At present, due to the fact that large-scale distributed photovoltaics can access distribution networks and that there is a mismatch between load demand and photovoltaic output time, it is difficult for traditional distributed photovoltaic planning to meet the partition-based control of high permeability photovoltaic grid-connected operations. As a solution to this problem, this paper proposes a planning method for photovoltaic storage partitions. First of all, a partitioning method for electrical distance modularity based on voltage/active power and voltage/reactive power is presented, along with a modified AP-TD-K-medoids trilevel clustering algorithm that was designed to cluster and partition the distribution network. In addition, according to the partitioning results, a bilevel co-ordination planning model for distributed photovoltaic storage was developed. The upper level aimed to minimize the annual comprehensive cost for which the decision variables are the photovoltaic capacity... [more]

Settlement of the pile ends in end-bearing rigid pile composite foundations is generally minimal, so only relying on the cushion to coordinate the pile soil deformation may result in insufficient deformation adjustment capacity. Using a deformation adjustor with a specific stiffness on the top of the pile is a method to coordinate pile−soil deformation, and the stiffness value of the deformation adjustor depends on the accurate calculation of soil deformation; however, the calculation of soil deformation is not mature at present. A new deformation adjustor based on strengths used in composite foundations is proposed, in which foam slabs with different yield strengths are placed on the top of the pile to coordinate the pile−soil deformation. Five tests are used to study the mechanical and deformation properties of a composite foundation with a foam slab. The test results show that when the stress at the top of the pile is less than the yield strength of the foam slab, the coordination o... [more]

The bioavailability of n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LCPUFAs) has shown to be greatly influenced by their location in the triacylglycerol backbone. Therefore, the synthesis of structured acylglycerols (SAcyl), which include eicosapentaenoic acids (EPAs) or docosahexaenoic acids (DHAs) at the sn-2 position, has attracted a great interest. The objective of this study was to optimize the synthesis process of a SAcyl from commercial refined salmon oil and an EPA/DHA concentrate in order to enhance the positioning of EPA and DHA in the sn-2 location of the glycerol moiety. For this purpose, immobilized lipase B from Candida antarctica (nonspecific) was used for the acidolysis process under the CO2 supercritical condition. As a result of carrying out a Draper-Lin composite design through the response surface methodology of 18 experiments, an optimized extraction including SAcyl compounds was obtained. Mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF) analysis was employed to identify the EPA/D... [more]

Recent studies have demonstrated that cancer cells can elude immune cells by creating a sanctuary within the tumor’s microenvironment. Large amounts of immune-suppressing signaling proteins can be expressed by cancer cells. One of the most important mechanisms in this system is immune suppression caused by tumors and the modulation of the immune checkpoint. The immune checkpoint is modulated by both the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and its ligands, programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) and PD-L2. Non-coding RNAs (ncRNA), including the more well-known microRNAs (miRNAs), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), and circular RNAs (circRNAs), all play roles in the regulation of biological processes and extensive diseases such as cancer. Thus, the focus of this study is on the interactions between the programmed death protein and its ligands with miRNAs, lncRNAs, and circRNAs during tumorigenesis and tumor progression. Furthermore, some FDA-approved drugs for the treatment of various cancers... [more]

Climatic changes and the growing population call for innovative solutions that are able to produce biochemicals by adopting environmentally sustainable procedures. The biorefinery concept meets this requirement. However, one of the main drawbacks of biorefineries is represented by the feedstocks’ pretreatment. Lately, scientific research has focused on non-thermal plasma, which is an innovative and sustainable pretreatment that is able to obtain a high sugar concentration. In the present review, literature related to the use of non-thermal plasma for the production of fermentable sugar have been collected. In particular, its sugar extraction, time, and energy consumption have been compared with those of traditional biomass pretreatments. As reported, on one hand, this emerging technology is characterized by low costs and no waste production; on the other hand, the reactor’s configuration must be optimized to reduce time and energy demand.

Faults and anomalous behavior affect the operation of Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems. This causes performance loss, energy waste, noncompliance with regulations and discomfort among occupants. To prevent damage, automated, fast identification of faults in HVAC systems is needed. Fault Detection and Diagnosis (FDD) techniques are very effective for these purposes. The best FDD methods, in terms of cost effectiveness and data exploitation, are based on process history; i.e., on sensor data from automation systems. In this work, supervised and semi-supervised models were developed. Other than with regard to outdoor temperature and humidity, the input parameters of an HVAC system have few internal variables. Performance of traditional methods (e.g., VAR, Random Forest) is low, so Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) were selected, since they can capture nonlinear relationships among features and are easily optimized. ANNs can detect simultaneous faults from different... [more]

Designing an efficient wireless sensor network (WSN) system is considered a challenging problem due to the limited energy supply per sensor node. In this paper, the performance of several bi-objective optimization algorithms in providing energy-efficient clustering solutions that can extend the lifetime of sensor nodes were investigated. Specifically, we considered the use of the Moth−Flame Optimization (MFO) algorithm and the Salp Swarm Algorithm (SSA), as well as the Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA), in providing efficient cluster-head selection decisions. Compared to a reference scheme using the Low-Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH) protocol, the simulation results showed that integrating the MFO, SSA or WOA algorithms into WSN clustering protocols could significantly extend the WSN lifetime, which improved the nodes’ residual energy, the number of alive nodes, the fitness function and the network throughput. The results also revealed that the MFO algorithm outperformed... [more]

As a new non-contact heating technology, induction heating technology has very broad application prospects in the field of fluid food heating. However, its application is inevitably affected by the heat concentration caused by uneven energy distribution. The uneven temperature distribution of the heating process will lead to the decrease in the quality of heating products. Therefore, based on the previous research, in order to improve the uniformity of heat distribution in the heating process, this study selected the susceptor with the greatest potential for efficient and the most uniform heating fluid to carry out the coupling simulation of electromagnetic heat transfer. The susceptor was simulated and optimized in three aspects: different power comparisons, the influence of structural change on temperature distribution uniformity, and the influence of physical property change of metal material on temperature distribution uniformity. The results show that the simulation results are in... [more]

Energy retailers that sell energy at fixed prices are at risk of bankruptcy due to instantaneous fluctuations in wholesale electricity prices. Energy derivatives, e.g., electricity options, can be purchased by energy retailers then sold to customers as one potential risk-mitigation tool. A class of energy retailers that trade energy derivatives, including the electricity option, the carbon option and the green certificate, is considered in this paper. In terms of energy retailers, a strategy that can maximize the value of the purchased energy derivatives over a period of time and minimize the risk due to the stochastic price fluctuations is developed. Firstly, the dynamic prices of the electricity option as well as the carbon option are described by stochastic differential equations, and the dynamic prices of the green certificate are described by ordinary differential equations. Historical price data are used to obtain the parameters of both stochastic and ordinary differential equati... [more]

The life of the hearth is the main limiting link of the campaign of a blast furnace. As the equipment for holding molten iron in the furnace, the high-temperature molten iron is in direct contact with the refractory, which makes the refractory have a larger temperature increase. If the temperature gradient inside the refractory is large, it generates large thermal stress and causes the refractory to crack. Blast furnace gas and molten iron intrude into the gap, which directly causes melting erosion and other chemical erosion with carbon bricks. It aggravates the erosion degree of the furnace and seriously affects the production life of the furnace. Therefore, the furnace often occurs with different types of severe depression erosion in the late service of the blast furnace. In this study, the calculation model of the thermal fluid-solid coupling considering the molten iron flow and the solidification of molten iron was established. This calculation model was applied to study thermal st... [more]

This paper addresses the problem of coexistence of synchronization and anti-synchronization (CSAS) for a class of switched chaotic systems by adaptive control method, where the switched system is realized by unified chaotic systems under arbitrary switching signal. Firstly, necessary and sufficient conditions for the CSAS of the chaotic systems are proposed from two perspectives, one is by analyzing the parity of the system expression, and the other is by decomposing the system. Secondly, according to the obtained necessary and sufficient conditions, two algorithms are given to search the synchronization variables and anti-synchronization variables in the chaotic systems. Thirdly, the CSAS of the switched chaotic system can be achieved by a designed adaptive global controller with only one input channel under the arbitrary switching signal. Finally, the numerical simulation results verify the validity and effectiveness of the method we obtained.

The strength aspect of clay soil is a critical concern in practical engineering design. Electroosmosis (EO) has been adopted as a foundation treatment technology in some projects to increase the strength of soft clay. In order to widen the understanding on shear strength performance of EO-treated soil, the behavior of EO-treated soft clay using electrokinetic geosynthetics (EKG) as electrodes under the effect of water immersion was evaluated and compared with that of vacuum preloading (VP) treated soft clay under similar conditions. The main finding was that the EO-treated soil when immersed in water offered more resistance to the change in average water content than VP-treated soil. The average shear strength of EO-treated soil fell by 36.6% during 4 extra days of immersion. When the immersion time was extended to 10 days, the average shear strength fell by 65.4%. In contrast, the immersion time had little influence on the shear strength of VP-treated soil. Hence, if EO-treated soft c... [more]

In this study, a series of g-C3N4 nanosheets were prepared by various thermal oxidative etching times from four different precursors (urea, melamine, dicyandiamide and thiourea). The physicochemical properties of these g-C3N4 nanosheets were analyzed in detail using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence emission spectra, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Brunauer−Emmett−Teller (BET) analysis and ultraviolet-visible diffuse reflectance. The results revealed that the g-C3N4 nanosheets obtained a thinner layer thickness and larger specific surface area, with an extension of thermal oxidative etching time. Meanwhile, sulfamethazine (SMZ), one of the most widely used sulfonamides, was used to evaluate the photocatalyst activity of the g-C3N4 nanosheets prepared in this study. Compared to other g-C3N4 nanosheets, urea-derived g-C3N4 nanosheets under 330 min thermal oxidative etching showed the highest photocatalytic activity for SMZ unde... [more]

Gas content is an important parameter for evaluating coalbed methane reservoirs, so it is an important prerequisite for coalbed methane resource evaluation and favorable area optimization to predict the gas content accurately. To improve the accuracy of CBM gas content prediction, the Bayesian hyper-parameter optimization method (BO) is introduced into the random forest algorithm (RF) and gradient boosting decision tree algorithm (GBDT) to establish CBM gas content prediction models using well-logging data in the Zhengzhuang block, south of Qinshui Basin, China. As a result, the GBDT model based on the BO method (BO-GBDT model) and the RF model based on the BO method (BO-RF model) were proposed. The results show that the mean-square-error (MSE) of the BO-RF model and the BO-GBDT model can be reduced by 8.83% and 37.94% on average less than that of the RF and GBDT modes, indicating that the accuracy of the models optimized by the BO method is improved. The prediction effect of the BO-GB... [more]

Yogurt is known as a healthy food, but some synthetic additives that are commonly added to it can be one of the factors that restricts yogurt’s consumption. The aims of this study were to prepare and evaluate yogurts with the addition of spray-dried, anthocyanin-rich colorant extracted from jabuticaba (Myrciaria cauliflora Mart.) skin. The concentrated extract was spray-dried using maltodextrin (20 g/100 g w/w) as a carrier and added to yogurts in the concentrations of 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 g/100 g w/w. The yogurts were stored for up to 28 days under refrigeration and periodically evaluated. Except for the yogurts to which 1.5 g of extract was added, all samples had a slight pH reduction in the first 7 days of storage. Throughout the yogurts’ storage period, the anthocyanin and a* values were slightly reduced (p < 0.05), indicating some anthocyanin instability. The rheological behavior was typical for yogurts, but the casein gel network was probably disrupted by the jabuticaba extr... [more]

Once a chemical production accident occurs in a chemical plant, it often causes serious economic losses, casualties, and environmental damage. Statistics show that many major accidents in the production and storage of chemicals are mainly caused by human factors. This article considers the influence of the human factor and proposes a quantitative analysis model of a chemical plant based on a Bayesian network. The model takes into account the main human factors in seven aspects: organization, information, job design, human system interface, task environment, workplace design, and operator characteristics. The Bayesian network modeling method and simulation were used to predict the safety quantitative value and safety level of the chemical plant. Using this model, we can quickly calculate the safe quantitative ratio of each factor in the chemical plant. Through the safety quantitative value, safety level, and sensitivity analysis, the safety hazards of chemical companies can be discovere... [more]

The complete characteristics of centrifugal pumps are crucial for the modeling of hydraulic transient phenomena occurring in pipe systems. However, due to the effort required to obtain these curves, pump manufacturers typically only provide basic information, particularly when the pump operates under normal conditions. To acquire the full characteristic curves based on the manufacturer’s normal performance curve, a machine learning (ML) model is proposed to predict full, complete Suter curves using a pump’s specific speed with the known parts of the Suter curve. The training data for the model are sourced from the available Suter curves from laboratory experiments. Subsequently, the proposed ML model combines several types of regression models in an attempt to find the most accurate prediction in terms of the root mean square error (RMSE). The result proved highly efficient, as the experiments attained a maximum RMSE value of 0.032 across the three categories of centrifugal pumps based... [more]

For a PEMFC to work better, adding baffles to a flow channel can improve reactant transfer. As a result, the work starts by developing a 3-D numerical model for the vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) using COMSOL Multiphysic Simulation Software. By incorporating baffles into the serpentine flow channel, it is possible to simulate changes in ion concentration and terminal voltage. The findings indicate that the battery efficiency will be impacted by adding baffles. The authors also studied the effect of baffle height and baffle count. The baffle height of 0.9 times the channel height and baffle number of 9 has a better performance on the battery. There are four cases for installing nine baffles and four arranging types in the entire serpentine flow using such baffle height and number. In Case 4, baffles are placed uniformly at the location of channel numbers 1, 9, and 17 in the serpentine flow path. It has a better voltage and ion concentration reaction than the other cases. The unit te... [more]

The baseline plan of terminals will be impacted to a certain extent after being affected by uncertain events, such as vessel delay and unscheduled vessel arrival, resulting in disorderly terminal operations, wasted resources, and reduced loading and unloading efficiency, which further aggravates terminal congestion. To effectively cope with the disturbance of terminal operations by the above uncertain events and improve the operational efficiency of container terminals, this paper investigates the integrated rescheduling problem of berth allocation and quay crane assignment with vessel delay and unscheduled vessel arrival. Two steps are designed to deal with uncertainty shocks. The first step is to determine the rescheduling moment by using a rolling time-domain approach. The second step is to establish a rescheduling model and design an improved genetic algorithm(IGA) to obtain a rescheduling solution using various rescheduling strategies at the rescheduling moment. Moreover, through... [more]

Anaerobic digestion (AD) of sewage sludge can be optimised by adding trade wastes (TWs) because of their nutrient content and boost in biogas formation if non-inhibitory. However, some components in TWs might have an inhibitory impact, such as nitrogen compounds, sulphate, heavy metals, metalloids, halogens and organic pollutants (e.g., phenol). This study aimed to understand the impact of TWs on the co-digestion with sewage sludge to identify appropriate TW loads for sustainable AD operation. The composition of 160 TWs was evaluated and the constituents with potential to cause inhibition or toxicity were tested in bio-methane potential (BMP) tests. The compounds studied in BMP tests included ammonia, zinc, copper, aluminium, mercury, arsenic, chloride, sulphate and nitrate. An improvement was observed at concentrations 2−746 mg Zn/L, 1066−2821 mg Cl/L as zinc sulphate and sodium chloride in biogas production, and 2−746 mg Zn/L, 162 mg SO4/L, 25 mg Hg/L as zinc sulphate, sodium chlorid... [more]

Brittle damage is a key factor restricting tool life extension. The peridynamic (PD) theory was applied to explain and predict the brittle damage of the near-field of the cutting edge of a cemented carbide microgroove turning tool (CCMTT) for the first time in this study, and the PD modeling of the complex surface was realized. The results showed that the PD modeling accuracy of the CCMTT can reach ±3.4%. The displacement of material points in the near-field of the cutting edge of the CCMTT is caused by the combined effect of the external load and the internal interaction force, and the former is dominant. There is no linear relationship between the displacement and the calculation time; instead, there are fluctuations and a maximum increase in the material point displacement in the main cutting direction. Only microdisplacements of material points in the near-field of the cutting edge occur under the given cutting conditions. The accumulation of microcracks caused by microdisplacement... [more]

Because of their high nutritional value, the demand for scallops is increasing year by year. In the process of improving people’s living standards, the ready-to-eat characteristics and dry sales characteristics of this product make its shelling process particularly important in the production process. However, the mechanism of ultra-high pressure shelling has not yet been clarified. Therefore, in-depth study of the structural change of the scallop connection interface is of vital importance to explore the mechanism of ultra-high pressure shelling and the development of intelligent equipment from the mechanical point of view. The obturator muscle fibers and the inner surface materials of the shell at the obturator muscle scar of the scallop at 100, 200 and 300 MPa were obtained for Raman spectrum, Fourier-transform infrared spectrum and scanning electron microscopy analysis. The results showed that under the pressure of 200 MPa, the degree of protein denaturation of scallop adductor mus... [more]

Using the mixture of carbonized rice husk and shungite from the Kazakhstan Koksu deposit and the experimentally determined oil sorption capacity from contaminated soil with oil originating in the Karazhanbas oil field, a set of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models were built for sorption predictions. The ANN architecture design, training, validation and testing methodology were performed, and the sorption capacity prediction was evaluated. The ANN models were successfully trained for capturing the sorption capacity dependence on time and on a carbonized rice husk and shungite mixture ratio for the 10% and 15% oil-contaminated soil. The best trained ANNs revealed a very good prediction capability for the testing data subset, demonstrated by the high coefficient of the determination values of R2 = 0.998 and R2 = 0.981 and the mean absolute percentage errors ranging from 1.60% to 3.16%. Furthermore, the ANN sorption models proved their interpolation ability and utility for predicting th... [more]

The topic of Industry 4.0 is more actual for various companies worldwide. Its impact is anywhere in company and government areas. Due to the individual parts of Industry 4.0, such as digitalization and robotization, we express changes impact on human resource management, where the most changes are defined. This contribution is focused on human resource management in the context of the application of Industry 4.0 in engineering companies operating in the Czech Republic and Germany. The main objective of the paper is to define potential connections between Industry 4.0 and its areas with the forfeiture of professions and preparedness for potential job changes. We employed a primary research approach with in-depth interviews and a questionnaire survey to reach a defined goal. The interviews were aimed at top managers and a questionnaire survey of ordinary employees and students/temporary workers. According to the gained results, there exist relevant statistical dependencies between Indust... [more]

Liquified natural gas (LNG) is a clean primary energy source that is growing in popularity due to the distance between natural gas (NG)-producing countries and importing countries. The large amount of cold energy stored in LNG presents an opportunity for sustainable technologies to recover and utilize this energy. This can enhance the energy efficiency of LNG regasification terminals and the economic viability of the LNG supply chain. The energy stored in LNG in the form of low temperatures is referred to as cold energy. When LNG is regasified, or converted back into its gaseous form, this cold energy is released. This process involves heating the LNG, which causes it to vaporize and release its stored energy. The current state-of-the-art techniques for LNG cold energy utilization, including power generation, air separation, traditional desalination, and cryogenics carbon dioxide (CO2) capture are discussed in this review. While most of the current LNG cold energy utilization systems a... [more]