Cluster analysis is increasingly applied to smart meter electricity demand data to identify patterns in electricity consumption in order to improve load forecasting and to enhance targeting of demand ...response programmes. The analysis was performed on one year of smart meter electricity demand data from 656 households in Switzerland. We present a rigorous assessment of sample aggregation and clustering approaches for creating representative electricity demand profiles. We propose a clustering method using five features defining the shape of household electricity demand profiles, which demonstrates significantly improved cluster quality relative to using raw profile data. The cluster analysis of average household electricity demand profiles resulted in three distinct clusters, which challenges the assumption made by Swiss energy norms that one standard pattern fits all homes. Furthermore, cluster analysis of daily demand profiles within the household was performed, resulting in four distinct clusters and demonstrating that daily raw profiles for a household significantly differ from the average profile for that household. Averaging the data suppresses the diversity of the electricity use patterns within the individual household. Electricity demand profiles have important implications for policy makers, particularly if time of use tariffs are introduced to match future stochastic renewable energy supply.
•Provides a rigorous assessment on clustering and sample aggregation approaches.•Feature based clustering approach improves the quality of the clusters.•Averaging the data suppresses the diversity of the electricity use patterns.•Provides a tailored analysis for selected applications of demand side management.•Theoretical and practical implications for demand response tariffs are provided.
In this study, simultaneous effects of hydrogenic impurity, core radius and layer thickness, external electric and magnetic fields on the third harmonic generation (THG) of core/shell/well/shell ...spherical quantum dot are noticed. The wavefunctions and energy values are obtained using 2D finite difference method within the effective mass approximation. Our results show that THG coefficient is more effected by the external fields and sizes of core, barrier and well regions. Also, we investigated the effects of on-center hydrogenic donor impurity on THG of structure, and show that the presence of impurity causes a significant reduction of the magnitude of THG in certain potential parameter values.
zinc finger network of plants Ciftci-Yilmaz, S; Mittler, R
Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS,
04/2008, Letnik:
65, Številka:
7-8
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The zinc finger domain enables different proteins to interact with or bind DNA, RNA, or other proteins, and is present in the proteomes of many different organisms. Proteins containing zinc finger ...domain(s) were found to play important roles in eukaryotic cells regulating different signal transduction pathways and controlling processes, such as development and programmed cell death. There are many types of zinc finger proteins, classified according to the number and order of the Cys and His residues that bind the Zinc ion. Among these, the C2H2-type zinc finger proteins, with 176 members in Arabidopsis thaliana, constitute one of the largest families of transcriptional regulators in plants. They are mostly plant-specific and contain a conserved QALGGH sequence within their zinc finger domain. Recent studies revealed that C2H2 zinc finger proteins could function as key transcriptional repressors involved in the defense and acclimation response of plants to different environmental stress conditions. Here we highlight recent functional characterization studies of different C2H2 proteins in Arabidopsis, and suggest that many of these proteins function as part of a large regulatory network that senses and responds to different environmental stimuli.
Aims
Antibiotics and several other chemicals have been used to prevent fish diseases. However, this situation results in economic loss for the companies in the aquaculture industry and most ...importantly it pollutes the environment. Cinnamic acid is a naturally occurring aromatic acid and is considered to be safe for human consumption. Therefore, in this study, the antibacterial activity of trans‐cinnamic acid and commonly used antibiotics, namely chloramphenicol, vancomycin, streptomycin and erythromycin, were tested against 32 bacteria, including fish pathogens, nonpathogenic isolates and collection strains.
Methods and Results
Trans‐cinnamic acid was applied against the bacteria using the disc diffusion and microdilution method under in vitro conditions. Antibiotics were also tested under similar conditions against all tested bacteria using the disc diffusion method. The results show that among 32 bacterial strains trans‐cinnamic acid exhibited potent inhibitory effect on the Gram‐negative fish pathogen Aeromonas sobria. In addition, a moderate inhibition of trans‐cinnamic acid of fish pathogens Aeromonas salmonicida, Vibrio (Listonella) anguillarum, Vibrio crassostreae and Yersinia ruckeri was also observed for trans‐cinnamic acid in our study. On the contrary, the majority of nonpathogenic intestinal isolates were resistant to trans‐cinnamic acid.
Conclusions
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the antimicrobial activity of trans‐cinnamic acid on 24 of the studied bacteria isolated from fish. In conclusion, trans‐cinnamic acid can be used as an environmentally friendly alternative additive to prevent and control primarily A. sobria, as well as other pathogenic bacteria such as A. salmonicida, V. anguillarum, V. crassostreae and Y. ruckeri.
Significance and Impact of the Study
This study indicated that trans‐cinnamic acid may present an environmentally friendly alternative therapeutic agent against A. sobria infections in the aquaculture industry.
This research experimentally determines the Gurson-Tvergaard-Needleman (GTN) model damage mechanics parameters for 6061 Al alloys. Five different heat treatment conditions including T4 (natural ...aging) and T6 (peak strength) conditions of 6061 Al alloy were investigated. The GTN parameters considering different heat treatment conditions of the alloy were obtained by tensile tests. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrographs were used as inputs to determine initial and nucleated volume fractions. SEM and energy dispersive X-ray spectrography (EDX) analyses also revealed that the second-phase precipitates are the origin of the incipient voids. SEM analyses enabled the fractographic investigations where the primary and secondary voids were exhibited and thus showing nucleation strain. Density measurements clarify the critical and final void volume fractions and the standard deviation of the nucleated void volume fraction distribution. The results show that the void volume fraction increases exponentially along with increasing effective tensile plastic strain. Hence, a total of six different GTN parameters have been identified experimentally. Finite element method simulations based on GTN damage model were performed to verify the GTN model parameters. The results show that the experimentally obtained GTN model parameters could be used when performing tensile deformation simulations of 6061 Al alloys fabricated with different heat treatment conditions.
•Experimental methods to determine GTN damage model parameters were presented.•6061 Al alloy under different heat treatment conditions were subjected to the experiments.•A total of six different experimentally obtained GTN damage model parameters were used as the input parameters for the FEM.•The FEM results were compared and verified with the experimental tensile tests.
BackgroundThis study aimed to assess fractal dimension (FD) and the radiomorphometric indexes on the digital panoramic radiography (DPR) of patient with primary hypothyroidism receiving levothyroxine ...sodium replacement therapy.MethodsA total of 115 subjects were included in this cross sectional retrospective study. According to the results of the thyroid function tests, the subjects were divided into two groups as primary hypothyroidism (levothyroxine sodium replacement therapy given), (n = 57) and the healthy control group (n = 58). The fractal dimension (FD), panoramic mandibular index (PMI), mandibular cortical width (MCW), gonial index (GI) and mandibular cortical index (MCI) values of all patients were calculated on DPRs. The statistical analysis of all data was performed with SPSS version 22.ResultsThe distributions of age and gender in the primary hypothroidism group were similar to control group (p = 0.19 and p = 0.62, respectively). The two groups did not differ statistically significantly in terms of FD, PMI, MCW, GI, and MCI.ConclusionWe determined that mandibular cortical and trabecular bone structure did not significantly differ between healthy individuals and patients receiving drug replacement theraphy due to hypothyroidism, but our results should be further supported with the investigation of clinical parameters.
To date, research has mostly focused on the impact of energy efficiency on the total electricity demand but not on the electricity demand profiles. To address this gap, we estimate the impact of ...energy efficiency measures and policies such as minimum energy performance standards on the peak load by developing a bottom-up model that generates Swiss household hourly electricity demand profiles per appliance based on time use data. The model estimates that evening appliance peak demand can be reduced by 38% when the appliances are replaced by the highest energy efficiency label available on market. We find that changing light bulbs to LED would have the same peak reduction as switching cooking or wet appliances to off-peak periods throughout the year. We also show that the evening appliance peak demand could reduce in 2035 by 24% thanks to the improvement of the energy performance of the stock. Cooking appliances, the least favourable appliances to be involved in demand response, is expected to be the highest contributors to the evening peak in 2035. Our findings show that policy makers should pay due attention to energy efficiency improvement not only for reducing electricity demand but also in order to reduce peak load.
•We simulate changes in load profiles when energy efficiency measures are applied.•Replacing appliances with best efficiency labels lead to significant peak reduction.•Peak reduction achieved by changing to LED comparable with shifting of cooking.•Evening peak will reduce in 2035 thanks to improvement of the efficiency of stock.•Cooking is expected to be the highest contributor to evening peak in 2035.
Recent work has underscored the importance of the microbiome in human health, and has largely attributed differences in phenotype to differences in the species present among individuals. However, ...mobile genes can confer profoundly different phenotypes on different strains of the same species. Little is known about the function and distribution of mobile genes in the human microbiome, and in particular whether the gene pool is globally homogenous or constrained by human population structure. Here, we investigate this question by comparing the mobile genes found in the microbiomes of 81 metropolitan North Americans with those of 172 agrarian Fiji islanders using a combination of single-cell genomics and metagenomics. We find large differences in mobile gene content between the Fijian and North American microbiomes, with functional variation that mirrors known dietary differences such as the excess of plant-based starch degradation genes found in Fijian individuals. Notably, we also observed differences between the mobile gene pools of neighbouring Fijian villages, even though microbiome composition across villages is similar. Finally, we observe high rates of recombination leading to individual-specific mobile elements, suggesting that the abundance of some genes may reflect environmental selection rather than dispersal limitation. Together, these data support the hypothesis that human activities and behaviours provide selective pressures that shape mobile gene pools, and that acquisition of mobile genes is important for colonizing specific human populations.
To date, research on demand side management has mostly focused on the determinants of electricity consumption and stated preference experiments to understand social acceptability. Further ...experimental research is needed to identify the determinants for demand response schemes. This paper contributes to addressing this gap by making use of data from a randomised control trial which contains 15 months of smart meter electricity data combined with household characteristics and differences in incentives to shift their electricity use between 11am and 3pm. Cluster analysis performed on electricity data identified three distinct electricity daily load profiles. Each cluster was then linked to household characteristics by means of a multinomial logistic regression to identify the determinants of the load curves' shapes. Findings show that occupancy presence at home, age and appliance ownership were strong predictors. Finally, this paper is among the first to provide experimental evidence on the determinants of load shifting. We find that households with head aged above 65, households who belong to the cluster exhibiting a load profile characterised by a relatively high peak at noon and a low peak in the evening, and those who received money incentives were more likely to shift electricity use towards middle of the day (11am-3pm).
•A cluster analysis on smart-meter data identifies typical load profiles.•Regression models are used to identify determinants of load profile and shifting.•Occupancy presence, number of wet appliances and age influence the load profile.•Financial incentives are more effective than information feedback for load shifting.•Occupancy availability during noon is a major factor enabling load shifting.
Constructions and characterizations of triangular norms(t-norms) have been discussed in many different contexts. In this paper, we present two methods to construct t-norms on lattices from given ...partial information. Since the idea is to follow from part-to-whole, we especially consider the lattices with ∨-decompositions. Firstly, we investigate the structure of the partially ordered set of ∨-irreducible elements. Then, for a given t-norm T on the complete distributive lattice 0, 12, we study the restriction of T to the poset of ∨-irreducible elements of 0, 12. Furthermore, we give a method for generating t-norms on a finite distributive lattice L by means of ∨-irreducible elements in L. We show that a t-norm on a finite distributive lattice is idempotent if and only if it is idempotent on the set of ∨-irreducible elements. Finally, we introduce a formula to obtain t-norms on Ln from given t-norms on ∨-irreducible elements of Ln. We present the dual statements for t-conorms.
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