Optimizing the Electricity Consumption with a High Degree of Flexibility Using a Dynamic Tariff and Stackelberg Game

Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications - Recent advancements in the sensor industry, smart metering systems and communication technology have led to interesting electricity consumption...     

Adamantyl ferrocene derivatives: Antioxidant abilities and effects on model lipid membranes

A series of homoannularly and heteroannularly substituted adamantyl ferrocene derivatives has been synthesized and their effects on membrane fluidity were investigated using liposomes as the membrane models. The liposome formulations of adamantyl ferrocene derivatives were characterized by using dynamic light scattering, differential scanning calorimetry and fluorescence anisotropy measurements. It was demonstrated that adamantyl ferrocene derivatives incorporated into the liposome significantly affect the structure of the lipid bilayer. The results of the study have revealed that adamantyl ferrocene derivatives, compounds 9 – 12, partition into the hydrophobic/hydrophilic interface of the membrane, causing a significant decrease in membrane fluidity. The antioxidant potential of synthesized compounds was assessed with DPPH method and it was shown that the examined compounds possess certain antioxidant activity.     

Idempotents and the multiplicative group of some totally bounded rings

In this paper, we extend some results of D.Dolzan on finite rings to profinite rings, a complete classification of profinite commutative rings with a monothetic group of units is given. We also prove the metrizability of commutative profinite rings with monothetic group of units and without nonzero Boolean ideals. Using a property of Mersenne numbers, we construct a family of power 2^ℵ0 commutative non-isomorphic profinite semiprimitive rings with monothetic group of units.     

Existence results for proper efficient solutions of vector equilibrium problems and applications

In this paper, we present sufficient conditions for the existence of Henig efficient solutions, superefficient solutions and Henig globally efficient solutions of a vector equilibrium problem in topological vector spaces, using a well-known separation theorem in infinite dimensional spaces. As an application, using a scalarization technique, existence results for proper efficient solutions of generalized vector variational inequalities are given.     

New approaches in computational dynamics of the mixing flow

Between the most mature interdisciplinary areas, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) comes recently into focus. In the same time, it becomes more and more difficult to contribute fundamental research to it. However, although it remains unpredictable how CFD develops, it is part of what makes it an exciting and attractive discipline.This paper aims to exhibit some part of recent work in CFD. It concerns the qualitative approach of the turbulent behaviour of a mixing flow in an excitable media. Studying a mixing for a flow implies the analysis of successive stretching and folding phenomena for its particles, the influence of parameters and initial conditions. In the previous works, the study of the 3D non-periodic models exhibited a quite complicated behaviour. In agreement with experiments, there were involved some significant events, the so-called “rare events”. The variation of parameters had a great influence on the length and surface deformations. The experiments were realized with a special vortex installation, it was used a well-known aquatic algae as biologic material, and the water as basic fluid.In the paper there are presented some features of a qualitative comparative analysis of the model associated to the vortex flow technology. In the computational analysis there were used the fast analysis tools of MAPLE11 soft, in order to check the “rare events” and to complete the statistical analysis of the behaviour of the model.     

A multi-fiber approach for modeling corroded reinforced concrete structures

Taking into account the specific behavior of the steel/concrete interface is of primary importance to predict properly the structural response of RC structures. Several constitutive models have been proposed in the literature within the framework of nonlinear finite element method (2D and 3D). Such approaches usually lead to high computational costs due to the large number of degrees of freedom. In the present paper, a multifiber-based model including the steel/concrete interface behavior is proposed. Despite the fact that the kinematics of the multi-fiber approach is based on the theory of beams, this simplified strategy accounts for local phenomena such as the relative sliding between concrete and steel. Furthermore, this steel/concrete interface constitutive model can be extended to model the loss of bond properties due to corrosion. The numerical implementation aspects are described and local responses at the Gauss point level are exposed in the cases of monotonic loadings with and without corrosion. The efficiency and the reliability of the proposed approach are tested on structural case studies which highlight a good agreement between numerical and experimental results. This multifiber-based model provides a pertinent tool for the engineers concerns with the structural assessment of degraded reinforced concrete structures.     

On-line ionic imprinted polymer selective solid-phase extraction of nickel and lead from seawater and their determination by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry

Nickel(II) and lead(II) ionic imprinted 8-hydroxyquinoline polymers were synthesized by a precipitation polymerization technique and were used as selective solid phase extraction supports for the determination of nickel and lead in seawater by flow injection solid phase extraction on-line inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry. An optimum loading flow rate of 2.25 mL min⁻¹ for 2 min and an elution flow rate of 2.25 mL min⁻¹ for 1 min gave an enrichment factor of 15 for nickel. However, a low dynamic capacity and/or rate for adsorption and desorption was found for lead ionic imprinted polymer and a flow rate of 3.00 mL min⁻¹ for 4-min loading and a flow rate of 2.25 mL min⁻¹ for 1-min elution gave a enrichment factor of 5. The limit of detection was 0.33 μg L⁻¹ for nickel and 1.88 μg L⁻¹ for lead, with a precision (n = 11) of 8% (2.37 μg Ni L⁻¹) for nickel and 11% (8.38 μg Pb L⁻¹) for lead. Accuracy was also assessed by analyzing SLEW-3 (estuarine water) and TM-24 (lake water) certified reference materials, and the values determined were in good agreement with the certified concentrations.     

Warmstarting for interior point methods applied to the long-term power planning problem

The long-term planning of electricity generation in a liberalised market using the Bloom and Gallant model can be posed as a quadratic programming (QP) problem with an exponential number of linear inequality constraints called load-matching constraints (LMCs) and several other linear non-LMCs. Direct solution methods are inefficient at handling such problems and a heuristic procedure has been devised to generate only those LMCs that are likely to be active at the optimiser. The problem is then solved as a finite succession of QP problems with an increasing, though still limited, number of LMCs, which can be solved efficiently using a direct method, as would be the case with a QP interior-point algorithm. Warm starting between successive QP solutions helps then in reducing the number of iterations necessary to reach the optimiser.     

Liquid–liquid equilibria for {hexane + benzene + 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium ethylsulfate} at (298.2, 313.2 and 328.2) K

Liquid–liquid equilibria (LLE) for the ternary system {hexane + benzene + 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium ethylsulfate ([emim]C₂H₅SO₄)} have been measured at the temperatures (298.2, 313.2 and 328.2) K and atmospheric pressure. The reliability of the experimental data was tested using the Othmer–Tobias correlation. For the extractive effectiveness of the solvent, the distribution ratio and separation factor curves were plotted and compared with those of sulfolane. In addition, the LLE data were also correlated with UNIQUAC and NRTL models in a satisfactory manner.