Hydrogen supply scenarios for a climate neutral energy system in Germany

A climate neutral energy system in Germany will most likely require green hydrogen. Two important factors, that determine whether the hydrogen will be imported or produced locally from renewable energy are still uncertain though - the import price for green hydrogen and the upper limit for photovoltaic installations. To investigate the impact of these two factors, the authors calculate cost optimized climate neutral energy systems while varying the import price from 1.25 €/kg to 5 €/kg with unlimited import volume and the photovoltaic limit from 300 GW to unlimited. In all scenarios, hydrogen plays a significant role. At a medium import price of 3.75 €/kg and photovoltaic limits of 300–900 GW the hydrogen supply is around 1200 to 1300 TWh with import shares varying from 60 to 85%. In most scenarios the electrolysis profile is highly correlated with the photovoltaic power, which leads to full load hours of 1870 h–2770 h.     

Exploring the feasibility of green hydrogen production using excess energy from a country-scale 100% solar-wind renewable energy system

When planning large-scale 100% renewable energy systems (RES) for the year 2050, the system capacity is usually oversized for better supply-demand matching of electrical energy since solar and wind resources are highly intermittent. This causes excessive excess energy that is typically dissipated, curtailed, or sold directly. The public literature shows a lack of studies on the feasibility of using this excess for country-scale co-generation. This study presents the first investigation of utilizing this excess to generate green hydrogen gas. The concept is demonstrated for Jordan using three solar photovoltaic (PV), wind, and hybrid PV-wind RESs, all equipped with Lithium-Ion battery energy storage systems (ESSs), for hydrogen production using a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) system. The results show that the PV-based system has the highest demand-supply fraction (>99%). However, the wind-based system is more favorable economically, with installed RES, ESS, and PEM capacities of only 23.88 GW, 2542 GWh, and 20.66 GW. It also shows the highest hydrogen annual production rate (172.1 × 10³ tons) and the lowest hydrogen cost (1.082 USD/kg). The three systems were a better option than selling excess energy directly, where they ensure annual incomes up to 2.68 billion USD while having payback periods of as low as 1.78 years. Furthermore, the hydrogen cost does not exceed 2.03 USD/kg, which is significantly lower than the expected cost of hydrogen (3 USD/kg) produced using energy from fossil fuel-based systems in 2050.     

Preparation and Evaluation of a Self-Nanoemulsifying Drug Delivery System Loaded with Heparin Phospholipid Complex

A self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery system (SNEDDS) was developed to enhance the absorption of heparin after oral administration, in which heparin was compounded with phospholipids to achieve better fat solubility in the form of heparin-phospholipid (HEP-Pc) complex. HEP-Pc complex was prepared using the solvent evaporation method, which increased the solubility of heparin in n-octanol. The successful preparation of HEP-Pc complex was confirmed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, NMR, and SEM. A heparin lipid microemulsion (HEP-LM) was prepared by high-pressure homogenization and characterized. HEP-LM can enhance the absorption of heparin after oral administration, significantly prolong activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) and thrombin time (TT) in mice, and reduce fibrinogen (FIB) content. All these outcomes indicate that HEP-LM has great potential as an oral heparin formulation.     

Tactile colour pictogram to improve artwork appreciation of people with visual impairments

A recent development in tactile technology enables an improvement in the appreciation of the visual arts for people with visual impairment (PVI). The tactile sense, in conjunction with, or a possibly as an alternative to, the auditory sense, would allow PVIs to approach artwork in a more self‐driven and engaging way that would be difficult to achieve with just an auditory stimulus. Tactile colour pictograms (TCPs), which are raised geometric patterns, are ideographic characters that are designed to enable PVIs to identify colours and interpret information by touch. In this article, three TCPs are introduced to code colours in the Munsell colour system. Each colour pattern consists of a basic cell size of 10 mm × 10 mm to represent the patterns consistently in terms of regular shape. Each TCP consists of basic geometric patterns that are combined to create primary, secondary, and tertiary colour pictograms of shapes indicating colour hue, intensity and lightness. Each TCP represents 29 colours including six hues; they were then further expanded to represent 53 colours. Two of them did not increase the cell size, the other increased the cell size 1.5 times for some colours, such as yellow‐orange, yellow, blue, and blue‐purple. Our proposed TCPs use a slightly larger cell size compared to most tactile patterns currently used to indicate colour, but code for more colours. With user experience and identification tests, conducted with 23 visually impaired adults, the effectiveness of the TCPs suggests that they were helpful for the participants.     

What Can We Learn from FGF-2 Isoform-Specific Mouse Mutants? Differential Insights into FGF-2 Physiology In Vivo

Fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF-2), ubiquitously expressed in humans and mice, is functionally involved in cell growth, migration and maturation in vitro and in vivo. Based on the same mRNA, an 18-kilo Dalton (kDa) FGF-2 isoform named FGF-2 low molecular weight (FGF-2LMW) isoform is translated in humans and rodents. Additionally, two larger isoforms weighing 21 and 22 kDa also exist, summarized as the FGF-2 high molecular weight (FGF-2HMW) isoform. Meanwhile, the human FGF-2HMW comprises a 22, 23, 24 and 34 kDa protein. Independent studies verified a specific intracellular localization, mode of action and tissue-specific spatiotemporal expression of the FGF-2 isoforms, increasing the complexity of their physiological and pathophysiological roles. In order to analyze their spectrum of effects, FGF-2LMW knock out (ko) and FGF-2HMWko mice have been generated, as well as mice specifically overexpressing either FGF-2LMW or FGF-2HMW. So far, the development and functionality of the cardiovascular system, bone formation and regeneration as well as their impact on the central nervous system including disease models of neurodegeneration, have been examined. This review provides a summary of the studies characterizing the in vivo effects modulated by the FGF-2 isoforms and, thus, offers a comprehensive overview of its actions in the aforementioned organ systems.     

Understanding the asymmetric perceptions of smartphone security from security feature perspective: A comparative study

Smartphones are being used and relied on by people more than ever before. The open connectivity brings with it great convenience and leads to a variety of risks that cannot be overlooked. Smartphone vendors, security policy designers, and security application providers have put a variety of practical efforts to secure smartphones, and researchers have conducted extensive research on threat sources, security techniques, and user security behaviors. Regrettably, smartphone users do not pay enough attention to mobile security, making many efforts futile. This study identifies this gap between technology affordance and user requirements, and attempts to investigate the asymmetric perceptions toward security features between developers and users, between users and users, as well as between different security features. These asymmetric perceptions include perceptions of quality, perceptions of importance, and perceptions of satisfaction. After scoping the range of smartphone security features, this study conducts an improved Kano-based method and exhaustively analyzes the 245 collected samples using correspondence analysis and importance satisfaction analysis. The 14 security features of the smartphone are divided into four Kano quality types and the perceived quality differences between developers and users are compared. Correspondence analysis is utilized to capture the relationship between the perceived importance of security features across different groups of respondents, and results of importance-satisfaction analysis provide the basis for the developmental path and resource reallocation strategy of security features. This article offers new insights for researchers as well as practitioners of smartphone security.     

A Voltage Control Method for a Distributed Line Feeder by means of Multiagent Approach

This paper proposes a method for the coordinated control of power factor by means of a multiagent approach. The proposed multiagent system consists of two types of agent: single feeder agent (F_AG) and bus agent (B_AG). In the proposed system, an F_AG plays as an important role, which decides the power factors of all distributed generators by executing the load flow calculations repeatedly. The voltage control strategies are implemented as the class definition of Java into the system. In order to verify the performance of the proposed method, it has been applied to a typical distribution model system. The simulation results show that the system is able to control very violent fluctuation of the demands and the photovoltaic (PV) generations.     

Maximum likelihood-based adaptive differential evolution identification algorithm for multivariable systems in the state-space form

Parameter estimation plays an important role in the field of system control. This article is concerned with the parameter estimation methods for multivariable systems in the state-space form. For the sake of solving the identification complexity caused by a large number of parameters in multivariable systems, we decompose the original multivariable system into some subsystems containing fewer parameters and study identification algorithms to estimate the parameters of each subsystem. By taking the maximum likelihood criterion function as the fitness function of the differential evolution algorithm, we present a maximum likelihood-based differential evolution (ML-DE) algorithm for parameter estimation. To improve the parameter estimation accuracy, we introduce the adaptive mutation factor and the adaptive crossover factor into the ML-DE algorithm and propose a maximum likelihood-based adaptive differential evolution algorithm. The simulation study indicates the efficiency of the proposed algorithms.     

Industry 4.0: a supply chain innovation perspective

The Fourth Industrial Revolution – also known as Industry 4.0 (i4.0) – comprises the digitalisation of the industrial sector. This paper uses the theoretical lens of supply chain innovation (SCI) to investigate the implications of i4.0 on supply chain management. For these purposes, the method of structured content analysis is applied to more than 200 use cases of i4.0-enabled SCI introduced by both established and startup companies. i4.0-enabled SCI manifests along three dimensions: process, technology, and business architecture. The key findings of this study can be summarised as follows: first, i4.0-enabled SCI extends the initial focus on productivity improvements in SC processes towards scalability and flexibility. Second, extant i4.0 solutions rely mostly on analytics and smart things while omitting smart people technology and the human-centric approach associated with the i4.0 paradigm. Third, established companies adopt i4.0 merely to sustain their existing business architectures while startup companies radically change their operating models, relying heavily on data analytics and the platform economy. Consequently, established companies pursue a problem-driven, engineering-based approach to SCI while startup companies follow an ‘asset-light’, business-driven approach. Lastly, there are two distinct approaches to digitalising operational SC processes: platform-based crowdsourcing of standard processes and on-demand provision of customised services.