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Non-utility owned distributed energy resources (DERs) are mostly untapped currently, but they can provide many grid services such as voltage regulation and service restoration, if properly controlled, and can improve the distribution systems reliability when coordinated with utility-owned assets such as self-healing control and microgrids. This paper integrates transactive energy control into the distribution system reliability evaluation to quantitatively assess the impact of non-utility owned DERs on reliability improvement. A transactive reactive power control strategy is designed to incentivize the DERs to provide reactive power support for improving voltage profiles thus enabling additional customer load restoration during an outage. Also, an operational sequence to coordinate the non-utility owned DERs with the utility owned self-healing control and utility owned microgrids is designed and integrated into the service restoration process with the operational constraints guaranteed by checking the three-phase unbalanced power flow for post-fault network reconfiguration. The reliability indices are then calculated through a Monte Carlo simulation. The transactive reactive power control strategy is tested on a four-feeder distribution system operated by Duke Energy in the U.S. Results demonstrate that the non-utility owned DERs with the transactive control improve the reliability of both the system and critical loads by more than 30%.

Glucocorticoid excess often causes a variety of cardiovascular complications, including hypertension, atherosclerosis, and cardiac hypertrophy. To abrogate its cardiac side effects, it is necessary to fully disclose the pathophysiological role of glucocorticoid in cardiac remodelling. Previous clinical and experimental studies have found that omentin-1, one of the adipokines, has beneficial effects in cardiovascular diseases, and is closely associated with metabolic disorders. However, there is no evidence to address the potential role of omentin-1 in glucocorticoid excess-induced cardiac injuries. To uncover the links, the present study utilized rat model with glucocorticoid-induced cardiac injuries and clinical patients with abnormal cardiac function. Chronic administration of glucocorticoid excess reduced rat serum omentin-1 concentration, which closely correlated with cardiac functional parameters. Intravenous administration of adeno-associated virus encoding omentin-1 upregulated the circulating omentin-1 level and attenuated glucocorticoid excess-induced cardiac hypertrophy and functional disorders. Overexpression of omentin-1 also improved cardiac mitochondrial function, including the reduction of lipid deposits, induction of mitochondrial biogenesis, and enhanced mitochondrial activities. Mechanistically, omentin-1 phosphorylated and activated the GSK3β pathway in the heart. From a study of 28 patients with Cushing’s syndrome and 23 healthy subjects, the plasma level of glucocorticoid was negatively correlated with omentin-1, and was positively associated with cardiac ejection fraction and fractional shortening. Collectively, the present study provided a novel role of omentin-1 in glucocorticoid excess-induced cardiac injuries and found that the omentin-1/GSK3β pathway was a potential therapeutic target in combating the side effects of glucocorticoid.

The penetration of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) has greatly increased over the past few years. By using vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology, PEVs can be used as “mobile batteries” in a microgrid. Here, we aim to coordinate the V2G dispatch with traditional energy management in a corporate energy system (CES). To do so, a two-stage robust optimization (RO) model is built with respect to uncertainties in the CES, e.g., photovoltaic (PV) power. Particularly, relationships between the working time schedule and PEVs are investigated and analyzed for the first time, and a novel PEV aggregator model, i.e., shift-working V2G, is presented. The shift-working V2G model provides beneficial characteristics, like weakened randomness and stable storage capacity. A quantitative method to evaluate the V2G capacity is then presented. An analytical solution methodology is also proposed, which can equivalently convert the robust “min-max-min” model to a single-level mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model. Case studies are conducted for an iron and steel company in Shanghai, China, with almost 40 000 PEVs. The results show that V2G integration can significantly improve the load-tracking ability of CES and help reduce the energy cost, although the V2G cost is considered. The computational efficiency is also improved compared with the existing methods. Note to Practitioners —This article is motivated by the problem of using the battery storage capacities of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) in a corporate energy system (CES) such as an iron and steel plant, aiming at minimizing the energy cost. In existing studies, behaviors of PEVs (e.g., arriving or leaving time) have usually been elusive since they are directly decided by drivers, and thus, it is difficult to determine how much storage capacity PEVs can provide. However, in a CES where a shift-work regulation is implemented, employees should arrive or leave punctually during each shift, and the same is true of their PEVs. Based on this fact, PEVs within one shift could show weakened randomness and stable storage capacities. In this article, the influences of the shift-work regulation on the PEVs are fully analyzed, and the shift-working V2G provides an easy way to integrate PEVs into the CES. In practice, the shift-working V2G model can be applied to any energy system that also implements a shift-work regulation, such as a fire station.

Multiple severe forced oscillation events have recently been observed across the North American interconnections and around the world. These forced oscillations have caused power swings, limited power transfer capability, damaged equipment, and persisted indefinitely until the driving source was located and removed. This paper proposes a comprehensive method to mitigate forced oscillations. Once a forced oscillation is detected, a new source location algorithm can be used to locate the source based on the oscillation mode angle without requiring system topology information. If the source cannot be quickly located and removed, a control strategy can be activated to modulate the active power of utility-scale inverter-based battery energy storage systems (BESSs) to reduce the energy of forced oscillations to a safe level and allow sufficient time for locating the exact source. The proposed source location algorithm is validated using measurements collected during the January 11, 2019 forced oscillation event in North America and other actual grid events, while the proposed control strategy is verified using the Eastern Interconnection dynamic model under the replicated January 11, 2019 forced oscillation event. The simulation results demonstrated that the proposed source location algorithm can accurately identify the forced oscillation source, and the proposed control strategy can significantly reduce forced oscillation energy.

The rapid development of the 5G communication technology requires the improvement of the thermal stability and dielectric performance of high-frequency copper clad laminates (CCL). A cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) resin was added to the original 1,2-polybutadienes (PB)/styrene ethylene butylene styrene (SEBS) binary resin system to construct a PB/SEBS/COC ternary polyolefin system with optimized dielectric properties, mechanical properties, and water absorption. Glass fiber cloths (GFCs) and SiO2 were used to fill the resin matrix so to reduce the thermal expansion coefficient (CTE) and enhance the mechanical strength of the composites. It was found that the CTE of polyolefin/GFCs/SiO2 composite laminates decreased with the increase of SiO2 loading at first, which was attributed to the strong interfacial interaction restricting the segmental motion of polymer chains between filler and matrix. It was obvious that the addition of COC and SiO2 had an effect on the porosity, as shown in the SEM graph, which influenced the dielectric loss (Df) of the composites directly. When the weight of SiO2 accounted for 40% of the total mass of the composites, the laminates exhibited the best comprehensive performance. Their CTE and Df were reduced by 63.3% and 22.0%, respectively, and their bending strength increased by 2136.1% compared with that of the substrates without COC and SiO2. These substrates have a great application prospect in the field of hydrocarbon resin-based CCL.

The aim of this study was to screen out the active ingredients of Yuanhu Zhitong prescription (YZP) before and after vinegar processing to play an anti-alcoholic gastric ulcer role through spectrum-effect relationship. First, the fingerprint of 16 batches of YZP was studied using the ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole mass spectrometry detector analysis (UPLC-QDA) method. Second, gastric lesion was induced by anhydrous ethanol. The degree of gastric mucosa injury was evaluated by hematoxylin and eosin staining, and the contents of malondialdehyde and tumor necrosis factor α and superoxide dismutase were detected using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit. Sixteen batches of YZP were analyzed using the spectrum-effect relationship method. Finally, absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME) was used to evaluate the bioavailability of potential compounds. The results showed that the UPLC-QDA method could successfully establish the fingerprint of YZP. Hematoxylin and eosin staining and biochemical indicators showed that YZP had obvious anti-alcoholic gastric ulcer action. Coptisine chloride, corydaline, berberine chloride, palmatine, imperatorin, and phellopterin were screened out using the spectrum-effect method, and all of them possessed good bioavailability. The results of this study suggest that YZP plays an anti-ulcer role by exerting antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects through six main active components.

This study aimed to explore the possible mechanism of Achyranthis Bidentatae Radix for the treatment of osteoporosis using tandem mass tag-based proteomics technique combined with mass spectrometry. Proteomics techniques combined with bioinformatics were used to analyze the biological functions of differentially expressed proteins. In addition, western blotting was performed to verify the expression of related proteins. A total of 3,752 proteins were identifiable by proteomic analysis. Furthermore, 93 differentially expressed proteins were identified, of which 61 were upregulated and 32 were downregulated. Differentially expressed proteins were primarily associated with oxidative phosphorylation (p = 4.8 × 10

Reactive power support is a part of ancillary services that is becoming more important due to an increase of distributed energy resources (DERs) in today’s power systems. The intermittent nature of the DERs also increases the challenges of voltage management in power systems, and limitations of power system reinforcement are becoming a bottleneck to improving reliability of power systems. Thus, cooperation of existing equipment, including utility-owned and nonutility-owned assets, can be utilized to achieve higher reliability of the system. A transactive energy approach is proposed to coordinate the nonutility DERs to participate in reactive power support. Voltage sensitivity is used to determine the impact of DERs at different locations that will simultaneously participate in a reactive power market. The modified DERs’ supply curve is constructed to evaluate the impact of DERs’ locations based on the transactive energy approach. The performance of the proposed method is validated by comparing to other location-based and non-location-based reactive power dispatch methods. An implementation of the modified DER’s supply curve can successfully improve the voltage at the target location by an amount that is specified by the system.

Electric distribution systems around the world are seeing an increasing number of utility-owned and non-utility-owned (customer-owned) intelligent devices and systems being deployed. New deployments of utility-owned assets include self-healing systems, microgrids, and distribution automation. Non-utility-owned assets include solar photovoltaic generation, behind-the-meter energy storage systems, and electric vehicles. While these deployments provide potential data and control points, the existing centralized control architectures do not have the flexibility or the scalability to integrate the increasing number or variety of devices. The communication bandwidth, latency, and the scalability of a centralized control architecture limit the ability of these new devices and systems from being engaged as active resources. This paper presents a standards-based architecture for the distributed power system controls, which increases operational flexibility by coordinating centralized and distributed control systems. The system actively engages utility and non-utility assets using a distributed architecture to increase reliability during normal operations and resiliency during extreme events. Results from laboratory testing and preliminary field implementations, as well as the details of an ongoing full-scale implementation at Duke Energy, are presented.

Glechomae Herba (GH) has been widely used in the treatment of urolithiasis, especially kidney stones, in China and Southeast Asia. Pharmacological studies have suggested that the antioxidant property of GH contributes to its anticalculus effect. CaSR is one of the main locations of kidney stones, and the mechanism of action of CaSR inhibitors in the treatment of kidney stones is similar to that of GH. However, until now, the antiurolithic chemical compounds in GH and their interaction with CaSR remain unknown. In our study, we revealed the interaction between the active compounds in GH and the active compounds in CaSR inhibitors by using spectrum-effect relationship analysis, pharmacodynamics, and molecular docking techniques. The results showed ten common peaks from the fingerprints of GH extracts from different regions. Pharmacological experiments showed that GH could significantly treat renal tissue lesions. Chlorogenic acid (CA), rosmarinic acid (RA), P5, luteolin, apigenin, and P9 were screened after the analysis of spectrum-effect relationships. In vitro validation experiments showed that all the screened compounds had inhibitory effects on the development of kidney stones in our model. The molecular docking results showed that the above compounds could be docked with CaSR in a natural state, and the docking score was less than 7. This work constructs a general model for the combination of UPLC-QDA and antiurolithic drugs, studies the spectrum-effect relationship of GH, and provides a new possibility for the development of new antiurolithic drugs.

Multidrug resistance (MDR) is a major cause of disease relapse and mortality in breast cancer. Paired-related homeobox 1 (PRRX1) is associated with the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which is involved in tumor development, including cell invasion and MDR. However, the effect of PRRX1 on MDR had not clearly established. The present study investigated the influence of PRRX1 on MDR and the underlying molecular mechanisms in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. MCF-7 cells were divided into PRRX1+ group (cells transfected with a recombinant plasmid carrying the PRRX1 gene), negative control group (cells transfected with a blank vector) and blank group (untreated cells). It was found that the relative protein and mRNA expression levels of PRRX1, N-cadherin, vimentin and P-glycoprotein were significantly higher in PRRX1-overexpressing MCF-7 cells compared with those in control cells. The half-maximal inhibitory concentration of three groups after treatment with docetaxel and cis-platinum complexes were significantly higher in PRRX1-overexpressing MCF-7 cells compared with those in control cells. Furthermore, relative PTEN expression decreased significantly and levels of phosphorylated PI3K and AKT increased substantially in PRRX1-overexpressing MCF-7 cells. These results indicated that PRRX1 overexpression may induce MDR via PTEN/PI3K/AKT signaling in breast cancer. It is highly recommended that PRRX1 gene expression detection should be performed in patients with breast cancer to aid the selection of more appropriate treatments, which will lead to an improved prognosis in clinical practice.

To enable better voltage regulation in power systems with high penetration of photovoltaics (PV) and other distributed energy resources (DERs), inverters are now being required to provide reactive power support to the grid in addition to providing real power generated by PV panels. This paper develops a framework that coordinates the support from DER-based inverters, which are grid-connected non-utility assets, by using a transactive energy approach. Results of the implementation demonstrate participation of DER-based inverters can be achieved by using the coordination between distributed controllers and a centralized controller. With the transactive energy approach, both the customer and utility can achieve benefits that meet their individual needs.

PV inverters can provide ancillary services while simultaneously providing active power. A transactive energy system (TES) incentivizes a PV inverter to provide ancillary services and compensates for the cost of additional power losses due to additional reactive power production. However, providing ancillary services can shorten the lifetime of the PV inverter since additional reactive power increases the thermal stress of it. This paper models the lifetime shortening effect of a PV inverter when providing ancillary services. Based on the lifetime estimation, an improved marginal cost curve of reactive power generation for the PV inverter is proposed. The improved marginal cost considers the normalized lifetime (NLT) of the PV inverter given the active power, reactive power, and ambient temperature. The proposed NLT algorithm is validated by a simulation case study.

With an increasing number of distributed energy resources (DERs) integrating into the power system, the power grid is becoming more complex and uncertain. Owing to most of DERs are through grid-connected converters to integrate into the power system, the intermittent nature and resource-depended characteristic of the DERs are challenging their monitoring and control. Conventional synchronized measurement devices (SMDs) may be difficult to provide qualified data for DERs management for its accuracy and reporting-rate limitation. The monitoring systems developed basing on SMDs may be insufficient for depicting detailed dynamic manifestations of power systems with a high proportion integration of DERs. This paper shares some advanced synchrophasor-based applications developed in FNET/GridEye, which have a broad prospect for assisting system operator on the control and integration of the DERs.

Small target in infrared image has small size, low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and lack of obvious structure or texture features, which bring great difficulties to target detection. In this paper, a single frame detection method is proposed, which combines the first-order directional derivative of facet model with structural tensor. First, four directional derivatives of the original infrared image are calculated based on facet model. Then, according to the directional derivative feature of the target, the structure tensor eigenvalue matrix is employed to enhance the target and suppress the background clutter. Four salient maps are gained. Finally, the final fusion map is obtained by multiplying the salient maps of all directions. The experimental results show that the performance of the proposed method is better than the other four methods in processing real infrared image.

Ganoderic Acid A (GA) has many pharmacological effects such as anti-tumor, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and immunosuppressive effects. However, the protective effect of GA on liver injury has not been reported. This study aimed to investigate the action of GA on insufficient methionine and choline combined with high-fat diet (HFD)-induced non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in rats. NAFLD model was established by insufficient methionine and choline combined with high fat feeding to rats. The levels of Acetyl-CoA carboxylase, fatty acid synthase, sterol regulatory element binding protein, liver X receptors, AMP-activated protein kinase, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α, PPARg coactivator 1α and NF-κB pathway in the liver were detected by western blot. The results of this study demonstrated that the expression of GA can not only significantly decrease the live weight and liver weight per body weight of HFD mice, but also restore the alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, total bilirubin levels, triglyceride and cholesterol in serum. In addition, the expression of GA increased the levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol in serum, ameliorated pathological changes and decreased NAS score of mice's liver. In conclusion, the treatment with GA could improve NAFLD in rats by regulating the levels of signaling events involved in free fatty acid production, lipid oxidation and liver inflammation.

In this work, we develop a methodology and tool to quantitatively evaluate the reliability of a self-healing system that considers practical distribution system features such as the distributed energy resources, microgrids, and service restoration strategies. Also, this paper addresses various practical issues when being applied to an actual Duke Energy distribution system, including the design of feasible and practical service restoration strategies that are used to identify the customer interruptions after a fault, and the incorporation of the utility's historical reliability indices that are used to calibrate the failure rate and repair time of distribution system components such as overhead lines and underground cables. This case study demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Blood contacting materials with anti-thrombotic surfaces are highly demanded in clinics. Despite considerable research on surface modifications, limited progress has been made on effective prevention of thrombosis for artificial implants such as mechanical valve prosthesis. Herein, wettability gradient surface, which can ideally exhibit good hemocompatibility and low flow resistance, was developed for potential reduction of thrombosis. The wettability gradient surface on a model substrate of nickel-titanium (NiTi) alloy was prepared via a simple and economic method that combined laser microfabrication and surface stearic acid self-assembly approach. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observation confirmed that the wettability gradient surface was composed of a smooth NiTi region and three porous regions with different pore sizes and distances. Contact angle measurement revealed that, together with a low surface energy layer, the structural topography gradient could create a wettability gradient surface on NiTi alloy which could drive droplet motion. When compared with bare NiTi, such wettability gradient surface exhibited better anti-adhesion property, which was beneficial to the hemocompatibility and thus showing a lower hemolysis rate. Additionally, the wettability gradient surface also showed much lower flow resistance than bare NiTi. These results demonstrate that the developed wettability gradient surface may be used to reduce thrombosis.