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Abstract In this paper, a strategy is proposed in order to introduce in a realistic way wind generation into a transmission power system non sequential Monte Carlo adequacy study with economic dispatch. Thanks to the implemented solution, wind generation is consequently confronted to operational constraints related to high powered thermal units, nuclear parks or thermal machines with technical minimum value. Moreover, during each simulated system state, a DC load flow is also calculated in order to evaluate reinforcements optimizing the large scale integration of wind power production. The simulation tool modified during the present work is called Scanner© and is the property of Tractebel Engineering (Gaz de France – Suez) company. It has been here applied to an academic test system: the Roy Billinton Test System (RBTS).

Allanblackia floribunda Oliv. is one of the most commonly used medicinal plant in Cameroon. The stem bark of the plant is traditionally used for its aphrodisiac and antihypertensive properties.To validate the traditional uses of Allanblackia floribunda stem bark ethanol extract through the evaluation of their aphrodisiac and vasorelaxant properties.The extract's ability to increase sexual desire and the frequencies of erection (mount), intromission and prolonged latency of ejaculation were studied on adult male rats. The vasodilator effect was investigated using isolated rat aorta rings. Tests were conducted using fractions obtained by reverse phase column-chromatography (CC), after the acquisition of the HPLC fingerprint of the ethanol extract, resulted the most active in previous studies.The CC allowed the isolation of five fractions whose aphrodisiac and vasodilator activities were tested and compared with those of the whole extract. Four compounds were identified and characterized, three of them, Fukugiside, Morelloflavone and Volkensiflavone, are secondary metabolites known to be in Allanblackia floribunda; the fourth, Spicataside, is a biflavonoid glycoside known to be present in the genus Garcinia but never found neither in Allanblackia floribunda nor in Allanblackia genus. The crude ethanolic extract (CEE) induced a relaxation on aorta rings with EC50=11±2μg/mL and Morelloflavone displayed a similar activity with EC50=42±6μg/mL; for all the other compounds only the vasodilation % at the maximum concentration assessable (90μg/mL) was determined: 30±8 (Fukugiside), 24±6 (Spicataside), 33±4 (Morelloflavone+Volkensiflavone), 47±1 (Volkensiflavone). Regarding the activity on male sexual behaviour, only CEE and Fukugiside showed activity in the 9 parameters evaluated.These results may support the traditional uses of Allanblackia floribunda as aphrodisiac plant with antihypertensive properties suggesting the phytocomplex as responsible for the claimed activity.

Abstract The Ria de Muros is a large coastal embayment on the north-western coast of Spain in which the peak tidal currents exceed 2 m/s. It is therefore a promising site for tidal stream power. The key point when assessing this resource is the accurate estimation of the tidal currents. In this work a finite difference numerical model is used for this purpose. The model solves the vertically integrated Navier–Stokes hydrodynamics and transport equations. It is validated with in situ velocity measurements performed by means of an acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP). Thereafter the tidal flow velocities and the corresponding power densities are computed. The largest values are found in a section of the inner ria, in which two points are selected for a detailed assessment of the resource. The model is then run to compute the tidal stream and the corresponding power density at these points during a 14-day period, so as to cover the spring–neap cycle. The power density curve thus obtained is numerically integrated to compute the annual energy output that can be obtained by a tidal stream power plant at each location.

AMEBA is an Italian acronym which stands for “alta moderazione e basso arricchimento” (high moderation and low enrichment). The AMEBA reactor is nothing more than a PWR which possesses very unusual values of both volumetric ratio moderator/fuel and U-235 enrichment of UO2. The possibility is shown of the technical realisation of a nuclear power plant equipped with an AMEBA PWR reactor. Among the most enticing properties of AMEBA are the following: self-shut-down in any abnormal condition, elimination of all need for control rods and boric acid dissolution in the water, absolute impossibility of reaching values of reactivity greater than a fraction of a dollar, intrinsic subcriticality, attaining to several dollars, in non-operative condition when the water is at ambient temperature, normal operation with a very small-sized pressurizer, self-start-up.

In this paper, a statistical analysis of low voltage customers' load power profiles is carried out aiming to suggest a remote non-invasive energy meter error monitoring technique. The synthesized open access 1 s resolution load power profiles are used for the analysis. A detection procedure for power steps in a sampled load power profile is defined. Power steps are classified into overlapping and non-overlapping. It is shown that the probability distribution function of the differences of power step magnitudes acquired by a meter under test and a reference sum meter is sensitive to the errors of the meter despite the presence of overlapping power steps at other meters in the grid. A noninvasive error monitoring technique is found possible by acquiring, comparing and statistically processing simultaneous power steps at the energy meter under monitoring and reference sum meter.

omega-Conotoxin and ethanol produce similar actions on in vitro calcium channel functions. The present study was designed to determine their possible behavioral interaction. omega-Conotoxin injected ICV at either 0.1 microgram or 0.3 microgram, produced an increase in spontaneous and evoked tremor activity in male Sprague-Dawley rats. The tremor was present at 30 min and continued at least 4 h after injection. At 4 h post ICV injection, animals were given an IP injection of ethanol (3 g/kg body weight). Although no blood alcohol differences were observed between groups, rats injected with omega-conotoxin showed a concentration-dependent increase in sleep times: Saline controls slept for an average of 84.7 +/- 16.7 min, 0.1 and 0.3 microgram conotoxin treated animals slept for 121.3 +/- 16.2 and 211.1 +/- 30.7 min, respectively. These results extend the class of calcium channel blockers capable of producing a behavioral interaction with ethanol.

The Brown and Richards (Principles of Powder Mechanics, Pergamon Press, Oxford, UK, 1970) correlation for the discharge rate of fine powders from a hopper was modified to account for the gas pressure gradient near the outlet. According to Donsi et al. (Chem. Eng. Sci. 52 (1997) 4291) there is a transition between a granular flow region and a suspended flow region near the hopper outlet. Brown and Richards (1970) stated that the particle discharge rate depends on the flow conditions just above this transition surface. In the modified equation that is developed to account for the gas pressure, a term including the gas pressure gradient at this surface appears. The gas pressure gradient is evaluated from the literature experimental results by considering the Donsi et al. (1997) finding that a significant part of the gas pressure gradient near the hopper outlet is due to the suspended motion. Furthermore, a simplified analysis is carried out to evaluate from the experimental results the voidage variation within the solids phase that is responsible for the onset of the gas pressure gradient.

Abstract Forecasting the future price of crude oil, which has an important role in the global economy, is considered as a hot matter for both investment companies and governments. However, forecasting the price of crude oil with high precision is indeed a challenging task because of the nonlinear dynamics of the crude oil time series, including chaotic behavior and inherent fractality. In this study, a new forecasting model based on support vector regression (SVR) with a wrapper-based feature selection approach using multi-objective optimization technique is developed to deal with this challenge. In our model, features based on technical indicators such as simple moving average (SMA), exponential moving average (EMA), and Kaufman’s adaptive moving average (KAMA) are utilized. SMA, EMA, and KAMA indicators are obtained from Brent crude oil closing prices under different parameters. The features based on SMA and EMA indicators are formed by changing the period values between 3 and 10. The features based on the KAMA indicator are obtained by changing the efficiency ratio (ER) period value, which is considered as fractality efficiency, between 3 and 10. The features are selected by the wrapper-based approach consisting of multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) and radial basis function based SVR (RBFSVR) techniques considering both the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and Theil’s U values. The obtained empirical results show that the proposed forecasting model can capture the nonlinear properties of crude oil time series, and that better forecasting performance can be obtained in terms of precision and volatility than the other current forecasting models.