Search

For power batteries used in the electric vehicle, accurate state-of-charge (SOC) and state-of-health (SOH) are important. Meanwhile, the current rate in actual working conditions often varies dramatically. However, the influence of current rates on voltage and battery states estimation has been neglected for a long time. To solve this problem, in this article, a hierarchical estimation model considering the current rate is proposed. The fractional-order model is used in the battery modeling, the data-driven method is used to identify parameters, and a multiscale dual extended Kalman filter (DEKF) is used in estimation of battery states. For SOC estimation, the proposed method improves the accuracy by 35.8% and 36.5% compared with traditional DEKF under two conditions. For SOH estimation, the proposed method improves the accuracy by 34.8% and 43.1% under two current conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For power batteries used in the electric vehicle, accurate state-of-charge estimation is important. However, as one of the most commonly used estimation method, the least square support vector regression is hard to balance the accuracy and efficiency. To solve this problem, the fuzzy information granulation based on asymmetric Gaussian membership function is proposed to improve the utilization efficiency of the effective data and enhance the prediction accuracy of battery states. In addition, the performance of the proposed method is compared with that of other commonly used membership functions. In experiments, the dynamic stress test condition and the urban dynamometer driving schedule condition are used to verify the effectiveness. Compared with the most commonly used triangle membership function, the proposed method improves the accuracy of estimation by 6.47% and 2.18% under two current conditions, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pleasant touch provides emotional and psychological support that helps mitigate social isolation and stress. However, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Using a pleasant touch- conditioned place preference (PT-CPP) test, we show that genetic ablation of spinal excitatory interneurons expressing prokineticin receptor 2 (PROKR2), or its ligand PROK2 in sensory neurons, abolishes PT-CPP without impairing pain and itch behaviors in mice. Mutant mice display profound impairments in stress response and prosocial behaviors. Moreover, PROKR2 neurons respond most vigorously to gentle stroking and encode reward value. Collectively, we identify PROK2 as a long-sought neuropeptide that encodes and transmits pleasant touch to spinal PROKR2 neurons. These findings may have important implications for elucidating mechanisms by which pleasant touch deprivation contributes to social avoidance behavior and mental disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate estimation of state-of-charge (SOC) and state-of-health (SOH) is extremely important for the state diagnosis of power batteries, which is related to the energy efficiency and safety of electric vehicles. However, in order to represent the signal noises of sensors, the most commonly used method based on Kalman filter introduces the random Gaussian noise into the estimation, which causes the uncertainty of the estimation results. In this article, the multithread dynamic optimization method is proposed to solve the problem. In addition, the fractional-order model and the unscented Kalman filter are used in SOC estimation. The Gaussian linear models based on parameters of six commonly used open-circuit-voltage models are proposed to estimate SOH. Finally, the dynamic stress test current condition and four lithium-ion batteries are implemented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method in the experiment. For SOC estimation, root-mean-square error (RMSE) of the proposed method is 0.098 and the average value of the six models is 0.123, thus the proposed method improves the estimation accuracy by 20.32%. For SOH estimation, we compare the smallest RMSE of the six models and that of the proposed method for four experimental batteries, thus the average improvement of accuracy is 25.44%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy crisis combined with increasingly severe environment pollution have highlighted the significance of the energy conservation and emission reduction in shipping industry. To improve the energy utilization rate and reduce pollution, a dual-pressure organic Rankine cycle system is proposed to reuse the heat of exhaust gas in marine engines. Many researches focused on the thermodynamics and thermos-economics of the waste heat recovery system, and optimized it from these two goals to recover more energy and decrease cost. However, the impact of the system itself on the environment, which was significant to assess the greenness, was often neglected in these studies. The system with high energy recovery rate may also cause serious environment pollution in the manufacturing or operation process, hence the environmental factor should be taken into account in the optimization. To solve the problems, an evaluation method combined thermodynamics, economics and environment is proposed. The parametric study of the dual-pressure organic Rankine cycle system with six common used working fluids is assessed by this method. Finally, taking the indicators of evaluation method as objective function, the multi-objective optimization method is conducted to figure out the optimum operation conditions for the system. Results show cyclopentane is the optimal working fluid considering thermodynamic, economic and environmental properties. Under the conditions of the evaporation pressure in high-pressure circuit 2.79 MPa, the evaporation pressure in low-pressure circuit 1.97 MPa, the condensation temperature 35 °C, the superheating temperature 1.2 °C, the system obtains a good performance with exergy efficiency 60.24%, electricity production cost 0.167 $/kWh and the environmental impact of net power output 11831.9 mPts/GJ. [Display omitted] • Dual-pressure organic Rankine cycle is assessed from thermodynamics, economics and environment. • An efficient approach to select optimal working fluid for the system is provided. • Multi-objective particle swarm optimization is used to optimize the system. • Cyclopentane is the optimal working fluid for the heat source at 200–300 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Histamine-dependent and -independent itch is conveyed by parallel peripheral neural pathways that express gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) and neuromedin B (NMB), respectively, to the spinal cord of mice. B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) has been proposed to transmit both types of itch via its receptor NPRA encoded by Npr1 . However, BNP also binds to its cognate receptor, NPRC encoded by Npr3 with equal potency. Moreover, natriuretic peptides (NP) signal through the G i -couped inhibitory cGMP pathway that is supposed to inhibit neuronal activity, raising the question of how BNP may transmit itch information. Here, we report that Npr3 expression in laminae I-II of the dorsal horn partially overlaps with NMB receptor (NMBR) that transmits histaminergic itch via G q -couped PLCβ-Ca 2+ signaling pathway. Functional studies indicate that NPRC is required for itch evoked by histamine but not chloroquine (CQ), a nonhistaminergic pruritogen. Importantly, BNP significantly facilitates scratching behaviors mediated by NMB, but not GRP. Consistently, BNP evoked Ca 2+ responses in NMBR/NPRC HEK 293 cells and NMBR/NPRC dorsal horn neurons. These results reveal a previously unknown mechanism by which BNP facilitates NMB-encoded itch through a novel NPRC-NMBR cross-signaling in mice. Our studies uncover distinct modes of action for neuropeptides in transmission and modulation of itch in mice., Competing Interests: QM, XL, XL, JL, AM, DB, BL, HJ, YS, QY, FG, LW, JP, JJ, KS, RK, JY, AT, ZC No competing interests declared, (© 2021, Meng et al.)