Axial offset control of PWR nuclear reactor core using intelligent techniques

Improved load following capability is one of the main technical performances of advanced PWR (APWR). Controlling the nuclear reactor core during load following operation encounters some difficulties. These difficulties mainly arise from nuclear reactor core limitations in local power peaking, while the core is subject to large and sharp variation of local power density during transients. Axial offset (AO) is the parameter usually used to represent of core power peaking, in form of a practical parameter. This paper, proposes a new intelligent approach to AO control of PWR nuclear reactors core during load following operation. This method uses a neural network model of the core to predict the dynamic behavior of the core and a fuzzy critic based on the operator knowledge and experience for the purpose of decision-making during load following operations. Simulation results show that this method can use optimum control rod groups maneuver with variable overlapping and may improve the reactor load following capability.     

The ontological screening of contemporary life: a phenomenological analysis of screens

In this paper, we attempt to show how phenomenology, in a traditional methodological form, can provide an interesting and novel basis for thinking about screens in a world where screens now pervade a great many aspects of human experience. In our analysis, we aim to give a phenomenological account of screen(ing), that is, of its fundamental and foundational meaning. In doing the phenomenological analysis, we ground our argument on the ontology of Heidegger's Being and Time. In doing this, we claim that the screen will only show itself, as that which it is, as a screen in-the-world, where screens already are or have their being ‘as screens’ for this and that purpose, activity or work. We claim, and aim to show, that our analysis provides many insights about the meaning of screens that would be difficult to gain through any other method of investigation. We also argue and show that, although our method is not empirical, its results have important implications for the empirical world.     

Methods of measuring the size and complexity of PLC programs in different logic control design methodologies

Currently there is a wide variety of logic control design methodologies used in industrial logic design. These methodologies include ladder diagrams, function block diagrams, sequential function charts, and flow charts, but driven by a desire for verifiability, academics are developing additional logic control design methodologies, such as modular finite state machines and Petri nets. Using these, important properties of programs can be verified and some logic can be generated automatically from a part plan. The main contribution of this paper is to define methods for measuring programs written in different methodologies, so that the performance of the methodologies can be compared.We demonstrate these methods of measurement using four program samples that perform similar functions on the same machine, written in four logic control design methodologies: ladder diagrams, Petri nets, signal interpreted Petri nets and modular finite state machines.     

Solving the electricity production planning problem by a column generation based heuristic

This paper presents a heuristic method based on column generation for the EDF (Electricité De France) long-term electricity production planning problem proposed as subject of the ROADEF/EURO 2010 Challenge. This is to our knowledge the first-ranked method among those methods based on mathematical programming, and was ranked fourth overall. The problem consists in determining a production plan over the whole time horizon for each thermal power plant of the French electricity company, and for nuclear plants, a schedule of plant outages which are necessary for refueling and maintenance operations. The average cost of the overall outage and production planning, computed over a set of demand scenarios, is to be minimized. The method proceeds in two stages. In the first stage, dates for outages are fixed once for all for each nuclear plant. Data are aggregated with a single average scenario and reduced time steps, and a set-partitioning reformulation of this aggregated problem is solved for fixing outage dates with a heuristic based on column generation. The pricing problem associated with each nuclear plant is a shortest path problem in an appropriately constructed graph. In the second stage, the reload level is determined at each date of an outage, considering now all scenarios. Finally, the production quantities between two outages are optimized for each plant and each scenario by solving independent linear programming problems.     

Organokines,Sarcopenia, and Metabolic Repercussions: The Vicious Cycle and the Interplay with Exercise

Sarcopenia is a disease that becomes more prevalent as the population ages, since it is directly linked to the process of senility, which courses with muscle atrophy and loss of muscle strength. Over time, sarcopenia is linked to obesity, being known as sarcopenic obesity, and leads to other metabolic changes. At the molecular level, organokines act on different tissues and can improve or harm sarcopenia. It all depends on their production process, which is associated with factors such as physical exercise, the aging process, and metabolic diseases. Because of the seriousness of these repercussions, the aim of this literature review is to conduct a review on the relationship between organokines, sarcopenia, diabetes, and other metabolic repercussions, as well the role of physical exercise. To build this review, PubMed-Medline, Embase, and COCHRANE databases were searched, and only studies written in English were included. It was observed that myokines, adipokines, hepatokines, and osteokines had direct impacts on the pathophysiology of sarcopenia and its metabolic repercussions. Therefore, knowing how organokines act is very important to know their impacts on age, disease prevention, and how they can be related to the prevention of muscle loss.     

SARS-CoV-2 Altered Hemorheological and Hematological Parameters during One-Month Observation Period in Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients

Hematological and hemorheological parameters are known to be altered in COVID-19; however, the value of combined monitoring in order to deduce disease severity is only scarcely examined. A total of 44 acute SARS-CoV-2-infected patients (aCOV) and 44 age-matched healthy controls (Con) were included. Blood of aCOV was sampled at admission (T0), and at day 2 (T2), day 5 (T5), day 10 (T10), and day 30 (T30) while blood of Con was only sampled once. Inter- and intra-group differences were calculated for hematological and hemorheological parameters. Except for mean cellular volume and mean cellular hemoglobin, all blood cell parameters were significantly different between aCOV and Con. During the acute disease state (T0–T5), hematological and hemorheological parameters were highly altered in aCOV; in particular, anemic conditions and increased immune cell response/inflammation, oxidative/nitrosative stress, decreased deformability, as well as increased aggregation, were observed. During treatment and convalescence until T30, almost all abnormal values of aCOV improved towards Con values. During the acute state of the COVID-19 disease, the hematological, as well as the hemorheological system, show fast and potentially pathological changes that might contribute to the progression of the disease, but changes appear to be largely reversible after four weeks. Measuring RBC deformability and aggregation, as well as oxidative stress induction, may be helpful in monitoring critically ill COVID-19 patients.     

Gain-of-Function Dynamin-2 Mutations Linked to Centronuclear Myopathy Impair Ca2+-Induced Exocytosis in Human Myoblasts

Gain-of-function mutations of dynamin-2, a mechano-GTPase that remodels membrane and actin filaments, cause centronuclear myopathy (CNM), a congenital disease that mainly affects skeletal muscle tissue. Among these mutations, the variants p.A618T and p.S619L lead to a gain of function and cause a severe neonatal phenotype. By using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM) in immortalized human myoblasts expressing the pH-sensitive fluorescent protein (pHluorin) fused to the insulin-responsive aminopeptidase IRAP as a reporter of the GLUT4 vesicle trafficking, we measured single pHluorin signals to investigate how p.A618T and p.S619L mutations influence exocytosis. We show here that both dynamin-2 mutations significantly reduced the number and durations of pHluorin signals induced by 10 μM ionomycin, indicating that in addition to impairing exocytosis, they also affect the fusion pore dynamics. These mutations also disrupt the formation of actin filaments, a process that reportedly favors exocytosis. This altered exocytosis might importantly disturb the plasmalemma expression of functional proteins such as the glucose transporter GLUT4 in skeletal muscle cells, impacting the physiology of the skeletal muscle tissue and contributing to the CNM disease.     

An evolutionary approach to the delineation of functional areas based on travel-to-work flows

This paper presents a new approach to the delineation of local labor markets based on evolutionary computation. The aim of the exercise is the division of a given territory into functional regions based on travel-to-work flows. Such regions are defined so that a high degree of inter-regional separation and of intra-regional integration in both cases in terms of commuting flows is guaranteed. Additional requirements include the absence of overlap between delineated regions and the exhaustive coverage of the whole territory. The procedure is based on the maximization of a fitness function that measures aggregate intra-region interaction under constraints of inter-region separation and minimum size. In the experimentation stage, two variations of the fitness function are used, and the process is also applied as a final stage for the optimization of the results from one of the most successful existing methods, which are used by the British authorities for the delineation of travel-to-work areas （TTWAs）. The empirical exercise is conducted using real data for a sufficiently large territory that is considered to be representative given the density and variety of travel-to-work patterns that it embraces. The paper includes the quantitative comparison with alternative traditional methods, the assessment of the performance of the set of operators which has been specifically designed to handle the regionalization problem and the evaluation of the convergence process. The robustness of the solutions, something crucial in a research and policy-making context, is also discussed in the paper.     

User-configurable OCR enhancement for online natural history archives

The creation of structured digital libraries from paper-based archives is an area of growing demand in many scientific and cultural fields, and is not satisfied either by off-the-shelf OCR or commercial form- processing systems. This paper describes and evaluates a configurable archive construction system, which integrates document image pre-processing and analysis with text post-processing tools and a standard OCR package to meet digital archiving requirements. The prototype system is currently being used in conjunction with the UK Natural History Museum to help convert more than 500,000 cards of Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths) and Coleoptera (Beetles) to searchable digital archives. Evaluation results covering different aspects of the system from card scanning to overall word recognition rates for different database fields are summarised for two datasets comprising over 5,000 cards selected from different parts of these archives. First-pass end-to-end word recognition rates of 70–90% are reported for key data fields, subject to availability of suitable electronic dictionaries. Further validation and correction is supported through web-editing of the online digital archive.     

Effects of Dietary n-3 LCPUFA Supplementation on the Hippocampus of Aging Female Mice: Impact on Memory,Lipid Raft-Associated Glutamatergic Receptors and Neuroinflammation

Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA), essential molecules whose precursors must be dietary supplied, are highly represented in the brain contributing to numerous neuronal processes. Recent findings have demonstrated that LCPUFA are represented in lipid raft microstructures, where they favor molecular interactions of signaling complexes underlying neuronal functionality. During aging, the brain lipid composition changes affecting the lipid rafts’ integrity and protein signaling, which may induce memory detriment. We investigated the effect of a n-3 LCPUFA-enriched diet on the cognitive function of 6- and 15-months-old female mice. Likewise, we explored the impact of dietary n-3 LCPUFAs on hippocampal lipid rafts, and their potential correlation with aging-induced neuroinflammation. Our results demonstrate that n-3 LCPUFA supplementation improves spatial and recognition memory and restores the expression of glutamate and estrogen receptors in the hippocampal lipid rafts of aged mice to similar profiles than young ones. Additionally, the n-3 LCPUFA-enriched diet stabilized the lipid composition of the old mice’s hippocampal lipid rafts to the levels of young ones and reduced the aged-induced neuroinflammatory markers. Hence, we propose that n-3 LCPUFA supplementation leads to beneficial cognitive performance by “rejuvenating” the lipid raft microenvironment that stabilizes the integrity and interactions of memory protein players embedded in these microdomains.