in the southern region of Gansu, China, and is a famous edible and medicinal herb. Noticeably, Aba region in Sichuan, China has similar geographical and climatic conditions to the southern region of Gansu, China, and has the potential to further develop the ASR planting industry chain. This study was the first to use an innovative method that combines GC-MS, HPLC-DAD fingerprints, and stoichiometric analysis to compare and explore the feasibility of using the Aba region as a source of high-quality ASR supplements. GC-MS analysis showed that the composition of ASR essential oil(AEO) in these two regions was highly similar (>99%). The HPLC data showed that the main sources of differences in ASR components between the two regions were coniferyl ferulate, E -ligustilide, Z -ligustilide, and Butylidenephthalide, which have great potential in anti-depression, regulating gut microbiota, and other aspects. The ASR in Aba region was rich in these components, and its biological activity might be higher to some extent than that in southern Gansu. This study confirmed the potential of the Aba region in Sichuan to become a high-quality production area for ASR, which was conducive to the expansion of ASR resources and the development of related industrial chains. • Combine GC-MS with HPLC-DAD technology to analyze the chemical profiles of two sources of Angelica sinensis Radix. • Angelica sinensis Radix in the Aba is of good quality, which has more active ingredient than the southern Gansu. • Aba can serve as a supplementary producer of Angelica sinensis Radix to ensure the sustainable development of the plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive interstitial lung disease with increasing occurrence, high death rates and unfavorable treatment regimens. In the current study, we identified the expression of microRNA‐9 (miR‐9) and anoctamin‐1 (ANO1) in IPF mouse models induced by bleomycin, and their effects on inflammation and fibroblast proliferation through the transforming growth factor‐β (TGF‐β)–Smad3 pathway. To verify the targeting relationship between miR‐9 and ANO1, we used bioinformatics prediction and conducted a dual‐luciferase reporter gene assay. The underlying regulatory mechanisms of miR‐9 and the target gene ANO1 were investigated mainly with the treatment of miR‐9 mimic, miR‐9 inhibitor, or siRNA against ANO1 in fibroblasts isolated from IPF mice. Enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay was performed to investigate the effect of miR‐9 or ANO1 on inflammatory factors. 3‐(4,5‐Dimethylthiazol‐2‐yl)‐2,5‐diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay and flow cytometry were used to detect fibroblast proliferation and apoptosis. Reverse transcription quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis were applied to measure the expression of the TGF‐β–Smad3 pathway‐related genes. The determination of luciferase activity suggested that miR‐9 targets ANO1. Upregulation of miR‐9 or silencing of ANO1 intensified inflammation in IPF, promoted proliferation and inhibited apoptotic ability of lung fibroblasts. MiR‐9 negatively modulated ANO1, and thus activated the TGF‐β–Smad3 pathway. These findings suggest that miR‐9 can indirectly activate the TGF‐β–Smad3 pathway by inhibiting the expression of ANO1, thereby aggravating inflammation, promotes proliferation and suppressing apoptosis of lung fibroblasts in mice models of IPF. miR‐9 can indirectly activate the TGF‐β–Smad3 pathway by inhibiting the expression of ANO1, thereby aggravating inflammation, promotes proliferation and suppressing apoptosis of lung fibroblasts in mice models of IPF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we first generalize Gerstewitz's functions from a single positive vector to a subset of the positive cone. Then, we establish a partial order principle, which is indeed a variant of the pre-order principle [Qiu, J. H.: A pre-order principle and set-valued Ekeland variational principle. J. Math. Anal. Appl., 419, 904-937 (2014)]. By using the generalized Gerstewitz's functions and the partial order principle, we obtain a vector EVP for ε-efficient solutions in the sense of Németh, which essentially improves the earlier results by completely removing a usual assumption for boundedness of the objective function. From this, we also deduce several special vector EVPs, which improve and generalize the related known results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the most fatal types of oral cancer worldwide. Forkhead box M1 (FOXM1) is associated with the occurrence and development of a number of types of human cancer, but its function in OSCC remains unclear. The present study aimed to explore the effect of FOXM1 downregulation using lentivirus-mediated short hairpin (sh)RNA against FOXM1 (LV-shFOXM1) in the cell line Tca8113 in vitro. Infection of Tca8113 cells with LV-shFOXM1 inhibited the mRNA and protein expression level of FOXM1. The downregulation of FOXM1 resulted in cell cycle arrest of Tca8113 cells, and the inhibition of proliferation, migration and invasion. The protein expression level of cyclins B1 and D1 were downregulated, whereas those of p27 and p21 were upregulated following infection with LV-shFOXM1, compared with the blank control and LV-shCON groups. In addition, FOXM1 downregulation decreased the expression of matrix metalloproteinase-2 and LV-shFOXM1 significantly suppressed OSCC cell viability. Therefore, FOXM1 may be a target for the treatment of OSCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Flexible magnetoelectric (ME) laminate composites consist of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and nanocrystalline alloy (FeCuNbSiB) were prepared. The ME coupling properties under different bending angle (θ) at zero dc bias magnetic field (H dc) were investigated. The experimental results demonstrate the optimum zero-biased resonant ME voltage coefficient (MEVC) of ME laminate composites can reach 17.65 V/(cm·Oe). This is mainly due to the large permeability and low saturation magnetostrictive coefficient of the nanocrystalline alloy. The induced zero-biased ME voltages of ME laminate composites show an excellent linear relationship to ac magnetic field at bending states over a wide range. This laminate composite shows promising applications for high-sensitivity and small-size wearable magnetic sensors without bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing advanced catalysts that deliver high metal dispersion and outstanding catalytic activity is crucial for practical demand. In incipient wetness impregnation, the metal precursor–support surface interactions are very weak, which usually results in severe sintering and poor dispersion of the active component. In this work, Pt catalysts supported on a CZLP support are prepared via an impregnation method with pH adjustment of the precursor solutions. This means can enhance the Pt precursor–support interactions, and as a result, the Pt species are highly dispersed on the surface of the support. Meanwhile, the catalysts prepared by pH adjustment possess preferable reducibility, excellent thermostability and a smaller Pt nanoparticle size. Thus, the modified catalysts exert a positive effect on converting all target poisons, regardless of fresh or aged samples. When the pH of the impregnating solution is about 3, the catalyst exhibits the optimal performance. Therefore, this work provides a simple and valid synthesis route for advanced catalysts to purify vehicle exhaust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Networking of microgrids has received increasing attentions in recent years, which requires the uncertainty management associated with variations in the system. In this paper, a two-stage energy management strategy is developed for networked microgrids under the presence of high renewable resources. It decomposes the microgrids energy management into two stages to counteract the intra-day stochastic variations of renewable energy resources, electricity load and electricity prices. In the first stage (hourly time scale), a hierarchical hybrid control method is employed for networked microgrids, aiming to minimize the system operation cost. The mean–variance Markowitz theory is employed to assess the risk of operation cost variability due to the presence of uncertainties. In the second stage (5-min time scale), the components in microgrids are optimally adjusted to minimize the imbalance cost between day-ahead and real-time markets. Simulation study is conducted on an uncoordinated microgrids system as well as on the proposed networked system. According to the simulation results, the proposed method can identify optimal scheduling results, reduce operation costs of risk-aversion, and mitigate the impact of uncertainties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A multi-residue analysis method of 191 pesticides constructed. • Modified QuEChERS method for pesticide extraction and purification from beef. • C18 selectively removed lipids from the beef matrix. • GC-orbitrap-MS for sensitive and reliable identification of pesticides. • Validated method showed excellent sensitivity, linearity, accuracy and precision. Increasing pesticide contamination in foods of animal origin has made the wide-scope multi-residue analysis of pesticides an international concern. By using 191 pesticides, this study investigates a sensitive and reliable method for multi-residue analysis of pesticides in beef to determine the extent of the application of this method. The QuEChERS method was employed to extract and purify the pesticides as C18 was utilized as the absorbents. Then, the purified pesticides were analysed using gas chromatography - quadrupole orbitrap mass spectrometry (GC-Q-Orbitrap-MS). The validation test results revealed that this method was satisfactorily sensitive since its screening detection limit (SDL) ranged from 0.2 to 100 µg∙kg−1. The recovery tests implemented at three spiking levels, namely 100, 200, and 500 µg∙kg−1, generated the results of 71.95 %–113.97 %, while the intra- and inter-day precisions were 0.27 %–17.94 %, indicating that this method had excellent accuracy and precision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long‐term surveillance records of cardiac activity are essential for people at potential risk of cardiovascular disease. However, the existing mainstream technologies for cardiac monitoring, such as electrocardiography (ECG) and photoplethysmography (PPG), are inconvenient and prone to skin allergies due to contact measurements. Ballistocardiography (BCG) is a vibration signal related to cardiac activity, which can be monitored in an unconstrained way. Herein, an iontronic textile‐type flexible capacitive pressure sensor (i‐TFCPS) based on ionic liquid doped hollow‐porous fiber is developed to monitor physiological signals. With a high sensitivity of 7.26 kPa−1, a wide pressure range (10 Pa–600 kPa), a fast response time of 30 ms, and decent durability over 3500 cycles, the i‐TFCPS is simultaneously capable of detecting and tracking the static and dynamic changes of sitting posture, and subtle physiological information, such as respiration and BCG signals. Benefits from the iontronic textile as sensitive dielectric, the capacitive pressure sensor is able to monitor the subtle BCG signal under high static pressure in an unconstrained state, showing great potential for unobtrusive cardiac monitoring in home, office and hospital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a continuous flow process intensification approach is applied to the Grignard reaction for the kilogram-scale production of 9-aryl-fluoren-9-ols at room temperature and the production efficiency was up to 357 g h−1. Compared with batch, the yield increased from 45% to >99%, the raw material cost was reduced by 35%, the emission of solid waste was reduced by 64%, and the production period was reduced by 86%. What's more, the continuous flow process demonstrated significantly higher atom efficiency (Ae = 75.8%), reaction mass efficiency (RME = 69.93%), and carbon efficiency (CE = 92.97%) in comparison with the traditional batch synthesis method (Ae = 34.46%, RME = 31.47%, and CE = 41.83%). Moreover, the environmental impact factor (E-factor) of the continuous flow process was impressively reduced by 92.57% compared to the batch process (26.5882 kg kg−1), reaching an outstandingly low value of 1.9747 kg kg−1. More importantly, the end-to-end synthesis of 9,9′-spirobi[9H-fluorene] (SBF) was realized through a tandem Grignard reaction and Friedel–Crafts reaction, and the theoretical productivity could reach 123 g h−1, providing a new green production route for diarylfluorene derivatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the planning of solar photovoltaics (PV), battery energy storage system (BESS) and gas-fired micro turbine (MT) in a coupled micro gas and electricity grid. The proposed model is formulated as a two-stage stochastic optimization problem, including the optimal investment in the first stage and the optimal operation in the second stage. To better understand the mutual interactions between electric and heat energy, the gas network models are taken into account. As a result, the fuel availability and price of the gas-fired MT can be explicitly modeled and analyzed. Moreover, to enhance the computational efficiency of the formulated mixed-integer quadratic programming problem, the point estimation method is used as the scenario reduction technique. The effectiveness of the proposed model is verified on a 14-bus coupled micro energy grid. Based on the case studies, the proposed two-stage planning model can identify a planning solution with the objective value of $99.3104, which is comprised of the daily capital recovery cost of $20.5070, the daily operating cost of $78.8034 for the coupled micro gas and electricity grid. Comparative studies demonstrate that the proposed approach can help the microgrid operator identify feasible and optimal planning solutions, and provide valuable guidance for energy infrastructure expansion from an integrated perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a two‐stage planning framework of the battery energy storage system (BESS) and micro‐turbine (MT) in a microgrid. In the first stage, the optimal allocation decisions are made before the actual realisation of the operational uncertainties. In the second stage, the optimal operation strategies are made for the microgrid by minimising the costs paid to the main grid, fuel cells, MTs, BESSs and controllable loads (CLs). The hot water system and interruptible load are considered as CLs. Their mathematical models are built to investigate their roles in smoothing renewable energy. In addition, efforts are made to keep the linearity of the formulated optimisation problem, and the backward scenario reduction method is adopted to further enhance the computational efficiency. The modified IEEE 33‐bus radial system is used as a microgrid to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach for both islanded and grid‐connected microgrids. Sensitivity analysis has been conducted to compare the economics and robustness of the identified solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an integrated multi-source energy harvester (IMSEH) employing a special shaped cantilever beam and a piezoelectric transducer to convert vibration and magnetic field energy into electrical energy is presented. The electric output performance of the proposed IMSEH has been investigated. Compared to a traditional multi-source energy harvester (MSEH) or single source energy harvester (SSEH), the proposed IMSEH can simultaneously harvest vibration and magnetic field energy with an integrated structure and the electric output is greatly improved. When other conditions keep identical, the IMSEH can obtain high voltage of 12.8V. Remarkably, the proposed IMSEHs have great potential for its application in wireless sensor network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To help the integration of various distributed energy resources (DERs), this paper proposes a transactive approach to the optimal scheduling for prosumers in coupled energy systems. DERs are coordinately operated in the form of a virtual power plant (VPP), which actively participates in the day-ahead and real-time electricity market, as well as the wholesale gas market. In the day-ahead electricity and wholesale gas markets, a VPP aims to maximize expected profits by determining the unit commitments and hourly scheduling of DERs. In the real-time balancing market, a VPP adjusts DER schedules to minimize imbalance costs. In this paper, we address the energy conversions between electric power and gas loads and investigate the interacting operations of gas and power systems. Our simulation results show that hierarchical, coordinated power and gas scheduling can identify more accurate operation plans for coupled transactive energy systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a multi‐objective generation dispatch model based on security‐constrained optimal power flow, in order to handle the contradictory economic and security objectives. In addition to the deterministic N −1 security criterion, a risk index is proposed to quantify the system security degree on a probabilistic basis. The risk index is defined as the summation of the products of the contingency probability and the associated severity function. Moreover, the cost of interruptible load is added into the generation cost, formulating the economic objective. In the meantime, wind power outputs and load variations are considered as uncertainties in the dispatch process. Furthermore, a multi‐objective evolutionary algorithm is employed and developed to provide a set of trade‐off solutions. The proposed approach is verified by the 4‐bus and IEEE 24‐bus systems. Numerical results show that the proposed approach can effectively investigate the impacts of demand response on system economy and security. The obtained Pareto optimal solutions are less likely to incur insecurity risk and are robust to the studied stochastic variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determination of backfill strength and composition are key to the use of staged open stope mining with subsequent filling. The traditional method of determining backfill strength has certain disadvantages, so it is necessary to explore a more scientific approach to obtain reasonable matches between backfill strength and excavated rock mass. Stress-strain curves of backfills with different cement-tailings ratios were obtained from laboratory mechanical tests for Zhongguan Iron Mine. Damage constitutive models prior to peak stress were established from damage mechanics. Using the principle that peak deformation energy corresponds to the energy released from an excavated rock mass, the optimum backfill strength and composition ratio were determined. The study provides a scientific basis for the backfilling design of this mine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing penetration of intermittent renewable energy poses plenty of challenges to electricity networks. Moreover, following the applications of intelligent electricity networks, demand response (DR) has attracted a great deal of attention due to its positive effects on shaving peak demands and balancing power supply and demand. On the other hand, when DR reaches a critical market level, the market behavior of DR becomes a meaningful uncertainty to the networks as well. Therefore, power transmission expansion planning (TEP) becomes a complicated decision-making process requiring risk analysis. This paper proposes a probabilistic approach to TEP contemplating risk. The conventional reliability criterion is replaced by a risk constraint. In addition, the TEP problem is decomposed into a master investment problem and two slave subproblems, i.e., optimal operation and feasibility check subproblems. The proposed TEP model is tested on the Garver’s six-bus and the modified IEEE 24-bus RTS and Polish 2383-bus systems. According to the numerical results, the proposed TEP model is superior compared to the conventional reliability-driven TEP from three perspectives: (1) It has incorporated a risk constraint and hence can help network planners understand the variants of risk and provide the opportunity to make trade-offs between cost, reliability and risk. (2) It still enforces the reliability criterion and is more cost-effective when the wind power uncertainty becomes higher in the future. (3) It allows risk-analysis, giving decision-makers the flexibility to choose a plan according to their individual risk-aversion levels and understand the multiple outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few years, the penetration of renewable distributed generation (DG) into power systems has increased markedly. Given the intermittency and uncertainty of renewables, demand response (DR) resources play an important role in balancing power supply-demand and shaving peak demand. In order to evaluate the system performance under contingencies, a risk factor is explicitly defined in this paper. This risk factor realistically considers the cost and the feasibility of corrective control (CC) actions. This risk factor is incorporated into our multi-objective transmission expansion planning (TEP) framework, which handles conflicting objectives of cost, risk, and reliability. The proposed model is numerically verified on the modified IEEE 118-bus and IEEE 24-bus RTS systems. Comparative studies with simplified versions of TEP models have also been undertaken. To sum up, the proposed approach should be considered as a risk-based, decision support tool, providing system operators or network planners with opportunities to make tradeoffs between cost, risk and reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and metabolic syndromes (MetS) have been recognized as the important risk factors for asymptomatic intracranial vertebrobasilar stenosis (IVBS). Although fatty liver index (FLI) is significantly related with these diseases, the association between FLI and IVBS remains unclear. In the present study, 2368 participants (30–75 years) were recruited from a Chinese prospective cohort study of PMMJS. Amongst them, 2281 individuals who did not have IVBS at baseline were enrolled in the 6-year following-up study. In cross-sectional analysis based on the baseline characteristics, the results showed that FLI was positively related with IVBS prevalence. Compared to the participants with FLI < 30, the adjusted OR (95% CI) of IVBS was 2.07 (1.18, 3.62) and 2.85 (1.39, 5.18) in the groups of 30 ≤ FLI < 60 and FLI ≥ 60, respectively. In longitudinal analysis, the results showed that the participants with FLI ≥ 60 had an increased risk of asymptomatic IVBS compared to those with FLI < 30 [adjusted HR (95%CI): 1.65 (1.05, 2.60)]. Moreover, exclusion of persons with hypertension, T2DM and MetS did not alter the associations between FLI and asymptomatic IVBS. Therefore, our results suggest that elevated FLI is an independent risk factor for asymptomatic IVBS in Chinese adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kernel dependence maximization for multi-label dimensionality reduction (kMDDM) has been proposed recently to cope with high-dimensional multi-label data. In order to produce discriminant projection vectors, kMDDM utilize the Hilbert-Schmidt independence criterion to capture the dependence between the feature description and the associated labels. However, the computation of kMDDM involves dense matrices eigen-decomposition that is known to be computationally expensive for large scale problems. In this paper, we reformulate the original kMDDM as a least-squares problem, so as to significantly lessen computational burden by utilizing the conjugate gradient algorithms. Further, appealing regularization techniques can be incorporated into the least-squares model to boost the generalization performance. Extensive experiments conducted on benchmark data collections verify the effectiveness of our proposed model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hepatitis B vaccine escape variants are the main threat to hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in vaccination era worldwide. With 215 genotype B HBV and 313 genotype C HBV vaccine escape variants isolated from China during 2000–2016, we reported that genotype B HBV vaccine escape strains diverged in ∼1997 (95% HPD; 1987–2005), while genotype C HBV vaccine escape strains diverged in ∼1976 (95% HPD; 1955–2003). Additionally, the p-distance of genotype C HBV vaccine escape strains was 0.0291 ± 0.0169, which was significantly higher than that in the genotype B HBV (t = 131.02, p < 0.05). However, genotype B HBV vaccine escape strains evolved more rapidly than genotype C HBV (2.103 × 10 −3 vs 1.083 × 10 −3 substitutions/site/year). Bayesian skyline plot analysis showed that the populations of genotype C HBV vaccine escape strains fluctuated more than those in genotype B HBV. Four sites (A5T/S, L21S, T/A126S and T/N131I/A) and 13 sites (N3S, T5A, G10Q/R/E, L21S, T47K/A/V, L98V/P, I/S126N/V/T, Q129H/R/L, T131P/I/N/A, G145A/R, L175S/F, L213I/S, V224A/G) were found to be under positive selection in genotype B and C HBV vaccine escape strains, respectively. More importantly, N3S, L21S, T47K, L98V, I/S126T and L213I mutations were detected in 1 (2.5%), 1 (2.5%), 1 (2.5%), 3 (7.5%), 1 (2.5%), 1 (2.5%) genotype C HBV infected Chinese younger with neonatal HBV vaccination, respectively. Therefore, our results should be valuable in further understanding the molecular evolution of HBV and providing new ideas for the elimination of HBV infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing penetration of wind power (WP) and demand response (DR) programs into modern power systems poses more challenges on transmission expansion planning (TEP). To ensure the economical, secure and reliable operations of power systems, this study presents a risk‐averse TEP framework. Instead of using the deterministic security criterion, an insecurity risk cost (RC) is proposed to provide network planners with the insight into the problem, options and future implications in decision making. Specifically, this RC can quantify the system security degree, considering the probability and the severity of contingencies. Meanwhile, the economic value of DR is modelled and incorporated into the optimal operation solutions. Moreover, to enhance the computational efficiency, an iterative solution algorithm based on the Benders decomposition is developed to solve the formulated TEP problem. The proposed approach is numerically verified on the Garver's 6‐bus, IEEE 24‐bus RTS, and 2383‐bus polish systems. Case study results demonstrate that the proposed approach can effectively investigate the impacts of large‐scale integration of WP and DR on system operations and planning. Moreover, the proposed risk‐averse approach is economically efficient and more robust to stochastic variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss the observer-based robust controller design problem for a class of nonlinear fractional-order uncertain systems with admissible time-variant uncertainty in the case of the fractional-order satisfying 0<α<1. Based on direct Lyapunov approach, a sufficient condition for the robust asymptotic stability of the observer-based nonlinear fractional-order uncertain systems is presented. Employing Finsler’s Lemma, the systematic robust stabilization design algorithm is then proposed in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). The efficiency and advantage of the proposed algorithm are finally illustrated by two numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focused on the lateral behavior of sinusoidal corrugated steel plate shear walls (CoSPSWs), which consist of a steel boundary frame and sinusoidal corrugated infill wall plates. Firstly, eigenvalue buckling analyses were conducted on sinusoidal corrugated wall plates under pure shear, and local as well as global shear buckling stress formulas were proposed. Nonlinear pushover analyses were then conducted on sinusoidal corrugated steel plate shear walls with different corrugation configuration, corrugation direction as well as influences from gravity loads. The results show that the lateral behavior of sinusoidal corrugated wall plates is obviously affected by the corrugation configuration and gravity load effects, but not much by the corrugation direction. Based on the shear slenderness ratio, sinusoidal corrugated wall plates could be classified into stocky, moderate and slender walls, with lateral load-resisting mechanism corresponding to shear yielding, inelastic shear buckling, and elastic shear buckling followed by incomplete tension field action, respectively. CoSPSWs with stocky wall plates tend to have both good lateral capacity and ductility, CoSPSWs with moderate wall plates would still have good lateral capacity but lower ductility, and CoSPSWs with slender wall plates would have good ductility but lower lateral capacity. Shear strength formulas were proposed for horizontal corrugated wall plates, not affected by gravity loads due to accordion effects, as well as vertical corrugated wall plates considering the gravity load effects. Plate-frame interaction (PFI) models were also proposed for horizontal and vertical CoSPSWs considering the gravity load effects. • Local and global shear buckling stress formulas were proposed for sinusoidal corrugated wall plates. • Lateral load-resisting mechanism was identified, and shear strength formulas were proposed for corrugated wall plates. • Plate-frame interaction models were proposed for CoSPSWs considering the gravity load effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A two-stage model of retail pricing and DR incentive design is presented. • The customizing strategy is used for improving the engagement of users. • The real-time price elasticity of demand is introduced. As the retail market becomes more competitive, it is significant for retailers to present a proper and attractive retail pricing strategy. This paper proposes a two-stage customized retail pricing design based on personalized demand response incentives for different residential users. To accurately simulate the load variation according to the price change, the real-time elasticity concept has been first introduced into the framework of customizing retail prices. The utilization of customizing prices is to make better use of the price elasticity to encourage the load shifting of end-users and their active engagement in demand response. In the first stage, the retail price base value is obtained by simultaneously optimizing the time-of-use (ToU) structure and corresponding price level. The second stage focuses on the load redistribution caused by individualized price incentives, and the retail price revision is set. The two-stage solution results are combined to obtain the final customized retail electricity price plans. To verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method, the customized retail pricing scheme is tested with 30 selected users. Compared with the traditional unified retail pricing method, the total retail profit increases by 10.62%, and the total retail conditional value at risk (CVaR) and consumers' payment decrease by 27.69% and 3.82%, respectively through the proposed customizing retail price method. The numerical results prove that through the proposed retail pricing method the retailing profit has increased, while the consumers' payment and risk management have also been guaranteed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a tunable broadband electromagnetic (EM) and magnetoelectric (ME) hybrid vibration energy harvester (HVEH) employing a hybrid transducer and double cantilever to convert low-frequency vibration energy into electrical energy is presented. The electric output performances of the proposed HVEH have been investigated. Compared to single ME or EM vibration energy harvester (VEH), the experiment results show that the proposed HVEH can simultaneously obtain an enhanced output performance including higher power, voltage, current and wide bandwidth. It is found that the output power and resonance frequency of HVEH can be tuned by controlling the FeCuNbSiB layer thickness, turns number and cantilever length, respectively. When FeCuNbSiB layer thickness, cantilever length and turns number is 30 μm, 5 cm and 750, the optimum output power and effective bandwidth of HVEH achieve 36.8 mW and 5.6 Hz for an acceleration of 0.75 g at frequency of 32 Hz, respectively. Remarkably, the proposed HVEH has great potential for its application in wireless sensor networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein we describe an efficient protocol for the regioselective addition of 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds to internal alkynes catalyzed by rhodium/Lewis acid catalysts. The corresponding branched/linear allylic alkylation products could be selectively obtained in good yields. Rh-H species were considered to be generated by direct C-H oxidative addition of 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds with rhodium catalyst with the assistance of Lewis acid. Moreover, a retro-allylic alkylation process was observed in this transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In my former paper 'A pre-order principle and set-valued Ekeland variational principle' (see [ J. Math. Anal. Appl., 419, 904-937 (2014)]), we established a general pre-order principle. From the pre-order principle, we deduced most of the known set-valued Ekeland variational principles (denoted by EVPs) in set containing forms and their improvements. But the pre-order principle could not imply Khanh and Quy's EVP in [On generalized Ekeland's variational principle and equivalent formulations for set-valued mappings, J. Glob. Optim., 49, 381-396 (2011)], where the perturbation contains a weak τ-function, a certain type of generalized distances. In this paper, we give a revised version of the pre-order principle. This revised version not only implies the original pre-order principle, but also can be applied to obtain the above Khanh and Quy's EVP. In particular, we give several new set-valued EVPs, where the perturbations contain convex subsets of the ordering cone and various types of generalized distances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A class of high order nodal discontinuous Galerkin implicit–explicit (DG-IMEX) schemes with asymptotic preserving (AP) property has been developed for the one-dimensional (1D) BGK equation in Xiong et al. (2015) [40] , based on a micro–macro reformulation. The schemes are globally stiffly accurate and asymptotically consistent, and as the Knudsen number becomes small or goes to zero, they recover first the compressible Navier–Stokes (CNS) and then the Euler limit. Motivated by the recent work of Filbet and Rey (2015) [27] and the references therein, in this paper, we propose a hierarchical high order AP method, namely kinetic, CNS and Euler solvers are automatically applied in regions where their corresponding models are appropriate. The numerical solvers for different regimes are coupled naturally by interface conditions. To the best of our knowledge, the resulting scheme is the very first hierarchical one being proposed in the literature, that enjoys AP property as well as uniform high order accuracy. Numerical experiments demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed approach. As time evolves, three different regimes are dynamically identified and naturally coupled, leading to significant CPU time savings (more than 80% for some of our test problems). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By using Gerstewitz functions, we establish a new equilibrium version of Ekeland variational principle, which improves the related results by weakening both the lower boundedness and the lower semi-continuity of the objective bimaps. Applying the new version of Ekeland principle, we obtain some existence theorems on solutions for set-valued vector equilibrium problems, where the most used assumption on compactness of domains is weakened. In the setting of complete metric spaces ( Z, d), we present an existence result of solutions for set-valued vector equilibrium problems, which only requires that the domain X ⊂ Z is countably compact in any Hausdorff topology weaker than that induced by d. When ( Z, d) is a Féchet space (i.e., a complete metrizable locally convex space), our existence result only requires that the domain X ⊂ Z is weakly compact. Furthermore, in the setting of non-compact domains, we deduce several existence theorems on solutions for set-valued vector equilibrium problems, which extend and improve the related known results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over recent years, pyrolysis has grown into a mature technology with added value for producing soil improvers. Further innovations of this technology lie in developing tailor-made products from specific feedstocks (or mixtures thereof) in combination with adjusted mixing ratio-temperature regimes. In this context, co-pyrolysis of pig manure (PM) and the invasive plant Japanese knotweed (JK) at different mixture ratios (w/w) of 3:1 (P3J1), 1:1 (P1J1), and 1:3 (P1J3) and varying temperatures (400–700 °C) was studied to address the low carbon properties and heavy metals (HMs) risks of manure-derive biochars and beneficially ameliorate the bio-invasion situation by creating value from the plant biomass. Co-pyrolysis of PM with JK increased by nearly 1.5 folds the fixed carbon contents in the combined feedstock biochars obtained at 600 °C compared with PM-derived biochar alone, and all combined feedstock biochars met the requirements for soil improvement and carbon sequestration. The total HMs in PM biochars were significantly reduced by adding JK. The combined feedstock biochar P1J1 generated at 600 °C was the most effective in transforming Cu and Zn into more stable forms, accordingly reducing the associated environmental risk of heavy metal leaching from the biochar. In addition, the accumulation of macronutrients can be an added benefit of the co-pyrolysis process, and P1J1-600 was also the biochar that retained the most nutrients (P, Ca, Mg, and K). [Display omitted] • Japanese knotweed addition improved the aromaticity of pig manure-derived biochar. • Co-pyrolysis reduced total Cu and Zn compared to pig manure-derived biochar. • Cu and Zn transformed to stable forms reduce the environmental risk of the biochar. • Co-pyrolysis retained higher nutrients than Japanese knotweed-derived biochar alone. • A 1:1 ratio of pig manure to Japanese knotweed at 600 °C was the optimal condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of large‐scale renewable energy and demand response (DR) resources in smart grids have brought in emerging challenges for transmission expansion planning (TEP), particularly in terms of system security. The conventional TEP models have not fully addressed the cost and the feasibility of corrective control (CC) actions such as generation rescheduling and load curtailment under contingencies. Moreover, the optimality of CC depends on the pre‐contingency state, the post‐contingency state, as well as the existence and viability of the involved CC actions. In this study, first the authors have given the explicit definition of CC risk index (CCRI), which evaluates the expected system performance under a set of contingencies (i.e. risk of incurring security issues). With the authors' improvement, the CCRI is now mathematically tractable and may have wide applications to TEP problems. Afterwards, the authors have proposed a multi‐objective TEP framework with tradeoffs between cost and risk. A relatively new yet superior multi‐objective evolutionary algorithm called the multi‐objective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA)/D is introduced and employed to find Pareto optimal solutions. The proposed model is numerically verified on the modified IEEE RTS 24‐bus and 118‐bus systems. According to the simulation results, the proposed model can provide information regarding variants of risks and coordinate the optimum planning and DR solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of the power industry restructuring and the increasing integration of large-scale renewable energy, power transmission expansion planning (TEP) has become a complicated decision-making process requiring risk analysis. This paper proposes a chance constrained approach to TEP. The probabilistic load curtailment degree is quantified by a capped load curtailment probability, which is incorporated into our multi-stage TEP model. Moreover, the system dynamic performance including security and stability is also realistically considered in our model through an iterative procedure. To enhance the computational efficiency, probabilistic optimal power flow (POPF) is adopted in conjunction with an evolutionary algorithm (EA). In case studies, different TEP approaches are compared, and effects of different parameter settings are also investigated. According to the simulation results, our model can not only provide information regarding risks, but also help network planners make trade-offs to select the most flexible and cost-effective planning schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Neuroinflammation remains the primary cause of morbidity and mortality in stroke-induced secondary brain injury. The NOD-like receptor pyrin 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome is involved in diverse inflammatory diseases, including cerebral ischemia, and is thus considered an effective therapeutic target. In the present study, we investigated the neuroprotection of Sinomenine (SINO), a potent natural anti-apoptotic and anti-inflammatory molecule, against cerebral ischemia in a mouse model of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in vivo and in an oxygen glucose deprivation (OGD)-treated astrocytes/microglia model in vitro. SINO administration intraperitoneally alleviated the cerebral infarction, brain edema, neuronal apoptosis, and neurological deficiency after MCAO induction. SINO also attenuated astrocytic and microglial activation in the ischemic hemisphere. NLRP3 inflammasome activation after MCAO and OGD induction, with the up-regulation of NLRP3, apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a caspase recruitment domain (ASC), cleaved caspase-1 and pro-inflammatory cytokines, was significantly inhibited by SINO treatment both in vivo and in vitro. In addition, SINO reversed the OGD-induced inhibition of AMPK phosphorylation in vitro. Further, the suppressive effect of SINO on NLRP3 inflammasomes was blocked by an AMPK inhibitor, Compound C. Our findings demonstrate that SINO exerts a neuroprotective effect in ischemic stroke by inhibiting NLRP3 inflammasomes via the AMPK pathway, which also provides evidence of a novel treatment for clinical stroke therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce a set-valued pseudo-metric family on a fuzzy metric space and the notion of compatibility between the set-valued pseudo-metric family and the original fuzzy metric. By means of this notion, we prove a general set-valued EVP, where the perturbation involves a set-valued pseudo-metric family compatible with the original fuzzy metric. From the general EVP, we deduce several particular EVPs, which extend the EVPs in Qiu (2013) [36] and in Gutiérrez et al. (2008) [20] to fuzzy metric spaces. By using set-valued pseudo-metric families and using the unified approach for approximate solutions introduced by Gutiérrez, Jiménez and Novo, we deduce a general version of set-valued EVP based on ( C , ϵ ) -efficient solutions in fuzzy metric spaces, where C is a coradiant set contained in the order cone. By choosing two specific versions of the coradiant set C in the general version of EVP, we obtain several particular set-valued EVPs for ϵ -efficient solutions in the sense of Németh and of Dentcheva and Helbig, respectively. These EVPs improve and generalize the related known results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Our previous study suggested that heart-type fatty acid-binding protein (HFABP) levels were greatly elevated in the conditioned medium of explant culture of in-stent restenosis (ISR) tissue from diabetic minipigs compared with those of non-ISR tissue. We here verified this result in animal tissues and investigated the impact of HFABP overexpression in human aortic smooth muscle cells (hASMCs). Methods and Results: In Western blot and realtime RT-PCR, HFABP protein and mRNA levels were significantly higher in ISR than in non-ISR tissues from minipigs, and higher in the ISR tissue from diabetic minipigs than that from nondiabetic minipigs. The mRNA microarray and cellular effects of hASMC retroviral overexpression of HFABP and vector was analyzed. Compared with vector, HFABP transduction activates multiple signaling pathways (e.g. ad-ipokine, TGF-β, Toll-like receptor, Wnt, Hedgehog, ErbB and Notch) and promotes inflammation, growth and migration in hASMCs whereas the knockdown of HFABP by small hairpin RNA attenuates these effects. Conclusion: HFABP expression is significantly higher in ISR tissue than in non-ISR tissue from diabetic and nondiabetic minipigs. Overexpression of HFABP induces multiple pathway-related promotion of inflammation, growth and migration in vascular SMCs, suggesting a potential role in coronary artery ISR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cholestatic liver disease (CLD) is mainly characterized by cholestasis. If not treated, it will deteriorate to cholestatic hepatitis, liver fibrosis, liver cirrhosis, and even liver failure. CLD has a high clinical incidence, and limited treatment with single therapy. In the long-term clinical exploration, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been corroborated with unique therapeutic effects on the CLD process. This paper summarizes the effective single and compound TCMs for the treatment of CLD. According to 4 important clinical stages of CLD: cholestasis, hepatitis, liver fibrosis, liver cirrhosis, pharmacological effects and mechanisms of 5 typical TCM examples are reviewed, aims to provide basis for clinical drug selection in different processes of CLD. Relevant scientific articles regarding therapeutic effects of TCM for the CLD were collected from different databases. We collated three single herbs including Artemisia scoparia Waldst. et Kit. or Artemisia capillaris Thunb. (Artemisiae Scopariae Herba , Yin Chen in Chinese), Paeonia lactiflora Pall. or Paeonia veitchii Lynch. (Paeoniae radix rubra , Chi Shao in Chinese), Poria cocos (Schw.) Wolf (Poria , Fu Ling in Chinese), and two compound herbs of Huang Qi Decoction (HQD) and Yin Chen Hao Decoction (YCHD) to studied and analyzed. We proposed five promising TCMs treatments for the important developmental stages of CLD. Among them, Yin Chen is an essential medicine for protecting liver and gallbladder, and its TCM prescription is also a promising strategy for cholestasis. Based on clinical evidence, high-dose application of Chi Shao is a clinical special treatment of cholestasis hepatitis. Fu Ling can regulate immune cells and increase antibody levels in serum, which is expected to be an emerging therapy to prevent cholestatic liver fibrosis to cirrhosis. HQD can be used as routine clinical medicine for liver fibrosis. In addition, YCHD can exert better comprehensive advantages with multiple components, can treat the whole course of CLD and prevent it from developing to the end-stage. Yin Chen, Chi Shao, Fu Ling, HQD and YCHD have shown good clinical efficacy in controlling the development of CLD. Clinically, it is easier to curb the development of CLD by adopting graded diagnosis and treatment measures. We suggest that CLD should be risk stratified in clinical treatment to ensure personalized treatment for patients, so as to slow down the development of the disease. [Display omitted] • Clinically, it's easier to curb the development of CLD by using graded diagnosis and treatment. • Unique effect of different herbs: Yin Chen for cholestasis, Chi Shao for cholestatic hepatitis, and Fu Ling for cholestatic liver fibrosis to cirrhosis. • Huang Qi Decoction can block the progression to cirrhosis, Yin Chen Hao Decoction can be used for various stages of CLD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As commonly used neonicotinoid insecticides for pest control, imidacloprid (IMI) and acetamiprid (ACE) posed neurotoxicity effects on living organisms. However, researches of the differences in toxicity mechanism between these two neonicotinoid insecticides are still limited. In this study, different cellular metabolism perturbations and redox homeostasis damages induced by IMI and ACE exposure in Neuro-2a cells were investigated. Distinct elevation of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity and caspase 7 level demonstrated the influences on necrosis and apoptosis. There were 21 and 12 metabolites screened out as potential biomarkers after IMI and ACE exposure, including lipids and amino acids. Remarkable decrease of lipid hydroperoxides (LOOH) and increase of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation were found only in the ACE20 group. Interference with glutathione metabolism pathway was further validated by detecting GPx (glutathion peroxidase), GSH (reduced glutathione) and GSSG (oxidized glutathione) levels. Taken together, the metabolic interferences and oxidative damages in ACE20 group were significantly different from the other three exposure groups. These results help to explore the toxicity mechanism of neonicotinoid insecticides from multiple perspectives. This study provides scientific basis for evaluating toxicity of different neonicotinoid insecticides. [Display omitted] • LDH activity and caspase 7 level elevated significantly after ACE exposure. • An inverted "v" trend of amino acids and PE co-occurred as potential biomarkers. • The pathways of lipid peroxidation and glutathione metabolism were perturbed. • ACE exposure at IC 20 concentration produced the most destructive effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a generalized Eulerian-Lagrangian (GEL) discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method. The method is a generalization of the Eulerian-Lagrangian (EL) DG method for transport problems proposed in Cai et al. (2021) [5] , which tracks solution along approximations to characteristics in the DG framework, allowing extra large time stepping size with stability. The newly proposed GEL DG method in this paper is motivated for solving linear hyperbolic systems with variable coefficients, where the velocity field for adjoint problems of the test functions is frozen to constant. In this paper, in a simplified scalar setting, we propose the GEL DG methodology by freezing the velocity field of adjoint problems, and by formulating the semi-discrete scheme over the space-time region partitioned by linear lines approximating characteristics. The fully-discrete schemes are obtained by method-of-lines Runge-Kutta methods. We further design flux limiters for the schemes to satisfy the discrete geometric conservation law (DGCL) and maximum principle preserving (MPP) properties. Numerical results on 1D and 2D linear transport problems are presented to demonstrate great properties of the GEL DG method. These include the high order spatial and temporal accuracy, stability with extra large time stepping size, and satisfaction of DGCL and MPP properties. • We develop a generalized Eulerian Lagrangian (EL) discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method. • We establish connection of the generalized EL DG method with the EL DG method. • Numerical results on linear transport problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shifting demographics in the United States imply growing diversity in the marketplace and create unprecedented demand for professionals capable of communicating strategically with diverse publics. In spite of diversity efforts in mass communication, public relations faces difficulties in attracting ethnic minorities. This study explores this lack of diversity through the lens of Asian American public relations practitioners in the United States, a population that is underrepresented in the field of public relations despite being the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States. In-depth interviews with Asian American practitioners reveal a perceived lack of diversity in public relations, attributed to lack of interest in public relations within Asian American communities, limited knowledge about the industry and opportunities for ethnic minorities, family influence to pursue other professions, and cultural expectations for Asian American professionals to attain leadership roles, which are scarce for ethnic minorities in public relations. Based on these findings, we recommend educating Asian American communities about the management function of public relations, framing it as a social science with emphasis on research and strategic planning, and increasing recruitment of Asian American students in public relations education to provide them with training and education necessary to succeed in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, we reported enhanced H 2 evolution on TiO 2 -passivated GaAs. Based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations, this enhancement was attributed to Ti 3+ states, which bind reactant species and increase charge transfer across the semiconductor–liquid interface. Here, we provide a quantitative correlation between Ti 3+ density, as measured by X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, and photocatalytic performance, which substantiates the hypothesis put forth previously. In the photo- I – V characteristics reported here, passivating GaAs with TiO 2 produces a shift in the onset potential of +0.35 V at 1 mA/cm 2 and enhances the photocurrent by 32-fold over bare GaAs (at 0 V vs. RHE), resulting in a peak photoconversion efficiency of 1.5% under AM1.5 G illumination. We find that just 1 nm of TiO 2 produces the best conditions for photocatalysis. XPS spectra show that thinner TiO 2 films (1 nm) have a higher density of Ti 3+ states than thicker films (5 nm), which have lower photocatalytic performance. PL spectroscopy provides further evidence for these Ti 3+ surface states, which cause increased surface recombination. While it is apparent that the TiO 2 films cause strong electron–hole recombination, the benefit that they provide by providing catalytically active sites outweighs their detriment associated with charge recombination. No enhancement is observed for TiO 2 thicknesses above 10 nm, which are crystalline and, therefore, considerably more insulating than thinner amorphous TiO 2 films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We design a two-photon interferometer in which the second-order interference of ‘two-photon’ can be observed. This is realized by introducing a relative phase shift between different path combinations which the photon pairs choose to take. In this interferometer, both the second- and the fourth-order interferences occur when we adjust the time delay continuously. This phenomenon can help us get a better understanding of the second- and the fourth-order interferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing penetration of wind power significantly affects the reliability of power systems due to its intrinsic intermittency. Wind generators participating in electricity markets will encounter operational risk (i.e. imbalance cost) under current trading mechanism. The imbalance cost arises from the service for mitigating supply-demand imbalance caused by inaccurate wind forecasts. In this paper, an insurance strategy is proposed to cover the possible imbalance cost that wind power producers may incur. First of all, a novel method based on Monte Carlo simulations is proposed to estimate insurance premiums. The impacts of insurance excesses on premiums are analyzed as well. Energy storage system (ESS) is then discussed as an alternative approach to balancing small wind power forecasting errors, whose loss claims would be blocked by insurance excesses. Finally, the ESS and insurance policy are combined together to mitigate the imbalance risks of trading wind power in real-time markets. With the proposed approach, the most economic power capacity of ESS can be determined under different excess scenarios. Case studies prove that the proposed ESS plus insurance strategy is a promising risk aversion approach for trading wind power in real-time electricity markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present an equilibrium version of vectorial Ekeland variational principle, where the objective bimap F is defined on the product of sequentially lower complete spaces (see Zhu et al., 2013) and taking values in a quasi-ordered locally convex space. Besides, the perturbation consists of a subset of the ordering cone and a non-negative function p which only needs to satisfy p ( x , y ) = 0 iff x = y . Applying the equilibrium version of Ekeland principle to equilibrium problems, we obtain a general existence theorem on solutions of vectorial equilibrium problems in setting of sequentially lower complete spaces, which implies several improvements of known results. Particularly, under the framework of complete metric spaces ( Z , d ) , we obtain an existence result of solutions for equilibrium problems which only requires that the domain X ⊂ Z is sequentially compact in any Hausdorff topology weaker than that induced by d . By using the theory of angelic spaces, we extend some results in Alleche and Raˇdulescu (2015) from reflexive Banach spaces to the strong duals of weakly compact generated spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to the technological development of natural gas exploration and the increasing penetration of gas-fired power generation, gas and power systems inevitably interact with each other from both physical and economic points of view. In order to effectively assess the two systems' interdependency, this paper proposes a systematic modeling framework and constructs simulation platforms for coupled gas and power systems in an energy market environment. By applying the proposed approach to the Australian national electricity market (NEM) and gas market, the impacts of six types of market and system factors are quantitatively analyzed, including power transmission limits, gas pipeline contingencies, gas pipeline flow constraints, carbon emission constraints, power load variations, and non-electric gas load variations. The important interdependency and infrastructure weakness for the two systems are well studied and identified. Our work provides a quantitative basis for grid operators and policy makers to support and guide operation and investment decisions for electric power and natural gas industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. The enantiomeric enrichment or degradation of epoxiconazole has been reported in grape, soil, tubifex and mealworm beetle. But, little is known about its enantioselective behaviors in mammals. 2. To further understand differences in the distribution, degradation and excretion of epoxiconazole enantiomers in vivo, male CD-1 mice were selected as the test model to investigate the enantioselective behaviors after a single oral gavage. Mice were sacrificed after 1 h, 3 h, 7 h, 12 h, 24 h, 48 h, 72 h treatment, blood, tissues and excretions were collected for epoxiconazole analysis by LC-MS/MS. 3. On the Lux-Cellulose-1 chiral column, an enrichment of the second eluting (+)-epoxiconazole was generally observed, and feces and urine showed similar EF with major tissues. 4. To elucidate the potential role of intestinal bacterial flora in stereospecific degradation of epoxiconazole, mice fecal flora were culturedin vitroand incubated with epoxiconazole for 48 h. Results showed that (−)-epoxiconazole was preferentially degraded by intestinal bacterial. 5. These results may provide useful information for risk assessment of epoxiconazole on non-target animals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]