Search results for " electricity"
showing 10 items of 197 documents
Using simulation to Analyze wind power penetration: The case of North and Northeast Brazil
2016
Brazil is rich in renewable sources that can be used for energy generation. The renewable source of energy generation predominantly in Brazil is hydropower. However, the availability of hydropower depends on the useful volume reserves, which is subject to rainfall. Consequently, wind power is a renewable source that is being integrated into the electricity-interconnected system in Brazil. The growth of wind power generation depends on the financial resources and the delays in transmission projects. Despite the Brazilian incentives policy in wind power, the insufficient of transmission infrastructure affects to electricity price in electricity market. This paper addresses the effects of the …
Is more competition better? Retail electricity prices and switching rates in the European Union.
2022
The European Union (EU) promotes the liberalization of retail electricity markets to achieve lower prices, diversified offers, greater customer participation, and sustainable consumption behaviours. While retail competition has been a reality in most EU member states, most studies find that retail competition is suitable for large customers, but the evidence on small customers is inconclusive. We analyze data on electricity prices and switching rates in 27 EU member states and the UK from 2000 to 2019. We find that retail competition is associated with lower prices and that the effect of full liberalization is greater than that of partial liberalization.
Molecular mechanism of T-cell protein tyrosine phosphatase (TCPTP) activation by mitoxantrone.
2013
T-cell protein tyrosine phosphatase (TCPTP) is a ubiquitously expressed non-receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase. It is involved in the negative regulation of many cellular signaling pathways. Thus, activation of TCPTP could have important therapeutic applications in diseases such as cancer and inflammation. We have previously shown that the α-cytoplasmic tail of integrin α1β1 directly binds and activates TCPTP. In addition, we have identified in a large-scale high-throughput screen six small molecules that activate TCPTP. These small molecule activators include mitoxantrone and spermidine. In this study, we have investigated the molecular mechanism behind agonist-induced TCPTP activation.…
Effect of Cholesterol on Electrostatics in Lipid−Protein Films of a Pulmonary Surfactant
2010
We report the changes in the electrical properties of the lipid-protein film of pulmonary surfactant produced by excess cholesterol. Pulmonary surfactant (PS) is a complex lipid-protein mixture that forms a molecular film at the interface of the lung's epithelia. The defined molecular arrangement of the lipids and proteins of the surfactant film gives rise to the locally highly variable electrical surface potential of the interface, which becomes considerably altered in the presence of cholesterol. With frequency modulation Kelvin probe force microscopy (FM-KPFM) and force measurements, complemented by theoretical analysis, we showed that excess cholesterol significantly changes the electri…
Extent of the influence of phosphate buffer and ionic liquids on the reduction of the silanol effect in a C18 stationary phase
2017
The presence of anionic free silanols in the silica-based stationary phases gives rise to broad and asymmetrical peaks when cationic basic compounds are chromatographed using hydro-organic mobile phases. The addition to the mobile phase of a reagent with ionic character prevents the access of analytes to the free silanols, improving the peak shape. The silanol activity can be affected by the buffer concentration and mobile phase pH, factors that are not always considered sufficiently in the literature. In this work, the chromatographic behaviour of three basic β-adrenoceptor antagonists (acebutolol, nadolol and timolol), using mobile phases containing acetonitrile, was examined at different…
Visualization of RNA-Quadruplexes in Live Cells
2015
Visualization of DNA and RNA quadruplex formation in human cells was demonstrated recently with different quadruplex-specific antibodies. Despite the significant interest in these immunodetection approaches, dynamic detection of quadruplex in live cells remains elusive. Here, we report on NaphthoTASQ (N-TASQ), a next-generation quadruplex ligand that acts as a multiphoton turn-on fluorescent probe. Single-step incubation of human and mouse cells with N-TASQ enables the direct detection of RNA-quadruplexes in untreated cells (no fixation, permeabilization or mounting steps), thus offering a unique, unbiased visualization of quadruplexes in live cells.
Mean-field games and dynamic demand management in power grids
2013
This paper applies mean-field game theory to dynamic demand management. For a large population of electrical heating or cooling appliances (called agents), we provide a mean-field game that guarantees desynchronization of the agents thus improving the power network resilience. Second, for the game at hand, we exhibit a mean-field equilibrium, where each agent adopts a bang-bang switching control with threshold placed at a nominal temperature. At equilibrium, through an opportune design of the terminal penalty, the switching control regulates the mean temperature (computed over the population) and the mains frequency around the nominal value. To overcome Zeno phenomena we also adjust the ban…
Diffusion of ionic and non-ionic contrast agents in articular cartilage with increased cross-linking--contribution of steric and electrostatic effect…
2013
Abstract Objective To investigate the effect of threose-induced collagen cross-linking on diffusion of ionic and non-ionic contrast agents in articular cartilage. Design Osteochondral plugs (O=6mm) were prepared from bovine patellae and divided into two groups according to the contrast agent to be used in contrast enhanced computed tomography (CECT) imaging: (I) anionic ioxaglate and (II) non-ionic iodixanol. The groups I and II contained 7 and 6 sample pairs, respectively. One of the paired samples served as a reference while the other was treated with threose to induce collagen cross-linking. The equilibrium partitioning of the contrast agents was imaged after 24h of immersion. Fixed char…
Electrostatic Contribution to the Surface Pressure of Charged Monolayers Containing Polyphosphoinositides
2008
Structural and functional studies of lateral heterogeneity in biological membranes have underlined the importance of membrane organization in biological function. Most inquiries have focused on steric determinants of membrane organization, such as headgroup size and acyl-chain saturation. This manuscript reports a combination of theory and experiment that shows significant electrostatic contributions to surface pressures in monolayers of phospholipids where the charge spacing is smaller than the Bjerrum length. For molecules with steric cross sections typical of phospholipids in the cell membrane (approximately 50 A(2)), only polyphosphoinositides achieve this threshold. The most abundant s…
Energy interactions in amyloid-like fibrils from NNQQNY.
2014
We use large-scale MP2 calculations to analyze the interactions appearing in amyloid fibers, which are difficult to determine experimentally. To this end, dimers and trimers of the hexapeptide NNQQNY from the yeast prion-like protein Sup35 were considered as model systems. We studied the energy interactions present in the three levels of organization in which the formation of amyloid fibrils is structured. The structural changes in the hydrogen bonds were studied too. It was found that the most energetic process is the formation of the β-sheet, which is equally due to both hydrogen bonds and van der Waals interactions. The aromatic rings help stabilize these aggregates through stacking of t…