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Christian Herr,1 Sebastian Mang,1 Bahareh Mozafari,1 Katharina Guenther,1 Thimoteus Speer,2 Martina Seibert,1 Sanjay Kumar Srikakulam,1 Christoph Beisswenger,1 Felix Ritzmann,1 Andreas Keller,3 Rolf Mueller,4 Sigrun Smola,5 Dominic Eisinger,6 Michael Zemlin,7 Guy Danziger,1 Thomas Volk,8 Sabrina Hoersch,8 Marcin Krawczyk,9 Frank Lammert,9 Thomas Adams,9 Gudrun Wagenpfeil,10 Michael Kindermann,11 Constantin Marcu,11 Zuhair Wolf Dietrich Ataya,12 Marc Mittag,13 Konrad Schwarzkopf,13 Florian Custodis,13 Daniel Grandt,13 Harald Schaefer,14 Kai Eltges,14 Philipp M Lepper,1 Robert Bals1 On behalf of the CORSAAR Study Group1Department of Internal Medicine V - Pulmonology, Allergology and Critical Care Medicine, Saarland University, Homburg, 66421, Germany; 2Department of Internal Medicine IV - Nephrology and Hypertension & Translational Cardio-Renal Medicine, Saarland University, Homburg, 66421, Germany; 3Clinical Bioinformatics, Saarland University, Homburg, 66421, Germany; 4Helmholtz-Institute for Pharmaceutical Science Saarland, Saarbrücken, 66123, Germany; 5Institute for Virology, Saarland University, Homburg, 66421, Germany; 6Myriad RBM Inc., Austin, TX, 78759, USA; 7Department of General Pediatrics and Neonatology, Saarland University, Homburg, 66421, Germany; 8Department of Anesthesiology, Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Therapy, Saarland University, Homburg, 66421, Germany; 9Department of Internal Medicine II - Gastroenterology, Saarland University, Homburg, 66421, Germany; 10Institute for Medical Biometry, Epidemiology and Medical Informatics, Saarland University, Homburg, 66421, Germany; 11Department of Internal Medicine, Cardiology and Intensive Care Medicine, Caritas Hospital St. Theresia Saarbrücken, Saarbrücken, 66113, Germany; 12Department of Gastroenterology, Internal and Intensive Care Medicine, Caritas Hospital St. Josef Saarbrücken, Saarbrücken, 66125, Germany; 13Department of Anesthesiology, Gastroenterology and Intensive Care Medicine, Saarbrücken Hospital, Saarbrücken, 66119, Germany; 14Department of Internal Medicine and Pulmonology, SHG-Hospital Völklingen, Saarbrücken, 66333, GermanyCorrespondence: Robert BalsDepartment of Internal Medicine V - Pulmonology, Allergology and Critical Care Medicine, Saarland University, Homburg, 66421, GermanyTel +49 6841 16 15051Email robert.bals@uks.euBackground: COVID-19 comprises several severity stages ranging from oligosymptomatic disease to multi-organ failure and fatal outcomes. The mechanisms why COVID-19 is a mild disease in some patients and progresses to a severe multi-organ and often fatal disease with respiratory failure are not known. Biomarkers that predict the course of disease are urgently needed. The aim of this study was to evaluate a large spectrum of established laboratory measurements.Patients and Methods: Patients from the prospective PULMPOHOM and CORSAAR studies were recruited and comprised 35 patients with COVID-19, 23 with conventional pneumonia, and 28 control patients undergoing elective non-pulmonary surgery. Venous blood was used to measure the serum concentrations of 79 proteins by Luminex multiplex immunoassay technology. Distribution of biomarkers between groups and association with disease severity and outcomes were analyzed.Results: The biomarker profiles between the three groups differed significantly with elevation of specific proteins specific for the respective conditions. Several biomarkers correlated significantly with disease severity and death. Uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP) analysis revealed a significant separation of the three disease groups and separated between survivors and deceased patients. Different models were developed to predict mortality based on the baseline measurements of several protein markers. A score combining IL-1ra, IL-8, IL-10, MCP-1, SCF and CA-9 was associated with significantly higher mortality (AUC 0.929).Discussion: Several newly identified blood markers were significantly increased in patients with severe COVID-19 (AAT, EN-RAGE, myoglobin, SAP, TIMP-1, vWF, decorin) or in patients that died (IL-1ra, IL-8, IL-10, MCP-1, SCF, CA-9). The use of established assay technologies allows for rapid translation into clinical practice.Keywords: biomarker, inflammation, SARS-CoV2

COMSOL Multiphysics is a comprehensive simulation software environment for a wide range of applications. COMSOL has an interactive interface that facilitates the modeling procedure and allows an easy coupling of different physical processes. The Subsurface Flow module extends the COMSOL modeling environment to applications related to fluid flow in saturated and variably saturated porous media. COMSOL is increasingly used in the investigation of geophysical, hydrogeological and environmental phenomena. The main goal of this work is to explore the ability of COMSOL for simulating seawater intrusion (SWI) in fractured coastal aquifers. Numerical modeling of such a problem is of high interest as fractured/karstic coastal aquifers are widespread and processes of SWI in the presence of fractures remains poorly understood. We set up a COSMOL model for the popular Henry problem. The accuracy of COMSOL is highlighted by comparison against the semianalytical solutions for simple homogeneous aquifers. For fractured aquifers, the performance of COSMOL is evaluated by comparison against an in-house finite element model based on the discrete fracture model and against the results of existing works. Given its versatility and flexibility, COMSOL shows promise as a tool for SWI in coastal aquifers.

This paper proposes a model to allocate photovoltaic unit (PVU) and distribution static compensator (DSTATCOM) that incorporate the operation effect of PVU in sizing and sitting problem. The model is based on the dynamic assessment of PVU production and the effect of it on placement of PVU and DSTATCOM. Geographical conditions are interfered in placement problem of PVU and DSTATCOM simultaneously. The model is verified in a multi-objective form. The multi-objective problem is formulated based on voltage stability, liability, power loss and total cost of PVU and DSTATCOM. This problem is solved by employing optimization techniques and the results of optimization processes are tested in different scenarios. Uncertainty in network loads is an inevitable task that should be considered in network planning. Uncertainty in the presented model has been defined as a set of divided parts in the presented model. The proposed model has been evaluated on two test systems, 30 bus and 69 bus. The obtained results indicate that the presented model can be employed to study the intermittent behavior of PVU in placement problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Current and voltage signals' distortion caused by the fault in the power system has negative effects upon the operation of the protective devices. One of the influencing factors is the existence of the exponential DC which can significantly distort the signals and lead to a possible malfunction of the protective devices, especially distance and over-current relays. The main problem is the lack of clarity about this component due to the dependence of its time constant and initial amplitude to the configuration of the electrical grid, location and resistance of faulty point. This makes it hard to extract the main frequency phasors of the voltage and current. Methods: Considering the importance of a fast clearance of the fault, this paper offers a method for an effective and fast removal of the decaying-DC that employs a data window with a length that is equal to the half cycle of the main frequency, while the conventional methods mostly use data from one cycle or even more. The proposed method is based upon the extraction of the decaying-DC component's parameters. Results: The efficiency of this method is compared to the conventional Fourier algorithm of Half-Cycle (HCFA) and the mimic filter plus the HCFA. Conclusion: The outcomes display that the proposed method presents a better efficiency from the point of view of the speed and the accuracy of convergence to the final results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes an advanced distribution automation planning problem in which emergency-based demand response plans are incorporated during service restoration process. The fitness function of this planning problem consists of various costs associated with fault occurrence in electric distribution systems consisting of the total yearly cost of customers' interruptions, the total annualized investment cost of control and protection devices deployment, including sectionalizing switches, circuit breakers, and fuses and the total annual cost of performing emergency-based demand response programs in the service restoration process. Moreover, the customers' behavior in participating in the service restoration process is also modeled through using an S-function. The proposed advanced distribution automation planning method is implemented on the fourth bus of the Roy Bilinton test system in order to evaluate its efficacy. The obtained results show that the reliability indices and the total cost of distribution automation are reduced by about 9% and 12% more than the published methods for distribution automation, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a model to allocate photovoltaic unit (PVU) and distribution static compensator (DSTATCOM) that incorporate the operation effect of PVU in sizing and sitting problem. The model is based on the dynamic assessment of PVU production and the effect of it on placement of PVU and DSTATCOM. Geographical conditions are interfered in placement problem of PVU and DSTATCOM simultaneously. The model is verified in a multi‐objective form. The multi‐objective problem is formulated based on voltage stability, liability, power loss and total cost of PVU and DSTATCOM. This problem is solved by employing optimization technique and the results of optimization processes are tested in different scenarios. Uncertainty in network loads is an inevitable task that should be considered in network planning. Uncertainty in the presented model has been defined as a set of divided parts in the presented model. The proposed model has been evaluated on two test system, 33‐bus and 69‐bus. The obtained results indicate that the presented model can be employed to study the intermittent behavior of PVU in placement problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]